My Top 5 Books of 2011
Below are my top 5 books of 2011, along with my short comments on it. I also linked it to my reviews (except for one). So in no particular order:
1. Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris – This is my first finished reading for 2011. And it was a great read to start the year. Unlike his other books, Harris deals with basic theology in Dug Down. He discusses the basic doctrines of Christianity. But his approach in doing so isn’t too formal or academic ala Wayne Grudem. Instead, he does so by using personal stories, showing how the doctrines are weaved with real life. With this approach, readers, including myself, are inspired to live out the doctrines. Theology, then, becomes practical.
2. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis – I always wanted to read a C.S. Lewis book. Of course, this is the book to begin with. When I began reading the book, I immediately knew I was diving into the mind of a great thinker (I had to read and reread the chapters of the book to fully grasp his thoughts). What I like most about the book is the way Lewis explains his ideas. He uses analogies to drive his point home. Complex topics become simple because of the analogies. Indeed, Mere Christianity is rich in deep and provoking thoughts.
3. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell – This is my only non-Christian reading for the year. I did so as part of my “reading widely” habit. In this book, Gladwell helps readers to look at success in a very different way. He shows that success isn’t because of one’s inherent ability. Rather, he proves that it is a product of extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies. What I like most about the book is that as every chapter goes by, his thesis become stronger and stronger, as each chapter compounds the former one. He digs from various sources to illustrate his point. Truly, Outliers is written by a brilliant journalist. (Book review coming soon).
4. The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul – A classic from the contemporary Reformed theologian, R.C. Sproul. In this book, Sproul helps readers understand the holiness and justice of God. This book is loaded with expositions (I love his exposition of Isaiah 6), illustrations, and sometimes personal stories from Sproul’s life. Reading this made me held a high view of God.
5. The Reason for God by Timothy Keller – Along with Mere Christianity, this book moved my intellect. Here, Keller writes to both believers and skeptics. He is apologetic in his tone, addressing the common objections to Christianity and explaining the doctrines of the faith. He quotes from different known personalities to prove his point. These include people like the Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga, atheist Richard Dawkins, Anglican theologian and New Testament professor N.T. Wright, American reformed theologian Jonathan Edwards, and of course, C.S. Lewis, whom Keller quotes in every chapter.
Weekly Wraps (November 28-December 4)
Jean Williams on relationships, Tim Challies on alcohol, Kevin DeYoung on theology, and et cetera.
1. Loving people at our school (Jean Williams) – Williams blogs on building relationships.
2. Christians and Alcohol (Tim Challies) – Challies blogs on drinking alcohol. Interesting!
3. Why We Must Be Unapologetically Theological (Kevin DeYoung) – DeYoung blogs on the theological church. I like what he writes: “No church should apologize for talking about and loving theology.” And: “Theology is getting more of God.” And one more: “Doctrine and life are always connected in the Bible…Know doctrine, know life. No doctrine, no life.”
4. 5 Necessary Shifts for Missional College Ministry (Stephen Lutz) – Lutz blogs about 5 shifts in a missional college ministry. As a campus minister, I find this very helpful!
5. 5 More Shifts for Missional College Ministry (Stephen Lutz) – Part 2 of Lutz’ blog.
6. New Megachurch Research from Leadership Network (Ed Stetzer) – Stetzer blogs on the prominent findings about megachurches.
7. Happy Birthday, Clive (David Mathis) – Mathis gives tribute to C.S. Lewis, who was born on November 29.
8. The Great Ministry Killer (John Piper) – Piper blogs on money as the great ministry killer.
9. Do Looks Matter? (Jeremy Pierre) – Pierre blogs on attraction. Interesting!
10. Advent: God With Us (Isaac Wimberely of The Village Church) – Wonderful video!
Weekly Wraps (November 21-27)
Michael Patton on C.S. Lewis, John Piper on “Hallelujah”, Sam Storms on Christian Hedonism, and et cetera. Loaded week!
1. Why Do We Love C.S. Lewis and Hate Rob Bell? (Michael Patton) – Patton blogs on the difference between Lewis and Bell. Interesting.
2. Helping You Sing “Hallelujah” with True Exuberance (John Piper) – Piper blogs on “Hallelujah”. I finally understood the word.
3. The Life-Changing Discovery of Christian Hedonism (Sam Storms) – Storms blogs on Christian Hedonism. He is another authority on the topic, next to John Piper.
4. There Never Seems to Be Enough Time (Jon Bloom) – Bloom blogs on the brevity of life.
5. America — Not as Mature as We Should Be (Jonathan Parnell) – Parnell excerpts from John Piper’s book, Bloodlines.
6. Four Reasons to Passionately Pursue God (Jonathan Parnell) – Parnell quotes from John Piper in 1984. I like what Piper says: “Saving faith is not merely a one-time decision for Christ, but is an ongoing preference for Christ over all other values. The pursuit of Christ is the evidence of genuine faith in Christ as our treasure. Therefore, we must go hard after Christ in order to confirm our justification.”
7. Is the Mission of the Church to Join in the Mission of Jesus? (Ed Stetzer) – Stetzer blogs on the work of Jesus and the work of the church.
8. How to Have a Church Prayer Meeting (Kevin DeYoung) – DeYoung blogs on 7 lessons he learned from having a church prayer meeting. At the end, he writes: “Prayer is hard work. It is a gift, but also a skill to learn and grow in. Don’t give up if it feels awkward at first or if people don’t show. Be faithful and pray continually.”
9. You Asked: Should Churches Perform Altar Calls? (Jonathan Leeman) – Leeman blogs on altar calls. He wisely writes: “Why wouldn’t I give an altar call? In short, I believe that this particular man-made practice, this 19th-century innovation, has produced more bad than good for Christian churches in the West. The altar call relies on the powers of emotion, rhetorical persuasion, and social pressure to induce people to make a hasty and premature decision. And producing professions is not the same thing as making disciples. Surely a number of factors are responsible for the many nominal Christians that typify Christianity in the West, but I believe that the altar call is one of them.”
10. Dating, Relating, and Fornicating (Mark Driscoll) – Driscoll blogs on dating. Helpful!
11. Steve Murrell and Wikichurches (Ed Stetzer) – Stetzer interviews Steve Murrell on his new book, Wikichurches. When I saw Murrell’s name in the title, I said to myself: “Sterve Murrell in Ed Stetzer’s blog? This is amazing!” Murrell, by the way, is the senior pastor of Victory, a growing church here in Manila.
12. Preaching Texts You Do Not Understand (Carl Trueman) – Trueman offers counsel regarding difficult texts. Helpful!
13. The Beauty in the Words (Tim Challies) – Challies blogs on different Bible translations. He compares between translations.
14. Let the Peoples Praise You, O God, Let All the Peoples Praise You! (John Piper) – Piper speaks for 2011 Desiring God National Conference. He preaches on Psalm 67.
15. I Think Before I Tweet…Way Too Much (John Dyer) – Dyer blogs his thoughts on tweeting.
16. The Work of a Christian Leader (John Piper) – Piper on leadership and vision. Indeed, our vision bucket leaks.
Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis
It’s been a while since I last wrote a review. When I finished Mere Christianity, I was still thrilled by C.S. Lewis’ depth of insight. Then I saw a copy of Lewis’ Reflection on the Psalms. Since this book is quoted by John Piper in Desiring God, I immediately grabbed it.
Click here to see the review.
My Musings on Mere Christianity (Series Recap)
Last Friday, I posted the last installment of the blog series on C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. To recap, here are the blogs of the series:
1. Sexual Morality – Lewis writes three reasons why it is difficult to desire complete chastity, or the state of being chaste, pure, virgin, or abstained from sexual intercourse.
2. The Great Sin of Pride – Lewis writes about what he calls the great sin. That great sin is pride.
3. Looking Forward to Heaven – The people who had set their minds on Heaven left their mark on Earth. It may sound ironic, but that’s the way it is.
4. On Begetting – I really did not know the meaning of the word begotten until I read Mere Christianity.
5. God and Time – Lewis, as far as I’m concerned, helps in shedding light on the topic of God and time.
Enjoy!
My Musings on Mere Christianity (Part 5): C.S. Lewis on God and Time
Last week, I blogged on C.S. Lewis’ discussion on begetting (See it here). In this final installment of the series, I’ll be blogging on God and time.
Lewis says that the topic “maybe helpful to some readers, but which may seem to others merely an unnecessary complication.” Well, I personally find the topic already complicated. That’s why Lewis even advises readers to skip the chapter if they wish to. But Lewis, as far as I’m concerned, helps in shedding light.
In a previous discussion, Lewis touches on the subject of prayer and deals with a specific difficulty. Here’s the problem: How can God attend to several hundred million human beings who are all addressing Him at the same moment. Most can imagine God “attending to any number of applicants if only they came one by one and He had an endless time to do it in.” But the problem lies in the words at the same moment—as if God has “to fit too many things into one moment of time.”
Lewis begins to shed light:
We tend to assume that the whole universe and God Himself are always moving on from past to future just as we do. But many learned men do not agree with that. It was the Theologians who first started the idea that some things are not in Time at all: later the Philosophers took it over: and now some of the scientists are doing the same.1 (Emphasis added)
There are things that are not in time at all. Lewis adds:
Almost certainly God is not in Time. His life does not consist of moments following one another. If a million people are praying to Him at ten-thirty tonight, He need not listen to them all in that one little snippet which we call ten-thirty. Ten-thirty—and every other moment from the beginning of the worlds—is always the Present for Him. If you like to put it that way, He has all eternity in which to listen to the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames.2
If you find this difficult to grasp, don’t despair. I find it hard, too; Lewis affirms the difficulty as well. But he gives an illustration, which he claims imperfect, yet I find sufficient:
Suppose I am writing a novel. I write “Mary laid down her work; next moment came a know at the door!” For Mary who has to live in the imaginary time of my story there is no interval between putting down the work and hearing the knock. But I, who am Mary’s maker, do not live in that imaginary time at all. Between writing the first half of that sentence and the second, I might sit down for three hours and think steadily about Mary. I could think about Mary as if she were the only character in the book and for as long as I pleased, and the hours I spend in doing so would not appear in Mary’s time (the time inside the story) at all.3
So what does the illustration trying to communicate? The answer is this:
God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel. He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world.4
Wow! God has “infinite attention to spare for each one of us.” If that’s the case, then I would want to pray more, since He has infinite attention to listen to my prayers.
On the weakness of his illustration, Lewis writes:
In it the author gets out of one Time-series (that of the novel) only by going into another Time-series (the real one). But God, I believe, does not live in a Time-series at all. His life is not dribbled out moment by moment like ours: with Him it is, so to speak, still 1920 and already 1960. For His life is Himself.5
Lewis adds:
If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn. We come to the parts of the line one by one: we have leave A behind before we get to B, and cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God, from above or outside or all round, contains the whole line, and sees it all.6
While Lewis tackles other difficulties on the topic, I would have to stop here. I think this is enough for now. After all, Lewis writes:
If [the idea or the topic] does not help you, leave it alone…You can be a perfectly good Christian without accepting it, or indeed without thinking of the matter at all.7
1C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, NY: Walker and Company, 1987), 257-258.
2C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 258.
3C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 258-259.
4C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 259.
5C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 259-260.
6C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 260.
7C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 263-264.
My Musings on Mere Christianity (Part 4): C.S. Lewis on Begetting
Last Friday, I was not able to post another installment of the series, since I had to serve for a college retreat. Two Fridays ago, I blogged about C.S. Lewis and looking forward to heaven (See it here). Today, I’ll be blogging about the meaning of begetting.
We are familiar of this word (or the word begotten) because of John 3:16 (NASB):
16For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (Emphasis added)
I really did not know the meaning of the word begotten until I read Mere Christianity. Lewis writes that what gives us greatest shock is that by attaching ourselves to Christ, we can become Sons of God. But one might ask “Aren’t we Sons of God already? Surely the fatherhood of God is one of the main Christian ideas?” Lewis answers:
Well, in a certain sense, no doubt we are sons of God already. I mean, God has brought us into existence and loves us and looks after us, and in that way is like a father. But when the Bible talks of our “becoming” Sons of God, obviously it must mean something different.1
Lewis later clarifies that “we are not thinking of the Virgin Birth.” Instead, “we are thinking about something that happened before Nature was created at all, before time began. “Before all worlds” Christ is begotten, not created.” Finally, he discusses the word (or words):
We don’t use the words begetting or begotten much in modern English, but everyone still know what they mean. To beget is to become the father of: to create is to make.2
At first, it seems they’re just the same. But here’s the difference:
When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers and a bird begets eggs which turn into little birds. But when you make, you make something of a different kind from yourself. A bird makes a nest, a beaver builds a dam, a man makes a wireless set—or he may make something more like himself than a wireless set: say, a statue. If he is a clever enough carver he may make a statue which is very like a man indeed. But, of course, it is not a real man; it only looks like one. It cannot breathe or think. It is not alive.2
So that’s the difference! When one begets, he can only begets something of the same kind as himself. When one creates, he makes something of a different kind. So Lewis adds:
What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man. What God creates is not God; just as what man makes is not man. That is why men are not Sons of God in the sense that Christ is. They may be like God in certain ways, but they are not things of the same kind. They are more like statues or pictures of God.3
Now I know what the word begotten means. And now I know why other translations of John 3:16 where the word begotten is omitted, is considered weak.
1C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, NY: Walker and Company, 1987), 241.
2C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 242.
3C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 242-243.
My Musings on Mere Christianity (Part 3): C.S. Lewis on Looking Forward to Heaven
Last Friday, I blogged about C.S. Lewis on “The Great Sin”, which is pride (See it here). This is the third (and supposedly final) installment of the series. I decided to extend the series since there are many people reading it. For today, I’ll be blogging about the theological virtue of hope. In other words, the looking forward to the eternal world.
Lewis starts by saying that this “looking forward” is not a form of escapism. Rather, it is one of the things that Christians are meant to do. It does not mean that Christians have to leave the present world as it is. Helpfully, Lewis writes:
If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.1 (Emphasis added)
This is incredible! The people who had set their minds on Heaven left their mark on Earth. It may sound ironic, but that’s the way it is. If that is the case, then I must begin to practice setting my mind on Heaven.
Lewis claims that we have a difficulty in wanting “Heaven”. A reason he gave is that we do not recognize the real want for it.
Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longing which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones.2 (Emphasis added)
We have desires “that cannot be had in this world.” We try to fill it with things we thought would satisfy, “but they never quite keep their promise.” The best ones even fall short.
So how do we deal with this fact? Lewis gives three ways in which two are wrong. He calls the right one the Christian way. I’ll excerpt about the “right” way:
Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world…Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.3 (Emphasis added)
Our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). In heaven, in the presence of God there is fullness of joy, and in his right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). If that is the case, then “I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.”
More on C.S. Lewis next week. Keep in touch.
1C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, NY: Walker and Company, 1987), 206-207.
2C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 207-208.
3C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 210-211.
My Musings on Mere Christianity (Part 2): C.S. Lewis on The Great Sin of Pride
Last Friday, I blogged about C.S. Lewis on sexual morality (See it here). Today, I’ll be blogging about what Lewis calls the great sin.
Lewis starts describing the great sin (or vice) with the following:
There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have hear people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls and drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.1
So what is this great sin that “no man in the world is free,” which “every one in the world loathes when he see it in others?” It is pride or self-conceit. (Before I continue, let me say that I do not believe that every Christian accuse himself of pride and shows mercy to others when he finds it in them. Sadly, there are Christians who are puffed-up, and refuse to show mercy to proud people. They are blinded by their own pride. And I confess I am one of them).
Pride is the essential vice, the utmost evil. Other vices (unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, etc.) are fleabites in comparison. It was because of pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice. No wonder Lewis calls pride “the complete anti-God state of mind.”2
Lewis says that pride is essentially competitive. Meaning, it is competitive in nature:
Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are no. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If every one else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone. That is why I say that Pride is essentially competitive in a way the other vices are not.2
If this is the case, then the competitive nature of pride will lead to rivalry and conceit (Philippians 2:3). It was because of pride that the apostle Paul calls the Philippians to humility.
After talking about the competitive nature of pride, Lewis goes further by calling it enmity:
Other vices may sometimes bring people together: you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people. But Pride always means enmity—it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.3
So why is pride also (and I believe first and foremost) enmity to God? Lewis writes:
In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurable superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that—and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison—you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.4
Lewis is right! As long as someone is proud, he cannot know God. No wonder the people who, in their pride, do not admit their sinfulness and also their need of a Savior do not get saved. Proud people cannot be saved. They cannot know God.
So how come people who are eaten up with pride say they believe God and appear very religious? Lewis says that they are just worshiping an imaginary God. Ouch!
More on C.S. Lewis next week. Keep in touch.
1C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, NY: Walker and Company, 1987), 186-187.
2C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 188.
3C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 190.
4C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 191.
My Musings on Mere Christianity (Part 1): C.S. Lewis on Sexual Morality
I just finished reading C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity weeks ago. I was amazed at the depth of insight Lewis had. So I decided to write (a series) about some parts of the book that made an impact on me. The first one: Sexual morality.
Lewis writes three reasons why it is difficult to desire complete chastity, or the state of being chaste, pure, virgin, or abstained from sexual intercourse. He gives the first one:
In the first place our warped natures, the devils who tempt us, and all the contemporary propaganda for lust, combine to make us feel that the desires we are resisting are so “natural,” so “healthy,” and so reasonable, that it is almost perverse and abnormal to resist them. Poster after poster, film after film, novel after novel, associate the idea of sexual indulgence with the ideas of health, normality, youth, frankness, and good humour.1
Lewis may have lived at a different time, but what he wrote decades ago still remains true in our day. There is still in our day what he calls a “contemporary propaganda for lust.” Movies teach that pre-marital sex is acceptable. Billboards and magazines show images that are stripped off modesty and are even inappropriate for the product endorsements. This contemporary propaganda seems to be growing and becoming stronger than before. Sadly, people, even Christians, are lured into it.
Lewis gives the second reason:
In the second place, many people are deterred from seriously attempting Christian chastity because they think (before trying) that it is impossible. But when a thing has to be attempted, one must never think about possibility or impossibility. Faced with an optional question in an examination paper, one considers whether one can do it or not: faced with a compulsory question, one must do the best one can. You may get some marks for a very imperfect answer: you will certainly get none for leaving the question alone.2
We often think that abstinence from sexual intercourse is impossible. So we give up too soon, without even trying at all.
Some of you may say: “Okay, chastity is possible. But it’s too difficult. So why still attempt?” Lewis writes:
We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity—like perfect charity—will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God’s help.3 (Emphasis added)
That’s it! We must ask for God’s help. This “cures our illusion about ourselves,” that we cannot help ourselves, and “teaches us to depend on God.” Chastity is difficult or perhaps even impossible. But with God nothing is impossible.
Lastly, Lewis writes on repression:
Thirdly, people often misunderstand what psychology teaches about “repressions.” It teaches us that “repressed” sex is dangerous. But “repressed” is here a technical term: it does not mean “suppressed” in the sense of “denied” or “resisted.” A repressed desire or thought is one which has been thrust into the subconcious (usually at a very early age) and can no come before the mind only in a disguised and unrecognisable form. Repressed sexuality does not appear to the patient to be sexuality at all. When an adolescent or an adult is engaged in resisting a conscious desire, he is not dealing with a repression nor is he in the least danger of creating a repression. On the contrary, those who are seriously attempting chastity are more conscious, and soon know a great deal more about their own sexuality than anyone else.4
More on C.S. Lewis soon. Keep in touch.
1C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, NY: Walker and Company, 1987), 152.
2C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 154.
3C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 155.
4C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 155-156.
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