Citylife Bookclub December 2008 - "Bring Your Own Fiction"

For December 2008 we will be reading on our own. Choose a work of fiction, something with a redemptive theme, and read that for this month. If you want to share your choice or comment on one, go right ahead. {January 2009 will be a non-fiction month}

"The Prodigal God" by Tim Keller

In reading “The Prodigal God” by Dr. Timothy Keller, I was repeatedly struck with the notion of how important this work is for the life of the church right now. The passage in Luke 15 that it is based on has been misunderstood and misapplied by preachers and readers in the West for several centuries. While there is a great deal of comfort available to us from the notion that the outwardly reckless younger brother, often known as the Prodigal son, there is much, much to be learned from the other two main characters in the parable.

It is the father that lavishes an extravagant love and a forgiveness upon BOTH brothers, who BOTH need his love. It is the elder brother who also needs to repent of his own set of sins which are just as heinous. The elder brother is just as lost as the younger, though in a very different way. The sins of the elder brother are harder to see and in some ways are not all that different from the younger brother’s sins. Both suffer from a deep selfishness, and both show great disrespect to their father. In terms of “outward sins” the younger brother comes across as more fallen, but both come across as needing the father’s love and forgiveness.

The lesson we learn from the father’s love for the elder brother, as well as the direct implication of Christ’s love for His church as the TRUE elder brother, the one we all need, is a large part of the message of this work.
We need to learn to repent of our righteousness as well as our sinfulness, and in opening up this parable to the reader and sharing a lifetime of work and insight, Dr. Keller has given us all an excellent tool to use in our own lives and one that we can give to others, without reservation.

Dr. Keller uses culturally relevant illustrations, and information gleaned from scholars such as Clowney, Luther, Edwards, Lewis, and Lovelace to bolster his work. This is book that all of us can benefit from no matter where we are in our walk with the Lord. This may become a classic work along the lines of “Mere Christianity”, “Knowing God”, and “The Practice of the Presence of God”. [from my review on Amazon.com]

October 2008 Title - non-fiction

October 2008: "The Dust of Death: A Critique of the Establishment and the Counter Culture and the Proposal for a Third Way" by Os Guinness

The decade of the sixties brought about the biggest cultural/historical change since the era of the American industrial revolution in the 19th century. As a nation, our values and foci changed as never before or since. Some change was very bad, as with the Sexual revolution, and some was very good, as with the end of American political blindness to racism and racist laws on the books.
So, how did the generational shift(s) take place from the Pre-1960's Eisenhower generation to the Vietnam War era into the post-Nixon years? To understand the transitional decade of the sixties, this is a key work. It's not as well-known, or as "seminal" yet Os Guinness has a gift (from his L'Abri years and his missions work for understanding cultural and philosophical thought patterns and how they flow through history. Some of you won't be able to put this one down. Some of you will wade through this one like a Nor'Easter. We have hit a second month in a row with a non-fiction work, so we'll probably have 1-2 fiction works to close out 2008.

September 2008 - "Spiritual Depression: It's Causes and Cure" by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

This month we will look at an older work by the late British pastor/theologian Dr. David Martin Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression. This work takes a close look at the non-physical causes of depression in Believers and relies heavily on the Scriptures. As Gospel-driven people, we are "expected" and gifted to be joyful in all circumstances, yet we fall into sin and into the consequences of sins of omission and commission and can become downcast at times. Sin has been defeated by Christ. It's effects remain, though. Even in healthy people's lives, sad times come and we must mourn for periods of our walk. It's getting trapped in those times that is the problem. We must also be patient with those around us who are struggling with depression, mourning alongside them, and allowing the Holy Spirit to do His work of healing in them. If we were never sad, then our hearts would show themselves to be disconnected from the reality around us. If we are never rejoicing, then we have also strayed into the pit and we need to be helped. This book is an aid and a comfort in that struggle.

J.R.R. Tolkien's: The Children of Húrin

"The Pilgrim's Regress" by C.S. Lewis

A conversion story written in the form of an allegory. It's based on his own life and it is an interesting "blend" of fiction and non-fiction in that the story is a fiction that comes from a testimony. In my old JP CG, we spent an hour with each person's whole life story before and after they came to know the Lord. It would have been fascinating to have told those stories in a fictional form.

Amy Carmichael's "Gold Cord"

The story of Amy Carmichael's mission to India in her own words. Taking place in the early half of the twentieth century this book was recommended to missions students at Covenant Seminary by Jerram Barrs of the Francis Schaeffer Institute. Amy is an example to us from Church History of one of the most "unblemished" and simplest examples of a life wholly dedicated to Christ. She gave of herself to a people that could never possibly repay her and the whole mission was one in which all glory went to God. Her life shows us what the spirit of Mary's "fiat" must have been like in the life of an individual Believer.

Citylife Boston BookClub Blog: April 2008: Life Together

Citylife Boston BookClub Blog: April 2008: Life Together

April 2008: Life Together

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's early 20th century call to Christian community speaks volumes to us in the context of being written in a hostile environment. How much more so should we in 21st century North America respond to the Gospel and each other in the ways of kindness and expression of Gospel community. Do we have anything to say with our lives in an expression of love to each other that transcends mere sentimentality? Does it mean anything to count a person a spiritual brother or sister in Christ? Have we been transformed at all by the Gospel or are we merely giving lip service to it, and to Jesus? Worse yet, are we simply using Christ to assuage our earthly guilt with no real change in our lives in comparison to the lives of others without faith in Him?

Read on, if you wish to challenge yourself and others around you in a holy and healthy way.

Title for March 2008: Shantung Compound by Langdon Gilkey

How do people of faith and non-faith react to the struggles of life and death in a closed, hostile environment where no one has a perceived advantage? What difference does faith make in one's daily life when pitted against others with and those without faith? What can we learn from this about ourselves and about community? Where is the Gospel in all this?

February 2008: INSIDE OUT by Dr. Larry Crabb

The twin sins of self-protection and demangdingness are signs of the idols of control and comfort respectively. Most of us struggle with a little of both, some far more of one than the other. Were you able to discern what the template of your heart was? Were you able to dig down deep by the help of the Holy Spirit and the author's work and Scripture to begin to approach repentance? What were your initial reactions to the work? Did it scare you to look inside?