Only love for Christ can defend our hearts against all other loves that can kidnap our hearts. Only worship of Christ, where He is the audience, can protect us from worship of ourselves. Only the glory of Christ can guard against self-glory. Only Christ can turn us arrogant long-time churchgoers into patient, humble givers of grace. Only deep gratitude for our suffering Savior can make us willing to suffer for others. Only a heart satisfied in Christ can be satisfied in the hardships of life. It is only in brokenness in the face of our sin that we can give grace to the fellow rebels God is adopting as our brothers and sisters.
I recently finished Dangerous Calling, by David Tripp. I re-worded the above paragraph to be a bit shorter, and more generic in it’s application.
The Good: Paragraphs like the one above abound throughout the book. Not always easy reading, but always enlightening, thought-provoking, and often encouraging.
The Bad: Because this book is targeted at pastors, others won’t feel compelled to read it. I had to radically change the above paragraph to make it apply to all believers. That is a shame, as the teaching, and the way David words things, makes this a book for everyone.
The Ugly: I thought the cover was kinda ugly, not that I would ever self-promote, but doesn’t the cover of my Christmas book below look way better?
Pastor or not, I hope you will consider reading Dangerous Calling.
Dan
I recently received this email from someone and thought it could be helpful.
That great advice comes from 
danielcooleyblog 