If I was a piece of furniture...

I'd be a bookcase--yes, I would--because I love books. I've been surrounded by them for the last 20 years, first as an English major, then as a publishing house employee, and now as a home school teacher. Over the past ten years, I've read a lot of how-to books: how to cook, how to clean, how to raise children, how to raise crops, and so on, but this year I've collected a stack of reads I'm trusting will aid me in pursing God and loving my neighbor.

In no particular order, here's my starting line-up for 2011:


Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just, Timothy Keller

God's Mighty Acts in Salvation, Starr Meade

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, David Platt

Love Walked Among Us: Learning to Love Like Jesus, Paul E. Miller (re-read)

Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament, Nancy Guthrie

A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, Paul E. Miller (re-read)

Cross Talk: Where Life and Scripture Meet, Michael R. Emlet

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, Ann Voskamp

Caught Off Guard: Encounters with the Unexpected God, William P. Smith

The Promises of Grace: Living in the Grip of God's Love, Bryan Chapell

Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community, Dietrick Bonhoeffer

What are you reading this year?

Three in One Things This Thursday

Dave over at Home School Dad hosts Things This Thursday (previously Three Things Thursday). I've never participated because I never seem to have three things on Thursday. Today I do. Sort of. So here are my three things on one topic this Thusday:

1. Stop. The book of Hebrews rocks! I'm seeing Jesus like I've never seen Him before. It's amazing what you can see if you slow down and really examine a text.

2. Look. I'm studying Nancy Guthrie's Hoping for Something Better: Refusing to Settle for Life as Usual with my Bible study gals. It's on Hebrews, of course. I highly recommend it. (And the gals, too!)

3. Listen. Tim Keller's sermon, Christ, the Final Word, on (what else?) Hebrews deepened my understanding of the passage and forced some necessary questions regarding the place of Christ in my heart.

After seeing In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto reviewed on a few other blogs I frequent, I was intrigued. Proposing neither a diet nor an eating method, Michael Pollan asks some thoughtful questions about what we eat, how we eat it, and if it's really doing us any good, questions like:

• Of what does the Western diet truly consist?


• With all the health claims on the labels of our food, why are we getting fatter and sicker?


• Why are we developing heart disease and diabetes at alarmingly increasing rates?


• Is there a connection between the food pyramid, the food conglomerates, and the medical establishment?


• Why are people in other countries who eat their culture's traditional diet healthier regardless of that diet's fat or carb content?


• Would what I eat even pass for food in my grandmother or great-grandmother's day?

I recommend In Defense of Food to anyone willing to take a look at what's really on your plate.

A little "bite" and switch!

About 4 years ago I found myself on Kraft's mailing list. Occasionally they'd send me nice calendars, coupons and other goodies, all courting me to buy Kraft products, but what began arriving in my postbox three times a year was their Food & Family magazine, a slick production chock full of ways to combine Kraft products into tasty-looking treats. I admit I enjoyed reading it and figuring out how to use less expensive generic products to replicate their recipes or transform them from concoctions of processed chemical food-like substances into real food.

Imagine my surprise when I received my copy today with an urgent "Last Issue" stamped on an interior envelope containing an invoice where I can now get the "preferred subscriber discount" of $6.99 a year! Yes, that's only $6.99 for a glorified advertisement!

I'm sorry, Kraft, but you can keep your magazine. I've enjoyed your freebie while it lasted, but, well, I'm just not that into you. We've gone "real food" around here, and in these economically dismal times, I'm not interested in helping to bolster your advertising budget. It's been nice, albeit not "real." So, ciao. (Or should I say, "chow?")

Our God

"God loves to lavish kindness on us. The bigger your conception of God, the more amazing this is. God is the creator of the universe. He holds the galaxies in being. He governs everything that happens in the world, down to the fall of a bird and the number of your hairs (Matt. 10:29-30). He is infinitely strong and wise and holy and just. And amazingly, he is kind. 'When the kindness of God appeared...' (Titus 3:4). And because of this kindness, we were born again. Let your very existence as a Christian tell you every hour of every day: God is kind to you."

~John Piper, Finally Alive

Heart-to-Heart

I picked up this book at the library after it was enthusiastically recommended by a fellow blogger, but after barely sampling the first chapter, I set it aside. Danny Silk had served up a biblical interpretation that makes me gag and I decided I couldn't choke down the rest of the book.

But for some reason I didn't return it.



Then I lost it with my kids, and I was shocked to recognize that I was using the same juvenile tone, attitudes and words as they were. We were either threatening each other or throwing our hands up in disgust. It is pretty ugly when the adult in the situation is rolling her eyes and declaring, "What-ev-a!" and "Right back atcha." When I crawled into bed feeling exhausted and defeated, there it was staring me in the face, Loving Our Kids On Purpose. By that point I figured, "What the heck; he might have a point in there somewhere."

So I devoured Loving Our Kids on Purpose and learned a great deal about peacefully helping my kids discover what's really going on in their hearts when they act sinfully, and how to help them see that it is those heart happenings that leads to their interpersonal conflicts. Instead of nagging or giving orders followed up by, "Or you'll be grounded," I've been trying to help them make good choices based on realistic outcomes. Thankfully God's provided the circumstances. We had a day with one child in the basement playing Legos while the others were diligently doing school work. Well guess who had no time with his friends after they came home from school? I didn't have to get mad; I just pointed out the fact that there is a time for school and a time for play, and he had made a choice. We've had some interesting discussions and I've learned a lot about my kids' hearts in the process. They're really neat little people with real hurts and dreams and fears, and I love them a lot.

While I still disagree with a lot of Danny Silk's psychological take on the Bible, his book has made me take some giant steps back to look at how I parent. I've built my whole doctrine of parenting on a few "cut and paste" verses that give me way too much power. I've put too much personal stock in whether my kids do things my way and haven't considered them as Image bearers, too. And with my "my way or the highway" parenting style I forgot that you truly do catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

So we're all practicing a bit of self-control around here and are making choices that consider each other as more important than ourselves. It's definitely not perfect, but it's nice.

What's your obsession?

As I mentioned before, I'm reading Sam Storms' One Thing: Developing a Passion for the Beauty of God. Great book. Highly recommend it.

Storms pins the cause of lackluster faith and boredom with Christianity on our inability to see past petty pleasures to the encompassing greatness of God. We have no sense of anticipation for Christ's return because we have not come to love and yearn for the Bridegroom Himself and the future He's secured for us. Instead we muddle around in the mire of earth, thinking God is pleased with our little trinkets and tokens. Our hearts are not bound to our Savior in the glory of heaven, hence we have little (if any) understanding of David's declaration:

"You make know to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Psalm 16:11

Psalm 16 is delicious. Brimming with sweet communion and long held trust, it is a love poem, a declaration of enduring, passionate commitment on behalf of both the speaker and the hearer, the poet and His God. David was a shepherd. He'd sat on the hills of Bethlehem and seen the wonders of the stars. He'd heard the stories of God's faithfulness passed down through the generations. He knew that the pleasures of God far outweighed the pleasures of sin. He was obsessed with the true beauty of his God.

I want this kind of passion for God; mere obedience void of emotion is not enough. There is something more spiritual, more Spirit induced, about it. Storms quotes Mark Bickle, saying, "It take God to love God."

"Loving God requires a loving God. We will be passionate for him only so far as he is passionate for us. To love God as we were made to love him requires and antecedent love in God for those whom he has made. He must take the initiative. He must reveal the depths and extent of his commitment to us and the delight in his heart for broken people. Only then will our slumbering and self-centered souls be aroused to seek him with all our hearts and relish the revelation of himself in the person of his Son, the man Christ Jesus." ~Sam Storms

Do we understand the passion of God for us? I know I don't; I haven't been looking. But One Thing has pulled back the curtain a bit more for me and challenged me to "Taste and see the the Lord is good" and know that "His love endures forever."

"Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:13

"...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith..." Hebrews 12:1-2

"...seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above..." Colossians 3:1-2

"...look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen..." 2 Corinthians 4:18

Will the real Jesus please stand up?

I have a decorative plate with a drawing of the babe in the manger and the words "Happy Birthday Jesus" printed across the top. It has always been a nice addition to my holiday decor, a reminder to even the eaters of my Christmas cookies that "Jesus is the Reason for the Season." But lately I've been rethinking the mildness of all of that.

Over the last three days I've devoured The Jesus of Suburbia: Have We Tamed the Son of God to Fit Our Lifestyles?, by Mike Erre (which you can pick up for the great price of $4.49 through Amazon).

Erre starts with what was to me an eye-opening overview of the happenings in the Roman world at the time prior to the birth of Christ and throughout his lifetime. He contrasts the titles claimed by Augustus Caesar, including Cosmic Savior and bringer of peace, with the Messiah who truly embodied them, and describes the history behind Herod's extremely paranoid behavior. Jesus was a radical. From his birth to his death he turned everything the Roman world and the Jewish religious establishment saw as good and right on its head and forced people to choose which king they would serve.

The birth of Christ was a humiliating experience: the vastness and greatness of the King of Kings crammed into a helpless baby, born of a sinful woman, and placed in a feeding trough. There is a reason Paul says that Jesus, "Made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." And yet this humble birth was a fitting beginning to the start of his revolution, a revolution not waged with political power, weapons and skillful strategies, but with love, grace, and sacrifice.

Yet this is not the Jesus I've been following. Erre's question hit way too close to home:

"Could it be that many of us have lost this aspect of the Christ? Is it possible that we see him primarily as ushering in comfort and security for those of us who follow him but that we have missed him as a firebrand radical who so turned the established order upside down that he was murdered to shut him up?"

So this Christmas season I am rethinking the quaintness of the sweet baby in the manger. It's all just too tame, and there is nothing tame about Jesus. Daily he forces me to choose. I can't have Jesus and any other god, not my stuff, or my family, or my so-called dreams. And when I choose he requires me to trust him and join the revolution.

"You must die to live. You must lose to gain. Weakness is strength. Joy exists in the midst of suffering. Power is restraint. Love those who persecute you. Pray for those who hate you. Caesar isn't Lord and Herod isn't King. It is not the strong or the wealthy who will inherit the earth, but the meek. The kingdom of God won't be given to the religious leaders but to the spiritual idiots (the poor in spirit). Mourners, peacemakers, the merciful, and the persecuted can all find blessing in the kingdom of Jesus.

"Jesus Christ is the most subversive man ever to have walked the earth. This is revolution."

Do-overs

I'm in love with refashioning! What's not to love when thrifty meets crafty and rendezvous in the wardrobe? I found Wardrobe Refashion a while back and have been mulling over lots of ideas, but after a play-date with my seamstress friend Arla I finally got the guts to put a couple under the needle.

Here's what I came up with:

This is all that's left of a corduroy jumper I bought at the thrift hoping I could alter it. (My camera corrupted the "before" picture I took of the whole thing. bummer.)

The shoulders proved to difficult to try to petite, so I cannibalized it to make elastic waist church pants for L.B. I created the pattern by minimizing instructions for adult pajama pants I found in Sew What? Fleece. Great series, by the way, if you're into sewing without patterns.

Sissy is really hard on jeans and I was going to cut the bottoms off her latest victim and add a ruffle to make capris.

Arla suggested I make a skirt instead. I had done this before for myself and followed the same instructions found here. But, of course, I couldn't stop with a simple skirt; I went cowgirl princess! I left the bottom of the denim rather ragged, added some eyelet lace I bought on final clearance when our Walmart closed, and sewed on some cotton flowers I used on the curtains in her nursery. The added length should give her at least a year of wear since the jeans were still a bit large in the waist.

I'm going to try a couple more "safe" projects for myself and then I want to try some of the wilder stuff over at Wardrobe Refashion. Not sure I want to take their pledge, but who knows? I'm feeling some eccentricity coming on...

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
Not so much to be understood as to understand;
Not so much to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we awaken to eternal life.

~The Prayer of St. Francis, taken from a biographical sketch of the life of Francis of Assisi the Lesser Brother in Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History

Gone Mad

I never thought I was an angry gal. I am not a screamer with my kids. I don't have road rage issues. My husband and I have never had a knock-down, drag-out, we've never called each other names, and I can think of only three times in our 15 years together that we've even raised our voices with one another. Anger is not my problem. Or is it?

After one of my kids was involved in an incident at church a couple weeks back, I realized that I've been growing increasingly irritated with my children. When they disobey, it's felt personal. Their childlike silliness has been driving me crazy and I've found myself withdrawing into my private shell, desperately desiring to escape from my "gifts."

While praying about what I was going to do about my children, I turned to the right and on the bookcase next to my comfy chair was this book, staring me full in the face:

You mean it's my problem? Yes, often God does need to be rather blunt with me! So these are the things I've been pondering, thanks to Robert Jones.

Puritan Richard Baxter defined anger as "the rising up in the heart in passionate displacency against an apprehended, evil, which would cross or hinder us of some desired good." This anger may be motivated by my circumstance but is not caused by it. Instead it is a heart reaction directly related to my beliefs about God.

I want to believe that my irritations are justified, but when comparing them to the offenses against and reactions of Christ, I've come to see that they do not qualify as righteous anger.

Righteous anger is marked by--

1. a reaction against actual sin rather than my own person irritations or thwarted desires

2. a focus on God and his concerns rather than me and mine

3. the coexistence of other godly qualities and Christ-like expressions

I'm only three chapters into it, but Uprooting Anger has me shaking in my boots, literally. When I started to feel prickled last night while trying to stretch very uncooperative pizza dough I had to humbly send my kids from the kitchen in order to "help mommy not react sinfully because it was already starting to bubble out of her heart."

This is hard stuff. I want to think I've got a reason to gripe and I don't like facing my own ugliness. I want it to be someone else's problem! But I know God in His mercy is trying to teach me something that's out there beyond my own selfishness. However, right now I have the feeling in my spirit that I had in my arms and legs when I first started working out again. I hardly have the strength to get out of the chair, let alone down the stairs!

So here's to exercise!

"Exercise thyself unto godliness: for bodily exercise is profitable for a little; but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come." ~1 Timothy4:7b-8

"Church members in too many cases are like deep sea divers, encased in the suits designed for many fathoms deep, marching bravely to pull out plugs in bath tubs."

~ from Mr. Jones Meets the Master, by Peter Marshall

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Taste and See

Practical Theology for Women is only 154 pages from title page to the last footnote, but Wendy Horger Alsup packs every one of them with stick-to-your-ribs theological goodness. Unlike most books for women, there's no silly advice on how to have a happier life and very few cute little stories; nope, this book is hard core.

Alsup sticks to the basics of the study of God, dividing the book into three sections: "What is Theology?," "Who Is Our God?," and "Communicating with Our God. " But don't be fooled into thinking that having these things figured out is enough; the proof is in the pudding. The biggest and best thing about this little book is the poignant (and rather painful) way Alsup reveals that most of us live as practical atheists. If our lives were thoroughly examined they would show little evidence of the faith to which we claim to adhere. We are selfish, faithless, fearful Christ-followers. Yikes.

So what's a girl to do? It's not nearly as depressing as it sounds. Using her commanding knowledge of the Scripture and the heart of man (or woman, as the case may be), Alsup revives the soul by helping her reader understand the gracious God on whom she calls and His desire to empower us to live by faith. When we are imbibed with the Word and the Spirit of God, we are different people: we are Christ-like people.

Don't miss this one, friends. Theology is for us, not because we need to know the big words and be full of information, but because the knowledge of God truly changes our lives. Want to be a better wife, mother, employee? Leave the self-help books on the shelf, grab yourself a copy of Practical Theology for Women, and let Wendy Alsup guide you past your own understanding and into the depths of our marvelous God.

Radical Womanhood

Carolyn McCulley's new book Radical Womanhood has officially hit the bookstores, and if you don't have it, go buy it.

Now.

Because you need it.


I mean it!


I "met" Carolyn via the internet back in February. She had posted about her book which was in the works, and I emailed her a curiosity question about her cover: I used to work for her publisher and thought I recognized the company that did the artwork. One thing led to another and I had the tremendous privilege of being on her editing team.

Carolyn's thoroughness and scholarship are top-notch. She articulates the errors found within the extreme thinking of the feminist movement without discounting the wrongs righted and honor due some brave women who refused to be quieted in the face of injustice, always reminding the reader that truth resides within the Word of God alone. Reading her findings challenged my thinking and encouraged me to examine my identity in Christ and my place in the created order. In taking me back to the early days of political feminism, and even further back to the dawn of history, Carolyn helped me to see not just why we do what we do, but whose idea it was in the first place, and how it all stacks up next to God's plan for His people. In my slightly biased opinion, this is the best book on the subject available today.

For a wonderful four-minute video overview, go to the Radical Womanhood website.

Thanks, Carolyn, for putting in all those long hours and giving us this great resource. You have blessed me immensely, and I'm sure many others will say the same.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programing...

Whew! The last month's been a blur. With schooling, piano lessons, swimming lessons, a new children's church curriculum, and the crisis needs of some of our friends, I've barely had the chance to read other people's blogs (love that "blogs I'm following thing," by the way) and have had absolutely nothing to say on my own. Thanks to those of you who've shot me an email to say you missed me, or at least wondered if I was dead. I feel the love!

Anyway, I'm trying to get back in the blogging saddle again and in searching for something relevant to talk about, thought I'd start with my current musings on things in print.

First back to this one:

If you can discern your way through his liberal theology and socialist political sympathies, Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution is worth your time, not because you should be persuaded that God is a pacifist (a suggestion I find difficult to swallow when served with any portion of Scripture) but because we all need to be challenged to see Jesus as a helper of the disenfranchised rather than simply a vending machine for the shiny, happy, middle class American Christian. Check you local library for this one.

Next up on my reading list is Practical Theology for Women, by Wendy Horger Alsup. My husband was manning his ministry's booth at the Straight Up Conference where the rep from Crossway generously gave him a copy for me.

I've only read the preface so far, which is Wendy's story, but I can tell you that she certainly has the experience to back up her claims that God is great in rotten circumstances. It's a thin book, so I hope to finish it this weekend and be able to talk about it next week.

Messing with my reality

Has anyone read this book?

It was recommended by Kate, a missionary we pray for, so I picked it up at my library and dove in while waiting for my kids at piano lessons.

I'm only half way through but it's really messing with me in a good way, I think. For some reason God's got me reading things that would never make the mega church reading list and He's really shaking up my understanding of "normal" gleaned from spending my entire life within the middle class American Christian subculture. I'm not sure I track with the author on all of his arguments, but it's a challenge none the less.

What in the world is God calling me to? Living as an Ordinary Radical? Honestly, I'm getting rather nervous....

Amazing Grace

Grace is amazing, and I need it so badly. I needed it when God scooped me out of the kingdom of darkness and placed me in the kingdom of His dear Son, and I need it today as I hang out the laundry, make peanut butter sandwiches, and talk to my neighbors. So how come I forget that my kids need it, too?

Free of methods, containing no proven formulas for success, and pointing to no "standards" established by obtuse verses of Scripture, Grace Based Parenting, by Tim Kimmel, is one of the best books on parenting I've ever read. After seeing it in the sidebar of someone's blog--sorry, can't remember whose but think it might have been Making Home--I borrowed it from the library, fully expecting to declare it "psychological mumbo-jumbo" and "nonsense," but instead was tremendously humbled and greatly challenged by what it contained.

Kimmel's words stripped me of my parenting crutches and laid me bare before the Lord on so many levels: my motivations, my attitudes, my selfishness, the list goes on. But then he gave me a wonderful gift: he reminded me that God gives grace, for me and for my family. My children need me to point them to Jesus, and the best way I can do that is by showing--not just telling--them Who He is. I need to point them to the cross, not in a "Jesus died for that scummy, rotten thing you just did" kind of way, but in a "sin is so easy to fall into (believe me, I know) but it is Christ's joy to take it from you" sort of way. God created them as individuals with personalities that are very different than mine and I need to cherish and guide them toward what God's made them to be, not conform them to my image because they annoy me or embarrass me. My kids need the same Gentle Shepherd that I do.

Becoming

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

~From the Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams

Thanks to Kristy for the free association inspiration and thanks those of you who love me albeit I'm droopy, loose in the joints, and shabby.

You can't judge a book by its cover

When I was in elementary school I ordered this book from the Scholastic Book Club flier.


Being wary of any book with the word "witch" in the title, my mother confiscated it and deposited it in the round file before I even had a chance to read the first chapter.

Now 25 years later I've finally read the book. The kids and I listened to it on audio tape during our drive to visit my folks. It is a well written, thought provoking story not about witchcraft, but about how hate and distrust can make Christians act more like the devil than like Christ. It reminded me once again that Christ is seen in me not by what I profess, but by what I do.

Tell Me the Old, Old Story

Our children love listening to stories read aloud, and it is delightful to hear them exclaim "read on, Mommy, read on!" when reading to them the stories God told through the lives of His people.

As far as story Bibles go--and we have many--our absolute favorite is The Child's Story Bible, by Catherine F. Vos. Published in 1935, this 700 page volume was recommended to us by Carole Joy Seid and has not disappointed. Vos accurately weaves the words of Scripture with historical descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells surrounding the people of God. She goes beyond mere narration to explain the attitudes and emotions that come with both the circumstances and choices of these people of old. The Bible's "mature issues" are dealt with tactfully without lessening the impact of the subjects themselves. Reading a few of The Child's Story Bible's short chapters per week is a great way to take even the squirmiest of children through the Bible in a year.

Another delightful book is A Little Life of Jesus For Children Who Are Learning to Love Him, by Lois Rock. This chubby little book, perfect for toddler sized hands, had accompanied us to church for many years and is still kept lovingly by the bed of my five-year-old. The simple stories of the life of Christ taken from the Gospels are illustrated by eye-catching pictures on every page. Sadly, it seems to be out of print in the U.S. and I don't know of any American retailers who carry it. I've seen it on Ebay and Amazon used, and if you can get one, do so.

Finally, a worthwhile newcomer to the plethora of story books on the shelves of your local Christian retailer is The Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones. Lloyd-Jones does a marvelous job of taking all the major stories of Scripture and shooting them like well-aimed arrows at the target of the Messiah. The redemption story is central on every page. And I especially like the illustrations--Abraham, Moses, and Jesus actually look Middle Eastern! While we don't own it yet, our pastor is reading it a chapter at a time to the children on Sunday mornings and it is quickly becoming a favorite.