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“Radical” — A Book Review

The Christian American culture is something I’ve thought a lot about over the last couple of years. For so long many people have considered being an American synonymous with being a Christian. And, whether it’s intentional or not, it feels as though many people value their status as an Americans more highly than they do their status as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. What does being a Christian have anything to do with the country I live in? And how does the proverbial “American Dream” fall in line with what Jesus had to say about our allegiances and our values?

Katie and I were at Mardel several weeks ago and I saw the book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream by Davit Platt. I was immediately intrigued by the title and began to flip through it. It seemed like a good book, and I filed it away in my brain as a book to get sometime in the future. A couple days later we were at a friend’s house and I noticed they had a copy. When I asked about it they told me I could have their copy. I read through it quickly and now Katie is almost finished with it.

This is an excellent book.

“Blue Like Jazz” — A Book Review

A confession: I’ve been hearing about this book Blue Like Jazz for years now, and I’ve been told on a occasion that I would really enjoy it. And it’s not at all that I didn’t believe those people who recommended it, it’s just that I really didn’t like the title or the cover. Even though that’s not supposed to matter, it really does. I don’t like jazz music much at all, and the cover looked too much like the title for me to really want to make the commitment to read it.

It wasn’t until I finished reading Father Fiction a couple of weeks ago that I was delightfully introduced to Donald Miller’s writing. (A book, ironically enough, that I picked up off the bookshelf because both the cover and the title intrigued me.) I enjoyed his writing and his thoughts very much, and I wanted more. So last Monday Katie and I went down to the used book store and found a copy, and by Saturday—six days later—I finished it.

“Father Fiction” — A Book Review

A couple days ago I finished reading Father Fiction: Chapters For A Fatherless Generation by Donald Miller.

You need to read this book.

Father Fiction is a book written by a man who grew up without a father, and about all the life lessons and truths he missed out on because of it. He opens up the heart and mind of a boy with no father, and his free-flowing candor makes the journey feel as natural as a conversation with a friend. As he writes, he also teaches, and it is inspiring. And in more ways than one, I related to the things he had to say.

The gist of the book centered around the idea that every boy learns what it means to be a man from having a dad in his life, and so if you didn’t have one around, you grew up misinformed and unsure about important areas of life. What’s interesting to me is how this book isn’t limited to those boys who didn’t have dads. This book is for girls too, and for kids who had dads but they were extremely flawed men.

“The 4-Hour Workweek” – A Book Review

I don’t know about you, but I have just been floored by the amount of non-work that can take up a work day. I have also been particularly disappointed in seeing how much time a missionary might waste during the day because of time spent on the internet where one hour of study turns into four hours of surface research. (Then we feel like we deserve a big break because we’ve been “working so hard.”) We lie to ourselves. We waste our own time, and because of it our work—and our life—is worse off for it.

New ESV Bible App (and some other thoughts)

For those of you who are fans of the English Standard Version of the Bible, and for those of you who are iPhone or iPod touch users, I just found out that there is a free ESV app that has been released by Crossway (click here for iTunes download).

“The Shack” — A Book Review

Ever since Katie and I returned from Ukraine in 2008 I’ve been hearing about this book by William P. Young called The Shack. After hearing so many reviews for the last year and a half like, “It’s amazing!” and from others, “It’s blasphemous!“, I was finally able to start reading it a little over a month ago. The verdict: I think it’s both.

The book is about a man named Mack who has had an extremely difficult life and has just suffered a particularly tragic loss when we meet him. His life is covered by this “Great Sadness” and he feels his anger toward God building and building until he is on the brink of throwing his faith out completely. Then one day he receives a letter that motivates him to go to a shack in the woods where he discovers and spends the weekend with all three parts of the Godhead. This weekend challenges his faith unlike anything else ever has and he begins to see and relate to God in a much different way.

“The Books of the Bible” — A Review

The Bible I chose to use for this endeavor is a Bible I heard about over a year ago called The Books of the Bible. It’s a presentation of the TNIV in a single-column, no-chapters and no-verses format. It’s designed to read more like a book, and to encourage context reading over a verse-by-verse format. For example, the letters of Paul now appear in their original form – as letters.

“From Eternity To Here” — A Book Review

Back in February I received an advance copy of the newest book by Frank Viola called From Eternity To Here: Rediscovering The Ageless Purpose Of God.  This is actually the third book in a row that I've read from Frank Viola (the other two are Pagan Christianity and Reimagining Church),but it is also a very different topic for [...]

Posterous — The Easiest Peasiest Way To Blog

I am a fan of simple and efficient. Unfortunately, my favorite things to do in life are far from it. For example: this website. Having a place to publish my writing and photography is a life long dream of sorts. I have always been fascinated by media and the power it holds. At a very young age I [...]