Two helpful little books recently published

I have recently read two new little books, one from EMW and one from Evangelical Press. They are quite different in style and content but both to be highly commended.

The first is My sunflower girl by Dyfan Williams. I bumped into  Dyfan a year or two back in the seminary on sabbatical. I guess he was working on this then. In 2003 Dyfan and Caroline's daughter Megan died rather suddenly. She was only 10. This book is a reflection on that fact  I guess it does not contain anything I did not know about the Bible's approach to Christian suffering but coming, as it does, from someone who really has suffered in a  way I never have it has a strength that I could never muster if I put pen to paper. There are also some helpful reflections on grief, such as its individuality. I particularly liked the illustration of the ball and three containers of different sizes and how the grief does not change in size but the ability to contain it does.

The second is Paul Helm's new little book on biblical revelation Just words? This is written in a simple philosphical style rather than than the usual well referenced biblical manner and so it comes over more Johannine than Pauline, if I can put it that way. That gives it a simple but profound  character that probably menas that only a second reading will bring out all the arguments it contains. You can get the favour from these two pargraphs from Dr Helm's blog

In this short book we are to consider one important aspect of the ordinariness with which God visits us. God has done things for us and he says things to us. Some of the things he does are to attract attention. But not like Presidents may command our attention, by their residence or their motorcade or the eloquence of their speech or the might of their army or the size of their entourage. In making himself known, God does not lose anything of his glory, but in what he does his glory shows through in surprising ways. And when all his redemptive work is done his glory will be manifest to all. Christ will come in great glory, and all his angels with him.

We learn that in God’s dealings with the human race, matter and manner are intertwined, vitally connected. In this study we are considering God’s book, what we call The Holy Bible. It is a book made up of other books, spanning hundreds of years. This shelf of books itself has a character that is at one with God’s coming down. For what God says in his book and how he says it are seamlessly woven together. The Bible tracks what has happened in human history when God came down.