Books
Want 7 Books and 3 DVDs Free? Here’s How
Update 1.14.09: We’ve got us a winner, folks. Who was it? If you didn’t hear from me, then that means it wasn’t you.
Happy New Year’s Eve, folks…
And thank you for the last 365 days of rabid and roughshod fun!
To celebrate I’m giving away seven books and three DVDs.
To enter the drawing simply drop your name and email address in a little form…
Drawing closes midnight Thursday, January 7, 2010.
What books and DVDs am I giving away? Here’s a quick look.
Dug Down Deep
Josh Harris of I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Boy Meets Girl fame writes an intelligent narrative on classical Christian doctrines. [Note: This book isn't released until January 16, so if you win it, you'll be ahead of the crowd.]
The Mirage of Peace
Former Time magazine journalist for Jerusalem explains the rich social, political and religious history that makes the Middle East so volatile.
Hard to Believe
John MacArthur doing what he does best: shatter contemporary misconceptions about Christianity. This time what it actually means to follow Jesus. Adult diapers not included.
Darwin’s Dilemma
The same team who gave us The Privileged Planet and Unlocking the Mystery of Life are back. This time to demonstrate the bankruptcy of evolution in a documentary that travels around the world.
Open Their Eyes
Quintessential Piper articulates how our evangelistic efforts are actually embedded in the sovereign, persuasive power of God.
Herman Who? Hermeneutics Primer
Wretched Radio star and former comedian Todd Friel is an unlikely hermeneutics hero. But he manages quite well to save the day. His opening demonstration is a must-see.
Free Indeed
Sick of bondage to cigarettes? Sex? Lying? Richard Ganz–former psychologist turned pastor–will show you how to truly break free. Short, systematic chapters make this an easy read.
The Easter Answer
Small-town Wisconsin pastor Stephen Kingsley answers Dan Barker’s notorious “Easter Challenge.” Does he succeed? You decide.
Follow Me to Freedom
This is New Monastic prophet Shane Claiborne’s and African-American civil rights leader John Perkin’s out-of-the-box approach to church leadership. [Warning: I have not read this book.]
Unfashionable
Tullian Tchividjian insists Christians make a difference in the culture. Then he sells you on how to do it. [Note: Cover jacket is wrinkled. Some pages water-stained. I must've had a hole in my chin the day I read this book.]
Enter the drawing now that you know what books and DVDs I’m giving away.
By the way, there’s something you should probably know. The books. I’ve already read them. Yeah. You know what that means…
They are marked up, dog-eared and annotated with my rogue thoughts. In other words, they’ve got character.
Outside of that they’re in great shape. Honest.
One more thing. A handful of gracious people gave some of these items to me. People like Al Hartman. John Payne. Stephen Kingsley. Lynette Kittle. To you I say: Thank you for being so kind to me.
Now, what are you waiting for? Enter the drawing.
How to Read John Piper
Not to minimize the influence of other pastors, but John Piper single-handedly altered my vision from a man-centered gospel to a God-centered one…
And he did this by grabbing my jaw and whipping my head around.
How’d he do that when I never met the man?
That’s the beauty of the written word.
And the beauty of John Piper’s books are that they are easy to read, thought-provoking and…
Free. [Well, most are free.]
There is one problem with John Piper as a writer, though. He’s a madman. Prolific to a fault in the sense you will need to block off at least 42 days to read all 42 books. [That's if you read one book a day.]
Don’t have 42 days? You’re not alone. Fortunately you can get a bead on the man Piper and his theology in about four books. Here are the must-reads:
Desiring God
Hedonism is a dirty word. But not to Piper. Especially when our pleasure and it’s near-savage pursuit is found in God. In fact, Piper argues this is exactly what the Bible teaches as our duty: Maximum delight in glorifying God. He pulls it off, folks.
Finally Alive
A relentless, systematic explanation of what it means to be born again. It’s worth having a copy of this book for the commentary about classic biblical texts on regeneration alone.
God Is the Gospel
When we share the gospel with someone how do we present it? Do we focus on the person or God? And when you think of your own salvation and the gospel…does it motivate you to make much of yourself or God? Getting that answer right is crucial.
Don’t Waste Your Life
Work. Retirement. Health. Sickness. What do these opposing conditions of our lives have in common? They are all opportunities to glorify God. Sound unbelievable? Again, Piper pulls it off.
Disclaimer: I’ve not read all Piper’s books. Just eight. But it doesn’t take long before you see four common themes that run through his books. Here they are:
1. Delight in worshiping God is the highest pleasure we pursue. Desiring God
2. Dependence on Christ alone for salvation. Finally Alive
3. Determined aim to hold God far above all creation–including man. God Is the Gospel
4. Deliberate use of every sphere of our lives–including our suffering–to glorify God. Don’t Waste Your Life
So, what do you think? Am I dead on? Are you a Piper aficionado and find this list wanting? My interpretation lacking?
How many Piper books have you read?
Would you add any books to this list? Take any out? Let me know. I look forward to your thoughts.
How ‘The Shack’ Mocks God’s Holiness
Yes.
I’m picking on my favorite rogue Christian and his wild speculations about God again.
Is it because I’m nothing more than a sadistic blogger?
Curmudgeon? Bored?
Or is it because the love affair with The Shack is a good commentary on our contemporary evangelical environment?
Yes to all the above. [Except the bored part.]
See, The Shack still holds clout with the spiritually curious.
Still creeps up in conversations.
And most of the copies I see of The Shack owned by Christians show considerable more wear than their Bibles.
That’s troubling…
Because The Shack presents a flawed portrait of God–what Albert Mohler calls diluted heresy. Let me who you what I mean.
Write Fiction? You Must Follow These Rules
Believe it or not, when you write fiction, you follow certain rules. Rules that guide the plot, setting and characterization.
Young nails it on plot and setting. It’s that last one–characterization–that he misses, a point Trevin Wax made back in September…
I want to expand on that point. Here’s how it works.
If you’re going to write a novel about 18th century Russian peasants…you better get the characterization of those peasants right.
Nineteenth century mathematicians from Brooklyn? Get them right.
Twentieth century bicyclists training in northern California? Get them right.
The God of the Christian Bible? Get him right.
Get your characterizations wrong and you look like a silly know-nothing. And sadly, that’s exactly what Young did–he got the characterization of God wrong.
Let’s compare Mack’s controversial confrontation with God versus some of the Bible examples of confrontations with God to show you what I mean. I’ll start with the Bible.
Biblical Responses to the Holiness of God
When Adam sinned in the garden, Adam hid from God…
When a sixteen year-old king named Josiah read the long-forgotten law of God, he tore his clothes in grief…
When Job antagonized God about his plight, God rose up and riddled off a litany of questions…questions Job could not answer…
When Isaiah bent before the alter of God he screamed “Woe is me for I am ruined”…
When Peter saw Jesus conquer the storm he was terrified and said, “Who is this that the wind and the sea obey him?”
And when John encountered Jesus in a vision he fell at his feet as though dead.
As you can see, the Bible provides an abundant amount of examples that suggest encountering God is NOT a light affair…
And we haven’t even dealt with the hard texts of the Bible. Let’s do that now.
Compare These Tough Texts to…
In Leviticus 10 Aaron’s priestly sons–Nadab and Abihu–offer the wrong type of sacrifice on the altar…
In 2 Samuel Uzzah and his cohorts carry the ark of God on a cart [against God's prohibition to do such a thing] and when the ark threatens to crash into the mud, Uzzah sticks his hand out to catch it…
In Acts 5 Ananias and Sappira hid away some money they promised to share with the community of Christian believers.
What do all of these encounters share in common? Swift execution for what Jonathan Edwards called the “sins of arrogance.”
Mack’s Encounter with God
When Young’s protagonist Mack encounters God, what does he do? Let’s him have it. Throwing in a few choice words to boot.
Nothing out of the ordinary there. In fact, smells like a sin of arrogance. But it’s what God does in response that makes your jaw drop.
He merely shrugs.
My question to you is this: Why should Mack’s encounter with God be any different? I have a thought.
What’s obvious is that Mack is not in the presence of a being who is far superior to him.
We have no sense of awe for Papa. We don’t revere him.
In fact, the God of Young’s book accommodates us. Makes us feel comfortable –not convicted. He appeals to our native narcissism…
A narcissism our secular AND sacred culture nurtures to no end.
As I said in the Craptastic Book That Won’t Go Away post:
We want God on our terms. We want God to accommodate us. To make us feel welcome. We want him to present himself in a way that we can stomach. To justify our emotions like anger, bitterness and resentment.
But Here’s the Problem
In the end, my beef is not with The Shack. It’s with this: Our human tendency to fashion God into our own image, which is tantamount to tampering with the way God portrays himself…
A God who declares he is ferociously jealous for his name.
So what could Young have done to make me happy [not that he's obligated to make me happy]? Killed Mack on the spot after his fit of foul language.
As I demonstrated above, this would not have been the least bit out of character for God.
Understand: Defamation of God’s character carries strict consequences. A character that is illustrated in a demand for perfect obedience to the law of God.
A demand that you and I cannot satisfy. Only Christ.
And only when we see this full, out-stretched picture of redemption do we realize the depth of our dependence upon Christ and sob in relief at his mercy and then bend over backwards in our proclamation to the lost that it is, in fact, possible to have peace with a holy and just God.
Christmas is looming. Do you have an appropriate concept of God?
The Mirage of Peace [A Book Review + Quiz!]
David Aikman knows the Middle East.
He knows the historical, political, social and religious context of nations like Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
This shouldn’t surprise you…
He’s the former Time magazine bureau chief of Jerusalem where he spent decades reporting on the never-ending conflict in the Arab world, making him perfectly suitable to answer this question:
“Is peace in the Middle East a pipe dream?”
In this intriguing introduction to the Arab world–The Mirage of Peace–Aikman analyzes the players who rule this region, the politics that regulate it and the history that runs through it…offering a reasonable explanation on why this area of the world is an everlasting hotbed of violence.
This Can’t be Missed
Israel’s existence in the Middle East is a major fork in the Arab eye.
But this animosity ranges from unbending determination to wipe Israel off the map [Syria] to occasional, but fragile support [Jordan].
The source for this animosity is complex.
- Arabs denial that Jerusalem is a religious city to the Jews.
- Palestinians dislodged from their homes and land by Israeli invasions.
- Extreme Islamic intolerance for Jews fed by an apocryphal book, Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
However, one thing you don’t get from Aikman’s book–who is a professing Christian–is a pro-Israel argument.
Neither do you get an anti-Palestinian polemic.
Rather you get a critical look at the historical development of the Arab world and the nations that make it up.
Basically, since Aikman systematically walks through each nation’s history, you can bone up on your Middle East knowledge in about two nights of reading.
Nice for a trivia fanatic like me. But there’s more to this book than that.
Why the Image of the Arch of Titus?
Aikman begins and ends The Mirage of Peace with the image of the Roman conquest of Jerusalem…complete with the armies slaughter of Jews, their march through the Arch of Titus and the looting of the Jewish Temple.
Why the Arch of Titus?
Well, the 70 A. D. sack of Jerusalem marked the beginning of the Jew’s two thousand year exile from their homeland.
So, for the Jews, the Arch is a grim symbol of their tragic history.
Indeed, upon the birth of the nation of Israel in 1948, a delegation of Roman Jews walked through the Arch–in the opposite direction the Romans did 2,000 years ago.
But for Aikman, the Arch of Titus means something more: The events around Jerusalem dominated world affairs then. And guess what? They still do.
Other books by David Aikman: The Delusion of Disbelief and Jesus in Beijing.
BONUS: How much do you know about the Middle East? Take this quiz to find out.
Update: Unfortunately you have to register at Quibllo to see the answers. I didn’t know that before I launched the quiz. If you don’t want to register, here are the answers at Google Docs.
Looking for a Good Book? Here Are 10
A cathedral stacked floor-to-ceiling with books.
That’s my impression of heaven.
Certainly far-fetched given the specifications spelled out in the Bible.
What this reveals more than anything is something that’s not new at all to anyone who knows me well…
I like to read books.
And that’s exactly what I did while on sabbatical…
Read!
Roughly ten books in all.
[You'll see what I mean by "roughly" in a minute.]
So, here are the ten…and after you scan ‘em, tell me what you’re reading…okay? Enjoy the list!
Gravity’s Arc From the Greeks to modern times and beyond, this is a casual history about scientists’ fascination with gravity. You’ll love it if you have any attraction [no pun intended!] to science.
His Excellency: George Washington A readable biography on a highly emotional but restrained man who transcends his iconic image found on Mount Rushmore and the dollar bill.
God Is the Gospel John Piper’s heart cry is simply this: Do we make much of the gospel for our sakes or God’s sake? Our answer reveals much about ourselves. The first chapter is worth the $12 alone.
Courageous Leadership Read this in about 3 hours using this aggressive method. [Reading is a rather strong word here.] My favorite part: the personality profiles of different leaders late in the book.
Existence and Attributes of God At 1,100 plus words, I’ve been reading this 17th Century classic since the start of the year, but was able to put a dent into over my break. That is, if you call 100 pages a dent.
Games of Strategy An undergraduate textbook on game theory. Perhaps the best. Why am I reading it? Enthralled by human interaction in economics, politics, chess–you name it. But I only managed to read 23 pages. Got distracted.
Bowling Alone Readable critic on our collective slide as a nation into individualism. Who’s to blame? Television, two-career families, suburban sprawl. Unfortunately, I abandoned this book mid-stride.
Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Play about a man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for magical powers and brains galore. Circa 1604 by Christopher Marlowe.
The Tempest One of Shakespeare’s late romances, play about banished sorcerer Prospero who punishes his enemies when they wreck their ship on his island.
Paradise Lost John Milton’s long poem about Adam and Eve’s estrangement from God. And l.et me come clean. I didn’t read this. Actually, I listened to it in my car. Good news: You can, too. Free!
Want some more book reading recommendations? Check out my recent article on Copyblogger: 10 Surprising Books That Will Transform Your Writing.
So, I told you what I read in the last month…what did you read? Looking forward to hearing from you!
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