08.30.08

A Modern Allegory

Posted in books, christian resources at 2:09 pm

Living overseas sometimes means that we’re a little behind on what’s going on back in the US. The internet has changed things dramatically, but sometimes we’re just out of the loop.

Today I finished The Shack by William P. Young. I had heard that there was some kind of controversy about it, but never really heard any details. This is a case of me being very glad I was out of the loop, because I was able to read this story without any outside interference.

I remember as a new Christian I read The Pilgrim’s Progress, and was amazed at how a fairly simple story was able to clarify so many things that were somewhat muddled in my head about the Christian walk. Hind’s Feet on High Places, The Lord of the Rings, even Dante’s Divine Comedy were all stories that helped a growing Christian to understand the heavier topics of our faith. The danger with allegory is that every detail of the story has the tendency to become doctrine in the mind of the reader - even if that wasn’t the author’s intention.

I don’t remember any other book making an impression on me like The Shack did. It allowed me to see God in a new and refreshing way, and more importantly, showed me how He relates to me and I to Him. It’s not a theology textbook. It’s not the Bible. It’s a simply-written story that moved me to tears on more than one occasion. Even now, I’m still scratching my head as an image from the book pops in my head and makes it hard to talk over the emotions that well up.

I’ve poked around on the internet to try and figure out what the big problem is with this book. I suppose I should have known that people get threatened when their pre-concieved and 100%-human notions about the nature of God get challenged. When a different kind of box to put God in comes along (and aren’t all allegories just a different box?) people get upset and cry heretic.

I would encourage anyone to read this book. Read it with a grain of salt if you have to. Certainly read it as the work of fiction that it is. And then stop and ask yourself what you can learn from it, and how your relationship with God might change.

And change it will…

10.28.07

Yet…

Posted in books, christian resources at 10:23 am

Having recently dealt with the unexpected death of my own father, I’ve been sort of scared to read Pete Greig’s book God on Mute. The book basically deals with the Christian response to unanswered prayers, or the problem of pain, or why bad things happen to good people. Obviously, a subject that has been written about quite a bit. But I’ve found this book to beautifully blend the smartie, theologically-deep stuff with day-to-day life. Check out what Pete says about what he calls “the ultimate unanswered prayer” when Jesus asked that God take the cup from him.

‘Yet…’ and on that single word from Jesus, I imagine traffic screaming to a halt and birds falling from the sky. The Father’s hand pauses by the cup, heaven falls silent in suspense, hell jeers, drooling with lust for blood and power, too stupid to understand its own undoing. ‘Yet not my will’ - and perhaps the screams of delight in hell were so loud when they heard these four words from the lips of the one whose will had tormented them for so long that they never even heard the final five words at all - ‘but your will be done.’

Isn’t that where all of us need to be in our lives? Able to say that no matter what, we will give up our personal needs for God’s greater glory? This is a tough prayer to prayer the day before nails are driven through your wrists, or when the cancer is inoperable, or when your dad is mechanically breathing after a freak car accident. And I’ll be the first to admit, that kind of prayer was the furthest from my mind at that time. All I could offer to God were groans and hope that the Holy Spirit was able to piece together a prayer on my behalf.

But slowly … slowly … I think I’m getting to the point of being able to say “yet…”

03.19.07

Portable Praise

Posted in christian resources, family, home service, kids at 8:38 am

One of the fun things about going to so many different churches when we’re home on furlough is that we get to see how other churches do church.

We were in Willamina, Oregon last week for their Wednesday night service. The kids went back to the kids time. When it was all finished, they asked us to play a CD that they got from the kids time leader. Apparently all new visitors get a CD of all the songs they sing during kids time. We popped the CD in and the kids started singing with all their hearts. Then, Lance excitedly exclaimed, “It’s like portable praise!”

Living in Italy, there really aren’t many kids’ resources like that, so he was so excited to be able to sing on the road.

01.03.07

Home Run

Posted in christian resources, travel at 9:24 am

We were blessed at the Mid-Winter Rally this year to have Mark & Carla Scott come and be our main speaker and worship leader. Mark spoke on a few of the parables and my teammate, Josh, had the foresight to record the sermons. He passed them out to all those who attended and I’m sharing them with you. As my good friend Randy Jones said, “He knocked it out of the park.” Definitely worth the download:

Intro to the Parables
Upside Down Love
Upside Down Authority
Upside Down Care
Upside Down Grace

I especially enjoyed how many of Mark’s illustrations were from people at Ozark Christian College, where I graduated and used to work. It brought back some of the “good ol’ days” for me!