The Grace and Truth Paradox: Responding with Christlike Balance by Randy Alcorn

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The Grace and Truth Paradox: Responding with Christlike BalanceTakeaway: We cannot be 50 percent truth and 50 percent grace.  We have to be 100 percent truth and 100 percent grace.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

I am trying to read about how to properly disagree as Christian (I am giving a talk about this in September).  I have several good short resources.  The introduction to John Piper’s The Future of Justification (Free PDF download) is one of the best short articles about how to disagree as Christians that I have read.  (I did not like the rest of the book that much, but I keep telling people about the introduction.)  I keep running across short sections of books that also are good.  But I have been struggling to find longer works that are focused on disagreeing properly as Christians.

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A Visit to Vanity Fair: Moral Essays on the Present Age by Alan Jacobs

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A Visit to Vanity Fair: Moral Essays on the Present Age

Purchase Links: Hardcover

I do not often read books of essays. Frankly, I do not frequently read essay length works. I read a lot of blog posts and I read a lot of book length works. But the essays are difficult for me. Jacobs is a very good essayist. And that is why I wanted to read the book. He was (and is) a professor at Wheaton College when I was there, but I did not have him (and do not remember meeting him.)

Over the past couple years I have follow his blogs and writings fairly closely, but this is the first book of his that I have read. I bought it a bit over a year ago to take to the beach (found it for $3 including shipping on Amazon.) Unfortunately it ended up in my Sister-In-Law’s beach books and I forgot about it until I went to the beach this year.

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Streetwalking with Jesus: Reaching Out in Justice and Mercy by John Green

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Streetwalking with Jesus: Reaching Out in Justice and MercyTakeaway: Not all of us are called to minister to male prostitues, but all of us are called to work out Micah 6:8 “And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” for ourselves.

Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition (until July 27, the kindle edition is on sale for $3.99)

I have been aware of John Green and his ministry almost as long as it has been around.  Green was finishing up a Master’s degree at Wheaton College as I was starting my undergrad.  We did not know one another, but I knew of him and what he was doing.  There were Wheaton students from very early on volunteering.  Until 5 years ago when I moved from Chicago to outside of Atlanta, I would see John regularly at Wheaton events, especially those alumni events that were trying to get alumni in urban ministry together.

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After a Couple Months: Kindle With Special Offers

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It has been a while since I have had a reading tools post.  But after a couple months of using my new kindle, I thought it might be time to give my impressions.  The current generation of kindle comes in two basic options (Wifi only or 3G/Wifi), each with a Special Offers or a regular version.  I decided to get the Wifi only version with Special Offers.  Mostly because it was the cheapest kindle at the time.  Since I purchased my kindle (for $114), the Wifi only Kindle now regularly has a refurbished Wifi only Kindle in stock (with a same as new warranty) for $109.  And more importantly, a couple weeks ago, a 3G/Wifi Special Offers Kindle was introduced for $139.  I believe this is the best deal right now.

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Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson Book 3)

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The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 3)Takeaway: Some new friends, some characters die.

Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook
(Kindle Edition is lendable if someone wants to borrow the series)

The series is aging.  Percy is now in 8th grade.  Annabeth is trying to live with her Dad and Stepmom again.  Tyson has found a home and Grover has found two new children of the Gods that need to make their way to Camp Half-Blood.  Percy is still the main and center character, but he is not in charge of the quest, in fact he is chosen to join the quest at all.

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Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson Book 2) by Rick Riordan

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The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2)Takeaway: Friends are important.

Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

In the second book of the series, Percy is getting comfortable in his role as one of the half-bloods and excited about going back to camp for more training.  But as normal, the mosters that seek after the children of the Gods cause problems and another adventure is started.

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The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way by Eugene Peterson

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The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way

Takeaway: We often live like Jesus is the Life, sometimes like Jesus is the Truth, but often forget that Jesus is the Way.  It is a path that we are to follow, not just a belief that we are to ascribe.

This is the second time I have started this book.  A couple of years ago, I got bogged down and did not finished it.  Because it was the only one of Peterson’s series of practical theology that I have not read, I decided that I should go back and read it again.  This time I got it.  That is not to say that it is an easy book to get through, I still think it is the weakest of this series.  It is a bit disjointed.  The beginning of the book talks about the reasons that we need to follow Jesus.  This section primarily revolves around the passage of Jesus saying he is the Way, the  Truth and the Life.  Peterson says we spend a lot of time on Jesus being the truth and the life, but we do not often think a lot about how Jesus is the way.

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Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement Toward Beloved Community by Charles Marsh and John Perkins

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Welcoming Justice: God's Movement Toward Beloved Community (Resources for Reconciliation)Takeaway: Very few topics get more to the heart of Christian love and community more than racial,  class and economic reconciliation.

Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition

I first heard about John Perkins in the spring of 1992 as I was preparing for a summer missions trip with Wheaton College. We read one of his books (cannot remember which one, but according to his Wikipedia page, only A Quiet Revolution was published in 1992, now out of print).  Later that year, after working for a summer in Houston with kids in a long term homeless shelter, attended my first Christian Community Development Association meeting.  It was there that I first heard John Perkins speak.  Since think I think I have read almost everything written by or about him.  He truly is one of the modern prophets that has done much to change the direction of the modern Evangelical church.  So I am always surprised how many people have not heard of him.  A the last Catalyst conference, Perkins was one of the main speakers and I saw dozens of tweets quoting him and many questioning why they had never heard of him.

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