John MacArthur

Last week I picked up a book in my library by Dr. John MacArthur, Jr. entitled Ashamed of the Gospel. MacArthur is a well-respected author and pastor of Grace Community Church (http://www.gracechurch.org/), the voice behind Grace to You Ministries (http://www.gty.org/), and President of The Master's Seminary (http://www.tms.edu/). His book, Ashamed of the Gospel, is an insightful piece of theological work that revolves around the subject of Christianity on the 'downgrade'. He, in this book, kind of builds upon the much publicized controversy between the late Charles Hadden Spurgeon and The Baptist Union upon Spurgeon's resignation, and their battles in the last two years of Spurgeon's life. This is a good read--for laity and laymen--as instruction and exhortatatively encouraging us to stand tall and preach TRUTH in a modernistic attempt within many of our user-friendly churches and cotton candy preachers who are attempting to kidnap the rugged cross from preaching and sell out the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have had this book for many years--but never even casually looked through the book. The other, which I read over this is past weekend--was MacArthur's Power and Freedom of Forgiveness. This was a very timely subject for me (considering there are a few people just this year who are testing me in this area)--also assigned for reading by one of my seminary mentors, Dr. Bob Overton. I've also had this book for some time. MacArthur explores the fundamental concept of forgiving others and forgiving ourselves--saturated in our fundamental approach to understanding God's forgiveness toward us. He says, in a nutshell, that in order for one to experience a transformative realization of forgiveness toward self and toward other people--one must understand the God who, literally, canceled our debt, forgave our offense, and washed(es) our slate clean...day by day. MacArthur is a thorough expositor of scripture and handles every passage with prayerful selection and insightful applications for contemporary relevance. By the way--MacArthur just so happens to be one of my father's favorite writers. It was also the favorite writer of Rev. Steve V. Mack, a close friend of my father who passed a little over a year ago. He was a great preacher, friend of my father's, and just a giant of a man. I miss Rev. Mack and think about him VERY often. All in all, I have many of MacArthur's books by their recommendations--just never really read him or gave him any thought. But, WOW--MacArthur is GOOD! I can see clearly now!!!