Takeaway: Great subtitle, not interested in the book
Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition
Today is going to be my day for writing about books that I am giving up on. I tend to read most books I start eventually. It may take a while, I may put it down for months at a time. But at some point I have to decide whether it is worth it or I should just give up.
Takeaway: A picture bible for Pre-school/early readers that shows the whole story of the bible as centered on Christ.
I do not often review kids books, but I read a good number of them. I am a full time nanny for my two nieces (3.5 and 2) and so spend a good bit of time reading to them. My wife is a teacher and moved the reading loft out of her classroom and into the bedroom that my oldest niece uses at our house. So we rearranged all the books and have spent a lot of time reading books that have not been read recently.
I have had a copy of The Big Picture Story Bible since it first came out. Gail Schoonmaker, the illustrator, was the parent of one of my wife’s 1st grade students at the time the bible came out and gave it to my wife as a Christmas present.
Takeaway: God Loves you personally.
I understand why Max Lucado is such a popular author. He is a great story teller. He wraps up good lessons in humorous stories and retells scripture in modern versions that help the reader to think about them in a new way. Lucado does what a good Christian author should do, gets us to think about God and and spiritual matters as part of daily life and not just as a portion of life.
I am not really sure whether this was a free promotion or if someone that shares my audible account purchased this. I know I have had it for a while and just never listened to it. It is a short books (really short if you have the abridged audiobook). Still it feels a bit meandering (the positive version of the word, like walking on a wooded path). Lucado keeps walking around the subject and taking different approaches. The basic point is that God knows you as an individual. That we feel want and desire because we long for God and that want and desire will never fully be satisfied short of Christ’s return. It is a good message, one that I think that many people need to hear and to respond to concretely.
It has been a while since I have read this. I think there is likely still some value in the Flag personality system, but there are a lot of personality tests and many of those are readily available.
If you are considering a Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage or doing a Flag Page test, I would encourage you to read this post first. And then maybe read the book The Great Sex Rescue.
Takeaway: We can always learn more about ourselves.
If you read this blog regularly you may know that my wife and I are leading small group for newly married couples. We finished the curriculum early, so we decided to have the group take the Flag Page test. It is yet another personality test, but I think it is both very easy to take and useful to discuss in a small group setting like ours.
Summary: As an adult these are just good enough that I keep reading/listening if I can find them free.
This is another power of free illustration. I found the audiobook free for the first book on Audible.com. Liked the series and bought the second book. The second book was not as good so I decided not to buy the third book. Then found it free from the Overdrive library system. The third book was even less entertaining than the second, so I decided to just stop. But then I found book four free on Overdrive as well and I didn’t see anything else that was really interesting. So I listened to book four.
Takeaway: I am not sure all of the interest in heaven is completely positive.
I want to say up front, I am very skeptical about this book. I am very skeptical about anything that is based heavily on the account of a young child. There was an extended section in Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me about how easy it is to get children to give detailed accounts of things that never happened. Things that you think children could not know about, horrible things, children can talk about with candor and sincerity. The children are not ‘lying’ they are telling you want what you want to hear and you are hearing what you want. This can be true with adults as well. We do many things in an attempt to justify our own actions and make ourselves feel better. Todd Burpo says repeatedly throughout the book that he tried hard not ask leading questions or suggest things that would influence Colton (the son that goes to Heaven). But it is impossible to independently verify anything about Colton’s trip to heaven or the family’s influence on Colton. So we have to take their word for it.
Takeaway: God wants us to be holy.
I, and I think many modern Christians, have an difficulty getting my mind around holiness. While I know that there are several passages that encourage us to “Be Holy as God is Holy”, I have been tainted in my understanding of holiness by the legalism that some Christians of the past 150 years. I believe that a mix of social progressivism, post-millennial understanding of Christ return, and the pietist denominations means that there was a greater focus on external issues of holiness, to the detriment of internal holiness. It is always easier to create rules and follow them than it is to truly focus on heart issues of holiness. After all, what is harder, not playing cards, not drinking alcohol, not dancing or not being jealous of someone else, not desiring what someone else has, and not calling someone a fool in your heart.
Takeaway: No matter how serious the topic, sometimes it is good to just laugh.
Purchase Links: Kindle Edition
One of the chapters that I really enjoyed with David Dark’s Sacredness of Questioning Everything was about Questioning our Offendedness. It is easy to be offended when people do not believe as you do or seem to make fun of what you consider essential. David Dark has a useful understanding of being able to laugh at yourself and your beliefs. Whenever you are offended instead of seeking after the understanding, hurt or incredulity that is often root of humor I think it can help to build a bridge toward relationship instead of pushing people away.
I heard of Satan Loves You when a friend on Goodreads.com (a social network for readers) wrote a quick review of it. It sounded like a fun bit of satire. And I like satire and humor. Christopher Moore’s Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff and Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series are two very different takes on how different authors have attempted to make fun of religion through fiction. (Norman Mailer’s The Gospel According to the Son is a negative example.)
Takeaway: Quite a recovery for the series. Probably best book so far. Very interesting cliff hanger.
Purchase Links: Hardcover, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook
As I get older, I have less and less interest in long series. Maybe it is impatience. Maybe it is justs that there are so many good books. But I do still read series fiction. In part it is because a long series can develop characters in ways that traditional single novels cannot. But series are often very uneven. After book four, I was almost read to drop this series. I felt like book four was just treading water.
Book 5 was much better. It really developed the story, gave lots of depth to the characters (I really like that the good and bad characters are not just two dimensional characters.) The twins at the center of the story also were characterized better this book. The last book I complained about the lack of motivation for the actions, but this book was much better about that.
Takeaway: As with many other areas of life, holding grudges against the church hurts you more than the church.
Purchase Links: Hardcover, Kindle Edition
Stephen Mansfield has become well known for writing about the faith of politicians. His books on Bush, Obama, Delay, Palin and Churchhill have sold well and helped Mansfield become a regular on the talk show and speaker circuit. I have not read any of those books, so I cannot speak to them. I did read God and Guinness and thought it was decent. ReChurch is a very different book from all of those.
Stephen Mansfield before he became a writer, speaker and consultant, was a pastor. For ten years he was the pastor of a growing church until a disagreement with church elders left him without a church, job and bitter. He does not give details about the incident, but does talk frankly about the hurt.