Book Review #9: Jesus, Mean and Wild (Update)

It with a little regret that I must postpone my review of this book till Friday, and pick up the ball again next week. I have been doing some research on different discipleship models within churches. Thanks for your grace.

Blessings,
G-

Propelled

Question?

In your faith community, do you feel you are part of maintaining an institution or mobilizing a movement?

This is the question I have been grappling with recently. Maintaining is not bad, but it doesn’t speak to growth. It says “We’re fine just the way we are.” Being part of a movement feels more like “This is where we are, but we could be better, and we’re willing to fail in trying.”

I’m at a point in life where I am sick of maintaining, and want to feel like I am part of a movement again. This is what drew me to ministry. This, in part, is what drew me to Christ.

Now, this not to say I have this figured out and aced in other areas of my life. I am totally into maintaining other areas of my life where there should be movement, but I can’t imagine movement in my life unless there is movement in my faith and faith community.

Lord Jesus Christ, by your Holy Spirit propel me to take greater challenges in my faith, family, and community. Help me to be obedient to the nudges of your spirit. Consume me through your word and prayer. Deliver me from my fear. Give me boldness in the face of temptation. Help me to move.

I know Spring is around the corner.

Once again, its snowing out. We're expecting 6 to 9 inches, and all I can think about is my garden and how it will look like this again someday.

Book Review # 8 - A New Earth by Eckart Tolle

Needless to say, its been a busy week. Having St. Patricks day and Easter, not to mention the start of March Madness, falling in the same week . . enough of the excuses. As a preacher once said, no guff or twaddle today.

Eckart Tolle's book A New Earth, Awakening To Your Life's Purpose is the latest in a string of self help books with a spiritual bend. To be honest, Tolle sounds alot like L.Ron Hubbard in his attempt to synchronize religions and various sciences (especially psychology), using their common themes and then aligning them under the banner of his own vocabulary. What Hubbard would call our collective negative feelings as Thetan, Tolle calls it our pain-body, feeding on negative experiences both in the present and past. Tolle is quick to use words such as evolve and use it as as spiritual term, or reference the arrival of a new kind of kingdom and equate that to a higher level of consciousness.

In short, Tolle says that we must evolve or die. If we do not evolve to a higher state of consciousness, then we as a race will die. Tolle points to religious prophets and some scientist who have risen to this state of evolved consciousness (enlightenment . .. very creative), in which of course, Tolle counts him self among.

Tolle agrees that all humanity has an inherited dysfunction, some call it sin, others call it suffering, but what ever you call it, it is the result of not being "self aware". Tolle is sounding like a broken record at this point, and I keep waiting for the new thing he has to say . . .

Tolle does use more scripture than other self proclaimed spiritual leaders, but he takes the passages out of context and changes the meaning of words to fit his paradigm. He correctly defines sin, and then suggests that sin is to live unskillfully or blindly. Not that I disagree, but he equates it with the Buddhist way of avoiding pain. He also references living with the peace that surpasses all understanding, but says that you can only achieve that peace if you understand the ego.. Summarily, the Sermon on the Mount is a teaching or vehicle to diminish the pain-body.

So what is the new earth? Hold onto your hats . . . .Its an earth that is changed by people who have evolved and achieved enlightenment, or awakened to your purpose. Your life's purpose is to live in the now, and not for tomorrow. If you are awake to your present purpose, you can change the world now. If you look for your purpose in the future, you will miss the present. Don't you feel better?

Tolle is a man who is seeking. For that I give him props, but like most self proclaimed spiritual guides, he's inward focused. His teaching don't come anywhere close to the authority and weight of Christ.

As a book, I think he could have said what he needed to say in 1/2 the time. I'm shocked that Oprah chose such a book. My sense is that a staffer read it and brought it as an idea. Have we seen Tolle on Oprah? If this was such big stuff, then I would have thought every Tuesday would be Eckart day, but maybe she learned her lesson with Dr. Phil.

Final thought . .nothing new under the sun. Tolle's book is a "best of" remix of world religions and science, with a synchronized drum beat behind it.


" But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves . . . . having a form of godliness but denying its power. . . For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
"

The Apostle Paul - 2 Timothy

Happy St. Patricks Day!

If you are interested in some St. Patrick history click on link. You'll find it fascinating.

Check out our family blog to see what we did to celebrate a 1/4 of my tradition.

Blessings,
G

Making Everything Spiritual

I freely admit I had a man-crush on Rob Bell when I first saw his Nooma videos and read Velvet Elvis. I also continually thought "Who is this punk? What does he have to say? And, man, I have got to get some new clothes."

Rob has been doing a tour called "Everything is Spiritual". Something I resonate with. At the same time, I try making everything spiritual.

Case in point. My wife and I are probably going to sell one of our cars, mine of course, and so I have been walking to work. No big deal, about 1 1/2 miles, roughly 25 to 30 minute walk. On the way into work, I thought this walk can help me better understand the needs of the poor and how women in Africa have to walk greater distances every day to get water. At this point, I stopped in my tracks, and asked myself "George, why are you trying to spiritualize this? What are you trying to do?"

The answer came to me just as fast as the question. "You want people to think of you more highly than they should, and you want to have a good answer if people ask. Its all about image."

Now, what did I like about walking? I had some good alone time. I saw houses and places in a way I'm not able to going 35mph. I said 'Hi' to people, and they said 'Hi" back. I didn't have to spiritualize it because it all ready was.

Book Review # 7: The Third Jesus by Deepak Chopra

I couldn't wait any longer and simply had to finish the book because it was, well, terrible. It is not well written, poorly developed, and its been done before and actually better by Thich Nhat Hanh (Living Buddha, Living Christ).

Chopra makes wide sweeping generalizations on so many fronts its as if he sat down and starting writ ting from personal memory (an issue I have with my own fellow Christians when they say " I think it says somewhere in the Bible . . . .).

There is no good documentation or evidence provided to support his claims unless they support his views, and even then he stands on shaky ground. He, like other authors trying to discover something new about Jesus, tosses out the cloak of contradiction, and yet is either unable or unwilling to show any.

Chopra sights Gnostic writing and non-canonical books as if they are widely accepted. He quotes Jesus and then re-interprets the quotes through his own lens and definitions, a critique he gives the Gospel writers. He disregards orthodox Christianity and moves to secondary sources because he then doesn't have to deal with Jesus. His understanding of Jewish literature is regretfully poor for an author of his notoriety ( I didn't want to say scholarship, because I didn't see any).

What does this book have to offer? If as a student of Jesus, you want to know where society gets its ideas about Jesus, then read this book. Chopra is wide read, and is a proponent of religious and social harmony, albeit at the expense of truth. If you are not a student of Jesus, then I wouldn't use this as a source to find Jesus, because you won't get the authentic Jesus of the Bible. I would encourage you to read the Bible yourself. I do the same with all religions. I don't read Christian critiques of other religions, I read what the religion and its followers have to say about themselves. I encourage the same here.

Don't waste your time or PayPal on this one. The cover is interesting, and it goes down hill from there.

If you're re-engaging your Christian faith or simply curious let me suggest you read the Gospels, but as companions read The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, The Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight, or Basic Christianity by John Stott.

Next week I will be reviewing a New Earth . . . I know, but Oprah has got people buzzing about it, so I though I'd see what its about.

Ugghhhh

The book I'm reading this week is The Third Jesus by Deepak Chopra simply because this is the time of the year when people release books and write articles about Jesus. This book is no exception to the endless attempts to give you the 'real' Jesus. While some of his statements are acurate about the church and its short comings, he's making broad sweeping comments without much substance. It drives me crazy to read this stuff, and yet this is where most people look to discover Jesus, not the Bible.

So, hold onto your hats, its going to be a bumpy ride. Don't get too excited about Time and Newsweek publishing cover stories about Jesus, because they'll probably quote Chopra and not the Gospels. Then again, how much have you heard about the Jesus Seminar lately? And that is my point.

Forgivness

I underestimate people's need to forgive and be forgiven, actually hearing the words "You are forgiven." I taught Sunday school and lead small group yesterday on the Kingdom principle of forgiveness and our power to forgive sins, not atone for them, but forgive, as exhorted by Jesus in John 20. People really seemed to wrestle with our call to forgive and it was obvious that some needed to hear that they are forgiven. It's important to say these words because it is a major part of our ministry of reconciliation. Do you need to forgive? Do you need to hear the words?
Do you need to forgive? Do you need to hear the words?

You are forgiven. Now, in your freedom, go and set others free.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luke 4:18-19

Book(let) Review # 6: A Call to Prayer by J.C. Ryle

I said I would give a book review, but I didn't say how long the book was =:) This was a busy week, so I didn't have nearly the reading time I had planned or expected. Over the last two days, I went back to my shelf of books that I re-read to get my energy and passion refueled.

J.C. Ryle is one of those authors who does it for me. In 1880 Ryle was named the first Bishop of the newly constituted diocese of Liverpool. Throughout his ministry he became known and beloved as a defender of the evangelical reformed faith as expressed in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, of the Church of England.

His book Holiness is a must read. His writing style is direct and lovingly confrontational. His illustrations are based in human interaction, making them relevant regardless of the era in which they were written.

A Call to Prayer is typical Ryle. He starts off this books with " Do you pray?" and then for the rest of book outlining the necessity of prayer and the affects if it is lacking. Ryle also starts off by insisting that prayer is needful to salvation. " But that a man can have salvation without asking for it, I cannot see in the Bible."

Ryle continues to outline the marks of a true disciple by their willingness to pray. " I don not deny that a man may pray without heart and without sincerity. I do not for a moment pretend to say that the mere fact of a person's praying proves ever thing about his soul. As in every other part of religion, so also in this, there may be deception and hypocrisy. But I do say this, that not praying in a clear proof that a man is not yet a true Christian."

On of my favorite quotes is " Can we really believe that people are praying against sin night and day, when we see them plunging into it?"

Ryle is not for the faint of heart, and he will get you angry at times, but for all the right reasons. He will spur you on to know Christ. I love having a preacher with a thick accent preach God's word with power. This is the closest I get some times, imagining Ryle leaning over the top of the pulpit, pouring God's word over his people with a fire that is shut up in his bones.

A Call To Prayer is a good introduction to Ryle.

Priesthood of All Believers

Wasn't it great when we were kids and playing army (not very p.c. these days) and you were shot, that all you had to do was wait until a buddy tagged you, or you simply said "You missed me," and you got up and started playing again.

No one wants to feel left out of the game. Regardless of our talent or skills, we'd rather be in the game than watching. We'd rather take the chance and screw up than sitting on the sidelines and cheer. Yet, when it comes to the Christian faith, we do the opposite.

Instead of pursuing a dynamic call to be part of God's redemptive plan, we sit in the pew and cheer for those who appear to be living the call; never believing we have the same call.

One of my favorite lines in a movie is from Keeping the Faith, " We're (clergy) paid to live the kind of spiritual lives our people can't live for themselves." I love it because I hate the truth of it. I feel the pressure of it, and that is why I am compelled, yeah, propelled to change it.

We have all been called into the game.