 | | |
| Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas | 
 enlarge | List Price: $12.99
Buy New: $6.24
You Save: $6.75 (52%)
Buy New/Used from $6.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 1 reviews)
Sales Rank: 11383
Category: Book
Author: Nancy Guthrie
Publisher: Crossway Books
Studio: Crossway Books
Manufacturer: Crossway Books
Label: Crossway Books
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.5
ISBN: 1433501805
Dewey Decimal Number: 242.335
EAN: 9781433501807
ASIN: 1433501805
Publication Date: August 31, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
An anthology of Advent readings collected from the writings and sermons of 22 classic and contemporary theologians and Bible teachers. Between purchasing presents and planning travel, enjoying holiday pageants and attending parties, it is all too easy for Christmas to silence the sacredness and crowd out a quiet anticipation of the season?s truths. So when editor Nancy Guthrie decided she wanted a reflective book of Advent readings that would help her pause and consider the riches of Christ come to earth, she embarked on what she calls ?a sacred adventure,? putting together such a collection herself. The result?this special volume?draws from the works and sermons of classic theologians such as Whitefield, Luther, Spurgeon, and Augustine, and from leading contemporary communicators such as John Piper, J. Ligon Duncan, Randy Alcorn, John MacArthur, Francis Schaeffer, R. C. Sproul, Skip Ryan, and Joni Eareckson Tada to beckon you and your family into the wonder of Jesus? incarnation and birth. With its high view of Scripture and its focus on the gift of Jesus, this lovely book is sure to ready your heart and mind for a fresh experience of ?Immanuel, God with us? this and every Advent season. Open the cover and discover what Christmas was meant to be?
|
| Customer Reviews:
Christmas Essays from Trusted Authors October 23, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus, is a collection of short essays on Christmas topics from writers that Nancy Guthrie respects--"essays that reflect a high view of Scripture; and that put the incarnation in the context of God's unfolding plan of redemption."
Included are pieces from the sermons, essays or books of both historical and contemporary Christians. I've decided that listing the contributors would be more useful than anything else in helping you decided whether these are essays you would enjoy reading, so here you are, from first to last.
* George Whitefield
* Joseph "Skip" Ryan
* Martin Luther
* John Piper
* Tim Keller
* Martyn Lloyd-Jones
* J. Ligon Duncan III
* Jonathan Edwards
* Charles Spurgeon
* Saint Augustine
* J. I. Packer
* John Calvin
* Alistair Begg
* Randy Alcorn
* John MacArthur
* Raymond C. Ortland, Jr.
* Francis Schaeffer
* J. C. Ryle
* James Montgomery Boice
* R. C. Sproul
* R. Kent Hughes
* Joni Eareckson Tada
Impressive, isn't it?
Some of the specific topics of the reflections are Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, the wisemen's gifts, the Holy Spirit (he did, you remember, have a big role in the incarnation story), Christ's humility, his poverty, and what it means that he became flesh. Like any collection from various authors, some pieces are easier to read than others. Some you'll whip through like a summer breeze, and for a few, you'll need your thinking cap.
And as you might also expect, some readings are better than others. The selections are mostly (maybe always) excerpted from larger works, so when I used the word essay to describe them, that was not quite right. That they are parts of larger wholes shows more in some readings than others. If you are expecting tight packages with precise beginnings, middles, ends, and all strings knotted, you may be disappointed a few times as you read through this book.
There were two essay that I marked with an X, which is my indication that didn't enjoy it or strongly disagreed with it, and one marked with a question mark because I am unsure whether the whole premise stands. About half of the rest I enjoyed but didn't love, and I thought nine out of the twenty-two were quite wonderful. I won't be telling you which ones are which, since I read this book over a few weeks and have a hunch I didn't judge consistently over time.
I will tell you that my favorite reading was the last one, A Christmas Longing, by Joni Eareckson Tada. Christmas, Joni says, is still a promise, even for those who live on our side of the first Advent.
"Every Christmas is still a "turning of the page" until Jesus returns. Every December 25 marks another year that draws us closer to the fulfillment."
Ah yes! We don't reflect on this often enough, do we? Christmas calls us to celebrate a glorious event of the past, but it is (and maybe more so) a call to celebrate what is to come.
All in all, Nancy Guthrie gets a blue ribbon from me for her editing choices. The shortcomings in Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus are minor, and not really shortcomings at all, but rather, the unevenness that comes in any collection of essays, particularly when the selections are taken from many authors and from different centuries. I can't think of a Christmas anthology that is better than this one.
|
|
|
 Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| | |
