Category Archives: Non-fiction

The Friday Fight: Good Friday

(Isaiah 53) Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant,

and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turnedโ€”every oneโ€”to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

and as for his generation, who considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked

and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous,

and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

and makes intercession for the transgressors.

My Life Without God, by William J. Murray

I picked up William J. Murrayโ€™s autobiography, My Life Without God, largely because I figured heโ€™d be a kindred soul. Both of us were raised in dysfunctional families dominated by abusive mothers. I did find much to identify with, but all in all I donโ€™t think Iโ€™d have traded places with him.

Bill Murray holds a permanent place in American history as the boy whose mother, Madalyn Murray (later Oโ€™Hair), sued the city of Baltimore on his behalf, to spare him the emotional suffering of being forced to pray in school. The case ended up in the Supreme Court, and a novel and paradigm-shifting precedent resulted.

She was, apparently, less concerned about his emotional suffering in other areas of life. Continue reading My Life Without God, by William J. Murray

Life Bookends

Everything you do and all that you are are like books on a long open shelf. Without bookends to hold up those various sized books, you’re likely to lose some of them. But fear not. God offers two bookends through faith in Christ Jesus. “One bookend is the righteousness of Christ; the other is the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christian Partisanship

According to this article in World (subscription req.), the editor of the large Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization, George Kurian, believes historical arguments from the Christian camp should accentuate the positive and overlook the negative. World reporter Mark Bergin asked, “Why not include such historical realities [as the follies of Christians or those who called themselves Christians] for the sake of truth?” Mr. Kurian replied, “It’s a question of motivation. This is a Christian encyclopedia. It has to be on the side of Christians, because that is the purpose of the encyclopedia.”

I can’t say I agree with Mr. Kurian. Christians are on God’s side, which is also the side of the truth. We side with the truth, regardless how good we look in its light. Even when Joshua prepared to conquer Jericho and met an angel of the Lord, he asked the angel (thinking he was a man) whose side he was on. “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come” (Joshua 5:14 NIV).

That’s where we are with any history; we are with the Lord, not the church or other Christians genuine or nominal. We are on the side of the truth, of what’s real, of the Lord of all creation.

Online Reading

Here’s a pile essays from Reformed and Puritan authors, such as William Bridge, C.H. Spurgeon, J.C. Ryle, and John Owen. These are types of things you could see printed in small paperbacks, pamphlets almost, with great depth of thought beneath the cheap cover.

More Free Books

For March only, Donald Whitney’s great book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, is available in audio from Christianaudio.com for free. You have to go through a normal check out and use a coupon code at the end to download it in seven mp3s. This book is very strong. If you haven’t read it and wouldn’t mind listening through it, you can pull it down now. See the author’s home page for details.

Also, I have neglected to tell you about a book on 1 Corinthians 13 by my pastor. It’s call The Most Excellent Way, and I recommend it to you–especially if your Pentecostal.