My latest book review is “John Calvin: A Heart For Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology” edited by Burk Parsons. I can imagine some of my readers are already yawning and moving on to the next post, but hear me out:) As many who know me well know, I love to read books on theology and while this book does contain theology it is so much more than that. It is the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birthday and in honor of that a number of highly respected theologians, pastors, and teachers (for example: Jerry Bridges, Sinclair Ferguson, John MacArthur, Pillip R. Johnson, Philip Graham Ryken, etc.) have written chapters in this book about John Calvin’s life, his passion for the word, and his love for the church. I have read some of John Calvin here and there and of course have been taught from his teachings since before I can remember, but I knew little about the man himself. This book has opened up the door for me to learning about how he came to the Lord, about his life as a pastor and teacher, about his work in missions, the persecution he endured, his faith, his trails, his compassion for the hurting as well as his teachings and theology. This book shows the amazing work God did through John Calvin during a very challenging time in church history. The number of sermons he preached each week, the number of books and commentaries he wrote and the number of pastors and missionaries he trained would astound any reader. I encourage anyone who has resisted reading any of his works for fear of it’s difficulty to read this book as it will give you a hunger to read Calvin’s works directly. And I challenge anyone who has only heard negatively of Calvin to read this for your eyes will be opened to see a man full of passion for Christ and for the lost that you too will desire to read more. As for me, I will be putting the Insitutes on my Christmas wish list this year:)