A Burning Heart by Andy Hawthorne 

A fine, hard-hitting series of messages on 1 Corinthians from the founder of the Message Trust

A Burning Heart. Wake up, Grow up, Build up
By Andy Hawthorne
The Message Trust
ISBN 978-1-9163489-5-0
Reviewer: Pieter Lalleman

 
This book contains a series of messages on 1 Corinthians, which were originally delivered in Manchester. In this city Andy Hawthorne OBE leads The Message, which is now a worldwide missionary movement.  The work of The Message is also regularly mentioned in the book. Hawthorne himself has an entry on Wikipedia.
 
In total Paul’s letter is divided into some 25 sections. Hawthorne takes one or two thoughts from each section and applies these to us in a fresh and direct way. Each section ends with a prayer. 

The hard-hitting directness of this book is its strength; it has inspired me to use 1 Corinthians as the basis for a sermon series and I can commend it to colleagues, provided they also use a more technical commentary.
 
The oral origin of the text is still visible in some sloppy language and the proofreading could have been better. To my mind the comments on chapters 14 and 15 are a bit far from what Paul wrote. Much space in the book is taken by the printed text of 1 Corinthians in the NIV and by repetition of the same photo, but the remaining space is filled with fine stuff.  Hawthorne has a good knowledge of the situation in Corinth and in the church Paul had planted there.
 
 

The Revd Dr Pieter J. Lalleman is the minister of Knaphill Baptist Church