Tag: Book Recommendations Page 6 of 11

Read These Books

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On September 21, 2016

In Book Recommendations

If You Can Keep It:  The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty by Eric Metaxas

Read this book.  Wow.  Read this book.  At this crazy point in American history, every American needs to read this.  I thought I was pretty familiar with the history of my country, but Metaxas asks important questions that I hadn’t fully considered before.  What makes America unique in the history of world governments?  Why has democracy worked in the States but failed in so many other countries?  Why is the morality of our leaders so vital to the success of our government?  Why is our increasing cynicism destroying us?

Non-Americans will also find this book interesting since it helps to explain so much about why America is the way it is, and why it’s failure would have worldwide implications.  I found Metaxas’ observations to be fascinating but I didn’t necessarily agree with his conclusions.  However, the topics he brings up are exactly what Americans need to be discussing right now.  It would be great to read together with teenagers.  This is a short and compelling book.  Read it.

Between Worlds:  Essays on Culture and Belonging by Marilyn Gardner

If my recent posts have been particularly nostalgic, it’s all Marilyn’s fault.  I thought I didn’t really have third-culture kid (TCK) “issues,” but I found myself constantly getting a bit weepy as I read through Marilyn’s book.  She speaks deeply into the heart of those of us who have spent a significant portion of our lives away from our passport country, especially to those of us who are now raising kids the same way.



Every good story has a conflict.  Never being fully part of any world is
ours.  That is what makes our stories and
memories rich and worth hearing.  We live
between worlds, sometimes comfortable in one, sometimes in the other, but only
truly comfortable in the space between. 
This is our conflict and the heart of our story.



Blessed:  A History of the American Prosperity Gospel by Kate Bowler

I bought this book because I wanted to have a better understanding of the theology that so greatly influences the churches here in Tanzania.  What I discovered was a better understanding of American theology as well, and of the subtle ways that the Prosperity Gospel has influenced me even though I’ve been avidly against it.  This book started as a dissertation, so it is scholarly, thorough, and very well referenced, but totally fascinating.  Bowler simply states the facts and allows the readers to draw their own conclusions.

The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges

I was first introduced to Jerry Bridges when he came to speak at The Master’s College my junior year.  Though I went to chapel three times a week during my time at TMC, his sermon is one of very few that I remember.  His teaching on grace was utterly life-changing for this “good” girl.  I then devoured a number of his books, and his straight-forward, biblical teaching on grace, holiness, and trusting God completely revitalized my life. Transforming Grace and Trusting God remain on my top-10 most influential books of my life.  So when Bridges recently passed away, I decided that I needed to read one of his books that I hadn’t picked up before.

If you’ve never read anything by Bridges, this is a great place to start, as he draws together a number of the themes from his earlier books.  I can guarantee that you will walk away with a greater fervency for Christ and a greater joy in your salvation.

If God’s blessings were dependent on our performance, they would be meager indeed.  Even our best works are shot through with sin–with varying degrees of impure motives and lots of imperfect performance…..Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace.  And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.




The Fishermen by Chigozie Obiama

I was looking for an entertaining, thought-provoking summer read, and I knew that this one was set in Nigeria, written by a Nigerian, and had won lots of awards.  And it was indeed gorgeous writing, haunting, compelling, and filled with insight into Nigerian culture and thinking.  But it was also deeply disturbing and fairly traumatizing.  A great book that I definitely recommend, but not when you want to be entertained.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

This novel, however, totally delivered.  This is a re-telling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, and it was not only totally engaging and entertaining, but also full of great story-telling, wonderful character development, and beautiful redemption.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and now I’m looking for more Anne Tyler recommendations!

The Great Lie America Sent to Tanzania

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On August 10, 2016

In Other

I’m guessing that if I were to ask most of my readers if they are regular consumers of the preaching of Benny Hinn or Creflo Dollar, they would recoil in horror.  We change the station if they happen to appear on our televisions (or maybe watch out of morbid curiosity), but mostly, we do our best to try to distance ourselves from that kind of Christianity.  All that emphasis on wealth and health–they are not us.  

We just not might realize that the Prosperity Gospel is so tightly connected to the American Dream that many of us have no idea that we’ve accepted parts of it.  Those of us who wouldn’t have anything to do with Kenneth Copeland might still be willing to read The Prayer of Jabez or make Jeremiah 29:11 our “life verse.”  Even the very popular Hillsong has some veins in the Prosperity movement, as evidenced by its founder’s early book entitled, You Need More Money.  A Time magazine poll found that two-thirds of American Christians agreed that God wants people to prosper.

We shouldn’t be surprised then that Joel Osteen leads the largest church in America.  Or that the majority of mega-churches in America preach Prosperity.  Or that Prosperity preachers dominate the “Christian” airwaves, which means that this is the version of Christianity, more than any other, that gets spread to the rest of the world.

Including Tanzania.

As someone who is in Tanzania with the express purpose of training up church leaders to know, understand, and teach Scripture, it is difficult for me to express the depth of my distress in the Prosperity Gospel.  It is embedded everywhere.  And it came here from America.

Seen on thousands of cars in Tanzania

Of all the ugly things that America has exported, the Prosperity Gospel’s perversion of Christianity is one of the worst.  It was born and nurtured in America during a time of economic prosperity, so it was easy for millions of American Christians to swallow it down along with the American Dream.  And now….it’s here?  In a country that is one of the poorest in the world, with a life expectancy of 60?  Yet this “gospel” continues to tell people that if they just have enough faith, God will take away their poverty.  And if that doesn’t happen, well, then obviously they deserve it.  It’s nothing but a cruel joke from a God who obviously loves rich people more than them.

I once wrote that we joined Reach Tanzania because of Benny Hinn.  From our very first term in Tanzania in 2001, we realized that American televangelists are the primary source of influence on Tanzanian Christians, including many pastors.  Recently, I read the book Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel by Kate Bowler.   

It helped me understand American Christianity a whole lot better.  It helped me understand Tanzanian Christianity a whole lot better.  And it turned my stomach to realize that so many of the struggles in the Tanzanian church came directly from America.  


On the back of a Tanzanian city bus:  “Jesus is the winner”

Seen in a Tanzanian supermarket:  entire rack of books by Robert Schuller and Napoleon Hills

It’s time, Americans.

It’s time for this lie to end.  It’s time for all of us to remember that God does not owe us the American dream. It’s time for us to apply all of Scripture, including the parts that guarantee persecution and trouble on this side of heaven.  Including the parts where God does not always give us what we ask for.  Including the parts where He is a God who allows (even creates!) prosperity and disaster (Is. 45:7), where both can be a part of His will, and where He intentionally, in wisdom and grace, uses suffering in the lives of His people.  That God can heal, but sometimes He chooses not to.  That God wants us to be holy more than He wants us to be healthy.  That God wants us to love Him more than we love His gifts.  That knowing Him, and being known by Him, is the greatest treasure in the universe.  

For the American church, I am praying that this decent into chaos will knock some sense into its delusions of what God owes them.  For Tanzania, I am praying for an African Martin Luther.  A man (or many of them) of godly strength and humility who has the courage and the position to lead his people away from the lies that America sent them.  May God help us all.

Read These Books

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On April 29, 2016

In Book Recommendations

My favorites from the last six months or so….

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

Elijah is a boy living in a Canadian colony of escaped American slaves.  This is a book for young people, but is so well written, highly entertaining, and deeply moving that I recommend it for adults as well.  Parts of it are emotionally intense (as a book on slavery should be), so we’re going to wait a year or so before letting Grace read it.  (She is ten but pretty sensitive.)  

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

If you like historical fiction, you will enjoy this post-World War II novel.  It’s full of fascinating historical detail, but also absolutely delightful storytelling.

What’s Your Worldview? by James Anderson

Anything with “worldview” in the title always captures my interest.  This one is particularly useful, as it reads like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book, helping the reader to understand his own worldview.  This would be an especially good book for older teens and college students.  

Prayerby Timothy Keller

I read this one slowly, over about four months, because every time I would read a few pages, I would want to stop, digest, and remember what I just read.  I wanted to cling to every word; it was that good.  I highlighted about half the book.

Joy:  Poet, Seeker, and the Woman who Captivated CS Lewis by Abigail Santamaria

This book was fascinating!  The author digs deep into Joy’s story, bringing out detail not found in the sugar-coated Shadowlands.  Joy was a brilliant writer, but also an ex-communist, brash, somewhat rude and selfish woman who fell in love with (and pursued) C.S. Lewis while still married to her first husband.  How God used their relationship and her cancer to bring out the best in them both is a wonderful story of redemption.

The Pastor’s Kid by Barnabus Piper

John Piper’s son wrote a book about being a pastor’s kid.  This was a quick read, but useful for any parents who are involved in full-time ministry.  

Dreams of My Mothers by Joel L.A. Peterson

I read this one during our recent Zanzibar trip, and it’s the kind of book you don’t want to start unless you have a good chunk of time available–because you won’t be able to put it down.  This is a semi-autobiographical story of a Korean child adopted by American parents.  But instead of pretending that the child’s story began with his adoption (as happens often), the story gives equal time to his years living in Korea with his first mother.  The book is brutally heart-breaking but ultimately redemptive.  

*Please note:  This book contains strong language that may disturb sensitive readers.

In Defense of the Fatherless:  Redeeming International Adoption and Orphan Care by Sara Brinton and Amanda Bennett

So I know that I already plugged this book in my series on corruption in international adoption, but I just can’t shut up about how good it is.  If you, or any Christian you know, is involved in international adoption or orphan care (even in a small way), this is an absolute must-read.  No other book on adoption (and I’ve read dozens) even comes close to the importance of this one.

Imagine Your Children are Black

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On April 4, 2016

In Other

In his book, Under Our Skin, Benjamin Watson relates the story from the book/movie A Time to Kill, when the lawyer presents his closing argument. The lawyer is white, the jury is white, but the brutalized child-victim is black. The lawyer describes the 10-year-old girl walking home from school. Two grown men jump out of a truck, grab her, and viciously gang rape her. Then they throw beer cans at her, urinate on her, attempt to hang her, and throw her over a cliff.

The lawyer says to the jury, ‘Can you see her? I want you to picture that little girl. Now imagine she’s white.’

Watson writes, “The tragedy of the racial divide is that it simply isn’t personal enough. For so many, it’s just an argument, a philosophy, a political position….But these people are not really human lives to us. Those lives remain distant from us. And they are lives of a different color. Now imagine it’s your own child.”

That is me.

When I think about racial problems in America, it is personal to me. Because it is my child.

So when Watson writes, “You simply need to know that in the black community, police abuse and brutality are givens,” I think about my own son. Watson continues, “The threat of police to innocent black people is assumed, something everything knows is true. And the black community knows that the white community is blind to it.  Why? Because they don’t experience it. We do. White people have no idea of the fear that black people feel towards the police. I cannot say that strongly enough, loudly enough, or forcefully enough.”

One day when he is living in America, how will I feel if my own son is needlessly pulled over and harassed by the police?

How will I feel if my daughter is trailed by a sales clerk at a high end department store?

How will I feel the first time my child is called the N-word?

I realize that my children are not African-American; they are just African. They do not share the heritage of the vast majority of black people in the United States. But one day, they’ll live in America, and it’s not going to matter where they are from. All the stereotypes and prejudices that African-Americans experience will be heaped onto them simply because of the color of their skin.

So racism is personal to me. But it should be for all of us.

I realize that I’m never, ever going to completely understand. There is always going to be a part of my children’s life experiences that I won’t be able to relate to. But I am certainly going to try.

If I am going to be brutally honest, I must admit that I don’t know if I would have been so interested in the topic of racism if I didn’t have black children. I’ve always known I wasn’t a racist, so I figured I wasn’t part of the problem. Couldn’t we all just be color-blind?

But because I have black children, I’ve determined to listen better. And harder. So when I readthe words of Christian Professor Jarvis Williams, “The color-blind theory of race denies the racialized experiences of those marginalized,” I pay attention. When my gospel-centered and African-American friend Wendy tells me how hurt she is when white Christians tell her they are color-blind and thus don’t need to discuss racial issues, I listen.

Watson writes, “You’d think that after all this time we’d have reached real parity between the races, that there would be truly equal opportunity, and that we’d be seeing and experiencing fairness in society between blacks and whites. A lot of white people believe that’s actually where we are. A lot of black people know we aren’t.”

Wendy explained to me, “The seemingly mistrust of blacks in general
is unfortunate… and it is real. The negative stereotypes and perceptions
are real, and hurtful.” Wendy is helping me to understand how I can be a better mom to my kids, but just as importantly, she is helping me become a better American Christian.



And that is exactly where the rubber meets the road. White American Christians have got to come to grips with the fact that the church is “the most segregated institution in America.  Christianity Today reported in January 2015 that ‘Sunday morning remains one of the most segregated hours in American life, with more than 8 in 10 congregations made up of one predominant group.'” (Benjamin Watson)

In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr, wrote, “I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian…brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the…Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”

As a white American Christian who has learned the hard way that I have not actively listened enough, cared enough, or tried hard enough to do my part towards racial reconciliation, I am making a plea to my Christian brothers and sisters to learn from my mistakes.

This book is an excellent place to start. My main purpose for this post is to strongly encourage you to read Under Our Skinby Benjamin Watson. It is short, readable, and relevant. Watson is gospel-centered, humble, and exhorts Christians to examine ourselves–no matter what our color–because all of us can work harder towards reconciliation. His words are fair, balanced, and convicting.

He writes, “The solution to the problem of race in America will be found by ordinary people, ‘good’ people, looking inside themselves, being honest about the assumptions and biases that have formed, and beginning to change what’s in their hearts.”

Would it matter to you more if your children were black? Then imagine they are.

You Might Not Prosper….And Other Surprises From Context

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On January 14, 2016

In Other

If I want to be blessed, I need to pray for Israel, right?



What about the verse “by His stripes we are healed?”  Doesn’t that mean physical healing?  



Won’t God grant us physical healing when we take communion?

These are just a few of the questions that have come up this week as Gil has been teaching Bible Study Methods in our pastoral training program.  We are excited because we have a new class of 14 students this year–all who are already involved in ministry!  Gil is teaching them, Look carefully at what the verse is actually saying.  Consider the cultural implications.  And most importantly, Context, Context, Context!  

Then yesterday, I was reading an excellent post called God May Not Have a Wonderful Plan for Your Life.  The comment section disturbed me, as commenter after commenter used Jeremiah 29:11 as proof that God does, indeed, promise us a wonderful life.

Excuse me?  I know that the Christian community in general has an infatuation with Jeremiah 29:11, as it’s probably the most printed verse on Christian greeting cards and refrigerator magnets.  I wonder if those who have made Jeremiah 29:11 their life verse have happened to read the entire chapter of Jeremiah 29.  For example, verses 17-18:

This is what the Lord Almighty says:  ‘I will send the sword, famine and plague against them and I will make them like figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.  I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse and an object of horror.'”  

Hmmm.  I’d like to see someone make that their life verse.  Like figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten just doesn’t look nearly so good on a coffee cup as plans to give you a hope and a future.  As Gil always tells his students, it’s all about Context, Context, Context!   

I’m not going to get into what this passage really does mean, because that’s not my point today.  Suffice it to say that there definitely are applications in Jeremiah 29 for our lives today, but I’m confident God has promised you a wonderful life isn’t one of them.  The truth is that just about all of us can use a bit more of Bible Study Methods in our lives, whether we live in Tanzania or America.

If you are a parent, this book is a fantastic place to start.  Gil is taking our kids through this great book, but I think that many Moms and Dads will benefit from it too. (I know I am!)

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