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In a few minutes, Lindsay and I are headed to Jefferson City, Missouri for a church planter assessment with the Missouri Baptist Convention. The assessment extends through Saturday, and if things go well, this will open doors for an internship and planting partnership down the road, as we take step to plant a church in urban Kansas City.

We’re both a little sleep-deprived (Aidan, Asher, Olympics) and I’m battling a summer cold. But if there’s sufficient coffee on hand, we should be OK.

If you think of it, pray for us this weekend. We want to discern God’s will clearly as we try to build bridges for planting.

Just a quick note. I posted a review of Kitty Foth-Regner’s memoir/apologetics book on my arts & culture blog. This is a unique book, so take a look.

Finishing with grad school allowed me to get back to some of the important things of life, like sleeping and having a life of the mind. If you know me, chances are good you’re aware that I love the writing of C.S. Lewis. It’s one of those primary facts, like “Lindsay is my wife,” “I’m a Kansas Jayhawk fan,” and “My jump shot is probably better than yours.”

Is Your Lord Large Enough? is the first book on C.S. Lewis I’ve read since the ground-breaking Planet Narnia (review), and it went a long way toward refreshing my mind via the thinking of Lewis, who has kind of served as a mentor in my spiritual life.

What Peter Schakel does is a welcome variation on the usual approach to Lewis, which typically examines his life (biography) or accumulated writing (theology) or apologetics (philosophy). While Schakel is certainly an adept scholar, he deliberatly mines Lewis’ collected works to write a book with strong devotional momentum. Rather than simply clarifying what Lewis meant here and comparing it with what he said there, Schakel ransacks C.S.’s life and books for insights into lived-out theology.

To do this, Schakel poses questions like, How did Lewis pray? What advice did he offer to people struggling with prayer? What help does he extend to people who need help forgiving and loving? What did he say about Heaven, and our expectations of it?

The practical thrust of each chapter gets help from follow-up questions from Schakel that, in my opinion, were really excellent, as opposed to the lukewarm “discussion” stuff that often gets tacked on to books. All told, Is Your Lord Large Enough? was a great restorative for my tired mind and a good kick in the pants for my walk with Jesus. Lewis, a man as practical as he was imaginative, would approve. Highly recommended.

I have high standards when it comes to book acquisition, and I’ve been looking out for a decent copy of Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students for awhile now. In my book-stockpiling endeavors I’ve learned a somewhat counterintuitive rule of thumb: When you’re looking for books by dead guys, sometimes the best copies are old ones. Not only did newer editions of Lectures to My Students cost about 4 times as much as this copy–they were also flimsy, ugly paperbacks.

If you’re wondering, Yes–I am gloating a little.

Sam Storms has been on my radar for awhile, as a guy with strong loyalties to the Bible, Jonathan Edwards, and Calvinistic theology. Storms is a prolific writer and a fan of John Piper, which in my book, is also in his favor–oh yeah, and he’s local to Kansas City too, so I could hypothetically run into him in a coffee shop. All that said, The Hope of Glory is the first Storms volume I’ve read. It’s a series of 100 “daily meditations” on Colossians, and it didn’t disappoint.

Here are the three primary reasons I’ve already bought and given away multiple copies of this book:

1. It’s devotional. In other words, it was good for my soul. Sam Storms writes in a worshipful way that pushes my thoughts toward Jesus, not just theological understanding. These really are “meditations.”
2. It’s instructive. The Hope of Glory was one source I drew from when I preached a short series of sermons on Colossians, and Storms’ blow-by-blow approach to each verse (or phrase, in some cases) doesn’t fail to enlighten. At the same time, he stays grounded in the wider context of each passage and Colossians as a whole. So in this sense the book is a commentary.
3. It’s short. More accurately, the chapters are short. The book covers the whole book of Colossians in about 350 pages, but you can read a chapter in 5-10 minutes.

Overall, I highly recommend The Hope of Glory as a study resource and for devotional reading.