Category: book club

Book reviews, thoughts and reflections

Sex God

My sister-in-law Jen bought me a copy of Rob Bell’s Sex God for Christmas, apparently Laurie may have given her a hint or two ;-).
I’m loving it!
I know some people who are turned off by the title, turned off by the table of contents and turned off by the idea of Christians selling books about sex, talking about sex or even thinking about sex.
Oh well. Don’t buy the book then. But for those of you who don’t judge a book by it’s cover or title, here’s a summary from Publisher’s Weekly:

Bell raises the bar with this evocative follow-up to last year’s bestseller Velvet Elvis. “Is sex a picture of heaven?” he wonders. It’s all about God and sex and heaven, he says: “…they’re connected. And they can’t be separated. Where the one is you will always find the other.” Bell’s book isn’t a sex manual, an exploration of the differences between men and women or a marriage how-to, though all of that is here. Instead, it’s the story of God becoming human, of humans mirroring God and love made manifest in the chaos of our humanity. Sex God is about relationships revealed in a way that elevates the human condition and offers hope to those whose relationships are wounded. In Bell’s spare, somewhat oblique style, he addresses lust, respect, denial, risk, acceptance and more. His love for God and the Bible is clear, as is his ability to ask probing questions and offer answers that make readers think deeply about their own lives. He does a fine job using the Bible and real life to show that our physical relationships are really about spiritual relationships. This book joyfully ties, and then tightens, the knot between God and humankind.

I’m a little more than halfway through the book and really want to comment on it now, but I think I’ll wait till I finish it up. But let me leave you with this GREAT quote from chapter one, God wears lipstick:

How you treat the creation reflects how you feel about the creator.
…When Jesus speaks of loving our neighbor, it isn’t just for our neighbor’s sake. If we don’t love our neighbor, something happens to us.

Share love.

Stephen Colbert day on NPR


Stephen Colbert got a lot of fun press today on NPR. Starting with Fresh Air, the political satirist gave an hour long interview to Terry Gross, followed by 5 minutes or so on All Things Considered.
Both very funny interviews. He dropped the satire during Fresh Air but kept up the act during All Things Considered.
During both interviews he talked about his new book, I Am America (And So Can You!) (available at the Casa de Blundell store of course)
Both worth a listen.

The Gospel according to William Shakespeare

I just finished Searching for God Knows What.
Where to begin? Wow. You’ll just need to buy the book and read it for yourself. Seriously – just click the link and buy it straight from Amazon. It’s easy. They’ll ship it right to your home or office.
But enough of that. You’re interested in the title to this post – otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.
I feel like maybe I’m spoiling the book here, but in the final chapter of Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller suggests that the poet and playwright William Shakespeare may have been more of a prophet that we’ve given him credit for.
Granted I would say prophet is probably a strong word – but I can agree with modern day preacher (for his day).
Continue reading The Gospel according to William Shakespeare

Christian conservatives could bolt from GOP

The NY Times reports:

Alarmed at the possibility that the Republican Party might pick Rudolph W. Giuliani as its presidential nominee despite his support for abortion rights, a coalition of influential Christian conservatives is threatening to back a third-party candidate.

It’s interesting to me to see the “you’re either with us or against us” ideal of many conservatives on the abortion issue and others. Don’t get me wrong, I’m against the practice as well and honestly I’m not a Giuliani fan, but this article really makes Don Miller’s point in “The Search For God Knows What” that much clearer.
Miller argues that we view life as riders in a lifeboat. He tells of a question an elementary teacher asked his class (I’m probably butchering this since I don’t have the book in front of me), “If a lawyer, a teacher, a doctor and a cripple are stranded in a lifeboat and one of them must be thrown overboard to keep the lifeboat afloat, which one do you choose?”
Miller remembers people arguing for various people right away – as if one person somehow is more valuable than the other.
Miller continues to point back to the lifeboat illustration throughout the book and just last night I read his thoughts on the war on popular culture between the “godly moral right” and the “godless immoral left” (my words not his).
It seems that many Christians want to rage war against everyone who don’t measure up to their/our moral standards – yet we can pick and choose which moral standard(s) we want to hold them to.
Miller makes the point that if we’re really “waging war” against someone the only option is to either handcuff them or kill them. Doesn’t sound very Christian to me. Yet we wage war against others as if to prove that our side is really better than their side and that somehow we, or the person we chose deserves to stay in the lifeboat.
My boss and I talked about this lifeboat phenomenon a couple weeks ago and he made the observation that in reality, as Christians the answer should be – we’ll jump out of the lifeboat. I agree, “What greater love has any man than this, that he lay down his life for his brother.”
What are we saying to the lost when rather than showing them love, we simply bolt and say we want nothing to do with them?

Proverbs 24

I’m not sure why – maybe it’s because of the book I’m reading (“Searching for God Knows What” – Don Miller) but I keep being drawn to passages and stories about treating everyone as equal. Treat everyone fairly. Let’s get over this superficial social hierarchy that we’ve developed.
Proverbs 24 is no different.

Prov 24:1 & 2:
Do not envy wicked men,
do not desire their company;
for their hearts plot violence,
and their lips talk about making trouble.

v. 12:
Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.

v. 17-18:
Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice,
or the LORD will see and disapprove
and turn his wrath away from him.

I heard today that the city of New York has forbidden the president of Iran to visit Ground Zero during his trip to the city and the UN today. I don’t know why verse 17 & 18 remind me of that story but I wonder what’s going on in everyone’s head. Is the Iranian president truly wanting to pay regards or is he gloating because an enemy fell. I’m sure that’s what Mayor Bloomberg thinks at least.

What should our response as Christians be though? What if someone killed a loved one of mine. Maybe it was intentional. Maybe not. What if after they were prosecuted they wanted to go lay flowers by the grave of my loved one. What should my response be.

Proverbs 24:19 & 29 says:
Do not fret because of evil men
or be envious of the wicked,
for the evil man has no future hope
and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.

Hmm. Sounds like I shouldn’t let it get to me. Sounds like I should lay my pride aside and let God handle my enemies and others around me.

Finally,

Prov 24:23:
These also are sayings of the wise:
To show partiality in judging is not good:

Verse 24 goes on to say that we should not judge a man unfairly because of our preference towards him or against him. I believe this speaks directly to a judge ruling over a trial but I think the same can be directed to each one of us. Don’t show partiality. Believe and live as if every man, woman and child are equal to you – or more better yet – more important than you.

The study of Scripture

Don Miller writes in his book, “Searching for God Knows What” about the Benedictine monks, who stayed up late and studied the bible by candlelight.
He wonders what it would be like to sit up late and study the Bible without being tainted by lists and charts and formulas that cause you to look for ideas infer notions that may or may not be in the text, all the while ignoring the poetry, the blood and pain of the narrative and the depth of emotion with which God communicates His truth.
“I think there would be something quite beautiful about reading the Bible this way, to be honest – late at night, feeling through the words, sorting through the grit and beauty.”
He quotes author Kathleen Norris from her book, “The Cloister Walk,” and what she has to say about the monks:

Although their access to scholarly tools was primitive compared to what is available in our day, their method of biblical interpretation was in some ways more sophisticated and certainly more psychologically astute, in that they were better able to fathom the complex, integrative and transfomative qualities of revelation. Their approach was far less narcissistic than our own tends to be, in that their goal while reading scripture was to see Christ in every verse, and not a mirror image of themselves.”

May that be my prayer in the reading and studying of scripture. May I seek to see Christ in scripture and not myself. and may Christ make me more like Him through the process.