Book Review: The Ten Commandments - Laws of the Heart

I wish more people read books by Joan Chittister. In my opinion, Joan is one of the wisest Christian authors currently plying their trade, and I don’t think I have ever read a book by her that has not left me feeling somehow richer for the experience.

In this book, Chittister tackles the rather complex subject of the Ten Commandments but does so in a way that is tremendously life-giving. She certainly enabled me to see and understand the Ten Commandments in a way that I had never before. Throughout this relatively short book (around 150 pages), Chittister continually returns to the issue of what the Ten Commandments are and are not; for example, that they are about "praise, human responsibility, justice, creation, the value of life, the nature of relationships, honesty, veracity, desire, and simplicity of life."

Ultimately, the Ten Commandments are not so much about restrictions; as they are an “adventure in human growth.” This is why Chittister believes we should not be so much convicted by them as we should be transformed by them. Her subtitle for this book is “laws of the heart,” and she manages to find a tremendously helpful spiritual practice for each of the ten: reflection, respect, remembrance, caring, life, commitment, sharing, speech, self-control, and assurance.

Chittister looks at each of the commandments in three parts: firstly, an investigation of the historical understanding; secondly, the situations to which the commandment applies today; and finally she also includes reflection statements for personal consideration as we try to live out our own “adventures in human growth.”

Typically, Chittister includes some wonderful stories that grip your attention, and also plenty of memorable quotations that stick and resonate with both your mind and spirit in a wonderful way. I particularly enjoyed her chapter on not taking the name of God in vain, for here Chittister reminds us that this Commandment is by no means about simple swearing, but rather about the human tendency to take God’s name and blithely attach it to our own viewpoints and opinions. She challenges the church deeply on this issue; that we far too easily and carelessly use God’s name to back up personal viewpoints that are often only used to exclude and hurt other human beings.

Chittister writes: "When we use the name of God to demean or diminish any other human being, it is not they whose merits we measure. It is ourselves. And in public. How embarrassing."

I have mentioned only one, but I guarantee you that Chittister’s three pronged treatment of each Commandment will bring fresh life to your own faith. Too often, Christians allow the Ten Commandments to fade into relative spiritual obscurity in their personal journeys because they are not too sure exactly what to do with them, other than to do their best to keep them. This book forges a way forward in this regard, reminding us to keep the Commandments not just as rules in a book, but rather as “laws of the heart” that will breathe life, growth, hope and compassion into the way we view ourselves and others. With this in mind, the book concludes with Chittister's assessment of the Two Great Commandments of Love. Here she makes a powerful case for measuring our spiritual development in terms of these laws of the heart.

I heartily recommend this book. In fact, I finished it with a deep sigh of satisfaction on a plane in between Cape Town and Durban, and then promptly left it behind. So if you ever happen to find my copy floating around an airport somewhere, please call me with it (after you have read it of course!)

The Ten Commandments - Laws of the Heart is written by Joan Chittister and published by Orbis Books.

Book Review: The Hour That Changes Everything - How worship forms us into the people God wants us to be

John van der Laar has over three decades of experience in leading worship and uses every moment of this vast experience to craft together a book which really should be required reading, not only for all pastors and worship leaders, but for every Christ follower who seeks to engage in worship more fully and open-heartedly.

John challenges two popular misinterpretations of worship: Firstly, the consumerist version which sees worship as a time to ‘fill me up,’ and secondly our common failure to grasp hold of the truth that acts of corporate worship should fundamentally change who we are as individuals. In other words, our acts of worship should result in us becoming more like the people God originally created us to be, centring our selves upon what matters to God most in terms of mission, compassion and justice. As John says the way we worship should define the way we live, and that the result of the act of worship should be “that we find ourselves automatically living in a Cross-carrying, Christ-following, contributing and compassionate way, because we have encountered the crucified, selfless, eternally-loving Christ in our worship, and we are becoming a little more like this Jesus each day.”

John continually highlights the primacy of the Church’s worship service as being the “fountainhead” from which this kind of life and ministry can flow, and states that “the worship service is at the very heart of the Church’s mission, identity and work of spiritual formation.” All of this explains the title of the book – “The HOUR that changes everything” – in that our times of corporate worship should intrinsically transform us as faithful Christ-followers, and through us the world should be changed for the better.

As a structural framework for this book, John uses William Temple’s famous quote: “To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.” John convincingly argues that these words can be used as a very helpful pathway between the Scriptures and Christian thinking regarding worship. After initially explaining what is meant by the word ‘worship’ and how exactly worship should change who we are and how we live, John then structures the rest of the book around the five particular statements in Temple’s quote. Chapters Three to Seven look at topics such as: “Becoming Holy,” “Becoming True,” “Becoming Beautiful,” “Becoming Loving,” and “Becoming Purposeful.” Space precludes me from going into too much detail, but these five chapters are truly excellent with each offering a great deal to think about. Personally, I felt most challenged by the chapters on ‘Truth’ and ‘Beauty’ and recommend carefully reading (and re-reading!) what John has to say here.

Since John is so concerned with the act of corporate worship being an intrinsic part of transforming worshippers into faithful Christ-followers, he devotes the entire second half of his book to assisting this process. In fact, the author makes the point that the main content of the book should be seen as a “catalyst” for the second half, which is comprised of a set of invaluable resources. Here John provides daily devotional guides, small group notes and Sunday service resources all set over a 50 day journey that are all specifically designed to aid and assist in the corporate act of worship. This is a highly effective tool that promotes the book’s central message because in wrestling with this content together, a faith community can share in the journey of more fully understanding what it means to worship God corporately, and thus also more faithfully embodying that worship in terms of living live as God designed us to.

So read this book, but even better read this book alongside others – with your church or small group. John’s book is a tool that enables us to go more deeply in understanding worship, but I suspect that journey of depth will become even more meaningful if it is done alongside others.

You can order a copy of this book from John’s website at http://sacredise.com

Note that there is a discount on bulk orders.

Book Review: Prayer - Does It Make Any Difference?

This is perhaps Philip Yancey’s best book since the acclaimed ‘What’s So Amazing About Grace?’ and ‘The Jesus I Never Knew,’ and once again, Yancey tackles a subject that is at the very heartbeat of the Christian faith – prayer.

In theory, prayer is vital to every God-follower, an opportunity to connect in an intimate way with God, but in practice many find prayer to be confusing, difficult and more than a little frustrating. In ‘Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?,’ Yancey tackles both the theory and practice of prayer in a way that only he can. He views the topic through an investigative journalist’s eyes, as he probes and challenges it, but he also wrestles with the topic as a believer who himself has faced many dry, difficult moments of prayers seemingly disappearing into thin air.

Yancey explores such questions as: •Is God listening? •Why should God care about me? •If God knows everything, what’s the point of prayer? •Why do answers to prayer seem so inconsistent and capricious? •Why does God seem sometimes close and sometimes far away? •How can I make prayer more satisfying?

All of these are very real human questions, and Yancey is courageous enough to voice them when many of us have been too afraid to speak them out loud. The result is a book that anyone and everyone who is keen to learn more about the theory AND the practice of prayer should definitely read. This book is quite an emotional read at times because Yancey so skilfully draws in personal stories and testimonies regarding the highs and lows of ordinary people’s prayer lives, and the disappointments that seem to occur for some in this regard (including his own). Yancey writes from his heart, both thoughtfully and candidly, and his gift with words means that he can shift his readers' perspective just enough to gain new insights. At the very least, Yancey manages to get his readers to think more carefully and comprehensively around deep and difficult subjects like this.

While Yancey does not even begin to pretend to have answers for all our questions regarding prayer, he does continually point back to the single most importance aspect of prayer which is our relationship with God. “I have found that the most important purpose of prayer may be to let ourselves be loved by God,” says Yancey. I could not miss the strong chord of yearning contained within Yancey’s more personal reflections, and ultimately this in itself is a reminder that prayer is a doorway which contains some of our deepest hopes and dreams.

If you have ever struggled with prayer or just want to learn more about the subject, then you will benefit greatly from reading this book.

Book Review: Sex God

Rob Bell was recently named in the top 25 of most influential Christians in the United States, and he certainly seems to gain a lot of attention for both his teaching and writing. In Bell’s first book, ‘Velvet Elvis,’ he looked at some really wide issues of faith and life, but here in his second book, he narrows that focus down to the topic of sexuality and its connection with human spirituality.

In ‘Sex God,’ Bell argues that despite the fact the church often doesn’t talk about sex, both sexuality and spirituality are fundamentally connected and so you just cannot talk about sex properly without talking about God. Similar to his preaching style, Rob Bell writes in a conversational manner, with short and often witty paragraphs, and provocative chapter titles designed to draw your attention such as “God wears lipstick,” “Sexy on the inside,” and “Leather, whips and fruit” – well, they certainly managed to gained my attention!

Throughout this book, Bell attempts to peel back the layers of why we act the way we do, and to connect our spirituality with everyday life, and our everyday life to God our Creator. Bell makes the point again and again that ‘sex’ is not an act within itself, but instead points to something much larger and more spiritual about human beings and reality.

The first part of the book argues that “our sexuality is our awareness of how profoundly we’re severed and cut off and disconnected.” Secondly, Bell says that our sexuality is “all of the ways we go about trying to reconnect.” (Both quotes from p. 40). He deconstructs some of the very damaging myths about sexuality that our society propagates (excuse the pun), and outlines how these myths can destroy our intrinsic God-given identity. I especially enjoyed his definition of freedom (from sexual lust and more) on p. 75 where Bell states that it isn’t about being able to have what we crave, but rather freedom is being able to go without what we crave and be fine with it.

In the second half of ‘Sex God,’ Bell also deals with the concept of marriage and says that, “The point of marriage isn’t marriage. It’s a picture.” Bell points to the deeper context of sex and marriage as mission. Dealing with words like submission, headship and sacrifice, Bell scales the redemptive beauty of the wedding gospel found in Ephesians 5. The vulnerability of marriage can be a little scary - “Being naked is terrifying,” Bell writes, but our desire for someone to accept us no matter what speaks to a deeper need, a need for the unconditional love of God; a love that’s worth the risk. In these chapters Bell also handles the hoary question of “submission in marriage,” and the book is worth reading for his thoughts on this alone.

Don’t make the mistake, however, of thinking this book is only for married couples. Bell attempts to deal with the full scope of sexuality as an expression of human hunger for intimacy with ‘something more and someone else.’ ‘Sex God’ is a thoroughly enjoyable beginning primer on sex, marriage, and God, and is written in a charmingly simple manner. I might disagree with a few things he says here and there, but on the whole this is an excellent read.

Book Review: Surprised By Hope

N.T. (Tom) Wright is respected around the globe as one of today’s foremost Biblical scholars. Not only is he highly appreciated in academic circles, but Wright is also a ‘fan-favourite’ amongst many of the average church-going crowd. This is because he manages to combine excellent Biblical scholarship with a compelling writing style that is accessible by your normal reader.

In “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church,” Wright has put together an impactful and far-reaching work that should be read by every Christian old enough to pick up a book. “Surprised by Hope” addresses what to Wright, is the two-sided coin of Christian hope. The first hope is what we can expect as Christ-followers before our bodily death, while the second kind of hope addresses what happens after we die. Wright argues that these two aspects of hope should never be understood separately, and that it is only in understanding Biblical Christian hope in all its fullness that we can expect to faithfully fulfil the mission of the Church.

Wright’s book is quite frankly, brilliant. He exposes as false many of the popularist Christian versions of the afterlife such as that heaven will be a time of disembodied, eternal bliss spent amongst the clouds and angels of heaven. Wright shows how this type of thinking has more in common with Greek philosophy than Scriptural teaching. Wright also forcefully argues against the dualism that is inherent in so much of our spiritual thinking that regards physicality and the material aspects of life as inferior. Wright depicts how the New Testament vision includes the redemption of not only our physical bodies but also of all Creation itself.

As Wright himself says, “This book addresses two questions…First, what is the ultimate Christian hope? Second, what hope is there for change, rescue, transformation, new possibilities within the world in the present? And the main answer can be put like this. As long as we see ‘Christian hope’ in terms of ‘going to heaven,’ of a ’salvation’ which is essentially away from this world, the two questions are bound to appear unrelated…But if the ‘Christian hope’ is for God’s new creation, for ‘new heavens and new earth’ – and of that hope has already come to life in Jesus of Nazareth – then there is every reason to join the two questions together. And if that is so, we find that answering the one is also answering the other.”

Wright then spends the rest of his book practically showing how embracing this kind of hope will dramatically impact the mission of the Church. Here he focuses a lot on the Kingdom and the Church, and he manages to powerfully flesh out the dramatic points concerning Christian hope he makes in the first half of the book. I cannot recommend this book more highly! Don’t be frightened away because it seems a little heavy because the great importance of this topic means that any effort in reading it, is well worth it. It wouldn’t be a case of hyperbole if I said the Church NEEDS its Christians to be reading this exact kind of book.

Book Review: The Illustrated Guide to Bible Customs and Curiosities

Why did Bible people wash each other's feet? What was wrong with Leah's "tender eyes"? Why were the Israelites forbidden to boil a young goat in its mother's milk? What did Jesus mean about His "yoke" being "easy"? The Bible, in particular the Old Testament, is filled with accounts of strange practices and confusing stories like these. While the ancient Israelites understood their meaning, modern readers find many of them quite puzzling.

This is what this wonderful little book is all about. The Illustrated Guide to Bible Customs and Curiosities is written as a companion to the Bible and will be especially helpful to those who find their reading of the Bible somewhat stymied by its more perplexing stories. This guide will not only clear up any confusion but also open up whole new exciting worlds for you as you are brought deeper into Scripture by better understanding the customs and practices of the cultures and contexts it describes.

More than 750 clear, concise and orderly entries are included, covering every book of the Bible in order. Full-color illustrations as well as sidebars and photographs enhance the text, making The Illustrated Guide to Bible Customs and Curiosities both informative and entertaining.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to make their Bible reading more meaningful.

The Illustrated Guide to Bible Customs and Curiosities is written by George W. Knight, and published by Barbour Publishing.

Book Review: Knowing Christ Today - Why we can trust spiritual knowledge

Just before I read this book I was warned that it was rather heavy going, and the author himself agrees with this assessment when he states in the introduction that it is a bit of a mental workout. Whatever you do, don’t let that stop you from reading this book because it is well worth any and all effort. Willard does not apologise for making us concentrate a little, and neither should he. In Dallas Willard, the Christian faith is gifted with a clear thinker who is not only able to intelligently dialogue with some of the dominant modern philosophies that are opposed to Christian thought, but also to challenge them to the core.

Willard sets out to do exactly this in ‘Knowing Christ Today,’ by throwing down the gauntlet to those in both the secular and religious spheres who assert that it is not possible to know Christian truths. The core thesis of ‘Knowing Christ Today’ is that it IS possible for knowledge and faith to support each other, and indeed that rational and reasoned knowledge of Christ and what Christ proclaimed is essential for healthy, balanced faith. Willard argues that the “standard of knowledge is truth and proper evidence” and he then leads his readers through various proofs for God’s existence; the resurrection of Christ, God’s continued involvement in daily life and then the logical possibility of vibrant spiritual practice centred on an “interactive life with Christ.”

Each chapter deals with compelling questions such as, "What is real?" "Who is good? and "How does one become good?" Willard writes with keen understanding and compelling conviction, and here his skills as a professor at the University of Southern California's School of Philosophy, as well as his own wide reading of various theologians, sociologists and philosophers are clearly evident. Each chapter ends with helpful questions which could easily be used in Bible studies or small groups.

I wholeheartedly recommend reading this book, but don’t just take my word for it, rather hear what some well known Christian thinkers have to say about it:

"The Knowledge of Faith" may not be an easy read, but it is a must read. It is for your life.” (Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline).

“This is clear, lucid thinking about what matters most, as is desperately needed today. Only Dallas Willard could have written this, but I don’t know anyone who doesn’t need to read it.” (John Ortberg, pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, author of The Life You've Always Wanted).

“A spiritual defense of the proposition that faith and reason are not contradictory.” Peter L. Berger, Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, Boston University).