Prayer Appointed for the Week (February 17 - 23)

The First Sunday of Lent

I saw this article posted earlier this week by a good friend and pastor of mine, Ross Guthrie, who is an elder at Christ Community Church in Jackson, TN. I think this article is worth a look if you are new to Lent and want a better understanding of the purpose of the season. Read the article here. Enjoy my friends!

Prayer for the Week:

"Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan; come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptation; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. "

Don't Panic!

Seriously, don't panic! You're not going crazy, this is a double wammy post. Yes, that's right! Two, count 'em two book reviews in one post!

First, if you haven't guessed by now, I just finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglass Adams. There's really not too much to say regarding the book other than it was fun, random, and completely ridiculous! The book itself make absolutely no sense, you have to be sure to read it with an open sense of humor and just enjoy it for what it is... a piece of science fiction. The adventure begins with Arthur Dent, and his alien friend Ford, hitching a ride on a space ship right after the Earth is destroyed to make way for an intergalactic highway. From there Arthur's adventures continue to get even more ridiculous as he is picked up by an Improbability Drive space ship by the President of the Galaxy. Then, taken to a planet building factory where he learns that mice are the most intelligent beings in the universe (dolphin's being the second), who actually ordered the Earth to be constructed to learn the Ultimate Question and purpose of life, only for it to be foiled five minutes before they were to have their answer when the Earth was blown up for a highway! See, I told you it was ridiculous! If you enjoy science fiction, or just a good laugh, I recommend this book as you will thoroughly enjoy it.

The second book, I actually read a couple of weeks ago and is called Last Hope - Book One: Onslaught by Drew Brown.Warning: Spoilers! (I hope you read that in the voice of Dr. River Song):

Ok, so this isn't always the case, but when you "buy" a free book, you get what you pay for. That being said, although this book was... interesting to say the least, it wasn't all that bad. The story itself is enough to keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next. However, it is fun (and slightly funny) to see how people stereotype others from other countries. We Americans have our opinions of our good friends across the pond and what they are like, but the stereotypes of the two Americans in this book are downright humorous. The main character, Budd, is a decent enough fellow except for his horrible ability to come up with crappy pet names for his love interest, Juliette, every time he addresses her. Every once in a while, sure, but every time? A bit overkill. The other American, a Californian, had a horrible knack of saying "dude" in every sentence. Having married a woman who grew up in Southern California, I can personally attest that not all Southern Californians say "dude" all the time. 

Now that is out of the way, the writing wasn't terrible. I've never written anything that has been published, so Mr. Brown, you have a one up on me here. As I said before, the story moves along quite well. The zombies are fun and terrifying... especially the ones who are dubbed "fast movers" who have the ability to run like crazed psychopaths trying to fulfill their blood lust. The other creepy thing was the zombie children that seemed to have the ability to still think on a somewhat cognitive level... but with a "Neo" type ability to anticipate and dodge bullets. I'm sure that this will be explained more in the second book, which I may pick up at some point. 

Over all, the book was okay. If you like zombies and a quick read, pick it up on Amazon for free for the kindle. 


So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Ash Wednesday Prayer

As a substitute for the Prayer for the Week I decided to wait until today to post the prayer for Ash Wednesday. Although the Lenten season is a time of fasting and reflection, it is also one of renewal. While it may be odd to say that one would love this season, Lent is one of the many reasons why I love the Calendar.   We spend so much of our time within the church focusing on how to be "better Christians." We pour through the letters of Paul and Epistles of Peter and John, and while these are great ways to continue our discipleship and obviously breathed out by the Holy Spirit, I think we miss sometimes that Jesus himself gave us a great example... fasting and praying. By observing the Lenten season we continue our journey with Christ through the wilderness, fasting and praying, remembering that from the dust we've come and to the dust we will return, and allowing our focus to once again be drawn to the Lord so that we might enter into worship. May the peace of our Lord Jesus be with you all.

"Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

Grace and Peace to you. 

Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller

This was my first experience with Donald Miller. I know, it baffles the mind does it not? That I made it completely through college where Blue Like Jazz was passed around from student to student like a Hookah at a house party.

At any rate, the book itself was an easy-to-read attempt to break, not only the presentation of the Gospel into easy to understand terms, but also the way we (by we I mean the Church as a whole) perceive the Scriptures. (Have I bored you yet? I promise, the book itself is not as boring as I am making it out to be) While, for the most part, I can get behind what Miller is stating throughout the book, I do think taking the theological aspect out of our perception of Scripture is a dangerous road to walk down. In his defense, he does mention the necessity of theological study in his afterword, but nevertheless, he does seem to easily toss theology aside for a simplistic understanding of the Scriptures. Is this a bad thing? Not at all... for awhile. At some point, we can not ignore the deeper meanings and truths behind the Scriptures if we truly wish to move beyond the milk and toward the meat. Moses may not have known the deeper implications of the words the Spirit was directing him to write, but that does not mean they weren't there. (I only bring this up because Miller seems to dismiss certain truths that are being presented in the first 3 chapters of Genesis as us projecting these truths on the Scriptures and not seeing the relational aspect behind them).

Another thing that bothered me, (and I promise I'm not ranting against Miller, just pointing out parts that I think warrant further discussion) is the idea that we have broken down not only the Gospel, but spiritual life in general, into such formulaic rituals that we have long lost the meaning behind what the Scriptures are teaching. I will say that I agree that there are some that may become more dependent on their formulas or on their rituals and lose complete focus on Christ, but I do believe that these rituals can, for others, bring many into closer worship and communion with Christ. Not just through the taking of the Eucharist (or Lord's Supper), or baptism, but also through praying daily (whether that be praying the Hours or just pausing throughout the day to pray). Much like in marriage where we have certain "rituals" that we perform to bring our relationship closer (not just sex, but praying together, eating together, etc...) I feel that some things that believers do (mainly those I listed in the previous sentence) can and do bring us into deeper worship and relationship with the Lord. Or, at the very least, help us to focus our attention again on Christ.

All of that said, I have no problems recommending this book to someone, or for that matter even recommending it as a study for a group, but I do think some healthy discussion would benefit those that read it and I think it would benefit them well.

Prayer Appointed for the Week (February 3 - February 9, 2013)

Ah ha! See, I told you I would sit down this afternoon and actually post this before half of the week was over. And you didn't believe me... silly you. At any rate, I just finished reading Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller and I will be posting my review right here in a day or two. So there's something for you to look forward to! I don't know what I shall pick up next, I have about 10 books that I've started that I should probably finish, so it very well may be one of those.
Before I type the prayer for this week, I just realized that I gave you this week's for last week, SO, I'll just give you last week for this week... a little off from the Scriptures in the Lectionary, but still good stuff. Alright, without further adieu, the prayer for the week:

Grace and Peace to you.

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.