When we're young, it's easy to believe in the supernatural, the mysterious, the enchanted. But as we grow older, we learn to be more "rational" and more confident that reality is merely what we can see. Even as Christians who believe in the resurrection, we live as if miracles and magic have been drained from the world.
As Mike Cosper wrestled with his own disillusionment, he found writers, thinkers, and artists like Hannah Arendt, Charles Taylor, James K. A. Smith, and David Foster Wallace whose words and ideas reassured him that he was not alone. And he discovered ancient and modern disciplines that shape a Christian way of life and awaken the possibility of living again in an enchanted world.
Exquisitely written with thoughtful practices woven throughout, this book will feed your soul and help you recapture the wonder of your Christian walk.
My thoughts:
I LOVED THIS BOOK!
It's a book about the spiritual disciplines, and there are many really good books on that subject, such as the following:
Renovation of the Heart and its companion volume: Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice
A Year with God: Living out the Spiritual Disciplines
Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices that Transform Us
Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life
Building Y0ur Spiritual Core: 101 Creative Ways to Connect with God
Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth
But in Cosper's book, it's the additional information surrounding his explanation of each discipline that I found so appealing.
He says that "The world we live in conditions us for doubt.... Spiritual Disciplines are an anchor for faith, hope, and love in the midst of a life that feels like it's crumbling.... The disciplines open the opportunity to live in another world.... There is more to the world than what we can experience through our senses.... We need an appreciation toward scripture that runs deeper than doctrines and head knowledge."
Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
"We need to preserve the Bible's character as personal speech exchanged between the Lover and the Beloved. The voice that rings from the Bible is the voice of the one we long to hear from, long to know, long to find rest in."
"The presence of mystery in the world is an invitation to wonder, and a world without mystery is a world of despair."
"Once we find ourselves hungering for God, we will seek a whole new way of being in the world."
"Living in another world begins when the Spirit whispers life to a dead soul. Once awakened, the soul knows a hunger that nothing else will satisfy." (Jesus's parable of the hidden treasure in the field tells it all.)
"A life oriented around the spiritual disciplines is the pathway to experiencing the joy of God that is already ours in Jesus. The disciplines reshape our awareness and perception." There is no fast track to growth, but it is only through growth that we experience the Kingdom of God.
He advocates setting up a "Rule of Life"--a set of commitments to frame our days, marking them with habits and practices that orient us to God's Kingdom.
More quotes:
"God is already delighted with you, even before you get your act together. So what do you sense the Lord is inviting you to do as you reflect on creating your personal Rule of Life in the days ahead?"
To sum up: We enter a better world when we enter God's Kingdom. It's a world that offers deeper comfort to the soul and makes more sense of how the world is. It's not easy to live a Kingdom life, but the rewards far, far outweigh the emptiness of living in the material world.
I was given a copy of this book to read through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest opinion.
Book description: 52 Ways to Grow Your Faith will do what it says AND give you freedom. Your spiritual growth strategy does not have to be limited to reading and praying. Try growing spiritually while walking, driving or working out. 52 Ways to Grow Your Faith will jump-start a stalled faith, provide a road map for a new faith, and energize an active faith. Use this resource with friends in a weekly study group or on your own - but get ready to grow and connect with God in a busy, noisy world. My thoughts: The book is just what the description says it is--quick and easy ways to grow your faith, especially for people who don't have much time for reading and praying. Or especially for people who may not like to read and/or aren't comfortable with spending a lot of time praying. Those traditional ways just don't work for everyone. Fortunately, there are other ways. Some of the more obvious ones include appreciating the beauty of this world, sharing your testimony with a friend (or a stranger) and listening to their story. He encourages serious involvement in small groups. There are also more methodical ways to grow, such as setting a time (and an alarm) to sit and just be with God, if for only five minutes. Mr. Farah also suggests ways to grow through the arts, such as listening to contemporary worship music, attending Christian concerts, and reading through an old church hymnal. (So many of the old hymns were deeply meaningful! But many of the new ones are, too.) All in all, this book was breezy, light reading--maybe written for people who don't like to read (or don't have much time to). The suggestions are probably best for new Christians, youthful Christians, and too-busy Christians who need their faith rekindled. The right reader might love this book. But if you seriously want to grow your faith, deep calling to deep, you need to get serious about the spiritual disciplines. I suggest you try any or all of the following books:
Renovation of the Heart and its companion volume: Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice
A Year with God: Living out the Spiritual Disciplines
Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices that Transform Us
Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life
Building Y0ur Spiritual Core: 101 Creative Ways to Connect with God
Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth
Recapturing the Wonder by Mike Cosper
52 Ways to Grow your Faith was given to me via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Book description: Although God promised to be ever-present and faithful, some situations in life can be so overwhelming that they get in the way of our faith. Combining Scripture passages with brief meditations, Hope for All Seasons helps us with fresh point of view on reasons to put our trust in God, no matter what. Each selection reminds us that God will never fail—He will follow through on His Word, and He will not allow us to be consumed by the everyday challenges of life.
My thoughts: This was a lovely devotional, with the theme of hope in every offering. Ms. Link made use of extended scriptural passages, both from the Old Testament and the New, which I find more enjoyable than devotions that focus on a single verse. They were originally written for Our Daily Bread, but have now been collected in this volume as a spiritual legacy to Ms. Link, who went to be with the Lord in 2015. The book is divided into parts that deal with hope and time, life events, the seasons and life's difficult challenges. As someone who loves the changing seasons, I especially enjoyed the devotions that tied seasonal change with reasons to hope. For example, in the devotion entitled From Bleak to Hope, Mrs. Link references Job 42:10-17. She compares the coming of spring, and the transformation of what had seemed dead, but is now springing to life--to the second half of Job's life. "With God, there is hope, even in the most hopeless situation," she concludes. This book was given to me free by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Bible from 30,000 feet, by Skip Heitzig. This book was published in September, 2017, by Harvest House.
Book description: An Eye-Opening and Engaging Guide to the BibleEnjoy the magnificent panorama of Scripture like never before! Pastor Skip Heitzig shares a FLIGHT plan for all 66 books of the Bible to help you better understand the context and significance of each. In this one-year overview, you'll discover...
Facts—about the author and the date each book was written
Landmarks—a summary of the highlights of the book
Itinerary—a specific outline of the book divided by themes
Gospel—how to see Jesus within the book's pages
History—a brief glimpse at the cultural setting for the book
Travel Tips—guidelines for navigating the book's truths
If you have ever found yourself getting lost and wandering from verse to verse in Scripture, put yourself firmly on track with the clear aerial view offered in The Bible from 30,000 Feet.
My thoughts:
The author created a clever way to explore the Bible using flight as an acronym (see above). For each book of the Bible, he does a thorough job of going through all of the points listed.
I found a few possible errors, depending on your stance toward modern Bible scholarship. For example, he contends that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.
This is a common view, however I have read that most modern Bible scholars do not believe the Pentateuch was written by Moses, or not all of it. (See How to read the Bible by Harvey Cox.)
I am not a Bible scholar, so I will leave that debate to the experts.
I am, however, someone well-acquainted with flight, as my husband and I travel frequently, both in commercial airlines and in our own small airplane. I would say that the title should be instead: The Bible from 5,000 Feet.
From 30,000 feet, you don't see much ground detail, whereas from 5,000 feet, you see much more. This book is dense with details. In fact, it weighs in at 642 pages. The Bible itself is only about 350 pages long.
So, will you learn much about the Bible while reading this book in conjunction?
Of course. The information goes well beyond the short summaries found frequently at the beginning of each book of the Bible.
I enjoyed seeing how Jesus figures into each book. I especially liked learning about the cultural setting. That is so important, if we hope to understand what the words might have meant to people in ancient times and how it sometimes dramatically changes what the words could or should mean to us.
I was provided a free copy to read and review by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Originally published in 1990, Moody Publishers is reissuing this classic on discipleship.
Sanders' contention is that many people have forgotten what it means to be a Christian.
Being a Christian is not saying a magic prayer that gives us eternal salvation and then living life as usual.
Christ did not commission his apostles to merely save people, but to make them disciples. There is a world of difference between the two. Unless there is a true change of heart, i.e. repentance and working toward the upward call in Christ, saying the magic prayer means absolutely nothing. Yes, we are saved by grace. But our works prove that our conversion was real.
The Christian needs to become more like Jesus day-by-day, and Sanders shows us how. Questions for reflection are included at the end of each chapter, which I found helpful for me, to think about and measure where I might be on the narrow path, and where I can do better.
I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
For creatives with a strong bent toward the spiritual and the contemplative, you will find treasure in this book. Written by a Benedictine oblate, Christine Valters Paintner presents a 12-week course for establishing a spiritual/creative practice by using some of the Rules of St. Benedict.
I enjoyed the book to a point. Though I consider myself more reflective than unreflective, I still found her exercises, in most cases, something I wouldn't waste my time on.
Well, maybe when I was younger, I would have.
That's not to say others wouldn't find it to be just what they need. Or to say that I got nothing from the book.
I especially enjoyed her descriptions about The Divine Hours, which are the sacred cycles of each day, and their connection to the creative process.
I also enjoyed learning about a Benedictine monk's commitments to Obedience, Stability, and Conversion, and how those commitments can support the growth of a spiritual/creative practice.
Obedience is "listening deeply to the ways God calls you in everyday life and how you respond." It's about being faithful to the call God has put upon your life and not spending your precious time on things that don't further that call.
Stability is not responding to restlessness of heart and mind by searching for new experiences, new relationships, new geographical locations, in order to escape your problems by avoiding them. It's about finding mystery in ordinary life, growing long-lasting, deep relationships, and getting to know the people in the communities you're involved in. It's about staying with your problems and solving them where you're at.
Conversion is stability's opposite. It's asking yourself, "What is worth living for in this place at this time?" Having asked, it's acting in accordance with the answers discerned.
Those were the ideas I liked best in this book, however I also liked some of her other ideas as well.
If you're a fan of Kathleen Norris, you will be a fan of Christine Valters Paintner.
I'm always excited to read hot-off-the-press Christian nonfiction. Kim Cash Tate, who's written Christian fiction, has branched out into Christian nonfiction with this new book. In it, she highlights scriptures that command believers to cling to God:
Deut. 10:20
Deut. 13:4
She then goes through familiar territory, writing about how we were created to cling, but separated ourselves from Him through the fall. She talks about Christ's mission to redeem us.
Around 25% into the book, she finally launches into what it means to cling to God, choosing a lifestyle of intimacy with Him.
Weaving personal stories, current events and especially Bible stories, she shows us people who have successfully clung to God. She uses many good illustrations (particularly the Biblical ones!), but I confess that after having read so much of the best of Christian nonfiction over the past couple of years, I didn't find much in this book that shed new light on scripture, or made me look at something differently.
It was written well enough, but I didn't detect any flashes of sheer brilliance that made me sit back and think for a while about what she'd said.
The only chapter that presented an idea that I hadn't come across in all my reading was the chapter entitled Healing from Immoral Clinging.
It's a chapter on varieties of sexual sin, including premarital sex between believers.
She then gives the reader reassurance that if we confess our sins (and walk away from them), God will, of course, forgive them.
The book came with a study guide at the end. I suspect that it will be used and enjoyed by home groups. It will deliver enough of what the group needs in order to make a good class, if not an astoundingly thought provoking one. And that's probably just fine. I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Having not paid much attention to developments in the practice of Christianity in America for many years, I am only now discovering important books that some of you have probably known about for a very long time.
Case in point is Richard Foster's classic book on prayer. Even its 10-year anniversary release was over a decade ago.
Foster is part of the Renovare movement, which focuses on Spiritual Formation. This book is one of its many truly wonderful resources.
Weighing in at 473 pages, in it Foster (a Quaker) writes a chapter on each of the many unique types of prayer.
Can you name them? Prior to reading many books on prayer, in addition to this one, I would've thought there might be a half-dozen distinctive types of prayer.
But no. There are 22 styles of prayer, which Foster writes about in this book. Each one comes straight out of the Bible, which he supports with numerous biblical references.
Over the millennia, various Christian traditions have focused more on some types of prayer than others. For example, Catholics have practiced Ignatian and Benedictine prayer, which Protestants, in general, have not--to their great loss.
All types of prayer are good, to bring us closer to God. Here are the 22 types of prayer, about which Richard Foster writes.
Simple prayer
Prayer of the forsaken
Prayer of complaint (lamentations)
Prayer of Examen (Ignatian Prayer)
Prayer of tears
Prayer of relinquishment
Formation prayer: This one is Benedictine Prayer. Here's a snippet of what Foster says about it:
“Prayer changes things,” people say. It also changes us. The latter goal is the more imperative. The primary purpose of prayer is to bring us into such a life of communion with the Father that, by the power of the Spirit, we are increasingly conformed to the image of the Son. This process of transformation is the sole focus of Formation Prayer."
He goes into some of the Rules of St. Benedict, or the twelve steps, which include humility; The Little Way; The Communion of Solitude; Peering into the Abyss.
8. Covenant Prayer. A profound interior heart call to a God-intoxicated life. 9.The Prayer of Adoration 10. The Prayer of Rest 11. Sacramental Prayer, (Liturgical prayer) 12. Unceasing Prayer 13. The Prayer of the Heart 14. Meditative Prayer 15. Contemplative Prayer 16. Praying the Ordinary:
"The discovery of God lies in the daily and the ordinary, not in the spectacular and the heroic. If we cannot find God in the routines of home and shop, then we will not find him at all."
17. Petitionary Prayer 18. Intercessory Prayer 19, Healing Prayer 20. The Prayer of Suffering 21. Authoritative Prayer 22. Radical Prayer:
"Radical Prayer refuses to let us stay on the fringes of life’s great issues. It dares to believe that things can be different. Its aim is the total transformation of persons, institutions, and societies. Radical Prayer, you see, is prophetic."
This is a wonderful resource on types of prayer that each of us can practice, every day. The goal is not, of course, to check off the list and boast about having done them all.
However in trying them all, we will find some draw us closer to God than others. It's those prayers that will become the most useful to us in our daily walk.
There are so many books on the subject of hearing God, which is something that I imagine every Christian would like to be able to do, or to do better.
I know I sure would like to improve my hearing in that regard. I am endeavoring to do that through prayer, being in the Word, being more aware of God speaking to me through others, through things that happen in my life, and so on. Our antennas need to be up at all times!
In addition, I have read several books for tips. Mark and Patti Virkler have written numerous books on the subject, and are the founders of Communion with God Ministries, which trains people to have intimacy with the Holy Spirit.
In this book Vickler says, "Hearing God’s voice is as simple as quieting yourself down, fixing your eyes on Jesus, tuning to spontaneity, and writing." He takes 310 pages to say this--which is not a criticism. I'm glad he was so thorough! But in a nutshell, that is what he wrote about.
With my first try, I had great hope for the results, especially since I am by nature a writer. I was hoping for something like automatic writing ...
However, I ran into a couple of problems. The first fell under the task of quieting myself down. Living with a spouse, an adult daughter and her infant son, I am bombarded with a constant merry-go-round of talking faces, or in the baby's case, reaching hands (which are so sweet and precious).
And then there's the phone ringing (soliciters, mostly), the "ding!" that alerts me to text messages coming in.
But that's easily solvable: Do this when everyone else is asleep. Do this during those 3:00 am awakenings that are so ripe for communion with God. Those hours when you love nothing more than to fall on your knees and pray, and bask in the sunlit warmth of God's presence. To God be the glory.
My second problem was not as easily solved. Alone, quieted, I fixed my eyes on Jesus, turned to spontaneity, and waited, pen in one hand, journal in the other.
I waited to hear and write what God said to me--and came up against total (but very nice, peaceful) silence. Though there were no words to write, I felt a sense of God's deep, abiding presence.
I've read numerous books by authors who promote contemplative prayer, Thomas Keating being the chief proponent of it, so I was not overly discouraged by this lack of hearing God's voice.
Even in silence, God speaks to us.
Since that first effort at hearing God's voice through spiritual journaling, I have become more aware of the spontaneous thoughts that are from God. It generally happens after prayer. Although I seldom have pen and paper in hand, I make every effort to remember what I heard, although sometimes I forget, and I can only ask God to be merciful toward me, this baby Christian.
Some people, myself included, might be tempted to brush these thoughts away, thinking they were manufactured by my own brain. But I have detected a subtle difference. There is spontaneity to these thoughts, and they are not in my own voice. So yes, I believe I am hearing from God, and to God be the glory.
Having said all that, I am at this moment being reminded of one of my favorite contemporary Christian songs. Is this the Holy Spirit speaking to me? Certainly. It's God's job to make us aware of Him, so that we can give him the glory.
I will include the song here: Worthy of it All, sung by David Brymer.
Day and Night, Night and Day, Let Incense Arise ...
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (May 30, 2017)
Given the frightening state of the world, Lisa Whittle exhorts us to become spiritual warriors ready to stand firm in any and every challenge. Brimming with passion for God and the call for all Christians to stop being lukewarm in their faith, she tells us how.
And how do we put on our warrior boots and become, as she says, Jesus strong? We prepare ourselves, by knowing what we believe. In other words, we read the Word. Daily. That gives us the power to stand firm in our faith, even unto death. We prepare ourselves, by being ready to give our testimony to anyone and everyone. We prepare ourselves, by choosing God before all else. That means spending time with Him before family, church, careers, hobbies. We prepare ourselves, by following Him not just some days, but every day, forever.
I’ve read a number of books on discipleship over the years. Kyle Idleman’s Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus comes closest in execution. But Kyle’s book does not pack the same punch. If you read Lisa’s book, that is full of illustrations, declarations, and marching orders, be prepared to become a warrior for God. Onward, Christian soldiers.
I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Seed to Vision is a must-read for anyone with a God-sized idea who is unsure what to do next. Peppered with personal stories, former metro-Atlanta police special unit gang officer turned boys’ home and school founder Steve Finn shares the eight key tools God uses to turn a seed of an idea into a vision and ultimately to a reality. Be inspired to see that with God nothing is impossible—the idea He gave you can become reality.
My thoughts: I so enjoyed learning about how God inspired Steve Flinn, who in 2016 was recognized as one of the top three leaders in the country by the John C. Maxwell Leadership Award committee. A nearly impossible idea that began as a seed became, after many years, Chestnut Mountain Ranch, a 225-acre school and home for troubled boys that is located in one of the poorest and highest drug use areas of the U.S. But the book is not solely about how Chestnut Mountain Ranch came to be. It's also an inspiring road map for any person of faith who feels he or she is being called to execute an idea, no matter how big or small, that can be accomplished only with God's oversight. And that's all of us, isn't it? Each of the book's eight chapters focuses on a tool that Steve used. Tools include the need to refine the idea, to gather a team, to develop patience, discipline, perseverance, wisdom and persepective. He gives examples about how each tool was used in scripture. Then he discusses how he applied the tool to the development of Chestnut Mountain Ranch. In all, it was a very inspiring book. I was given this book to read by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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