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Book Review: Letters To The Church by Francis Chan

Title: Letters To The Church

Author: Francis Chan

Genre: Christian

Publisher: David C. Cook

Rating: Related imageRelated imageRelated imageRelated imageRelated image

Thanks to this book,  I won’t be able to look or think about the local church the same.  Coming off a year where I was starting to feel a stirring in my spirit, while on my Sabattical, I wanted to learn more about what God had planned for the Church.  I came across this book and since then have read it twice along with the book of Acts and most of the letters Paul wrote to the New Testament churches.  I don’t know if this is the right thing to say, but it single-handedly got me back into reading my Bible and learning from God Himself what I should be looking for in a church but also myself.  This was my first introduction to Francis Chan, and if you have read my other reviews, you know that I have since read a good amount of his books. This is by far, my favorite and is easily in my top five books from this year.

My Thoughts:

Letters to the Church starts with the story of Francis Chan leaving the megachurch he helped start and his journey of moving towards creating churches that were more aligned with what he read in the New Testament.  He and the elders originally began to question if they were doing enough.  They started by making some changes to see if the church was genuinely based on love, if they were too dependant on the pastor and if they were holding others from walking in their gifts. It definitely impacted their church as he says one member felt like the rules were being changed on him.  Hearing the word rules connect to church hurts my heart, and lets me know how far we have come away from the time of Christ.  Jesus specifically called out those that follow the rules but don’t obey what God says or show love, which I believe helps you obey His other commands.  There are even warnings in the Old Testament from the prophets.  “Then Samuel said: Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look: To obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry.  Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.” – 1 Samuel 15:22-23

Chan and his family ended up traveling overseas for a bit after leaving his church and were able to see the spreading of the gospel in the simplest of terms.  After a while, they came back to the U.S. and started We Are Church. We Are Church is a ministry that begins churches out of the home.  No buildings, no pastoral staff, no budget.  Once they have 15-20 members, they start a new church using 1-2 members from the previous church to act as leaders, and that term is used loosely.  The small congregation allows for more of a community feel to be the actual Church.  Each member has a purpose, and their gift is used.  Each member has the potential to lead their own church if needed.

Chan warns that this book may be appealing to those who have experienced church hurt and are looking for a way to attack the church due to preferences.  That isn’t the purpose, and after experiencing some church hurt myself, it takes a lot of prayers to see the problem in the American churches through the lenses of only the Bible.  Megachurches are popular.  The music has to be right. The lighting has to be correct.  They have to have the right program for children, women, men, singles, married folks, etc.  Trust me, I’ve been there.  Going from my first home church to my second home church, it took a while to get used to the music and the screen from being at a satellite location.  But can I tell you none of that was essential and didn’t matter when I started reading my Bible?  Chan recommends that we need to be motived by biblical conviction. All of those things that we can find to complain about are more to do with the church building and the people inside that building.  Those things are all items added to services to make as many people as possible comfortable.  With that said he recommends having your Bible open while reading the book so you can reference for yourself the scriptures he points out.

Chan reminds us of the reverence we should have towards God, how we should approach prayer and the fact that the Church is God’s bride, and we are His temple and should treat them as such. On top of those things being missing from today’s church, we aren’t “devoted” like the first-century churches were.  We confuse being the Church with going to church.  Which means for 90 minutes a week, we are being the Church by fellowshipping with believers, worshiping God, and reading the Word. Does that sound like devotion?  We should be devoting ourselves to the Word, communion, fellowship, and prayer at all times to experience God truly. Doing all of that makes the Church a family that should be unified and the fruit of that should be Biblical love that should be shown to everyone, including the lost.

It also helps you to see who Jesus was, a servant.  You should be encouraged to be more like Jesus and serve.  But Chan speaks on how many in the church are consumers.  We don’t realize the benefits of serving, in the church, or outside the church.  It wasn’t honestly until I became a team lead for a serving team at my previous church that I realized just how many people don’t serve in the church.  Many excuses are given, but what I saw mostly was the church was heavily dependant on the volunteers they had, and they were often overworked and burnt out.  But people don’t realize that if more people serve, that won’t happen. Another reason is the church doesn’t use people for their gifts.  You see many leaders and the same people (the dangers of cliques) getting the spotlight or doing certain things in the church over and over again.

One of the concerns Chan expresses is the American church’s need to get people in the door.  Because that is our focus, we don’t care about the type of Christians we are making. We aren’t making Christians that are truly devoted to Christ.  We aren’t making leaders.  We aren’t equipping every member of the church to go out and shephard others.  Maybe if more people were in that position, we would also do a better job of how we treat and react to Pastors.  We would do a better job of understanding the challenges that pastors face while even knowing how to challenge false teachers.  It’s a delicate balance that we have to learn to ensure that we aren’t doing the work of the enemy to destroy the Church.  Because of this and the fact that we should all be working towards being equipped and equipping others, Chan spends a lot of time addressing pastors and leaders.

The topic of complete surrender is something that I struggled with.  And I believe many American Christians would struggle as well.  Most of us don’t have to sacrifice anything to believe in Jesus.  We don’t lose our families, we don’t have to give up our livelihood, and our lives are not in danger.  But the New Testament is clear about the fact that as Christ-followers, we will endure suffering.  For us, though, suffering often means being rejected by the rest of the world and not bending to be accepted.  Or not being comfortable enough with certain sin just to have more people coming into the faith or worst put up with our faith.  We, as Christian, should be different from the rest of the world.  Our lines should not be a blur.

As I mentioned before, I first read this book during my Sabbatical when I was dealing with some church hurt.  But I was thinking of leaving my previous church home for months before I experienced that hurt for myself.  I had questions about many of the things that Chan brought up in this book and was happy that I was able to be directed to scripture to help me not only deal with my questions but make me feel comfortable enough with leaving my previous church home.  Not only was I leaving a physical building, but I was losing a lot of what I thought was the community I had built.  But I had to realize that if Christ wasn’t at the center of those relationships, they weren’t real relationships which explains how they were able to fall apart when I left.  We must remember that the physical location of where we worship on Sunday means nothing when we are not the Church Sunday through Saturday.  The Bible, along with this book, helped me see what I needed going forward to be the Church, find my new church home and to find a true community that is God-centered.  And that is why this book earned 5-stars from me.

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Book Review: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Title: The Artist’s Way

Author: Julia Cameron

Genre: Self-Help/Christian/Creativity

Publisher: TarcherPerigee

Rating:Related imageRelated imageRelated image

I found this book by way of the planner community and YouTube.  You may have heard of Morning Pages.  It is the practice of spending time in the morning, writing out whatever is on your mind for three pages. I’ve been one of those on and off again journalers who has an addiction to notebooks and needs to do something with the dozens of empty ones I have.  I was doing more research and found out the idea originated from this book, which I was able to download on Libby after having it on hold for a couple of weeks.

My Thoughts:

Julia Cameron starts the book off by explaining how creativity is indeed a spiritual practice.  At the time of reading this book, I was reading Exodus and came across a verse that describes where God specifically gave certain people skill and intelligence to be creative while building the Tabernacle.  Seeing that connection made me connect more to the book because I don’t see myself as a creative person.  One thing I didn’t care for that Cameron did was, she felt the need to explain her use of the name of God.  She even provided alternatives.  It didn’t sit well for me because, as someone who believes in God, I don’t make it a point to explain away that belief for those that don’t believe.  I felt like she was trying to appease others at the expense of God and to sell books.

The first thing that I had to overcome was the idea that I wasn’t an artist. Her view is that everyone is an artist.  My original opinion was the artist is someone who makes art, paints, draws, even those in the entertainment industry like musicians. I am none of those things, so it wasn’t until I did a little digging into the definition of artist that I changed my mind.  According to dictionary.com, the fifth definition of an artist is “a person whose work exhibits exceptional skill.” To me, that could mean any work can make me an artist.

Cameron states that this process can be a form of meditation.  I can see my journaling as a way to talk to God.  This book is recommended as a course that takes 12 weeks to complete.  It’s broken up in weekly sections.  Being a popular library book, I don’t have time to read it over 12 weeks (and let’s be honest, I’ll forget about it after a couple of weeks).  Throughout the reading, she gives plenty of small action steps that are almost like testers.  Practice saying this affirmation, write it down, etc.

Cameron gives a lot of detail behind how we think, why her teaching is needed, etc.  I feel like she is trying to sell me hard on why I need to continue her process.  I appreciate the details, but I would prefer more information about how to do it versus why I need to do it.  She does give you tasks, which is an excellent summary of what she wants you to do for the week from the reading. She warns you that it’s a lot of work.  For instance, week one has ten tasks and three check-ins.  My opinion on this?  We make time for what’s important. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women spend an average of 4.9 hours a day on leisure activities, while men spend 5.7 hours a day.  Watching T.V. is the largest of that time block at 2.8 hours a day (“American Time Use Survey Summary,” 2019).  You have time to improve yourself if you want to.

I plan to do as much of the work she recommends.  She advises doing what you resist the most.  I would generally share my responses with you as I did here, but part of doing the morning pages is not to share it with anyone.  Plus looking at some of the tasks, they can be deeply personal.  But some of the items are simple, like a 20-minute walk.  Others are thinking and then writing.  In my opinion, my answers can be apart of my morning pages.  That helps me fill out the three pages.  I will share what I can on my Instagram or Facebook.

This book was the 25th-anniversary edition, and while reading certain words, you could tell that.  Half of me wished Cameron went through and updated the language to be inclusive of today’s terminology.  The other half, I was easily able to gloss over the 90’s terms and identify them as that and not take offense for myself or others.  Also, a lot of the quotes she included mentioned painters.  I wish she would have found quotes speaking about different types of creative beings, including nontraditional artist roles.  This would have gone a long way in proving her point that being an artist and being creative doesn’t necessarily mean painting art. I was left wishing that there was a 21st-century version of this book.

I also wish it was from the standpoint of someone that is creative but not in the field of painting, movies, or writing.  Another thing that ages this book is her frequent references to topics like miscarriage or incest as similies. I can’t comprehend someone not liking your painting to a miscarriage or a parent giving you criticism as incest. I get that back in 1992 when the book was published, we weren’t as politically correct or openly caring about how our words impact others and their feelings.  But as a re-release of this book, I’m left again wishing she would have updated this book and specifically removed these references.

She has this quote in Week 1 that reminded me of my childhood in terms of me now thinking about what I want from my life.  “Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.” – C. G. Jung.  For me, I had one parent who had certain goals by a certain age.  So I was raised to see that only reasonable careers and money were important, not happiness.  My other parent didn’t set goals, and a paycheck was a means to the end.  It wasn’t until my late twenties that I realized people could be happy and doing what they loved at the same time.  I believe that God will take care of my needs, even if I don’t make a lot of money.

While I thought Cameron’s only method was the morning pages, she offers a second piece to this process.  That is the Artist’s Dates, which is where I think I will struggle the most.  Why?  Although I am an introvert through and through, I hate going out and doing stuff alone.  I would instead drag someone with me to the grocery store or get pedicures with someone else.  Or my preference is not to do any of that and have someone come to me (Thank God for grocery delivery).  But because I know this will be a challenge, this will be what I focus hard on making sure I accomplish each week.

One of her chapters discusses how others can negatively impact our progress and creativity, even if unintentionally.  Between that and our self-doubt, it’s sometimes easier to not do things that can help you grow.  That left my biggest takeaway from this particular week being how important it is to do things for yourself.  It reminded me of a conversation I had recently about having a servant’s heart but not any substance.  I’ve learned this lesson myself.  It wasn’t until I really took time out with only God that I started to see any growth.  On top of that, I then saw my time increase.  I felt more productive, yet I had more free time.  I felt like that was God’s reward to me.

During week 4, I realized that what Cameron is trying to achieve is what I was also trying to accomplish during my Sabbatical.  Although I wasn’t doing the morning pages specifically, the small amount of writing along with me shedding my old persona and working on finding what works for me, allowed my creativity to flow.  For five months, I was doing this work and then felt I hit a stage that was somewhat like what women that have been pregnant say is nesting.  My hunt for self and what this book teaches were aligning.

One section that I did not agree with and felt like she should update was her recommendation on reading deprivation.  Not just because I love reading or have a site that includes book reviews.  I’ve gone a week without reading and could do it again if need be (hello current reading slump).  My fault is her reasoning why.  She considers it a distraction that we could go without to refill our well.  Here is a huge reminder that this book was written 25 years ago…before social media.  People are reading to escape the energy-sucking that is social media now.  That’s where our distractions are.  Now, does this mean I am going to skip this particular week’s assignment?  No, especially because at the beginning of the chapter in the intro, she told us to make sure we don’t.  But here is really why I won’t skip it.  I’ve made reading and learning my life.  Now with the blog, I really consider it a full-time hobby.  Because of how I work, I have the potential to burn out.  I don’t want that to happen with something I love so much.  So I know that means I will need to take regularly scheduled breaks.  Skipping reading is week 4 in the course and will be about three months after I launched my blog.  I think that is a great time to take a break, reevaluate how things are going and making sure I am still in love with what I am doing.

The further I got in the book, the more excited I was to start doing the tasks.  It was difficult for me not to skip the explanations and just read the exercises, tasks, and check-ins.  But Cameron wrote the explanations for a reason, and they are helpful with understanding why the activities and tasks are needed.  It took a while, but I do appreciate that she gave the bulk of what we will be doing at the beginning of the book.  You read through the first two chapters, and you already know the main thing is the morning pages and the artist’s dates.  Most authors will drag you along and maybe give you the needed info by the halfway point of the book.

I don’t like how she continues to discount intellectuals and those that are behind the scenes doing work for the creative types.  The editor, instead of the writer.  The film editor, instead of the film director.  Yes, I’m sure some are doing those jobs because they are fearful of stepping out to do their dream job, but at the end of the day, you need that film editor.  There are some people who that is their dream job, and they get to be their type of creative in that environment.  She starts with pushing the idea that not all creatives are painters, directors, and writers but as she writes you can tell that that is precisely who she considers the artist and creative person in this book.

She’s a great writer.  There is no doubting that.  She’s mostly eloquent (except here: Besides, they had connections, a rich father, they belong to a sought-after minority, they slept their way to the top. I’m scared even to ask what a sough-after minority even means.) and her writing is well thought out.  Almost too much so.  Truthfully this book could have been a lot shorter.  While explaining her points, she could have eliminated a lot of fluff and repetitive information.  The book had a 17-page index yet was only a little over 200 pages.  I also believe there is a way to show us who you are and potentially why you feel you are qualified to write the book without consistently talking about your work and accolades.  I found time after time, she would bring up her film and writing career, yet the whole story didn’t fit.  I get using real-life examples, but it was almost like she wanted us to know she wrote for the original Miami Vice, so she included that story.  Although, it didn’t matter at all to her point.  Even though I love the idea behind the book, with all the negatives, I decided to give this one a 3-star rating.

American Time Use Survey Summary. (2019, June 19). Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm

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Mini Book Review: The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay

Title: The Printed Letter Bookshop 

Author: Katherine Reay

Genre: Christian Fiction/Romance

Publisher: Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Rating: Related imageRelated imageRelated image

The Printed Letter Bookshop was a cute story about hard times, friendships, and what a bookshop means to the community.  Madeline doesn’t grow up with her aunt outside of a few visits here and there thanks to a family riff, but she has pretty fond memories of the bookshop.  She is completely taken by surprise when she finds out that the aunt who she shares her name with left her the bookshop and her house after passing away.  Madeline has to battle her conscience of why she didn’t visit her aunt when she was sick all thanks to a childhood belief that she later found out was misrepresented.  Needing a change in her life after being passed over for partner at her law firm for her ex-boyfriend, she decides to move into her aunt’s house and give running the bookshop a chance…to get it primed to sell.

Janet and Claire are employees at the Bookshop for Madeline’s aunt and were close friends while she was sick.  Janet is a bitter woman who has cheated and gone through a divorce and is now suffering the consequences of her choices.  It’s everyone’s fault but her own.  Claire is a previous stay at home mom, who is just looking for a little escape.  But at the expensive of her relationships at home, she is struggling to hold on to her identity while raising teenagers who want nothing to do with her.  Both Janet and Claire are trying to do their best to show Madeline that even though the Bookshop is failing, it can be turned around and saved.

Throw in a potential love story with a gardener who has his own career shift and Madeline is the queen of projecting her issues with where she should be in life and failures onto him, blocking her blessings.  I felt like most of the book didn’t have a point outside of giving extended background information.  75% of the book was laying the foundation for the climax of the story that was easy to predict.  It was nice how friendship pulled the ladies together, and everyone had the chance to learn their lessons. I’m giving this quick, cute story about a bookshop 3-stars.

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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.

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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

Facebook

Instagram

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.

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Categories
Author Resources

Author Resources: Francis Chan

Francis Chan is former Pastor of Cornerstone Church in California, speaker, and author of the following books:

Crazy Love

Forgotten God

Letters To The Church

You and Me Forever

Multiply

Erasing Hell

The Francis Chan Collection

 

Websites and Social Media

Crazy Love has what looks to be Francis Chan’s sermons from 2018 and older.  There is also a page for his podcast on Soundcloud and you can find his events although it doesn’t look like there are any future events scheduled.  You can also purchase his books here.

We Are Church has details on the new format of church that Francis Chan is teaching in the California area.  There is also a great resource on Bible reading that their church uses.

Apple Podcast

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube

Twitter

 

Favorite Quotes From Crazy Love

It’s up to you to respond to what you read. But you will have a choice: to adjust how you live daily or to stay the same.

A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it.

The fact is, I need God to help me love God.

It is a remarkable cycle: Our prayers for more love result in love, which naturally causes us to pray more, which results in more love….

If one person “wastes” away his day by spending hours connecting with God, and the other person believes he is too busy or has better things to do than worship the Creator and Sustainer, who is the crazy one?

 

From Forgotten God

When believers live in the power of the Spirit, the evidence in their lives is supernatural.

Many have the knowledge but lack the courage to admit the discrepancy between what we know and how we live.

There will always be more of His character to discover, more of His love to experience, and more of His power to use for His purposes.

The problem is much of what we believe is often based more on comfort or our culture’s tradition than on the Bible.

God calls us to pursue Him, not what He might do for us or even in our midst.

Why would we need to experience the Comforter if our lives are already comfortable?

It takes time to quiet your mind and your heart before the Lord.

God cares more about our response to His Spirit’s leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year.

This business of sanctification is a lifelong process we are engaged in.

If GOD truly lives in you, shouldn’t you expect to be different from everyone else?

It saddened me to think that a gang could paint a better picture of commitment, loyalty, and family than the local church body.

 

From Erasing Hell

Test all your assumptions against the precious words God gave us in the Bible.

Let’s be eager to leave what is familiar for what is true.

Refusing to teach a passage of Scripture is just as wrong as abusing it.

How will Jesus respond to your laundry list of Christian activities—your Easter services, tithe, Bible studies, church potlucks, and summer-camp conversions?

God is good not only when He makes sense to us, but even when He doesn’t.

Chan, Francis. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God. Cook. Kindle Edition.

Chan, Francis. Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit. Cook. Kindle Edition.

Chan, Francis. Erasing Hell: What God Said About Eternity, and the Things We’ve Made Up. Cook. Kindle Edition.

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Categories
Book Review Faith Book Review

Book Review: Forgotten God – Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan

Title: Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit

Author: Francis Chan

Genre: Christian

Publisher: David C. Cook

Rating:Related imageRelated imageRelated imageRelated imageRelated image

This is book 2 out of 4 from The Francis Chan Collection that I downloaded on Hoopla as an eBook.  This book speaks about how Christians tend to forget about the work of the Holy Spirit when living their day to day lives with faith. Forgotten God looks at if the neglect of the Holy Spirit is another reason why today’s church in America doesn’t look like the early church of the book of Acts.  While Chan makes it clear that we can’t possibly understand all there is to know about the Holy Spirit, he attempts to explain what He does and what He is like.

My thoughts:

Francis Chan takes this opportunity to compare how the rest of the world embraces living with the Holy Spirit while the western church doesn’t truly embrace it.  It made me want to sit down and read the New Testament and document all of the occurrences of the Holy Spirit.  What does the Bible really say about the Holy Spirit?  What can be done through or with the Holy Spirit?  I ended up adding a Holy Spirit study to my future Bible study list.  With Chan’s opinion of the western church not really embracing the Holy Spirit, it makes you question why.  I believe that people are comfortable with their lives.  And are afraid that they may have to give up that comfortable living to truly follow God.  But I feel like no matter what you have to give up, following Christ wholeheartedly can never be a bad thing.  Your reward may not present itself on this side of heaven, but the peace from following Christ should be enough.

Chan also points out that the believer should act and be different from non-believers for the simple fact that we have the Holy Spirit living in us.  It made me question when others look at me, can they tell that I am different?  My honest answer was no; I don’t think people can look at me or barely know me and see anything different because of the Holy Spirit.  So that makes me wonder, am I afraid of what saying yes entirely to the Holy Spirit will mean for my life?  Am I so wrapped up in what people think of me that I don’t want anyone to know what the Holy Spirit is doing?  Previously, I’ve had more questions than answers, and it has led me to seek Biblical Truth.  Much like what Chan argues, I wanted to look at what I know, decide if it’s Biblical Truth or not.  Or more correctly, look at Scripture to find the Biblical Truths that I should believe.  When you look at what you believe, where did that come from?  Did your parents share their belief with you, so now it’s your belief?  Are you following your Pastors beliefs?  I love Chan’s point of not being afraid to question your beliefs.  If they are solid, biblical truth, they will withstand the questions.  If they are not solid, Biblical truth, wouldn’t you want to know that so you can correct your beliefs?  There isn’t anything wrong with questioning what you’ve been told and comparing it to Scripture.  Take a look at those considered “more noble” and why in Acts 17:11.  But while we are looking at if our life has the Holy Spirit or not, we need to look at our motives which Chan speaks on.  Is it for personal gain and betterment or to serve the church?

Another point Chan makes was our search for miracles.  In my opinion, it’s almost the opposite of forgetting about the Holy Spirit and more focusing on the product of having the Holy Spirit in your life.  You start to focus so intently on the Holy Spirit doing miracles in your life or your church. People want to be included, and everything becomes about waiting for the miracle or the miracle itself instead of God. I’ve seen entire church services turn from worshiping God to almost worshiping the miracle itself. I’m all for believing and praying for miracles.  God can do amazing things.  But I don’t think that teaching us about sanctification alongside us believing for miracles is wrong.  The heartbreak of prayers not being met and miracles not happening over and over again when God, in fact, is wanting us to take an active role can be prevented.  That active role could result in our miracle!

The same thing can happen with prophecy.  You have one person who can become almost a superstar in the church because of their ability to prophesy.  Again, it becomes about that person or the prophecy itself instead of God using a vessel for His glory.  But it’s important to remember that we can all be a vessel because we carry the Holy Spirit.  I don’t want to downplay the gifts of prophecy or the gift of miracles, but we need to stop isolating the majority of Christians because they don’t have that particular gift or experience a miracle.  Christians, especially those in leadership, need to realize that everyone has a part in the church and shouldn’t stifle others gifts, no matter what it is.  And that part doesn’t have to be a staff position or even a leadership role.

 

A random thought that popped up while reading this book was why the one Bible story that everyone seems to relate to is the prodigal son?  You either were the prodigal son or have a prodigal son.  Why doesn’t anyone ever admit to being the other brother in this story?  Or connect themselves to any of the other parables told?  I feel like I know more people who deal with jealousy and envy (myself included) on a day to day than those who purposely leave the goodwill of the Father to live their own lives and then come running home. Mainly because these people aren’t running home to be a servant only to have God welcome them back as a son.  I think it’s essential to pay attention to every detail of a story.

While looking through Scripture have you found your whole life laid out?  I haven’t seen it yet, but I have been very guilty of looking for every detail to be there.  I have even been sure that God has spoken to me about what I am supposed to do.  Not saying that what I heard wasn’t God or was wrong but I have been through so many valleys and mountain tops that I have questioned recently (especially with this new venture) if I’m hearing God correctly.  What I think I have learned is that it’s not about what I am doing specifically.  God wants me to love Him and others, and He is guiding me daily to do just that.  Just because I think I know what is next or how things should go, that isn’t always the case.  How is God giving us the details for our whole life or the next five years, when we can’t even obey Him day to day???  He wants me to be obedient right now.  I think of the parable of talents.  God wanted us to take care of what we currently have, and then He blesses us with more. I’m not limiting God.  I wholeheartedly believe that He can map out our future and if He wanted to, give us all the details.  But it seems that it would be rare and it still requires daily surrender and obedience to get to what He has planned for our life.

I ended up giving this book 5-stars because it was so thought-provoking for me and left me with a ton of takeaways and changes that I needed to make.  A verse that has been showing up recently in my life is Philippians 2:12-13 (ESV), “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Specifically what sticks out is “work out your own salvation”.  It let me know that there was more and it was my responsibility.  Yes, I’m saved by grace, but because of that, there should be something that is a result of that grace.  How do people know I follow Christ without telling them that I do?  My life should reflect the Holy Spirit living in me.  This is why I am doing what I am doing now.  Slowing down to stop, think, and take action on what it is I am learning.  Then apply it.  Consistently.

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Book Review Faith Book Review

Book Review: Crazy Love – Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan

Title: Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

Author: Francis Chan

Genre: Christian

Publisher: David C. Cook

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I added this book to my To Be Read list after reading Letters to the Church, also by Francis Chan.  I was able to download The Francis Chan Collection (includes Forgotten God, Erasing Hell and Multiply also) using Hoopla as an eBook.  This version was a revised and updated edition even though Francis Chan said that he kept everything the same and just added a chapter to give an update on him.  This book asks you to look at your opinion of God and if your life shows the fruit of that opinion.  I made sure that I had my Bible with me to be sure that the ideals and scriptures Francis Chan was sharing matched closely to Biblical Truth since that is his stance: Using the Bible.  His opinion is that the American church has fallen away from the New Testament Church.  Chan walks us through some changes that he made for the church he used to lead as well as his definition of what fearing God sincerely looks like and how our lives should reflect that awe.

My thoughts:

Crazy Love required me to do a lot of meditating and reflecting on if I made God common.  It’s simple to forget how awestruck we should be when we take a moment to pause and think of Him as the Creator.  I asked myself if I take the time to be in awe of God and all that He is, all that He does and all that He has done for me.  Then it made me also realize that I could think of the people in my life as common.  I take advantage of them being there and don’t take time to pause and be thankful for what they bring into my life.  I also added the word “relationship” to my future study list.  I want to see what the Bible says about having a relationship with God.

How differently would my life look if I lived every day as if it could be my last?  Deep question, right?  Chan expressed that by focusing on eternity and our mortality, it would cause us to live a different type of life for Christ.  Chan also appears to challenge what it truly means to be saved, expressing that in the Gospel’s, Jesus seems to be “all or nothing”.  The example given was the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3-9, 19-23; Luke 8:5-15) and how the different types of soil did not yield the same result.  It was only the good soil that bears fruit and yields.  While Chan later agrees that we are saved by faith alone, he points out that our works are essential.

This all leads to what it means to surrender to God sincerely.  Chan admits that many will think his way of thinking is radical, and there will be pushback, but it makes you think, why do we consider living our full life for Christ as radical?  Chan gives examples of his time overseas and the difference between those that had to give up their families and livelihood to serve Christ.  Compared to American Christians who tend to put God in a box labeled Sunday. Does my life currently show my sacrifices for Christ? Does my life show or reflect my love for Christ?  Am I living above my means while others are living in poverty? What can I give up?

This, of course, made me think about tithing and wondering what my church does with it.  Is it going to administrative responsibilities and salaries?  Or am I taking care of those that can’t care for themselves like orphans and widows?  Do I have to give my tithe to the Church, or can I give it to the local orphanage?  When I decide to fast, instead of focusing on what I can’t have, how about I take the food or money I would spend and give it to the local homeless shelter? What if instead of serving ” God’s House” on Sunday morning, I decide to go out and serve God’s body during the week?  Can I do more, give more, and serve more that way?  Who made these rules anyway?  I feel like the further I study the New Testament and spend time with God, I will get answers to these questions.  How much of what we do today is because of tradition and ease compared to what is genuinely Biblical truth?

Overall, I gave this book 4-stars.  It was an easy read and had my mind spinning on what changes I can make in my life to reflect God’s love.  I will be spending additional time reflecting on how holy God is, appreciating those around me and looking for ways to continue to serve and give to the body of Christ.

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