Primal -- Book Review

When I heard that Mark Batterson was going to release his third book called Primal - A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity I knew that it was something I needed to read. The premise of Primal is a journey into the heart and soul of Christianity. What would our Christianity look like if it was stripped down to the very core?

Through Mark's very engaging and personal story telling and writing style we look at the basis of the Christian faith: The Great Commandment. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength. So the book is nicely divided into sections that deal with the heart, soul, mind and strength of Christianity.

The book is a very easy read in the fact that it is under 200 pages long but a very difficult read in the content that it brings. It will challenge your thinking and even the way you view your Christian life. It may even push you to start a new reformation movement in your own life, one that pushes you closer to the heart of God.

Overall I would highly recommend this book. I would even say that this should be your first read of 2010. If you've been a fan of Mark's previous two books or you're just discovering him in this latest book Primal, you won't be disappointed.

Book Review: Fearless

Can you imagine your life without fear? Is that even possible? When fear herds us into a prison and slams the door, wouldn't it be great to just walk out? These are questions that are promised to be addressed in Max Lucado's new book Fearless.

In the book the author lays out several different fears that seem to plague us all these days. For example, Fear of not mattering, fear of not protecting my kids, fear of violence, fear of death, fear that God is not real, etc. When looking over the table of contents I was amazed at how timely and prudent the topics chosen truly are.

I enjoyed the fact that the book lays out really simply. The chapters are labeled with individual fears. So, you read a chapter about a certain fear and he explains through the life and teachings of Jesus how faith can and should replace that fear.

Something very important to note is the fact that the author places a huge emphasis on Scripture. This is something that I really appreciated. The author wasn't trying to create solutions to each fear that we face every day, but rather pointed us to the solution to our fears. Which is faith. And where do we find the strength for our faith? In the Scriptures. Each chapter is filled with examples of Scripture that can lead us to a life of faith.

There is one more unique aspect to the book. Since each chapter deals with a different fear, it almost seems that the book has been separated into 13 little books with an introduction and conclusion at each end. You're free to look through the Table of Contents and find the fear that is real to you at that moment and skip around. It's not really necessary to read the book from cover to cover.

An added bonus at the end of the book is the discussion guide. For me reading through the chapters of the book was revealing enough, but if you wanted to dive deeper into each chapter this is the place for you. It would even work great as a discussion starter in a small group setting.

Overall I enjoyed the book and if you are a fan of Max Lucado's previous books this one certainly won't disappoint. I do believe that he has written a book that deals with a very practical and insightful topic. And he does a very good job approaching the topic of fear.

Baskin Robbins Fail.

Ok, I've talked about why I haven't been posting here. So I really won't spend time talking about why you should follow me on twitter if you really want to keep up with what I'm doing.

But this morning I've decided to actually write a post and share a recent experience we had at our local Baskin Robbins.

But this story starts back at my daughter's awards ceremony during her last week of school. (Her awards ceremony happened around May 28. That's important to remember later) It seems that she earned several awards for reading, attendance, student of the month, etc. You know, just like her dad.


She was so excited to receive several little gift certificates to different places around town. But one of her favorites was some coupons for a free ice cream cone at Baskin Robbins. So just this past week we decided to take her and my son to Baskin Robbins after one of her softball games. It was a nice reward for her playing so well.

But once we arrived at our local Baskin Robbins we were greeted at the door with this sign:


Now of course, that sign couldn't be talking about the coupon we had. We had just received it a week earlier. So I went inside to find out what the deal really was.

Now, I won't say anything bad about the employees that were working that night, they really had no idea. And I don't really blame them for that. This was a manager's job. But, their manager happened to be gone at the moment and no one seemed to know where he was.

So in their attempt to answer my questions they just kept pointing me to these signs that were posted throughout the store. With every question they would let me know they had a sign posted. When I told them that we had the coupon for all of three days before it expired, they pointed to the sign once again.

(I should point out for the record that our coupon did not have a printed expiration date on it.)

So the sad thing is, our local Baskin Robbins told (at least) one entire school that they could not redeem their Reading Reward coupons they received at the end of the school year. The coupon was good for under a week. In fact, they told us all that really it's our fault for not using them sooner. They had in fact, graciously extended the date on the coupon to June 1st. (Because they're looking out for their customers of course.)

All that to say this, I will not be going to Baskin Robbins again. (I know, they're really broken up about that) We have plenty of choices around our house for ice cream and from now on we'll choose them.

Thanks for a great experience Baskin Robbins. And thanks for making our choice for ice cream a little easier in the future.

"Not all soul music comes from the church"

The title is a quote from Bono.

Check out this column he has written in the NY Times.

It's true that U2 has a religious background. (Not sure where they all stand at this moment) And Bono has never been shy to talk about his beliefs (and non beliefs I guess.)

Anyway, read the article and let me know your thoughts.

Where have you been?

So, it's been almost two weeks since my last post. Where in the world have I been? Am I just too good to post here on the blog anymore? What could be happening in my life that is soooo important?

Well, to answer the question honestly...nothing.

I just haven't had the urge to post. Haven't felt the need to write. Don't get me wrong, things will happen in life and I'll think to myself, "That would make a great blog post" and then...nothing. I never sit down to write. So I started asking myself the question, "Why?"

The main reason seems to be a little website known as twitter. (What is twitter you ask? Well that's an entirely different post.) You can click here to follow me or just read the updates on the right side of this page. (Facebook users can follow me by reading my status updates) I open up enough through twitter and I'm limited to 140 characters. Nice.

Another reason just seems to be time. Don't get me wrong, I have time if I want to make it but it just seems lately that I don't want to spend the time writing. Maybe that makes me lazy. (Notice I said maybe.)

So there you have it. My reasons for neglecting the blog. I'm not sure they're great reasons but they're the ones I could think of today.

And speaking of writing, the actually turned out to be quite a long post. I'm feeling pretty good about myself.

(And maybe I should do something about the layout around here. I think it needs an update. I welcome your suggestions.)

Just Listen

Do you ever listen to an artist or an album and it just starts speaking to you? It seems that sometimes God will pull songs and use them to really speak to me right where I am. Well, recently that's been happening to me while listening to Kari Jobe. So, go ahead and give it a listen below, and tell me what you think.

Kari Jobe - Kari Jobe

What music has been speaking to you lately?

(Facebook users may need to click view original post to listen)

I want to go

Wow, U2 announced their first stadium tour in several years. And it looks bigger than ever.

I want to go.