Daily Readings from: The Christian in Complete Armour - by William Gurnall

I have read a good chunk of the unabridged Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall, it is very good but HUGE, you kind of need to plough through it. This book, Daily Readings from The Christian in Complete Armour, was an excellent idea!  Breaking it up into small chunks for daily reading makes it a much easier read, and gives you a good taste of Gurnall's great skill of teaching and illustrating various spiritual warfare concepts.

The best summary that I can come up with is that this book is like having a spiritual commanding officer giving you a rousing speech each day to be ready to fight the battles to come.  Gurnall talks about the armor our General has provided for us and each individual piece's purpose,  he instructs us to keep in  mind that we should 'wrestle' with the enemy in the way our General has instructed us to do so, not merely in the way that we think we can defeat him,  he also examines the strategy of our spiritual enemy, and gives many warnings about his tactics

Every day Gurnall will warn you about the enemy's deceptive tactics, alerting you with statements like, "When Satan cannot hide the truth, he works to hinder the practical application of it."  and  "If you wish to stand firm in the midst of suffering, forewarn yourself of this fact:  Temptation is never stronger than when relief seems to dress itself in the very sin that Satan is suggesting."  He'll remind you to be ready to follow the Commander's orders at any moment, "Sometimes soldiers do not have as much as an hour's warning before they  must take the field.  And so you, too, might be called out to suffer for God …. Abraham, for example, had very little time to deal with his heart and persuade it to obey God by offering his child.  'Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest' - not in a year, not a month or week, but now (Genesis 22:2).  This command came during the night and 'early in the morning' he was on his way to the mountain (v.3). .....Sometimes God makes very sudden changes in our personal lives."  He will remind you to keep your focus during suffering, "Let those who will, mock and scorn your faith.  What is Heaven worth if you cannot bear a little shame?  If they spit in your face, Christ will wipe it off.  They may laugh at you now, but not later.  The final outcome has already been declared, and you have sided with the victor."  And reminds us that our Commander is invincible, "Let Lucifer choose his way; God is a match for him at every weapon.  If he assaults the saint by persecution, God will oppose him.  If he works by a subtlety, God is ready there also.  The devil and his whole council are mere fools to God.  The more wit and craft in sin, the worse, because it is employed against an all-wise God who cannot be outwitted."

But remember, this book shouldn't be used to replace the Word of God, if you are going to ready any book every day that book should be the Bible.  Like any book, besides the Bible, this book has its flaws, to  name a few, the author may give a bit too much credit to Satan in our spiritual warfare and even in this world in general (he seemed to think that Satan can control the weather), and I don't agree necessarily with all of his advice or application of certain texts, but overall I thought the book was very good, It's now one of my favorite books.  It is VERY motivating and thought-provoking, it is a very good sort of 'push' to have in the mornings to get out and do the work, and fight the battles, that God has ordained for us to face. 

I'll end with one of my favorite, motivating, go out and fight the good fight type of quotes from the book:

 "You should find great strength and encouragement in the knowledge that your commission is divine.  God Himself underwrites your battle and has appointed His own Son "the captain of [your] salvation" (Hebrews 2:10).  He will lead you on to the field with courage, and bring you off with honor.......For bravery none compares with our Lord.  He never turned  His head from danger, not even when hell's hatred and heaven's justice appeared against Him.  Knowing all that was about to happen, Jesus went forth and said, "Whom seek ye?" (John 18:4).  Satan could not overcome Him - our Savior never lost a battle, not even when he lost His life.  He won the victory, carrying His spoils to heaven in the triumphant chariot of His ascension.  There He makes an open show of them, to the unspeakable joy of saints and angels.    As part of Christ's army, you march in the ranks of gallant spirits.  Every one of your fellow soldiers is a child of a King.  Some, like you, are in the midst of battle, besieged on every side by affliction and temptation.  Others, after many assaults, repulses and rallyings of their faith, are already standing upon the wall as conquerors.  From there they look down and urge you, their comrades on earth, to march up the hill after them.  This is their cry: "Fight to the death , and the City is your own, as now it is ours! For the waging of a few days' conflict, you will be rewarded with Heaven's glory.  One moment of this celestial joy will dry up all your tears, heal all your wounds, and erase the sharpness of the fight with all the joy of your permanent victory"

Many thanks to Moody Publishers for sending me a complimentary copy of this book to review (My review did not have to be favorable).

One of the websites where you may purchase this book is Amazon.com

Readings in Baptist History - Joseph Early Jr.

Readings in Baptist History: Four Centuries of Selected Documents by Joseph Early Jr.  is a very different (at least for me)way of learning about Baptist history, or any history.  Instead of reading about events, one reads documents from those events in generally the order they were written.  This book is, as it says on the back cover, "An Entire Library in One Book", though it should be noted that several of the documents given in this book are abridged.  It is more of an overview of Baptist history rather than a deep dive into it, but it is an interesting overview.  It contains evidence of good and bad theology(including the bizarre) down through the centuries, and interesting perspectives on various theological controversies amongst the Baptists  themselves and between them and other denominations.   

The concern of many Baptists in regards to making sure they keep holding to the Bible and not man's opinions, the fight against accepting whatever spirit of the age in which they lived, was encouraging to see, and a good encouragement for us to remember to be on the lookout for attacks on the truth in our day.  The statement keeps coming up in the documents is that that the Bible is "the only rule of faith and practice", as one document states: "If it be allowed that reason or sanctified common sense shall determine in matters of faith and practice, it shall still be an open question as to whose reason and sanctified common sense shall make the decision.  If reason or common sense shall be the rule of any part of faith and practice then it is certain that we shall see division, contention, strife.  Le the Bible be the rule of faith and practice and our only difficulty shall be understanding our rule."

It was intriguing too to see various controversies connected with various historical events.  For instance, there is a document from the time of the American Revolution where Baptists are critiquing the paedobaptists because they were imposing a tax on Baptists and yet were complaining about the British Government taxing Americans without representation: "And now dear countrymen, we beseech you seriously to consider these things.  The great  importance of a general union through this country in order to the preservation of our liberties, has often been pleaded for with propriety.  But how can such a union be expected so long as that dearest of all rights, equal liberty of conscience is not allowed? ….You have lately been accused with being disorderly and rebellious, by men in power, who profess a great regard for order and public good.  Why don't you believe them, and rest easy under their administration?  You tell us that you cannot, because you are taxed where you are not represented.  Is it not so with us?......And as the present contest between America and great Britain is not so much about the greatness of taxes already laid, as about a submission to their taxing power.  So (though what we have already suffered is far from being a trifle yet) our greatest difficulty at present concerns the submitting to a taxing power in ecclesiastical affairs…"  

Overall, I think that it is a pretty interesting overview, oh, and I liked that the language of the documents was updated in some places for easier reading.  My only big complaint is that some of the documents seemed too short and I wanted to know more about that time period, or what was going on…(like in Russian Baptist history) which is probably the curiosity that the book is meant to produce, inducing an active desire for more information on Baptist history, so people will go out and research on their own. 

I'll end with a quote which I liked from a 1611 declaration of faith and which I found particularly interesting (though I didn't agree with the whole confession as I didn't think it held completely to the Rule of faith and practice): "That the members of every Church or Congregation should know one another so that they may perform all the duties of love one towards another both to soul and body.  Matthew 18:15.  1 Thessalonians 5:14. 1 Corinthians 12:25.  And especially the elders should know the whole flock, of which the Holy Ghost has made them overseers.  Acts 20:28. 1 Peter 5:2, 3.  and therefore a Church should not consist of such a multitude that they cannot have particular knowledge of one another."

 

Many thanks to the folks at B&H Academic who sent me a free review copy in exchange for my review (which did not have to be favorable).

 

This book may be purchased at Amazon.com and directly from the publisher (and also from other bookstores)