Book Review: "The Autobiography of George Muller"

The Autobiography of George Muller (1899) Whitaker House (Publisher)  George Muller's autobiography is composed of portions of his diary.  George Muller was converted in his early 20's and later went on to pastor a congregation, start an orphanage which held 1150 orphans, as well as many missionary trips.  Most notably, though, he never received a salary nor solicited funds but rather prayed for his daily needs.  This autobiography is both inspiring and motivating.  I would recommend it to anyone.

Book Review: "The True Bounds of Christian Freedom" by Samuel Bolton

The True Bounds of Christian Freedom (1645) Samuel Bolton  This book makes a great case for the place of the law in the life of a Christian.  He shows how Christian obedience fits in with God's grace and the effects of sin upon a believers life.  This book is fairly indepth and definitely not a beginner read, however for someone who has questioned how it is that a believer is to obey God without being again bound to the law and therefore legalism, this is a great book.

Book Review: "Simply Christian" by N. T. Wright

Simply Christian (2006) by N. T. Wright  The goal of this book is to introduce the major themes of Christianity to someone who may not know the Christian message but is interested in more, or someone who has long been part of the church but is confused as to what the big deal is all about.  Wright does an amazing job of explaining difficult ideas in everyday, understandable language that is both accessible and easy while also being deep and expansive.  He starts the book by explaining four things all humans long for and likening them to an echo of a voice within our world, as the book unfolds he then goes to show how the Christian message explains all of these things, how they link to the working of God in (re)creation, specifically Jesus Christ, and how this all ties back into what it means to be a recreated one who is furthering the kingdom and work of God in the world.  At times Wright oversimplifies things, at times he forces the Christian view into Old Testament Judaism, at times he generalizes on points he perhaps could have been more specific on, but overall this is a book that I would recommend to anyone interested in Christianity but hesitant or unsure of what it's all about as well as anyone who has been in the church for a while but is not sure as to how to get involved.  This book is a great starting point as well as a great reminder to all.

Hunger for God

"The revelation of Jesus is a layer by layer unfolding of divine secrets to those with one common attribute - hunger.  Age doesn't matter, education doesn't matter, and social status or race doesn't matter.  God gives himself in response to one thing and one thing only, and that is the burning desire to know him.  A poverty stricken woman in a hut in Africa can experience the revelation of Jesus just as easily as a respected theologian in North America.  Perhaps easier.  She better understands what it means to be truly hungry."  (The Presence Based Church by Terry Teykl)

Draw near to him and he will draw near to you.

Book Review: "The Knowledge of the Holy" by A.W. Tozer

The Knowledge of the Holy (1961) by A. W. Tozer (8/2/11)  This is an excellent book which considers many attributes of God each separately while recognizing throughout that they are all connected (or more properly, one unified being, which is God Himself.  Tozer would say that you cannot say God's attributes are interconnected, because you cannot properly even tease them apart.)  He also emphasizes the need to grow in a knowledge of God even though He is unknowable.  The book would be all but perfect if it were not for the last two chapters.  Throughout the whole book Tozer emphasizes the need to not leave out any one attribute in a finite attempt to explain another, but then in the second to last chapter he tries to explain God's sovereignty and how that interacts with human will in such a way as to limit God's omniscience.  He would have been better off explaining sovereignty biblically and leaving the rest up to the reader.  The last chapter then gives the "requirements" for knowing God, which I believe to be overly cumbersome and complicated, and somewhat unbiblical.  However, as a whole, the book is an excellent treatise on the attributes of God, and rather accessible and readable at that.

Drought in Texas

I received this email from my brother today and thought I would share.  It literally made me laugh out loud! 

There is an article on yahoo about a drought in Texas right now.  Here is a comment that someone posted that I thought you would find hilarious:

It's so dry in Texas that the Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling, the Methodists are using wet-wipes, the Presbyterians are giving out rain-checks, The Mormons quit baptizing the dead and the Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back into water. Now that's Dry!