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Exploring Ezra: the secret of spiritual successEzra the preacherEXPLORING EZRA This is more than a commentary on Ezra. It is a book full of practical and contemporary application. There are 20 chapters followed by a helpful select bibliography. The introduction is useful and sets the context of Ezra and each chapter concludes with a series of questions to provoke discussion of the relevant issues that the work addresses. The messages of the book will be of considerable help to those who preach and to leaders of study groups. Frequently the needs of today are highlighted and are dealt with in a clear and pastoral way. I was particularly impressed by the sound sense of chapter 13 (a brief excursion into Nehemiah 8). There the author focuses on the primacy of preaching in the church, drawing attention to reverence for the Word, the view from pulpit to pew, preaching helping to ask the right questions and the desire of so many today to be inoffensive, thus diminishing the impact of preaching. The issues he deals with touch some very sensitive areas at a time when preaching has become for some a token of regress instead of a sign of progress. David J Ellis, © Evangelicals Now - November 2004 |