So you’re more like a 40-something than a 20-something, and you still want to have some fun? You may want to check out Robin Jones Gunn’s new series, which is closer to mommy lit than chick lit but still full of real life. Starting with her first release, "Sister Chicks on the Loose!" (Multnomah), Gunn describes a “sisterchick” as “a friend who shares the deepest wonders of your heart, loves you like a sister and provides a reality check when you’re being a brat.” The second book in the series, "Sisterchicks Do the Hula!," is out this month. Forty-something herself with two teenagers in the house, Gunn names her favorite artists as Margaret Becker and the late Rich Mullins.
 
Recently, my Bible study has been studying Malachi. (Never done that before, have you?). And each week we’ve had a reading assignment in Scotty Smith’s book, "Reign of Grace" (Howard), which uses the book of Malachi as its inspiration and focal point. What an amazing book! And I’m not the only one to think so. Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay says Smith’s book “provokes us to dig deeper into our lives with the truth of the gospel as both scalpel and stitch.” Wes King says the book, “has the lyrical ring of a Spurgeon with the weight of an Edwards, the accessibility of a Lewis, and it is all adorned in the sound theology of a Henry van Til.”

I found that while this book is deep and theological in its examination of grace, redemption and how marriage reflects God’s love relationship with His people, it is also incredibly practical and piercing in its discussions of suffering as discipline, addiction as idolatry and stewardship as worship. Most of all, the book paints a picture of the irresistible love of God for faithless people like me.

“God’s reign of grace isn’t a free meal ticket to heaven for people who invite Jesus into their hearts,” writes Smith. “It’s the Bridegroom’s costly pursuit, dowry, invitation and proposal to a wedding feast and marriage – our own! It’s the guarantee that this quintessential romance is not merely a spiritual metaphor but the ultimate transforming reality.”

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