Oversight of Souls

Quintus: A Story about the Persecutions of Christians at the time of Emperor Nero, R. Weerstand (2d ed.; Pro Ecclesia Publishers, 2000) This book started out a bit slow with almost too obvious “preaching points.” You could tell that the author was overtly trying to teach about life in Rome and to make theological points. […]

Fountain of Life, Rebecca Martin (Christian Light Publications, 2001) This was a fair book. It was not real exciting for young boys and misses it a bit on Jewish life. It comes across with a too exalted view of the Sadducees (probably not intended)- the Sadducees are the nice open-minded guys in contrast to the […]

Last year we covered Greece and Rome in our homeschooling, so we looked at a number of books on the Illiad and the Odyssey. We were very pleased with the two books by Rosemary Sutcliffe,Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of The Iliad and The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Story of the Odyssey . Mrs. […]

For Christmas I received a copy of the excellent book, What Luther Says: A Practical In-Home Anthology for the Active Christian. This book is the result of some serious work! It contains over 1600 pages of selected passages from Luther’s writings arranged in topics alphabetically. This makes it a wonderful reference tool. You will probably […]

As many of us seek a restoration of sound biblical teaching, seeking depth and awe in place of shallowness and entertainment, I don’t think I hear enough on the importance of real community in the church. I will trumpet right along anyone else the absolute essential of having sound, rigorous biblical exposition. Without it, all […]

I think the little letter to Titus is in many ways a discourse on church health. People today often overlook this letter, but Luther said of it, “This is a short epistle, but a model of Christian doctrine, in which is comprehended in a masterful way all that is necessary for a Christian to know […]

In this blog I am simply assuming the value and importance of reading aloud to your children. One of my goals in reading to my boys (in addition to the main goal of learning) is to develop a love for hearing good reading. So, books on tape or audio dramatizations fit our goals well. My […]

Hand that Rocks the Cradle: Good Books to Read Aloud to Children By Nathaniel Bluedorn We began building a library for our boys well before they could read. As we began one of the best resources we had was this little booklet, in which Bluedorn has listed books his parents read to him and his […]

The Christmas Troll By Eugene Peterson (NavPress, 2004) I bought this book a year ago because I think Peterson is a good writer and story teller. However, this book was a disappointment to me. It is nicely illustrated and the story is fine, there just was not much to it. The point of the book […]

The Gold Thread: A Story for the Young, by Norman Macleod, D.D. (London: Burnet & Isbiter, nd), 68 pp. I found this old book in a little bookshop in Scotland, and it has become a favorite in our family. This is a beautiful allegory of the Christian life in a manner that reminded me of […]