Titlepage of the New Testament section of a German Luther Bible, printed in 1769. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve said this before, but it’s well worth repeating: I have absolute faith/certainty (delete as you’d rather, I don’t want to get picked up on semantics) that Christianity is true because I’ve personally met Jesus Christ.

I spoke to him this morning.

He reminded me about one of his characteristics yesterday evening.

He enabled me to do something I’d have never been able to without his help at the weekend.

He’s not just a man who lived in Palestine 2,000 years ago, although he is that. He’s not just a concept of God that’s more logically coherent than other attempts to explain things like a sense of morality, although he’s that too. He’s alive, and I have a genuine, personal relationship with him.

He speaks to me through the Bible and through my circumstances.

He demonstrates his character to me through conversations and reminders of what he did for me when he died as my substitute meaning I can have eternal life. He’s a really nice person.

He walks my life with me by the Holy Spirit, guiding me and empowering me supernaturally.

If none of that were true I’d be a different person today than I am, but I’m not, so it all must be, and so I’m grateful.

I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind, but now I see.

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40 Hour Week (For a Livin’) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I work in an industry that’s renowned for working horrific hours. My contract states that the working hours for people in my office are 9:30am-5:30pm, Monday-Friday, with one hour per day for lunch. That makes 35 hours per week. But only the other day someone said that they had announced to the rest of their team that they were ‘no longer going to work weekends’ and they were astonished that they’d managed to ‘get away with it 75% of the time.’

Now is it just me or does there seem to be a bit of a gap there? It’s not like my job is saving lives so what possible reason could there be to have to work until midnight every night just to keep up with the work culture?

The Bible says ‘Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men’ (Colossians 3:23). God wants us to work hard, end of story. Slacking off because you don’t want to miss The Apprentice isn’t a Christian attitude.

But I’ve got some news for you. The reason the West has fallen into an established 40-hour work week (9-5, Monday-Friday) is that people with the knowledge performed some detailed analysis that showed that this produces the ultimate amount of net productivity. Note: that doesn’t mean people are more productive per hour at 40 hours per week, that means that people are more productive full stop – someone working a 40-hour week will create more output than someone working 30 hours or someone working 50 hours.

So a silly example – three people are paid to draw massive circles on paper. One works 30 hours in a week and draws 1,500 circles. The second works 50 hours and draws 1,750 circles. But the third works 40 hours and draws 2,000 circles. Net output is highest at 40 hours per week.

And just to clarify, this is over a period of at least three weeks or so – sticking an extra couple of hours in on the odd occasion to meet a deadline or whatever is a different story.

If you don’t believe me, why not check out any one of these articles that explain it in different ways?

By the way, the most common response to this is a version of ‘That might be alright for you, but in my job I need to work that long to be productive enough.’ Listen carefully to yourself, and realise that your long hours have restricted your ability to think straight. You’re welcome.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book like this before – written in the middle of the struggle, describing every up and down, no hiding behind cliches or spiritual catchphrases – and it’s pretty powerful. Simply by reading this informal journal we’re taken on a detailed and highly personal journey through cancer – it isn’t pretty, but it’s enlightening. I’ll definitely look at cancer differently having read this.

To be honest, I found the book quite difficult to read; firstly, the obvious subject matter, but also because it’s written as most blogs are, simply a collection of thoughts he’s having on that particular day with very little thought-through holistic storyline. That’s part of the beauty of it but I’m not entirely convinced it lends itself well to book format – it took me a long time to read it, and I read a lot. That said, the personal nature of it did genuinely draw me in to the point that I really felt like I had built a relationship with Kristian – it moved me to tears more than once.

An issue some might have with it is that he uses language every so often that some would consider offensive. I’m not sure whether this is because Australians (like Kristian) approach language differently to Brits (like me), or whether it’s simply a genuine expression of his frustration at that moment, but if that’s the sort of thing that would lose you, you’re probably not going to enjoy it.

Overall I’d certainly recommend this to anyone who is struggling with cancer, knows someone who is, or doesn’t know anything about it. Kristian’s focus invariably returned to Jesus in spite of the bad news that kept coming his way, and that attitude is something pretty much everyone could learn a lesson from.

I got this ebook for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

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Spaceship (song) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As a musician I know what it feels like to think, every so often: I wonder what life would have been like if I’d completely sold out on doing music full time…

Fortunately for a friend of mine, he doesn’t have to think that at all; as part of a band he’s done far better than I ever have and as supported bands I’ve actually heard of, like Puddle of Mudd. On top of that, he’s just released a lovely new web page where you can hear some of his music, see a trailer for an upcoming film he’s written a lot of the soundtrack for, and peruse the services he offers as a solo musician.

So please, check out Jamie’s website to show your support for him, and if you know anyone who’s looking for a singer/musician/band for a wedding/party/event get in touch with him!

Marriage Day (Photo credit: Fikra)

A couple of months ago I posted about how redefining marriage to include same-sex relationships was a bad idea – gay couples wouldn’t be subject to the same restrictions as straight couples (i.e. you couldn’t divorce over adultery – bad idea), straight couples still wouldn’t be allowed to have civil partnerships, and it would start a slippery slope towards polygamy and incest.

Most people agreed with me on the first two points (this is a question of equal rights, after all), but most also disagreed on the third.

As a little example of someone who would have disagreed with me, check out the Washington Post’s Slate.com’s opinion, published way back in 2004 (please read it). Because they believed so strongly, they published a second article to underline their opinion in 2012 (this one isn’t as good, but help yourself).

Only one year later, they’ve completely turned around; now gay marriage is legal, why isn’t polygamy legal?

A brief quote from the first article:

Bracket all the hysterical and irrelevant stops along the slippery slope…and we are left to try to draw principled lines between gay marriage, in which no one is harmed, and adult incest, adultery, bigamy, or polyamory.

In other words, gay marriage is fine, polygamy isn’t. And a quote from the third article:

The definition of marriage is plastic. Just like heterosexual marriage is no better or worse than homosexual marriage, marriage between two consenting adults is not inherently more or less “correct” than marriage among three (or four, or six) consenting adults. Though polygamists are a minority—a tiny minority, in fact—freedom has no value unless it extends to even the smallest and most marginalized groups among us. So let’s fight for marriage equality until it extends to every same-sex couple in the United States—and then let’s keep fighting. We’re not done yet.

I’m sorry: I told you so.

Related articles

• And now on to polygamy (economist.com)
• Slate: ‘Marriage Equality’ Includes Polygamy (joemiller.us)
• Some traditions aren’t worth preserving (newsherald.com)
• “[P]rohibiting polygamy on ‘feminist’ grounds – that these marriages are inherently degrading to the women involved – is misguided.” (althouse.blogspot.com)
• Progressive Salon.com advocates polygamy as next step in marriage equality (illinoisreview.typepad.com)
• Archbishop of Canterbury ‘supports civil partnerships for heterosexuals’ (guardian.co.uk)

Craig Groeschel is biblical, challenging, humble and absolutely hilarious. Each chapter is well-structured, based on clear Bible passages and ideas, and well-communicated through Groeschel’s own experience and powerful challenges throughout. I’d challenge any Christian to read this book and come out the other side thinking they can continue living as they have before. The best thing about this book is Groeschel’s trademark all-or-nothing approach; God demands our all, so give him your all!

I normally try to come up with one or two things I didn’t like about a book but I simply can’t with this; at times it made me laugh out loud at his stories while at others it was as if my heart had been ripped out of my chest. I haven’t read a book as good as this in a long time, and am looking forward to Groeschel’s next creation.

If you’re a Christian, read this book. And if you’re not, become a Christian, then read this book.

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

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Firstly: this is eye-opening. I knew basically nothing about Iran before reading this, and it almost reads like a fiction story. The Iranian government is controlling and insecure, oppressing women and silencing any voice against them going as far as falsifying statements and handing out the death penalty simply for disagreeing with them. This book is a well-written account of the experiences of two innocent ladies remaining calm and speaking out in the face of persecution.

By the nature of it the book’s saddening, but there’s an under-current of faith and hope throughout the whole thing; the authors are Bible-focused and love to pray, and are an incredible modern example of rejoicing in the midst of suffering.

That said, there’s humour in here as well; on a few occasions the ladies related giggling as a bit of a coping mechanism, and the mental image of pompous, ultra-serious prison guards being humiliated by two ‘infidels’ not being able to stop laughing made me chuckle on many occasions, despite the rest of the book’s content.

I’d encourage anyone and everyone to buy and read this book. It’s written really well and it’s informative; I’m certainly going to be more aware of the situation in Iran from now on, and not only for Christians. The message of the book is clear, true and simple: Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh were quite literally captives in Iran, but the people of Iran are themselves captives of the regime there, whether they realise it or not.

I got this book for free from Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

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• Captive In Iran Memoir Tells True Story Of Two Iranian Women Imprisoned, Sentenced To Death, Miraculously Freed: (hopeforthisworld.wordpress.com)
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• Imprisoned Pastor after Beatings and Torture Said He Didn’t Recognize Himself (hopeforthisworld.wordpress.com)
• Remember Iranian Christians (samisaacson.wordpress.com)
• Inspiring Letter from Pastor in Iranian Prison #FreePastorSaeed (jthmishmash.com)
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So here’s the deal – head over to Teaming with Geese on Amazon and get it for free, and please leave me a review (I’d love five stars but I’d prefer honesty, so go with what you think). Apart from a free book, what’s in it for you?

Well, I’m planning on publishing another two books in the Teaming with Geese series, and would love to give them away for free as well; I’ll send advanced copies to the first five people who leave a review on Amazon and let me know they want them. And so as not to favour the fastest readers/typers, I’ll also give free copies away to the five people who do more of the following than anyone else:

• tell their friends on Twitter
• tell their friends on Facebook
• use your own blog to review it and link to the Amazon page
• send an e-mail to your friends about it

So there you go…happy advertising!

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The second most exciting piece of news was that at the time of writing, five people have bought it – quids in. Selling at just about £1.50 per copy, that means my royalties are hovering at about a fiver, so I only need that to double to hit Amazon’s minimum amount that I can cash out.

Just so’s you know, it isn’t about the money. And just to prove it, I’m trying to give it away for free! From now right up until Sunday you can ‘buy’ it through Amazon without spending a single penny, and even if you don’t have a Kindle you can read it using the online Kindle reader. And the book really isn’t that long, so you might as well!

[EDIT: Sorry, it's actually not free until tomorrow - I'll update you then!]

But I’d like to ask you a favour please. Please do as many of the following as you can:

• I have a ready-made tweet for you, just click here and it will give you a nice prompt
• Use Facebook to tell all your friends about the book
• Please leave a review on the Amazon page
• Please review the book at your blog if you have one

So you can get it for free here. Enjoy it! If you like it, tell your friends; if you don’t like it, tell me!

I think this book is absolutely outstanding. Kyle Idleman is encouraging, funny, challenging, biblical, Jesus-focused, and a good story teller. Reading each chapter is like savouring a richly-flavoured meal, but instead of tastebuds being hit it’s your soul being exposed for the idol worshipper you are. Each chapter is challenging and intensely practical, asking probing questions which make it easy to apply them.

It’s filled with good stories and links to more detail about them, as well as being packed with references to high quality books so reading this ought to be the start of an adventure rather than a goal in itself. There are also plenty of cheeky footnotes which made me laugh a lot; this is not some academic study in idol worship but a radically challenging and instantly applicable handbook.

If you think you need to read this book, you definitely do; it’s probably the best I’ve seen on replacing our idols with Jesus. And if you think you don’t need to the chances are that you’re in even more need of it because you’re unaware of your own idols!

I got this ebook for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

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