Goodreads Comment (11.10.2009): Muslim and Chinese Social Networking for Western Culture (“The Next World War,” James Adams)

Here is a comment I made on Goodreads regarding James Adams’ data on the emergence of Muslim and Chinese social networking for Western culture in his book The Next World War: Computers Are the Weapons & the Front Line is Everywhere (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003).

American Isolationism, China, and Muslim Social Networking in James Adams’ ‘The Next World War’  

Goodreads Comment (11.6.2009): “The Bean Trees,” Barbara Kingsolver

As part of my experimentation with Goodreads for this blog “New City,” I share in this blog article a comment I made on my initial reading of Barbara Kingsolver’s book The Bean Trees (New York: Harper, 2003).  As far as Bible quiet time notes go, I read Esther 9-10 as my quiet time chapters from the Bible this morning.  There are a lot of things I would like to go over from these chapters, especially regarding holidays, or “holy days,” especially as Thanksgiving and Christmas roll around.  I decided that the breadth of the subject deserved a more formal essay length blog article rather than the quiet time notes I’ve produced in recent articles.

Here is my Goodreads comment for Kingsolver’s book. 

“The Bean Trees,” Barbara Kingsolver      

Tinkering with the Monster (Just Don’t Say “Glue” in German Around the Horses)

As the title indicates, I had a blast this past Halloween weekend by encountering Mel Brooks’ classic movie Young Frankenstein as a diversion of sorts from the suffering I alluded to in my blog article last Friday.  You just don’t see movies made with that kind of comic genius these days.  Anyway, I have decided to tinker with this blog “New City” in the interest of getting more articles posted in a more economically friendly manner, not in the sense of money and greed being good, but in the sense of getting short articles regularly posted.

Book Review: “‘O’ God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah’s Spirituality,” Josh McDowell and Dave Sterrett

A friend of mine, Dave Sterrett, graciously asked me if I would take time out of my busy schedule of churning cheese and brewing beer to review his new book, co-authored with Josh McDowell.  (It seemed like a win-win situation to me; it can get mighty lonely in those cloistered cells.)  The reading experience was well worth the time.  Josh McDowell and Dave Sterrett have collaborated on an excellent book, ‘O’ God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah’s Spirituality      (Los Angeles: WND Books, 2009).  In their book, McDowell and Sterrett exposit the true Biblical Gospel from the false spiritual sensibilities of the new tolerance movement and the digital information age, and especially Oprah’s rise to celebrity as a spiritual guide for this age.  McDowell and Sterrett also examine the fragmentation of our understanding of God and human identity and its impact on our views of relationships.

 

This book is helpful for pastors and parents who wish to talk with their children about their encounter of ideological and spiritual pluralism in the new tolerance movement at public colleges and universities.  The book is also helpful from the perspective of Christian discipleship, on college and university campuses and in the local church.  Christians well seasoned in the faith will find McDowell and Sterrett’s book a help for teaching and training younger Christians who have just recently come to the faith about discerning between the true Gospel and false spirituality.

The Irony of Sexual Rebellion, and the Biblical Gospel for the Direction of Worship in the Church

I had to be away from my home church Emmanuel this past Sunday, so I wasn’t available to sit in the sanctuary and take notes from the sermon.  I hope to continue blogging the sermons of Emmanuel in support of my home church in the coming weeks (though my blog doesn’t represent anyone, including Emmanuel).  In the meantime, I share a reflection from a quiet time study of the book of Romans from my days of rest on Sundays, regarding appreciation for true freedom of conscience in Christ and discerning the problems of sexual perversion and false notions of sexual modesty, even in contemporary Western culture.

Book Review (Goodreads): “Mister Pip,” Lloyd Jones

I’m spending these present days working on my review for Augustine’s City of God (New York: Penguin, 2003).  As Augustine’s book is a large book, I expect normal blogging to be at a premium.  I still plan to blog sermons and the occasional Friday round-up of articles from blogroll friends that I had done a while back as a regular habit.  But for the most part, I want to concentrate on doing a good review for Augustine’s book, and that will take some time.

In the meantime, as an example of an occasional article posted during my drafting of my review for Augustine’s book, I thought to share with you here another review I did on Goodreads for Lloyd Jones’ book Mister Pip (New York: Dial, 2007).

Goodreads Review: “Mister Pip,” Lloyd Jones

I share this Goodreads review in keeping with my lesson learned from the story of Jesus’ turning of the water into wine at the wedding of Cana in the Gospel book of John.  We are to appreciate both common grace and saving grace in Christ, even in the matter of popular literature.

The First Commandment: Knowing Freedom of Conscience and Serving by the Foundation of Christ onto God the Father, and Understanding Bondage to the Idol of Marriage

After some down time of not blogging with any real consistency over the past several weeks, I’ve decided to recommit myself to the free time hobby.  I plan to continue writing out Bible quiet time lessons and using classical Christian academic resources like Bible commentaries and the Westminster Confession of Faith.  I also plan on blogging my home church Emmanuel’s sermons again, using my notes taken on the sermon to show what I’ve learned in the community life of the local church for blog readers.

I Still Love You, New York: Thoughts on Sept. 11, Ryan Adams, Gospel Submission to Civil Authorities, and Augustine’s “City of God”

Today marks eight years since Sept. 11, 2001, the date of the worst modern terrorism to hit the United States (and also, in my mind, the end of postmodernism as a movement).  I haven’t had much inclination to blog as of late anyway, but I thought to write a piece remembering Sept. 11, especially in terms of appreciating Gospel submission to civil authorities and appreciating common grace in such matters as admiring Ryan Adams.  I also write this piece in light of some bleak suffering of late from folks on the blogosphere and in real life.  Ever since the President Obama-Wakefield High School controversy, and especially since I made light humor of the reaction against Obama on my Twitter profile, I have been radically dismissed among certain individuals about being human, let alone being a Christian.

I appreciate these individuals’ concerns for Christianly and conservative upbringing among children.  And I appreciate these individuals’ concerns for conservative politics as their reaction to Obama.  I have no problem with folks expressing political and philosophical differences with any United States president, whether a sitting president in Obama or any former president.  But I think it’s worthwhile to consider common grace and saving grace in a grasp of real contentment and real saving grace relationship, real communion, by the foundation of Christ with God the Father.  And we should also appreciate submission to civil authorities as our expression of contentment in the Gospel, including such occasions as Sept. 11.

Gospel Sonship and Submission to Civil Authorities, and President Obama’s Address at Wakefield High School

As many people doubtless know by now – especially those who know my high school alma mater – President Obama will give an address on education at Wakefield High School this Tuesday, September 8.  Here is the official White House media advisory for the event.  Also, The Washington Post noted the developments of Wakefield in public education since my graduation (in 1997).

“Set in a 1950s-era building just off a commercial strip on Route 7, Wakefield is [Arlington’s] most economically and racially diverse high school.  Nearly half of Wakefield’s 1,400 students are Hispanic, and more than a quarter are African immigrants or African American.  About half receive free or reduced cost lunch.

Despite a population with many and varied academic needs, the high school has achieved continuous improvement on standardized tests.  It has a reputation for setting lofty academic standards, including a goal that every student will take at least one Advanced Placement class before graduating, said Arlington schools spokeswoman Linda Erdos.  Last year, 39 percent of graduating Wakefield seniors had at least one passing score on an AP test – more than twice the national average.”            (“Arlington Pulls Up a Desk for President, Entourage: Wakefield Site of Back-to-School Speech,” The Washington Post, Thursday, September 3, 2009)

I believe the White House will also allow the video of the event to be live streamed on blogs.  I’m not sure on this due to my lack of technical expertise on these things, but see the article here.  If I can, I’ll try to get the live stream hooked up onto this blog so that people can watch the address.

Listening and Repentance for Fellowship in the Church: The Ecclesiological Gospel in the Telecommunications Age

One of my favorite reading experiences in the Bible in recent times has been reading through the book of James.  This book, like the book of Proverbs, has much to say about language – our fallen human language in our worship of ourselves and our justification of ourselves apart from God, and God’s holy and righteous and justifying language given on behalf of sinners.  God has provided His Son Jesus as the only begotten and incarnate Word who speaks on behalf of sinners and their wayward tongues.  God has also given the inscribed Word, the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, as God’s testimony of His only begotten Word, Jesus, the substitutionary Word, for sinners.