What does it mean to have Faith like a Child?

We have all heard and been told that we ought to have faith like a Child. This comes form Matthew 18:3 where Jesus tells his disciples that "unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Many of us wonder, however, what Jesus meant that we should become like Children. This is the focus of R.C. Sproul Jr.'s new book The Call to Wonder: Loving God like a Child. 

He begins by exploring how surprising it is that Jesus would ask us to become like children, but the more he explores what it means to be like a child, it is not surprising that God asks this of us. Children are innocent, loving, and are ready and willing to trust whatever their parent tells them. Through many personal reflections on being a son and being a father of eight children, Sproul demonstrates what it means to love our heavenly father like a child. Essentially, his book is a call to step back, and see God in the same why that many children will see their father. They love him, marvel at his works, try hard to please him, and simply love to be in his presence. Sproul also reminds us that this is not at the cost of maturity. Even though Jesus asks us to be like children, we are still to mature. We must deal with the deep parts of life, but never lose the childlike love for God.

One of the most surprising insights of this book is how often Sproul discusses honoring his own father in the context of learning to be a child of God. God reveals himself to us as our father. That is the role that he carries, and this book has shown me that I often neglect to honor God as my father. I do desire to honor and please my earthly father, and God asks me to do the same for him. This is one of the most important things that I learned in reading this book.

I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It is an easy read which is in the spirit of this book. Sproul describes that sometimes we need to not analyze things so much and just wonder at the greatness of creation. He does just that in his writing as well, he does not over analyze "childlikeness" but instead says simply that this is what children are like and this is why God wants us to be like him. If you get a chance you should read this book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Tyndale House Publishers as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Learning to Laugh With C.S. Lewis

If you've read C.S. Lewis, you know that even in some of his more serious works, there is humor. Have you ever stopped to wonder why Lewis writes this way? I think that there are many of us today who ignore the power of laughter, humor, and even joy in the life of a Christian. Lewis knew the power and used it in his writing to convey truth in a very powerful way. In his book Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis, Terry Lindvall explains the power of laughter in the life and work of C.S. Lewis. He explains in four sections: joy, fun, the joke proper, and satire and flippancy. In each section Lindvall breaks down what each idea is and how is shown through the work of Lewis.

Anyone familiar with Lewis will not be surprised the joy is included as one of the sections because he built his autobiography Surprised by Joy around the concept. Joy is probably the most important in the world of Lewis is really finds itself far about all the other topics. It is only joy that one can possess no matter the circumstance. Lindvall explains how Lewis believe joy is always found in our lives even through times of suffering. Fun and joking are also evident in the work of Lewis. Many of his stories portray characters having fun and adventure. Jokes abound in his fiction. He even tells the story of the first joke in Narnia in The Magician's Nephew. Lindvall explains the importance of having fun and enjoying a good laugh with friends. The last section of the book is a little different from the rest. Satire and flippancy are related, but come from opposite attitudes. Satire is offen used by Lewis. He uses humor to expose and comment on serious situations that he believes need to change. Flippancy, however, is something that Lewis opposes. It makes light of serious points without the desire to correct. According to Lewis, a flippant person has no joy but merely laughs at the awful state of the world.


The main message of this book is that Lewis preaches a joyful and fun Christianity. Many take issue with having fun and believe we should all be very serious. Lindvall points out that in Lewis' work serious people think to much of themselves and it is instead the ones who are willing to laugh (especially at themselves) who understand humility in life. True laughter and joking is always done in love and is never more important than love.

Lindvall's book is very well done. It is easy to tell that he is very familiar with Lewis and his work. If you are studying Lewis in depth, this is a fantastic read. I highly recommend it. I must, however, make two comments about this book. First, it is long. At around 450 pages, this is an in depth study. It will take a while to get through this book for most people. Second, this often discussions more than Lewis. While the heart of this book is Lewis and his work, he often discussion the works of G.K. Chesterton and other influences on C.S. Lewis. For the most part, this makes sense, but in some chapters Lindvall writes as much about Chesterton as he does about Lewis. That being said, this is still a very good book. It is a great read for anyone who love C.S. Lewis and cannot get enough of him. It will help you to better understand Lewis and his work.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

New Year, New Goals

Last year, I set a goal to read 50 books from January 1st to December 31st. I was able to complete my goal in the last few hours of 2011. Over the course of the year, I read a lot of different books and enjoyed most of them.

The book that I enjoyed the most was Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien. I've seen the movies so many times, but had not finished the books. Challenged by a friend to finish it, I read it and then had the most enjoyable time discussing it over coffee with friends. I would highly recommend the entire series to anyone. The books are so much better than the movie. With the Hobbit coming out this year, I will at least be reading that again this year.

Also, for the first time in 2011 I read an in depth biography. Through the booksneeze review program, I received the Bonhoeffer biography by Eric Metaxas. It was like running a marathon to get all the way through it, but it was well worth the journey. I also highly recommend this book if you have the time. Some of Bonhoeffer's works are on my reading list for this year and I cannot wait to dig into them now that I know more about his life.

2011 also saw some controversy. I normally like to keep my nose out of controversy, but I decided to review Rob Bell's book Love Wins. This was the most popular blog post that my blog has ever seen. It was an easy book to read and an interesting one as well. Bell stirred up a lot with this short little book and I think some people went a little overboard criticizing him. I enjoyed the book and was challenged by what he wrote. In the end, though, I still disagreed with him at a few points.

There were a bunch of other books that I read this past year, but this year I'm changing my focus. This year instead of pushing for more books, I'm going to try to read longer books. I'm not saying that longer books are alway better, some of the best books I have read have been some of the shortest books. This year I'm going to shoot for 30 books instead of 50. I'm going from an average of 4 books a month to 2.5 books a month. On my list are books like the 2 volumes of Justo Gonzalez's Story of Christianity, The Brothers Karamozov, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, and Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Tolkien.

I know that this is not the most exciting of blog posts, but it's important to make and share goals. I would encourage you to make a reading goal for this year. An easy way to do that is to use Goodreads and create a goal. It tracks it for your and lets you know if you are behind. Good Luck!

2012 Reading Challenge

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Merry Christmas

May God bless you this Christmas and may we never forget that we have a God who came to be with us.

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.


But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”


All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”


Matthew 1:18-23

Should We Be Leading or Following?

In his new book I Am a Follower, Leonard Sweet poses this question with a fairly obvious answer. Early on Sweet argues that we have bought into the myth that to be effective in ministry we need to be leaders. He believes that we should not be trying to be leaders, instead we need to work on being the best followers that we can. In last few decades, the emphasis in ministry is been on how you can be a better leader and how being a better leader will make your ministry better. Sweet, however, thinks that we need to work on being better followers. The life that Jesus called us to was a life of "followership" not a life of leadership. There is only one leader for Christians, that leader is Jesus. We should not be leaders leading Christians, we are followers following Christ and helping other follow him, too.

Sweet breaks down his book by structuring it around Jesus' statement that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. At first, I thought that Sweet was stretching Jesus' words to make this argument, but the more I read the more it made sense to me. You could break down Sweet's basic argument like this: Jesus' followers are called to be just like Jesus. Jesus says that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Therefore, Jesus' followers should be like Jesus pointing to him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We cannot be those things, but we should be living in such a way that we fully embrace and live out the fact that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The book is divided into 4 parts: Introduction, Way, Truth, and Life. In each portion Sweet explains how a Christians needs to be a follower of Christ and not a Leader of people.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I would recommend it to anyone who holds a role of leadership in the church. My one warning is this: Sweet seems to overstate things in the beginning that make you question where his is going. Then a few paragraphs or pages later he rationalizes what he says. So while he argues against leadership, I don't think that he would say there are no "leaders" in the church. There are people who fill the role of leader in the church, but they need to fill it as a fellow humble follower and not as a extremely well-qualified and potentially prideful leader. Read this book, let it challenge you. There are some places that I disagreed with a little, but overall I found that this  book that challenges me not to try to make myself better, but instead to make myself more like Jesus.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Putting the Spirit Back in Christmas

It’s the most wonderful time of year. The countdown to Christmas has begun. It is the season of advent. This means that, other than presents, most people have one singular focus: Jesus. For the most part, that’s not bad. I would never stop someone from focusing on Jesus, especially at Christmas. I do, however, think that one person gets the short end of the stick when it comes to this season: The Holy Spirit. He did so much work at the “first Christmas” and is ignored by many at this time of year.

I just finished reading Francis Chan’s book Forgotten God and was very challenged by what he had to say. Christians are supposed to be living by the Spirit, and yet we ignore him so much. We have let ourselves forget what he has done and is still doing in the world, and yet he is probably the most important part of a believer’s life. Even though Chan doesn’t talk about Christmas, I was struck by the fact that Christmas is yet another one of those times when we have forgotten or at least failed to acknowledge the work of the spirit.

Matthew records twice within a matter just a few sentences that Jesus was conceived through the Holy Spirit. The very incarnation of Jesus, the event that we celebrate each year at Christmas, was done through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, as we remember the time of waiting for Jesus to come and we wait for Jesus to come again, we can’t forget what the Spirit is still doing. When Jesus was preparing to leave, he promised to send another counselor to be with us, the Holy Spirit. Thankfully, Jesus did not abandon us, but instead the Holy Spirit lives with us and in us as we wait for his return.

It may seem odd that I would write about the Spirit before the celebration of the Incarnation of Jesus, when the spirit has his own Church Holiday, Pentecost. But it is terrible to forget the entire work of God in this time of year. When you thank God the Father for sending his son Jesus, don’t forget to thank the Spirit for doing his work. I pray that we never forget or ignore the work of God any time of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving

I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes. The Lord has done it this very day;
let us rejoice today and be glad. Lord, save us!
Lord, grant us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
From the house of the Lord we bless you. The Lord is God,
and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise you;
you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever. (Psalm 118:21-29 NIV)