VOICE FROM THE HILLS
Costly grace / Crucial words
By Philip Greenslade . CWR. 204 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978-1-85345-469-1
In recent years I have got into the habit of highlighting sections in books I’m reading which I find particularly helpful for future use in the pulpit! If the quality of a book can be judged, therefore, by the amount of highlighting it has, then this book is near the top of the list!
In 200 pages the author sets himself the task of expounding the Sermon on the Mount and the words of Jesus on Calvary. The two sections are divided by a chapter on the Transfiguration and the book concludes with a study on the Great Commission.
Philip writes with a masterly grasp of the text and an understanding of Old Testament background which I found very illuminating. He scatters liberally on every page helpful quotations from other Christian writers — worth recording for future use! Of necessity, his treatment of the ‘Sermon’ is sometimes brief but never superficial and leaves the reader greatly challenged by the impact of what is, after all, Jesus’s manifesto for all his disciples! It is in the chapters dealing with Christ’s seven words from the cross that Philip’s eloquent writing comes into its own. His writing is easy but not simplistic, and readers will gain the most benefit taking time over each chapter, keeping a Bible close to hand and meditating prayerfully on what has been learned.
Many years ago I found reading Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones’s sermons on ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ a life-changing experience. Reading Philip’s book, though less time consuming, is sure to have a similar effect on its readers.
Peter Mawson,
co-pastor of Headley Park Church, Bristol
