Feb 2025 Reads - Ryle on Prayer, Biblical Counseling Primer, and How to Stop Sinning

 Here are my February reads. Lighter month. 

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Do You Pray? by J.C. Ryle
The Pastor and Counseling by Jeremy Pierre and Deepak Reju
The Expulsive Power of a New Affection by Thomas Chalmers

Do You Pray? by J.C. Ryle

This brief book probes into your heart and mind regarding the subject of prayer, and each chapter ends with the penetrating question "Do you pray? Ryle's pastoral heart shines through as he seeks to instill within the reader a burning desire to spend regular time in prayer. 

This book is short enough to read in one sitting, but has enough to chew on that it would be worth slowing down and mediating on the sections. 

The question "do you pray?" is about the habits of personal and private prayer. I'm sure there are many who pray with others, who bow their heads before meals, or even lead prayer at worship gatherings. The question that Ryle wants to know is if you pray when no one else is there to see or hear you pray except the Lord Himself. Ryle wants you to pray because it is through prayer that we express our request for salvation to the Lord (ch. 1), prayer is one of the first and clearest evidences of genuine conversation (ch. 2), prayer is a powerful means of our growth in holiness (ch. 5), prayer is one of our greatest defenses against backsliding (ch. 6), and prayer is the best recipe for happiness and contentment (ch. 7). This is why he concludes every chapter by asking "Do you pray?" Ryle has given us a stirring and timeless reminder of the need and value of prayer. 

Do you pray? 

The Pastor and Biblical Counseling by Jeremy Pierre and Deepak Reju

In this book we have a brief primer on how pastors can embrace biblical counseling as part of their calling as shepherds. 

This is a primer and should be viewed as such. Those who are already heavily invested in Biblical Counseling will find this book to be a helpful refresher of the basics, but probably not much more. This is a book designed for pastors who don't know where to start when it comes to biblical counseling; it provides the basics in such a way that a pastor can sit back after reading it and say "I could do that". It lays out the basics for why pastors should do counseling, the foundational goals and practices, the general flow of a counseling section, has helpful appendices, and gives some helpful encouragements along the way. 

Something I think the book balances well is the commitment to the sufficiency of Scriptures and the concept of when it is best to refer someone to another. The authors make it clear that they believe that everything we need for life and godliness is found in the pages of Scripture and we should never waver from that. But they also tactfully discuss when to recognize that you as an individual are out of your depth in a counseling situation and when to refer a counselee to someone else more skilled in that area. I think there is a belief with some pastors that if they ever refer a counselee to someone else, that means they are compromising on the sufficiency of Scripture. That might be true, depending on the circumstances, but it's not necessarily a compromise in itself and sometimes it is the wisest choice and best for the person we are trying to help. The simple wisdom provided by these authors for navigating that discussion was helpful.

I do wish that the book would have provided information on where to go for additional resources and equipping, because even though this book provides the basics, life doesn't stay in the basics. Most situations are more complicated and the pastor who is stirred by this to embrace counseling will likely benefit from additional resources or training.

Finally, the book didn't really get into any of the discussions/debates that exist in the counseling world about the differences between "biblical" and "Christian" counseling, the concepts of integration, etc. As a primer, it seems those concepts ought to have been at least introduced and then recommendations given for additional reading and study on the subjects. There is a hint at the conversation in Appendix B, which provides a definition of "Christian Counseling" but in so doing the authors seem to conflate biblical and Christian counseling without acknowledging that these are terms within the "industry", so to speak, that refer to certain philosophical presuppositions. The definition they provide by what they mean by "Christian counseling" is a good one, but one that ignores the broader discussion of the labels that have come to be embraced by the counseling world.

The Expulsive Power of a New Affection by Thomas Chalmers

This is part of crossway's "short classics" series. These are mostly excerpts or sermons from pastors and theologians from long ago. This particular volume is a lecture given by Thomas Chalmers, a Scottish minister from the early 1800s.

The book contains a forward by John Piper who actually summarizes the message of the book in way that almost makes reading the actual book unnecessary. That sounds like a pretty condemning statement of Chalmers, and I don't mean it to be. Chalmer's work was excellent, and there are several gems throughout his work. But for the base-level understanding of the main point, Piper's illustration was so simple and direct that I felt like I gained the primary benefit of the book from it. Nevertheless, there are good reasons to read the whole thing!

Chalmer's work is a explanation of the concept contained in the title: the expulsive power of a new affection. He springboards off of 1 John 2:15 "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." and explains that the best way to ensure that you do not love the world is to fill your heart with the love of God. People can talk all day long about the evils of the world, the perils contained therein, and all sorts of details that should render the world unattractive to us, but none of that is sufficient to cause us to stop loving the world. What we need is a new love--a new affection. Truly, the best way to leave the love of the world is to pursue the love of God. This is a vital message for struggling believers. When the Lord fills our hearts, we will find that the the love of sin is naturally expelled. 

This brief volume also contains a short biographical sketch which is helpful for people like me who don't know much about Chalmers. This book is also so small that I thought I was going to finish it in one sitting. However, Chalmer's vocabulary and writing style, reflective of his era (1780-1847), was such that it forced me to slow down and split the reading into two sittings. There are some unfamiliar words that are given footnotes to define the meaning, and there were other words left undefined that I wasn't entirely sure of their meaning and had to pause to look them up. As such, it was a little bit of a labor to read. That should not be taken as a condemnation of the work, as the labor is worth it for the mediation it provides.