Counterfeit Gods

I think Tim Keller was smart in calling his book Counterfeit Gods instead of Your Sins: Idols Edition, because counterfeit sounds a lot nicer than sin and makes me much more apt to pick up the book and read it. Alas, I did pick it up and read it, and oh how it called me out like nobody's business.

I've always known I had idols in my life. Doesn't everyone have idols they struggle with? Little did I know just how many idols I had. I think each chapter brings up another one, and every chapter I sat there and thought: "Dang, there's another idol on my list of idols I need to remove from my life." I thought of idols as these vague ideas, like pride or wealth. I think my first experience with realizing just how vast idols could be was when God stripped me of my snowboarding idol via a little accident.

Fast forward 5 months and here I'm reading about Abraham and how he must sacrifice his son because God told him to. Abraham had made an idol of Isaac (it would be difficult not to, when your wife popped him out at around 90 years of age), and God wanted to make sure HE was number 1 in Abraham's life. Abraham passed the test, and Isaac was spared. Awesome. I've heard this before, don't let your idols be bigger than God.

Then chapter 2 began. I never thought about the possibility of making relationships an idol. But after reading this, the light flooded my heart and I knew I was making idols of more things than I could ever imagine.

Boom. idols of relationships, friendships, girls.

Next chapter. Boom. idols of money, finances, and possessions.

"One sign that you have made success an idol is the false sense of security it brings....Successful people are much more shocked and overwhelmed by troubles."

Boom. idol of success.

"Rather than accept our finitude and dependence on God, we desperately seek ways to assure ourselves that we still have power over our own lives."

Boom, idols of power and glory.

"Another form of idolatry within religious communities turns spiritual gift and ministry success into a counterfeit god. "

Boom, idols of religion.

Those are just some examples of idols I discovered in my own life. Needless to say, I was shocked after I got through the first 6 chapters of this book. Never would I have thought that I had so many idols in my life. Hadn't I given my entire life to God? Apparently there were still parts of my old self clinging on to my heart and they needed to be ripped out.

Now if Keller ended the book, I think a lot of people would be depressed and overwhelmed after reading it. Fortunately, Keller shares God's perfect plan for dealing with idols.

"Have you ever heard God's blessing in your inmost being? Are the words 'you are my beloved, in whom I delight' an endless source of joy and strength? Have you sensed, through the Holy Spirit, God speaking them to you? That blessing--the blessing through the Spirit that is ours through Christ--is what Jacob received, and it is the only remedy against idolatry."

That's it. Want to get rid of idols? Turn to Jesus and him alone, because if you look to anything else for an outlet, you will merely create a new idol. It's so simple, yet so profound. I think this is what blew my mind the most. we constantly create new idols in our lives while we're not looking solely towards God. Once we do, however, those idols are slowly removed. It's not an easy or particularly "fun" process, but it's good.

The second part of the healing process has to do with replacements. Your heart is like a bucket that has to always be full (I'm bad with analogies, just roll with it). If you take out one idol, there is a hole where it used to be. Now you have a choice: you can either replace that hole with God or let a new idol fill the void. Just an idea, but I would go with filling the void with God. This is why you shouldn't try to rely on your own strength to remove idols; they have this magical way of always replacing themselves. Rather, we must give ourselves to God and let him do the ripping out in our hearts.

Moral of the story? I have way more idols than I thought I could possibly have (idol of pride, add that one to the list), yet I have a perfect Father who wants more than anything I could imagine for me to be free of the idols. When I give myself to Him, He will take those idols away and replace them with more of Himself. Also, it's crazy how, as God strips you of big idols, you find more even farther back in the depths of your heart. This is a life-long process of sanctification. Give yourself to God and let Him do work.

The Devil's Delusion(s)

Hello again! It has been far too long since I've blogged, and now I'm bursting at the seams to share what I've been learning. In fact I want to make a habit of blogging, so I am going to try and blog once a day. Who knows, maybe some days I'll splurge and blog twice! Some of the posts will be about books, some about music, and all will be about what God has been teaching me. "I'm excited! Date!" (For those of you who don't know me, I say random things a lot. Sometimes I'll try and explain it; other times, you're on your own. For now, watch this, it'll explain a lot.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gspaoaecNAg ) Also, please leave comments or talk to me about this stuff. I enjoy getting feedback so I know how I can better use the blog to share thoughts and glorify God. Now on to the good stuff.

The title "The Devi's Delusion(s)" has two meanings. First, the title of the book I want to talk about is The Devil's Delusion. Second, the devil is delusional in thinking that he has ANY power over me. I'll tackle these backwards.

God is doing work in me, and it is so good. Now that's not to say I won't have struggles or hardships or any other "problems." Rather, I wanted to proclaim that I am a son of the Father and satan has no control of me. Basically, I'm so excited about what God is teaching me, how He's molding me, what He's doing in the lives of my family and my friends, as well as the lives of people throughout the world. Hopefully I can use this blog to share my thoughts on all of it with you. I guess the pun I wanted to make was that devil is delusional if he thinks I won't use this blog to glorify the one true God.

Back to the book. The Devil's Delusion, written by David Berlinski, is an counterargument to Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion. I'll be honest, when I picked up this book I had no idea what I was getting myself into, yet once I picked it up I couldn't put it down.

This isn't necessarily a The Reason For God book so much as it is a "why atheists are wrong" sort of book. Berlinski goes through each point Dawkins makes in "disproving" God and in fact proves why Dawkins' arguments are inaccurate, incomplete, or illogical. Berlinski doesn't try and use scripture or Christian reasoning for proving God. He uses purely scientific logic to prove Dawkins and atheist scientists wrong.

Dawkins' main argument (I'm almost positive, I read this over a month ago) is that since it is highly unlikely that God could exist, He doesn't. Point after point, Berlinski proves this a ridiculous argument because most of science's arguments for alternatives to God require just as much, if not more faith than faith in God. It's ridiculous to me. Berlinski briefly explains the main tenants of modern science, from string theory to the general theory of relativity, and I don't understand how scientists can believe it all so readily. In essence, modern science believes that there are literally billions of parallel universes where every possible situation is laid out. This means that all of those statistics proving just how unique earth is, every other possibility where numbers are just slightly off are somewhere else in another universe. Wow. There are plenty of other scientific arguments as well where I thought: "how can you legitimately believe that, yet say faith in God is ridiculous?"

Needless to say, this is a very interesting read that will make you smarter both in apologetics and science. I'd say it's a good addition to A Reason For God in that it gives you a better understanding of science's arguments. If all of this science stuff sounds boring to you (it's thick content), know that Berlinski has some humor in him. He's sarcastic a lot, which is probably why I like this book so much, plus he makes jokes. Here's one quote that made me laugh, and hopefully it'll make you consider reading the book. The context is what aliens would think if they compared us to apes:

"I suppose that if a fish were thoughtfully to consider the matter, she might have a hard time determining the differences between Al Gore and a sperm whale. Both of them are large and one of them is streamlined." (pg 161)

Who ever thought science, apologetics, and Al Gore all together could be so much fun to read about?

The Reason for God

The Christian community I am part of tends to go through phases of books it reads. A year ago it was Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis), last semester it was Crazy Love (Francis Chan), and this past semester it has been The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. I heard it was a great book, so I bought it and gave it a chance.

I didn't really know what it was about, apart for giving a reason for God (obviously). It never hit me that this could be an apologetics book, but once I really got into it, it all came together. Apparently I've been getting into apologetics, and I'm really starting to like it. Anyways, let me go through this book.

Keller splits his work into 2 parts: The Leap of Doubt and The Reasons for Faith. The leap of doubt section recognizes that it is not only ok, but good that both skeptics and Christians have doubts. With that in mind, he goes through several of the most-often asked questions regarding Christianity. First he explains why skeptics think that, and then gives a Christian perspective to it. Questions like how could a good God allow suffering? and How can God send people to Hell? are addresses wonderfully.

The second part gives reasons for faith, including clues for God, gospel versus religion, the true story of the cross, and the reality of the resurrection. Each point is great in solidifying your faith and answering questions you didn't even know you had.

Overall, I highly recommend everyone to read this book. Christians and non-Christians alike. For the Christian, it gives you deeper understanding of your faith as well as answers to the tough questions you will probably get asked. I know I didn't have good answers to a lot of these questions, and I will probably reference this book for answers to some of those. For the non-Christian, it accepts your doubts but gives you legitimate reasons for questioning your skepticism. It also gives a very strong argument for faith in Jesus Christ.

Honestly, I was living with some blind faith, but this helped me recognize that and build my faith up solely in Jesus. A lot of beliefs come from ignorance, regardless of how correct that belief is.

A couple of other points that may get you to read this:

1. He cites C.S. Lewis extensively

2. He uses questions that he has actually gotten from people in the ever-skeptical New York City

3. He starts the book with a quote by Darth Vader. Any guy who utilizes Star Wars quotes has to be legit.

¹²But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. (1 Corinthians 15:12-19)

Praise God that Jesus Christ raised from the dead! He has come to restore true shalom on earth

Also, I am contemplating where I go with this blog. I can either go into detail into every book I read or I can delve deep into some of them and give a more cursory review of the rest. If you would, please comment with your opinion. It would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Point Man

Recently, a friend of mine recommended the book Point Man, by Steve Farrar, to me, because it was a good read on Christian manhood and male leadership. It focuses mostly on leading in a family setting, but the themes are relevant to those of us who aren't married or even thinking about marriage for some time. With that, I'll dive right into it.

He starts off immediately by saying that war has been declared on the biblical family, and it is seen all over America and the world. In this war on the family, Satan has two very specific goals: to effectively alienate and severe a husbands relationship with his wife, and to effectively alienate and sever a father relationship with his children. All attacks can be described in this regard. This book doesn't have a 3 step process to fix keep your family protected; it takes a lot of time and effort. One of the biggest points I caught early on was the importance of having quantity and quality with your family. It's not possible to have a full personal life and a full and hard-working professional life. One has to sacrifice for the other. Will it be your family or your career that sacrifices?

The point Farrar drives home is that most, if not all of us, are willing to die for their family, but are we willing to live for them, and lead the charge?

In order to perserve the family, we must "save the boys." Farrar claims that the industrial revolution took us out of our normal mode of family, with the family being around their fathers their entire child/teenage years. Now, we are off to school and the dads are off to work, separated for most hours of the day. This leads to the point that less time=less influence. We want to be positively influencing our boys, but time and distance prevents that.

Next he goes into what real men don't do; namely, adultery. He wipes that fake image of adultery out of your mind and explains that it's not just some thing that happens. the term "adultery" has become commonplace, and that can't happen. We have been desensitized to it, and Farrar wipes that from us with a vivid picture of what adultery is. It's a foul thing that must be attacked at all times, because satan is subtle in his actions. He won't throw women at you; he'll slyly get you emotionally hooked to the point where physical action occurs. However, that doesn't mean that adultery is just sex outside of marriage. Emotional attachments can be adultery. Lusting after another woman is adultery. We must constantly be on guard against the enemy. Adultery will never fill your needs, and you'll just make a problem worse and ruin your own family. Finally, he goes into some ways to get yourself out of that situation and what to do if it happened to you. First, bring it into the light, and second, be ready to live with consequences. God and your family may forgive, but there can and probably will be consequences to your actions.

Next topic Farrar covers is commitment. He covers the importance of all commitments, not just the one your wife, and explains why those are necessary. He uses a good example of a racer. If a racer sprints 95 yards of a 100 yard dash and quits, all that running was worthless. Commitment means running the full 100 yards, not just 30, 40, 75, or 99 yards. That being said, there must be ways to protect yourself from stopping short in the race (in regards to lust and adultery). You must make a game plan for every situation you could be in, and stick to that game plan.

Anorexic Men and their Bulimic cousins. What a great title to one of the 2 best parts of this book. He describes anorexic men as men who are not filling their scriptural needs and have an aversion to reading the scriptures. Spiritual bulimia is the act of taking in a lot of scriptural material but not doing anything with it. that includes reading the bible, listening to sermons, and going to conferences but not taking anything away from any of it. It is the aversion to applying the Scripture to life. we need knowledge AND obedience. knowledge alone doesn't cut it. In order to overcome these disorders, you must make yourself a spiritual game plan. He gives 5 ideas: read the bible in a year, listen to the bible, start a scripture memory program, get involved in bible study fellowship, and form an accountability. I find all of those ideas extremely wise. Now you don't need to do all of them, but a few would be fantastic in scriptural strengthening. It's not going to be easy to push through all of these, but as a desire for scriptural meditation becomes habit, it will become much easier.

The other great chapter in this book is title "aerobic kneeling," or prayer. He understands that we all can't devote 4 hours a day to prayer, but rather we must slowly build our strength up. He compares prayer to jogging; 30 minutes, 3 times a week. 90 minutes may not sound like a lot, but are you praying that much currently? I know I wasn't when I read this. It comes out to 78 hours of prayer a year, which is actually pretty awesome. Plus, once you start praying that much, it becomes a lot easier to incorporate prayer into the rest of your day. 30 minutes, 3 times a week. not too bad. Now to get this started it'll be difficult to just start; you need a game plan. Farrar makes 5 suggestions: plan a time, plan a place, make a list, start with scripture, and make yourself accountable to someone. Now I've been working on the last 3 fairly well, but I'm realizing the first 2 are also necessary. I actually made notes on my computer for everyday of the week with specific things to pray for each day. That way I am honest when i tell people I will pray for them and not use the generic, empty promise of "oh, I'll pray for you about____." It really is a huge benefit, and I've had better, more consistent prayer times these last few weeks as a result.

Now it's not going to be easy. You need to form right habits. He gives various "hurdles" to prayer times, including mind wandering, tangents, and boredom. If these occur, pray against them and move on!

The next part of the book is focused even more on the marriage relationship. He discusses the importance of parents being copilots, not just the man having complete control over the woman. There is mutual accountability and mutual submission. Then he describes some moral guidelines for raising children. It says that men should raise their children in fairness, tenderness, with firmness, and in Christ.

The final chapter goes into the dirty work of family raising: how to tell your children about the "hot" topics. You know, the ever famous sex talk. His advice is to tell them early and be completely honest with them, using the right terms even if it feels weird to you. You want your children coming to you for that kind of advice, not their peers. You know a lot more about it than any of their friends do. I really respect Farrar for the way he approached the issue with his children, and I hope to one day imitate what he did with my kids.

With that, I hope you got a good idea of what this book is about. It's a good book that challenges you and gives strong applications. I definitely encourage all men to read it, and I don't think it would hurt if women wanted to read it too. I'm a fan of people reading books designed for the opposite gender so we can try and understand each other better. Yeah, some of the stuff might sound weird or ridiculous to you, but we all just think and act differently.

"For the eyes of the LORD range through the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." 2 Chronicles 16:9

Book Reviews/Status of the blog

This summer two of my goals are to A)read a book a week at least and B) blog "a lot." I have been unsure what to blog about thus far, and so I have decided to start writing my thoughts on the books I read. That way, I can process the books I read while giving people a chance to get a deeper grasp of a book, and I will inevitably blog "a lot."

Hopefully you can all enjoy the reviews. Please feel free to comment on the book reviews, whether you have a response to what I said or you've read the book yourself and want to contribute your opinion!