Revolution: The Story of the Early Church 30-47 AD - by Gene Edwards

I'm still not sure what I think about this book.
It came recommended by some of the 3DM leaders.  It's a narrative account of the beginning of Christianity - up to the sending of Barnabas and Paul - which Gene Edwards reckons to be 17 years in time.
And that is one of my biggest questions with the book.  How does he get his figures?  He estimates huge time lapses in the book of Acts, much longer than any estimates I've read anywhere else.  Yet, he gives no supporting evidence - arrgg.
On the positive side, Edwards hammers home several points worth emphasizing.
Leadership and spiritual depth take time to develop.  In the modern western world, we tend to hurry our leaders along and expect instant results.  It seems that the ancient Hebrew-Christians were much more content to allow a significant incubation period.  This has the ring of authentic health and wholeness.
"Church-life" is critical to healthy Christianity, but please, please do not confuse this with 21st century churches.  The "church-life" of the early Church was a deep, raw, generous, honest, Spirit-filled community of believers who spoke the truth in love and shared freely with all who had need.  It is the absolute best of all the various forms of community we have experienced.  According to Edwards, without this authentic "church-life" almost nothing of value can happen in Christianity - especially not the formation of genuinely called and equipped leaders.
The leadership of the Spirit is far more important than the best leadership of humans.  The Church started and grew in unexpected ways and at unexpected times.  If humans planned it, the process would have been far more logical and far less successful.
Another, radically challenging bit was an insight right in the first chapter that Jesus was probably resurrected at the same time as the priest celebrated the "first fruits" ceremony in the Jerusalem temple.  If this is true, that is a profound insight, especially since Jesus is called "the first fruits from the dead" ( 1 Corinthians 15:20).

On the downside, Edwards tends to overstate his case (true to form for all radical reformers).  In the midst of his semi-fictional narrative of the early church, he makes radical statements about the 21st century church.  We have NO true apostles.  We have NO true "church-life" happening anywhere.  Etc, etc.
Edwards piques my interest.  I'm not sure I buy everything he's saying, but he's challenging my ideas of the timeframes and procedures of the early church.  I'd like to know his sources, and I need to spend more time thinking on his ideas.  But I'm interested, and I guess that counts as a success for him at this point.

Surprised by Joy - CS Lewis

When our family was eating at Sarah's uncle's house, I saw this book on the shelf.  C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors, and one of my goals is to read everything he has written.   Surprised by Joy is Lewis's story of his un-conversion as an adolescent leaving the Christian faith and his eventual re-coversion as an adult.
Lewis beautifully connects his deep inner longings for joy and wonder with his innate human longing for God and Spirit.  His awe for nature, narrative, and fantasy had the same roots as his longings for God and nourished by the same Spirit.  Eventually, Lewis is able to connect the dots between his inner longing and the God who fulfills that longing.
Although the story starts slowly, it becomes quite captivating about a third of the way into the book.  The theological complexity and depth steadily increases until toward the end, nearly every paragraph deserves highlighting.
Well worth reading, and rereading.
Thanks Uncle Steve.

Book Review: "The Client" by John Grisham

The Client reads fast and rips your heart out slow.  A couple of kids in a trailer park stumble upon a mob lawyer just as he's about to commit suicide.  Out of a mixture of curiosity and compassion, they get sucked into the mess.  One boy ends up learning where a certain celebrity body is buried.  Then, the lawyer bites a bullet from his own gun.
The rest of the story is the kid trying to find a way out of the mess he stumbled into without harming his family in the process.  He is being chased by the mob and the Feds, and he is a poignant mixture of crafty and helpless, cunning and innocent.
In addition to its sheer enjoyment value,  The Client offers a beautiful little glimpse into the lives of an underprivileged family.  They are simply struggling to survive amid tragically difficult circumstances, yet they maintain steady love and grace for each other.  That's one of the things I love about Grisham.  He can deliver a profound message without the reader ever being aware that a sermon lies between the lines of the narrative.  Well done, sir.  Well done.

How Many Camels Are You Worth? (Ephesians 3:14-21)

        Elna Baker’s older sister, Tina, was gorgeous.  

Elna was not.

Tina was the kind of woman that, when she walked by, people stopped whatever they were doing and stared in awe at her body.

Elna was the kind of woman that, when she walked by, people stopped whatever they were doing and made rude jokes about her body.

Tina got all the family’s beauty genes.

Elna could never fit into skinny jeans.

In America, every school makes a yearbook every year.  It has pictures of every student and teacher and a summary of the year’s activities.  When the yearbooks come out, all the kids go around signing and writing witty little messages in each other’s yearbooks: “Best friends 4ever,” and “Thanks for the memories,” and stuff like that.  One year, one of the most popular boys in the school wrote a message in Tina’s yearbook: “How come you’re so pretty and Elna isn’t?”  Another boy in Elna’s grade wrote: “I wish your sister looked like you.”

Elna tried to get even.  She left a snarky message in their yearbooks: “You will regret your comment in my sister’s yearbook next year when you beg to go out with me.  Of course, I will refuse.”  Except Elna never got to refuse them because they never asked her, ever.

When Elna was twelve, her family took a trip to Morocco.  When they were walking through an outdoor market, a carpet salesman saw Tina walk by and did the standard stop-whatever-you’re-doing-and-stare-at-Tina thing.  Then, he caught up to the family and said with his face all aglow: “Your daughter is the most beautiful creature on earth.  I will give you 1,000 camels for her.”  

Her parents smiled and said, “No thanks.”  

Then the man, looked at Elna, and his face changed.  He said, half walking away, “I’ll give you 100 camels for her.”

At the young age of 12, Elna processed this moment and said to herself, “There is a 900 camel difference between my sister and me.”  

More than a decade later, telling her story in Elle Magazine, Elna said, “The rest of my life can be described as a pursuit to be worth more camels.”  Despite love from her parents and the constant message from her church that her body is “a temple of the Holy Spirit,” the world was beating another message into her: because of the way she looked, she was worth less.

Elna’s pursuit to be worth more camels led her to seek her worth in writing, acting, and comedy.  But eventually it also led her to extreme dieting and to radical plastic surgery.  All to be worth more camels.

  

That’s just like us.  What do you do to be worth more camels?  Exercise, work more, get degrees, write papers, pursue awards, horde power, go on dates, dream of dates, travel to all the cool places, make witty Facebook posts, play political games, criticize others?  Where does your pursuit of camels lead you?  How is that working out for you?  Do you like who you are in this pursuit?  Would you recommend your way of life to your kids?  

Ephesians 3:

14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

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