Overall Book Ratings for 2011

Although I still have a few (8 actually....wow) to post for my 2011 reading list, I have finished all of my books for this year (finished last night, just in time!). Here is my list in order of which books I thought were a combination of best-written, highest clarity, most valuable (important), and overall which book I would most recommend to someone!

1. Just Do Something, by Kevin DeYoung

2. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy, by Eric Metaxas

3. The Pursuit of God, by A.W. Tozer

4. Generous Justice, by Timothy Keller

5. When The Bottom Drops Out: Finding Grace in the Depths of Disappointment, Robert Bugh

6. Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God, by John Piper

7. What Does God Know and When Does He Know It?, by Millard J. Erickson

8. The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun, by Brother Yun

9. Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate, by Jerry Bridges

10. The God Who Risks: A Theology of Divine Providence, by John Sanders 

11. Seeking and Savoring Jesus Christ, by John Piper

12. God’s Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism, by Bruce Ware

13. Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living as if He Doesn't Exist, by Craig Groeschel 

14. God of the Possible, by Gregory Boyd

15. Strengths Finder 2.0, by Tom Rath

16. Rites of Passage: A Father's Blessing, by Jim McBride

17. Churched: One Kids' Journey Toward God Despite A Holy Mess, by Paul Turner 

Check out the reviews I've already written if you're interested in one of the books as well, and keep an eye out for my last reviews in the next two weeks!

Stay tuned for my 2012 Reading List!

Review of "Just Do Something" by Kevin DeYoung

Wow. This little book by a pastor in university-city Michigan contained much more wisdom than I anticipated. I know in my review of Pursuit of God, I said, "nearly this entire book is quotable." I don't want to sound like a broken record, but nearly this entire book is quotable.

In this book, DeYoung attempts to help the reader understand how to make biblically-wise decisions without relying on "dreams, visions, fleeces, impressions, open doors, random Bible verses, casting lots, liver shivers, writing in the sky, etc." He succeeds in spades.

What I Liked:
DeYoung calls things like they are. He beautifully mixes humor, pith, biblical exposition, challenges, and understanding into an extremely accessible volume. Some authors spend several hundred pages saying a fraction of what DeYoung communicates into a 123 page book. I read it in just a few days, but have been digesting it for weeks.

My favorite part of this book is that he deals with the logic behind our interaction with the "will of God" and helps us understand how we think, why we think that way, and why most of our thoughts about how God works is not biblical. But he doesn't simply diagnose the problem. In the second half of the book, he helps the reader apply biblical truths into how we please God with our futures. That is, he gives us practical ways to make decisions based on Scripture. This book was a breath of fresh air.

Favorite Quotations:
- "Waiting for God's will of direction is a mess. It is bad for your life, harmful to your sanctification, and allows too many Christians to be passive tinkerers who strangely feel more spiritual the less they actually do."

- "That's often what we are asking for when we pray to know the will of God. We aren't asking for holiness, or righteousness, or an awareness of sin. We want God to tell us what to do so everything will turn out pleasant for us."

- "We risk because God does not risk. We walk into the future in God-glorifying confidence not because the future is known to us, but because it is known to God. And that's all we need to know. Worry about the future is not simply a character tic, it is the sin of unbelief, an indication that our hearts are not resting in the promises of God."      <----- that's what we call a verbal punch to the gut.


- "The only chains God wants us to wear are the chains of righteousness - not the chains of hopeless subjectivism, not the shackles of risk-free living, not the fetters of horoscope decision making - just the chains befitting a bond servant of Christ Jesus. Die to self. Live for Christ. And then do what you want, and go where you want, for God's glory."

Recommendation:
This review isn't very in-depth because the book is so short and so full of godly wisdom that I simply want you to go out and read it. All of you.

My Words Fail

In his blog today, Kevin DeYoung differentiated between story-telling and preaching and it got me thinking. Personally, I love to tell stories. Like many others, I find that I am easily swept up in a strong/compelling narrative whether it's a book, movie, song, or the experience of a friend. Moreover, because of people like Lyle Cruse in my life always telling interesting stories during my high school years, I've been told numerous times that I am a good story-teller. I used to wear this like a badge on my sleeve, glad that I could peak the interest of others, especially the teenagers with whom I work daily.

However, lately, I've been convicted in my use of story-telling. At the end of the day do I want students to hear my stories and laugh, cry, think or is my desire for them to hear the words of God himself through me when I speak? In my effort to let God speak for himself through the Bible, lately in my talks I've been focusing more on the exegesis of a passage over story-telling with some biblical application thrown in. Admittedly, it's a balance I am still trying to find as I know that stories help my audience relate to me and can help the meaning of a passage be more clear and applicable to their own lives. However, too many times I've caught myself using my personal stories in order to elicit some sort of visceral reaction from my audience rather than to help impart truth.

This came to light through two things. First, this quote by Jonathan Edwards gripped me:
     
"I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but truth." 


Again, my goal should be to allow the truth to speak, not just create an emotional reaction through my stories. Second, was through the words of a TreeHouse teenager. After going through the first chapter of James, trying to let the Word of God speak for itself, I was discouraged, realizing that I had lost most of my audience by the end of my talk (again, I'm still trying to figure out my own balance to this more exegetical approach to communicating along with some story-telling). However, after the talk I asked one of my guys what he thought. He said (i'm paraphrasing)

"I liked it. I wish it was longer, it seemed too short. I always get bored when you tell stories. Like, I know that you're trying to relate to me, but we relate all the time. Sometimes I just want you to get up there and help me understand what I need to know and what I need to do as a Christian."


I think God used this student to speak to me more that night than vice-versa. It was much needed. My prayer is always that God would just speak to even one student whenever I give a talk. It was amazing to see my personal convictions lining up so blatantly with what God was communicating to this student. Praise God that his words never fail.

Review of "God of the Possible" by Gregory Boyd

This is the first book I've read by Gregory Boyd and the third one in my personal study of Open Theology (or Openness Theology). Boyd is a local pastor up here in Minnesota, and is the counterpart to Reformed, Classical Theist John Piper. This book goes less into detail of the open view and instead is more pastoral in nature as it is more of a "layman's guide" to OT. 


What I liked:
Gregory Boyd, being a pastor, is able to make the current debate on the openness of God accessible to most any audience. While he still uses some theological jargon, he does explain all of his terminology well. I don't believe his main goal is to convince his audience, but rather to spur them on towards change. Although I don't agree with his conclusions, I love that he realizes the implications of his stance, is willing to embrace them, and show how such a fundamental change in our view of Theology Proper changes everything. I just don't think the root of those changes is true to the biblical portrayal of God.


What I Didn't Like:
I know that he is intentional about building on mainly the relational and practical aspects of Open Theology, but if this was the first book I'd read on OT, I would be a little confused. His attention to practical implications means that he deals less with biblical languages, nuances, and history. This makes his work inspiring at first, but upon further thinking and questioning, it seems to deflate once more of the arguments occurring at the root level of the issue are developed. Furthermore, since many of his arguments are underdeveloped, I think that this volume fails to be an entrance-level, layman's guide to the Open View of God.


A few examples of quotes I found disturbing/did not agree with/sounded good at first:
- "Practically, a God of eternally static certainties is incapable of interacting with humans in a relevant way. The God of the possible, by contrast, is a God who can work with us to truly change what might have been into what should be." 
        - major implications behind this, especially as relates to God's plan of salvation for us.


- Of Peter's denial being prophesied by Jesus, Boyd says, "...it seems evident that we do not need to believe that the future is exhaustively settled in God's mind to make sense of Jesus' prediction of Peter's denial. We need only believe that God possesses a perfect knowledge of the past and present and that he revealed some of it to Jesus." 
         - in this paragraph Boyd claims that Jesus simply knew the character of Peter because of his divine knowledge of the past and present, and therefore could guess properly that in this situation, Peter would deny him. However, he never even mentions that Jesus prophesied specifics about the situation, like a rooster crowing and the number of denials Peter would utter.


- About Moses' response to God's commission for him to represent Israel to Pharaoh in Exodus 4, Boyd says, "The Lord initially tells Moses that the elders will listen to his voice.... Moses apparently doesn't hold to the classical view of divine foreknowledge, however, for he immediately asks, 'suppose they do not believe me or listen to me?' (Ex. 4:1)."
        This argument is misleading for several reasons:
        1) There is a major difference between doubting and deep belief. Many people (myself included) sometimes doubt God when our own humanity fails to trust a holy capable God. Just because Moses has a moment of doubt does not mean that he actually believes God does not know the future conclusively. 
        2) Even if Moses did believe this to be true, God's character/nature is not contained within our individual beliefs.
        3) God giving Moses several things to do so that the people "may believe" does not mean that God in his sovereignty actually wonders if and when the people will listen to Moses' message. To assume that God could have no other reasoning/purposes and in fact doesn't know what's gonna happen is quite presumptuous. 


Favorite Quotation: 
- "Striving to have a plausible theology is necessary because, for many of us, the mind must be thoroughly convinced if the heart is to be thoroughly transformed."


Recommendation: 
- People who want to hear a real pastoral-like application to the implications of the Open View should read this book; however, if you're simply wanting to understand the basics of this theological view, there are better books out there.

Review of "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer

I am always trying to find new authors that I enjoy reading. Recently I've discovered Timothy Keller, Kevin DeYoung, and Jonathan Edwards. Obviously, most people have heard of all of these authors before-- they come highly recommended. A.W. Tozer was an author that I was directed towards in pretty much every class I took at Moody Bible Institute. I finally caught up with one of his books and can honestly say that I'm ready to read anything this man has written.

What I liked: Tozer has such a heart for the Lord, it comes out in every line of this book. There is no question left to the reader about what Tozer's intentions were in writing this volume. I found myself challenged, impassioned, and encouraged time and time again.

Tozer writes beautifully. He has a way of stating basic principles of Scripture and Christian life in the most profoundly simplistic way. Nearly this entire book is quotable. He writing is clear, concise, stretching, and exciting. It was truly a pleasure to read. On a more formatting level, each chapter is short enough to easily read along with Scripture for daily devotions.

What I Didn't Like: The only problem I had with The Pursuit of God is some of Tozer's theology. This really doesn't get in the way of most of the message of the book. Simply, he mentions God's prevenient grace a couple of times in regards to the salvation process. Having moderate calvinistic leanings, I personally don't believe Scripture teaches prevenient grace; however, it was only mentioned a few times, and again did not distort or confuse the message of the book.

Favorite Quotations: 
- "Everything is made to center upon the initial act of 'accepting' Christ... and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him, we need no more seek Him."
- "We read our chapter, have our short devotions, and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar."
- "Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God."
- "One  of the greatest hindrances to internal peace which the Christian encounters is the common habit of dividing our lives into two areas - the sacred and the secular."




Recommendation: I highly recommend this for all Christians. It is fairly accessible to all readers (there is a bit of Old English flare, but still quite comprehensible), and I believe any believer would be greatly challenged and encouraged by reading the heart of this great man of God.

Review of “God’s Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism” by Bruce A. Ware

This is the second book in my personal series studying the Open Theism debate among Evangelicals. The first book I reviewed was by a well-known proponent of OTH (open theism) named John Sanders. To read my review of “The God Who Risks” click here. “God’s Lesser Glory” is written by Bruce Ware, a well-known conservative evangelical theologian, and senior associate dean at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Obviously, his views offer a critique of OTH stances.

What I Liked: Bruce Ware’s critiques of OTH seem to be spot-on from a purely biblical standpoint. This volume is formatted nicely offering the OTH stances on a topic, their perceived flaws of classical theism, and then Ware’s refutation based on Scripture. More than Sanders, Ware seems to desire a pure biblical conclusion above all else. His hermeneutic seems more consistent and thought-through, rather than seeking to prove his own point. His refutations analyze OTH arguments point-by-point, offering clear answers and asking questions open theologians need to answer.

Much like Sanders, Ware’s heart for God shines through each chapter. I believe God is truly the center of this debate above all else, not denominations, not church politics, and not schools of thought. This controversy is about God Himself as we perceive Him through His revelations in the Bible, and I do believe that both sides are desiring to know God better and make Him known more clearly. However, Ware makes a fantastic stand for orthodoxy and beautifully refutes the bulk of propositions made by open theists.

What I Didn’t Like: There is very little I did not enjoy about this book. At times, Ware’s confrontation of open theists brinks on becoming more of a personal attack than a debate on doctrine. However, I think he only toes this line and does not cross it.

Favorite Quotes: (also major points he makes against OTH)

• “The fact is that God cannot be subject to and limited by the libertarian free   choices of people of which he has no prior knowledge  and over which he has   regulative control, and still be able to know and ordain all the days of our lives.”
• “If God’s glory rests, ultimately, in His control of all that is, then it stands to reason that when God’s control is diminished and human control elevated, so too is His glory diminished- while human pretense to assume that glory is encouraged.”
• “Again, the truth of the matter simply is that, because God’s knowledge and wisdom is vastly superior to ours, we would be utter and absolute fools to want God to wait to ‘hear from us first’ before he decides what is best to do.”
• (this sums up the book well) “...the sobering truth here is that, by the openness view, neither we nor God know now whether in fact God will so win in the end. If God is at war, and if God has taken significant risks, then we must wait to see if God will win, and so wait to see if God is in fact glorious.”

Personal Takeaways: God is glorious. He is glorious because of his infinite wisdom and knowledge of all things past, present, and future (Isaiah 41-48; Deut 31:16-21; Ps 139; etc). I cannot make the views of OTH sync with this understanding of the glory of God. 

Who’s It For?: This book is fairly accessible for most readers. It gets technical in some of its theological language, but I believe is very understandable and straightforward. Anyone desiring a classical theism refutation of open theism would do themselves a great favor in reading this book. 

Review of "Churched: One Kids Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess" by Matthew Paul Turner

     Every once in a while I come across a book that diverges from theology, youth ministry, introspection, apologetics, or even fiction that interests me. Churched is one of those books. It describes a young man (author Matthew Paul Turner) growing up in a hyper-conservative southern baptist church. Despite all odds of being embittered against and rejecting the legalistic tendencies of his upbringing, Turner is able to see the beauty of the Gospel and continue in his faith and love for the Lord. This interested me immediately.

What I liked: Turner is a great story-teller. In each of his experiences, the reader can easily imagine all the little details he is describing to a "t." Also, this book jumps deeply into many of the ridiculous teachings that can come from a place of pride, envy, judging others, etc. Some of the examples from his real life are so preposterous they come across as simply unbelievable... in a good way. Turner calls things like they are. This book truly reveals the deception that lies in the hearts of others. It shows the dark side of the church. It angered me at times.

What I Didn't Like: First of all, I have this as an audiobook from christianaudio.com, as part of their reviewers program. Turner's voice wears on the listener. His tone is one of almost mocking the characters in his story as he tells them.
For all of the dark stories the author tells, he rarely mentions his journey with the Lord. He simply tells 15 chapters worth of stories about how crazy and pretty much ungodly his southern baptist church was growing up. Then suddenly in the last chapter he tells a story of his current church, a couple things he believes, and how he still loves Jesus despite his past. This is great, don't get me wrong, but we aren't allowed into that transformation at all. We don't see the process. It makes all his stories lack direction, purpose, and meaning.
This book would have been awesome if he had half the stories from his childhood, focused on the things he had to wrestle with because of those stories and how he was able to grow in his faith and maintain his love for Christ and passion for the Gospel. That is a book worth reading. This one seems to digress into cheap shots against people of his past and a total bashing of all fundamentalism with very little pay-off in the end.

Personal Takeaways: I was challenged in how I interact with my students as I read this book. One of the positive things this book establishes is that the mind of an adolescent is very pliable. The very tone in which I teach things, my motivation behind every talk I give, and my (potential) lack of focus on the Gospel can easily embitter my students later on in life. I must be careful to teach only what Scripture teaches and model only who Christ is. Nothing more. Nothing less. My ministry at TreeHouse cannot fall into any traps of legalism or berating others. This is not the Good News.

Who's It For?: If you are looking to get into the mind of ultra-conservative, fundamentalist, southern baptist churches (I'm speaking in probably too broad of terms here), this book could give you some insight. It is a quick and easy read, mainly being full of stories. I'd say it's accessible to all, but ultimately panders into name-calling and mocking far too often and fails to establish the story of what God is doing and has done in the heart of the author.

Review of "The God Who Risks: A Theology of Divine Providence" by John Sanders

A couple years ago, there was quite a stirring in Minneapolis. Two professors at Bethel University began openly debating one another’s theological views. The battle was Open (Freewill) Theism v. Classical Theism. Doing a quick google search of Gregory Boyd v. John Piper will give you a glimpse into the two positions.

Being a proponent of classical theism, and moving to Minneapolis increased my desire to educate myself on the arguments, hermeneutics, and passion behind the Open Theism view of God. I started my study with John Sanders’ The God Who Risks: A Theology of Divine Providence. 

For those not familiar with Open Theism, I’ll be overly simplistic here. The basic position is that God limits himself in his foreknowledge so that he only knows certain aspects of the future, leaving some decisions/actions open to freewill agents (us). There are things that God simply does not know. “In choosing to depend on human beings for some things, God takes the risk of being either delighted or disappointed in what transpires.” The benefit, it is said, is that this allows God to become involved in real, intimate give-and-take relationships with humanity.

What I Liked: This book is much more academic than I originally anticipated, but in a refreshing way. Sanders does a great job of weaving in and out of scholasticism and pastoral insight. It was tedious in places, but overall, very enjoyable to read grammatically. 

Also, this book gave me a glance into the heart of Open Theology. Many times people with theology that vastly opposes tradition are villainized; however, after reading this volume, it was great to read the love for God behind Sanders’ views. That having been said, I agree with very little of this book.

What I didn’t Like: I disagreed with this book on a fundamental level. Rather than saying everything I didn’t like (which would take forever), I’ll just outline a few of my main dissents.

• In a book rejecting the classical view of God, I found this basis to be lacking: “the goal here is to establish that there is sufficient biblical warrant (not proof) for affirming that the future is in some respects indefinite even for God..” I believe that this is not nearly enough of a foundation for me to throw out orthodoxy and embrace these views. Furthermore, this appears to show that the basis for most of Sanders’ hermeneutics are isogetical. His goal in navigating these Scriptures is to prove his point. His goal is to show that his view can work according to the Bible. I know Sanders would never take it this far, but this seems to avoid the original intent of the authors in order to adapt his own ideas.
• Although Open proponents do careful stepping around this issue, I believe a fundamental problem they must face is God’s fulfilled prophecies. Basically, their view is that sometimes God legitimately goes through with a prophecy, other times He intends to do something unless a freewill agent causes a change in the situation, or He is simply guessing what seems most likely to happen. I see why these views work within Open Theology, however, I do not see Biblical evidence that this is how the mind of God works when he says he’ll do something.
• There is seemingly an offensive elevation of man and deep demotion of God underlying open theism. In saying how necessary a give-and-take relationship is for God to truly love us, humanity is placed on some pedestal, as if we were something great, as if God was wholly dependent upon us, and as if God only loves when he allows us to make decisions and “create” with him. As Sanders puts it, “A God of sheer omnipotence can run a world of exhuastively controlled beings, but what is magnificent about that?” I would advise Sanders to read Job 38-42, and understand the majesty of God’s foreknowledge and specific sovereignty. 

Personal Takeaways: This view deepened my love for the sovereignty of God. It forced me to ask hard questions of my own personal theology and to continue my search for Truth. It made me trust God even more and love his meticulous control and sovereignty. It gave me a fire that I loved! 

It also, again, helped me understand where open proponents are coming from and helped me see their love and desire for knowing God and making him known. I respect Open theologians, but I think the basis of their theology is not grounded in Scripture.

Who’s It For?: I would recommend this book for readers who enjoy engaging in theological discussions. I would advise the reader that the book is decently high in its academic theological jargon and therefore, isn’t extremely accessible on all levels. However, there are chapters that have much more of a pastoral bent to them which are much easier to follow. For a more layperson guide to Open Theology, look for my forthcoming review of Gregory Boyd’s God of the Possible. 

Summer 2011 Update!

     This summer at TreeHouse has been one of unbelievable life-change. A couple of our students have come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and their immediate growth has been humbling to see! I am so excited to tell you that God has been moving in the hearts of the young men I have the honor of mentoring. My one-to-ones with most of these guys have taken an intentional tone of discipleship. On the missions' trip, God broke three of my guys and now our one-to-ones are full of discussing Scripture, God's will, godly relationships, and much laughter. Through some of these relationships, many of the guys have begun reading the Bible on their own, then coming to our one-to-ones with their questions and thoughts. 

      Moreover, yesterday four of our students were baptized! I had the amazing opportunity to baptize two of the guys that God has been using me to disciple. The joy in their hearts overflowed yesterday as they shared their faith and their desire to follow Christ and glorify Him with their lives. God moves, we respond. It was beautiful hearing those students' responses yesterday!

      Thank you for your support throughout this last year. Lives are changing as God uses your faithfulness to these students. Your prayers are so vital to this ministry, and I welcome you to share in the joys God has blessed TreeHouse with over this summer! To Him be the praise, glory, and honor. 

- Josh

Review of "Rites of Passage: A Father's Blessing" by Jim McBride

     I received this audiobook as a reviewer for christianaudio.com. I decided to read it because I work with many teenage guys whose fathers are either absent or a negative factor in their life. The concept of this volume is that fathers/parents need to establish rites of passage with their children in order to help usher them into adulthood. This concept is vital to the development from middle to late adolescence.

What I Liked: Jim is very intentional about parents taking responsibility for their children's spiritual lives. It is not the job of the church or the youth pastor or anyone else to ensure that a child/teen grows in his relationship with the Lord into adulthood. It is the job of the parents. I think this mentality is lacking in most Christian circles, and sadly in most youth ministries.
I also enjoyed many of his explanations for how and why to do a rite of passage with a student. His examples were clear and visual.

What I didn't Like: Although I enjoyed that he gave examples and walked through a "rite of passage," ultimately, he devoted four chapters, one for each of his kids, to describing in painful detail every aspect of the rite. It seemed tedious at best, unnecessary at worst, but mostly just boring. Those chapters were a bit of a chore to get through.
Also, I wish Jim had spent more time describing the necessity of a rite of passage. In the Intro and first chapter of the book, he attempts to explain why parents should do rites, but he commits a fatal error. He fails to convince and merely exchanges information with the reader. These chapters should have built up the true urgency behind the topic of youth being shuffled into adulthood prematurely and without any spiritual guidance and encouragement. He seemed to brush lightly over the most important part of the book in order to get to tedious descriptions of actual rites of passages.

Personal Takeaways: This book challenged me to, from the beginning of their lives, establish myself as a spiritual leader to each of my children. It is important for me (and Emily) to spiritually guide our children through all aspects of their development, not just from middle to late adolescence.
Also, it challenged me to be conscious of the words I use, and the kinds of messages I may be sending my teenagers. Sadly, I am a father figure to several of my students who have been abandoned by their own biological dads. Although I am not their dad, someone needs to help usher them into adulthood, and this responsibility may fall to me.

Who's It For?: I would recommend this to people who are planning some sort of celebration/ceremony for their adolescents. That is where this book thrives-- examples.

Book Review: "Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate" by Jerry Bridges

I started this book about two years ago with two close friends for the purposes of discussion, accountability, and holiness. Because of many outside factors, I was only able to read the first two chapters during our time. I was able to pick this book up last month and finally finish it. 


What I Liked: This book is true to its title. It is confrontational, pulls no punches, and in a sense rebukes much like is described in 2 Tim 3:16. I think this book is timely, well-structured, and has teeth to it. I thought the list of sins we respect was apt, but for me the most memorable chapters dealt with the sins of Ungodliness, Pride, and Impatience & Irritability. 
Moreover, I loved that the end of each chapter usually contained a prayer or a list of verses that the reader was encouraged to memorize and meditate over if she finds herself struggling with that particular sin. The practicality of the application along with the ease of reading (nice, short, well-structured chapters!) made this book a challenging yet joyful read.
Lastly, Bridges encourages readers to daily preach the Gospel to themselves in order to put into perspective our place in God's Kingdom and how we should view and interact with sin each and every day. Blessed truth.


What I Didn't Like: The first six chapters of the book dealt with the "disappearance of sin" in society, the remedy for sin in Christ, the guidance/power of the Spirit, and how to deal with sins. Then the book moved on to directly dealing with current "respectable sins" of our culture. I found the first six chapters to be of value; however, I personally think the concepts could have been narrowed down into just two or three chapters. At times his points seemed overdrawn.


Quotes: - "Our sins are forgiven and we are accepted as righteous by God because of both the sinless life and sin-bearing death of our Lord jesus Christ. There is no greater motivation for dealing with sin in our lives than the realization of these two glorious truths of the Gospel."
- "The actual cause of impatience lies within our own hearts, in our own attitude of insisting that others around us conform to our expectations."


Personal Takeaways: This book challenged how I daily deal with my own sin nature. My grandmother is famous in my family for saying, "put that old nature to death every single day." Although it can be humorous to hear her say this so frequently, there is much truth to her statement. I believe that is my main takeaway from this book. Like Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, my desire is to "keep in step with the Spirit" so as to not "gratify the desires of the sinful nature."
I know this is a broad and sweeping takeaway, but truly this is the first and most necessary step to dealing with respectable sins. 


Who's It For?: This book is very accessible to all believers, both young and old, learned and new. Anyone from high school to retirement can benefit much from Bridges handling, confronting, and squashing our "respectable sins."

Book Review: "Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God" by John Piper

What I Liked: The whole concept of this book is one that has been dear to my heart since taking a class called "Faith and Learning" by freshman year at MBI. The goal of this book is getting Christians to turn on their brain, engage in culture, dive into God's Word, and in so doing, learn to love God with our minds. For primarily being a pastor, Piper here finds a beautiful balance between being a biblical scholar, philosopher, and shepherd. I greatly enjoyed the chapters on "mental adultery", Relativism, and Anti-Intellectualism.


What I didn't like: My only real critique of this book is purely from an authorial standpoint. There was a section during the Anti-Intellectualism chapters that focused on how the Father, Son, and Spirit are revealed and concealed at different times. After the section, I found myself scratching my head a bit, wondering why Piper had deemed it necessary to spend so much time on a topic that didn't seem to naturally progress from the arguments/stances he had explicated at that point in the book.


Quotes:
- "There is no reason to believe that a person who thinks without prayerful trust in God's gift of understanding will get it. And there is no reason to believe that a person who waits for God's gift of understanding without thinking about his Word with get it either. Both-and. Not either-or."
- "People don't embrace relativism because it is philosophically satisfying [but] because it is physically and emotionally gratifying. It provides the cover they need at key moments in their lives to do what they want without intrusion from absolutes."
- "If we were to succeed in raising a generation of people who give up serious, faithful, coherent thinking, we will have raised a generation incapable of reading the Bible."
- "If all the universe and everything in it exist by the design of an infinite, personal God, to make his manifold glory known and loved, then to treat any subject without reference to God's glory is not scholarship but insurrection." 


Personal Takeaway: This book challenged me in how I read my Bible. Piper has a whole section discussing ways to read the Bible in a way that more actively engages your mind. It can be so easy for me to simply read in order to check it off of a list. Not only that, but this book encouraged me as one who greatly enjoys learning and thinking, and also challenged me in keeping my mind, pride, and scholastics focused on God and Him alone.


Who's It For?: I would recommend this book to any Christian desiring to take his or her faith seriously when it comes to loving God with "all your mind." It does get more academic at times and may not cater to all audiences in that regard, but it is a wonderful book full of wisdom. 

Book Review: Generous Justice, by Timothy Keller

    Wow, so between support raising for the first three months of the year and moving back into full-time ministry in April, I've fallen behind on my reading schedule for the year. I finished reading Generous Justice last month, but am just finding a chance to post my review of it now. 

"Jesus is on the water."

   Last night at TreeHouse, I was given the privilege of sharing with our students the story of Jesus walking on water. During my preparation for this message, the Spirit really laid on my heart an angle to the story that I hadn't really realized before: "Jesus is on the water." According to Matthew 14, Peter had to leave the comfort and security of the boat and walk out into the unknown. Why? Because that's where Jesus was, that's where Jesus called him, so that's where he went.
   The students were able to think of different things they believe or have heard that the Bible teaches about Jesus. That He loves us without strings. That He forgives us even though we don't deserve it. That He'll never leave us. That in submitting to Him, He'll "make our paths straight." (Prov 3:5-6). What God had laid on my heart for this story is that the Truths of Scripture only make sense when you're out on the water following Jesus. When you're sitting in the boat where you stay safe and comfortable, it doesn't make sense or really matter that Jesus will never leave you, or that you're forgiven no matter your past, or that as we follow Christ, he'll guide us and show us our purpose.

                "Where are you?" was the challenge.
                Are you in the boat still?
                Are you on the edge of the boat thinking of stepping out?
                Are you sinking?
                Where are you?
            
   The topic of walking into the unknown for Jesus, potentially being persecuted and suffering for Him, isn't one that I frequently discuss with my teens. I'm not sure if it's nervousness in the students realizing that following Jesus is hard sometimes or what, but I was unsure how our students would react to the message of Matthew 14. The nervousness led right up until I gave the talk, until I felt a peace come over me and the Spirit reassuring me: "This is truth. EVERY person needs to hear it, and this is the audience I have chosen for tonight."
   I'm glad the Spirit chose this audience. I'm glad he grabbed ahold of me before I got up and started rambling my own words. He moved through His Truth and spoke to the kids. One of our students gave His heart to Christ last night. I'm just glad we get to be a part of it all.

ALL SCRIPTURE......

Being a graduate of Moody Bible Institute, I have had hammered into me time and time again the importance of handling God's Word properly. I mean, 2 Timothy 2:15 is the school's favorite verse. It's posted everywhere on campus. I learned how to do inductive Bible studies (that take about 3 hours to complete!) and how to use the background, culture, and context of a passage to help show the original intent of the author and thereby what God is really trying to teach us when we read His words. And this is all well and good, but it is tiresome, and ultimately, in a ministry to at-risk youth like TreeHouse, sometimes it even seems burdensome to go through such a process when most of my conversations revolve around depression, fighting, anger, broken homes/relationships, and sex. 


However, a couple of days ago I sat down to a one-to-one with one of my students. This student has had an increased desire to better understand God lately- mainly desiring to know what God wants him to do with his life. A verse Bill Allison shared about 5 million years ago during chapel at PCS came to mind. Colossians 3:23, "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people." In choosing this passage, I wanted him to start getting the concept that the ultimate goal/plan for our lives is simply living for the Lord. All that other stuff about where to go and what job to have and whom to marry will come, but this is the starting point. 


He was tracking with me for a little while when I asked what this made him think/question. He said, "what about people that are jerks? Am I supposed to work hard for a boss that I hate and doesn't respect me?" I thought for a moment, then realized that the verses leading up to v.23 stated, "Slaves obey your earthly masters in everything you do.... serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord." It was amazing to see God's Word speaking directly to this student's questions! The understanding flooded his mind and he smiled.


We talked a little while longer until he stated, "that's so hard to do though, cuz like it's not like we get anything for obeying people that are jerks, do we? So who cares if we obey them or not?" My heart both skipped a beat and simultaneously sunk as I read verse 24-25, "Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites." He smiled at me. It was clear God was speaking through His Word to this student throughout our conversation. It was one of the deepest, most God-honoring one-to-ones I've had in a while.


However, I felt like God had called me out. " ALL SCRIPTURE is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). I had just talked on this last Thursday during our Going Deeper program, and yet here I was, doubting that God could speak through the context of Colossians 3:23. I took a shortcut, I copy/pasted a verse wanting to apply it to a situation. All the while, God's authoritative Word was speaking as it desired, rather than where I was wanting to place it. 


Praise God that His Word is more powerful than mine, and pray for me to be a faithful steward to that Word and a humble mouthpiece. 

4.29.2010

On 4.29.2010, I packed up my whole life into a mini-van and made the trek up north. Upon arriving, we met my fiancée, Emily, and moved into a short-term house, provided by the Anderson family. I fell asleep on the couch to a big storm, with the knowledge that tomorrow my parents would be gone, and I would start my new life and ministry in the unfamiliar world of Minnesota. I was terrified out of my mind. 


Fast forward one year and here I sit in my favorite local coffee shop where I'm on a first name basis with the baristas and owners, writing my notes for a talk I'll give next week on the power of words, and preparing a missions team builder this afternoon with teenagers whom I love. I'm looking forward to spending the weekend with my lovely wife, going on a bike ride, packing for a summer move into a new apartment next month, and fellowshipping at our home congregation, Hope Community Church, on Sunday.


Life is full of surprises and change, but God's faithfulness remains. Deuteronomy 7:9 says, "Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commands." Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Perfect Love Drives Out Fear

Thank you so much for all of your prayers this last weekend as Plymouth TreeHouse met up with the Chaska TreeHouse for our Spring Retreat. It was a great time of getting away, building relationships, and connecting with God. It was everything a retreat is meant to be!


Our theme for this year was "What Do You Fear?" with the goal of helping our students give their fears and stressors over to God. One of the core needs that every person has is to know "You Are Not Alone." It is something that we tout week after week during our support groups, but this weekend was a great venue for helping our teenagers realize that they are truly never alone because God is always with them; therefore, there is truly nothing to fear!


The culmination of the trip was allowing each student to walk up on stage and paint their biggest fear on a black tarp (in the middle of the picture), giving it over to God and seeking His comfort to take the place of the fear that grips them. 


More than that though, my favorite part of the trip was having small group time with my guys after each talk. I am asking you to pray alongside me for the young men God has brought to TreeHouse. The pervasive fear that my guys admitted was "failing to become the man God wants them to be" or "ending up like my dad." Their confessions were so raw and you could sense the passionate heart and desire to break the cycle of abandonment, abuse, and hurt they've experienced from their fathers. 


It was a beautifully humbling time watching God move in the hearts of His children!

Full-Time Program!

    I promise you, despite how terrified I look in this picture, I'm actually thrilled to let you all know that I am officially back full-time at program working with at-risk teenagers!!!!!! God has richly blessed me and Emily with so much love and support over the last four months. The whole support-raising process has been new and stretching to us, but we have time and time again seen the hand of God moving. 

    I still have not reached my full target of support yet, but I you all have sent in enough support that they have allowed me back to Plymouth and to my guys! So, with that, I will still be continuing to raise support as I transition back into working full-time in ministry. If you are still feeling led to give and have not been able to do so, you've not missed the boat. Much like a full-time missionary, my support is on-going, so I even after I do reach my official target, I will always welcome new friends and family who want to support me!

    I want to thank you for all of your prayers, emails, meetings, cups of coffee, and encouragement over these few months. I also want to invite you to pray for the hurting teenagers with whom I am now working. Pray that God's Spirit would be moving in them and through me as He draws us to Himself. 

   Again, thank you so much, and I'm so excited that I'm back full-time!!!

Our New Hobby

   Some of my favorite hobbies include playing guitar, painting, and writing. However, a new hobby I have begun developing is of a daily benefit to both me and Emily. Every morning we enjoy a cup of coffee to start off the day. I'd done some researching into ways to make a great cup of coffee. It started off with a Chemex coffee brewer. The more and more research I did, the more I heard about people who roast their own coffee in-home. This intrigued me. Eventually I convinced Emily to let me give it a try.
    There are several ways to home-roast. You can buy fancy machines that cost anywhere from $100-$1000, or you can employ different manual methods. You can simply use a baking sheet and oven, a cast iron pan, a stove-top popcorn roaster, or my current (and very elementary) method: the air popcorn popper.

The great thing about this method is how easily you can find an air popper in thrift/discount stores, making this hobby much more cost effective. Once I had a roaster, I needed to find a place to buy some green (unroasted) coffee beans. I'm still deciding on my preferred store, but three i have used so far are www.sweetmarias.com, www.burmancoffee.com, and www.paradiseroasters.com. Between online sales, bulk shipping discounts, etc. I usually am able to get my coffee for around $5.50/lb on average.

Here are some pictures of a Guatemalan Antigua Finca "Colombia" batch I roasted last week:

   Emily and I love peeking open the jar a few hours after the roast. I never smelled fresh coffee until I started roasting it myself. So many complex aromas, each origin and blend smelling so different. I usually give the freshly roasted beans between 12-24 hours of a resting period. This method combined with my Chemex brewer means that we get to drink some of the best coffee we've ever tasted every morning. What's more, it's even cheaper than cheap and burnt beans like at the supermarket and chain coffee shops.

TWO YEARS!

Although I am far from fully understanding her, big part of me feels like I've known Emily, my wife, forever. We have so many memories of being together, learning each other, and growing in love and devotion to one another, not the least of which is our engagement (one year ago on thursday!) and wedding (seven months ago yesterday). However, today is the TWO YEAR anniversary of us meeting as we boarded a plane to Israel!

HOLY COW! We've both concluded that it is amazing how close we are to each other today when we've literally only known of each others' existence for two years. God has shown us time and time again how His paths for our lives individually brought us together, walking down the same road today. His blessings, wisdom, and grace abound!

Here's a few pictures documenting some of our last two years together!

So blessed.

iStand

So for the last couple of weeks, my car has been acting up. I took it to Midas in St. Louis Park and found out what the problem was, and also got a quote - which was super pricey. Over a couple of weeks, and per the advice of my dad and father-in-law, I researched and found a local mechanic who was supposed to be pretty good. I found his fairly shady garage in North Minneapolis, and really, he did a great job. Plus, it cost about a fifth what Midas wanted to charge me. Phew, mission accomplished.

Then, the next day, my computer randomly froze up. Tried turning it back on, and it just wouldn't work anymore. Once again, I was on the phone with my dad. Turns out, after attempting to do several tests on it, my hard drive is fried. That's right. I've lost everything I didn't back up since October-ish. Which isnt a huge deal. I also lost all the pictures I took since spring 2009. Luckily most of the important ones such as wedding pictures and Israel pictures are backed-up on CD's. But seriously, really inconvenient. Lost my contact list and everything for my support-raising, any talks I've given at TreeHouse, and other various documents i've written. Lame.

All this is to say that, although I was certainly very excited to have a dad who knows a lot about computers and cars and a father-in-law whose expertise is small engines, I wasn't exactly happy about either situation. Which is normal. And also wrong.

Just last week I had a Bible study with some TreeHouse youth where we talked about James 1:2-6 (one of my favorite passages in Scripture) and discussed the role that trials and hard times plays in our lives. God's ultimate goal by bringing us through hard times is to bring us to maturity and even closer to Him. Although it can be so difficult, we are called to face trials joyfully, knowing that God will help us persevere and at the end, we will know Him even better, more intimately. Isn't it funny how the day after you help someone understand one of God's promises, He asks you to cling to that same promise?

I didn't react poorly (I don't think...maybe you'd have to ask Emily about that one), but I certainly didn't react with joy. It's great to know God uses these things to lead us to perseverance. Promises are promises... and facts are facts.

Chicago, That's (not) My Home Town!

Lyle and I trying to "relax our minds" during a round of Mindball. It was weird.

Last weekend, Emily and I had a great (as you can obviously tell from this photo) time visiting our good friends Lyle and Tiffany Cruse, as well as Jeremy and Ashley Elliott. There were also some guest appearances by Lee Rowell, Eric Heater, and Hailey Morris. It was SO FUN getting to hang out with everyone again in Lyle and Tiffany's apartment, my home-away-from-home during my last years at Moody.

We always love running around the city of Chicago, and this weekend was no exception, but what we mainly loved was being near our old friends whom we wish we could see more often. It's crazy to think how much has happened in all of our lives over the last couple of years, and it's exciting to see where God is taking all of us! But we still miss regularly spending time with each other. We had some good times reminiscing. Crazy that me, Jeremy, and Lyle have been so close for more than ten years now!

It was also a testament to God's faithfulness. It's truly amazing to see how He has used us in each others' lives throughout these years, in ways that we never could've guessed or planned while we were filming crappy "horror" movies in Lyle's basement during blizzards, or jumping into a nearly frozen swimming pool in the middle of winter. Now that the three of us are all "grown-up", it's great to be able to encourage each other as we find ourselves married to amazing women, studying theology, and doing youth ministry. God is SO good!

Pushing A Political Agenda?

By no means am I breaking new ground by wondering if Television networks are pushing any sort of political agenda. However, last night, Emily and I caught an episode of ABC's Grey's Anatomy (to my displeasure). Outside of even more obvious theological and ethical problems present in the show's plot, there was an underlying message that was unsettling to me and Emily.

A woman on the show was pregnant and freaking out because she felt that there was a problem with the baby growing inside of her. She went to a pediatrician in the hospital in order to get an ultrasound of the baby. The woman said she was 6 or 7 weeks pregnant. They could see no heartbeat on the monitor, and the she became very upset at this. However, the sonographer said, repeatedly, "There's nothing to be nervous about, you can't usually detect a heartbeat in a fetus until 8 weeks into the pregnancy." She reiterated their inability to see this heartbeat until 8 weeks four different times in the show. Now, in all fairness, they did see the heartbeat by the end of the show. However, I thought Emily was going to throw something at the computer as she became quite angry whenever they said the "8 weeks" statistic.

After even a very preliminary search online, I found several places where it said 22 days from fertilization (five weeks into pregnancy) the heart is beating. Furthermore, I saw this piece of news today. Ohio state representative Lynne Wachtmann is unveiling a "Heartbeat Bill." Their findings have shown that a heartbeat can be detected "as soon as 18 days after conception." The bill would prohibit women from being able to have an abortion after this period of time.

It took me all of three minutes to find those facts. So.... a "medical" drama must do some research.... right? Were the producers/writers pushing any kind of pro-choice political agenda in touting their "8 weeks" statistic repeatedly or were Emily and I just reading into it a little too much?

Making some good headway!

Well, as most of you know, I've been raising support for my ministry at TreeHouse since November. I am glad to say that I'm getting closer and closer to my monthly goal! I am now only about $400 a month away from being able to start working program again full-time back at Plymouth!!!

Originally, I was trying really hard to get all my support in by the end of February. I might be REALLY REALLY close to actually attaining that goal! Thank you guys so much for all the support and prayer I've received over the last months. You guys are amazing and obviously, I couldn't do this ministry without you all!

I talked to Heather, the other Youth Outreach Specialist at the Plymouth TreeHouse about how things are going in Plymouth. It sounds like things have been rough lately with fights breaking out, students making bad decisions, and some of my guys going downhill. Not to say that everything would automatically be better if I was back there right now, but hearing about all these things makes me want to get back to Plymouth more than ever. Unfortunately there is no male staff member able to work full-time with the boys at Plymouth until I get back there. I'm so excited to hopefully get back to discipling them ASAP. Thank you for all your support in making this ministry possible.

you rock.

A New Blog

Well, this is the new blogspot for ElliottEvents instead of my old site on iWeb

Although i enjoyed using iWeb to post everything, I have quickly figured out that it takes a really long time to post a new blog update on there because I have to reformat every page every time i want to post something. Therefore, I am going to use blogspot because it is more simple and more clean, so hopefully I can casually update a lot more easily!

As you may have noticed, It's been a while since I updated my blog. That's a big part of why i decided i needed to switch. It takes too long on iWeb, and because of that, I fail to update frequently

So..... here we go....