Category: Calvinism

Books I’ve Been Reading

It certainly has been my intention to write more often than I have.  However, sometimes life i.e. family, job, and normal everyday mundane things get in the way.  I’ve been asked – what have I been reading?  Well, the books I have been reading (or re-reading) include:

  • Discovering God’s Will For Your Life (Ray Pritchard)
  • Is God Really In Control (Jerry Bridges)
  • Is God to Blame (Greg Boyd)
  • Living Above Your Circumstances (Bob George)
  • The Purpose Driven Life (Rick Warren)
  • God’s Will, God’s Best (Josh McDowell & Kevin Johnson)
  • Decision Making and The Will of God (Garry Friesen)
  • The Mystery of God’s Will (Charles Swindoll)
  • What is the Will of God and How Do We Know it? (John Piper sermon)

I know there is a whole boatload of books and information about this topic and I don’t pretend to have even scratched the surface.  However, this is where I have started because these books were in our church’s library or someone has referred me to them.  Please post other books that you may have found relevant to this topic.

A Desire for Truth Pertaining to the Will of God

The issue of God having a specific plan for each believer is something that I have been trying to understand for a long time.  Until recently, I would “agree to disagree”.  I accepted that I did not have sufficient understanding to comprehend this issue and I was content to leave it at that.  Then, I came across a book entitled Decision Making and the Will of God.   For the first time, I found myself (I think) thinking Biblically about the nature of God’s will in my life.  I did not have to “discover” what God had planned for me.  I did not have to figure out what His personal will is for my life.  Per Garry Friesen’s book, God’s will is clearly stated in scripture.  I did not have to deal with those proverbial open or closed doors anymore.     

As the saying goes, a funny thing happened on the way to church.  I kept hearing what sounded like (to me, anyway) “Christian speak” type statements.  Many devout believers are convinced that God has/had shown them a plan for their lives.  They have “peace in their hearts”, “a clear conscience”, and scads of verses to support their contention that God had given them a particular house, led them to their spouse, children, opened the door for a job, gave them a disease and then cured them of it, etc.  I’ve never experienced anything like this.  Was I missing something?       

This issue began to “fester” and really gnaw at me when the pastor and members of the board at our church were talking about whether or not it was “God’s will” to have a building expansion program.  I asked the obvious question, “What are the criteria to determine whether or not a building program would be part of God’s specific plan for this church?”  It seemed a simple enough question.   However, this led to many conversations and emails with the pastor and many others in the church over the next couple of months.  In the end, I became uncomfortable with the pastor and the church leadership and left to worship at another church.       

So, what is my point: much as a chemist sets out to prove (or disprove) a hypothesis, I am trying to validate my belief that God gives the believer freedom to make any choice that is within His moral boundary (His law).  I do not believe that God has a predetermined objective for us to discover.       

A good question as been asked of me – am I in pursuit of truth?  In addition, am I willing to follow the truth wherever it leads?  I wish I could give a straight-up “yes!” answer.   However, I think I am coming to grips with how little faith I truly have.  I am confused and I can no longer swallow the nice little expressions of faith – the “Christian speak”.  For example: in an Aug/Sept 2003 Focus On the Family article on Joni Eareckson and Ken Tada, Joni says, “But God has a plan.  It’s no mistake that you got that bad medical report last week, that the economic downturn is affecting your retirement fund, that your children are not turning out the way you’d hoped they would or that your grandchild was born with a disability.”  Certainly these are things that can draw individuals and families closer to Christ.  And certainly God can use any situation for His glory.  But I am not convinced that God has brought about those situations.              

Well, I trust that I have provided a little perspective regarding my concern and confusion as to the will of God in the life of the believer.  I welcome thoughts, opinions, and the opportunity to engage in a dialog.  I look forward to posting on various books I have read, and statements that I have come across where I find myself in disagreement as to the will of God from people such as Jerry Bridges, John Piper, Josh McDowell, Ray Pritchard, and Rick Warren.  So, stop back from time to time and we will see where this journey leads.   

A Review of Ray Pritchard’s book, Discovering God’s Will for Your Life

ray-pritchardAuthor Ray Pritchard states in his book, Discovering God’s Will for Your Life, “Nothing is more comforting to the child of God than knowing that amid the confusion of everyday life God is slowly leading him or her along the path of his will.  In fact, he (God) is working in and through your decisions (and often in spite of your decisions) to see that his will is actually done in your life.”

Mr. Pritchard, references Proverbs 3:5-6 in chapter five – How to Make a Tough Decision and highlights five words:

Trust

To trust in the Lord is to rest your whole weight upon

him – to depend on him completely.

Lean

To lean means to rest upon something for partial support

or when you are not strong enough to stand alone.

Understanding

Understanding refers to mental process by which you

analyze a problem.  Use all your mental powers, but do

not lean on them for total support.  Don’t trust in your

own ability to figure out your life.  Lean instead on the

Lord.  Rest your weight on him.

Acknowledge

In all your ways know him deeply and intimately.  It’s

the kind of knowing that comes with personal experience.

It means to know something through and through.

Direct

He will make your straight your paths.

So, then, according to Mr. Pritchard (emphasis mine), “Here is God’s message to you from Proverbs 3:5-6.  If you will know God in every area of your life, he will take personal responsibility to make your way smooth and straight.  He will remove the obstacles if they need to be removed.  He will fill in the pot-holes if they need to be filled.  He will redirect the detour so that what seemed to be a dead-end turns out to be the shortest way to reach your destination.”

However, if I look at Proverbs 3:5-6 in the context of the chapter, I come to a different conclusion.  The NIV Topical Bible I use has the third chapter of Proverbs under the heading of “Further Benefits of Wisdom”.  In addition, if I look at the headings of chapters one through four, I see:

Chapter 1:20-33            Warning Against Rejecting Wisdom

Chapter 2:1-22              Moral Benefits of Wisdom

Chapter 3:1-35              Further Benefits of Wisdom

Chapter 4:1-27              Wisdom Is Supreme

Also, Proverbs 3:5-6 are squarely in the middle of a bunch of verses that relate to various aspects of wisdom.  The NIV Topical Bible has a “theme verse” related to Proverbs 3:5 entitled, “Direction” which states:

  • The book of Proverbs offers direction for life by concentrating on those patterns operable in daily life that offer some measure of consistency.  For example, fearing God and shunning evil produces a healthy body.  Hard work brings rewards, whereas laziness courts disaster.  Consistent discipline of a child results in a well-adjusted adult.  Pride and arrogance lead to destruction.  The wicked die young while law-abiding citizens (the righteous) live long.  There may be exceptions to these rules, but generally we can depend on them.

I can only surmise that the people who produced the NIV Topical Bible did not see anything within Proverbs 3:5-6 related to:

  • God taking a personal responsibility
  • God making one’s way smooth and straight
  • God removing obstacles
  • God filling in “pot-holes”
  • God redirecting detours
  • God ensuring that we reach our destinations via the shortest way

In addition, Proverbs 3:1-10 are arranged in pairs i.e. 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-10.

Verses

If you –

Then –

1-2

Do not forget my teaching

You’ll live long and prosperous

3-4

Let love and faithfulness never leave you

You’ll win favor and a good name

5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

He’ll make your paths smooth

7-8

Are humble, fear the Lord, and shun evil

You’ll be healthy

9-10

Honor the Lord with your wealth

You’ll have plenty

Certainly, we can come up with exceptions to these “rules”.  And that’s the point!  These are not absolute statements!  They’re generalities!  The founder of The Navigators, Dawson Trottman, did not have a long life.  And yet, when I read his bibliography, it’s clear that he didn’t forget the teachings of the Bible.  And certainly his paths weren’t always smooth even though he trusted in the Lord with all his heart.

Mr. Pritchard uses a number of OT references i.e. Ex 13:20-22 and Num 9:15-23 to show how God used supernatural events and did indeed guide people.  The question for me, then, is can one use a singular historical event denoted in Scripture to ascertain a general mode in which God shows His will to all Christians.  Mr. Pritchard goes on to state that the secret of knowing God’s personal and specific will for each believer is to know God better.  For myself, I believe that any decision I make, so long as it is within the moral will of God, is pleasing and acceptable to God.  Perhaps I’ll post another time of my reaction to reading Gary Friesen’s book, Decision Making and the Will of God.

Rhythm Anchors

Jeff Wachter, a fabulous mandolin player, and I have gotten together occasionally over the last year or so to noodle around (that’s a musical term which means “to putz”) on jazz standards.  For grins and giggles we’ve played twice at The Sage Market’s end of the month open mic in Mendota Heights, MN.  Some pictures of us playing last month can be found here:

http://4guyswhoknownothing.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/rhythm-anchors-at-the-sage/

I had a chance to talk with the manager at The Sage Market after we played and she wanted to have us come and play “a real gig”.  Wednesday, June 18th from 6-9pm is the date.  Good food, a great wine selection, and (hopefully) wonderful background music should make for a nice evening.

Guitars & Mandolins

Music has been a passion for as long as I can remember and I feel blessed and fortunate to have some ability to express myself through the music I play.  I’m primarily a fingerstyle player and enjoy arranging and playing a variety of old hymns to jazz standards to The Beatles.  I own a couple of nice Taylor guitars (GAMC, NS62CE) and a Breedlove Alpine mandolin.  In addition, I have a Baby Taylor guitar that is currently undergoing some “reconstructive surgery” wherein I’m trying to convert this small-body guitar into an octave mandolin.  I’ll post some pictures and stories of “the learning curve” on that project soon.   A favorite “therapy” hangout place is The Podium, in Minneapolis, where they have a great collection of world-class guitars and mandolins. 

Faith Matters

Over the next few days I hope to post some items related to the will of God in the life of the believer.  This has truly been an area within my faith in which I have struggled for some time.  I’m currently reading a couple of books (“Is God Really in Control?” by Jerry Bridges, and “Is God to Blame?” by Greg Boyd) that take different perspectives as to whether or not there is a divine reason for the things that happen and also that each event in one’s life happens because God willed not to prevent it.  Please stop back if this is an area of interest.  Also, I’d welcome comments and references to any good books that anyone has come across that relate to this topic.   

Musings about a lawsuit related to the death of Amanda Jax

searchHow sad and tragic that Amanda Jax died from alcohol poisoning last October while celebrating her 21st birthday with friends at a Mankato MN bar. I’ve sympathy and compassion for Amanda’s mother, Jenny Haag, because I’ve two college age daughters.  Now I read that Jenny Haag is suing the bar owner along with the friends who bought the drinks that Amanda consumed.  I’m not a lawyer and perhaps don’t understand the issues related to liability. Still, it’s readily apparent from a 2/29/08 Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper story that Amanda Jax had an obvious drinking problem that had been going on for a long time.  One of the defendants, Hannah Becker, 21, is quoted as saying that Amanda “used to drink all the time”. Another defendant, Kathryn Lensing, 21, told police that she had seen Amanda drunk about 100 times in the past year.  Per this same article, relatives of Amanda thought, “Jax had her life under control”.  In addition, Amanda’s mother is quoted as saying, “I’m not going to say that she (Amanda) didn’t drink, but it wasn’t the hundreds of times that they said.” 

I can’t help but think that this lawsuit is a poor attempt to suppress the lack of personal responsibility that Amanda Jax exercised and maybe even some guilt that Jenny Haag feels from overlooking obvious alcoholic tendencies in her daughter’s more formative years.  I personally don’t see how this lawsuit will prevent others intent on binge drinking from suffering a similar fate.  Rather, this lawsuit has the appearance of greedy lawyers coaxing a distraught mother to make things “better” with a large lump sum of cash. 

American Pro Audio

A couple of days ago I received a postcard indicating that American Pro Audio is going out of business.  Even though the store caters more to a live-sound, church, and studio recording clientele, Lee Windsperger, Dick McCalley, and Kent Stevenson have always been gracious to me when I would wander around the store looking for a used or consigned something that a “living room” player like myself could be interested in.  I always preferred to give what little business I could to them instead of Guitar Center or the now long gone Marrs Music.  APA has been in business for twenty years and I’m sad to see them go.  Good luck and best wishes, guys.   

Hello world!

Thanks for stopping by.  I welcome the opportunity to write about and discuss a variety of topics from living in Minnesota, politics, music, faith, family and whatever else may come up.  My intent is to post on something each and every day.  But the best laid plans sometimes go awry – so, we’ll see how things work out.  Feel free to leave comments.  I welcome diverging points of view and hope to respond with a some candor, a little intelligence, and respect.