Authentic Christianity by Martyn Lloyd-Jones

How can an English pastor who died in 1981 have preached sermons that seem like they were crafted for me in America and to my generation? Each chapter is a walk through a chapter of the book of Acts and it is life-changing. I am excited to sit down and read this every day.

Prayer Finding The Hearts True Home by Richard Foster

While it has been a long time since I posted a book I was reading, it has not been a long time since I read a book.

Life can deal such hard blows. What do I do when my expectations are dashed? Where do I turn when my heart is broken? Why doesn't God respond by quickly healing my wounds? Does my prayer get past the ceiling?

These questions had been weighing me down and I knew that I must study prayer. I have studied it before, heard many sermons on the topic, and practiced it for years. But, it was time to revisit the subject. I needed to hear God's voice or be told that I was seeking it in the wrong way.

This book has been such an encouragement to my heart. Foster discusses the many different kinds of prayer offered up in the Bible by both New and Old Testament characters. He quotes many Christian saints and we are reminded that this journey is not ours alone, but a shared heritage of people throughout history who sought after God.

I highly recommend this book.

Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands

This month's book is Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands.
It is a biblical counseling book that I have been encouraged to read over the past few months. There are several of us embarking on the journey of reading this book and hopefully learning from it.
Already, in chapter 3, I am being challenged to consider who influences me and how I influence others as I interact with them. Three principles are focused on in this chapter. "First, we were created with the need for truth outside ourselves to live life properly. Second, many interpretive voices compete with God's Word for our heart's attention. Third, the power of sin has been broken, but the blinding presence of sin remains."
While the first and third principles are just as true as the second, the second one really grabs my attention. What other voices compete for our heart's attention? Satan wants me to believe that I don't need God and that I am completely self-sufficient. The world around us wants us to believe that I don't need anyone but myself for true happiness. But that goes against what God tells us in the Bible. His wisdom meets our need and gives us purpose. He created us to need Him according to Genesis 1.
Why did Eve choose to believe the lie of Satan in the Garden of Eden?
What was so tempting to her about that lie?
Who are the voices that help you interpret your own life?
How can we be a part of the world around us, but still allow the wisdom of God to help us interpret life?

Biblical Womanhood

Who has God created women to be? Are we essentially the same as men? Are we really supposed to "submit" to our husbands? Are there specific instructions to women in the Bible? Does it really matter if I agree with what the Bible says about womanhood?
These questions and more are answered in the book Women's Ministry in the Local Church. The title leads you to believe that only people who are in leadership should read this book, but I think that this is an excellent read for anyone who desires to obey what the Bible teaches us about womanhood.
I will leave you with a question. Why is it so difficult to have "authentic" relationships with other people?

Hello Again!

After a long break from blogging, I am back. I am still working on Total Truth, but took a break to read Women's Ministry in the Local Church and The Legacy of Biblical Womanhood. I will be blogging on those books soon.
I have learned that there is so much information in Total Truth, that to really soak it in you absolutely must use a highlighter pen. My husband is reading Total Truth for the second time. He wants to go back to the beginning and reread it in light of what he learned through the historical section at the end.
I have often wondered how church came to be like it is today. For example, have you ever wondered why we go to a building on Sunday, listen to someone talk for an hour then sing facing a stage, the music leader, and possibly a screen? I mean, that is not how the first church did it. While we know they met, and prayed together, ate together, encouraged each other, and confronted each other's sin, we don't know exactly how that looked. Reading Part 3 of Total Truth sheds some light on the developement of the church service as we know it today. It also reveals why so many Christians today are ignorant of their own faith. Nancy Pearcey leads us through the time line starting with first colonists who all looked to the church and the pastor for insight and knowledge of Scripture, then she moves on to the shift from looking to the educated, intellectual pastor to the regular man reading and understanding the Bible on his own. Then, we see how the Revivalist movement brought about the abundance of emotion and the calling on the people to "make a decision for Christ" on the spot. This was a change from the organized classes, memorization of creeds and public confessions people once had to make. Isn't it starting to sound familiar? The emphasis that was made to me growing up in a Christian environment was the "decision for Christ". Really, after that, as long as you looked like you had it together, you were set. I want so much more for my kids.

Book Review of Total Truth

Here is a review of Total Truth at a book review site called Coffee Swirls.

This will be a different sort of book review than I have given in the past, primarily because “Total Truth” is a different sort of book from the ones I have reviewed before. I realize that I am extremely tardy in this review, but I was not content to post anything until I had finished the book and allowed it to sink in just a bit. Allow me to recap my reading experience for you. It may not sound like a good way to review a book, but I believe you will see what I am getting at before too long.

I received the book and began to read it. I was reading the way I usually read a book, flipping pages and writing down a note or two at the end of each chapter. Before I had finished the introduction, I could tell that this would not be the best way to approach such a book. Being the stubborn guy I am though, I plowed through to chapter three and looked back to what I had read versus what I had noted. My notes were many, but I knew that there were so many points made in the book that I had to have missed something that needed to be said. So I started over.

My second take on this book involved noting as I went along. This really helped me get through those three chapters and gain a firmer foothold. I even considered using the notes for the review with a little elaboration. By the end of that third chapter, I had what would have been a post that would be way too long to be effective. To break it into a series would have bordered on plagiarism, but I didn’t want to leave anything out. Back to the drawing board.

I approached the book a third time and took it section by section, comparing my own experiences with what Nancy had to say. I took a few notes, but spent more time in thought about how unbiblical many of my own views have been and how this has blunted my own public testimony. Even when I am not found to be in sin, as my methods mimic those of the world around me I undercut my message

Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

My mind bears too much similarity with the mind of our culture, regulating things such as faith and values to a private sphere that is subjective and interchangeable while things such as science, economics and other matters are in the public sphere of agreement and are thus incontestable. I have thought of certain values that are right and good, but determined that alternate values are either harmless or not worth debate. I have determined that creativity cannot be used to worship God in any way. I have felt that I must check my faith at the door when I enter the workplace and have grieved that my work is not done for any religious organization. I have envied pastors who have large followings, not caring about their methods just so long as they can point to statistics that show how successful they are.

I could go on for quite a while, but I won’t. Let me just say that this is a book that everybody should read. The accompanying study guide is absolutely superb and can be used in a classroom setting or for blog post ideas (cough, cough) to stimulate intelligent conversation that is both edifying and uplifting. This book is not meant to be read in an afternoon, as I discovered. Rather, it is meant to be read with continuous reflection and an honest verdict of your own worldview structure.

It is a page turner, but you will be better served contemplating it section by section. You will be forced to take a biblical look at every aspect of your life, no matter your occupation. You will gain insight that will help you understand why certain aspects of culture operate as they do. You will recognize worldly methods used in the service of God and will be empowered with knowledge to voice objections that are loving and also firm in conviction. The hairs on the back of your neck will bristle at the thought that I just separated love and conviction!

I have made book recommendations on this blog before, and they are all valid. Total Truth is one recommendation that I make with an extra measure of urgency. Please read this book. Give it as a late Christmas present to your friends. Buy a few copies to place within the Book Crossing realm. Add this book to your church library and don’t forget to request that a copy be placed in your local public library. Christianity is not only true on Sundays and holidays. It is not to be relegated to the sphere of emotion only. Christianity is Total Truth, and is the only worldview that does not have to deny itself to remain valid in the world of ideas.

After reading this book, you will understand that only Christians are able to remain consistent and that we are under an obligation set before us by God to affect changes in our culture through example.

Further reviews of this book can be found at the Diet of Bookworms

Part 2 of Total Truth

Part 2 of Total Truth reveals how Darwinism and evolutionary psychology have seeped into almost every arena of thought. This effects the way we see Christianity, live Christianity and interact with the unbelieving world. This effecst you and me and our children. Here's a quote from the book. "Today evolutionary psychologists are putting out books with all-encompassing titles like The Evolution of Culture and Darwinizing Culture, which contend that culture can no longer be separated from biology, but is itself merely a product of evolutionary forces." Have you ever wondered why people seem so hopeless or why they are obsessed with living for themselves and for the moment? This philosophy has a lot to do with it.
Here's a link to Nancy Pearcey's web site.

Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey

I can't put this book down! The author, Nancy Pearcey, worked closely with Francis Shaeffer the well-known Christian philosopher who wrote the book How Shall We Then Live? Schaeffer also started the L'Abri Fellowship that has many campuses, but the most well-known is in Switzerland. This book addresses many intellectual issues but does so in language that is understandable. As I read through Part one of the book which discusses worldviews it seemed as though Nancy was answering the questions, "Where did these American ideas come from?" and "Why do we see the world as we see it?" She sheds light on those questions by walking us through historical events and philosophical influences that changed the way Christianity was viewed and also changed the educational system. Her description of Christianity being in the upper-story and science being in the lower-story was very clear to me. I think I may even have fallen to this dualistic approach to life. She says, "Human reason was regarded as perfectly competent on its own for understanding the state, society, science, economics, philosophy-infact, everything outside of theology. Thus the Christian mind itself began to be split. God's Word was limited to the upperstory, but was deemed irrelevant and unnecessary in directing the lower story." Christianity is itself a complete worldview. True Christianity is total truth for every area of life, both spiritually and materialistically. Christians must learn how influenced we have been by liberalism and naturalism. Here is another quote, "The crucial flaw in liberalism is that it adopts the two-layer concept of truth. It accepts a naturalistic account of science and history in the lower story, while relegating theology to the upper story where it is reduced to personal, noncognitive experience."

What I am reading right now...

I am working on two books right now, Surprised by Joy (C.S. Lewis) and Total Truth (Nancy Pearcey). Pick them up and read them with me. Let me know what you are thinking about them. I have to be reading more than one book at a time because I'm moody. Read in your own way and at your own pace.

I want to update this post. As I began the book Surprised By Joy it was so reminiscent of Jack's Life by Doug Gresham that I put the former down. I really recommend Jack's Life. After I read it I felt like I knew who C. S. Lewis was and I immediately started reading some of his other books with a new understanding of how his mind ticked (as much as I could). Surprised by Joy is a walk down memory lane that can seem laborious.

The Quest for Freedom and Dignity by Vishal Mangalwadi

The unique aspect of this book is that the author is Indian. He therefore sheds light on Christianity that an American could not. He takes the American out of American Christianity. This separating of Christianity from the American culture was revolutionary for me. The only view I have ever had has been from inside my American culture. Christ is Christ to everyone and anyone who is willing to believe. While the evils of India are much different looking than the evils of America, we both have the same need of Jesus Christ. Truth is truth no matter where you are from.