Book Review: Days Like These by Kristian & Rachel Anderson

This is a chronological walk through Kristian’s cancer, in his own words. Blog posts he wrote during his struggle with cancer have been compiled into chapters with a summary section at the end of each written by his wife Rachel. It’s incredibly personal, very personal, and of course very emotional throughout.

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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Want to be skeptical?

So a few weeks ago I suggested that the foundation of everything anyone believes is based on circular reasoning.

I stand by that post.

I found it interesting, therefore, when I saw this article the other day about God’s purposes in suffering – if you find yourself believing that suffering is bad, do you believe that simply because you already believe that? Here’s a little quote to whet your appetite:

…seeing the blind man on the temple steps triggered their curiosity: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

God the Son…gave an answer that would turn their theology on its head and affect the futures of millions…God made this man blind in order to demonstrate his power in him.

…

After his world-shaking statement, Jesus made the man see! In that moment everything changed. See the power of the Word! Light shown into dark eyes. A brain that had never processed optical stimuli was given immediate ability to interpret a visual world.

But even more revolutionary in its repercussions, the man went from being perceived as the object of God’s wrath to being the object of God’s kindness!…

So was it worth it — all the suffering? It all depends on what God gave him in return.

God so loved him that he gave his only Son so that by believing in him, this man would not perish but have eternal life. What this man received beyond his miraculous physical healing was the far more miraculous forgiveness of all his sins and eternal life in God’s presence where full joy and pleasures never end.Such a gift would be worth a thousand blind lifetimes.

The article itself isn’t much longer than what I’ve quoted here; have a read.

God’s sovereignty in disability

This is a phenomenally powerful, moving and thoroughly godly interview between John Piper and John Knight, whose son was born without eyes. The full transcript is available for free here. Fully worth the 20 or so minutes.

The Shelter of God's Promises by Sheila Walsh (audio)

There are some books which are just so filled with grace that they remind you how it felt to have just been born again: this is one of those books. By looking at ten of God’s promises, Sheila Walsh digs deep into the overwhelming love and protection that God has for us.

Walsh picks apart every point, addressing every question that might come up. The book is not massively intellectual and is one of those books that you can simply listen to while doing something else. I particularly admired the way she references the original Greek text to pull out meanings that are not instantly apparent in the English Bible text, without making you feel uneducated. Perhaps on one or two occasions I wasn’t sure this added much, but on the whole I’d encourage this to Christians, especially ladies and especially those who have experienced tough times.

Each point is thoroughly Bible-based, and makes great use of stories – at times I felt myself wanting to both laugh and cry, and it’s not often that you find a book like that. What’s particularly good about this audio version is that it’s narrated by Sheila Walsh herself – if you can get past the American/Scottish accent, this really adds that personal, genuine touch.

I got this audiobook for free from christianaudio.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.

Do not adjust your…calendar?

Yesterday we should have remembered calendar readjustment day!

It was in 1751 that the world lost 11 days – Wednesday 2 September finished and calendars leapt forward to Thursday 14 September. There were actual riots from the population who were demanding the immediate return of the intervening dates.

People back then must have been stupid or something. Here’s the thing – we do the same all the time!

God allows things to happen which we might not at the time, and we moan about it and at times rebel against him in stupid ways. I get the feeling that we’re going to look back at ourselves one day and think how ridiculous we are.

The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven by Kevin and Alex Malarkey

This is another of those books which tells the story of someone who had a near-death experience, entered heaven, and came back to tell the tale. It’s slightly different from some of the others because it was a child who went there, and he miraculously recovered from a situation the doctors thought was hopeless.

I’ll cut to the chase here, my problem. Quite a bit of this book would seem to not be consistent with Scripture. My comments about the content, therefore, are not that I think Alex or his Dad Kevin are lying about the whole thing, but that their interpretation is wrong. At the end of the day I think they’re good Christians who want the glory to go to God but that their beliefs sometimes border on gnostic heresy, that the spiritual side of heaven is ‘good’ and the physical is ‘bad’.

There’s also a balancing act which gets close to toppling into a prosperity gospel pit – it doesn’t go there but is close. In particular Alex’s Mum was told that she should pray for Alex’s healing and not lose that faith or else he would die. The knock-on effect of this is that a reader who lost their child could feel condemned that they didn’t pray enough, or didn’t have enough faith – and that’s simply not true.

That all said, there is actually a lot of good in this enjoyable book. The honesty of the family shines through and some good lessons about enduring through tough times are there. There are good examples of God’s miraculous healing power to build your faith, and personal illustrations of prophetic pictures as well.

It feels like it was pulled together a bit clumsily – part of each chapter is apparently written by Alex so has a nice child-like quality to it but at the same time he uses some very complex sentence structures and words, which make the whole thing quite frustrating. There are also random quotes scattered throughout the text, which make a nice addition but at times distract from the main body and at one point split a sentence in half over four pages!

Overall, don’t get me wrong – the book is a good one, I enjoyed reading it, felt myself tearing up on more than one occasion and felt like I got to know the family, I’m sure they’re good people with a strong and genuinely Christian faith. But, at the end of the day, I have to trust God’s word over the Malarkeys’ so it’s not getting a thumbs up from me this time.

I received this book for free from Tyndale House Publishers. I’m not required to give a positive review.

Evil proves that you believe in God

We’ve talked on this blog before about how atheists suppose that the existence of evil disproves God. I’m going to say again that it’s a completely illogical statement.

There is evil in the world, and there is also good. If there is good and evil then there must be a moral law, which must have originated from somewhere. That somewhere, for Christians, is God.

Atheists may say that God is undermining his own laws to allow evil but all that means is that the atheist is choosing which bits of the Bible to believe…which is inconsistent and illogical.

Prominent atheists agree with me on this – Kai Nielson said:

Pure practical reason, even with a good knowledge of the facts, will not take you to morality.

J. L. Mackie agreed, saying:

[The ideas of good and evil] are most unlikely to have arisen in the ordinary course of events, without an all powerful God to create them.

The only plausible atheistic argument is that good and evil are non-existent, which is what Richard Dawkins says:

The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no other good. Nothing but blind pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is. And we dance to its music.

But atheists don’t actually believe this. Dawkins has a daughter (I think), and if she were raped I sincerely doubt that he could possibly say that the rapist should not be held accountable for his actions because he was just dancing to his DNA.

But even without this (subjective) argument there’s still a problem – is the belief in God just a DNA dance? Dawkins says yes, that it’s a virus that we need to eradicate. And morality is called in again here – what makes faith ‘bad’ and naturalism ‘good’?

Dawkins is not really an atheist, he simply believes that he is god himself. He genuinely believes that he has the power to determine good and evil for himself and others.

Please, if you’re an atheist, stop kidding yourself. Think through your logic logically.

Beyond Opinion by Ravi Zacharias (ed)

A collection of the finest and most respected apologists on the planet combined their skill and knowledge to bring this work to my bookshelf. By looking at a vast range of situations and audiences the book aims to inspire the reader to take apologetics beyond opinion to changed lives based on truth.

The key message for this book is that it’s not an apologetics book itself. I expected it to be full of convincing arguments to build my faith, but that’s not its purpose so if that’s what you’re looking for you’ll be disappointed, despite the list of authors!

In my opinion the last chapter is the best, in which Zacharias pushes home the importance of a radically changed life, the church community, and the development of apologetics into more than a debate. If I’d read this chapter first, the rest of the book would have made much more sense.

On the whole the book’s very strong. The authors are knowledgeable and give a good background about all of the topics covered. But there’s a problem in the wide range of topics – covering all Eastern and New Age religions in one short chapter doesn’t really do them justice and just leaves you asking more questions than you started with.

If you’re into apologetics I’d encourage you to read this book because it will get your priorities right, but don’t expect to receive a bunch of new arguments because it doesn’t do that.

I got this book for free from BookSneeze. I’m not required to give a positive review.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

At almost 600 pages this thorough biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is no light read, but I don’t think you’d really want it to be. Metaxas follows Bonhoeffer’s life from conception right through to death, pulling plenty of quotes from a whole variety of letters and essays written by him and his friends.

I began this book knowing little about Bonhoeffer’s life, and having read only one chapter of his work The Cost of Discipleship, but that didn’t hamper my enjoyment of this book, and indeed increased my desire to read more of his going forward!

Metaxas does an excellent job of drawing in the reader. The book is long because he intentionally dwells in each area of Bonhoeffer’s life to the point that you do truly feel like you are there with him, so prepare to become emotionally involved at various points – you’ll laugh and cry, but more than that I’m sure you’ll be impacted by Bonhoeffer’s life and attitudes.

Other sources including the Bible are liberally quoted giving a real context for his life, and a generous helping of photos help to clarify the setting for the book, and remind the reader that the horrific circumstances depicted were real.

If you enjoy reading biographies, read this one. Without doubt it’s the best biography of anyone I’ve ever read. If you don’t enjoy reading biographies, you desperately need to read this one. I’m confident it will change your life, providing you have the perseverance to make it the whole way through.

I got this book for free from booksneeze.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom with John & Elizabeth Sherrill (audio)

I’ve heard Corrie Ten Boom’s name, and the name of The Hiding Place before, but had never been disciplined enough to read it until now – I’m glad I have now read it! Corrie Ten Boom recounts her incredible life experiences from childhood through to her adult ministry and everything inbetween.

It’s not what I expected. It takes a long time before you’re introduced to the main action, but that’s important to understand the context. Her story covers every genre from espionage to action through to tragedy, but I really got into it the more it went on – there’s something in here for everyone.

It’s incredibly emotional. Corrie went through more than almost anyone, and I found myself shedding tears several times throughout it. She covers important issues like forgiveness, joy, thankfulness, peace, patience, answered prayer, and Bible reading – all within the context of enormous injustice, to the point of being starved, beaten, stripped naked, sleeping among lice, and that’s only the beginning.

I want you to read this to come to grips with how shocking humanity is. We live in a false pretence of civilisation, yet the holocaust actually happened – this book helped to realise that for me.

The narration is excellent – full of joy and emotion yet without being distracting. Please do read this book, for your own sake even if not for that of unbelievers and Jesus.

I got this audiobook for free from christianaudio.com as part of their book reviewers programme. I’m not required to give a positive review.