Musings of a Snickerdoodle

  Shepherds For Sale, as one would expect, is not an uplifting read, but it's very insightful.  Each chapter gives details about how so many church leaders are turning away from the Bible as their sole authority of faith and practice and instead turning to the 'moral' 'causes of the world.   I really liked how Basham did this, giving facts in  journalistic way and yet giving Biblically based commentary/critiques throughout.  I wasn't sure how to write this review (or 'tome' as it turned out to be!) as this book is a little more unique from any book I've read before, as it has a lot of 'data' as it were, a lot of documenting of the downfall of church leaders. So I'll write it a bit different and go chapter by chapter: CLIMATE CHANGE: Pastors have accepted the idea of climate change as one of the things they are obligated to warn their people about. Some of them are doing it under the guise of it's being "Creation Care" or somethi...

  I've known something about the "Christocentric" hermeneutic for many years now.  I need to admit up front that I've always disagreed with it in theory, but have never really fully formulated why I disagree with it.  I saw 'Your Old Testament Sermon Needs to Get Saved' by David King and figured that it would be good chance to read the whole argument for Christocentrism in preaching and think it through more thoroughly.   One of the main arguments that King makes for a Christocentric interpretation of everything is the Lordship of Jesus.  "We start with the simple but sweeping confession: Jesus is Lord. Take a second to ponder the weight of that three word sentence.  Could there be a more persuasive argument for preaching Christ from the Old Testament? If Jesus is Lord, then He is Lord over the Old Testament - and Lord over our Old Testament sermons, too." At first, it was hard to figure out how to reply to such an argument. A lot of the arguments ...

Once Upon A Word: A Word-Origin Dictionary For Kids - by Jess Zafarris is interesting for adults too.   It is a very interesting dictionary, not just stating origins and meanings in a dry, matter of fact way, but making it more like someone is right there speaking to you. It's interesting how much one realizes one doesn't know about certain words, for instance, the word "shiver", "The word 'shiver' originally referred to a small piece or splinter of something, or the act of breaking something into many small pieces.   When pirates say 'shiver me timbers,' they're talking about the splintering of their wooden ships during battles on rough seas…."   I just thought it was some weird expression pirates used, probably referring to a shiver being sent down their body because of surprise, this was an interesting correction to my long held idea. The word origin of "Alarm" I found quite amusing, it apparently comes from ...

Leveling the Church: Multiplying Your Ministry By Giving It Away - by Micah Fries and Jeremy Maxfield is attacking the notion of, what they call, the "super pastor", the idea that the pastor is in charge of everything in the church and pretty much meets everyone's personal spiritual needs. Instead, they believe that the biblical model is for the pastor and elders to train men to be able to do various tasks that many think the pastor is solely responsible for. I wasn't quite sure what I thought of this book at first, but I've concluded that I like it overall, though with some caveats which I'll mention in a moment.   The premise is very interesting.   As I mentioned above, the case is made that the pastor's job is not to take on everything himself, but to build up others to be able to take on ministerial tasks, like visiting the sick in the hospital, counseling, and visiting in general. As the authors put it:   "…while the pastor ough...

The Worldview Study Bible seeks to remind Christians that the Bible is not just a book that we read to feel more religious, we are changed by it, our thinking, our worldview, our perspective of everything is changed when we use it to renew our mind. This Bible has many articles in it, scattered throughout and dealing with various 'worldview' topics, articles like: "Biblical Models for Business", "Engaging LGBT Advocates", "Emperor and King Worship in Biblical Times", "Animal Rights" , "A Biblical Assessment of Abortion", and so on.   Some of the articles are quite interesting and helpful.   Others, I had some trouble with some of the content.   For instance, in the article on "Biblical Formation",   dealing with various ways one can utilize the Scriptures, it says, "Praying through the Bible flows naturally from Scripture meditation.   Giants of the faith, such as Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, and e...

The Baker Compact Dictionary of Biblical Studies is a dictionary that seeks to provide definitions and explanations for words that you will find in many books and articles that delve into the study of the text of the Bible.   It gives definitions and brief overviews of places, scholarly terminology, prominent people whose works are mentioned in theological books. It was pretty interesting to just sit and read through a lot of the information in the book, to learn a lot of new things and even to glean some extra helpful information about events, people and places that I already knew a few things about.   If I came across something that I've already become acquainted with I felt sort of reluctant to read those parts, thinking something along the lines of, "this is just a dictionary, what more could it tell me about that?" But I was surprised at some of the extra information I gleaned.   For example,   I have done a bit of reading on the "Counsel of Jamnia...

I was talking with one of my uncles some months ago and he was lamenting the lack of good Christian books out there, pointing out that the only good 'Christian' books are the ones that lead you to read the Bible itself instead of more books about the Bible.  God with Us: Exploring God's Personal Interactions with His People Throughout the Bible by Glenn R. Kreider is one such book.  I don't believe that I had heard of this book before, or at least if I had it didn't catch my attention at the time.  A friend gave it to me and I ended up being very pleased with it. In the book, Kreider focuses upon the humility of God.  He goes through the different periods of Biblical history pointing out many instances of God's graciousness towards mankind.  I'll list some particular snippets that I found fascinating: First, in his section on Abraham Kreider points out that God could have responded in anger for Abraham's asking how he would know that he w...

Alvin York: A New Biography of the Hero of the Argonne by Douglas V. Mastriano is a very interesting account of the life of this man, of what happened on the battlefield in World War 1 that elevated York, a former pacifist, to fame.  Alvin York was born into what became a large family, the third of eleven children (the family lived in a one room cabin on a farm by the way!).  His two older brothers where married and had farms of their own when his father died and so York became the head of the family.  After this, despite having been born into a Christian family, York went downhill morally and became a heavy drinker and a gambler, and of course, associated with bad people.  He acknowledged that his sins started small and then these things became controllers of his life.  Change came when York became a Christian and actively put away and resisted his old habits, he truly became a "new creation", a new person.  When war broke out between the United...