The Kingdom Life: a Practical Theology of Discipleship and Spiritual Formation by Alan Andrews (ed)

This is a well-edited collection of thoughts about growing in spiritual maturity. It’s split into two sections, practical and theology (in the wrong order in my opinion!), and it deals with literally every area of life.

This book is not for the faint-hearted, or the person looking for a light read! I read quite fast but the sheer weight of content here forced me to have to take rests, in a good way. An enormous amount of rich biblical truth, accurately applied to true observations of society is compressed so tightly that if your brain doesn’t melt, your heart will.

Genuinely, this book has changed the way I see Christianity. It is heavy but it’s not complex so I’ve been easily able to see how to apply it – be ready to be challenged! Particular sections that hit home were about the doctrine of the trinity, living one holistic life, and Peggy Reynoso’s excellent chapter on suffering.

I’d only have one gripe with this book, and that’s the fact that every author quotes from Dallas Willard! It gets annoying after the first couple of times, particularly as I found the chapter he wrote simply baffling until I re-read it after finishing the whole book!

Seriously though, I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone, particularly if they have any level of influence whatsoever in their local church. I’m sure I don’t agree with everything written in it but it’s overwhelmingly excellent, and I don’t use those words together very often.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review 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.”

Humanism – more silly logic

A commenter posted a link to the Humanist homepage, assumedly to explain why atheist evangelists aren’t illogical…allow me to quote from their website:

All children should be free to grow up in a world where they are allowed to question, doubt, think freely and reach their own conclusions about what they believe.

That’s taken from the banner at the top of their page, and this is taken from the test you can take to find out if you’re a humanist:

1 Does God exist?

A) I am sure there is a God ruling over the universe.
B) It depends what you mean by God, but I think so.
C) I don’t know.
D) There is no evidence that any god exists, so I’ll assume that there isn’t one.

Ok, so we should be free to reach our own conclusions…providing our overriding assumption is that there isn’t a god.

Note the options available:

A) – I am sure – something must have made a person who would answer this way (like me) think that they’re sure, so humanists must say that people answering with (A) are liars.

B) This answer would show that someone just generally thinks something in one direction – a bit of a silly outlook but fair enough.

C) A good answer, but not one the humanists approve of – according to the answer page this answer would make you:

perhaps a bit dependent on authority or other people or pure emotion

Is it just me, or does that seem a little unfair?!

D) Completely illogical in every sense of the word. Stating as a fact that there is no evidence for a god doesn’t make it a fact, you have to say really ‘I haven’tseen any evidence for the existence of a god’, and using that as a reason for reaching an unfounded assumption seems a bit extreme – doesn’t it?

Even before I was a Christian I would have been able to tell you that the only answers that make any sense at all would be A and C, so thanks for the original comment and the opportunity to discover more layers of ridiculousness in the atheist faith.

Atheist evangelists are illogical

Neo-atheism has blessed the world with followers of people like Dawkins and Hitchens, who have a desperate need to rid this world of the plague of religion.

The problem is, of course, that these atheists hold dear to their hearts that nothing happens for a purpose – we’re here by chance, there are no consequences when we die, there’s no such thing as absolute ‘good’ or ‘evil’. As Dawkins put it, we simply ‘dance to our DNA’.

So, if atheists believe what they say they do then whether or not I follow Jesus, or Muhammad, or Darwin makes no difference whatsoever! Attempting to win more over to their cause is a waste of the futile breath that continues to leave their lungs, reminding them that their death is creeping ever closer with no hope of anything more.

Atheists, here’s a genuine heartfelt warning: practice what you preach, or your faith system will lose even more credibility. I honestly pray that God will bless you in this life by his grace, because that’s the best you can possibly hope for while you continue to try to lead his children away from his house.