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
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query grace. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query grace. Sort by date Show all posts
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Monday, January 9, 2012
Galatians
Galatians. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
The church at Galatia was another founded among the Gentiles by Paul. The apostle kept up with the churches, revisiting and corresponding with them, and sent to them letters, like the one we call Galatians, to encourage and correct his fellow believers.
As with his other letters, Paul encouraged the church to stay true to the Gospel as they were taught by faithful messengers, firstly himself. There were people and sects who were trying to reshape Christianity in their own fashion. The same is true today. Paul defended the received faith.
The particular group active in Galatia are called Judaizers. They sought to institute Mosaic Law in the church, especially amongst the new Gentile believers. This included all manner of laws, ceremonies and traditions. The primary practice, symbolic of them all, was circumcision.
To strengthen their case, the Judaizers attempted to undermine Paul. Paul devoted part of his letter to defending his authority and teachings. The main point is this: Paul taught the same Gospel that the other apostles taught and he taught with the approval of the other apostles, though he did not necessarily need it. In addition, the point on circumcision in particular was long settled among the apostles.
As far as I know, advocates of circumcision for religious purpose aren’t active in or around the church today. There are major religions that have borrowed superficially from Christianity to build religions of laws that depart from the Gospel of grace. The Jehovah’s Witnesses and Latter Day Saints come to mind, though they both depart from orthodox Christianity on almost every major point. Even working within the church are those who teach some kind of law or ethic that binds men with hardly a meaningful mention of the liberating grace of God.
Paul sets up this contrast in his letter: law or grace. It depends on us or it depends on God. God’s law is perfect, as is His justice. Imperfect and sinful Christians can’t keep even a portion of the law and can’t compare to the spotless character of God. A person who looks to the law will only find himself condemned by it. The purpose of the law is to push us to the grace and mercy of God, which is revealed in full in Jesus Christ.
The hymn “Jesus Paid it All” sums up the idea of grace. Jesus fulfilled the law, so in Him, the faithful are no longer condemned by the law, but they are made righteous in God’s sight. In Jesus, we are remade as children of God and given God’s Spirit. As children and heirs of God’s, we are not bound, constrained, and coerced by laws. Instead, we are free to live a new life, quickened by a new Spirit, and having faith in the unshakable work of God and not our flimsy works under the law.
Though the Judaizers attempted to undermine Paul’s teaching as aberrant, he shows himself to be both true to the Gospel and a master of scripture. His arguments are substantially founded on exposition of the Old Testament.
Paul presents the question to the church. If we can trust God, having faith in Christ that He has worked out everything to save us from the destruction of sin and gave us a new life of liberty, why on Earth would we trust ourselves to somehow earn God’s approval by submitting ourselves to laws we don’t keep except though self-delusion? If we truly believe the Gospel, how could anything else turn our heads?
Paul also wrote
First Corinthians
Romans
Second Corinthians
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Acts
Genesis
The Gospels
The Pentateuch
Google
The church at Galatia was another founded among the Gentiles by Paul. The apostle kept up with the churches, revisiting and corresponding with them, and sent to them letters, like the one we call Galatians, to encourage and correct his fellow believers.
As with his other letters, Paul encouraged the church to stay true to the Gospel as they were taught by faithful messengers, firstly himself. There were people and sects who were trying to reshape Christianity in their own fashion. The same is true today. Paul defended the received faith.
The particular group active in Galatia are called Judaizers. They sought to institute Mosaic Law in the church, especially amongst the new Gentile believers. This included all manner of laws, ceremonies and traditions. The primary practice, symbolic of them all, was circumcision.
To strengthen their case, the Judaizers attempted to undermine Paul. Paul devoted part of his letter to defending his authority and teachings. The main point is this: Paul taught the same Gospel that the other apostles taught and he taught with the approval of the other apostles, though he did not necessarily need it. In addition, the point on circumcision in particular was long settled among the apostles.
As far as I know, advocates of circumcision for religious purpose aren’t active in or around the church today. There are major religions that have borrowed superficially from Christianity to build religions of laws that depart from the Gospel of grace. The Jehovah’s Witnesses and Latter Day Saints come to mind, though they both depart from orthodox Christianity on almost every major point. Even working within the church are those who teach some kind of law or ethic that binds men with hardly a meaningful mention of the liberating grace of God.
Paul sets up this contrast in his letter: law or grace. It depends on us or it depends on God. God’s law is perfect, as is His justice. Imperfect and sinful Christians can’t keep even a portion of the law and can’t compare to the spotless character of God. A person who looks to the law will only find himself condemned by it. The purpose of the law is to push us to the grace and mercy of God, which is revealed in full in Jesus Christ.
The hymn “Jesus Paid it All” sums up the idea of grace. Jesus fulfilled the law, so in Him, the faithful are no longer condemned by the law, but they are made righteous in God’s sight. In Jesus, we are remade as children of God and given God’s Spirit. As children and heirs of God’s, we are not bound, constrained, and coerced by laws. Instead, we are free to live a new life, quickened by a new Spirit, and having faith in the unshakable work of God and not our flimsy works under the law.
Though the Judaizers attempted to undermine Paul’s teaching as aberrant, he shows himself to be both true to the Gospel and a master of scripture. His arguments are substantially founded on exposition of the Old Testament.
Paul presents the question to the church. If we can trust God, having faith in Christ that He has worked out everything to save us from the destruction of sin and gave us a new life of liberty, why on Earth would we trust ourselves to somehow earn God’s approval by submitting ourselves to laws we don’t keep except though self-delusion? If we truly believe the Gospel, how could anything else turn our heads?
Paul also wrote
First Corinthians
Romans
Second Corinthians
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Acts
Genesis
The Gospels
The Pentateuch
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Ephesians
Ephesians. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus from prison. Some think this letter may have been a circular intended for several churches because of the lack of personal greetings that are common in Paul’s other epistles. His theme is far from imprisonment. He writes of liberty, unity, and harmony.
In other letter, the apostle to the Gentiles addresses the error of some Jewish converts that one must convert to Judaism and keep the law and traditions of that religion as part of converting to Christianity. Paul reiterates that the law can only condemn sinful people who don’t keep in every regard; we are dependent on the grace of God, executed in Christ, if we want to be rescued from death and live a new life that is pleasing to God. Freedom from the law is not a license to behave immorally; it’s a new way of living where we are governed by love instead of rules and the Holy Spirit living in us empowers us to do good instead of all the evil things that previously enslaved us.
Because all Christians are partakers of the same grace, both Jews and Gentiles, the church should be unified. It is God’s plan that we should be in relationship with our fellows in Christ, helping each other, working together, and loving one another. There may be a distinction in Jewish heritage and history, but all Christians have the same faith whatever their background.
Grace and unity in the church should be characterized by harmonious relationships. Paul addresses how Christians related to each other and in this letter he specifically addresses marriage, family, and work relationships. In relationships, Christ is our model. The way he treats us, he held nothing back and even suffered a painful, humiliating death to rescue us, should inform the way we treat others, especially those who are under our authority or vulnerable because the don’t have the protectors in life that others may have. As we love others we should also respect others, especially those God has put in our lives for our provision, protection, and upbringing.
In a nutshell, the message of Ephesians is let love rule. This is the broken, partial, conditional, imperfect love that typifies human relationships. It is the perfect, pure love of God, love we can hardly understand. It is love we firs receive from God. God living in us makes us able to share this love with others. Paul doesn’t directly refer to Jesus’ statement that the brotherhood of believers would be recognized by their love for each other, but the notion runs through the letter.
Paul also wrote
First Corinthians
Galatians (216)
Romans
Second Corinthians
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Deuteronomy
Genesis
Google
Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus from prison. Some think this letter may have been a circular intended for several churches because of the lack of personal greetings that are common in Paul’s other epistles. His theme is far from imprisonment. He writes of liberty, unity, and harmony.
In other letter, the apostle to the Gentiles addresses the error of some Jewish converts that one must convert to Judaism and keep the law and traditions of that religion as part of converting to Christianity. Paul reiterates that the law can only condemn sinful people who don’t keep in every regard; we are dependent on the grace of God, executed in Christ, if we want to be rescued from death and live a new life that is pleasing to God. Freedom from the law is not a license to behave immorally; it’s a new way of living where we are governed by love instead of rules and the Holy Spirit living in us empowers us to do good instead of all the evil things that previously enslaved us.
Because all Christians are partakers of the same grace, both Jews and Gentiles, the church should be unified. It is God’s plan that we should be in relationship with our fellows in Christ, helping each other, working together, and loving one another. There may be a distinction in Jewish heritage and history, but all Christians have the same faith whatever their background.
Grace and unity in the church should be characterized by harmonious relationships. Paul addresses how Christians related to each other and in this letter he specifically addresses marriage, family, and work relationships. In relationships, Christ is our model. The way he treats us, he held nothing back and even suffered a painful, humiliating death to rescue us, should inform the way we treat others, especially those who are under our authority or vulnerable because the don’t have the protectors in life that others may have. As we love others we should also respect others, especially those God has put in our lives for our provision, protection, and upbringing.
In a nutshell, the message of Ephesians is let love rule. This is the broken, partial, conditional, imperfect love that typifies human relationships. It is the perfect, pure love of God, love we can hardly understand. It is love we firs receive from God. God living in us makes us able to share this love with others. Paul doesn’t directly refer to Jesus’ statement that the brotherhood of believers would be recognized by their love for each other, but the notion runs through the letter.
Paul also wrote
First Corinthians
Galatians (216)
Romans
Second Corinthians
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Deuteronomy
Genesis
Friday, August 10, 2012
Just Say Thanks! by R. T. Kendall
Kendall,
R. T. Just Say Thanks! Lake Mary,
FL: Charisma House, 2005.
Google
I have written before that it is my opinion that gratitude is essential to
happiness. Our first duty is gratitude
to God. As R. T. Kendall puts it in Just Say Thanks!, “When God grants us
sovereign mercy, it ought to make us exceedingly grateful.”
Though
it is an obligation to be grateful to God, Kendall notes that God takes notice
when we express thanks. The Bible
records many expressions of people’s gratitude to God. It may be a duty that could be beneath
notice, but it seems that God delights in those who do it far beyond what a mere duty would imply.
The
first thing Christians should be thankful for is our salvation. We should be constantly praising God for all
He did for us in and by Jesus Christ to atone for our sins, to implement His
mercy and to reconcile us to Himself.
God’s grace is fundamental to the Christian life, both to bring is unto
it and to help us live it, and because that grace is a constant presence we
should be constantly grateful.
Kendall
even discusses a doctrine of gratitude, which is often called sanctification. Christians refer to two parts of our
salvation. First is justification, in
which our sins are forgiven and the righteousness of Christ is imparted to us. We are made right with God through
Christ. The second part is
sanctification, in which we are transformed over time so that we increasingly
act right and become more the kind of people we are supposed to be. Kendall describes sanctification as a process
of gratitude. If we are grateful for
what God has done for us, we will act like it by praising Him, sharing the good
news what He has done, loving Him and
showing love to people because He loves them, obeying Him and doing what is
right.
One
of the things I thing is important about gratitude that is discussed by Kendall
is that it puts things in perspective, especially when times are tough. We shouldn’t wait until everything seems good
to be thankful. We should always be
acknowledging kindnesses, mercies, answer, help and other good things; we
experience them even in the midst of trouble. In addition, Kendall wrote, “Every trial has a
built-in time scale. It will end! God will see to it.” We can be grateful that better times are
ahead, and for Christians the trials of this age will seem very brief in
comparison to eternity in God’s blessing.
Unfortunately,
gratitude does not come naturally to us.
It is something we must learn. We
must intentionally remember the good God and others have done for us. We need to rehearse the benefits that have
come our way and do it often. When we
forget, we easily become ungrateful, and I think unhappy as well.
If
you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
James
James. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson,
1982.
*
Several related themes run through James. These are trials, self-control,
practical faith,
and humility.
James begins his letter with a discussion of trials. We all have troubles. Disconcertingly, sometimes our worst problems
arise from doing the right thing. Though
it may seem like God
has abandoned us in such times, God is at work.
Facing trials with patience and
faith builds our character.
Part of a godly character is self-control. A mature Christian will discipline
himself. In particular, he will watch
what he says. It is hard to control what
we say, refraining from idle and harmful words.
It is hard to speak convincingly about the love, grace, and faithfulness
of God when you just spewed a lot of gossip, lies, and nonsense.
James writes of faith in very practical and active terms. Sermons, exultations, and moral sayings are
hollow and useless if they are not coupled with service, aid and upright
living. If we really believe the Gospel and
have call to be followers of Christ, we will
act like Christ who humbled Himself to labor with men, heal the sick, feed the
hungry, and care for the needy.
Emulating the humility or Christ is a theme of the letter in
itself. James extols believers to act
with humility and treat everyone fairly.
Wealth and position are temporary, but in our eternal relation to God
we’re all the same: each Christian is a
sinful person saved by the grace of God.
Pride is
a source of strife, people in conflict as they all try to get their own way,
but humble people trust God and can let go of strife.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Google
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Nearing Home by Billy Graham
In his 90s evangelist Billy Graham
wrote about the challenges of aging in Nearing Home. The title is a reference
to approaching death
and to looking forward to being with God and loved ones
who are already with Him in heaven.
That thread runs through the book, Graham’s focus is on living as an
old person in this time and this world. Old age can and
should be a time of purposeful
living as much as any other stage of life. This is because of as much as in
spite of the difficulties.
Graham did not shy away from the difficulties of aging. Our bodies lose
strength. Our memories
weaken. Ache, pains and illnesses
beset us. More friends
and family we have loved a long time pass away.
Graham encouraged his readers to prepare for aging and death some of
this is practical advice for handling affairs in this world. Get your finances
in order. Put documents together so your wishes will be know and followed if
you are incapacitated. Wisely consider when to retire and
what it will mean to leave the work
world you are accustomed to for something new, though possibly even more
meaningful.
Don’t let old age slip up on you. In addition to preparing for worldly
concerns, it is especially important to lay a good foundation in Christ. As Graham
put it, “God designs transitions and provides the grace to embrace what
follows.”
Older people have important parts to play. Retirement can give you the
time to be engaged in your family, church
and community
in a way you could not have pursued while working full time. You can encourage
other because you remember many times when God has demonstrated His love, faithfulness
and power in
your life. You can set an example of aging with dignity and grace, even if it
seems like no one is paying attention.
As I wrote this review of Nearing
Home, I heard of the passing of Delores
O’Riordan. In enjoyed the music
of her band, The
Cranberries, at the peak of their popularity about 20 years ago. I was
young; I had little money and few responsibilities in those days. I should have
enjoyed them more than I did. O’Riordan died at the age of 46; we were the same
age. That is too young to die in my opinion.
At any age, we may be nearer to death than we know, for the Christian
nearer home. Even if we are still young, or see ourselves as young, it is wise
to consider that an in to this life is coming, and many years of aging may come
before it. We should consider how to be ready for aging and death and how to
leave a legacy, a good example, we will want to leave.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Graham, Billy. Nearing Home:
Life, Faith, and Finishing Well. Nashville,
TN: Thomas
Nelson, 2011.
Monday, June 4, 2012
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
L’Engle, Madeleine. A
Wrinkle in Time. 1962. New
York
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
Google
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
God is able to make all grace abound toward you
And
God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all
sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
Monday, September 12, 2011
First Corinthians
First Corinthians. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
Corinth was a major commercial center for the Greeks. The church there, like churches elsewhere are too often, was fractious. To settle disputes, leaders of the Corinthian church sent a delegation to the missionary who established their church, Paul.
Sometimes you might get a sense of exasperation in reading Paul’s letter. He had hoped they would continue in the things he had taught them, growing in Christ. Instead, they were acting like children. In some ways, they were worse than children.
Paul had a lot to say to the Corinthian believers about how Christians should conduct themselves, especially in relation to their brothers in Christ. The general rule was this: love.
Love, and the corollary attributes of humility and generosity, was to be the governing principle in the church. There are many particulars Paul deals with in terms of the disputes going on in Corinth like partisanship, lawsuits , marriage, eating meat from sacrifices to idols, women in the church, and spiritual gifts. In every case, the advice was to be thoughtful and accommodating of others. It is better to inconvenience yourself for a while for the sake of a new or weak brother, drawing them into maturity of faith through love, than to assert you prerogatives and potentially hurt or alienate others, causing them to fall away or into error.
The love theme culminates in Chapter 13. This description of love is one of the most famous passages of the Bible, popular at weddings, and well worth reading.
A secondary theme of the letter is liberty. The gift of grace Christians receive from God includes great liberty. Godly character in imitation of Jesus, whose death paid for sins and whose perfect rightness was attributed to His people, was to characterize life. Christians don’t earn love, favor and forgiveness from God by their adherence to laws, customs and ceremonies (as if any of us could live perfectly), but they received His gift of forgiveness and new life. It didn’t matter how people dressed or what they ate because they had freedom in grace.
Much was permitted, but not everything was fruitful. Paul encouraged people not to flaunt their liberty, but to let love rule.
Though Christians have liberty, there remain things that are immoral and not to be practiced in the church. Liberty is not lawlessness and forgiveness is not license to sin with impunity. The church was to stand against immorality, especially among its members, and encourage each other in doing good. Paul addresses moral and doctrinal issues, especially in the later chapters of his letter.
Like other letters in the Bible, you’ll find things like you might put in your own communication: greetings, introductions, plans, schedules, instructions and other matters. In addition to instruction and wisdom, this letter opens a little window into history of the early church and the people who were involved in it.
Paul also wrote
Romans
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Acts
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
Genesis
The Gospels
Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs
Corinth was a major commercial center for the Greeks. The church there, like churches elsewhere are too often, was fractious. To settle disputes, leaders of the Corinthian church sent a delegation to the missionary who established their church, Paul.
Sometimes you might get a sense of exasperation in reading Paul’s letter. He had hoped they would continue in the things he had taught them, growing in Christ. Instead, they were acting like children. In some ways, they were worse than children.
Paul had a lot to say to the Corinthian believers about how Christians should conduct themselves, especially in relation to their brothers in Christ. The general rule was this: love.
Love, and the corollary attributes of humility and generosity, was to be the governing principle in the church. There are many particulars Paul deals with in terms of the disputes going on in Corinth like partisanship, lawsuits , marriage, eating meat from sacrifices to idols, women in the church, and spiritual gifts. In every case, the advice was to be thoughtful and accommodating of others. It is better to inconvenience yourself for a while for the sake of a new or weak brother, drawing them into maturity of faith through love, than to assert you prerogatives and potentially hurt or alienate others, causing them to fall away or into error.
The love theme culminates in Chapter 13. This description of love is one of the most famous passages of the Bible, popular at weddings, and well worth reading.
A secondary theme of the letter is liberty. The gift of grace Christians receive from God includes great liberty. Godly character in imitation of Jesus, whose death paid for sins and whose perfect rightness was attributed to His people, was to characterize life. Christians don’t earn love, favor and forgiveness from God by their adherence to laws, customs and ceremonies (as if any of us could live perfectly), but they received His gift of forgiveness and new life. It didn’t matter how people dressed or what they ate because they had freedom in grace.
Much was permitted, but not everything was fruitful. Paul encouraged people not to flaunt their liberty, but to let love rule.
Though Christians have liberty, there remain things that are immoral and not to be practiced in the church. Liberty is not lawlessness and forgiveness is not license to sin with impunity. The church was to stand against immorality, especially among its members, and encourage each other in doing good. Paul addresses moral and doctrinal issues, especially in the later chapters of his letter.
Like other letters in the Bible, you’ll find things like you might put in your own communication: greetings, introductions, plans, schedules, instructions and other matters. In addition to instruction and wisdom, this letter opens a little window into history of the early church and the people who were involved in it.
Paul also wrote
Romans
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Acts
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
Genesis
The Gospels
Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs
Saturday, July 29, 2017
The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck
Spiritual growth is the heart of mental health
as described by psychiatrist
M. Scott
Peck in his book The Road Less
Traveled. The path of growth Peck describes is not often taken because it
involves pain, discipline
and stretching. The rewards of this life are great, but they are obtained
through effort.
People forgo growth, and sometime develop mental problems, because they
refuse to accept a difficult fact: life is hard. Unfortunately, they often put
themselves through a lot of extra pain for a longer period than they might have
suffered if they would accept and deal with challenges in the first place.
Later in the book, Peck characterizes this as a kind of laziness. It is
refusal to extend oneself and put effort into mastering life. The extension of
oneself for the purpose of spiritual growth (your own or another’s) is the
essence of love
in Peck’s view. Laziness is the opposite of love.
Love is one of the main elements of spiritual growth. This love is not
primarily emotion. It is commitment.
It is respect
for others and the distinction of others as unique individuals. It it is the
effort one puts into growing and helping others to grow.
Emotions are important. They are fuel for action. To be effective in
supporting growth, emotions must be disciplined.
“Passion is feeling of great depth. The fact that a feeling is uncontrolled is no indication that it is in any way deeper than a feeling that is disciplined.” M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled
Discipline is another major practice for growth. Discipline is not
beating up on yourself. It is accepting responsibility
for your life and dealing with reality. It is the practice of giving up things
for the purpose of taking hold of more valuable things. Proper discipline is
not rigid but it helps us to be flexible and enlarge ourselves.
Love and discipline work together. As Peck frames it, successful
psychotherapy occurs when a patient is ready to discipline himself and a
therapist can create a relationship of love that supports that discipline.
This is just the beginning of growth. In the latter chapter of the
book, Peck shifts to other elements, particularly religion.
For Peck, religion is your conception is your conception of how the world
works. Even a scientific worldview is a religion.
Religion is also where we can grapple with mystery, especially the
mystery of grace,
which is important to growth. Peck sees grace in many areas, such as
serendipity and the strange knowingness of our unconscious minds.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Peck, M. Scott. The Road Less
Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth.
New York: Touchstone, 1978.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
The Velveteen Principles by Toni Raiten-D’Antonio
Raiten-D’Antonio,
Toni. The Velveteen Principles: A Guide to Becoming Real: Hidden Wisdom from
a Children’s Classic. Deerfield
Beach, FL: Health
Communications, 2004.
In The Velveteen Principles, counselor Toni Raiten-D’Antonio draws
lessons for living from the children’s
book The
Velveteen Rabbit by Margery
Williams. Raiten-D’Antonio found the
lessons from this book to be helpful for her clients in living as real people
rather than seeing themselves as objects.
The Velveteen Rabbit (you can skip this paragraph if you’ve read it) is
the story of a cheap, stuffed bunny that wants to be real. The rabbit has a rough time, especially when
faced with comparisons to fancier toys that erode its confidence. He is encouraged along the way by a toy horse
that had already been made “real” by the love of a child. The rabbit becomes a boy’s companion through
a severe illness, and though it is a trial, the rabbit’s courage and love for
the boy carries him through. The boy
loves him back and considers him real.
Even so, adults throw the rabbit out because they think it is riddled
with disease. A fairy rectifies the
situation by make the rabbit a real, flesh-and-blood bunny.
Raiten-D’Antonio sees a
parallel in the lives of people, who are encouraged by our culture to see
themselves as objects. Objects have
manufactured perfection. They are valued
for how they fit an ideal. Objectified
people hide there flaws, obsessively follow fads, lose their uniqueness, become
disconnected from themselves and others, and miss out on living. It is easy to fall prey to objectification
because our culture values and rewards its.
In contrast, real people are
imperfect. Their imperfections make them
unique. Reality isn’t simply a matter of
accepting imperfections; it is about being perfectly yourself, a person with
value because you are a person, with strengths and weakness, relationships, and
a place in the world. Reality is
challenging.
A dozen principles of being
real are described in the book. Some are
about the process of becoming real and some relate to what a real life is like.
The value carries through
most of the principles is empathy. We start with empathy for ourselves,
acknowledging and accepting ourselves as we are rather than trying to become a
perfect object. This self-empathy isn’t
about giving up or pretending everything is okay. It’s about setting aside the illusions of the
object-world and giving ourselves the grace and space to begin where we are.
Self-empathy gives us room
of empathy for others. Just as we stop
trying to make ourselves into perfect objects, we show the same grace to
others. Love, honesty and ethics spring
from empathy.
Real living has its own
dangers and pains. The truth can be
uncomfortable, especially the truth about us, and letting go of object-ideals
can be hard. However, the rewards or real living are a kind of contentment,
peace, and inner wealth that can’t be achieved by having or being an object.
If you’re interested in this
book, you may also be interested in
Google
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Life's Not Fair, but God is Good by Robert H. Schuller
You may remember Robert H.
Schuller from the Hour of Power television
program. He was a popular figure who attracted celebrities to appear on
broadcasts of worship services from the Crystal Cathedral. He preached what you
might call a gospel of positivity, making in consciously a successor to Norman
Vincent Peale and in some sense a predecessor to Joel Osteen.
The Crystal Cathedral and the Schullers have floundered after his passing. Life’s Not Fair, but God is Good was
published in happier times for them.
Google
Reading the book two decades after it was published gave me an
opportunity to look back. One of the things that struck me is that Schuller
wrote of the fall of the Soviet Union
soon after it occurred. He had high hopes for Russia and the
other countries shifting toward a more democratic
form of government.
He looked forward to flourishing Christianity,
greater freedom, wealth,
and opportunity for long oppressed people. I’m not sure what he would think of
the current state of affairs, especially in Russia, but clearly fall short of
the hopes he expressed.
The book also prompted me to recall the Hour of Power. A routine segment featured Schuller interviewing
someone, recorded live before the congregation of his church. Though it is not
mentioned, I suspect many of the interviews recounted in the book may have come
from the show. These guests were often famous performers, athletes, and
politicians. Others were people who overcame troubles of all sorts, handicaps,
injuries, financial setbacks, abuse and losses. The common thread through these
interviews was how people succeeded through faith in God’s grace, hope,
positive outlook and persistence.
Speaking of themes, I should say something about the book. The title
expresses the theme: Life’s Not Fair, but
God is Good. Schuller concedes that sometimes life sucks. Bad things happen
to everyone, and sometimes the worst things happen to those who seem to deserve
it least. In spite of that, people can lead lives of purpose and joy because
God is good. The Great Redeemer can man something beautiful out of the ugliness
of life. Not only can He, He will.
I suppose the meat of the book is advice on how to live in the gap
between the unfair circumstances we experience and the awesome goodness we can
know even in the midst of them. In this, Schuller presents a mix of Christian philosophy
and self-help
positive thinking. We can’t always choose our circumstances, but we can choose
our reactions. Schuller encourages hopeful, positive responses based on the
acknowledgment of God’s goodness. Prayer, belief, gratitude,
good works, humility, forgiveness, connection to others, generosity, patience,
and vision are tools we have, or can develop, to be overcomers in the face of
obstacles. We master these skills under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit
as we get to know Christ
better.
Robert H. Schuller also wrote Self-Love.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
This Year I Will… by M. J.
Ryan
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Faith by Jimmy Carter
President
Jimmy Carter is well known for his Christian faith. Excepting a handful of famous pastors, Carter is one of the few Americans who is known as a Christian almost as
much as he is known for other things; this is especially extraordinary for a
former president.
Faith is the title and subject of his
recent book. He addresses religious faith, but other types of faith are
important to him as well.
For instance, each
person need faith in himself to take action with hope to achieve positive
results. We need faith in each other to live, work and trade together peaceably.
We even need some degree
of faith in government. If we hope to achieve the ultimate
purposes of government, justice, equality under the law and peace, we have to believe it can be done.
Especially in a republic we need to believe we can achieve these goals through
our institutions, laws and the people we elect to represent us.
“A country will have authority and influence because of moral factors, not its military strength; because it can be humble and not blatant and arrogant, because our peple and our country want to serve others and not dominate others. And a nation without morality will soon lose its influence around the world.”-Jimmy Carter, Faith (quoting a speech he presented in 1978)
There are also personal goals that require faith. Justice and
equality may be the highest goals we can expect from government, but we want
more. If we also hope for love, humility, generosity and kindness, we need another kind of faith.
For many, including
Carter, this is religious faith. We find in religion reasons to believe that
things like love are real and worthy of pursuing, even if we don’t always get
it right.
For Christians, this
faith is founded on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the proof of God’s loving mercy and grace. It all starts with God,
and we can hope to be better people through the empowerment of God and our
grateful response to His love demonstrated in Jesus Christ. As Carter puts it,
“It is not what we do for God that is important but what God does for us. Faith
brings about good works, but doing good things does not result in faith."
For Carter, Jesus is
worthy of consideration as an example of the ideal in human character. Being
like Christ is being a better human being. As a Christian and Protestant, Carter believes he has a personal
relationship with an ever-present Christ. The faith that underlies Carter’s
career and achievements as a politician, philanthropist and peacemaker is that he does not walk
alone, but he walks with a living Christ and with other believers who seek to
follow Him and see His good will done in our time.
If you’re interested in
this book, you may also be interested in
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