Against Nothingness

Mark Galli.  Chaos and Grace: Discovering the Liberating Work of the Holy Spirit . Baker, 2011. 203 pgs. In Chaos and Grace,  Galli asserts that the church has forgotten the character of the God we serve. We have forgotten that He is beyond our control, unpredictable, untamable, and mysterious. In His place many churches have centered their life on idols of control, peace, and order. In the midst of this situation, Galli seeks to wake us up. He spends the first half of this book examining biblical passages in which we see how God works, how chaos and grace are defining factors of walking with God; the chaos of life beyond our control, and the grace that shines through in the midst of it. The second half of the book is an analysis of current church culture, decrying our loss of touch with God Almighty and calling us back.  Galli acknowledges that the first half of his book, examining scripture with the themes of Chaos and Grace in mind, will seem odd to many as t

Hugh Halter.  Sacrilege: Finding Life in the Unorthodox Ways of Jesus . Baker, 2011.  Sacrilege  is a book out to answer one question: What does it mean to be like Jesus? The premise of the book is that Jesus was sacrilegious (that is, he de-sacralized, treated as not holy, things which had been treated as holy) and as his followers we ought to be as well. To explain what he means by this, Halter follows in the steps of the likes of Bonhoeffer and Dallas Willard in centering his answer to the books question on the beatitudes, with lots of practical advice and personal stories along the way.  In a church which clearly needs to rethink what it means to be like Jesus, this book comes as a big step in the right direction. No book could say all that needs to be said on this topic, but what Halter does have to say is worth listening to and think about. Personally, there was not much new here; people such as Bonhoeffer and Dallas Willard have said it before, and I have read t

Glen G. Scorgie, General Editor.  Dictionary of Christian Spirituality . Zondervan, 2011. 864 pgs.  Christian Spirituality has been a topic exploding with publications for a few decades now. My own introduction to the topic came through Foster's A Celebration of Discipline . Now, newly published from Zondervan, we have a dictionary devoted to this topic. This dictionary is divided into two sections. To begin, there are 34 articles on various topics within Christian Spirituality. These cover a range of topics, including definitions, methodology, history, specific practices, and explorations of the interaction of Christian Spirituality with topics such as mission and grace. The second section of this book is what you would expect: a dictionary. It contains over 700 entries defining, rather extensively if taken in dictionary terms, words within the topic of Christian Spirituality.  Generally speaking, the articles in this book are excellent. Meanwhile, the definitions of

Greg Paul.   Close Enough to Hear God Breathe: The Great Story of Divine Intimacy . Thomas Nelson, 2011. 224 pgs.  Greg Paul believes that the 'heart of the matter', the important center as we consider our relationship to God, is that we are His beloved children and we need to be in a close, loving, relationship with Him. Paul also believes that the best way to do this is to listen to the story of God. In his own words: "Listening to the Story ought to be like lying on my Father's chest, a vulnerable, beloved infant, rich with potential, the focus of his dreams for a great and noble future."  Close Enough to Hear God Breathe is Paul's attempt to draw the reader closer to God by retelling that great story in four acts: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation.  I find both the premise and method of this book to be extremely laudable. I agree with Paul on the 'heart of the matter.' I also agree that one of the best ways to grow closer an

"To some who were confident of their own righteousness  and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:   "Two men went up to the temple to pray,  one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.   The Pharisee stood up  and prayed about  himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.   I fast  twice a week and give a tenth  of all I get.'   "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast  and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'   "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." - Jesus Have you ever wondered why Jesus praises the tax collector and disparages the pharisee? You haven't. I am confident you haven't. In fact, I bet that this parable has seemed so self-evid

Compiled by Linda Washington.  Everything the Bible Says About Heaven . Bethany House Publishers, 2011. 105 pgs.  This is a book which claims, in the title, to be a collection of everything the bible says about heaven. In terms of format, it is divided 6 chapters exploring Old Testament visions of heaven, New Testament visions of heaven, heaven in Revelation, the time between death and resurrection, hearing from heaven, and who will go to heaven. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction and is then entirely made of bible verses (quoted from whatever translation the 'compiler' chose) and sometimes a brief explanatory word after the verse.  To be frank, there are so many things wrong with this book I don't even know where to start. First of all, it is plainly not "everything the bible says about heaven." This collection of verses has been sifted and selected to avoid some more difficult issues. An obvious example is how the compiler seems utterly

Bam! September is over, and my reflections are 5 days late.... Top 3 Posts of September: 1. Heaven and Hell - For the 3rd month in a row this post is on top. It is now the number one visited post on my blog by quite a ways.  2. TC: Awakening on a Mountaintop - This is one of a series of reflections which I posted following our yearly youth camp.  3. TC 2011: What Would You Do? - Another in the same series.  Yes, September was as busy as I knew it would be. It was also a lot of fun. I got to go white water rafting twice for leadership retreats, kickoff our ministries for the fall (which is why September is so busy), and I am in the middle of helping 19 students get ready to be baptized! Praise the Lord! How was your September?