Month: July 2019

Categories
Book Review Faith Book Review

Book Review: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Title: The Four Agreements

Author: Don Miguel Ruiz

Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit

Publisher: Amber-Allen Publishing, Inc.

Rating: Related image/DNF

This has been the most recommended book to me by people I am close to and some who are random but know I like to read and thought I would enjoy it.  After reading the first few pages, I knew there was a major disconnect.  I already felt like this book was going to skirt around ideals that are closely aligned to my faith.  This book is called a wisdom book, and the people aren’t in a religion.  It seemed like a quick read, so I was determined to finish it and see what it could teach me.  I knew I had to be careful with what I received from this book and make sure it didn’t contradict my faith in any way and go against Biblical truth.

My thoughts:

Ruiz is presenting familiar information under different terms like dream, light, and even using the term humans, and I wonder if this is the fascination with this book.  He says that we are all God.  I was always curious about this concept.  My faith has me believing that I have God’s Spirit in me.  But I don’t call myself or consider myself a god or God.  When people do that, are they aligning themselves with God, or are they merely saying god like they used lord as a title for man in the Bible?  Or do they feel that because God is in them, that they can then say they are God?  It’s not something I understand enough to make an informed opinion on if others are right or wrong when they do it.  I can speak for myself, and I shy away from saying I am God or I am a god.  It doesn’t feel right to me, and I have learned to trust the Spirit in me.

Right away, I am connected with the idea that we are taught everything we know and our need for attention.  A recent area of focus for me, I have been trying  to understand why I believe what I believe.  I realized that most of what I know comes from being taught by others.  While that isn’t a bad thing and is mostly how our lives work, some of my beliefs, morals, and values really should be my own and foundational.  Not something that has been passed down and therefore I automatically believe it.  I do believe in sharing your beliefs, but we should share why we believe them and allow others to come to their own conclusions.

Things were explained very simply from being taught to say “mom” and “dad” to how children learn to say “no” by using a reward/punishment system.  While the simplicity of this part was somewhat frustrating to me (I wanted to push past and get to the part of learning something), I am taking a moment to think about how some of these things are still true for adults today.  We crave the reward, we don’t want to disappoint others, and we don’t want to be rejected.  All of that can have us mimicking others or becoming someone we are not.

I do agree with the concept of judging ourselves over and over again.  The fact that every time we think of a mistake that we made, many times we do feel the guilt again, which can lead to giving ourselves some type of punishment again.  This leads to the self-abuse he speaks of.  I also agree with some aspect of us allowing others to do what we feel should be done to us or what we do to ourselves.  Although I don’t necessarily agree with what he says on physical abuse (it felt very much like victim-blaming, and that’s not okay), I get what he meant by saying we allow things to happen if we think it is deserved.  But we can’t control and really shouldn’t have to be responsible for other peoples behavior but I understand this isn’t the case most of the time.

I’m also torn on his thoughts on hell.  I believe that we all experience a version of our own personal hell, and I do believe that we are experiencing a type of hell on Earth.  Do I think that it is the Hell spoken about in the Bible?  Where people go to be punished when they don’t believe in Jesus? No.  We are lucky enough not to experience that before Judgement. But the problems on Earth can have us feeling like we are experiencing Hell.  Same with our mental anguish and feeling like we have our own personal hell.

I find it ironic that his solution to us forgetting the agreements that we have learned from others that are mostly false is to teach us…more agreements.  Moving on to the first agreement, be impeccable with your word, by now, I thought the book was going to get better.  But then he used scripture to justify this concept, and it was taken so far out of context that I couldn’t overlook it.  Using John 1:1, he tries to explain how the word is responsible for creation, and because our words create, they are powerful.  Except for the word in that verse is actually The Word…as in Jesus.

Then he used this quote, “Hitler sent out all those seeds of fear, and they are very strong and beautifully achieved massive destruction.”  Beautifully achieved?  I’m going to assume he is using the second definition for beautifully here (yes I had to look it up because I could not believe he used this word.  The first definition: In a way that excites aesthetic pleasure; the second definition: In a highly effective or excellent manner.)  Anyway, I do understand the power of words, but I also feel like he may be simplifying this concept a bit.  While negative words can impact our thinking and how we live our life, only having someone say the opposite of that negative word usually isn’t enough to overturn that opinion.  It’s more about the repetition of the negative or positive thought that has us believing it.

I also don’t agree with his definition of sin: “A sin is anything that you do which goes against yourself”.  But I guess since he thinks I am God, then his definition may be correct in that aspect.  I am struggling with the fact that he is giving me, as one person so much power specifically over other people.  If I speak with love, the person I’m talking to will speak in love.  Yes, that may happen but it also may not.  You know why?  Because that person is responsible for themselves.  In my opinion, it’s best to speak in love, no matter the outcome.  Shoot, prepare yourself that you may not get love back.  That shouldn’t be why you are doing it anyway.

I had to give up on this book finally.  I felt like it was honestly going to end up doing too much damage to my subconscious to continue to read it.  I looked at the Table of Contents to see what the other agreements were.  Just like the first one, I agree with the titles.  But if the descriptions are anything like the first one, I can’t even deal with it.  I very much wanted to like this book.  Even though there are some good points here and there, in my opinion, it is covered with way too much fluff and ideals that I cannot agree with.  Of course, he will probably say I am using agreements that are made up of lies to come to this conclusion.  Either way, this gets 1-star from me, and I won’t be recommending it to anyone.

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Rhenáe's Recap

Rhenáe’s Recap: 07/21/19 – 07/27/19

Reviews

With The Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Since this book was about Emoni’s passion for cooking, I decided to take two action items away dealing with food.  My first item was I need to do a better job on buying and cooking meals that follow the Low FODMAP diet I should be on thanks to my digestive issues.  My next item was to plan a date night that involved a cooking class.  I haven’t decided yet if this will be a date with myself or with my husband.

 

A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans

Although I didn’t give it that great of a review, I still had some takeaways.  My main one was to start paying attention to what I am buying and making sure the company is following some ethical and moral guidelines.  I’m looking into Fair Trade Certified products.  I already use Grove to deliver my cleaning products, but I looked into their other products like toilet tissue, paper towels, etc.  I included my referral link if you want to check it out and get a free gift.  (I do earn from qualifying purchases, if you use that link, at no extra charge to you!).

Currently Reading

 

Messy Beautiful Friendship by Christine Hoover

I didn’t get too far in this book last week, but I haven’t read a single page this week.

 

 

The Next Right Thing by Emily P. Freeman

It’s been a while since I’ve started this one and I realized I need to start over again instead of jumping in where I left off.

 

 

Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

I decided to start this massive book after seeing someone’s post on how to read the book.  Apparently, you can jump in at any point and start reading.  It’s more of a collection of nuggets so I figured I would get started.  But I am going to read it in order.

 

Letters to the Church by Francis Chan

I ordered the physical copy of this book to re-read, this week.  This one, along with the two under Recently Acquired, were easily in my top favorite books that I have read this year.

 

 

DNF

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson

There wasn’t anything wrong with this book, and I think it is one I will eventually read and like.  But I borrowed it from Libby, and by the time I had to return it, I didn’t make it that far.  I was reading it all week and only made it to chapter three.  I’m a little over eBooks right now.

 

Recently Acquired

Can’t wait to re-read these and get some reviews up.

 

Crushing It! by Gary Vaynerchuk

 

Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin

 

 

Goodreads Challenge Update: 40/52

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases using the links included in this post.

Categories
Book Review Faith Book Review

Book Review: A Year of Biblical Womanhood – How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband ‘Master’ by Rachel Held Evans

Title: A Year of Biblical Womanhood – How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband ‘Master’

Author: Rachel Held Evans

Genre: Christian

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Rating:Related imageRelated image

This review comes with a disclaimer.  As I started reading this book, I knew early on that I wasn’t going to give it a high review.  You will be able to tell that I struggled to get through this book and wanted to disregard it and move on to another so many times.  Not because of what she was doing but more so why and how she handled it.  While contemplating giving this book a DNF (Did Not Finish), I decided to research the author and found out she passed away the month before.  I remember hearing about her death from the Christian community on social media, and honestly, that may be how her book ended up on my TBR list.  But when I downloaded the book to read, I didn’t put two and two together. Learning more about her, how she ended up leaving the Evangelical church because she felt it wasn’t inclusive enough, fits with my struggles of this book.  Her religion and the views presented did not match the God I know.  But I could also see that struggle she was facing in her writing.  From my research, this book was published two years before she officially left the church.  Supposedly, her other books, speak more about that struggle and getting back to the authentic Christian church.  Usually, with low rated books, I don’t add any of that author’s work to my TBR list.  I’m making an exception because of how drastically it appears her views have changed in the last few years of her life.

*****BEGINNING OF WHAT MAY BE CONSIDERED A SPOILER*****

As you can probably tell by the title, this book is about Evans year-long journey to live her life following what the Bible says about women literally.  Her journey starts by discussing what I think is every married woman with no kid’s dreaded question…when will you have kids?  For those waiting, you feel judged for your decision, and it’s annoying because it’s YOUR decision and your business.  For those trying, it’s just another reminder of what you have yet to accomplish.  It’s already on your mind way too much, and having someone call it out is no fun.  Can we all do each other a favor and stop asking this question??? My review is going to be in outline format based on each month and topic.  This means this review is going to be a little longer plus I had quite a few opinions, so sit back and enjoy some time off your feet.

My thoughts

My thoughts on this book aren’t all bad.  There were some items that I agreed with and things I were impressed with.  For example, Evans says she is the type of person that sees something that intrigues her and then decides to go down a rabbit hole of researching.  I have that same issue.  I can research an idea to death when something pops into my head and interests me.  I appreciated that Evans did extensive research for her journey.  She didn’t just rely on her self proclaimed Evangelical Christian view but was able to seek other counsel from Jewish, Catholic, etc. perspectives. I think this also led to her including the right scriptures and context to her examples as some authors will only take one verse and spin it to fit their view.  I loved that she included journal entries from her husband.  After each chapter, she also highlights a different woman in the Bible.

She starts by giving us a list of commandments from her research of Bible verses towards women, that she will continuously follow.  Then each month she gives us the main Bible verse that decides the theme for the month along with some to-do items.  With her commandments, I expected her to spend more time explaining them so when she immediately jumped in talking about she covered her head during prayer, I was thrown off for a minute.

One question that I have for her is what about her biblical duties that aren’t just for women?  It doesn’t appear yet that she is doing those and I wonder if she was before and only stopped to focus on what women should be doing?  She mentioned that someone said she was making a mockery of God’s Word.  I won’t go that far, but I’ll admit, I have a raised eyebrow on her why she is doing this and her methods.

She gave Proverbs 21:9 NASB for a background verse for one of her commandments: “It is better to live in a corner of the roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman.”  I wondered what the heck contentious meant?  So I looked up the definition and decided I was a contentious woman.  Decided this would be a good take away and action item for me…I needed to stop arguing.  Finishing out her October, she found the peace that comes through prayer and meditation and I am happy she was able to see that.  But again, it makes me question what she was doing before this.  I know we all struggle but it’s almost like she wasn’t praying at all but said she grew up a Christian.  Also, I wasn’t a fan of her sitting on the roof.  She mentions that it isn’t biblical (because she twisted the verse if she thought it was), but it just seems it was something she was doing for a joke.

I never understand how people can admit to not cleaning but say they are clean or their place is clean.  If you don’t clean it, who does?  Are you hiring a maid to do the cleaning?  Here is a hint, if you don’t clean your place and no one else does either, your home is dirty. Dust and dirt are on everything.

Just like with the previous chapter, what starts as a show of force against the role of homemaker, ends with Evans learning a lesson.  Being a homemaker isn’t about your husband taking advantage or a woman’s place in the kitchen.  It’s more about doing something for your family and friends, showing your love and entertaining them.  You’re taking pride in your home and welcoming those you love into it.

Can I say that this quote is dumb but provides the perfect opening for this chapter?  She lays out some tough laws from scripture that women had to follow at that time.  I hadn’t yet had a chance to read them specifically since starting my sabbatical, which is when I feel like God has allowed my eyes to be open and better understand the Bible.  I needed to read and study these chapters as a whole and pray about what I was supposed to receive from them because they are a tough pill to swallow.  They don’t speak to my role as a wife or homemaker of biblical womanhood in my opinion.  She celebrates the Israelite tradition for the daughter of Jephthah from Judges 11:39-40. It was a moment to pause and reflect and reminded me of why we do communion.  She also makes a good point about Christmas.  It’s usually the woman who is making everything run smooth, wrapping gifts, decorating the tree and cooking dinner.  But a man, Santa, gets all the credit.  Why not Mrs. Claus?  I mean, even that’s more believable than Santa.

One statement she made this month just again made me want to put this book down.  “If I can’t have a civil conversation with my husband before 8 a.m., why should I expect to have a civil conversation with God?”  Really??? Does she not realize that God is before her husband?  The fight against this book for me was intense around this point.  I wanted to know what happens and how she does, but she complains so much and its almost like she is trying so hard to convince us that she is the complete opposite of a biblical woman for this story. She also talks way too much about writing this book and the fact that she is an author in the book.

This is the point where she talks about the Proverbs 31 woman.  At first, I was so thankful because the whole book wasn’t on this one chapter.  And like most of us, she missed the point of these scriptures.  In my opinion, this is the first one that she has taken so far out of context by taking so literally.  Because she pulled a list of literal items from this passage, she felt like she failed.  One of the things she admitted to failing at was multitasking, and it reminded me of someone I know.  In my opinion, her plans aren’t truly multitasking.  Volunteering one day a week doesn’t mean the whole house doesn’t get cleaned for a week.  That particular day?  I understand.  You worked out today so you can’t remember to be kind to your husband?  But she said she usually exercises five days a week.  I think this whole section was supposed to get her some sympathy but I just can’t.  I know everyone isn’t made to “multitask” or to be organized but in my opinion, she is holding onto her being an artist as an excuse.

This chapter firms up my belief that we need to read the Bible.  The whole Bible.  Full books at a time. Complete chapters at a time. Entire passages at a time.  Most of the thoughts and opinions that say women must do this and do that can be disputed by reading more.  Upset that the wife doesn’t have authority over her own body in 1 Corinthians 7:4?  Finish reading the verse that says the husband doesn’t have authority over his body either.  We believe so much of what we are told and accept it as truth.  God’s Word is the truth.  Not what people tell you about God’s Word.  Pick it up and read it yourself.  I’m thankful that Evans started this particular month by researching what the Bible has to say.

She tells a story about traditions sticking around well after you forget the reason you are doing the tradition.  So basically they are just continuing to do it because they have always done it.  I have such a problem with this.  Isn’t the reason for the tradition to help you remember?  We get so lost in the details, and we start to honor and glorify them instead.

Some of the stuff out of her mouth was just hard to swallow.  For example, when she commented “the Jews”.  Just so you know, she has a Jewish friend who has been answering all her questions and helping her through this experiment.  Yet, she still made a comment that her husband had to tell her sounded racist.  And yes, she decided to write about it.  She observes Taharat Hamishpacha which I had never heard of.  I noted that I wanted to do some more research on this tradition, but I think the overall concept is that you separate yourself from your spouse while on your cycle.  She decided to stay in a tent.  Why did she choose to have a tent in the front yard and not the back?  She repeatedly mentions about being concerned with what others would think but does things in public that she could do in private and get the same results.

During this chapter, some quotes just had me shaking my head.  Martin Luther wrote: “If a woman grows weary and at last dies from childbearing, it matters not. Let her die from bearing, she is there to do it.”.  Good God.  Luther wrote, “that women were made either to be wives or prostitutes.” What the hell?  How could someone so instrumental in ensuring that the Church followed Biblical truth, interpret something like this from scripture? She ordered a fake but seems real baby and also babysat for some friends.  She barely had any help from her husband.  My thoughts? Men! She is doing this experiment and having to adjust because she can’t just have kids for the sake of an experiment.  So instead of helping her babysit, he assumes he doesn’t need to be present.  Really?

Surprising, I didn’t have any comments with this month.  But for the record, I have been looking at what actual submission means as a Christian and working on it.

My heart dropped while reading this chapter.  While I get angry about injustice which impacts my actions and who I support day to day, there isn’t much thought to injustice outside what I hear from the news.  Do I think about companies producing products I enjoy and if they are doing their part to protect women and children?  If they are treating farmers fair so they can feed their families?  Shamefully, I don’t.  And that makes me sick.  What is the money that I’m spending doing to these families? What changes can I make?

I’m thinking back to another book I read that has me rethinking what I do with my tithes.  For about a year, when sending my tithes and offerings, I felt uneasy.  Something didn’t seem right, and all I knew was I couldn’t stop giving my tithes.  The updates we use to get slowly decreased.  Projects were being announced that seemed amazing in general, but in the back of my mind, I kept thinking how much will that cost and why is that what we are doing with our money.  I think about how much money we give to the church each year and now wonder could that go to an organization that does more for injustice?

My thoughts on being silent…I see the benefit.  Lord knows I talk a lot and often.  I take that back.  I’ve been told that my whole life but as an introvert, I can spend weeks alone, not talking to anyone and I would be a-okay.  I’m opinionated and strong-willed, so when I WANT to talk or have something to say, I do.  Very passionately.

No comments for this month as I believe it was just a wrap up for her.

Towards the end is where I realized the book is starting to get better.  I don’t know if it was a shift in my mindset after realizing she passed away or my determination to finish this book by any means because I wanted to see what she learned after.  What I believe happened is, while she was playing and experimenting those first few months, through all her Bible reading and research, God started to move in her heart.  Her approach and opinions and lessons learned changed.  She didn’t approach each month and to-do with so much humor and disrespect.  That is the only reason the book was able to get 2-stars from me.

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases using the links included in this post.

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Book Review Family Book Review

Mini Book Review: With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Title: With the Fire on High 

Author: Elizabeth Acevedo

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: HarperTeen

Rating:Related imageRelated imageRelated imageRelated imageRelated image

Two things before we start.  I, 99% of the time, do not read Young Adult (YA) books, and I, 99% of the time, do not read books that everyone is going crazy over.  I am happy I took a chance on this book because it was worth it.  With the Fire on High tells the story of Emoni, a Philly teenage mom, who is trying to navigate high school while dealing with issues most teenagers don’t have to focus on.  She was able to embrace her culture, handle the tough life she has been given, and owns her decisions, and it was refreshing.  You can’t help but cheer for her every step of the way.

Emoni is strong in her identity and passionate about cooking, which was one way I was able to connect with her.  Her love for her Abuela is evident, and she fights to give Babygirl what she didn’t have growing up.  Small references in the book reminded me of living and visiting family up north.  I caught and understood some of the Philly references thanks to my 15 plus year friendship with the bestie who was born, raised and currently lives there. Acevedo throwing in a reference to Mancala tugged at my heartstrings a bit as that game was part of my childhood and I now have one in my living room.  Overall, this book was a quick read because I couldn’t put it down.  I gave it 5-stars because I was able to connect and feel for Emoni in a way that makes you forget she is a fictional character and not the sister/cousin/friend that she could so easily be.  By the way, I only cried once, which is significant for me since I’m such a wuss.  Now, who wants to come over and cook the recipes that are the book with me?

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases using the links included in this post.

Categories
Rhenáe's Recap

Rhenáe’s Recap: 07/12/19 – 07/20/19

So I did a thing.  I launched a blog.  I wrote reviews.  Posted them on the internet.  And told people to go and read them.  I described the feeling to a friend that it felt like an earthquake in my stomach.  But you know what?  I’m happy and proud that I did it.  I want to catch you up on what has been going on with me and the blog this week.  I will also give you an update on what actions I am taking based on the books I’ve read and reviewed.  Going forward, this will be a Sunday to Saturday update.

 

Reviews

Crazy Love by Francis Chan

I wanted to intentionally take time to focus on God as The Creator.  A couple of things I did was spend time in nature.  I’ve spent more time outside to just breath in the air and listen to the birds.  I’ve tried to take a step back and see God in every person, thing, and situation. A fantastic song that has lyrics that helps me focus on God is here:

Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley

Honestly, I haven’t had much time to use what I learned from this book.  But maybe one day in the future.

Forgotten God by Francis Chan

One of my biggest questions from this book was, could people tell that I had the Holy Spirit in me without screaming it to the world?  Did I appear different from non-believers?  My prayer has been to have me be more aware of the Holy Spirit daily in my life.

Do More Better by Tim Challies

My Evernote was pretty much aligned to what Challies recommended.  But I had extra folders and subcategories that wasn’t needed.  I made some updates to my folders and have added the daily and weekly review.  I haven’t been as successful with doing the reviews but as I am transitioning in my Sabbatical, I am back to my daily planning.  I shared my Area of Responsibilities in my post, and I have been taken action on those items daily.

Erasing Hell by Francis Chan

I finally read the book of Revelation after talking about the 2nd coming in my Bible Study.  It was my first time reading it through and actually seeing and trying to understand all of the imagery.  It definitely still calls for a proper study of the book, but I feel like I now can understand the details a little better.

Author Resources

Francis Chan

Tim Challies

 

Currently Reading

Messy Beautiful Friendship by Christine Hoover

The Next Right Thing by Emily P. Freeman

 

Finished Reading

The Artist’s Way

Jesus > Religion by Jefferson Bethke

The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay

 

Recently Acquired

Rich Habits Poor Habits by Tim Corley and Michael Yardney

Never Unfriended by Lisa-Jo Baker

Girls’ Club by Sarah, Sally & Joy Clarkson

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson

Fear Is My Homeboy by Judi Holler (Giveaway win)

Goodreads Challenge Update: 40/52

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases using the links included in this post.

Categories
Book Review Faith Book Review

Book Review: Erasing Hell – What God Said About Eternity, and the Things We’ve Made Up by Francis Chan

Title: Erasing Hell – What God Said About Eternity, and the Things We’ve Made Up

Author: Francis Chan

Genre: Christian

Publisher: David C. Cook

Rating:Related imageRelated imageRelated imageRelated image

This is book 3 out of 4 from The Francis Chan Collection that I downloaded on Hoopla as an eBook. Before I started reading the book, I took some time to figure out what I knew about Hell.  The little I was able to come up with was what I heard rarely spoken about in church or from others and was more to do with why I needed to do something to avoid going to hell.  I realized very quickly that I had very little Biblical knowledge of Hell, and that is what Francis Chan walks you through with his book Erasing Hell. He looks at if there is a Hell and what it is and what it isn’t.

My Thoughts:

This book has a lot of research in it.  While I don’t mind that, I know this type of “scholarly” book could be a turn off for others.  For me, I like to see all of the research that was done to form an opinion.  It’s also a great way to see who your favorite authors are reading and studying.  Francis Chan begins by discussing the subject of if Hell exists by examining the types of Christians that believe everyone can be saved and the scriptures they use to establish their arguments.  By doing this, it brings up an excellent point: context matters.  Taking one verse or a piece of a verse to make it say what we want or so it says something that makes us feel good is irresponsible. This is one of the reasons I have made it a point to read whole books of the Bible in one or as few sittings as possible to understand the full context.  One idea that I loved that Chan recommends was for the reader to forget all of our preconceived notions.  Not only about Hell but also about Jesus.  He admits how we can see Jesus and probably by default the rest of the Bible through our 21st-century eyes.  Well actually, I think we see the Old Testament and parts of the New Testament as a previous time and use that as an excuse to why we don’t have to follow some of the commands.  By giving us the background of a first-century Jew, we can better understand the context of what we are trying to study in the scriptures.

The next discussion on hell is if it is a place to go for correction or punishment.  Chan uses Jewish text from the time of Jesus as well as scripture to conclude that it is for punishment.  On whether it’s everlasting or not, Chan feels it is still up in the air and not an explicit agreement.  He leans toward everlasting based on some scripture, but due to the possible confusion, he wants you to focus on Jesus’ original message when discussing hell: Avoid it.  Chan didn’t want to say that hell was everlasting specifically, but it’s evident in the book of Revelation that it is.  I wonder if he didn’t want to commit because Jesus didn’t say it explicitly? But if we believe that all of the Bible is God’s inerrant work that would include what John wrote in Revelation.  I’ve read Matthew plenty of times (anyone else have great intentions to read the NT and start with Matthew only to come to a screeching halt at John? Just me? Okay), and many of Chan’s scriptures references about hell came from Matthew.  I was shocked because I wouldn’t have been able to describe hell the way Jesus describes it.  Why not?  Because when taught about the gospel or doing a Bible study or even studying it for myself previously, I was taught to focus on the good things Christ wants for us and Christ Himself.  I skim right through what happens when someone doesn’t obey and focus on what I need to follow.  This is dangerous for me to do if I want to call myself a disciple.  I need to understand what happens to unbelievers so I can explain it when spreading the gospel.

There is a particular paragraph in the book that spoke to my new feelings for the past 6-9 months. Something just hasn’t been feeling right with the go to church every week, and I’m called a Christian or read a daily devotional and life will work out mentality.  It just seems like there was more to life that I was missing.  Especially when I started to read and study the Bible for myself as the Bible recommends, that confirmed something was missing. This is why one of the things I found that I love doing is letting others know that they can read and study the Bible for themselves.  It’s what is helping me through my sabbatical, and I look forward to what I am learning each day about God’s Word.  So it sticks out when James says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” (3v1 ESV) and “So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!” (3v5 ESV).  It also sticks out because it, in my opinion, shows the danger of following those so blindly that are suppose to be leading and teaching us.  How many take these passages so seriously?  I think if more did, we would see more teaching coming from the Word of God and covering all aspects of it.

After laying out what he considered the facts about hell, Chan then turns his attention to what those mean for the everyday Christian. Chan feels like according to scripture, believers can still find themselves facing hellfire and brimstone.  How?  False teaching, greed, hate, our speech, amongst other things.  This section is where my action steps would come from.  What’s coming out of my mouth?  What am I doing to combat hate?  How am I helping the poor?  I gave Erasing Hell 4-stars. The book did its job of providing a lot of details about Hell itself, why it’s a real place based on scripture and historical text, which led me to walk away with a better understanding of Hell after reviewing the scriptures for myself.  It’s a place I want no part of, nor do I want those around me to experience it either.  It’s my prayer that God helps me see what I can do differently to help those around me avoid Hell.

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Author Resources

Author Resource: Tim Challies

Tim Challies is an author, Pastor, blogger, and book reviewer at challies.com.  I found him one day on YouTube while looking at book reviews.  I love being subscribed to his newsletter, which includes what he calls A La Carte, which is a recap of Christian articles he likes and Kindle deals for Christians on Amazon.  The articles are heavy leaning towards his denomination, but every now and again, you will find some great ones for all Christians.

He has written the following books:

The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment

Sexual Detox: A Guide For Guys Who Are Sick of Porn

The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion

Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity

Visual Theology: Seeing and Understanding the Truth About God

The Character of the Christian

Devoted

Run to Win: The Lifelong Pursuits of a Godly Man

 

Social Media

Podcast

GoodReads

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YouTube

Pinterest

Twitter

 

Favorite Quotes From Do More Better

Productivity—true productivity—will never be better or stronger than the foundation you build it upon.

There is no task in life that cannot be done for God’s glory.

You need to structure and organize your life so that you can do the maximum good for others and thus bring the maximum glory to God.

You need to be a Christian—a person who has believed in Jesus Christ and received forgiveness for your sins, a person who has given up living for yourself and begun living for the glory of God.

God calls you to productivity, but he calls you to the right kind of productivity. He calls you to be productive for his sake, not your own.

You have limited amounts of gifting, talents, time, energy, and enthusiasm, but unlimited ways of allocating them.

Your primary pursuit in productivity is not doing more things, but doing more good.

My ability to make wise decisions is directly connected to my understanding of my mission. When I am confident in my mission, I am confident in my decisions.

Motivation gives the desire and energy to begin making changes in your life, but it cannot sustain them.

…motivation gets you started, but habit keeps you going. You need to use those times of high motivation to build habits and to embed those habits in a system.

The person who lives with an awareness of God’s presence, who lives under God’s authority, and who longs to bring God glory is the person who will be highly motivated to do more good—to do the most good for other people.

Challies, Tim. Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity. Challies. Kindle Edition.

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Categories
Book Review Faith Book Review Family Book Review

Book Review: Do More Better – A Practical Guide to Productivity by Tim Challies

Title: Do More Better – A Practical Guide to Productivity

Author: Tim Challies

Genre: Christian

Publisher: Challies

Rating: Related imageRelated imageRelated imageRelated image

Do More Better breaks down the importance and practicalities of having a routine to increase your productivity.  Tim Challies has his hands in a lot.  He is a Pastor, husband, father, book reviewer, blogger, amongst many other titles. I found him while doing some research on YouTube one day and was distracted by him giving book recommendations. Which led me down a rabbit hole of watching a few of his other videos (I may have watched every book recommendation video he has, but I digress).  I went to his website to find out more information about him, signed up for his emails, and my first thought was, “How does he do all of this?”. When I saw that he had a book on productivity, it was a no-brainer for me to grab it.  It was a quick read, with a lot of information that I already knew but wouldn’t be bad for someone that needed the basics of increasing their productivity.

My Thoughts:

As this is a Biblical based book on productivity, it wasn’t a shocker to find “good works” a topic.  My experience is that many people are quick to downplay or flat out deny good works.  After all, we are saved by grace and not good works.  But like many other unpopular (as in you don’t hear them talked about often) bible verses, people tend to ignore what the Bible actually says about the good works we should be doing.  I wonder if so many people focus on the fact that we are saved by grace and not works to get away with doing good works?  I understand wanting to keep people away from thinking they can work their way to salvation.  But I don’t hear much preached about doing good works as a result of our salvation.  The reason we should be doing these good works?  For God’s glory.  Since our purpose in life is to do things for God’s glory, the things that prevent us from doing that is considered a theological problem per Challies.

Do More Better is an action based book.  Tim Challies starts by walking you through what is productivity, what is stopping you from being productive, and then he actually walks you through the steps that he does to help with his productivity.  Now I am one of those people who doesn’t usually do what a book tells me.  If it says stop and write this down, I won’t.  I’ll probably highlight it.  Think about going back to it later, maybe.  But unless I’m reading something for a specific reason, I just don’t do it. But since turning over a new leaf and actually trying to use the books and resources as tools for improvement, I am doing what I am told, and I am sharing with you.  After all, that is why my blog is much more than just a book review site.  By giving you my answers to the action items, you may consider the section to follow a bit of a SPOILER.  I don’t want to ruin the book for anyone, so I will bold the beginning and end of the parts that give some information away, and you can skip right past them.

*****BEGINNING OF WHAT MAY BE CONSIDERED A SPOILER*****

One of the first early action items Challies gives is to pick a habit other than productivity that you will work on outside of productivity.  Since I am currently on a sabbatical without any rigid responsibilities or timelines, my sleeping habits have been off.  I’m actually dealing with a reversal of my days and nights.  I can’t fall asleep at night, and I tend to fall asleep around 8 am. It’s been absolutely horrible.  With that said, my habit that I would like to work on is actually waking up at 9:00 am.  (I would prefer 5:00 am, but we will save that for another book review).

To create a plan for increasing your productivity, you need to understand what your current responsibilities are.  Challies calls them Areas of Responsibilities.  I won’t go into specifics of what he recommends (that’s why you need to read the book), but I listed the five areas I picked: Spiritual, Personal, Family, Family Management, Hobby.  Each Area of Responsibility then has what is called roles (or tasks/projects).  Mine are below which reflect where I am currently (as in today) in life.  Which means on sabbatical and traveling.  I expect mine to change when I am back home.

Now, according to Challies, you are ready to create mini mission statements for each role.  It helps you understand your why and will help make decision making more manageable in the future.

Spiritual

Bible Reading– Read the whole Bible, so I am familiar with all of the Bible stories and major themes

Bible Studying– Build a personal relationship with God by truly getting to know Him through His word

Prayer– Continuously communicate with God, whether scheduled or unscheduled

Discipleship– Continue to share my faith, primarily through social media, to show people the importance of reading and studying the Bible for themselves

Personal

Eating Habits– Continue to eliminate food triggers that activate my IBS or Malabsorption issues

Self Care– Take time daily to do things that relax me so I can truly feel joy and peace

Administration– Plan and review my life to ensure my purpose is on track

Family

Wife– Love and respect Chris the way God wants me to

Daughter/Sister– Love and communicate with my family

Friend– Show my appreciation and stay in contact with them

Family Management

Cleaning– Stay on top of cleaning, not only my area/stuff, but help others to show the love for the gifts that God has blessed us with

Cooking– A stress reliever that helps me show love for others and helps keep everyone eating right

Hobby

Reading– Continue to read and apply what I learn to my life

Blog– Document what I am reading and learning to share with others

*****END OF WHAT MAY BE CONSIDERED A SPOILER*****

As you can see, there are plenty of action items that are given during the audit of your responsibilities.  I appreciate Challies giving the details of not only his duties but showcasing how his wife’s and a friend’s audit looks different.

Moving on to the tools Challies finds essential to help with your productivity, he recommends some tools that I believe most of us are familiar with and probably use already.  These tools help with tasks, scheduling, and information.  I personally use 2 out of the 3 he recommends.  And the only reason I don’t use the first one he suggests is that I prefer to manage my task using option 2 AND 3 together (thanks to my previous project analyst/professional organizer life).

Because he outlines how to use all 3 tools, I personally didn’t need this information, but it was detailed enough that someone starting from scratch could follow along and set theirs up.  Rebuilding these types of habits has been a recent focus, so I actually had most of this setup and in a pretty similar fashion as Challies.  I did adapt some of his ideas: for example, when setting up a task, start with an action word and a colon to ensure you are only adding a task that requires an action.  For me, this also helps with block scheduling.  If I see that I have five tasks that start with Call: for the week, I can block those task to be completed together.

Although Challies is giving specifics for how he sets up the tools he recommends, they are generic enough that no matter which tool you use, you can follow his set up process.  Challies and I disagree on the efficiency of using all 3 of his recommend tools.  In my opinion, if you can find 1-2 tools that can handle task management, scheduling, and information management AND you actually organize it correctly, go for it. At first, I was thinking because it was an older book, some of the tools were still new, but the book was published in 2015.  Many employers, schools, or volunteer organizations have required the use of these tools for years now, and they just continue to be improved.  My opinion is it’s more efficient and practical to use fewer tools as long as they accomplish the same goal.  Challies doesn’t really give a reason to keep them separate other than he gave you the information.

I gave Do More Better 4-stars.  Although the book had a lot of information that I already know and practice, it was geared towards those who are just starting to get their productive lives together. It was well written just for that purpose.  Plus, I was still able to learn some things and apply them to my life.  The whole piece on Area of Responsibilities and writing out mini mission statements made me slow down and honestly audit what my life is currently about and what type of changes I need to make.  I know going back and reviewing that information alone will help me maintain my focus on my purpose.

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases using the links included in this post.