Moore: "Abba Changes Everything"

Here's a great article on Adoption by Russell Moore.

The creepiest sound I have ever heard was nothing at all. My wife, Maria, and I stood in the hallway of an orphanage somewhere in the former Soviet Union, on the first of two trips required for our petition to adopt. Orphanage staff led us down a hallway to greet the two 1-year-olds we hoped would become our sons. The horror wasn't the squalor and the stench, although we at times stifled the urge to vomit and weep. The horror was the quiet of it all. The place was more silent than a funeral home by night.

I stopped and pulled on Maria's elbow. "Why is it so quiet? The place is filled with babies." Both of us compared the stillness with the buzz and punctuated squeals that came from our church nursery back home. Here, if we listened carefully enough, we could hear babies rocking themselves back and forth, the crib slats gently bumping against the walls. These children did not cry, because infants eventually learn to stop crying if no one ever responds to their calls for food, for comfort, for love. No one ever responded to these children. So they stopped.

The silence continued as we entered the boys' room. Little Sergei (now Timothy) smiled at us, dancing up and down while holding the side of his crib. Little Maxim (now Benjamin) stood straight at attention, regal and czar-like. But neither boy made a sound. We read them books filled with words they couldn't understand, about saying goodnight to the moon and cows jumping over the same. But there were no cries, no squeals, no groans. Every day we left at the appointed time in the same way we had entered: in silence.

On the last day of the trip, Maria and I arrived at the moment we had dreaded since the minute we received our adoption referral. We had to tell the boys goodbye, as by law we had to return to the United States and wait for the legal paperwork to be completed before returning to pick them up for good. After hugging and kissing them, we walked out into the quiet hallway as Maria shook with tears.

And that's when we heard the scream.

Little Maxim fell back in his crib and let out a guttural yell. It seemed he knew, maybe for the first time, that he would be heard. On some primal level, he knew he had a father and mother now. I will never forget how the hairs on my arms stood up as I heard the yell. I was struck, maybe for the first time, by the force of the Abba cry passages in the New Testament, ones I had memorized in Vacation Bible School. And I was surprised by how little I had gotten it until now.

It's well worth checking out & contemplating.

[HT:  Justin Taylor]

Grace Network of Canada

Here is a video of our Grace Network for church planting in Canada taken from a recent retreat.  In it, you will hear from some of my fellow church planters & pastors in Canada who are working on the front lines.  ~ 10 min.

Book Log: May 2010

45.  Beyond Smells & Bells:  The Wonder & Power of Christian Liturgy.  6 out of 10 stars.

I hate it when you have high expectations for a book and then it just crashes & burns.   That's how I felt with this book by the managing editor of Christianity Today.  I must admit, I fell for the title.  But, as my Grandpa used to say, that paper will hold still and let you put anything on it you want.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm a liturgical kind of guy--when it is done right & well.  But I was hoping for a book to be able to give people that gives a biblical rationale for the different parts of the worship service.  But I was disappointed.  This book was at best a feel good explanation that probably satisfies very surface questions of what does the liturgy does for me.  There were a couple of good quotes, such as...

"The liturgy lives out a story in a story-deprived world...By participating in the liturgy, we're doing more than 'attending a service.'  We are entering a story--a story in which we also play a role.  We are the people who have indeed been gathered.  We ar ethe people who share in Go's very life.  We are sent forth to proclaim God's story and to invite peole into the grand story." 

46.  When Helping Hurts:  How To Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...And Yourself.  8.5 stars out of 10. 

This book is an excellent resource that would serve people well on a number of levels:  short term & long term missions, mercy & social justice ministries, as well as Christians who desire to make a dent in the issues of poverty that surround us.

The contribution this book makes is in its understanding of the creation & fall grids through which we should view the issue of poverty.  Building on the work of Bryant Myers, Walking with the Poor, the authors concur:

"Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable.  Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings."  

Basically, the book rightfully contends that poverty is much more than the lack of economic resources.  Economic, social, political & religious systems are broken.  The Gospel address all of these, and seeks to heal humans in each of these realms.  The book addresses the god-complexes of the Western rich as well as the shame & feelings of inferiority that the poor carry with them.  The book is well worth the read for any Christian that wants to help and have their help really help. 

47.  Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne.  7 out of 10 stars.

I read this book to the family after meals and we had a good time following the adventures of the cool Mr. Phileas Fogg, his servant Passaportout, and their perils around the world.   I must say, even though I consider myself fairly educated, I don't think I have read a book in my whole adult life that contained so much new vocabulary for me.  I take comfort in the fact that my brilliant and educated wife didn't know what half these words meant.  It's hard to fathom how my son, Jason, read this book when he was 10.

At any rate, we had an enjoyable time, and even though we knew Mr. Phileas Fogg was going to make it around the world in 80 days, we were still surprised and delighted with how the story ended.  If you are going to read through this book, keep a dictionary close by!

Churchless Christianity?

Here's a great article by Kevin DeYoung called, "The Glory of Plodding."

He starts out,

It’s sexy among young people — my generation — to talk about ditching institutional religion and starting a revolution of real Christ-followers living in real community without the confines of church. Besides being unbiblical, such notions of churchless Christianity are unrealistic. It’s immaturity actually, like the newly engaged couple who think romance preserves the marriage, when the couple celebrating their golden anniversary know it’s the institution of marriage that preserves the romance. Without the God-given habit of corporate worship and the God-given mandate of corporate accountability, we will not prove faithful over the long haul.

Then he poses the question:

With all due respect, what’s harder: to be an idolized rock star who travels around the world touting good causes and chiding governments for their lack of foreign aid, or to be a line worker at GM with four kids and a mortgage, who tithes to his church, sings in the choir every week, serves on the school board, and supports a Christian relief agency and a few missionaries from his disposable income? 

 He concludes by contending,

Don’t give up on the church. The New Testament knows nothing of churchless Christianity. The invisible church is for invisible Christians. The visible church is for you and me.

The whole article is well worth reading & pondering.  And applying.

To Justin & Kathryn

Hey Justin & Kate,

Now that you all are parents, you have to get into the parenting mode.  Important decisions have to be made.  Discipline, diapers, &  of course, transportation. 

I know, I know:  Jaycie is small and your vehicle is sufficient for your needs, but you WILL give in one day and buy a mini-van.  It is a humbling day in your life, but it doesn't have to be humiliating.

Here's a little song dedication to help you readjust your self-image to your new role as parents.  Who says you have to be uncool?  

Just remember the "Swagger Wagon."



I can see you & Justin singing the song already.

Peace out,
John

I'm a proud Uncle!!!

Congrats to my kid-sister, Kathryn, & her husband Justin on the birth of Jaycie Grace.  She was born on Monday, 5-3.10, at 9:20pm.  She is 20.5 inches long & weighs 9 lbs 13 oz. 

"Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,

the fruit of the womb a reward."

~ Psalm 127:3

Reading List: April 2010

36. The Dante Club.  6 stars out of 10.

I really wanted to like this book, but it just didn't get there.  It even had an endorsement from Dan Brown which suckered me into reading it.

It's the story of a group of scholars--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J.T. Fields--who are translating Dante's Inferno into English for the first time.  There are powers that be at Harvard who don't want it to be published in English.  But when some murders appear that could only have arisen from an intimate knowledge of the sufferings in The Inferno, the scholars track down clues to prevent more deaths.  

It had lots of potential, but the book tried too hard.  It had a couple of more exciting parts to it, but for the most part, it just dragged.  It could have been about a third shorter & would have been a lot better. 

"We all revolve around God with larger or lesser orbits, I suppose, Wendell, sometimes one half of us is in the light, sometimes the other.  Some people always seem to be in the shadow....."

37.    1 Corinthians, by the Apostle Paul.

This is one of two letters that Paul wrote to an amazing gifted & amazingly twisted church in 1st century Corinth.

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

38.  "Revelation," by Flannery O'Connor.  10 out of 10 stars.

This is my favorite story by my favorite southern author.  I recently reread it for about the 4th or 5th time, and it simply gets better with every reading.  I told my wife that this might be the perfect short story.

Ruby Turpin gets a surprising "revelation" from a college girl who throws a book--aptly titled Human Development, at her in a doctor's waiting room.  The girl grew irate after listening to the jolly but self-righteous Mrs. Turpin talk about herself & condescendingly about others.

"Her gaze locked with Mrs. Turpin's.  'Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog,' she whispered."

The rest of the story deals with Mrs. Turpin's "revelation" & her anger at God.

" 'What do you send me a message like that for?' she said in a low fierce voice, barely above a whisper but with the force of a shout in its concentrated fury.  'How am I a hog and me both?  How am I saved and from hell too?'"

A-gruntin and a-rootin and a-groanin.

She unexpectedly gets one more revelation, and was graced to hear "the voices of souls climbing upward into the starry field and shouting hallelujah."

This is no cheesey Christian fiction stuff that is so prevalent today.  O'Connor was a Roman Catholic writer writing in the Christ-haunted protestant south back in the 1st half of the 20th century.  Good stuff.  Go get it & read it.

On a side note, one's reading pleasure from O'Connor will be enhanced if one reads along with it Baylor Professor Ralph Wood's excellent work, Flannery O'Connor & the Christ-haunted South which I am doing as I'm making my way through her works.

39.  "Parker's Back," by Flannery O'Connor.  9 out of 10 stars.

This is another favorite story of mine.  O.E. Parker meets the ugly (speaking more to the inside) Sarah Ruth.  They have nothing in common.  He's a regular ol' guy, lost as he can be both in relation to God & in life.  She's a stuck-up, self-righteous, Scripture quoting, people-hating Christian (I know, an oxymoron).  They end up married.  And nothing good can come of that.

When Parker was 14, he saw a man at a fair whose body was covered in tattooed from head to foot.  O'Connor narrates,

"Until he saw the man at the fair, it did not enter his head that there was anything out of the ordinary about the fact that he existed.  Even then it did not enter his head, but a peculiar unease settled in him."

One day, while driving a tractor, he runs into a tree & it bursts into flame.  Parker shouts, "God above!" as he falls out of the tractor.  His conversion experience sends him immediately on a search for a tattoo that will impress his wife.  He settles on getting a picture of Jesus tattooed on his back--the only place where he has any blank canvas left.

He goes home to show his wife, takes off his shirt & makes her look at it.

"Don't you know who it is?" he cried in anguish.

"No, who is it?" Sarah Ruth said.  It ain't anybody I know."

"It's him," Parker said.  

"Him who?"

"God!" Parker cried.

"God?  God don't look like that!"

I'll leave the rest to you, but there are so many layers to this story, from the significance to their names, to his longing for communion, to the emptiness of self-righteous religion.

Again, go & read it. 



40.  1, 2, 3, John & Jude.

Great *little* letters at the end of the Old Testament.  The letters of John were written by the Apostle who also wrote the Gospel bearing his name plus the book of Revelation.  John writes,

"Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life."

Jude, the brother of James writes this short letter urging, among other things, that we "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints."

41.  Total Church:  A Radical Reshaping around Gospel & Community, by Steve Timmons.  8 out of 10 stars.

This is a good book that connects gospel communities ("the church") with Jesus' mission in this world.  There is so much good stuff to say, but let me just point out on a chapter on evangelism in which he ties in the importance of the church.  Here's a diagram illustrating the connection:

Here's a couple of videos explaining more if you're interested.



42.  Job.  This ancient, classic text tells of a man named Job who wrestled with a lot of junk that happened to him.  He lost his family, his children, & most of his wealth.  The bulk of the book is a dialog with Job & his friends, who implicated him for suffering for the guilt of his sin.  Job was guilty of accusing God of wrong & being more worried about clearing his own name.  In the end, God blesses him more than ever.  In the meantime, Job (& we) learn much about the mysterious ways of God.

"For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another."

43.  Acts, by Luke.  Acts is the second volume of Luke's work on Christ, the first of which was the Gospel according to Luke in which he describes all that Jesus began to do and teach.  Acts is about the continuing work & teaching of Christ through His Church.  In this book, we see the birth of the early church, the preaching of Peter, and the conversion & ministry of Paul.  My favorite chapter is number 17 in which Paul speaks to the Epicurean & Stoic philosophers in Athens.  My favorite verse comes from ch. 20:

"But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."

44.  Unpacking Forgiveness, by Chris Brauns.  9 stars out of 10. 

An excellent book on forgiveness.  Brauns avoids the trap that says we should forgive others so that we will feel better.  Christians should always be ready to forgive, and to offer forgiveness, but we forgive others based on their confession of wrongdoing, just as God forgives us in Christ.  Filled with real-life stories & examples, this book is an excellent resource & guide.

Chester on getting to know your neighborhood...

Tim Chester is asking some good missional questions in order to understand your neighborhood:

Where?
Where are the missional spaces (places and activities where you meet people)?
Where do they experience community?
Are their existing social networks with which we can engage or do we need to find ways of creating community within a neighbourhood?
Where should you be to have missional opportunities?

When?
When are the missional moments?
What are the rhythms of your neighbourhood?
How do people organise their time?
What cultural experiences and celebration do people value? How might these be used as bridges to the gospel?
When should you be available to have missional opportunities?


What?
What are peoples’ fears, hopes and hurts?
What ‘gospel’ stories are told in the neighbourhood? What gives people identity (creation)? How do they account for what what’s wrong with the world (fall)? What’s the solution (redemption)? What are their hopes (consummation)?
What are the barriers beliefs or assumptions cause people to dismiss the gospel?
What sins will the gospel first confront and heal for these people?
In what ways are people self-righteous?
What is the good news for people in this neighbourhood?
What will church look like for people in this neighbourhood?

[source]

Trying patiently to go at His pace....

Good words from Piper...just what I needed today:

"Impatience is a form of unbelief.  It's what we begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God's timing or the goodness of God's guidance.  It springs up in our hearts when our plan is interrupted or shattered.  It may be prompted by a long wait in a checkout line or a sudden blow that knocks out half our dreams.  The opposite of impatience is not a glib denial of loss.  It's a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness to wait for God in the unplanned place of obedience--to wait in his place, and go at his pace."

Future Grace, 171.

I need to start my days like this...

From Pastor Scotty Smith's blog:

Most gracious Father, I dare not take on today's agenda without immersing my heart in the extraordinary good news and supply of the gospel.  For I already feel a busy cluttered-spirit rearing its ugly head inside of me... wrangling over everything I need to get done and everyone I need to see.  The control-meister in me is plotting orphan-like strategies just to make it through today.  In short, I really need the gospel today. 

Read the rest here.  

Addendum to "Am I Sick If I Like Stuff Like This?"

This is an addendum to my post, "Am I Sick If I Like Stuff Like This?"

I think Godawa is doing exactly what Flannery O'Connor does in her fiction.  She writes,

"The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience.... [Y]ou have to make your vision apparent by shock -- to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures."

[qtd. in Flannery O'Connor & the Christ-Haunted South]

Vintage Chesterton

I've been reading Ralph Wood's biography / analysis of Flannery O'Connor, called, Flannery O'Connor & the Christ-Haunted South, and I came across this quote from GK Chesterton.

"If there were no God, there would be no atheists."

Pretty true if you stop to think about it.
Vintage Chesterton.

[Btw, the book on O'Connor is excellent, and I would commend it and all things O'Connor to my friends of literature and for anyone who has come into contact with Christianity in the south in the West.]

Happy Easter

From NT Wright's Following Jesus:

Without Easter, Calvary was just another political execution of a failed Messiah.

Without Easter, the world is trapped between the shoulder shrug of the cynic, the fantasy of the escapist, and the tanks of the the tyrant.

Without Easter, there is no reason to suppose that good will triumph over evil, that love will win over hatred, that life will win over death.

But with Easter we have hope; because hope depends on love; and love has become human and has died, and is no alive for evermore, and holds the keys of Death and Hades. It is because of him that we know--we don't just hope, we know--that God will wipe away all tears from all eyes.

And in that knowledge we find ourselves to be Sunday people, called to live in a world of Fridays.

In that knowledge we know ourselves to be Easter people, called to minister to a world full of Calvary's. In that knowledge we find that the hand that dries our tears passes the cloth on to us, and bids us to follow him, to go to dry one another's tears.

The Lamb calls us to follow him wherever he goes; into the dark places of the world, the dark places of our hearts, the places where tears blot out the sunlight....and he bids us shine his morning light into the darkness, and share his ministry of wiping away the tears.

And as we worship, and adore, and follow the lamb, we join, already, in the song of Revelation 5.11-14, the song that one day the trees and the mountains and the whales and the waterfalls--the whole world, reborn on Easter morning--will sing with us:

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain...
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honour and glory and blessing!

To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour and glory and power
forever and ever, Amen."

It's just, "So long...until our paths cross again."

On Thursday we said Goodbye to our dear friends, the Doud's.  We already miss them.  It feels weird to be here without them.  We keep telling ourselves that they are just on vacation and will be back in a few weeks.

Click here to read my wife's blog post on saying goodbye.

We're going to miss the Doud's.  Shawn, you've been a great friend & brother to me, and you are one of a handful of people that I know are truly in my corner & have my back. 

Reading Log: March 2010

23.  The Cellist of Sarejevo, by Steven Galloway.  My wife recommended this fictional work by a Canadian author after she had read it in her book club.  This character driven novel is a good read as you get to know what it would have been like to have lived through in the terror of the siege of Sarejevo.  The author had a talent for painting pictures.  For example, you could just say, "A bomb exploded killing everyone within its radius." Or you could say,

"It screamed downward, splitting air and sky without effort.  A target expanded in size, brought into focus by time and velocity.  There was a moment before impact that was the last instant of things as they were.  Then the visible world exploded."

Pretty cool, eh?  Evidently the author liked it as well b/c he repeated it two more times in the first chapter.

I also like this line:

"It is impossible to tell which version of a lie is the truth."

I give it 7.5 stars out of 10.  A good read, but I'll probably never pick it up again.



24.  James.  This book written by the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ is packed full of practical directives for a faithful life.  I've taught through this book multiple times from large groups to small groups so I'm very familiar with it.  While in Peru, one of our former seminary professors, Dr. Knox Chamblin, came and did a spiritual life conference for us and did sort of a biblical theology of James and helped me see even more gold that I was blind to previously.  Dig in & enjoy.  Hear & do.

"Be doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving yourselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.  For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.  But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." 

25.  1 & 2 Peter.  These two letters written by the Apostle Peter & member of Jesus' inner circle of friends are pure gold.  I had the privilege of teaching through 1 Peter over the course of a year with the students at Texas A&M.  Really, you could dive in anywhere and marinate in soul-edifying & stretching truths.

• "...you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not withh perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1, ch. 1:18-19).
• "For Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" (1, ch. 3:18).
• "But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2, ch. 3:13).

27.  Just Walk Across the Room:  Simple Steps Pointing People to Faith, by Bill Hybels.  7 out of 10 stars.  This is a book by the pastor of Willow Creek Church in which he does a good job of trying to get ordinary Christians to initiate spiritual conversations with ordinary people.  Much of what he teaches here is based on his opening premise that Jesus left his comfort zone to reach us and we should do the same.

"...even the most 'Christlike' Christians on the planet will be totally ineffective unless they get near people who are living far from God....If you're attempting to do the work of evangelism and your life is stuffed with believers, you'll find yourself out of work pretty quickly."  

He develops the approach of "Living in 3D":

When effective walk-across-the-room people interact with others in their world, they 

• Develop friendships--by engaging in the lives of people around them;
• Discover stories--before sharing their own story and God's redemptive story
• Discern steps--by following the Holy Spirit's direction. 

28.  Proverbs.  Proverbs is one of the wisdom books of the Old Testament.  Every time I read through this book, I realize how unwise I am and how much more time I need to soak in its wisdom.

• "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction" (1:7). 
• "Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him." (30:5)

29.  Undefiled:  Redemption from Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships, by Harry Schaumburg.  8 stars out of 10.

Dr. Schaumburg pioneered writing on this topic from a Christian perspective with his work, False Intimacy.  This follow up book focused on where the problem needs to be addressed:  the heart.  While not mentioning any books by name, he took jabs at approaches that amount to behavior (& thus 'sin') management and don't deal with the core of the problem.

"We can't manage lust simply by diverting the eyes....We must understand the proper cause and effect for real change.  Start at the beginning and don't put the proverbial cart before the horse:  Sin in our lives causes the enslavement of what is popularly called a sexual addiction.  In other words, disease or sexual addiction does not cause lust, adultery, or any form of sexual immorality.  You and I sin because we are sinners.  A sexual sinner is dealing with the bondage that comes from what's inside--the sinful nature.  The will is in bondage to sin.  Therefore, we inevitably and naturally sin."

Because Schaumburg starts in the right place, he can apply the only remedy for change:  The Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This book was good and I'll undoubtedly refer back to it, but I think the gold standard book, the one I don't need to write b/c it has already been written, is Joshua Harris' Not Even A Hint (whose title has been unfortunately changed to Sex is not the Problem (Lust is).)

30.  The Praying Life:  Connecting with God in a Distracting World, by Paul Miller.  9.5 stars out of 10.

This is by far the most helpful book on prayer out there.  Just get it and read it.  I am already planning on reading this again, and I'm giving copies away to people.   One of my friends said that this was not only the best book on prayer that he had read, but it was the best book on the Christian life that he has read.

Drawing from the Scriptures and what God has taught him, Paul Miller calls us to enter into a praying life as a child relates to & trusts in his father.  Almost every page has a memorable quote.  Most helpful to me were his chapters on "Understanding Cynicism" and "Following Jesus out of Cynicism."

"Cynicism is the air we breathe, and it is suffocating our hearts.  Unless we become disciples of Jesus, this present evil age will deaden and then destroy our prayer lives, not to mention our souls."

"Both the child and the cynic walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  The cynic focuses on the darkness; the child focuses on the Shepherd."

One more quote:

"Sometimes when we say 'God is silent,' what's really going on is that he hasn't told the story the way we wanted it told.  He will be silent when we want him to fill in the blanks of the story we are creating.  But with his own stories, the ones we live in, he is seldom silent."

Trust me.  You need this book.  Make it your companion in life.

31.  Organic Outreach for Ordinary People:  Sharing Good News Naturally, by Kevin Harney. 9 stars out of 10.  This is a great book for people who are wanting to be more intentional about reaching out to others with the Gospel.  We are going to use this book with our launch team for our new church plant here in Calgary.

"Evangelism is not a spectator sport.  We are all called to get into the game.  God invites every follower of Jesus to get off the sidelines and onto the field."

Stuffed with good advice, this book teaches how to raise one's temperature for outreach, to pray for people, to live incarnationally among those who do not yet know Christ, and to engage in spiritual conversations.

He begins the book by stating that everyone is engaging in evangelism, that is, they are telling family & friends things they are excited about.  This really sunk in for me in a new way at a recent dinner party with friends and people were talking about favorite television shows, movies, & books that they liked, why they liked them, and were commending them to others.  This is essentially what Christians are called to do with others.  And this book is a good tool to help us do that.  Highly recommended.


32.  1 Corinthians, by the Apostle Paul.  Great book in the New Testament that was Paul's letter to a very messed up, struggling first century group of Christians living in Corinth.  Paul addresses all sorts of issues, from divisiveness to immorality to abuse of the Lord's Supper.

"For the Word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1:18).

33.  Joshua.  This OT book picks up with the death of Moses having occurred and his successor Joshua picking up the mantle.  Joshua leads the Israelites into Canaan to take possession of the Promised Land.

"Thus, the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers....Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass" (24.43, 45)

34.  The Reason for God:  Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Tim Keller.  9.5 stars out of 10.  I finally made it through this book, and I was delighted with it.  This is an excellent work by Pastor Tim Keller giving both a defense of belief in Christianity and a challenge for skeptics to stop doubting everything but their skepticism.  Keller rightly shows how every doubt rests on another (blindly accepted) belief.

"All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they seem to be, are really a set of alternative beliefs."

Even a statement like, "I feel no need of God in my life," is an alternative belief system. "The speaker is betting his or her life that no God exists who would hold you accountable for your beliefs and behavior if you didn't feel the need for him."

Keller address a number of common defeater beliefs, that is, beliefs that our culture holds that automatically rules out any consideration of Christianity.   This book is written fairly, and I'd have no problem handing this book to any skeptic or any person who wants to think deeply on these issues. 



35.  Hebrews.  This NT book is simply about the Superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ over every other option.  It was written to Hebrew Christians living in Rome who were tempted to ditch the faith, no doubt in light of rising and heated persecution.  This book is a call to persevere b/c, as Peter says elsewhere, Jesus has the words of eternal life.  Where else can we go?

Singin' da blues...

Singing the blues these days?  Check out a few videos here....

The first is from a guy named Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945), whom my friend Barrett F turned me onto.  Blind Willie was a blind preacher & musician who lived in Hearne, TX, just outside of Aggieland (he was, I'm sure, an Aggie!).  Here is a video (recreated obviously but the music is original), called "Trouble Soon Be Over":



The second is a cover by Canadian Bruce Cockburn of another song by Blind Willie called "What is the Soul of a Man?".



Blind Willie is a great blues musician.  Cockburn makes me want to be able to play the blues!  Just for the record, I'm almost pretty much convinced that the blues are the modern day equivalent of lament psalms in the OT.  Maybe we could put a few of them to the blues?

Here's a few more songs on the WWW of Blind Willie.

Is God Silent?

I've been reading Paul Miller's excellent book, A Praying Life:  Connecting with God in a Distracting World, which is stuffed with great insights & quotes.  Here's just one of them....

"Sometimes when we say 'God is silent,' what's really going on is that he hasn't told the story the way we wanted it told.  He will be silent when we want him to fill in the blanks of the story we are creating.  But with his own stories, the ones we live in, he is seldom silent."  

I'm almost finished with this book (& give it top scores), but this book is not finished with me. A friend of mine said that this is not simply the best book on prayer out there, but one of the best books on the Christian life. I have to concur.

March Madness

Okay, this is how it's going down...

Jason's picks:  ...click to enlarge

Jason's Elite Eight

Kentucky, Marquette, Texas A&M (whoop!), Villanova, Kansas, Georgetown, Syracuse, & Kansas St.

Jason's Final Four:

Kansas, Kansas State, Villanova, Kentucky

Jason's Championship Game:

Kansas vs. Kentucky

Jason's National Champion:  

Kentucky!

My picks:   click to enlarge

My Elite Eight:

Kentucky, West Virginia, Duke, Baylor, Kansas, Georgetown, Syracuse, & K-State

My Final Four:

Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, Duke

My Championship Game:

Kansas vs. Duke

My National Champion:

Kansas

Let the games begin!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Click here to learn more.

Doud on "An Inconvenient Faith"

My friend, Shawn, has a great post on an 'inconvenient faith.'

"Christianity, properly understood and practiced, is an inconvenient faith. It puts a squeeze on life as it’s currently practiced in North America. In talking with people about the Christian lifestyle employed in Acts chapter 2 of the New Testament the question is: Is this minimum church or maximum church?....

"...To steal a line of thought from former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin: You can’t have the Church Jesus wants with the participation levels that our cultural Christianity allows. Something’s gotta give."

 Read the whole thing here.