What is Love?: God’s Answer to Humanity’s Question

Kyle Borg | Crown & Covenant Publications, 2022, 135 pp., $10 | Reviewed by Maria Rockhill

Love is a hotly contested topic in our culture. From definition debates to Scripture taken out of context to gender ideology, confusion reigns supreme. Enter What is Love? by Kyle Borg. Borg is pastor of Winchester, Kan., RPC, and he unfolds this topic with clarity, thoughtfulness, and a biblical perspective.

He begins by addressing our societal perceptions of love as heavily influenced by the Romantic Era and constantly reinforced everywhere we look. We worship love, he contends, instead of worshiping God. We believe that love is God rather than God is love. The result of this disordered thinking is self-worship and, ultimately, self-destruction.

Next, we find help in how to think about what it means that God is love. We must understand that God doesn’t simply possess His attributes. He is them. The depth and magnitude of this truth defies our comprehension. In Borg’s words, “To put it simply, anyone who knows God through Jesus has found Him to be a God of love—infinite and boundless love.”

He then elaborates on love’s excellency—its priority lived out in loving and serving our neighbor. While loving God must always be our top priority, we demonstrate our love for God in practical ways by loving those around us.

Borg tackles the anticipated objections to love’s inherent rules, rejecting the temptation to equate love with autonomy: “God’s love doesn’t give us autonomy. It gives us rules and boundaries in which to live.” He cites the obvious limits God gives us in the Ten Commandments that confirm our love for both God and our fellow man.

He recounts how love was lost in man’s fall into sin, but was then restored with Christ’s sacrifice. He reminds us that we cannot truly love our neighbor unless God has first placed His love in our hearts. Borg describes the variety of relations in which we’re called to show love—a love that is patient, kind, and humble. Conversely, it’s a love that is not arrogant, rude, insistent on its own way, irritable, resentful, and maybe most importantly, a love that doesn’t rejoice in wrong but rejoices with the truth.

The book concludes by reminding us that true godly love encompasses all of life and remains perfectly portrayed in Calvary’s cross.

The author’s concise writing is liberally interspersed with practical examples and serves as a compelling reminder that the simplicity and beauty of God’s love stands as a true beacon of hope in a dark and dying world.

Thoughts on Public Prayer

Samuel Miller | Banner of Truth, 2022, 216 pp., $18 | Reviewed by Mark Sampson

I began to wonder a bit when my pastor handed me a book on prayer just as I was about to preside over worship, but I am so glad he bought this book for every member of our session.

First published in 1849 and republished in 2022, this small book is packed with excellent and helpful information. If you lead prayer in any context, this book belongs on your shelf, even after you have read it. All Christians would benefit from a few hours spent in this book.

Dr. Jonathan Master sets the tone in a helpful foreword. Immediately, the reader is launched into a history of prayer, which takes up topics such as liturgies, tongues, prayers to saints, and more. From here, theologian Samuel Miller provides a biblical counterbalance to the prayer practices of many denominations. Miller was instrumental in the founding of Princeton Theological Seminary and served as a professor there in the early 1800s.

The chapter “Frequent Faults of Public Prayer” contains helpful suggestions on frequently using favorite words, improper grammar, disorder, providing too much detail, preaching through prayer, and much more. One section on appropriateness in prayer tells the story of a pastor charged with praying for a newly ordained man. Launching into a tedious and lengthy prayer, the pastor lost track of the aim of the prayer, while the attending elders had their hands pressing uncomfortably on the head of the new candidate.

Another chapter is dedicated to the characteristics of good public prayer, such as the abundant use of God’s words in prayer (in contrast to our own words), orderliness in prayer, variety, and frequent reference to the spread of the gospel.

Miller notes that a “suitable prayer” in public varies greatly from private prayer. Public prayer is comprehensive in requests without descending into too much detail. When alone with God, however, we may “dwell with unlimited enlargement on whatever occupies our hearts.”

This pleasant little package concludes with a chapter on improving the leading of public prayer, founded upon a close and rich communion with God. “None can hope to attain excellence in the grace and gift of prayer in the public assembly unless they abound in the closet devotion and in holy communion with God in secret.” Attention is given to the spiritual character of those who lead prayer, particularly ministry students. Miller laments that so much time is dedicated to preaching without emphasizing personal and private prayer, producing an ill-equipped minister.

This book would make an excellent gift for the elders in your congregation.

Safeguards: Shielding Our Homes and Equipping Our Kids

Julie Lowe | New Growth Press, 2022, 198 pp., $14 | Reviewed by Diane Erney

Julie Lowe is a Christian parent of six children, a licensed professional counselor, a registered play therapist, and is on the faculty at Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF). She has many years of counseling experience.

In her book Safeguards, Lowe addresses how we, as parents, can equip our children to navigate the broken world we live in. In her introduction, she says, “I wrote this book to assist you in that task by applying biblical principles that result in common sense and practical strategies that will help safeguard your children so they can thrive.” She does just that.

Her book is first and foremost God-centered. She writes, “As a parent, my ultimate goal for my children is not to keep them safe (though it is a goal); rather, it is that my children would know the ways of God and walk in truth. Walking by faith and knowing good from evil will be their shield, and I believe that safety skills will be the fruit of teaching our children the ways of the Lord.”

Lowe covers a variety of topics from difficult ones to common, everyday ones. She then provides practical suggestions on how to prepare children of all ages to deal with a variety of situations they may come up against. Her approach is realistic, thoughtful, and compassionate, taking into consideration both age appropriateness of particular threats and responses and the differences in individual children.

This book would be helpful for every parent. Many parents are looking for ways to teach our children safety skills without frightening them. This book provides helpful suggestions for doing that. This book would also be excellent as a class for young parents to help prepare them to equip their children for life in this fallen world.