2.22.2007

CS Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis is, on a personal level, the most influential author in my library. I have enjoyed his fiction and philosophy, and even bits of his literary critique. I have greatly enjoyed his work in elucidating the Christian faith. I can point to no single work of his, however, as having any tremendous and immediate impact upon my life. Lewis' influence upon me is best described as that of familiarity; I grew up reading his fiction and continue to read books in the many genre's of his works. I find myself at home in his mind. His peculiar blend of logical mental capacity and poetic mental outlook, his characteristic intellectual humility, and his common sense approach to ideas have greatly influenced my way of thinking and perceiving.

The Abolition of Man

The Four Loves

The Great Divorce

Mere Christianity

Miracles

The Problem of Pain

Reflections on the Psalms

The Screwtape Letters

Suprised by Joy

The Chronicles of Narnia:
The Horse and His Boy
The Last Battle
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Magician's Nephew
Prince Caspian
The Silver Chair
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Space Trilogy:
Out of the Silent Planet
Perelandra
That Hideous Strength

Collections:
The Grand Miracle
The Joyful Christian
The Seeing Eye
The Weight of Glory

2.19.2007

Hearing God



Hearing God



A marvelous book that pointed me away from God's "voice" and to God Himself. (I don't know that Willard would have described his intended effects in this way.) I put the book down encouraged to get to know God, less worried about what He was saying then who He is. I am now convinced that regularly and clearly hearing the voice of God comes foremost out of a deeper understanding of who He is and what He is like.

The Spirit of the Disciplines



The Spirit of the Disciplines



This book also conveys ideas latent with ramifications for all areas of life and thought. Willard lays a foundation for a life of discipline (discipleship) with the understanding of man, his original purpose, and his inner workings.

The Spirit of the Disciplines



The Spirit of the Disciplines



This book also conveys ideas latent with ramifications for all areas of life and thought. Willard lays a foundation for a life of discipline (discipleship) with the understanding of man, his original purpose, and his inner workings.

Renovation of the Heart



Renovation of the Heart



If "discipleship unto Jesus" is the essence of salvation, then the "renovation of our hearts" is the goal of that discipleship. Willard describes the goals of a life of discipleship to the Master as the transfomation of every aspect of our being into the image of Christ. His last two chapters; an overview of the life of a mature disciple, and a description of a Church where discipleship unto Jesus was the main thing; are masterpeices of Christian writing.

Divine Conspiracy



The Divine Conspiracy

Willard's "Divine Conspiracy" was a lightening bolt. I have read no other book with the immediate collision of ideas upon my world as this. Certainly this is due in part to the season of life in which this book found itself in my hands, but due also in great part to the intellectual grasp of the life and message of Jesus that Dallas Willard possesses. It was a manifesto of deep and real commitment to the person of Jesus. I have continued to find in his work, a logical framework of ideas with which I can conceive and understand the life and message of Jesus to a greater degree of clarity and impact.


This book, perhaps more than any other book I have ever read, shaped my worldview over the course of days in which I read it. This book gave me the language and conceptual framework to understand and communicate what God was doing in my life at the time that I read it. I continue to be shaped by the ideas it contains. Jesus seeks disciples who will take seriously his call to a christlike life, not converts who will wear his name as a label on their own way of life.

Opening doors

The doors continue to open...

This past Sunday was quite an amazing day for me, two of the men that we have been spending alot of time with were able to connect with us, and with God on a much deeper level. Tommy has been with us since the very first day we moved into the city. Sunday we got to meet his 10 year old son, Shawn, and Shawn's mother, Michelle, for the first time. They came over for breakfast and then went with us to our Sunday morning outreach to the retirement home. They then joined us later in the evening when we went to the local City Mission to serve in the kitchen, and also joined us as we led worship in the chapel service.

D'Andre, the man who is in charge of the activities on Sunday morning at the retirement home also came with us to the chapel service at the mission. He brought his two year old son, Jeremiah, whom we also met for the first time on Sunday. God has been speaking to him lately. Our neighbor, Pastor Paul, delivered the message and our friend came forward at the end and I was able to pray with him. God is not silent!!

We also have been developing a relationship with the cook at the Mission, Theo. He is an employee, not a resident. God has been working in his life as well. When Sam and I first met him he shared his passion for music, he writes and plays guitar (he is into jazz). This last Sunday he shared that the music that he has been writing has taken on a spiritual significance for him, and it has done so seemingly on its own; he has not set out to write about spiritual things. The group of guys he plays with are not so interested in this and so he wanted to hang out with us and jam. We had to coax it out of him, but when we finally got him to play us some of his stuff, I was really impressed. The guitar is really slow, mellow, jazzy, and the lyrics are very deep and meaningful, with kind of a spoken word, rap style happening.

We had another great evening at the City Mission and I had the good fortune of leading worship with someone on the drum kit who had never played with other instruments before. I have only ever played with a kit once, and Shawn (Tommy's son) had never played the drums with a group before. Our practice session sounded pretty bad, but we prayed and encouraged one another that God was happy that we would make a joyful noise to him (emphasis on noise!). We led the men in worship that evening, and I know that they were blessed. Many of them were engaged with God in worship. I was happy that Shawn could participate; it was right that he do so...

I think I could ramble on and on about the various open doors that are being presented to us, Tamy and I got to speak at a college group a couple of weeks ago, Sam and Dre were there also; and we were all able to encourage and pray for several of the students. I continue to see God moving in my workplace. I have had more spiritual conversations with customers and co-workers, and now Sam works for the same company as I. We continue to have new people coming to our Wednesday night group, we are trying to work through the issue of kids as we have our two, another two from another family, and probably a fifth this upcoming Wednesday. What a wonderful "problem" to have! Tamy continues to meet with other women in her Mom's Meetup group.

This morning we were remarking, (I even got teary-eyed!) about how wonderfully different the people in our church are. We have street people and successful entrepreneurs, students and parents, educated and blue collar, people of different background and personality, ethnicity and economic status. I do not believe we have reached the place where we are as diverse as heaven, but we are on our way, and heaven looks on with cheers!

At some point in the future I hope to have some exciting news about new opportunities at the mission, but I do not want to post about them until they have become a reality. Please pray that God would continue to allow us to serve at the Mission, and would open doors wider at the local college campus. These are the two areas that I feel are primary (at least for the church, for us as individuals we should view our primary ministry as our jobs as they take up the bulk of our time).

2.16.2007

Created for Such a Time as this?

I work at a small Cafe. In this cafe are 8 of the most unique people I know. This town is full of the most unique people I know. I have never, ever met anybody like the people I have met here in Buffalo. Life is so different here and I often feel somewhat out of place. I am starting to make friends and everything so that is great but life is not the same.
I was at work the other day and I was listening to all these stories about whoring and heroine and I was thinking I have never met people so crazy and so different from myself or the people I know and love in California; I started to question my job and what I am doing there. I am so different from these people. I am nothing like them. But now that I think about it the common thread is our need for Jesus. While I was thinking about it I was thinking that I just don't fit in. They are too "unsaved" they must "bring me down" spiritually, but in thinking that it must bring Christians down in general to hang out with only Christians. Our parallel world just doesn't cut it. We need the lost. Jesus needed the lost. I hung out with someone quite a few weeks ago and they wanted to know if they could take a couple of hits in front of me. All they had was this dried up little joint that someones mom had found and they just wanted to finish it up. I was so wary of it. I told them I didn't know how I felt about it. I said "Just do it and we'll see what happens". So they did it. I had such a fun time with that person. It wasn't even fun because they were high. In fact I couldn't even tell if that dried up joint did anything. Some one told me once that Jesus went to parties where people were having sex right there. I think that sometimes we miss the point. I think that sometimes I miss the point. This is the first time in my Christian life where the only saved friends that I have are the ones that I live with and this is the way that it should be. That was the thing that brought me back to reality about hanging out with people that are too "unsaved". What would Christianity look like today if Jesus only hung out with the righteous? What would Christianity look like if the disciples only hung out with each other? We wouldn't have even know there was a Jesus. Do I fit in at my job? Certainly not and certainly yes? Do I fit in, in this town? Certainly not and certainly yes. I belong at this crazy cafe with these crazy people because I was created for this time.
God give us the revelation of what hell is like so that we might be more fervent in our prayers for others and please let us always have more unsaved friends than friends that know you.

Amen