Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of the Faith by Richard Foster

Foster is known for a several classic Christian books, Celebration of Discipline and Prayer. These are both classics for a reason. I have also previously read his Freedom of Simplicity. This is not the classic that the first two are, but it is a good and useful in Foster’s attempt at drawing the church together. The … Read more

Boomsday by Christopher Buckley

I am a big fan of Christopher Buckley’s fiction (I have not read any of his non-fiction yet.)  No one writes better political satire than Buckley.  So far I have read Supreme Courtship (about the nomination of a TV judge to the Supreme Court) and No Way To Treat a First Lady (about a former … Read more

Different Eyes: the art of living beautifully by Steve Chalke

There are several books on virtue/character/ethics that have come out in the last couple months. I am currently reading NT Wright’s After You Believe and Tim Keller’s Prodigal God and a new biography on Bonhoeffer but Steve Chalke and Alan Mann’s book Different Eyes: The Art of Living Beautifully may be the best of the … Read more

Prodigal God by Tim Keller

My wife had Spring Break last week (she is a 3rd grade teachers). I had two days of meetings in Chicago. What that meant was a half vacation/half work week. It was the first time in four years that my wife had been back to Chicago. We were booked wall to wall with friends and … Read more

Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan

I liked Crazy Love (my review), Francis Chan’s first book.  It was a challenge to live your life as if you actually believed all of that stuff that we as Christians claim.  It was a good book but I did not think that it really broke much new ground.

Forgotten God is much better, much more of a long term important book.  The basic premise is that many Christians are living as if the Holy Spirit did not exist.  Or worse, actually do not think the Holy Spirit exists.  I started this about 3 or 4 days before the Barna Group released a study on Christian’s view of the Holy Spirit.  I had no idea how many people (Christians) have wrong views of the Holy Spirit and the Trinity.  This study was an attempt at understanding how people of different generations view the Holy Spirit so the results are by generations.  Only 56% of Christians (older Christians were 64% ranging down to 38% of young Christians) believe that they “consistently allow their lives to be guided by the Holy Spirit.”

What was most disturbing is that overall 58% of self identified Christians view “the Holy Spirit as a symbol of God’s power or presence, but not a living entity.”  This mean that 58% of self identified Christian reject the orthodox view of the Holy Spirit as a separate person of the Trinity.  The Holy Spirit has always been viewed as a co-equal and full member of the Trinity, with a separate “personhood”.

So Forgotten God is not over reaching in it title or thesis.  Significant numbers of Christians really have forgotten the Holy Spirit.

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Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen

Takeaway: A somewhat dated humorous mystery. Decent writing, liked it, did not love it. Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook Tourist Season was my first attempt at listening to a complete book from NetLibrary (my post about it). The audio quality was not perfect, but I am fully willing to admit it may be … Read more

Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet by Jonathan Merritt

Takeaway: Being Green is fashionable. Being Anti-Green is almost as fashionable. Being reasonable about things, definitely not fashionable. Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook (at posting time, the audiobook is a great price – $6.95) In Green Like God, Jonathan Merritt is attempting, from a fairly conservative theological and social position, to chart out … Read more

Unfashionable by Tullian Tchividjian Part 1

Unfashionable is not the book I thought I was getting.  And that is a good thing.  I picked it up in audiobook because it was just $6.36 at Audible.  I thought it would be ok.  What I had heard about it (which wasn’t much, I read an interview on Christianity Today with Tullian Tchividjian and followed the drama at … Read more