What I'm reading

And this one:

I'm enjoying both of them but I'll need to post a few more thoughts on them when I can collect my ideas into some sort of coherency....so it might be a while.

Summer holiday Book Chat: The Hiding Place

Over the summer holiday break, we read The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, a great Christian classic. It's a very inspirational story. Compared to many other stories of the Holocaust, this one left me feeling very uplifted in many ways, despite all the horrific stories about how the Jews were treated. God was truly working in many ways through Corrie and her family to bring people into His kingdom even in the concentration camps.

As a child, I remember seeing this book on my Grandma's bookshelf when I was staying with her and being curious about it. I never read it then though. Glad I finally had the opportunity to do so. It's really worth reading.

Our next book is Light Dawns in Nepal, a story of how missionaries entered Nepal back in the early 1950s to establish hospitals for people with leprosy. One of the members of our book group is a young Christian teacher who spent all of last year working in a school in Kathmandu for children of missionaries in Nepal and has now returned home to teach here. She is going to be sharing with us some of her experiences of the country as well. I think this will really help to make the book come alive for us.

And I am eyeing off Lit: A Christian Guide to Reading Books by Tony Reinke for later in the year. I think that one will be great for helping me to become a bit more intentional about what I read.

Anyone else read any good books lately that I can add to my list?

Reading this at the moment

After I read a review of it here.

I'm really enjoying it. It's been interesting to read it straight after doing the Two Ways to Live course, since it seems to address many questions that came up for me during that.

Anyone else read it?

Knowing God

Why did I wait so long to read this?? What an amazing book.

I'm only about a third of the way into it (and I've had to read some of the chapters several times to get the full effect) but it is going well. I thought it would be much harder going than it is turning out to be.

There's so much gold to be mined in it that it's hard to know where to start on a review. But here's the short review for you. If you've never managed to get through it, pick it up and read it. Right now. Don't put it off any longer.

Christians in the public education system: the lonely road

Today I noticed via Facebook that another family from our church is shifting one of their kids from a public school to one of the local Christian schools.

There used to be a few other families that I knew of in our church whose kids went to public schools but this year they've been steadily exiting the public system to head into the Christian school system. For us, with kids attending their local public school down the road from our house, the public system feels like an increasingly isolated place to be as Christians.

Our minister strongly encourages families in our church to consider Christian schooling for their children. His arguments for considering it are good ones. The idea of having your children taught by Christian teachers and taught a Christian worldview are on one level very appealing.

We considered those arguments, but have chosen a different path, and in the process have discovered it's a bit of a lonely path to be on in a church like ours where the vibe is strongly in the direction of Christian schooling being the best (and dare I say, possibly even the only) way to go. It means our kids don't see their church friends when they go to school so they essentially have two quite separate groups of friends at church and school, although one of our boys has developed a really strong friendship with a boy whose parents are also Christians, but go to a different church to us.

But along the way, we've received some great blessings. The principal of our school is a Christian, who is very supportive of Scripture and other evangelical activities in the school. He arrived at the school at the beginning of our second year there, just when we were beginning to wonder whether we had made the right decision to go public. We know that he has the kids' Christian development as a priority, as well as their academic skills. The school this year received funding to appoint a chaplain, which is also an encouraging development. We regularly see groups like Quiz Worx coming into the school to do their puppet shows and to engage with the children (they're coming to do a show for the whole school during Scripture time in a few weeks). Last term the Salvation Army (our principal's church) ran an evangelical afternoon for the kids after school with free activities, a sausage sizzle and a Christian talk.

It hasn't always been easy. Our school is located in a low socio-economic area so there are a lot of disadvantaged kids there. And a lot of families who struggle as well. It can be very difficult to connect with other parents there. There are probably only a handful of parents that I know well enough to have a conversation with, and this is our fifth year at the school (although I suspect that's my introverted personality coming out....). And I do question at times whether we've made the correct decision, especially when we see more of our friends at church abandoning the public system.

A book that I read recently that helped me enormously in thinking through the issues about Christian kids going to public schools was Going Public by David and Kelli Pritchard. They are American so their book is obviously slanted towards the schooling system in the USA. But it has heaps of relevant advice on engaging with public school communities (well, any school community really). It also highlights one of our big convictions in our choice of school. We believe it's our responsibility as parents first and foremost to bring our children up as Christians, and one of our concerns with Christian schooling was that it might cause us to abrogate this responsibility to the school more than we should. We need to show our kids what it's like to live as Christians by the way we live our lives each day, and show them what praying and reading the Bible looks like in practice. The Pritchard family are pretty full on in this regard, I have to say. They have eight kids (and I noticed on their blog not long ago that they've added three adopted kids from Ethiopia to the family) and still manage to read through five Psalms and a chapter from Proverbs every morning in their family devotional time. Impressive.

Their key argument is not that Christians should send their kids into the public school system to be little missionaries like "salt and light" proclaiming the gospel to all their friends. Far from it. They should send them to public schools to live as Christians.

This is one of the best quotes from their book: "The main job for a Christian child or teenager in public school is simply to be a good student, a good citizen and a servant-leader - to model what Christianity actually is." And by extension, their parents are to model Christianity in the school too. This book highlights many ways that parents can support this process, not just in a public school, but in any school. And at home as well. So it's a very worthwhile read even for people whose kids aren't in the public school system.

I still find it hard to escape the feeling that this is an isolating path to be on for Christians in today's society. Back when my husband and I were kids (both public schooled) the main choice parents faced about schooling was public versus the Catholic system. And then a few kids from my public school went off to private schools when high school started. The Christian school system then was pretty much non-existent. Times have definitely changed.

But our responsibility as Christian parents hasn't changed. It is our job to raise our children as Christians. At some point they are going to encounter world views that are different to our own. What better time to do this than in these primary school years when we can discuss these with them while they are (hopefully) still paying some attention?

Book Chat: Tackling J.I.Packer in Term 3

Disciplines of a Godly Woman was a big winner. We had nine people turn up yesterday afternoon. Great for discussion. A very challenging book and one that I'll keep dipping into regularly, I think.

I think we might have gotten a bit carried away on the roll of excitement that this book produced. We decided that next term we'll tackle J.I.Packer's Knowing God.

I'm already feeling a bit anxious. I've tried reading Packer before. He's hard work. Packed full of great information (pardon the bad pun) but I've found when I've tried to read his work that I need to read every single sentence about three times before I understand what he's saying. We read another one of his books for Book Chat, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, last year, and had a very low turn-out for the discussion. According to our minister, Knowing God is supposed to be even harder to read than that one.

So I'm wondering what I can do or suggest to make it easier for people. Should we each choose a chapter (any one we like) and report back on what we learned from that? Or are there particular chapters in it that are "must reads"?  Apparently it's based on a series of stand alone talks, so it doesn't sound as though you need to read one chapter before reading the next. And of course, reading the whole book is perfectly acceptable for those who can battle on through the density of the information.

Just putting it out there to the blogging world (Meredith, if you're reading, I know you've tackled it!), are there any particular chapters in Knowing God that you'd recommend for Packer novices to start off with?

Book Chat Term 2 2012: Disciplines of a Godly Woman

This is a great book. Every Christian woman should read it. I've known about it for a long time but I resisted reading it for ages because the word "discipline" put me off.

Don't let it put you off the same way. Discipline in the context of this book is not about following rules and being legalistic, but about expressing your love and gratitude for all that God has done for us. This is a book you will refer back to often. It will challenge you to think about godliness and how it is lived out every day.

It would be a great book to work through in a small group Bible study. There are helpful discussion questions at the end of each chapter with Bible references included.

I was trying to explain to someone why it was so good and (as usual) not managing to express myself that well. The best I could come up with was that it's like that passage in Titus 2 where it talks about older women training the younger women in godliness. Reading this book is like learning from a wise and experienced older woman about how to live as a Christian. And reading a book like this always confirms for me why I believe that everyone should read good Christian books. I've heard some people say that they don't need to read anything that's related to Christianity other than the Bible. But when you read a book like this one, which so clearly applies Biblical wisdom to everyday life, then it becomes really clear why it's worth adding at least a couple of good Christian books to your reading list each year. If you're a big reader, it should be more than a couple.

Why do Christian women find it so hard to read Christian books?

A question I've spent some time pondering in the past few weeks, and after a small turn-out at Book Chat last weekend.

Why is this so, I wonder? So many women at my church have said to me that they really struggle to finish reading Christian books. They're great at buying them, but getting beyond the first few chapters is a big challenge.

I used to be like this. Someone would tell me a Christian book was really good, so I would go out and buy it. Then it would sit beside my bed, unread, or if it was lucky, with the first few pages read, and nothing more would happen. I thought setting up a Christian book discussion group might help me to finish reading some of the ones I had and encourage others to do the same.

This has had an inconsistent response. Sometimes numbers have been really good, other times much less so. Sometimes I think it's the book. We had a go at reading J.I. Packer's Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God last year. Very worthwhile reading but I did find it hard going and I think some others found the same. We only had a small number at that discussion as well.

But other times...I'm not sure. The book we read this time around (The Murder of Jesus) was a great read. And it wasn't too hard to get through. Once I started reading it, I finished it within a few days. There were a few cancellations for last weekend, due to health and transport issues. These things happen. But then, in typical fashion, I start to wonder if maybe it might be me. I start thinking about other groups I know about who are reading books (of the non-Christian variety) that don't seem to be having difficulty attracting numbers. I suppose that's what Satan is wanting me to think.

I don't think women avoid reading Christian books because they're too busy or time-poor to read. I enjoy reading and I know that if I really want to read something, I'll make time to do it. I do this all the time. The books that aren't the Christian ones look a bit more interesting so they often find their way to the top of the "to read" pile beside my bed. But they don't challenge me to change my life in any way, or to become more godly in my thinking.

Perhaps that's what lies at the heart of the problem. I sincerely hope it's not me that's stopping people from coming to Book Chat, although in the moments I spend wallowing in self pity, I feel like it is. What I actually think is that it takes discipline and effort to read a Christian book (and finish it). What I read is going to make me painfully aware of my sinfulness and how I need to change myself. That's hard and confronting to deal with. It's much easier to go to the group where I can have a good time talking about some other book that's good for now but less meaningful in the eternal scheme of things.*

Even though numbers weren't high last Saturday, the quality of the discussion was wonderful. I would have loved to hear what others thought of the book too. I often think that reading a book that links heavily to Scripture chapter by chapter in a Bible study group is something we should do more of.

So with all that in mind, next term we are going to read Barbara Hughes' book Disciplines of a Godly Woman. The link takes you to a review by Tim Challies who is a well-known evangelical blogger.

The word "discipline" is already putting me off a little bit. But that's what I think reading Christian books comes down to in the end. Discipline isn't easy. And it's only by God's grace that we can do it. It's much easier to pick up the other stuff on our bedside tables waiting to be read. But as Christian women, why wouldn't we want to be disciplined and to read something that helps us to live a more godly and less wasted life that matters for eternity?

*All this is not to say that we should only read Christian books. I think that reading both is a great idea and I do go to a group that discusses other books, which is really excellent too!

Book Chat Term 1 2012

Hoping to track this one down to read for Term 1 Book Chat. I borrowed a copy from a friend and have also discovered it's available as an ebook so I will probably buy it in that format. Now I just need to find some paper copies for those who prefer real books.

I'm about halfway through it at the moment. It looks like it will be a great book to read in the lead-up to Easter. Anyone else read it?

Back to an earlier topic...

A little while ago, I blogged here about what a wasted life looks like. The John Piper version.

This is another take on it. I think John Piper would like this guy.

Acknowledgement here to Wendy, who found this and thought I would like it. Thank you...

Ouch

"How many lives are wasted by people who believe that the Christian life means simply avoiding badness and providing for the family. So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud - just lots of hard work during the day, and lots of TV and PG-13 videos/DVDs in the evening (during quality family time), and lots of fun stuff on the weekend - woven around church (mostly). This is life, for millions of people. Wasted life. We were created for more, far more....

....no one will ever want to say to the Lord of the universe five minutes after death, I spent every night playing games and watching clean TV with my family because I loved them so much. I think the Lord will say, "That does not make me look like a treasure in your town. You should have done something besides provide for yourself and your family. And TV, as you should have known, was not a good way to nurture your family or your own soul."

From "Don't Waste Your Life." We're discussing it tomorrow afternoon at Book Chat. Lots of good stuff in it. I think the above quote is a direct challenge to most Christians in Western society.

Book Chat Term 4

This term we are reading Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. Our discussion group is on November 5th so that's another reason to hope the baby stays inside for a bit longer.

I finished reading it a few weeks ago so have passed it on to a friend to read. I didn't find it too hard to read, although I did struggle a bit with some of his "men in the war" stories. Don't know whether that would be more appealing to men than women.

But there was plenty of good stuff to take away from it as well. I was challenged by his words on wasting time watching too much television and spending too much time on the internet (guilty of both here), and he had some helpful things to say about living as Christians in secular workplaces as well.

Not sure if Book Chat will continue next year. The numbers haven't been huge (not sure if that relates to what we've been reading, scheduling issues or other things) which has been a bit discouraging. But I'm hoping that those who have joined in have found it encouraging and a good way to grow as Christians.

I've achieved my aim which was to finish reading Christian books rather than getting stuck in the pattern of just reading the first chapter and then never picking up the book again, so I'm thankful to God for this.

Thinking about Book Chat: God's sovereignty vs our responsibility

I mentioned in an earlier post that our Book Chat book this term is J.I.Packer's Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. The date for the get together is only a couple of weeks away so I am starting to think of some ideas to get discussion going. Unfortunately I haven't found many discussion questions for Christian books online, so generally I've had to try and come up with ideas/questions myself.

I was having a look at Meredith's blog earlier this evening and found this great post which relates to our responsibility in relation to God's sovereignty. It looks beyond just evangelising to consider our own responsibilities more broadly. This might be an interesting topic to explore a bit more, I think.

I'm really looking forward to the discussion. I missed the last one because I was sick. Our numbers haven't been huge but I think the ladies who have participated are enjoying it. And I've been challenged to make sure I finish reading the Christian books that I start, which is a good thing.

Praying that God will bless our discussion and grow our little group of readers as time goes on.

Book Chat Term 3

This term we are reading a J.I. Packer classic. I haven't read it before.

Several people told me that they found it heavy going to read. So far, I'm not really finding that. Maybe it was the expectation that it would be difficult that is making it seem okay. It's challenging material though. If I'm completely honest about it, evangelism is something I'd rather let someone else do because they're likely to do a much better job of it than me. But it's not helpful to think that way.

Would love to hear thoughts from anyone else who might have already read it.

Book Chat this Saturday

This term we've been reading My Seventh Monsoon, by Naomi Reed. Naomi is a physiotherapist who worked with her husband Darren (also a physio) in Nepal as a missionary for many years during the 1990s.

I enjoyed reading the story, although I wouldn't say the writing style is fantastic. I'm putting that down to the fact that she's a physiotherapist. Physios, by and large, get into the physio course at University because they are good at maths and sciences rather than humanities subjects. They might like reading, like my physio husband does, but generally writing great descriptive stories isn't their thing. (Although I do work with a physio who is a bit of an exception to this rule. She is an artist when she is not working as a physio, and is pretty creative. But, like I said, she's an exception rather than your standard garden variety physiotherapist).

What I probably found most interesting was the story of how Naomi and Darren became missionaries and how God led them to Nepal. It's amazing how God worked in their lives for it all to come about. And it was also good to read about how sometimes, God's reasons for why events happen may only be revealed with the wisdom of hindsight rather than at the time they are actually happening. Her conceptualisation of life as a series of seasons was helpful too.

Worth a read if you're interested in what one person's experience of missionary life was like. I'm looking forward to the day when Wendy gets her book of stories of missionary women's experiences published. Since I would guess that there are as many different experiences of missionary life as there are countries they go to, I think it would be great to read lots of different stories on this topic.

Book Chat #2

Or maybe I should have called this one...the ups and downs of attempting to organise something.

After freaking out a couple of weeks ago that too many people would come along to the book chat on Saturday, now I am getting lots of apologies and "sorry, I can't make its."

So in the true style of one who is never satisfied....now I am feeling a bit discouraged. Why aren't they coming when they seemed so keen a few weeks ago? Didn't they like the book? Didn't they finish it? I would love people to come even if they didn't finish it. I like knowing why people haven't finished it...Was it too boring to get into? Was there not enough time? Is it me/my house they don't like?? (well, maybe the last one isn't true but hey, why let that get in the way of catastrophizing?).

So I hope there will still be a few of us to chat about it. I really REALLY enjoyed this book, it highlighted heaps of fantastic memory verses to learn.

I have also learned stuff about how to organise this group next time. Find out who is actually coming so I can email around to remind them and maybe send out a discussion question to hook them into not pulling out (thanks Deb for the tip!). Get more books to begin with so that I don't have slower members of the crowd who don't buy it in the first two weeks saying to me, "they've sold out of the book on the stand so I can't read it now..." (when this happened and I asked if we could buy some more for the book stall I was told it would be better if we could try to share the other copies around). Find out who has actually bought it early on so I can see if they've finished with it and are happy to pass it on to one of those who are slower off the mark so that then they can read it and come along.

I will not feel disheartened by this. It is going to make me clean up my house, so that can only be a good thing.

Book Chat

In the true style of one who begins every year full of enthusiasm for new projects, I have started a couple of new things this year. One is at the kids' school where I am using my occupational therapy skills as a parent volunteer to run a gross motor skills group with some of the Year 1s and 2s. More about that one coming next week after I run the first session.

The other new project is at church. Inspired by a post on Jean's blog last year about reading a good Christian book and seeing if others wanted to read it together with me, some women from our church are currently reading "God Is Enough" by Ray Galea. Then they are going to come around to our place for afternoon tea on a Saturday in a few weeks' time and we will all discuss it.

I would have been happy if just one other person had been interested in reading it with me. Just the thought that someone else might be reading it as well was enough to get me to finish it and get it off the rather large "unfinished" pile of Christian books that I own.

But demand has been greater than I thought. All ten copies that were ordered for the church book stall have been sold. And some of those are being shared around a couple of people. I am starting to get worried that our house will not be able to hold everyone who is reading it. And maybe I will have to think of a few more questions beyond "What did everyone think of the book?" and "Which of the Psalms in this book were particularly relevant to your life right now?" And of course, I am now experiencing the fear and anxiety that accompanies that feeling that I may just have overcommitted myself.

I am excited though. It's great to have so much interest. I've deliberately called it "Book Chat" rather than a "Book Club" so that when we run it again (if it takes off, we will do it once a term) other women who didn't read with us this time can feel free to join in.

And "God Is Enough" is a fantastic book. It encourages you to read your Bible as well since Ray Galea suggests that you read each of the Psalms he covers in it twice before you read the chapter he wrote about it. And all the Psalms are ones we should be memorising verses from.

God Is Enough...

To calm my anxieties about going back to work, we have been reading Psalms in our nightly Bible readings. We have been following Psalms 21-40 in our readings from The Briefing. And I am also reading God Is Enough which covers some other Psalms as well. This is the book I am hoping to encourage some women from church to read and discuss with me, so that I will actually finish reading it rather than leaving the bookmark at the start of Chapter 3 for the next six months while I read other stuff that isn't really more important, but seems so at the time.

It is very good so far (I am at the start of Chapter 3!). I love reading Psalms. Comforting words when times are hard.

If you are looking for a good book to read...

Don't read this one. I started it but it became too annoying to continue. I think Liz Gilbert is a selfish woman. I'm not God, but if I was I would probably have told her to suck it up and work on being contented with what she had.

If you are seriously considering changing your life, this one is a much better choice. I have just started reading it. So far it's excellent. I think Liz should have read it. But then she wouldn't have made as much money and gotten as much publicity as she has.

Highlights from the latest Koorong catalogue

For anyone who's looking for a new one.

Pet Psalms..."whimsical, insightful reflections and prayers" inspired by Herbert's observations of cats and dogs.

There is some good stuff in the Koorong catalogue, but unfortunately it's often buried in the rubbish, which makes it hard to find.

If anyone's read either of these I'd love to hear what you thought of them.