In developing course materials I am often looking for media (photos, maps, etc.). I recently found out about several sites that have no-nonsense copyrights. This is wonderful in looking for media I can use in course development. Let me know if you find these useful as well!
“Instruments In The Redeemer’s Hands” by Paul Tripp I am so thankful to have walked into my office one day only to find this book sitting on my desk. I had this book highly recommended to me and I can honestly say that I pass that same high recommendation on to others. Thank you, Jim.
The subtitle, “People needing change helping people who need change” is an excellent summary. This book really focuses on a new way of looking at life in the context of the body of Christ. Paul does a great job of humbly showing us how people who, if honest, recognize their weaknesses but still have a responsibility before Christ to minister to one another.
Paul uses the term, “Personal Ministry”, which for me personally had come to leave a bad taste in my mouth. I have seen this term refer to a legalistic feeling that everyone of us should always point out the problems in everyone else’s lives. Even to the point where its acronym became a verb, “She pm’ed her good friend.” But Paul, without knowing my concerns, has pulled this term out of my garbage heap, cleaned it off and helped me to see the Love of God when He incarnates Christ through the personal ministry of each member of the Body of Christ.
This is very practical. The stories are excellent, interesting and really helped me grasp the concepts presented. Paul builds a case for true personal ministry and then gives us practical steps and tips that are biblically based. The basic method is explained using the words: Know, Love, Speak, Do. Paul takes each of these and develops it showing how Christ’s view of the individual and love for the body is the central focus throughout.
We as a body are each gifted, skilled, and talented in very unique ways. We each add another facet to the beauty of this body. But in the same way that we are unique in our positive values, we are also unique in our struggles and each of us are blinded in some way. We need each other to lovingly minister the incarnated, resurrected life of Christ. I believe that this book is a great tool to help us become committed to personal ministry with confidence that it is biblical and godly.
MUST READ for anyone in leadership, counseling or ministry.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone in the body of Christ.
Pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest. Well I was doing just that as I was watering my newly planted seeds of sorts. There are the beans, corn, tomatoes, okra and such. Feeling very proud of my labor, I asked God for the stamina I’d need to maintain this small field of future veggies.
Later in the evening, I was still feeling very accomplished about getting so much done when God began to convict me bit about my little seasonal hobby. What?! How could something so very good and wholesome be an issue in my life? Well I began to see a connection that I haven’t seen before. God began to challenge my heart with the necessity of working hard at doing His work of harvesting souls for His kingdom. Future lifelong partners being God worshippers!
Lord, please provide. I want to pray for God to provide opportunities for our family to shared Christ with folks.
Lord, give me boldness. I want to be bold and enthusiastic about God’s love and plan for the lost. They have no idea!
Lord, please equip me. I want to spend my life doing what God would have me do for His purpose.
I’m still a hobby gardener! And just as
some plant, some water and some harvest,
I want to be a part of God’s hobby of plucking people out of the dark life being choked out by sin and despair and transplanting them into His loving family.
Even though this book contained less information on Shaquille than I had hoped for, I did enjoy this book. Lucille has done her best to open up her past and her culture to us as honestly as I think she can. She tells us about ups and downs and attempts to be transparent. I believe that she is honest in her introspection. She writes simply and she does a great job of maintaining a positive outlook throughout the process. She quotes scripture throughout the book and gives credit to the Lord for her blessings in life.
With that said, I did find several areas that bring me concern. I believe these are areas that are common to the western motivational speaker culture. We simply can't pinpoint problems without attempting to spin them in a way that removes blame and where we can rise above by hard work and determination. We live in a society that tells us we can be anything we put our mind to. And we reject anyone who attempts to think realistically about how temporary life is or how unachievable some dreams really are. Lucille presents her story as a case that reveals how this can happen. Reality is that her case shows that without certain events having gone especially right (having a genetic disposition to height, husband who loved her and connected her family to basketball, and a son who pursued an NBA career - as example) Lucille would have probably never become the person she is.
She says that she is not the kind of person to shift blame but throughout the book she makes statements like,
"I'm no doctor, but I've always felt that his anger over his handicap contributed to the demise of our parent's marriage. The rage he must have experienced being unable to do the simplest things must have had a profound impact on his personality and his interactions with all the people around him. How could you have a successful marriage when the most important aspect of it (communication) was nearly impossible?"
"Believe it when I say I'm not someone who usually blames my problems on others, but Joe's plunge into drugs was more than his own doing. The ugly face of racism, coupled with the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the recent deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, made it easy for a young African-American man to become hopeless and turn to drugs. This, in turn, made it even easier for him to just walk away from his child and me."
Lucille understands first hand that life often gives us a raw deal. In one minute she will emphasize that someone couldn't help the decision they made, then, in the next minute, she will take credit for determination in making choices to overcome her past. And throughout all of this she will refer to God's watch over her.
As Lucille refers to God, she never gives any clarity on how she came to enjoy a personal relationship with God but instead seems to refer to him as someone she simply expects to do good for her. She gets a divorce from a man who was committed to her simply because she is no longer committed to him. This is presented as a good decision and as amoral as far as God is concerned.
All of these are concerns to me but all of these are a good study in modern culture. Lucille is not a person who is seeking to do wrong, reject God and or pick fights. She is the type of person that all of us would probably enjoy being friends with. Lucille is a "good" person in the light of the world. She is motivational and helps to give humanistic reasons for being positive, determined and go after good things you want. But in the end we all need something a step above all of this: A Divine Relationship. God created us for fellowship with him and not just to be the "best" we can be or to achieve all our dreams.
This is an enjoyable book but don't let it move you to settle for less than a Divine Relationship with God Himself!
I do recommend this book to help us understand the mainstream narcissism of our current culture.
“Overwhelmed by a relentless God” is an interesting sub title. In the first couple of chapters of Francis Chan’s “Crazy Love” I truly was overwhelmed again by the majesty and transcendence of God. We didn’t dream Him into existence but He produced a life and reality that goes beyond anything we could have dreamed or imagined. Francis does a great job of pointing us simply to this concept. Francis does not focus heavy on the “relentless” aspect of God but he certainly presents a God I am overwhelmed by! God is amazing and deserving of everything we might desire to offer Him.
Francis then begins to move towards this concept of what our desires are toward God. I believe his ultimate goal is to be motivational. He is attempting to move us to live a life that is consistent with a “Crazy Love” towards God. This reminds me of many messages I have heard from youth pastors and others encouraging us to be “fully sold out” or to realize that “if God is not Lord of All than He is not Lord at all.” I believe these concepts and truly value them deep in my soul. Every message like this resonates with me and stirs my passion. Around Chapter 5 Francis begins to consider the average Christian life that is content to serve God our leftovers. There is a strong movement today to say that IF we are truly saved, then we will not live this way. Chan goes on to say,
“And our question quickly becomes even more unthinkable: Can I go to heaven without truly and faithfully loving Jesus? … Call me crazy, but I think those verse mean that the person who claims to know God but doesn’t obey His commands is a liar and that the truth really isn’t in him.”
There is a problem with this view. I struggled with it greatly for a large part of my life. The problem is:
Where do you draw the line on “Truly” or “Faithfully”?
The concept presented is subjective. This is not truly an all or nothing view. Francis clearly sees to broad distinctions that most all of us would agree with:
“To call someone a Christian simply because he does some Christian-y things is giving false comfort to the unsaved. But to declare anyone who sins “unsaved” is to deny the reality and truth of God’s grace…In the midst of our failed attempts at loving Jesus, His grace covers us.”
We can tell clearly that right actions do not prove one’s salvation. And that wrong actions do not prove one is unsaved. And yet there is a call to look at our actions and attempt to determine if we ourselves are saved.
I personally heard these types of messages and would think, “Jesus is great! I am so bad. I wish I really loved Him and recognized how great He is. I wish I served Him with everything! Maybe I’m not saved.” I never considered that very fact that in my core being I wanted to serve God. When I thought about Christ and I didn’t doubt him – I doubted myself! I didn’t doubt the Bible message but I doubted my ability to act properly and thus doubted my love. I would then set about to increase my love. I didn’t think about the fact that my faith in Christ and intense passion to love Him more IS LOVE IN AND OF ITSELF! I was walking by Sight instead of by Faith (2 Cor 5:7). I did love God but I did not always act consistently.
I have determined to help people recognize that if they believe that Christ died for their sins and they are not depending on their own actions to save them then they are saved. If they are not happy with their inconsistency but wish they lived in a manner that better showed love towards Christ then in their hearts they do have the Love of Christ. I have found that at any given moment I have two passions warring in me. One to serve myself and one to serve Christ. I want to sin! And I want to please Christ! I want both. All I need to do is look at one for a little while and I realize how greatly I want it. This is why it is so important to help people see their love rather than focus on their inconsistency.
Romans 8:5, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Sprit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.”
Francis Chan does not doubt his salvation when he states, “For years I gave God leftovers and felt no shame. I simply took my eyes off Scripture and instead compared myself to others. The bones I threw at God had more meat on them than the bones others threw, so I figured I was doing fine.” He lived inconsistently and as long as he looked at himself (or others) he lived less than he should. However, when we consider again the first few chapters of this book we are focusing our minds on the things of God. We quickly realize that he deserves more and we begin to live accordingly. I don’t need to doubt my salvation. I need to claim it by faith and then I need to set my eyes on Christ. The more I do – the more my love towards him (a love I already have) is stirred up and revealed in my actions. In short, I think the few chapters in this section of the book do us more harm than good. I think that Dr. Chan is unwittingly leading us to look at our flesh, become discouraged and then attempt to make our flesh look better. Instead, I think he should have continued to cause us to realize how stirred we are by God’s awesomeness and recognize that the very passion we feel is a reflection of God’s nature in us. We should learn to be thankful for that, nurture our awareness of it and live accordingly. We should not be satisfied with leftovers – as a matter of fact, as soon as Francis realized that this is what He was doing he realized he was not satisfied with it. Thank the Lord that we aren’t satisfied and we are free in Christ to live above it – fully sold out!
Well, Francis doesn’t leave us in this section. He begins to show what consistent Love looks like. I found that this is a life I want to live because I do love Christ. He continues to remain relevant with our culture today. Francis does a great job of bringing in the need for greater humanitarian care. Tender appreciation for the world around us – unsaved and saved alike. He shows us stories of folks who are missional, sold out, taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth and blessing individuals with practical steps of love along the way. He is consistent with the good parts of the “Emergent” church movement. I really appreciate how Francis is able to stay relevant with the Emergent movement while holding to evangelism and doctrine. These last chapters were very good.
All in all – I like the book. I personally believe the middle section might become a hangup and turn into legalism or a effort to work for our salvation for many. I think this could cause them to miss the joy of the Lord for a season. Instead of appropriating His finished work today they will try to produce His work to somehow earn a “real” love for Him. I think that is sad and hope that season is short for any who fall into it.
Not every project you start is worth finishing. Sometimes we get into it and realize, “This is a waste of time.” Fine, then give yourself permission to quit. I do this all the time with reading. It’s why I am able to read so many articles and books. Here’s publishing’s dirty little secret: most books are not worth finishing. Most books could be cut in half and you wouldn’t miss a thing. The key is to read as long as you are interested and then stop. There are too many great books to read without getting bogged down in the merely good ones. [Hyatt, Michael. “How to Shave Ten Hours Off Your Work Week.” Productivity Magazine 2(2009): 13 Print]
If I had not been intent on writing this review I would have taken his advice with this book! I quickly decided that Brian’s latest book was a waste of time. I found very little redeeming qualities for this book.
I felt it was poorly written, purposely arrogant, confusing and contradictory. I do not recommend this book.
If Brian was clearly presenting a view I disagreed with I might feel differently but in reality, I’m not even sure what his view is! He contradicted himself on multiple occasions. He claims that the book is about finding freedom but it is never clear what this means.
Regarding the Gospel – he does not like reducing it to basic components that clearly present the salvation message,
“But I never liked those four laws. If the primary thing about figuring out God is learning those laws, then I’d rather not figure out God. Laws restrict. They come with punishment. They are cold and impersonal. These are not the lead characteristics of God.”
But yet he does recognize that there are commands and non-options that we are bound to.
“God has given us freedom to make decisions in our lives—but He hasn’t given us freedom about whether to submit to authorities. We are bound by this command when we choose to follow Jesus. And the crazy thing is that even when we are bound by commands, they are the kind of shackles that lead to freedom.”
So it seems that Brian picks and chooses which “laws” to feel we are under. Some restrict and some lead to freedom. He never gives us a game plan for categorizing them. I found it impossible to walk away from his teaching with any practical concept that I could apply to real life.
He was brash and uncaring towards the body of Christ. For example, it seems that Brian was always looking for some opportunity to be cool and talk about drinking beer. I counted at least 6 unnecessary references to drinking. In most cases it seemed he was specifically poking at segments of Christianity who might be offended by it. Apparently he feels freedom to drink but he also feels a need to push it into the face of others. If this was just part of his normal culture and he is totally unaware that it might bother others than I would expect it to possibly come up in some story he might present. But no other aspect of his typical life came up nearly as much or with a seeming “jab” attached.
I did not find this book encouraging to Christian community, unity or personal growth. I found it confusing, offensive and divisive.
