Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness

Let this be your next read. It's rockin' my world.

Here's a teaser:

"Let us consider how our lack of love, indifference to the needs and feelings of others, even sharp comments and hasty judgments that are often excused as being honest and straightforward, are thwarting the effect of the influence of the Holy Spirit on others. Manifestations of temper and touchiness and irritation, feelings of bitterness and estrangement, have their root in nothing but pride."

Uganda Journal Entry #5

July 4

Last leg of the journey home. Waiting at the gate here in DC to fly into Charlotte. I don't know how it will be for me coming back to life in America--particularly the church in America. It's frustrating to see the lukewarmness of the American church, and the increasing pressure and stifling of conservative values by the left. But it's so much more than politics. It's a heart issue. It's a spiritual problem--just like Uganda has corruption running through every level of government, America is no better. Because it's a spiritual battle. We need revival.

I agree with much of what Shane Claiborne argues for, but I think he's slightly off-focus. (In Irresistible Revolution Claiborne recounts some of his stories of reaching the homeless and hurting of Philadelphia, Calcutta and Baghdad. I poured over it during my time in Uganda and gleaned much from it, especially his concern for and practical ministry to the poor, which was perfect for my context in Uganda. However, much of his focus leans toward social-Gospel and social justice with a frustrating absence of the proclaimed, spoken Word of the Gospel. In other words, if we meet physical needs but give the person no hope of eternity with Christ, we've done a disservice--the United Way can do that. But ministers of the Gospel must do more than meet only physical needs. Not that Claiborne is only meeting physical needs, I just think he leans that direction more. The pendulum should be kept in the middle.) The Gospel must always be the main thing. When the Gospel is kept the center and proclaimed with boldness, the rest takes care of itself, I believe. The socio-political realm of regeneration with take place, but not until we deal with sin. Not until we preach the Gospel of repentance. This is the hope of every nation. Not United Way programs. Not anti-war protests. Not even abortion protests. Because when the Gospel truly takes effect, these things follow.

In the First Great Awakening, Edwards, Whitefield and others did not roll up into a town and shut down the bars and pubs. No, they preached the Gospel, the bar owners and patrons gave their lives to Christ, and the bars shut down on their own. This is the power of the Gospel in a society. The human heart is always the first and primary target.

God, help me to always keep that perspective and not get side-tracked. Help me to see that a society is made up of people, of individuals, faces, people with families, with hopes and dreams. People for whom You gave Your life and whom You know intimately. Every hair on their head You count. Every tear from their eyes You collect in Your bottle.

Reading Habits: Odd or Normal?

I'm in the middle of about six books right now. I don't know why I do this to myself. It just happens. I guess I just get excited, jump the gun and start one before I can finish another. But maybe it's because they each have their own particular context in which they fit more appropriately than another. So, I thought I'd share briefly the method behind my madness and let you into my world just a little bit--if for no other reason than to help justify in my mind why the heck I do this. Perhaps it will help me make some sense of my own peculiarities regarding reading. Or perhaps not.

Category 1: The bathroom reading category--usually a lighter read on spiritual growth or a novel or something like that--not necessarily excerpts from The Church Fathers, systematic theology or anything that requires a long sit-down. Right now this would include Beyond All Measure by my friend Wes McMurray and Praying Backwards by Bryan Chapell.

Category 2: The airplane/once-a-year visit to the mall/have-a-ton-of-time-to-kill category--usually something a little deeper that requires slower reading on my part in order to grasp the content (not a good place for an "Amen.") Right now this includes: Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ronald Sider and The Reason for God by Tim Keller.

Category 3: I'll simply deem the "diarrhea category". This is the type of reading that never really concludes. More often than not this includes books that make great reference materials. A continuous perusing of several staple books that I keep coming back to over and over again. I read a bit. Put it down for a couple of weeks. Pick it back up. Put it down again. And so on. Right now this includes: Commentaries and smaller works within larger works, God Songs by Paul Baloche, A Godward Life by John Piper, Beyond by Greg Laurie, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, books on marriage and parenting and much more.

If I had a point here, I guess it would be in the form of this question:

Is this normal? Just wondering.

Praying Specifically

One of the many books I'm reading right now (look for a post tomorrow regarding this multiple-books-at-once phenomena) is called Praying Backwards by Bryan Chapell. In this book, Chapell argues that rarely do we ever consider the four little words that we tack on to the end of our prayers--"In Jesus' Name, Amen." Instead, he says that if we would begin our prayers with the consideration and understanding that we're invoking the name of Christ and His blessing upon everything that we're about to pray, we would probably pray a little differently. It has definitely helped to bring some clarity and reform to my prayers lately.

One thing I read this morning struck me in a fresh way. Regarding the idea of praying specifically rather than generally, Chapell sites the example of George Mueller, the 19th-century missionary and orphanage founder. During his lifetime, "Mueller recorded over fifty thousand answers to specific prayers. He said that approximately ten thousand of the answers came on the day the prayers were offered" (p. 107). I was convicted regarding my own prayer life in that far too often my prayers are general and ambiguous. In fact, they are often so airy that I would be hard-pressed to pinpoint a time and place in which God came and answered according to His will in cooperation with my earnest request. Not only does this type of praying disqualify one from a life of sincere and childlike faith in the God who longs to give His children His best for them, but it also short circuits the process of spiritual maturation and growth that accompanies times of sincere dependence and reliance upon God to come through on your behalf.

So, I began thinking this morning, "Why shouldn't I pray audaciously? Why shouldn't I pray for the seemingly finite things? Why shouldn't I pray for both the little things and the big things? Do I think that I'll bother God with the small requests? Do I think God is too small or doesn't care enough to answer the large requests? Do I fear that I'll begin to think of God only as a vending machine who bends at my every whim? Or perhaps the vending machine idea of God is merely an excuse for my lack of faith?" Perhaps there's a balance to be discovered.

Chapell continues, "By asking in Jesus' name, Mueller expected God to answer as heaven knew was best" (p. 107). I think that's part of the balance--knowing that the Holy Spirit interprets our prayers to the Father through the intercession of the Son in such a way that God will answer as He knows is best. This illiminates the fear of praying for what may not be God's will. We pray in His name, with His authority, knowing that He will answer in His way, not ours. And this fact alone should encourage us to pray more earnestly and more specifically, not the opposite.

Beyond All Measure

My awesome friend, Wes McMurray just wrote a book called Beyond All Measure. And without even having read it, I can tell you that you're going to want to add this one to your library. I'm stoked to read it. Wes is an extremely gifted communicator and teacher of God's Word, and without question has written a masterpiece of a book for the Christian life.

Wes and I have been friends since our days at Southeastern Seminary where we met in a small ethics class where he and I, both clad with tight band t's, chucks, and Dickie's book satchels, stood out like sore thumbs among a room full of Baptist Polo pretty-boys. Thus began our back-row friendship that has now blossomed into a full-on ministry partnership. Just two months ago, we teamed up to lead a winter retreat at The Master's Inn in Altavista, VA, where Wes single-handedly stunned a room full of high school and middle school students with his uncanny ability to capture and hold their attention with random humor, incredible biblical insight and exposition, and, lest we forget, his insanely-impressive stupid human tricks.

Wes will be having a book signing on April 18 at the Joyful Noise on Franklin Blvd. in Gastonia, NC. You won't be sorry for carving out time that day to attend, buy a copy of his book to help support their amazing family of four, and get your copy signed. I love supporting local artists and authors, especially ones who have devoted their lives to Jesus Christ and to proclaiming the Gospel. Wes is that guy.

Holy Spirit Power

I just finished a classic work by Charles Spurgeon--a series of sermons on the work, the ministry and the person of the Holy Spirit compiled together to make up Holy Spirit Power.  It's a great read.  I love reading Spurgeon's material.  His writing and preaching style of the mid-1800s was not as polished and charasmatic as many of his predecessors, but his content was next to none, rivaling even Puritan scholars.  Holy Spirit Power is full of little bite-size takeaways that I know I'll be using in future talks and teaching sessions.  Here are a few that resonated with me:

• "God does not give a fresh revelation, but He rivets the old one ... He brings a fresh lamp to manifest the treasures hidden in Scripture ... There is enough in the Bible for you to live on forever." (p. 21)
  
• "There is not a minister living who can win a man's heart by himself. He can win his ears and make them listen, and he can win his eyes and fix them upon him. He can win his attention, but the heart is very slippery." (p. 42)
• "The grassiest paths and the most bewitching are the farthest away from right. The most enticing are those which are garnished with improper truths." (p. 66)
• "I am persuaded that wherever there is a real work of grace in any soul, it begins with a pulling down. The Holy Ghost does not build on the old foundation." (p. 91)
• " 'The words (of Scripture) are not inspired,' some say. If we have no inspiration in the words, we have got an intangible inspiration that oozes away between our fingers and leaves nothing behind." (p. 152)
• "God's truth is safe, and we must be perfectly willing to be forgotten, derided, slandered, or anything else that men please. The cause is safe, and the King is on the throne. Hallelujah! Blessed be His name!" (p. 168)

That last bullet point is how Spurgeon concludes the book.  And that one statement, "we must be perfectly willing to be forgotten, derided and slandered," hit me like a ton of bricks.  He's exactly right.  But that's not a statement that tickles too many ears.  That's not a statement that we want to hear, especially in this present age--the age of pride and Twitter.  (And I'm preaching to myself here)  In an effort to feel like our lives matter to people, we put it all out there, whether it's through our Facebook status, our blog, or whatever new pride-inducing social networking tool that comes along.  And in a desperate attempt to keep our name alive, we participate in this never-ending game--a game we play to help people remember who we are--a game we play to make us feel important--a game we play that we might not be forgotten.  But Spurgeon says, "we must be willing to be forgotten" so that Christ can be remembered.  It's His cause that matters.  Not ours.  

What are you doing that furthers His cause?

Tozer on Worship and Entertainment

I just finished a book by A. W. Tozer called Tozer on Worship and Entertainment. Tozer is one of my favorite writers of another generation. He pastored Southside Alliance Church in Chicago for 31 years in the early to mid 1900s. He was a prolific writer and self-taught theologian. One of my favorite books of Tozer's is Knowledge of the Holy, a Christian classic on the attributes of God.

Worship and Entertainment is a compilation of sermon quotes and other Tozer writings surrounding this issue. The title says it all--what Tozer felt about the embracing and harnessing of culture within the local church. He was adamently against it. And though Tozer takes a dogmatic stance, (many of his points I found hard to accept and had to filter some of his conclusions with my own interpretation of Scripture and the believer's role within culture) you have to appreciate his consistency of thought on this issue throughout all of his writings and sermons. In spite of my disagreement on some conclusions, there are countless treasures and takeaways in this book that caused me to reevaluate much of what I believe and practice--particularly as it involves my primary contribution to the local church, namely, worship leading. And even though Tozer went to be with the Lord nearly 50 years ago, the prophetic truths he preached to his generation have never been more applicable. Indeed, it's as if he was writing to the American church in 2009. This needs to be the next book you read.

Here are a few takeaways:

• The #1 Gem: "Christianity has been watered down until the solution is so weak that if it were poison it would not hurt anyone, and if it were medicine it would not cure anyone!" (p.170)
  
• "For multitudes of professed Christians today the Holy Spirit is not a necessity. They have learned to cheer their hearts and warm their hands at other fires." (p. 106)
• "What we need more than we need anything else is a restoration of the vision of the Most High God. The honor of God has been lost to men and the God of today's Christianity is a weakling--a little cheap, palsy God that you can run and pal around with. He's 'the man upstairs.' He's the fellow that can help you when you're in difficulty and not bother you too much when you're not." (p. 54)
• "Why should believing Christians want everything pre-cooked, pre-digested, sliced and salted, and expect that God must come and help us eat and hold the food to our baby lips while we pound the table and splash--and we think that is Christianity! Brethren, it is not. It is a degenerate bastard breed that has no right to be called Christianity." (p. 116)
  
• "When the Church joins up with the world it is the true Church no longer but only a pitiful hybrid thing, an object of smiling contempt to the world and an abomination to the Lord." (p. 171)
• "It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God. One can only conclude that God's professed children are bored with Him, for they must be wooed to meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games and refreshments." (p. 120)
• "I don't mind telling you that most of the people we say we are trying to reach will never come to a church to see a lot of amateur actors putting on a home-talent show." (p. 110)
  

Radical Reformission

Just finished The Radical Reformission--a book that I should have already read by now, but at least I have now. And I loved it. Mark Driscoll unpacks what it means to live as a Christ-follower and how to share Christ with the culture God has placed you in, without selling out--without caving into the pressures--without looking like the world. It contains classic Driscoll humor and candor, of which I'm a big fan. If you're looking for a good read on how to influence the world around you within contemporary/pop culture, you'll want to check this out.

There are many great takeaways, but here are just a few:

• "The way to avoid sin is not to avoid sinners but to stick close to Jesus." p. 40
• "At worst, traditionalism fails to distinguish between biblical principles for ministry and cultural methods for implementing those principles. Traditionalism clings to dated ineffective methods in the name of staying truer to tradition than to Scripture ... Equally damaging ... is the tendency... to ignore church history and its lessons in pursuit of unrestrained and undiscerning innovation." pp.51-52
• "Innovation, when not tethered to the truth of the gospel, leads to heresy." p. 53
• "People who were raised apart from the church often have less resistance to ancient traditions and institutions. These are foreign experiences that intrigue them, rather than bad memories that repel them." p. 55
• "Too often the evangelistic task of speaking about Jesus is promoted as a work or something we must do, rather than as an overflowing of joy within us that explodes out of us because we have met God in Christ." p. 143
  

"Crazy Love" Review

Just finished Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This book kicked me in the gut from the outset and wouldn't stop--convicting to the core. In the same vain as Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution and the whole idea of seeing God's kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven--only I place Chan's on another level from any of those other guys. He's the real deal. And that's not saying anything against Claiborne or any of the other young, evangelical, Bible-believing prophetic voices out there, I just think there's something uniquely special about Chan. The anointing of God is obvious on his life. He's well-balanced in his theology as well as his methodology. The guy puts his money where his mouth is, to be sure. All the way from building an amphitheater in Simi Valley, California rather than a traditional church building so that they can give the extra untold millions they're saving to mission work, ... to his own family of 6 downsizing to a 1000-square foot home so that they could give the rest to mission work ... all of this speaks for itself. And he preaches the Word ... hardcore. I've been listening to his podcast recently, and it's rocking my world just as much as the book has. Anyway, this is a must-read for anyone, in ministry, or not. Read it.

Some takeaways:

• In response to Colossians 1:16 that says, "... all things were created by him and for him," he says, "Don't we live instead as though God is created for us, to do our bidding, to bless us, and to take care of our loved ones?" (p. 33)
  
• "Worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives. Stress says that things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control ... Both worry and stress reek of arrogance." (p. 42) Ouch!!
  
• "The point of your life is to point to Him." (p. 44) Good stuff!!
  
• In response to a student who once asked him, "Why does God threaten me with hell and punishment if I don't begin a relationship with Him? Why would a loving God force me to love Him?" Chan replies, "If God is truly the greatest good on the earth, would He be loving us if He didn't draw us toward what is best for us (even if that happens to be Himself)? Doesn't His courting, luring, pushing, calling, and even 'threatening' demonstrate His love? If He didn't do all of that, wouldn't we accuse Him of being unloving in the end, when all things are revealed?" (p. 62)
• "We are consumed by safety. Obsessed with it, actually. Now, I'm not saying it is wrong to pray for God's protection, but I am questioning how we've made safety our highest priority." (p. 133)

There's so much more I could add, but I won't give the whole book away. Grab this one for Christmas for yourself and someone else.

The Deity Formerly Known as God

I'm just about to finish The Deity Formerly Known as God by Jarrett Stevens. Jarrett was gracious enough to give me a copy of his book at CharlotteONE last month, and I've been soaking it up.

The book tackles six destructive images and misconceptions about God, and then offers six biblical, constructive images of God based on Scripture. Jarrett writes with a good bit of humor as well as a compelling and convicting condor that cuts straight to the heart of the matter. He refers to his book as the remix of J. B. Phillips' classic Your God is Too Small.

Here are a few takeaways I've gleaned thus far:

• "This may be one of the greatest tragedies of what we have come to call Christianity: that we are all too afraid to ask a good and loving God for what He already longs to give us." (p. 99)
• "Perhaps a better framework for God is not "old" but "timeless." If God were limited to our understanding of time, then, like all things in this universe, He would be aging." (p. 38)
• "Our job couldn't be any simpler: All we have to do is stay (John 15:5). (p. 125)

Help support Jarrett by ordering this book. It will definitely be an encouragement and a challenge to you.

Tozer on Experiencing God's Presence

I came across this statement today while re-reading Tozer's Knowledge of the Holy. It's amazing how this book speaks directly into the heartbeat of contemporary mainstream Christianity, though it is six decades old. Check this out: Concerning the omnipresence of God and its connection to how we as believers experience the living God, Tozer says,

"The practice of the presence of God consists not of projecting an imaginary object from within (your) own mind and then seeking to realize its presence; it is rather to recognize the real presence of the One whom all sound theology declares to be already there, an objective entity, existing apart from any apprehension of Him on the part of His creatures. The resultant experience is not visionary but real." (p. 82)

That's it! To experience the real presence of God, we don't use our tainted, distorted, fallen imaginations to try to conjure up what we think God looks like, and then invite our made-up image to commune with us. That's all wrong. But that's what we do all the time. That's the way we're bent. That's what we gravitate toward! No thanks to mainstream media, we go into our prayer closet addressing Jim Caviezel rather than our infinite God. No thanks to tradition, we enter His presence addressing the image we've seen hanging in our church fellowship hall for 80 years. No thanks to additional influences that will remain unnamed, we address our prayers to a God who looks like a cross between a bad acid trip and the psychedelic effect found in programs like Windows Media Player. No thanks to hit radio tunes and Hallmark movies, we address our prayers to a God who looks like our Grandpa Felix withering away with arthritis in the rocking chair on the front porch. All of these images are at best, improper, and at worst, destructive and unbiblical. Instead, Tozer reminds us that we must simply realize and acknowledge His very real presence that is already there with us, apart from the imaginary portrait we've conjured up. What we need is God Himself. The God revealed to us in Scripture. Not the God of our imagination! Not an image we've made in our own likeness.

God is the Gospel

Just finished Piper's God is the Gospel. (couldn't quite finish it on vacation) In one word: butt-kickin'! (Okay, two words) Here are some thought-provoking quotables for ya:

• "The good (of the 'good news') is God himself seen and savored in all his glory." p. 37
• "God is the gospel. That is, he is what makes it the good news ... Until people use the gospel to get to God, they use it wrongly." p. 42
• "The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God." p. 47
• "The happiness of God is first and foremost a happiness in his Son." p. 101
• "There is no sure evidence that we have a new heart just because we want to escape hell." p. 121
• "Faith is not saving faith if it tries to trust Christ for the wrong things. So this makes that trust per se, without reference to what we trust him for, is not the essence of a saving relationship to Christ." p. 129
• Here's a doozy: "Why does he (James in James 4:2-5) call us 'adulteresses' when we pray? It's because we ask God for things to indulge our desires that are not desires for him. This is startling--that in the moment of one of the most pious acts of religion, prayer, we can be making a cuckold out of God. Cuckold is an old English word for a man whose wife is unfaithful. The picture in this text is that God is our faithful, generous husband. So we go to him and ask for, say, fifty dollars, and he gives it to us. Then we take it and walk away from him and go to the end of the hall where our illicit lover has a room. That's the way God looks at praying that does not make 'Hallowed be thy name' the heart-cry of every petition." p. 135
• "The highest act of love is the giving of the best gift, and, if necessary, at the greatest cost, to the least deserving." p. 139
• "All the enticements to God that are not God are precious and precarious. They can lead us to God or lure us to themselves." p. 143

In sum: Read this book.

Vacation Reading 3

Just finished Showdown by Ted Dekker. I love Ted Dekker. And I love his stuff. Much like the Circle Trilogy, the Messiah-theme becomes the scarlet thread woven throughout the story. Christ's subsitutionary atonement and man's redemption is the major revolving theme throughout the story. He's a master at character and plot development. And his understanding of the human condition apart from and in reconciliation with Almighty God is a defining mark in my mind for Dekker's material. I won't give away any details, but it makes for superb summer reading. Have I mentioned that I love Ted Dekker?

Genre: Fiction

Vacation Reading 2

Just finished Avoiding the Greener Grass Syndrome by Nancy Anderson. This is a great read with practical steps to building and maintaining affair-proof hedges or boundaries in your marriage. It was good for me to read because most of the books on purity that I've read have been by men. But Nancy helped to open my eyes to the woman's perspective on marital purity. There were several great takeaways for me:

• "If you change your behavior, your feelings will follow. Some people object to this method, saying it's not genuine, they feel like they're putting on an act ... Remember that married love is not a feeling--it's a decision."
• "If your 'me' time is crowding out your 'we' time, your marriage might be in danger."

Planting Hedges:

• In your Workplace - "If you feel an attraction to someone in your workplace, consider a transfer to a different department, a different position, or maybe you should just quit."

Workplace Guidelines with Opposite Sex

1. People of the opposite sex should not ride in the car together without a third party present.
2. Don't make personal phone calls to another employee of the opposite sex.
3. Don't have lunch with the same person every day. Move around the lunchroom, and if you go out to a restaurant, go in a group.
4. Make sure your e-mails are not inappropriate or flirtatious.
5. Talk about your spouse in positive terms.
6. Be careful not to make any lingering eye contact.
7. The only appropriate touch between business associates of the opposite sex is a handshake.

There's alot more I could highlight from this book, but I'll leave it with that. This is a quick and easy read, with a ton of practical help for couples seeking to affair-proof their marriages. I highly recommend it.

Vacation Reading

Just finished reading My 2nd Chapter: The Matthew Ward Story. It's Matthew's autobiography about his seventeen years on the road with The Second Chapter of Acts, one of contemporary Christian music's first big groups birthed out of the Jesus Movement. It also recounts his unbelievable battle with cancer among other things. There were several great takeaways for me as a songwriter and worship leader. Here are a few:

• "Many of the songs we sing in church today are good songs but there's something missing in them ... The songs are often well crafted...but in the end they lack real emotion and the ability to affect us any longer than it takes to sing the song ... This gets back to being called to do music ministry, not doing it just because we can. Our writing or performing of music for the Lord should be accompanied by His favor, His anointing, and not simply done through our own strength and natural talent." (p. 211)
• "Look at the early Jesus movement years. The songs back then were largely written with the idea of 'we' instead of 'I.' They were much more focused on the collective community aspects of worship and not so focused on making it an individual endeavor ... Back in the Jesus-movement period, we had a strong sense that we were in this Christian thing together, brothers and sisters." (p. 212-213)
  
• "The Christian life in general and worship, particularly, is for the most part a group activity for the family of Christ. If worship is all about me and God, then I've got my blinders on." (p. 213)
  
• "As churches grow and become centers for what some would call huge clubs, the tendency is for us to allow ourselves to view worship as a sort of spectator sport. We gather on Sunday mornings and find ourselves caught up in a slick, professional kind of experience. We appreciate the level of professionalism while allowing ourselves the liberty not to become involved personally in the worship experience ... I'm not just criticizing others. I have been guilty of the same thing myself. Over the years, I've found that as a worship band is doing its thing, one of two problems can occur for me: either the band is so good that I sit and listen without entering into worship (my producer brain takes over), or the band is so horrible that I'm distracted from worship. But I have found something that can cut through every issue of musical performance, and that is the attitude of the people who are leading worship. For me, the best worship bands are the ones whose hearts are in the right place. This is an intangible thing, one that is difficult to explain ... It doesn't seem to matter what style of music they play or how loud or soft it is; there just seems to be an intangible ingredient that makes whatever they do carry the weight of God's presence." (p. 214-215)

This book is one of those that I recommend to anyone involved in music and worship ministry. It'll challenge you in many areas.

Vintage Jesus

I recently finished reading Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. I loved this read. It's basically a theological treatise on the doctrine of Christ put in layman's terms with the humor of Dane Cook, minus the vulgarity. It's a brilliant read. For anyone struggling with what a Bible-believing church really believes about Christ and what the New Testament teaches about Him, especially in the midst of the cultural and ecclesiological (church-related) milieu of our world, this is a fantastic resource. Here's a few tidbits that I loved. Many of them humorous!

• "Because Jesus worked in a day when there were no power tools, he likely had calluses on his hands and muscles on his frame, and did not look like so many of the drag-queen Jesus images that portray him with long, flowing, feathered hair, perfect teeth, and soft skin, draped in a comfortable dress accessorized by matching open-toed sandals and handbag. Jesus did not have Elton John or the Spice Girls on his iPod, The View on his TiVo, or a lemon-yellow Volkswagen Beetle in his garage." (p. 31, Chapter Two, "How Human Was Jesus?")
• Jesus' priestly intercession makes both our prayer and worship possible. We pray to and worship the Father through Jesus our priest by the indwelling power of God the Holy Spirit, who has made our bodies the new temples in which he lives on the earth." (p. 76, Chapter Four, "Why Did Jesus Come to Earth?")
• "Some early church fathers (e.g., Origen), some Catholic and Protestant theologians (such as Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and Wesley), along with the Second Helvetic Confession and the Geneva Bible say that Mary was 'ever virgin,' or semper virgo. I am assuming that her husband, Joseph, was semper bummo, or 'ever bummed.'" (p. 94, Chapter Five, "Why Did Jesus' Mom Need to Be a Virgin?")
  
• "On the Internet, the top word searched for is 'sex,' with 'porn,' 'nude,' 'Playboy,' and 'erotic stories' also in the top twenty. Furthermore, 70 percent of porn traffic occurs between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. while people are sitting at work unable to focus on their job because the god of Eros continually beckons." (p. 170, Chapter Nine, "Why Should We Worship Jesus?")

And here's one of the best quotables to finish off:

• "Jesus' legacy is truly without peer. Jesus never wrote a book, but the Library of Congress holds more books about Jesus (17,000) than about any other historical figure, roughly twice as many as Shakespeare, the runner-up. One University of Chicago scholar has estimated that more has been written about Jesus in the last twenty years than in the previous nineteen centuries combined. Jesus never ran for a political office, but more people have chosen him to be their leader than anyone else who has ever lived. Jesus was not formally educated nor did he lecture in a classroom, but he has more students than anyone else ever has or will have. Jesus was not a therapist, but he has helped more people than all the counselors, therapists, and psychologists combined. Jesus was not an artist, but more artwork has been commissioned of him than of anyone else who has ever lived." (p. 211, Chapter Eleven, "What Difference Has Jesus Made in History?")

In summary, you should get this book.

Epic

I recently finished Epic by John Eldridge. It's definitely classic-Eldridge. If you've read anything else by him, you know how he writes. A bit too touchy-feely for me, though he's certainly a creative writer and crafts a story very well. Though it only takes about an hour to read, he said in 120 pages what he could have said in about 10. It would have made for a great series of blog posts, but nonetheless a quick and good read. For gathering a basic understanding of the Christian journey and the Christian worldview, this is a good resource. For people who relate emotionally with epic films like "Lord of the Rings" and "Braveheart", the analogous connections Eldridge makes to the Christian journey will likely strike a chord.

Truth and Truth-Tellers Part 1

It’s been all over the news the last couple of days. It has consumed the airwaves, the morning shows, and the late night comedy routines. You can read about it here. What did Hillary Clinton actually experience when she visited Bosnia so many years ago? Was she, in fact, under sniper fire when she landed on the tarmac as she recently claimed? Was she delusional? Was she having a little too much fun on Air Force One just moments before she landed? Was she simply mistaken about the details? She says that she “misspoke” because she was tired and exhausted during that particular press conference. But can one “misspeak” on multiple occasions and the excuse still be legitimate? If you know me that well at all, you probably know that I care very little for the world of politics (although I do take seriously Romans 13), and you can probably tell that this is simply a great lead-in for me to broach the subject at hand. You got me. But there is something serious going on within the landscape and framework of America, exemplified perfectly through Clinton's little charade this week, that can't be overstated.

I find it ironic that the very week this news breaks, I am reading Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias. (What? You don't see the irony? No, I haven't been visiting my pot-rolling neighbor's house. You'll catch the irony in a moment. Visit Tasha's blog here if you are totally in the dark concerning the marijuana comments I just made. After you read it, give us your advice. But that's another issue for another blog post.) Ravi writes concerning the issue of truth and it’s relevance in the public square. He argues that individual ethics and personal and subjective feelings have replaced the notion of absolute truth, a fact easily verified by simply turning on the evening news. In illustrating how far our society has come from embracing the notion of unchanging truth, Ravi revisits the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. (Hence, the irony to which I earlier referred.) He says:

In our moral contradiction, an amazing cultural mood was uncovered. The president’s famous line that “it all depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is,” sent reporters scampering onto the streets with the question of the century: “Do words have a fixed meaning, or may we give them any meaning we choose?”(What could encroach upon itself more than purveyors of words inquiring if words have any meaning, while using words to ask the question?)

To the utter “surprise” of the surveyors, most people seemed to agree that words can sometimes mean different things to different people, assuming, of course, that there was no equivocation in meaning as the question was posed and the answer given.

That prompted the next question: “Is morality an absolute or a private matter?” The overwhelming response came back that morality is a private matter. These two questions became the lead-in on a CNN news report. First, that words only have personal meaning. Second, that morality is a private matter. Ironically, the third item on the news was that the United States had just issued a stern warning to Saddam Hussein that if he did not stop playing word games with the nuclear inspection teams we would start bombing Iraq.

Suddenly, words did matter. We would not let Saddam write his own dictionary. We would not let him live by his own ethic, but we could let each of our citizens determine the meaning of the words they used and insist that our morality is no one else’s business (pp. 116-117).

Words do matter. Truth does exist. Tomorrow I’ll expound on our responsibility as followers of Christ (Truth-tellers) in a world that lives like truth is dead.

Where is God?

I just finished Where is God? A great book by John Feinberg, professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, about how he dealt with and processed his wife's battle with Huntington's Disease. As he watched his wife deteriorate mentally and physically over many years of marriage, he finally came to a point where he put into writing some of the things he was dealing with as a follower of Christ struggling to make sense of seemingly needless pain and suffering--a question that we've all dealt, or will deal with, at some point in our lives.

One of the best takeaways from the book was John's explanation that more often than not what the sufferer needs is not a philosophical discussion about the problem of evil, but rather pastoral care. Here he used a great analogy:

Think of a little girl who goes out to play on a playground. Sometime during her play, she falls and skins her knee. She runs, screaming in pain, to her mother for comfort. Now, her mother can do any number of things. She may tell her daughter that this happened because she was running too fast and wasn't watching where she was going; she must be more careful next time. The mother might even explain (if she knew them) the laws of physics and causation that were operating to make her child's scrape just the size and shape it is. The mother might even expound for a few moments on the lessons God is trying to teach her child from this experience.

If the mother then asks her daughter if she understands, don't be surprised if the little girl responds, "Yes, Mommy, but it still hurts!" All the explanation at that moment doesn't stop her pain. The child doesn't want a discourse; she wants and needs her mother's hugs and kisses. There will be time for the discourse later; now she needs comfort.

The same is true for each of us as we struggle with the religious problem of evil. When the affliction first comes, we don't want or need a lengthy discourse to appeal to our mind, and that is so because this isn't primarily an intellectual matter. Even if you have something absolutely profound to say about the situation and you say it, don't be surprised if we are too hurt and confused to absorb it. We need someone to let us pour out our heart, not someone to give us a lecture, regardless of how brilliant and instructive it might be (p. 26).

I definitely recommend Where is God? for anyone struggling to understand where God is in the midst of pain. John has great insight from years of processing what God was doing in his wife's situation. Check it out.

Enter the Worship Circle

Just finished Enter the Worship Circle by Ben Pasley. Ben is a worship leader, song writer and creative writer. The book is evangelistically driven, with hopes that an unbeliever will pick it up and be hooked because of the spiritual hunger of this generation. His main goal is to argue that the spiritual hunger in every soul is placed there by the one true and living God, Jesus Christ, whom should be the center and focus of our worship. His creative style (using 7 different perspectives, or voices), and quick easy-to-read chapters add to the book's ability to hook you and makes for great toilet reading.

Overall, a great read and I only came away with 2 criticisms:

1. He's a bit too mystical for my taste. It's obvious that he comes from a tradition that places a lot of stock in prophetic dreams and visions. Now, I certainly am not one to put limits on what God chooses to do today and how He chooses to do it, but I do have reservations when prophetic dreams and visions overshadow the biblical revelation that we have in God's Word. I'm not presuming that Pasley does that, but I do see it as a small red flag.

2. Though the book is written with the unbeliever in mind, Pasley never quite brings the reader to the point of decision. He clearly communicates the need for a Savior and how much we all need Him, but then leaves the reader hanging as if to say, "You'll figure out what to do next!" This is a major criticism I see of the book, because I think that for many readers, the end will only leave them frustrated and perhaps more confused. But then again, the Holy Spirit can work through anything.

One of the best nuggets I pulled out comes later on in the book. The chapter is simply called "Music" and it's a personification of music, as if music could communicate thoughts about God and itself. Here's some of it:

"I am constantly trespassing the boundaries that confine the language of words. I am passion given voice. I am the music of the worshiping soul ... I exist in the heavens, in the spiritual world that some men never see, and I move like a great tide from the throne room of God into the rooms of worshipers everywhere. My distant half-brothers fill the earth with reflections of love for everything but the living God. They are only half-rhythms and half-music, and they only hint at the sacred, even if pointing to the profane. I am pure. Whether aggressive or sublime. Whether future or primeval. Whether simple or confused. I can be angry or sad or lonely or happy or insane or romantic. I am the sound of relationship between people and God."