Ron's #37: Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller

I've been a mild Donald Miller fan over these past few year, first reading Blue Like Jazz during a trip in Bali. I remember sitting on the balcony of our hotel overlooking a green garden with this book about God and Portland. I liked Miller's view of Portland far more than his view of God, a post-modern grandfatherly-type begging for his children to relax a bit. Aside from either of these, I loved Miller's poetic prose. He writes with profound description and quiet beauty, a style that makes me pause to consider not his ideas as much as the sentence structure and content.

After Blue Like Jazz, I read his next book, Searching for God Knows What, and I thought that most interesting part of the book was its clever title. Miller's PoMo poster child status went into overdrive, and I lost interest. In 2009, I picked up A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. In that book, Miller chronicles his post-Blue Like Jazz doldrums while planning a movie version of the book. The producers realize that the autobiography doesn't have enough story in it, and work to add more story in his life story. This causes an existential crisis in Miller, and he begins ways to live life more fully, more story-worthy. From the three books, this was by far my favorite. A search for authentic life, comparing our lives to the elements of a story, as well as Miller's excellent writing style make an excellent book, one that I plan to reread. I was a fan again. (Side note: I watched Blue Like Jazz, the movie version, and it was one of the worst movie I've seen in a long time.)

His earlier book, Through Painted Deserts, appeared as an audiobook on NoiseTrade, so I downloaded it and listened to it last week. It tells his road trip with his friend Paul from Houston to Oregon. I enjoyed reading his first impressions of Portland, a city that he and I both love, as well as his experiences with people and situations along the way. His writing style has developed in later books, but his writing voice is still clear, bright, and insightful. There are moments where the self-reflection feels too overwrought, and I never fully understood the difference between the overarching questions of The How's and the Why's. but that is no matter. I enjoyed spending a bit of time on this trip, and Miller was an engaging host.

I'm sure my future reading lists will include new books by Donald Miller. He's an intriguing writer with much to say and many stories to tell.

Mark's #50 - Unto Death: Martyrdom, Missions, and the Maturity of the Church by Dalton Thomas (2012)

Gripped by fear and an overriding goal of self-preservation, few Christians today will pursue dangerous or even "risky" situations to advance the Kingdom of God

Unto Death is 27-year-old Dalton Thomas' passionate plea for Christians today to turn their eyes to Jesus, see His all surpassing worth, and joyfully and boldly go to the most difficult places on earth with the proclamation of the gospel.  More than just an emotional plea however, Thomas grounds his convictions in the Word of God and the testimony of followers of Christ who "loved not their lives even unto death (Rev. 12:11)".  Along the way, we are reminded of the worth of Christ, the continual presence and purposes of God in the martyrdom of His saints, the joy, love and grace of martyrdom, the role of martyrdom in the fulfilling of the great commission (Mt. 18:19-20), and how the maturity of the church of Jesus hinges on our growth toward embracing the cost of following Christ, even unto death.

In spite of his youth (27 - I'm 37), Dalton Thomas writes clearly and convincingly about an essential issue for us in the church in the west today.  I stumbled upon this book when my friend Buddy posted on his Facebook wall as a free kindle book.  I almost didn't read it because it was free and I had never heard of the guy. However, when I saw that one of the recommendations of the book came from David Sitton, I decided it would be worth my time.  I'm glad I did.  This is one of the best books I've read this year.

Here's a few more quotes that grabbed my heart while reading:

"Death is a means.  Christ is the end.  Joy is the motive.  And glorious is the journey."

"Though not every believer is called to give a martyr-witness, every believer is called to embrace a martyr-mentality, every Church a martyr-mandate, and every ministry a martyr-theology."

"The gospel is so valuable that no risk is unreasonable"

Here's a short trailer for the book by the author: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfBuWnEtmI0&feature=player_embedded

Mark's #49 - The Measure of a Man by Gene Getz (2004)

Long time pastor and author Gene Getz sets out to help men live godly lives based loosely on passages like 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.  The result is a lot of moralizing, self-congratulatory examples, some self-stylized child psychology, and very little gospel.  I would put this book in the category of a lot of contemporary mainstream evangelicalism, where the gospel is more assumed rather than being the lens through which we are to view and live life.  This is the type of Christianity that assumes everybody is on board with the gospel already, and thus we can move on to other stuff, or that the gospel really only applies to converting people to be Christians.   Thankfully there are others in the church today that are sounding the sufficiency of the gospel for all areas of life (including being a man), such as Matt Chandler, John Piper, Francis Chan, Tim Keller, Michael Horton, etc.

We recently went through this book during a men's study.  Though the book itself isn't all that good, it did serve as a good book for the group because it gave us opportunity each week to push our weekly reading through a gospel lens - taking the good, leaving the bad.  Since, by default, we as men prefer the moralistic, "what do I have to do to be a good man" approach, it was good to pause each week and ask, "so what does the gospel have to do with this ______ (topic)?".

So, in conclusion, I wouldn't waste my time reading this book on my own, but it may serve as a good springboard for gospel conversation with other men.

Ron’s #32: A Free People’s Suicide by Os Guinness

The premise of this book is this paradox: “the greatest enemy of freedom is freedom” (19). Guinness continues saying that “Americans today are heedlessly pursuing a vision of freedom that is short-lived and suicidal. Once again, freedom without virtue, leadership without character, business without trust, law without customs, education without meaning and medicine, science and technology without human considerations can only end in disaster” (29).

A Free People’s Suicide is an outsider’s view of the strength of America (Guinness is an Irishman); the book is the same vein of Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville, which is heavily quoted in the book. While praising American freedom, he cautions that we will lose freedom when the freedoms we enjoy are not tethered to something larger than the idea of freedom itself.

I probably should have enjoyed this book more than I did. Even though I like Guinness’s perspective on issues, his writing feels unclear to me. Perhaps it is my lack of knowledge on the issues that Guinness raises. Or, maybe it was because I read this in the final days of the 2012 election, and we met in our Apologia book group after the results were announced. It’s an understatement to say that I wasn’t in the best mood that day.

Here’s a brief excerpt of the author discussing the “golden triangle of freedom”: freedom requires virtue; virtue requires faith; faith requires freedom.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFXQbXZm1W4&list=UU71cHCubNTVifOiU2RiDd_g&index=9&feature=plcp

Ron’s #31: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This review is a repost from last year, but I read this again to teach it. I loved it more than ever before. This book is moving up on my all-time list to the top ten. It’s an excellent reminder of the damaging power of unconfessed sin. I know that Mark gave his stamp of disapproval earlier this year, but he is wrong.

I was surprised that most of my 50-ish students loved reading this book this year. Our discussions were better than they’ve been for most novels last year. I was pleased.

Here is my former review:

While I read and taught The Scarlet Letter before, I never had the appreciation for it as I did in this reading. I was captivated by the story, but the language and style of its writing was preeminent for me. Hawthorne crafts a beautifully written story that tells the familiar tale of Hester Prynne’s public shame and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale’s private tormented guilt after an adulterous affair set in the backdrop of Puritan Boston. The story is simple, as Hester faces a judgmental crowd in the town, and Dimmesdale suffers from a burning conscience as he does not admit to his sin. One man, Roger Chillingworth—Hester’s husband—knows the secret and is bent on revenge against them both.

While The Scarlet Letter is often used to criticize and demonize the Puritan era, it rather shows the importance of what the consequences of sin lead to within our hearts. The public consequences are temporary, but the private consequences are far longer reaching as the “Hound of Heaven” chases after us to confess and repent. While Hawthorne does not condemn adultery as a sin, we see the destruction causes by infidelity with the Prynne family. Hester Prynne is indeed a model of feminine strength and virtue in accepting responsibility and guilt, but she also provides us a picture of the results of our sin and the need for redemption in a Savior.

The book begins with this excellent sentence, showing the coldness of the scene and the tone of the entire novel:

A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.

In our first picture of Hester, Hawthorne contrasts the ugliness of sin with the beauty of the woman:

On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony.

If you are looking to read novels that you should have read in high school but didn’t, I heartily recommend starting with this one.

Ron’s #27: Brothers, We Are Not Professionals by John Piper

John Piper writes the collection of 30 short essays addressing topics affecting pastors today. Some of them are excellent (“Brothers, Read Christian Biography”; “Brothers, Fight for Your Life”), and some of them are duds (“Brothers, Pray for our Seminaries”). They all capture what we love about John Piper: creative insight, Scripture-based, and passionate pleas pointing us to Christ.

We read this book for our leadership meetings at church this year, taking one chapter to read and discuss. I enjoyed that way of reading this book.

My copy is well underlined, and I’m sure to return to it in the future.

I’m embarrassed to say that the part that I’ll always remember from this book is the fact that the Puritan Richard Sibbes was referred to as “The Sweet Dropper.” Piper never elaborates on why he is called that, or what that even means.

Pure gold.