Genesis

Genesis. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

It’s hard to even begin to discuss Genesis in just a page or two. It covers a great patch of history from the creation of the world to the death of Joseph, who brought Israel and his descendants to Egypt, where he was a high official, to save them from a famine. A lot happens in between.


A lot happens in Genesis, but three major thematic events occur: the creation, the fall of man and the God’s initiation of a plan to redeem people. The creation is described in a chapter. Man’s wonderful life with God before the fall takes up another chapter. These are important issues, but since they occurred before the problem of sin became the central problem of human life, they are presented as establishing scenes.

The fall takes up a chapter, too. Eve is deceived and believes ill of God. Adam stands by passively letting it happening and following her into sin. They broke there relationship with God and since then humanity has been a slave to sin and a victim of sin’s consequences, ultimately death.

God immediately steps in to begin to repair the relationship with man. Yes, in His justice He judges man, as in the flood of Noah’s time and other times in Genesis and since. However, Genesis also establishes God as the hero of the story who rescues people from sin and reconciles them to himself. He provides a sacrifice for Adam and Eve and covers them. This pattern repeats throughout Genesis and the Bible until it finds its ultimate expression in Jesus Christ.

In its major themes, Genesis is the establishing chapter in our enslavement to sin and God’s heroic action to free us, love us and make us part of His family. In its details, Genesis is full of interesting stories. We are introduced to several of the major people of Biblical times: Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel) and Joseph. One can get the impression that the Bible is all about these people.

The things God did in their lives reverberate through the Bible. God revealed his plan of salvation step-by-step, each time making a connection to the past as He opened up something about the future. In this way, Genesis isn’t tossed aside with the coming of Christ, but becomes part of the background and evidence for our faith in the One who completed the divine work of salvation that began as soon as we needed saving.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The Gospel of Luke
The Gospel of Mark
The Gospel of Matthew
Proverbs

What I Read (4)

Date: July 3, 2005
Title: Toxic Success
Author: Paul Pearsall
Thoughts: Pearsall advocates a life of contentment, calm and connection; sweet success as opposed to “normal” success. I have a dose of the toxic. I’d like to revisit this book sometime and see if and how my success sweetens.

Date: July 10, 2005
Title: The Five Love Languages
Author: Gary Chapman
Thoughts: I’d like to read this book again, review if my assessment of certain peoples’ love languages is correct and see how I’m doing at another time.

Date: July 30, 2005
Title: Into the Depths of God
Author: Calvin Miller
Thoughts: “The number one sin many Christians may need to confess is the sin of carrying guilt. When we carry guilt for confessed sin, we are saying that the cross was too small to cover our own sin” (quote from the book).

Date: August 7, 2005
Title: Girl, 15, Charming But Insane
Author: Sue Limb
Thoughts: I liked this book. Funny. Not too painful.

Date: August 13, 2005
Title: The Gospel of Mark (The Holy Bible, NKJV)
Thoughts: “And he looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said ‘Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother’” (Mark 3:34).

Date: August 19, 2005
Title: Steam: The Untold Story of America’s First Great Invention
Author: Andrea Sutcliffe
Thoughts: It seems to me that Fitch and Rumsey were within reach of their fortunes, and could have grasped them, if they had not been sidetracked by pursuing fame. I the fame would have come with the fortune.

Date: August 26, 2005
Title: The Feud that Sparked the Renaissance
Author: Paul Robert Walker
Thoughts: Another book of rivalry. A nicer story, though, because these men continued to master and improve their work in the midst of their rivalry. The new fame came more from excellent work than from grand claims, though they made grand claims, too.

Other parts of What I Read:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Romans

Romans. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.


Paul wrote this letter to the church at Rome around A.D. 57 and expressed his desire to visit them. In the meantime, he gave them much to consider.

I think Romans is a very important book of the Bible, one that Christians would do well to read carefully. This is because Paul lays out the fullness of Christ’s atoning work and what it means for the way Christians can and should live more thoroughly than possibly any other single book. He also argues that Christ fulfilled the plan of God to reconcile with man that had been in the works from the beginning, drawing heavily on the Old Testament.

Paul may have been uniquely prepared to write this book. He was Jewish, a Pharisee, a zealot and, prior to his conversion, a persecutor of the church. (Paul talked and wrote about his early life and conversion regularly. A nice summary form his address to Agrippa in appears in the 26th chapter of Acts, though it is addressed elsewhere in Acts and his epistles.) Later, the leaders of the church appointed him to serve as a missionary to the Gentiles. Paul came to this letter steeped in the Jewish scripture and tradition, longing to see them experience salvation in Christ and he had, and committed to his calling to carry the Gospel to the Gentiles.

After the introductory matters, Paul lays out the foundations of Christianity going back to the Old Testament. A summary of the major points follow.

-The Universality of Sin. We’ve all sinned, done wrong, and deserve the judgment of God against us. Whether we’re a Jew, a Gentile, or anything else, we’re all in the same boat.

-The Primacy of Faith. From the start, or at least as early as Abraham, God has chosen to have mercy on people who have faith in Him, forgive their sins, and impart to them a righteousness (right standing, merit, or goodness) that wasn’t their own. This began before the law was given to Moses (in the example of Abraham), continued during the law’s seeming primacy (from the words of David), and was completed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, who bore the punishment of our sins and gives us a new life.

-Christ Enables Us to Live in a New Way. As Christians, we can and should live in new way that is characterized by honoring God, doing good, and eschewing sin. However, God doesn’t transform us in an instant; we struggle with sinful habits and new temptations and sometimes we lose. Even so, we can have confidence through our faith in the One who saved us. God chose to love us and adopt us as His own children. We are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, i.e. God lives in us, and He step-by-step quickens us in our new life. Chapter 8 digs into this issue and many believers can read this chapter repeatedly.

Paul them moves on to other issues. One is the unbelief of the Jewish people of his day. He had hoped that his people would respond to the Gospel.

As he approaches the end of his letter, Paul touches on many practical matters of the Christian life. The include service, character, citizenship, getting along, loving and helping each other.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Acts
Genesis
The Gospels

Epic by John Eldredge

Eldredge, John. Epic: The Story God is Telling. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004.



Did you ever feel you were acting in a play or a character in a book? According to John Eldredge, you are a character in a story that is actually happening. The author and protagonist of that story is God.

The story begins with love and relationship before the beginning of time. God, the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, existed and had perfect love and relationship within him. Most stories start somewhere in the middle; there are things that have gone on before that are in the background. Even the Bible starts at the beginning of humankind, but much has happened before humans come on the scene. Eldredge believes one of the wonderful things about God’s story is that we are invited to be part of a wonderful relationship that has already been going on for a long time.

Evil also enters the scene before man. The first fall is that of angels, and of a particular angel who pridefully attempts to usurp God’s place. This enemy of God became the enemy of men, too, and by deceiving the first couple, he introduced sin and evil to all of us. At the root of this is pride and the belief that God is not as good as he claims; we need to watch out for ourselves. We go off on our own and soon fall into all kinds of trouble.

Like all epic stories, this one has a hero. The hero is God, who rescues us from the destruction we have brought on ourselves. Jesus, God the Son, is the great hero and lover of humankind. He humbled himself, gave his all, suffered torture and death to save us.

Fortunately, this story also has a happily-ever-after ending. For those who respond to God’s loving rescue, there is an eternity even better than we can imagine. This story does not end with our spirits floating in the clouds as we sing hymns on an unending Sunday morning. God’s plan is for us to be perfect men and women (with spirits and bodies) reigning eternally with him over a perfect creation. The creation that was corrupted by sin will be restored to perfection, and God is calling us to live in that world with him.

So how do we live in this story? Eldredge suggests we keep three things in mind. First, there is more to this story than meets the eye. The world we cannot see is a bigger part of reality than the world we can see. Second, we are at war with a real enemy. He is the enemy of God and he is our enemy, too. Finally, we have important roles in this story. If we are to fulfill our roles, we must be alert and believe that what we do is important.

The Holy Bible

It is hard to do the Bible justice in a few pages. In this review, I’ll only attempt to provide an outline. In particular I’ll discuss

-the major themes of the book,

-its major division, and

-the types of literature you’ll find in it.

THEMES

The primary theme of the Bible is the relationship between God and man. It’s a broken relationship. The authors of the various books address this in many ways. A couple of metaphors they use that I find particularly compelling are that of a marriage or a parent-child relationship. In these analogies, mankind is depicted as a cheating wife or a child who has run away to a destructive life. God is depicted as the faithful, loving husband or father who is reaching out to redeem, rescue and reconcile the one he loves.

God’s character is on display throughout the Bible. He is just and righteous, and his character is the foundation of morality. He also has great love and mercy. Fortunately, all of these traits are perfectly harmonized in God and shown to man in Jesus Christ. For those who have faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit works from within to recreate this character in them.

DIVISIONS

The major divisions of the Bible are the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was written before the coming of Christ. It describes the fall of mankind into sin and God’s work to reconcile mankind to Himself with a focus on how this occurs in the formation (and eventual fall) of ancient Israel. The New Testament describes the coming of Christ and the establishment of the church, which is a fulfillment of the promises of God described in the Old Testament.

The major division of the Old Testament are

-history,

-writings, and

-prophets.

The historical books describe the history of man as a moral being, beginning with the fall into sin, and the God’s plan to save man worked out over time. As this plan unfolds, the history increasingly focuses on the Israelite kingdom. The writing are a set of poetic books. The prophets focus on a period of time leading to the ultimate decline of ancient Israel and predict the coming for Christ.

The New Testament can be roughly divided into

-the gospels, and

-the epistles.

The gospels describe the life of Christ and (in the related book of Acts) the establishment of the church. The epistles are message to the church that often deal with the practicalities of living the life Christ called his believers to live.

TYPES OF LITERATURE

The Bible is an assembly of many books, and there are many types of literature in each book. While the highly symbolic language of parts of the Bible get a lot of attention in some circles, most of it is written in a straightforward style. For instance, a lot of the Old Testament is historical narrative and a lot of the New Testament is letters from the apostles to the churches. Poetry is also commonly used. When reading the Bible, it’s important to know if the part your reading is a narration of events, a parable, a poem, or some other literary form.

The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Pascal's Wager by James A. Connor

Blaise Pascal had a great impact on mathematics. He laid the foundations of our mathematical understanding of probability. A computer programming language was named for him.

Pascal was also a deeply religious man and philosopher. His book Pensées is read as a devotional by many Christians. His argument that the belief in God is rational is widely known.

James A. Connor takes the name of that argument for the name of his biography of the man, Pascal’s Wager. Connor considers both Pascal’s life in science and math and his religious convictions.

For many, there is no conflict in scientific study and religious devotion, but there was for Pascal. He was a Jansenist, though somewhat at odds with the leaders of the movement because of his interests in science and philosophy. The Jansenists were deeply concerned with sin and living a life of penitence; to pursue anything else was to embrace worldliness. Pascal loved the discoveries he made by reason and experiment, but he also longed for a life of purity and closeness to God.

Pascal was seen as a bit of a mathematical prodigy, especially in his youth when his father led a secular life by the standards of the day. He published a pamphlet on conic sections when he was 16 years old. He invented a calculating machine, the Pascaline, when he was 19. He was still fairly young by modern standards when he developed a theory of probability in a series of letter he exchanged with Pierre Fermat.

He had a mystical experience in 1654 that changed his focus in life. He told know one about it, but wrote a note about it that he kept pinned in his coat to carry with him the rest of his life. The note was discovered by his nephew shortly after his death.

After his experience, he devoted more of his time to supporting Jansenism, which his entire family had come to follow, especially his sister, Jacqueline, a nun. Jansenists were in conflict with other Catholics over their views on original sin and election, especially with the Jesuits. Pascal became an apologist for Jansenism, and especially mocked the Jesuits in The Provincial Letters.

Politics and religion were deeply linked in 17^th Century France, and the conflict between Pascal’s sect and the wider French Catholic church became a conflict with Louis XIV. He felt that the Jansenist leaders capitulated to the king and the Jesuits, which brought him into conflict with them as well.

Though religious debates had been part of his entire life, this heating up of the conflict to such a level occurred toward the end of his life. He expressed his devotion to God in self-imposed poverty and care for the poor; which in one case took the form of establishing the first public transportation system. He did not abandon math, though, and published a paper on the cycloid as well. He had been sick most of his life and passed away in 1662 at the age of 39.

Connor’s book is approachable for most readers. Though Pascal’s fame today probably rests more on his accomplishments as a mathematician, Connor shows how his life was shaped by his religion and both the religious and secular traditions of his time (Connor is a former Jesuit priest).

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Chance by Amir Aczel

The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow

How Not to Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg

The Language of God by Francis S. Collins

On a Grander Scale by Lisa Jardine

The Unfinished Game by Keith Devlin

Connor, James A. Pascal’s Wager: The Man Who Played Dice with God. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006.

Old Testament History

The historical books of the Old Testament (the first 17 books in the typical organization of Christian Bibles) tell the story of the rise and fall of the Israelite nation. The big chunks of history are organized in this manner:

1- Founding the nation and receiving the Law (the Pentateuch, which includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy),

--The conquest and early settlement of Canaan (Joshua and Judges),

3-The early roots of a kingdom in Israel (Ruth and I Samuel),

4-The Israelite Kingdom (II Samuel, I and II Kings, I and II Chronicles), and

5-The end of captivity and rebuilding of Jerusalem (Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther).

The books are not organized in a strictly chronological order. In addition, there are overlaps and gaps.

A theme that runs through the books is the active engagement of God. He is engaged in all of His creation, and particularly in the history of the Israelite nation. He called them out to be His people, he caused them to rise and prosper as a nation, and when they turned away from them, He brought them low.

Another theme in these books is the importance of moral leadership. When the nation had morally upright leaders, the people tended to also be morally upright. When the leaders were selfish, greedy, lustful, and following false gods, the people followed them into every kind of sin. We are strongly influenced by others, especially our leaders.

The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN:  Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Keeping a Journal You Love by Sheila Bender

Bender, Sheila. Keeping a Journal You Love. Cincinnati: Walking Stick Press, 2001.

The starting chapter of Keeping a Journal You Love is brief and covers two subjects: the reasons people write journals and the basic mechanics journaling. Bender frames the second subject as a FAQ. The rest of the book focuses on getting the reader to practice writing.



As you might expect from a book on writing by a teacher of writing, there are many exercises. An early chapter is devoted to a group of seven exercises to get the budding journalist warmed up. A later chapter recommends list structure list of several ways to enrich a journal.

Among these exercises is anaphora, a series of sentences beginning with the same words. An example provided by Bender is the list of indictments against King George from the Declaration of Independence. I grew up in a church, so it reminds me of the rhythm of sermons.
God’s grace is a gift.
God’s grace saves us.
God’s grace redeems us.
God’s grace revives us.
God’s grace justifies us.
God’s grace imputes righteousness to us.
God’s grace abounded when our sins abounded.
God’s grace frees us from bondage to sin.
God’s grace gives us mercy.
God’s grace gives us help in our times of need.
God’s grace came through Jesus Christ.
God’s grace brings us to believe.
God’s grace we access by faith.
God’s grace makes us alive.
God’s grace gives us eternal life.
God’s grace He gives to the humble.
God’s grace is sufficient.

The main body of the book explores examples of journal entries from various writers of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. These examples illustrate various styles, techniques and subjects. After samples from each contributor and a brief discussion of their journals, Bender suggests several exercises for the reader to practice in there own journal.

Some of the contributors wrote very interesting journal entries. I found one to be boring. They were all very different in style and content. Some hardly resemble what one might expect of a journal. Fruitful journaling is as unique as the varied journalists are.

The point is not to imitate the journals of these other writers. The intent is to help people develop their own journaling style that is deeper, richer and more rewarding.

Though journaling is typically a very private matter, Bender includes and interesting chapter on journaling groups. Journaling groups vary in their practices, but some find the setting, information and discipline that comes from being in such a group helps them start, stick to and improve their journaling. Bender provides some practical tips for finding an existing group or starting your own.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Write Your Heart Out by Rebecca McClanahan

What I Read (11)

Date: February 3, 2008
Title: Changing for Good Author: James O. Prochaska, John C. Norcross & Carlo C. DiClemente
Thoughts: I would like to make some changes in my life. I thought I might end bad health habits or passivity. Now I see I have issues with distress. I know a lot of my problem behavior is rooted in distress. That may be a good place to start.

Date: March 1, 2008
Title: The Physics of Superheroes
Author: James Kakalios
Thoughts: A fund way to brush up on physics I don’t think about every day. I enjoyed the tidbits of comics history.

Date: March 30, 2008
Title: The Once and Future King Author: T. H. White
Thoughts: Sometimes funny, even silly, though very tragic and sad.
There is original sin and men are depraved, as the Bible teaches. God is doing good always and seeking people to join Him. The world needs people who will faithfully try.

Date: April 3, 2008
Title: The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril
Author: Paul Malmont
Thoughts: This was the most fun book I’ve read in quite a while.

Date: April 8, 2008
Title: Gratitude: Affirming the Good Things in Life
Author: Melody Beattie
Thoughts: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life” (quote from the book).

Date: April 27, 2008
Title: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Author: Michael Chabon
Thoughts: I heard a lot about this book being about comics and popular culture. It is more about identity. The superheroes and their alter egos are escaping the conventional to be their true selves, as the characters in the book are striving to be.

Date: May 25, 2008
Title: God Wants You to be Rich
Author: Paul Zane Pilzer
Thoughts: For some time I’ve shared the thought that the goodness of God results in abundant providence. I’m interested in the concept that technology unlocks supply for our limitless (ever changing) demand.

Other parts of What I Read:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,
Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

Epistles

Most of the New Testament is epistles, or letters, sent from church leaders to the churches.  Most of these letters were written by Paul, which are collectively known as the Pauline Letters.  The other epistle writers are James, Peter, John, and Jude.

*

The church was growing rapidly and dispersed through the nations around the Mediterranean Sea.  Both in Jerusalem and in the churches founded by missionaries or Christians fleeing persecution, there was a need for sound teaching and a way to bind them together into the larger body of Christ.  The epistles served this purpose.

The epistles cover a lot of ground.  Some of them are fairly long and heavy on instruction.  Others are short, more newsy and encouraging.  Themes that I find recurring in the epistles are: a reiteration of the Gospel emphasizing the centrality of Christ, living as a Christian with character and good relationships, and words of warning and encouragement.

Reiterating the Gospel: The Centrality of Christ

The epistles repeatedly summarize the Gospel.  We have all sinned. Christ came to atone for our sins through His death on the Cross.  His righteousness is imputed to those who receive Him.  He was resurrected, as foretold, as proof of that He was Christ and as evidence of the resurrection we will experience.

The epistle-writers vigorously defended who they knew Christ to be.  He was God (he was divine, God-the-Son, a person of the godhead).  He was incarnated; God became flesh and lived as a human being.  He died on the cross, physically dying as a man.  He was resurrected, and that resurrection was a bodily restoration and transformation, not merely a spiritual continuance.

Christian Living: Character and Relationships

Now that these Christians were saved, what did it mean for the way they lived?  This is still an important question for Christians.   We are to abandon sin and do what is right, exhibiting a Christ-like character.  That character is typified by faith, self-control, humility, and especially love.

One of the toughest problems we face in life, and one of the most important, is our relationships.  The epistle-writers address how we are to relate to each other in church, marriage, family, work, and business.

Warning and Encouragement

The early church was beset by false teachers.  These people twisted the scripture to suit their own purposes.  It has not stopped.  These letters warn us to look out for falsehood and show us how to spot it.

Even more than this, though, these letters are full of encouragement.  We are not alone; God is with us always as the Holy Spirit indwells us.  Whatever trials, temptations, or opposition we face, we can live the life God has called us to in Christ.  Not only that, the difficulties we face in ourselves and around us in this sinful world will pass, and we will be resurrected to live forever in the perfect love and peace of God.

The epistles are:

Romans     1 Corinthians     2 Corinthians

Galatians     Ephesians     Philippians

Colossians     1 Thessalonians     2 Thessalonians

1 Timothy     2 Timothy     Titus

Philemon     Hebrews     James

1 Peter     2 Peter     1 John

2 John     3 John     Jude

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Second Timothy

Second Timothy.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Paul’s second letter to his protégé Timothy begins with a look back.  He connects the heritage he received, no specifically mentioning his Jewish heritage but I think implying it, to the Christian heritage Timothy received from believing family members.

The encouragement continues in the following paragraphs.  Specifically, he urges Timothy to remember what Jesus Christ did to save them (and all Christians) and be faithful to the Gospel.  Not only that, Timothy was called to preach the Gospel and to show others how to do the same.  He was to be a pastor, and like Paul, a pastor to pastors.

Diligence and focus are needed in a pastor, or really any Christian.  There are many distractions and temptations.  Even if one doesn’t fall into heinous sin, it is easy to slip into fruitless disputes and worldly worries.  How can Christians stand up for the truth in the face of opposition when they are debating minutia with their brothers or exhibiting character that is no better than anyone else’s?

Timothy was faithful, though.  He was living worthy of his calling and Paul wanted him to continue.

Paul was anticipating the end of his life as he wrote this letter.  He asked Timothy to come to him, bringing a few things and a few friends.  The old apostle had few friends around to help him, but he continued to trust in God.

Paul also wrote

Colossians

First Corinthians

First Timothy

Galatians

Philippians
Romans
Second Corinthians

Second Thessalonians

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A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

L’Engle, Madeleine.  A Wrinkle in Time.  1962.  New York: Laurel-Leaf, 1976.

Though I review all the nonfiction books I read, I write about only a little about fiction.  Sometimes a fiction book hits so many areas of interest to me that I want to write about it.  A Wrinkle in Time is one.  It’s a classic, award-winning novel.  It’s a children’s or young adult book, and one is never too old for a good kid’s book.  It’s science fiction.  It’s informed by author Madeleine L’Engle’s Christian faith.

Margaret (Meg) Murphy is an awkward girl who doesn’t fit in.  Her family is unusual, too.  Her father is missing, though Meg stubbornly clings to hope that he will come home.  Her mother is a scientists, caring but somewhat unconventional.  Two of her brothers, twins, are pretty normal, if a little rough, and the third, the youngest, is a genius and most people find him unpleasantly odd.

Meg, her genius baby brother Charles Wallace and Calvin O’Keefe (an older, popular boy who keeps his oddness better wrapped) are pulled into an adventure in space by three creatures, seeming witches, aliens and more.  On another planet, they rescue Meg’s father and almost succumb to the powerful mind that rules the planet.  It is the things Meg dislikes most about herself that allows her to prevail.

A Wrinkle in Time is an adventure.  It is also a parable.  Part of the message is Christian.  The universe is God’s creation for His glory, and good creatures acknowledge and worship Him.  Yet there is evil, and Earth is infected with it.  Love overcomes evil.

It is tempting to see a political message.  On the world Meg visits, Camazotz, a single being rules all, taking responsibility for every decision, instilling uniformity so that everybody has the same things.  It is not hard to see this as a parallel to a communist state, where the government controls and distributes all resources.  It sounds like the nanny state as well, where people are relieved of the responsibilities of caring for themselves and making their own decisions.

It is this last point that I think is important to L’Engle whether or not is has political implications.  We are made to be individuals, unique and special, and we cannot be separated from responsibility for ourselves and our decisions and still have real joy, even if we have everything we seem to need.  When the “aunts” give gifts to the adventurers to prepare them for their trial, they give Meg her faults.  As Christians, we believe that everyone is uniquely made by God.  Our faults, shortcomings, imperfections make us needy of God’s grace, and His grace abounds in us to His glory.

In addition, IT, the mind-lord of Camazotz, is a finite being with finite imagination, thus the uniformity of the planet IT rules.  God is infinite, and His creation has enormous variety, abundance, scope and beauty beyond your imagination.  We can love, serve, and worship one God, we can all be imitators of Christ, and still each be a unique individual.

Before closing, I’d like to mention another Christian sci-fi classic, The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis.  There are some parallels between the works.  For instance, both L’Engle and Lewis, in Out of the Silent Planet, depict Earth as darkened and separated from communion with the larger universe because of the influence of human sin and the dominion of Satan.  IT, a big brain, reminds me of the Head from Lewis’ That Hideous Strength.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

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Second Thessalonians

Second Thessalonians.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Paul’s second letter to the church at Thessalonica continues the themes of the first, especially topics related to the second coming of Christ.  When Christ comes again, it will be with judgment.  Those who do not know God will be destroyed.  Those who know Him will live with Him and glorify Him forever.

It is tempting to say He will destroy the wicked.  However, all of us are wicked.  We’ve all sinned. Some know God.  They have faith in Christ.  God rescues these people, gives them a new life and transforms their character.  It is good to remember that if there is any good is us, it is the work of God, and if we have any real hope, it is in the mercy of God.

Paul also teaches about the antichrist in this book, though use the terms “man of sin,” “son of perdition” and “lawless” one.  This person will claim to be divine and call people to worship him.  He will deceive people with displays of power.  People who do not know God will believe him.

These teachings aren’t intended to scare Christians or make them obsess about end times.  God is in control of when and how Jesus Christ will return and His judgment on the world.

Instead, we should live gratefully because we are saved.  We should hold tight to the truth we received and not let ourselves be deceived by all kinds of teachers who want to draw followers to themselves instead of glorifying God.  We should work productively, live peaceably, and do good works until Christ returns or as long as we live.  We honor God who loves us, our rescuer, with such a life of gratitude and trust.

Paul also wrote

Colossians

First Corinthians

Galatians

Philippians
Romans
Second Corinthians

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It's Not About Me by Max Lucado

Many of our problems arrive from our focus on us. The cure, which leads to fulfillment, is a life focused on Christ. Max Lucado makes the case for this idea in his book It’s Not About Me.

Everything and everyone was made to reveal the glory of God. God is holy. It is hard to imagine how higher and more is God than anything else is, and He made everything else. Contact with God changes us and we become holy, different and set apart, too. When Moses was given a glimpse of God, his face shown so that people were afraid to look at him.

We are to shine, too, as mirrors that reflect the glory of God. We have reason to praise Him. He is our stable foundation; He never changes though all else does. He saved us entirely for His own purposes and pleasure even though we could never deserve it. He redeems our suffering, and our fleeting suffering for His name’s sake will be rewarded with eternal blessing. If we have success in life, it is His gift. Even our bodies are His and make to glorify Him, so it important for us to take care of our bodies and avoid sin.

I found a personal connection to one of the stories recounted by Lucado. As a Texan, he was aware of the collapse of the Queen Isabella Causeway on September 15, 2001,when it was struck by a barge. I was vacationing nearby in Corpus Christi at the time. One of my in-laws reacted in fear, assuming my wife and I must have been trapped, or worse killed (even though the bridge collapsed in the middle of the night), and frantically called anyone in the family or at work who might have some contact with us. A close relative of mine shrugged it off, saying a call from the Texas Highway Patrol would come if something happened to us. One reacted with fear (surely, something was wrong), one reacted with faith (we were in God’s hands, whatever happened).

You might note that this happened only days after terrorists crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center towers in New York. On the first day of that vacation, we were struck by another car under strange circumstances in Arkansas, leaving us stuck in Morrilton; we ended up skipping a planned stop at Hot Springs. The collapsing bridge was the last straw, we were too heartsick to enjoy our vacation and we came home early.

Even after all that, we were grateful. We were alive and well when so many others were not. We had our family with us when others did not. We knew God was with us, comforting us, and that even if the worst had happened to us, we would be with Him, which is the thing our hearts long for.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Into the Depths of God by Calvin Miller

Life's Not Fair, but God is Good by Robert H. Schuller

Stop Whining, Start Living by Dr. Laura

Walking with God by John Eldredge

I previously posted a review of this book here->.

Lucado, Max. It’s Not About Me. Nashville, TN: Integrity, 2004.

Leviticus

Leviticus. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982. Leviticus continues the story of the Israelite nation from Genesis and Exodus. God took the Israelites out of oppression in Egypt, as describe in Exodus, and preparing them to be a nation when He leads them into a new land. Characteristics of the Israelite nation were to be its religion and its government. Leviticus deals with the religious and civil laws that were mostly administered by the Levites, a clan that God set aside for His service. In particular, Aaron and his descendents, part of the clan of Levi, were set aside for the priestly duties that involved the closest proximity to God. Much of Leviticus deals with the religious ceremonies the Israelites were to observe, especially the role and conduct of the priests in these ceremonies. The priests served as intermediaries between God and His people. The priests were set apart for God and were to be treated as holy, as was everything set apart for God. The people made various types of offerings as an acknowledgment of their sinfulness and their debt to God, who accepted their sacrifices to atone for their sins. The death and blood of animals substituted for the loss of life that was the consequence of sin. In Christianity, the understanding is that these sacrifices foreshadowed the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which is sufficient for the sins of all people in all times. Further, Jesus fulfills the priestly role of intermediary and advocate before God-the-Father. Because Jesus is God, He and His Father are one, Christians enjoy a direct relationship with God. Some of the chapters of Leviticus deal with moral and civil laws. These laws involve property, farming and husbandry, marriage, self-care, foreigners, protection of life, and other matters. We see embodied in these laws a principle that is emphasized throughout the Bible. Kindness to others and generosity to the needy are prized behaviors. God called the Israelites to love their neighbors. They were to pay workers promptly and not charge excessive interest on loans, even leave food in their fields for the poor to collect. They were to make gifts and loans to the poor. They were to care for widow and orphans, especially their relatives. An extraordinary requirement was that Israelites were to treat law-abiding foreigners who dwelt among them with the same love, respect, and protection of law as natives. As we see in the preceding books, God is active in Leviticus. Moses is God’s prophet and Aaron is His priest, but God is the motivating force and active agent. Leviticus, like the rest of the Bible, doesn’t depict man reaching out to God; it shows God reaching out to man. If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in Genesis The Gospels Exodus