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By Andy, June 16, 2009 11:04 pm

Being the book freak that I am, I opted to review 3 books as part of this Father’s Day blog tour for Waterbook Multnomah.  The books I received were Eyes Wide Open, by Jud Wilhite, The Disappearance of God, by Albert Mohler, and Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart, by Chuck Black.

Of these, I read the entirety of Eyes Wide Open and about half of The Disappearance of God. Alas, I’ve not had the time to crack open Sir Dalton yet, so the review in that case will consist of the publisher’s marketing description of the book, which does look to be an intriguing work of fiction. I do plan on reading it later this summer as my reading shifts from the more theologically inclined non-fiction I’ve been reading to straight up fiction.

As to the theologically inclined non-fiction, both Eyes Wide Open and The Disappearance of God are interesting contrasts, when read back-to -back as I have done.  Wilhite’s book is a basic look at God’s grace and how it works in our lives.  Wilhite, senior pastor of Central Christian Church in Las Vegas, writes:

Embracing God’s perspective of you - living with eyes wide open - is so important because it allows you to become the person God created you to be. Not the you your critics claim you are. Not the you who pretends to be perfect in order to satisfy others’ expectations. Not the you who feels guilty before God about your past and who lives with chronic spiritual remorse. Not the you who looks in the mirror and sees a failure….
…Some of the most “together” people I know have admitted to going through incredible struggles to accept God’s grace, to see themselves with their new identity in Christ, and to make an impact in the world as a result of that. One of the greatest joys in my life has been to see them look at God and themselves with new eyes, freed to discover the person God designed them to be.

What follows throughout the book are chapters that take us on a journey from having eyes wide open to God, to having eyes wide open to identity, eyes wide open to change, and eyes wide open to influence. He effectively uses appropriate Scripture and vignettes from his own life, from the lives of various denizens of Vegas who have come to know Jesus, and even some well-known folks (Evel Knievel anyone?) who have experienced the transforming power of Jesus’ love. He reminds us to view “spiritual growth more like a spiral that’s gradually moving toward a destination of becoming like Jesus.” This book is written in a conversational tone, but is theologically solid as Wilhite reminds us:

If you only have grace, you’ll be forgiven, but you won’t be challenged by the truth to become the person God desires. You’ll be stuck in a rut. So truth must be there as well. Yet if you only have truth, without grace, you’ll wallow in guilt and condemnation. And all of this takes significant time. The change doesn’t happen overnight.

I recommend this book, as Wilhite gives us the truth of the Gospel without falling into legalism.

On the other hand, Mohler’s book The Disappearance of God falls into dangerously close territory to legalism, and flirts with elements of American nationalism, both of which made me uncomfortable as I read the book.  He writes to a specifically American audience (whereas Wilhite’s audience isn’t necessarily limited to North American Christianity), denigrating his perception of elements of American society and the American church as falling away from a typically conservative American political viewpoint associated with a particular political brand of Christianity.

However, Mohler does address some basic theology very well, particularly at the outset of the book.  He effectively defines the issues that all Christians should agree on, and defines lesser issues which separate Christians without disagreement on primary issues.  He suggests that primary, first order issues include “the Trinity, the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, justification by faith, and the authority of Scripture.” Lesser issues would include baptism (infant baptism, full immersion) or the ordination of women - issues that have caused the disagreements among denominations (and even some congregations within denominations) without jeopardizing the truth of first order issues.

That said, his writing evokes a certain anger towards those who oppose or disagree with the primary/first order issues, and there does not appear to be much grace and love in his writing style.  It is much more heavy handed, less conversational, and tended to leave me cold as I read.  It was not as accessible as Wilhite’s book, nor did it make me want to agree with his subject matter, intriguing though it was at times. I can’t recommend Mohler’s work, unless you’re willing to work through it and wrestle with his dogmatic style.

Two interesting, yet very different reads, with two different recommendations.

::

Book: The Disappearance of God

Author: Dr. R. Albert Mohler

Dates: June 15th – 19th

Summary:

More faulty information about God swirls around us today than ever before. No wonder so many followers of Christ are unsure of what they really believe in the face of the new spiritual openness attempting to alter unchanging truth.

For centuries the church has taught and guarded the core Christian beliefs that make up the essential foundations of the faith. But in our postmodern age, sloppy teaching and outright lies create rampant confusion, and many Christians are free-falling for “feel-good” theology.

We need to know the truth to save ourselves from errors that will derail our faith.

As biblical scholar, author, and president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Albert Mohler, writes, “The entire structure of Christian truth is now under attack.” With wit and wisdom he tackles the most important aspects of these modern issues:
Is God changing His mind about sin?
Why is hell off limits for many pastors?
What’s good or bad about the “dangerous” emergent movement?
Have Christians stopped seeing God as God?
Is the social justice movement misguided?
Could the role of beauty be critical to our theology?
Is liberal faith any less destructive than atheism?
Are churches pandering to their members to survive?

In the age-old battle to preserve the foundations of faith, it’s up to a new generation to confront and disarm the contemporary shams and fight for the truth. Dr. Mohler provides the scriptural answers to show you how.

::

Book: Eyes Wide Open

Author: Jud Wilhite

Dates: June 15th - 19th

Summary:

I had it all backwards. The main thing was not my love for God, but his love for me. And from that love I respond to God as one deeply flawed, yet loved. I’m not looking to prove my worth. I’m not searching for acceptance. I’m living out of the worth God already declares I have. I’m embracing his view of me and in the process discovering the person he created me to be.

In Eyes Wide Open, Jud Wilhite invites you to discover the real you. Not the you who pretends to be perfect to satisfy everyone’s expectations. Not the you who always feels guilty before God. Not the you who secretly feels God forgives everyone else but only tolerates you. Not the you who looks in the mirror and sees a failure. The real you, loved and forgiven by God, living out of your identity in Christ.

A travel guide through real spirituality from one incomplete person to another, Eyes Wide Open is a book of stories about following God in the messes of life, about broken pasts and our lifelong need for grace. It is a book about seeing ourselves and God with new eyes–eyes wide open to a God of love.

::

Book: Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart

Author: Chuck Black

Dates: June 15th - 19th

Summary:

Sir Dalton, a knight in training, seems to have everything going for him. Young, well-liked, and a natural leader, he has earned the respect and admiration of his fellow knights, and especially the beautiful Lady Brynn.

But something is amiss at the training camp. Their new trainer is popular but lacks the passion to inspire them to true service to the King and the Prince. Besides this, the knights are too busy enjoying a season of good times to be concerned with a disturbing report that many of their fellow Knights have mysteriously vanished.

When Sir Dalton is sent on a mission, he encounters strange attacks, especially when he is alone. As his commitment wanes, the attacks grow in intensity until he is captured by Lord Drox, a massive Shadow Warrior. Bruised and beaten, Dalton refuses to submit to evil and initiates a daring escape with only one of two outcomes–life or death. But what will become of the hundreds of knights he’ll leave behind? In a kingdom of peril, Dalton thinks he is on his own, but two faithful friends have not abandoned him, and neither has a strange old hermit who seems to know much about the Prince. But can Dalton face the evil Shadow Warrior again and survive?

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By Andy, September 4, 2007 11:10 pm

Quick post for this evening, since I was out at a meeting at church and got home a little more than an hour ago.

I have two questions to ask, both of which have been asked in the past:

1)   What book or books are you currently reading?

2)   What translation of the Bible are you currently using - or are you using more than one version?

My answers:

1)   Where God Was Born, Bruce Feiler

2)   ESV for daily reading, TNIV/Message Parallel Bible at church.

Your turn.

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By Andy, August 16, 2007 5:30 am

About a month ago my friend Ariel posted a book giveaway on his blog, since he’s connected with some mucky muck at a particular Christian publishing house (Note: tongue firmly planted in cheek). Yours truly was one of the fortunate “winners” of said book giveaway, receiving, a couple of weeks ago, a free copy of Bill Hybels’ latest book, Holy Discontent, Fueling the Fire That Ignites Personal Vision.

As with many things in my life lately, receiving and reading this book was no accident. From the moment I read its inside cover to the day I finished it, it was clear to me Who wanted me to read this book, for the topic came at a point in my life in which I have been thinking and praying about my life in His Church.

Hybels’ main theme is to ask the following question: What is it that motivates people to work where they work, volunteer their time to the groups they serve, and donate money to the causes they support?

Upon reading this question, I asked it of myself, and honestly, at that moment, I didn’t know the answer to it in my own life, or perhaps even more honestly, I had never really asked that question of myself, either. I stumbled into my profession as an accountant in the AEC (architecture, engineering & construction) industry mainly because it was a construction firm that hired me out of college, I volunteer where I do (outside of work and church) because I simply have in interest in those organizations and it keeps me involved in my kids’ lives, and I donate money to those organizations because I think they do some good work in our community. I hadn’t thought about the “Why”.

Hybels expands on the question and uses several examples, discussing Mother Teresa as one who was a simple school teacher one day, who walked by those who were sick and downtrodden each day, and finally was sufficiently fed up with seeing it (her holy discontent) that she chose a different path, ultimately founding the Missionaries of Charity (who happen to have an AIDS hospice here in Pacifica that my family has supported, coincidentally). He also mentions Bono and Martin Luther King, each of whom were discontent with the status quo of poverty (Bono) and racism (King), and proceeded to alter the course of their lives to focus as agents of change.

Of course, reading those examples my immediate thought was, “Yeah, but I can’t compare myself to King or Bono or Mother Teresa.” And Hybels’ argument isn’t that we should compare ourselves to them - rather, we need to ask the question, “What can’t I stand?” and use that to spur us to do something about it. Rather than complain and watch that which we can’t stand from afar, we should face it head on and use it to effect positive change.

In all fairness, the answer to the question for you and me might not necessarily spur us to an action of the magnitude of a Mother Teresa or a Dr. King, but it will be for a purpose that God intended for our lives and furthers His Work here on Earth. Maybe you see kids in your church who aren’t plugged in, and you choose to start up a youth ministry because you had gained so much from your own 20 years ago. Perhaps you see a glaring need for a men’s ministry in your church, and jump in to restart and give it a fresh approach to reach out to the men in your church. Maybe you couldn’t stand your Little League baseball experience because your coach was a jerk and you want the local kids to experience a positive coaching environment.

Whatever it is, there will be something that will spur you to action. Rather than mope about it, go out and DO something about it. And that’s what Hybels is pointing out in his latest book. As he writes:

…we must proclaim that message of hope to everyone God gives us the opportunity to influence. That’s partly why God entrusts us with the ability to provide energy and courage and creative thought to the people around us who so desperately need it through the activity of pursuing our holy discontent…so that hope won’t die…Figure out what you can’t stand. Channel your holy discontent energy into helping to fix what’s broken in this life.

Fuel your fire.

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By Andy, August 2, 2007 2:47 pm

…so little time!

As anyone who’s been hanging around the Beach will know, I’ve read more than my share of books on theology, Christian life, church matters and such over the past couple of years. From Lewis to Chesterton to Bonhoeffer to Miller to Bell to Piper to others, I haven’t been lacking for books to read.

But I’ve run into a small problem.

I now am running into the issue of starting and not finishing.

I hate that.

I’m a quarter of the way in on Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain.

I’ve just started yet my third re-start of The Confessions of St. Augustine.

I’m a quarter of the way through on Gary Will’s What Paul Meant.

And I’ve just started Bill Hybels’ Holy Discontent (thanks to Ariel).

This, more than anything, speaks to my lack of focus in recent weeks, although He’s kept me in the Word consistently, which is the more important thing. Yet I can’t quite pin down why I’ve been jumping around from book to book lately without completing one. Honestly, I can’t remember the last book I finished.

So here’s to focus. Here’s to knocking out one book at a time. Because I know He’ll speak to me through these writers as well.

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By Andy, March 29, 2007 5:10 am

It’s been a relatively peaceful evening. I had a meeting at church that lasted all of 40 minutes, a good thing, before heading back home to help put the kids to bed, relaxing on the living room couch while flipping through the assortment of channels from our satellite dish. Then my wife and I watched a digitally recorded program from the other night, before catching the final couple of minutes of that insanely popular singing contest just to see who was the sad-sack singer to be eliminated.

Not long after, as I settled in front of the keyboard, thinking about some magnificent opus that I would write about some quirky theological question, I came upon this news item in Yahoo.

Post-Apocalyptic? Oprah? In the same sentence?

Doth mine eyes deceive me?

It would seem that all great pop culture movements begin in our slice of the ’sphere, for as you might recall, it was our good friend and Missouri attorney Randall who turned me onto Cormac McCarthy’s The Road back in November with this enlightening review of said post-apocalyptic novel. Naturally, upon completion of said novel I wrote a piece about it as well.

So it is with great pleasure that I announce to you, dear readers, that by being a part of this blogging community which encompasses those who like the beach or the hinterland, the bittersweet, the ICON, or find that someone just keeps moving their chair (and my sincere apologies to others who I fail to mention, but know that I do recognize your participation in this slice of the ’sphere), YOU are part of the leading edge of the wave of pop culture as it relates to Oprah and The Road.

Wow. It took her four months to catch on?

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By Andy, January 24, 2007 6:19 am

I’m having one of those weeks yet again wherein I have several events occurring all at once. Tonight was our weekly prayer meeting, a definite “can’t miss”; tomorrow night I have a church remodel committee meeting; and Thursday night our family has a function at school…Geography night, in which the 2nd and 3rd graders learn assorted world geography with games.

And when the weekend rolls around, my son has birthday parties to attend on Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon, AND I have the T-Ball league draft on Saturday afternoon (my team will be the Lil Nationals).

While I have assorted theological thoughts bopping around in my head, I really haven’t had a chance to sit down and process them - many of which triggered by the myriad books I am currently reading. With that, here is the list of books which I am currently reading (and yes, I am going back and forth among them)…

Flags of our Fathers, James Bradley
Desiring God, John Piper
Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, John Piper and Justin Taylor, Editors

What are you currently reading?

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By Andy, December 26, 2006 6:57 pm

2He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18: 2-4 (NIV)

My children ask questions. A lot of questions. They ask questions on top of questions, and then ask those same questions again, even though they already know the answer. Their natural curiosity about their world is beautiful to see, although at times it can be exasperating as a parent. But we want them to ask questions, because they can learn through those questions.

Our own faith journey is filled with questions - yet oftentimes we feel dumb for asking questions, or we find ourselves in situations (and/or churches) in which questions are not encouraged, as if the pastor and the leadership had all of the answers. That lack of humility can easily crush the questions that each of us has in our walk with God - for is it not arrogant for us to presume that we know all of God’s intentions?

As we mature in our faith journeys, I think we become more attuned to God’s intentions for our lives in certain situations, but we are far from full comprehension on His reasons. So we must ask questions - be like the children we once were and become the children of God who ask Him questions so that we may receive an answer and greater understanding of who He is.

How can we develop a relationship if we don’t ask questions? Don’t we ask questions of new colleagues, acquaintances in order to get to know them? Wasn’t that first date with the person who became your spouse filled with questions? Didn’t the questions continue throughout the courtship, and don’t they still continue in your relationship today? Questions help deepen the relationship - just as they do with human relationships, they do the same with our relationship with the Father.

One of the gifts my wife gave me yesterday was Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. I initially read this book about 18 months ago, and now revisiting it, I am seeing things that I missed the first time through. Of note is a section early in the book about questions. Bell writes:

Central to the Christian experience is the art of questioning God. Not belligerent, arrogant questions that have no respect for our maker, but naked, honest, vulnerable, raw questions, arising out of the awe that comes from engaging the living God.

This type of questioning frees us. Frees us from having to have it all figured out. Frees us from having answers to everything. Frees us from always having to be right. It allows us to have moments when we come to the end of our ability to comprehend. Moments when the silence is enough.

This statement comes after Bell describes several folks in the Bible who were not afraid to ask questions of God, from Abraham struggling with God’s decision on Sodom and Gomorrah, to Moses questioning God on whether he was the right person to lead Israel out of Egypt, to the myriad questions David asks throughout the Psalms, to Mary’s own question about how she could be pregnant as a virgin.

Questions give us answers. And they deepen our understanding of God.

If you want to know the answer, you must ask.

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By Andy, December 18, 2006 4:33 am

Understanding the meaning of a “personal relationship with Jesus” took a long time for me. I know Jesus lived 2,000 years ago; I know he was a real guy with real feelings; I know that he really angered the local establishment with all his crazy claims of deity and being the Son of God; I know that he was nailed to a cross because all those folks didn’t like him.

I knew all that. In my mind, I knew the Christ story, from Christmas to Easter, and all the various church seasons in-between. Quite frankly, it was hard to forget, since my church always had new felt banners up in the sanctuary and on the pulpit and communion tables to mark the change of seasons, whether Advent, Pentecost, Lent or any other season that I fail to mention. I knew the 23rd Psalm, I knew the Lord’s Prayer (I attended a “debtors” church while attending a “trespasses” school), I knew the Doxology (”Praise God from whom all blessings flow…”), I knew the Apostles Creed - I even knew how to read the little numbers just above the upper clef that indicated how many syllables were in each line of a church hymn.

But I didn’t know Jesus.

The church I grew up in (and a subsequent church a few years ago) were not authentic Christian communities. These were places in which faith was viewed privately. Rick McKinley, in his book Jesus in the Margins, writes:

If faith is truly a private matter, then the only thing Christians have in common is a regular event called church, and there is no authentic relationship with one another in Christ. The shame of spiritual isolation is compounded when we realize that even at church no one knows who we really are. I talked with one person who told me that if anyone at church really knew who she was, the doubts and struggles she faced, they simply would not accept her. That floats over her head like a cartoon thought-bubble in a comic strip. It forces her to smile at church and tell everyone how great she is doing. The irony is, everyone there has the same bubble over their head and is thinking the same thing. And our enemy Satan has a field day.

In not knowing Jesus, I also missed out on what the church experience is supposed to be: that of a community of believers that is used by Jesus to help each of us become who He intended us to be. McKinley writes further:

Jesus and the New Testament writers tell us that we need each other. We need each other to help us develop into all that God intends for us to become.

When I came forward a little more than a year ago, in front of 20 or so believers, describing my testimony, I could feel at that moment that Jesus was finally making His home in my heart. It was at that moment that I knew that I was a part of a Christian community, warts and all. Is it perfect? Of course not - we’re all still sinners. And each of us continues to work at becoming more honest with ourselves and with each other about our own failings.

We don’t want to open up our hearts to fellow believers. It is hard. It is scary. It is messy. Because we are all like the woman in McKinley’s quote above - we are all afraid that we will not be accepted, much less loved, by others - even those in the church. But I have hope - as each of us recognizes our own failings in our lives we will pray for and lift each other up as we see ourselves in the faces of fellow believers. And we will have confidence doing it, because we know that Jesus is in the building - He’s in His House - which is in your heart and in mine.

Be free. Be honest. Be real.

13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5: 13, 14 (NIV)

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By Andy, December 4, 2006 1:31 am

Sunday Sunday, so good to me,
Sunday Sunday, it was all I hoped it would be…

(with apologies to the Mamas and the Papas)

Sunday mornings have been a roller coaster ride, as I’ve described in these virtual pages recently. The church service itself has been fine - it’s been the Sunday school class I teach that’s been more of a ride than I’d like it to be.

This morning I had 5 kids and the discussion was excellent. They shared some issues (in relation to questions posed by our book) with great honesty and perception and self-awareness, knowing that those were situations in which they didn’t seek Christ’s counsel. We came out of the class knowing that God had spoken to us through the book and through each other.

As I closed the class, I asked them how they’d like to proceed with the class going forward - did they want to continue with another theological book like Jesus in the Margins or Blue Like Jazz? Upon completion of Margins I suggested that we take a four to six week break from the class before we pick up with the class again.

There was some silence, then some general suggestions along the lines of “Yeah, another book would be cool…” Finally one of the younger members of the class, an 8th grader, said, “What about reading THE Book?”

“Picking out a book of the Bible to go through verse by verse?”

“Yeah.”

There was general agreement from the kids. I told them, “Let’s be sure to pray about this and make sure this is the direction we want the class to go in, and to identify which book of the Bible we will want to study.”

We closed out the class, then a couple more suggestions came through, like perhaps reading some C.S. Lewis, and exploring the Biblical themes in the Narnia series. I walked out of the class and into the Sunday service feeling better about the direction of the class, that the kids were starting to take ownership of the class…that God was working through them and showing them what HE wants them to learn.

It is also a reminder to me that I’m not the one in charge of this class. I’m just the one God led to facilitate this class. I have prayed for clarity on this issue over the past several weeks, and God has given me the answer through family, friends, and y’all in the blogosphere as well. Posts on discipleship (thanks Hook) and extreme frustration (thanks Donny) were instrumental in helping convict me of my next steps, along with your comments of support.

Yes, we will have a much needed break from the class…but we will go forward with greater purpose and joy as we explore His Word in greater depth.

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By Andy, November 24, 2006 7:09 am

A couple of weeks ago our Missouri attorney friend Randall posted his thoughts on Cormac McCarthy’s latest tome, The Road. Shamefully I must admit to never having heard of McCarthy, as one who does not typically follow modern day American writing, unless the writer is someone who writes about the successful theft of a Soviet submarine and a history professor turned American espionage director turned POTUS. And of course it is well documented in these pages that most of my recent readings have had a heavy non-fiction theological bent this past year (with the occasional non-fiction baseball book thrown in at opportune times).

Yet when I read Randall’s review of The Road, I felt compelled to explore this work of a post-apocalyptic world with a father and son travelling down this road to the coast, a road littered with death, with fear, with hunger, with hopelessness.

I finished the work tonight and the images described within the pages of this book continue to haunt me. There appears to be no hope for the survivors - it is a world where evil reigns and good is lacking. The dark tone of the book is set immediately, not just with how McCarthy describes his world, but also with the minimalist sentence structure, the lack of quotation marks to denote conversations, and the effective use of sentence fragments.

The book is a high school English teacher’s grammatical nightmare. But it is effective, because the sentence structure and the lack of quotation marks, in particular, draw us into the repetitive nature of the lives of this man and his son, each day, more or less, like the other - trudging down this road, in a gray, lifeless and colorless world void of emotion. It is a cold world, personified in the character of the father, but hope lives in the character of his son.

Is it not a metaphor for our world today? Ours is a world in which evil reigns. We read of death and destruction daily on the front pages of our newspapers and other media sources…death and destruction lead off the local and national newscasts, whether war in modern day Babylon or war in downtown Oakland. We become immune, accept it as a fact of our daily lives, and trudge forward down the road of our lives, coldly focusing on our own needs and our own survival, for it is a waste of our own energy if we should decide to assist others.

But we are convicted by the children in our lives, who see life through a simpler lens. As the father in The Road is convicted by his son, so are we convicted by our sons and daughters who are excited by the little things (a bike ride, a hike on a trail, a snail on the sidewalk) that we must pay attention to their words and realize the hope we have in them to one day have a life better than our own.

Yet are we not concerned, like The Road’s father, that our children will not be able to live lives better than our own? Are we not concerned that the world our children inherit will be one unsuitable for living?

These are but a few of the questions that I found McCarthy to be asking, with the underlying theme of living in a fallen world. His world, in The Road, is physically fallen, destroyed by the ravages of an atomic war, undoubtedly caused by the selfishness of humans in power in government. Our own world is physically fallen, destroyed by the ravages of a spiritual war with the selfish human soul seeking power to be God’s equal.

There is only one way back. There is only One Hope.