Searching For God Knows What

When I heard that Donald Miller had another book, I was stoked on life. I loved reading Blue Like Jazz, and it's up there on my list of favorite books. I was recently thinking about why I like his writing, but I'll get to that after I talk about this book.

Searching for God Knows What is Donald Miller bringing up thought-provoking ideas to make you rethink your mindset on God, the Gospel, and the Bible.While that may sound blasphemous or something to some of you, I assure you it reshapes your thought process in a great way.

I'm contemplating doing an extensive review of this book, but I don't think I'm going to because A) I REALLY want you to read this book. I may like this one more than Blue Like Jazz, which is saying something. and B) I don't think I could convey these themes in as a honest and funny way as Miller. It's probably why he writes widely famous books and I'm just starting a blog. I will, however, go through bits of the book and share my thoughts on them. There's a good chance I get on a roll, so this may will be a long post. My bad

For those of you who don't know, Miller writes stories and how they relate to the chapter's theme. For instance, his first chapter is about a Christian writing seminar on how to write successful Christian books. The main speaker at the seminar lays out a formula to create a compelling book, which got Miller thinking about whether or not the Bible is laid out in formulas and steps. Rather, it's a whole life process that transforms you. No one book is going to have the perfect 8 steps to a wonderful relationship with God, or a 5 week process to pastor-material. No. It's about the relationship. Miller says it better than I could, so here is a nice, long quote:

The truth is there are million steps, and we don't even know what the steps are, and worse, at any given moment we may not be willing or even able to take them; and still worse, they are different for you and me and they are always changing. I have come to believe the sooner we find this truth beautiful, the sooner we will fall in love with God who keeps shaking things up, keeps changing the path, keeps rocking the boat to test our faith in Him, teaching us to not rely on easy answers, bullet points, magic mantras, or genies in lamps, but rather in His guidance, His existence, His mercy, and His love.

Aaaand that is why I don't want to try and summarize a Donald Miller book.

There are plenty of other stories and thoughts throughout this book. In fact, every chapter is a new thought and story, which all come together beautifully for this book. I want to share one more idea that rocked my world.
Chapter 5 is titled "Naked: Why nudity is the point." As you can imagine, I was ready for a good chapter and a great laugh. What I got was my Sunday school thoughts getting turned on their head.

In the same vein as earlier, Miller was talking about how he always read the bible looking for a formula and what the "moral" of the story was. After taking a class on the writings of Moses (Job and Genesis through Deuteronomy), Miller began to look at the bible as deep literature and not just text, and during a trip to Yosemite, he began to rethink the story of Adam and Eve. Now I know the story of Adam and Eve, I've spent enough Sunday school classes having felt board recreations of the Genesis story that I could probably make a full production of it. Yet this next thought still rocked me.

Adam and Even didn't hang out in a little country garden for a few weeks with God. No, they spent a ton of time in a MASSIVE area living in perfect relationship. Well maybe not both of them, but Adam sure did. Remember, there was a river big enough to split into 4 huge rivers, so I'm thinking Amazon river status, or maybe the Nile.

So much for a small garden....

Then he continues with Adams time in the garden. I'm going to use a long quote again, but I'll put it in context by saying that there were probably between 1 and 50 million species of animals when Adam had to name them. Every single one...

I never thought of Adam the same again. The image of the man holding the fig leaf over his privates seemed nearly crude. Rather this was a man who, despite feeling a certain need for a companion, performed what must have been nearly one hundred years of work, naming and perhaps even categorizing the animals. It would have taken him nearly a year just to name the species of snakes alone. Moses said that Eve didn't give birth to their third child till Adam was well into his hundreds, which means they would have had Cain and Abel some thirty or so years before, which also means that either it took Adam more than a hundred years to name the animals, or he and Even didn't have sex for a good, long, boring century.

What? Adam spent 100 years alone? That gives it is not suitable for man to be alone (Genesis 3: 18) a lot more meaning. No wonder Adam was so excited to meet someone like him. As much fun as it would be to be like Dr. Doolittle and hang out with animals all the time, it would probably get pretty lonely after, oh, I don't know, a month. Now multiply that by 1200. Yeah, Adam was lonely.

After reading this, I, like Miller, had a new respect for Adam. In addition, it made me rethink the way I read the Bible. Am I looking for formulas or a list of dos and don'ts? Or should I be reading it to dig down to the depths of the Word of God? I had my biblical literature rocked in the first 3 chapters. Imagine if I rethought the rest of the bible. Yeah, I think I'm going to get a lot more out of it.

Now I could go on with more great stories from the book, but I'd rather share my thoughts with you. First, I think one of the biggest reasons this book stuck with me so well was that I am so quick to look for formulas from God. I'm kind of an impatient person, so my goal is to make everything as efficient as possible. I also love reading, especially Christian books, aka Christian formula books. Now don't get me wrong, those books are great and have value. I just know now that a lot of times I would use those to get formulas (just look at some of my older posts), and that's not right. There are so many better ways to dive into the depths of God other than make lists and formulas. I'm going to continue reading books like that, but I'm also going to read them in a different light. It's amazing how God will take passions and shape them so they glorify Him even more. He used a Christian "self-help" book to better direct me in my walk with Him. Touche God.

Back to Miller. Like I said before, I was trying to think why I like his writing so much, and I think I have a couple of reasons. First, he is blatantly candid with his struggles. He tells his readers when he was struggling with God, including to the point of telling God He doesn't exist (Chapter 2/3 of this book). I think that honesty and vulnerability makes him much more approachable and relatable. Secondly, he has fun with his writing. He uses hilarious stories and makes little quips that just make you laugh. He criticizes himself in a fun way. I mean, who else writes "self-help" books that say self-help books aren't the best? It's great. I really appreciate the humor and fun he has in seeking deeper relationship with God. God isn't only dark room worship sets and private prayers; He is also the creator of joy, and that includes humor and fun and laughter.

I think the biggest reason I like Miller's writing is that he writes in stories. I was at a college group in Calvary Chapel Oceanside last week, and the pastor talked about how the bible is all about stories, and how Jesus spoke in parables; stories. God didn't make the bible a bunch of lists; He made it a lot of stories that come together to make a bigger story. People like stories more. Our lives are stories, and God is the writer. Look right above. I hear about how God uses stories, it clicks with me, and two days later I'm writing about one of my favorite writer, who just happens to use stories. God is good.

Here's a story. Last night I accidentally left half of a breakfast burrito in my car instead of putting it in the refrigerator, so I didn't have breakfast this morning. And then I found $5.

Anyways, go read Searching For God Knows What. I highly recommend it. Also, if you want to read more from Donald Miller, go to http://donmilleris.com/ and read his blog. It's quality.

Touché God

Touché comes from a French word meaning to touch, as in fencing when someone hits another player with his or her sword. It is also an expression to acknowledge a good point. If you know me, you are probably laughing right now, and if you don't know me, I should inform you that I use the word touché often. And by often, I mean numerous times a day. Basically if touché can be used in even the slightest sense, I will probably use it.

I think since I use touché so much, it was inevitable that I would start using it in my relationship with God. Little did I know how much truth would come

out from the phrase "touché God" for me. Being the broken, imperfect self that I am, my relationship with God is not perfect. So often I'm wrong, and of course He's right, hence "touché God."

We know that if we lay our cares on the Lord, He will take care of us. It says so in Matthew:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

Yet over and over again I try to fix my problems on my own, put my own yoke on my shoulders, attempt to do things in my own strength. Inevitably I can't do it. I give it up to God. He takes care of me, like He always does.

Touché God.

I try and plan my life out the way I think it should be done. Even if there's nothing inherently wrong with my plans, something isn't right. I give it up to God. He straightens them out. They end up being better than I could imagine.

Touché God.

I ask God to transform me, and that I want to give my whole self to Him. He starts doing work, ripping my old self out, imparting a new self in me, revealing new truths about Himself, teaching me new things. I try and avoid it. I don't want to think about the darkness in the depths of my heart. I don't want the light to shine in those places. I don't want to learn these things that will cause me to transform my life. God doesn't just say "ok, I'll stop pushing." No, He just puts what He's trying to teach you everywhere you look. Sermons, books, situations, blogs, twitter quotes, all pointing back to one aspect of God...the one He's trying to show you.

Touché God.

Why do I say touché God all the time? I am broken. I'm made perfect in Christ, but that perfection is not fulfilled until we are with God in heaven. I think Jesus said it best (He always does):

"The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." Matthew 26:41

There are a myriad of reasons that we constantly forget to rely solely on God, all stemming from sin. I think two of the biggest ones, at least in my life, are pride and doubt.

Pride gets the best of me whenever things are "going well" in my life. I quickly go from thanking God to thinking "yeah Nick, way to go! Keep up all the good work!" I so easily forget that my life is for God's glory, not Nick's glory.

Side note: why is it that we are so quick to rely on God when times are tough but so quick praise ourselves when things are going well? Hmmm. Perchance it's pride.

Doubt is another big one. Over and over again I doubt that giving it all up to God will work out for the best. They always do.

Touché God.

We are broken doubters. Look at this example from the bible. This is Matthew 28, right before Jesus ascends into heaven:

"then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mount where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted."

Ok. These guys just spent the last 3 years with Jesus, heard him say He was going to die and come back to life. They SEE him numerous times post-resurrection, talk to Him, and even touch his wounds, yet still doubt. Makes me feel like my situation is hopeless. Thank the Lord, we have a good, perfect, gracious God who loves us so much that He meets us right where we are, no matter how big of doubters we are. Remember; those guys who doubted? Yeah, those are the same guys who founded the church, so I think God can do pretty great work in our lives too.

Whenever I'm in intimacy with Christ and life is good, I ask myself why I would ever not want to be in this place of intimacy and awesomeness with Christ? Yet days, weeks, or months later, I'm sitting there, down in the dumps with seemingly no idea how to get out. Hmm, maybe I should give it all up to God and focus on Him. Naw, I doubt that will work. (Do I have memory loss or what?) I hesitatingly turn to God, and lo and behold! He took care of me.

A few weeks ago, I wasn't spending much time with God, and whaddaya know, I was feeling pretty down in the dumps. Slowly, skeptically, I started giving myself to God to see what He would do. Know what happened? You guessed it. I'm sitting here today stoked on life, where I am with God, and what He's doing in the lives around me.

Touché God.

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!