Yuri Cameron

  This is a very easy read, but an emotionally and spiritually challenging read, if you desire to glorify God. If you desire to be a pastor/elder, this is a good place to start. I personally do not know whether I want to be an elder, but I have a deep love for ministry, teaching God’s Word, and discipling others. I desire to be in ministry, although not necessarily full time. I realize that the position of “full time” pastor/elder is a relatively rare opportunity, and those aspiring to be a pastor/elder need to realize that they may never be “called” to be full time and paid to preach, but may instead become the senior pastor of a church of 18, with folding chairs as pews and a music stand as the podium. This is a reality all those aspiring to pastor should be open to. I was young when the “desire” to become a pastor was ignited. I believe I was 16 when I felt “passion” to “pastor”. I was quite young and immature in my understanding of ministry. I am still young and immature, but m...

  This is a quick read. It is somewhat repetitive, so it successfully reinforces points made throughout the book well.  I confess. I struggle with prayer and intimacy with God. It hasn’t been too great. So pray for me.  The youth pastor at my church gave me a copy because he knew I would be blessed by this book. This is what I was looking for: a book explaining how to pray through the Scriptures.  Do you ever notice in your prayer life, repeating the same old things with the same old words. I notice it in my life, and used to think I was so “un-Spiritual”. And maybe I was or maybe I just didn’t know how to pray very well. Whitney points out that this method, done correctly is a fail proof method, because you are literally praying through the Bible itself. As you pray through Scripture (often Psalms is a good starting place), he guides you into an approach that is extremely simple.  It’s easy to work through. Essentially go through a passage verse by verse and as...

This book was completed in first draft format in 2010 and finalized and published in 2014. It is an autobiography on the very fulfilled life of Greg Livingstone.  Livingstone had a rough childhood, a mother who was in a dubious occupation and a father who was not in the picture. He eventually was fostered by a Christian family. Read the book to find out more…  I will not reveal much else except long story short, God has used Greg Livingstone immensely. Livingstone became a missionary and recruiter for reaching the Muslim world for Christ and founded a unique Mission agency which has sent thousands of Christians to unreached people groups among many Muslim nations. If you want a book about a person who kept running the race, never taking a break, this is a book for you. Greg Livingstone was always All-in. He was completely committed to what God has called him to, the Muslim people. Greg Livingstone is open to confess sin and freely acknowledges his own weaknesses and such langu...

Carl Trueman’s book is interesting to say the least. As I was reading through the first couple chapters I was slightly disappointed. I found the concepts of Tayler’s culture dynamics discussed therein quite theoretical and not immediately practical to life.  I had borrowed the book from my pastor, and he challenged me to crank through and finish it. There are times in life, particularly if you’re interested in ministry and theology, that you may have to read books that do not immediately relate to your specific congregants’ needs or your own preferences and spiritual needs. Will my life drastically change after reading this book? No, not particularly. Have I ran across a massive treasure that I couldn’t live without? Nope. Many mature Christians exist having never read a book of this sort, a tome examining the western historical factors leading to a massive shift in life ethic and purpose.   It is important to remember this work is addressing culture shift within the western s...

I’m in a bit of a situation. I have been fortunate enough to get quite a few books for free from my church, while they were getting rid of stuff they didn’t need. I have also bought a bit of books too, but I didn’t really read through the books I got.  From what I can tell, this is a relatively common problem among book lovers in the Christian community. We run across a title, or are recommended a book by a pastor or Christian teacher. We then buy the book, knowing we’ll read it eventually. We start the book, get 30 pages, love it, and then the next book is in immediately in our shopping cart.  It’s a problem. I doubt I have the end all solution, but I have a few points to consider. We don’t want to be in the place where we have 500 plus books having read only ten of them.  Some committed to reading will choose to read for 2 hours a day. They’ll stick to that plan and read through books like that. If that works for you, great. Love it. And I fully support you.  But f...

Always Ready is a relatively advanced book, in that tracing his philosophical arguments can be quite challenging.  If you’re familiar with Presuppositional Apologetics, the first third of the book will seem a bit redundant, in that information presented is information you’re quite familiar with already. The rest of the book is a good read.  Bahnsen presents the pressupositional methodology of Apologetics, which basically says that the Triune God of Scripture is the foundation of our Ethics, logic, and epistemology. Without the Christian God, unbelievers can not account for their standard of ethics, logic and knowledge.  God is the ultimate foundation on our moral standard. We say that murder and rape is evil, but ultimately how is that moral statement even significant. In a purely naturalistic worldview, does not survival of the fittest reign? God is the foundation on what is right and wrong, because He is the all powerful God. God is also the foundation of our reasoning...

Ruth A. Tucker wrote From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya  originally in 1983. This tome is quite readable and enjoyable. It is formatted in a way that each person covered is given a few pages. One can pick up the book and read a couple biographies each day, and be edified. Each biography is surprisingly honest, giving you a clear view of these missionary's marriages and family. Some missionary families divorced; other families harbored bitterness with each other for years.  One lesson I learned from this read, is how incredibly stubborn missionaries are. They are so committed to the great commission nothing will stay in their way, even family. It is a good lesson for Christians to remember priorities... 1. God's will 2. Family commitments 3. Etc If you want to ignite a zeal for missions, and the missionary lifestyle, this is one of the best books out there. It is a great summary of missionaries, providing a glance into their lives, and how God powerfully worked through them.  Th...