James Hutton

James Hutton enjoys discussing religious matters with others, and studying his Bible. He has other interests, such as listening to classical music and learning from other non-fiction works, but they are far less important than seeking to serve God and please Him.

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baptism    becoming a christian    belief    believe    bible    christian    christianity    confession    jesus    jesus christ    repentance    study book   

• The Birth of Christ As Recorded In the Scriptures on Dec. 23, 2012
  
  This ebook is pleasantly simple, and does not seek to do anything more than what it sets out to do. As the description states, it presents various scripture verses in succession to tell the story of the birth of Christ. It begins with verses from Old Testament prophets Isaiah and Micah, leading up to the well-known verses from Luke 2 and Matthew 2. I appreciated Mr. Davis placing the verses from Luke 2 prior to those found in Matthew 2; this correctly shows the proper sequence of events that can be lost when reading them in the opposite order. This collection of verses, and their sequence, gives additional clarity to how the prophecies of Christ's birth in the Old Testament highlight the coming fulfillment later completed in the New Testament. Some of these verses could be easily overlooked so having them all together is helpful. There are a couple of minor errors with the book, but they are so inconsequential that I would still give the book 5 stars. Thanks for putting it together!
  
• Five Seconds After You Die on Dec. 23, 2012
  
  Considering what will happen to us 5 seconds after we die is something that all of us should ponder and take seriously. Our lives could be cut short any day. We do not know when we will draw our last breath. This consideration is the main point of Mr. Connell's book, which was originally a sermon he preached in August of 2011. This book is a transcript of that lesson, and as such it has a bit of a different flow to it than a normal book. His desire for sharing his concern that accidents happen all the time, and that young adults are not immune from these dangers come off the page regularly. He then relays the stories of various people he had seen in hospitals that were coming near to death's door, and their responses to it. After telling his stories, the events of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16:19-31 are brought into his lesson. These verses are the text for Mr. Connell's sermon, and he does a pretty good job of walking his audience through the text verse by verse. I appreciated the fact that the text was handled pretty directly. He makes very few unnecessary leaps in the verses he uses, and as such much of the work is spent going over each part of the verses. Sometimes this is done excessively to a fault. For example, it is mentioned more than once how poor Lazarus was in comparison to the wealth of the rich man. The main issue with this approach is that sometimes the message seems too much like just a retelling of what are found in our Bibles anyway. There is not much explanation of the text from other verses in the Bible, and when other verses are mentioned, the chapter and verse references are not mentioned. This is a shame because all teachers of the Bible need to be checked to make sure that what they preach is correct. This problem of lack of references is compounded by the sermon being a bit too heavy on personal stories where other scripture verses could have been used instead. This reliance on subjective stories and experiences also leads to more opportunities to teach error as well. After reflecting on the sermon and its organization, I think this weakened the message to significantly. It will cause me to remember the stories more, and the truth of God's word less. Thankfully, the point of the sermon was not lost. We don't like to think about it, but young adults still get in car accidents and have tragic ends to their lives. This fact is indeed important, and something that should be seriously considered.