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To further whet your appetite for this month’s giveaway, here is an excerpt from “Total Church” in which the authors contrast a common presentation of the gospel in individualistic terms with an explanation of the biblical storyline as it has to do with the people of God. This has definitely forked some straw into my mental feed trough. I’m still chomping, in fact. Here is what they say:
At the heart of much evangelical piety is the individual soul before God. A personal relationship with God has all too often become an individual relationship with God. This individual relationship is seen as authentic spirituality from which other expressions of spirituality are derived. So people say things like, “We will not be prayerful in the public life of the church unless we have first learned to be prayerful in private.”
In some ways it depends how you tell the Bible story. There is a version that runs something like this: “God made you to know him, but you have rejected God. Your sin cuts you off from God and brings you under his judgment. But God sent his Son to die in your place and reconcile you to God. Now you can know God and look forward to being with him after death.” It is the story of an individual out of relationship with God brought back into relationship with God. This version of the story is true. But it is not the whole truth, nor is it how the Bible itself tells the story.
Hmmm. How many times have I heard — and explained — the gospel in this way? The question, of course, is not whether or not this way of understanding the message of the Bible is true. Chester and Timmis acknowledge this. The question is whether or not there is more that needs to be said. They continue:
Consider instead a different version: “God made humanity to know him and to rule over his good creation. But humanity rejected God, and ever since we have lived in rebellion against him and in conflict with each other. But God chose Abraham and his family to be the beginning of a new humanity. He rescued this people from slavery and made a covenant through which they could relate to him and display his glory to the world. When they persistently rejected God, he promised a remnant who would continue the promise of a people who know God. He promised a new covenant bringing forgiveness for sin and his Law written on their hearts. Ultimately Jesus was that faithful remnant. He died for his people to redeem God’s new humanity. And he rose as the first among many who would enjoy new life in a new creation. God is now gathering his people through the mission of the church and will present them, drawn from all nations, as the perfected bride of his Son.”
The invitation implicit in this story is not simply to an individual relationship with God (though that is one implication). The invitation is to become part of the new people of God, the bride of Christ. It suggests a spirituality with a much more communal orientation. Here is a spirituality in which we grasp the amazing dimensions of Christ’s love “together with all the saints” (Ephesians 3:18). We model and embody God’s love for one another (1 John 4:12). I have a relationship with God because we have a relationship with God. There are persons of God because there is a people of God. (pages 148-149)
What do you think?
This month I’m giving away a free copy of “Total Church” to any new or current subscriber to The Fool’s Gold.
Here’s what to do:
1. Subscribe to The Fool’s Gold by RSS or by e-mail.
2. Contact me letting me know you’re a subscriber, whether new or old.
3. I will randomly select a winner on Friday.
About the Book
“Total Church” is a book by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, British co-founders of a church-planting initiative called The Crowded House. The book argues for doing “ordinary life with gospel intentionality” and stresses the necessity of being both gospel-centered and community-centered in the way we approach evangelism, discipleship, apologetics, pastoral care, etc. I have about twenty pages left in the book, and I doubt these pages will be any less delightful and provocative than the first 180. I highly recommend it.
Zach Nielsen at Take Your Vitamin Z had this to say about the book:
I have just finished reading Total Church by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester and can say without qualification that this book is one that most pastors and church leaders should consider picking up and reading. You won’t agree with everything these guys write, but the content is worth wrestling through.
I found that the conclusion was one of the most powerful sections of the book and as with many other books I wish the conclusion would have been the introduction. Many of the objections that will be raised to this book would be squelched if the conclusion was read as the introduction. Read the conclusion first and then work your way through the book. You won’t be disappointed.
You can also read an interview with Tim Chester at the DG Blog.
I’m reading through a book called “Total Church” right now. It’s by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, British co-founders of a church-planting initiative called The Crowded House. It’s been delightful.
In short, the authors call us to structure our ideas of how to “do church” around two realities: gospel and community. I find the implications of this for evangelism to be life-giving. Rather than advocating door-to-door evangelism or street preaching (which certainly have their place but tend to be a-relational), Chester and Timmis envision a three-strand model of evangelism involving building relationships, sharing the gospel, and introducing people to community. This is based in part on Jesus’ words to the disciples in John 13:35 — “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Here’s what this looks like practically. This makes me excited:
So often the call to evangelism produces guilt and despondency. This is due in part to ungodly attitudes such as pride and the fear of man. Paul is clear in 1 Corinthians that we have a “foolish” message to proclaim in a foolish manner (1:18-2:5). So evangelism often makes us look foolish, and few people relish that prospect.
However, not all of us are eloquent or engaging. Not everyone can think on their feet. Some people are simply not good at speaking to strangers and forming new friendships. One of the practical benefits of the three-strand model of evangelism is that it gives a role to all of God’s people. By making evangelism a community project, it also takes seriously the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in distributing a variety of gifts among his people. Everyone has a part to play — the new Christian, the introvert, the extrovert, the eloquent, the stuttering, the intelligent, the awkward. I may be the one who has begun to build a relationship with my neighbor, but in introducing him to community, it is someone else who shares the gospel with him. That is not only legitimate — it is positively thrilling! Pete may never share the gospel verbally with Duncan, but his welcome and love are an integral part of the evangelistic process and should be honored as such. Meanwhile Susan can make friends and introduce them to the community, confident that others will present them — at an appropriate point in an appropriate way — with the challenges of the gospel. It is lovely to think of us making up for one another’s deficiencies with our collective community strengths.
If evangelism is a community project, our different gifts and personalities can complement one another. Some people are good at building relationships with new people. Some are socialites — the one who will organize a trip or an activity. Some people are great at hospitality. Some are good at initiating gospel conversations. Some are good at confronting heart issues. In each case I can think of individuals in our small congregation who fit the bill. I am not good at any of these things. I was the one who did evangelistic Bible studies with Al. At the end I said, “You ought to be baptized,” and he said, “Okay.” Simple as that! But I would never have got that far if I had not been part of a team. (Pages 62-63)
The winner of this month’s giveaway of “Death By Love” is Greg Vruggink. Thank you to everyone who participated, and stay tuned for future giveaways!
This month I’m giving away a free copy of Mark Driscoll’s “Death by Love” to any new or current subscriber to The Fool’s Gold.
Here’s what to do:
1. Subscribe to The Fool’s Gold by RSS or by e-mail.
2. Contact me letting me know you’re a subscriber, whether new or old.
3. I will randomly select a winner on Friday.
About the Book
“Death by Love” is a collection of twelve letters written by Mark to people he has interacted with as a pastor at Mars Hill Church. The purpose of the letters is to apply some facet of the cross (redemption, gift righteousness, propitiation, etc.) to very real — and sometimes very awful — situations (lust, legalism, rape, abuse, etc.). This book will be a rich resource to anyone who wants to know how to love people better by pointing them to the Lamb who was slain.
For more information, see the reviews by Tim Challies, Adrian Warnock, or Erik Raymond (HT: Vitamin Z).
Friday night Crystal and I sat down and read what has been released of “Porn-Again Christian,” an online booklet written by Mark Driscoll to address issues of pornography and masturbation. Mark has a deep burden for the men in his church to know what biblical manhood looks like, and he is sharply aware of the crippling effect pornography has on embracing that vision.
Here is an excerpt from the introduction to give you a flavor of the booklet:
As the pastor of a large and growing church filled with strong men, many of them young, I have seen the secret sins of pornography and masturbation paralyze many men with shame, guilt, and embarrassment. I have written this booklet to discuss these matters in a manner that is both theological and practical, in hopes of contributing to each of you experiencing the power of the gospel to forgive, renew, and empower you by grace. Because I am speaking to fellow men, my tone may not be well suited for some women and, therefore, I would request that they not read this booklet, unless they are a wife whose husband has read it first and he can discuss its contents with her in love. For men wanting to encourage other men to lives of purity, I pray this booklet would be a useful and readable piece of literature that you could pass on to as many dudes as possible as a pedagogical tool for cranial-rectal extraction.
Mark’s language is raw at times, but that’s exactly what I appreciate about him. He speaks frankly about issues that can be awkward to address and doesn’t pull any punches. If you meet the criteria he mentions above, I would encourage you to read this booklet. All the chapters haven’t been released yet, but everything up through chapter 9 is available, and chapter 10 should be coming out today.
Here is a quote from Mark Driscoll’s new book “Death by Love,” a collection of letters written to people Mark has worked with as a pastor. Each letter takes one of the aspects of the cross and applies it to a particular person’s situation. In this letter, Mark is addressing a man who appears externally religious but is full of vice. He provides this man with a list of ten ways to distinguish religion from the gospel. Here is #3, which I share because it is particularly convicting to me:
[R]eligion is about what you do. Because of this, religious people like you like to quantify their righteousness in measurable ways. Meanwhile, because such things as love, patience, kindness, and mercy are not easy to quantify, you do not pursue them as vigilantly as a clean house, regular church attendance, enforced bedtime, and a balanced checkbook. Conversely, the gospel is about what Jesus has done–for you, in you, and through you–by grace. (page 95)
Crystal and I read the following portion of The Horse and His Boy the other day. C.S. Lewis is describing a battle taking place at a stronghold called Anvard:
The best way I can tell you what really happened is to take you some miles away to where the Hermit of the Southern March sat gazing into the smooth pool beneath the spreading tree, with Bree and Hwin and Aravis beside him.
For it was in this pool that the Hermit looked when he wanted to know what was going on in the world outside the green walls of his hermitage. There, as in a mirror, he could see, at certain times, what was going on in the streets of cities far farther south than Tashbaan, or what ships were putting into Redhaven in the remote Seven Isles, or what robbers or wild beasts stirred in the great Western forests between Lantern Waste and Telmar. (pg. 200)
I have two observations:
- We have the Hermit’s pool. It’s called the internet. It is astounding to me that the capabilities of a mystical pool in a children’s fiction tale are at our fingertips.
- The negative consequence of this is that it may make us more like hermits than we like to think.
The winner of the October 2008 Fool’s Gold Book Giveaway is:
Tim Chen
Tim operates a blog called “To Live Is Christ, To Die Is Gain.”
What does Tim do during the day, you ask? Here is his answer:
I’m a student during the day (Engineering with an interest in everything, including philosophy).
He describes his favorite season this way:
I’m from the Midwest so my favorite season is fall. The air is crisp and clear, stinging your nostrils as it goes in. Cold enough to play soccer or tag with your hands stuffed in your pockets on the colder days. And on the warmer ones, the sun on your back is enough so that you can run freely with shirt and shorts without breaking a sweat. A dewy frost on the ground in the misty mornings before the cool glowing sun cuts into and makes the air so crystal clear.
Winter is even better, the hushed sleeping landscape with only your footprints and the silence. But being inside is cold wet and drafty at times. Cold feet are a common malady along with the constant worry of carbon monoxide. Enthusiastic heater use often results in a drowsy feel and a popped circuit breaker (and a shutdown computer). So overall, fall is the more favored holiday.
Congratulations, Tim! Be sure to stay tuned, everyone, for next month’s giveaway.
Welcome to October! To celebrate the dawn of this new month as well as The Fool’s Gold’s six-month birthday, I’m giving away a free copy of “The Reason for God” by Tim Keller.
Giveaway Details:
Between now and midnight on Thursday, October 2 (Central Standard Time), send an e-mail to thefoolsgoldblog@gmail.com. In the e-mail, include the following:
– Your name
– The name and address of your blog (if you have one)
– What you do during the day
– Your favorite season and why
After the deadline passes, I will randomly select an entry and e-mail the winner to ask for his or her mailing address. The winner will be announced sometime on Friday, October 3.
About the Book:
I warmly commend this book to you if for nothing else than to see what it looks like to winsomely defend the gospel. Keller is masterful at handling objections to the Christian message with understanding while peeling away levels of argument to expose underlying assumptions.
The book is divided neatly into two sections. The first section deals with seven common objections to Christianity:
– There Can’t Be Just One True Religion
– How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?
– Christianity Is a Straitjacket
– The Church Is Responsible for So Much Injustice
– How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
– Science Has Disproved Christianity
– You Can’t Take the Bible Literally
The second section presents seven reasons for believing in Jesus. Here’s an excerpt from his “Intermission” chapter to whet your appetite:
Intermission means literally to be between journeys or missions. That is where we are now. Underlying all doubts about Christianity are alternate beliefs, unprovable assumptions about the nature of things. So far I’ve examined the beliefs beneath the seven biggest objections or doubts people in our culture have about the Christian faith. I respect much of the reasoning behind them, but in the end I don’t believe any of them make the truth of Christianity impossible or even improbable. We have another journey to take, however. It is one thing to argue that there are no sufficient reasons for disbelieving Christianity. It is another to argue that there are sufficient reasons for believing it. That is what I will try to do in the last part of this volume. (pg. 115)
If you’re curious to discover his reasons, shoot me an e-mail. I think you’ll find “The Reason for God” to be a very helpful and faith-strengthening resource.
That’s short for “Edwards on the Head”, my Thursday afternoon phenomena of feeling like a deflated cerebral whoopie cushion. I have class on Mondays and Thursdays, but Thursdays are the big days. We clock in at 7:45 and hang up our hats at 3:30. The whole day we belly-up to a smorgasbord of academic cuisine, beginning with Hebrew and ending with a class on Jonathan Edwards, who, by the way, has the uncanny ability to make me feel both amazed and dumb at the same time. That’s a good thing.
Right now we’re working through his dissertation “Concerning the End for Which God Created the World.” His point is that God didn’t create the world out of some deficiency or need in himself. Instead, the infinite self-knowledge and joy he has experienced in the fellowship of the Trinity is so full that it spills over. Like a fountain. God desires to communicate or display that fullness, and so he creates. Here’s how Edwards put it:
…[W]e may suppose, that a disposition in God, as an original property of his nature, to an emanation of his own infinite fulness, was what excited him to create the world; and so that the emanation itself was aimed at by him as a last end of the creation. (End of Creation, 23)
The highway to hell is paved with morality as much as with decadence. Tim Keller writes about the deceptive evil of embracing Jesus merely as a model and not as a Savior:
That, ironically, is a rejection of the gospel of Jesus. It is a Christianized form of religion. It is possible to avoid Jesus as Savior as much by keeping all the Biblical rules as by breaking them. Both religion (in which you build your identity on your moral achievements) and irreligion (in which you build your identity on some other secular pursuit or relationship) are, ultimately, spiritually identical courses to take. Both are “sin.” Self-salvation through good works may produce a great deal of moral behavior in your life, but inside you are filled with self-righteousness, cruelty, and bigotry, and you are miserable. You are always comparing yourself to other people, and you are never sure you are being good enough. You cannot, therefore, deal with your hideousness and self-absorption through the moral law, by trying to be a good person through an act of the will. You need a complete transformation of the very motives of your heart. (”The Reason for God,” 177)
Crystal and I were reading “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” last night and I found the following quote rather humorous in light of our recent discussion about the impropriety of “proper” grammar:
(Mr. Beaver is talking)
“It’s all right,” he was shouting. “Come out, Mrs. Beaver. Come out, Sons and Daughters of Adam. It’s all right! It isn’t Her!” This was bad grammar of course, but that is how beavers talk when they are excited; I mean, in Narnia — in our world they usually don’t talk at all. (pg. 115)
Hey, I may be wrong about my linguistic sentiments, but at least I’m in good company.
The winner of the September 2008 Fool’s Gold Book Giveaway is:
Wink Rush
Wink operates a blog called “Rushes to Jesus“, where he posts observations about day-to-day life and how God is preparing he and his wife for a missions trip to Seoul, South Korea in October.
Here’s what Wink has to say about himself:
I am an analyst by day for a major wholesaler in Memphis, TN. I work with our church’s men’s ministry, and I teach discipleship classes, and sing in the choir. I also direct dramas as well as act in some of them. I keep busy :)
My wife and I love missions work. We work both locally and internationally. My wife is the senior and associate pastors’ secretary at our church, First Baptist Collierville, TN.
As far as the best or most unusual job he’s had, Wink has sold women’s and men’s shoes and has also worked as a surveyor.
Congratulations, Wink! Be sure to stay tuned, everyone, for next month’s giveaway. As always, feel free to suggest any books you would like to see on the auction block. The free auction block, that is.
Happy September, and Happy Labor Day! To encourage glad Septembral tidings and celebrate The Fool’s Gold’s five-month birthday, I will be giving away a free copy of “The Heavenly Man” by Brother Yun with Paul Hattaway.
Giveaway Details:
Between now and midnight on Tuesday, September 2 (Central Standard Time), send an e-mail to thefoolsgoldblog@gmail.com. In the e-mail, include your name, the name and address of your blog (if you have one), what you do during the day, a book you’ve read recently, and the best or most unusual job you have ever had. I will then randomly select an entry and e-mail the winner to ask for his or her mailing address. The winner will be announced sometime on Wednesday, September 3.
About the Book:
Brother Yun is a Chinese Christian who has had an influence, under God, in the growth of the Chinese house church movement. He has been imprisoned and tortured for the sake of the gospel in his life, and has seen God work in miraculous ways to advance the gospel in China. “The Heavenly Man” is an autobiographical recounting of God’s providence in Yun’s life and the life of the Chinese church.
Here’s an excerpt from the introduction of the book to whet your appetite:
Brother Yun is known throughout China as “the Heavenly Man”. This nickname stemmed from an incident in 1984 when he refused to tell his real name to the authorities. Divulging his true identity would have endangered local Christians. In reply to the threats and beatings of the Public Security Bureau to reveal his name and home address, Yun shouted, “I am a heavenly man! My home is in heaven!” The local believers, who were still gathered in a nearby house, heard his shouting and knew he was warning them of danger. They all fled and avoided arrest.
As a mark of respect for his courage and love for the body of Christ, house church believers in China have called Yun “the Heavenly Man” to this day.
Yun is the first to admit that there are parts of him that are not heavenly! Like all of us, he struggles against temptation and weakness, and deeply realizes that, apart from the grace of Jesus Christ in his life, he amounts to nothing. He once told his wife Deling, “We are absolutely nothing. We have nothing to be proud about. We have no abilities and nothing to offer God. The fact that he chooses to use us is only due to his grace. It has nothing to do with us. If God should choose to raise up others for his purpose and never use us again we would have nothing to complain about.” (pg. 13)
Currently Yun is involved in promoting the Back to Jerusalem movement, an effort of Chinese house churches to take the gospel from China through the hard places of Central Asia all the way back to Jerusalem.
I was really challenged by reading about Yun’s life and the suffering he has experienced for the gospel. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to revel in God’s passion to gather worshipers from all nations.
Did anybody catch the brief segment on NBC last night about those who are losing sleep because of the late (or early) viewing hours for the Olympics? I was fascinated by one of the men NBC interviewed who testified to the effect that his loss of sleep wasn’t a sacrifice because he was getting to watch the Olympics.
Sounds a lot like David Livingstone’s address to students at Cambridge University in 1857:
For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. (Quoted in John Piper, Desiring God, 243. Italics author’s.)
Sometimes when I hear an objection to Christianity, I feel like the burden of proof is on me to demonstrate the validity of my belief in the face of that objection. This is true, but it is not the whole story. The truth of the matter is that the objection itself is the expression of another set of beliefs, which must likewise be validated for there to be any meaningful dialogue. An objection always springs up out of the ground of prior convictions. Or, to say it another way, a doubt is a sprout.
Here is how Tim Keller explains it in “The Reason for God“:
But even as believers should learn to look for reasons behind their faith, skeptics must learn to look for a type of faith hidden within their reasoning. All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs. You cannot doubt Belief A except from a position of faith in Belief B. For example, if you doubt Christianity because “There can’t be just one true religion,” you must recognize that this statement is itself an act of faith. No one can prove it empirically, and it is not a universal truth that everyone accepts. If you went to the Middle East and said, “There can’t be just one true religion,” nearly everyone would say, “Why not?” The reason you doubt Christianity’s Belief A is because you hold unprovable Belief B. Every doubt, therefore, is based on a leap of faith. (xvii)
If I’m honest with myself, suffering for Jesus scares me. By “suffering” I mean here things like imprisonment, torture, starvation, death. People really experience these things because of their faith. Take Paul’s list in 2 Corinthians 11. Imprisonment. Countless beatings. Lashes. Rods. Stones.
On top of all that, Peter says that such treatment is not abnormal. “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:12-13).
All this makes me wonder how I would hold up under that kind of pain.
I’m helped by the testimony of Brother Yun, a Chinese Christian who endured deep affliction for the gospel and wrote about his experiences in the book “The Heavenly Man.” Here is his description of God’s faithfulness during a four-year prison sentence he had just been released from:
I had experienced so much in those four years, but God had been faithful. I’d suffered some horrible tortures, but God had been faithful. I’d been dragged in front of judges and courts, but God had been faithful. I’d been hungry, thirsty, and had fainted from exhaustion, but God had been faithful.
Through it all, God was always faithful and loving to me. He had never left me nor forsaken me. His grace was always suffiecient and he provided for my every need.
I didn’t suffer for Jesus in prison. No! I was with Jesus and I experienced his very real presence, joy, and peace every day. It’s not those in prison for the sake of the gospel who suffer. The person who suffers is he who never experiences God’s intimate presence. (187-188)
Amen. God will be faithful, and I have nothing to fear. They may lock me away, but Jesus will stand by me. They may starve me, but Jesus will be my bread. They may torture me, but Jesus will be my solace.
They may kill me, but Jesus will be my life.
“Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death” (Revelation 2:10-11).
The winner of the August 2008 Fool’s Gold Book Giveaway is:
Jen Owen
Here is what Jen had to say:
I don’t have a blog. I work at Howse & Thompson during the day…. except on Sun and Sat! I am reading too many books right now. The latest addition to my list: the The Decline of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. Quite interesting and too long for me to finish before it’s due at the library, but we’ll see how far I get!
According to Stephanie Gilbert, Jen also intends to visit the Caribbean soon. Perhaps her new book will be good beach reading (or snorkling reading, if she has a really good Ziploc baggie).
Congratulations, Jen! Be on the lookout for next month’s giveaway, and as always, feel free to suggest any books you would like to see being offered.
To celebrate the dawn of August I’m giving away a free copy of “The Missionary Call: Find Your Place in God’s Plan for the World” by M. David Sills. Sills is a professor of Christian missions and cultural anthropology at Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY. The purpose of his book is to explore what it means for God to call a person into missions. As a former missionary to Ecuador, he is able to address the issue as one with experience.
Book Description:
Here are the chapter titles for the book to give you a feel for where Sills is going:
- Understanding the Missionary Call
- How Can I Know God’s Will?
- Is There a Biblical Basis for the Missionary Call?
- Historical Understandings of the Missionary Call
- How Specific Does the Call Have to Be?
- Timing and the Missionary Call
- What Should I Do If My Spouse Does Not Feel Called?
- Getting to the Field
- Hindrances to Getting to the Field
- Challenges on the Field
- Missionary Heroes and the Missionary Call
- Understanding and Answering the Missionary Call
As you can see, Sills aims to be pretty comprehensive in his approach. I would recommend this book to anyone who is planning on going into missions, supporting those who go, or anyone who is unsure about what they should do. I think you would find it to be a helpful resource.
Giveaway Details:
Between now and midnight on Sunday, August 3 (Central Standard Time), send an e-mail to thefoolsgoldblog@gmail.com. In the e-mail, include your name, the name and address of your blog (if you have one), what you do during the day, a book you’ve read recently, and a country you have either visited or would like to visit. I will then randomly select an entry and e-mail the winner to ask for his or her mailing address. The winner will be announced sometime on Monday, August 4.
Enjoy!
There once was a man who owned an apple orchard (which he loved very much). Every morning he would walk through the orchard, pluck the apples that were ready, and place them in a red bucket (which matched his apples nicely). After filling the bucket, he would carry the apples to his barn and dump them in a bin to sell. Then he would set the red pail on a three-legged stool by his workbench and return to the house.
In the evening, the man’s young son would ramble out to the barn, pull the empty red bucket from the three-legged stool, fill it with water from the outdoor pump, and slosh it all the way back to his mother in the kitchen so she could boil it for cooking. When the bucket was drained, the young son would return it to the barn and heave it up onto the three-legged stool where it remained until the next morning.
One bucket. Two very different types of content (apples and water).
Words are a lot like that. They are empty and versatile until someone invests them with meaning.
This is E.D. Hirsch’s point in Validity in Interpretation:
…[M]eaning is an affair of consciousness not of words. Almost any word sequence can, under the conventions of language, legitimately represent more than one complex of meaning. A word sequence means nothing in particular until somebody either means something by it or understands something from it. There is no magic land of meanings outside human consciousness. Whenever meaning is connected to words, a person is making the connection, and the particular meanings he lends to them are never the only legitimate ones under the norms and conventions of his language. (pg. 4)
The winner of the July 2008 Fool’s Gold Book Giveaway is:
Anna Augustin
Anna blogs (or will be starting soon!) at http://annaaugustin.blogspot.com.
Here are her responses to the giveaway questions:
1. What do you do during the day?
Well, I am in transition. I recently finished a year long church discipleship program and am currently job searching. In the meantime, I’m busy working as a nanny.
2. What interesting event has happened to you this summer?
Most recently I finished reading the Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. It was a great and easy read, spurring on much thought!
Many thanks to those of you who submitted entries. Keep your browsers peeled for next month’s giveaway.
If you have any suggestions for books you would like to see in future giveaways, feel free to leave a comment and I will see what I can do.
To usher in the month of July I’m giving away a free copy of “The Gospel and Personal Evangelism” by Mark Dever, senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and executive director of 9Marks.
Here’s the shake-down. Between now and midnight tomorrow (Wednesday, July 2 Central Standard Time), send an e-mail to thefoolsgoldblog@gmail.com. In the e-mail, include your name, the name and address of your blog (if you have one), what you do during the day, and any interesting event that has happened to you this summer. It could be somewhere you’ve visited, someone you’ve talked to, a book you’ve read, a strange talent you’ve mastered, etc. I will then randomly select an entry, and e-mail the winner to ask for his or her mailing address. The winner will be announced sometime on Thursday, July 3.
“The Gospel and Personal Evangelism” is a quick read, and provides a very sound treatment of various issues surrounding evangelism. Dever’s approach is to structure his book around seven questions:
- Why Don’t We Evangelize?
- What Is the Gospel?
- Who Should Evangelize?
- How Should We Evangelize?
- What Isn’t Evangelism?
- What Should We Do After We Evangelize?
- Why Should We Evangelize?
One of the reasons I love the book is that not only is Dever an evangelist, but he operates out of a deep embrace of the sovereignty of God. Here is a good quote from the book:
Somehow, Paul found the doctrine of God’s sovereignty an encouragement in his evangelism. Do we need to recover this confidence in a day of increasing opposition to the public preaching of the gospel? I think that we do. I fear that much of today’s evangelism will soon end. As evangelism becomes more and more unpopular, I fear that some Christians will simply dilute it, water it down, alter it, or even stop sharing the good news altogether. I think a better understanding of the Bible’s teaching on God’s election would help them. I think it would give them confidence and joy in their evangelism. (pg. 105)
So, shoot me an e-mail and we will see who wins this month’s giveaway!
Sometimes it’s easy for me to read over a shocking statement about God and not let it hit me like it ought. Take, for example, Psalm 135:7 - “He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.”
Now, the verse says that God makes lightnings for the rain. That’s easy enough to picture. Dark, rolling thunderheads crackling with veins of fire. But then I remember that lightning can cause terrific damage, even take a person’s life.
On August 21, 1776, a nighttime storm raged over the city of New York for three hours, accompanied by intense lightning. David McCullough relates the carnage:
“Houses burst into flame. Ten soldiers camped by the East River, below Fort Stirling, were killed in a single flash. In New York, a soldier hurrying through the streets was struck deaf, blind, and mute. In another part of town three officers were killed by a single thunderbolt. A later report described how the tips of their swords and coins in their pockets had been melted, their bodies turned as black as if roasted” (1776, pg. 156).
This means that if God makes lightnings for the rain, then he is also behind the life-taking effects of those bolts. “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand” (Deuteronomy 32:39).
God roasts people. May that cause us to tremble. And then, may it drive us to ponder the sizzling rage Jesus endured in our place on the cross.
History is one of God’s kindnesses. Through reading it he allows us to rehearse our futures a thousand times over. Consider, for example, 1 Timothy 6:6-7: “Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.” In one sense, I have not yet experienced the end of verse 7 (”we cannot take anything out of the world”). But in another very real sense, I have.
During the winter of 1776, British and colonial forces were at a standoff. The redcoats were cornered in Boston while the ragtag American army encircled them around the perimeter. Finally, in a surprise move in early March, George Washington ordered his troops to set up defenses under the cover of night at nearby Dorchester Heights. Seeing that the colonial army had the unexpected upper hand, the British packed up shop and sailed away, bringing a number of civilians with them who were loyal to their cause. The hasty exit forced many to leave valuable belongings behind.
A man named Reverend Henry Caner reported his losses. David McCullough tells his story in the book “1776“:
“As rector of King’s Chapel, the first Anglican church in Boston, the Reverend Caner was the leading Church of England clergyman in Massachusetts and a greatly respected figure among all denominations. He had been rector for nearly thirty years and lived alone in a small farm house close to King’s Chapel, at the corner of School and Tremont streets. In his account of ‘goods left in my house at Boston, March 10, 1776,’ he listed, among other items: ‘a handsome clock,’ two mahogany tables, teacups and saucers, ‘one rich carved mahogany desk and book case (with) glass doors,’ pictures of the King and Queen ‘under glass with rich frames,’ a pair of brass andirons [used to hold up logs in a fireplace], ‘a fine harpsichord,’ 1,000 books, a barn and ‘appurtenances,’ a cow and a calf” (pg. 100).
When I read an account like this, it puts skin on a text like 1 Timothy 6:7 and I am reminded once again to not store up for myself treasures on earth, where ships and military stealth force me to leave them behind.
The harpsichord stays, Johnathon. The harpsichord stays.
Susan Wunderink from Christianity Today interviews Tim Keller on his book “The Reason for God” and how he approaches doubts that people raise about Christianity:
“Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and cofounder of the Gospel Coalition, is behind some of the most ambitious — if not the most radical — efforts to reach urban professionals. Now he’s expanding his ministry in book form, with the publication of The Reason for God, which moved its way up to number seven on The New York Times nonfiction bestseller list.
Keller’s book tour, hosted by the Veritas Forum, has attracted 6,000 attendees to universities around the country. Many readers are saying that the book provides satisfying answers to the questions that churched and unchurched people commonly raise about Christianity. CT assistant editor Susan Wunderink sat down with Keller as he passed through Chicago.”
Here are some of the questions Keller answers:
- Are the doubts that believers face the same doubts that unbelievers face?
- Why have you avoided using arguments from intelligent design in your apologetics?
- Do you hear a lot of “I can’t believe in Christianity because I believe in science”?
- The recent Pew study talked about changing patterns of belief in America. Has that affected your apologetics ministry?
Check out the book’s website for more information, as well as a reader’s guide, study guides written by Redeemer’s pastors, and some select sermons.
In his book “The Gospel and Personal Evangelism,” Mark Dever advocates holding together three qualities in sharing the gospel: honesty, urgency, and joy. If you leave any one of these out, you will end up promoting either a deficient message or a deficient attitude. Here is what he writes:
“…there is a certain balance that we want to strive for in our evangelism, a balance of honesty and urgency and joy. Too often we have only one, or at best, two, of these aspects rather than all three. The balance is important. These three together most appropriately represent the gospel” (pg. 55).
He adds later, “Honesty and urgency with no joy gives us a grim determination (read Philippians). Honesty and joy with no urgency gives us a carelessness about time (read 2 Peter). And urgency and joy with no honesty leads us into distorted claims about immediate benefits of the gospel (read 1 Peter)” (pg. 60).
May God make us a straight-shooting, clock-watching, winsome people.
I just finished reading George Marsden’s biography of Jonathan Edwards last night. I’ll admit, at some points it was pretty tough sledding (down a fairly long hill, too….it’s a thick book) but I am so thankful to have read it. Marsden does a masterful job of interpreting Edwards’ life in Edwards’ own terms. I found it to be very encouraging. My admiration of Edwards - shortcomings and all - is even greater than before.
Toward the end of the book, Marsden relates a study published in 1900 which compared the descendants of Edwards with the offspring of one of his corrupt contemporaries:
“The work, published in 1900, contrasted the character and intelligence of 1,200 descendants of one of his [Edwards'] most dissolute contemporaries to those of 1,400 of Edwards’ heirs. The descendants of Max Jukes, a New York Dutchman whose name the researchers changed to protect the guilty, left a legacy that included more than three hundred ‘professional paupers,’ fifty women of ill repute, seven murderers, sixty habitual thieves, and one hundred and thirty other convicted criminals.
The Edwards family, by contrast, produced scores of clergyman, thirteen presidents of institutions of higher learning, sixty-five professors, and many other persons of notable achievements” (pg. 501).
I think this contrast embraces something of what it means for God to visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children (Exodus 34:7) and to bless the generation of the upright (Psalm 112:2). This is not to say that there are no exceptions. After all, Edwards’ grandson, Aaron Burr, Jr., was the famed bad apple who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Nor is it to say that God cannot raise up children for Abraham from the stones of a wicked ancestry.
Rather, what we ought to hear in a report like this is that we should so pray, so study, so delight in Jesus that, should God be pleased, we will breed a herd of holiness for generations to come.
Justin Taylor mentioned that ChristianAudio.com is offering “Pilgrim’s Progress” as their free audiobook for the month of June. If you haven’t had a chance to download it, I would highly recommend it. It’s probably my favorite book. I downloaded it before going on a 12-hour road trip to Ohio, and listening to it again was like visiting an old friend. Unfortunately, my battery ran out after a few hours of listening, so the nostalgia was lamentably short-lived. I’m eager to continue through the story as I have opportunity.
Here are six reasons I love Pilgrim’s Progress:
1. It was written in prison.
Bunyan wrote at least the first part of the allegory while he was imprisoned in a jail in Bedford, England. It adds grit to the tale that may not have been present had he written it in his study.
2. It is doused with Scripture.
Pilgrim’s Progress is stuffed with so many Scripture citations and allusions that listening to it for a time has the effect of washing my soul in the Word.
3. Bunyan is a poet.
Here is a sample. Christian, the main character, spends the early segment of the narrative weighed down with a heavy burden until he comes to a hill where stands a cross. On seeing the cross, the burden falls off his back and rolls down into a sepulchre (tomb) at the bottom of the hill. Christian explodes in metered praise:
“Thus far did I come laden with my sin,
Nor could aught ease the grief I was in,
Till I came hither. What a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be
The Man that there was put to shame for me!”
4. It demonstrates that truth must not only be described, but painted.
This is one way Scripture is applied to the heart. Paul describes conversion in Romans 6 as a change in bondages and then writes, “I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations” (verse 19). Allegory is a biblically-warranted accommodation to the limitations of human nature. Bunyan employs the medium masterfully.
5. It addresses virtually every temptation a believer can face in this age.
Legalism, sloth, fear, greed, lust, despair. You name it, it’s there, and it’s described in such a way as to give backdoor pastoral counsel for the storm-tossed soul.
6. It’s older than the United States of America.
It’s good for me to get outside of my contemporary context and hear sound words from an older saint’s pen. It helps to guard me from infatuation with trendiness.
The winner of the June 2008 book giveaway is Amber Flindt! My wife and I are visiting family in Ohio, and I had my mom draw the winner from a ball cap. It has been a truly intergenerational event.
Here’s some info about Amber:
What do you do during the day?
During the day I’m a teacher. Today I made my colorful classroom walls white and bare. I packed some boxes bound for the Americas. I gave an ESL lesson to a Cameroonian who asked if he could kiss my hands.
What’s your favorite book?
One book I never get tired of reading is John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life.
Check back next month for another free book. Do you have any suggestions for what you would like to see offered?
**P.S.** You can check out Amber’s blog at www.lettertotheworld.wordpress.com.
This month I’m giving away a free copy of “God’s Smuggler” by Brother Andrew. I was planning to give away another copy of “Do Hard Things” but they were out at the bookstore. Anyway, “God’s Smuggler” is the autobiographical account of Brother Andrew, founder of Open Doors International, who smuggled Bibles into Communist countries during the Cold War. I referenced another version of the book in the 12 Briquettes for the Barbecue of Missions series a couple weeks ago.
Here’s how it will work. Between now and midnight tomorrow (Tuesday, June 3 Central Standard Time), send an e-mail to thefoolsgoldblog@gmail.com. In the e-mail, include your name, the name and address of your blog (if you have one), what you do during the day, and the title of one of your favorite books. I will then randomly select an entry, and e-mail the winner to ask for his or her mailing address. The winner will be announced sometime on Wednesday, June 4.
From the back of the book:
“Told it was impossible to minister behind the Iron Curtain, Andrew knew that nothing was too hard for God. Crossing ‘closed’ borders, he prayed, ‘Lord, in my luggage I have Scripture I want to take to Your children. When you were on earth, You made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those things You do not want them to see.’ And they never did.”
I was reading one of Samuel Rutherford’s letters the other morning when a statement he made caught me like an uppercut to the jaw.
He was writing to a Lady Kenmure, encouraging her to not despise the Lord’s discipline in her life. His point was that if all her life were nothing but ease, it would be a sign that she didn’t belong to God. Here is how he said it (with the exception of a “ye” or two):
“If you were for the slaughter, you would be fattened. But be content; you are His wheat, growing in our Lord’s field; and if wheat, you must go under our Lord’s threshing-instrument, in His barn-floor, and through His sieve, and through His mill to be bruised (as the Prince of your salvation, Jesus, was), that you may be found good bread in your Lord’s house.” (pg.78)
May God keep us from being beefed up on earthly comforts.
The winner of today’s “Do Hard Things” Housewarming Party Giveaway is……
Congratulations, Marla. Enjoy your new book!
The question:
Name two of Alex and Brett’s personal interests.
Directions:
1. You’ll find the answer to the question somewhere on the Rebelution website (www.therebelution.com). (Hint: try clicking on the link titled “The Book” at the top of the main page and see what you can find).
2. E-mail your correct response to thefoolsgoldblog@gmail.com between now and 6:00pm CST.
3. Include the following in your e-mail: (a) your name and (b) the name and web address of your blog (if you have one). If you are the winner, I will e-mail you to ask for your mailing address and you can expect a shiny new package in the mail!
Sometime this evening I will post the winner of the contest.
Happy searching!
**For those of you who are just coming to the site, I am giving away a free copy of “Do Hard Things” by Alex and Brett Harris to celebrate the 1-month birthday of The Fool’s Gold and its move to the current site. The contest will be open between now and 6:00pm CST. All you have to do is follow the directions above and be entered into a random drawing for the book giveaway.
Welcome to The Fool’s Gold Housewarming Party! To celebrate, I’ll be giving away a free copy of “Do Hard Things” by Alex and Brett Harris.
Here’s the skinny: At 12:00pm CST, I will post a trivia question related to the book that can be answered by researching on the internet. Sometime between the hours of 12:00pm and 6:00pm, e-mail your response to thefoolsgoldblog@gmail.com. After 6:00pm, the contest will close and I will select a name randomly from those who responded with the correct answer. If that name belongs to you, you will be receiving a free copy of “Do Hard Things” in the mail!
Tim Challies posted a review of this book this past Friday. He writes: “Though this book is targeted squarely at teens, I can’t deny that the message rubbed off even on this reader whose teen years are far behind. There is something inspiring in watching teens shake off the low expectations that plague their lives and there is something in it that makes me want to examine where I may also have fallen prey to low expectations. Writing as the proud older brother of these authors, Joshua Harris says ‘Every former teen needs this book, too. I know I do. There’s no age-limit on the Rebelution. It’s never to late to do hard things.’”
Here’s an excerpt from the back of the book to whet your appetite:
“Most people don’t expect you to understand what we’re going to tell you in this book. And even if you understand, they don’t expect you to care. And even if you care, they don’t expect you to do anything about it. And even if you do something about it, they don’t expect it to last. We do.”
More details to come…
To round up our discussion of sin, I would like to bring in a long-silenced voice from across the Pond. Thomas Watson (born 1620) was a Puritan who studied at Cambridge and went on to pastor St. Stephen’s in Walbrook, London from 1646 until 1662 when he was ousted due to the Act of Uniformity. Undeterred, he went on to preach privately and then publicly until 1680, when he retired on account of poor health. Husband to Abigail, father of at least seven (four of whom died young), Watson died in 1686 while he was praying.
He wrote a number of books, one of which is “A Body of Divinity.” In this book Watson gives a chilling description of sin:
“It is a defiling thing. Sin is not only a defection, but a pollution. It is to the soul as rust is to gold, as a stain to beauty. It makes the soul red with guilt, and black with filth” (pg. 133).
He goes on to expose the heart of sin: “Sin strikes at the very Deity…. Sin is God’s would-be murderer. Sin would not only unthrone God, but un-God him. If the sinner could help it, God would no longer be God” (pp. 133-4).
Sin is horrendous. What unspeakable mercy that God would condemn this murderous pollution in the flesh of his Son for all who will trust him (Romans 8:3-4).
Here are three observations I have in thinking about Baba’s definition of sin from yesterday (”There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft”):
1. Baba’s definition works….for a while.
Baba’s definition of sin is not logically inconsistent. At least not on the surface. It actually makes a good deal of sense. If a man kills, he steals a wife’s right to a husband. If a woman lies, she steals another person’s right to the truth. Fair enough. But all this talk about rights raises the question, What happens when perceived rights conflict? A thief may believe it is his right to do what he pleases. What then? Does Baba’s explanation leave room for the possibility that I may not be an impartial judge when it comes to determining what I’m entitled to?
2. Baba leaves God out of the picture.
Amir’s father is not a believer. Therefore, it is fitting that his understanding of sin does not include God. Fitting, but tragic. The question of sin becomes clear when we understand that God created us. We owe our existence to him. It would follow, then, that God’s rights ought to determine our notions of morality. This is the testimony of the Bible: “Has the potter no right over the clay….?” (Romans 9:21). “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). The fact that we are deeply resistant to this possibility may indicate more about our hearts than it does about reality.
3. Sin is stealing……from God.
What is God entitled to? What is the Right that trumps all our creaturely notions? In a word, it is glory. God, as our Creator, is entitled to all honor and praise. He says, “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols” (Isaiah 42:8). When I do anything that attempts to exalt myself as supreme, I steal glory from God. This is the heart of all sin.
Murder is sin, not ultimately because it steals a wife’s right to a husband, but because it steals God’s right to determine the length of a man’s days. Lying is sin, not mainly because it steals another person’s right to the truth, but because it exalts me as supreme over another person’s mind. Cheating is sin, not finally because it steals a man’s right to fairness, but because it places my desires on the throne of the universe.
The reason Baba’s definition won’t work isn’t because it’s implausible. It won’t work because it’s idolatrous. It never leaves the swamp of man-centered reasoning. In fact, rather than defining sin, Baba’s definition compounds it by insisting that the creature’s rights are divine. If only his idea was as fictional as his character……
I said I would post some thoughts about issues raised in “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini. Here is one hot off the Bunsen burner.
It has to do topic of sin. Amir, the main character, tells his father (Baba) what he has been learning in school from the mullah (an instructor). Amir’s report concerns the mullah’s statement that Islam considers drinking a horrible sin. Baba, who likes to drink, sits Amir on his lap and begins to explain to him what he thinks about sin. Here is what Baba says:
“Now, no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. Do you understand that?”
Amir is clueless, so Baba attempts another go at it:
“‘When you kill a man, you steal a life,’ Baba said. ‘You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?’”
The lights go on for Amir. He gets it.
I’ll let you chew on Baba’s definition of sin for a bit. More to come tomorrow…..
I just started reading “Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be)” written by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck. In his chapter on the postmodern infatuation with uncertainty and mystery, DeYoung comments insightfully on blogging:
“We live in a blogging culture, which suggests that just because we have an opinion on something it must be worthwhile and just because we are in touch with our spiritual journey it must be worth sharing” (pg.34).
In my opinion (which may or may not be worthwhile!), this is perceptively accurate. Spot on, as the Brits would say.
Russell Moore from Southern Seminary has posted a perceptive article on Charles Schulz, titled “You’re A Lost Soul, Charlie Brown.” In the article, Moore reviews the book “Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography” by David Michaelis.
Sadly, life for the Peanuts creator was not as idyllic as his fictional characters might suggest. After serving in World War II, Schulz immersed himself in the Church of God community and seemed to have been influenced in his lifestyle by the Christian ethic. However, as he began his cartooning career, this influence began to wane and he gradually declined into a Godless despair. Moore writes:
“Unlike Schulz’s view of comic strips–they should never have an ultimately unhappy ending–the end of Schulz’s life was the capstone of his despair. The man who, like Charlie Brown, always feared that no one could truly love him, died, in the words of another cartoonist, ‘angry at God, angry with friends, angry with fate–angry [about] all the troubles he could never let go of.’ This fellow artist concludes: ‘He had control over the [ Peanuts] universe for fifty years, but he had no control over his death. He didn’t accept it graciously. He wasn’t ready.’”
Schulz’ despair need not be the final word. Moore admonishes us to learn from it and love those who are gasping for hope:
“That kind of vanity, that kind of despair, is found all around us, even next to us in the pew. This book is a sober call to us to remember, to pray for, and to love those especially who will never believe they can be loved.”
This is the kind of love the world needs. We have all settled for cheap replacements. Hobbies. Facebook friends. Grades. Buffets. Jokes. Visa cards. They are caves of futility if they become our gods. Real love comes through blood, spikes, and splintered timber:
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person — though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die — but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).
May God grant us to drink deep from this love and pass the cup to others.
I just began reading “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini. It is a fictional story told from the perspective of Amir, a Pashtun man who grew up in Afghanistan during the late 60’s and early 70’s and fled to the United States with his father when the Soviets invaded the country.
I hope to post some reflections as I move through the book. Hosseini addresses some very important subjects.
What immediately struck me as I began the book, though, was the power of words. Hosseini is a very gifted writer, and can turn phrases like omelets at Denny’s. Reading his descriptions makes me realize again the importance of writing well. You know. Not just saying something, but really SAYING something.
Here’s an example. Amir has a strained relationship with his father, whom he calls Baba. Baba was a soccer player in his day. Amir reads books. Baba is strong and opinionated and drinks scotch. Amir gets pushed around and stepped on. But Amir reveres his Baba. Fears him, even.
One day Amir decides to write a short story and show it to Baba. Listen to how Hosseini retells the meeting:
“‘What is it, Amir?’ Baba said, reclining on the sofa and lacing his hands behind his head. Blue smoke swirled around his face. His glare made my throat feel dry. I cleared it and told him I’d written a story.
Baba nodded and gave a thin smile that conveyed little more than feigned interest. ‘Well, that’s very good, isn’t it?’ he said. Then nothing more. He just looked at me through the cloud of smoke.
I probably stood there for under a minute, but, to this day, it was one of the longest minutes of my life. Seconds plodded by, each separated from the next by an eternity. Air grew heavy, damp, almost solid. I was breathing bricks. Baba went on staring me down, and didn’t offer to read.”
May God give us a love for crisp description, especially as we have the greatest of Stories to tell.
Thomas Oden, retired professor from Drew University in New Jersey, has recently written a book titled “How Africa Shaped the Modern Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity.”
Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter (thanks to Amazon):
“The telling of Africa’s ancient Christian heritage has languished for many centuries. Though it needs telling, there is some reticence to think that anyone from the West is adequately equipped to tell it. Yet it is so important to the history of Africa and global Christianity that it needs to be told accurately and without unfounded conjectures” (pg. 35).
Marvin Olasky has briefly reviewed the book.
David Neff from Christianity Today posted an article about it in late February.
