Non~FIRST Schedule

2008

November 15: Godly Love: A Rose Planted in the Desert of our Hearts by Stephen Post (Ordered September 18th)

December 15: The Jesus Who Never Lived: Exposing False Christs and Finding the Real Jesus by H. Wayne House (Ordered October 31st)

***Non~FIRST is merging with FIRST Wild Card Tours, 2009 books will be offered as Wild Cards*****************

A Purple State of Mind


It's the 15th, time for the Non~FIRST blog tour!(Join our alliance! Click the button!) Every 15th, we will featuring an author and his/her latest non~fiction book's FIRST chapter!





The feature author is:


and his/her book:



Zondervan (April 1, 2008)



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Matt Rogers is copastor of New Life Christian Fellowship at Virginia Tech. Eight hundred students call it home.

FROM THE BACK COVER:

On April 16, 2007, the campus of Virginia Tech experienced a collective nightmare when thirty-three students were killed in the worst massacre in modern U.S. history. Following that horrendous event, Virginia Tech campus pastor Matt Rogers found himself asking and being asked, “Where is God in all of this?” The cliché-ridden, pat answers rang hollow.
In this book, Matt approaches the pain of the world with personal perspective—dealing with his hurting community as well as standing over the hospital bed of his own father—and goes beyond answers, beyond theodicy, beyond the mere intellectual. When Answers Aren’t Enough drives deeper, to the heart of our longing, in search of a God we can experience as good when life isn’t.


Product Details

List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (April 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310286816
ISBN-13: 978-0310286813


AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:


A Heavy,
Sinking Sadness


Embracing the World That Is

One


Lately I’ve been walking in the evenings. I tend to do that when stuck on a question. Maybe I’m trying to walk it off. On days when I have time, I drive out to Pandapas Pond in Jefferson National Forest to be in nature. Once there, I set off through the woods or slowly stroll along the water’s edge, deep in thought or prayer.

Most days, because of time, I have to settle for the streets around my home. I can quickly climb to the top of Lee Street, turn around, and look out over Blacksburg, the Blue Ridge backlit by the setting sun. From there, I can see much of Virginia Tech. The stately bell tower of Burruss Hall rises proudly above the rest.

On nights like tonight, when I get a late start and the sun is already down, I head for campus. At its center, separating the academic and residential sides of the school, sits the Drill Field, a wide-open grassy space named for the exercises that the Corps of Cadets practices to perfection there. After dark, old iron lampposts, painted black, blanket the ground in overlapping circles of light.

It was here on the Drill Field, the day after the shootings, that students placed thirty-two slabs of gray limestone rock — Hokie stones, as they’re called — in a semicircle in front of Burruss Hall, to commemorate the lives of loved ones lost. Thousands of mourners descended on the place, bearing with them a flood of condolences, a mix of bouquets, balloons, and poster-board sympathies. They came sniffling, clinging to tissues and to one another, and lifting their sunglasses to wipe tears from their tired, red eyes. The world came as well, vicariously through television, watching us, kneeling with us in grief.

I also came, revisiting the stones day after day, and sometimes at night, drawn to them by a need to connect with the dead whom I never knew. Always there was something new here, some trinket that had been added. At times the items seemed odd: a baseball for every victim, an American flag by every stone, though some of the dead were international students.

People took their time passing by this spot. There was no need to rush; there were no classes to attend. It would be days, dark and long, before there would be any distractions from the pain. For a time, there was no world beyond this place.

By day, soft chatter could be heard around the memorial. After sunset, no one spoke a word. During daylight, masses huddled near the stones, peering over shoulders to read the notes left there. At night, however, mourners passed by in a single-file line, waiting their turn, patient with the people in front who wished to pause at every name.

The masses have since receded. The Drill Field now is vacant (except for these stones) and silent. The semester has ended, most of the students are gone, and only the sounds of insects disturb the stillness of the summer evening air. If I close my eyes and take in the quiet, I can almost imagine nothing happened here.

Almost. Except for the stone reminders that lie at my feet. On one is written a simple, anguished note.

Jeremy,

We love you.

Mom and Dad


These stones are more than rocks. Each is all that remains of a son, a daughter, a husband who will never come home again. I picture my mom and dad, heartbroken, kneeling by a stone for me, had I been among the dead. Moreover, I imagine myself by a stone for my dad, had he not survived his fall.

This is a summer of mourning. I am grieving the world as it is. And I am asking, “If I embrace the world as it is, in all its sadness — if I refuse to bury my head in the sand, pretending all is well, but rather think and speak of the world as it actually is — can I, then, still know God as good? Can my experience of him be more consistent than my circumstances, which alternate between good and bad?”

Is this too much to expect?

Before I can know, I must face the world at its worst.

How to Post for a Tour

1. Open up your DASHBOARD. If you have several blogs it will look like the picture below. If you only have one blog, just one title will appear.



2. Get the Html from the All FIRST Alliances blog if it is one of the Alliance tours or get it at FIRST Wild Card Tours blog if it is a Wild Card. Html is available for you to grab two days before the tour date. Highlight the Html by doing a left click hold and drag until all the words inside the box are highlighted in blue like the picture below. Press your Ctrl button at the same time as the 'c' key. This copies it to the computer.



3. Press New Post on the blog in your dashboard that you wish to paste the html into.



4. IF AND ONLY IF YOU WANT TO PUT YOUR REVIEW IN THE POST, DO IT NOW USING COMPOSE MODE. Be sure to switch it back to the Html mode before adding the Html!



5. In the Edit Html mode, paste in the Html that is available to you on the tour blog. You can put this before or after your review...or even put your review in the middle of the post if you are so inclined. If you wish to see what it will look like, press the blue word 'Preview'...never press 'Compose' to view your post! It messes up the Html. Press your ctrl button along with your 'v' key. This pastes in the html you've copied into the memory of your computer.



6. Now add your title and press the blue words 'Hide Preview'.



7. You're almost there! You can now press your Post Options to change the date to post on the tour date. Change the time as well if you wish. Add a label if you want to sort your posts by topic. Press Publish and you are finished!



8. After pressing 'Publish Post', you should see something like this:



If you go into your list of blog posts called 'Edit Posts' you will see something like the picture below. You can always go back into your posts and edit them. For each tour, create a NEW POST.



Email me if you have any questions on how to post a tour! Always leave a comment on the correct FIRST Alliance blogpost for the book that your are touring for.

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