Book Review : One.life

Scot McKnight, in the introduction to his book, One.life : Jesus calls, we follow (2010), explains that he has written the book in order to answer, by examining what Jesus said, the question: What is a Christian? McKnight feels that, generally speaking, Christians do not answer the question the way Jesus would. Basically Jesus calls people to follow him.

The book is addressed mostly to young adults who are thinking about career and lifestyle options and focuses on the kind of life that Jesus expects of his followers. He writes about Jesus’ teaching in regards to his kingdom and how that affects the lives of his followers. He writes about the kingdom values of loving God and loving others; about justice for all especially the marginalized; about peace and about acquiring wisdom in the context of a local church. At this point the book seems very idealistic but McKnight goes on to explain this is only going to happen if Jesus’ followers are empowered by his Spirit.

McKnight then devotes two chapters to explaining what this kingdom view would look like in our love lives and our work lives. I found these chapters brought a much more practical outlook to the book. He finishes the book by looking at what Jesus had to say about heaven and hell.

Overall it is a refreshing look at the Christian life and one that is more in tune with how Jesus would present it.

Updating my web site

Last year I completed a Dreamweaver course in web design and I was able to practice by newfound skills at the temporary job I had in digital and information services with the library. I have now updated my own web site and resized it so it is user-friendly on a variety of devices. Check it out here.

For the technically minded I originally used 'tables' for the layout design but I have now progressed to using Div Tags so it has been quite a learning curve. If you have any problems using the site please let me know, and also if you notice any 'typos' – as proof reading is not my strong suit! Thanks.

Devotional Thought : Acts 18:24

Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. Acts 18:24-25

Apollos was faithful, he taught the truth he knew. He had a thorough understanding of the Old Testament Scriptures so that is what he shared. Apollos was also teachable. He was open to learning from Priscilla and Aquila. They taught him more about Jesus – his ministry, death and resurrection. God always has more truth to teach us if we will receive it. Thirdly Apollos was available. He found the time to spend with Priscilla and Aquila and then shared his newfound knowledge with those in Achaia.

Apollos is what we would call a FAT Christian – someone who is Faithful, Available and Teachable. God was able to use Apollos mightily because of these traits and we find in v.28 “He (Apollos) vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.” Apollos was able to show how Jesus was the fulfilment of Old Testament prophesies and teaching.

Apollos was held in high esteem in Corinth. He is described as being “a great help” (v.27). Some even mistakenly started saying, “I follow Apollos” (1 Corinthians 3:3-9). Paul corrected them by explaining “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” Apollos did a great job of ‘watering’ – teaching the word to believers. He did not seek publicity but rather he simply sought to teach others about Christ.

Apollos is a good example of how God can powerfully use someone who is faithful, available and teachable.

Studying Acts (part 7)

I have become a bit behind in writing about my studies in Acts. I am finding it very worthwhile to study Acts in depth. During this series of lectures we looked at the quote: ‘If Christ is in a person’s heart they are a missionary. If Christ is not in a person’s heart they are a mission field.’

It was always God's intention in the Old Testament that the Jews would be a light to the nations so that the nations would be attracted to the one true God when they saw the Jews living peaceable lives, worshipping God and caring for one another.

“For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” Acts 13:47 (quoting Isaiah 49:6).

Unfortunately the opposite was more often the case. The Jews forsook God and followed the gods of pagan nations. The prophets warned the Jews many times and they were eventually taken into captivity. Many of those who returned became very zealous for the Law of Moses, thinking if they kept the law and all their traditions they would not lose their land again but their hearts were still not right with God. They were more interested in protecting their traditions than they were in reaching out to others. They were more interested in being ‘right’ than doing ‘right’.

For us the mandate is the same, Christians are called to be a light to the nations so when others see us living Christian lives they will want to know about the God that we worship: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). Christians are called to be missionaries regardless of where we live and to reach out to those who do not know him.

Reflection : What Alice forgot

Following on from my last post…

The most fascinating part of this book for me was comparing the two Alices – the Alice of ten years ago and the Alice of the present. The old Alice was relaxed, easy going and peaceable. The new Alice was confident, organised and at times aggressive.

Woman, in particularly seems to grow more confident as they grow older. Possibly this happens when women like Alice, find themselves with a house to keep, children to care for and a busy husband. Suddenly they find themselves needing to more organised and they gain management skills unwittingly. Often they need to speak up on behalf on their children and suddenly they find a confidence they didn’t know they had.

Yet I found myself liking the old Alice more than the new one which is odd since I do like to be confident and organised. I liked the old Alice’s relaxed attitude and her desire to resolve issues amicably.

I guess the thing is to aim for a balance and it seems in the epilogue that this is the place Alice comes to. On the one hand being organized and confident enough to accomplish worthwhile endeavours while, at the same time, keeping things in perspective and not getting upset when things don’t go our way.

From a spiritual perspective this is the place we need to get to in God. Holding onto our peace because we know that God is in charge and has everything under control, yet not being afraid of a challenge and getting out of our comfort zone in order to accomplish worthwhile tasks.

Book Review : What Alice forgot

Liane Moriarty has chosen an intriguing plot for her book, What Alice Forgot (2009). A 39 year old mother of three has an accident at the gym and receives a bad knock to the head. She is unconscious for about ten minutes. When she gains consciousness it becomes apparent she has forgotten the last ten years of her life – her last memory is when she was pregnant with her first child. Most of the book covers the events of the next nine days until her memory returns. The epilogue then jumps forward ten years and we see the outcome of the events that happened during those nine days.

Moriarty is a clever writer and keeps the reader guessing until all is revealed in the epilogue. So many times you think the story is heading off in one direction when it suddenly takes a turn in a different one. I found it well researched. For example memory is generally assumed to be stored in our minds or brains but it is also stored in our muscles – particularly repetitive actions as Alice discovers. Another time, Alice thought she remembered an incident which turned out not to be true. It was an incident she had repeatedly vividly imagined but it had not actually happened to her. This is also a truth. Over time our minds cannot distinguish between those events which are real and those which are repeatedly vividly imagined.

I enjoyed this book immensely with only one slight criticism. There were several loose ends that the author did not tie up. For example did Madison ever play hockey again? (I hope not!) Did Mildred and George get to stay? (I hope so!) Did their pie get into the Guinness Book of Records? (I suppose so!) It would have only taken an extra couple of lines to tidy up some of these unfinished issues. Possibly Moriarty didn’t think these were important enough to finish off and in the overall scheme they are probably not.

It was a great read that raises many issues about divorce, infertility, child raising and family issues. It really makes you think about how much things change in ten years, and do I like the person I’ve become?

On digital libraries...

I went to the launch of the digital library at my local library that is, e-audio books and e-books. I made an interesting discovery. In a library environment my objections to ebooks largely disappear. (I wrote about my objections here.)

It has been my experience that the search options in library catalogues are generally better than those on bookshop websites because they give you more choices. For example you can simply search for popular titles. (Maybe I’m cynical but if a bookshop had an option for a popular title I would suspect it was the one with the biggest mark up! Whereas a library has no ulterior motives for listing a title as popular.) Therefore it is not absolutely necessary to put something into a search engine.

While it is still true that you cannot thoroughly ‘vet’ an online book, if you are only borrowing it, there is less need to. You can ‘vet’ it after you have borrowed it and simply deleted it if it is not what you expected. I complained that I could not pass the ebook I had bought on to a friend but neither would I be able to if I had borrowed it from the library. I also complained I cannot browse someone’s ebook collection but library books are generally not kept on a person’s own bookshelf so I wouldn’t be browsing them anyway.

All this leads me to think that ebooks in libraries could become very popular especially as internet connections become faster. It would save money not only in the purchasing and repairing, but also in the moving of books between libraries.

Nevertheless while libraries may go down this path, I still think print books will be us for quite a while.