Life, In Spite of me

Inspiring and moving.  These are two words that summarize my impression of the book.  The book is inspiring because it gives hope to readers who struggle with depression and hopelessness.  It is moving because the book vividly describes the emotional journey that Kristen experiences from a teenager who lost her life purpose to a young lady who discovered God’s purpose for her redeemed life.

The book began with Kristen’s suicide attempt on the railroad tracks.  She lost her life purpose after she suffered multiple tragedies in her life over a period of a year and a half.  Four of her close friends died, and she was raped after attending a party at a friend’s house. 

She survived the suicide.  It was an amazing miracle. However, her road to recovery is a long process.  She even questioned why God let her live.  Her struggle with depression continued. At one point, she trusted that it was God’s will that she abandoned her medication.  Her miraculous healing did not happen instantly.

In the end, God stepped in, and slowly things started to turn around for the better. She found the faith community where she found God’s amazing grace, and there also, she discovered the true meaning of being a follower of Christ. She learned to let go and let God be God.  She surrendered everything to God—her sadness, shame, and guilt (: 172).  In her surrender, she discovered God’s purpose for her second chance, and God gives her a new ministry to reach out to others with the same struggle of depression and hopelessness.  Not only she overcame her depression, but she also led many to Christ.  What an amazing story.  She went from a broken life to a restored life and finally to a transformed life. 

If you are struggling with hopelessness, this book is for you.  It will give you hope that God loves you, and He has a purpose for your life. Some may question what if she did not survive that night.  Would she go to hell? Kristen asked the same question, and she concluded that she would go to hell because she had not accepted Christ as her personal Savior (:119).  Some would find her conclusion too simplistic.  My response is that this book is not meant for a theological reflection. It is a book about hope of a second chance.  God gave her a second chance so that she could help others find God and find their life purpose.

I would highly recommend this book because Kristen’s story brings hope about the amazing love of God, and one can experience the fullness of life when one discovers this love.

1000 Days: The Ministry of Christ

How can one know Christ in a deeper way?  According to Jonathan Falwell, one way is by studying the 1000 days of Jesus' earthly ministry.  In his book, Falwell takes the audience to become acquainted with Jesus’ ministry during the last three years of his life. His premise is that by looking at Jesus' ministry closely, one can be inspired to become more like him. He wrote that Jesus could have just given the humanity salvation.  Instead, he chose to live with us and ultimately sacrificed his life on the cross. The primary reason is that he would demonstrate to us his deep love for humanity and to invite us to become like him.

Christ's 1000 days of earthly ministry also inform us that life is not about being religious.  In fact, Jesus challenged many of the religious leaders because they live a hypocritical life.   They knew truth, but their actions were void of love for others.  On the opposite, Jesus expressed his love to sinners and hurting people (:62).   In fact, Jesus even prayed forgiveness for those who betrayed him (including his own disciples, Peter and Judas) and those who put Him on the cross.  Jesus’ first words on the Cross are: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Falwell is inviting readers to come to know this amazing love of Christ so that we can become faithful followers, and we may find our ultimate life satisfaction in Him.  As we find our contentment in Him, we will follow Jesus no matter what (:124). 

This book is intended for seekers who are not coming to faith in Christ yet.   Falwell gives the overview of Jesus’ ministry by selecting prominent passages from the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).  In doing so, he leaves out a deep theological conversation such as doctrines of atonement, incarnation, resurrection, or salvation.

 

For those who expect an in-depth study of Christ’s 1000 days of earthly ministry may find the book not adequate.  The book lacks of a detailed chronology of Christ’s ministry.  It leaps from one Gospel passage to another Gospel passage.   It also lacks a rich theological conversation on significant passages such as Jesus’ final discourse from John 13 to 17.

In summary, I would highly recommend this book only for those who have just begun their journey in knowing Christ, and for mature Christians, I would give this word of caution.  This book may not meet the expectation. This book lacks the depth that it promises.  They might look for a different book. 

Counsel from the Cross by ElyseM. Fitzpatrick and Dennis E. Johnson

Counsel from the Cross presents a different approach to Christian counseling.  Most Christian counseling uses an integrative approach combining humanistic psychology and Scripture.  The authors, Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Dennis E. Johnson argue that integrative approach has not been effective because humanistic psychology stands in the opposite of the Scripture.  Humanistic psychology focuses on “self-reformation” (:98).  On the other hand, the gospel reminds us of our impotence of reforming our sinful nature; only in the power of the Cross lies the assurance of forgiveness and the hope of transformation of which the authors refer to the twin messages of the Cross (:12).  These twin messages form their counseling approach—gospel-centered counseling.

Gospel-centered counseling invites a counselee to reflect what the Scripture declares about him/her (gospel declaration) and what the Scripture demands them to do (gospel obligation) (:92). The authors derive these two approaches based on Ephesians 4:22-24—old identity and new identity.  The gospel declares that we have died to our old identity.  It is not through self-reformation.  In its place, the gospel declares that we have received a new identity. Therefore, we can live a life free from self-doubt and guilt—our sinful desires have no power to rule over us (:94).  With our new identity, the gospel instructs that we must stop practicing sinful habits; instead, we must practice godly living (:97).

We may ask how the gospel obligations differ from obeying the law. Isn’t is still legalistic?  The authors explain that we practice gospel obligations from a changed heart—transformed by grace.  We no longer obey God because we need to earn his favor.  That is a legalistic thinking relying on our efforts.  It is the reason why Christ opposes the Pharisees and teachers of the law who like to show their outward signs of self-righteousness. Gospel-centered Christians understand that we are accepted by God only by grace in Jesus Christ.  He died for our trespasses.   For his grace, we desire to live differently. Our obedience comes from our grateful heart (:181).

In summary, gospel-centered counseling is different from other types of Christian counseling because it invites a counselee to live a new life from the Cross of Christ.  Other types of counseling focus on self-reformation that leads to a false belief that they can obtain glory by hard work and self-discipline (:169).  Rather than attempting to reach our “glory story”, we need to focus on the gospel story that we have been given the victory from sins because of our crucified Christ and risen Lord (:180).  His cross gives us the power to be free from addiction.  His cross transforms us from self-reliance to God-reliance.  With this perspective, we have the spiritual motivation for a righteous living.  We obey God not as “slaves to the law but as thankful children” (:181). 

I highly recommend this book because it helps clarify the pitfall of our attempts to live a righteous life. Until we recognize our dependence on the grace of Christ, we will continue to fall into a trap of self-reformation not knowing that it is precisely the sin of Pharisees that only leads to judgment and pride.  This book invites us to return to the Cross of Christ.  Only by his cross, we have been redeemed, and we receive our assurance of hope of a transformed life.  

Gospel Centered Discipleship

Discipleship is a popular word in Christian circle, but it is also a daunting word.  It is commonly associated with rigorous spiritual practices such as bible study, prayer, fasting, evangelism, and pious living.  Many of us have struggled and felt frustrated from our lack of obedience.  Jonathan Dodson has a helpful counsel for us.  We struggle with discipleship because our understanding about discipleship is flawed.  Discipleship has become our way to earn God’s favor and gaining approval from others.  It is no longer an expression of our genuine love for God.  It has shifted from grace to works.  Against such misunderstanding, Jonathan reorients us to the right understanding of discipleship.  It should be gospel centered—“imperfect people clinging to a perfect Christ” (:18). 

This understanding of grace is important.  Our frustration comes because we conclude that our failure needs to be compensated by working harder, getting better accountability, and finding a stronger disciple.  These things may sound spiritual; however, they are flawed.  It is performance oriented rather than grace oriented.  What we need is more Jesus and not more discipline.

The truth of the gospel rests not with our performance but on the performance of Jesus: his life, death, and resurrection.  We don’t have to impress Jesus.  He has impressed us with His love.  Therefore, our obedience is not about winning His approval. Our obedience is motivated by His love for us.

His love will steer us away from individualism.  As we internalize the gospel of grace, we are more compelled to spread the gospel. We join Jesus’ agenda by teaching others the gospel.  We are inviting them to taste the sweetness of the grace of Christ.

In summary, gospel centered discipleship will help grow us to become a holistic: having a right relationship with God (relational disciple) and having a passion for His mission (missional disciple). There is a tendency for us to separate these two realities.  When we are preoccupied with personal holiness, we would like to withdraw from the world.  On the other hand, when we are preoccupied with engagement with the world, we may substitute piety with mission.  Gospel centered discipleship will prevent us from this dichotomy.  Gospel centered discipleship will free us from fear of moral or missional failure (:48).

I highly recommend this book for us who have been trapped by performance oriented discipleship. Jonathan Dodson has done well in clarifying a healthy discipleship that is vertically connected with God and horizontally connected with His mission. 

Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity by Mark Batterson

What is the essence of Christianity?  Love God.  Mark Batterson does an outstanding job in summarizing the essence of Christianity by giving us the fresh look on the Great Commandment of Jesus:   loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  It is a simple instruction, but the church has not faithfully lived out the truth of this commandment.  We tend to blame the present culture for not being interested in Christianity.  We have failed to examine ourselves.  We have lost the “soul of Christianity.” It is the primal problem of the church.  Mark challenges us to rediscover this Great Commandment. 

How?  He invites the readers to relearn the four primal elements of the Great Commandment which becomes the outline of the book: the heart of Christianity is primal compassion, the soul of Christianity is primal wonder, the mind of Christianity is primal curiosity, and the strength of Christianity is primal energy.  Mark connects the heart with our call to compassion: “as we grow in our love relationship with God…we feel what He feels (for others)” (:24).  He connects the soul with our call to recapture the wonder of God.  When we lose our sense of God’s wonder, we lose our ability to see the glory of God, and our worship of God is merely reduced to a tradition.  He connects the mind with curiosity.  When our soul ceases to wonder, our mind loses its creative curiosity to learn about God.   Finally, he connects the strength with our energy to serve God and His purpose.   To love God is to feel his heart for others. However, it is not complete until the love is expressed in our service and sacrifice for others.  We cheapen the gospel when our love for God has no action.

Mark is a very skillful storyteller.  He illustrates each element with practical stories that challenge us to put each element into practice.   However, some readers may find his usage of scientific illustrations too many.  Almost every chapter has a reference to scientific story.  For those readers, I would suggest not to quit reading the book.  I find the book as refreshing.  I am challenged to reexamine my Christian life.  Have I always loved God with compassion?  Have I always felt His presence with a sense of wonder?  Have I always desired to learn more about Him?  And have I expressed my love for God in a tangible way?

My only criticism on the book is Mark’s use of successful stories of his church, National Community Church in applying the four elements of the Great Commandment.   It is true that his church has been successful in raising millions of dollars for mission through their endless pursuit of creative ideas for ministry.  It is true that his church connects well with the generation of twenty-somethings, 70 percent of the attendees while churches in general are losing 61 percent of this generation.  My concern is that some readers may treat his success as the primary motivation to apply the principles learned in this book.  There is no guarantee that National Community Church’s amazing growth can be replicated elsewhere after applying the same principles: compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy.  I will leave this caution for emerging church pastors so that they will apply the principles not merely for success.

The book may seem brief and simple, but it is an inspiring book to read not only for young believers but also especially for mature Christians.  After many seasons of following Christ, we may assume that we have known all.  As a result, our love for Christ can grow cold.  Our heart needs to be broken again, and our mind needs to be renewed so that the fresh winds of revival may fall on us again, and we may present to our generation the rediscovery of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  For this reason, I recommend this book highly, and it is worth 5 stars of excellence.

I Am A Follower by Leonard Sweet

Are you followers of Jesus?  Our immediate response will be yes.  However, how many of us are truly followers of Jesus?  Not many.  The reason is that following Jesus is not a popular thing.  In the opening page, Leonard Sweet critique the present landscape of Christianity that places so much emphasis on creating better and stronger leaders (: 19).  Christianity has followed the dominant culture that exalts dominant leadership. 

In this book, Sweet challenges that Christians must re-learn what it means to be followers of Jesus.  Our Christian faith is built on two basic fundamentals: Jesus is the leader, and we are his followers.  Nothing else.  We are always his followers.  Sweet further explains that following Jesus does not mean that we have no ability to influence others.  In fact, our life example will influence others to follow Jesus.  We have something distinctive to offer to the present culture that is obsessed by domination, hierarchy, and power.  Followership offers the contrary.  It offers the posture of love and trust (:40).

Following Jesus means to be on the journey with Him.  Sweet presents a simple template in outlining our journey with Jesus based on John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” When we belong to the Way, we are in the right mission; when we believe in the Truth, we are in the right relationship with Christ; and when we make Christ’s life our life, we will behave like Jesus.

I appreciate Sweet’s challenge for us to reorient our life from being preoccupied to be a successful leader to simply being a faithful follower of Christ.  Sweet comments that Reformation concept of the priesthood for believers fails to flourish because the church employs top-down corporate leadership and focuses much on professional clergy.  Therefore, he suggests that the church needs to reclaim followership.  Only followership can level the playing field and energizes the laity to contribute to the life of the church.  He writes, “We don’t need more larger-than-life leaders…We need more down-to-earth followers” (:175).

However, one may find Sweet’s style of writing too simplistic because he uses too many stories.  As a result, some readers may quickly dismiss the book as light-weight and lacking originality. I would agree with this criticism.  I had hoped that Sweet would develop in greater detail the relationship between Belonging (the Way), Believing (the Truth), and Behaving (the Life).  What happens when one finds Christian’s way of life attractive but decides not to believe in the truth? How can we encourage the person to move from belonging to believing and behaving?  In this regard, I would rate Sweet’s I Am A Follower 3 star for its lack of robust conversation between the three parts. 

Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches by James M. Hamilton Jr.

Have you been frustrated to find a balanced commentary on the book of Revelation?  I find that commentaries on Revelation fall into two camps. One camp falls into academic commentary that often makes preachers hard to find practical applications for their church audience.  The other camp places too much emphasis on the end-time prophecy fulfillment.  It often tries to fit today’s events into the biblical text.

I find Hamilton ’s commentary readable by a lay person because it results from the sermons on Revelation he had the opportunity to preach twice, one at Baptist Church of the Redeemer in Houston, TX in 2005 and the other at Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville, KY from April 2009 to April 2010.  As a result, the commentary maintains a simple structure: Introduction, Body, and Conclusion. He employs a story to get the attention of the readers in his introduction.  Then, he gives the overview of the text before he proceeds in a detailed discussion in the body.  Finally, he concludes with the main point so that the readers can apply the teaching in their lives.

While readable, the commentary involves a serious scholarship.  It interprets the symbols in Revelation from the first century Christians’ context, for example, the meaning of the numbers “666” in Revelation 13:18 and the identities of the great prostitute and the beast in Revelation 17.  Some have associated the numbers “666” with Papacy or with the recent technology of RFID chips being implanted in human bodies. However, Hamilton Jr. carefully evaluated the numbers as non-literal symbol.  The numbers are well understood in the first century as Emperor Nero.  Apostle John refers Nero as a wicked tyrant who persecuted Christians and demanded them to worship him as a god. Concerning the great prostitute and the beast, the historical reading would point to Babylon (the prostitute) and Rome (the beast).  These two ancient superpowers are symbols John uses to describe the worldly powers who would entice Christians to forsake their true allegiance with God and to form an alliance with the world.

The whole commentary of Revelation can be summarized with whom we will give our allegiance.  In the context of the first century Christians, they had a choice whether to be faithful followers of Jesus or to participate in the imperial cult worshipping Roman emperor as God.  In our context, our faithfulness to God is also constantly tested by the allure of the world.  We are also not immune from worshipping modern idols such as money, power, and sex.  Hamilton refers this modern idolatry as misplaced allegiance.  Therefore, he repeatedly challenges us, Christians not to forsake our allegiance with God: “Live for the Lamb not for the beast and his cheap whore” (:331).  He also invites non-believers to come to trust in Jesus: “if you are an unbeliever, you are a fool if you do not repent and trust in Jesus” (:320).

I am grateful that Hamilton publishes his sermons as one of the most readable commentary on Revelation. It aims for simplicity for lay readers so that they can capture the main idea of the passages in Revelation.  That main idea is our true allegiance to Jesus. For this reason, I am giving Hamilton’s commentary on Revelation 5 stars.