You Converted Me - review

You Converted Me by Tony Jones (translation by Robert J. Edmonson) is an updated translation of The Confessions of St. Augustine with additional notes. This book was given to me by the generous people at Paraclete Press via an offer that they posted on jesuscreed.org. Without Paraclete giving me the book, I imagine the author and the recommendations on the back cover would have caused me enough concern that would have prevented me from actually buying the book. In this case, I would have been wrong because I enjoyed the book immensely.

While it is difficult to critique a classic like The Confessions, let me offer a few observations from this book. First, the translation is very easy to read. That made it quite enjoyable. Second, the notes that Jones gives are rather sparse but helpful. He provides useful breaks in the text and offers brief comments that don't distract from the original author, Augustine.

Augustine sees sin for what it really is. At times, the book can be hard to follow since he is actually talking to the Lord throughout the entire book. But there is a passion in his writing that is inspiring. I will give you a taste of The Confessions by supplying some quotes that caught my eye:

Why, then, do you still wander in these difficult and trying ways? There’s no rest where you’re trying to find it. Try to find what you are searching for, but it isn’t where you’re searching for it. You’re trying to find a blessed life in the land of death; it isn’t here. How could there be a blessed life where there is no life? (p 91)

Arise, Lord, and act! Stir us up, and recall us; kindle and draw us; stir us to passionate feeling, grow sweet to us; let us love you, let us run after you. (p 206)

… you set me face to face with myself and thrust me before my eyes, so that I might discover my gross immorality and hate it. I knew it, but acted as though I didn’t see it – I winked and forgot it. (p 215)

And the famous:
Give me chastity and abstinence from sexual activity, but not yet. (p 216)

When China Ruled the Seas - review

When China Ruled the Seas by Louis Levathes is a short history of China centered around the beginning of the 15th century. This history includes the beginning of the Ming Dynasty but focuses on the travels of a Muslim eunuch named Zheng He and his vast fleet of ships.

Levathes offers a broad understanding of the political situation before and somewhat after the life of Zheng He and the fabled Treasure Fleet. There is special insight as to how the emperor's lived and the various ideologies they (and others) held. This book is filled with charts, diagrams, and artwork depicting the culture and technology during this time.

While the book appears to be well-researched, it acts more as a primer rather than a comprehensive tomb on any of the events during this time period. That would be my major issue with the book: I wanted to know more about Zheng He and I felt like there was more information out there. Although the flow of the book was a bit choppy at times, it was quite compelling and leaves me eager to learn more about Chinese history.

Fellow Blogger - The Black's

Congrats to the Black's on seven years of marriage. This is a sharp looking couple - love that tie!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Hopefully you have picked your new Bible reading plan for this year :) If you haven't, join with myself and others in reading the M'Cheyne reading plan.

I have been quite negligent in my posting these past two months, so you are getting several posts in a row. There should be a few more by the end of the week, just to catch up. I'm not wanting to make regular posting into some sort of New Year's resolution or anything - but I do wonder if this is the heaviest posting day of the year? I was also thinking about going to the gym...

Bonus: A very helpful resource that is online are John Piper's biographical sketches. These are messages that Piper gives at his annual Pastor's Conference that highlight the life of some saint of years past. You can get them free from desiringgod.org. Or you can click here.

Enjoy!

The Smartest Guys in the Room – review

The Smartest Guys in the Room, The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind unfolds the scandals that occurred at Enron through the 90’s to 2001. This book has been made into a documentary by the same title. Not having seen the documentary, I don’t know how they could communicate all the intricacies of this company and this saga. While I enjoyed this book, let me say a few things before you rush out and order this book.

First, it is long. While 414 pages may not sound like much, you really have to keep up with all the names and the schemes that were taking place. They did consider themselves to be on the cutting edge on a lot of these business ideas so sometimes it takes awhile to wrap your mind around what they were doing.

Second, it is technical. They go into what really went on and how it came back to hurt or help them in the end.

Third, it is unresolved. The book was written before the verdicts were handed out. A short news search or wikipedia takes care of that though.

I worked though this bit by bit for the past couple of months but it was worth it. Spiritually, it was very enlightening – you get to see pride, greed, disloyalty, lust – all unpacked in one volume. You don’t get this sort of insight from fiction; the sin was raw, real, and terrifying. You get the impression that those who were convicted didn’t feel like they did anything wrong. The Lay family continually reflected on their trust in the Lord to get them out of this situation, while the authors painted Ken as one who refused to recognize the ugliness within Enron (or his own). The reality of this debacle is: this could be me; this could be you.

The authors did a wonderful job in piecing together this business tragedy to make it understandable and compelling. It will be a source of sermon illustrations for some time.

The 10 Commandments of Marriage – review

The 10 Commandments of Marriage by Ed Young is about building a “lifelong marriage that sizzles.” This is a very practical book that offers biblical insight as to how to keep a marriage going in an age of rampant divorce.

The 10 commandments are:
1. Thou Shalt Not Be a Selfish Pig
2. Thou Shalt Cut the Apron Strings
3. Thou Shalt Continually Communicate
4. Thou Shalt Make Conflict Thy Ally
5. Thou Shalt Avoid the Quicksand of Debt
6. Thou Shalt Flee Sexual Temptation - Online and Otherwise
7. Thou Shalt Forgive Your Mate 490 Times
8. Thou Shalt Keep the Home Fires Burning
9. Thou Shalt Begin Again and Again
10. Thou Shalt Build a Winning Team.

There are lots of helpful tidbits contained within the pages of this book and my personal copy has lots of little notes. One particular section dealing devotion uses a humorous analysis of several passages to bring to light a sobering truth:

“Stay on the tracks. Consider the following tracks laid out in Scripture. The first obligation we have as husband and wife is obvious: Love your mate as a cherished husband or wife (Eph. 5:25; Titus 2:4). The Bible instructs both husbands and wives to love one another. Unfortunately, some people have trouble with that mandate. SO the second level of our track may be a bit easier for them: Love your mate as a fellow believer (1 Peter 3:8). If you still don’t think you can fill this bill, then do your best to comply with the third biblical level: Love your mate as a neighbor (Matt. 22:39). If this still feels like too tall of an order, Jesus has one last directive for you: Love your mate as an enemy (Matt. 5:44). The Lord teaches us to love our enemies. If you can’t love your mate at least as much as you love your enemies, then you probably have some problems that go beyond the marital realm. Your first order of business is to make sure of your relationship with the Lord, because without that, no amount of relationship seminars or how-to books will help your marital problems.” (pp 37-38)

The book is an easy to follow and it reads as if it is an adaptation of a sermon series. This book is filled with stories that bolster the points Young is making throughout the book. Now these things are not bad, but I felt that some of the chapters could have used more exposition of Scripture. But in other chapters, Young does a superb job of looking at the text in addressing the issues.

The Dangerous Duty of Delight – review

The Dangerous Duty of Delight by John Piper is a condensed version of his larger work, Desiring God. This book is recommended if you want to get an overview of what Piper calls “Christian hedonism” or you simply want to see how our delight in God is to be the driving force for how we live. In the brief nine chapters, Piper outlines the basis for Christian hedonism and its implications for pride, worship, marriage, money, and missions.

The main thrust of Christian hedonism is (1) it is our duty (an act of obedience) to take our joy in the Lord and (2) this is how we are to glorify the Lord – by enjoying Him forever. “Genuine affections for God are an end in themselves.” (p 58) Piper argues that some people “are wiling to let joy be a by-product of our relationship to God, but not an essential part of it.” (p 13)

Piper gives some necessary boundaries and direction to pursuing this joy:

“Let it be crystal clear: We are always talking about joy in God. Even joy in doing good is finally joy in God, because the ultimate good that we always aim at is displaying the glory of God and expanding our own joy in God to others. Any other joy would be qualitatively insufficient for the longing of our souls and quantitatively too short for our eternal need. In God alone is fullness of joy and joy forever.” (p 15)

My favorite portion was a message given by the great missionary to Africa, David Livingstone, to students at Cambridge:

“People talk of the sacrifice that I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. … Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say, rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the souls to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared to the glory which shall be revealed in and for us [Romans 8:18]. I never made a sacrifice.” (p 79)

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals – review

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals by John Piper is an excellent book that seems to be fairly typical of the rest of Piper’s works, but this time he is specifically addressing pastors. The goal of this book is summarized in the next to last paragraph of a prayer found on page 4:

“Banish professionalism from our midst, Oh God, and in its place put passionate prayer, poverty of spirit, hunger for God, rigorous study of holy things, white hot devotion to Jesus-Christ, utter indifference to all material gain, and unremitting labor to rescue the perishing, perfect the saints, and glorify our sovereign Lord.”

This book is very readable, hard hitting, and helpful in advising pastors and, really, all believers in Christ to follow Him radically, whole-heartedly, and with determination. The alternative to professionalism is spelled out in the 30 short chapters in the book. He lists specific areas that pastors must address as they minister to God’s people. The book offers down to earth application that is rooted in God-glorifying theology.

One chapter that stuck out to me was the encouragement to read more Christian biographies. Here, Piper argues, we find encouragement to persevere even if there is severe opposition from people, health, or situation in life. He writes:

“Living theology. Flawed and encouraging saints. Stories of grace. Deep inspiration. The best entertainment. Brothers, it is worth your precious hours. Remember Hebrews 11. And read Christian biography.” (p 96)

This book is well written and references other theologians as well as Scripture quite often. Despite the negative title, Piper is a welcome encouragement to any pastor or person in Christian ministry.

Eragon – review

Eragon by Christopher Paolini is remarkable in the fact that it was written by a teenager. It is fairly straightforward story about a young man and his dragon as they journey in a kingdom that has fallen into sinister hands.

However, the story was not the most fluid nor was it the most original. There are themes that touch on some other famous fantasy stories.
* A boy who possesses untapped power is being mentored by a warrior whose class was all but destroyed by a similar, but evil warrior class (Star Wars – including a fancy sword that the boy is hesitant to use preferring other weapons). There are other parallels as well; if you read the book, they should be obvious to you.
* The setting is in a world of fantasy that is strangely reminiscent of Middle Earth (just look at the map). Plus the assumptions about the races, the use of poetry, and the development of other languages seem to be copies of Tolkien as well.

Since this book reminds me of those and other stories, it was hard for me to simply enjoy the story Paolini was telling. It seemed to be a bit choppy in parts and some of the dialogue was not the greatest. Some of the tension created in the story was resolved in an unsatisfying way. While there is detail in certain parts, other portions are just thrust upon you with little or no explanation.

Some positives are that the book is easy to read and I can see why it is wildly popular among young people. The young hero and his dragon all struggle with issues common to us all. Plus there’s a cat that seems kinda cool. I got through it in a few sittings so it was captivating – I may even read the rest of the series. But if the movie doesn’t follow the book, I won’t loose any sleep over it.