Finding Faith
A few months into fatherhood, I realized that I don’t know if I’m a Christian. I don’t doubt that the Bible is true, that a worldview centered on Christ is the way to eternal life, but what I do have an question is whether or not I am God’s child.
Wouldn’t God speak to his kid, at least once in awhile?
I’ll be writing essays and book reviews to record what I learn while reading following books and putting some of the things into practice. As I write based on these questions (What is the author saying? Is it correct? Cite text. Do you agree? How does this connect with other related thoughts? Source - which was very difficult to find, come on Sam.), each of these books will include a link to my notes as well as a non-Amazon link.
How to Read The Bible
The first book is How not to read your bible by Dan Kimball, this book is in here because of some of the podcasts I’ve listened to, specifically by Ari Lamm, and I’ve picked up how westerners have misinterpreted a lot of what the Bible in fact is pointing to as hard as it can, with the conventions it has. The second book is Saving the Bible from Ourselves by Glenn Pauuw, this book hopefully directly answers the questions “What have I gotten wrong about the Bible? Where do most in the American traditions miss something important?”
The next book is God, Do You Hear Me by Derwin Gray, which I expect to preach to the part of me that says, something to the effect of “God doesn’t hear you.” Finally, Wisdom for Faithful Reading by John Walton, this one is more academic, just based on who John Walton is and his bibliography.
Porn
Wired for Intimacy by William Struthers answers the question about what happens to someone’s brain on porn and what the purpose of those pathways were originally designed for. In America, this is a problem, one third of all web traffic was for pornography, something like 70% of men regularly consume pornography.
A dear friend recommended the The Pursuit of Pornia by Dave Scriven, read my review here soon. Though I’ve just discovered in ground work for this short essay, fight the new drug seems like it might have some really interesting resources related this topic.
Habits
For the third year in a row, I went to a physical therapist starting in November last year. In the last few weeks I’ve changed over to seeing a fitness coach because I’m tired of treating symptoms, I want to fix the cause. I’ve read and strongly recommend Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, but I’ll be reading Your Future Self Will Thank You by Drew Dyck, I’m looking to the traditions by reading both The Celebration of Discipline and Learning Humility by Richard Foster.
Politics
Politics has been a thorn in my side for the longest time, I hate how worked up and blind people get. I’ve listened to Kaitlyn Scheiss on the Holy Post a lot and appreciate the way she thinks and approaches problem. A few years back she wrote The Ballot and the Bible and I’ve been looking forward to reading it since. It’s been just taking up shelf space in the mean time.
Heart
For 3 years in a row my sister has recommended Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortland and I recently read The Deepest Place by Curt Thompson.
With all of these my goal is to at the very least write an SRQ (Summary, Response, Questions), but perhaps a bit more.
It’s a lot of books, but if you’re wired the way I am, sometimes you don’t know what else to do.
But I’ve learned something in the last few years; I can’t just study the Bible alone. I need a community around me; it isn’t and cannot be just me and Jesus. Even Jesus didn’t do that. None of the apostles were alone. If I don’t have people around me, then I’m not following the example of the Church or Jesus’ commands.
I’m broken and need to see Jesus through other broken people, in Christ’s Church.
The American church has problems. It has Christian Nationalists, Camp Kanakuk, Ravi Zacharias, Mark Driscoll, and in my own town Living Hope, and New Heights. The last few years the church has been rocked by scandal, I tried to document more than just these two from my local area but was quickly overwhelmed.
But then on the opposite end of the spectrum you have thoughtful Christians, David French in particular, Katelyn Beaty, the Voxology Podcast, the Holy Post, Christian Taylor, Jemar Tisby, and many others.