This review appeared recently in the Evangelical Times. Raymond Blair is an RP minister.
10 Things that are special that you might not have known were special
Gary Brady Day One Publications 208 pages: £8
At first sight, the title of this book was rather puzzling. However, once you begin to dip into it, you soon realise that the author (retiring pastor of Childs Hill Baptist Church, London) is counteracting the growing resistance to the idea of anything being special in Christian life and experience. In fact, it affirms that the very opposite is actually the case - that everything about being a Christian is special. This is a timely and refreshing approach; it should impart to its readers an attitude of gratitude and joy for the special blessings that the Lord has granted to his people.
Of the ten things that are special. the author's focus on the Lord's Day is very helpful, in an age when many Christians are taught to regard it as no different from any other day of the week. His chapter on renval is also very thought-provoking.
The book is very suitable for devotional reflection on the part of the general reader. Occasionally, though. there is some complicated vocabulary that could have been avoided. Furthermore, this reviewer is not sure that the short appendices add much of value to the book and it might have been better to have omitted them; sometimes less is more!
Overall, however, we have in these pages plenty of soul-refreshing truth; it comes from the heart of a man who has great pastoral sensitivity to issues which puzzle and perplex the modern-day believer. Additionally. the book would be useful to preachers as a basis for an uplifting series of sermons about the special things that the God of all grace has provided for his people.
Raymond Blair, Dervock, County Antrim
