GrowthStarts

Forgotten God

What comes to your mind when I say "the Holy Spirit"? Depending on your church background and what craziness you may have seen on Christian TV, it can mean anything from Holy Ghost charismania to a weak, conceptual force, or anywhere in between. Or, for you, the Holy Spirit may be the Forgotten God.

So goes the basis of Francis Chan's latest book, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit(by Francis Chan with Danae Yankoski; Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2009).

Forgotten Godreleases tomorrow--Tuesday, September 1--but I was able to obtain a pre-release copy for review.

After the runaway success of his debut book Crazy Love, Chan has delivered a solid, convicting effort at convincing us of the importance of the Third Person of the Trinity.

Chan manages to avoid the controversial waters of charismatic vs. non-charismatic and instead focuses on the main theological themes of the Holy Spirit. Instead of trying to convince you toward one camp or another, he simply lays out what the Bible clearly says about the Spirit's role in our lives.

You will get a new perspective of the Holy Spirit's working in your life and in the world. Pick up Forgotten God and let Chan's words inspire you to live a greater life for Christ--by the Spirit's power.

Check out the trailer for Forgotten God or read a sample chapter.

Quotable Quote ... Doris Kearns Goodwin

The distance between the educational advantages Lincoln’s rivals enjoyed and the hardships he endured was rendered even greater by the cultural resistance Lincoln faced once his penchant for reading became known. In the pioneer world of rural Kentucky and Indiana, where physical labor was essential for survival and mental exertion was rarely considered a legitimate form of work, Lincoln’s book hunger was regarded as odd and indolent. Nor would his community understand the thoughts and emotions stirred by his reading; there were few to talk to about the most important and deeply experienced activities of his mind.

HT: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2005)

Quotable Quote ... Doris Kearns Goodwin

Often reading aloud, [Lincoln] was attracted to the sound of language along with its meaning—its music and rhythms. He found this in poetry, and to the end of his life would recite poems, often lengthy passages, from memory.

HT: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2005)

Quotable Quote: Doris Kearns Goodwin

Everywhere he went, Lincoln carried a book with him. He thumbed through page after page while his horse rested at the end of a long row of planting. Whenever he could escape work, he would lie with his head against a tree and read. Though he acquired only a handful of volumes, they were seminal works of the English language. Reading the Bible and Shakespeare over and over implanted rhythms and poetry that would come to fruition in those works of his maturity that made Abraham Lincoln our only poet-president.

HT: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2005)

Fixing Abraham

Just finished reading an intriguing and thought-provoking book, Fixing Abraham: How Taming Our Bible Heroes Blinds Us to the Wild Ways of God by Chris Tiegreen (SaltRiver, 2009).

Tiegreen very effectively makes the case that if our Bible heroes were translated into our contemporary society, we would roundly reject them for being out of the will of God. But the truth is they were right in the center of His will.

Each chapter begins with a dramatic scenario in our present day, which you realize by the end of the story is a thinly disguised depiction of one of the heroes of our faith. Tiegreen then begins to show how God works in ways that are at times beyond the scope of what we would classify as "biblical." Very eye-opening.

My only fault of the book is that it felt a bit long since the format remained the same for each chapter. It would have been nice to have a bit more variety in the book. But overall it was a great read. Recommended.

War Letters

Just finished a great book called War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars (New York: Scribner, 2001).

Edited by Andrew Carroll and published in the patriotic innocence of pre-9/11, War Letters presents over 200 previously unpublished letters from the battlefield. The letters come from as early as the Civil War and as recent as Bosnia (the updated paperback version also includes correspondence related to 9/11), and also includes WWI, WWII, Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, and Somalia.

The letters come uncut and unedited. They even include spelling errors and any other mistakes, which help give a glimpse into the personality of the writer and the conditions in which they wrote. Carroll gives a little context before and after the letters that help bring them to life.

As you can imagine, this is not always easy reading. But I think it's important reading. We need to never forget the sacrifices that so many have made for this country.

Andrew Carroll started The Legacy Project in 1998 as a way to preserve these letters that provide such a unique look into our history and survival as a nation. After a little help from the Dear Abby column in the newspaper, thousands of letters began pouring in from attics and scrapbooks all over America, and War Letters was the eventual result.

Carroll has edited several other books, his latest being Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War.

You can check out The Legacy Project's website at www.warletters.com.

Highly recommend this book. It reminds me of where we've come from and gives me new appreciation and gratitude for the U.S. of A.

Book & FREEBIE: Me, Myself, & I AM

Read below about how to win a FREE BOOK!

I'm previewing a new book called Me, Myself, & I AM: A Unique Question & Answer Book: The Story of You & God. It's not a book you read, but a book you write in. You answer fun questions about yourself that help you get to know yourself--and God--better. I'm thinking these would make great questions for small groups as well.

Some info is below. I'll try to post an actual review later on.

WIN A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK! Be the first reader (in the U.S. only, please) to comment on this post, and you will win a free copy of this book!

A new experience of God comes one question at a time in this fun and provocative journal. Made up entirely of insightful, profound, and occasionally ridiculous questions, Me, Myself, and I AM invites you to open to any page, open yourself to God, and be the author of yourown story.

Questions range from spiritually intriguing—

You overhear God talking about you. What do hear him saying?

to thought-provoking—

You are on a long car trip with a close friend who is not a Christian and the conversation turns to faith. What is your biggest fear about what your friend will ask or say?

to challenging—

Do you believe that all of Jesus’s followers have a responsibility to tell others about him?

to just plain fun—

If your life before you became a Christian were a movie, its title would be:

Animal House

As Good as It Gets

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

It’s a Wonderful Life

Me, Myself, and I AM will entertain, inspire, and get you thinking about your spiritual life from brand new angles. Whether you use Me, Myself, and I AM as a reflective tool, a way to start conversations with friends and family, or as a spiritual time capsule to look back on years later, their own words will create a powerful journey of self-discovery.

The Sacred Echo

The Sacred Echo: Hearing God’s Voice in Every Area of Your Life by Margaret Feinberg (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2008, signed edition). 4 stars (out of 5). Book # 31 I have read in 2008.

From the back cover: “When God really wants to get your attention, he doesn’t just whisper something once.

“He echoes.

“You’ve probably experienced it. The same theme, idea, impression, or lesson will repeat itself in surprising and unexpected ways until you realize that maybe, just maybe, God is at work.

“As you learn to listen for the sacred echoes—God’s persistent voice—in your life, you can walk more confidently and fully into all that he has for you. The Sacred Echo challenges you to prayerfully consider how God is at work in your life as well as in the lives of those around you. It’s an invitation to spiritual awakening and a deeper relationship with God.”

Margaret Feinberg is a popular speaker at Catalyst and other leading conferences. She’s also a blogger and author of more than 700 articles and a dozen books. Her last book, The Organic God, focused on developing a relationship with God that is natural, pure, and essential.

The Sacred Echo is essentially a book on prayer. But specifically it’s a book about how God speaks to us. God seems to echo certain themes to us by using different ways to convey the same point.

Feinberg makes the point that we need to be fine-tuned to hear each word that God, the Creator of the universe, wants to convey to us. One of the ways He speaks to us is through His Word, so we need to be intimately acquainted with the Bible. She also talks about names that have been on her prayer list for years, but she keeps on praying for them. She conveys the importance of waiting on God and finding rest in Him. And in doing so we find out what an incredibly good God He is.

I would have to say that if you are an incredibly analytical person, you may not enjoy this book. Feinberg is somewhat of an artsy writer. I put on my creative thinking cap when I read her books. If you don’t have a creative thinking cap, and you wouldn’t even know where to buy one (!), you may not enjoy this book.

But if you like exploring random thoughts that somehow seem to tie together later, then you’ll enjoy this book. Feinberg doesn’t take the straightforward approach to writing—no seven steps to effective prayer or ten ways to get more out of Scripture. Sit down with this book like you would a friend and a cup of coffee, and enjoy where the mental paths take you. Then you’ll get a lot out of the book.

(I saw one reviewer say that he never finished the book because he couldn’t follow it. That reviewer was definitely an analytical without a creative bone in his body! And why anyone would review a book he hasn’t fully read is beyond me, but we’ll save that discussion for another day!)

The TOC:

• foreword
• exposed
• .001 i love you
• .002 sing it again
• .003 how long?
• .004 read it again
• .005 you follow me
• .006 if you don’t wear your crown
• .007 surrender
• .008 take care of my people
• .009 bring them to me
• .010 you are not alone
• awakened [epilogue]
• hidden bonus tracks
  • reflection [discussion questions]
  • behind the scenes [notes]
  • connection [contact info]
  • friends [organizations Feinberg recommends]
  • props [acknowledgments]
• an excerpt from the organic god

Wild Goose Chase

Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God by Mark Batterson (Colorado Springs, Colorado: Multnomah Books, 2008). 5 stars (out of 5). Book #30 I have read in 2008.

Read all the way to the end of this post for a special contest!

From the back cover: "Most of us have no idea where we’re going most of the time. Perfect. Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit–-An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something…. Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure."

Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of the innovative National Community Church in Washington, D.C. He's the author of the best-selling book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day (which I confess I have not yet read for some reason, but now I am itching to read it). And he's one of my favorite bloggers with the widely-read Evotional.com.

His sophomore effort Wild Goose Chase is a highly readable and engaging look at how the Holy Spirit leads us into adventure, and even danger.

Batterson says that there are six self-imposed cages that keep us from living the life of spiritual adventure that God designed for us. They are:

1. The cage of responsibility. "Over the course of our lifetime, God-ordained passions tend to get buried beneath day-to-day responsibilities."
2. The cage of routine. "Once a routine becomes routine, we need to disrupt the routine."
3. The cage of assumptions. We "stop believing and start assuming" and "we put eight-foot ceilings on what God can do."
4. The cage of guilt. "As long as you are focused on what you've done wrong in the past, you won't have energy left to dream kingdom dreams."
5. The cage of failure. Sometimes "our plans have to fail in order for God's plans to succeed."
6. The cage of fear. "We need to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death."

Batterson develops the book around the idea of these six cages, taking a chapter for each. Each chapter ends with a section called "Your Chase," with some questions that lead you in applying the material to your own life.

I love Mark's to-the-point writing style. It's similar to his blogging, but obviously more developed. It's very well-written and a quick read, although you'll probably want to go back through the book again to apply to your life in a more in-depth fashion. I read it in about five days--very busy days I might add. I can see how you could probably read right through it in an afternoon. But again, if you read it that fast, you'll want to go back and savor some parts.

In some ways, the book is confrontational, but not in an obnoxious way. It just really makes you think about the direction in which your life is headed. And it makes you think about your life goals in light of God's grand plan for your life.

I especially got a lot out of the chapter on the cage of failure. Being in ministry myself, I so identified with Mark's journey of heading out to do one thing, finding failure, and being led into another thing. That has happened so many times in my life personally, and I was so glad to hear a minister address this and turn it around into a positive!

All in all, a great read--5 stars. I highly recommend it not only to those in full-time ministry, but to anyone who realizes there is more to life than just punching a clock and getting a paycheck. This book will expand your horizons!

Check out the website for the book at www.chasethegoose.com. Among other things, you can read a free sample chapter or download a free pdf supplement to the book called "10 Steps to Setting Life Goals."

The TOC:

• Chapter 1: Yawning Angels
• Chapter 2: Goose Bumps
• Chapter 3: Dictatorship of the Ordinary
• Chapter 4: Eight-Foot Ceilings
• Chapter 5: A Rooster's Crow
• Chapter 6: Sometimes It Takes a Shipwreck
• Chapter 7: Good Old-Fashioned Guts
• Epilogue: Madonna of the Future
• Acknowledgments
• Notes

And now for the special contest: The publisher has graciously given me another copy of this book to give away on the blog! So be the first person to comment below and say "I want the book," and I will get the book to you! (U.S.A. readers only, please!) Just leave your name and email and I will get back to you to get your mailing address.

How balanced is your reading diet?

First off, if you are a reader, let me congratulate you. You have discovered the joys and benefits of reading and found that your life is better for having a steady diet of books.

But have you thought about how balanced your reading diet is? Let me tell you about my reading plan and hopefully give you some ideas to develop your own.

The best way to develop a balanced reading diet is to tie it to your life goals and objectives. What is important to you? What are you setting aside time to do?

If you haven’t written down your goals and objectives, then I would encourage you to do that first. When you do so, then it’s much easier to create your to-do list for the week as well as your reading plan.

Most people’s goals typically fall into about four broad categories: personal & spiritual growth, marriage & family, career, and sports & hobbies.

Take these four categories as a starting point for expanding your reading diet. In other words, your reading should reflect your goals in each of these four areas.

You can break those four categories down further into subcategories if you like. For example, under career, you could break it down into two subcategories: your current career and where you’d like to be in five years. Then break those down into further subcategories based on the skills and knowledge needed for each one, or based on the responsibilities or different hats involved in the job.

The sports & hobbies category can include anything you’re interested in or anything new you want to learn. If you love to read fiction, fit that in there too. Or if you love reading history and biography related to United States presidents, although that has absolutely nothing to do with your job, put that under sports & hobbies.

To those four main categories I would also add a fifth. Maybe call it “free electives” or “mind expansion.” These are books that don’t fit into any of the other four other categories. Choose books in this category that expand your mind. Choose subjects you’ve never explored before. Read books that get your creative juices flowing and brain’s synapses firing in new ways. Read something that’s outside the realm of your goals and objectives and outside of your comfort zone.

After you’ve decided on your reading diet, make a simple chart for the year to be able to list out what you’ve read and which category the book would go under. The goal is not necessarily to keep all the categories totally balanced, but to be able to recognize that you’re slighting one area and need to beef it up a little. For example, if you see you’ve read 12 books so far this year under the career category, but zero books under marriage & family, it might be time to go exploring on Amazon for some good books on how to be a better spouse or parent.

What does your reading diet look like?