Book review: Altar Ego by Craig Groeschel

Yes, it’s another book about becoming who God says you are in Christ. This one’s split into three parts, basically covering who we are in Christ, what characteristics that means we should have, and how to be bold in obeying God.

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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Book review: Gods at War by Kyle Idleman

This book is based around the simple concept that people are created to worship, and that the question is therefore not, ‘Do we worship?’ but ‘Who/what do we worship?’ All of us are guilty of idol worship, and Kyle Idleman deals with one idol per chapter, looking at things like money, family, job and self to ask whether they are idols in our lives, and how we ought to replace them with Jesus.

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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How can I get close to God?

Yes, I’m a happy child. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A question that comes up a lot for Christians is: How can I get closer to God? At times he can feel distant, silent and difficult to understand. I think the answer might be easier than it seems.

I’ve been a Daddy for almost one full year now and the times that I’ve felt best as a Dad have been when (a) my little boy is upset and I make him happy, and (b) when he’s having a good time and I make him laugh.

As a Christian I’ve been adopted into God’s family; he’s my Daddy, and I don’t think anything makes him happier than when (a) I’m upset and go to him so he can make me happy, or (b) I’m happy and go to him to be grateful and increase my joy.

This might be too simplistic but asking ‘How can I get close to God?’ is a bit of a non-question; we don’t need to get close to him because he is close to us. And he loves us to turn toward him; it isn’t a case of ticking the right boxes, working harder, reading the Bible more, praying more…it’s just about looking to him.

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The art of the self-defeating statement

Morality Play (novel) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m entirely unable to write English.

For the quick-witted among you, I’m sure you already spotted that the above sentence is pointless – you don’t need years of analysis to figure out that the sentence proves itself to be incorrect. But we do fall into the trap of believing these self-defeating statements from time-to-time.

Shall we look at a couple of examples?

No-one can know any truth about religion.

Well, for that to be true, it must not be true…shame.

You can’t know anything for sure.

Are you sure?

You shouldn’t force your morality on people.

Ever heard this one? Why shouldn’t I? Is it morally wrong? Stop forcing your morality on me!

You should just accept people as they are.

I’m assuming that the only exception to this rule is you then, who haven’t just accepted me as I am?

Now I don’t want to be that guy who just shouts at people then refuses to listen to them, but at the same time I don’t want to just roll over in the face of clearly flawed reasoning.

Any suggestions as to how to spot these, or any other examples that might be useful?

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I read The Life of Pi. It was good.

Crooked Little Vein and Life of Pi (Photo credit: Rich_Lem)

I haven’t seen the film yet, but having read the book I’d quite like to. Before reading it someone said to me that it isn’t so much about him in a boat with a tiger as the adverts make it seem…but it really is, isn’t it.

Anyway, it was a good book. Gripping, interesting, perhaps a tad gory in places, with a disturbing twist at the end – incredible writing, although I’d probably have rather it finished in Disney style, because that’s the sort of guy I am.

But some of the most enjoyable moments for me came towards the start of it, where Pi is discovering Christianity for the first time. For a start, check out his first reaction when he walks into a church:

Something about a human sacrifice. An angry god who had to be appeased with blood. Dazed women staring up into the air and fat babies with tiny wings flying about. A charismatic bird. Which one was the god?

Well captured; how confusing must it be for non-Christians to encounter Christianity for the first time? A good reminder for us.

Then, Pi encounters a priest, who starts to explain things to him, and Pi begins to understand.

…the stories that came before it – and there were many – were simply prologue to the Christians. Their religion had one Story, and to it they came back again and again, over and over. It was story enough for them.

Preach it, Pi!

I can’t imagine Lord Krishna consenting to be stripped naked, whipped, mocked, dragged through the streets and, to top it off, crucified – and at the hands of mere humans, to boot.

Indeed; surely only a God with infinite power and self assurance would allow something like that to happen.

But once a dead God, always a dead God, even resurrected. The Son must have the taste of death forever in his mouth…there must be a certain stench at the right hand of God the Father. The horror must be real. Why would God wish that upon Himself? Why not leave death to the mortals? Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect?

A good question – what was the answer that Pi discovered?

Love.

Wow. And that’s the Good News. But the book explains yet more about Christianity, and how it differs from other world religions.

In a moment you are lost or saved. Christianity stretches back through the ages, but in essence it only exists at one time: right now.

Spot on. That’s called grace. Yes, God existed before time, and we’ll live with him for eternity, yet all that really matters is right here, right now.

I’ve grown accustomed to your faith

Blind Faith (book) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What sort of faith do you have? I’ve maintained for a long time that a Christian’s faith can’t possible be faith ‘contrary to the evidence’, as many atheists would have it, because that would require us to have less faith in the event of an answered prayer or whatever.

Thankfully, someone way cleverer than me has pulled together a little summary, together with lovely little pictures, to explain what different people mean when they say ‘faith’. I’ll retell it here, but if you want the original click to see the original Four Types of Faith. In each case, Christianity is a chair and sitting on it is our act of faith.

• Blind faith is as if we’re approaching the chair wearing a blindfold; we can definitely sit in it, but we can’t tell if there aren’t better chairs everywhere else, or if the chair’s on a conveyor belt about to tip us into a cauldron of boiling oil. This is not good faith.
  
• Irrational faith is the faith the daft atheists (as opposed to the not daft ones, I’m not caricaturing here) say Christians have; chucking reason over our shoulder we intentionally sit on what we know is a broken chair which isn’t just foolish, it’s dangerous.
• Warranted faith is faith based on evidence; it’s the sort of faith you and I use every moment of every day. I have faith that the pavement won’t randomly turn into jelly today, yet I have no evidence to disprove that theory. We look at the foundations of the chair, observe it to be stronger, more reliable, with a better creator, and safer than all the other chairs, and sit confidently in it.
• Biblical faith is faith which is based on evidence, yet with the catalyst of the Holy Spirit. I put something up on the blog a bit ago showcasing some straightforward evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ; I’m reasonably sure it was seen by at least one non-Christian, yet I didn’t get any responses saying ‘I believe!’ Why not? Because the Holy Spirit didn’t awaken that faith. It’s as if we can see the chair but we know it’s been made by someone we hate more than anything else, so out of spite we refuse to sit in it until he comes over and gives us a hug, reassuring us that he’s actually a pretty nice guy. And his chair’s really comfortable actually.

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Remember Iranian Christians

Iran sentences American pastor Saeed Abedini to 8 years in prison Fox News #tcot #iranelections (Photo credit: Robert Reed Daly)

A couple of weeks ago I saw a news story highlighting an Iranian pastor, who was apparently arrested and has received an eight-year gaol sentence for nothing more than being a Christian.

13 years ago Saeed Abedini converted from Islam to Christianity. Since then he’s left the country and has been living in the US, but has returned to Iran regularly to visit his parents. He’s been arrested about ten times, and this most recent time has been particularly hard for his family and other supporters because the Iranian government have been lying to them.

This is what’s known as persecution. A few months ago I saw a comment about the lady at BA who had been asked to remove the cross jewellery, saying ‘persecution’s coming to England!’ Well, perhaps it is, but hold your horses. In Iran, and elsewhere, Christians are being arrested, tortured and killed for their faith.

Let’s pray for Saeed and his family, and the many others like him who don’t have the chance for CNN to do a story on them. Come, Lord Jesus.

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What colour are demons?

Demon (Photo credit: ark)

Everyone knows what colour demons are: red. They’re red. With little horns, a skinny forked tail and a trident that they carry around everywhere. They probably have bat-like wings as well.

Of course, almost everyone knows that this image of demons isn’t the image portrayed in the Bible, but it was concocted in the Middle Ages…but why?

Simples! The church wanted an easy way of demonstrating visually that compared to Jesus’ power, demons were jokes – an annoying but insignificant insect that perches on your shoulder, telling you to do bad things but which you can swat away in the name of Jesus.

So as atheists look at these pictures of demons and laugh at the foolish Christians for believing such medieval nonsense, I will look at those same pictures and laugh at Satan for having rebelled against the holy God when he must have known exactly what was going to happen.

Christus victor!

Nothing exploded

English: A cross close to the church in Grense Jakobselv, Norway. Suomi: Risti kirkon lähellä Vuoremijoella, Norjassa. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Christians have a lot of faith. They stupidly believe in some guy who lives in the sky, definitely Caucasian, definitely with a white beard, probably holding a staff or a lightning bolt or something like that, who created everything, then sneakily hid proof of evolution in it all so that the cleverest humans would be led astray, leaving the stupid ones to get into heaven because of their faith.

Well, judging by the way the new atheists talk I think that’s what they believe anyway. The fact that I’m a Christian and believe none of that paragraph (except maybe the bit about him creating everything) seems to make no difference; why address real-life Christians when imaginary ones are so much easier to get angry and aggro about!

I’m not convinced that Christians have any more faith than atheists do. Let me tell you what I can see at the moment:

• a whole bunch of electronic stuff
• chocolate biscuits
• furniture
• buildings
• statues
• trees

All of those, with the exception of the last one, have a clear creator or creators; humans. But the last one, according to atheists, needs faith to believe in a creator. Odd.

Ok, so the tree grew ‘naturally’ out of a seed, but where did the seed come from? Another tree? But that doesn’t go back forever…atheists would have us believe that everything came into existence out of nothing on its own.

Is it just me, or is that absolutely ridiculous? In what other situation would we see something and conclude that it came into being when there was nothing there before, not even its various parts?

Atheists: you demonstrate more faith than I feel I can muster up I’m afraid!

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Ritual for the sake of ritual

The church that I’m part of is non-denominational. It’s part of a wider network of churches so there are the benefits of accountability and oversight that come with that, but we’re not tied down to a particular order of service or what-have-you.

When you’re part of a church like mine it’s easy to attend a more tightly-controlled church (say, Church of England) and feel that the joy and freedom of Christianity has been lost in ritual and tradition, but that ease to judge just goes to show the legalism that can so easily grow out of the good news of grace. When you love grace to the point that you judge other people for not getting it you realise that you don’t really get it yourself.

It turns out that there is value in ritual and tradition. Every single day I leave my office at a time that enables me to get home, play with my son, give him a bath, and eat with my wife. That time’s valuable and important, and doesn’t lose any of its value simply by being repeated every day – on the contrary, the more it happens consistently, the more value it gets!

But the danger is always when the ritual begins to outshine the reason (if I might go so far as to use alliteration). I met a Muslim a year or two ago who was fasting for Ramadan but didn’t know why – I’m not even a Muslim and I think that’s a shame.

So, long story short, I’m going to introduce a bit of ritual to this here blog. I’m not going to tie myself down to this, but I think I’m going to give each day a bit of a theme. I’d be glad to hear your thoughts and/or other ideas!

• Faith Monday (reasons why Christians believe what we do)
• Others Tuesday (encouraging us to be more aware of human rights/mission)
• Wednesday Rewind (looking at what I wrote on this date last year)
• Thursday Humour (because Thursdays are just annoying and need brightening up, don’t they?)
• Challenge Friday (seeking a deeper relationship with God)

What do you think I should or shouldn’t include here?