Recommend Book

Recently I was sent a book and asked to do a book review, I thought I'd share it with you.

The book is 'Something Worth Living For, God, the World, Yourself and the Shorter Catechism' and there are more details at the bottom.

“You love Jesus, but who is Jesus and why do you love him? Maybe you would struggle to answer such a question, or maybe you grew up learning the shorter catechism and without a second thought could rhyme those truths that you learnt, of how Jesus is our Redeemer, Prophet, Priest and King. In his book ‘Something Worth Living For’, Randall Greenwald takes the Westminster Shorter Catechism, itself a helpful summary of what the scriptures teach, and explores the riches it contains. His hope is that through this book, we as the reader, might be moved to find what it means to enjoy a living and vital relationship with the living, gracious, and holy God of our salvation, knowing the beauty that is Reformed theology (p19).

In hoping to achieve this, Randal, rather than trying to update the language of the Shorter Catechism, instead makes helpful changes that keep the precision of the original by removing the archaic spellings; for example ‘hath’ becomes ‘has’, ‘continueth’ becomes ‘continues’ etc.. In addition, when the King James Version is used in the Ten Commandments he replaces it with the English Standard Version. The book itself is split into two sections ‘Something Worth Believing’ and ‘Life Worth Living’ that divide the sections of the catechism into chapters that examine the scriptural teaching contained within the catechism. Each question of the catechism is grouped and handled with remarkable clarity, spending no more than a few pages on each, in a way that warms the heart and leaves the reader wanting more. The pastoral way in which Randal writes along with the use of thoughtful and grounded illustrations help connect the deep truths of what is being taught to our experience, so that in each section the redemptive purposes of God are made clear.

Overall this is an accessible book that will help you to come to a greater understanding of those foundational biblical truths that it deals with. It will help you to understand more of who is Jesus and why you love him, it will help you understand the summary of scriptural teaching given in the Shorter Catechism and will help you to grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus. I only wish that this book was given to me when I was fifteen. If you are going to read one book this year make it this one, if you want to know what to get that friend who has questions about what you believe then this is the book, give this to the new convert and read it with them, if you are a parent wanting teach your child the beauty of what the scriptures teach then get this. No matter what stage you are at in life, how many books or how few you have read this book is for you. This will be used in my teaching ministry, and my hope is that I will get to use this before too long, sitting alongside someone over a coffee discussing the great truths that are contained in the Scriptures.

Five stars does not do this book justice, I would highly commend it to you, readable throughout, challenging, encouraging, and a great resource to have today.“

Alan Burke
Lissara Presbyterian Church ​

Title: Something Worth Living For
Author: Randall Greenwald
Publisher: Christian Focus Publications 
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
RRP: £8.99
Evangelical Bookshop: £6.75

You click on the cover it will take you to where you can buy it...