Thoughts on Reading

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There is something intoxicating about the smell of books. Whether it is the scent of new books lined up in neat rows on shelves at the local bookstore or the more experienced fragrance of books long-loved on the shelves at home.

 It’s a scent, but something more than mere fragrance.

There is a feeling of power in holding a book in one’s hands. The knowledge printed within the bound pages, written a year before or one thousand years before, is there to be understood and owned by the conquering reader.

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Sam James - Missionary Hero

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The fact that Sam and his wife Rachel served for 51 years is impressive in and of itself. I dream of being that faithful for so long.

That they served in Vietnam for many of those years makes the feat even more astounding. James recalls of his decision to serve in Vietnam:

"I didn't know any Vietnamese people. I'd never heard the Vietnamese language. . . . It was just something the Lord laid on my heart that I couldn't get away from. . . . Sometimes I think the call of God is something of a mystery."

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What makes a sermon good?

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Good sermons till the soil of my soul, plowing in the same direction as last year and the year before. This time another clump of clay gets broken up and maybe another rock unearthed to be tossed aside. But it is the same ground that needs to be cultivated. It isn't as hard packed as it was a while ago, but the rains, the foot traffic of the field workers, and the baking of the sun have allowed it to get packed down pretty hard again.

I know I've heard a really good sermon not when I walk away with a four step action plan but when I leave my seat with a deeper sense of grace, hope, and determination. Grace comes from knowing that I’m not the first to still need to pull some weeds and harrow the field after all these years. Hope comes from knowing it can be done and that there is wisdom in the Word. Determination comes from a deeper appreciation of the Savior who gives the grace and hope.

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For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles

For the Life of The World: Letters to the Exiles is a recent video series produced by the Acton Institute. The purpose of the series is to help Christians answer the question: “What is our salvation actually for?" This is a question that is vitally important as Christians consider how to engage the culture in an increasing post-Christian world.

The production is comprised of seven distinct episodes, which could be watched in close succession like a feature film or in distinct units as part of a study. Each episode is in the neighborhood of twenty minutes, with a total runtime of about two hours. The episodes pick up distinct pieces of the answer to the central question of why Christians remain on the earth after being saved.

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Truth Matters

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This is a good book. It’s a book that I wish I had owned when I was in college because it answers many of the questions that my friends and I discussed. It answers these questions with grace and authority.

Though this book does not answer every possible objection to the authority of Scripture and the validity of the Christian faith, it does provide an important tool for equipping young students to maintain a robust faith in the face of skeptical friends and sometimes hostile professors at colleges. It does not provide the full answer to every objection or slam-dunk solutions to every conundrum that cynical opponents of Christianity often levy. However, Truth Matters provides good reason to doubt the doubts that are often accepted as an intellectual rite of passage among late adolescent students. This is an important book because it targets a need for churches and parents that are rightly concerned about their children losing, or at least temporarily denying, their faith once they are away from home.

There is no panacea for a failure to disciple children and equip them for the world before they head out of the house, but this book is something parents should strongly consider sending with their kids when they leave home. Kӧstenberger, Bock, and Chatraw have done a service for the church by writing this book.

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The Eroding Foundations of Education

Recently the Wall Street Journal published an article detailing the failure of many colleges to require courses in economics, history, government, or foreign languages. As a result, the study shows, “A majority of U.S. college graduates don’t know the length of a congressional term, what the Emancipation Proclamation was, or which Revolutionary War general led the American troops at Yorktown.” More significant than the absence of basic facts are the growing complains from employers “that graduates are entering the workforce without basic skills such as critical thinking.” Representatives of some of the institutions negatively implicated by the report question the validity of the survey, pointing to an interdisciplinary approach where aspects of history and economics may be wrapped in an art or science class.

Scholars often lament the compartmentalization of the university, where academic disciplines become isolated. This often results in and perhaps is caused by academics focusing on narrower and narrower fields. As I’ve heard it explained previously: a good scholar will work to know more and more about less and less until eventually she knows everything about nothing. This is tongue in cheek, but does represent the trend of specialization and the lack of an integrated community of learning that exists in most academic institutions.

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This Book Changes Nothing

I came to this book as an environmental ethicist, hoping to read an engaging book that would bring me into an important discussion from a different angle. I wanted a thoughtful critique that wrestled with the economic and social issues of the day. What I found was a book that will sell a lot of copies because it is being well-publicized and tells a segment of the population what they already believe and want to have reinforced. Such an approach will continue to reduce the opportunities for bi-partisanship, a fact she notes at one point in her diatribe, because it demonstrates exactly the shallow engagement and failure to dialogue that characterizes so much contemporary debate. In the end, this book is not about seeking truth and convincing people of its value, it’s about making money by speaking the words people want to hear. Ironically, given its success on the New York Times Bestseller list, This Changes Everything will be a capitalistic success.

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On Being Discipled in an Internet Age

It is easy to focus on the negative aspects of technology and the Christian man: distraction, access to pornography, isolation, etc. Discussing the dangers of technology is important, but we should not forget to celebrate the positive contributions of technology.

One example of a hugely positive contribution that technology has brought to men in the 21st century is the ability to find amazing quantities of high quality discipleship material. Among the dangerous websites, sources of distraction and bad doctrines, there are brilliant examples of phenomenal Christian content available and ready. It really eliminates any excuse that a modern man has of not being discipled.

Certainly sermons, podcasts, blogs, and e-books will never replace person-on-person accountability. However, never before have so many excellent resources been made available, often at no cost.

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