Join Michael Leehan in "The Ascent from Darkness"

     Ascent from Darkness is a powerful personal narrative about the spiritual battle between good and evil. Michael Leehan's personal testimony is gripping, and thought-provoking. It simultaneously draws the reader in while causing them to take stock of his or her own personal Walk. Leehan begins Ascent from Darkness sharing a snapshot from his early adulthood. From there the book does not relent as we follow him on the course of his path from initially deciding to turn his life over to the work of Satan, to a life plagued by demon influence, and finally at the end of his rope realizing that the only path to freedom comes through Jesus Christ.

This is by far one of the most powerful books I have read lately. From the moment I picked up the book until the moment I was done reading the book, I could not put it down. Leehan comes across as an honest, sincere human who has gone through a life transformation. At times conversational and other times matter-of-factual, but much of the time unsettling with how honest he is, Leehan does not hold back as he shares the struggles of his life. Anyone picking up this book will find quickly that Leehan's life is one genuinely Redeemed story worth reading.

I received my copy of this book free from the publisher, Thomas Nelson, through their BookSneeze program for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this review are my own,and I was not required to issue a positive review.

Why God Won't Go Away by Alister McGrath

            To begin with, Why God Won’t Go Away is not a book determined to engage with you and convince you that God is real.  This book is not meant to persuade you to find some sort of “religion.”  While McGrath is a noted theologian of our day, this book has one purpose only, which is to engage what has come to be known as the “new atheism” by contributing the rebuttal to the discourse of authors such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris.  McGrath presents the positions of these three men and then counters them by showing the inherent flaws of their position.  Throughout the book, McGrath goes a step further by explaining where they go wrong and then he offers a protheological view that counters yet seems fully rationale.  In the end we see that GOD does not go away because GOD is constant; the views of those who do not believe in GOD are not.

            This book is a little different compared to what I usually read so I didn’t quite know what to expect in reading it.  The book engaged me in how I’ve come to the conclusions that I have in regards to faith and the evidence needed to have it.  I felt this book was even-handed, well-researched, and that the evidence was presented in a way that rebutted the “new atheism” without stepping into the realm of triviality and name calling.  I enjoyed Why God Won't Go Away and would recommend it to and would recommend it to anyone who wants to broaden their knowledge on the conversation between atheists and theists.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Understanding In A Car Crash.

If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, you saw yesterday (7/11) that I uploaded a photo of Sarah's Saturn dashboard with both airbags having been set off and in the process of deflating; the caption read: "To the driver of the red Pontiac: thank you for screwing up our evening."  Yesterday seems like such a whirlwind and I wonder if it really happened, but then I look at the bruise and swollen mark on my leg and realize that it did.  As even mere hours pass since it happened, I keep wondering whether the details are getting clearer or clearer as I saw them.

As the car crossed our lane of traffic and we were preparing to collide, I remember just sitting there watching it all unfold from the passenger seat.  There's a scene in the beginning of the movie Garden State where Zach Braff is having a dream where he is in a plane that is going down and as everyone is screaming and in a panic, he is sitting in his seat disaffected, calm, and stoic.  It kind of felt like that for me.  There was no jerk reaction, no heavy breathing, nothing.  When we hit, the only thing going on in my head as there was the squealing of tires, crunch of vehicle bodies, and the deployment of airbags was: "Wow.  The sound is deafeningly quiet now."  My ears were ringing and everything was muffled for a moment.  I remember Sarah asking me if I was okay and my only response as I went through the motor checklist of my limbs and body my only response was: "I don't know."

The emergency vehicles begin to arrive and it quickly becomes a scene from a cheesy B-film (including the helpful man with the ZZ Top beard in the pickup truck who witnessed it all happen).  I then received an epiphany to a question I had wondered my entire life: I wonder what people think about as they are standing at the scene of a car wreck witnessing the emergency response crews working.  The answer is: not much of anything.

Here's to hoping the rest of the summer gets better.

Unleashed by Erwin Raphael McManus

If you (the possible reader of this book) are content with a completely peaceful, pacifistic, indifferent Christianity, this book is not for you.  Erwin McManus’s Unleashed is a warrior-call to all Christians to go out and do something for Christ, and not sit around and simply discuss theology.  In this book, McManus challenges the church to wake up from complacency and take the world head on because: “…the call of Jesus is one of action.”

I have always respected McManus as a teacher and author, so I will admit that I came in with a biased opinion that it was going to be good; this book blew away my expectations.  His mixture of life experiences with principles based in Biblical truth create a work that is compelling and seems urgent which the call of Christ really is.  From the very beginning when McManus shares the anecdote about visiting Scotland on the way to Northern Ireland just so that he can see the boyhood spot of William Wallace and then connects it to the quote, “Forward, for the heart of your king!” I was hooked.  McManus makes implicitly clear that anyone who follows Christ is not doing it to the fullest if he or she is not doing it with passion.  Anyone who feels like their walk has become too predictable and routine-laden should pick up this book and prepare to do battle the barbarian way.

The Final Summit by Andy Andrews

In The Traveler’s Gift, David Ponder was the one who needed saving; in The Final Summit, it’s all of humanity that needs the saving.  The book picks up years after Ponder made his first trip to learn the “The Seven Decisions of Success,” he’s faced at another crossroads of life.  He’s aged, his wife has passed away, he has succeeded in his life’s ambitions and now he’s faced with sitting back and becoming complacent.  Then Gabriel shows up and again, Ponder’s life changes.  The Final Summit brings back the original Travelers from the first book and introduces some new historical faces: Winston Churchill, Booker T. Washington, and King David just to name a few.  They are brought together to determine the secret that will save the world.  The secret is simple, yet profound.  I would tell you what it is, but instead if you can’t wait until the end of the book, you can find the secret in chapter 12.

For me, the book didn’t capture me until around chapter 5.  The action and writing style were a little slow for my tastes.  The plot continues to build and multiple times I found myself wondering if they had discovered the secret early and even thinking it made sense, only to find out just like the summit of Travelers, that I was wrong.  I had not read The Traveler’s Gift before getting a copy of The Final Summit so I had to briefly skim the former to get an idea of what I would be encountering in the latter.  Overall, the book was enjoyable and I would recommend it for someone who needs a little bit of a pep talk in both their faith and life.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Tact.

I used to wonder why my dad always placed an emphasis on trying to use tact.  To be quite honest, sometimes I felt like he didn't have it so it was a concept at times hard for me to grasp.  Now that I'm older and in a position where my public conduct affects more than just me or even just me and my wife, I now understand why tact is important.  That said, since I can get away with doing this anonymously, I have to things to get off my chest to different individuals that will probably never read this (and to prove that as a youth pastor, yes I am human; probably more than I should be at times):

1.  You are not in love.  You are too young and naive still to understand what love truly is.  What you have is lust with a commitment component.

2.  You need to suck it up and be a man.  Start setting an example for the kids living under the same roof as you because you are only hindering them spiritually.  You may be the worst (step)father ever.  Okay maybe not worst ever, but you're still setting a bad example.


Thank you for allowing me to stand on a soapbox for a moment.

Promises.

It's kind of funny.  In the last week I have seen God move in awesome ways and directly answer three different prayers of mine.  But then I turn around and find out that between the Federal and State governments I owe around $1000.  There is nothing like seeing prayers answered and new trials to show you that you are doing what you're supposed to.  Now it's on to baking brownies to raise money.

The Fight of Our Lives by Dr. William J. Bennett and Seth Leibsohn

In The Fight of Our Lives, Bennett and Leibsohn analyze the slow progression and acceptance of the Islamic faith into that of mainstream America and the Western world.  Through a Conservative lens, the authors look at why unless Islam goes through a sort of reformation it well never truly be compatible with the “American” paradigm and that we need to be cognizant of the fact.  Above all, the authors intend to make sure the reader does not become apathetic to the inherent dangers of allowing a religion whose whole point is to convert and impose its laws on others to have unchecked influence and sway.

The Fight of Our Lives did a good job of explaining how events in recent decades have directly contributed to current world events.  The line of evidence and rationale is well established, as is always with Dr. Bennett.  The authors’ passion to ensure that America remains sovereign and that Islam in its current form will not be compatible with America is impossible to overlook; they do not dance around the issues.  At times though, I did feel like this book read like a Michael Moore book, if he were trying to incite Liberals.  In checking some of the end-notes, it becomes apparent that the authors put a spin on some of the citations so they read in a manner that taken out of context is different than how they were used originally. 

In short, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the Muslim/American conflict.  Rhetoric aside, this book challenges the reader to decide where they stand on the issue and to understand why it should matter to them.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Age of Accountability.

Does anyone know where I can go to find information on when the Church began to teach this?  I've heard pastors reference it, I've read the Scriptures that justify the position, but I've not been able to see anywhere in the Bible where it specifically states anything of the nature and I want to read more on the issue.

Uninspired.

There's this scene in the movie Men in Black 2 that I can't seem to get out of my mind right now.  It's towards the end of the movie, and Tommy Lee Jones is talking to this alien princess who closely resembles Rosario Dawson.  In the scene, he asks her if she ever noticed that when she got sad it suddenly started raining (using this as evidence that she was an alien because she didn't quite realize it).  I look out the window and think:  "Rosario Dawson, cheer up so this weather doesn't suck."

On a more serious note, why does it always seem like the best day for a downer mood is when it's raining outside?

A Conversation with God- by Alton Gansky

In A Conversation with God, Alton Gansky takes some of the big questions that people have about the Christian faith and does his best to answer them using the Bible in various translations as his sole reference material.  Using the Bible is the best way to minimalize outside theological influence and limit the answers to what the Bible has to say. 

Much like a call-in radio program or talk-show, the book uses a chapter format that introduces the question, and then the characters of God and Jesus respond to the questions using Bible references and explanation to answer the questions.  Along the way, various characters like Peter, Judas, Job and other biblical people of note show up to also provide some insight.  I thought this was a clever way to address the questions of believers who have been a part of the Faith for either a short time or for quite a while.

There were parts that I enjoyed about this book and parts that really left me frustrated.  One area where I felt that Gansky shined in his work was that each of the 55 questions has an in-depth use of Scripture.  Each chapter was well thought-out.  This book captured my interest because in many points, he made answers to questions plain and simple and didn’t bother to use polished rhetoric; the chapter on why some books weren’t included in the Bible is a good one.  I also liked how each question could be isolated and read separately so that as a reader if I didn’t want to, I didn’t have to read through the whole book from beginning to end (which I did, though).

I felt that for the project of this book however, that Gansky might have tried to take on some really big questions that may not necessarily have been easily answered or explained in a four-page chapter.  Questions dealing with whether a person can lose their salvation, where disease and sickness originated, and what will happen at the end of time are subjects that multiple books have been written on and after reading chapter entries on these that didn’t give conclusive answers, I felt that they should have either not been included, or the questions should have been altered so that I didn’t feel like I was left hanging.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is given the charge of leading a class for new Christians.  It is full of biblical truth and presented in an easy-to-understand manner.  This book may be too easy of a read or rather frustrating for mature Christians though, so be careful.  Be prepared to do additional research as sometimes the issues brought up may require further discussion.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Easter.Odd

"...it's also true that Easter does have a tendency to bring out a Christian's spiritual gift of odd."
     -Matthew Paul Turner, from his article "The Hunt for Easter" in the March/April 2011 Relevant.

I guess I've never really thought about the extra "umph" that we give to Easter as "odd."  Maybe that was because I've grown up in it and that's what I'm used to, but the more and more I think about it, there are some pretty weird things that Christians do to celebrate Easter.  Now, I'm not going to try and summarize Turner's article from Relevant because he did a great job in writing it.  I'm just going to say that I agree with him.

As Christians, Easter is an odd holiday.  It's the day when we celebrate a man rising from the dead after being gone for two days already.  This separates us from any other world religion; the fact that it really happened should make us the only religion, but that's beside the point.

We're getting ready to head into the season where we celebrate Easter and I say let's just be odd.  Period.  Don't wait for Easter Sunday, do something radical now!

Sunday is a day of rest because Saturday wasn't.

I'm just going to throw it out there: I saw God divinely answer prayer yesterday.  Beat that.  I saw a girl meningitis cleared up and an abcess become much smaller.  Seriously; beat that.

Too Much of Anything Is Too Much.

"The LORD said to Gideon, 'You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me...'"  -Judges 7:2, NIV

For those of you not familiar with this passage, God goes on to tell Gideon to cut down the number of his army, drastically!  Gideon ends up reducing the number of soldiers in his command from 32,000 to only 300.  The Bible does not give an exact number for the Midianites, but the author states that they were so numerous that their camp which covered a valley so thick that they appeared to be swarming as locusts.  Now this strategy of troop reduction before battle would probably baffle most modern-day military officers, but God Himself said that He: "chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise," and, "the weak things of the world to shame the strong" (1 Cor. 1:27).  To ruin the story if you haven't read it, Gideon and his 300 go on and massacre the entire Midian army; take that, Gerard Butler (a reference to the movie 300).

Often times I find myself getting jealous of others and wondering why no matter what I try, everything always seems to work out better for other people.  Why do they have the better vehicle, video game system, guitar/equipment, or better and more stable job?  I've been going through one of these phases the last couple days as both cars Sarah and I own need oil changes, lights replaced, and other maintenance and while I am in the process of searching for a new job.

When people get complacent and comfortable, they tend to forget God.  There's a cliche about how there are no atheists on an airplane that is going down.  But what about the people who continually acknowledge God and stick beside Him no matter what?  Gideon was like that and God said He needed to get rid of some of his men so that God could do awesome things.  Maybe God does this kind of stuff to people sometimes because we get used to His blessings and He needs to set the stage for us to be blessed even more.  Don't misunderstand me because the Bible never says anything about following Jesus equalling blessings.  What I'm saying is: how will we really know what is best if God doesn't help us get past being fixated on the better? 

Or at least that's my thoughts on the matter for now.

Soot and Silence. Part II.

"These are the nations that God left there, using them to test the Israelites who had no experience in the Canaanite wars. He did it to train the descendants of Israel, the ones who had no battle experience, in the art of war. "  -Judges 3:1-2, The Message

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to preach a sermon on Sunday morning entitled: "Soot and Silence."  Using Job as an example, the point of the sermon was that when it seems like God is silent is when He's actually the most active in our problems and situations.  And that many times when we get Him frustrated to the point of actually responding, His response won't quite make total sense because He's looking from a perspective of the complete picture while we only see the present moment.

I was reading my Bible this morning and these verses above really stuck out at me.  Nowhere does God actually address the Israelites and tell them that they are being put into these uncomfortable circumstances for the purpose of growth; the author had the hindsight to be able to state this.  I've been thinking about my own life lately and why certain things have been happening.  I need to be honest; a lot of times, I just don't get it.  There are many people in our church have been going through even rougher times of trial then me and I am pretty sure they're in the same boat as me though. 

Is there a lesson that God feels everyone of us needs to learn together?  Are they different lessons?  All I know for sure is that Genesis, Exodus, Judges, and Job all show pretty good examples of people who went through some pretty tough stuff and didn't understand why they were experiencing it, yet those life lessons came back to make sense either to them or later generations.  In the meantime, Galatians 6:2 says that we should: "share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ."  We're all in this together so let's do our best to be there for each other in their times of need.

I Really Don't Know.

Let me start off by saying this: I don't really know what the "Hokey Pokey" is all about.  Come to think of it, most of the time I really could care less what it's about.  This blog isn't really about the "Hokey Pokey," it just seemed like a good enough title for one.  Oddly enough, http://hokeypokey.blogspot.com/ is already in use.  That was my first choice, buy I had to settle with http://gerrit-hokey-pokey.blogspot.com/ instead.  First blog posts are great because they're a chance to set the pace for what will ensue (which most of the time ends up being far different from what the author originally ever intended).  With that I am stopping here for the evening.