Posted on

Camping Retreat

I’m back. Back from spending the last couple of days in the woods. Just me and… well me. And my Bible. And a couple of books. And some good coffee. 

I left home Thursday morning around 10:00 or so. After stopping for gas (and a honey bun), and then stopping back at home to pick up something I forgot (I don’t even remember what I forgot!), I was off. I went to Eminence, Missouri, to Discovery Ministries. 

Upon arriving, I took some time and set up camp. Since I was the only one there during the middle of the week, I had my choice of camping spots. I picked the most secluded spot I could find. You can see my tent in the photo… 

My Campsite at Discovery Ministries

My Campsite at Discovery Ministries

 

Posted on

2009-2010 Reading List

2009-2010 Reading List

2009-2010 Reading List

Each year as I wrap up the busy summer and start getting geared up for the school year, I try to take stock of where I’m at spiritually. Each August, I try to limit my activities and spend time with my family and spend some time alone to refresh and renew my spiritual life.

It’s at this point each year that I set for myself several goals that I want to accomplish. And that includes putting together a pretty extensive reading list. In fact, I leave tomorrow for two days of solitude and simplicity. I’m going camping. Just me, God’s Word, and a few books from this list.

Posted on

Book Review – Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury has managed to create a world which is science fiction and yet seems eerily familiar all at the same time in Fahrenheit 451.

Guy Montag lives in a world where it is illegal to read books.  Books have been banned, and firemen are there to enforce the law.  Firemen don’t put out fires; they start them, in homes of lawbreakers.  Montag lives in a society that is swallowed up by their addiction to a futuristic version of the television.  And all else has been lost.  Life has no meaning, no purpose.  And any type of social activity is strictly prohibited.

Montag meets a seventeen year old girl named Clarisse.  She teaches him that people hold value, and are meant to be in relationships with one another.  And Montag meets an elderly professor.  Professor Faber teaches Montag that it is all right to think for himself; and he casts a vision for Montag of a future where thinking is encouraged once again.

While Fahrenheit 451 is a book which was written 50 years ago, about a society far in the future, even from today, and completely centered on censorship and defiance, it haunts the reader with frighteningly accurate glimpses of reality today.  And not simply in the area of censorship, though that is familiar enough.

There’s a spiritual element in Fahrenheit 451 that shouts to be heard over the noise of a godless society.  In Montag’s world, people have no purpose or meaning.  Individuals have lost their individuality.  People have become purposeless drones, drowning in their own sorrows, and covering up their shattered lives by wearing masks. 

In a very real way, this describes us, today.  We wear masks, hiding who we really are, and we’ve done this so long that we’ve forgotten who we really are.  We need people like the group of old men Montag meets at the very end of the story.  People who seem to represent pastors and ministers.  People who hold the truth in their minds.  People who have the keys to restoring our individuality and relationships.  People who are willing to serve others, meeting their needs.

Just like the people in Guy Montag’s world accepted their imprisonment by their society, we have put up with our own for far too long.  We need to stop reveling in our bondage, our sin.  We need to return to reality; return to the Truth.  We are trapped.  We need a Savior to free us.

While Fahrenheit 451 may not have been written with a spiritual purpose in mind in 1953, there is a message there for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Posted on

Reading List for 2009-2010

BooksSo I’ve been really thinking and praying about what I need to soak into my life over the next several months in my reading schedule.  And I think I’ve finally narrowed my list down to a manageable amount.  And by “manageable,” I mean I’ve narrowed it down to about twenty books that I feel like God will use to teach me this year.  Just twenty.  Out of dozens more that looked like I would /could gain from reading them.

This is a pretty optimistic list.  Because I know there will be several other books that will make it onto my shelf to be read this year as well.  For instance, anything new that Ted Dekker releases will probably take immediate priority.  I just can’t help it.  Dekker is the unchallenged favorite fictional author that I’ve ever read.  He’s even trumped Tom Clancy and John Grisham! (for shame!) 

But after browsing in bookstores, and Amazon, and my own personal library…  And praying over the books that I’ve pulled from the shelves or purchased… I feel like God has identified these books to meet needs in my life and in the lives of my family, and eventually in the life of our congregation.  

The impact these authors could have in my life is potentially enormous.  I pray that I’m big enough to take it all in, and process it, and grow from it…

I plan to post my reading list here in a day or two.  If you have read any of the books I list, and want to make a comment about them, I would love to hear it.  And thank you for it.

Stay tuned…

Posted on

Book Review – Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) by Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck

Why We're Not EmergentThe Emergent or Emerging Church has been the buzz of Christianity over the last several months. But is it the glorious answer to taking the Bride of Christ into the 21st century that it claims to be?

The Emergent Church has stepped up to the plate, claiming that it is the new Christianity, for a post-modern world. But, according to DeYoung and Kluck, the Emergent Church has struck out.

According to these two guys, the Emergent Church is little more than liberalism (not just liberal Christianity) redressed. And while social activism and conversations about our faith are good and needed, they do not replace our need to know the specific details concerning our faith: the doctrine presented faithfully for over two thousand years, from generation to generation.

Looking at the Emergent Church, I fear that they face making a dangerous error: “they love what Jesus loves but do not hate what Jesus hates.”

At the risk of quoting too long of a passage from Kevin DeYoung’s epilogue, here is a succinct summary:

Posted on

Finding Hidden Treasure

The GooniesDid you ever see the movie The Goonies? Goonies tells the story of several misfit kids who are convinced a pirate, named One-Eyed Willie, buried a treasure near their town decades before. The movie details their adventures as they strive to prove themselves to a town who laughingly disbelieves the stories, and a gang of crooks who know that they are on to something.

And in the end, they find the pirate ship, complete with treasure, and even One-Eyed Willie himself.

I enjoy movies that tell the story of someone finding a treasure worth millions. What a happy ending.

You may know that I enjoy the hobby of numismatics, coin collecting.

After we moved from Branson West to Mountain View a couple of weeks ago, we needed to go back to clean up the house and make sure it was ready to be shown to potential buyers.