Tommy Mann

I was excited to get to review Max Lucado’s new book Grace because he is a person that I have always admired from a writing standpoint. I have most of his books, literally dozens of them, and I credit him as one of the influences in my life toward Christian writing. The topic of his book Grace is obvious; it’s right there in the title. But here is a more specific glimpse of the topic from the author himself: “Here’s my hunch: we’ve settled for wimpy grace. It politely occupies a phrase in a hymn, fits nicely on a church sign. Never causes trouble or demands a response. When asked, ‘Do you believe in grace?’ who could say no? This book asks a deeper question: Have you been changed by grace?” Max uses the biblical narratives of Ruth and Naomi, the woman caught in adultery, Barabbas, David and Bathsheba, the foot washing in the Upper Room, and others to illustrate grace in the Bible. In addition to biblical characters, Lucado uses his gift as a storyt...

Michael John Cusick’s book Surfing for God operates on the premise that “every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God (a quote attributed to G.K. Chesterton).” Cusick’s premise is that every person struggling with lust or pornography addictions are really searching for something else. Each person, he says, must examine himself and find out where his urges to lust come from. It is only then they can begin dealing with it. The author is a licensed professional counselor, and he uses a lot of psychological techniques. Personally, I am a nouthetic counselor, meaning that I believe the Bible is a sufficient source of information, and that Jesus is stronger than any addiction. Cusick is not nouthetic, as evidenced by his techniques and his quoting of Carl Jung (p.84). In chapter 3 the author mocks his pastor for saying, “If we can just align our desires with God’s, then and only then will we win the battle over the sins and struggles that en...

The Message by Eugene Peterson brands itself as “The Bible in contemporary language,” but is it really a trustworthy easy-to-read Bible? I intend to show you why this book is dangerous and should not be considered the Word of God. Every English Bible had to have come from somewhere; that is, they had to be translated from something since the Bible was Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin long before it was English. The opening pages of each Bible will tell the potential reader where this translation drew from. For example, translation like the KJV, NKJV, and NASV are literal translations from the textus receptus, meaning that they are literal word for word translations from Greek to English, Hebrew to English, etc. Translations like the NIV are dynamic equivalents from English Bibles, meaning they took someone’s English Bible and simply updated words. There is no literal word for word translation, just taking the general idea and tinkering with it. I have long been critical of thi...