Gospel Living

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.  - 2 Corinthians 7:10 When we as chaplains find copies of Katie Souza's The Key to Your Expected End  floating around the jail, we kindly try to replace them with something better.  Anything.  And then we file them in our special file. Not an actual copy of Key, but a good idea. Why?  Perhaps the most damning aspect of this book is that, while it is aimed at inmates, it encourages a false, Word-Faith approach to their cases.  In short, Souza tells detainees to ignore legal counsel and simply believe God for victory. That's more than a minor issue, and it's more than a minor point in the book. For instance, chapter eight is called, "Just Say You're Sorry."  That's not a bad start, and Souza talks about the need to quit fooling around, admit one's crimes, and repent.  The problem starts to enter when she says that, when ...

Seth Dunn has written a solid critique of War Room and the movie industry that surrounds it .  Overall, it sounds like a positive movie to go see, but be aware of the concerning elements. If you're interested in more reading, he followed it up with  Banking on War Room: LifeWay, the Kendricks, and Priscilla Shirer Set the Trend in Evangelical Bible Study .  Keep in mind that the Christian movie industry, like the secular movie industry, wants profit; our merchandise consists of kitschy kits and studies.

The Captivity Series: The Key To Your Expected End by Katie Souza My rating: 2 of 5 stars Souza—not music to the ears. Chaplains search for works that bring the light of the Lord to dark places, and Katie Souza’s The Key to Your Expected End (hereafter “ The Key ”) seems to be just that in many places. Unfortunately, it provides only flickers from God’s Word that fade at the worst moments. Giving an inmate The Key to learn about God and His world would be akin to giving an emergency worker a toy flashlight, and we are already paying the price at our facility. First is praise where it is due. Souza calls readers to repent and submit to authority—even those who seem unjust—declaring the justice system to be appointed by God for good, the inmate’s time behind bars as chastisement, and the prisoner’s need to plan and prepare spiritually and practically for release. She provides a simple history of the Israelites’ captivity in Babylon throughout the book that the reader will fi...

Holy Land Devotional Booklet: A Spiritual Journey by United Methodist Church (U.S.) My rating: 3 of 5 stars Walking the reader through individual aspects of the Holy Land, the authors try to draw out spiritual principles and appropriate reflections. Focusing on a few areas of Palestine rather than many, it represents a great idea for walking the uninitiated through the path of the children of Israel into the Promised Land and their settled locales as a nation. The book goes far in achieving this purpose, but not quite far enough. First, there is surprisingly little data as to the locations highlighted in the book. For example, while there is a map on page ii, Mt. Nebo and Petra, the focus of the first five devotionals, are not marked on it or anywhere else. Jerusalem appears on that early map, but no map or diagram directs readers to the locations of the nine devotionals dedicated to the city. Illustrations accompany each devotional but vary in ability to help readers visual...

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala My rating: 2 of 5 stars With recommendations from Drs. Joseph Stowell and Warren Wiersbe, it was a given that Jim Cymbala’s Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire would become a bestseller. Full of relatable stories of struggle with sin, this pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle writes this engaging work that will encourages readers to turn the sufficiency of self to trust in the power of prayer. Even so, this is not a book I recommend. First, irony opens the book: a man who wasn’t called to be a pastor treated water by gaining footing on bad ideas. His father-in-law “coaxed” him into pastoring (11); Cymbala had other interests and balked at the idea, noting his lack of experience, training, and desire to fill such a role. The call Cymbala answered, then, came from the guiling of one who then left this family in the lurch, to learn without discipleship or even occasional input. How did this self-described amateur survive such whimsy? He did so by coming ...

This  blog post title by Justin Taylor gives you a clue as to how well Rachel Held Evans' presents Scripture. Thomas Nelson Publishers thought " A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband 'Master' " good enough to print, and the secular media loves it.  The book presents an extension of the argument, "If you say you believe the Bible, then you also believe in stoning people, selling kids into slavery, and turning down shrimp cocktails."  The difference is that the author claims to be a Christian who knows the Bible. Justin Taylor recommends we read Kathy Keller's review (which I plan on doing and invite you to do the same), while highlighting the following: “you began your project by ignoring (actually, by pretending you did not know about) the most basic rules of hermeneutics and biblical interpretation that have been agreed upon for centuries.” “To ...

Venturing into the theater with three children strikes a mighty blow to the bank account, but it was worth the adventure that awaited us. Having completed the story only months earlier, and being once burned by "Prince Caspian," the little ones were ready to do battle should the film depart from what they imagined. We were all in for a treat. The non-spoiler review My favorite human character was Eustace Scrubb. Will Poulter portrayed the character so well that it made me want to scream like a girl - that is, until he did so himself to better standards than anyone could have asked. He was the brat the audience loved to hate, opening the door to all that was due him.  His character added the dimension promised by the glasses. Of course, as far as non-humans go, Reepicheep deserves an honorable mention. Having to overcome being a computer-generated mouse who lost his previous voice to Simon Pegg, the furry swashbuckler not only leads in dialog, but he also demonstrate...

This text is quite unique from the others, and a beneficial read without a doubt. Being written by a physician, it provides educated information on many of the issues facing counselors—from sleep deprivation to psychotropic drugs to mental disorders. Yet, it is a surprisingly easy read, with an excellent layout making information easy to find. Further, it is written from a scriptural perspective, making the gems this book unearths all the more valuable. I found his treatment of drugs and placebo effects enlightening. He examines the questionable nature of many drugs marketed through popular media, giving good questions to ask when considering such a drug (this has applications outside of counseling, of course, making the material useful in other areas of life). He also gives a helpful evaluation of the placebo effect, which helps the reader understand why some drugs may seem to achieve the goals of counseling without all the homework, and how that appearance can be false. He a...

Tripp’s book is more pastoral in his approach than Adams did in his Theology. Instruments demonstrates a softer hand, more concise English, and, as a result, a better read overall. His call is not dissimilar from Adams, but seems to be written for the average lay-person. In this, he achieves his goal to not present a paradigm where trained “professionals” accomplish discipleship and biblical counseling within the church, but one in which the whole body comes together for this task. The book breathes hope upon the believer. For instance, Tripp notes, “Even our suffering does not belong to us, but to the Lord” (153), getting our focus off ourselves. He continues, “A whole host of self-absorbed temptations greet us when we treat suffering as something that belongs to us.” Finally, he concludes by stating, “We are to weep loudly and mourn fully before him, knowing that true comfort can only be found at his feet” (154). No comfort or hope is found while we wallow in self-pity or ...

One word sums this text: hope. Basing his teaching on 1 Corinthians 10:13, Jay Adams delivers a divine word of encouragement to those currently caught in life’s trials. His tone is pastoral and his words are simple as he uses the few pages of this booklet to minister to his readers. This is in contrast to some of his other works you might be familiar with, such as A Theology of Christian Counseling and The Christian Counselor’s Manual . He applies theology with a soft hand, teaching the reader while going to great lengths to remain sensitive. The first chapter, “Excuse Me, Please,” demonstrates a desire to do more than lend a kind ear in counseling, for education is part of the discipleship process. Yet, as he moves through the book into more personal areas, his tone becomes progressively softer until the end, when he seems to take the reader by the hand and whispers, “Depressed, discouraged Christian, let me urge you to take God at His word” (29). Furthermore, this lesson ...

Entertaining and thoroughgoing, Driscoll engages topics largest in the minds of Mars Hill in Religion Saves . Driscoll takes as inspiration for this book the letter of 1 Corinthians, where Paul addressed questions Corinthian believers pondered. Using technology such as web and text messages, Driscoll preached a sermon series that became the basis for this contemporary piece. As a piece of literature, the book is engaging. Driscoll's style keeps the reader's attention by providing a masterful mixture of facts, confrontation, anecdote, debate, and humor. It resonates with the contemporary mind while providing research from a plethora of resources. The reader is considered in this work, not mere argumentation, and helpful applicatory sections give the book a worthy price. As a theological treatise - and that is what this book becomes in the end - it is well researched. From questions ranging from birth control to the Emerging (Emergent?) movement, it becomes an essential rea...

(Continued from last week.) B. F. Skinner By way of contrast to Jung, Skinner was a naturalist of naturalists, granting no mystical overtones.  As a result, “ He rejected that a person has meaning or significance ” (36).  His naturalism also left him a determinist, rejecting “free will” and instead teaching that genetic codes direct actions.  For instance, if a man has a disposition toward religion, it is only because his DNA is encoded with a need to seek something spiritual (apply as you will now to the thief, a pedophile, a homosexual, etc.).   Thus, these views flow from his naturalism: there is nothing spiritual or supernatural here, and a man is as bound to his base desires as is an animal. How, then, does Skinner propose to correct societal ills?  Quite simply the same way we would train an animal:  “ behavior modification .”  Ganz describes this as “ attempting to control a person’s destiny by controlling his or her behavior ” (37)—for in...

t’s tempting to gain a helping hand from the learned men and women in the fields of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, etc. in order to minister to the hurting and poor in spirit.  And why not?  There are a lot of unique problems out there, so it seems to make sense to send sorrowful and troubled souls to the "trained professionals."  Yet, we must wonder if we are feeding our sheep to the wolves.  To answer this, it is first necessary to examine the foundations of modern method. To do that, I recommend you read Richard Ganz’s PsychoBabble: The Failure if Modern Psychology and the Biblical Alternative.   He explores each individual responsible for modern psychology giving the reader a basic understanding of what these men actually believed.  By learning their frameworks and what drove them as people is fundamental to the debate within Christianity over whether we should use  psychology as a complement to the Bible.  The conclusion of the text ...

I don't think I've done a post gathering top stories yet, so here we go. Starting light: Most Ridiculous Lawsuits (Courtesy of Faces of Lawsuit Abuse ) Woman crashes on curve, sues county claiming 10mph speed limit was inadequate warning .  The fact that she was apparently loaded and doing 30 notwithstanding, I'm sure... Customer sues restaurant chain after toilet paper rolls from “unreasonably dangerous toilet paper dispenser” fall onto his hand .  Yes, because we know how dangerous toilet paper can be when it falls onto your hand, in midair, from an inch away.  Personally, I'm more concerned with blood clots in my legs from sitting too long, but maybe that's TMI. Illegal immigrants sue rancher who stopped them on his property at gunpoint and turned them over to the Border Patrol.   Winner in my book for best line: the rancher reportedly yelled, "My dog is hungry and he's hungry for buttocks." Tourist sues New York club after she slipped whil...

It's easy to be picky over the precise wording or time devoted to a news story.  But then there are those stories when you say, "Wow, why isn't there any ongoing coverage on this?  Why isn't anyone asking any questions?" Here are a few lists of 2009's big deals.  This is not to say the lists below come from folks who are perfect in their reporting or even folks with whom I always agree (and I wish I didn't have to waste your time with such a disclaimer), but I do agree that these stories kinda disappeared from the networks... prematurely. Fox News' List White House Green Jobs adviser Van Jones The revealing ACORN tapes Science Czar John Holdren Climate-Gate Politicizing the NEA The Obama administration's appointee to chair the National Intelligence Council Tea Party Protests Kevin Jennings, Safe Schools Czar Inequality in Stimulus Distribution Michelle Malkin's trio list President Obama’s ongoing radical czar problem The Whi...

Not mine, though. Check out Dave Barry's . (HT: Dan Phillips )

Obama's speech in Cairo is cause for much political discussion, but I'll leave that to others. I want to highlight only one section: As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam - at places like Al-Azhar University - that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality. Really? Obama has read some interesting history books, because this is just silly. In fact,...

Tony Campolo's Red Letter Christians (hereafter, RLC ) has been out a bit over a year now, and the recent election results leave little doubt that it helped make waves. Not written to be a hefty theological lesson, RLC focuses on the role Christians should play in politics, citing several texts to support its admonitions. With a steady flow of thought, simple but fairly precise and amiable language, Campolo produces a fine work to champion his position. That said, I have a few concerns about how this book answers the question of whether politics should become an extension of the church's mission. Primarily, my concerns come down to how RLC interprets Scripture and presents the red letters of the Bible in order to answer this question. These concerns appear below. First, readers concerned about how politically involved Christians have become should also be concerned about this book. Asking students at an Ivy League university to define Evangelicals, Campolo received no ...