This book, written by an English Puritan minister, is an alluring masterpiece: ancient, beautiful, and true, shining a spotlight into the soul’s crevices. To produce authentic spiritual fruit, Flavel declares, a heart must first be soft and tender. He writes, “To keep the heart, then, is to carefully protect it from sin, which disorders it, and maintain that spiritual frame, which fits it for a life of communion with God.” In stunning prose, Flavel implores Christians to remember that God has obliterated our stony hearts and made them new. We are meant to walk circumspectly, bowing low before God as the Holy Spirit generates godly fruit.
Sproul deftly unpacks the mysteries surrounding the Holy Spirit, showing through God’s Word who he is and what he does in the heart of every true Christ follower. Many have been swept away by false teachings regarding the third person of the Trinity, and Sproul graciously guides the reader’s gaze back to the Bible. As he explains, the Holy Spirit is God himself, and he has chosen to take up residence within each Christian, stirring up the heart while convicting, comforting, helping, and guiding.
This short book is a perfect delight. Cruse, a Presbyterian pastor in Michigan, guides us to Jesus, who manifested the Spirit’s fullness of perfect fruit. With captivating writing, Cruse heartens the reader to cling to the true vine, Christ, forever bearing in mind that spiritual fruit is the result of God’s work in us rather than the product of our own striving. The chapters move along with the Spirit’s fruit as listed in Galatians 5, punctuated by vivid examples from common life.
Dutch Christians Corrie and Betsie ten Boom suffered inconceivable tortures in a Nazi concentration camp—their punishment for hiding Jews in their home. During their captivity in Ravensbrück, the sisters discovered that triumphant living is possible anywhere, in all circumstances, with God as their souls’ hiding place. Bed bugs, selfishness, brutality, and pain became the sisters’ portal to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control as they embraced the Holy Spirit’s work. Readers can trace the Spirit’s luscious fruit as it ripens in this unforgettable tale, beholding magnificent sanctification forged in the hothouse of dark affliction.
Alcorn’s novel introduces the characters Li Quan and Ben Fielding, who met as college roommates at Harvard. Decades later, Quan resides in China, facing daily persecution and death threats as he heeds the Holy Spirit’s governance and ushers his beloved family into the perilous underground church. Meanwhile, Ben has scaled the American corporate ladder, simultaneously experiencing financial wealth and spiritual bankruptcy. While on a business trip in China, Ben reconnects with Quan, and a masterful story unfolds, full of darkly unexpected twists and turns. Alcorn brilliantly reveals what happens when the Holy Spirit stirs and softens, taking up residence in the human heart.
Reading Philippians from Paul’s prison context should encourage the church to care better for the incarcerated.
The organizers deny their tableau referenced Da Vinci’s Last Supper. But the imagery speaks volumes about the spiritual needs of our confused society.
