1. We are all teaching our children how to handle money. The only questions are: (i) are we doing it intentionally or accidentally? and (ii) are we teaching them good lessons or bad lessons?

2. However bad your financial past, you can start to make it better today, change your family tree, and leave the best possible legacy for your children – a good example of financial stewardship.

3. Teaching your children financial stewardship begins with teaching them how to work because work builds discipline and self-denial. Giving our children money without expecting them to work breeds an entitlement mentality. Studies show that students who work ten to nineteen hours a week actually have higher GPAs on average than students who don’t hold jobs while in school.

4. We should teach our children how to divide all income into three main categories: save, spend, give.

5. At times we should let our kids suffer the consequences of their financial decisions – if our kids don’t learn how to make small inexpensive mistakes when they are kids, they will make huge and expensive mistakes as adults.

6. Teach our kids the value of the least used word in parenting today “NO!”

7. The Five Foundations for teenage financial responsibility:

• Save a $500 emergency fund.
• Get out of debt.
• Pay cash for a car.
• Pay cash for college.
• Build wealth and give.

8. You will never get out of debt or build wealth if you have a car payment… Paying cash for a car and buying a used one is the shortest path to building wealth.

9. If you want to raise money-smart kids, you have to raise kids who are content… A heart filled with gratitude leaves no room for discontentment.

And the BIGGEST lesson of all in the book:

10. We must teach our children that they don’t own money—they are simply managers, or stewards of it. Owners have rights; managers have responsibilities. Owners think of themselves; managers can’t. It isn’t their money, so they must think of others. Owners worry over their money; managers don’t need to worry because the money isn’t theirs to begin with. Owners hold with a tight fist; managers hold with an open hand.

What’s Best Next: How The Gospel Transforms The Way You Get Things Done
This is a book that’s been a long time in writing, but having been an avid reader of Matt Perman’s blog for a few years, I know it’s a book worth waiting for. So many Gospel-centered books don’t seem to touch real life, especially for the working man – that’s too “worldly.” And so many leadership and productivity books have no interest in the Gospel – that’s too “spiritual.” Matt has the rare ability to unite both. Here’s a video of an address gave at a Fortune 100 company recently on how to be a Christian in a secular workplace. He talks about avoiding the twin errors of spiritual weirdness (such as thinking you need to insert the gospel into every conversation, or call attention to God through strange trinkets like the “Faithbook” t-shirt I came across at a truck stop once) on the one hand and, on the other hand, thinking that our faith bears no relation to our work at all.” You can buy his book here and read John Piper’s foreword here.

United: Captivated by God’s Vision for Diversity
Click above for an interview with Trillia Newbell whose writings the Lord has greatly used in my own life not only to better understand biblical diversity but to love it, embrace it, and pursue it in my own life and in the church. You can buy it here and watch a conversation below between Trillia, Thabiti, and Kristie. Next to seeing a free North Korea before I die, more diverse churches are second on my wish list.

Preparing Your Teens For College
Alex Chediak’s another online friend who’s also had a major influence upon my thinking, this time in the area of College. His Thriving at College is a superb book for kids going to college (every church should have a box of these for every young person going to college each year). And now he’s written the partner volume for parents, Preparing Your Teens for College. You can read the first two chapters here to whet your appetite, then buy the book here.

The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important Week of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived
I don’t think anything has ever helped me so much to enter into the final and climactic sufferings of Christ as this book by Justin Taylor and Andreas Kostenberger. By arranging the Gospel accounts in chronological order and reconstructing the timetable of the last week of Christ’s life, you feel as if you are present every step of the way, witnessing your own salvation being worked out and purchased. The additional notes and commentary are factual more than devotional, but the momentum of truth gradually builds until your heart is aflame with love for such a great God and Savior. Free study guide here and purchase here.

Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence.
Daniel Goleman dedicated this book to “The well-being of generations to come,” and his passion to see us thrive is evident throughout. He argues that “while the link between attention and excellence remains hidden most of the time, it ripples through almost everything we seek to accomplish.” His thesis is “Attention works much like a muscle—use it poorly and it can wither; work it well and it grows.” His book is a work-out to develop and refine the muscle of our attention, and even rehab focus-starved brains.

Of the three books here, this one is the most technical as it deals in detail with some of the brain science behind what makes distraction so enjoyable, yet so destructive. However, don’t let that put you off. I found myself quickly scanning some of these denser passages and zeroing in on the more readable practical sections.

Some of the quotes were revolutionary for me. Try this one from Nobel prize-winning economist Herbert Simon: “Information consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long
Leadership Coach, David Rock, follows a fictitious couple (though all too real for many of us) as they live out their lives in the maelstrom of everyday life. The author describes and analyzes each day in the couple’s busy working lives and makes lots of practical suggestions about how to change each day for the better. As Rock’s main idea is that we can improve how we work by understanding how our brains work, he also pulls in a lot of brain science, but in a more accessible way than Focus.

You’ll never take it all in on one read, but what I’ve tried to do is take a couple of chapters at a time and then try to put some of the suggestions into practice for a few weeks before coming back to the book again. I’ve found myself thinking a lot more about just what I’ll spend my limited brain fuel on every day, in the process learning to drive more efficiently and enjoyably.

Juggling with Elephants: An Easier Way to Get Your Most Important Things Done – Now!
Of the three books, this is the easiest and quickest to read (one hour should do it). The basic insight is that life is a three ring circus (the three circles are work, family, and personal life), and if we learn to think like a ringmaster, managing the various acts can be fun and easy. Some of the main points:

• The result of trying to juggle elephants is that no one, including you, is thrilled with your performance.
• The ringmaster cannot be in all three rings at once.
• The key to the success of the circus is having quality acts in all three rings.
• Intermission is an essential part of creating a better circus performance.
• There is no shortage of acts vying for the circus.
• Every act must have a purpose.

Although the book’s central idea might seem a bit simplistic, it’s imagery has had a lasting and profound effect on me. I find it much easier now to focus on one ring at a time, and give myself wholly to it, instead of continuing the elephant-juggling act, leaving me squashed and the elephants a little frustrated!

You Lift Me Up by Al Martin

The Pastor’s Justification by Jared Wilson
Jared has not been a pastor for quite as long as Pastor Martin – who has? – but has also written a book that will encourage many beat-up pastors. It’s less immediately practical than Al Martin’s book, but Jared’s aim is the long-term application of Gospel truths to the minister’s life and work. It continues in the rich vein of many Gospel-centered books that have come out over recent years, with this one being specifically focused on applying the Gospel to pastors. I especially enjoyed the biographical examples that helped demonstrate how Jared has practiced what he’s preaching in this book. If I was a discouraged and struggling pastor, I’d buy both of these books, Martin’s and Wilson’s, and read them together for a holistic approach to pastoral challenges. In fact, better still, buy them before you hit the wall.

A Labor of Love by Stephen Yuile
The puritan minister, George Swinnock, penned sixteen wishes, sixteen heartfelt desires for his own pastoral ministry. Stephen Yuile extracts the essence of these, sums them up in chapter headings such as “A Royal Ambassador,” “A Skilled Physician,” A Diligent Student,” etc., and expounds them over a few pages for a modern audience. He also includes a beautiful sermon by Swinnock on Acts 20, “The Pastor’s Farewell,” preached upon his departure from his own congregation. This is a more devotional book than the previous two, and would work well as part of a pastor’s daily devotional reading with each of the 16 chapters in part one being only a few pages in length.

However, Tim Challies,  Aaron Armstrong, and others identified a weakness that I didn’t really pick up on when I read it, and it’s the book’s incompleteness. It’s lacking in practical remedies. And the one suggested, more quiet time with the Lord, just seems to add another to-do to the already endless list. It suggests that while the author has analyzed the problem, maybe he hasn’t yet discovered or lived the solution.

That could have been solved by Kevin telling us how he fixed the problem: how many things he stopped doing, how many things he said “No” to, how he decides what to say “Yes” to, and how he is managing that change.

However, although the book doesn’t take us to the finishing line, I did find that the wide-ranging, heart-searching diagnosis helped me to identify sins to be repented of that will, I hope, produce ongoing fruit in my life. That was invaluable.

An Addendum?
I’ve not mastered “busyness” myself and fully expect a lifelong battle to maintain a healthy work/life balance, but here are some practical ideas that have helped me over the past few years. Obviously they are ministry focused, but many of them can be applied more generally as well:

1. Listen to your family. Ask your family, your wife and kids, if they think you’ve got work in the right place and if you’re giving them enough time.

2. Listen to your body. Have you been suffering a series of health problems? Is your body bearing up under the stress or is it beginning to break up as you wear out your machinery? 

3. Take one full day off work every week. “Six days you shall labor” applies to pastors as well. And if you are a pastor, Sunday does not count as your “sabbath.” You need a real day off.

4. Set a reasonable number of working hours per week, stick to it, and give an account for it to your wife or a friend. Treat time like money: budget it, spend less than you take in, and constantly review.

5. Allocate a couple of limited time windows a day for email. I try to do 30 mins in the morning and 30 mins in the late afternoon and keep it shut down in between. I also set aside an hour a week for answering more complex emails.

6. Turn off all social media notifications. Decide how much you are going to spend on social media, blogs, etc each day, and enforce it by running a large visible timer on your computer or device.

7. Take a regular vacation that is kept totally free of work. No matter how much you enjoy work, writing, etc., you need a total break.

8. Schedule daily exercise time with a mix of weights and aerobic exercises. Although that seems to be adding something major to the day, it actually ends up making you much more decisive and efficient in your work.

9. Set up a small accountability group (2-3 people) that you share your calendar with, and run every ministry opportunity (writing books, speaking engagements, etc.) past them. Let them help you decide what to say “No” to. If you are a pastor, agree a set number of days away each year at conferences, etc., and stick with it.

10. Set a time every evening that you will not work past if you are at home.

11. Keep regular sleeping hours, going to bed and rising at the same time each day, and taking a minimum of seven hours sleep.

What else have you found helpful that could be added to the addendum?

PS: If you want a good laugh, watch Kevin and Justin Taylor’s video interview and especially watch the outtakes.

Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace by Heath Lambert
I read this hoping to get help in counseling others and found myself helped instead. Yes, this book will now be my first port of call when counseling porn addicts; but even for those of us who don’t struggle with this particular sin, this book’s wonderful gospel-centered focus will help us fight against all kinds of sin with the power of grace.

This is biblical counseling at its best: full of sympathy for sinners, courageous confrontation of sin, accessible biblical truth, the power of Christ’s grace, and radical dependence upon the Holy Spirit. There are just so many texts I want to preach upon now, always a reliable guide to the quality of a Christian book.

I’m no longer dreading  the next phone call or email from someone who has succumbed to porn, because with this book I now have eight grace-based strategies to offer needy sinners. Finally Free will liberate many lives and revitalize many marriages.

Your Brain At Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long by David Rock.
Many of us are struggling to cope with information overload and digital distraction. Our brains feel fried at the end of a day, damaging our productivity, our health, our families, and our relationship with God. This book helps us to understand the science of what we are doing to our brains with our current work practices, and helps us to manage our limited mental resources in a healthier and happier way. Put simply, “Know your brain, transform your performance.”

The author follows a totally stressed-out couple as they try to cope with the digital deluge in their work settings. He analyzes their failings and then suggests alternative scenarios that would help them to work more efficiently and enjoyably. He also shows how knowing how our brains work and respond to pressure enables us to understand others better, resulting in better communication, collaboration, and long-term change.

Bit Literacy: Productivity in an Age of Information and Email Overload by Mark Hurst
On the same subject as Your Brain at Work, but a bit more basic with more emphasis on the practical. A good place to start if you want to pick up numerous tips on how to change bad the digital habits most of us have acquired into good habits that will improve our work and lives. If you want to learn how to better manage all the “bits” that swirl around your life – email, to-do lists, photos, files, etc., – begin here.

The Pastor’s Family: Shepherding Your Family Through the Challenges of Pastoral Ministry by Brian and Cara Croft
I read the pre-publication version of this book a few months ago and provided this endorsement:

Realistic…Honest…Transparent…Spiritual…Practical.” These are the words that sprang to my mind as I read this unique book that will refresh many pastors’ souls, rescue many pastors’ marriages, transform many pastors’ families, and revive many pastors’ ministries.

Anyone familiar with Brain Croft’s growing ministry at PracticalShepherding.com will know that Brian has a huge heart for pastors and their families. He doesn’t speak down from lofty heights of pastoral perfection, but speaks beside us in the trenches of the pastoral battlefield.

This book addresses the pastor, his wife, and his children, and contains a number of useful appendices including “Confessions of a Pastor’s Wife” and “My Battle with Depression” by Brian’s wife, Cara. It’s one of those books that pastors and their wives should probably schedule to read every year.

Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung
Speaking of books that should be read every year (if not, every month!), this book is a game-changer. We’re all familiar with Kevin DeYoung’s wonderful books on a range of theological issues – he’s probably my favorite Christian writer at the moment. However, I’m going to make a prediction that although this is the shortest book he’s written, and probably the least theological and the most practical, that it’s going to outsell all the others he’s written, and I hope do even more good.

It’s not that the book is untheological or lacking in biblical exposition – far from it. It’s more that he’s dealing with such a widespread everyday practical problem – our crazy busy everyday lives – and he does so in such an enjoyable and, yes, even entertaining way. There are so many people I want to give this book to, but I’ve got to start with myself. It’s one of those rare books that you walk away from saying not, “Oh, no I’ve got so much to do,” but “Oh, yes, I’ve got to stop doing so much!” The book itself won’t tax your time too much, subtitled as it is “A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem.”

This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral by Mark Leibovich
I’ve not finished this book, and I’m not sure that I will. It’s not so much the odd swear word here and there. It’s more the way that New York Times Magazine National Correspondent, Mark Leibovich, pulls back the curtain on Washington’s political and media elite and gives us a sniff of their dirty laundry. Although Leibovich is inviting us to laugh at him and other Washington insiders, as they back-slap, lobby, and trade influence on their way to the top, it actually gets quite sickening and depressing the more you read. If you want to have faith in politics to change America, don’t read this book, because you’ll become an apostate.

An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa by Rick Atkinson
Another unfinished book – and at 768 pages I’m not sure I’ll ever reach the end – but one I was glad to at least begin reading. A beautifully written and deeply moving account of how the Allied forces began to liberate Europe and crush the Third Reich in North Africa in 1942-43. As usual with books of this nature, I was stunned at the sacrificial courage of the soldiers. I honestly just don’t know if I could do what they did. I was also shocked at the unpreparedness of the soldiers and sailors. The more you read, the more you realize that the North African victory was an act of God. The minimal training, the pathetic weapons, the half-baked plans, the communication meltdowns, and the egomaniacal generals and admirals, all mixed together should have spelled certain defeat.

But God.

That’s not to downplay the astounding valor of the servicemen. But nothing else can explain how such disastrous planning, equipping, and execution, was turned into such astonishing victory.

Here’s my challenge: If you can read all this “death-lit” in 3 months without getting totally depressed or neurotic, I’ll give you $100 worth of “life-lit!”

But I don’t really want to encourage you to try. So here’s my alternative Summer Reading List, you might call it a Philippians 4:8 Reading List. Or maybe even an Anti-Mohler Reading List (using “anti” in the theological sense of “in place of” rather than “against”). It’s an eclectic  mix of happiness science, entrepreneurship, biography, and creativity as you’ll see from the Amazon descriptions. Apart from one that is written from a Christian angle, they aren’t “Christian” books, they’re just books I found stimulating, enjoyable, thought-provoking, and helpful in various ways over the past year. So have at it, and let’s see who’s thriving in three months time!

The Happiness Project
The Happiness Project describes one person’s year-long attempt to discover what leads to true contentment. Drawing at once on cutting-edge science, classical philosophy, and real-world applicability, Rubin has written an engaging, eminently relatable chronicle of transformation.

Upside: Surprising Good News about the State of our World
Did you know that global poverty has been cut in half over the last several decades? That infant deaths have decreased dramatically in recent years? That Christianity is a growing and influential force in Asia and Africa? Maybe the world isn’t in a downward spiral after all. In an age of pessimism, this book offers good news to Christian readers looking for glimpses of hope.

Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being
Flourish builds on Dr. Seligman’s game-changing work on optimism, motivation, and character to show how to get the most out of life, unveiling an electrifying new theory of what makes a good life—for individuals, for communities, and for nations.

The Happiness Advantage
Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work.

$100 Start-up: Reinvent the Way you Make a Living, Do What You Love, Create a New Future
Still in his early thirties, Chris is on the verge of completing a tour of every country on earth – he’s already visited more than 175 nations – and yet he’s never held a “real job” or earned a regular paycheck.  Rather, he has a special genius for turning ideas into income, and he uses what he earns both to support his life of adventure and to give back.

The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators
By identifying behaviors of the world’s best innovators—from leaders at Amazon and Apple to those at Google, Skype, and Virgin Group—the authors outline five discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from ordinary managers: Associating, Questioning, Observing, Networking, and Experimenting.

Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality
As the founder and CEO of Behance, a company on a mission to empower and organize the creative world, Belsky has studied the habits of especially productive individuals and teams across industries. Now he has compiled the principles and techniques they share, and presents a systematic approach to creative organization and productivity.

InGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity
Imaginative. Innovative. Ingenious. These words describe the visionaries we all respect and admire. And they can describe you, too. Contrary to common belief, creativity is not a gift some of us are born with. It is a skill that all of us can learn. International bestselling author and award-winning Stanford University educator Tina Seelig has worked with some of the business world’s best and brightest, who are now among the decision-makers at companies such as Google, Genentech, IBM, and Cisco. In inGenius she expertly demystifies creativity, offering a set of tools and guidelines that anyone can use.

Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People who Will Change the World
In this groundbreaking book, education expert Tony Wagner provides a powerful rationale for developing an innovation-driven economy. He explores what parents, teachers, and employers must do to develop the capacities of young people to become innovators.

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
An astonishing new science called “neuroplasticity” is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. In this revolutionary look at the brain, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge, M.D., provides an introduction to both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they’ve transformed. From stroke patients learning to speak again to the remarkable case of a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, The Brain That Changes Itself will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey
On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by “stepping to the right” of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by “brain chatter.” Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah’s online Soul Series, Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone.

The Survivor’s Club: The Secrets and Science that Could Save your Life
Each second of the day, someone in America faces a crisis, whether it’s a car accident, violent crime, serious illness, or financial trouble. Given the inevitability of adversity, we all wonder: Who beats the odds and who surrenders? Why do some people bound back and others give up? How can I become the kind of person who survives and thrives? The fascinating, hopeful answers to these questions are found in THE SURVIVORS CLUB. In the tradition of Freakonomics and The Tipping Point, this book reveals the hidden side of survival by combining astonishing true stories, gripping scientific research, and the author’s adventures inside the U.S. military’s elite survival schools and the government’s airplane crash evacuation course.

• There are about 300,000 Protestant pastors in the USA.
• These pastors buy an average of 3.8 books per month per person.
• 92% of them buy at least one book per month (compared with 29% of general population).
• They buy between 8-13 million books a year.
• Younger pastors buy more books than older pastors.
• Most books are bought with a particular ministry topic in mind.
• The other main factors in a purchase decision are author or recommendation.
• Spirituality, theology, and leadership are the most popular topics.
• 50% of pastors are reading biographies and 33% are consuming business books.
• Christian retail stores and online are the two primary channels of purchase.
• Although 50% of pastors use an e-reader, most pastors still prefer a hard copy.
• More than 90% of pastors make book recommendations to their congregations.

You can read the whole report here.

HT: Joel Miller

The gospel-centered movement has helped innumerable churches and Christians to aim at the right target. Turning away from the easier targets of moralism, legalism, and activism, many are now taking aim at the more difficult—though more rewarding—target of the gospel.

Multiple books, conferences, sermons, blog posts, and songs have rained a shower of arrows towards this newly popular target. However, not so many hit the gospel bulls-eye of the blood of Christ. To be sure, there are vast quantities of arrows in the second ring, justification, and that’s wonderful. As we move outward, we also find many arrows in the election ring, the adoption ring, the regeneration ring, the sanctification ring, the discipleship ring, and the worship ring.

But for all our hitting the gospel target in general, we’re not hitting the red bulls-eye as often as we ought. The bulls-eye is the atonement, the blood of Christ, which is too often simply assumed, spoken of in shallow clichés, or left largely undeveloped. Perhaps it’s even a bit embarrassing? Yes, there are a few days around Easter when the doctrine of the atonement is brushed off and the suffering and dying of Jesus is mentioned more often. But even then, we often speak in hackneyed terms, repeating mantras and stock phrases without really plunging into its depths.

Double Quiver

Enter Anthony Carter with a double quiver full of arrows, laser-targeted on the blood of Christ and all that it means. I don’t think he mentions “gospel-centered” in the book and yet he perhaps gets us closer to the center of the good news than some other books in that genre.

Yes, Carter discusses election, justification, redemption, and sanctification, but always in connection with Christ’s blood. In fact, I was surprised by how many Scripture references there are to this precious blood—nearly three times as many as Christ’s “cross” and five times as many as his “death.” But I was doubly surprised by how Carter highlighted the way every major doctrine in Scripture is connected to Christ’s blood: propitiation, justification, redemption, reconciliation, sanctification, election, and so forth.

Moreover, I appreciated Carter’s clarity when it came to the typological role of the sacrificial system in helping Old Testament believers look “through” the animal sacrifices to the ultimate Sacrifice: “When Abel came with the offering of blood he was believing God and was looking forward to the provision of a deliverer” (8). Again, in connection with the Passover: “Israel always longed for an unblemished male lamb who would take away sin once and for all” (12). No mixture of law, grace, and general theism here, but simply saving faith in the coming Christ.

Blood Work brims with memorable facts, illustrations, and quotations that bring out one or more dimensions of the blood of Jesus and all it accomplishes for us. Carter calls the book “a celebration of the life-giving, soul-blessing, power-enduing blood of Jesus.” That’s certainly the tone, as it beautifully interweaves theology with doxology. I was amazed by the number of songs that, he points out, celebrate Christ’s blood.

This is also a practical book, demonstrating how the Bible presents the blood of Jesus not just as our source of pardon but also our source of purity. It cleanses not just our consciences but also our hearts, shaping our relationship with God and with others.

And the practical power of Christ’s blood isn’t just in the removal of sin and guilt, but in the positive realities of peace, freedom, and spiritual growth. It doesn’t simply take away death, it imparts and maintains life. We need the atonement not just to save our souls initially but also to nourish and grow them in the long run.

The Big Question

As I read and reread the book, one question kept challenging me: Why is the blood-red center of the gospel so often on the periphery of our thoughts, words, and ministries?

Is it a fear of being associated with crude and superstitious uses of “blood” terminology? I’ve certainly been in some circles where “the blood of Christ” was employed more like a magic spell, with little theological content. Carter helps us avoid this pitfall, as he observes: “It’s not the red liquid so much as what it represents—the last act in the tragedy of Christ life.”

Is it fear or shame? We live in sophisticated and cultured times. Do we really want to be talking about a blood-bought salvation among such educated and refined people? Has the Devil blinded us to the centrality and vitality of Christ’s atonement? At times I’ve realized many months have passed since I preached on the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Is it a failure to connect doctrine to the person of Christ? It’s easy to preach a series on justification, sanctification, or election and hardly mention the bruised and bloodied Christ that makes the doctrines possible.

Is our neglect simply ignorance? We simply don’t realize what width, depth, and length there is to the atonement. We stay in the simple shallows of the usual clichés and stock phrases, failing to explore its undiscovered scriptural depths.

Often we just assume everybody knows and so we move on to “higher” things. But there’s nothing higher and not everybody knows. And as even those who do know need reminding, God instituted a specific sacrament—the Lord’s Supper.

Whatever the reason for our neglect of Jesus’ blood, Carter gives us 13 chapters of reasons to refocus our aim on this gospel bulls-eye. Although a relatively short book, Blood Work opens up many dimensions of Christ’s atonement for further and deeper exploration. This is a center-of-the-gospel book for the gospel-centered.

This review was first published at The Gospel Coalition Book Reviews Website.

• Even though my blood could potentially save the temporal life of one, how many more can be saved unto eternal life by the precious blood of Jesus?
• Life is truly in the blood. Temporally it is in the blood running through our veins. Eternally it is in the sin-breaking, guilt removing, incomparable, inestimably valuable blood of Jesus Christ.
• Christianity is a bloody religion not because of the blood shed by people in wars and inquisitions, but because of the blood shed by Jesus Christ.
• At the very heart of our Christian faith is a precious red substance; the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ (R Phillips)
• If the history of redemption is a story told in pictures, the blood of Christ is the paint with which that story is portrayed.
• The shedding of his blood was the highest and most excellent part of his obedience (Phil. 2:8)(Stephen Charnock)
• The blood of the Old Testament spoke, but Christ’s blood speaks better. In speaking, it also satisfies.
• The blood of Christ is significant, not for the blood itself, but for what it represents – the perfect, sinless, life of Christ poured out in death for us.
• The redeemed do not receive a blood transfusion from God. We receive a life transfusion – He death for our death, his life for our life.
• Christ bought us and therefore owns us. He did not purchase His people on credit He paid in full. We are his.
•  Jesus will not return or exchange what he has bought.
• The only currency that is of value in heaven and throughout eternity is the blood of Chist.
• Sin is not just breaking the rules., it’s making one’s own rules.
• God has more right to be angry at the sin of the world than we have at a thousand terrorists.
• The Gospel in five words: Christ died for the ungodly.
• Jesus’ blood pleads for us. He is the Advocate and His blood is the plea.
• The Trinity is a love triangle. But unlike the love triangles we know, this one works, bringing joy and delight to all.
• Apart from Christ, life is nothing more than a march from the womb to the tomb.
• Selfish Christian? There is no self at the cross, only Jesus. Stingy Christian? The cross is the greatest motivation for giving there ever could be. Proud Christian? The ground at the foot of the cross is the humblest in the history of the world. Racist Christian? At the cross there is no Jew or Gentile, black or white, Arab or Asian.
• Racial and ethnic bloodlines are not omnipotent. The blood of Christ is.
• The blood of Christ says not only that we can get along with each other; more important, it says that we can get along with God.
• Pilate proposed to wash the blood of Christ away from himself, while Paul knew himself to be washed in the blood of Christ.
• Sin is more destructive than an atomic bomb; more menacing than a terrorist plot; more ruinous than a plague of locusts; more devastating that ten tsunamis; and more horrible and scary than a thousand bogeymen.
• “Had I the guilt of all the world, He’s able to forgive.”