JRF's #50 - A Seed Falls on Okinawa by Peter A. Hewett

A disappointing read.  I'm not sure when/how I picked this book up but a few days ago when I was flipping through my Kindle looking for short books I could read to round out my 52 books for the year, I came across this 70 page short fictional story by Mr. Hewett about the battle of Okinawa and thought it might be an interesting read, considering it took place where I live and was supposedly about a Christian who died here.

Well it does take place on Okinawa - and it does provide some interesting facts and insights into the Okinawan culture.  Unfortunately, the book's redeeming qualities end there.  The author's overly-descriptive and pretentious writing style was distracting.  But that is forgivable.  The horrid theology presented is not.  A mixture of universalism and syncretism with a thin veneer of Roman Catholicism, there is no Gospel Truth to be found here, just therapeutic contextualization.

This book won't be showing up on any top ten lists this year.

JRF's #49 - Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It by John Owen

Last year I read John Owen's classic, The Mortification of Sin.  This year I tackled his much shorter, but no less potent, Of Temptation.

Using Christ's instruction to his disciples in Matthew 26:41 "Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation", as the foundational verse of his book, Owen then dives deep into the meaning of temptation, the circumstances by which we enter into it, and the way of preventing and resisting it.

In typical Owen fashion, the heart is laid bare and the truth of God's Word is expertly applied to both convict and offer hope to those caught in the current of temptations' flood.

Ultimately and most poignantly Owen points his readers to a Trinitarian Hope: The faithfulness of God the Father's promises to those who believe, the grace of God the Son who secures and accomplishes the Father's promises, and the power and efficacy of God the Holy Spirit who executes those promises.

I hope to cling to these promises and the God who gives them more tightly in 2013 because of reading this book.

"Confidence of any strength in us is one great part of our weakness...He that says he can do anything, can do nothing as he should."

"What a man's heart is, that he is."

"Prosperity has slain the foolish and wounded the wise"

"He that would indeed get the conquest over any sin must consider his temptations to it, and strike at the root; without deliverance from thence, he will not be healed.  This is a folly that possesses many who have yet a quick and living sense of sin.  They are sensible of their sins, not of their temptations - are displeased with the bitter fruit, but cherish the poisonous root."

"...store the heart with a sense of the love of God in Christ, and his love in the shedding of it; get a relish of the privileges we have thereby - our adoption, justification, acceptance with God; fill the heart with the thoughts of the beauty of his death - and you will, in an ordinary course of walking with God, have great peace and security as to the disturbance of temptations."

JRF's # 48 - Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

 

Joseph Conrad's classic novel tells the tale of Marlow, a sailor who travels up river into the dense Congolese rainforest on an expedition to retrieve a legendary ivory hunter, Mr. Kurtz, who has not been heard from in some time.  The further into the jungle Marlow travels, and the further away from civilization, the more savage the world becomes.  When they finally find Mr. Kurtz...well things get weird.  They find evil.  But they also bring evil.

Conrad supplies an interesting look at how humans view each other and ourselves and provides a beautifully written commentary on the forces that both fence in and reveal our depravity.  This exploration into the meaning of and potential for savagery within all of us is filled with powerful symbolism and enigmatic prose (a lot of which went over my head, I must admit).

JRF's #47 - My Jakarta by the Jakarta Globe

This book is a collection of 200 + pages of interviews conducted by of anyone and everyone in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia and the world's 2nd largest metropolitan area with more than 28 million souls.

From street buskers to politicians to gay rights leaders to fundamentalist muslims the people and perspectives offered in this collection are as numerous as the islands that make up Indonesia.

This book would be interesting to virtually any reader who has an interest in culture and urban life.  However, since Sarah and I are pursuing a life of work in this city, the information captured in these pages was fascinating and exciting.  It has helped put a face on this overwhelming city.  Many seeds of ideas for opportunities to meet the felt and real needs of these precious people have been planted as a result of reading their stories.

JRF's #46 - The Purity Principle by Randy Alcorn

Last year one of my favorite books was The Grace and Truth Paradox by Randy Alcorn.  This year, I read another book from his Lifechange Books series - The Purity Principle.  

The Purity Principle is simply this:

"Purity is always smart; impurity is always stupid."

This was not the first time I had read this book, and it probably will not be the last.  It was encouraging and convicting to come back to this book after reading it five years ago and see what the truth and wisdom laid out in this book has reaped in my life since then, and see areas in which I still need to grow.  The Purity Principle (both the book and the actual principle) is Biblical and practical.

This book finds the perfect balance between being theological and being practical as well as being frank but not gratuitous in it's detail.

This is THE book I recommend to those struggling in the area of purity.

JRF's # 45 - A Free People's Suicide by Os Guinness

I read most of this for November's Apologia, but then took my time finishing it up.  It has already been reviewed by Mark and Ron so I won't reiterate the premise of the book.

My favorite part of the book were where Guinness showed the historical progression of democratic theory throughout the classical world and then compared and contrasted the American and French Revolutions.  The emphasis on the imporatance of history was refreshing and helped my thinking as I read through 1984 simultaneously.

The biggest weakness in my opinion was that while he did a good job of showing that a strong democracy demands a strong faith, I felt he barely even discussed why or why not a strong Christian faith demands a democracy.  The passion of my heart and goal of my life is not to secure democracy but serve the Kingdom of Christ.  My concerns for the sustainability of democracy are subserviant to my concern of the spread of the Gospel.  I felt like that aspect was missing from this book.  Perhaps that is a book for a different audience.