Book Briefs: “Lighthouse Faith: God as a Living Reality in a World Immersed in Fog” by Lauren Green

Lauren Green is a religion correspondent for Fox News, and also an accomplished pianist and former Miss Minnesota. She shares lessons from her faith journey in her new book Lighthouse Faith.

The book is a compilation of thoughts and reflections on life and spirituality and includes insights from some of the many scientists and religious leaders that she has interviewed over the years. She compares the Christian life to a lighthouse but switches metaphors often in her intriguing book. She finds spiritual power in places and poignant metaphors, and leads us from a quiet cottage, to a rocky shore and on to a vineyard and then into a musical analysis of none other than Handel’s Messiah.

The book does go in circles but the reflections and thoughts shared are honest, heart-warming and rooted in a simple Christian faith. Green attends Redeemer Presbyterian Church pastored by Tim Keller as she notes in her acknowledgements and throughout the book, but her roots are in an AME church and her work brings her in touch with Christians of all stripes.

I was not moved by some of her observations. She finds the cross in the Pythagorean theorem (4 right angles = a cross in the middle) — and so to her, every building that stands, does so by power of the cross. Even in blood some of the molecules have a shape of the cross in them, she observes. She also leans on biblical numerology and makes tenuous connections. Perhaps even more troubling is her attempt to read motives into tragic events and look for a deeper meaning.

That said, her meditations make for interesting reading and no great damage is done. The eye of faith stands behind her work and many will benefit from her simple approach and sometimes deeply personal life-lessons.

Blurbs:
“Though many in the media and the academy portray belief in God as passé in our modern world, Lauren Green astutely observes that the heartfelt question, ‘Where is God in my hour of need?’ is universal. In more than forty years of travel I have heard this plea countless times, whether from students in university forums or corporate leaders in private conversations. A seasoned journalist and an accomplished pianist, Lauren interviews scholars and discloses her own journey to understand God as a living reality. She has lived out her faith with courage and grace in a difficult arena. Her words will encourage and challenge you.”
—Ravi Zacharias, Founder and President of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries; Author and Speaker

“I have known Lauren Green since she played piano on my old Fox News show After Hours. Her discovery of who God is and what it means to be loved and find meaning in a relationship with him will help the reader find meaning and purpose in his or her own life. Isn’t that what we all seek?”
—Cal Thomas, Syndicated Columnist

“Lauren Green is one of the bright lights in American journalism, and she has distinguished herself as an astute analyst of religion and culture. Lighthouse Faith is her new book, and, in it, she brings fresh insights and perspectives that readers will not have heard anywhere else! Her voice is thoroughly original, solidly biblical, and consistently inspiring. having personally interviewed the world’s leading figures in religion, plus drawing from her own knowledge of history and current events, Green introduces timeless truths in fresh new ways. her explanation of how music theory relates to God (specifically as used by G.F. Handel) is absolutely riveting. In Lighthouse Faith Lauren Green brings readers content that truly is unique.”
—Alex McFarland, Director of the Center for Apologetics and Christian Worldview, North Greenville University

Where to Buy:
Pick up a copy of this book at any of the following online retailers: Amazon, ChristianBook.com, or direct from Thomas Nelson.

Disclaimer:
This book was provided by the publisher for review. The reviewer was under no obligation to offer a positive review.

About Book Briefs: Book Briefs are book notes, or short-form book reviews. They are my informed evaluation of a book, but stop short of being a full-length book review.

C.S. Lewis’s “Three Parts of Morality” and the Ten Commandments


The following is a brief book excerpt from A Doubter’s Guide to the Ten Commandments: How, For Better or Worse, Our Ideas about the Good Life Come from Moses and Jesus by John Dickson (Zondervan, 2016; p. 163-165).

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In the timeless Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis speaks of what he calls “the three parts of morality” — the social, the internal, and the spiritual. He employs the image of a fleet of ships that must get all three things right in order to function effectively:

There are two ways in which the human machine goes wrong. One is when human individuals drift apart from one another, or else collide with one another and do one another damage, by cheating or bullying. The other is when things go wrong inside the individual — when the different parts of him (his different faculties and desires and so on) either drift apart or interfere with one another. You can get the idea plain if you think of us as a fleet of ships sailing in formation. The voyage will be a success only, in the first place, if the ships do not collide and get in one another’s way; and, secondly, if each ship is seaworthy and has her engines in good order. As a matter of fact, you cannot have either of these two things without the other. But there is one thing we have not yet taken into account. We have not asked where the fleet is trying to get to. However well the fleet sailed, its voyage would be a failure if it were meant to reach New York and actually arrived at Calcutta. Morality, then, seems to be concerned with three things. Firstly, with fair play and harmony between individuals. Secondly, with what might be called tidying up or harmonising the things inside each individual. Thirdly, with the general purpose of human life as a whole: what man was made for; what course the whole fleet ought to be on. (Mere Christianity, 58-59).

Secular ethics tend to focus on the social dimension. If it doesn’t hurt another person, it must be fine. This approach tends to ignore the question of the goal of human life, in Lewis’s image where the whole thing is headed. Sometimes there is also a neglect of virtue or the internal character of a person. It is common now to hear people say that a public leader can be a complete rat-bag in private life, so long as he serves well for the public good. This has not always been the case. There was a time when, for example, a leader’s marital betrayal was seen as reason enough for someone to step down from high office. This was not mere moralism. The logic was: If “faithfulness” and “discipline” are not inner qualities of this leader, how can the public have confidence that such virtues will guide wider social decisions? It is true this old-fashioned rationale can be oppressive and unfairly employed, but there is something to it.

Religious ethics have their own, equally problematic, flaws. They are often strong on the spiritual dimension, what we are made for. But they can very frequently go astray on both the internal and the social dimensions. Religion can promote mere external piety, divorced from genuine virtue and love for others. Hence our distaste for the “religious hypocrite” I have talked so much about in this book.

The Ten Commandments are concerned with all three parts of the ethical enterprise. We are urged to find satisfaction in our Creator and his blessings. Then we are guided to honour our family and our neighbours. And, finally, the strange tenth commandment drills down to the engine room of our soul and asks, What do we truly desire?

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Learn more about this book at Zondervan.com or Amazon.com.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher through the Amazon Vine program. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review.

Quotes to Note 41: Nothing Greater to Believe in but Ourselves

Robbed of a broader meaning to our lives, we appear to have entered an era of mass obsession, usually with ourselves: our appearance, our health and fitness, our work, our sex lives, our children’s performance, our personal development…. [We have created] a culture that gives [us] nothing greater than [ourselves] to believe in — no god, no king, no country.

These words were spoken 25 years ago by an Australian academic, but they still ring true today. If anything, social media and the internet has fueled that personal obsession. Now more than ever, our poverty is exposed: “nothing greater than ourselves to believe in.”

I stumbled across this quote in a book I recently read, A Doubter’s Guide to the Ten Commandments: How, For Better or Worse, Our Ideas about the Good Life Come from Moses and Jesus by John Dickson (Zondervan, 2016). Intrigued, I hunted down the source: Richard Eckersley’s article “Youth and the Challenge to Change: Bringing Youth, Science and Society Together in the New Millennium” in the Apocalypse? No essay series published by Australia’s Commission for the Future (July, 1992).

Dickson, is an Australian himself, and is a fellow of Ancient History at Macquarie University, the founding director of the Centre for Public Christianity, and senior minister of St. Andrew’s Roseville. He describes Eckersley’s essay as “a famous government report on Australian youth” and goes on to say: “I remember the report so well because it came out the year before my [book] A Sneaking Suspicion, an attempt to explain the relevance of Christianity for teenagers. The report helped frame some of my thinking, then and now” (A Doubter’s Guide, p. 161).

I want to share a longer excerpt from Eckersley’s essay, which I found is available online in a scan of the publication on Eckersley’s website, here.

Eckersley starts by recounting his reaction at coming back to Australia after several years in Africa, Asia and Europe:

My first reaction on flying into Sydney from Bangkok was one of wonder at the orderliness and cleanliness, the abundantly stocked shops, the clear-eyed children, so healthy and free of the cares of living. Later, however, this celebration of the material richness of life in Australia gave way to a growing apprehension about its emotional harshness and spiritual desiccation. By ‘spiritual’, I don’t necessarily mean believing in God (I am not myself a practicing member of any religion), but having a deep sense of relatedness to the world around us.

…I became aware of the cultural myths that define and support our society. For most of us in the west, the poverty of Africa and Asia is synonymous with misery and squalor; yet it is not. We see their people as crippled by ignorance, cowed by superstition, and oppressed by the harshness of their raw environment; we don’t see the extent to which we are crippled by our rationalism, cowed by our lack of superstition (spiritual beliefs) and oppressed by our artificial environment. (p. 3)

Eckersley goes on to paint a stark picture of the current age (in 1992). Later in the essay he gets to the section from which the opening quote above is taken.

When a society fails to imbue people’s lives with a sense of worth and meaning, then they must attempt to find these qualities as individuals. It is a task that many find extremely difficult, even impossible. People want to know what is expected of them; they need to have something to believe in.

This absence of belief in much beyond ourselves, and the consequent lack of faith in ourselves, are undermining our resilience, our capacity to cope with the more personal difficulties and hardships of everyday life.

Robbed of a broader meaning to our lives, we appear to have entered an era of mass obsession, usually with ourselves: our appearance, our health and fitness, our work, our sex lives, our children’s performance, our personal development.

The consequences of this loss of belief are more serious, I believe, for the young than for grown-ups… [They are] particularly vulnerable to the uncertain culture of our times. (p. 14)

He quotes a study exploring the state of Australia’s youth, and concludes:

But perhaps the most disturbing finding of the study concerns young people’s moral sense. Mackay found that they believed that moral values were in decline, and often found it hard to identify an accepted moral framework within the community — unless they were religious. Moral responsibility to ‘the group’ is much stronger than to ‘the community’, Mackay says:

“Thus the ethical sense is rooted in a social sense, but that social sense is very limited, very transient, and very fragile. Lacking a broader sense of ‘the community’, many young people have difficulty in establishing an ethical framework which has any application beyond the boundaries of their own immediate circle of friends.” [italics original to the article]

The picture that emerges from the Mackay study is of a youth culture that may be meeting the needs of its members in terms of providing them with meaning and an identity, but only just. It is of a culture that is barely holding together, certainly not enduring — a mass-media culture marked by frenetic fashions and polarisation between self-destructive recklessness and abandon, and a more insidiously debilitating cautiousness, social withdrawal and self-centredness. (p. 15)

He then turns to a July 1990 article in Time focusing on “a new generation of young American adults grappling with its values.”

…According to Time, a prime characteristic of today’s young adults is their desire to avoid risk, pain and rapid change. They feel paralysed by the social problems they see as their inheritance: racial strife, homelessness, AIDS, fractured families and federal deficits….

It may be, then, the greatest wrong we are doing to our children is not the broken families or the scarcity of jobs (damaging though these are), but the creation of a culture that gives them nothing greater than themselves to believe in — no god, no king, no country — and no cause for hope or optimism…. (p. 15)

Eckersley goes on to summarize the problems of society and looks for a cure in an optimistic embrace of science and technology — and, ironically, his hope rests ultimately in mankind = ourselves!

The growing crisis facing western societies is, then, deeply rooted in the culture of modern western societies: in the moral priority we give to the individual over the community, to rights over responsibilities, the present over the future (and the past), the ephemeral over the enduring, the material over the spiritual.

Our cultural flaws and confusion both reflect and reinforce our economic, social and environmental problems. They also undermine our ability to resolve them effectively. Unless we forge a new culture, then it is unlikely we will overcome these problems because we will lack the will, the moral courage, to confront them….

…I believe that the problem rests more with our immaturity in using a cultural tool as powerful as science, and I am hopeful that with growing experience and wisdom, together with advances in science itself, we can create a more benign and complete culture, and so a more equitable and harmonious society. (p. 19)

Eckersley explores physics and how “a more flexible approach” has arisen in “how we use science.” An approach he approves of that allows for finding “purpose — or ‘God’ — in the world described by science.” (p. 23). He hopes this scientific endeavor may:

allow us to create new concepts for expressing religious or spiritual beliefs, different from, say, the traditional notion of a supreme being ‘out there’ watching over us, and judging us — metaphysical metaphors more appropriate to our times and our understanding.

Even now, however, science and spirituality are not mutually exclusive. I think it is less science and the scientific view of the world that cripple us spiritually than it is the busyness and artificiality of our modern lives, the all pervasive manifestations of rationality — an environment that we have created through science. (p. 23-24)

He goes on to focus on environmentalism and how mainstream science is clarifying the need for care of the environment, a cause young people can rally around. His essay aims to change science too, but ultimately the solution is what we make of it. Believing in ourselves and our ability to create a better culture — that is all that people can cling to apart from a religious worldview, such as what we have in Christianity.

I share this long excerpt from this decades old article to make a point. The long decline of our culture has been happening for a long time. There is something missing, and Christians have found the answer in Jesus Christ.

We have a God, a King, and a Heavenly Country to believe in – and that gives us great cause for hope and optimism. We don’t ground our hope in creating a social and cultural dynamic that frees us from the self-obsession of our age. Our ultimate hope, instead, is found in the precious promises we have in Scripture — promises that our God-King, Jesus Christ pledges to fulfill on our behalf.

As citizens of a greater Country, we must resist the urge to focus our hopes only on this present age and our own country — whether Australia or America. We need to work for the good of our city, and shine the light of Christ as we brighten the corner where we are, but we must always remember our faith lies in Someone greater and Something grander. Our obsession must center on our God-King, Jesus Christ. He is the one who calls us to live out our lives with ultimate purpose and meaning as we journey toward our Heavenly Country.

Book Briefs: “NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible”

Zondervan has released a monumental study Bible. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible promises to bring the ancient world of Scripture to life for contemporary readers. The array of resources presented and the depth of research made accessible could almost be described as incredible.

This Bible is presented in a beautiful format and the study notes and articles are written by top-notch evangelical scholars. The editors, John H. Walton (professor of OT at Wheaton College) and Craig S. Keener (professor of NT at Asbury Theological Seminary) are experts in their fields. They have drawn from the work of other evangelical tools in creating this study Bible: most notably, the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament, (edited by John Walton), and the IVP Bible Background Commentary for Old and New Testaments, (the NT volume of which was edited by Craig Keener).

Introductions focusing on the historical setting, cultural/religious setting and literary setting are provided for each book of the Bible. Broader introductions for different genres and collections of books are also provided, and over 300 articles are furnished on a variety of cultural background topics. Nearly 400 full-color photos, illustrations and images brighten the pages of this volume. There are dozens of detailed maps and the study notes are by no means brief. I would say it rivals the ESV Study Bible for length, but the focus on the notes is largely centered on historical and cultural background information.

So many modern readers of the Bible skip past background info and dive forward into application of the text. This is a shortcut that is not usually going to produce the most wholesome and meaningful results.  Understanding the ancient world of the text of Scripture can help us better see the parallels with our own day and age. New insights can open up to us new vistas of thought, and cautions can prevent us from misappropriating passages in ignorance.

The book of Lamentations was my area of focus for this review. The introduction was not overly long but appropriately set the stage. Historical detail is a must for understanding what can be quite dark verses for the uninitiated. The pictures of captives from Lachish being led into exile, or of mourning captives being led away by the Assyrians gave an appropriate frame of reference for the text itself. The parallel laments of other ancient cities help inform the reader as to the genre of the book. The many notes explained odd references  and brought out a fuller depth of meaning. What does it mean for those who pass your way to “clap their hands at you” (2:15 – derision)? Or why is a measuring line stretched out over a wall that then wastes away (2:8 – to determine which parts are too unstable to be reused)? What could the stones being thrown at those in a “pit” possibly signify (3:53 – stone covers placed over abandoned cisterns sometimes used as a gruesome end for enemies)?

The design of the Bible with its tan colored center column for cross-references, and its beautifully designed cover pages make it inviting to peruse. The extensive indexes make sure the resources you are looking for are accessible. Timelines and an excellent concordance are additional features that complement this work well. Of particular note are charts explaining Hebrew terms that have no exact English equivalent, and a helpful glossary of key Greek terms. The tables of parallel Ancient Near Eastern literature that attest to the Bible’s historicity or compare with it, are informative and invite the reader to pursue further study.

One final note of caution. Many evangelicals may not be prepared for the level of comparisons to be found between the Bible and other ancient literature and stories. Rather than explaining away or ignoring such parallel literature, this study Bible prepares the reader to know how best to understand the existence of such parallels and often points out how such parallels inform and enrich our understanding of Scripture and need not threaten our belief in Scripture’s status as the Word of the Living God.

I highly recommend this new study Bible and am happy to add it to my shelf as I seek to grow in my understanding of the world of the Bible.

Learn more about this new resource at www.contextchangeseverything.com.

Purchase a copy of this book at Amazon.com, Christianbook.com, or direct from Zondervan.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review.

About Book Briefs: Book Briefs are book notes, or short-form book reviews. They are my informed evaluation of a book, but stop short of being a full-length book review.

“Living in the Light: Money, Sex and Power” by John Piper

Living in the Light: Money, Sex & Power by John PiperThe title of one of John Piper’s latest books is direct and confrontational, yet inviting at the same time: just like the man John Piper himself. Living in the Light: Money, Sex and Power (The Good Book Company, 2016) comes with a similarly direct yet inviting sub-title: “Making the most of three dangerous opportunities.” The book lives up to its title. It is both warning and invitation, in short it is John Piper challenging us to live to God’s glory in these three areas.

Piper explains that these three areas in themselves are not evil, they are God’s gifts to us. He defines them as follows:

  • Power is a capacity to pursue what you value.
  • Money is a cultural symbol that can be exchanged in pursuit of what you value.
  • Sex is one of the pleasures that people value, and the pursuit of it.

(Living in the Light, p. 20)

He then looks to Romans 1 and the “great exchange” whereby man in his fallen state turns created things to idols and refuses to worship God. In our fallen state, we pursue sex and other things as means to their own ends – as a worship of self or other created things in opposition to God. Money is a status symbol, and power is self-exaltation. They represent real danger and Piper spares no punches in warning and unpacking the biblical warnings related to the unfettered pursuit of money, sex or power.

In contrast to the worldly way of using these things, redemption puts God in the proper place. Piper uses the analogy of the sun and planets. When the sun is in the proper place, the planets of money, sex and power line up in their proper spheres and complement our lives in ways God intended. When we bring one of those planets into a central place, life is out of order and God is spurned.

Piper does a good job explaining why and how each of these elements are properly to be enjoyed:

Money exists so that it will be plain by the way we use it that God is more to be desired than money. Sex exists so that it will be plain that God is more to be desired than sex. And power exists so that it will be plain that admiring and dependeing on his power is more to be desired than exalting our own.

p. 102

In all of this, Piper displays his pastoral burden to rein in Western Christians who are so pulled away from the centrality of the Son, by the gravity of the competing planets: money, sex and power. Yet at times he is too God-focused and too strong in his formulations. As in the quote above, I think sex is more than just something to be partaken of in light of God being better than sex. Same with money. God “richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17) and Piper’s arguments sometimes seem to downplay the goodness of earthy pleasures. (For a great complement to Piper’s call desire God chiefly, look at Joe Rigney’s The Things of Earth: Treasuring God by Enjoying His Gifts, Crossway, 2014).

This quibble aside, this book is a clear and passionate call to live for Christ in today’s sex-crazed and money-obsessed culture. We could all do with a dose of John Piper challenging us to a more Godward focus in this day and age! I highly recommend this short book. It would make for a great small group or Sunday School resource, although it does not come with discussion questions.

Consider picking up the book at Amazon, Westminster Bookstore, Christianbook.com, or direct through The Good Book Company.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by The Good Book Company. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.