JRF's #11 - The Gospel for Muslims by Thabiti Anyabwile

How do you share the Gospel with Muslisms?  You share the Gospel with Muslims.

This isn't  a book about new methods and tricks you can use to convert Muslims with.  It is a book written by a former Muslim who has been transformed by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and now has a passion to share that Gospel with those still in Islam's grip.

Anyabwile's theme for the book is clearly seen in it's subtitle: "an Encouragement to Share Christ with Confidence".  He debunks the popular belief amongst believers that, "somehow Muslims require a different gospel or a special technique, that Muslims are somehow impervious to the Gospel in a way that other sinners are not." (p.13)

The first portion of the book is focused on the Gospel itself.  Anyabwile encourages the reader to trust in the power of the Gospel by sharing personal stories where he has seen the truth and love of Christ pierce the hearts of muslims.  He also affirms the importance of doctrinal clarity in evangelism.  He shows the importance of defining terms like sin, repentance, and faith Biblically for those terms signify something drastically different to a Muslim.  While acknowledging that there is some theological common ground between Muslims and Christians (they recognize they are in a creature/creator relationship with god and that all mankind will have to one day give an account to that god) he also shows the importance of highlighting not the similarities between Christianity and Islam, but the radical differences.  Using uniquely Biblical phrases like, "born again,' 'united to Christ,' and 'a new creation' communicate the very real differences between an Islamic and Christian understanding of conversion."  I found this first section to be a great ecouragement and exhortation to trust in the power of the Gospel to save and transform.

In the second half of the book Anyabwile illustrates how life patterns that should be normative for disciples of Christ - gracious and intentional hospitality, loving and active membership in a local body of Christ followers and joyfully suffering for the sake of the Gospel - are the best background music for sharing the beautiful Song of the Good News of Jesus with Muslims.

I have seen God already use this short book to strengthen my resolve to live a Gospel centered life and ministry.  I have had the undeserved joy of sharing the Gospel with Muslims before and pray that I have the opportunity to do so in the future, in fact it is my wife and my prayer that we spend the rest of our life doing so.  If that opportunity does come, I know that I will be thankful for this book.

JRF's #10 - King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard

This book, written in 1885, is dedicated by the fictional narrator, Allan Quartermain, "to all the big and little boys who read it".

H. Rider Haggard's classic is exactly that - a book for men, boys who hope to become men one day, and perhaps for women who long for the days when men were still men.

This book has it all: adventure, romance, exotic locales, big game hunts, treachery, epic battles, crazy old witches, one eyed savages, ancient diamond mines, bloody beheadings, graphic dismemberments, and side-aching hilarity.  Often times I found myself thinking of Indiana Jones, Michael Crichton, John Huston movies and the like (but not The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - an abomination of a movie and a total misfire of the character of Quartermain!). Yet I had to remember that these stories and films were derivative of this, the quintessential adventure story, not the other way around.

Of course having been written over a century ago there are many elements of the book that are outdated.  These outdated elements are both positive and negative.  The negatives include the underlying racism as well as the unrestricted exploitation of the animal resources of Africa, both common in Haggard's day.

The positive outdated elements I think are what make this book such a great adventure story.  Absent is the bleak cynicism of current literature; characters that could be described as "metro-sexual" or effeminate are no where to be found; and gone is any sense of moral ambiguity.  Instead the values of honor, romance, nobility, courage, hope, brotherhood, chivalry and faithfulness are on full display.  This is a land where men kill what they need to eat, where they will die to defend their honor, and where they will fight evil mano-a-mano. I conjecture that  it is no coincidence that the generation that was raised on the romanticism of the late 1800s was the same generation that was able to lead a nation through two world wars and a global depression.  Of course there were and are flaws in this kind of romantic outlook on the world, but I believe that there is a vital connection between holding to these values and everyday living that has been lost in our present age and that we would be better off if we rediscovered - and for those who know Christ, redeemed.

"There is no journey upon this earth that a man may not make if he sets his heart to it."  p. 49

"Suddenly, with a bound and a roar, they sprang forward with uplifted spears, and the two regiments met in deadly strife. Next second, the roll of the meeting shields came to our ears like the sound of thunder, and the whole plain seemed to be alive with flashes of light reflected from the stabbing spears.  To and fro swung the heaving mass of struggling, stabbing humanity." p. 146

"'a sharp spear,' runs the Kukuana saying, 'needs no polish;' and on the same principle I venture to hope that a true story, however strange it may be, does not require to be decked out in fine words." p.8

JRF's #9 - Disciplines of a Godly Family by Kent and Barbara Hughes

Lord willing, this will be the first of many parenting books that I post about as we are expecting our first child this July.

Having read and enjoyed "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by by Tedd Trip last year (see Ron's review), I found this book to be an almost perfect compliment to Trip's book.  "Shepherding a Child's Heart" lays a great foundation for Biblical parenting and the theology that should drive it.  "Disciplines of a Godly Family", while containing the same theology, adds to that foundation and offers some great practical advice and ideas, taken from the faithful (although they admit not perfect) parenting of the Hughes.   I think the two books make a great pair and we plan on revisiting them frequently in the coming years (although my wife and I did get in a little bit of a disagreement while discussing the chapter on good manners).

The most helpful chapters in my opinion:

Chapter 1: Discipline of Establishing a Heritage

"Psalm 127:4 compares children to arrows.  Parents, like archers, launch their children into the future, aiming toward a distant target.  Some parents take clear aim, and their arrows are well directed toward their future mark.  But other "child arrows" are fired from undisciplined bows by parents who are, at best, ambivalent about where they came from and unsure of their aim.  Their arrows waver and falter, then finally succumb to gravity with no mark in sight.  They tragically prove the adage, "If you aim at nothing, you'll surely hit it."  - p. 21

Chapter 5: Discipline of Praying with Dedication

"Our Bible and common sense tell us it is absurd for Christian parents to read books about how to be better parents if they do not pray for their children"  - p.74

Chapter 6: Discipline of Pursuing Family Ministry

"Hearts that have room only for their own 'family,' as it is conveniently defined, are shriveled hearts, shamefully out of sync with the pulse of the Master's heart."  -p. 90

Chapter 7: Discipline of Instilling Healthy Self-regard

"So then, what are our major criticisms of the self-esteem movement? We will note two: it is unbiblical, and it is self-absorbed...Two disciplines are necessary for a healthy self-regard: a proper self-focus and an overriding God-focus."  p. 98-99

the Appendix

The Hughes have compiled an extensive collection of helpful appendixes, from family recipes, to how to make your own advent calendars, to practical suggestions for discipline.  The appendixes equal the rest of the book in size and content.

JRF's #8 - Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

 

This book consists of the title story, as well as three other short stories by Truman Capote.

Breakfast at Tiffany's:  A much darker portrayal of Miss Holly Golightly's (not her real name) self-destruction than that of the movie by the same name.  This is the story that prompted Norman Mailer to call Capote "the most perfect writer of my generation."

Although I'm certain this was far from being Capote's intent in writing this, I couldn't help as I read to think of this story as an analogy of how the church sometimes relates to the world.  The story is told from the perspective of "Fred" (not his real name, but the name Holly gives him), a neighbor and "friend" of Holly.  Fred watches Holly bounce from one destructive relationship, one lie, one drunken bender, one scandal...etc, - to another.  He legitimately cares about Holly and wants to help her but his fascination with her reckless behavior and glamorous lifestyle cripples him from speaking truth into her life in any meaningful way.    How often have believers (myself definitely included) as individuals as well as the Church on the whole been self-sabotaged in bringing life giving Truth to unbelievers simply because we have been so enamored of and entertained by their "fun" or "crazy" or even tragic sinful lifestyle?  In other words - when you see Charlie Sheen, or Lindsay Lohan, or the celebrity of the week or the office stud or (fill in the blank) self destructing are you entertained by his sinful insanity or does your heart break for his soul?

House of Flowers:  This was my favorite piece in this collection.  It is the story of Ottilie, a beautiful runaway orphan who has become one of the most "successful" prostitutes in Port-au-Prince.  Although she has many foreign suitors eager to give her anything money could buy, she falls in love with a simple, yet bold farmboy from the mountains of Haiti.  This farmboy is not a customer but sees her at a chicken fighting tournament and instantly knows that he has found his future wife.   Ottilie follows her new husband back to his village and finds it to be a place full of trial and danger - the monotony of being a housewife, an evil grandmother in law who literally tries to kill her, and a superstitious and repressive village culture.   The story culminates when Ottilie's prostitute friends travel to the village to try and "rescue" her from her "mistake" and Ottilie is forced to choose between the alluring life of being an adored  "star" prostitute or to remain in a trying and  somewhat abusive place- but a place in which she can be with the man she loves and has committed to.

A Diamond Guitar: A great, Shawshank Redemption -esque short story

A Christmas Memory: Although this has been called "one of the most moving stories in our language"  by the Saturday Review and others, I wouldn't go nearly that far. That said, it is a warm story of two best friends - a young boy and an elderly woman - who find solace from the dull pains of orphanhood and growing old in each other. It really has nothing to do with Christmas.

Perhaps most enjoyable was Capote's writing style.  The ability to communicate ideas and emotions through words is a gift of God.

JRF's #7 - Meaning at the Movies by Grant Horner

While every teacher (in school and out) has some kind of influence on us, most everyone can point to an individual or a handful of teachers that have significantly impacted the way one views the world. Grant Horner is one of those teachers for me.

I remember walking into my first class at The Master's College as a relatively new believer and finding an essay sitting on every desk by some weird philosopher I had never heard of and couldn't pronounce - Nietzsche. A few minutes after the class was supposed to start, a man wearing a fedora and tweed vest burst into the room (ya, he's a bit eccentric - what would you expect from an English prof?). "Before you went off to college your father or pastor may have sat you down and warned you about all the dangerous philosophies you may be exposed to in academia. Perhaps he even told you that out of all the philosophers, 'stay away from Nietzsche at all costs - he will destroy your faith!' Well I don't believe that we who have the truth have to be afraid of error, so we are going to start out this class by analyzing Nietzsche's by the truth of God's word and seeing how it holds up." Thus was my introduction to the world of Grant Horner and more importantly the world of Biblical Discernment.

I have said before that I have learned more theology in his classes (I took English Composition, English Lit, and Film from him) than all of my theology classes in college and seminary combined. I would now rephrase that and say that what I learned from him was not necessarily the content of theology but the way to see theology in everything. He taught me to see or at least strive to see how God relates to everything and how everything relates to God, an essential endeavor to any Christian who seeks true wisdom (Prov 1:7). The discipline of discernment is one that is far too neglected in the church today, and we are suffering for it.

Oh ya. I'm supposed to review the book.

I'm in general agreement with Ron's take on the book.  I think I enjoyed and benefitted more from the book than Ron did because I am acoustomed to Horner's style and could fill in some of the blanks with what I had learned from him in class.

Highlights:

- I enjoyed the discussion on the relationship between the individual, the Believer and culture in the introduction

- I enjoyed the brief discussions of City Lights, 2001, It Happened One Night, Citizen Kane (movies I was introduced to in Horner's class) and Blade Runner, Scarlet Street, Sunset Boulevard, The Purple Rose of Cairo and Marty.

Weakpoints:

- the biggest disappointment for me was not with what was in the book, but with what wasn't. My two favorite films from his class, The Searchers and Metropolis, were not even discussed.  More importantly, I felt like Horner was just offering samples of what I got in class, not spending enough time in the book to really dissect the films and/or teach discernment.

All in all, this is a good tool to have in your discernment toolbox.  Not as good as it could have been but still good.

JRF's #6 - Village of Stone by Xiaolu Guo

This book was recommended by my Lonely Planet China guidebook and I found it in an English bookstore in Beijing so I thought I would give it a try.  While I would be hesitant to whole-heartedly recommended this book, due to its somewhat graphic content, I am glad to have read it.

This is a book about shame.

The story weaves between the past and the present of the narrator, a 28 year old woman named Coral.

Coral's past is one filled with the shame of sins committed against her (neglect, abandonment, horrible sexual abuse, and ostracization) and sins committed by her (seducing her middle school teacher, jealousy, hatred, and abortion).  She was born in the Village of Stone, a small fishing village ruled by superstition and the sea and known as "Little Dog" a nickname given to her by her despondent Grandfather.  Survival occupies the first 15 years of her life.

Her present is Beijing, where she shares a bottom floor apartment with her unemployed boyfriend "Red".  The bottom floor apartment, which receives only a few minutes of sunlight a day, serves as a metaphor for their inability to be upwardly mobile, both economically and emotionally.  Even in this exciting and bustling city of 22 million people Coral is unable to find something powerful enough to drown out her shame.  Equally unobtainable is someone with which to fight the loneliness that has always haunted her.

While the book ends with a slight glimmer of hope, the overwhelming feel of the book is bleak.

So what were the redeeming qualities?

• Xiaolu is an exceptional writer and her poetry is beautifully transferred into English by Cindy Carter.
• I believe this book is an excellent parable of the spiritual state of the younger generation of China.  Migrants are fleeing the countryside and flooding the cities in search of a new life and new opportunity.  The old superstitions and repressive traditions of the past are being left behind in favor of the glittering promises of modernity.  Yet aching loneliness and shame still haunts those without Christ.
• This book helped to break my heart for the lost of China and the urban lost around the world.  The fact that I bought it and began reading it in Beijing made its bleak message all the more vivid.  Although she is very different in some ways with Coral, I found myself thinking of and praying for often our tour guide, Jenny, as I read this.

Whether you end up reading this book or not, I hope that its empty message moves you to pray for the millions of Chinese souls who struggle each day, along with the rest of the unbelieving world, under the suffocating burden of guilt, shame, and sin.  Pray that they would know the freedom and peace that comes not through modernity, power, wealth or fame...but through knowing and being known by the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

And if you think of it, pray for Jenny specifically.