Archives For December 2007

In attempting to reach my goal of reading 12-books a year, here’s this year’s current list:

01. “Jim & Casper Go To Church” by Jim Henderson
02. “Quiet Strength, a Memoir” by Tony Dungee
03. “When Necessary Use Words” by Mike Pilavachi
04. “You Converted Me” by Tony Jones
05. “I Sold My Soul on eBay” by Hemant Mehta
06. “A.K.A. LOST” by Jim Henderson
07. “Little Family, Big Values” by The Roloff Family & Tracy Sumner
08. “Frequently Avoided Questions: An Uncensored Dialogue on Faith” by Chuck Smith Jr. and Matt Whitlock
09. “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day” by Mark Batterson
10. “Walking the Trail of Death” by Keith Drury
11. “The Deity Formerly Known as God” by Jarrett Stevens

If I add-in reading “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” nearly a million times along with countless other children’s books, I think I’ve achieved my goal of 12-a-year.

In all seriousness, though, I need to attempt to read at least one more book in the next week-and-a-half. Any suggestions?

dfkag.jpgAfter originally losing this book on a flight from Indianapolis to Miami on route to Haiti, I had the opportunity to pick up a new copy of it and finished reading it just this afternoon.

I met the author of this book at a Student Ministries conference at Willow Creek where he was on staff and happened to be leading one of the discussion-groups that I signed up for. I was impressed with him then and at the completion of reading this book!

The book is a “re-make” of a book he found on his shelf one afternoon by J.B. Phillips entitled, “Your God is Too Small”. He read it and ventured to re-write it in his own way for today’s readership. I’m glad he did.

The book points out some false-images of God that we (humans) have created to fit the molds WE have thought up and created for ourselves in order to “know” God for ourselves. The first half of the book includes six of these “characters” that we have built our God into being.

The second half of the book points back to Biblical examples of God’s character and seeks to abolish the false-images previously mentioned in the first-half.

The book reads like a post-modern sermon-series, which is partially because Stevens wrote it after compiling a series of sermons entitled, “The Deity Formerly Known as God”. Anyways – it’s great stuff and I highly recommend it.

I’m sure some of the examples and illustrations will find their ways into Stevan’s messages in the future.

Old School

12.20.2007 — 9 Comments

yes.jpg

Would you have been my friend back then?

Yum.

12.20.2007 — Leave a comment

rb.jpgThanks to one of my students – Rudy, I have FINALLY (after 5-months of living here) tasted Wisconsin’s (the worlds’?) BEST root beer!

In between sentences I am quietly sipping my bottle of Sprecher’s Root Beer and loving every sweet drop. I had been told even before moving here that Wisconsin was famous for this brew. Now I finally understand the hype.

I want another one.