I want to share a book with you.  Mark Batterson has written another book.  If his first two books, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase were childhood and adolescence, Mark has reached adulthood.

Really, if you are looking for a gift, run and pick this up.  Primal is about getting crazy creative in your walk with God.

Mark talks from experience.  He doesn’t talk from a high platform.  He talks from reality.  He challenges us from a basis of reality.  We aren’t just challenged to be better Christians.  We are challenged to be more real.

This book is not vintage Batterson.  This book is much more.  I think, like all of us, Mark is growing and changing and getting better with age.  Primal has the feel of Leonard Sweet mixed with Alan Hirsch and a bit of Frank Viola.  If you are looking for a book that will challenge you to live the dream – to be what God created you to be, this is the book.

In Primal, Mark explores the four elements of Great Commandment Christianity: compassion, wonder, curiosity, and power. Along the way, he calls you to be a part of God’s reformation, starting in your own life.

As Mark writes, “Is there a place in your past where you met God and God met you? A place where your heart broke for the things that break the heart of God? Maybe it was a sermon that became more than a sermon. Maybe it was a mission trip or retreat. Maybe it was a vow you made at an altar. In that moment, God birthed something supernatural in your spirit. You knew you’d never be the same again. My prayer is that this book would take you back to that burning bush—and reignite a primal faith.”

Primal will help you live in light of what matters most and discover what it means to love God. It will help you become great at the Great Commandment.

Want more information?  There is a lengthy quote from the first chapter in this article (A Face on Poverty) I wrote elsewhere.

You can buy the book from the publisher, or from Amazon.com.

This was book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah.

We have reached the end of Galatians.  What a treat this has been.

Paul ends his letter in two parts.  There is so much here, we are going to have to do this in parts.

Paul doesn’t pull any punches.  He just tells it like it is.  Sometimes, those around you aren’t going to have their life together.  Sometimes, you are going to want to run for the hills because even an association with someone is going to seem too much.

When they’ve sinned.

Paul says:  go to them, restore them and don’t judge them, because you might someday need similar grace.  Ouch!  When people sin, don’t we hold part of ourselves back to ‘help’ them.  We want to use our higher brain functions to ’show them how to do it right’.  Paul says:  treat them as an equal.  You have the same base tendencies.  Lovingly restore them.  (If you check this with other Paul writings, this would mean that the person has turned from their sin, and isn’t continuing in it.)

About 200 years after Paul wrote these words, there was a great persecution.  Some of the Christians couldn’t handle the pressure, and turned in other Christians.  Those who were turned in were tortured, and some were even fed to the lions.  When the persecutions were over, those who remained, wanted to make sure they could trust the informants.  They devised a method by which the informants could earn their way back into the congregation.  This is where the whole idea of penance came from.  They had to stay outside the congregation for a year and couldn’t have communion for a year while they were paying their penance.  Interestingly, those who had survived prison were the most forgiving, and called for forgiveness.

Share the burden of the oppressed

Ouch.  We like to give to charities so that the charities can share the burden.  In what ways do we share the burden?  Have you considered having someone who has alienated their entire family over to the holidays?  What about having coffee with someone and listening to their story?  Hospitality has many forms.  It is easy to show hospitality to those who look and act like us, but hospitality of the heart means that we offer our time and energy to those who can’t return it – in this way, we share their burden.  Genuine human contact is precious, and it is one of the things they miss most.

Be the person God created you to be

I had a conversation on the bus with a woman this week.   I was telling her how incredibly creative one of my children is.  She said “yes, but there is no money in that.  Better tell them now, and make sure they make plans for the future.”  I have been thinking on this all week long.

I wonder how much of our society has been squelched because people are trying to be responsible and earn a living.  God designed us in His image, and His image is creative.  His image is also analytical and methodical.  He has so many facets.  You were designed in God’s image, and when you live up to being the person He created you to be, you add value to society.  Find your giftings, explore them and develop them to the hilt.  We won’t be the same if you don’t.

What do you do when you find yourself reaching for the life-remote?  You know, when you suddenly find yourself saying “wait!  I don’t like this!  I need to change the channel.  This isn’t my life, I want another one!”

I was thinking about this concept this morning.  Some days, we hit that point – where we decide, IT’S TOO MUCH!

Like I often do, my next thought was to find some biblical examples of what we should do when we are looking for the life-remote.

• Moses talked to God about it.
• Daniel revisited the spiritual disciplines of fasting and prayer.
• Elijah sought solitude and actually ran to the Mountain of the Lord.
• Jesus prayed his guts out in the Garden of Gethsemane
• The disciples shut themselves in the upper room until God showed up
• Paul and Silas sang songs
• Corrie ten Boom practiced forgiveness
• A myriad of believers have learned that practicing thankfulness is key

Today, I want to encourage you – the answer is found in digging deeper, not running away.  God will never leave you, nor forsake you.  He took Joseph to some pretty awful and dark places – all for the purpose of putting him in the perfect place, at the perfect time, to save a nation.  Moreover, God gave Joseph the strength to handle his situation with integrity.  He will do the same for you, if you let Him.

When I was young, I memorized Galatians 5:1, 13 & 22 by way of a song.  This chapter has been a part of my heart for years.  I never realized it was also the chapter where Paul blows his top.

“As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” (vs. 12)

What is it about freedom in Christ that had Paul so hot and bothered?  What could adding a few rules hurt?

Let’s take a little walk, back to the evening before Jesus was arrested.  Jesus and the disciples were still sitting at the table.  Right after Judas left, Jesus gives them a new command:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34)  Then he goes on to give them three promises:

1. That he is going to prepare a place for them, and that he will come back (our eternal hope)
2. “Anyone who has faith in Him will do what he is doing, and even greater things.”  The Message translates the next part best: “From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.” (John 14:14)
3. That he will send the Holy Spirit.  Chapter 16 goes on to explain that the Holy Spirit convicts and guides into truth.  Elsewhere he comforts and endues Power.

Now.  If Jesus wants to give you all these things, and His only commandment is to love each other and to remain in Him, why would you want to go out on a tangent trying to obey other laws?  Listen to the results of this behavior:  “If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” (Galatians 5:15)

When I learned these verses as a teen, I thought it meant that I had to work hard to become that list of positive behaviors in verse 19.  That’s because I never learned verse 16.  Live by the Spirit and you won’t gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  It is a positive statement, not a negative one.  You can’t become Christlike by figuring out what not to be.  You can only become Christlike by getting to know Jesus – by letting the Holy Spirit do the work on the inside of you.

A dandelion doesn’t say I want to become a poof flower (whatever those things are), it just becomes one because it is part of it’s nature.  If you have the Holy Spirit on the inside of you, and you are listening to Him, you will become like Him.  If you are trying to figure out how to get it all right, you are going to lose.  The fruits of the Spirit grow from within – you can’t make them appear.

What about self discipline you ask?  For many of us, the real discipline is being quiet and letting the Spirit talk to us.  Listening to His voice and doing what He says instead of what seems like the right thing.

Does life keep hitting you in the face and you can’t seem to stand up straight?

Squeezing Good out of Bad is a short, fun book that takes a poke at real life and helps us, well, figure out how to make lemonade out of all these lemons.

James Watkins has not had life easy of late, but has found that writing and humor help bring focus.  This book is unique, in that the chapters are numbered backwards – like a top 10 list – but I have to say, I think he saved the best for last, because chapter “1″ was my favorite.

I want to introduce you to the author a bit, and let you hear from him “in his own words” through a couple of interview questions:

Galatians 4:21-31 is a complicated passage.

The first time I read it, I took a lot of my own baggage into it, and quite frankly came out feeling very defensive for the Arab people.

One of the spiritual disciplines is to meditate on scripture.  We need to meditate on scripture so that it becomes a part of us.  We also meditate on scripture so that the Holy Spirit can open it up to us, sort truth from our own stuff and help us interpret scripture correctly.

Why don’t we want to live like Hagar?  Because Hagar had her son by Abraham.  She had all the responsibilities of a wife and mother, but none of the rights.  Instead, she still bore all the responsibilities of a slave.  If we try to serve God through a system of rules, we heap on ourselves a system of responsibilities that is unending with none of the freedoms.

Why do we want to fashion our life after Sarah?  She had to wait years for the desires of her heart to be fulfilled.  She had to watch while her slave got in a night what she had hoped and tried for and failed.  She had to wait for God to move.  She got the child of promise.  She had the rights, responsibilities and freedom of relationship.

Relationship is risky – it is a life of waiting, yearning and adventure.  Jesus said:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

I thoroughly enjoyed Double Cross, and if you like a good suspense/mystery, I think you will too.  If you are tired of the traditional review, I thought I’d give you a chance to learn a bit about this book and its author from a little Q&A:

Q:  Double Cross is your third novel, but writing is not your full time job. You are a successful business attorney. Tell us how and why you started writing.

A:  I’ve always enjoyed writing and always considered it a challenge to write a novel and get it published.  Like most beginning writers, I was naïve and didn’t know how much I didn’t know about writing. I knew that when I did write, I wanted to write about life’s “big” issue which, at least in my mind, is faith.

Q:  How much of your inspiration for writing novels comes from your true life experiences as an attorney?

A:  Very little really. I don’t want to write about work because it would be too much like being at work. Writing and sports are what I do to get a break from being an attorney.

Q: Double Cross continues the story of Taylor Pasbury. Tell us about Taylor and what makes her tick.

A:  Taylor was raised by her father, a former Special Forces officer, after her mother ran out when she was a child. Taylor knows how to take care of herself and did stints on a Dallas SWAT team and in the Secret Service before opening her own security agency. She’s the person you want next to you in a crisis, but she is terribly insecure on a personal level which makes her attractively vulnerable. Her father was murdered when she was seventeen, and she’s been adrift. She’s not someone anyone would describe as a religious person which makes her an interesting narrator for a novel with a Christian theme.

Q:  You have a knack for weaving deep spiritual truths into intriguing story lines. What’s the secret to making a spiritual point without creating a plot that seems too contrived?

A:  The trick is to find a story idea in which the characters would naturally be expected to think about spiritual angles. Let’s face it. Despite what the popular press and Hollywood would like us to believe, the average person in this country does think about spiritual issues—not necessarily daily or even regularly—but not just rarely, either. Some events in life naturally focus the ordinary American’s mind on the spiritual. Even people who don’t consider themselves religious are generally willing to consider spiritual issues as long as they’re not presented as part of an evangelical bludgeoning.

Q:  You write about characters who are very flawed and sometimes self-destructive. Why have you chosen to present a message of faith through such messy characters?

A:  I don’t think anyone gets much out of reading about religious super heroes. We’ve all got our faults and our problems, and Christians don’t have to be perfect people. In many ways, I almost think God likes us better when we don’t try to act so perfect and instead acknowledge our own flaws.

Q:  Is this the end of the road for Taylor Pasbury, or will we see her again?

A:  Right now, it looks as if Taylor is going to appear again in a Michael Crichton-style techno thriller. She is going to walk the border line between science and religion when she’s hired to protect an orphan boy who has a baffling ability that causes a lot of powerful world players to want to get their hands on him. I just need to find the time to write it.

One of the ways we get to know people is by learning how they see a situation.  What details are important to them?  Do they remember what they saw or how people reacted?  Do they remember how they felt or what the license plate was?  These sort of details tell us a lot about someone’s personality.

Treasured is a book about getting to know God through the details of bible events.  You’ll be introduced to the fig leaves that Adam and Eve used to cover themselves; the knife that Abraham planned to use to sacrifice his son; and the riding crop that Balaam used to beat his donkey among many others.  Each of these details are just a part of a bigger story that shows God’s personality.

If you like the Women of Faith, I think you will really like Leigh McLeroy.  Unlike the WOF, she is rather serious, but she has a passion for introducing people to God, and she does it with ease.   This book is a quick and easy read – I think it would make a good commuter book or gift book.

If you want to buy it, you will find it at the publisher’s site, or on Amazon.com

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

Last night we went to see Sister’s Christmas Catechism at Act Theatre.

You could pay for therapy to get through the doldrums of this season, or, as some have suggested, you could laugh your way to health.  I strongly suggest the later.

This play is FULL of audience participation and LOADS of fun.  I learned things like:

• There is such a thing as Christmas peeps (I thought they only came out at Easter).
• St. Margaret of Antioch was eaten by a dragon, used her crucifix to cut her way out of his tummy and became the Patron St. of Cesarean Sections. (LOL)
• Saul had his name changed to Paul because he was in the “Jesus Protective Program”

This play was two solid hours of fun.

I don’t suggest you take anyone under sixteen – although the actress part of the play itself is entirely clean, the audience participation means that there is no control over the actual PG level.  You might end up having to explain things you didn’t want to, but “The Sister” keeps good control of the room, so nothing gets too out of hand or embarrassing.

You really can’t miss with this play.  If you need a laugh, I recommend spending the night with Act Theatre.

“God sent the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, FAther,” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” Galatians 4: 6b-7

What does it mean to have the full rights of sons before God?  What it really means is that you don’t have to guess.

Not too long ago, some people wanted to meet the president, so they crashed his party.  Weird, huh?  You know who didn’t have to crash his party to see him?  His daughters.  They get to go to him any time they want.  They don’t have to go through layers of bureaucracy.  They don’t have to make sure they’ve done their homework and chores and behaved just so, just so they can talk to daddy.  They get to talk to him any time they want.

The same is true with you and God.  God sent the Spirit to live inside of you.  God is with you all the time.  You don’t have to “have it all together” before you get to talk to Him.  He’s already listening.  On top of that, He is eager to talk with you.  He is also eager to be part of your life and answer the desires of your heart.

The interesting thing is that the more we talk to God, the more we become like Him – because He cleans us up from the inside-out.  We become more functional people just by spending more time with God.

Have a blessed day.