This Message, If Understood by the Common Man, Could Free Millions

Crossruption: The Journey of A Disrupted Life

Author: Jacob William

Publisher:Westbow Press, Bloomington, IN, 2017

The author, Jacob William, has experienced life – the good, the bad, and the ugly. He has been a successful businessperson. Yet he was being haunted by an inner emptiness that he calls the “cosmic vacuum”. Possessions and achievements, of which he had hordes, didn’t cut it.

William has done a great job of communicating what it really means to be a Christian, comparing it to what so many of us are actually practicing – a phenomenon he dubs “twenty-first century Christianity”. And as much as I wanted to argue with him, I found I could not.  I knew many of us had bought into what he describes as “outsourcing our salvation” in exchange for our actions. Our religious Christianity of today, he writes, “offered a product called God. I had outsourced its production to an enterprise network called the church where events were staged every week. . .. I was paying people to do my religion for me, because my time was too valuable, and my life was too busy for a real personal relationship with God.”

William challenges us to consider what it means, and what it takes, to be changed forever, like Joseph, Moses, and Saul of the Bible, to challenge the status quo, change the culture, and champion a new trail.

His purpose in writing Crossruption is to answer the question, “What separates the Christian whose life has been changed from the child of God whose life changes the world?”

Using his own life as an example, the author explains step by step, once we realize we no longer can go on just outsourcing our faith or buying a product called God, how to allow Jesus to do what He really came to do in our lives now, today, right here – and that was to disrupt livesand more particularly to disrupt ‘my life’.

After this well written introduction in Part I of his book, William goes on to address the Original Design applied to our creation (Part II), the Fallen Creation (Part III), the New Creation (Part IV) and the Future Creation (Part V).  Each part is a thorough investigation of Scripture relating to the titles.

In Part II, he writes, “To fill the cosmic vacuum inside me, I had to start by understanding that my identity is fundamentally spiritual.” And, “There is something left after the destruction of the body and mind of mankind, and that ‘something’ is where the identify of mankind is defined and experienced.”  He then explains that in detail.  There is a wonderful section in this part where he points out that “Science may be able to offer an alternate body and mind, but the spiritual dimension cannot be programmed.” Later adding, “Human beings cannot commune with fire, air, or water because there is a dimension difference. Humans are designed to have a relationship with God through Spirit-to-spirit communion, to experience communion in the mind and express that communion through the body.” And he shares the benefits of such uniqueness with respect to our confidence and self-worth.

Before bringing Part II to a conclusion, he writes, “If we were the result of the Big Bang or evolution, we might expect that the process of natural de-selection would have removed the stupidity of killing one another over religion by now.” I’ll let you discover what he does with that thought.

In Part III, Fallen Creation, the author goes on to explain sin. He writes, “The first murder was not the cause of sin, but sin was the cause of the first murder.” And then tells us why this is so important to grasp when he continues, “This sequence is not semantics but one that differentiates religion from relationship. . .. The disease is sin, while the symptoms are sinful actions.” As a result of our “fallen creation”, our changed spiritual state “creates a vacuum that causes us to long for something more.” William then goes on to outline thirteen Key Death Indicatorsof Christian behavior that line up “more with the fallen creation than with original design.”  If you’re like me, you’re bound to see yourself in more than one of these indicators.

In Part IV, the New Creation, Jacob William, shares some of his own story and then introduces us to the concept of the “Three M’s: Metric (the outcome), Methodology (the process used to achieve an outcome), and Measurement (that shows the progress of the methodology in achieving the metric)”. He applies these terms to how we can move from a twenty-first century Christianity to the Cross-disrupted Life that Christ died for us to have. It’s an amazing journey.

Here William shares several Key Life Indicatorswith us. These are the metrics, the outcomes, we can experience “as a consequence of the transformational relationship of communion, communication, and companionship with God. . .. Coming home to the Father for any reason other than a relationship with Him is religion.” 

Some key quotes from this section are: “We have a generation today that mimics expressions, thinking that is the evidence of God.” And there’s so much more here, I can’t begin to share it all.

In Part IV, Future Creation, his message is clear and, in some ways, comes as a gentle loving warning to his readers when he says, “Nothing will start in Heaven that had not already begun here. The eternal life of God is born in us on earth.” You’ll find his explanation of this quote in the book.

My favorite sentence sequence in the whole book?  These two: “God is relational. The Enemy is transactional.”

In conclusion, I must say that as a reviewer, I have never been so torn, on the one hand, by the value of a great message (which this book has and is) and on the other, by the style of writing. To be perfectly honest, while I love the book, the author’s insight, and its message, I did not find his several diagrams as helpful as they might have been. I also feel Jacob William is a man of great intellect and as a result, on occasion writes in a way which may require his readers to read a sentence or paragraph three or four times to grasp what he is saying. (My wife who is an avid reader of C. S. Lewis, when shown some of William’s paragraphs commented, “He’s way more convoluted than even Lewis was in some of his non-fiction writing.”) But, like Lewis, when you do grasp his points, you say, “Yes, that’s exactly right.”

Highly recommended for those who seriously want to risk having their lives totally Cross-rupted.

-->

n Ken B. Godevenos, President, Accord Resolutions Services Inc., Toronto, Ontario, December 15, 2018, www.accordconsulting.com

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

God’s Design Law of Love Changes One’s Major Tenets

The God-Shaped Heart: How Correctly Understanding God’s Love Transfoms Us Author: Timothy R. Jennings, MD

Publisher:Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2017

In some respects, this is the sequel to the author’s The God-Shaped Brain: How Changing Your View of God Transforms Your Life, which dealt with our brains, anatomy, and God. This time, he shows how our being wired to love is a result of our being created in God’s image – and thus, love gives us a great insight into God’s character, His true identity, and His plans for mankind. Once again, most interesting reading.

His opening premise is that Christianity has been marred, nay, seriously injured, by its focus on fear and punishment of those who don’t buy into it, lock, stock, and barrel. And just like his previous book, Jennings’ arguments and claims are based on solid interpretations of Scripture and supported with counselling examples from his counselling practice. You will find both most stimulating.

No one would argue with Jennings when he postulates that there is power in love. But if so, he asks, where is it?  What’s obstructing it in the lives of Christians? And thus, begins the pilgrimage to find out.

His journey leads him to contest that “the most distressing problem in Christianity is distorted ideas about God.” And to investigate this idea, he takes us to the “heart” – not that physical organ which pumps blood throughout the body, but rather “one’s core self, the inmost secret self, the place where one’s true desires, affections, longings, beliefs, and identity reside – the core elements of one’s individuality. It is our character, composed of all those elements, that make us the individuals we are.” And it is the brain that is the platform on which that ‘heart’ (our character) operates.

Decisions are made by the ‘mind’ which depends on the information it receives from the brain.  And then based on that, Jennings has us consider spiritual warfare from a different perspective.

For me, the highlight of the book is the author’s identification, explanation, and demonstration of the “Seven Levels of Moral Decision-Making”.  This is worth the price of the book itself. Master that and you can then start to consider what level people you know, including yourself, operate at. You’ll be very surprised.  He explains why rules and laws are no longer necessary when living at level five and above.

He does a great job of identifying a multitude of theological positions held by many segments of the Christian Body which we have interpreted and held too, in a way, which communicates the “infection of imposed law, with its false ideas that God is the problem that needs fixing.”

Of course, taking such ideas (that God’s ‘design law’ is all about ‘love’) to their ultimate conclusions, requires readers to challenge its application to some very controversial subjects.  Jennings beats us to the draw and voluntarily does that himself.  He deals with topics such as justice, hell, spousal abuse, worship, divorce, baptism, and more. He saves a lot of his disdain about how church leadership today has morphed into being protectors of the institution, rather doing what they can to help lead people to salvation. (That’s a most interesting and challenging chapter.) In another chapter, he explains how we might utilize the truth about God in our thinking with respect to homosexuality, complete with some very clearly described scientific explanations.

He provides some good advice as to why those of us in the church as well as non-believers are so willing to believe the various lies about God. He then identifies some of the ways to overcome that.

In his concluding chapter, Jennings addresses the issue of God’s judgment. It’s a most informative treatise of the subject. And in his Appendix A, he gives us a “Summary of God’s Design Laws”.

The book challenges our own thinking, attitude, and thus, behavior towards those in our personal relationships, in our church, in the Body, and the world as a whole. It deals with the present as well as the future. Like me, you may not always agree, one hundred percent with where Dr. Jennings ends up on some issues. Still, you will find the book most helpful in informing you of alternatives. And it just make you more like Jesus and perhaps even more useful to Him. 

-->

·     Ken B. Godevenos, President, Accord Resolutions Services Inc., Toronto, Ontario, May 21, 2018, www.accordconsulting.com

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

A Reference Book For Apologists of All Levels

Jesus and Muhammad: Their Messages, Side by Side

Editor/Author: Louis St. Michael

Publisher: Rising Myrrh Press, www.risingmyrrhpress.com, 2018

                                                                     

A Reference Book For Apologists of All Levels

In the interest of full disclosure, you need to know that I agreed to review this work by Louis St. Michael because as a Christian, I really wanted to be sure of what Muhammad had said on certain issues that Jesus had spoken on. Was there really a difference and if so, what was it? Were there issues of importance that one of them was silent on? And can I verify what was said in the original texts of the Bible and the Qur’an? Author St. Michael helps us answer all these questions in the affirmative.

The book is incredibly well researched. It is even better organized, utilizing a table of contents that reads like an “everything you wanted to know about what these two famous individuals said on the most relevant issues they covered” directory.  Included are topics like Why I Came, Fighting and Warfare, Believers and Disbelievers, Marriage, Homosexuality, Satan and Spirits, Protect Your Soul, Forgive Others, Purity, Repentance, Heaven, End Times, and much more.  In fact, the volume is well over 500 pages in length. And there is also some great Appendices on how each of their respective religions development, their followers, their traditional teachings, and their doctrines.

In the words of the book’s foreword, “One can learn a great deal about a religion by going to the unfiltered source and reading the words of the founder. . . A book like this can help clear up misconceptions and lead to better understanding among people of different mind-sets.”  It takes each speaker’s “core messages” and matches them side-by-side, based on topic, for immediate comparison and evaluation.

There is also a lot of other helpful information like a listing of Christian and Muslim terms used in the various texts with the most accepted definitions or interpretations.  Comparative timelines with an explanation and study of the significant events are other key features of the work.  And in its final version, this scholarly volume with have a full index.

I would recommend Jesus and Muhammad: Their Messages, Side by Side for any serious student of religion, especially those involved with Christianity and/or Islam. Aside from providing us the opportunity to compare the words of Jesus and Muhammad, the book would be an asset to those that simply want a ready reference to what either of them said on so many topics.  I told one of my ministerial friends about it, and he can’t wait to get his hands on it.

Not much is known about the author himself. However, that may well fit with his intention to basically remain silent with respect to personal commentary of the words of his two protagonists. Louis St. Michael lets their words speak for themselves and thus each reader to come to his or her own conclusions about which one rings truer for them.

I personally found the section on Retaliation most interesting. Check out Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:38 and then check out Muhammad’s in The Food 5:45, The Pilgrimage 22:60, and The Counsel 42:40.

A highly recommended book that would make a great gift for anyone in ministry or studying for the ministry. I just wish somebody had put this valuable content together so nicely before now. But thankfully, Louis St. Michael has done it now.

·      Ken B. Godevenos, President, Accord Resolutions Services Inc., Toronto, Ontario, March 14, 2018, www.accordconsulting.com

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Blood In The Desert

You Left In Me The Faith – Book 1

Author: C. Douglas Gordon

Publisher: Self-published, San Bernadino, CA, 2017

                                                                     

A Very Good Novel: Read With a Discerning Mind

This is a historical novel and as close as I get to non-fiction. But the theme intrigued me. The plot is beautifully intertwined using several threads including allusions to biblical parallel passages, real historical events, theological controversy, parental love, slavery, power, the formation of belief systems, and the development of religions. Suffice it to say, although reading the book from a critical perspective, C Douglas Gordon managed to keep my interest at a high level, wanting to find out the fate of his main characters.

This is not a book for the faint-hearted. The depictions of the cruelty which took place both in the fictional part of this book and in the historical events the author intertwines are to say the least laden with blood and brutality and at times vividly portrayed from a sexual perspective. I’ll let each reader decide for themselves whether Gordon needed to go to this extreme to get his points across about how Christians were treated in their early history. I can’t seem to settle on one side of the argument versus the other.

One of the key threads in the novel is that of “martyrs” – especially the lesser known ones. The author is skillful in bringing their stories out without us losing track of his fictional plot. But then, and perhaps unintentionally, with separate chapters named after each of the three main characters’ ‘journeys’, there is a suggestion that each of our lives are “flights” from something or someone, ultimately ending in martyrdom. Yet throughout the book, the reader cannot help but feel he/she is being moved towards a climactic point where the woman, the man, and the child are reunited, and love and peace conquer fear and hatred.

The book may present some puzzlement to the Christian reader who is unfamiliar with the major theological disputes of the faith (e.g. the divinity of Jesus) and even some of much lesser importance such as the issue of the God’s gender. There are references to God as ‘the Birther’; a male and female Aeon countered later by two ‘savior’ Aeons – namely Christ and the Holy Spirit (the female one); and the Demiurge and much more.

There are also some interesting takes on other issues that often go unresolved. For example, when a young girl with a very high fever and in the process of dying is saved after the lead character prays to Jesus (referred to as Yesua throughout the book), the mother gives Jesus the credit. Miriam (the lead character) retorts, “No. Your Faith in Yesua has saved your child!” Clearly one can’t argue with that since the other has paralleled the thinking behind the words of Christ Himself when after healing numerous people during his earthly ministry, He said, “Your faith has made you well.” On the other hand, it would be misleading to omit the fact that it still was Jesus that did the healing. The issue is best described in a blog on the very topic, the role of faith in healing. Gordon makes no effort to teach or clarify in situations like this.

All this to say that readers need to discern between what they believe and determine to be the truth and what Gordon is simply relating as possible traditional stories about how one religion began, was communicated, and eventually became known as Christianity.

There is much to commend the author on, including an incredible comprehension into the affliction of blindness and its impact on the brain. Most insightful and interesting. Gordon also offers his readers some gems with respect to what ‘history’ is. For me, his memorable nuggets there were: “History belongs to the future.” A reference, for me at least, to the fact that we who employ it, own it. And that is followed up with his, “Those who look back often cloud the truth with their beliefs.” That is so true.  Yet, was the author making a statement concerning our view of what the New Testament Faith that has now metamorphosed into our modern-day belief system really was all about?  You be the judge.

I recommend the book for those that like a good historical novel. I believe it serves Christianity well in helping us all understand what those who had “the faith left in them” in the years, decades, and centuries after Christ’s life on earth, went through. But I would caution the reader to take under advisement Gordon’s theological references outside his excellent plot line. And yes, I may well be ready to enjoy (with similar caution), C. Douglas Gordon’s next novel, entitled The Twelve Coins, in his ‘You Left in Me the Faith’ series.

·      Ken B. Godevenos, President, Accord Resolutions Services Inc., Toronto, Ontario, October 1, 2017. www.accordconsulting.com

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.