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| Some encouraging words.. :) written by Joni Eareckson Tada, forwarded to me by Sharon Lee.
Shattered Glass
"Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light."
-John 12:36
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My
art studio is a mess of half-chewed pastel pencils, old tubes of paint,
and piles of illustrations overflowing my file drawers. Recently while cleaning up, I discovered some broken glass on the counter by the window. I also discovered that when sunlight struck the shattered glass, brilliant, colorful rays scattered everywhere.
Shattered
glass is full of a thousand different angles, each one picking up a ray
of light and shooting it off in a thousand directions. That doesn't happen with plain glass, such as a jar. The glass must be broken into many pieces.
What's true of shattered glass is true of a broken life. Shattered dreams. A heart full of fissures. Hopes that are splintered. A life in pieces that appears to be ruined. But given time and prayer, such a person's life can shine more brightly than if the brokenness had never happened. When the light of the Lord Jesus falls upon a shattered life, that believer's hopes can be brightened.
It's the nature of things that catch the light: The color and dazzle of light sparkles best through things that are shattered.
Only our great God can reach down into what otherwise would be brokenness and produce something beautiful. With Him, nothing is wasted. Every broken dream and heart that hurts can be redeemed by His loving, warm touch. Your
life may be shattered by sorrow, pain, or sin, but God has in mind a
kaleidoscope through which His light can shine more brilliantly.
amen to our brokenness. may God be glorified wholly in us. | | |
| Hello everyone :) I have decided to continue blogging book reviews. I'm motivated primarily because of my friend, Laurie Au, who found my blog enjoyable and entertaining. I've been reading lots of books lately and I don't think it would hurt to share about it. If I am able to persuade you even slightly to pick up these books to read for the nurturing of your souls--then I shall consider my job as a writer one of great priviledge! Might as well put that English degree to use, right? I will start off with a book given to me by my good friend Stephen Jung. 
The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin by Kris Lundgaard. Having graduated from college precisely 4 months and 20 or so days ago, I realized that my post-college transition has been a lot harder than I had expected. Not only do I find myself lacking much of the joy and enthusiasm I once had for following the Lord, I also find it so difficult to bring myself to prioritize my time with Him. My life is largely characterised by busy-ness and I constantly catch myself making excuses and finding other 'more important' things to fill my time with. My problem is not that my life has suddenly become too busy, the issue at hand is my incorrect understanding of my own sin which has caused a small weed of spiritual dryness to spread rapidly through my life. Lundgaard's book is amazingly practical and easy to understand. He notes in his preface that he once found renewed hope in John Owen's Indwelling Sin and The Mortification of Sin. Lundgaard takes on the challenge of bringing Owen's truth to modern day readers in our contemporary language. The book divides into four sections in which he takes on the role of defining the power of sin, explaining how it works, how it affects us and our responsibility to nail it to the Cross. Though the entire book is dedicated solely to the topic of sin, I wasn't left with an overwhelming sense of defeat, rather quite the opposite. I find truth in his belief that renewed hope comes not with understanding how revulsive and displeasing our sin is, but with the victory provided to us through Jesus Christ. The greatest truth that I have taken away from this book is the proper understanding of the way our souls function, which I believe is absolutely crucial in guarding ourselves from sin. Lundgaard explains that our souls comprise of three things: the mind, the affections, and the will. Lundgaard takes five chapters to explain how sin affects each of these three things; interestingly, he devotes three chapters to the mind, and only one each to the affections and the will. Why? Because loving God with our everything begins with loving God with all our minds. If a strategic army aims to overthrow a fortress, the army's first target is the watchman. If the watchman is unable to warn the others, the army can easily breach the wall and overtake the fortress. Likewise, the flesh works to deceive the watchman of our souls: our minds. Lungaard states, "If the mind determines that an action is right, the affections (an old word, but Lundgaard defines it as our emotions, longings, revulsions, imagation, and more) should then fall in line and desire, long for, and cling to that which the mind said was good. Last, the will puts the soul into action, carrying out what the mind said was good and the affections hungered for. When each does its job, you obey God from the heart. You can see what a mess deception makes of obedience. If your mind is persuaded to believe a sin is good for your soul, and your affections work up an appetite for it, your will gives its consent--the dominoes fall and the flesh bears its putrid fruit in your life." The rest of the book unfolds the power of sin and how we are to pratically gaurd ourselves (our minds, our affections and our wills) against it. Lundgaard loves lists! Every few chapter if not every contains a practical list of how we are to apply God's truth to our daily lives. A lot of times I leave my mind unchecked, not realizing that the things that I think about are able to greatly impact the state of my spiritual walk. By failing to love God with all my mind, I have allowed myself to fall into selfish anger, jealousy, envy, discontentment, and these sins have wrought great destruction in my spititual walk. Though it takes patience on my part, to allow God to gradually weed out these sins that polute my soul, Lundgaard has brought me much hope in persevering in my pursuit of holiness. It begins with understanding our sin and how it affects us. Lundgaard reminds us though, that this pursuit is always done in light of Calvary. We have nothing without the Cross. What a necesary reminder indeed! If you find yourself struggling against sin, don't hesitate to pick this book up! Only $9.99 on Amazon.com, what a great price for a dose of spiritual revival. hehehe just kidding! :) My rating:  | | |
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The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Have you ever wondered how temptation impacts a person's thought life? C.S. Lewis' work, The Screwtape Letters is a novel written in the perspective of a demon named Screwtape in a series of letters to his nephew, Wormwood. After the first letter, the reader finds out that Wormwood's "Patient" (a Christian whom Wormwood is assigned to tempt and lure away from God) has in fact converted to Christianity, which Screwtape attributes to Wormwood's lack of experience. The book of thirty one letters is comprised of Screwtape's mentoring advice, encouragement, and even criticism of his nephew's pursuit of securing the damnation of his patient. The Screwtape letters is one of C.S Lewis' most famous works and I strongly recommend this read because it is not only informative but is distinguished in its ability to reveal to Christians the reality of the spiritual war we constantly find ourselves in.
The terminology of the book may at first seem confusing. It is important to remember that the first person perspective is indeed from the lens of a demon. God is consequently termed "The Enemy" and Screwtape constantly reminds Wormwood that their roles consist primarily of bringing many people to "Our Father Below" who is Satan. However, through the series of correspondences the more experienced Screwtape instructs Wormwood on a variety of topics that range from the temptations of sex, materialism, patriotism, and even the mundane life of an everyday man. What I personally thought as significant insight for the walk of a Christian is Wormwood's lesson to tempt his patient with smaller, more gradual sins which will eventually result in the forsaking of his religion, which is more effective in temptation over the more blatant moral sins such as immorality, rape, and murder. Screwtape writes, "We can draw our patients along by continual tempting...He [God] cannot 'tempt' to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away his hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles."
I found this read absolutely fascinating because Lewis very cleverly weaves in truth and theology about Christianity in a story written through letters. Lewis' temptation narrative opens up our minds and allows us to more clearly imagine and understand how temptation works in the lives of human beings.
I will end my review with an encouragement to all Christians. :)
"Our [satan and his demons] cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's [God's] will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."
For more famous and noteworthy quotes from C.S. Lewis click here.
My rating: | | |
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Humility: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney
Have you ever wondered how to attain true greatness? Not just superficial recognition, but real greatness? C.J. Mahaney answers that question skillfully in his short piece titled Humility: True Greatness. For those of you that have read some of Mahaney's work before, you'll know that he is a man of few pages. His works are not volumes and volumes but short, simple, and very sweet. This book is not more than 150 or so pages. Yet in the short amount of space, Mahaney unfolds the ironic Christian paradox that the path to true greatness comes through servitude and humility. If you're interested in purchasing this book, you can do so at the following link.
Mahaney begins his book with a brief mentioning of the cold hard fact that our culture is quick to reward and applaud the proud. However, quite intersetingly, he begins by appealing not just to Christian readers but to nonchristians as well. He shares a suprising study from the best-selling book Good to Great by Jim Collins which Mahaney says is "the most popular and influential [book of] the business world. I rarely meet a leader who hasn't read it." Collins' study indicates two character traits shared by successful CEOs of these so called "good to great" companies. The first quality that these men and women have are an incredibly ambitious professional will. They are willing to perservere and endure anything in order to quarantee success for their company. The second, quite suprisingly might I add, is that these "driven leaders were self-effacing and modest. They consistently pointed to the contribution of others and didn't like drawing attention to themselves...They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results. Collins interviewed people who worked under these leaders and the vocabularly used to describe these professionals were continually "quiet, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated, did not believe in his own clippings; and so forth"
The point of his introduction is to demonstrate that humility works. Not only is humility seen as a precious quality in the business world, but Mahaney argues that humility draws the attention of our Sovereign God. Mahaney reminds us that the Chritian's greatest enemy is pride and his greatest friend is humility. That may seem like an obvious one, but he unpacks how a Christian can practically nurture this quality in themselves.
His book is divided into three sections. In the first two chapters he lays down the foundation of our battle of humility versus pride. The next two chapters are a clear and refreshing look at our Savior and reveals how Christ redefines greatness as well as demonstrates it for us. Part three of the book, the last eight chapters, is devoted entirely to our great pursuit: the practice of true humility.
Two disciplines that Mahaney shared for fostering a more humble spirit (that I began practicing daily after reading his book) is humbly begining and ending our days. He encourages us to "Begin your day expressing gratefulness to God. 'Thankfulness,' Michael Ramsey reminds us, 'is a soil in which pride does not easily grow.' It
was said of Matthew Henry that 'he was an alert and thankful observer
of answered prayer,'; his gratitude for God's mercies was constantly 'sweetening his spirit, and he would often invite others to join him in
giving thanks'" Not only should we begin our days with a spirit of gratitude, but Mahaney says it's equally as important to end our day humby acknowleding our need and dependency upon God. Mahaney says for himself, "Each night, as I confront my need again for sleep, I'm reminded that I'm a dependent creature. I am not self-sufficient." He tells God every night "Thank you for this gracious, humbling, refreshing gift'" I think that's a beautiful attitude to have and to end our days with.
I'll end this review with a quote that prompted me to examine my heart more intently for pride and self-seeking glory.
"The sad fact is that none of us are immune to the logic defying,
blinding effects of pride. Though it shows up in different forms and to
differing degrees, it infects us all. The real issue here is not if
pride exists in your heart; it's where pride exists and how pride is
being expressed in your life."
For more information about C.J. Mahaney and his ministry, please click the provided link.
My Rating: | | |
| Dear readers,
Due to some very constructive feedback, I have decided to add a few more links to my site. In addition to being able to access a link to purchase the book off of amazon.com I have also included another link to each author's respective ministry in case you want to inquire of them or their books/works. If you have any other feedback, please feel free to leave me a comment! Or if you agree, disgree, or have any thoughts--I'd personally love to hear them as well! Please comment as often and as much as you'd like. I really enjoy reading them. :)
I've also decided to include a 5-star rating (5 meaning the best). I know I write in every review that the book I'm reviewing is great, but my hope is that this star rating will give you guys a better feel for which books are good and which ones are excellent, complete must-reads!
Sincerely,
Madeline Lam
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