Hey all! I know, it's been a while. I apologize. I have no excuses.
But I haven't been completely wasting my time. And to prove it, here's an album a friend and I just finished for our church. It's FREE right now on NoiseTrade and we'd be honored if you downloaded a copy and shared it with friends. Merry Christmas!
Easter is impossible without Good Friday, and Good Friday is empty without Easter. Here are a few free resources to help you reflect on both this weekend:
Free Books Okay, so I know that two of these books are actually one cent, but I figured you'd want to know about them anyway. Feel free to leave a comment below if you're like "No! One cent is too much to pay for a whole book!" and I'm sure some Good Samaritan will be happy to spot you the cash.
FREE
FREE
$0.01
$0.01
Free Music
A three-song EP featuring an awesome treatment of The Old Rugged Cross and two originals including one I wrote called "He Is Risen Indeed".
In Luke 15, the author recounts an instance in Jesus’ ministry when the religious leaders grumbled at the way Jesus received the “tax collectors and sinners”. In response, Jesus tells three parables that illustrate the state of those lost in sin, the heart of Jesus and his Father for the lost, and their work to redeem the lost. While Tim Keller has written extensively and compellingly on the parable of the prodigal son, I find the common themes between the three stories equally stunning.
1. The Lost - The cumulative nature of the things lost in Jesus’ three parables are powerfully parallel to the state of fallen humanity lost in sin. Like the sheep, we are wandering and weak. Like the coin we are lifeless and in the dark. Like the son, we are rebellious and running recklessly headlong into sin.
2. The Redemption - Likewise, the nature of the one seeking the lost in each parable gives us a rich picture of God the Father. Like the shepherd, God comes after the ones that are lost and does not rest until they are found. Like the woman, God comes with light into our darkness and sweeps the corners of creation to find us. And like the father of the prodigal, God rejects our attempts at earning back his favor and our self-justification, and instead embraces and kisses us before we have done anything whatsoever to merit it.
3. The Rejoicing - I find it curious that the one explicit point of the three parables that Jesus actually takes time away from his storytelling to highlight (vv. 7, 10) is the one point that often gets lost in our retelling of them. Jesus is telling these to show the joy in heaven “over one sinner who repents”. And, given the bookends of the chapter starting with grumbling Pharisees and ending with a grumbling brother, Jesus’ implicit second point is how unlike the Father these disgruntled groups (and we?) are being.
Implications For Life and Ministry - Working backwards, we should rejoice at the lost being found as the Father rejoices. It’s so easy to get comfortable in a sanitized, church-y bubble, that the first tax collector or sinner to walk in the doors could be seen as an offense, not an opportunity. Celebrate when people get saved. Throw parties! Try your hardest to match the riotous rejoicing going on in heaven with your own celebrations down here.
We should also seek like the Father seeks, going after the lost, bringing light into darkness, and embracing those who have rebelled. This means the true threat isn't that of sinners upon our sanitized, church-y bubble, but instead, our bubble is actually a threat to the Father’s true mission of reaching those very sinners! It needs to be popped. This obviously requires some wisdom, especially for those prone to join the prodigal in his rebellion. This is why we are on mission as a church, as a body, not individuals. No Christian is Jack Bauer, a solo agent who work better alone. Mission is the call of the body, and we can only fulfill the mission with the body and Christ as our head.
OK, so you believe in God or some sort of higher power, what next? There are lots of different options and opinions out there, lots of different views about God. Where should you start?
In this video, we offer 6 reasons why a spiritual seeker, someone who's open to the existence of God but still checking out the different religions, should start their spiritual quest with Christianity.
This material is loosely based on the intellectual and apologetic work of Craig Hazen in his book, Five Sacred Crossings: A Novel. These videos are a ministry of Redeemer Church in Omaha, NE. If
you're ready to check out Christianity, why not join us this Sunday
morning!
6 Reasons a Spiritual Seeker Should Start With Christianity
I was standing there alone in the middle of the room, and everyone was waiting for me to decide.
Although it happened more than two decades ago and a full two thirds of my life has since passed, I still remember the incident vividly. I was in second grade and the teacher had written a brain teaser up on the chalk board along with two different answers. One answer was on the right side of the board, the other on the left. One answer was right, the other wrong. Then she had everyone stand up and gave one simple instruction.
"Walk to the side of the board that you think has the correct answer."
One by one my classmates made their decision. And one by one, they all walked to the same side of the board. But I stood at my desk frozen. Frozen because no one stood by the answer that I was knew was the right answer. I was certain I was right, which meant I was certain all of my classmates were wrong.
And my second grade brain exploded. Not only with the logic problem on the board, but also the sociological problem forming before me. I was weighing risks and rewards. Being right all by myself would be awesome, but being wrong all by myself would be humiliating. Siding with the rest of my classmates would be safe, whether they were right or not.
In the end, I sided with the crowd.
I played it safe. And I hated myself for it. Sure enough, the entire classroom (myself included) had walked to the wrong side of the board. The bag of candy that would have gone to the students with the right answer instead went back into the teacher's desk. But the agony of missing out on some free candy was dwarfed by the angst I felt at the realization that I'd made my decision based not on what I thought was the right answer, but rather based on what I thought was the socially safe answer.
My heart idol is human approval.
My pastor just preached on idolatry this week, and I realized that I've still got the same idol that I had all the way back in second grade. When you're a kid, they call it peer pressure. When you're grown, they
call it being a people-pleaser. But now I see it for what it really is.
For me, it's an idol. It's my functional savior that I run to to find my
self-worth, my validation, my meaning.
When I worship at this false god, I want the approval of my peers more than I want what I know is right. Nowadays it's not so much that I'm choosing to be wrong with the crowd rather than be right alone. Instead, I make the decisions that are socially safe, rather than the decisions that I know are best. Deep down, when I worship at the idol of human approval, my first question is not "What will God think of this decision?" but rather "What will others think of this decision?"
All of us have our own idols.
Most of them aren't bad things. A job. Your spouse. Your kids. Even "sex, power, and money" aren't bad in themselves, despite what you may have heard. But as Mark Driscoll has memorably said, "When a good thing becomes a god thing, that's a bad thing." When we look to a created thing to provide for us what only the Creator can provide (meaning, significance, acceptance, approval, ultimate joy, comfort, security), not only do we set ourselves up for disappointment, but we commit idolatry in the process.
Do you know what your idols are? Do you know how to go about finding them? In closing, I'll share a clip from my pastor's sermon on how to find your idols.
As you discover your idols, however, don't despair. There is an answer and it's the one Pastor Lee closes the video with. We worship our way into idolatry, we must worship our way out. But more on that in the next post.
Just in time for Easter! Amazon is offering Cold-Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace (Kindle edition) for free for a limited time. I'm actually reading this book right now (in print, as you might have guessed if you follow this blog), and really enjoying the fresh approach to Christian apologetics.
The similarities between J. Warner Wallace and Lee Strobel are strong (former atheists using their professional expertise to examine the claims of Christianity) but I dare to say I enjoy Wallace's writing and approach even better than Strobel's. There just seems to be less of an agenda behind the writing of a cold-case homicide detective than that of an investigative reporter (at some point, Strobel's feigned skepticism just started to feel too forced).
"Christianity could be defined as a “cold case”: it makes a claim about an event from the distant past for which there is little forensic evidence. In Cold-Case Christianity, J. Warner Wallace uses his nationally recognized skills as a homicide detective to look at the evidence and eyewitnesses behind Christian beliefs. Including gripping stories from his career and the visual techniques he developed in the courtroom, Wallace uses illustration to examine the powerful evidence that validates the claims of Christianity."
Imagine with me, if you will, that you're a rookie news reporter and tonight is your first (and probably only) shot at anchoring the evening news. Normally you'd be thrilled at the opportunity but there's just one problem: all the news is bad.
I mean, really bad.
War looms on multiple fronts as both your neighboring countries aim all their military firepower at your tiny nation. Many (including some of your own family) sit behind enemy lines as prisoners of war. The lives that aren't risked in battle are equally in jeopardy as a mysterious virus sweeps the country taking more lives every day. National debt is soaring along with the personal debt of everyone you know (yourself included). Loans are defaulting and banks are now resorting to old-school tactics and sending thugs to "collect". And the only hope—the one man looked to by the nation to lead them out of this crisis—has suddenly and unexpectedly died.
As you make a last minute review of your notes, however, the studio doors burst open.
"It's over!" the intruder shouts. "The war is over!" He excitedly explains how one of your neighboring countries called for peace, then turned their guns on your nation's other adversary, sending them into a full retreat and freeing the POWs in the process. But before he could even finish, the door flies wide again.
"They found a cure! A cure to that epidemic that's been killing everybody!"
"And ALL the debts are getting paid off!" shouted two more people in close succession. "The national debt has been paid and in response the banks are making a one-time pardon on all credit card debt!"
Once more the studio doors slam against the wall as they're thrown open.
"You'll never believe this, but he's alive!" the last intruder shouts. "The details are fuzzy, but..."
"We go live in TEN SECONDS, everyone!" your producer shouts.
As you clear your throat and prepare for the signal of the camera man—barely keeping a ridiculous grin from spreading across your face—your co-host leans over and whispers: "Share the good news. Use words if necessary."
Ridiculous, right? Peace with one enemy. Victory over the other. Prisoners set free. The sick are healed. Debts are paid. Your savior is alive. And you're asked to restrain your tongue? Nobody would say something like that.
And yet...
We hear it all the time. "Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary." I suppose I understand the sentiment behind it. The news should be so transforming, so life-changing, that our very lives and conduct reflect the effects of the good news without a word being spoken. But the thing that is transforming and life-changing is the good news, not our good lives. Good news must be shared, proclaimed.
As Paul said in Romans:
How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will
they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear
without a preacher? (10:14)
With Easter less than a week away, who are you sharing the good news with?
There are many challenges that get leveled at Christianity, but none of them hits at the heart of the faith like this one: "Did Jesus really rise from the dead?". Even Paul admitted as much in 1 Corinthians 15 saying, "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain".
So if you or someone you know is wrestling with this very question, let me point you to a couple things that came across my Google Reader this week (I know, it's going away, I'm sad too):
Some things are harder to believe than others. Believing that Jesus
was a bona fide historical figure… few, if any, seriously doubt there
really was a Jesus of Nazareth who preached a message of repentance and
reconciliation with God and was later crucified (even if many attempt to
redefine the purpose of these events).
Then, there’s the resurrection…
For a lot of people, this is far more difficult an idea to swallow,
particularly those of us who were raised on a steady diet of empirical
naturalism.
The idea that Jesus was crucified—we can accept that. But that He
rose again? That’s a bit much, isn’t it? Surely it had to have been made
up.
Three alternatives to the resurrection
Because we don’t have a category for the supernatural, we look for
alternative explanations—and there are a LOT of alternatives floating
around regarding the resurrection of Jesus. Yet, there’s a lot of
consistency between them, with the majority being variations on one of
three options:
(...)
If you doubt the resurrection, I’m glad. Anything worth believing has
to be worth questioning, but don’t let your questions slip away
unanswered. Don’t reduce your doubts to a state of unsettled cynicism.
Wrestle with your doubts. Find answers.
If you call yourself a believer and a skeptic, don’t settle for pat
proofs, emotional experiences, or duty-driven religion. Keep asking
questions. Those who haven’t questioned their faith can easily become
doctrinaire, even detached from the everyday struggle of faith. Whether
you are a skeptic, believer, or somewhere in between, press into your
faith or push into your doubt. Question your faith and question your
doubts. Determine good reasons for believing or not believing in the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. If he really did defeat death, it changes
everything. Doubt well and you can walk away from skepticism, cynicism,
or blind faith into perceptive belief, intellectual security, and deeper
commitment. You can know that you have honestly questioned the resurrection. (...)
Download Raised? Doubting the Resurrection by Jonathan K. Dodson & Brad Watson for free! Kindle (.mobi) | iBooks (.epub) | PDF
Just at the beginning of the month, I came on staff at my church full time. And let me tell you, the pressure in a mere two weeks (largely that I have placed on myself) to step up my game has surprised me. The drive to be professional, polished, prepared, proficient—the performance trap had swallowed me whole. So the arrival of John Piper's revised edition of Brothers, We Are Not Professionals could not have come at a better time. These were challenges and questions that I needed to consider as I evaluated the tendencies of my own heart. As Piper asks in his new preface:
Is there professional praying?
Is there professional trusting in God's promises?
Is there professional weeping over souls?
Is there professional musing on the depths of revelation?
Is there professional rejoicing over truth?
Is there professional treasuring the riches of Christ?
Is there professional walking by the Spirit?
Is there professional exercise of spiritual gifts?
Is there professional courage in the face of persecution?
The beauty in Piper's plea is that it relieves us of the burden of oppressive professionalism—and calls us to humble, Spirit-empowered ministry in one sweeping movement.
But this book isn't just a caution against the slick and skillful specialist/pastor ideal. Within this book lies the heartbeat of Piper's ministry and writing in seed-form. The themes and passions of John Piper's pastoral life are here as well. With chapter titles like "God Loves His Glory", "Live and Preach Justification by Faith", "Consider Christian Hedonism", "Give Them Passion for Missions", and "Sever the Root of Racism", I cannot help but think of books like Desiring God, Finally Alive, and Bloodlines. In deed, this book is as much as anything else a survey of Piper's teaching and writing over the years, and that is by no means a criticism.
But speaking of criticisms, if I have one of the book it is that Piper has given himself a fine line to try to walk between what he is calling us away from and what he is calling us to. While the high bar of professionalism in the ministry has it's pitfalls, it is not the only high bar that pastors may set for themselves. In back to back chapters he challenges us to become students of the original Hebrew and Greek texts and of Christian biographies. This is not to say that I don't think either of these things are greatly beneficial! But if our aim is to deconstruct the professionalist tendencies of the pastorate, we must be careful not to merely trade one elite class of preacher for another.
While Brothers, We Are Not Professionals may not be Piper's most seminal work, it is quite possibly his most comprehensive. Thus I would say this book is not only a must read for pastors, but it is a great place to start for anyone who would like an overview of mosof Piper's other writings. The chapters are rarely longer than six or seven pages; short enough read and meditate on (or cram in between meetings). But the weight and gravity of the challenges here will take a lifetime apply. And lest your own bent towards performance is already despairing at that thought, let Piper's prayer correct:
"Banish professionalism from our midst, Oh God, and in its place put passionate prayer, poverty of spirit, hunger for God, rigorous study of holy things, white-hot devotion to Jesus Christ, utter indifference to all material gain, and unremitting labor to rescue the perishing, perfect the saints, and glorify our sovereign Lord. In Jesus' great and powerful name. Amen."
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommended for: Pastors and those looking for a survey of Piper's works
For just a week (until 1/15) WTSBooks is offering all of their 2012 bestsellers at 50% off retail.
While I'm certain that every title it excellent, the following would certainly be my highlights of the list:
Temptation is common to the human experience. And how we handle it is all too common as well, often either quickly caving or white-knuckling through it in sheer self-determination. So when we read the biblical account of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, it is easy to see the overt supernatural elements at work, the magnificent scope of the seductions, and Jesus' flawless victory and see no connection between his testings and our own.
This is a mistake. In Tempted and Tried, Russell D. Moore magnificently draws the lines between the common temptations of the sons of men and the Son of Man. In his own words, "You will be tempted exactly as Jesus was, because Jesus was being tempted exactly as we are . . . You will be tempted to provide for yourself, to protect yourself, and to exalt yourself." Not only that, but he shows how the victory of Jesus reveals a power and promise of our own victory once we see it rightly. Again from Moore: "The same Spirit who led Jesus through the wilderness and empowered him to overcome the Evil One now surges through all of us who are joined by faith to Jesus. We overcome temptation the same way he did, by trusting in our Father and hearing his voice."
Russell structures the book around the three different temptations: self-directed provision, protection, and exaltation. Every enticement from Satan (and our own sinfulness) essentially tells us to cut God out of the loop and take matters into our own hands regarding our desires, our identity, and our future. Without getting clunky or wordy, Moore has crafted a book that is theologically rich, easily accessible and—more often than not—practical.
If I had one gripe about the book, it was structural. While I read quite a bit, the chapters felt too long (there's only seven chapters for a book of almost 200 pages). Publishers use tricks like short chapters and frequent section breaks within chapters to make a book feel more readable and friendly, but there are few of both here. It almost felt like a sermon series turned book where every chapter is a sermon.
That critique aside, Tempted and Tried is well worth the added work and discipline it takes to get through the long chapters. There are unique insights and deep wisdom that hold the gospel up as the only answer to true victory against our temptations—victory that exceeds white-knuckling it through our illicit desires and avoids jury-rigging the heart with fear or pride.
"The gospel exposes you as a sinner, and the gospel embraces you as a son or daughter." Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars
Recommended for: Every Christian struggling with a besetting sin, and every Christian who thinks they're not
I've worked in the service industry longer than I have in the church (at least as far as payroll is concerned). I am currently still bi-vocational and work part-time at my church and full-time as a shuttle driver for a hotel here in Omaha. I am paid below minimum wage, so tipping is an expected part of my income by my employers.
I've experienced good tippers and bad ones, but the most memorable ones were those whom I knew were Christians and yet tipped like they were Pharisees (All law, no grace. Bare minimum, no generosity). Particularly painful to me have been the large groups of Christians who occasionally take over the hotel for an event and the entire group tips poorly, because I know I'm not the only one who's tempted to form an opinion of these Christians by their tipping. I've even found myself apologizing to co-workers on behalf of other Christians and trying to use the opportunity as a springboard into presenting the gospel. Believe me, that's a tough sell (perhaps I'll write a post on that in the near future). But for now, I want share some guidelines I formed for myself after serving just such Christians.
1. Your tip should reflect Christian generosity. God's generosity towards us should affect the bank account, every Christian knows that. But there is perhaps no better test on how great a hold the idol of mammon still has on us than how we tip. Disagree? "What about giving to the church and charities?", you ask. But both of those we do with our "Christian hat" on, when we give to such things we are acting out of our Christian sensibilities. When you tip, however, I bet you're all business. Right down to the penny (or rounded to the dollar if your lazy or bad at math). My brothers, this should not be!
2. Your tip should demonstrate grace—not law. If there's a problem with my meal, the last thing I do is take it out of the tip. I want to give the server every chance to make up what could be honest mistakes or problems out of their control. To begin subtracting from the tip before giving the server an opportunity to make it right reflects the heart of a hard-nosed legalist, not a heart stricken by grace.
But—and this is a huge "but"—nothing models gospel grace like a generous tip even after a server has blown it, been made aware of it, and was unable or failed to "make it right". I know this is a hard pill to swallow for many of you (myself included), but why should the tip be the last thing to be impacted by the grace that has been poured out on us? I've talked to Christians who will simply gush about the grace of Christ towards us . . . and then not think twice about leaving a terrible tip for terrible service. Why reinforce the system of law by which the whole world runs when we have the resources of grace to draw from?
3. Your tip should embody the gospel. I know, I know. "Embody the gospel? In a tip?!" But if the gospel really is the all-encompassing reality that it is, then it should affect every area of our lives, and every area of our lives can reflect it. When Christians tip, we should not only give more than expected (point 1), and give more than deserved (point 2), your tip should be a tangible outgrowth of the grace and generosity you yourself have received as not just an undeserving but ill-deserving sinner. We have all performed below what was expected of us and even in direct rebellion against the one we were made to serve. And yet the gospel is that God gave out of his riches both generously beyond what we could have hoped for and graciously beyond what we ever could have earned. And if God has given out his endless and bottomless generosity on our behalf, we have that same treasury to draw from. The gospel allows us to release our vice-grip on earthly riches and instead use it as a tool for the gospel.
Bonus point: Don't leave a gospel tract unless you've done points 1-3. So maybe gospel tracts aren't your thing (they probably aren't unless your 40 or older). My church encourages members to take our pens with them and leave them around. I have business cards with all the church info on it. But if you have anything you like to leave in the name of evangelism, don't leave it unless you are tipping out of generosity, grace, and the gospel. To leave a gospel tract with an average or poor tip is unattractive at best. To leave a gospel tract instead of a tip is downright detrimental. That's like saying, "You need this and I know it. I need this and I don't know it." If your tip doesn't grow out of the gospel message of grace and generosity, then your tract probably won't communicate it.
Can't afford to tip this way? Then, as one in the service industry, I would suggest one of two things. Either eat at fast/casual restaurants where you place your order at a counter and no tip is expected, or dine out in such a way that no one knows your a Christian (i.e. no prayer, no "Jesus talk", no books at the table with crosses on the front). I think you know which option I would suggest.
Feedback: Have you ever worked in the service industry? What do you think is a good tip? Do you think a gospel tract left with the tip is ever effective?
Recently, someone from church asked me to recommend some books for Christian guys who want to grow as Christians, as leaders, and as men. The following brief list was my recommendation:
Date Your Wife - Justin Buzzard
I know, I know, you're not married yet. But this book spends more time
talking about what it means to be a man, created in the image of God,
and what it means to be a faithful image bearer than it does about being
married.
Crazy Love - Francis Chan Not just a book for men, but a book that uses simple speak to say some challenging things to the church. It will push you. Don't Waste Your Life - John Piper
One of my favorite authors and preachers, this is a partially
autobiographical book about how John came to realize the only thing
worth pursuing in life.
Death By Love - Mark Driscoll
I don't think there's more of a man's man preacher/author than Mark
Driscoll. While none of his books are specifically on manhood, this is
probably his strongest and most forceful book to date.
The Masculine Mandate - Richard Phillips
I've just started reading this, so I can't give you a hearty
endorsement yet, but what I've read is good and this is as close as my
recommendations have come to a book on biblical manhood.
The Explicit Gospel is vintage Matt Chandler all the way. I really wanted to love this book. It had everything going for it: a dynamic pastor in his debut print offering, a trusted publisher, and the hottest topic in Christian literature right now. Alas, the book I hold in my hands is not the book I had dreamed up in my head, and thus I had to settle for merely liking the book.
Don't get me wrong, this is a good book and worth the price of admission. However (as a subscriber to Matt's sermon podcast for years now) I was hoping that sitting down and writing out his content would force Chandler to reign in some of his rabbit-trails and awkward trains of thought. Unfortunately, this was not the case. And only adding to the confusion, Jared Wilson's name also appears on the cover, but I finished the book still at a loss as to what exactly his contribution was (even after a prolonged search).
But—and this is a huge "but"—if Matt Chandler's clarity in his train of thought suffers at times, his clarity about the gospel stands out all the more starkly. Matt Chandler bleeds the gospel. When he gets excited, he gets excited about the gospel. When Matt Chandler goes off on a rabbit-trail, he rabbit-trails to the gospel. If we must choose to sacrifice clarity regarding something, it is better by far to sacrifice clarity on a train of thought rather than clarity on the gospel. Only one thing is needed. Matt has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from him.
In the end, I am happy to recommend The Explicit Gospel because it has a burning center of gospel heat. While it didn't always suit the tastes of my logical, linear, Enlightenment-addled mind, my heart was inflamed at the beauty and the sufficiency of the gospel. I'm sure Matt would be the first to say along with Paul, "For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not
with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of
its power." If that's not the explicit gospel, I don't know what is.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Recommended for: Pastors, fans of Trevin Wax and Jared C. Wilson
This book was a free review copy provided by Crossway.
Without a doubt, the strongest contender for the title so far this year is A Shot of Faith to the Head by Mitch Stokes, PhD. While I had heard nothing about the book (or the author, for that matter) before receiving it, once I had picked it up and started in, I couldn't put it down.
"Finally," I thought to myself as I read, "someone who's matching the atheists not only on the level of arguments (which many good Christians apologists have done), but also on the level of wit, sarcasm and biting intellect." After all, if the New Atheists have done anything well, they have so ridiculed the supposed anti-intellectualism of Christianity that even smart Christians feel they must compromise or live a contradiction. Stokes has now begun to level the playing field and not only show that we have reason on our side, but that the New Atheists should be ashamed of their scathing condescension and perhaps consider their own contradictions for once.
If I may give a spoiler by way of summarizing the book, A Shot of Faith to the Head broadly covers three areas: rationality, design, and absolute (moral) standards. Stokes shows how the atheist depends on one or more of these ideas every time they present their arguments, yet all three of these ideas have no grounding in the atheist's world, only in the theist's. As Stokes concludes:
"The notions of design, rationality, and absolute standards cannot
exist in a naturalistic world, the world of the atheists. Without
absolute standards—of which there must be many—their worldview would
entirely collapse.
"And this poses a serious problem for any atheist who claims that
belief in God is irrational. In fact, it takes the legs right out from
under such a claim. If there is no designer, then there is no proper
function, and therefore there is no such thing as irrationality. But
then there’s no such thing as rationality either. There’s only a
sterile, impersonal “desert landscape. Beliefs are neither rational nor
irrational. They just are."
This book was a delight to read and an honor to recommend.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Recommended for: Apologists, philosophers, anyone challenged or threatened by the ideas of the New Atheists
This book was a free review copy provided by Thomas Nelson.
Tim Keller defines defeater beliefs as any culture's "'common-sense' consensus beliefs that automatically make Christianity seem implausible to people." If I may be so bold as to add to the wisdom of Tim Keller, I would suggest that any belief that makes Christianity unnecessary or inconsequential would fall into such a category as well. And of all the beliefs that make Christianity unnecessary or inconsequential, there is perhaps none more common than the one confronted in this book: "all good people go to heaven".
In How Good Is Good Enough?, Andy Stanley spends the first two thirds of the book dismantling this defeater belief, clearing the way for a clear and compassionate gospel presentation. The dismantling of the "good people go to heaven" belief is surprising simple, primarily because it is so often assumed and so rarely analyzed. The frailty of this assumption is quickly revealed as Stanley begins measuring it against a few questions (the first of which is the title of the book).
Consider. How do you know when/if you're good enough? According to whose standard of goodness? Jesus? Buddha? Mohammed? And if God is good, shouldn't he have communicated a little more clearly that standard and where exactly the cut-off line is? And the kicker in my mind: no matter where the line is, what do you say to the poor sap who falls below that line by one measly good dead? That he missed the cut-off for heaven and is now in hell because of one white lie? One errant word? One stolen piece of candy as a child?
To put it another way: if a passing grade is 3.0, what do you tell the schmuck who scores a 2.999? "Sorry chump, to hell with you and Hitler and Pol Pot"."All good people go to heaven" is often touted as a much fairer option against the Christian view of the afterlife. Yet, like a good apologist, Stanley shows that this approach to eternity fails at its own test of fairness and equality.
I can't decide if How Good Is Good Enough? is a really short book (92 small pages) or a long gospel tract, but either way it's well worth adding to your library so that you are ready to loan it or cite it next time someone says "Well that's great if Christianity works for you, but I'm just trying to be a good person".
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars
Recommended for: Every Christian
This book was a free review copy provided by Multnomah Books.
The college years can be an intimidating stage of life for anyone, but I imagine this is doubly true for the Christian teen attending a secular institution. Mind Your Faith by David A. Horner is meant to address just such students and the near-inevitable crisis of faith that can confront them. As Horner points out, these crises typically assault three areas of the student's life: the mind, the faith, and the character. Undoubtedly, these three areas overlap and influence each other, but Horner neatly handles them in that order (which incidentally forms the outline of the book).
Horner ably navigates (and creatively names) such chapters as "Thinking Contextually: Find Common Ground", "Thinking Worldviewishly: Connect the Dots" and "The Credibility of Faith: Worldviewish Apologetics". The depth and wisdom of Horner's writing is balanced well by personal accounts of his own university experience.
Throughout the book, Horner is intelligent and in-depth. The greatest strength of this book, however, is also it's greatest weakness. As a college professor at Biola University, Horner is uniquely positioned to coach prospective college students in these challenges. But it seems his biggest difficulty was remembering that his target audience for the book is not his college students, but high school students. I readily admit that both the size (272 pages) and depth of the book would have scared me off as a high schooler.
This is not to say the book is a waste of time. I would simply recommend it for a different demographic. This book is perfectly suited for those students already in undergrad or graduate classes or student ministry leaders who are working with high school students.
If my thoughts here ever made their way back to Horner or the publisher, my suggestion would be simple: Mind Your Faith For Dummies (I know, I think it would sell too!).
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Recommended for: Teen ministry leaders, parents, college students
This book was a free review copy provided by InterVarsity Press.
Discipleship isn't exactly the hottest thing in Christianity these days. While the parachurch organizations of a couple decades ago firmly planted their flags in this ground, the evangelical church of the new millennium seems to have moved away from discipleship (at least in name) or altogether replaced it with small groups. (Case in point: while the concept of discipleship remains, my church uses "apprenticeship" to emphasize a thrust towards getting disciples involved in and serving the church.)
The other liability of a title like Gospel-Centered Discipleship is that it risks limiting the audience of this book more than it deserves. While the book begins and ends addressing the ideas of the gospel and discipleship, half of the chapters at the heart of this book address the gospel and sanctification and deserve to be read by more than just those Christians who consider themselves either "disciple" or "discipler".
All in all, Gospel-Centered Discipleship is a solid book that I am sure I will be loaning out a lot. This book merits a broader audience than the title and cover art(?) may draw. Here's hoping that we can help fix that!
Stay tuned to Christians In Context (my other blog)! (i.e. subscribe if you haven't already) We will be giving away a copy of Gospel-Centered Discipleship sometime in the next couple of weeks!
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars
Recommended for: Disciples of Jesus, whether you are currently in a discipleship relationship or not
This book was a free review copy provided by Crossway.
Jared is the worship pastor at Redeemer Church in Omaha, NE. Jared moved to Omaha for university, stayed after that for a rock band, and stayed even longer after that for a girl. He tweets for this blog at @cicblog
2. The Redemption - Likewise, the nature of the one seeking the lost in each parable gives us a rich picture of God the Father. Like the shepherd, God comes after the ones that are lost and does not rest until they are found. Like the woman, God comes with light into our darkness and sweeps the corners of creation to find us. And like the father of the prodigal, God rejects our attempts at earning back his favor and our self-justification, and instead embraces and kisses us before we have done anything whatsoever to merit it. 
Just in time for Easter! Amazon is offering Cold-Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace (Kindle edition) for free for a limited time. I'm actually reading this book right now (in print, as you might have guessed if you follow this blog), and really enjoying the fresh approach to Christian apologetics.
Then, there’s the resurrection…
If you doubt the resurrection, I’m glad. Anything worth believing has to be worth questioning, but don’t let your questions slip away unanswered. Don’t reduce your doubts to a state of unsettled cynicism. Wrestle with your doubts. Find answers.
Is there professional praying? 
The Explicit Gospel is vintage Matt Chandler all the way. I really wanted to love this book. It had everything going for it: a dynamic pastor in his debut print offering, a trusted publisher, and the hottest topic in Christian literature right now. Alas, the book I hold in my hands is not the book I had dreamed up in my head, and thus I had to settle for merely liking the book. 
The college years can be an intimidating stage of life for anyone, but I imagine this is doubly true for the Christian teen attending a secular institution. Mind Your Faith by David A. Horner is meant to address just such students and the near-inevitable crisis of faith that can confront them. As Horner points out, these crises typically assault three areas of the student's life: the mind, the faith, and the character. Undoubtedly, these three areas overlap and influence each other, but Horner neatly handles them in that order (which incidentally forms the outline of the book).
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