Book reviews for Autumn 2015
Finishing our Course with Joy: Guidance from God for Engaging with Our Aging / Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well
Finishing our Course with Joy: Guidance from God for Engaging with Our Aging
J. I. Packer (Crossway: Wheaton, IL, 2014). 106 pp.
British-born Canadian theologian Packer wants to see believers run the last lap of the race “flat out.” He gives practical help for those who want to finish well. He urges his readers to make sure they are ready to meet Christ. One of my favorite quotes is the description he gives of heaven: “an unknown country with a well-known inhabitant” (p. 26). He warns of the wrong way that the world tells retirees to live—“practice self-indulgence up to the limit.”
In four brief chapters (in 14-point font) packed with wisdom, Packer writes for those who recognize that “aging is not for wimps; and who want to learn, in a straightforward way, how we may continue living to God’s glory as we get older” (p. 14).
Packer challenges senior believers not to live as “though spiritual gifts and ministry skills wither with age . . . What happens, rather, is that they atrophy with disuse.” While remembering that senior believers have less strength, churches “should at the same time seek to cherish and continue to harness the ministering capacities that these Christians displayed at earlier stages of their lives” (p. 64). He encourages lifelong learning and leading (in a broad sense, including influence) for aging believers. “Maintaining zeal Godward as our bodies wear out is the special discipline to which we aging Christians are called.” Memory weakens and energy levels keep going lower, but zeal should be unflagging all the way (pp. 76-77).
His last chapter, “We look forward,” reminds us of the hope we have as believers. Packer distills four truths from 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10 to help us recover the hope of glory awaiting believers.
Packer, now 89, practices what he preaches. (See the videos of Packer here: https://www.crossway.org/jipacker/ and the new biography of his life by Leland Ryken).
Here is a book for everyone to read, both young and old, so we all finish well. I wish I could put this book in the hands of every Japanese believer!
Reviewer rates it 5 out of 5 stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well
Billy Graham (Thomas Nelson: Nashville, TN, 2011). 181 pp.
Evangelist Billy Graham, at 97, writes that, “old age is not for sissies.” But he reminds us of the hope and joy that “can be ours once we learn to look at these years from God’s point of view and discover His strength to sustain us every day.” He wants us to “learn to grow older with grace and find the guidance needed to finish well” (p. ix).
In this 2012 Christian Book of the Year, Graham has some moving stories and great quotes. He shares the story of the last will and testament of the banker, J. P. Morgan who died in 1913. Morgan reminded his children where he stood with Christ and wrote in his will: “I commit my soul into the hands of my Saviour, in full confidence that having redeemed it and washed it in His most precious blood He will present it faultless before the throne of my Heavenly Father” (p. 68).
“. He quotes John Newton: “I am still in the land of the dying; I shall be in the land of the living soon.” Graham shows us that the last chapter in life can be the best as we turn our heart toward our heavenly home.
Here is another book to ponder and learn from.