Books
Click on any book cover or book title on this page to be taken to the Amazon page for that book. These are not “click through” or “affiliate” links… no way… :-)
Crazy Love
Status: First 4 chapters
I’d really have a whole lot more to say about the author than the book. The book is a faithful and just honest reflection of the author, near as I can tell (from watching the videos on his site that go with the book). So far, an amazingly good, honest, hard, but loving look at a number of things about God and the actual poor state of the church, not just His Love. God’s Love “rejoices in the truth,” so you can’t separate lack or glory, weakness or strength, gain or loss, Reality or apostasy… from truth. I’m really impressed with this guy so far. He’s not playing around either. He has some indicting things to say about the church and christendom as a whole that he doesn’t shy away from in the middle of speaking of God’s Crazy Love.
(Available from the Washington County Library)
Let Go
Status: First 4 letters (of 40)
Wow. Do NOT read this book unless you like being stabbed in the heart, every page, Hebrews 4:12 style. Wow. I’ve only read the first 4 letters and I’m on the floor. There are only 40 letters in the book and the book is only 65 pages, but this is shaping up to be like a 650 page read with the weight. You could view this as a “devotional book” but that would be a huge mistake. Nevertheless, after one read through, I plan on keeping this close at hand for those times I’ve only got 5-10 minutes and I want to plant a huge seed in about 30 seconds by reading one letter.
You can see the inside of the book at Amazon and read the first two letters and the back cover yourself. From the back cover, Fenelon was a 16th century person — neither a “preacher” or “pastor” or anything else like that… “a man just like us” — who served in the court of King Louis the XIV in France apparently with significant influence on the king himself using his profound but lowly wisdom.
Truth In Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the NT
Status: Just started
I’ve always been fascinated by translations of the Bible and textual criticism. How translations were done and more specifically, why certain passages are or were translated the way they are or were. It’s been clear to me for a long time now that men are men and when it comes to translating, it’s very, very, very difficult, no matter how well you know your Greek or Hebrew, to not bend to bias when translating. To take our modern version of “christianity” and super-impose our “understanding” of it on the translation of the scriptures. When the first century church really looked nothing like what we mostly conceive of Christianity as being.
The author really seems to be exceptionally sincere in his attempt to just let certain passages say what they say without injecting our or his own understanding into the translation, and he seems to correct some mistranslations I’ve always considered to be mistranslations (and of course some I had not considered). Everyone has bias. I do too. But knowing that we do not have to allow it to influence the final outcome. Bias is of the flesh and a temptation like anything else. We can choose to allow things to just be what they are or say what they are, and BeDuhn (as in “be done with bias” I suppose!!??) seems to be sincere in his attempt and actually pulls it off. From what I’ve read so far. Refreshing to say the least, I have to say.
Also, if you want to understand how this happened and some background on how most translations were and are made (and the politics and the traditions of men that invaribly get involved), this is shaping up to be a good read. Here is a quote from the introduction to the book that is SO applicable to so many things in christiandom aside from just biased and skewed translations:
The hardest bias to catch is one that is widely shared, and it is quite understandable that the modern views shared by Christians of many denominations would influence how the Bible is translated [or fill in the blank]. Understandable, but not acceptable. The success of numbers or of time does not guarantee truth.
Again, so so so applicable to so many things, unfortunately, outside of just “translations.” The success of numbers (“the majority do it this way, so it must be right”) or of time (“it’s always been this way — who are you to question it?!!”) does not guarantee the Truth. Thank goodness for men like Martin Luther and others who saw it that way and the few who do today. We all can be like this if we choose to be. “Discerners” as the Bible states. :-)
You can actually read a lot of this book for free, online at Google Books. Highly recommended so far.
The Church
Status: 80 of 300+ pages read
Another of many others we know or have heard about all over the world who feel man-made religion is selling us short of God’s Ultimate Intent for us all — and for Him. Seems fairly good so far. These are the kinds of things we’ve felt and been living in (as well as we can!) for about 20 years now, but oh so encouraging to see many more reach out to God in such a surrendered Way. I don’t know the author personally, but he seems to be quite a fellow! :-) A computer science professor at Purdue University. Digitally published at LuLu.com, so everyone can get their own “copy” free of charge (as it should be).
Reimaging Church
Status: Completed
This is Frank Viola’s sequel to his other book on this page called Pagan Christianity. This is supposed to be the “answer” for righting the ship. Unfortunately, while there are some good and thought-provoking parts of the book, it falls pretty far short of what God really wants in a body of Believers today. It’s not God’s intention that we merely take “church” out of the building and put it into homes, exchange pews for couches, and now “everyone gets to say something” instead of only a few people “getting to say something.” True, the NT demonstrates (esp. in 1 Corinthians 14 as well as Hebrews 3, 10 and other places) that the church as a whole PARTICIPATED, instead of just “attended” as an “audience.” But the church even then was about much more than “open participation.” The first century church was an all out assault on the world at that time and I’m not sure Reimaging Church captures the essence and the substance of that kind of church — what it would look like and how it would be built. Instead, Frank tends to describe more or less something only slightly better than a new fad which has taken christianity by storm lately called “cell churches” and “house church.”
Make no mistake there are some good and true things in the book (which I can perhaps also point out maybe at another time), but there are a quite number of bones that have to be picked out as well. Sorry. :-(
(See our post on Traditional “Church” vs. “House Church” vs. Committed Disciples for more on this.)
Right Here, Right Now
Status: Completed
Written by a personal friend and faithful brother who is a research scientist at Ohio State University. The book is essentially a “survey” of man-made religions including a man-made religion called “christianity” that bears no resemblance to what was birthed on Pentecost in the first century and what has been in God’s heart and mind for some time now — that each and every person would be drawn up into a personal experience of the God-head inside of an environment that the Holy Spirit called a community (ekklesia) of people were every single person, from the least to the greatest, was/is truly born from above and experiencing or on the road to experiencing God — “rivers of living water gushing from their bellies” is how Jesus described the experience of everyone born from above.
Jesus didn’t come to establish another “religion” — He came to draw all men up into Himself and ultimately into God. To transform every believer into His Likeness and through the observable unity of those believers, to manifest Himself to planet earth again, demonstrating to the “powers and principalities” God’s Victory over sin by changing mortal men into His Likeness and Character through the church. A church without walls or boundaries or lives that function religiously like the rest of the world with Christ as a “figurehead” instead of a Living, actively reigning Head.
The writer demonstrates fairly well, that all man-made religions have basically the same “substance.” People try to “do good things,” become as basically “moral” as they can, and dress up to go listen to sermons and speeches once a week (Muslims on Friday, Jews on Saturday, Christians on Sunday, etc.) The author explains that the first century wasn’t anything like this and it was never God’s intention that we would become just another “world religion” but that the display of Christ Himself would be evident to the world around us, Christ truly living and manifested in a people who don’t function at all like the world around them. That is what turned the 1st Century world upside down. The title refers to the fact that this can happen, “right here, right now.” It’s God’s intent, and it is happening right now, all over the world (eg. people living daily lives joined and knit to each other and to Jesus, in holiness and righteousness, simply and practically, frequently gathering around Jesus to Praise, Worship and Thank Him while burning very brightly against the dark backdrop of the world through lives that are lived in obvious contrast to it.)
This book is available online, so you can pick it up and read it whenever you like. Well written and logical as you’d expect a research scientist to be yet passionate and written with loving appeal.
Pagan Christianity
Status: Completed
All we’ll say here is what the authors, Frank Viola and George Barna, state and that is: don’t read this book, unless you are willing to have your 20 century concept of “church” turned on it’s head. :-)
The book, so far, is written in a style that one could call a cross between a “easy to read and follow, documentary style” and a “research style.” That is, the main prose itself is in easy-to-read format, but the pages are full of research footnotes to cooberate the facts the authors are presenting. (And there is no mistaking these as facts, and not just the authors’ opinions.) There are also rhetorical questions at the end of each chapter which are very cogent and informative — answers to rightly anticipated questions. If you really care about God ultimately getting the Glory that HE deserves, you really should read this book. (If you know us personally, you are of course free to borrow the book.)
Incidentally, George Barna runs a web site we’ve followed for years now called The Barna Update that is very informative and eye-opening, esp. as it relates to the state of “the church” in America and around the world today.
(This is now available at the Woodbury Washington County Library.)
Mark Of The Lion Series
Status: Completed
These are the first two books in a Christian trilogy by a Christian author we enjoy quite a lot whose name is Francine Rivers. (More on her in a bit…)
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been impacted as deeply spiritually by a “fictitious” character in a novel as I was by the Hadassah character in Voice In The Wind and Echo In The Darkness. I’ve actually been in a sort of “mourning” since finishing these two books because I was so edified, impacted and literally changed by Hadassah in these books. It was like quenching water to see her “strength perfected in weakness,” her attitude, composure, real conviction (!), eternal view of everything, and Christ-like poise in the worst of situations. Her attitude for the lost while never compromising in the tiniest way in the face of sin (as we sometimes do in the name of “love” — when it’s really weakness and compromise of the Truth we are doing) — to the point of death. As she “grew in [exhibiting] the grace and knowledge of Christ” (not just “knowing about it” in her head), she became extremely powerful, spiritually. You have to read it to understand and see it in her life, and these two books are well worth the read. I can’t put into words really how I was impacted by these books. They literally changed my life. (I can’t wait for a little bit of time to pass so I can read them again!)
NOTE!!! Please, please, PLEASE, DO NOT read these books without taking into account first the fact that the setting for these is 1st century Rome with all its decadence. Francine Rivers is very good with words and painting vivid pictures in one’s mind — which makes her an extremely good writer — and while most of the time, she showed discretion in her descriptions, there were a few places in these books in which she maybe was a little overly descriptive, especially for the male mind. If you are a teen living with your parents you should not read these books without checking with your parents first!! (You really should be working with your parents on all your endeavors as partners and as people who care about you anyways… :-))
All of that said however, part of the power and benefit of the books, in addition to Hadassah IS the environment she is in — 1st century Rome. Which is every bit like our society today where people are engaging in the same acts against God now as they were then. We’re just able to hide it better with “surgical precision” than they were with our electronic forms of sin and other sanitization techniques, usually tied to technology. But people are just as in need of release from the slavery of sin today as they were then — maybe more so because we are able to sanitize, and therefore rationalize it, so well. We shouldn’t be blinded to the fact that just because people “seem okay” that they really are…
I can’t say enough about these books. Someone I knew once (Art Katz) said that martyrdom was the high end-point and destiny of every Christian. Jesus was slaughtered like some farm animal within 3 years because religious people couldn’t STAND Him. Jesus said if they hated me, they will hate you. Read about Hadassah and see how, as pure and loving and kind and giving and Christlike as she was, she filled some people with so much hatred toward her (BECAUSE of those things!) that she was sent to the arena to die by the lions — completely innocently — as innocent and loving and kind and humble as Christ ever was. Her life was Beautiful with a capital “B.” :-)
If you are concerned about “evangelism” or any other outworking of God’s Spirit and His “strength perfected in weakness” (eg. reaching out to others, learning how to say “No!” to ungodliness, no matter what the cost instead of “going along with the crowd,” holiness, purity, love of Righteousness, what it means to pray, etc. — the key to all of these “outworkings” really is simply the overflow of Jesus through you to others!! [John 15, which is exactly where Jesus said "if they hated me, they will hate you", so it's all the same context!!]) and you would like a picture painted of what that would look like, these two books should help. Susy, Bethany and I were very impacted.
~chris
(Available at the Woodbury Washington County Library in paperback as well as on audio book, compact disc. Also, if you have a Washington County library card, you can download the audio books to listen to on your computer or any portable media player that handles DRM [Digital Rights Media -- means it WON'T work in an iPod... :-( ])
Fox
Status: Completed
Fox is a story about a dog, a bird (a magpie) and… a fox. The dog is noble. The dog and the bird both have deficiencies which they together alleviate by becoming co-dependent on one another in a brotherly love relationship (at dog’s noble insistence and encouragement).
Fox is about how we perfect one another as God intends by truly, in a grass-roots kind of way (not just “in theory!”), submitting our weaknesses to one another in a Love/Trust relationship and together SEEing one another SOAR in the Spirit (“fly” in the book) in Freedom and in Love (instead of living in an “us four and no more” kind of way — 2 Corinthians 12:9,10; 1 Corinthians 12-13; Romans 12; Ephesians 4). And it’s about what happens when “foxes” come in with “promises,” thinking only of themselves, and selfishly destroy that Love and Life and Freedom and Perfection… :-( Not bad for 20 pages!
Makes for a great little read, discussion, and seed-planting time with your little ‘uns. Feel free to borrow it if you’d like.
(Also available at the Woodbury Washington County Library.)
The Giver
Status: Completed
The Giver is an allegory about “the establishment” and the “established order” of things — systems set in place in order to exert control (for predetermined results), or remove risk (to promote comfort and create predictability) and to reduce or remove pain and conflict — which seems so desirable. But some unpredictability to our universes, risk and pain are large parts of God’s Universe, and when we seek to eliminate these things or avoid them through “systematization” and pretense, we remove some of the most powerful agents of change God intends in our lives. “Good intentions” such as these and those reflected in the book almost always leads to unintended effects, and this is reflected in the book and mirrors what we also loose in real life when we build this way. (Paul said “be careful how you build!” — what we do and how we choose to do it, DOES matter!!)
So the book is allegorical about something quite prevalent in our own world in so many situations, where men tend to build with uniform bricks, predictability, conformity and “methods” whereas God Builds with unique Living Stones, freshness, and dynamic, Organic Relationships… And the fruit from these two approaches is quite different!!
This was quite a thought provoking book with many critical, real-life Spiritual parallels.
(Also available at the Woodbury Washington County Library.)
27 Feb 2008 Susy
