a few words, Church, indian metal, and Book Recommendations of 2007

a)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

b)

Some of you know I care a lot about the Church. I think the only kind of Christians who aren’t serving, attending, and sharing their lives with others in a Church are disobedient.

That’s been a bit of a problem this year for me. We definitely go to Church, but the last week was difficult. Its kinda lame. Because it was “advent”, we didn’t have sermons, we had presentations on the Christmas traditions of different countries.

As inspiring as it is to know that in India, New Zealand, and Korea they all eat lots of food (shocking…), I’d prefer to hear the Word of God heralded. Anyways, that combined with the fact that sometimes singing Christmas carols sometimes seems more like a nice Christmas tradition than a time of Praise has made my enthusiasm for my Church here much lower.

Whattaya do? As I thought about it, I remembered reading Stop Dating Your Church and hearing other people talk about commitment to a Church. I remembered that a Church is a family and a community.

In New Testament times, if you were in Philippi and didn’t like the food they were serving at the Lord’s Table or weren’t too hot on the Spiritual Song selection going on, you couldn’t just jump ship and go to Philippi Presbyterian. There was only one deal in town. Commitment to a Church means sticking together, not about going to be entertained and served, no matter what kind of Spiritual language we try to use to make it sound less selfish (get fed, meet my Worship needs).

Today was Sunday, and we often do this really long prayer thing... in my pride, I thought of how easily I would be able to reform this practice to make it more orderly and edifying, and less awkward and long were I in charge. I knew I needed to pray for humility and a God-honouring attitude on Sunday mornings.

c)

HOWEVER, last week at Church there was a Christian-Tamil-Metal band that played a few songs at Church. SOOOOO good.

d)

Another year has come and gone, and I have read a bunch of books. I’m gonna recommend some – these are not ones that were just great for me, but ones that I think are accessible to most Christians.

First:

John Piper

I planned on reading two Piper books this year. I read four. Piper sometimes jokes (or the Piper-equivalent of joking) that all his books are about the same thing. That’s not true – I’ve heard and read a tonne by him and been taught by people who have heard and read a tonne by him but I’m still impressed by almost every book I read at how much insight he has. What I guess I’ll note this time - “What’s The Difference” which is about gender roles. An extremely careful work, this helped me better understand the difference between the roles of men and women.

- Knowing God by JI Packer

If 400 pages of meditation on the character of God does not sound like fun to you, its not that you are a bad Christian, its that you are missing out on some of the most transcendent experiences of beauty this side of eternity. Read this book, pray that God will open the eyes of your heart, and you may just encounter the Living God

- Christ my Mediator by CJ Mahaney

Maybe a little easier to swallow, this is a real short, readable reflection on the Cross and its implications for our lives. The Christian life never moves away from a need for a deeper understanding of the Cross, and CJ Mahaney is a great guy to learn that from.

- Sex isn't the Problem Lust Is by Josh Harris

Its been said of another book on this topic, “it’s like dragging your mind through the mud”. This book isn’t –its pg, easy to read, honest, and incredibly God-centered. Harris is underrated and unfortunately stuck as the “Kissed Dating Goodbye” guy. This isn’t just an attempt to cash in on his previous success, this is a good book.

- Here I Stand: The Story of Martin Luther

I’ve written about this in an earlier post. Not as difficult as you’d expect, and very fair approach to examining the man’s life. And Luther’s an incredibly interesting guy.

Anyways, if you’ve still got boxing day sales to check out, get ‘em

Herpes Zoster, Who Moved My Cheese?, CD-buying Habits, and Justin Taylor

a)

Well, I’ve got shingles, which is gross skin thing that is a result of the inconvenient revenge of chicken pox. He has been waiting patiently to attack, and has decided to ruin my holiday season by returning with a renewed strength (kinda like SuperShredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II). But, its not as bad as some people get it, so I should be thankful for that.

b)

I student I’m working with here lent me a copy of “Who Moved My Cheese”. Have you read this book? Apparently its sold like a billion copies. It was on the bestseller’s list for five years straight. I think I really need to be more aware of… the world.

Anyways, I read it (it’s a real short read). Its about these mice and these mice-sized people who have to get cheese. Anyways, summary is that the people find cheese, but then get so used to the cheese being there all the time, they take it for granted, don’t realize that there is more cheese out there, and lose their ability to find cheese. It’s a metaphor for change in life. The book then tells you to bring the good news of Who Moved My Cheese to your coworkers, family, and friends. It can completely change their lives, save their marriages, and take your business to the next level.

What was most disturbing was that I enjoyed it. I think there’s something wrong with me now. A lame self-help, corporate-leadership book that is the type of stuff that used to make me gag is now an endearing reminder of common-sense life principles.

I also have a copy of seven habits of highly effective people. So sad…

c)

Been thinking about purchasing the latest FIR album, Love Diva (a Taiwanese band who are dressing up as Star Wars characters during their current Asia tour). I am torn as of lately. I now have my own money – do I spend it on cds? This was my thought process in the store:

- “hmm, this is pretty expensive” (5 bucks)
- “its kinda an ordeal to bring it to the desk and pay for it….”
- “but I shouldn’t be cheap”
- “if I do plan on enjoying this music, I think it would be along with my convictions to purchase the cd”
- “but its not a cd I particularly feel a need for”
- “but then again… I don’t really need any cds”
- “maybe I should determine some kind of budget for cds”
- “I already did. I said I’d buy one a month. This is the one I want this month”
- “is that too many???”
- “should I get any?”

Anyways, if you have any thoughts on how to approach purchasing entertainment items such as cds with an attitude of good stewardship, I welcome your thoughts.

d)

A while back I listened to a talk from an even more while back by Justin Taylor (he’s with Crossway, a Christian publisher, and he used to be John Piper’s editor. He also writes and blogs) about the Emergent Church. Surprisingly, he was a pretty engaging speaker. I always thought he’d be a big nerd and unlistenable. Here are some things he said that I thought were insightful:

“I went to a secular college in Iowa. One of our feminist religion professors had a bumper sticker on her door that said ‘Question Authority’. I always wanted to just write ‘Says who?’ on top of it”

(speaking of how the emerging Church prides itself on how the quest for truth is about questioning and dialogue) “the first thing out of Satan’s mouth is not a lie but a question (Genesis 3:1)”

He also quotes this insightful thought:

“a half-truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth.” – JI Packer

Anyways, I’m not that interested in the whole Emergent Church thing, especially since I’m not in North America, but it’s an interesting talk on many levels.

My Blog, The Expansion of Adam, and Kite Runner

a)

First, you’ll note that recently I added many links on the side. This is actually because. For security reasons, I cannot have Christian favourites on my web browser. So, this is actually my favourites page.

If your blog is there, you can know you have the honour of having your blog checked weekly by Adam. However, some of you have stopped posting, or have changed your blog address, meaning I have to do approximately 67 seconds of work. I am very upset, and will not do it until a later time.

b)

Second, I am very happy to announce that I have found stuff to do besides read and listen to stuff about theology. Therefore, I hope my blog will have more topics haha.

c)

Therefore, I want to share my thoughts on the following:

I have just finished The Kite Runner, a book that I have often seen on the Top 10 rack at Chapters next to Lonely Bones, Life of Pi, and Harry Potter. A movie’s coming out about it, and I have definitely read it too late to be culturally relevant, but I thought I’d share some thoughts on it.

The author, Khaled Hosseini, writes (or the narrator, Amir, says) “I always thought clichés got a bum rap. Because, often they’re dead-on. But the aptness of the clichéd saying is overshadowed by the nature of the saying as a cliché” (182). This is a good description of Hosseini’s storytelling. He is not afraid to use every convention in the novelist’s toolbox. Most of the characters are one-dimensional. They are usually obviously good or bad. The themes are clearly drawn out, without much need for interpretation. The use of violence, both physical and emotional, is heavy-handed. Almost everything is resolved in the narrative in a neat and tidy way. And almost every character explains her/his motives and thought processes in the dialogue so that the reader doesn’t have to guess (or think about it).

HOWEVER, Umberto Eco (no, I don’t actually know who that is, but I’ve heard this quote before and thought it insightful) said, in a discussion on the movie Casablanca, that “Two cliches make us laugh but a hundred cliches moves us because we sense dimly that the cliches are talking among themselves, celebrating a reunion”. Not that I totally understand what that means, but I get the feeling that this is also true of The Kite Runner. Hosseini somehow manages to use all the aforementioned elements in a very compelling way. His narration is manipulative, but the story is so gripping that you submit to its leading. It reminds me of the movie Crash, which, though terribly didactic, still had a force that struck me in a powerful way.

That being said, I probably won’t read The Kite Runner again, just as I felt that Crash did not deserve multiple viewings. This is especially due to the book’s main theme, Hosseini’s unfortunate celebration of self-wrought redemption (“A way to be good again”). Amir lives in a perpetual state of guilt, and the narrative turns into his quest to atone for his sins. Not surprisingly, Amir is lead to Islam in the process. This naturally appeals to a North American’s sensibilities, since the redemption of the self exalts the individual and its quest for self-realization (a favourite theme of ours).

This all only points to the difference between Christianity and the world (whether it is America or Afghanistan). The God of the Bible does not ask men to atone for their own sins. God is too righteous to allow such a thing to be possible. Instead, He imputes His perfect righteousness and satisfies His own just wrath. We are then enabled to enjoy the fullness of God, not merely the trivial quest for self. Redemption is a gift, not a reward. And it is a much greater gift than the atonement of The Kite Runner.