Category: Book Recommendations

Soul Earthquake

By

On November 15, 2014

In Book Recommendations

I love my life, and that’s why I’m terrified to write this.

I really have a great life.  I live in a beautiful country; I have a great husband and kids; I have a regular paycheck and money in the bank.  I have health insurance that will fly me to any place in the world in an emergency.  I love my job; it is fulfilling and exciting.

Sure, you know, there’s ticks and mosquitoes and electricity problems (it’s off as I write this) and I miss my mom and blah blah blah.  But really?  Are those things really that big of a deal?  Have I sacrificed anything for the kingdom of God?  Because actually, I really like my life.  For the most part, I am safe; I am comfortable; I am happy.

The level of terror I feel at the thought of giving it up is the indication of how tightly I am holding onto it all.

“[A Russian pastor] hugged each one of us [his children].  Then he said:  ‘All around the country, the authorities are rounding up followers of Jesus and demanding that they deny their faith.  Sometimes, when they refuse, the authorities will line up whole families and hang them by the neck until they are dead.  I don’t want that to happen to our family, so I am praying that once they put me in prison, they will leave you and your mother alone.  However,‘ and here he paused and made eye contact with us, ‘If I am in prison and I hear that my wife and my children have been hung to death rather than deny Jesus, I will be the most proud man in that prison!’”  

Often, it’s easy to look around us at our organized sidewalks and our life insurance policies and our carpeted church buildings and Christian radio stations and assume that this life is the norm for Christians.  Because for us, it is normal.

“We haven’t made books and movies out of these stories [of persecution] that you have been hearing.  For us, persecution is like the sun coming up in the east.  It happens all the time.  It’s the way things are.  There is nothing unusual or unexpected about it.”  (from Russia)

Our comfortable life is not normal for most Christians in most parts of the world.  It wasn’t normal during the time of the New Testament.  In fact, looking at history, we have to say that both the religious freedom and material comfort of America are actually quite unprecedented.

“After we were out of earshot of that young house-church leader, my host leaned toward me and whispered, ‘He’s going to be someone God can use in a powerful way someday.  But you cannot trust what he says now; he hasn’t been to prison yet.”  (from China)

Sometimes I think, “Surely God wouldn’t let that happen to us.  American Christians aren’t really going to ever be under threat of prison.  Churches aren’t really going to have their buildings confiscated.  We couldn’t possibly ever really lose our jobs because of our faith in Christ.”

Right?

Right?

God wouldn’t let that happen.

And if we can’t trust God to keep that from happening to us, then surely we can trust America itself–the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Right?

“Perhaps the question should not be, ‘Why are others persecuted?’ Perhaps the better question is ‘Why are we not?'”

And yet, it is coming, isn’t it?

For centuries, American Christians have enjoyed the reputation of being honest, moral, good people.  Maybe a little backward, but good people.  We’re losing that, aren’t we?  Bigoted, hateful, narrow-minded–that’s becoming our reputation now.  Granted, some of that is our own fault!  But mostly, it’s because of the gospel.

What about when it gets worse?  What about when people can’t get a job, or lose their jobs, because of their beliefs?  (It’s already starting!)  What about when churches lose their tax exempt status?  And we can’t afford our church buildings?  Or our pastors?  Just this year, Christian groups were kicked off of all 23 University of California campuses.  And the ideas that start in the universities always trickle down to the rest of life.

“Every morning one of the guards would take some of his own human waste and spread it on the piece of toast that he brought to my father to breakfast.”

 It’s not a matter of if anymore, it’s a matter of when.  Will we see imprisonments in America in our lifetime?  In our kids’ lifetime?  I don’t know.  I don’t want to be an alarmist.

But when we read Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (II Tim. 3:12), shouldn’t that be our expectation?  Shouldn’t we realize that this brief respite of religious freedom in American history has been unusual?

No matter how far it goes in our lifetime, it is certainly worth pondering.

How much am I willing to give up for Christ’s sake?

My reputation?  My career?  My education?  My house?  My children?

We are so used to having our cake and eating it too, that we are in danger of not being willing to sacrifice anything for the kingdom of God.

And let me assure you again:  I am terrified.  I love my life.

Then I read things like this:

“Looking back now, I understand that one of the most accurate ways to detect and measure the activity of God is to note the amount of opposition that is present.  The stronger the persecution, the more significant the spiritual vitality of the believers.”  



Are we ready?

Am I ready?  To sacrifice, to let go, to truly love?

I read this book last week.  One of the endorsers said, “This is not a book.  This is a soul earthquake.”

All of the quotes in this post came from this book.  Yes, an earthquake went through my soul.

I was terrified and furious and indignant.

But I was also energized and triumphant.  I wanted to shout and pump my fists in the air.  If our God is with us, then what can stand against us?  

Bring it on!

Bring it on!  

“One of the house-church leaders actually asked me, ‘Do you know what prison is for us?  It is how we get our theological education.  Prison in China is for us like seminary is for training church leaders in your country.'”



He is worth it!

Jesus is worth it!

“If we spend our lives so afraid of suffering, so averse to sacrifice, that we avoid even the risk of persecution…then we might never discover the true wonder, joy and power of a resurrection faith.”



I grit my teeth and set my sights on things above.  I love my life, but I love Jesus more.

Recent Reads I Recommend

By

On February 11, 2014

In Book Recommendations

Give Them Grace by Elyse Fitzpatrick makes me want to throw away all the other parenting books and blogs and articles I’ve ever read.  I thought it was a bit repetitive and I found her sample parenting “speeches” she would give to kids to be long-winded and not very realistic (for me), but the heart of this book is amazing, refreshing, and life-altering.  I need to review it every year.  In an age where everyone seems to have a “system” for churning out “good” kids, Elyse gets down to the biblical basics of parenting–and probably most of us have it wrong.  This book went deep to my heart….with conviction but also blessed relief.  It is a must-read for every Christian parent or teacher.

“At the deepest level of what we do as parents, we should hear the heartbeat of a loving, grace-giving Father who freely adopts rebels and transforms them into loving sons and daughters.”

“We have far too high of a view of our ability to shape our children and far too low a view of God’s love and trustworthiness.”

I read The Invisible Girls by Sarah Thebarge because it was written by a girl I knew in college.  It is beautiful and haunting and I would recommend to anyone.  Sarah tells the story of how at age 27, as a graduate student at an Ivy League school and a very bright future ahead of her, she lost everything to breast cancer.  Intertwined in this memoir is the story of how God brought redemption to her suffering through her chance connection to a Somalian refugee family.  You will be blessed by this book.

Teaching Redemptivelyby Donovan Graham takes the subject that is near and dear to my heart–Biblical worldview–and demonstrates clearly and concisely how it should form Christian teaching.  As someone who has been involved in education for my entire adulthood, I found it incredibly interesting and thought-provoking.  Highly recommended for anyone involved in Christian education.

“[G]race cannot be comprehended, let alone lived, in an environment so permeated with a philosophy of life that says, ‘Pull yourself up by the bootstraps, work harder next time and you’ll get it, nobody gets something they don’t deserve.’  If we want our students to live the gospel after they leave school, then we must help them experience it in school.”

The Rage Against God is written by Peter Hitchens–brother to atheist Christopher Hitchens–which is what makes this book so interesting.  Part memoir, part history lesson, part apologetics book for the existence of God–I found it fascinating.

“Only one reliable force stands in the way of the power of the strong over the weak.  Only one reliable force forms the foundation of the concept of the rule of law.  Only one reliable force restrains the hand of the man of power.  And, in an age of power-worship, the Christian religion has become the principal obstacle to the desire of earthly utopians for absolute power.”

If Son of Hamas  had been written as a book of fiction, I would have dismissed it as far too far-fetched to be realistic.  I mean…seriously?  A son of one of the founding members of Hamas, who becomes an Israeli spy, who becomes a Christian?  How ridiculous is that?  That’s what’s so crazy….it’s true!  It reads like a spy novel, but the entire story is true…a biography, in fact.  Totally captivating. 

Chocolate and Milk

By

On June 7, 2012

In Adoption, Book Recommendations, Race and Diversity

 “We were not made to make much of blackness. We were not made to make much of whiteness. We were not made to make much of self or humanity in general. We were made to make much of God.”

I grew up pretty much oblivious to race.

My childhood neighborhood in California was multi-ethnic.  My best friend was Indian.  Then I spent six years in three African countries. 

Back in California in high school and college, I spent 8 years doing ministry in multi-ethnic neighborhoods.  Camp counselor for two summers for kids who were mostly black and hispanic.  Worked four years for a black employer. 

As an adult I spent seven years teaching kids from all kinds of ethnicities.  Spent nine of the last eleven years in Tanzania.

As I was growing up, white people were kinda boring to me.  Travel and cultures, that’s what fascinated me.  The fact that Gil is half-hispanic?  Dream come true. 

So adopting African children was just sort of obvious.  I mean, we wanted to adopt, we were living in Tanzania, and there are two million orphans here.  So should we adopt from Africa?  Duh.  The fact that my kids have dark skin was just….beautiful.  And though I always loved the idea of raising a family that mirrored what heaven will look like, I never set out to be a billboard for race reconciliation. 

But I’ve been thinking. 

Grace and I have been making our way through the American Girl books.  And Addy is a little girl living during the time of the Civil War.  She’s a slave; she escapes to Philadelphia, but continues to live with segregation even in freedom. 

I want Grace to know these things.  She is African but has an American passport.  One day it is likely she will live in the States.  She needs to know.

But did I ever realize how difficult it would be to read her stories about white oppression of black people?  Sitting there on the couch, my arm around her, her Mommy in every way, with nothing but the color of our skin separating us. Teaching her how people who looked like me made people who looked like her into slaves.  And then even when that was over, wouldn’t even let them use the same bathroom.

I never knew how hard it would be. 

And then I read this book (not to Grace!).  And I know it’s controversial and not everyone likes it, but I personally was deeply moved.  Because I am white, and my daughter is black.  Because I have “help.”  Because even though I knew the history, there’s nothing like seeing it through the eyes of someone else through a story.

Since I’ve always thought multi-ethnicities were so cool, I think I unintentionally ignored the pain that so many have experienced (are experiencing) because of their race.  Even, often, at the hands of those who call themselves followers of Christ.  And since we live in Africa, I never fully, truly contemplated the discrimination my own kids could face in America. 

John Piper, one of my favorite-ever authors, and who also has an African-American daughter, recently published this book:  Bloodlines:  Race, Cross, and the Christian. 

It’s not my favorite Piper book.  But as a theological treatise on why Christians should intentionally pursue racial reconciliation?  It’s excellent. 

“That I am chosen for salvation in spite of my ugly and deadening sinfulness…that my rebellious and resistant heart was conquered by sovereign grace….if these truths do not make me a humble servant of racial diversity and harmony, then I have not seen them or loved them as I ought.”

“When we feel or think or act with disdain or disrespect or avoidance or exclusion or malice toward a person simply because he or she is of another race or another ethnic group, we are, in effect, saying that Jesus acted in a foolish way toward us.  You don’t want to say that.”

My favorite section was on inter-racial marriage.  Really, really good stuff.  Especially because inter-racial adoption is so similar. 

“As long as we disapprove of [inter-racial marriage], we will be pushing our children, and therefore ourselves, away from each other.  The effect of that is not harmony, not respect and not equality of opportunity.  Separation has never produced mutual understanding and respect.  It has produced ignorance, suspicion, impersonal stereotyping, demeaning innuendo, and corporate self-exaltation.” 

I humbly recognize that, growing up in my privileged, white life, I will never understand the oppression that minority groups have experienced in America.  But yet, God has entrusted me with these beautiful children.  So it is therefore my job to do everything I can to try to understand. 

Somehow, our family must become a picture of racial reconciliation.  Somehow, I must teach my kids how to love, forgive, and reach out beyond racial lines.  Somehow, I must teach them how to understand the challenges and history and sorrows of their race, even though I haven’t experienced it myself. 

I am inadequate for this task.  The weight of the burden is heavy.  But yet, it is important and necessary.  And worth it. 

My kids are sitting on the kitchen floor drinking chocolate milk as I write this.  I think chocolate and milk make an excellent combination, don’t you?

Change How You Think About the Poor!

By

On January 9, 2011

In Book Recommendations, Poverty

This is really, really important.  Please listen:

 “[Consider the story of] Creekside Community Church, a predominantly Caucasian congregation made up of young urban professionals in the downtown area of an American city.  Being in the Christmas spirit, Creekside Community Church decided to reach out to the African-American residents of a nearby housing project…

But what could they do to help?  Believing that poverty is primarily a lack of material resources, the members of Creekside Community Church decided to address this poverty by buying Christmas presents for the children in the housing projects.  Church members went door to door, singing Christmas carols and delivering wrapped toys to the children in each apartment….The members of Creekside were moved by the big smiles on the children’s faces and were encouraged by the warm reception of the mothers…

After several years, the pastor noticed….enthusiasm was waning…  Finally one member spoke up, “Pastor, we are tired of trying to help these people out…their situation never improves.  Have you ever noticed that there are no men in the apartments when we deliver the toys?  The residents are all unwed mothers who just keep having babies in order to collect bigger and bigger welfare checks.  They don’t deserve our help.”

In reality, there was a different reason that there were few men in the apartments when the toys were delivered….When the fathers heard the Christmas carols and saw the presents for their kids…they were embarrassed and ran out of the back doors of their apartments….In trying to alleviate material poverty through the giving of these presents, Creekside Community Church increased these fathers’ poverty of being.  Ironically, this likely made the fathers even less able to apply for a job, thereby exacerbating the very material poverty that Creekside was trying to solve! (When Helping Hurts)

If you donate money to charities, you need to readthis book.

If you have been on a short-term missions trip, you need to read this book.

If you work at Farm Drive with Hillside or the Spanish Ministry with FCC, you need to read this book.

If you have a passion for helping the poor, you must read this book. 

This is an extremely important book.  I can’t emphasize that enough! 

I can’t tell you how much this book excites me.  It has empowered me.  It has given me answers where I thought there weren’t any.

I have written about poverty before.  It is a subject near and dear to my heart.  I grew up in Africa.  I spent nine years volunteering with Friends at Farm Drive and Faithblast Kids’ Club in Santa Clarita.  I spent two summers working at Camp May-Mac, for inner-city kids.  Now I live again in Africa, and I am literally surrounded by poverty, right on the other side of my fence.  I have struggled and wrestled and felt guilty when I didn’t give and felt guilty when I did give because I didn’t want to create dependence.  And I never really knew how really to help. 

Then I read this book over the Christmas break.  And I am in awe. 

The authors asked poor people and not-poor people to define poverty.  Listen to this:

 “Poor people typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness.  North American audiences tend to emphasize a lack of material things such as food, money, clean water, medicine, housing, etc….This mismatch between many outsiders’ perceptions of poverty and the perceptions of poor people themselves can have devastating consequences for poverty-alleviation efforts.”

Do you get it?  Do you see what they are saying?  When we simply give material things to poor people, it actually makes things worse!  Why?  Because material things are not the answer to their problems (except in emergency situations)!  As illustrated in the story above, material things don’t give poor people confidence, security, hope, community, and a voice…which is actually what they need!  All it does is perpetuate their idea that they can’t do things themselves, they have to rely on rich white people to do it for them. 

I’ve only cracked the surface of the richness of this book in this post.  It is powerful; it is life-transforming; it needs to be read by every American Christian.  It takes a biblical worldview and lays it over the problem of poverty, helping us to see it in a completely different light.  It challenges us to think entirely differently about how we go about helping people.  It’s not saying we shouldn’t give; it just tells us the right way to give. 

“One of the very biggest problems in many poverty-alleviation efforts is that their design and implementation exacerbates the poverty of being of the economically rich–their god-complexes–and the poverty of being of the economically poor–their feelings of inferiority and shame.”

Please read this book.  Then let me know how it changed your life too. 

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