Skip to main content

Twelve Unlikely Heroes




When I was given John MacArthur’s newest book Twelve Unlikely Heroes to read for a review, I was excited because of how much I enjoyed his earlier books Twelve Ordinary Men and Twelve Extraordinary Women. I am also glad to say that I was not disappointed with this newest addition.

While there are twelve heroes written about, there are only ten chapters because MacArthur twice groups people together. The heroes that he covers are Enoch, Joseph, Miriam, Samson and Gideon, Jonathan, Jonah, Esther, John the Baptist, James (the brother of Jesus), and Mark and Onesimus.

As he did in the other two books, Pastor MacArthur thoroughly investigates the lives of each person, using every biblical reference to them to build his biography. But he goes even further, turning to outside historians and the writings of church fathers to fill in other details about culture and some of the events not recorded in Scripture. Pulling from Josephus, Origen, Eusebius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and others, MacArthur gives the reader a closer look into the lives of these heroes.

This book should inspire Christians by reminding that God can use anybody to accomplish great things for the ministry. It also serves as a great resource by teaching on the lives of these twelve unlikely heroes.  


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To Save a Life

(Like my blog about the peace symbol, this blog was written as a default response to all the parents, students, and other people who are asking my opinion of To Save a Life.) By now you have probably heard of the movie To Save a Life, which opened nation-wide in theaters on January 22nd. The movie deals with so many issues that teens face today, like suicide, cutting, drinking, drugs, premarital sex, teen pregnancy, and abortion. At first glance this movie looks like an awesome resource that we should recommend for our teens, parents, youth pastors, and youth workers. But a closer look at the movie reveals a few disturbing things. For starters, according to pluggedin.com, there are 2 uses of the “A” word, 5 uses of hell (used as a curse word), and once the “D” word is used. There are other crude terms used to describe a girl, and crude terms for referring to sexual activity. There is also a bedroom scene that shows a girl removing a boy’s shirt, then afterwards the girl putting he
38 comments
Read more

Evangelism

“Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” St. Francis of Assisi is given credit for this famous quote (although that exact phrasing does not appear in any of his writings), and a lot of people would think that this is a great philosophy. His actual quote was that everyone should “preach by their deeds.” Preaching with our deeds is not just a strategy, it is a necessity. We are commanded all through the Scriptures to let our light shine and be a peculiar people. People should be able to look at our lives and see that we are Christians. They should see the love of Christ readily on display, and thus feel compelled to live their lives in the same way. The sermon that we should preach with our lives is a sermon of love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, forgiveness, conviction, etc. But this idea that has emerged that says we should ONLY preach with our deeds is a heresy straight from the devil himself. Think about it: who is the one that does not want you t
18 comments
Read more

What is a Curse Word?

I know. Stupid question, right? But lately I have heard Christians begin to debate what actually makes a word a curse word. Since the Bible never says, “Thou shalt not say the ‘s’ word,” how do we know that a word is bad? Because of this I have heard Christians justify cursing. The Bible gives a broad command for Christians to adhere to: let no corrupt word come out of your mouth (Ephesians 4:29). The word corrupt means rotten; therefore, we should never say a rotten word, whether it is on the list of curse words or not. First, we have to realize that there are curse words. On the night of Jesus’ arrest Peter was found guilty of using one himself. Matthew 26:74 tells us that when Peter denied knowing Jesus that he began “to curse and to swear.” This verse shows that there are curse words, and that they are wrong to use. I’m sure whatever words Peter said were not the same curse words that we have in our culture today. Here is the point: a curse word (or rotten word) is any wo
18 comments
Read more