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.

JRF's #33 - The Nudge in My Side: Stories from Indonesia and the Philippines by Bob McCroskey

A friend gave me this book, knowing that we are interested in missions in Indonesia.  Overall its a good book, filled with short stories of God's work in Indonesia and the Philippines.  It was exciting to read about how the Lord has called former Muslims, Animist canibals, and nominal Christians to faithfully proclaim His Good News and plant churches in this "closed" country, often with little to no resources.  It was also informative to read about how vital the pastor's training schools were in these stories.  Reading this has definitely got my wheels spinning about future ministry models. I would probably hesitate to recommend this book to many others however, due to it being a publication of the Church of the Nazarene.  As such, there are many references to unfamiliar traditions, squirelly doctrines, and Finney-esque methods ("holiness" preaching, alabaster offerings?, words from the Lord, accepting Jesus into my heart...etc) that would probably be confusing to some readers.  Also there seems to be no acknowledgement in the stories that there are any other churches, missionaries, or believers in these areas other than those in the Nazarene church, which I know is not the case.

JRF's #10 and #32 - Uneclipsing the Son by Rick Holland

I reread this book with our community group and we just finished.  It was encouraging to see the group be refreshed, challenged, and refocused with the Christ exalting message that I had been blessed with when I first read the book.

Some books just come into your hands at the right season of your life and say exactly what needs to be said.  In "Uneclipsing the Son", Rick Holland doesn't say anything that hasn't been already said, nor are the truths that he expounds truths that shouldn't be heard and dwelt upon in any season of a Christ lover's life.  Yet food is all the more tasty when one is especially hungry for it.  I  came upon this feast at a time of spiritual hunger.  It wasn't until I started reading this book however that I realized just how hungry I really was.

Holland uses the metaphor of a solar eclipse to expose the fact that many of us (all of us at some point) who follow Christ often live in the "spiritual gloom" created when lesser bodies drift between us and the brilliance of Christ's light.  We take our eyes off our Savior King and we become accustomed to the hollow shadow of a loveless faith.

The simple message of this book echoes Hebrews 12  "...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame,and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

I commend it to all who feel stuck in the bog of spiritual apathy and the weariness of living outside of a clear vision of Christ's brilliance.

"There is a grave danger of mistaking the shadowland of the eclipsed Son of God for the broad daylight that the redeemed were redeemed to enjoy, thinking all along that this treadmill of Christian engagements, polite Christian conversations, and good Christian behavior is the abundant life Jesus came to earth to deliver and declare."

"We must learn to stare at the Son of God such that we are blinded to all the allurements of the world!"

JRF's #31 - 1984 by George Orwell

Mark and Drew have already amply reviewed this book, so I won't rehash the plot.  Suffice it to say that this is one of the most thought provoking books I have read in a long time.

Here are a few of the many thoughts that have lingered since reading 1984 months ago:

History matters:  Much of the world of 1984 and the oppressive regime that is symbolized by "Big Brother" revolves around the governments' control of history.  One of the key doctrines that is repeated over and over again is "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."  The "Ministry of Truth" for which the main character Winston works for, is constantly revising, erasing, and rewriting history.  This perverting of history keeps the masses in subjection to Big Brother as it robs them of their identity and keeps them in an ongoing present - never affording them the opportunity to reflect and learn on the success and failures of past generations.

It is no coincidence that God continually told and tells his people to REMEMBER.  In virtually ever book of the Bible there is a command to remember.  Here is just a small sample:

"This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations." Ex 3:15

"You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today". Deut 15:15

"Remember the days of old;

consider the years of many generations;

ask your father, and he will show you,

your elders, and they will tell you." Deut 32:7

"Remember His wonderful deeds which He has done,

His marvels and the judgments from His mouth,"  I Chron 16:12

So these days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout every generation, every family, every province and every city; and these days of Purim were not to fail from among the Jews, or their memory fade from their descendants.  Esther 9:28

I shall remember the deeds of the Lord;

Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.

 Psalm 77:11

"Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."  Eph 2:11

"‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you."  Rev 3:3

"Do this in remembrance of Me..."

The salvation of sinners is inextricably rooted in the historical event of the incarnation of God, His perfect righteous life, his substitutionally death, and glorious resurrection.  Our present experience cannot alter those events, and our only hope for the future is in remembering and trusting the reality of that past historical accomplishment.  To be a Christian is to remember.

Truth matters:  Orwell shows (in a way congruent to Os Guiness in A Free People's Suicide) that the loss of freedom comes ultimately not through military conquests but through epistimological revolutions.   In 1984,not only does the government rewrite history to serve their current needs but even more sinisterly, they rewrite history to train the population (including themselves) to accept that there is no such thing as absolute truth and therefore entire histories, cultural and personal identities, and facts (such as gravity and math) are subject to "Big Brothers'" interpretation.  When truth is placed under the subjection of anyone or anything other than Omniscient God, it ceases to be truth and therefore ceases to offer any hope or freedom.

The Human Heart is Inherently Selfish:  Orwell seemed to understand that when pushed far enough our true selfish nature comes out.  Left to ourselves without any supernatural heart transformation, no matter how nobel, in love, heroic, civilized, or strong willed we believe ourselves to be, self preservation and interest reigns supreme.  It was excruciating to see the protagonist systematically stripped of all dignity and illusions of free will, ultimately not by an outside force, but from the enemy within - his sinful, weak heart.

1984 is a powerful parable.

Drew's #23 -- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

 

Yuk, Yuk, Yuk!  ...and I don't mean "funny"!  The book is as awful as the movie but pretentious enough to present itself as a social criticism.  The story follows Alex the hooligan as he vandalizes, rapes, murders, and burglarizes his way arrogantly through a small field victims (including one of his own hoodlum companions) until he finds himself in prison.   There he cravenly hides behind a priest (whom the author--typical of the common, pseudo-intellectual pomposity of the rank, low-class, trash-writers-masccarading-as-socio-politically-signifcant-commentators-but-in-reality-are-no-talant-hacks--portrays as narrow and dimwitted) until he kills another inmate.  Alex's further crimes (for which he remains remorseless and unapologetic) land him in a controversial reform program which psychologically deters him from violence and mayhem.

However, when he is released back into society, he finds his room rented out to a respectable man--appreciative of Alex's parents, his body beaten by his mistreated cronies--now led by a rival gang leader, and his sorry self imprisoned and tortured by the husband of a woman he raped.  At long last he forlornly throws himself head-first from a window, cursing everyone and everything but himself and his woefully self-indulgent character.  Alas where an unremarkable tombstone should mark the end of this grotesque carnival of a story, the fiend refuses to just die.

Instead, our "hero" is not only saved by the society he preyed upon, but pardoned and venerated by it's officials!  Most disturbingly, he is not simply forgiven by his loving parents but THEY seek HIS forgiveness (whereupon the rotten little twit scorns his family for his mistreatment).  Horrible wretch that he is, Alex is not only held unaccountable for his despicable deeds, he is championed as a moral role-model when he benevolently ponders putting aside his life of wickedness for adulthood.  The authors point, as he belabors to some length in the prologue, is that good and evil are a personal moral choice.  Right.  Somehow this unapologetic cesspool of profane and heathen brutality is really just a philosophical illustration of... something.  The only reason I spent a moment at all recounting this pulp in a review is to save you, gentle reader, from the wasted time of finding this out for yourself.

Mark's #48 - The Mighty Weakness of John Knox by Douglas Bond (2011)

As Martin Luther pounded the nail through his Ninety five Thesis on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, three-year-old John Knox toddled around his home 800 miles away in Haddington, Scotland.  Luther's spark turned into a raging inferno that would light much of Christendom ablaze with The Reformation.  By the age of twenty nine, this fire would reach into the heart of the priest John Knox and convert him to true faith in Jesus Christ. Though slight of stature, and often of ill health, Knox saw the glory of God's sovereignty and omnipotence, and found strength and confidence in these things rather than his own frail abilities and personal confidences.  John Knox was a man that understood theology and lived like it.

His life would be one of constant danger and fighting for the cause of truth in Jesus Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, by the authority of the Scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone.  He wielded a broadsword in the defense of a besieged castle, whilst he also wielded the sword of God (the Bible) to proclaim to those inside the castle the gospel of grace.  After the fall of the castle, he spent the next 19 months as a galley slave for the French Navy.  Upon his release he preached before kings and queens in England, as well as Scottish peasants.   He boldly denounced the church idolatry, political church and state whims of leadership.  He narrowly escaped capture and certain death as he fled for Geneva to study under John Calvin and pastor an english speaking church.   After Mary Tudor's death, Knox returned to Scotland where he reengaged a battle for the hearts and souls of his people against the sins, abuses, and idols of the church and the state.

This book recounts all of these struggles as well as the passion and theology of John Knox.  Knox saw the doctrine of God's predestination as an essential truth for the rescue and the hope of lost sinners.  As such, many throughout history have tried to ignore or vilify Knox in order to write him off... yet the truth he expounded remains true today and forevermore - God is absolutely sovereign over salvation, and that's a very good thing.   I was personally encouraged and edified by spending this time learning about the life, faith, and God of John Knox.