David's #2 Living The Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing By C.J. Mahaney

Are you constantly overwhelmed by the good news of the gospel? Broken by the fact that we all are sinners? Am I in anguish over the fact that when I sin I make myself an enemy of God? That I am desperately in need of God's Grace and that there is nothing that I could ever do about that? Or do to earn that grace? But that it's okay, I don't have to? That God the Father, in order to save us from Himself, sent his son Jesus to earth to take on his wrath for the sake of the whole world? That Jesus, out of immense love for sinners and a desire to do his father's will, stayed on the cross, knowing what he was about face, complete abandonment and aloneness, a suffering more intense than any pain we will ever face. We should be constantly preoccupied by these truths! So often we tend towards the perspective that the gospel is the beginning and that once we acknowledge the atoning sacrifice of Christ we can move on to other spiritual things. But the cross is it! It is the gospel. It's the climax, the central point, and the key. There should be no moving on from here because without it we can have nothing. Without it there is no mediator for prayer or forgiveness. It is the path through which we are justified and continue to be sanctified. The Cross is the reason why we have a savior who can relate to us in times of hurt and suffering. It is through the grace of the cross that we are afforded the faith to believe and the wisdom to understand. It is only through the grace of the cross that we can ever even understand our need for the grace of the cross.

C.J. Mahaney does a wonderful job of making all of this clear. That the cross should constantly be the central focus of our life and the lens through which we see everything. He outlines and reemphasizes the truths that should always be on our hearts and minds while bringing to light several barriers that might be hindering us from an adequately cross centered life. He wraps up with some simple but not necessarily easy ideas to ensure that our focus stays where it should.

It's a short book but not necessarily a quick read. This isn't a "self help" book. It is a life focus book and I highly recommend that you read it soon.

Ron’s #23: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

I have attempted to read this several times over the past ten years, and I finally made it through. Science fiction has never been one of my interests, so please take this review with that in mind.

Ender Wiggin is a prodigy who is recruited from Earth into an elite battle school for children to find the next battle commander who will lead them to victory against the alien “Buggers.” As a 10-year-old, he is younger then the other children, and is isolated. The adults pulls on the strings in Ender’s life like marionette operators to cause the desired results. I’ll stop the story there in case you do know about the semi-surprise ending. Someone told me about the ending, but it really did not matter.

Overall, it was a mildly interesting story and a good quick read. My main problem from early in the novel is that they had all these little kids arguing and discussing military philosophy as though they were college professors. It all felt so forced and phony. I never could buy that Ender is a child. This is also true with his older siblings, Peter and Valentine. There is a completely ridiculous sub-plot about the two of them assuming false identities and writing a revolutionary doctrine that changed the course of the war. Silly.

I’m probably alone in my opinions, as I know that this is a much-loved book in the sci-fi genre. Sorry to offend anyone, but it just isn’t that good.

Ron’s #22: Write Like This by Kelly Gallagher

Reading a book or two about teaching is something that is important to me as I keep trying to develop my skills as a teacher. I read another book by Kelly Gallagher a few years ago, so I wanted to read this one. I’m glad I did because it offered many excellent tips in how to help students write better.

His main philosophy stems from these two premises: 1. Teach kids to write in the modes that they will need to write in college and in the real world. 2. Write along with your students.

Gallagher is a seasoned teacher who clearly loves writing and teaching writing. He is a good mentor to have as I try to better equip my students to improve in writing.

Here’s a brief video of Gallagher discussing the book.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJFMhWtFVnA

Mark's #34 - Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know by Wayne Grudem (2005)

I have long been a fan of Dr. Grudem's theological insights and explanation of Christian doctrine through his much lengthier Systematic Theology book (published in 1995, 1264 large pages with tiny font).  Since the publication of Systematic Theology, a condensed version of that weighty tome entitled Bible Doctrine has been published (1999, 528 pages). However, for my current purposes, I was looking for a much briefer and broader overview of Christian doctrine as a personal refresher. Christian Beliefs was exactly what I was looking and hoping for (160 pages). Each of the twenty chapters summarize the key points and verses relating to the core doctrines of the Christian faith.  Grudem writes from a broad evangelical perspective,  with an emphasis on God's sovereignty (i.e., Reformed perspective).  Though a short book, there were countless Scripture quotations and references, demonstrating Grudem's high view of the Bible and its authority in the life of the Christian.

Not only was I personally edified by this broad sweep through doctrine, as a pastor, I look forward to  distributing this resource to as many people as I can for their equipping and encouragement.

Ron’s #21: Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis

This is C.S. Lewis’s autobiography on his journey from atheism to theism to Christianity. What more do I need to say to get you to read this book?

I loved this book, but it was not as easy a read as I thought it would be. Lewis is immersed in authors and poems that I’ve never heard of, and he assumes the reader is following along nicely. He name-drops more than a D-list celebrity at the Green Room club on Hollywood Boulevard. While the reader need not know all the poems referenced, it would help understand Lewis’s train of thought better. At the very least, one would need to understand Romanticism to a beginning degree to follow along.

Throughout his school life, Lewis continues to search for Joy (his capitalization) that connects to something in our hearts for something bigger. This Joy turned to be our heart’s longing for its Creator.

Here are a few excerpts that show the power of Lewis to turn a phrase:

“All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still “about to be.”

“Joy is not a substitute for sex; sex is very often a substitute for Joy. I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for Joy.”

“The horror of the Christian universe was that it had no door marked Exit.”

“A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere…God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.”

“The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”

Mark's #33 - The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (2012)

Most of us recognize that we are largely a product of habits - good or bad.  Over time we develop our habits across a wide range of actions or thoughts - and, in-turn, those habits develop us. Here's a quick exercise for you:

• Think about your best habit.  How did it form?  How does it persist?
• Now think about your worst habit. How did it form? How does it persist?

It may have taken some work for you to do that exercise, because in doing so, you were actively engaging your brain in the analysis of your habits, which by nature, avoid active cognitive engagement.

This book explores habits - how they're formed, why they're formed, and what occurs in our brains in regards to habits, and how habits can change.  Using a multitude of examples from a wide variety of life, this book explores the habits of individuals, corporations, and societies.

As it turns out, our brains love habits - good or bad.  These 'autopilot' responses and behaviors allow our brains to focus its energy on other, less familiar activities.   Our brains process a multitude of 'cues' throughout each day.  If each 'cue' required deliberate thinking (tying our shoes for example) we would be mentally exhausted before lunch.  Think about when you first learned how to drive a car.  The information your brain had to process was almost overwhelming  - hopefully this is no longer the case.

The encouragement to me from reading this book was that though habits are pervasive and life shaping, our habits are not out of our control.  We are not victims of our habits. Rather, with intentional thought and action, our habits can and do change.

Once you understand that habits can change, you have the freedom and the responsibility to remake them.  Once you understand that habits can be rebuilt, the power of habit becomes easier to grasp, and the only option left is to get to work.

So, what habits would you like to change?