I was asked about the book “The Shack” today and I thought it helpful to point to two worthwhile reviews of it here.

The first I’d suggest is the audio Al Mohler’s radio program when he reviewed the book. Get it here: A Look at “The Shack”

The second review is Tim Challies review available on his site. He has two reviews — his first a bit shorter, his second a more thorough and available as a PDF to download and print.

Mohler caution’s readers to beware of The Shack’s “serious, even dangerous, theological deficiencies”.

Tim Challies says,

I urge you, the reader, to exercise care in reading and distributing this book. The Shack may be an engaging read but it is one that contains far too much error. Read it only with the utmost care and concern, critically evaluating the book against the unchanging standard of Scripture. Caveat lector!

We’re headed out for a week of camping in the morning but when I get back if I find other worthwhile reviews I’ll link to them here.

Al Mohler on the urgency of Biblical preaching — From a Dying Man to Dying Men — Recovering a Bold Vision for Biblical Preaching

Al Mohler clarifies the danger of this “runaway best-seller”–It’s All About You? The Truth About “The Secret”. He says, “There is no real secret to The Secret. It is just the same old self-worship packaged for a new generation.”

Al Mohler weighs in on the Holocaust Denial in Iran.

Tim Challies and Doug McHone have the privilege of liveblogging the 2006 Shepherd’s Conference. I suggest you check out Tim and Doug’s blogs over the next few days for their perspective on the conference. Should be good–wish I could be there. Keynote speakers are John MacArthur, Albert Mohler, R.C. Sproul, Steven Lawson, Ligon Duncan and Mark Dever. Tim Challies says he’ll also be liveblogging the Together for the Gospel conference in April. Sounds like a nice gig.

It’s been a long week. It’s Saturday night. I just finished studying for tomorrow’s services. I’d usually like to be ready before now but an eye problem took me to the doctor today, then I couldn’t get the van started, someone called and wanted to see the truck we’re selling, we had a little birthday party for Zack tonight, then… well you get the idea.

It’s times like this I remind myself why I do this–I love to preach God’s Word–I love being a part of God’s work in preaching His Word to His people. And then there are guys like Al Mohler who shoot straight about what the church really needs that give a good shot in the arm too.

From Al Mohler’s blog…

“Preaching is so important that the preacher must be willing to suffer to advance the proclamation of the Gospel, he said.”Every single Christian pastor ought to be ready and willing at a second’s notice to say, ‘I can put up with virtually anything if I get to preach,’” Mohler said, adding that preachers should rejoice in sufferings when they open the door for preaching opportunities.One difficulty of preaching is that frequently it produces no visible response in the congregation, he said. But preachers should not become frustrated at a lack of visible response because the Word of God often works silently in people’s hearts in ways that are undetectable to the eye, Mohler noted.”The Word of God goes in and does surgery that the hearer does not even immediately recognize is taking place,” he said. “It’s in the mystery of the preaching of the Word of God, accompanied by the Spirit, that the believer is conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ in the silent, invisible surgery of the soul.”If you want quick results, you’ll be tempted to do something other than preaching. If you want instant gratification, you’ll look at some other form of programming or you’ll get excited about some other dimension of ministry at the expense of preaching. But if you want to build Christ’s church and if you want to see Christ’s people conformed to His image, preaching is the indispensable mark of the church.”

Now that’s encouraging.