For those who feel their lives are a grave disappointment to God, it requires enormous trust and reckless, raging confidence to accept that the love of Christ knows no shadow of alteration or change.
-Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel p. 112
(If you don’t know The Ragamuffin Gospel, it’s worth the read. I read this book in high school and I’m now revisiting it, totally soaking in things that have a greater impact on my heart now than they did seven years ago.)
In this travelogue, thriller fiction author Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis, an international expert in the field of Muslim-Christian and Middle East-U.S. relations, undertake a daunting task: Traveling through the Middle East, they pose the question, “What do you think about Jesus’ teaching to love your neighbor – and, by extension, your enemy?”
The catch? Dekker and Medearis met with key Muslim religious leaders and some of the top leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas – organizations whose members most in the U.S. consider terrorists. In fact, some of the men they sat down to tea with are literally on U.S. Most Wanted lists.
Dekker and Medearis used the parable of the Good Samaritan, stating that they hoped to find the modern-day equivalent: the perceived enemy, who turns out to be the unlikely hero. Knowing that many Westerners consider Muslims to be a feared enemy, they hoped to paint a different portrait; they wanted to meet the enemy who crosses lines and goes out of his way to aid the one who fears and hates him. This is the essence of the Good Samaritan story that Jesus told.
Rather than interpreting their interviews through their own lens, Dekker and Medearis published the exact transcripts for the reader. They asked questions like, “What’s a joke that makes you laugh?” and “When was the last time you cried?” The interviewees’ answers make them more human and less fearsome. It also messes with your worldview. How am I to hate someone who cries because his three-year-old daughter has cancer?
The number-two man in Hezbollah, Sheik Nabil Qaouk, when asked what he would like to say to all Jews and Christians, responded:
Please, know the truth. If you know the truth, then you will know who is holding the truth. Don’t follow the person who claims to know the truth, because there is no person who has that truth. Find the truth yourself and it will set you free. For example, don’t only follow the U.S. Administration, because they are not always right. You have to know what is the truth, then decide what is the truth (Tea with Hezbollah page 128).
Dekker does a good job of outlining some of the history of conflicts in the Middle East for the readers’ understanding. The interesting thing was, when I read my Bible after reading Tea with Hezbollah, I felt like I better understood some of the conflicts that are recorded there. Dekker had the same impression:
I couldn’t shake the similarities between the various factions [...] nor the near freakish parallels between the conflicts in the region today and the conflicts that had badgered the land two thousand years earlier. Jew, Samaritans, Romans. Muslims, Druze, Christian, Jews (Tea with Hezbollah page 166).
The book was an interesting and easy read. In some chapters, Dekker’s in-depth description of a historic site became somewhat tedious. However, there is a story laced into every other chapter that kept me turning the pages in anticipation. The story of Nicole*, an American who traveled to Lebanon in search of her roots, actually ended up being more fascinating to me than the travels that Dekker and Medearis catalogued.
I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who:
*Update (and SPOILER ALERT): A word to the wise: Do not publish a book review until you have actually finished the book. I was so excited about Tea with Hezbollah that I wrote and published this review when I still had one chapter left to read. This chapter held key information about the story of Nicole. It was a fictional tale, although Dekker presented it as fact. I apologize for misleading you. As a reader, I feel somewhat disillusioned to learn that the story that really drew me into the book was not true. It is still powerful, but it lost some of its impact for me.
Run John Run. The law commands.
But gives neither feet nor hands.
Better news the gospel brings.
It bids me fly and gives me wings.- John Bunyan, via Postcards from Corinth by [THE] Rick James
Maybe it’s because it rhymes, and my left-brained self has always jived better with poetry that rhymes. Whatever the reason, this poem just makes me feel…free. The good news of the gospel gets me in the gut when I read this poem.
We don’t consider it so to make it so. We are to continuously believe we are alive in Christ and dead to sin because it is so. Believing anything doesn’t make it true. God said it is true; therefore we believe it.
Victory Over the Darkness by Neil Anderson, p. 82
Joe and I have been reading Sit, Walk, Stand by Watchman Nee. It’s his commentary on the book of Ephesians. Our pastor is also doing a sermon series on Ephesians right now. The book and the sermon series seem to be creating the perfect storm for application and growth in my life.
In chapter one, Nee asserts that before a follower of Jesus can do anything for God, he or she must first learn to accept and live in what has already been done. He refers to this as sitting because we are already seated with Christ.
I made a choice to give my life over to Jesus when I was very young. I grew up going to church and I am very familiar with parts of the Bible that talk about being saved by grace, through faith. Basically, what that means is that Jesus saved me, not through any of my own merit – my own talent, intelligence, good looks or smooth talking – but only because he loved me and had mercy on me.
I knew that. Why, then, have Watchman Nee’s words been piercing me to the core and challenging me like mad?
I told you I’d let you know about The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer. I didn’t think I’d like it; frankly, I thought it would make me feel inadequate. But, in reality, it has made me think that, Hey, if this is what homemaking’s about, I can probably do this – and enjoy it!
Schaeffer writes,
I would define ‘hidden art’ as the art found in the ordinary areas of everyday life. Each person has, I believe, some talent which is unfulfilled in some hidden area of his being – a talent which could be expressed and developed.
She goes on to write about various forms of art – music, sketching, gardening, food, drama, clothing, etc. – and gives practical suggestions for working them into everyday life. For instance, I would never call myself an artist (far from it!), but I can doodle or sketch on a menu or a note I’m writing to Joe, making them prettier and more pleasing to behold.
In addition, Schaeffer writes repeatedly that no one will master each of these art forms – no one even needs to attempt each art form! (My guilt flew out the window when I read that!) But there are simple ways to integrate art into daily life that make it more beautiful, orderly and peaceful.
Schaeffer ultimately points out that we are both created and creative beings – sculpted and given life by the Creator of all things, seen and unseen. Expressing some of our creativity in a hidden art form really reflects the God in whose image we have been made.
Not only do I try to read three (or four…or five…or six) books at a time – I also keep a running list of which books I want to read next! This can be overwhelming, but currently there are a few books at the top of my “read me next!” list:
I’ve been doing some reading lately and, as you might expect, much of it centers around this new life that Joe and I are about to begin together. So, here are some resources that have helped/are helping to shape my view of marriage.
I recently read This Momentary Marriage by John Piper. I highly recommend it for anyone who is married, engaged, contemplating marriage, would like to be married, is skeptical of marriage, has been wounded by marriage, or is single. Yep, those are pretty much the only people who should read it.
As always, Piper writes for the glory of God, fearlessly projecting the truth of Scripture into life and circumstances. I flew through this book in a matter of about a week and I know God used it – is using it – to reshape and redeem my view of marriage.
Piper’s main point is that marriage is both the doing of God (he designed the institution and brings a man and woman together in holy matrimony) and for the glory of God. He writes again and again (and again and again and again) that “marriage is a pointer toward the glory of Christ and the church” (52). Marriage is the earthly representation of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and the Church.
Piper opens every chapter with a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This is one of my favorites:
As you gave the ring to one another and have now received it a second time from the hand of the pastor, so love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God. As high as God is above man, so high are the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on , the marriage that sustains your love.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 27-28.
You can download This Momentary Marriage for free or listen to the sermon series.
A little over a month ago, I sent out letters to my friends and family, inviting them to join my sending team as I prepared to depart for two weeks in South Asia. Now, with my departure slightly more than one month away, I have received every last penny I need for my trip – and then some. There is only one reason for this and it is the absolute faithfulness of my God to move in the hearts of my dear friends and family to give generously. I am, again, blown away.
One book that helped me to have the right perspective about raising up a sending team was The Spirituality of Fundraising, which I blogged about a couple of months ago.
Another book I’m in the process of reading, Release the Power of Prayer, shows the power of prayer as demonstrated by the life of George Müller. Müller was an ordinary man who trusted God to provide for his every need. Müller recorded thousands of answered prayers throughout the course of his life! Reading about God’s faithfulness to Müller should bolster the faith of today’s saints.
