{"id":918,"date":"2013-05-17T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T05:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=918"},"modified":"2013-05-16T20:49:20","modified_gmt":"2013-05-17T01:49:20","slug":"popular-or-good-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=918","title":{"rendered":"POPULAR OR GOOD BOOKS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Many popular books offer steps and strategies.\u00a0 I have found most (almost all!) full of problems.\u00a0 How does one go about evaluating their worth?\u00a0 In my book, The Last Men’s Book You’ll Ever Need<\/em>, I offer six (!) diagnostic questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Does the book convey (explicitly or implicitly) that it is the \u201ckey\u201d to living the victorious Christian life?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Does the author present more of a formulaic approach to the Christian life rather than the need to grow in the \u201cgrace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ?\u201d (II Peter 3:18)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Does the book present a simplistic approach (read \u201ccookie cutter\u201d) to the Christian growth or does it value the wide variety of ways that God sanctifies His people?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Does the author tend to universalize or make normative his own experiences?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Does the author ask the reader to trust his interpretation of his experiences rather than backing those up with the word of God?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most importantly, does the book focus on the person and work of Christ? In other words, is it a Christ-centered approach to the Christian life or is it a mechanical, moralistic, and behavioral approach?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many popular books offer steps and strategies.\u00a0 I have found most (almost all!) full of problems.\u00a0 How does one go about evaluating their worth?\u00a0 In my book, The Last Men’s Book You’ll Ever Need, I offer six (!) diagnostic questions: Does the book convey (explicitly or implicitly) that it is the \u201ckey\u201d to living the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-spiritual-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=918"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":930,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918\/revisions\/930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}