Book Review: Answering God

★★★★★

When Jason Upton came to Regent University last Spring, he recommended this book to me. I'm glad he did. On the back, one of the review-quotes is from Walter Brueggemann. He said the book is "Thoroughly grounded theologically, in touch with the reality of life, and vigorous in its articulation." That is a perfect description of Eugene Peterson's Answering God. One can tell that behind this devotional work is a scholar, knowledgeable in Hebrew, in ancient thought, and in Psalm study. He also takes into account, as Brueggemann said, the realities of life that inevitably effect one's prayer life--and, in turn, one's relationship to God. He uses the Psalms to teach the reader to dive into prayer in a vulnerable, intimate way--and he doesn't do it in a way that ignores human struggles, but rather acknowledges them and shows how a good prayer life goes a long way in times of trouble. And then there is the added benefit of beautifully written prose. Peterson's writing is quite lovely.

I was worried when I saw The Psalms as Tools for Prayer that this would be a formulaic work that took Psalms and stretched them to fit human struggles and then step-by-step attempted to show one how to pray them. This is not at all what Peterson has written. Rather, he effectively goes through the elements of the Psalms and uses them to show how one can enrich his/her prayer life with the tools that the Psalms provide. (Hence, "The Psalms as Tools for Prayer".) In no way is it formulaic. His writing inspires the use of the tools.

Answering God is a fantastic devotional, guaranteed to positively affect one's prayer life.

Book Review: If the Church were Christian

Throughout this book, it becomes obvious that Philip Gulley lives in the love and grace in which Christ lived and of which he taught. Though the whole book is a critique of the church, none of it is done in a harsh, in-your-face way. The entire approach is incredibly graceful. In almost every chapter, he includes an extremely vulnerable account of his own shortfalls in the subject the chapter discusses. He sincerely confesses his own experience with what he talks about. Because of his experiences, he understands the mindsets he is critiquing and is able to provide good solutions in a very Christ-like way.

The whole book is made up of stories he uses to convey his points--examples of Christians or churches who have failed to live the Gospel (including himself), and examples of Christians who live the Gospel in an undeniably Christ-like manner.
That all being said, you should know that Gulley is a liberal theologian. In fact, Gulley is as liberal as one can be within Christianity (can he be considered an actual Christian?). This Quaker Pastor does not believe in the divinity of Christ, the virgin birth, or in Christ's sinlessness. He doesn't believe in the inspiration of Scripture. His belief about the Bible (or at least the Gospels--he doesn't talk about his views on the other books) is a combination of the theories of Schleiermacher and Bultmann. Actually, he's like Schleiermacher in a lot of ways. There's reason to believe that he doesn't believe in miracles. He doesn't believe in anything that doesn't make sense to modern beliefs. He is also a universalist and doesn't believe in hell or Satan. He doesn't think homosexuality is a sin, I'm sure he's a theistic evolutionist, and he doesn't believe in the doctrine of the Trinity.

However, on average, he only says something once a chapter that would rattle the orthodox Christian cage. So don't think the entire book is one giant liberal theology rant. But at times, his beliefs are somewhat confusing. For instance, he says that "ancient people, moved by their encounters with Jesus, sought to convey their appreciation for him in the only language they knew--miracle stories, parables, and wisdom sayings." Does this mean he believes Jesus didn't actually say what the Gospels said he did? Yet, a couple pages later, he quotes Jesus--and continues to quote him throughout the book. He sometimes says things that contradict other things that he claims. For example, he believes God is going to save every person, yet he says a couple of times that Heaven is a place no one knows even exists, suggesting that maybe he doesn't believe in Heaven--so what does he mean when he says God saves them? It seems to me that he should have either not voiced his liberal theology in order to make his opinion valid to more Christians, or he should have provided an introduction to his belief system that would make reading his book less confusing.

All of that being said, I don't want to put him in a bad light or suggest that you shouldn't read the book. We can all learn a lot from Gulley. In fact, I would say anyone in ministry--especially in church ministry--should read this book. He has a lot of great things to say from which we can learn a lot. We just have to read the book with a grain of salt. I definitely recommend it. It is very thought-provoking, challenging, convicting, and inspiring.

Below are the book's chapter titles which finish the statement "If the Church were Christian..."
I agree with all of them, except I would say, "Jesus would be a model for living, not JUST an object of worship" (but he doesn't believe in the divinity of Christ so it makes sense that he would word it the way he did).

“If the church were Christian, Jesus would be a model for living, not an object of worship.

If the church were Christian, affirming our potential would be more important than condemning our brokenness.

If the church were Christian, reconciliation would be valued over judgment.

If the church were Christian, gracious behavior would be more important than right belief.

If the church were Christian, inviting questions would be more important than supplying answers.

If the church were Christian, encouraging personal exploration would be more important than communal uniformity.

If the church were Christian, meeting needs would be more important than maintaining institutions.

If the church were Christian, peace would be more important than power.

If the church were Christian, it would care more about love and less about sex.

If the church were Christian, this life would be more important than the afterlife.”

Low Tide, High Tide: Reflections on Morning and Evening Prayer

Low tide. Go ahead and sleep.

High tide. Take a walk with me.

I lay with you in the evening

I walk with you in the morning

I offer you all that I have on this earth

And take all that you have given

then I watch the darkest day fill up with angels

And He saw that it was good

Morning and evening, another day

The above lyrics were written by me out of inspiration from reading Eugene Peterson's chapter "Rhythm" from his book Answering God. By using quotes from the chapter, and my own thoughts, I will explain what it means and will describe the message you are meant to receive from it.

The song is about morning and evening prayer.

This evening, I will pray as the Psalmist of Psalm 139: 

"Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting."

I will pray that God will find all that is in me and will 

"Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. . . .
You desire truth in the inward being;
Therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. . . .
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me. . . .
and sustain me with a willing spirit"(1)

I will pray that he takes all of me and molds me into something good. That he works within me to make me pure. That "everything that can be shaken will be shaken!"(2)
Sacrifice yourself to God. Lose your life to him so that you may find it when you wake.

"A sacrifice is an offering placed before the Lord so that he can make something of it. Once offered it is in God's hand to do with what he will. . . . You have had all day, now let God have all night. . . . Low tide. Sleep now."(3)

I will end my prayer with an acknowledgement of God's presence and will lay down with him to sleep. As I sleep, he will prepare for me my daily bread.

"The word of God begins while we are asleep and without our help. He continues to work through the day in our worship and obedience."(4)

In the morning, I will say 'Yes' to God. I will receive my daily bread and will dedicate my day to him. 

"O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
In the morning I plead my case to you, and watch. . . .
I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house,
I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you.
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me."(5)

Yes, God was preparing me for his work while I was asleep, but I will have to make the decision to live in that work throughout the day, as Peterson says, with worship and obedience. I must choose to walk with God.

"Morning prayer places us before the watchful God and readies us to enter the day watchful, watching our dangerous past recede, and watching the dangerous day fill with God's angels. High tide."(6)

As I walk with God, I can watch the darkest day fill up with his angels.

"For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and oppressed with besetting concerns for the day's work. At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it. All the darkness and distraction of the dreams of night retreat before the clear light of Jesus Christ and his wakening Word. All unrest. all impurity, all care and anxiety flee before him. Therefore, at the beginning of the day let all distraction and empty talk be silenced and let the first thought and the first word belong to him to whome our life belongs."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (7)

"Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." - Ephesians 5:14

Let God have the first word and the last word of your days.

Morning and evening prayer allow God to do with our days what he did in the creation narrative.

This universe is a masterpiece. This world is a masterpiece. We are masterpieces (Eph. 2:10).

Each and every day can be a new masterpiece if we yield to the blowing of God's Wind. 

I want all my days to end with "and He saw that it was good"! 

Notes: 

(1) Ps. 51:2, 6-7, 10, 12b.
(2) A lyric from the song "Justice Waiting" by Jason Upton.

(3) Eugene Peterson, Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer (New YorkL HarperCollins, 1989), 64.

(4) Ibid., 66.

(5) Ps. 5:3, 7-8.

(6) Peterson, 67. 
(7) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: HarperOne, 1954), 43

Book Review: The Myth of a Christian Nation

★★★★★

So many Americans today mistakenly put America on par with OT Israel. Believing that this nation was founded on Christian principles, they think we must take America "back" for God. We must do this, they believe, by initiating legislature imposing Christian moral values on all American citizens, by giving Christians political power, by keeping homosexual marriages illegal, by keeping prayer in schools, by maintaining monuments of the Ten Commandments in schools, etc.

Dr. Gregory Boyd addresses this flawed mindset in this book The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church.

Every American Christian should read this book.

I wrote a post a couple months ago about this very topic (click here to read), and I found my views (almost word-for-word) throughout the entire book. Boyd's message is incredibly important in this day and age. So many Christians have lost sight of the true mission of Christ. We have lost sight of the goals for which we should be working and have become incredibly secular in our approach to spreading the love of Christ. Our methods are completely foreign to the kingdom of God, and Boyd shows this clearly and provides a Christ-like vision on which American Christians should focus their attention and effort.

He sticks so close to Scripture that, by the end of the book, doubting his overall message is quite difficult if one follows Christ's example above all. This book is sure to rattle a lot of cages (I know it rattled mine), but inside is a message we all need to hear. Even if you don't agree with everything he says (I'm still up in the air on whether or not I do), the book is thought-provoking and provides an outlook on life that--though one may not buy into 100%--is most definitely good for one's spiritual life and challenging for one's perspective on how to follow Christ's example.

50 Shades of Grey, not 100 Shades of Black

"There's going to be an infiltration. An invasion of this book [Fifty Shades of Grey] and its aftermath will soon impact marriages, friendships, communities, and businesses.  You will be unable to avoid it.  Fourteen-year-olds are going to secretly sneak into their mom's room and read its pages.  Pornography downloads and purchases will rise.  Misogyny will heap burning coals on your sister, your cousin, and your best friend.  Men (not all men) will take advantage of a reader's newfound sexual confidence.  Women will believe a loving sexual relationship involves rope, whips, and dominance.  Forty-somethings will compromise, saying 'a little fantasy doesn't hurt anyone' and perhaps even think, 'this has actually helped my marriage' (e.g., "I finally want to have sex again").  Images will seep into minds for the long haul, waiting until a weak moment where they can creep in and cause dissatisfaction, lust, or carnal selfishness."

- Karen Yates

We live in a country where it is legal to kill your baby if you don't want it, where human sex trafficking is a HUGE problem, where child porn is legal in some states, where many parents in every city beat their children, where sex offenders live on every block, where bullying is an outstanding issue, where divorce rates are the highest in the world--I could go on and on and on.
And you're telling me this series is going to have an immense destructive impact on families throughout the world?
Sure, Pastors should respond to it by warning church-goers of the danger in diving into this "mommy porn."
But it's not going to destroy the country!
This is not even something new. All kinds of porn--including book-porn for women--have been flourishing throughout our country for years and years and years.
Must we be so dramatic?
This is not a huge problem.
Everything I listed above--those are problems!
There are so many problems far more damaging than this.
Not that it isn't bad, it's just not catastrophically bad.

Why do Christians make huge problems out of little ones and ignore the problems that are much more destructive and much more important?

How about this:
Why don't Christians show the world a better way to satisfy their longing for love and intimacy by living and presenting the love of Christ?
The lack of focus on love in churches--THAT is a catastrophic problem.