Books I have read in 2011

19. Becoming the Answer to our Prayers

The most powerful statement in the book is: “We don’t do great things, we do small things with great love!” This is a very good book.

• Paperback: 125 pages
• Publisher: IVP Books (September 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780830836222
• ISBN-13: 978-0830836222
• ASIN: 0830836225

From Publishers Weekly

This latest publication from the new monasticism movement is the third book each for the two young Christian activist-authors, and it offers fresh insight on the well-worn topic of prayer. Some themes are repeated from earlier works, but the book deftly succeeds in drawing the reader out of the weeds of daily life and into a more spacious field. The text is structured around three New Testament prayers: the Lord's Prayer, Christ's intercessory prayer in Chapter 17 of the Gospel of John and Paul's prayer in the first chapter of Ephesians. From the very first pronoun of the familiar Lord's Prayer ("our"), the authors extract a compelling sermon on the power and centrality of community in Christian life and thought. The dominant theme--that prayer invites human beings into a partnership with God in answering prayer--is enlivened with earthy tales from the authors' own lives, wrenching stories of service and redemption from the people they know and lesser-known anecdotes from Christian history and sociology. Readers will never see prayer or community in quite the same way again. (Oct.)
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What is happening in your story?

I have been reading “Million miles in a Thousand years” by Donald Miller and it got me thinking? In his book he tells the story how one of his earlier books was made into a movie. The book was about his life. When they started the movie script he was confronted with the question: “How many memorable stories did he have?” The type of story that people would sit and watch. If they have to make a movie about my or your life would it be a slow moving movie or would their be scenes where people would actually want to sit and watch. One of the perquisites is that it must be something worthwhile, funny, adventures or painful. A really good story has something of everything.

The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, Christian Speaker, Aged 45 3/4 by Adrian Plass

Plass has done it again! He takes the ordinary things we religious people do and puts them under the microscope of reality. As we see ourselves as we really are we have to laugh, cry and realize that Jesus really is nice and he likes us IN SPITE OF THE SILLY THINGS WE DO. This diary shows us a more mature, thoughtful diary writer than before. All the family and friends are there, and I had a definite feeling that my knowledge of them was growing deeper.

Don't be afraid to read this if you are a Christian. It doesn't make fun of Jesus, but of us. If think that this book is a must read for all theology students or any other person thinking about going into ministry. This is something that we are certainly deserving of, and Plass delivers a healthy dose of humourous-medicine that challenges our status quo and invites us to run giggling into the arms of the One who loves us so much He'd rather die than live without us!

Jesus Manifesto: Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola

First published on http://paul-barnard.blogspot.com/2010/06/jesus-manifesto-leonard-sweet-frank.html

This is one of the best books I have read in my life. Not because of all the new insights but because of the central truth. This is much more than a book but an outpouring of love for Jesus.
The truth is, I agree with perhaps 90% of the book–especially the central thrust–that Jesus Christ is a living and active presence here and now–and that we, by extension, are called to manifest Jesus' presence into the world. This idea might seem like a "no duh" to many Christians. However, as the authors point out, "the reality and experience of an indwelling Lord has been almost lost to the Christian faith."
Jesus Manifesto serves as a helpful reminder that Jesus isn't some long-dead sage who showed us a new way to live. Nor is he a theologically abstract principle or idea. One needn't look too long to see that most of Christianity assumes a sort of deadness to Christianity–that it is a religion of principles laid out by someone who is no longer present. This has certainly been my own experience of Christianity, for the most part.
Rather, Jesus dwells in us and, therefore, the important question isn't "What would Jesus do?" but "What is Christ doing through me…through us? And how is He doing it?"

There are huge implications to such a shift in our thinking. If being the embodiment to Christ to the world is much more than simply living out good principles, then all bets are off. Our faith becomes a terrifyingly beautiful journey with Christ in the world.
Since Christ's abiding presence in his Church is central to our life together, Frank and Len set out to challenge those things that set themselves as the engine for our faith…like conservative morality, church growth, miracles, movement-building, social justice, evangelism, leadership principles, prosperity, spiritual warfare, systematic theology, etc.

Christians have made the gospel about so many things—things other than Christ. Religious concepts, ideas, doctrines, strategies, methods, techniques, programs, and formulas have all eclipsed the beauty, the glory, and the reality of the Lord Jesus Himself. On the whole, the Christian family today is starved for a real experience of the living Christ. We know a lot about our Lord, but we don't know Him very well. We know a lot about trying to be like Jesus, but very little about living by His indwelling life. "Jesus Manifesto" presents a fresh unveiling of Jesus as not only Savior and Lord, but as so much more. It is a prophetic call to restore the supremacy and sovereignty of Christ in a world—and a church—that has lost sight of Him. Read this book and see your Lord like you've never seen Him before.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
LEONARD SWEET occupies the Chair of Evangelism at Drew University in NJ and weekly contributes to sermons.com and a podcast, "Napkin Scribbles." He is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Fox University and has authored numerous articles, sermons, and forty books.
Len's Website: www.LeonardSweet.com
Len's Twitter: http://twitter.com/lensweet
FRANK VIOLA is a best-selling author, international conference speaker, and church planter. His books include Reimagining Church,The Untold Story of the New Testament Church,Pagan Christianity (with George Barna), Finding Organic Church, and the best-selling From Eternity to Here.
Frank's Website: www.FrankViola.com
Frank's Blog: www.frankviola.wordpress.com

Lost in the cosmos: Breda Ludik

Breda is working on his post Doctoral at the Lutheran Seminary in Minnesota. He wrote the following article on Walker Percy.

Walker Percy, the acclaimed novelist, wrote a book called “Lost in the cosmos: The last self-help book” in which he ruthlessly and hilariously unmasks our growing preoccupation with ourselves. These are some of the alternative titles he suggests for the book:

• Why it is that of all the billions and billions of strange objects in the Cosmos – novas, quasars, pulsars, black holes – you are beyond doubt the strangest
• Why is it possible to learn more in ten minutes about the Crab Nebula in Taurus, which is 6,000 light years away, than you presently know about yourself, even though you’ve been stuck with yourself all your life
• 
  

Die Argument vir God

Hierdie is ‘n interresante boek en in die huidige gesprek oor God is die ‘n wonderlike lees. As jy egter nie hou van Sosiale denkrame en kreatiewe vrae oor God nie, bly weg. Persoonlik is hierdie tipe boeke vir lekker want dit bied ‘n ander invalshoek met gesprekke met mense wat twyfel. Die artikel kry ek by Kletskerk
Samuel Pauw , 2010-04-16
Die gesprek oor God het in die eerste dekade van die 21e eeu meer intens as ooit geword. Dié wat die bestaan van God afwys, het dit al meer sonder skroom begin doen. Dikwels met argwaan en sarkasme. Een van die stemme wat orals gerespekteer word, is dié van die briljante denker en skrywer-teoloog Karen Amstrong. Haar jongste boek,The Case for God, What Religion Really Means, is een wat soekers nie kan laat verbygaan nie. Samuel Pauw gee 'n uiteensetting in die jongste Kerkbode.

Karen Armstrong was in haar jeug ʼn non, daarna het sy vir jare geen erg aan godsdiens gehad nie. Sy het hierna met ʼn omvattende studie van die drie monoteïsmes en Oosterse godsdienste begin. Vanuit dié wye verwysingsraamwerk het sy oorspronklike en verrassende insigte ontwikkel. Haar jongste boek,

Leaving Church

by Barbara Brown Taylor (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (88 customer reviews)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. A widely acclaimed preacher, Taylor draws on her homiletical skills in this finely crafted memoir with a simple plot: an Episcopal priest exhausts her inner resources, first in an urban church and then in a small country parish; she changes jobs, struggles and finds renewal. Such a synopsis, however, does not do justice to Taylor's literary style in this rich evocation of her lifelong love affair with God.

An Altar in the World

by Barbara Brown Taylor (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Author of an acclaimed memoir (Leaving Church) and a gifted preacher, Taylor is one of those rare people who truly can see the holy in everything. Since everyone should know such a person, those who don't can—no, must—read this book, with its friendly reminders of everyday sacred. Taylor's 12 chapters mine the potentially sacred meaning of simple daily activities and conditions, like walking, paying attention, saying no to work one Sabbath day each week. Hanging laundry is setting up a prayer flag, for God's sake. Since Taylor, an Episcopal priest, no longer pastors

Great Emergence

UNABRIDGED

By

Phyllis Tickle

Narrated by

Pam Ward

Regular Price:

$12.98

Publisher's Summary

Rooted in the observation that massive transitions in the church happen about every 500 years, Phyllis Tickle shows readers that we live in such a time right now.

She compares the Great Emergence to other "Greats" in the history of Christianity, including the Great Transformation (when God walked among us), the time of Gregory the Great, the Great Schism, and the Great Reformation.

Combining history, a look at the causes of social upheaval, and current events, The Great Emergence shows readers what the Great Emergence in church and culture is, how it came to be, and where it is going. Anyone who is interested in the future of the church in America, no matter what their personal affiliation, will find this book a fascinating exploration.

Transformational Architecture: Reshaping Our Lives as Narrative

Ron Martoia

Narrated by

James Adams

Regular Price:

$14.17

Publisher's Summary

Author Ron Martoia is one of today's keenest Christian observers and thinkers. And in his latest book, he explains why evangelism is more difficult now than ever before: postmodern society has lost its overarching stories. People today are disillusioned, disenfranchised, and less open to the biggest "story" of all: the message of God's redeeming grace.

Awe about a world I have not made…

Breda Ludik wrote:
I am enjoying the autobibliography of GK Chesterton at present – “enjoying” being the operative word. In his introduction Randall Paine writes, “Chesterton never really got over the fact that God created the world, and he somehow pities the rest of us because we have. His writing is therapy for us in our handicap.”
This (and Chesterton’s musings on his own childhood) got met wondering: Why do we so effortlessly lose the amazement of a child at this incredable world we are born into. Maybe the answer is to be found in our inability to decenter – to see the world without ourselves as the center around which everything revolves. Chesterton says it beautifully in The Common Man: “All my mental doors open outwards into a world that I have not made…

A New Form of Christianity From Bonhoeffer ..

Bonhoeffer wrote the book “The Cost of Discipleship”  Amazon.com: cost of discipleship dietrich bonhoeffer this is a must read to all Christians. He was a pastor in the time of Hitler. At one stage he was thrown into the concentration camps. Here he proclaimed the gospel with so much love that some of the guards gave their lives to God.

What it means to have a mother.

Someone responded to this cartoon “And his Mother would probably do it” But actually the right answer is much more likely to be: “And his Mother would do it happily and she would look forward to each trip”.
In a sense Mothers are NUTS. They are willing to give all they have to see their children happy. They are willing to sacrifice themselves, go the extra mile, maybe twenty if necessary?
I wonder if it would not have been easier if God introduced Himself as the Heavenly Mother. Would it not be much easier to understand the grace and love of God if it was associated with a Mother? I know that when we talk about the gender of God that God made Man and Woman in His images. That our understanding of God is sometimes flawed because we see God predominantly as male, God is so much more!
The second thing that struck me in this cartoon was how Calvin assumed the role of his mother was to make life easier for him. Do all his dirty work and be contended with this. Where in your life would you find somebody NUTS enough to be willing to make these sacrifices for self righteous and unthankful people? I can only think of Mothers and God.
Thank God for Mothers.

Aanhalings uit “Leaving Church” – Babara Brown Taylor

Koop by die Amazone - http://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Church-Barbara-Brown-Taylor/dp/0060872632

Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith (9780060771744): Barbara Brown Taylor: Books ISBN: 0060771747 ISBN-13: 9780060771744

This is not the life I planned or the life I recommend
to others. But it is the life that has turned out to be mine, and the
central revelation in it for me-that the call to serve God is first
and last the call to be fully human!

Jesus called them finding life, losing life,
and finding life again, with the paradoxical promise that finders
will be losers while those who lose their lives for his sake will wind
up finding them again. In Greek the word is psyche, meaning not
only "life" but also the conscious self, the personality, the soul. You
do not have to die in order to discover the truth of this teaching, in
other words. You only need to lose track of who you are, or who
you thought you were supposed to be, so that you end up lying flat
on the dirt floor basement of your heart. Do this, Jesus says, and
you will live.

I guess you could say that my losses have been chiefly in the
area of faith, and specifically in the area of being certain who God
is, what God wants of me, and what it means to be Christian in a
world where religion often seems to do more harm than good.

Since we are both intuitive types, we do not decide things as
much as we gravitate toward them. This is not very theological
language, 1 know, but on the subject of divine guidance 1 side with
Susan B. Anthony. "I distrust those people who know so well what
God wants them to do," she once said, "because 1 notice it always
coincides with their own desires." Having been somewhat of an
expert on the sanctification of my own desires, 1 try not to pin
them on God anymore. At the same time, 1 recognize the
enormous energy in them, which strikes me as something that God
might be able to use.

When 1 read the stories in the Bible about people such as
Sarah, Jacob, or David, what stands out is not their virtue but their very strong wants. Sarah wanted her son to prevail over Hagar's
son, Jacob wanted his older brother's blessing, and David wanted
Bathsheba. While these cravings clearly bought them all kinds of
well-deserved trouble, they also kept these characters very, very
alive. Their desires propelled them in ways that God could use,
better than God could use those who never colored outside the
lines. Based on their example, I decided to take responsibility for
what I wanted and to trust God to take it from there.
Intuition may be one way of speaking about how God does
that-takes things from here to there, I mean. Since intuition
operates lower down than the frontal lobe, it is not easy to talk
about how it works. In general, I tend not to pay much attention to
it until I have completed all of my research, compiled my lists of
pros and cons, and made a rational decision based on facts. Then,
when I cannot sleep because the rational decision seems all wrong
to me, I start paying attention to the gyroscope of my intuition,
which operates below the radar of my reason. I pay attention to
recurring dreams and interesting coincidences. I let my feelings
off the leash and follow them around. When something moves in
my peripheral vision, I leave the path to investigate, since it would
be a shame to walk right by a burning bush. At this point, reason is all but useless to me. All that remains is trust. Will I trust my
intuition or won't I? The more I do, the more intuitive I become.
This is as close as I can come to describing the guidance of the
Holy Spirit.