Counterfeit Gods

Tim Keller adds to a recent string of excellent books with his latest entry, Counterfeit Gods.  After sharing his wise, pastoral insights on the most logical way to make sense of our world (The Reason for God) and opening up the fantastic lessons to be learned from both brothers in Luke 15:11-32 (The Prodigal God), he returns to give us excellent counsel on assessing our lives to find out what we truly serve and worship.

Keller does takes some basic, obvious truths that should be taught with regularity in the church and expounds on them with significant depth.  The introduction, subtitled The Idol Factory, gives a solid outline for the points to be made throughout the rest of the book.  Keller takes the time to identify what idols are, what idols are prevalent in our society, how we can identify our idols, and what can be done to place those idols where they truly belong.  The tone is gently corrective, piercingly insightful and overtly pastoral.  Dr. Keller delivers on a lifetime of faithful service with meat for even the most experienced believers.  Keller focuses on big issues like love, money, power and success while taking time to place other areas of idolatry into these major themes.  Two quotes from the introduction really give us a framework for the entire book:

We think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case.  The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes.  p.xvii

With the global economy in shambles, many of those idols that we have worshipped for years have come crashing down around us.  This is a great opportunity.  p.xxiv

Keller starts with a chapter, All You’ve Ever Wanted, that lays out a basic reasoning for why we are susceptible to idols.  He argues, from Romans 1, that the we inevitably create idols as God allows us to not only pursue, but achieve, our greatest desires.  The next four chapters are focused on the major areas of idolatry one at a time.  Chapter six starts the work of exposing the hidden idols in our lives such as profit, race, and nationality while taking some shots at typical “American Dream” issues.

Things like honesty and commitment to one’s workers and environment must be embraced as goods themselves–equally important as profit–or integrity will not be maintained.  p.128

Jonah had a personal idol.  He wanted ministry success more than he wanted to obey God.  Also, Jonah was shaped by a cultural idol.  He put the national interests of Israel over obedience to God and the spiritual good of the Ninevites.  p.136

Racial pride and cultural narrowness cannot coexist with the gospel of grace.  p.139

We are so enslaved to our idols that we don’t care about people who are Different, who live in the big cities, or who are just in our own families but very hard to love.  p.153

Chapter seven focuses on the account of Jacob being injured while wrestling to show that ending our idolatry often requires a significant loss of self-reliance.  We get back to the current financial climate and the tremendous opportunity it affords us.  The epilogue gives practical steps for finding and replacing our idols.  Keller focuses on for basic areas to find our idols: our imagination, our spending habits, identifying our daily functional salvation, and our uncontrollable emotions.  The final point is simply that we must replace idols to get rid of them.

If you uproot the idol and fail to “plant” the love of Christ in its place, the idol will grow back.  p.172

Another excellent work from a phenomenal pastor.  Wisdom is hard to come by and it is always great to have those who are humble enough to share it in a meaningful way that equips believers to grow into that wisdom.

Zeitoun

Zeitoun is the biographical account of Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun, as written by Dave Eggars, encompassing their experiences in the days and weeks surrounding Hurricane Katrina.  While the focus is on those events Eggars weaves in a significant amount of backstory to give us some insight into why the Zeitoun family felt as it did.

Zeitoun was Syrian born, Muslim, and spent years traveling the world working on ships before finally settling down in New Orléans.  He had a successful construction company in New Orléans in the years leading up to Katrina.  He married the younger Kathy, a Louisiana native and convert to Islam from her Southern Baptist upbringing.

The bulk of the story deals with the first person accounts of each member of the married couple as they dealt with the insanity of the aftermath of Katrina.  Abdulrahman stayed behind to look after the properties his company was working on, to take care of his own home, and ended up using a small canoe he had recently bought to save several people trapped in their homes.  After collecting a few people, who were also helping, at one of his properties, he was arrested.  He was never charged with a crime, was never told why he was arrested, was never given the opportunity to even attempt to contact his family, and spent weeks being moved from one temporary prison to another.  He was repeatedly accused of being involved with Al Qaeda.  He was eventually released but never received as much as an apology, much less restitution of any sort.

This book will make you consider issues of faith.  It will make you re-think an undying allegiance to certain political figures and their administrations.  It will hopefully outrage you at times even if you disagree with the beliefs of the Zeitoun family.  I would not handle this situation with the patience and grace that this family did.  I also would have filed a much more comprehensive and antagonistic lawsuit sooner than they did.

If you feel like being challenged, this is a good book for it.

Total Church

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, both with significant experience in missions and church planting, are now part of a community in the UK known as “The Crowded House.”  It is not exactly a typical local church but also not exactly a home church.  Their idea, and the ruling principle by which they’ve tried to find a better way to be the church in all of life is this, “Christians are called to a dual fidelity:  fidelity to the core content of the gospel and fidelity to the primary context of a believing community.  (pp. 15-16)”

The book is broken into two basic parts.  The first two chapters focus on gospel and community in principle and the last eleven shift to those things in practice.  The section on principle spends time developing why gospel and community are the main focuses.

Chapter 1 puts the gospel at the forefront by pointing out how central the word is to everything God does and expects of us.  ”…the rejection of God’s rule begins with a rejection of God’s word (p.25)”, “The growth of God’s kingdom is synonymous with the spread of God’s word. (p.29)”, and “The Psalms are God’s revelation of how we should respond to God’s revelation… (p.30)” are just a few samples of how the authors tie in the revealed word as our starting point in any idea we may have of church.  In searching out implications of how to put the gospel into action in forming the church the authors challenge us to view church as a pioneer mission endeavor and ask ourselves the same kinds of questions when identifying what we want in church and what our role is.

Chapter 2 starts getting to the heart of what we are saved to as believers.  ”We are not saved individually and then choose to join the church as if it were some club or support group. (p.39)”  The authors are dead set on fleshing out how we are saved into a community and thus must live out that community as intentionally as we possibly can.  In a rejection of one of the tenets of Western thought, individualism is placed in a negative light in relation to the people we are called to be a part of.

The rest of the book tackles the topics of evangelism, social involvement, church planting, world mission, discipleship and training, pastoral care, spirituality, theology, apologetics, children and young people, and finally success in the context of this kind of intentional, gospel centered community.  The chapters all involve trying to analyze examples from Scripture and relay stories from the authors own experience to try to give us a framework for best applying what we know we are called to be in our contemporary culture.

This is a very good read containing a rare humility and a clear desire from the authors for the church to best live out it’s calling and purpose.  Well done and worth the 2-3 hours you’ll likely spend on it.

Religion Saves

+ NINE other MISCONCEPTIONS.

I’ve read everything by Mark Driscoll save the four books in the “On” series.  His style alters considerably depending on subject matter, audience and intent of each book.  In Religion Saves we get to see a church known for incorporating new media as well as anyone taking the next logical step.  Mars Hill members were allowed to submit questions for consideration and then vote on the ones they most wanted answered.  Once the winners were announced they became a sermon series and now this book.

The chapters go from 9th to 1st and cover the following issues:

9.  Birth Control
8. Humor
7. Predestination
6. Grace
5. Sexual Sin
4. Faith and Works
3. Dating
2. The Emerging Church
1. The Regulative Principal

The common thread of the work is to debunk the religious additions to many areas of life and simply go with the actual biblical teaching while allowing freedom on areas that aren’t specifically dealt with.  The chapter on birth control breaks down a significant history of its existence, which has 2,000+ years of history, a look at various “levels” of birth control, and the legitimate biblical teaching on reproduction as a blessing, not a command.

The chapter on humor breaks down the use of humor throughout Scripture, with special emphasis on style and original context, and shows valid contemporary parallels.

Predestination gets into understanding prevenient grace, total depravity, the ridiculous of an eternal God “gazing into the future (p.84),” and the idea that, “hell is the most just place in all creation(p.97).”

The remaining chapters do much to get to the heart of the matter instead of just buying in to a position taken by whomever we desire to agree with.

I think this book provides an excellent source for discussion based small groups and discipling new Christians.

A New Year “Dons”

I’ve always found New Year’s Resolutions to be hokey, boring, useless and rather stupid to say the least.  As I tried to avoid doing something that would usually rank slightly behind a colostomy I came across two excellent variations on the typical that have inspired me to get a few things written down.

First of all, Don Whitney, best known for authoring Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, blogged about 10 questions for the New Year.  Instead of the usual tripe we get a picture of deep thought and meaningful questioning of our whole self.  The list does go all the way to 31 but the first 10 seem more than daunting by themselves.

Secondly, Don Miller, best known for authoring Blue Like Jazz, blogged about Living a Good Story, a concept he proposed in his newest book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.  In this Miller focuses us on creating stories to give context and motivation to our goals instead of the usual approach that has no overarching purpose.  It is sort of like a meta-narrative for life.

As such, I’ve come up with four stories I am resolving to live this year.  These will hopefully encompass the 10 questions that Whitney proposes while giving motivational context the way Miller illustrates:

1.  Invest myself as part of a core group of believers desiring to plant an Acts 29 church in DC and have at least one signed up to attend a Boot Camp to further the process. This will likely involve major steps such as identifying leadership, narrowing the potential church plant sites, and outlining a church constitution.  For my part it will mean stepping back into teaching roles as they become available, establishing a better grasp on the things I consider non-negotiable, important and distinctive theologically, and prayerfully considering what my role should be in such a venture.

2.  Establish residency within Washington, DC. I have been working towards this rather inadequately for about two years now.  That is entirely too long.  This will require getting my credit back to ground zero, with the exception of student loans, and either an increase in income or a unique living arrangement.  I must pursue all options to the fullest on this front.  Being in the city would naturally bleed over into the first resolution as it would allow for more intense, informed and purposeful prayer and living in regards to identifying key factors for a potential church.

3.  Have at least one published work this year. I am already writing poetry on a fairly regular basis.  I wish to add to this by posting at least two blog posts per month that are neither book or movie reviews.  These posts will primarily be poetry or theological discussions.  As concepts are developed further they will be submitted to appropriate venues in hopes of being published.  Single poems, anthologies, theological articles and full length books are all an option at this point.

4.  Run a 5k. I’ve hit a wall as far as weight loss after a pretty solid 18 months of consistent loss.  I’m at a point with current work situations that my feet ache constantly and my time is non-existent.  I need a goal to push to a next level

5.  Get Married. Only four this year.

These all necessarily bleed into one another.  If I am honing my skills and gifts in teaching settings then I will necessarily be learning more and sharpening my understanding of what I already know.  If I am learning these things then I will necessarily be able to better formulate ideas into article and book length topical treatments for publishing.  If I am teaching, learning and arranging things to be better articulated then I necessarily need a location for all of those things to take place.  If I am in a more centralized location then my commute is cut down and I have time and location that allows for the necessary work to get in shape for a 5k.  If I am in better shape then I will have more energy and greater focus for the mental and spiritual work ahead.  If I am in the city where I desire to be then I will be in more obvious situations that allow for a context into which it all is applied.  If all of this is done then I am necessarily in a place which forces something other than the complacency that has overtaken me in recent months.

Glimmer

I grab a seat facing the back
The Yellow Line crosses
the Potomac from L’Enfant to Pentagon

My city sparkles in the night
Bright
Illuminated it begins its descent into the place
It has become
Hope fades with the light
Truth dissipating by the hour

I must bring what I have
Leave nothing to mere chance
Live the way truth life

Failure is a lack of faith

Forgotten God

Got some more Francis Chan goodness with his second book, Forgotten God.  Chan proposes that the church has somehow “forgotten,” or at least greatly marginalized, the Holy Spirit.  As an encouragement Chan includes a brief biographical entry regarding people whose lives are being clearly lived in a manner that defies conventional wisdom.  In the introduction he comes out swinging with a bold claim that our indistinguishable lives prove the lack of influence the Spirit is having on us:

We are not all we were made to be when everything in our lives and churches can be explained apart from the work and presence of the Spirit of God.  –p.18

…seeking a “healthy balance” of the Holy Spirit assumes that there are some that have too much Holy Spirit and others who have too little.  I have yet to meet anyone with too much Holy Spirit.  –p.20

I am tired of merely talking about God.  –p.22

I refuse to live the remainder of my life where I am right now, stagnating at this point.  –p.22

I’ve Got Jesus.  Why do I need the Spirit?

Pastor Chan starts off recounting an experience he had with Jehovah’s Witnesses in which he challenged them to actually read the Bible for themselves instead of merely regurgitating what they had been told.  He then applies this to the church and questions if we could sit down and read the Old and New Testaments and come to the same conclusions that our Christian subculture assumes to be true.  He questions if we understand what it means to have a Counselor just like Christ and if we know about the Spirit or if we can recount what it is like to be led by the Spirit.  The chapter concludes with a brief word about Joni Eareckson Tada and the work she’s done after being paralyzed as a teenager.

…there is still a need for those of us nestled deep within the Christian bubble to look beyond the status quo and critically assess the degree to which we are really living biblically.  –p.29

What are you afraid of ?

The second chapter focuses on the common fears that accompany our thoughts about relying on the Holy Spirit.  Francis tackles questions like, “What if God doesn’t come through?,” “Do I even want this?,” and, “Is my reputation in the way?”  We all struggle with balancing the actual commands of Scripture with the more descriptive accounts, especially of the early church, where seemingly absurdly radical living occurred often.  There is also the difficulty of figuring out if God has actually promised something or if we have just convinced ourselves that He wants us to have what we want.  There is always the possibility that we don’t want to trust God because of what it will do to the people who see us and just can’t seem to grasp why we are living so differently.  There are legitimate concerns to have, such as making sure that you are staying within the grounds of biblical orthodoxy, but nothing should limit how far you are willing to follow the Spirit’s leading within the bounds of Scripture.  The chapter concludes with a focus on Domingo and Irene Garcia who have been foster parents to 32 children and adopted 16.

Don’t put your hope in what others promise or what you’ve been told you’ll “get” if you are a “good Christian” (e.g., a good job, financial success, the perfect spouse, healthy children, a big house, etc.)  –p.49

Theology of the Holy Spirit 101

Know that even as you seek to understand the Spirit more, He is so much more and bigger than you will ever be able to grasp.  This is not an excuse to stop seeking to know Him, but don’t limit Him to what you can learn about Him.  –p.65

In a short, yet illuminating chapter Francis Chan puts forth seven theological points about the Holy Spirit and briefly describes each.  The Holy Spirit:

1. Is a Person.
2. Is God.
3. Is eternal and holy.
4. Has His own mind, and He prays for us.
5. Has emotions.
6. Has His own desires and will.
7. Is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient.

The chapter concludes recounting the role of Francis Schaeffer in engaging the philosophical world with Biblical truth and then establishing L’Abri to allow people to have a place to come and stay where they could ask tough questions and spend time working out the answers in community.

I believe if we truly cared about the Holy Spirit’s grief , there would be fewer fights, divorces and splits in our churches.  –p.73

Why do you want Him?

We often don’t start in our pursuit of a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit by remembering that His gifting and empowering of us is for the benefit of the rest of the body.  Sometimes our reason is to gain attention.  Sometimes it is simply for the high of miracle hunting.  More often than not, Chan asserts, we intend to lead the Spirit instead of follow.  Is God trying to move you somewhere else and you simply aren’t listening?  Are you where you should be, but not making any kind of discernible, lasting impression for His glory?  When the Spirit is leading things don’t make much sense to anyone who hasn’t experienced that leading.  The biography in this chapter focuses on Esther Ahn Kim, a Korean woman imprisoned by the Japanese during WWII.  She purposely ate decaying food, memorized over 100 chapters of the Bible and spent time fasting and praying prior to being imprisoned so that she could better minister when she was captured.

The Spirit is not a passive power that we can wield as we choose.  The Spirit is God, a Being who requires that we submit ourselves to be led by Him.  –pp.89-90

A real relationship

Is your life to safe?  Is it too loud?  Are you so settled in that you don’t have many real worries?  Is there so much going on that you can’t slow down and focus on one thing?  Do you like your life so much that you don’t want it to change, or are you so close to God that you would want to be martyred before others simply to complete that relationship?  Are you willing to cut off things long enough to spend quality time?  We have the Holy Spirit keeping us from needing to prove we are good enough.  We have the shared relationship with Him helping to graft us into the body of Christ as one.  We have a real relationship, or at least we should have.  Thomas Yun gave up a lucrative position as chef and co-owner of a very successful restaurant, before even making back his initial investment, to cook at a rescue mission simply because that is where the Spirit led.

Why would we need to experience the Comforter if our lives are already comfortable?  –p.107

In my quest to accomplish much, I’ve lost the art of focusing on one thing or one person.  –p.108

Our lack of intimacy is often due to our refusal to unplug and shut off communication from all others so we can be alone with Him.  –p.109

Forget about His will for your life!

A while back I blogged about the book, Just Do Something, that was built entirely on getting us to stop using “waiting for God to reveal His will for my life” as an excuse for lack of decision-making and action.  Here, Francis Chan discusses this issue as it relates to allowing the Spirit to lead even if we don’t know where He might be going.  God’s will isn’t something that exempts us from the difficulties and trials of life.  No amount of waiting around is going to make things easier, and there is no guarantee that God will bother telling us what He has in store for us.  We need to stop trying to lead the Spirit, or goad Him into telling us what we want to know, so that we can face things without as much fear.  Dave Phillips, a successful businessman who hated speaking in front of crowds, left his job and started speaking and raising money for what became the Children’s Hunger Fund.

It is easy to use the phrase “God’s will for my life” as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience.  –p.120

It’s safer to commit to following Him someday instead of this day. –p.120

…dwelling on God’s plan for the future often excuses us from faithful and sacrificial living now.  It tends to create a safe zone of sorts, where we can sit around and have “spiritual” conversations about what God “might” have planned for our lives.  –p.121

I think each of us has a strong tendency to attempt to wrestle control from the Spirit and “do” this life on our own.  Each of us tends to switch from living the gospel of grace to trusting in a system of works.  –p.131

Supernatural Church

What do our churches look like?  Are we meeting, discussing, planning or are we actually being led by the Spirit into lives that are different?  Do we see fruit, and more importantly, do others see it when they come into contact us.  Are we going into audacious places with our prayers and desires as the church?  Do we place value on experience, ours and the churches, in addition to Scripture?  Are we a community that is stronger than other options in our culture?  Is there any reason for anyone to believe that what is going on in our churches is the product of something greater than our own effort?  The final biography in the book is simply a challenge for each of us to be the next one.

I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit.  –p.142

…we’ve created a whole brand of churches that do not depend on the Spirit, a whole culture of Christians who are not disciples, a new group of “followers” who do not follow.  –p.143

Perhaps I can talk people into praying a prayer, but I cannot talk anyone into falling in love with Christ.  I cannot make someone understand and accept the gift of grace.  Only the Holy Spirit can do that.  So by every measure that actually counts, I need the Holy Spirit.  Desperately.  –p.143

God wants the praise for what we do in our lives.  But if we never pray audacious, courageous prayers, how can He answer them?  If we never follow Him to positions where we need Him, how can He show up and make His presence known?  –p.150

I certainly do not advocate ignoring the Scriptures or basing everything on experience, but to completely ignore experience–including your personal experience and the experience of the wider body of Christ, both now and historically–is unbiblical.  –p.151

As for me, I am tired of talking about what we are going to do.  I am sick of talking about helping people, of brainstorming and conferencing about ways we can be radical and make sacrifices.  I don’t want to merely talk anymore.  Life is too short.  I don’t want to speak about Jesus;  I want to know Jesus.  I want to be Jesus to people.  I don’t want just to write about the Holy Spirit;  I want to experience His presence in my life in a profound way.  –p.153

…when we stock up on knowledge without applying it to our lives, we are actually sinning.  –p.156

While Crazy Love got more press and sold more copies, this is the more important book by Francis Chan.  This is the kind of thoughtful, encouraging, challenging work that can only be produced from a life that is being changed.

Crazy Love

Francis Chan sets the tone for his first book perfectly in the foreword.

…this isn’t another book written to bash churches.  I think it’s far too easy to blame the American church without acknowledging that we are each part of the church and therefore responsible.  –pp.19-20

It’s exhilarating to be part of a group of believers who are willing to think biblically rather than conventionally, to be part of a body where radical living is becoming the norm.  –p.20

Jesus came humbly as a servant, but He never begs us to give Him some small part of ourselves.  He commands everything from His followers.  –p.22

Right away Chan points out that if there is a problem then we are, at least in part, responsible.  He then immediately raises our hope that if we are faithful to the crazy thing we are called to that we will encourage one another and be “successful.”

Chan spends the first half of the book being corrective about our attitudes about God and ourselves.  Stop Praying is the title of the first chapter.  The point is simple.  Stop running our mouths, asking for everything we want and actually take the time to see and recognize the vastly greater God that we claim to follow.  The next chapter drives home the point of placing proper value on our time, possessions and reputations.  ”Both worry and stress reek of arrogance.”  (p.42)  Chapter 3 tests whether or not we are going through the motions or actually love God.  Are we working off the checklist of American/Western Churchianity or living in relationship with the creator of the universe?  ”Jesus didn’t command that we have a regular time with Him each day.”  (p.57)  We then get a profile of the lukewarm in which we are cautioned against thinking/taking for granted we are the good soil in the parable of the four soils.  The final diagnosis chapter focuses on our tendency to push God to a little bit of time, money or whatever else we have an abundance of whenever we can afford it.  Instead of just giving what we can muster up without a genuine effort and placing God as our highest priority he compares us to the warnings of Malachi 1 and then summarizes it this way:

He was saying no worship is better than apathetic worship.  I wonder how many church doors God wants to shut today.  –p.92

Chapter 6, When You’re in Love, starts us on the encouraging part of this challenging book.  We all know what it’s like to act out of a strong desire instead of an obligation.  We desperately need God’s help to have that kind of love for Him.  Contrary to what that guy with the horrible fake smile in Houston says, our best life comes later.  We should be living in an inconceivable manner to the average person.  We have so much more than the majority of people in the world and yet hoard it all to ourselves.

Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.  –p.115

Jesus is saying that we show tangible love for God in how we care for the poor and those who are suffering.  He expects us to treat the poor and the desperate as if they were Christ Himself.  –p.119

Chapter 8, profile of the obsessed, is directly contrasted to the profile of the lukewarm in chapter 4.  To add to the effect of the outlandishly biblical nature of the chapter, each main point is stated in a font that is not used anywhere else in the book.  The obsessed are identified as givers, not concerned with safety or comfort, connected to the poor, serving joyfully, focused on heaven and have a real, raw, passionate relationship with God.  The next chapter answers the obvious question, “Who really lives that way?”  The answer is a series of short bios about Christians from various traditions and historical settings.  The final bio is about the church he pastors which:

This year we committed to giving away 50 percent of our budget.  –p.163

If we really want to love our neighbors as ourselves, then it makes sense that we spend at least as much on them as we do ourselves.  –p.163

They also changed building plans to build an outdoor amphitheater and save $20 million.  Pastor Chan finishes with the crux of the matter.

Memories are great, but do you live differently because of them?  –p.166

The point is that there is another path, an alternative to the individualism, selfishness, and materialism of the American Dream (even the so-called Christian version).  –p.166

Most of us use, “I’m waiting for God to reveal His calling on my life” as a means of avoiding action.  –p.169

It is individual people living Spirit-filled lives that will change the church.  –p.171

The world needs Christians who don’t tolerate the complacency of their own lives.  –p.172

Francis Chan doesn’t prescribe specific things you must do.  He doesn’t shout you down because he’s got it all figured out.  He simply walks you through Scripture and prays that it will do its work with the Holy Spirit applying it.  All the examples are just that, not one is lifted up as the formula for living the right way.  This is how you challenge and encourage at the same time.  I highly recommend this for all Christ-followers.

Just Do Something

Kevin DeYoung is a PCA pastor in East Lansing, Michigan.  He came into some prominence in the last years with the book, Why We’re Not Emergent, which he co-authored with Ted Kluck.  As a pastor of a church across the street from Michigan State University he is in a unique position to see the postmodern turn and how it is affecting church and Christ followers in general.

To give a basic summary of the book one need not look farther than his subtitle:  A liberating approach to finding God’s will OR How to make a decision without dreams, visions, fleeces, impressions, open doors, random bible verses, casting lots, liver shivers, writing in the sky, etc.  The book is a simple 3″x5″, 122 page treatise on getting past the nonsense of finding God’s will that dominates the pseudo-Christian subculture.  In that space we get 10 chapters that neatly chop up the argument into easily readable, bite size chunks.

The first four chapters focus on the current systemic problem.  Chapter 1, The Long Road to Nowhere, points out how no one is growing up.  Let’s just say the numbers are daunting to say the very least.

Chapter 2, The Will of God in Christianese, starts identifying the root of the problem.  DeYoung points out that there is the will of decree, how things are, and the will of desire, how things ought to be, and nothing else about God’s will in Scripture.  DeYoung notes that it is rare that God gives specific individuals specific instruction before expecting them to do what he asks.  There is no specific will of direction that we see sought as a normative activity in Scripture.

Trusting in God’s will of decree is good.  Following His will of desire is obedient.  Waiting for God’s will of direction is a mess.  –p.26

Chapter 3 focuses on our being Directionally Challenged.  Whether it’s timidity or simply waiting for perfect fulfillment, we wait until things are “just right” before finally acting.  It is argued that we are actually crippled by the number of choices we have compared to previous generations.  Finally, sometimes we are just cowards.

I’m pretty sure most of us would be more fulfilled if we didn’t fixate on fulfillment quite so much.  –p.32

My fear is that of all the choices people face today, the one they rarely consider is, “How can I serve most effectively and fruitfully in the local church?”  –p.36

We should stop looking for God to reveal the future to us and remove all risk from our lives.  –p.41

Chapter 4, Our Magic 8-Ball God, takes us to task for ignoring what God has said in favor of trying to figure out what he hasn’t.  DeYoung points out how much time we waste trying to figure out what to be instead of glorifying God by serving him in whatever area we are gifted and have an opportunity.

This brings us back to our anxiety, our tendency to live out the future before it arrives.  We must renounce our sinful desire to know the future and to be in control.  We are not gods.  We walk by faith, not by sight.  We risk because God does not risk.  We walk into the future in God-glorifying confidence, not because the future is known to us but because it is known to God.  And that’s all we need to know.  Worry about the future is not simply a character tic, it is the sin of unbelief, an indication that our hearts are not resting on the promises of God.  –p.48

Chapter 5 gets us started on A Better Way.  DeYoung masterfully shows that living for God’s kingdom should be the reigning influence in our lives.

Die to self.  Live for Christ.  And then do what you want, and go where you want, for God’s glory.  –p.61

Chapter 6, Ordinary Guidance and Supernatural Surprises, starts grounding us on identifying God’s will in detail.  The bible is our normative standard for discerning God’s will.  It has been left for us, with significant detail, and should serve as our ground base for everything we do.  The early church relied on wisdom to apply what they already knew about God instead of constantly testing God on every point.  God can speak to us in other ways, but they are rare, extra-ordinary, and usually (with the possible exception of Gideon) not sought out by the person who hears from God.

Tools of the Trade.  Chapter 7 gives us a look at how to approach some of the typical other things that we rely on for decision-making.  Wisdom should allow us to go through open doors and knock repeatedly at closed ones if we believe them to be best.  We too often tempt God by bartering with a “fleece” approach.  We take random verses found in random ways without regard to context and run off to do the ridiculous.  We must take impressions that we get, verses we come across and opportunities we encounter under legitimate consideration and wisely pursue what we desire.

Humble goals and loosely held plans are good.  Expecting God to do tricks for us is bad.  –p.79

I’ll simply let two quotes from DeYoung himself summarize Chapter 8, The Way of Wisdom.

Wisdom is the difference between knowing a world-class biologist who can write your papers for you and studying under a world-class biologist so that you can write the kind of papers he would write.  –p.93

If God figured out everything for us, we wouldn’t need to focus on Him and learn to delight in His glory.  –p.94

Chapter 9 could be the basis for an entire book itself, Work, Wedlock & the Will of God.  DeYoung breaks it into sections titled, Get a Job, Getting Hitched, Is This the One?, Some Advice to Men and Women, and What Can I Do?  In the section about finding a job he gives us four simple steps:  Search the Scriptures, Get wise counsel, Pray, Make a decision.  That’s really it.  Be content, not complacent, and serve God as you can where you are.  Getting Hitched brings us the same four steps.  DeYoung takes some shots at the garbage about “the one.”

…pray less that God would show you who is the right husband or wife and pray more to be the right kind of husband or wife.  If everyone was praying to be the right spouse, it wouldn’t really matter so much who is the “right” spouse.  Dump your list of seventeen things you need in a wife and make yourself a list of seventeen things you need to be as a husband.  –p.106

There are too many great Christians out there who should be married to one of the other great Christians out there.  –p.108

…when there is an overabundance of Christian singles who want to be married, this is a problem.  And it is a problem I put squarely at the feet of young men whose immaturity, passivity, and indecision are pushing their hormones to the limits of self-control, delaying the growing up process, and forcing countless numbers of young women to spend lots of time and money pursuing a career (which is not necessarily wrong) when they would rather be getting married and having children.  –p.108

Chapter 10, The End of the Matter, summarizes the tone of the book quite nicely.  Interspersed throughout the book are mentions of DeYoung’s grandfathers and how their approach to being Christians differs so much from ours.  Both seemed constantly confused by the idea of doing anything other than loving God, loving and providing for their family, and doing so without constant vacillation on the minutiae of every decision that needs to be made.  The closing paragraph says it all.

So the end of the matter is this:  Live for God.  Obey the Scriptures.  Think of others before yourself.  Be holy.  Love Jesus.  And as you do these things, do whatever you else you like, with whomever you like, wherever you like, and you’ll be walking in the will of God.  –p.122

Some quality cinema.

Inglorious Basterds! (4.5/5)

Quentin Tarantino can seemingly do no wrong.  This film is full of subtitles, a truly bizarre alternate history, and a mostly unknown cast.  With all that could seemingly go wrong, this is still a nearly perfect film.  It is typically crass, blunt, over the top and generally bizarre, but as usual Tarantino casts his movie without a single misstep and crafts a compelling and even engrossing story.

No Impact Man (3.5/5)

Fun documentary about a family that decides to try and produce no waste during a calendar year.  They ditch cars, elevators, electricity, restaurants, take out containers, disposable diapers and just about anything else you can imagine.  The documentary does a fantastic job of allowing you to see the interpersonal struggles of the family as well as the varied difficulties of each particular item given up.  Instead of some insane call to action where we are told we must all do the same thing, the family involved constantly emphasizes that at the end of the year they will reintegrate what wasn’t necessary to remove while trying to find a less wasteful way to live in the middle of NYC.

The Informant! (4/5)

This movie simply doesn’t take itself seriously enough.  The acting is spot on, the voice over actually adds quite a bit to things, but there are just too many cartoonish issues in the presentation.  The story of Mark Whitacre is a fairly contemporary one and is so absurd that it is at times difficult to remember that it is true.  The opening screen acknowledges taking some liberties with the dialogue, but the major facts of the story are all verifiable.  Matt Damon puts in a fantastic performance and each supporting role is filled excellently (Scott Bakula as a FBI agent is great).

Julie & Julia (5/5)

This may be the most underrated film of the year.  A great balance of the two main characters, their similarities and differences, and the not necessarily happy ending on each front gives the movie some excellent balance.  Meryl Streep deserves an Oscar for her turn as Julia Child.  Stanley Tucci does a fantastic job as her husband Paul.  Amy Adams and Chris Messina play Julie and Eric Powell convincingly.  The screenplay does a very good job of switching couples and time periods without much fuss at all.