R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

First sentence from Introduction: Jesus came preaching the gospel of God--and he came telling stories. The most famous of Jesus' stories are the parables. They are not tame stories intended to deliver sentimental messages. They are not moralistic, like Aesop's famed fables. They are not fairy tales, such as the kind that abounded in medieval Europe. Nor are they stories intended for children, though children are often among the first to understand them. In the parables, Jesus was not concerned with mere self-improvement or trite moral messages. Not at all. God's own Son, God in human flesh, is who shared the parables with us. For this reason, Jesus' parables reveal nothing less than the kingdom of heaven and the power of almighty God expressed in both judgment and grace. They illuminate God's character and the hardness of sinful human hearts.

R. Albert Mohler's written a book about the parables of Jesus. He doesn't cover every single parable from all the gospels. He covers a variety of parables--of all lengths and types. Reading his insights and thoughts about the parables helped me appreciate them more. Parables--and the gospel in general--can feel too familiar to pack a punch. It is good, sometimes, to be reminded of how they felt to the original audiences--and to those hearing them for the first time. For better or worse, Christians can take so many things for granted that things that should be powerful, engaging, and sometimes shocking, just fall flat. Believers should pray for hearts to receive the gospel--not just once but every time the Word is read or preached.

Quotes:
The parables are like hand grenades. Jesus took them out and set them before his hearers. Then...he pulled the pin out. Listen carefully, because the parable explodes. If you miss the blast of the story, you have missed the power of the parable.
There is nowhere to hide when Jesus' parables come at us with their stabbing truth.
There is not one unnecessary word in any of the parables.
Only the quickening power of the Holy Spirit can open hearts that sin has made dull. Only God's work of regeneration can explain how ears now hear hear and eyes now see--and hearts now receive the gospel.
Moralism says, whether explicitly or implicitly, that God expects us to behave. But what expects of us is to believe in Christ.… (més)

Mohler’s subtitle grabbed my attention: The Lord’s Prayer as a manifesto for revolution. What a provocative phrase. We live in an age of revolution, or perhaps more accurately, an age of failed revolutions, he says. We long for them, knowing that the world is deeply flawed and broken beyond repair. There is a utopian streak promising to cure all that ails. But just as the revolutionary spirit is abroad, history reveals that they scarcely deliver.

In the Lord’s Prayer, there is no clearer call to revolution than in “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Mohler says this is the prayer that turns the world upside down. That it is “for men and women who want to see the kingdoms of this world give way to the kingdom of our Lord” (74). Each phrase contains a theology lesson in itself (170), and instructs us on what to pray.

Jesus teaches that prayer is not primarily an act of therapy, granting a sense of serenity or about lessening anxieties (though these things often result), but can disrupt our inner being as it reorients our hearts to God’s agenda. Prayer is about his glory. What we pray forces us to articulate assumptions about who God is and who we are. “If we don’t know God, our prayers will be impotent, facile, and devoid of life” (67). The Lord’s prayer disrupts our sense of individualism, emphasizing our corporate identity. Just as we wrongly present our petitions first, Jesus begins by identifying God’s character (43).

There is much more that could be said. It is a great book filled with great teaching about this all important prayer. Believers need to know what and how to pray and this book is really helpful toward that end.… (més)

I really enjoyed this book from Dr. Albert Mohler. He wrote it back in 2012, drawing upon his decades of wisdom in leading a major theological institution back from the brink of capsizing to liberalism. He's still leading that institution today through a challenging time. His message in this book: leadership cannot be divorced from passionate conviction. Without conviction, nothing of significance is passed on, because little matters more than management (ch. 2). In the chapters that follow, Mohler outlines practical skills and features of what leadership looks like with topics such as understanding worldviews, managing, writing, speaking, stewarding time, and leaving a legacy.… (més)