tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38893163511569357152024-03-05T16:02:10.071-05:00Non~Fiction in Rather Short TakesM. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-80497632708908510592008-12-11T22:32:00.004-05:002008-12-11T22:47:05.632-05:00The Jesus Who Never Lived: Exposing False Christs and Finding the Real Jesus by H. Wayne House<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s1600-h/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg"></a><a href="http://nonfictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179647009365145890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s200/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg" border="0" /></a><br />It's the 15th, time for the Non~FIRST blog tour!(Non~FIRST will be merging with FIRST Wild Card Tours on January 1, 2009...if interested in joining, click <a href="http://firstwildcardtours.blogspot.com/">HERE</a>!)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong>The feature author is: </strong></div><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><br /><a href="http://www.hwhouse.com/">H. Wayne House</a></span></strong><br /><p></p><br /><strong><span style="font-size:160;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#009900;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#009900;">and his book:</span> </span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"></strong></div></span><p></p><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:7;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></strong></div></span><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0736923217/">The Jesus Who Never Lived: Exposing False Christs and Finding the Real Jesus</a></span></strong></div><br /><p align="center">Harvest House Publishers (August 1, 2008)<br /></p><br /><p align="center"></p><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><br /><p></p><span style="color:#ff6600;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</span> </span></strong></div></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijs3pHzM3r4sCz9ERWyi-3K2sKxSOf16Nb7UJZYf-JzEUJck8fTb_peach99qYOJr1MjNcZh86D_7abIycouY4wkpk_XFFqBvN61bWjqFI2ygqeWdVvc4eIEySQ6AUBhwutfYQQAPS/s1600-h/dr-house.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 161px; height: 176px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijs3pHzM3r4sCz9ERWyi-3K2sKxSOf16Nb7UJZYf-JzEUJck8fTb_peach99qYOJr1MjNcZh86D_7abIycouY4wkpk_XFFqBvN61bWjqFI2ygqeWdVvc4eIEySQ6AUBhwutfYQQAPS/s200/dr-house.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278743584213246450" /></a><strong>H. Wayne House (ThD, JD) </strong>is a Distinguished Research Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Faith Evangelical Seminary (Tacoma, WA). and Adjunct Professor of Law, Trinity Law School of Trinity International University. He is the New Testament editor of the Nelson Study Bible and Nelson Illustrated Bible Commentary, and the General Editor of Nelson Exegetical Commentary (42 vols), Israel: the Land and the People, and Charts of Bible Prophecy, among the 30 books that he has authored, co-authored, or edited.<br /><br />Dr. House has been a professor of biblical studies, theology or law for more than thirty years at such places as Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon; Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas; Simon Greenleaf School of Law, Anaheim, California; Michigan Theological Seminary, Plymouth, Michigan, and Trinity Graduate School and Trinity Law School, Santa Ana, California, California campus of Trinity International University, Deerfield, IL. Through this internet office we hope to help those who are interested in several topics within apologetics, including Christianity and culture, law, science, cultism, philosophy, theology, and biblical studies. Dr. House also leads Bible study tours to Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Rome, Greece, and Turkey.<br /><br />Visit his <a href="http://www.hwhouse.com/ ">Website</a>:<br /><br /><br />Product Details<br /><br />List Price: 13.99<br />Paperback: 320 pages <br />Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (August 1, 2008) <br />Language: English <br />ISBN-10: 0736923217 <br />ISBN-13: 978-0736923217 <br /><div align="center"><br /><span style="color:#ffcc00;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:</span> </strong></div></span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhl-dJ51LmfgXrYzhG3XajW73tX3LK3aGYr1Qpy4QrxgowZLnG89v0CsQ09qKn0qifviHUJp_EhaeeVaMA_IkFbawzpAP-NI2wDW-ZJwFrMlFRefi1SoxTikd9uZcPU_7pcPhPShcG/s1600-h/jesus+who+never+lived"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhl-dJ51LmfgXrYzhG3XajW73tX3LK3aGYr1Qpy4QrxgowZLnG89v0CsQ09qKn0qifviHUJp_EhaeeVaMA_IkFbawzpAP-NI2wDW-ZJwFrMlFRefi1SoxTikd9uZcPU_7pcPhPShcG/s200/jesus+who+never+lived" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278743953093724834" /></a><div style="OVERFLOW: auto; HEIGHT: 307px">What’s It All About?<br /><br /> In the Broadway play and later film Jesus Christ Superstar, Mary Magdalene asks, “What’s it all about?” as she tries to figure out who this man called Jesus really is. Certainly there are aspects about the song she sings, and suggestions made in the play, contrary to what we know from the canonical Gospels about the relationship of Mary and Jesus. But she does pose some important issues. She is puzzled about how to relate to Jesus as she has with other men, and this association with Him has made major changes in her emotions, actions, and thoughts. The reason she struggles is her perception that “he’s just a man.” If Jesus is just a man, then why does He captivate her so and cause her to evaluate herself to the depths of her soul? Such questions about Jesus and the impact of His ministry, death, and resurrection have been asked for two millennia.<br /><br /> Every year around Christmas and Easter the news media show an interest in Jesus. Rarely do they speak to people who believe in the Jesus who has been worshipped by the church since its earliest period until now. Rather, the fascination is with a Jesus re-imaged by people who have little interest in the historical record preserved in the New Testament.<br /><br /> This interest in Jesus, unconnected to the earliest tradition and history we have of Him, is not a new phenomenon. Toward the end of the first century of the Christian era, perceptions of Jesus began to arise that were different from what He said about Himself as recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and proclaimed by the apostle Paul. Jesus has become the favorite of ancient heretics, founders of various world religions, modern novelists, Hollywood and documentary filmmakers, New Age teachers, adherents of popular religion, and over-the-edge liberal scholars. He is by far the most popular, and possibly most distorted, figure of history.<br /><br /> When Christianity was less than a hundred years old, we find two groups at different ends of the spectrum in their views of Jesus. One Jewish group, known as the Ebionites (late first century), accepted Jesus as the Messiah from God, acknowledged His humanity, but rejected His deity. On the other side were the Gnostics (early second century), who accepted Jesus as a divine figure but denied His true humanity. This rise of Gnosticism coincides with the demise, though not extinction, of Jewish Christianity, toward the end of the first century and beginning of the second century. Such views of the Christ were rejected by the apostolic church, and the view supported by the New Testament was finally put in creedal form, in a number of creeds, by the end of the fifth century.<br /><br /> Since those early centuries various religions have been enamored of Jesus. Eastern religions see Jesus as one of the avatars, or manifestations of God, and Islam considers Him a prophet (see chapter 8 for both topics). In the former, Jesus is an Eastern mystic, sometimes even viewed as having been trained in India, and in the latter as one who promoted Islam.<br /><br /> Muhammad was a pagan who had contact with Jews and Christians from Arabia and finally became monotheistic, in the first quarter of the seventh century after Christ embracing one of the over 300 Arabian deities: Allah, the moon god. In his limited investigation into Christianity, he came to believe, as is recorded in the Qur’an, that Jesus was born of a virgin, was sinless throughout His life, performed miracles, ascended to God, and will come again in judgment. He acknowledged all of these things about Jesus, considering none of these to be true of himself. Nonetheless, Jesus is never considered more than one of the prophets of Islam; He is not God in the flesh. Inside the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, the walls are inscribed with statements that God does not have a Son, specifically addressed against the Christian doctrines of the divinity of Jesus and the Trinity. As we shall see in a later chapter, Muhammad and his followers misunderstood the Christian doctrine of God.<br /><br /> In the eighteenth century, with the Enlightenment came skepticism about Christianity and absolute truth in religion. Biblical scholars and philosophers began to scrutinize claims that Jesus was more than human, and for over 200 years a search, or “quest,” for the historical Jesus has been pursued. We have now entered the third quest. While many within the second quest remain skeptical, there is growing support among some in the third quest for the credibility of the Jesus portrayed in the New Testament. In contrast to those who have little regard for biblical and extrabiblical history, scholars of both liberal and conservative persuasion now agree that within a couple of years following the death of Christ, the church preached a consistent message about His death and resurrection. Christ’s followers considered Him both God and man, Lord and Savior. And those who became believers in the latter part of the first century and early second century continued to accept Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels. The church’s belief in Jesus’ deity and humanity did not begin with the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, as encouraged by the Emperor Constantine; that belief was present from the church’s very beginning.<br /><br />The Importance of Jesus<br /><br /> Though contemporary novelists and media sensationalists never tire of trying to find some new angle on Jesus to attract an audience, most serious historians and biblical scholars are impressed with the evidence in the Gospels for the Jesus who lived, taught, performed miracles, died, was buried, and rose again from the dead. An early twentieth-century composition by a devoted believer captures the wonder of Jesus:<br /><br /> He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn’t go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself.<br /><br /> He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.<br /><br /> While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His garments, the only property He had on earth. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.<br /><br /> Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one solitary life.<br /><br /> But believers in the divine Jesus aren’t the only ones who admire Him. Marcus Borg, a member of the Jesus Seminar and distinguished professor emeritus of philosophy and religion at Oregon State University, speaks as a skeptical historian about the significance and uniqueness of Jesus:<br /><br /> The historical Jesus is of interest for many reasons. Not least of these is his towering cultural significance in the nearly two thousand years since his death. No other figure in the history of the West has ever been accorded such extraordinary status. Within a few decades of his death, stories were told about his miraculous birth. By the end of the first century, he was extolled with the most exalted titles known within the religious tradition out of which he came: Son of God, one with the Father, the Word become flesh, the bread of life, the light of the world, the one who would come again as cosmic judge and Lord. Within a few centuries he had become Lord of the empire that had crucified him.<br /><br /> For over a thousand years, thereafter, he dominated the culture of the West: its religion and devotion, its art, music, and architecture, its intellectual thought and ethical norms, even its politics. Our calendar affirms his life as a dividing point in world history. On historical grounds alone, with no convictions of faith shaping the verdict, Jesus is the most important figure in Western (and perhaps human) history.<br /><br /> These words of exuberant praise from a historian who does not accept Jesus as God in the flesh further indicates the amazing manner in which a human being was able to draw devoted followers by the magnetism of His life and teachings. Jaroslav Pelikan, noted historian of Yale University, has said of Jesus,<br /><br /> Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost twenty centuries. If it were possible, with some sort of supermagnet, to pull up of that history every scrap of metal bearing at least a trace of his name, how much would be left? It is from his birth that most of the human race dates its calendars, it is by his name that millions curse and in his name that millions pray.<br /><br /> The world would be a considerably different place, with far less progress, peace, and hope than we possess today, had He not lived.<br /><br />Liking Jesus Without Knowing Him<br /><br /> Just about everyone likes Jesus. How could they not, in view of the outstanding reception He has received throughout history, right? Not really. Much of the fascination with Jesus comes from those who really don’t know much about Him. Were He to confront them with His teachings and call them to a life of obedience to His will, they might be part of the recalcitrant crowd crying out, “Crucify, crucify him!” (Luke 23:21).<br /><br /> Today a large number of people say they are attracted to Jesus but dislike His church. They see within the church people who are inconsistent in their practice of Christian ethics and fail to follow what they understand to be the teachings of Jesus. The church is viewed as judgmental, whereas Jesus said not to judge. The church speaks against sins such as homosexual relationships, whereas Jesus loved all people regardless of their sin, such as the woman caught in adultery. The church has interest in political matters, but Jesus did not involve Himself in politics and worked only to ease people’s burdens. (Whether these notions are true or not will be briefly discussed in chapter 12.)<br /><br /> This attempt to understand Jesus is often done without any reference to what we really know about Him. We simply guess who He is and how He acted—most often, how we think He ought to be and act to be acceptable to the twenty-first-century mind. Apart from the appeal to divine revelation, this is the manner in which He has been viewed over the centuries, including the century in which He lived on earth.<br /><br />“Who Do People Say That I Am?”<br /><br /> As Jesus traveled with His disciples to Caesarea Philippi, He posed an important question: “Who do people say that I am?” (Mark 8:27). The response to this question divides light and darkness, death and life. The disciples said that some believed Him to be an important prophet, but the apostles—specifically Peter—proclaimed His deity, a truth revealed to him by the Father. It is this authentic Christ, based on credible biblical and extrabiblical sources, whom we must encounter.<br /><br /> Each of us is confronted with important questions and priorities in this life. Some are of minor importance, but others have lasting, even eternal significance. The most important issue we must squarely confront is our relationship with God and, consequently, our final destiny. This is true not only for people today, it was also important in the first century when Jesus the Messiah came to earth. This is evident in the words of Christ that if people did not believe that He was “from above” (heaven), they would die in their sins (John 8:21-24).<br /><br />Jesus the Prophet of God<br /><br /> In general, people liked Jesus Christ, as is true even today. The Scripture says that “the common people heard him gladly” (Mark 12:37). Saying this, however, does not mean they always understood His message (Matthew 13:10-17) or understood who He was:<br /><br /> When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:13-17).<br /><br /> The people during that time enjoyed what so many of us greatly desire—personal communication with the Son of God—yet they failed to understand Him. Many of them were miraculously fed and healed by Him. They heard His word with their own ears and saw Him with their own eyes. No doubt many also touched Him with their hands. To have the opportunity these people enjoyed seems too wonderful to imagine.<br /><br /> But when Jesus asked the disciples who the people thought He was, they cited many important figures of Jewish history, from John the Baptist (apparently thought to have been raised from the dead) to Elijah, who was to be forerunner of the Messiah (Malachi 4:5), to Jeremiah, who confronted the Northern Kingdom of Israel for its sins, or to some other prophet, as seen below:<br /><br /> John the Baptist. John the Baptist would have been a natural choice for the identification of Jesus, particularly by those who had not encountered John personally and maybe hadn’t heard the news of his death. John spent his ministry in the desert, baptizing in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, whereas the people in view here are in Galilee or maybe the Golan. Otherwise it seems unlikely they would have made such a connection, unless they believed that Jesus was the resurrected John, which is what Herod Antipas thought: “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus and said to his servants, ‘This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him’” (Matthew 14:1-2). In the words of D.A. Carson:<br /><br /> His conclusion, that this was John the Baptist, risen from the dead (v. 2), is of great interest. It reflects an eclectic set of beliefs, one of them the Pharisaic understanding of resurrection. During his ministry John had performed no miracles (John 10:41); therefore Herod ascribes the miracles in Jesus’ ministry, not to John, but to John “risen from the dead.” Herod’s guilty conscience apparently combined with a superstitious view of miracles to generate this theory.<br /><br /> Though Herod’s superstition may be the cause for his comments, such a view is not unheard of in literature that precedes the New Testament. Albright and Mann say, “)The reappearance of dead heroes was a well-known theme in contemporary Jewish thought…[Second Maccabees 15:12-16] speaks of Jeremiah and Onias appearing to Judas Maccabaeus, and [2 Esdras 2:18-19] refers to the coming of Isaiah and Jeremiah.”<br /><br /> Elijah. Identifying Jesus as Elijah may appear surprising, except that Jesus’ ability to do miracles and the expectation of Messiah’s coming might have caused the people to believe He was preparing the way for the Messiah in agreement with Malachi’s prophecy:<br /><br /> Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet <br /><br /> Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. <br /><br /> —Malachi 4:5 nkjv<br /><br /> The disciples had similar expectations about Elijah, whom Jesus connected to John the Baptist as His forerunner (Matthew 17:10-12).<br /><br /> There are indeed many similarities between Elijah and Jesus. Elijah exercised control over the forces of nature, telling Ahab his land would have no precipitation for several years (1 Kings 17:1-2).<br /><br /> In the midst of this judgment against Israel, God sent Elijah to the Phoenician city of Zarephath of Sidon, to a widow and her son who were facing starvation. To test her faith, Elijah asked her to make him some bread from the handful of flour and the little oil she had left. After she complied with Elijah’s request, the jar of flour and the jug of oil did not become empty until the famine ended (17:14-16).<br /><br /> Later, the woman’s son died, and the prophet of God brought him back to life (17:17-24). These spectacular miracles performed for a non-Israelite mother and her son reveal not only the power of God but also the love of God for all people.<br /><br /> Those people who saw the ministry and attitude of Jesus no doubt considered Him to be like Elijah because He also controlled the forces of nature. On the mountain near the shore of the Lake of Galilee He multiplied bread and fish (Matthew 15:29-38), and He raised a widow’s son who had died (Luke 7:11-17).<br /><br /> Jeremiah. The last prophet to whom Jesus is likened is Jeremiah. What in the life and character of Jeremiah served as a basis for comparison with Jesus?<br /><br /> Donald Hagner says there are a “number of obvious parallels between Jesus and Jeremiah, such as the preaching of judgment against the people and the temple, and especially in suffering and martyrdom.” The message of Jeremiah was God’s judgment against an unfaithful people (Jeremiah 1:16). Jesus presented a similar kind of message when He pronounced woe against Chorazin and Bethsaida (Matthew 11:20-24).<br /><br /> Jesus offered healing and solace to the sick and downtrodden, but to the proud and rebellious, the words of this “prophet from Nazareth” (Matthew 21:11) were sharp and powerful. Another point of similarity may be Jesus’ cleansing of the temple and His indictment of those there (Matthew 21:10-13), and Jeremiah’s rebuke in his famous temple sermon (Jeremiah 7:1-15). Both texts even accuse the unfaithful of making God’s house a “den of robbers.”<br /><br /> One of the prophets. Even if there was disagreement among the people about Jesus’ identity, one thing is certain: They knew He was special, for He was viewed at minimum as a prophet. Just listening and watching Jesus revealed that He was powerful and insightful. This testimony—that the people identified Jesus with the prophets—demonstrates they held diverse eschatological expectations but there was no mass acknowledgment of Him as Messiah. The occasional reference to Jesus as the Son of David, found several times before Matthew 16, does not contradict the lack of recognition of Him as Messiah.<br /><br /> Fortunately, we also see among some non-Jews a different response. The Samaritan woman at the well first viewed Jesus as a Jewish man, then a prophet, then the Messiah, and finally the Savior (John 4:4-42).<br /><br /> Whether they believed He was God’s Messiah or one of the great prophets of Israel, all thought He was a person of great importance with divine authority and a powerful presence and message.<br /><br />Messiah, Son of God<br /><br /> After the disciples responded to Jesus’ question about how the people viewed Him, He asked, “But who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29). Would the disciples have a more accurate perception of their master than the general populace? You would think that their intimate relationship with Jesus would have made His identity clear in their minds. Yet this is not what we find. Though Peter correctly says that Jesus is the Messiah (christos, Greek translation of Hebrew mashiach, “anointed one”), the Son of the living God (16:16), Jesus says that the knowledge that gave rise to this confession came from heaven rather than from human insight (Matthew 16:13-17).<br /><br /> Is this confession true? Or is Jesus no more than a man, as the character of Mary sings in Jesus Christ Superstar? The Jesus who came to earth 2000 years ago has spawned a myriad of ideas about who He was and is. No more important subject than this confronts us today. Even among those who do not embrace the bodily resurrection of the crucified Messiah and His claims to deity, there is considerable praise. As Borg said of Him, “On historical grounds alone, with no convictions of faith shaping the verdict, Jesus is the most important figure in Western (and perhaps human) history.”<br /><br /> But is He only this—or is He, as Peter confessed, the Messiah, the Son of the living God? Our crucial quest in this book is to discover the true Jesus among the various visions of Him that have been constructed since His death and resurrection.<br /></div>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-27381842706202762112008-11-12T23:58:00.006-05:002008-11-13T00:16:28.798-05:00Godly Love: A Rose Planted in the Desert of our Hearts by Stephen G. Post<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s1600-h/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg"></a><a href="http://nonfictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179647009365145890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s200/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg" border="0" /></a><br />It's the 15th, time for the Non~FIRST blog tour!(Non~FIRST will be merging with FIRST Wild Card Tours on January 1, 2009...if interested in joining, click <a href="http://firstwildcardtours.blogspot.com/">HERE</a>!)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong>The feature author is: </strong></div><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><br /><a href="http://www.stephengpost.com/">Stephen G. Post </a></span></strong><br /><p></p><br /><strong><span style="font-size:160;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#009900;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#009900;">and his book:</span> </span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"></strong></div></span><p></p><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:7;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></strong></div></span><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1599471515/">Godly Love: A Rose Planted in the Desert of our Hearts</a></span></strong></div><br /><p align="center">Templeton Foundation Press (September 26, 2008)<br /></p><br /><p align="center"></p><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><br /><p></p><span style="color:#ff6600;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</span> </span></strong></div></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj84SHPBfv00m7nTEEUyCHuJ9UMLPXEoA3CwvS_rTD5mGIBER64NSilbFQaUDW60e9bmrd1nShwVZGtlynbgb9Uw6WySa89a8pkuV5v6sPP4atyi_y5G0YDjoq116Ka1Fw_Cu6VquJz/s1600-h/stephen_post.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 120px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj84SHPBfv00m7nTEEUyCHuJ9UMLPXEoA3CwvS_rTD5mGIBER64NSilbFQaUDW60e9bmrd1nShwVZGtlynbgb9Uw6WySa89a8pkuV5v6sPP4atyi_y5G0YDjoq116Ka1Fw_Cu6VquJz/s200/stephen_post.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268006340323352866" /></a><strong><a href="http://www.stephengpost.com/">Stephen G. Post</a></strong> has spent a lifetime studying love in its theological, scientific, and practical dimensions. He is president of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love (IRUL) and professor of bioethics and family medicine in the School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Post has published one hundred thirty articles in peerreviewed journals and has written or edited fifteen scholarly books on subjects relating to the dynamic of love in our lives. His most recent book is Why Good Things Happen to Good People, coauthored with Jill Neimark. Dr. Post has chaired nine national conferences in his field and has received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Board of the Alzheimers Association. He lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio, with his wife, Mitsuko, and their two children, Emma and Andrew. <br /><br />Product Details<br /><br />List Price: $12.95<br />Paperback: 128 pages <br />Publisher: Templeton Foundation Press (September 26, 2008) <br />Language: English <br />ISBN-10: 1599471515 <br />ISBN-13: 978-1599471518 <br /><br /><div align="center"><br /><span style="color:#ffcc00;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:</span> </strong></div></span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-znF0sZ2rjEBir_4FsTxICqYJcYWX1VUXKY78jznzif2X-PMB2q2YL8CvX3dMujxyx12mns2lil7Gp1hfYBJAwybQdhP-GcRYWmNJvtSAmz5Trq72GlXyNfBHGkIRdStjm_s7bkh1/s1600-h/godly+love.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-znF0sZ2rjEBir_4FsTxICqYJcYWX1VUXKY78jznzif2X-PMB2q2YL8CvX3dMujxyx12mns2lil7Gp1hfYBJAwybQdhP-GcRYWmNJvtSAmz5Trq72GlXyNfBHGkIRdStjm_s7bkh1/s200/godly+love.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268005788192874354" /></a><div style="OVERFLOW: auto; HEIGHT: 307px">Godly Love and Human Hatreds <br /><br /><br /> In March 2007 I had the honor of spending several days north of Paris with the great Jean Vanier, then in his early eighties. Jean had founded L’Arche (“The Ark”) some four decades earlier, when he was inspired by an experience of Godly love to invite two men with cognitive developmental disabilities into his home. Over the years, L’Arche homes have flourished worldwide as volunteers dwell with the disabled in communities of faith, prayer, and Godly love. I had attended meals in L’Arche homes in Cleveland on a number of occasions, and I had heard the grace said before eating, the hymns sung, and the energy of love that was palpable in the lives of those caregivers and in the experience of those they cared for and lived with. <br /><br /> Jean struck me as one of the most loving, Godly, and humble men I had ever met. He spoke quietly and brilliantly, and he exuded an infectious sense of fun. On one Sunday evening there was a Catholic Mass in an old renovated chapel from the fourteenth century. About one hundred people had gathered there, mostly L’Arche volunteers and people with disabilities. I saw a volunteer wheel one older man named David up to the priest for communion. That night, at dinner, I asked Jean what he thought David had gotten from receiving communion, for David was probably the most severely disabled and agitated person I had encountered there. Jean said, “Whenever David receives communion, he becomes more peaceful, and that is the power of God’s love. Remember, Stephen, we do not know much about the mystery of God’s love and presence.” Jean’s pure, enduring, and expansive love clearly encompassed such a severely disabled man, and counted him among God’s blessed. <br /><br /><br />Evil in God’s Name <br /><br /><br /> When I encounter a man like Jean Vanier, I feel that we must all stop thinking of God as the epitome of awesome power and strength in the conventional sense. This convention may be partly true, but we need to set it aside; otherwise, we begin to think of God primarily in terms of might, and human arrogance propels us into thinking that because my God is stronger than your God, violence is justified in God’s name. If we think about God in terms of power, then religions become tainted with human arrogance. Far too many prayerful people are carrying rifles in the spirit of pure hatred and pretending that their hatred is somehow divinely sanctioned. This amounts to shallow religiosity, which only causes pain and undermines Godly love. The Lord of power and might is first and foremost the author and giver of all good things, the Divine Entity who nourishes us in love and brings forth from us good works. <br /><br /> We need to stop thinking that our definitions of God are finite and that our knowledge of God’s will is total. Our definitions, even if divinely inspired, are still products of the human mind, and we can never fully understand the Divine. Religious doctrines, if adhered to arrogantly, tend to separate us from one another and shatter the unifying spirit of Godly love that all spirituality seeks to cultivate. When religions place doctrine and force above love, they foment massive evil—from torture to terror, from coercion to conflict. Religious wars exemplify human tribalism and arrogance, both of which bring out the worst in us. <br /><br /> Hatred, hostility, and revenge are such strong emotions that they can crush our fragile sense of Godly love. The pseudospirituality of hatred runs counter to all genuine spirituality, which is always an adventure in love, an expression of love’s deepest desires. <br /><br /><br />Countering Hatred with Godly Love <br /><br /><br /> The love of power can sometimes overwhelm the power of love, so we must remain humble and guard against this. No matter how little we know about God, we can still experience Godly love. Only by taking Godly love much more seriously than we do now—even inculcating a profound love for one another among ancient, sworn enemies—can we expect to head off a spiral of widespread destruction. <br /><br /> Most of religion and spirituality is rooted in healing emotions, grounded in love. We will never achieve sustained peace in the twenty-first century unless all religions live up to those intrinsic ideals of Godly love, applying those ideals to all of humankind without exception. <br /><br /> The world shows no signs of becoming any less religious; we as humans will always have a passion for Ultimate Truth that provides safe haven and emotional security in times of distress. Yet we will only have a human future if we infuse universal Godly love into the rituals that religions create, and express through our actions spiritual emotions such as forgiveness and compassion. If our religions fail to promote universal Godly love, violence will sweep us all away in a cataclysmic firestorm. <br /><br /><br />Promoting Harmony and Peace <br /><br /><br /> Godly love alone can realign the world in harmony and peace. Too many kill in God’s name, claiming that they alone know the destiny God intends for humankind. Our limited human knowledge of any divinely inspired destiny to be played out on the human stage belies this specious—and dangerous—claim.<br /><br /> Love is the source of our greatest happiness and security; therefore love is the Ultimate Good, the Supreme Good. Nothing else comes close, for love underlies the creative energy that propels us from birth to death. The withholding of love drives to destruction those deprived of love’s nurturing, its compassion, and its life-giving blessings. This occurs most notably in critical developmental periods during childhood. And it holds just as true for a child in a nursery as it does for an older adult in a hospice. <br /><br /> Our religions, which offer models of righteous living, must put into practice their visions of Godly love, or they risk becoming sidelined, or, worse, irrelevant. <br /></div>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-86009110703446391682008-10-13T21:17:00.005-04:002008-10-13T21:47:16.376-04:00A Purple State of Mind: Finding Middle Ground in a Divided Culture by Craig Detweiler<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s1600-h/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg"></a><a href="http://nonfictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179647009365145890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s200/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg" border="0" /></a><br />It's the 15th, time for the Non~FIRST blog tour!(Non~FIRST will be merging with FIRST Wild Card Tours on January 1, 2009...if interested in joining, click <a href="http://firstwildcardtours.blogspot.com/">HERE</a>!)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong>The feature author is: </strong></div><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><br /><a href="http://craig.purplestateofmind.com/">Craig Detweiler </a></span></strong><br /><p></p><br /><strong><span style="font-size:160;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#009900;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#009900;">and his/her book:</span> </span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"></strong></div></span><p></p><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:7;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></strong></div></span><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0736924604/">A Purple State of Mind: Finding Middle Ground in a Divided Culture</a></span></strong></div><br /><p align="center">Harvest House Publishers (July 1, 2008) <br /></p><br /><p align="center"></p><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><br /><p></p><span style="color:#ff6600;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</span> </span></strong></div></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0t-tmYuSClX4O20I08f6ccIayIOtvc95I9VzVo75iCYz7OVwPhOX4B_6P1rScEDUP-VnbuVc-My7K5wE4M_F_hh4brM9LctgIqLvvdj9ecssx7db-wK-p-zq25m7_DFD_yeWEf2mA/s1600-h/CraigDHeadshot.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0t-tmYuSClX4O20I08f6ccIayIOtvc95I9VzVo75iCYz7OVwPhOX4B_6P1rScEDUP-VnbuVc-My7K5wE4M_F_hh4brM9LctgIqLvvdj9ecssx7db-wK-p-zq25m7_DFD_yeWEf2mA/s200/CraigDHeadshot.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256815168698675154" /></a>Craig Detweiler (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is codirector of the Reel Spirituality Institute and associate professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. He has written scripts for numerous Hollywood films, and his comedic documentary, Purple State of Mind (www.purplestateofmind.com), debuted in 2008. He has been featured in the New York Times, on CNN, and on NPR and is the coauthor of A Matrix of Meanings. Barry Taylor (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary), adjunct professor of popular culture and theology at Fuller, is a professional musician, painter, and the leader of New Ground, an alternative worship gathering in Los Angeles.<br /><br />Product Details<br /><br />List Price: 13.99<br />Paperback: 240 pages <br />Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (July 1, 2008) <br />Language: English <br />ISBN-10: 0736924604 <br />ISBN-13: 978-0736924603 <br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cC3D0LY79Jg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cC3D0LY79Jg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><div align="center"><br /><span style="color:#ffcc00;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:</span> </strong></div></span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL4liNwgyXD6EMLteti7krox7NSSMdCxZ338LUoE3YHlmZRQVgaKGurkPqKN552e8AeDo00wc3Z3V5fiiU95jf8L0L00oY0aSG83NOnpHeWeqYgNss9aZ6_pN7kCnN7R-HUfWqJ0j1/s1600-h/Purple_State.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL4liNwgyXD6EMLteti7krox7NSSMdCxZ338LUoE3YHlmZRQVgaKGurkPqKN552e8AeDo00wc3Z3V5fiiU95jf8L0L00oY0aSG83NOnpHeWeqYgNss9aZ6_pN7kCnN7R-HUfWqJ0j1/s200/Purple_State.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256815259516482050" /></a><div style="OVERFLOW: auto; HEIGHT: 307px"> <center>Freedom <br /><br /> and <br /><br /> Responsibility </center><br /> <br /><br /><br /> How did the culture war begin? Was there a clear winner? Or did it devolve into a long, costly stalemate? What can we learn from the battle? Perhaps we are not as polarized as we presume. Political parties and pundits strive to distinguish themselves from the competition in the starkest possible terms. We use rhetoric to rail against one another while our core positions may involve only a slight divergence. We may be hardly separated rather than deeply divided. Can we move from an adolescent mind-set, shouting across the religious and political divide, into something more thoughtful, productive, and mature?<br /><br /> As a witness to the sixties and seventies, I’ve seen how destructive we can be—even toward ourselves. I’ve also lived through the comparative comfort of the Reagan era in the eighties. He turned back the clock to a prosperous vision of America before the social upheavals of the sixties. Can we uphold the vigorous freedom of the sixties alongside the rigorous responsibility of the fifties?<br /><br /> A purple state of mind pushes past the either/or squabbles of an earlier era. It adopts a both/and approach to following God and interacting with the world. It builds bridges rather than burning them. It seeks common ground rather than points of division. A purple state of mind attains maturity by knowing when and where to apply biblical truths to our blind spots.<br /><br />John: I think this should be a candid discussion.<br /><br />Craig: I want it to be first and foremost an honest conversation. Straightforward. Tell the truth. Nothing held back.<br /><br /> Were you alive when President John F. Kennedy was shot? While the world wailed, I was warm in my mother’s womb. She was in the doctor’s office, awaiting a checkup on my status. I was born two months after Kennedy was assassinated. I arrived after the initial shockwave, the outpouring of grief, and the confusion as to why such tragedy happens. But we all continue to wrestle with the conflicts that erupted in the wake of Kennedy’s death.<br /><br /> I entered a world on fire. Throughout my childhood, there were riots in the streets, protests on campuses, scenes from Vietnam in the news. My parents attempted to shield me from much of the conflict, turning me on to Mr. Rogers rather than Walter Cronkite. Yet the palpable conflicts over civil rights, free speech, and the war draft spilled into newspapers, televisions, and casual conversations. The struggle for civil rights was more than a century in the making. Leaders like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King were as patient as possible, given their long walk to freedom. Yet the positive steps created by the Civil Rights Act still moved too slowly for those trapped in the inner city. Riots in Watts and Detroit set cities ablaze. The mistakes of the Vietnam War constitute their own painful book. As images of the war filtered into our living rooms, resentment toward our leaders grew. Chaos reigned among protestors inside and outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention.<br /><br /> I knew my dad hated the protestors, but I didn’t know why. Something about their appearance bugged him. It may have been their long hair, their scanty clothes, and their flagrant disregard of authority. The hippies seemed equally frustrated by people like my father. They were complaining about the man, the system, anyone over 30. Why were the protestors so angry? What was all the shouting about? A generation gap emerged over the war in Vietnam. The students were ostensibly resisting the draft. They did not want to serve in an endless, misguided war in Southeast Asia.<br /><br /> Behind the political policies were distinct lifestyle choices. The hippies were celebrating free love, plentiful drugs, and raucous rock music. My father was wondering what happened to hard work, paying taxes, and civic responsibility. Teenagers embraced freedom while adults trumpeted responsibility. These dueling notions of the American identity exploded into a full-blown culture war that has been raging ever since. Reporter Ronald Brownstein calls this second civil war “the great sorting out.”<br /><br /> A purple state of mind appreciates the competing ideals that launched the culture war. It recognizes the patriotism that resides behind both visions. It remembers how much capital was created by responsible citizenship in the fifties. It also celebrates the ingenuity unleashed in the freedom-loving sixties. We learned valuable lessons from both eras. A purple state of mind borrows from both, combining freedom and responsibility.<br /><br />The Fifties Versus the Sixties<br /><br /> I have lived my entire life in the shadow of the 1960s. I’ve heard the stirring speeches of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. I’ve mourned the assassination of Bobby Kennedy in Dion’s song, “Abraham, Martin, and John.” I’ve been taken to the Vietnam War in Apocalypse Now. How many television specials have I seen that retrace the upheavals of 1968? Rolling Stone magazine commemorates Woodstock or the Summer of Love every single year! Was it the best of times or the worst of times? Forty years on, we’re still locked in an adolescent debate. We see it in the childish name-calling of Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter on the right or MoveOn.org and Daily Kos on the left.<br /><br /> Every American presidential election since the sixties has essentially been a referendum on that painful era. There were no clear winners in Vietnam. Like Rambo, we’re still fighting. It is a dark era in American history most of us would rather not review (even though we must learn those lessons so we stop repeating them). The fissure generated in Vietnam lies behind our conflicted feelings over the war in Iraq. We can’t talk rationally as a nation about important issues because of deep-seated, unresolved family dynamics. If you prefer the comparative calm of the fifties, then you know how to vote. If you uphold the progressive hopes of the sixties, then it is clear which candidate represents you. The only problem with this pattern is that many of us missed the fifties and the sixties. We’re ready to move on, to live in this moment, to meet today’s challenges rather than to relive yesterday’s news.<br /><br /> Living with this conflict is comparable to listening to our parents argue. We’ve heard all the lines, all the rhetoric, and all the old grudges. We can recite them from memory, and we’ve been exhausted by the gridlock. We haven’t bothered to speak up because we know our parents were too busy arguing to listen. The shouting match showed no signs of abating, so we let the circus pass us by. Instead of joining the conversation, we elected to start our own companies, clubs, and churches. The creative brain drain from civic activities has been well documented. Those who were turned off by the partisan rancor eventually turned off the pundits on TV. We are on the Internet instead, arguing about the minutia that remains distinctly ours—music, movies, television, shopping. We don’t want to be superficial. But with no creative political options, we opt out. If we hope to engage the next generation in public life, then this culture war, rooted in bitter recriminations, must stop. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, we must call a cease-fire.<br /><br /> Those of us who’ve inherited this war have seen enough casualties. John Marks and I were born at the end of the baby boom and the beginning of Generation X. We understand the majority position and empathize with the minorities who’ve been sidelined by the sheer size of the opposition. Consider this book an effort to bridge the generation gap. I’m here to help those over fifty understand what is coming. I stand between the baby boomers and their children, brokering a truce. As a professor, I’ve invested heavily in Generation Y, hoping that they will enact enough changes to make room for my children—Generation Z!<br /><br />Seeking Wisdom<br /><br />Seek wisdom, not knowledge.<br /><br />Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future.<br /><br />Native American PROVERB<br /><br /> I recount our recent history in an effort to fill in gaps in our understanding. We must comprehend where we’ve been if we hope to figure out where we’re going. I’ve seen the abuses of power represented by Watergate. The special prosecutor’s hearings interrupted hours of my favorite TV cartoons. (Did you realize that Hillary Clinton was part of the legal team investigating Nixon’s White House? Republicans have struggled with her for a looooong time!) I watched Nixon’s sad wave goodbye on the White House lawn. I also understand the faith embodied by the first “born again” president, Jimmy Carter. His Southern Baptist beliefs led him to broker peace in the Middle East. Yet I also endured the 444 days of the Iranian hostage crisis that accompanied his peaceful negotiations. After such international embarrassment, Americans desperately wanted to return to the fifties era of strength and power. Ronald Reagan played the part of forceful leader resisting the Soviet Union. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism was a victory for freedom around the world.<br /><br /> Unresolved tensions about Vietnam, drugs, and the sixties fueled the vitriol hurled at the Clintons and the Bushes. Bill Clinton strapped on the mantle of President Kennedy, declaring himself “A Man from Hope.” His appearance playing saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show sent a clear signal that he embraced civil rights. As “entertainer in chief,” Clinton demonstrated a mastery of the electronic medium. His obfuscations about inhaling marijuana and dalliances with White House intern Monica Lewinsky also sparked latent fears of sex, drugs, and rock & roll. (Did you realize that Monica’s famous blue dress was found in her mother’s apartment—in the Watergate complex?) To his detractors, Clinton represented too much freedom and not enough presidential responsibility. The impeachment proceedings against him were a recapitulation and payback for the embarrassment borne by the Nixon administration.<br /><br /> George W. Bush represented a return to the fifties. He may have engaged in alcohol abuse or cocaine use, but Bush confessed his sins and seemed genuinely contrite. He experienced the dangers of too much personal freedom and welcomed the responsibility he found in his newfound faith. While Clinton parsed verbs, Bush offered plain-spoken surety. He distanced himself from his patrician upbringing, adopting a Texas rancher lifestyle as a populist alternative. To those tired of Clinton’s libertinism and excess, Bush offered a down-home throwback: cowboy boots and pickup trucks.<br /><br /> Yet all the tough talk in the world seemed insufficient in dealing with a nearly unseen enemy. How could a band of terrorists bring down the World Trade Center? They used our strengths against us, hijacking our own planes. They crashed into our most impressive symbols of financial prowess and military might. September 11, 2001, humbled and angered us. We marched into the Middle East with unprecedented firepower. Afghanistan fell almost without resistance. We submitted Iraq to “shock and awe.” Unfortunately, Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda proved they could not only run but also hide. We attacked nations, but our enemies were individuals. American technology ended up undermined by insurgents with homemade bombs. We terrorized others with torture at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. We operated like a powerful empire but proved incapable of ferreting out an ideology. We desperately need leaders who can protect freedoms while serving as responsible world citizens. Such nuance has been lost in our prolonged and pointless culture war.<br /><br /> The next generation admires the civic responsibility of the fifties and the progressive art and music of the sixties. They have embraced a both/and view but have been alienated by either/or debates. A purple state of mind embraces freedom and responsibility. It takes the best of history but leaves the worst excesses (on both sides) behind. It blows away the purple haze hanging over our past. This chapter highlights key moments that got us into this mess. It will offer tangible proposals for moving on with maturity.<br /><br />Nixon Versus Kennedy<br /><br /> For almost 50 years, we have been sorting out the choices represented by the first televised presidential debate, Republican Richard M. Nixon versus Democrat John F. Kennedy. On September 26, 1960, Vice President Nixon and Senator Kennedy squared off under the moderation of ABC’s Howard K. Smith. Over 80 million viewers tuned into the debate, which pitted Nixon’s experience (eight years as Eisenhower’s vice-president) against Kennedy’s comparative youth (one term as a U.S. senator). Both candidates offered hawkish opposition to the Communist threat represented by the Soviet Union. They debated issues of national debt, farm subsidies, welfare, and health care that continue to be unresolved. They drew distinctions about the role of government to stimulate economic growth. But Nixon and Kennedy diverged most significantly in style rather than substance.<br /><br /> Kennedy arrived at the debates looking tan, rested, and energetic. Nixon looked haggard, having recently fought off the flu. He refused to don makeup, figuring his forceful words would rule the day. Those who listened to the debate on the radio found Nixon the victor. Yet those watching the debate on tiny black-and-white televisions saw something else. They saw Nixon sweat while Kennedy smiled. Although Nixon was only five years older than Kennedy, his demeanor seemed comparatively ancient in outlook and energy. Nixon’s noticeable five-o’clock shadow didn’t help either.<br /><br /> Nixon learned the connections between style and substance too late in the campaign. Makeup covered his beard in three subsequent television debates. But Kennedy gained just enough confidence and votes to capture the closest general election of the twentieth century. Just one-tenth of 1 percent of votes separated Kennedy from Nixon. Americans have remained almost equally divided ever since.<br /><br /> The legacy of John F. Kennedy remains remarkably hopeful and progressive. Consider the optimism behind his war on poverty. Having watched the Russians beat Americans into orbit, Kennedy redefined the terms of the space race. How much chutzpah did it take to engage in a race to the moon? His version of American government looks almost absurdly hopeful in hindsight.<br /><br /> When Richard Nixon campaigned for president in 1968 (and for reelection in 1972), he promised an alternative to the vexing Vietnam War. Nixon expanded the Cold War efforts to include Cambodia and Laos. He presented a stronger America that refused to be intimidated. At the same time, Nixon engaged in a remarkable array of diplomatic missions to China and the Soviet Union. He met his adversaries face-to-face, winning surprising concessions and forging unexpected alliances.<br /><br /> Behind their policies, presidents Kennedy and Nixon represented divergent attitudes toward profound social change within America. The Kennedy years brought glamour to the White House. Entertainers like Marilyn Monroe sang sultry birthday greetings to President Kennedy. An air of celebration could also be read as a reign of permissiveness. A Democratic administration presided over the explosion of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Progressive politics coincided with experimentation and unrest. The Nixon presidency offered a return to law and order. Freedom took a backseat to responsibility. In 1971, President Nixon identified drug abuse as public enemy number one in the United States. He created the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention (it became the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1973). We’ve been fighting America’s longest war, the war on drugs, ever since.<br /><br />Purple Haze<br /><br /> Jimi Hendrix’ song “Purple Haze” epitomizes the fuzzy grasp of reality that accompanied drug experimentation in the sixties. The title allegedly arose from a powerful batch of LSD served to Hendrix by Owsley Stanley. Some have also attributed it to a strain of purple marijuana. Hendrix said the inspiration arrived in a dream. Whatever the derivation, “Purple Haze” is rooted in altered states of consciousness. Released in 1967, “Purple Haze” served as the psychedelic anthem for San Francisco’s summer of love. The key to the song’s eerie sound is harmonic dissonance. Jimi’s guitar is tuned in B-flat, while Noel Redding’s bass plays E octaves. Such discordant sounds matched the era perfectly. A clash of cultures resulted in something jarring and new. Jimi didn’t just play rock music, he offered the Jimi Hendrix Experience.<br /><br /> Consider the transcendent promises contained in his phrase, “’Scuse me while I kiss the sky.” Some heard it as a sexual provocation, a pledge to kiss a guy. But the sound made it clear that his sights were set in the great beyond. At his seminal appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival, Jimi transported the crowd to a higher state of consciousness. He demonstrated the otherworldly power of raw feedback, playing his guitar behind, above, and beyond himself. Hendrix stepped into the role of sexual shaman, licking, caressing, and stroking guttural sounds from his Stratocaster. In setting his guitar on fire during “Wild Thing,” Hendrix offered his gifts to the rock gods. It is an incantation, sacrificing his most precious possessions to the altar of altered states.<br /><br /> Unfortunately, Jimi’s life ended up in a similar state of self-immolation, falling to pieces just as suddenly and tragically. The Experience Music Project in Seattle serves as a permanent archive for all things Hendrix. EMP founder Paul Allen spent part of his Microsoft millions acquiring Hendrix memorabilia, bringing it back to Jimi’s hometown of Seattle. It is a memorial to a musical messiah. The hall dedicated to Jimi is fittingly called “Sky Church.”<br /><br /> To others, “Purple Haze” demonstrated a world utterly adrift. The idyllic visions of Woodstock were undercut by the horrific murder at Altamont. With Hell’s Angels serving as security, 1969’s other free concert (at Altamont Speedway in Northern California) ended in death rather than musical bliss. Every time Rolling Stone magazine presents another rosy retrospective of the sixties, I wonder why it refuses to acknowledge the dark side of psychedelia. How can it hold up Hendrix, Joplin, and Jim Morrison as departed saints, when they are also exhibits A, B, and C in the perils of drug abuse? They were amazing and stupid at the same time. Great talents squandered by excess. So when parents who lived through the worst of the sixties attempt to spare their children the same amount of destructive experimentation, I applaud. “Just say no” arose from painful, lived experience. It may have been simplistic, but it was preferable to self-destruction.<br /><br /> Recent films like Drugstore Cowboy, Trainspotting, and Requiem for a Dream capture both the allure and the demolition of drugs. They provide an audio-visual approximation of a drug trip. Their images are intoxicating and attractive—the ultimate music videos. Yet their message is clear: Despite the attraction, do not be deceived—drugs will kill you. They serve as cautionary tales for a stylish era. Today’s students have largely learned from the painful past. Rates of teenage pregnancies, drug use, and violence have hit 40-year lows. The parents from a turbulent era raised remarkably respectful, well-behaved kids. Demographers Neil Howe and William Strauss noted the surprising generational shift:<br /><br />Boomers started out as the objects of loosening child standards in an era of conformist adults. Millennials are starting out as the objects of tightening child standards in an era of non-conformists adults. By the time the last Millennials come of age, they could become…the cleanest-cut young adults in living memory.<br /><br />To a large degree, Generation Y has embraced the family values of the 1950s. But its rebellion remains wrapped in the profane packages of the 1960s.<br /><br /> Consider the violent, R-rated film Fight Club (1999). It is a scathing critique of consumer culture and middle-class values. We follow Jack, the bored protagonist, on a brutal slide into an underworld of macho self-abuse. Jack longs for genuine feeling, even if he must shed blood to achieve it. So while Jack may be a mild-mannered bureaucrat by day, he rallies his friends for bare-knuckled bar fights at night. Fight Club unleashes the fragile postmodern male id with frightening results. What begins as an invigorating alternative devolves into Project Mayhem, a prescient precursor to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Schizophrenia leads to destructive nihilism.<br /><br /> This is contrasted by the diagnosis offered by the toughest puncher in the club, Tyler Durden. He summarizes the isolation of a generation raised in affluence rather than upheaval:<br /><br />Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy s— we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war…our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very p— off.<br /><br /> When I showed Fight Club to a class of undergraduate students, they nodded in recognition. They connected with Tyler’s frustration. During a class discussion afterward, a student announced, “We’re rebels.” When I asked what they were rebelling against, he said, “Our parents.” is all sounded more than vaguely familiar, so I pushed further. “What does that look like?” The students answered, “We don’t want to be like our parents. Drinking. Doing drugs. Getting lots of divorces…we’re rebels!” e most rebellious behavior imaginable? Abstinence!<br /><br /> While baby boomers harrumph about presidential candidates’ ancient drug use, their children are begging for them to grow up. Parents complain to MTV about Britney Spears’ kiss with Madonna. Switchboards light up from viewers shocked by Janet Jackson’s nipple slip during the Super Bowl halftime show. Yet the next generation lets out a collective yawn. They’ve already seen it, done it, or dismissed it. They identify with the band Weezer, which recorded a song titled “Tired of Sex.” They are ready to move on, past the provocation to more substantive issues. Rivers Cuomo of Weezer asks, “Oh, why can’t I be making love come true?”<br /><br />A New Conversation<br /><br />Craig: My introduction to what it meant to follow Jesus was to be a laughingstock. It meant bad hair, bad makeup, and bad TV. Is this what I signed up for? This whole tension of red state and blue state, this is the tension that I live with—how do I own my own people who so make me cringe on a regular basis? This nomenclature of left and right, red and blue is not helpful right now.<br /><br />John: It’s not meant to be helpful. It’s meant to do exactly what it does. I’m not happy with what people on the traditional left, or Democrats, say is their worldview. I honestly don’t know if they have one. I’m as weary as anybody in this country of the politically correct dialogue, which basically says, “I’m a victim and you’re not. No, I’m a victim and you’re not.” It’s useless. It’s done. It’s dead. Postmodernism is dead. All those answers on the secular side are basically dead.<br /><br /> John Marks and I stand between generations. We are old enough to understand the boomers’ intra-generational issues, yet we’re still young enough to identify with the discontent of those who followed. We embarked on a purple state of mind because we’re desperate for a new paradigm, hungering for a different set of talking points. We each risked alienating our constituencies. Coming from evangelical Christianity, I am part of the fifties tribe, which is struggling to protect home and hearth. As a journalist, John Marks identifies with the political left and their tattered ideals. We both find ourselves embarrassed by those we represent. I ask how God’s people could have turned Jesus into a hater. John questions why allegedly free-thinking people are so close-minded when it comes to religion. A purple state of mind tries the patience of both sides. It runs the risk of disloyalty for the sake of a larger goal.<br /><br /> We must put the past behind us. We can no longer afford to be divided over issues of sexuality and drug use when global crises demand our attention. To lead the world, we must get past our adolescent fixation on who did what to whom. The rumor mills that trumped up charges against the Clintons in Whitewater or George W. Bush with evasion of the Vietnam War have done nothing but distract us. How much negative energy has been expended on investigations that went nowhere? We’ve been busy digging up dirt when we should have been building roads and schools. We tore down a government in Iraq rather than solidifying our own ability to lead by example. Shame on us for obsessing over the past instead of investing in the future. No wonder voters in 2008 longed for change.<br /><br />The Gospel According to Austin Powers<br /><br /> Our desperate need for freedom and responsibility rests in the seemingly contradictory letters of the apostle Paul. He applied his godly advice in a unique way for the audience he was addressing. To Corinthian Christians navigating a libertine culture, he preached caution. Corinth was noted for temples dedicated to Apollo and Aphrodite. Worship at these temples often included sex with temple prostitutes. They were thought to serve as conduits for the divine. An intimate sexual encounter on temple grounds was comparable to an experience with the gods. So imagine how confused early Corinthian Christians may have been about what constituted proper worship of Christ. Their understanding of Christian freedom knew no bounds. Paul urged the Corinthian church to exercise spiritual discipline, to get their house in order. He insisted they “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18). To those who claimed, “Everything is permissible,” Paul responded with a chastening, “Everything is not beneficial” (1 Corinthians 10:23).<br /><br /> In Corinth, even eating meat could involve idolatrous activity. The local cults of Apollo and Aphrodite controlled so much of the public consciousness and economy that new believers were encouraged to examine the sources of their food supply. Food sacrificed to idols may not be contaminated physically, but Paul challenged the Corinthian to demonstrate sensitivity toward those who may have confused or conflated eating with idolatry. Paul urges the Corinthian believers to take responsibility for their Christian brothers and sisters. To a chaotic church, he preaches order, propriety, and maturity.<br /><br /> Yet to the uptight church in Galatia, Paul preaches freedom. The new believers clung too closely to their Jewish roots. Perhaps out of fear of persecution, the local church leaders insisted that new Christians adopt the rigorous (old) rules of Hebraic law. Gentile converts were expected to get circumcised according to Jewish ritual. Paul considers such attempts to bind people to ancient purity laws as a threat to the gospel of grace. He insists, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). He begged the Galatian Christians to loosen up, to relax their standards in the name of Christ.<br /><br /> Was Paul contradicting himself? By no means! In each letter, he concludes with an appeal to love. To the legally minded Galatians, Paul summarizes the law in a single command, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:14). To the battling Corinthians who confused sex with love, Paul spells out the attitudes and actions that constitute love. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud” (1 Corinthians 13:4). He preaches freedom to Galatia and responsibility to Corinth because they each need to apply the message in a unique way.<br /><br /> Unfortunately, we often fail to identify our particular blind spots. Legalistic churches will often reiterate the call to purity given to the Corinthians. Lax churches will return to Paul’s letter to the Galatians to justify more license. Those who need freedom cling to responsibility. Christians who need to learn responsibility insist upon the freedom Paul grants to Galatia. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.<br /><br /> Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery urges us toward maturity. In the comedic conclusion, Austin gets the drop on a surprised Dr. Evil. But Evil remains unflappable and punches Austin’s buttons: “We’re not so different, you and I. However, isn’t it ironic that the very things that you stand for—free love, swinging parties—are all now, in the nineties, considered to be evil?” Austin retorts, “No, man, what we swingers were rebelling against is uptight squares like you whose bag was money and world domination. We were innocent, man. If we’d known the consequences of our sexual liberation we would have done things differently, but the spirit would have remained the same. It’s freedom, baby, yeah!” Austin Powers connects wisdom, experience, and the spirit all in one interrelated package. Dr. Evil offers a challenge: “Face it—freedom failed.” With the sounds of the sixties anthem “What the World Needs Now Is Love” playing in the background, Austin concludes, “No man, freedom didn’t fail. Right now we’ve got freedom and responsibility. It’s a very groovy time.” Even sassy movie stars can capture profound truths.<br /><br /> It is not freedom versus responsibility. It is not the law and order of the Republican Party or the liberal policies of the Democratic Party. We need a strong military to defend our freedoms. We need unregulated markets to encourage innovation. We need social agencies to check our greed and support “the least of these.” We must find freedom and responsibility between the parties. We must learn to listen to Paul’s competing calls. Christian maturity incorporates the whole of scripture and applies it to an integrated life. We must be aware of our history. We must recognize how we’ve become so divided. We must grow up as a nation, moving on to freedom and responsibility rather than dragging each other into ancient history. The radical claims of Paul continue to challenge us. Libertines may need to give up some freedoms for the health of others. Conservatives may need to unwind enough for the Spirit to enter in.<br /><br /> Adolescence is an experiment in self-governance. It is about identifying your own strengths and weaknesses, learning to moderate. Sometimes we fall on our faces from too much excess. At other times, we shrink back from opportunities we should have seized. Highly responsible people may sprint to early success and wake up 20 years later, wondering what all the compliance wrought. They will long for freedom. Those raised in a borderless environment will have to find a roadmap that shows where the blind curves and dangerous precipices are located. Maturity arises when those maps have been internalized, when familiarity with biblical wisdom coincides with personal experience. We appreciate the gift of freedom, but we also recognize when enough is enough. Only with our house in order can we begin to focus outwardly. We do not merely play thought police, checking and correcting others. Rather, we take on the deeper challenge of walking beside others, inviting them to join us on the journey. It’s a very groovy time.<br /><br /></div>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-55595461253285286812008-09-13T16:57:00.002-04:002008-09-13T16:57:00.553-04:00When Answers Aren't Enough Experiencing God as Good When Life Isn't by Matt Rogers<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s1600-h/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg"></a><a href="http://nonfictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179647009365145890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s200/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg" border="0" /></a><br />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!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong>The feature author is: </strong></div><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><br /><a href="http://www.mattrogers.us/">Matt Rogers</a></span></strong><br /><p></p><br /><strong><span style="font-size:160;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#009900;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#009900;">and his/her book:</span> </span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"></strong></div></span><p></p><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:7;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></strong></div></span><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0310286816/">When Answers Aren't Enough Experiencing God as Good When Life Isn't</a></span></strong></div><br /><p align="center">Zondervan (April 1, 2008)</p><br /><p align="center"></p><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><br /><p></p><span style="color:#ff6600;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</span> </span></strong></div></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7SZJSQu_2v2hQoGPi5PM6aKc35OiRVnJc7iAFsHFWg0CabCasxLUyjmI5-5DBL4PyePvhTv-_IQgs0JcNlk96eQ77Fmh9gKSnyb2El83Qd3YHjh0z7Jv_1p9bMSUO3rVKkOjgcPE/s1600-h/matt+rogers"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7SZJSQu_2v2hQoGPi5PM6aKc35OiRVnJc7iAFsHFWg0CabCasxLUyjmI5-5DBL4PyePvhTv-_IQgs0JcNlk96eQ77Fmh9gKSnyb2El83Qd3YHjh0z7Jv_1p9bMSUO3rVKkOjgcPE/s200/matt+rogers" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243017509914212178" /></a><strong>Matt Rogers </strong> is copastor of New Life Christian Fellowship at Virginia Tech. Eight hundred students call it home. <br /><br /><strong>FROM THE BACK COVER:</strong><br /><br />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.<br />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. <br /><br /><br />Product Details<br /><br />List Price: $14.99 <br />Paperback: 224 pages <br />Publisher: Zondervan (April 1, 2008) <br />Language: English <br />ISBN-10: 0310286816 <br />ISBN-13: 978-0310286813 <br /><br /><div align="center"><br /><span style="color:#ffcc00;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:</span> </strong></div></span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX9zKr4ONS1094PO9KR7AO2HcoeAsmgXX0bC9XkAD42rGXL17vnEU_5k7Pc8eqdmeWTDbm8LiW5HpK_a_coIler1I8g3szVsqg_RG96W4scL6AX3xnoPUmkUxya6kvEXH5-4Y8AuAB/s1600-h/Answers"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX9zKr4ONS1094PO9KR7AO2HcoeAsmgXX0bC9XkAD42rGXL17vnEU_5k7Pc8eqdmeWTDbm8LiW5HpK_a_coIler1I8g3szVsqg_RG96W4scL6AX3xnoPUmkUxya6kvEXH5-4Y8AuAB/s200/Answers" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243016700666166626" /></a><div style="OVERFLOW: auto; HEIGHT: 307px"><center><strong>A Heavy, <br />Sinking Sadness</strong><br /><br />Embracing the World That Is<br /><br />One</center><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Almost. Except for the stone reminders that lie at my feet. On one is written a simple, anguished note.<br /><br /><blockquote>Jeremy,<br /><br />We love you.<br /><br />Mom and Dad</blockquote><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?”<br /><br />Is this too much to expect?<br /><br />Before I can know, I must face the world at its worst.<br /><br /></div>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-37649178650701741472008-09-01T17:53:00.001-04:002008-09-01T23:49:50.507-04:00How to Post for a Tour1. 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.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_zMx_NJL-9aYt4M7XkWLJMdMvbAOBbdVbE4tmYzpWD05d6IslL94MV17Adon4bUxtWykBfCw9xyY5MPOVYWbxKByoSNoV_6fikijkM39M-OUhDWF-qNiNewY406k_PlXqcBEVzjhX_ZSJ/s1600-h/Manage+Blogs.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_zMx_NJL-9aYt4M7XkWLJMdMvbAOBbdVbE4tmYzpWD05d6IslL94MV17Adon4bUxtWykBfCw9xyY5MPOVYWbxKByoSNoV_6fikijkM39M-OUhDWF-qNiNewY406k_PlXqcBEVzjhX_ZSJ/s400/Manage+Blogs.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241160027531619394" /></a><br /><p></p><br />2. Get the Html from the <a href="http://allfirstalliances.blogspot.com/">All FIRST Alliances </a>blog if it is one of the Alliance tours or get it at <a href="http://firstwildcardtours.blogspot.com/">FIRST Wild Card Tours</a> 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.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQoc633Pk3pTnZt3T_-XvUor-uFDCI7-xAybW4jm6KO5Q_0_AwIeoW4pXhOStE7nqoYD05Nrxq67BIngwIV4mGvBLDbqT8EhDOY8uQazL2dh-_wxRZQHxcBdN75yNWWeS8D-A07YZKdKRl/s1600-h/highlight+html.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQoc633Pk3pTnZt3T_-XvUor-uFDCI7-xAybW4jm6KO5Q_0_AwIeoW4pXhOStE7nqoYD05Nrxq67BIngwIV4mGvBLDbqT8EhDOY8uQazL2dh-_wxRZQHxcBdN75yNWWeS8D-A07YZKdKRl/s400/highlight+html.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241159806931676802" /></a><br /><br />3. Press New Post on the blog in your dashboard that you wish to paste the html into.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ZGH0V76W2JD8id5nyP5c_rEb0j6O9K9h1Amn8_TFDhqxQmpiPy_Us2px4uvyEGFjHTkkj2hD79eaKZ8aM-ii-zMZC1M1GwSk4Nhm-anO4jPUSf7n4vsy9hDrcopXlSOz5Nq4JUwk2v1z/s1600-h/create+post.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ZGH0V76W2JD8id5nyP5c_rEb0j6O9K9h1Amn8_TFDhqxQmpiPy_Us2px4uvyEGFjHTkkj2hD79eaKZ8aM-ii-zMZC1M1GwSk4Nhm-anO4jPUSf7n4vsy9hDrcopXlSOz5Nq4JUwk2v1z/s400/create+post.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241160624238447378" /></a><br /><br />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!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVF1TBgLvqobjB6s9j1U5kdhzeh11Jy-nxFdDR46LeOG0BYPpMOUkZ37nt-rGUudRomt_KBQMKOe2BFH9pQwZwnKtrhETOlsWto6QiL_wEsBj7KsggMBSE8a_jpm79cFCstgK3LXrqLsQ6/s1600-h/Put+in+your+review.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVF1TBgLvqobjB6s9j1U5kdhzeh11Jy-nxFdDR46LeOG0BYPpMOUkZ37nt-rGUudRomt_KBQMKOe2BFH9pQwZwnKtrhETOlsWto6QiL_wEsBj7KsggMBSE8a_jpm79cFCstgK3LXrqLsQ6/s400/Put+in+your+review.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241161466158050738" /></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTA6XwDfY3Ge729NOP4DIpMW3pwDO7674gaGQVbDZsPmg9OWxHm4bGPw8QfQCxYubPfmMqZJwEsrsr2qF6ks7JxfF24GGxkt4EqF6JliRikWKYXYSJIdcOlYXdOsYAb7np50VOJuTXoIVX/s1600-h/Paste+in+HTML.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTA6XwDfY3Ge729NOP4DIpMW3pwDO7674gaGQVbDZsPmg9OWxHm4bGPw8QfQCxYubPfmMqZJwEsrsr2qF6ks7JxfF24GGxkt4EqF6JliRikWKYXYSJIdcOlYXdOsYAb7np50VOJuTXoIVX/s400/Paste+in+HTML.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241161892536697282" /></a><br /><br />6. Now add your title and press the blue words 'Hide Preview'.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaxG-pbCulHHDRDDzTTfTMqc0eatobi74AW0MtXXufAI5B0xvMpbGEYJq7j_vsb8WvuVzG4_5pH68i0zqtcxbZ8o9oq4DMsdzVYtTlnEcPAXzdubov9b5Xi_O5PnuF9GvAHc29rntxUeZ4/s1600-h/Preview.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaxG-pbCulHHDRDDzTTfTMqc0eatobi74AW0MtXXufAI5B0xvMpbGEYJq7j_vsb8WvuVzG4_5pH68i0zqtcxbZ8o9oq4DMsdzVYtTlnEcPAXzdubov9b5Xi_O5PnuF9GvAHc29rntxUeZ4/s400/Preview.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241162887255351794" /></a><br /><br />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!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVQ7-R8eRKe5KulpWDl926oaIKFAfAPCC38XlZU0Qu3x8eKg67uLIvyrLcOsrW_U0692jjulydWxoyA_s4oOuxfIciTzbdrXAsFh6uCBLx7L3lsuTHkL5KS74buKcFikDekr_1C8xkqqH/s1600-h/Post+Options.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVQ7-R8eRKe5KulpWDl926oaIKFAfAPCC38XlZU0Qu3x8eKg67uLIvyrLcOsrW_U0692jjulydWxoyA_s4oOuxfIciTzbdrXAsFh6uCBLx7L3lsuTHkL5KS74buKcFikDekr_1C8xkqqH/s400/Post+Options.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241163803016362898" /></a><br /><br />8. After pressing 'Publish Post', you should see something like this:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx3G6zVw0MYvGn7yU1E_pZC2kw6LPMfAgCgKxbtzBuJLb0WDqF2cKoHR5qh9h_zhMr091IoPXAFE1y-0S5pPPHsyBzTJbGl6d3igtnh2FPcCeWn2LINC2r9oU7n2TKNhWiAVRS_pHtIMtk/s1600-h/Published+successfully.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx3G6zVw0MYvGn7yU1E_pZC2kw6LPMfAgCgKxbtzBuJLb0WDqF2cKoHR5qh9h_zhMr091IoPXAFE1y-0S5pPPHsyBzTJbGl6d3igtnh2FPcCeWn2LINC2r9oU7n2TKNhWiAVRS_pHtIMtk/s400/Published+successfully.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241167459408381874" /></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xfmhUnaoEt82eXPk6-ykmUoElNPuX8xW9hprB-a5_ByKbPXnakCFpvHU2OqeZIF_qmNoLEKv84q4UMVxf7Y8ws6cgbSjlPB7sXeuqzkJAaX3x9pCaNwUjB2DbBGnrsVCL5zAdBTgdHz9/s1600-h/Edit+Posts.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xfmhUnaoEt82eXPk6-ykmUoElNPuX8xW9hprB-a5_ByKbPXnakCFpvHU2OqeZIF_qmNoLEKv84q4UMVxf7Y8ws6cgbSjlPB7sXeuqzkJAaX3x9pCaNwUjB2DbBGnrsVCL5zAdBTgdHz9/s400/Edit+Posts.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241166457319979730" /></a><br /><br /><a href="mailto:4pearsonz@gmail.com"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">Email me</span></strong></a> 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.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIUU_qqE6wsAyt31LxW9xnehprhfljOuiBysSV90GYvpihyphenhyphenf2vHdmXmD-QX_wdwjZZgDHpB1cJYmWfVgvvvOVoIbCWlaPNy9K2NThVIhQTUFzTH0v5pdR_wMI0qGQH7WaufNAAAUqqDl6J/s1600-h/leave+a+comment.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIUU_qqE6wsAyt31LxW9xnehprhfljOuiBysSV90GYvpihyphenhyphenf2vHdmXmD-QX_wdwjZZgDHpB1cJYmWfVgvvvOVoIbCWlaPNy9K2NThVIhQTUFzTH0v5pdR_wMI0qGQH7WaufNAAAUqqDl6J/s400/leave+a+comment.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241169444505238642" /></a>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-66056635330037911872008-08-13T01:15:00.000-04:002008-08-13T02:04:45.981-04:00I’m Not Crazy, But I Might be a Carrier by Charles Marshall<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/G_SpuNQ7mbk&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/G_SpuNQ7mbk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s1600-h/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg"></a><a href="http://nonfictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179647009365145890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s200/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg" border="0" /></a><br />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!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong>The feature author is: </strong></div><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><br /><a href="http://www.charlesmarshallcomedy.com/">Charles Marshall</a></span></strong><br /><p></p><br /><strong><span style="font-size:160;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#009900;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#009900;">and his book:</span> </span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"></strong></div></span><p></p><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:7;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></strong></div></span><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/082543419X/">I’m Not Crazy, But I Might be a Carrier </a></span></strong></div><br /><p align="center">Kregel Publications (April 17, 2008)<br /></p><br /><p align="center"></p><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><br /><p></p><span style="color:#ff6600;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</span> </span></strong></div></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh45_7im5WF7wfW1DjWo7D5qS32qD-lhn8wv_ZwuTOF-e8m9MyickrFz1LWp0nsisACuSJm3jj0BTSF-XsglIyby-Z1WRGBOhnv7DYv20pySUorgtXW3c8uk-vh134F0ar5AHB5s6Et/s1600-h/Charles+Marshall.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233097953116979634" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh45_7im5WF7wfW1DjWo7D5qS32qD-lhn8wv_ZwuTOF-e8m9MyickrFz1LWp0nsisACuSJm3jj0BTSF-XsglIyby-Z1WRGBOhnv7DYv20pySUorgtXW3c8uk-vh134F0ar5AHB5s6Et/s200/Charles+Marshall.jpg" border="0" /></a><strong>Charles Marshall</strong> began his career onstage as a singer/songwriter. When his singing voice gave out, he turned to stand-up comedy and was much more successful. He is now a nationally syndicated Christian humor columnist and has contributed to Focus on the Family magazine. He is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0974808458/">Shattering the Glass Slipper: Destroying Fairy Tale Thinking Before It Destroys You </a>and has filmed two stand-up comedy videos, I'm Just Sayin' and Fully Animated.<br /><br />Product Details<br /><br />List Price: $12.99<br />Paperback: 144 pages<br />Publisher: Kregel Publications (April 17, 2008)<br />Language: English<br />ISBN-10: 082543419X<br />ISBN-13: 978-0825434198<br /><br /><div align="center"><br /><span style="color:#ffcc00;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:</span> </strong></div></span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhshJD0X6JQwzxb9Ftcms-XrmwtcbnAWQ9r_UK5G9FlwyrlWoP3ObDX72eGfoC29D7jm8rzonjEaA2W_lymVCup98b_WGNtOawKfG5xUSsnUhl800O_MDHvMYwrRnxW3yQzdqE5W9b8/s1600-h/I'm+Not+Crazy.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233098157477716114" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhshJD0X6JQwzxb9Ftcms-XrmwtcbnAWQ9r_UK5G9FlwyrlWoP3ObDX72eGfoC29D7jm8rzonjEaA2W_lymVCup98b_WGNtOawKfG5xUSsnUhl800O_MDHvMYwrRnxW3yQzdqE5W9b8/s200/I'm+Not+Crazy.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div style="OVERFLOW: auto; HEIGHT: 307px">Chapter 1 Going to the Dogs<br /><br /> <br /><br /> My wife and I have been thinking about getting a dog, lately, and discussing what type we might get. For me, there is really only one possibility—and that, of course, is a real dog.<br /><br /> For the uninitiated, there are three basic types of dogs:<br /><br /> 1] Real dogs. These are dogs as God originally made them—monstrous, made-for-the-outdoors hunting machines that are perfect for intimidating neighbors and attracting lawsuits. <br /><br /> The ownership rule for guys and dogs is simple: the bigger the dog, the cooler you look. Walk down the street with a Pekingese and you might as well be wearing a tutu.<br /><br /> When you observe a man walking down the street with a massive real-dog, his message to you is clear. “Yes, I’m overcompensating for my insecurities and lack of masculinity but I’ve got a really big dog.” <br /><br /> Now that’s the kind of attitude I can get behind. <br /><br /> 2] Mutant rat-dogs, otherwise known as Chihuahuas. These poor creatures are the unintentional result of secret experiments conducted by the Mexican army in a failed attempt to create the ultimate weapon by cross-breeding bats and Great Danes. The only surviving result of these experiments is a group of nervous, angry little rat-dogs that decided to take their revenge on humanity by being annoying on just about every level known to mankind. <br /> <br /><br /><br /> If you are approached by one of these aberrations of nature, know that it despises you with a hatred rarely seen outside the Middle East, and that it won’t hesitate to tear your ankles to shreds. These dogs are the piranhas of the canine world and would nuke <br /><br /><br />mankind tomorrow if they thought they could get away with it. Under no circumstance should one of these animals be allowed to run for public office. <br /><br /> 3] Kitty-dogs, which is every kind of dog that does not fall into one of the first two categories. I’m all in favor of this type of dog because, hey, girls have to have dogs, too. <br /><br /> The curse of the kitty-dog is that there are those who take a warped delight in dressing them up like people. Most dogs would rather be subjected to Mexican weapons experiments than go through this type of torture.<br /><br /> I cannot say this in strong enough terms: You should never, ever dress up your dog for any reason whatsoever. Take it from me—even if it were thirty below outside, your dog would rather die with dignity in his own fur coat than live while being seen in a little poochie parka.<br /><br /> If you dress your dog, you need to know two things:<br /><br /> 1] The rest of us are making fun of you behind your back.<br /><br /> 2] Every day your dog prays for a heaven where he gets to dress you up in humiliating costumes while he and his doggie friends point at you and laugh for all eternity.<br /><br /> If you feel you absolutely must dress an animal, go dress one that at least has a chance of defending itself like a cougar or a wolverine or a Chihuahua. <br /> <br /><br /><br /> One of the most amazing things about the three dog types is that for every one of them, there is someone that likes that kind of dog. At this very moment, there are people risking the loss of fingers and eyes while they stroke their vicious little rat-dogs, all for the sake of love.<br /><br /> That’s a mysterious kind of love, isn’t it—the kind that embraces the unlovely, that sees through the imperfect and loves without regard? <br /><br /> Let’s face it, the human heart isn’t very attractive either. Every thought we have is consumed with self. If you peel away the layers of even our most noble deeds and acts of kindness, you will find thoughts that circle back to ourselves like homing pigeons. In our hearts, we are all mutant rat-dogs.<br /><br /> And yet God loves us. <br /><br /> In the Bible, you find that same theme of an indefatigable, undefeatable love reaching out to a vicious, ungrateful humanity over and over again. I’ve found it’s a love well worth pursuing.<br /><br /> And so the great dog debate rages in my household, and I think my wife is coming around to my point of view. But, if by chance, you happen to see me in the neighborhood walking a Pekingese that is wearing a teeny hat and sundress, you may safely assume things did not go my way.<br /></div>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-45370174062332122182008-07-12T21:34:00.001-04:002008-07-12T22:42:59.382-04:00What's the Big Deal About Other Religions? by John Ankerberg and Dillon Burroughs<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s1600-h/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg"></a><a href="http://nonfictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179647009365145890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s200/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg" border="0" /></a><br />It's July 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!<br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong>The feature authors are: </strong></div><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.ankerberg.org/bio.htm"> John Ankerberg</a><br />and<br /><a href="http://www.readdb.com/">Dillon Burroughs</a></span></strong><br /><p></p><br /><strong><span style="font-size:160;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#009900;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#009900;">and their book:</span> </span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"></strong></div></span><p></p><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:7;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></strong></div></span><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0736921222/">What's the Big Deal About Other Religions</a></span></strong></div><br /><p align="center">Harvest House Publishers (March 1, 2008) <br /></p><br /><p align="center"></p><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><br /><p></p><span style="color:#ff6600;">ABOUT THE AUTHORS:</span> </span></strong></div></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigUoDqHiIKdhCiyjbbTdgNWToFdz7DbRlwOFbcdTsZJm-LPltl486JMuJevx_hRdPQxRDisNGewvvWYEL8B_znlTczBZ1k7u74NGIIQhhZl6bx7bLNaVVPBUfCLm5hp-QJ8wFGja9c/s1600-h/ankerberg-95.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigUoDqHiIKdhCiyjbbTdgNWToFdz7DbRlwOFbcdTsZJm-LPltl486JMuJevx_hRdPQxRDisNGewvvWYEL8B_znlTczBZ1k7u74NGIIQhhZl6bx7bLNaVVPBUfCLm5hp-QJ8wFGja9c/s200/ankerberg-95.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222308922620275186" /></a><strong>Dr. John F. Ankerberg</strong> is the President and founder of The Ankerberg Theological Research Institute. He is also the producer and host of the nationally televised John Ankerberg Show, a half-hour program seen in all 50 states via independent stations, the DAYSTAR Network, the DISH Network, DirecTV and on the SKY ANGEL Satellite, numerous cable outlets, as well as on the internet. The program can be seen each week by a potential viewing audience in excess of 99 million people. John presents contemporary spiritual issues and defends biblical/Christian answers.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVeh_eXYvU3YEOvgrFna1Mglke4g0pRYh-WjR4C5Eq3ghuBSdRG045yQ8Sh8NBZfxKk_vfEeDxgrj005nxllUZ7M0yE8eVc6dZOBAGvg7RFwDjf8527iwd3glRz4wMrl_J0ykwJp-Q/s1600-h/Dillon"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVeh_eXYvU3YEOvgrFna1Mglke4g0pRYh-WjR4C5Eq3ghuBSdRG045yQ8Sh8NBZfxKk_vfEeDxgrj005nxllUZ7M0yE8eVc6dZOBAGvg7RFwDjf8527iwd3glRz4wMrl_J0ykwJp-Q/s200/Dillon" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222310303633456434" /></a>Writer and communicator <strong>Dillon Burroughs </strong>is author of fourteen books and serves as a staff writer and research associate for the Ankerberg Theological Research Institute. In the past two years, his books have sold over 113,000 copies while his edited works have sold more than two million copies. On subjects related to spirituality and culture, Dillon’s written projects have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salem Radio Network news, Moody Radio Network, James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, iLife Television Network, Prime Time America, Leadership Journal, NBC affiliates, The John Ankerberg Show, Discipleship Journal, Group Magazine, and many other media outlets. <br /><br />Dillon Burroughs is a ThM graduate from Dallas Theological Seminary in addition to graduating with a B.S. degree in Communications from Indiana State University. As time allows, he also serves as an adjunct professor at Tennessee Temple University. Dillon lives in Tennessee with his wife, Deborah, and two children, Ben and Natalie.<br /><br /><br />Product Details:<br /><br />List Price: $12.99 <br />Paperback: 256 pages <br />Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (March 1, 2008) <br />Language: English <br />ISBN-10: 0736921222 <br />ISBN-13: 978-0736921220 <br /><br /><div align="center"><br /><span style="color:#ffcc00;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:</span> </strong></div><br /></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXzVTC_Twg3cINNTf2IDIQrp-RO8K3vAVBFzRThQ1KwZdTFtr-zaj45oe5uD209t8H3IkoIqX37qk_Fa5hBFqL0MF8r0qZyEJAdqR56QBObuPAKMADXOTHFbvQa6FRuudGxd54Eq8A/s1600-h/Other+Religions"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXzVTC_Twg3cINNTf2IDIQrp-RO8K3vAVBFzRThQ1KwZdTFtr-zaj45oe5uD209t8H3IkoIqX37qk_Fa5hBFqL0MF8r0qZyEJAdqR56QBObuPAKMADXOTHFbvQa6FRuudGxd54Eq8A/s200/Other+Religions" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222308991555054754" /></a><div style= "overflow: auto; height: 307px;">Christianity: <br /><br />What’s the Big Deal About Jesus?<br /><br />“Christianity is good for you, but it’s not right for me. I think you ought to believe whatever makes you happy and gives you peace.”<br /><br />“Christianity is the ‘right’ religion—isn’t that being naive?”<br /><br />The label Christianity covers a broad range of people today. While over 2.1 billion people are statistically considered followers of Jesus Christ, polls by religious researcher George Barna have observed that only four percent of American Christians hold to a biblical worldview (that is, beliefs consistent with the Bible’s teachings), and just 51 percent of Christian clergy hold to such a view. As a result, even many who call themselves Christians have agreed with the quotes that appear above, asking if it is perhaps naïve to claim Christianity is the only way to God.<br /><br />However, the above quotes are inconsistent with Christianity’s origins and founder. In this chapter we’ll briefly review how Christianity began, consider its early beliefs, introduce its founder, and investigate the reliability of the New Testament, which is part of the Bible.<br /><br />A Firm Foundation<br /><br />All of Christianity is built around one basic belief: the resurrection of its founder, Jesus of Nazareth. On Passover Friday around A.D. 30, Jesus was executed on a Roman cross on the accusation of conspiracy against the government. The Sanhedrin (Jewish leaders) had insisted that the Roman leader Pilate condemn Jesus, though Pilate had not found him guilty of any crimes worthy of death. After the crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus in a tomb, the body disappeared three days later. Immediately this was followed by many “Jesus sightings” reported over the next 40 days. A social revolution began ten days later in Jerusalem, Israel, as over 3000 people joined the movement after a street message given by the apostle Peter (Acts 2). Christianity was off and running, and has been growing ever since.<br /><br />Oxford University theologian Dr. Alister McGrath has noted,<br /><br />The identity of Christianity is inextricably linked with the uniqueness of Christ, which is in turn grounded in the Resurrection and Incarnation.<br /><br />How do we know Jesus came back to life? First, the 27 books of the New Testament are based upon this one event—the resurrection of Jesus. Despite the attacks of many, the writings of Christianity have been shown to have emerged during the first century with the courageous message that Jesus, a man executed by the government, was alive. This carried many implications about his life and death and beyond. What other motive did these writers have except that they truly believed all this had occurred?<br /><br />In addition, many individuals of that day claimed to have encountered Jesus after his death. According to the Gospel writers and the missionary Paul, Jesus appeared a total of at least 12 times after his return from death:<br /><br />The Post-Resurrection Appearances of Jesus Christ<br /><br /># Sighting Source<br /><br />1. Mary Magdalene--Mark 16:9; John 20:11-18<br /><br />2. Women returning from the tomb--Matthew 28:9-10<br /><br />3. Two men walking to Emmaus--Mark 16:12-13; Luke 24:13-32<br /><br />4. Peter--Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5<br /><br />5. 10 disciples; two men from Emmaus--Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-23<br /><br />6. 11 disciples (including Thomas)--John 20:24-29<br /><br />7. 7 disciples--John 21:1-24<br /><br />8. 500 people at one time--1 Corinthians 15:6<br /><br />9. James, the half-brother of Jesus--1 Corinthians 15:7<br /><br />10. 11 disciples Matthew 28:16-20<br /><br />11. 11 disciples before Jesus returned to heaven--Luke 24:50-53<br /><br />12. Paul-- Acts 9:3-6; 1 Corinthians 15:8<br /><br />In just one of these sightings, over 500 people claimed to see Jesus alive after his death. Did you know that if each of those 500 people were to testify in court for only six minutes, including time for cross-examination, we would have an amazing 50 hours of firsthand testimony? Few other events from over 2000 years ago find this level of support. None offer the number of witnesses the resurrection does for a supernatural event.<br /><br />Further, the changed lives of the early followers of Jesus supported their report that Jesus was alive. All but one of Jesus’ 11 followers died for his belief in the resurrection of Jesus. Hundreds—if not thousands—of other Christians suffered or died within the first century of Christianity for their beliefs as well. The killing of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, led to the persecution of the Jerusalem church, which eventually forced many Christians to flee the area for safety.<br /><br />“Could you convince thousands of people in our own day that President Kennedy had resurrected from the dead? There’s no way…unless it really happened.”<br /><br />The amazing phenomenon of Christianity’s growth also stands as a powerful testimony that this faith is based on a supernatural resurrection. How could a crucified Jew (Jesus), former tax collector (Matthew), Jesus-hater (Paul), and small town fishermen (including Peter) establish a movement that has resulted in the largest religion on Earth? How could this happen?<br /><br />When Christianity began, the Roman Empire was the greatest government of the time. Yet 300 years later, the Roman Empire had crumbled, and Christianity was continuing to grow. This, in spite of its humble beginning as a grassroots network of individuals who witnessed that Jesus had come back to life. Even though the proclamation of Jesus’ teachings produced persecution of the greatest kind, Christianity continued to spread across the Roman Empire—all the way to the palace of Caesar in Rome, the world’s political and social capital.<br /><br />Christianity 101<br /><br />So Christianity originated from a group of Jesus-followers who spread the message that they had personally witnessed his three years of teaching and miracles, watched him die on a cross, and then personally met, saw, talked to, ate with, and received instructions from him after his resurrection from the dead. But what are the core beliefs of Christianity? There are six central elements of<br />traditional Christianity.<br /><br />First, there is the common understanding of Jews and Christians that there is only one true God—who is infi nite, holy, loving, just, and true. In addition, Christians believe that in the nature (presence) of the one true God there exists three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christianity does not believe in three gods, but one. As Dr. Norman Geisler, bestselling author and cofounder of Southern Evangelical Seminary, has written,<br /><br />The Trinity is not the belief that God is three personas and only one person at the same time and in the same sense. That would be a contradiction. Rather, it is the belief that there are three persons in one nature. This may be a mystery, but it is not a contradiction. That is, it may go beyond reason’s ability to comprehend completely, but it does not go against reason’s ability to apprehend consistently.<br />Further, the Trinity is not the belief that there are three natures in one nature or three essences in one essence. That would be a contradiction. Rather, Christians affirm that there are three persons in one essence…He is one in the sense of his essence but many in the sense of his persons. So there is no violation of the law of noncontradiction in the doctrine of the Trinity.<br /><br />Traditional Christianity also accepts the 66 books of the Holy Bible as revelation from God, perfect and authoritative for all spiritual matters. While Roman Catholicism accepts the additional authority of the pope and church tradition, and Eastern Orthodoxy accepts church tradition as equal in authority to the Bible, the earliest traditional Christianity and later Protestant Christianity have been based solely on God’s written revelation through his apostles and prophets.<br /><br />Third, Christians believe every person who has ever lived (with the exception of Jesus Christ) has been born a sinner separated from God. It is our sin nature that keeps us from knowing and experiencing God and creates a need for reconciliation through a means only God can provide.<br /><br />Fourth, in his infinite love, God has provided the solution to the barrier between himself and humanity through Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that the death of Jesus provides payment for our sins, and on the basis of our believing, he is our sinbearer and he will forgive us the moment we believe. All this is confirmed by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead—he has paid the penalty for sin and conquered death. In this way God offers a basis for a person to place his or her faith in Christ and to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus, in which he enters your life and you walk through life with his power and guidance.<br /><br />Fifth, this rescue or salvation God offers through Jesus is based solely on what God has done rather than on what people do. In other words, salvation is a free gift based on God’s grace to us (unearned favor) rather than good works or deeds we can accomplish, though these will accompany a person once he or she becomes a Christian. One of the major points of contention during the Protestant Reformation resulted from the Roman Catholic Church’s unbiblical teaching<br />that God’s grace consists of humans cooperating with God’s grace to merit salvation, rather than receiving salvation in full as a gift on the basis of faith alone the moment a person believes.<br /><br />Sixth, Christians believe in an eternal afterlife. God allows individuals the ability to choose or reject him, and after death, that decision is final. Those who have chosen to believe in Jesus will enjoy eternity with him in heaven, while those who decline will spend eternity in hell, separated from God. God will accept every person’s decision and not force him or her to change their mind. While all this may sound politically incorrect in our culture, it has stood as an essential component of Christian teaching from the earliest times. The choice we make here on earth will have eternal consequences. <br /><br />Jesus: Founder and CEO of Christianity <br /><br />Christian philosopher Dr. C. Stephen Evans points out that “it is an essential part of Christian faith that Jesus is God in a unique and exclusive way. It follows from this that all religions [that disagree] cannot be equally true.”7 Again, if different religions teach contradictory things about who God is, salvation, the afterlife, and<br />even Jesus, then one or another could be true, but they can’t all be true at the same time. What are the big super-signs that help us decide which religion is true? According to biblical Christianity, if Jesus claimed to be God and proved his claim by his resurrection, then he is God and Christianity is true. No other religious leader in history has claimed to be God and risen from the dead.<br /><br />Further, there are at least seven concepts Jesus taught about himself that stand unique to Christianity. First, Jesus communicated that he fulfi lled biblical prophecy, given hundreds of years in advance, that he was the promised Messiah. He repeatedly claimed to be the person that God’s Messiah was predicted to be, and many scholars have created extensive lists of these prophetic connections. Here are some examples of prophecies Jesus fulfilled:<br /><br />Prophecy--Old Testament Prophecy--New Testament Fulfillment<br /><br />Born of a virgin-- Isaiah 7:14-- Matthew 1:18,25<br /><br />Born in Bethlehem-- Micah 5:2-- Matthew 2:1<br /><br />Preceded by a messenger-- Isaiah 40:3-- Matthew 3:1-2<br /><br />Rejected by his own people-- Isaiah 53:3-- John 7:5; 7:48<br /><br />Betrayed by a close friend-- Isaiah 41:9-- John 13:26-30<br /><br />His side pierced-- Zechariah 12:10-- John 19:34<br /><br />His death by crucifixion-- Psalm 22:1,11-18-- Luke 23:33; John 19:23-24<br /><br />His resurrection-- Psalm 16:10-- Acts 13:34-37<br /><br />Second, Jesus stands as a unique, unparalleled individual among the leaders of various world religions. He made predictions about the future that could only be made by someone who claimed to be God. Further, he noted in advance several of the things that would occur at the time of his death and resurrection. Unlike anyone else, he also promised to one day return to earth to set up his future kingdom.<br /><br />The Seven “I Ams” of Jesus in John’s Gospel<br /><br /> “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35,48; see also verse 51).<br /><br /> “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).<br /><br /> “I am the gate for the sheep” (John 10:7; see also verse 9).<br /><br /> “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11,14).<br /><br /> “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).<br /><br /> “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).<br /><br /> “I am the true vine” (John 15:1; see also verse 5).<br /><br />Further, Jesus is unique in his nature, being fully divine and fully human nature in one person. Jesus was born as a man without sin through a miraculous virgin birth. He challenged his own family, disciples, and even his enemies to prove him guilty of sin, but none could do so. Think of the reaction you would receive if you asked your parents, brothers, sisters, and friends, “Can any of you point to one sin I have committed?” Those closest to us know our faults. We all have them. Yet Jesus lived a perfect life free of sin.<br /><br />As God’s divine son, Jesus performed miracles, healings, and exorcisms; fulfi lled Jewish prophecies; and accomplished his own resurrection. In these ways he affi rmed his divine nature, displaying power far beyond that of any person who has ever lived. Today people downplay the miracles, but they are documented in careful detail in the Bible, and even Jesus’ enemies did not deny his miracles. They weren’t able to. So they just claimed that he performed them with<br />the help of evil powers (Matthew 12:24).<br /><br />The Exorcisms of Jesus<br /><br />Exorcism-- Source<br />1. Healed a demon-possessed man at Capernaum ---Mark 1:21-28; Luke 4:31-37<br /><br />2. Drove out demons and evil spirits Matthew 8:16-17; Mark 1:32-39; Luke 4:33-41<br />3. Healed the man possessed by demons at the Gadarenes-- Matthew 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39<br /><br />4. Drove a demon out of a mute man, who then spoke-- Matthew 9:32-34;<br />Mark 3:20-22<br /><br />Christianity is also the only major religion whose founder sacrificed his life for the sins of those who would choose to believe in him. Jesus’ horrifi c death on the cross stood as proof of his statement that “the Son of Man [Jesus] did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”<br /><br />The Nature Miracles of Jesus<br /><br />The Miracle—Source<br /><br />1. Calming the wind and waves-- Matthew 8:26; Mark 4:39; Luke 8:24<br /><br />2. Walking on water-- Matthew 14:25; Mark 6:48; John 6:19<br /><br />3. Money in the fish’s mouth-- Matthew 17:27<br /><br />4. Withering of the fig tree-- Matthew 21:19; Mark 11:14<br /><br />5. Miraculous catch of fish-- Luke 5:4-7<br /><br />6. Turning water into wine-- John 2:7-8<br /><br />7. Second miraculous catch of fish-- John 21:6<br /><br />8. Feeding the 4000-- Matthew 15:32-38; Mark 8:1-9<br /><br />9. Feeding the 5000-- Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:34-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:5-12<br /><br />Sixth, as mentioned earlier, Jesus also rose from the dead. Those in his time could never account for his empty tomb and the disappearance of his body. Jesus’ followers spanned the known world testifying of his resurrection (his actual bodily appearing to them), teaching his words, and dying for their belief in him.<br /><br />Finally, Jesus promises, at the end of time, to personally judge every person who ever lived. It would be eternally disappointing to have Jesus look at us, fairly judge us, and conclude, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23).<br /><br />Christianity by the Book<br /><br />Those who want to investigate the truthfulness of the original Christian message can look to a wealth of manuscript evidence regarding the transmission of the 27 books of the New Testament through the years. The New Testament manuscripts offer more supporting evidence than any other ancient book. Christians also accept the Jewish scriptures (the Old Testament) as part of their holy book, the Bible. Traditional Christianity believes in the inerrancy of Scripture, meaning the original words of the Bible’s books are without error and perfect in every way.<br /><br />As a result, Bible translation, distribution, and teaching stand as important responsibilities within Christianity. The Bible is the most translated book in history, has been used as the script for the most-watched fi lm in history (the Jesus fi lm), and has enjoyed greater distribution than any book in the world. Over 100 million copies of the New Testament or Bible are sold every year worldwide. <br /><br />Interesting Statistics About the Bible<br /><br />The Bible was written over a period of 1600 years,<br /><br /> by more than 40 authors of every sort—kings, peasants, fi shermen, poets, shepherds, government offi cials, teachers, and prophets—<br /><br /> in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek),<br /><br /> on three continents—Asia, Africa, and Europe.11<br /><br />What Makes Christianity Unique?<br /><br />“Christianity isn’t about people in search of God, but rather God in search of<br />people.”—STEVE RUSSO<br /><br />Many have suggested that Christianity is about having a personal relationship with Jesus, and not performing good works and following rituals. Religious movements throughout history ultimately hold to a signifi cantly different common thread—that certain actions or works are required to obtain a blissful afterlife. In Christianity, however, the key to reaching God here and now and dwelling with him for eternity is to receive and trust in a gift already provided by its founder, Jesus Christ. As the apostle Paul made clear to Christians at Ephesus, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.”<br /><br />God’s gift of salvation also brings assurance. If Jesus’ righteous life and atoning death on the cross is the sole basis for God’s gift, then a Christian doesn’t have to worry about earning or losing that gift. Once the gift is received, it belongs to the Christian forever because it rests on what Jesus did—not what the Christian did or does in the past, present, or future.<br /><br />Christianity in Summary<br /><br />As we compare and contrast the beliefs of various religions throughout this book, we hope to make the distinctives of each one as clear as possible. Here, we summarize the key teachings of Christianity:<br /><br />Belief-- Basic Description<br /><br />God-- One God in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.<br />Holy Book-- The 66 books of the Holy Bible are the authoritative<br />works of Christianity.<br /><br />Sin-- All people have sinned (except Jesus).<br /><br />Jesus Christ-- God’s perfect son, holy, resurrected, divine (second person of the Trinity) yet also fully human.<br /><br />Salvation-- Obtained only by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not by human effort.<br /><br />Afterlife-- All people will enter heaven or hell upon death based on whether they have salvation in Jesus Christ. The Bible does not teach reincarnation, annihilation (ending of the soul), or the existence of purgatory.<br /><br /><br />Some people assume that biblical Christianity and Roman Catholicism are essentially similar. But is that the case? What differences exist? Are these differences really a big deal, or only minor details? Our next chapter will address these questions head-on.<br /></div>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-64741705607931236542008-06-14T22:56:00.000-04:002008-06-15T00:06:52.320-04:00Exposing Darwinism's Weakest Link: Why Evolution Can't Explain Human Existence by Kenneth Poppe<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s1600-h/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg"></a><a href="http://nonfictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179647009365145890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s200/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg" border="0" /></a><br />It's June 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!<br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong>The feature author is: </strong></div><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.ifsed.org/">Kenneth Poppe</a></span></strong><br /><p></p><br /><strong><span style="font-size:160;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#009900;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#009900;">and his book:</span> </span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"></strong></div></span><p></p><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:7;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></strong></div></span><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0736921257/">Exposing Darwinism's Weakest Link: Why Evolution Can't Explain Human Existence </a></span></strong></div><br /><p align="center">Harvest House Publishers (March 1, 2008)</p><br /><p align="center"></p><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><br /><p></p><span style="color:#ff6600;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</span> </span></strong></div></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0NNTftgNfYInpJG0qRXrTcVSd1JCay-sb8MgCIES2KxHxo8dgiyAr1YNxsTJW1wr6rUiI80p-PVDLaPHPgJBmVL3neMntWSnhNpA3BACqfkkxfW5cuKuaDjcWAyLNTYHXVWOF67hy/s1600-h/POPPE.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211939585222724082" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0NNTftgNfYInpJG0qRXrTcVSd1JCay-sb8MgCIES2KxHxo8dgiyAr1YNxsTJW1wr6rUiI80p-PVDLaPHPgJBmVL3neMntWSnhNpA3BACqfkkxfW5cuKuaDjcWAyLNTYHXVWOF67hy/s200/POPPE.jpg" border="0" /></a>A career biology instructor, <a href="http://www.ifsed.org/">Kenneth Poppe</a> holds a doctorate in education and taught in secondary schools for more than 25 years. He is now senior consultant with the International Foundation for Science Education by Design (www.ifsed.org). In addition to working in teacher education and assisting in DNA research of stream ecology, he has authored Reclaiming Science from Darwinism.<br /><br />Product Details:<br /><br />List Price: $14.99<br />Paperback: 304 pages<br />Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (March 1, 2008)<br />Language: English<br />ISBN-10: 0736921257<br />ISBN-13: 978-0736921251<br /><br /><div align="center"><br /><span style="color:#ffcc00;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:</span> </strong><br /></span><br /><em>The majority is not trying to establish a religion or to teach it—it is trying to protect itself from the effort of an insolent minority to force irreligion upon the children under the guise of teaching science.</em><br /><br />—WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN<br /><br /><br />BRYAN WAS THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PROSECUTION AT THE 1925 “SCOPES MONKEY TRIAL” IN DAYTON, TENNESSEE THAT MADE EVOLUTION A HOUSEHOLD TERM. THE ABOVE WORDS ARE FROM HIS<br />WRITTEN CLOSING STATEMENT, WHICH WAS NEVER READ IN COURT.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZUFZf11dxHsM71QTqR2TdKEVD76mq3ky8B3x246JrdmSiZZt_gVVLblunHvw3d3ilNigRDbYwV3ZNjjlkxDvFzMRlLjT3ip3h62NO2gn1h-uxnuKPdISknpX53ekTT74g6v_KjR2x/s1600-h/darwinism.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5211949428854988802" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZUFZf11dxHsM71QTqR2TdKEVD76mq3ky8B3x246JrdmSiZZt_gVVLblunHvw3d3ilNigRDbYwV3ZNjjlkxDvFzMRlLjT3ip3h62NO2gn1h-uxnuKPdISknpX53ekTT74g6v_KjR2x/s200/darwinism.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div align="center">1<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">EXAMINING YOUR FAMILY TREE<br /></span><br /><em>A Monkey for an Uncle?</em><br /><br /></div><div align="left">Consider your biological father. He is responsible for half of the genetic codes that shaped your body, and probably some of your personality as well. Now consider his father, your grandfather. If typical, I would guess at least a couple of your body traits are more grandpa’s than dad’s—having somehow skipped a generation. And how about your great-grandfather? Were you lucky enough to know him, even if just like me, through those vague and shifting memories as a very<br />small boy? Dare I throw in a great-great-grandfather—in my case known only through legend and those grainy black-and-white photos of a roughly dressed man beside a horse and buggy?<br /><br />Consider that when your great-great-grandfather was your age, for surely he once was, he could try to reconstruct his lineage just as you have done. What names and faces would he have recalled? And if you could piece great-great-granddad’s and your recollections together, that would create a timeline taking you back eight generations—perhaps 250 years or so! Where would you find your ancestors then? In my case, I’m told, the Hamburg, Germany, area. And would my ancestors then be traced to the nomadic Gaelic stock that inhabited Western Europe before formal countries were established there? And then to where? Ancient Phoenicians, Sumerians, Egyptians? And how about yours?<br /><br />Now to get to the main point. If you kept traveling back in time in this manner, generation after generation, where would you end up? Where would your dad’s ancestors have been living 1000 years ago? 2500 to 5000 years ago? And so on? Those who believe in strict Darwinism would say an extended family schematic would show your ancestors going back several million years ago where they first evolved on the African continent. And on this reverse journey you would see slowly reappearing total body hair, steadily shrinking brains, increasingly sloping foreheads and jaw protrusions, and extending arms whose knuckles would eventually be dragging the ground, assisting a clumsy, bent-over gait. In other words, strict evolutionists say if you could backtrack your family tree for, say, 5 million years, your ancestors would now be closer in appearance to a chimp than a human. And if you continued farther back in time, the coccyx bone at the bottom of your pelvis would extend into a prehensile tail, and the reappearing grasping toes on your feet would send you back to swinging in the trees from whence you came some 10 to 15 million years ago.<br /><br />Stop and ponder your supposed family tree in this way—a videotape in rewind. Is this really how it went down? Did humans come from monkeys? (Often a Darwinist will answer no to this question by saying it wasn’t a direct path of evolution. But monkeys have to be on the path before apes, right? And apes would have to be on the path before humanoids, right? So it most absolutely is, in theory, “monkey to man”—no matter how crooked the line.) Now if this isn’t the truth, what’s the alternative? Unless you consult primitive worship superstitions, I’ve stated before that the world’s five major religions give you one origin—Genesis—and it includes a tantalizing tale of an innocent man Adam and his companion woman, Eve, in a pristine garden. But for so many, that’s a fairy tale of bigger proportions than monkeys becoming humans. So what is the truth?<br /><br />Here’s my response. Regardless of which religious view(s) might supply the answer(s), I will stand firmly on this:<br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;"><blockquote><span style="font-family:courier new;">There is absolutely no scientific support for the<br />monkey-to-man scenario—absolutely none.</span><br /></blockquote></span><br />On the contrary, science, and even philosophy, validate the title of this book and its overriding message as stated a few pages ago.<br /><br /><strong>Either-Or</strong><br /><br />If there is an alternative answer to the totally unscientific view that monkeys slowly turned into people, ostensibly it is one of the religious variety. But before we tackle the idea, let me first share the concept I find continually bubbling up from the origins cauldron: Almost every major issue concludes with just two choices—<em>either</em> it could have happened this way, <em>or</em> it couldn’t. So grab a writing instrument and check your choice of one of two for each of the ten statements below.<br /><br /><strong>It Could It Couldn’t<br />Happen Happen</strong><br /><br />_______ ______ 1. The most violent accidental explosion ever, the big bang, was sufficiently self-appointed to create the largest and most fine-tuned object ever known, the universe.<br /><br />_______ ______ 2. The sheer number of planets in the universe, and the number of years these planets have existed, give us a mathematical chance that at least one would become a fully interactive biological world—ours—by accident.<br /><br />_______ ______ 3. Blind luck had the ability to construct the approximately 80,000 different life-required protein chains of specifically sequenced amino acids (from an “alphabet” of 20 different amino-acid choices)—even those proteins 10,000 amino acids long.<br /><br />_______ ______ 4. The RNA/DNA molecules, containing information equivalent to all the books in 20 standard libraries, suddenly appeared by chance in the “primordial soup” before the first cell was a reality.<br /><br />_______ ______ 5. Almost as soon as Earth’s conditions permitted, a functional cell appeared, selfprepared with a wide array of metabolizing and reproductive mechanisms.<br /><br />_______ ______ 6. A half billion years ago, in the blink of an evolutionary eye, the Cambrian explosion self-generated the completely interactive gene pool of all 32 animal phyla with complex organ systems. Once complex life didn’t exist, then it was all there.<br /><br />_______ ______ 7. After the Cambrian explosion, random scramblings of genetic information kept producing improved genetic codes. This allowed life to surge forward as animals kept giving rise to improved offspring with which, suddenly<br />or eventually, they could not mate.<br /><br />_______ ______ 8. These accidental genetic surges adequately explain a whole host of large-scale advances— for example, straight bones in fins turning into jointed bones in legs, reptile scales turning into bird feathers, photosensitive cells turning into eyes, births from amniotic eggs turning into births from a placenta, and chordates like cows or hippos going back into the ocean to become whales.<br /><br />_______ ______ 9. While animals randomly surged forward within 32 phyla from sponges to mammals, plants accomplished a similar advance in complexity from moss to cacti, but did it in only 8 steps, often called divisions instead of phyla.<br /><br /><em>And central to this book:<br /></em><br />_______ ______ 10. Primates like monkeys left the trees and kept getting bigger, stronger, and smarter. About 5 million years of natural selection was sufficient time for hominids to adapt to walking on their hind legs, learn to use tools,<br />fashion clothes to wear, master fire, develop first spoken and then written communication, and finally organize societies in cave homes among maple groves that eventually became cottage homes on Maple Street.<br /><br />So how did you score on this checklist? The two most extreme scores would be to have <em>all</em> ten checks in the right column of “it couldn’t happen”—like me—or all ten checks on the left column of “it could happen.” Of course, you realize that <em>one single check</em> in the right column dooms Darwinism to immediate failure. All it takes is one legitimate “couldn’t” check in this either-or set-up and natural evolution has no chance to produce me the writer, or you the reader. If you can, actually imagine trying to agree with all ten statements as checked on the left, and I’ll wager you’ll feel the full weight of the folly of “self-made” life. Therefore, if you find evolution insufficient <em>in even one instance</em>, you need to consider a bigger-than-science connection— unless, of course, you want to remain apathetic. So, if evolution or apathy is not the answer, I suggest you begin a quest to come to grips with the “God” who engineered this miracle.<br /><br />Rejecting statement #10 above reflects this chapter’s opening rejection of the idea that all our ancestral lines slowly become more stooped and stupider as we observe the reverse of totally natural processes. If the world generally rejected that notion and stood on the “God alternative” with confidence, it would dramatically change the debate on the other nine statements. And yet if monkeys are not our uncles then how do you explain human origin? How do you explain the master plan of God the Designer? </div>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-40477020535017282782008-05-15T06:20:00.000-04:002008-05-15T12:48:42.837-04:00Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLn7sBsK3Za2Qzxm9GfDJ8LQF0ZY1jwQDh7eUNM4xxUTVDNYYHwRhSuv8KrW98LqIy6GMO0XN9F64Gdknyq3iKKDam5WLHDarW-mJASqfdeNSIdkUAYwI0i5Umt4XqZA4Ve7MpUJB0/s1600-h/God's+Will+1.JPG"></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s1600-h/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg"></a><a href="http://nonfictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179647009365145890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s200/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg" border="0" /></a><br />It's <span style="color:#ff6600;"><strong>May 15th</strong></span>, 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!<br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong>The feature author is: </strong></div><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.therebelution.com/">Alex and Brett Harris</a></span></strong> <p></p><br /><strong><span style="font-size:160;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#009900;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#009900;">and their book:</span> </span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"></strong></div></span><p></p><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:7;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></strong></div></span><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1601421125/">Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations</a></span></strong></div><p align="center">Multnomah Books (April 15, 2008) </p><p align="center"></p><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><br /><p></p><span style="color:#ff6600;">ABOUT THE AUTHORs:</span> </span></strong></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSQYGnvmaWtvKpL8j_SgYUlYIKv3sdh16C3cEngkdq1d7RnID8Y9Nz9J7KE6xRbkbJ481qB9XARi42MgzT7cGjxFAYE1TB6rTHaIXSYe-RP4XRbPZHLy8knIpsQiphIW3QbbI7EOcw/s1600-h/alex_brett.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5199696065093186898" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSQYGnvmaWtvKpL8j_SgYUlYIKv3sdh16C3cEngkdq1d7RnID8Y9Nz9J7KE6xRbkbJ481qB9XARi42MgzT7cGjxFAYE1TB6rTHaIXSYe-RP4XRbPZHLy8knIpsQiphIW3QbbI7EOcw/s200/alex_brett.jpg" border="0" /></a>Alex and Brett Harris founded TheRebelution.com in August 2005 and today at age 19 are the most popular Christian teen writers on the Web. The twins are frequent contributors to Focus on the Family’s Boundless webzine, serve as the main speakers for the Rebelution Tour conferences, and have been featured in WORLD magazine, Breakaway, The Old Schoolhouse, and the New York Daily News. Sons of homeschool pioneer Gregg Harris and younger brothers of best-selling author Joshua Harris (I Kissed Dating Goodbye), Alex and Brett live near Portland, Oregon.<br /><br /><div align="left"><br /><span style="color:#ffcc00;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:</span> </strong><br /></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEierX0V9E84oiSsey7Tsisp2-Ltl_g8iI8sTL2ndR2hyphenhyphenPBV3Zkneujzn0o-2-ljAf0snmoJGPxVoXUGpOCqJvZT1BNEuHjX10URCCDurJwHemI0eMyXwUJm2LUpvpcIINNo-TpPPG5Z/s1600-h/dohardthings.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5199696193942205794" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEierX0V9E84oiSsey7Tsisp2-Ltl_g8iI8sTL2ndR2hyphenhyphenPBV3Zkneujzn0o-2-ljAf0snmoJGPxVoXUGpOCqJvZT1BNEuHjX10URCCDurJwHemI0eMyXwUJm2LUpvpcIINNo-TpPPG5Z/s200/dohardthings.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>MOST PEOPLE DON’T…</strong></span><br /><strong>A different kind of teen book</strong><br /><br />Most people don’t expect you to understand what we’re going to tell you in this book. And even if you understand, they don’t expect you to care. And even if you care, they don’t expect you to do anything about it. And even if you do something about it, they don’t expect it to last.<br /><br />Well, we do.<br /><br />This is a different kind of teen book. Check online or walk through your local bookstore. You’ll find plenty of books written by fortysomethings who, like, totally understand what it’s like being a teenager. You’ll find a lot of cheap throwaway<br />books for teens because young people today aren’t supposed to care about books or see any reason to keep them around. And you’ll find a wide selection of books where you never have to read anything twice—because the message is dumbed-down. Like, just for you.<br /><br />What you’re holding in your hands right now is a challenging book for teens by teens who believe our generation is ready for a change. Ready for something that doesn’t promise a whole new life if you’ll just buy the right pair of jeans or use the right kind of deodorant. We believe our generation is ready to rethink what teens are capable of doing and becoming. And we’ve noticed that once wrong ideas are debunked<br />and cleared away, our generation is quick to choose a better way, even if it’s also more difficult.<br /><br />We’re nineteen-year-old twin brothers, born and raised in Oregon, taught at home by our parents, and striving to follow Christ as best we can. We’ve made more than our share of mistakes. And although we don’t think “average teenagers” exist, there is nothing all that extraordinary about us personally.<br /><br />Still, we’ve had some extraordinary experiences. At age sixteen, we interned at the Alabama Supreme Court. At seventeen, we served as grass-roots directors for four statewide political campaigns. At eighteen, we authored the most popular Christian teen blog on the web. We’ve been able to speak to thousands of teens and their parents at conferences in the United States and internationally and to reach millions<br />online. But if our teen years have been different than most, it’s not because we’re somehow better than other teens, but because we’ve been motivated by a simple but very big idea. It’s an idea you’re going to encounter for yourself in the pages<br />ahead.<br /><br />We’ve seen this idea transform “average” teenagers into world-changers able to accomplish incredible things. And they started by simply being willing to break the mold of what society thinks teens are capable of.<br /><br />So even though the story starts with us, this book really isn’t about us, and we would never want it to be. It’s about something God is doing in the hearts and minds of our generation. It’s about an idea. It’s about rebelling against low expectations. It’s about a movement that is changing the attitudes and actions of teens around the world. And we want you to be part of it.<br /><br />This book invites you to explore some radical questions:<br /><br />• Is it possible that even though teens today have more freedom than any other generation in history, we’re actually missing out on some of the best years of our<br />lives?<br /><br />• Is it possible that what our culture says about the purpose and potential of the teen years is a lie and that we are its victims?<br /><br />• Is it possible that our teen years give us a once-in-alifetime opportunity for huge accomplishments—as individuals and as a generation?<br /><br />• And finally, what would our lives look like if we set out on a different path entirely—a path that required more effort but promised a lot more reward?<br /><br />We describe that alternative path with three simple words: “do hard things.”<br /><br />If you’re like most people, your first reaction to the phrase “do hard things” runs along the lines of, “Hard? Uh-oh. Guys, I just remembered that I’m supposed to be somewhere else. Like, right now.”<br /><br />We understand this reaction. It reminds us of a story we like to tell about a group of monks. Yep, monks.<br /><br />On the outskirts of a small town in Germany is the imaginary abbey of Dundelhoff. This small stone monastery is home to a particularly strict sect of Dundress monks, who have each vowed to live a life of continual self-denial and discomfort.<br /><br />Instead of wearing comfy T-shirts and well-worn jeans like most people, these monks wear either itchy shirts made from goat hair or cold chain mail worn directly over bare skin. Instead of soft mattresses, pillows, and warm blankets, they sleep on the cold stone floors of the abbey. You might have read somewhere that monks are fabulous cooks? Well, not these monks. They eat colorless, tasteless sludge—once a day. They only drink lukewarm water.<br /><br />We could go on, but you get the picture. No matter what decision they face, Dundress monks always choose the more difficult option, the one that provides the least physical comfort, holds the least appeal, offers the least fun. Why? Because they believe that the more miserable they are, the holier they are; and the holier they are, the happier God is.<br /><br />So these miserable monks must be poster boys for “do hard things.” Right?<br /><br />Wrong!<br /><br />We’re not plotting to make your life miserable. We’re not recommending that you do any and every difficult thing. For example, we’re not telling you to rob a bank, jump off a cliff, climb Half Dome with your bare hands, or stand on your head for twenty-four hours straight. We are not telling you to do pointless (or stupid) hard things just because they’re hard. And if you’re a Christian, we’re certainly not telling you that if you work harder or make yourself uncomfortable on purpose, God will love you more. He will never—could never—love you any more than He does right now.<br /><br />So that’s what we’re not doing. What we are doing is challenging you to grab hold of a more exciting option for your teen years than the one portrayed as normal in society today. This option has somehow gotten lost in our culture, and most people don’t even know it. In the pages ahead, you’re going to meet young people just like you who have rediscovered this better way—a way to reach higher, dream bigger, grow<br />stronger, love and honor God, live with more joy—and quit wasting their lives.<br /><br />In Do Hard Things, we not only say there is a better way to do the teen years, we show you how we and thousands of other teens are doing it right now and how you can as well. </div>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-43867800240092663192008-05-05T23:31:00.001-04:002008-05-05T23:32:11.909-04:00Non~Fiction Wild Card: Be Last by Jeremy Kingsley<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcfmxaYIOw5JsXl4LMksjOoLi5MQ9EwVB8Ml2o871kpGN89GAH-G7JY3vw2t2MlFpP7aNf5d-TpGiV3gQCJNhyGFSwBk8t0BD1W-gab3dv4nXqdnmKdWzei5w-aQarf-C1sbke-y0WBk3/s1600-h/be+last.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196750748211051714" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcfmxaYIOw5JsXl4LMksjOoLi5MQ9EwVB8Ml2o871kpGN89GAH-G7JY3vw2t2MlFpP7aNf5d-TpGiV3gQCJNhyGFSwBk8t0BD1W-gab3dv4nXqdnmKdWzei5w-aQarf-C1sbke-y0WBk3/s200/be+last.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">FIRST Wild Card Tour for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1414316410/">Be Last</a> by <a href="http://www.jeremykingsley.com/">Jeremy Kingsley </a>will be on July 24, 2008 </span><span style="color:#cc0000;"><br /></span><br /><em>Genre: Non~Fiction: Christian Life/Spiritual Growth: Spiritual Formation<br /></em><br /></span>Contact: <a href="mailto:ajennings@tbbmedia.com"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">Audra Jennings</span><span style="color:#ff0000;"></span></strong></a> – The B&B Media Group<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;">If you want to receive a reviewer copy:</span></strong><br /><br />Press the contact's name to send an e-mail with the subject line of: <em><span style="color:#cc0000;">FIRST Wild Card Tour: Be Last</span></em>. Give your name, address, and link to the blogsite you will post the tour on.<br /><br />Audra has <strong>100</strong> review copies available. First come, first served!</div>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-17118577646194570942008-04-21T19:44:00.000-04:002008-05-05T23:33:10.745-04:00Non~Fiction Wild Card: Bringing Home the Prodigals by Rob Parsons<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg53v6pY-IsR-FROjzmGZ_NSeadhkugofOFxWdAjlv29pyDSTinQUbD8VDQo4pswXlY9zJmKjLiRI3pQoljpdCWBUBBMnaqCZDMrL69V82lhJ26a_gb85cNRA0VSW7jtbnfGTdUmftJMcEv/s1600-h/Bringing+Home+the+Prodigals+by+Rob+Parsons.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5191818020210469538" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg53v6pY-IsR-FROjzmGZ_NSeadhkugofOFxWdAjlv29pyDSTinQUbD8VDQo4pswXlY9zJmKjLiRI3pQoljpdCWBUBBMnaqCZDMrL69V82lhJ26a_gb85cNRA0VSW7jtbnfGTdUmftJMcEv/s320/Bringing+Home+the+Prodigals+by+Rob+Parsons.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="color:#cc0000;">FIRST Wild Card Tour for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0340861150/">Bringing Home the Prodigals</a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0340861150"> </a>by Rob Parsons will be on May 26, 2008 </span><span style="color:#cc0000;"><br /></span><br /><em>Genre: Non~Fiction: Christian living/relationships<br /></em><br /></span>Contact: <a href="mailto:ajennings@tbbmedia.com"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">Audra Jennings – The B&B Media Group</span><span style="color:#ff0000;"></span></strong></a><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;">If you want to receive a reviewer copy:</span></strong><br /><br />Press the contact's name to send an e-mail with the subject line of: <em><span style="color:#cc0000;">FIRST Wild Card Tour: Bringing Home the Prodigals </span></em>. Give your name, address, and link to the blogsite you will post the tour on.<br /><br />Audra has <strong>100</strong> review copies available. <strong>First come, first served</strong>!<br /><br /><br /><br />Contact her <strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">no later than 5PM on April 30, 2008</span> </strong>if you want to be dealt in the game.M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-38180227174747420212008-04-16T12:03:00.001-04:002008-04-16T12:04:00.465-04:00Hacked<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-WZWNXg0N4uyVNJhyjwd1qM1ITbDaaQLYs1l6G5vsl8z0x-HNkD5eKMNmCsfCVWqmSJhhmTtmLuUMCfMoCy310o2FrgkxlBL8JI0m3I1LGZmM1JMt8FFOVL6h4vkK0u6tOuUNnQBq0Asa/s1600-h/devil+on+computer.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5189874311886507922" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-WZWNXg0N4uyVNJhyjwd1qM1ITbDaaQLYs1l6G5vsl8z0x-HNkD5eKMNmCsfCVWqmSJhhmTtmLuUMCfMoCy310o2FrgkxlBL8JI0m3I1LGZmM1JMt8FFOVL6h4vkK0u6tOuUNnQBq0Asa/s400/devil+on+computer.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Just to let everyone know...since Sunday, someone hacked my blogs at least twice. Does anyone know how to report this??? I've tried to report this to blogger, and have not received help yet. Does anyone know a sure way to get in contact with someone high up at blogger?</div>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-35690523365427064592008-04-15T17:02:00.000-04:002008-05-12T23:21:46.915-04:00A Handbook for Discovering God's Will by Gordon S. Jackson<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLn7sBsK3Za2Qzxm9GfDJ8LQF0ZY1jwQDh7eUNM4xxUTVDNYYHwRhSuv8KrW98LqIy6GMO0XN9F64Gdknyq3iKKDam5WLHDarW-mJASqfdeNSIdkUAYwI0i5Umt4XqZA4Ve7MpUJB0/s1600-h/God's+Will+1.JPG"></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s1600-h/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg"></a><a href="http://nonfictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179647009365145890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s200/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It's April 15th, but this has nothing to do with taxes! It is 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!<br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong>The feature author is: </strong></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.whitworth.edu/academic/faculty/index.aspx?username=gjackson">Gordon S. Jackson</a></span></strong> <p></p><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:160;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#009900;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#009900;">and his book:</span> </span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"></strong></div></span><p></p><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:7;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></strong></div></span><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1600062393/">A Handbook for Discovering God's Will </a></span></strong></div><p align="center">NavPress Publishing Group (March 26, 2008)</p><p align="center"></p><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><br /><br /><p></p><span style="color:#ff6600;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</span> </span></strong></div><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvBZ5MdCkOZJcfibTsPb9t3jjtC-RxhJJNL9bWUh3VV03ulsYbw8pqy0wx46V3OLWWqWP0ZgP3l0l2P93DVCz5q99oVg_bMbJ7HrNLRLF1-ldRLnHdIH5nmFvBIfaCrjmZENMHJybd/s1600-h/gjackson.jpeg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188478653673738018" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvBZ5MdCkOZJcfibTsPb9t3jjtC-RxhJJNL9bWUh3VV03ulsYbw8pqy0wx46V3OLWWqWP0ZgP3l0l2P93DVCz5q99oVg_bMbJ7HrNLRLF1-ldRLnHdIH5nmFvBIfaCrjmZENMHJybd/s320/gjackson.jpeg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.whitworth.edu/academic/faculty/index.aspx?username=gjackson">GORDON JACKSON </a>is a professor of communication studies at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. He has worked at Whitworth as a journalism professor and college administrator since 1983. Originally from South Africa, where he worked as a journalist, he is a frequent speaker for churches and other groups. Dr. Jackson has spoken to scores of church, Sunday school, educational, and civic groups on a wide range of topics. In the past few years, he has also served as a consultant for church groups and Christian educational institutions in Uganda, Lebanon and Egypt.<br /><br /><br /><br />He is also the author of:<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576835413/">Destination Unknown</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576833429/">Never Scratch a Tiger with a Short Stick and Other Quotes for Leaders</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="left"><br /><br /><span style="color:#ffcc00;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:</span> </strong><br /><br /></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5uoiRL9K-TDhrvdzglXPAicv9wnybyauezjw1EOt3ZiY0mSpjDSiKDgZnbXQiwcSvtt64gSiuqvZ784EtZusJEMw5YBv-6JX9WSRpms1udF9wZ_G0GkMqesz5QNrKIQQs7swE0gTG/s1600-h/God's+Will"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188474938527026962" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5uoiRL9K-TDhrvdzglXPAicv9wnybyauezjw1EOt3ZiY0mSpjDSiKDgZnbXQiwcSvtt64gSiuqvZ784EtZusJEMw5YBv-6JX9WSRpms1udF9wZ_G0GkMqesz5QNrKIQQs7swE0gTG/s320/God's+Will" border="0" /></a><strong>Introduction<br /><br /><br /><br />Choosing Well: Living Out God’s Will</strong><br /><br /><br /><br />Most of the time in our attempt to follow Christ, we already know perfectly well what God’s will is and what He expects of us. It is to continue the work He’s already given us, precisely where we are, according to the guidelines for godly living we know from Scripture.<br /><br /><br /><br />But there come moments when we face major decisions, crossroads in our journey where the signposts aren’t as legible or well-lit as we would like. We face hard choices. Should I attend this college or that one? Should I switch jobs? Am I truly being called to full-time ministry, or am I just bored with my current vocation? Is this the person God would have me marry? Should I move to a new city or stay put?<br /><br /><br /><br />Some decisions we’ve anticipated for a long while, for example what to do upon graduating from college. Others are thrust upon us suddenly, perhaps an opportunity that comes out of the blue. Yet others can brew or stew slowly over time, such as a growing sense of disillusionment and frustration with our current job.<br /><br /><br /><br />Situations like these ultimately demand some kind of decision. Assuming we seek to honor God in all areas of our lives—education, family life, career, ministry—we want to make a godly choice. But how? Clearly, guidance is a difficult area for Christians.<br /><br /><br /><br />Scores of books on the topic have appeared over the past several decades demonstrating the ongoing quest for counsel on this issue. This book is intended to assist you in thinking through questions about guidance more incisively and, if you heed the shared wisdom handed down from two thousand years of our faith, to help you make wiser, more thoughtful, and more godly choices. The generalizations presented here are distilled from the wisdom of numerous thoughtful writers on this topic. In essence, the thoughts in this book are not new. The hope, however, is that their presentation and format will make these ideas more accessible and easier to understand and apply in your life. (A note on citations: For the most part, I’ve tried to avoid cluttering your reading by limiting the endnotes to some lesser-known authors for whom you may want to know the source.)<br /><br /><br /><br />It’s plain that those who follow Christ could use ongoing help in this area. “In our quest for God’s guidance,” said J. I. Packer, British theologian and scholar, “we become our own worst enemies, and our mistakes attest to our nuttiness in this area.” This book is an attempt to head off some of those self-defeating tendencies and minimize the nuttiness. In doing so, this book differs from other writings on guidance in two ways. The first is its emphasis. This volume assumes what other authors carefully and painstakingly identify: the ample scriptural evidence that God guides those who genuinely seek His will and that He desires only the best for His children. So the assumption here is that you don’t need to be persuaded that God is both able and eager to guide us.<br /><br /><br /><br />The second difference lies in this book’s approach. Most other books on this subject offer systematic, chapter-length expositions on the nature of guidance and its relationship to vital living as a Christian. By contrast, the approach here is far more hands-on, identifying practical problem areas, possible stumbling blocks, areas of confusion, and any other aspects of guidance that can lead to confusion and mistakes. What follows is a series of thoughts on topics about guidance. Each topic, summarized as a principle or key concept, serves as a stepping-stone through what often can be a mental and spiritual swamp for Christians seeking God’s will and direction.<br /><br /><br /><br />All the topics are built around a foundational section called The Big Five—and Beyond. This is the assumption repeated by many writers that guidance is normally the product of five elements:<br /><br /><br /><br />1. Scriptural guidelines<br /><br />2. Prayer<br /><br />3. The advice of other Christians<br /><br />4. The circumstances we face<br /><br />5. A sense of inner peace about our decision<br /><br /><br /><br />It is typically the combination of these five ingredients that helps lead us toward sound, godly decisions.<br /><br /><br /><br />Something else that holds together the sixty-two principles in this book is the understanding that guidance is a process that involves carefully thinking through and incorporating The Big Five, as well as other issues pertinent to your situation. Following this introduction is A Guidance Road Map—a set of common questions about guidance, along with the topics that are likely to help you most with each question. Please read The Big Five—and Beyond before dipping into other topics. Without the context it provides, the other sections will be less helpful.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGeZIID9wS-278NTWlrmM2dQh0wrmtHnWGpgithzpt7uzJRLNN1hLLhhuNd5ACs0eMH8x-k2tRpJMz7m1vsBh1uGJ8f8bETBOWeGzBOdOW2k_37QCIP9vRydiJcOSACXETOuRNyqqr/s1600-h/God's+Will+1.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188490984524844898" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGeZIID9wS-278NTWlrmM2dQh0wrmtHnWGpgithzpt7uzJRLNN1hLLhhuNd5ACs0eMH8x-k2tRpJMz7m1vsBh1uGJ8f8bETBOWeGzBOdOW2k_37QCIP9vRydiJcOSACXETOuRNyqqr/s320/God's+Will+1.JPG" border="0" /></a>The sixty-two topics, and the principles on which they are based, are presented as generalizations. As such, they need to be seen as part of the broader whole. What’s more, these principles don’t have to be read in order. After reading The Big Five, feel free to browse through the book and pick and choose among the issues that most interest you. Or you can scan the alphabetical list of topics at the back of the book and find subjects of particular concern to you.<br /><br /><br /><br />As you read the pages ahead, please be aware of the following assumptions that are woven through the array of principles:<br /><br /><br /><br /> You take seriously your commitment to follow Christ and seek to live a God-pleasing life. In other words, you earnestly seek God’s will for your life, not His seal of approval for what you plan to do anyway.<br /><br /><br /><br /> You take seriously the authority of Scripture and are willing to apply its guidelines to all areas of your life.<br /><br /><br /><br /> You already are convinced that God is able and willing to guide you in all aspects of your walk with Him, and you accept that He will do so on His terms and with His timing.<br /><br /><br /><br /> You take seriously your God-given ability to think through whatever guidance issues you face.<br /><br /><br /><br />It’s important to note a truly astonishing fact: We claim as part of our faith not only that the Lord of the universe sent His Son to die for us and redeem us from our sins but also that His interest and love for us continue day by day. Like the most loving of parents, God Himself seeks to guide and direct every facet of our lives.<br /><br /><br /><br />Two reality checks also need mentioning. The first is that living our lives in a God-directed manner is never easy. Living as we do with a sinful nature, it is extremely difficult to do what we know we should and to avoid what we know we shouldn’t do. Paul said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15). If living the day-by-day dimension of following Christ is difficult, it’s no easier when we face those extraordinary moments when tough choices must be made. Søren Kierkegaard, nineteenth-century Danish philosopher and theologian, said, “It is perfectly true, as philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But . . . it must be lived forwards.”<br /><br /><br /><br />As we grapple with trying to understand God’s guidance in our lives, we often recognize His leading only as we look back. But we must make difficult choices while living life in forward mode. No book on guidance can completely answer anyone’s questions; we each need to answer those ourselves. The ideas outlined in this book are only tools, and they are worthless apart from your commitment to seeking God’s will and your willingness to struggle through issues.<br /><br /><br /><br />The second reality worth noting concerns our limitations in understanding how God moves in our lives. It is the height of presumption to think that any book can prescribe how God may choose to reveal Himself to us. The only absolute we can be sure of in this regard is that God will not guide us in a way that is contrary to His nature.<br /><br /><br /><br />A final thought on how God directs our lives: While those who follow Christ agree that God is keenly interested in our lives, they differ on the degree to which He has a “perfect plan” mapped out for each of us. Some contend that God has a carefully worked-out blueprint for our lives: His guidance helps us discover that perfect will, and His Holy Spirit helps us live it out. Other Christians see this approach as artificially narrow. God, they believe, is not boxed into some lockstep, foreordained approach to how our lives unfold. God’s grace, power, and imagination surely transcend whatever mistakes we make or sins we commit, which would presumably otherwise relegate us to a “second best” plan. Rather, God is always able to offer constant, uninhibited love and direction, regardless of how far we might have fallen from His standards in the past.<br /><br /><br /><br />If the issue of a “perfect plan” is important to you, understand that the bias of this book is clearly toward the latter position. God’s boundless grace in dealing with us makes Him love us no less when we choose something other than His best at any given moment. Yes, God’s discipline may follow our poor choices. But for the Christian who is wholeheartedly seeking God’s will, He presents us with far more of a buffet table of legitimate options than some stiflingly healthy yet tasteless diet. A. W. Tozer, a well-known teacher and writer, said, “The man or woman who is wholly or joyously surrendered to Christ can’t make a wrong choice—any choice will be the right one.”<br /><br /><br /><br />That remark captures the spirit with which this book is written: that ours is a God of freedom whose guidance we can seek with confidence and enthusiasm. He’s a God of infinite love who enthusiastically champions our case and seeks our best. He is the architect wanting to help us build holy lives, lived to the full (see John 10:10). Yet we sometimes regard Him as the county planning officer who’s looking for every weakness in our plans, smugly catching yet another way we’ve fallen short of the building code. God is not a stickler; rather, He’s the architect who brings our possibilities to reality for our benefit and for His pleasure.<br /><br /><br /><br />This book is an attempt to assist you as you invite God, the ultimate architect, to help you build your life in keeping with His overall design to make us holy persons. From the foundations to the finishing touches, He is eager to help at each step. The pages that follow are intended to help you build your own house of faith that shall last through eternity.<br /><br /><br /><br />1<br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>The Big Five—and Beyond</strong><br /><br /><br /><br /><em>Every quest for guidance should be shaped by scriptural guidelines, prayer, the advice of other Christians, the circumstances we face, and an overall sense that this course is what God wants.</em><br /><br /><br /><br />It’s the big picture that counts. A recurring theme found in books on guidance is that you need to look at the big picture as a whole when making major decisions concerning God’s will. Far from basing our decision entirely on a chance remark made in last Sunday’s sermon or on an obscure verse in 2 Kings, God expects us to use all the vehicles He’s made available for our decision making. That’s why it’s important to consider each of The Big Five factors and see how they mesh together as we consider our decision. Again, these five factors are:<br /><br /><br /><br />1. Scriptural guidelines<br /><br />2. Prayer<br /><br />3. The advice of other Christians<br /><br />4. The circumstances we face<br /><br />5. A sense of inner peace about our decision<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFL2A1r_Bcqwo7-bSUTmq_P2s4flXQfjylWeyRC0CVx_B2mZByG46snYWBoKMT69dv5RbvKbKq4e_LeWAiuqMGf9-h4nZo_O9VVL0JvdXvfUZWWeQvwzyzKUSW5__CXe7DTmwBMaud/s1600-h/God's+Will+2.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188491109078896498" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFL2A1r_Bcqwo7-bSUTmq_P2s4flXQfjylWeyRC0CVx_B2mZByG46snYWBoKMT69dv5RbvKbKq4e_LeWAiuqMGf9-h4nZo_O9VVL0JvdXvfUZWWeQvwzyzKUSW5__CXe7DTmwBMaud/s320/God's+Will+2.JPG" border="0" /></a>Until you’ve got a thumbs-up on each of the five, you’re probably not ready to make a decision. If, for example, you’re seriously considering a career change, but your spouse or closest friends are advising you against it, you need to check your thinking. Or if you’ve been invited to go on a short-term mission trip and the first four points check out just fine, yet you’ve still got a nagging feeling that something isn’t right, once again it may be best to hold off on your decision and give it further thought.<br /><br /><br /><br />If you were leaving later today for a trip abroad, you’d make sure you’d taken care of your passport, airline ticket, health insurance, luggage, and spending money. If you were heading for the airport and realized you’d left your passport at home, it’s unlikely you would keep going and say, “Well, four out of five isn’t bad.”<br /><br /><br /><br />Similarly, you’re probably asking for trouble by heading into a decision without a check mark against each of The Big Five. Is it possible that the advice from your spouse or friends is wrong, or that you’re confusing a lack of inner peace about a decision with plain old nervousness? Of course. The point here isn’t that missing one of these five checkpoints means you shouldn’t go ahead; it simply means there’s a warning light on the dashboard and you’re well advised to take a second look at what’s happening. Or, to switch metaphors, if these five principles don’t line up neatly like lights on a runway, you need to question seriously whether you’re ready to come in for a landing.<br /><br /><br /><br />Sometimes those landing lights don’t line up neatly, or one warning light keeps flickering on the dash—and yet a major decision still looms. Remember, guidance is seldom a simple, clear-cut process. The words of C. S. Lewis provide a helpful reminder of the many ways God can speak to us: “I don’t doubt that the Holy Spirit guides your decisions from within when you make them with the intention of pleasing God. The error would be to think that he speaks only within, whereas in reality he speaks also through Scripture, the church, Christian friends, books, etc.”<br /><br /><br /><br />Because working toward the decisions God would have us make can be complex and can lead to ambiguous answers, it’s necessary to dig deeper into our understanding of The Big Five. The separate entries of The Big Five are not of equal importance. The simple flowchart that follows shows that scriptural principles are the starting point. But they’re only the starting point. Each of these five principles merits careful attention. The next step is to examine any of the five elements that merits special attention in your situation. (These topics are addressed in the pages that follow.) Alternatively, you may want to turn directly to other individual topics that speak to your needs. The Guidance Road Map on page 17 will help you do that. </div><br /><br />M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-87250764842635944162008-04-14T17:00:00.001-04:002008-04-14T17:00:46.370-04:00All FIRST tours are FreeFear not. All the FIRST alliances remain free blog tours for all. This is a ministry, not a business. FIRST is no longer affiliated with the CFBA. I have removed myself from CFBA membership. I do not request anyone to do the same...that is totally up to you.<br /><br />FIRST's new motto:<br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#990000;"><strong>Free blog tours: it's a ministry, not a business.</strong></span></em>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-32586154400132923882008-03-21T17:27:00.000-04:002008-03-20T15:36:38.389-04:00Between Two Worlds: The Spiritual Journey of an Evangelical Catholic by Mike Timmis<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s1600-h/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg"></a><a href="http://nonfictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179647009365145890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFw2Q620rtsRLeOeDbTc2q5Sybjq4n4EOcpBi5OuksiM2aNnGZxMvIlHqd91fDr0_2Kkn6IboMHtRtJprm09H83LXXGn5oB4-4ABntHeVpHKdk6ItxkIHmb1xEPR1kEkJdFt65QME/s200/NonFIRST+Button.jpeg" border="0" /></a><br />Introducing the new blog alliance devoted to Non~Fiction books, Non~FIRST, a component of <a href="http://fictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/">Fiction in Rather Short Takes </a>(FIRST). (Join our alliance! Click the button!) This is our very first blog tour. Normally, we will post every 15th day of every month, featuring an author and his/her latest book's FIRST chapter!<br /><br /><div align="center"><strong>The special feature author is: </strong></div><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1600062482/">Mike Timmis</a></span></strong> <p></p><br /><strong><span style="font-size:160;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#009900;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#009900;">and his book:</span> </span></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"></strong></div></span><p></p><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:7;color:#cc0000;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></strong></div></span><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1600062482/">Between Two Worlds: The Spiritual Journey of an Evangelical Catholic</a></span></strong> </div><p align="center">NavPress (February 2008) </p><p align="center"></p><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></span></strong></div><div align="left"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#333399;"><br /><p></p><span style="color:#ff6600;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</span> </span></strong></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJDo0fu5w8AGyw8_0cWU1UpmPOewSMtRPideKrLd9FWZFhN7zRjsx7eTFGWzf1KjQnLB3uSln8gEObCVs0TbsdWhC9H4wKjXnGdl_fXnFXS6Unl51wh1TXFoxa1Smmro9ADCAVgWn2/s1600-h/Mike+Timmis.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179650681562183986" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJDo0fu5w8AGyw8_0cWU1UpmPOewSMtRPideKrLd9FWZFhN7zRjsx7eTFGWzf1KjQnLB3uSln8gEObCVs0TbsdWhC9H4wKjXnGdl_fXnFXS6Unl51wh1TXFoxa1Smmro9ADCAVgWn2/s400/Mike+Timmis.jpg" border="0" /></a><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#006600;">Mike Timmis had it all.</span></strong><br /><br />How does a kid from working-class Detroit become an international ambassador for Christ? And what motivated an evangelical-based ministry to choose this Catholic as its chairman? Mike Timmis’s inspiring life as a Catholic and evangelical leader reveals how our unity in Christ transcends the two worlds’ differences. From him, we learn how Catholics and evangelicals can go into an alienated world together as ministers of reconciliation and witnesses to God’s salvation and love.<strong> </strong><br /><br />Mike Timmis is a chairman of both Prison Fellowship in America and Prison Fellowship International. He was also a practicing lawyer and businessman. A Roman Catholic, Mike is deeply involved in ministry in his hometown of Detroit as well as projects in Africa and Central and South America. He and his wife, Nancey, are parents of two and grandparents of four.<br /><br /><div align="center"><br /><span style="color:#ffcc00;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:</span> </strong><br /></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpYroRc3FL5zDxddLfTR65hiZcKPevZBXJ-yRU100aLmhg0l64ia6cdWzPAl4i3S4D2-HMfnN9XrKdXg9iebDsJ2sr8YgDTw_XH1WRLMsV6WUPBCrN_EjQ_YmxLBLT65H9X94GC_-vnKnA/s1600-h/only+uni"></a><strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2EEaAm_0-NLUDyvStsOzKMT_znP4TYw8GvtfhRD5qD1O2Kk4uYbv2AnNUEMrON-ZmroWTDp3PaPJvcU7ZaYRpJL4YAuXeO2sTxGd0tkwBAktex5Xh8Z0_eVPz_99zr_2n6-l3IRWh/s1600-h/Between+Two+Worlds"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179652854815635778" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2EEaAm_0-NLUDyvStsOzKMT_znP4TYw8GvtfhRD5qD1O2Kk4uYbv2AnNUEMrON-ZmroWTDp3PaPJvcU7ZaYRpJL4YAuXeO2sTxGd0tkwBAktex5Xh8Z0_eVPz_99zr_2n6-l3IRWh/s400/Between+Two+Worlds" border="0" /></a>Chapter One</strong><br /><br />Taking Life into My Own Hands </div><div align="left"><br /><br />On January 18, 1991, I was flying in a small two-engine plane in east-central Africa from Burundi to Kenya. Our party had just come from a wonderful meeting with Burundi’s President Pierre Buyoya where we’d shared the gospel with him and a number of cabinet ministers. Still, we were somewhat anxious because the Persian Gulf War had started the previous day. Right then, American fighters were in the air against Iraqi positions.<br /><br />My wife, Nancy, and my son, Michael Jr., were with me, as well as Gene Dewey, the former second-in-command at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Sam Owen, a fellow believer then living in Nairobi. This trip was part of the quiet diplomacy I had undertaken as a member of a group called The Fellowship. We worked on behalf of the poor by raising up Jesus with world leaders, one means of pursuing the ministry of reconciliation that Christ entrusted to His followers.<br /><br />As we flew over northern Tanzania, the pilot was suddenly issued an order that we were to land immediately. I was sitting close enough to the cockpit to hear the squawking instructions coming over the radio. I quickly assured the pilot that we had the requisite permission to fly over Tanzanian air space. The State Department had issued an order to American citizens to stay clear of Tanzania, an Iraq ally, so I made sure—or thought I had—that we had permission to fly over Tanzania en route to Kenya. The pilot relayed my protest to the Tanzanians.<br /><br />“No, you do not have permission!” came the reply. “You must land immediately, or we will force you down.”<br /><br />We landed at the small city airport of Mwanza. As we stepped down onto the tarmac, a military jeep pulled up. A cadre of officials and police officers met us and immediately arrested the pilot and impounded the plane.<br /><br />Their leader also demanded our passports. I was reluctant to give these up, because no matter what alternative flight arrangements we might be able to make, we would be stranded without passports. Because I had requested—and been granted—permission to fly over Tanzania, our detention was making me angry. (Later I found out that the flight service we were using had previously flouted Tanzanian regulations and had again on this occasion.) Because my family was with me, I restrained my temper. My jaw clenched, I reluctantly handed over my passport.<br /><br />We were allowed to find our own accommodations in Mwanza, and we found a car that took us to the New Hotel Mwanza. I would hate to have seen the old Hotel Mwanza. We were the hotel’s only guests, and for good reason. The first thing I did was check under the bed for bugs and rats.<br /><br />As we caught our breath in our hotel room, I asked Nancy if she was afraid. “No, I’m not afraid,” she said. “You are with me, our son is with us, and God is with us.”<br /><br />Even though we were stranded in an African backwater, I felt the same. I knew I was where God wanted us to be and felt—as I always have in my travels to what are now 114 nations—that God was going before me. In my many years of traveling on various missions, I’ve always felt protected by the special anointing that comes with God’s commission. Lost geographically, I was still at home spiritually, and for that reason at peace.<br /><br />Our party of five met for dinner in the hotel’s restaurant. My family is Catholic, and Gene Dewey and Sam Owen were evangelicals, but the unity we knew in the Lord sustained us, even when the dinner turned out to be rancid.<br /><br />After a little while, the hotel manager, having no other guests, joined us at our table. This made way for the night’s entertainment. Four strapping young men in red overalls—the kind gas station attendants used to wear—came out, and with lamplight smiles launched into song:<br /><br />My baaaaah-dy lies over the ocean,<br /><br />My baaaaah-dy lies over the sea. . . .<br /><br />Yes, they said “body” not “bonnie,” and since we all felt an ocean away from home, the song struck us as hilarious. Then the quartet followed with “Home on the Range,” and we nearly wept from laughing. We clapped and cheered, showing our appreciation to the young men. They had done us more good than they could possibly have known.<br /><br />I spent the next day searching for transportation out of Mwanza. The others paid special attention to BBC radio reports on the progress of the war.<br /><br />Within thirty-six hours, a plane flew in for us from Nairobi. We went out to the airport to meet it, eager to hightail it out of there. But when we arrived at the airport, no one seemed inclined to return our passports. Thankfully, Gene Dewey was already anticipating this. Because of his time with the United Nations, Gene had the most experience in dealing with government officials. He had also been a colonel in Vietnam and had a knack for being cool and fiercely determined at the same time. I kept asking him when he thought we’d get our passports back—and how. “Mike, don’t worry about it,” he’d say.<br /><br />As we were walking out to the plane, bags in hand, with a couple of Tanzanian officials to the rear in escort, I looked over at Gene and said as forcefully as I could under my breath, “Gene, our passports!”<br /><br />“Not now, Mike,” he replied quietly but just as forcefully. “Just don’t worry about it. Keep walking.”<br /><br />It wasn’t until we were in the air that Gene unbuttoned his shirt and fished out all our passports.<br /><br />“How did you get those?” I asked.<br /><br />“I came out to the airport last night,” he said. “I broke into the office and took them. If you had kept talking, they might have found out!”<br /><br />Gene’s street smarts reminded me of how I’d grown up and made my way. I asked myself, “How did I get here? How did a kid from the rough and gritty streets of Detroit end up on a trip to see international dignitaries? How could a guy born and raised Catholic go on a mission representing a largely evangelical organization?”<br /><br />I’ve had many amazing, frightening, and heart-rending experiences as I’ve traveled the world in service to the King of kings. And one thing I can say for certain: when you entrust yourself completely to God and make yourself available to Him, you’re in for an adventure.<br /><br />***<br /><br />“Mike, the only way you can be ensured of success,” my father once told me, “is if you take it into your own hands and go into the professions.” I was an Irish Catholic kid from the battling West Side of Detroit, the youngest of five children, keen on finding my own place in the world.<br /><br />My father remains the strongest man I think I’ve ever known, with enormous hands, a powerful physique, and an energy that stayed with him into his nineties. I saw him lift a car out of a ditch when he was in his sixties, although he did injure his back. As young men, he and his brother Brian went out to western Canada, where they took jobs as real-live cowboys, breaking horses. Brian stayed, became a Mounty in Regina, Saskatchewan, and played professional football there. My dad returned to Ottawa and played wingback for the Ottawa Roughriders.1 There he met an Irish girl who was both passionate and practical, and he had the good sense to ask for her hand.<br /><br />My parents emigrated from Canada to Detroit in 1930, at the beginning of the Great Depression. My mother’s uncle had moved there earlier from Ottawa and convinced my parents that the Motor City was one of the last places in North America where a man could find regular employment. Our relatives soon moved back to Ottawa, but my father and mother stayed, and Dad hired on with the city as a bus driver. He eventually worked his way up through the civil service system and retired as a bus station manager.<br /><br />Most of his working life turned out to be far different from the spirited and reckless days as a cowboy and pro football player. I was the last of five children, separated in age by twelve years from my eldest sibling, Margaret Claire. My parents were well into their forties when I was born in 1939, and so I never knew my father as a young man. Or a particularly happy man—not at least until much later in his life when, in retirement, he was able to live on a farm and keep horses.<br /><br />While I was growing up, I remember my dad collapsing into his chair at the end of his long days. He’d take up one of Luke Short’s westerns—he probably read ten times every novel the man had ever written. I can’t say for certain whether he ever graduated from high school. I know he served in the Canadian forces in World War I, beginning in 1914 at seventeen. And since he was born in 1897, so he might have left for the war before graduating.<br /><br />We were a serious family, always working or studying or going to St. Brigid’s, our local Catholic parish. Our faith was a great comfort to both my father and mother, but it was also a cause of concern as to the children’s futures. My father felt that Irish Catholics were discriminated against, so he insisted that my brothers and I become doctors.<br /><br />At the time, all of Detroit was divided into ethnic neighborhoods of Poles, Eastern European Jews, Irish, Germans, Italians, and so on. We lived in an Irish Catholic enclave. The houses stood one against the other on forty-foot lots, with bay windows to one side of half porches. The weave of that community was very close-knit. As a ten year-old, I once cursed on a playground a block from home and received a slap for it when I came in ten minutes later for supper. A neighbor had heard what I said and promptly telephoned my mother.<br /><br />But such strictures helped keep the city a safe and open place where I was free to roam. Not only did we not lock our front door, but I don’t remember there being a key. From the age of eight or nine, I could walk down to the local candy store and then hop busses down to Woodward Avenue, where Hudson’s, the giant department store, mounted huge Christmas window displays.<br /><br />At the same time, the neighborhood had its own pugnacious code: You stood up to a fight or you simply couldn’t live there. Taking a beating was far better than being constantly harassed, so I did a lot of fighting as a kid. I can remember coming home from school one winter day. My sister had taken the bus home from college, and one of the neighborhood bullies, whom I’ll call Larry, had thrown an “ice ball” that hit her in the face.<br /><br />My dad said to me, “Take care of him.”<br /><br />Larry’s reputation as a bully was well earned, and I said, “Dad, this guy is going to kill me!”<br /><br />“I don’t care,” Dad replied sternly. “You go out and you take care of him—now!”<br /><br />Anger with my father for ordering this confrontation drove me out into the streets. When I caught sight of Larry, I ran after him, yelling at him vehemently. He hardly knew what hit him! I was so angry with Dad that I beat the living daylights out of the kid. I had him down on his back by the curb, where water was running from the snowmelt, and I whaled on him.<br /><br />My father may have been so concerned about prejudice against Catholics because he’d had to overcome that obstacle when he started courting my mother. My dad’s family was high-church Anglican. He converted when he married my mother, which wasn’t much of a stretch, since high-church Anglicans worship in a liturgical style as close to Catholicism as Protestantism gets. Still, crossing to Rome was always an issue, especially at a time when Help Wanted signs included the postscript “No Irish Need Apply.”<br /><br />My mother’s family, the O’Reillys, originally from County Clare, were Irish Catholics to the core. My mother was a petite woman, not more than five feet tall. In appearance, she was what they call dark Irish, with mahogany and cherry wood strands in her hair and a flame in her light-blue eyes. The O’Reillys, who owned brickyards, were far more well-to-do than my dad’s family.<br /><br />The pictures of my mother that I keep close by are candid shots; they show her as a young woman with the new bob of short hair that came in with the 1920s, striking a jaunty attitude. I can imagine this young Irish lass losing her head over my powerful, handsome father.<br /><br />She was told never to have children because of a weak heart, and then she went and had five. Better educated than my dad, she had been to what was called a “normal school,” or teacher’s college. I would guess that many of our family’s intellectual and creative gifts came through my mother. My brother Gerry, who the family called Sonny, would go on to be a famous cardiologist; Hilary, an outstanding surgeon; and both my sisters, Margaret Claire and Agnes Cecile, went to college and had marriages and careers that took them well up the economic ladder.<br /><br />Once married, my mother never worked outside the home but gave herself completely and utterly to her husband and children. That didn’t keep her from having a sharp tongue, or so my sisters claim; I never was cut deeply enough to remember her that way. It was not so much that I was the “baby” of the family, but that my mother’s health was in serious decline by the time I reached early adolescence. She was too exhausted to protest against much of anything by then.<br /><br />Both my father and my mother led our family in practicing our Catholic faith. In fact, when I think of my religious formation, I remember the faith as a distinctly family affair. Our devotions as a family made a great impression on me. We devoted the month of May to praying with Mary—not to Mary—to her son, Jesus.<br /><br />Every Sunday night, my whole family knelt down at seven o’clock and prayed for the conversion of Russia. My brothers Sonny and Hilary began to protest against the practice when they became busy medical students, but even then my parents insisted that the time be set aside.<br /><br />On Tuesday evenings, we went to St. Brigid’s for devotions, praying the rosary, making novenas, or listening as a “mission” was preached—what evangelical Protestants know as a revival service. These devotions largely disappeared from the Catholic Church after Vatican II in the early sixties and only now are being reinstated. The piety they encouraged came to be regarded as old-fashioned. Through these devotions, the Catholics of my parents’ generation—and generations before them—experienced the Catholic faith as intensely personal. The devotions also encouraged them to recognize their faith as God’s work in their lives. I experienced enough of this to clearly understand that my salvation was dependent on the completed work of Christ—not on my own righteousness. There was never a time when I was under the misimpression that my “works” would get me into heaven.<br /><br />I attended the local parish school, St. Brigid’s, where I was prepared for First Communion and Confirmation by the sisters who taught us. My first confession at the age of six saw me truly penitent, if confused. There were no secrets in our Irish Catholic family, and everyone wanted to know to what I had confessed. I told my brothers and sisters that I had admitted to adultery about a hundred times.<br /><br />“You did?” they asked. “What did you mean?”<br /><br />“That I picked my nose!”<br /><br />I’m sure the priest about fell off the chair as he smothered his laughter.<br /><br />Still, my First Communion was a memorable experience at which I received a child’s prayer book—one that I only recently parted with when I gave it to my granddaughter on the occasion of her First Communion. It meant that much to me. Even as a young child, I took the privilege of being invited into communion with God very seriously. I think most children do, because they understand intuitively what it means to be God’s child.<br /><br />At St. Brigid’s, we were schooled in the Baltimore Catechism, so when I was confirmed in the Catholic faith in fifth grade, I knew all the right answers to the classic questions. Who made us? Who is God? Why did God make us? In retrospect, I wish I had understood and experienced these rites of passage more in terms of an evolving relationship with Christ rather than as childhood milestones. Confirmation comes later now, when a child is about twelve or thirteen, which I think is good; older children are better equipped to understand Confirmation as a personal commitment. At the same time, I’ve always been glad that the rudiments of the faith were drilled into me. This provided me with certainty and hope at many difficult times in my life, especially in the crises that crouched around the next corner.<br /><br />***<br /><br />My peaceful, happy childhood was disturbed by illness when I was about twelve years old. I returned home from a Boy Scout retreat with pneumonia and what the doctors suspected was rheumatic fever. I was sicker than I probably knew for a number of months and missed virtually all of eighth grade. After I regained my strength the first time, I had a relapse, and our doctor became worried about the condition of my heart. He ordered that I not participate in any sports. When I entered U of D High (University of Detroit High School, now called University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy), I was allowed to climb the stairs to the freshman and sophomore classrooms only once a day.<br /><br />This was especially frustrating because I’d always had amazing stamina; I really didn’t pay much attention to the doctors’ orders except when under the direct supervision of my parents or the school. Still, the inactivity led to weight gain, and I became a pudgy kid, which I hated. What’s more, the physical isolation my illness brought with it became an emotional isolation. Like my father, I took refuge in books, becoming a voracious reader. I liked history and novels especially, and, as I often had trouble sleeping, I would grab a book and read long into the night.<br /><br />My mother worried over me because of my health, of course, and that added to my brothers’ and sisters’ complaints that I was being spoiled. One time, Hilary was especially upset with me. We were arguing, and my mother admonished him to lay off me.<br /><br />“He’s turning into a spoiled jerk,” Hilary insisted.<br /><br />“Look at me,” she replied. “You’ve had a mother. He’s not going to have a mother. Leave him alone.”<br /><br />Anyone could see by her pallor that her health was in decline. Indeed, her heart condition was growing rapidly worse. I vividly remember the night she died, April 11, 1955. It was Easter night. Sonny, a senior, and Hilary, a junior in medical school, were attending to her. They were talking on the phone to her doctor, their voices rising and becoming more strained as they followed his instructions with little effect. I came into her room while this was going on and heard Sonny yell into the phone, “I’ve already given her a shot of adrenaline and it’s not working!”<br /><br />I looked at her, propped up on two pillows. I asked her, “Mama, what’s wrong?”<br /><br />She was always a very prayerful woman, and she chose to answer in the only way she could. She took out her rosary from between the pillows and with her thumb held up the crucifix to me. That was the last thing she did. I was fifteen years old.<br /><br />My father had always revered and worshiped my mother. He mourned her loss terribly. It so happened, as well, that her death came as the nest was about to empty. Long before my mother’s final illness, Margaret Claire and Sonny each had been planning their weddings. Both were married and gone within two months of my mother’s death. Hilary left for the University of Pennsylvania to begin his residency in surgery. The following year, Agnes Cecile, married as well.<br /><br />My father never had many friends. He didn’t go out with the boys, and he drank hardly at all. For many years, he had lived a life of heroic, if quiet, sacrifice as he devoted himself to his wife and children. Our at-home family of seven had quickly dwindled to two.<br /><br />Within a year after my mother’s death, my father and I fell into a grim Sunday regimen. We would go to Mass at ten o’clock, then drive to the cemetery, where my father would weep so uncontrollably that I would have to drive us home.<br /><br />I was very lonely, but also very religious. We had Mass every day at U of D High, and that was important to me. I thought long and hard about becoming a priest.<br /><br />Every day, when school let out at 2:35, I would stop by the chapel once more. I’d sit there and talk to my mother and pray, then hitchhike or take the bus home to an empty house, which was difficult.<br /><br />I was fortunate to have my sisters and brothers and good friends to lean on. They made up much of what was lacking at home. Margaret Claire became like a second mom; as the eldest she had always nurtured me. When she married two months after my mother died, she and her husband, Russ Hastings, rented a small apartment only two or three miles from where we lived. She was extremely good to me, providing a desperately needed last dose of mothering.<br /><br />I would often ride over to their apartment on my bike. Margaret Claire taught me manners, particularly how to behave around young women—a subject of increasing interest. She also taught me how to dance. She would put “Peg of My Heart” and the other romantic ballads of the mid-fifties on her old phonograph and show me how to glide with my partner around the dance floor. She’d let me cadge a cigarette from her pack now and again, but “only one,” she’d say, keeping to a motherly moderation.<br /><br />Margaret Claire had worked as an executive secretary before marriage and would later raise seven children of her own. Russ was a CPA and became comptroller of Dodge Truck. They were the first among my family members to enter a whole new socioeconomic class.<br /><br />Within eighteen months of my mother’s death, I underwent a transformation that was partly physical, certainly emotional, and had unexpected spiritual extensions. I began to realize that my brothers and sisters were off making their own lives. I felt that I was completely on my own and that I would rise or fall on my own strength. My father’s admonition that I take my success into my own hands became an implacable necessity. At the deepest level, I decided that I was going to live my life and not be a victim. I wasn’t going to feel sorry for myself. I was going to carve out my own life, whatever it took. I began hardening myself and maturing swiftly.<br /><br />Between my junior and senior years of high school, I determined not to be fat anymore. I fasted, eating sparingly, all summer while working as a house painter in the sticky Detroit heat. My last growth spurt hit at the same time, taking me over the six-foot mark. I lost thirty pounds and grew about four inches. When I came back to school for my senior year, people hardly recognized me. The following summer, when I was working as a scaffold painter with a crew of older men, they took to calling me “Six O’clock,” because I was as thin and straight as clock hands at six o’clock.<br /><br />Losing so much weight renewed my confidence and helped me reconnect with the tremendous stamina and energy I’d known as a child. I felt powerful and ready to meet life’s demands—on my own terms. </div>M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3889316351156935715.post-71670190408045936992008-02-29T23:35:00.001-05:002008-03-02T21:31:40.830-05:00Non~Fiction in Rather Short Takes Button<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYCOkThNe7beCcK9bzLze8chrmKiA_hDyudGZ2Q1-y7Wu9LwKH_YVENNJGyME6AtzH9zjESm6qQwYvYIFy9iWDxmV9w8b4xxWlIDLgvAO5Qy_xZYKim0YRwUBJVxdFuaA1Bx8LiKUZ/s1600-h/NonFIRST+Button.jpg"><a href="http://nonfictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172825024359525506" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATAL5SYs_eo-dSrR_LyGYiv5gu3MkV7b81JfPeYiuisP0hojmC1czXJgrFtbjxQN9-q_wviF34GBrFseijfC_HHbkF14r375sW6kpJkFBrJokrYs70hpSc2ep97gCiJwv4BRs4_Ka/s200/NonFIRST+Button.jpg" border="0" /></a></a><br /><br />Here is the Non~FIRST button html. Just copy this and paste it on your template where you put links. If you have the new template, Open the Layout, press add page element, then go to the “HTML/JavaScript Add third-party functionality or other code to your blog.” And press Add to blog. Copy and paste the following:<br /><br /><textarea name="the Body" rows="14" cols="35"><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYCOkThNe7beCcK9bzLze8chrmKiA_hDyudGZ2Q1-y7Wu9LwKH_YVENNJGyME6AtzH9zjESm6qQwYvYIFy9iWDxmV9w8b4xxWlIDLgvAO5Qy_xZYKim0YRwUBJVxdFuaA1Bx8LiKUZ/s1600-h/NonFIRST+Button.jpg"><a href="http://nonfictioninrathershorttakes.blogspot.com/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATAL5SYs_eo-dSrR_LyGYiv5gu3MkV7b81JfPeYiuisP0hojmC1czXJgrFtbjxQN9-q_wviF34GBrFseijfC_HHbkF14r375sW6kpJkFBrJokrYs70hpSc2ep97gCiJwv4BRs4_Ka/s200/NonFIRST+Button.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5172825024359525506" /></a></a></div></textarea><br /><br /><br />Having problems? <a href="mailto:4pearsonz@gmail.com">Email me</a>. We'll get it right!M. C. Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13777325241098466381noreply@blogger.com