Don Carson draws on personal memories and his dad’s journals and written prayers to put together this account of one pastor’s life and times, dreams and disappointments during trying times for the church.

Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor is a moving reminder that though the sacrifices of serving God are great, the sweetness of living a faithful life is greater.

You can read the preface and first chapter here.

His first post:

True Christianity is not merely life-changing; it is world-changing.

Emphasize only the changing of individual lives and we will fail to call political systems, philosophies, and human structures to account under Jesus’ lordship.

Emphasize only political systems, philosophies, and human structures and we will compromise in our work for worldly progress while people remain dead in their sins.

But put the message of Jesus’ atoning death on the cross together with the biblical call to bring our world under the lordship of the Risen Jesus and we have an explosive message that rocks our world to its very core. It is the apostolic message of Christianity.

As Beth wrote, “This is a story not only for Christmas, but every day of the year, as each of us strive to grow closer to the Founder.”

Other comments from the reviewers:

“Starr Meade writes a wonderful allegory of faith and the search for God through this beautiful and well-written holiday story. Curl up under a blanket and pull your little ones close to read this wonderful story together. It will be a tradition in my home for years to come.”

“Keeping Holiday is like a modern day Pilgrim’s Progress. This book, written for children ages eight and up, would be a wonderful accompaniment to a homeschool Christmas Bible study.”

“I would recommend this book to all, young and young at heart. To all of those searching for the true Founder, may your search end as profitable as Dylan’s.”

“Keeping Holiday is beautiful story of God’s sovereignty and man’s desperate need and desire for a savior—a hefty message for such a simple book.”

You can read the full reviews by visiting the following blogs:

• Pam’s Private Reflections
• From Tiny to Teen
• In Word
• The Review from My Beach Chair
• Insanity Runs in My Family…It Practically Gallops!
• Being Mrs. Momma
• Cornings at Home
• Faith in Love
• Reviews by Heidi
• Gail’s Reviews
• The Punmaster’s Palace

If you would like to join Crossway’s Homeschool Book Review Program or find out more about it, feel free to e-mail Crossway at marketing[at]crossway.org.

And then leave us a comment.

Which Crossway title would you rank as “Best of 2008″? Bring out the backlist titles if you like; after all, you’ve got almost thirty years’ worth of books to choose from! Which Crossway title influenced you most profoundly in 2008? Feel free to tell us a story or just to weigh in with a title, and we’ll join with you in giving thanks for these resources.

1. Awesome Words (Edythe Draper, editor) - January 1-10
2. Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus (Nancy Guthrie, ed.) - Preface and Chapters 1-2
3. Death by Love (Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears) - Chapter 1 - “Demons Are Tormenting Me”
4. Game Day for the Glory of God (Stephen Altrogge) - Chapter 3 - The Joy of Sports
5. Is Rome the True Church? (Norm Geisler and Joshua Betancourt) - Chapter 6 - The Roman Argument for Apostolic Succession
6. Jesus and the Feminists (Margaret Elizabeth Köstenberger) - Contents
7. Keeping Holiday (Starr Meade) - Chapter 1 - Holiday Vacation
8. Reasons We Believe (Nathan Busenitz) - Foreword by John MacArthur
   and Preface
9. Reforming or Conforming? (Johnson and Gleason, eds.) - Chapter 7 - Examination of Brian McLaren’s Approach to the Doctrine of Hell
10. Spectacular Sins (John Piper) - Introduction - The Times are Changing
11. Stand (Piper and Taylor, eds.) - Introduction and Chapter 1 - Four Essentials for Finishing Well
12. Suffering and the Goodness of God (Morgan and Peterson, eds.) - Chapter 4 - Suffering and the Goodness of God in the Gospels
13. Teach Us to Pray (Timothy Beals, ed.) - Preface - The Language of Prayer
14. The New Media Frontier (Reynolds and Overton, eds.) - Chapter 7 - Blog as Microwave Community
15. Total Church (Tim Chester and Steve Timmis) - Chapter 7 - Discipleship and Training
16. Unpacking Forgiveness (Chris Brauns) - Introduction - The Forgiveness Quiz
17. Worldliness (C. J. Mahaney, editor) - Chapter 1 - Is This Verse in Your Bible?

Over the years, they’ve come to be known as Gaspar, Melchoir, Balthasar – the Three Wise Men. Such beloved characters in the traditional Christmas story. Though they are mentioned only briefly in the gospel of Matthew, the Wise Men appear in nearly every nativity scene, every creche set. Somehow through the centuries, these mysterious figures have captured our imaginations and inspired us to “follow the star” on our own spiritual journey to Bethlehem.

Of course we don’t really know what their names were – or even that there were in fact three of them. We assume that there must have been at least three, because there were three gifts. However, if we read the gospel accounts of the Christmas story carefully, we soon discover that there actually were three wise people – three wise women!

Mary, Elizabeth, and Anna. Three very different women, in different ages and stages of life. One single, one married, one widowed. One just beginning to experience life. One coping with the challenges and changes of midlife. And one coming close to the end of her life. How do we know they were wise? The Scripture tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10) All three of these women “feared the Lord.” They were women who walked with Him. Women of faith and courage and character.

Each one played a crucial role in the events of the true Christmas story. Mary became the mother of the Messiah. She gave birth to the Son of God Himself. Elizabeth became the mother of His prophet. She served as Mary’s mentor and confidante. Anna announced the newborn King’s arrival. She sang His praises and proclaimed His salvation to all who had ears to hear. Too often we casually read over the familiar words of Scripture, barely noticing these women. Yet each one in her own way set a powerful example for us to follow today.

From The Three Wise Women: A Christmas Reflection by Christin Ditchfield.

Q: Who should read Keeping Holiday? Is it really a Christmas story?

A: The best stories in children’s literature—works by C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Kenneth Grahame—are enjoyable for people of any age, and I would like to think that’s true of Keeping Holiday as well. It’s a Christmas story and more than a Christmas story.

Q: What’s meant by the title, Keeping Holiday, and what’s the basic storyline?

A: The title is a play on words. “To keep holiday” can mean to celebrate a specific holiday. That’s one meaning; how do we most fully celebrate the Christmas holiday? The other meaning has to do with the story: Dylan goes to the delightful town of Holiday once a year on vacation and would like to just stay there. Since that’s not possible, his parents tell him he’ll need to find a way to “keep Holiday—” to have it with him all year, wherever he is. Early in the story, Dylan discovers that the Holiday he always visits is not the real Holiday; there’s a larger, much more wonderful Holiday behind it. He also learns, however, that only citizens of Holiday can come and go in the real Holiday, and that only the Founder of Holiday can make you a citizen. So the story is Dylan’s visit to the real Holiday on a temporary pass, in search of the Founder and citizenship. Each adventure that he has on his quest and each character he meets shows him more of what the Founder is like, so that, increasingly, his desire for citizenship in Holiday changes into a desire to know the Founder for his own sake.

Q: But Dylan keeps hearing, “You can’t find the Founder; he finds you; he’s not just the Founder; he’s the Finder too.” What does that mean?

A: Holiday was established many years ago to honor a King who saved the town from the rule of evil, oppressive tyrants; hence, that King is called “the Founder.” Everyone who knows anything at all about the Founder tells Dylan he can’t find him; the Founder will have to find Dylan. Just as, on the first Christmas, people didn’t go get the Son of God from heaven and bring him to earth, so individual people don’t set out to find Christ and his grace; they aren’t even able to do that. Christ in his grace reaches out and saves them. Biblically, all the credit for coming to the earth as Savior and for coming to any individual as Savior belongs to Christ alone.

Q: You’ve said that one purpose of the book is to give readers a fresh way to look at the Incarnation. How does Keeping Holiday accomplish this?

A: My favorite parts of the Bible are the Old Testament prophets. They paint their word pictures in such extreme shades of dark and light that you come away from them horrified by the bleakness of the human condition and, consequently, wonderfully relieved by the hope and comfort they hold out in their promises of the coming Messiah. The experiences Dylan has—being entombed in a cave, being lost in absolute darkness, wandering across a barren winter landscape—are meant as pictures of humanity’s condition, and each individual’s condition, before the coming of Christ.

Q: What would you consider the best use of Keeping Holiday?

A: I hope families will read Keeping Holiday together, maybe even as a holiday tradition. It helps draw attention to what Christ has done for his people and how ordinary Christmas decorations remind us of those things. This could enhance a family’s worship and celebration during Advent season. At the same time, Keeping Holiday brings up for discussion many doctrinal aspects of the salvation God provides, and his ways of working in the human heart, providing a springboard for discussion of these kinds of issues on a personal level, between parents and children.

For more information on Keeping Holiday, visit the Crossway website.

John Piper’s latest book, John Calvin and His Passion for the Majesty of God, highlights what mattered most to Calvin.  “The essential meaning of Calvin’s life and preaching,” writes Piper, “is that he recovered and embodied a passion for the absolute reality and majesty of God.  Such is the aim and burden of this book as well.”

John Calvin and His Passion for the Majesty of God is now available.

We invite you to read the foreword by Gerald Bray, research professor at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University.

Our first response is to “weep with those who weep.” We extend our prayers and sympathy to Pastor MacDonald, his family, and all of our friends at Harvest Bible Chapel. We pray that the Lord will sustain them in every way throughout this challenging season.

But God’s grace is so evident in MacDonald’s words. Even as he shares the news of his cancer, he also leads his church in thanksgiving. So we join with them in living out the other half of Romans 12:15—”rejoice with those who rejoice.” MacDonald explains this joy:

I have a tenderness to the pain of others and a deeper burden for those closest to me. I am more acutely aware of my sin and much less willing to weigh it or measure it or manage it. I just want to be clean and close and consecrated in my walk with Christ; and I am, more than ever. Truly!!! And for that I am very thankful. I have experienced an outpouring of love from our congregation and beyond that has made me more appreciative than ever to pastor a church and belong to the body of Christ. God is good, I’m gonna get through this in God’s way and in His time and I love Him more than ever.

Read his full post at the Straight Up ministry blog.

• The ESV Study Bible (Crossway)
• The MacArthur Study Bible (Thomas Nelson)
• The Apologetics Study Bible (Holman Bible Publishers)

Read the full article.