Review: RECOVERING REDEMPTION by Matt Chandler and Michael Snetzler

To be honest, this book made absolutely no impression on me. I finished this book just a few months ago and can't even remember what it was about. I only remember it at all because I wrote it down.

I don't recommend it just because of its sheer unmemorability.

Psalm 83

God's got the power to deal with our enemies. He's proven that in the past. He just needs to do it again.

That's what this psalm does. It reminds him of what he's already done and asks him to do it again. It's a safe guess he doesn't need to be reminded of either what he already has done or of what he needs to do now, but some people will only pray when they need something.

The Schleitheim Confesion, Article 2

The ban

A Christian should live with discipline and walk in the way of righteousness. Those who slip and fall into sin should be admonished twice in secret, but the third offense should be openly disciplined and banned as a final recourse. This should always occur prior to the breaking of bread.

---

This is about excommunication, and comes almost entirely from Jesus' instructions in Matthew 18. If a person won't live what he says he believes, there's no reason to think he's a Christian and therefore no reason to allow him to take Communion.

The only part that doesn't come Jesus' own words is the last sentence, and even that makes sense in context. After all, there's no point in giving someone Communion if you're about to tell him he can't receive it. 

Psalm 82

God is just, and he will judge justly. There's no point in trying to hide behind some arcane law or get off on a technicality. He will judge us for what we've done.

And that's the last thing any of us wants.

Review: GORMENGHAST by Mervyn Peake

The second book the Gormenghast Trilogy, this book is written in the same overflowing style as the first, but here it's turned to description rather than humor. It's a beautiful book, though a tragic one. The tragedy is lit by elements of comedy, as the first book's comedy had a background of tragedy.

Unfortunately it also continues the myth of redemptive violence, the idea that good guys have to kill bad guys to make the world a better place. For that reason alone I can't recommend it.

Psalm 81

A good father knows that sometimes you just have to let your kids run themselves into the ground, and God is the best father there is.

It isn't that he couldn't or wouldn't save Israel. He'd proven neither was true by rescuing them from Egypt. But they just wouldn't turn to him, and had to do things their own way. And that's the problem: sometimes he lets you.

Hatting love

Why do people get so mad when the love oF Christ is shown?

I don't think it's out of hate. Very few people seem to wake up and decide to hate others. Instead, it seems to come from fear..

People are afraid for themselves. They're afraid for their families. They're afraid for whatever they've built up that makes them feel secure, or that they won't have something they think they need. Most of all, I think people are afraid of life and of losing control.

But they don't have control anyway. Someone else is always in charge. And that kind of fear is a weapon of Satan, not God. Jesus didn't die to leave us in fear, but to free us from it.

The basis for all that anger is fear, based on a lie: if you do enough, you can be fine by yourself. 

Psalm 80

God made his people, and only he can restore them.

This psalm also tells about God taking the people from Egypt, but does so metaphorically rather than by repeating the events again. It's a nice change, 

Review: THE MYSTERY OF THE MARK by Peter Hoover

Much like Hoover's The Secret of the Strength, this is a history of the early Anabaptists, this time on their work as missionaries. Hoover writes well, and does a good job of mixing his own experience in an Anabaptist community with the historical narrative.

Given that I have a strong interest in the early Anabaptists and an even stronger one in missions, it should be no surprise that I recommend this book.

Psalm 79

How long are you going to wait, God? They've defiled your temple, destroyed your city, and conquered your people. We're thankful for your provision, but we want to see your vengeance.

What's it going to take?

Review : THE MABINOGION trans.by Lady Charlotte Guest

This is Wales' national epic, a set of legends that bind the people together. It's basically Welsh mythology, though apparently strongly influenced by Continental medieval romances.

The problem is the translation. Victorian translators tended toward deliberate archaism, and Guest seems to have been worse then most. I don't recommend this just because it's so hard to read.

Psalm 78

Even though his people have been unfaithful, God never has.

And since he hasn't been in the past, there's no reason to believe he will be in the future. I think that's why the Bible repeats the events of the Exodus so often. It reminds people what God has done so they'll trust him.

The Schleitheim Confesion, Article 1

,Since direct translations from the original German are very long-winded, I've decided to use the summaries from Wikipedia instead.

+

BAPTISM 

Baptism is administered to those who have consciously repented and amended their lives and who believe that Christ died for their sins and who request it for themselves. Infants, therefore, were not to be baptized.

+

Baptism was the most visible issue that separated the early Anabaptists from both the Church of Rome and the Reformers. In fact, the very name "Anabaptist" is a reference to their practice of "baptizing again", giving baptism to those who had been through the practice of infant baptism.

Psalm 77

When times get hard or the enemy is at the gates, turn to God. If you're not convinced that God can be trusted, just think of all he's done in the past. God has always been trustworthy. And he always will be.

You have everything to gain by depending on God.

Review: HCSB NNW TESTAMENT read by Dale McConachie

The Holmium Christian Standard Bible was transferred and is owned by the Southern Baptist Convention, essentially because it was paying too much for using the NIV in its materials. The translation itself isn't one of my favorites, and the performance, while certainly not bad, isn't spectacular either. I don't recommend it because there are much better audio Bibles out there also for free.

Psalm 76

No one can stand up to God. He is to be feared.

No weapon can harm him and no fortress can stand before him. He casts down princes and kings tremble at the mention of his name. Even his children, while they shouldn't live in abject terror of him, should have a healthy respect for him.

Buddhism (not the Hollywood version)

Buddhism has become popular in the US in recent years, largely because of the influence of several Hollywood stars. However, what they espouse is just a watered-down, Americanized version.

It's not just a matter of having more good karma than bad; in Buddhism's various Asian forms, there's no difference between "good" and "bad" karma. All karma will keep a soul trapped in a cycle of death and rebirth. After sometimes millions of these rebirths, the soul may reach Nirvana, which is a state of perfect nothingness into which the soul is irrevocably dissolved.

Millions of years of pain followed by nonexistence: that's Buddhism in a nutshell. It's a philosophy of death, not a set of feel-good beliefs designed for rich white people. And it's completely opposed to Christianity.

An announcement

I have a new post,  "Something else you knew I'd write about sooner or later", at The Bible Exchange. www.bibleexchange.com

Psalm 75

There will be rewards and punishments.

Though things don't seem fair now, though people seem to literally get away with murder, God has promised a time when he'll judge people by what they've done. And he's promised to be fair.

Review: RADICAL TOGETHER by David Platt

The second of Platt's books, this one is about community. Where Radical showed what changes in individual Christians would look like, here we see how those changed Christians should function together. Simply put, the first book was about a person, and this one is about the church.

As such I don't see anything wrong with it. I don't believe in Platt's Calvinism, but there isn't any of that here. This small book is fundamentally about the mission of the church, and I recommend it.

Psalm 74

We have to wonder why, if God has all this power, why doesn't he use it? To be honest, this is something I wonder all the time. It all comes down to another question: is he on my schedule, or am I on his?

To put it another way: am I part of his plan, or is he part of mine?

Review: WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson

This is a collection of short stories about a fictional Ohio town. It's neither especially good or especially bad. It's just average and forgettable.

The most I can say is that some of the stories had a bleak, desperate feel. I don't see any reason to recommend it.

Psalm 73

The psalmist recalls how he looked at the godless rich and how they never seemed to suffer and wondered if he had wasted his life following God. But then he saw the fate of the wicked and knew it was worth it.

Following God is always worth it.

Wrapping up the Lord's Prayer and answering the question of what's next

That's it for the Lord's Prayer. It seems too short to me, but that's because I'm used to it in the King James Version, where it's significantly longer.

Next I'm going to go through the Schleitheim Confession again, though I don't know whether I'll comment on it or just present it like it is.

Psalm 72

In this psalm, David doesn't just praise God. He wants everyone else to as well. This isn't because he's bossy or megalomaniacal, but because God deserves it.

Everyone's going to praise him anyway.

Review: FLATLAND by Edwin Abbott Abbott

This is an unusual book, to say that least. On one hand, it's a book of planar geometry, though an old-fashioned one. On the other, it's a fairly mediocre novel. When the two are put together, though, the result is very strange.

Rather than just describing figures of zero, one, and two dimensions, Abbott tries to imagine what life would be like under these conditions. It makes for an odd, entertaining like book, and I recommend it.

Psalm 71

If he's cared for you this long, it's not like he's going to stop now.

Many of the psalms, like this one, ask for God to deliver the psalmist from his enemies. Here, he also asks for deliverance, but also recalls how God has protected him from birth and prays not to be forsaken now.

Romans 13 and why it doesn't mean Christians should be in the army

I've never made a secret of the fact that I don't think Christians don't have any business killing other people. By far the most common objection I've heard to this belief that Romans 13 allows it. I have two counterarguments to that.

First, that's allowing those few verses to override the entire tenor of the New Testament, including the example of Jesus Christ himself. That's what cults do, and to elevate one part of the Bible as more important than the rest sets a dangerous precedent.

Second, that's not what it says anyway. Paul's epistle to the Romans was written to Christians in Rome, and is mostly in the second person. That is, it's as if he was talking to the Romans. At several points, however, he switches to the third person; he's talking about someone. He's not writing to Christians who bear the sword, but to Christians about people who bear the sword. That's a big difference.

An announcement

I have a new post up at The Bible Exchange, "Christians don't need legends ".

Psalm 70

Is Scripture always right?

Many of the psalm wish curses on those opposed to the psalmist or to God. Loving enemies would seem to call for an opposite reaction. I believe the Bible is always correct, but our understanding isn't.

Review: STEPS TO CHRIST by Ellen G. White

I remember having a copy of this when I was in the Navy. It was a very thin paperback -- I can still remember how it looked and felt -- and I carried it in the left chest pocket of my coveralls for several years and never got around to reading it.

When I found another copy a few months ago I decided to fix that. By then I knew a little more, including that Ellen G. White was the founder of the Seventh-Day Adventists, a group many Christians consider a cult.

I was a little leery about starting this, but just as the Book of Mormon contains no Mormonism, this book series to contain any Seveth-Day Advenism. Instead, it's a simple message of evangelism (though pretty old-fashioned because it was written in the 1800s) and as such I recommend it.

Psalm 69

Not the album, which I've never heard, but the actual psalm. It's really just a cry for help,from a man to the God he trusts. When he finds himself in trouble, when the whole world is against him, he knows where to turn.

He turns to God, who has never failed him.

Review: LIEUTENANT HORNBLOWER by CS Forster

This is the second of the 12-book Hornblower series. It's also the last one I plan on reading, due to an unfortunate coincidence.

The unfortunate coincidence was that I started this about the same time I finally decided to turn everything over to God, including the books I read. Since this series is set in the midst of war, it contradicts my beliefs totally. The whole thing made me so uncomfortable that I promised never to do that to myself again.

This is a well-written book, and I've always liked sea stories, but I can't in good conscience recommend this novel.

Psalm 68

According to this psalm, the land of Israel didn't just lie fallow while it waited for the Israelites. It wasn't just exploited by the Canaanites, either. 

It was being restored by God. 

And lead us not into temptation

This is a simple request that God's leading not cause us to be tempted to do wrong. The book of James tells us that God never tempts anyone, so looked at in light of that it's asking him to protect us from ourselves.

We get tempted. It would make no sense for God to make a rule and then try to get us to break it. That just shows a really wrong-headed view of God as a cosmic tyrant instead of a loving father.

Psalm 67

We see God's work partly so that others can see the light of God reflected in our faces and praise him. Everything he does is from his desire to love and be loved. The world should see his love in us and want it for themselves.

But why is the reality so different?

Review: THE SECRET OF THE STRENGTH by Peter Hoover

This is a history of the early Anabaptist movement in the 1500s, and a comparison with the Anabaptists of today.

Hoover writes well, and all the historical information is much easier to read than in Finger's A Contemporary Anabaptist Theology. I recommend it,

Psalm 66

This psalm is nothing but praise to God. He is the maker and sustainer of everything, and he chose Israel and did many miracles for it.

Someone you just have to say thanks.

Why do I think of myself as a Mennonite?

In my current state, I've a lot of time to read and to think. One thing I've thought a lot about is what I believe. Of all the denominations I've looked at at, the only one I've found that didn't read into Scripture were the Anabaptists (some of them, anyway).

In America, there are basically three kinds of Anabaptists. There are the Amish, who everyone has heard of. I couldn't be one of those because I like electricity too much. There are the Hutterites, who no one has ever heard of. I couldn't be one of those because I don't want to live on a farm in North Dakota. Everyone else, no matter how conservative or liberal -- no matter how closely they stick to Scripture -- is called a Mennonite.

There are about 40 million different flavors of Mennonites, and I haven't figured out where I fit just yet. As long as I can't move or talk, it doesn't much matter outside my head anyway. I just wanted to share what I was thinking a little.

Psalm 65

Since God is literally infinite, he should satisfy us, right?

Yes, but too often he doesn't. We think we need something, that God has forbidden what would make us really happy and really fulfilled because he doesn't really want the best for us. That's the same lie Eve believed in the Garden of Eden, and we've been believing it ever since.

Review: THE CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM by Philip Schaff

This is a three-volume set consisting of every creed and confession of the Christian church translated and annotated by Philip Schaff. It is a tremendous resource, especially when you consider how cheap things are on the Kindle. 

The only disadvantage I could find was  that as an older Kindle book, it doesn't have a table of contents that is as useful as newer versions. The fact that that was the only thing I could find wrong should tell how good it is. I recommend it. 

Psalm 64

Even though people may try to hide, God will still find them. Even when they attack from ambush his arrows will always find them. Sometimes that's how God takes care of his people: by handling dangers they don't even know about.

That's looking out right there.

Review: TILL WE HAVE FACES by CS Lewis

This was CS Lewis' favorite of his books, and one of his last. It's a retelling of the myth of Eros and Psyche, told from the point of view of a sister of Psyche.

There has been a good deal of backlash against this book from Christians, mostly because it's a pagan myth by an ostensibly Christian author. Some have even taken this as proof that he wasn't really a Christian at all. The simple fact is that none of knows what was in Lewis' heart and mind when he wrote this, so we're not fit to judge his motives.

It's undeniably well-written, and though the story and its protagonist are emphatically not Christian, Lewis has earned my trust, and I recommend this book.

Psalm 63

How much do you want God?

In this psalm David says he wants God as much as he wants food and water. He values God up there with his bodily needs. How many of us do? I have to admit that I haven't, and there are many professing Christians who think he's completely irrelevant.

And forgive our trespasses, for we also forgive those indebted to us

This is a dangerous thing to pray. It admits that our being forgiven depends on our willingness to forgive others. It's more proof that God doesn't just want us when we die. He wants to change us now.