How to Ruin Your Life by 40--Farrar

How to Ruin Your Life by 40
by: Steve Farrar
(Moody: 2006, 143pp)

Don’t mistake this for a trivial book based on its facetious title. Steve Farrar addresses the 20’ish crowd with refreshing candor and relevance based not only on his own life experience but on his extensive interactions with people who have struggled and/or derailed their lives by the age of forty. What are the common denominators? The groundwork for a successful life at age forty is laid in the decisions that are made in the twenties. Sobering counter-examples are woven through chapters dealing with finding life’s purpose and one’s unique calling, finding and being the right mate, pursuing God’s will and guarding the heart. A ‘blow out’ at age 40 comes about because of errors in judgment and poor choices before then.

A particularly effective chapter (9-‘Honest Struggles’) discusses the critical need to deal honestly with the struggles of life before they erupt into full-blown disaster. The heart cannot be merely ignored or hidden, it must be guarded. “It is the struggle to guard you heart that will determine what happens to you by the time you are forty.”(125)

Farrar concludes with a recommendation he calls one’s “minimum daily requirements”, suggesting that the reading of Scripture is to the health of the heart what adequate nutrition is to the body. “You can’t fight off temptation when you are malnourished.” (138) He suggests a chapter of Proverbs a day, read and put into practice, as a safeguard against ruining your life by forty.

I appreciate Farrar’s obvious passion and insight. His Bible-based counsel is both pointed and practical. This book will be a timely encouragement to young adults and even to those of us who are older, but still intent on living our lives to their fullest potential.

--LS


“The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God, and after conversion to keep it with him.”—Charles Bridges

As Easy as Drinking Water--Javid

As Easy as Drinking Water: A Muslim Forgiven
by: Afshin Javid
WinePress Publ., 2010, [Beware this publisher. More info via 'google']144pp.


WARNING: Contents no longer endorsed by ghost writer as authentic! (Feb.2012)*

“As easy as drinking water” is the Persian expression Afshin Javid uses to summarize his own story of finding forgiveness in Jesus Christ.  His riveting and inspiring testimony  commences with a brief synopsis of his childhood in Iran.  He was a zealous and committed Muslim, the pride and joy of his grandfather who commissioned him to go to the West and make converts for Islam.  His illegal immigration attempts land him in a Malaysian prison where hope of ever being freed is slim.  Here he comes face to face with the reality of Jesus Christ and his life is forever changed.  

His conversion reads like a modern-day Isaiah 6 story of God’s revelation of His holiness, Javid’s sinfulness and His offer of cleansing, followed by His commissioning of Javid to tell the Good News of salvation.  The miraculous, though not sought, is woven through his testimony much like it was in the days of the New Testament church.  God’s incredible interventions in Javid’s life and subsequent ministry are an awe-inspiring reminder that God is alive and well in our day, and is still a wonder-working God.  Javid’s own passion coupled with his candid retelling give this story a refreshing and empowering vitality.  His example of simple trust and obedience are inspiring reminders of the life of discipleship every Christian is called to.

[Unfortunately Mr. Javid has not been candid or honest in the telling of his story.  It is very impressive, very inspiring but not altogether factual.  As of February,2012, the ghost writer, Dan Holmes, has rescinded his endorsement of this story as true and lays out some of his objections at his website: 2peter2.blogspot.com
Mr. Javid has been required to step down from his pastorate following multiple allegations of immoral behavior and cult-like leadership.]

As Easy as Drinking Water  will inspire fresh faith and worship of the God who is worthy of all we are and have.  I highly recommend it!

--LS   I have retained this book review as a sobering reminder to all of us to beware of false teachers and of the 'deceitfulness of sin' in the times in which we live.  I commend to you to read instead: 2 Peter 2, I Tim 6, II Tim.3,4.  The Word of God is forever to be trusted.


P.S. I had opportunity to hear Afshin Javid tell his own story at Missions Fest, Vancouver this year.  He is a dynamic speaker with a passion for the lost, be they Muslim or any other 'stripe', and a passion for believers to live the Word they claim to believe.  He reserved the writing of his own story for twenty years--so that his life would have opportunity to prove that this was no passing 'phase' but a lasting transformation!  He is currently a pastor in the Vancouver area. This was the 'alleged' reason for waiting to tell his story.  Sadly, he was already deeply involved in scandalous behavior when the book was published.  May God's goodness lead Mr. Javid to repentance. --LS


*For more information visit 2Peter2.blogspot.com

The Great Divorce—Lewis

The Great Divorce*
(A fantastic bus ride from hell to Heaven—a round trip for some but not for others)
--C.S.Lewis
(MacMillan: 1946, 128pp.)

*Divorce: “a separation, especially one that is total or complete”

This is one of the strangest books I’ve ever read and I am hesitant to attempt a review. It is first of all an allegory but one staged with the minimum of context. From the start the reader is waiting with the first person narrator to discover where he is and where he is headed. The setting is some sort of run-down town in a dismal twilight zone. A scrappy collection of restless individuals are waiting for a bus to somewhere. The narrator joins them for want of anything more compelling to do.

Soon they are airborne and within a chapter’s space, have landed in a bright, large place, presumably outside our solar system. The bulk of the ‘storyline’ consists in conversations held or overheard, and in observations about the changing atmosphere and its effect on the passengers. As this new world of brilliant light is approached the faces take on ugly distortions of themselves—“full not of possibilities but of impossibilities”.
For the remainder of the book the reader accompanies the narrator in his exploration of this new place, which seems to be a sort of ‘trailhead’ to the path toward Heaven. The place they’ve come from seems to be a type of hell and it seems that this bus ride is their opportunity to determine if they are interested in proceeding or if they prefer to go back to hell.

I should clarify here, for those like myself who have a ‘problem’ with allegory in that it can paint a false picture of what is true: C.S. Lewis makes quite clear in his introduction that his imaginative suppositions of ‘transmortal’ conditions are purely fantasy and not to be construed as real speculation as to what will await us after death. Rather this sparsely detailed setting has given him a place to explore the mindsets of those who are hell-bound. The text is largely a matter of conversations and interactions observed by the narrator between the former bus occupants and the larger than life ‘real’ beings that inhabit this new world and are assigned to conduct those who are willing to Heaven.

Surprisingly, each one has an objection to going on to Heaven and one by one each chooses to retain the mindset that excludes him from Heaven and even to despise the thought of Heaven. The narrator is in a different category but I will not give away the clever story ending.

Each conversation represents a type of person whose way of thinking has misled them. There is the ‘intellectual’ who has dismissed all literal truth and feels entitled to his ‘honest opinion’, having drifted from faith and lost all sense of real reason in the process. Fact and God cannot not co-exist in his mind. When invited to ‘the land not of questions but of answers’ where he will ‘see the face of God’ his response is an air-headed “Ah, but we must all interpret those beautiful words in our own way! For me there is no such thing as a final answer. The free wind of inquiry must always continue to blow through the mind, must it not?”

Another character is the cynic who doubts everything and assumes everyone’s a liar and out to deceive him. A great depression has come over him and he is unable to believe that heaven is even a desirable destination, or hell one to be avoided. He has become a mocker beyond redemption.

Pride and pre-occupation with oneself is another obstacle typified. The thought of being seen for who she was terrifies this character. She despairs of having been born and cries, ‘What are we born for?’ The answer: “For infinite happiness”. But first there is the shame of being exposed for who we are. “If you will accept it—if you will drink the cup to the bottom—you will find it very nourishing.” She refuses the offer, not willing to be exposed.

In this way, C.S. Lewis presents much thought-provoking dialogue to demonstrate the nature of the choice that confronts every soul. At one point the narrator meets one of Lewis’ favorite authors, George MacDonald and discusses how souls could possibly choose to go back to hell. To this MacDonald replies:

“Milton was right, the choice of every lost soul can be expressed in the words ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.’ There is always something they insist on keeping, even at the price of misery. There is always something they prefer to joy—that is, to reality.”

It is from this dialogue with MacDonald that the well-known quote emerges: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ ” The extension of that quote is less well known but summarizes the moral of this story: “All that are in Hell, chose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.”(pp.72-73)


I encourage readers of all sorts to wade in and find these rich and insightful conversations, even if the fantasy genre is not your ‘cup of tea’. And bring along a pencil; there are too many good lines to leave unmarked!

--LS

One Thousand Gifts -- Voskamp

One Thousand Gifts
Ann Voskamp
Zondervan: 2010, 237pp.
           *****

Ann loves beauty and she loves words.  She also loves her God, as is evident in this book--a thank-offering all strung together with words poetic and fragile as blown glass--words that sing and ache and cry.  One Thousand Gifts is Ann's testimony of learning to give thanks in everything--the bitter, the ugly, the painful, and the mundane; and in so doing of seeing it metamorphosed into a beautiful gift entrusted in love and offered back as a thank-offering.  Her own life is vulnerably woven through the pages right from first page: "...and I enter the world like every person born enters the world: with clenched fists...Vermix-creased and squalling, I am held to the light."  Ann's name means: "full of grace" and introduces the underlying question answered in the book's unfolding: "What does it mean to live full of grace? To live fully alive?"

The ensuing pages are poetic reflections of finding grace in every experience by offering thanks to God for it.   This book may not be for the reader that prefers a cut-and-dried storyline, spelled out in plain prose.  The summary for you would be: learn to give thanks in every moment for everything by making note (literally) with pen on paper, of the blessings great and miniscule that cross your path each day.  Keep a running count.  The initial goal for putting the habit in place is enumerating 1,000 gifts.

Your list may look quite different than Ann's which has such picturesque entries as:
 "Morning shadows across the old floors"
"Cry of blue jay from high in the spruce"
"Hoarfrost flaking off tree limbs"
"Salvation of sinners, me, chief"
"Barns"
"Pinky skin of newborn pigs"
but the point is to recognize the good and beautiful things that God is doing in your life continuously--the custom-made moments that give evidence of a Lover wooing His beloved. Your list need not be poetic; it is your own trail of thanksgiving.

But rest-assured that even Ann's book is not so poetic that it misses real life! She is a farmer's wife and mother to a quiver-full of young growing farmhands.  Her writing flows from this full and down-to-earth life.  It is a bouquet that is bound to inspire the reader's own flowering of thanks!  Ann has pointed the way by her own hard-earned habit of gratefulness.  She shows us how to look at life, even in the very hard seasons, as a continuous flow of good and perfect gifts, custom made for us by the Lover of our souls.

In addition to her own experiences, Ann's book gives evidence of deep and thoughtful reading, first and foremost of the Bible.  Her meditations and wrestlings with Scripture are the grist which shapes her thoughts.  In addition she pulls timely quotes and observations from a wide range of gifted writers ranging from C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, and Dorothy Sayers in the not so distant past, to Saint Augustine, Teresa of Avila, and Julian of Norwich further back, and modern writers such as John Piper, Annie Dillard and Brennan Manning.  These gleanings are skillfully woven into her own life observations enriching them and connecting them to the life of the Bride of Christ down through time.  Gratitude is not a new practice, but is here given a refreshing face lift that invites us all to be intentional about noticing God's gifts in our generation.

I hope you'll enjoy this gift of well-worded wonder as much as I have and move from it to be a more intentional giver of thanks.

--LS

If you enjoy Ann's writing you won't want to miss her regular blogs at http://www.aholyexperience.com/ which are embellished with her own artistic photography.  They are the notes from which this book has grown, and are likewise excellent and inspiring.