I feel like I cheated, because I was abandoned by my father at about the same age as Donald was when his dad took off. As Donald Miller waxes eloquently in Father Fiction he often reflects ideas that I’ve learned through living in the pain, but then he sometimes gets me right between the eyes with an insight. He’s particularly strong at revealing his “fatherless” thoughts and comparing them to how others act; he openly shares his weaknesses, explaining them but not excusing them.

When he first begins to grasp God as a father through observing a child’s temper tantrum and how a father waits patiently knowing he has a better idea of what is good for his daughter though she writhes on the floor crying out that she is actually the one who is right. How often must God the Father patiently observe us as we throw tantrums about jobs, relationships or circumstance. I don’t know if I can ever be disgruntled again without picturing myself as a child throwing myself on the floor, kicking and screaming while my wise Father patiently waits for me to “get it”.

Kelly Ryan Dolan narrates this book so well that I presumed it was narrated by the author and the author had taken acting and speech lessons. As funny and irreverent in expression as the author is in prose, they’re a perfect match.

I give Father Fiction by Donald Miller 5 out of 5 stars.

Christian Audio provided Father Fiction (audio book) free of charge to me in exchange for writing this review as part of the Christian Audio Reviewers Program.

I was hesitant to listen to the audio book In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham. I didn’t know anything about the story of Gracia and Martin Burnham and I couldn’t imagine who might kidnap missionaries in the Philippines. I’m not generally a big fan of autobiographical prose.

However, Gracia tells the story of the capture of her husband and herself by Muslim radicals with abandon, holding back nothing including details that might put the couple in an unfavorable light by some. The story rings of candor and desperation, beautifully narrated by Pam Ward, other than her feigned male voice.

The story of the one-year captivity of this missionary family will keep you glued to your iPod as the Burnhams dodge in and out of firefight after firefight while enduring near starvation and living in constant fear of their violent and sadistic abductors who force female captives into Muslim marriages and lessons on the Koran while randomly executing males.

It’s a story of triumph against impossible odds and dealing with the rawest side of human existence. I give In the Presence of My Enemies 4 out of 5 stars.

This audio book was provided free of charge by Christian Audio through their Reviewers‘ program in exchange for this review. You can also follow Christian Audio on Twitter.

My first seminary class at Dallas Theological Seminary was Hermeneutics with Dr. Howard Hendricks. My first homework assignment in this class was to make 100 observations on Matthew 28:18-20, the Great Commission. I jumped into this new world with both feet and cranked out 101 — I was quite proud. Imagine my astonishment with our second assignment was to do make another 100 observations on the same passage. By the time that was done I was a changed man. I never even looked at a leaf the same way again.

John Piper does this on the topic of Jesus’ death in Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die. I chose the audio book narrated by Robertson Dean.  Dean is a major improvement over Grover Gardner, the pompous narrator I suffered through while listening to Desiring God by Piper. His steady rendition makes for easy listening.

I treated this book as devotional and it works as that, each of the 50 reasons stands on its own. I would listen to 3-4 in a sitting. It doesn’t entirely work for this because a good bit of the reasons are quite technical and have only shades of meaning that are different than the others. It’s better taken en toto as a lung-expanding deep sea dive to rekindle appreciation of why Jesus did what He did.

These were my favorites, I’m still trying to get my arms around them:

24 To Give Us Confident Access to the Holiest Place
25 To Become for Us the Place Where We Meet God
26 To Bring the Old Testament Priesthood to an End and Become the Eternal High Priest
27 To Become a Sympathetic and Helpful Priest

I  give Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die 4 out of 5 stars. Special thanks to Christian Audio for the gratis copy provided through their reviewers program.