"Glorifying and Enjoying God" by Boekestein, Cruse, and Miller. A Review.

When I became a Christian I was part of a charismatic house church meeting on the Air Base where I was stationed in Turkey. A few months later I shifted over to the Campbellite Church of Christ. My early Christian years were spent in traditions that had unwritten codes of faith and conduct, and it was often like walking through a minefield. You never knew when you were about to cross the (doctrinal or ethical) line and set off an explosion. That's what makes the old teaching technique of catechizing so helpful to me. A catechism, as it was traditionally practiced, had a series of systematic questions that used short answers. This approach helped to pass on, in memorable ways, the Christian faith to future generations. You can see it in Roman Catholic history with the Baltimore Catechism, and in the Lutheran stream with Luther's Small Catechism. So, I have always enjoyed the Reformed version laid out in several catechisms, and especially the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Therefore, I was delighted when I say "Glorifying and Enjoying God," a 256-page hardback that breaks the Westminster Shorter Catechism into 52 devotions. 

The authors, William Boekestein, pastor of Immanuel Fellowship Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan; Jonathan Landry Cruse, author and pastor of Community Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Andrew J. Miller, Regional Home Missionary for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in central Pennsylvania, teamed up together to produce a wonderfully useful and devotional resource for Christ's church. The motivation for this handy volume is that better "theology, better knowledge of God, leads to deeper discipleship and richer doxology" (ix). And this authorial posture runs graciously and generously through the book.

"Glorifying and Enjoying God" is also set up with usefulness in mind. Compiled into 52 fairly short devotions (each section is about 3 to 3 1/2 pages long), the authors give families an easy tool to use in family worship for a year. It is also set-up for a Sunday School course on the catechism that will cover 52 weeks. And if, perchance, a pastor desires to resuscitate an old practice, he could use this volume as a resource to preach through the catechism for 52 Sunday evenings.

I used this manuscript in my own morning devotions recently and found it a delight. The authors keep the gospel of Christ at the heart of the whole work. For example, when moving into the section on the Ten Commandments, they rightly note, "We are told what to do only after we hear of a sovereign and saving God. He rescues us first, we obey second. His redemption is the catalyst for grateful obedience" (109). They also tackle several "hot-button" topics with grace and gratitude, but firmly and fairly. Such as when they address the seventh commandment about adultery, they note that "God's Word gives us clear guidance in a world confused even about gender and God's design of a man and woman as such" (139). They then move along to include discussions of modesty and chastity.

The book is bound in such a way as to be a "keeper" and useable - including having a ribbon to mark where one has got to in their readings. Pastors should grab a copy. Church education committees need to pore over it and consider including it in their curriculum. And most definitely families should take it up - even obtaining copies for each member of the family - and work through it. The new year is coming fast, and so families could make 2025 the year of the catechism. I highly recommend the book.

My thanks to Reformation Heritage Books for sending me a review copy at my request. My evaluation is all mine, freely made and freely given.