“The Seraph Seal” by Leonard Sweet and Lori Wagner

December 21, 2012 at 9:00PM eight children are born each with a unique birthmark, destined for… four for a New Earth and Heaven filled with dominion and control, or four for a New Earth and Heaven filled with the principles of love, kindness, and the dawning of a restored relationship with God through Christ the Lamb, and one child is born who must bring the right group together. That is the direction this work of apocalyptic fiction takes as several stories begin, and merge into one, the question is what will be the end?

I have been an avid reader of fiction, and have read a wide variety of fiction in my life. This is the first piece of Christian Fiction I have picked up since the “Left Behind” series. Over the past couple of years I’ve been moving in the direction of more theological based information, or study helps in my personal devotions. This book I choose to take a break, and see again what Christian Fiction had to offer, one thing is for sure, I was not disappointed.

As soon as I picked this book up and began to read I was enthralled. As my wife said, she had not seen me this interested in a book in quite some time. Even though the book bounced between places, people, and events, each section built upon the last and I was able to begin putting the pieces together. Dr. Sweet and Ms. Wagner obviously put a lot of work into this story, as they draw a reader in quickly and effectively into the story. The extra information was well researched, and quite intensive, so intensive is fact that they added two sections, one a look at the notes of the main character, and the second the Alphabet of the Apocalypse.

The only thing about this book I was not sure about was some of the theological directions it took, even though they added to the story. There seemed to be a lot of Christian and Hebrew mysticism such as Kabbalah. This book should be read with discretion especially if one is coming to this book looking for a theological perspective of eschatology. This book is a great work of fiction, but with any fiction, including the “Left Behind” series, one must remember it is a perspective and not truth. If this book does encourage someone to study Revelation, Daniel, Ezekiel, or any of the other true prophetic books of the Bible, well I’m all for that.

Even with my concern with some of the mysticism of “The Seraph Seal” I would gladly give this book 4.5 out of 5. For those who are interested in Christian fiction with on an apocalyptic nature, I highly recommend this book; again as with other bloggers I have read I would recommend caution and the remembrance that this book is fiction. With any book, discretion is advised.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

“Living for God’s Glory” by Dr. Joel R. Beeke

“Living for God’s Glory” by Dr. Joel R. Beeke

“Living for God’s Glory” is an educational book on the Calvinist doctrine that has lead to many of the denominations that we are familiar with today such as the Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregational, and other fine denominations. Calvinism has lead to many great preachers throughout history, including John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, and many others. Yet the main purpose of this book is not only to look at the great achievements of Calvinism, but to focus on the true heart and message of Calvinism as it applies to each person’s everyday life.

In “Living for God’s Glory” Dr. Joel Beeke does not shy away from the 5 points of Calvinism, but embraces them, and carefully constructs his chapter to expound and explain each of these points in a clear and concise manner. However, this book is not for the week of heart. With over 350 pages of reading or so, not including all the links to references the author mentions, this book is still highly academic, and one needs to be willing to take time to read through and be willing to ask questions and seek answers.

What was most fascinating about this book is the purpose of the author. As I said Dr. Beeke gives a great defense of the doctrine of Calvinism, however, he points that Calvinism isn’t only about predestination or election, but instead a teaching of the hope of salvation that can and is only found through Jesus Christ. In this book he points out that many of the viewpoints of Calvinism do not produce hopelessness, as some argue, but that instead there is great hope that is found in the doctrines of Calvinism.

I chose this book primarily because I am very familiar with the great divide that people argue the doctrine of Calvin has lead to throughout the Churches history. I have always considered myself a Calvinist in fact, but said that without a real understanding of the doctrines of Calvin, and also while wrestling with the issue of predestination. In fact, according to this book, I am considered by many Calvinists to be more Armenian in my viewpoint, that election is as a result of the foreknowledge of God almighty, then a Calvinist. I cannot say if this book corrected my view, but it has certainly given me some information for which I can continue to work through this difficult doctrine.

Another main facet of “Living for God’s Glory” is the explanation, and clarifications of the five solas that are such an ingrained part of the Born Again, Evangelical, and Christian church. Although some in the Church today could probably express the solas, they are a teaching that has been substantially forgotten by many of those who at once claimed Jesus Christ. The five solas are, Scripture alone (sola Scriptura), grace alone (sola gratia), faith alone (sola fide), Christ alone (solus Christus), and the glory of God alone (soli Deo gloria). Dr. Beeke handles these topics as clearly as he handles the issue of the 5 points of Calvinism.

The only fault I find with this volume is the intensity of information. Not only is this book written by Dr. Joel Beeke, but also has chapters written by Sinclair Ferguson, James Grier, Michael Haykin, Nelson Kloosterman, Ray Lanning, Robert Oliver, Ray Pennings, and Derek Thomas. It seems to me that sections one and two could easily have been their own single book, and then these additional chapters could have been included in a separate volume. However, each of these chapters is ripe with wonderful information, and has given me a better understanding of Calvinism and Puritanism.

There is so much more that one can discover in this remarkable work by Dr. Joel Beeke. I do not feel as if one could successfully write a great review of this book without giving away, that which makes it so worth the read. The ending chapters have contributions from many great writers as well who add to the beauty of this work. As it is I must rate this book five out of five, and encourage any person who is seeking a true perspective of the doctrines of John Calvin to read this book again and again. As it is I know that it will be a book I read yet again, and one which I will probably use for a reference in many aspects of my spiritual life.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Reformation Trust Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

"Outlive Your Life" by Max Lucado Book Review

“Outlive Your Life” by Max Lucado

The purpose of “Outliving Your Life” is to address the church in America with what we can do in the world at large, starting with the small things. Although there is the very familiar attack with how extravagant the American people live, Max was not presenting a message he was not living. In fact, one of the things I found out about the book is that all profits that were made for the book were donated in total to World Vision.

As I read over “Outliving Your Life” I was indeed challenged to look at the small things in my life to make a difference. A few things that challenged me is do I take time to get to know my neighbors in my small subdivision? Am I involved in activities with my church, my work, my school and my community? These are all important topics that we each look at often in our lives.

Some of the positives that really jumped out at me quickly was that in Chapter 4, “Don’t forget the bread.” Mr. Lucado gave one of the clearest gospel presentation I had seen in many of the Christian books I read. Here in his book he not only addresses a need for those of us in the Church, but takes an entire chapter to share the message with his readers, with the hope of reaching them. So clear was this gospel presentation, that it made even my frustration with his lambasting of the extravagant nature of Americans pale in comparison to what he was trying to communicate.

Another really great section of Mr. Max Lucado’s book was chapter 15 which chapter name escapes me, as I’ve lent my copy of the book to my pastor, which focuses on prayer. In my own personal walk with Christ, prayer has always been a major hiccup for me. Mr. Lucado made several interesting comments through that chapter which really spoke to me directly, and I think would speak even to the people who are truly committed to prayer.

Max Lucado has since put out another book which I’m sure is well written in well. For “Outliving Your Life” I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

My Testimony

My Testimony

Hello my dear friends and family. First I want to thank you all for taking the time to read this.; As I warned awhile back, some of this you may consider offensive. I just want to let you know that this is not my intent, but instead my expressing my heart of Christ’s love for all of you. Some of you are on the same page as I am in regards to faith in Jesus Christ, others of you are not, and I understand this, but I still feel the need to share this all with you.

Over the past several months I have been trying to study the Epistle of 1 John in the New Testament of the Word of God, the Bible. I entered this study with one purpose of not gaining more knowledge, which I have been blessed with a great amount in Scripture, but instead practical application, steps I should and need to be taking in my own life. One of the failures I noticed in my own life is the unwillingness to share my faith in Christ with those who may not have that faith.

This is not a post I’m making to debate, but simply state the truth. Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life. No other religion, belief system, or thought life will bring anyone into the relationship that the God who created us, desires us to have with Him. Instead of doing a lot of fancy preaching, or going from the Scriptures only, (although they contain the whole and complete truth), I’ve decided to share a testimony of my walk with Christ over the past two to three years.  I will bring up Scriptures as they are relevant, and not only will I share references, but I’ll share the whole verse, or section of verses as well as translated in the New American Standard Bible.

Several years ago I met a dear friend and brother in Christ, David Jenkins. Pastor Jenkins had started, and is still running a ministry called Servants of Grace. After we got to know each other, Pastor Jenkins invited me to be one of his supporting Elders in this ministry. I was active some in the beginning as I was writing a lot of sermons and studies myself, but as the ministry grew, I waned in my support of Pastor Jenkins.; However, due to his kindness I stayed on staff, with a brief break in 2003- 2004, and then back on staff in 2004-2005.

Again at that time I still was not giving him all the support he needed. I would try to work with people in the ministry who were in need of counseling and guidance, but still my preaching was non-existent, as I was struggling with many sin issues in my own life. The major sin issue in my life was sexual immorality; however that sin had two facets which were fighting in my inner being. First was adultery, several times I attempted to cheat on my wife, and there were several times I succeeded. It wasn’t until about a year ago my wife knew the depth of my successes.

The second sin I was wrestling with was homosexuality. I was fortunate that I had no successful connections in this area, but it wasn’t for the lack of trying. I used several phone services in the different areas we lived in to try to make connections, but by the grace of God, He was faithful in making any possible connection fall through.

Romans 1:20-27 says: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored amount them.; For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

No matter how they try to fight this. This section of verses clearly speaks out against homosexuality, and it is for this reason that I put this in here. This was the sin I was wrestling with in my flesh. I had a desire to engage in impure acts thus defiling not only my body, but the body of my wife as well. The act of homosexuality is as much a sin as adultery is, clanged to me, and had circumstances worked in its favor I would have succumbed.

Many things happened off an on during periods in my married life. In December 2003 I lost a job due to pursuing my sin interests using a computer at work. Hebrews 12:4-9 says: “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” It is for discipline that you endure God deals with you as with sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”

Like a fool though I continued to ignore this discipline, and instead became more creative on how I pursued my sinful interests.  Although Jen was able to uncover some of my transgressions, she never seemed to catch all of them, and so I would just watch how I treated her with the purpose of trying to give her a sense false of security.

In January of 2005 I got transferred for work back up to Boise, Idaho.  For awhile it really did help me stay more focused on the marriage, as I wanted to be sure I went to some effort to restore a tense relationship I had with my parents.  Yet even there I had too many places I could go to entertain again my adulterous sin.  I was very careful, always being sure I did it in a way to be least suspicious, the biggest thing Jen knew though was my unwillingness to let go of a contact who had been quite the stumbling block for me.  Name here does not matter, but it was a major issue for probably two to three years before that connection was successfully severed.

Sexual sin however was just one issue I was dealing with in my life.  I was also dealing with a lot of anger, anger against myself, anger against Jen, anger against God.  Even today I cannot explain all this anger, although it was evident to many, and not just me.  In fact in July/August of 2005 I had to go in for preventative surgery as in June they had discovered a carcenoid tumor in my appendix that was exactly 1 cm in diameter.  It was a big enough surgery for a 26 year old that my father came down from Missoula to be with Jen until after the surgery. During that time my father had the opportunity to go to lunch with our Senior Pastor at Treasure Valley Bible Church.  Pastor Tim expressed concern to my Dad about my salvation.  Again although this helped get me back on the right track some; it didn’t resolve the problem completely.

For awhile I stayed on the right track.  I put some focus into my marriage, and we tried to get things going in the right way with involvement in Church, Jen was starting to get involved in Bible Studies, and we tried to develop some friendships with people in the Church.  Yet still this anger festered in my heart, times I would blow up at Jen quite significantly, although I tried to never get physical with her as I had done in the past, there was always that deep urge to lash out at her in our fights, one time even pushing her down a hallway and causing her to fall into the floor in our bedroom after her hands hit against the bedroom window. 

One night the fight got so bad we ended up calling one of the Elders of our Church out to the house to discuss what was going on with us.  This was not a nice call as we were both contemplating divorce.  By the grace of God we had Elders at that time that truly made an effort to Shepard us and help us grow in Christ.

            Again we would go through good months, have a fight or two, then have more good months; however, slowly I stopped taking the initiative to take my family to Church.  We would miss several Sundays at a time then go back for a bit, then skip some more.  I began to pull away from my Bible Study, even though I was working a job where it was very easy to go to Bible Study on Tuesday mornings.  We moved a few times again in this period, moved into a house some friends of ours had at Church that we could rent, and then when they made the decision to sell due to some situations in their own life we moved out to Nampa where we lived in a nice duplex. 

            One way my anger was expressed was through the use of money, and so Jen and I constantly found ourselves hanging on by a thread financially.  I was not active in quiet time, although we slowly began to pick up on going to Church, but still the anger festered.  I tried to preach, and managed a few sermons as by this time Pastor Jenkins had moved to the Boise area, and so I tried to work with him, but finally in August/September of 2007 I finally let my total anger come out, and told my wife, and Pastor David that I had no desire to have a relationship with Christ.  I was done, I was going to go my own way, and live my own path. 

Part of my anger was at God for His discipline in my life.  The rest of the anger was at me because I felt there was no hope I could ever turn around from my anger and frustration with who I had become.  I told everyone that my belief in Christ in the sense of His existence was the same; there was no doubt in my mind that He does indeed exist.  What I instead questioned was the actions discussed in Philippians 2:6-8: “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  My question was what the ultimate difference it really made? Christ was God before He became man, and He was God after.

I let this question resound in my ear and my mind for months still taking my family to Church because it was what my wife and children wanted to do, but always with the same feeling of I don’t care, and then Pastor Tim preached on Luke 7:36-50.  Now I’m not going to write out this whole passage.  I still have a lot I want to discuss so I’m going to recommend that if you are interested in reading the whole passage you can go to http://www.studylight.com.  Once the site comes up you can type in Luke 7:36-50, choose your translation and then click on search.

How this passage goes is a woman comes into the house of a Pharisee whom Jesus was dinning with.  This woman was a known, sinful woman, most likely sexual in nature.  The woman came to Christ, and fell on her face, and began washing Christ’s feet with her hair, using her tears as water.  The Pharisee in his heart thinks: “He’s a prophet and doesn’t know how sinful this woman is?” Christ here is blessed by the Holy Spirit with knowledge of what the Pharisee is thinking, and so He tells a story.

Two men owed a man debt.  One of them owed 50 days worth of wages, and the other owed 500 days worth of wages.  Neither of these men could pay the lender, and so he forgave both of them their debt.  Christ then asks which one would love the lender more.  The answer is fairly easy to ascertain even for us 500 days of wages would be equivalent to two years worth of work, the other approximately ten weeks.  The Pharisee responds why the man who was forgiven more. That’s what got my attention, “the man who was forgiven more”

Even though I said I was done with my faith, my walk with Christ, as I said earlier I was angry because I felt there was no hope for me to change who I had become.  My anger was a result of the realization of the depth of my sin against my wife, my children, myself, and Christ.  I had gotten to a point where I believed it would be easier for Christ to send me to the depths of hell, then to bother trying to forgive me of the multitude of sins I had committed.  However, that is not how Christ works.  2 Peter 3:9 says: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

It was at the point in my life I finally understood, truly, and completely the depth of Christ’s love for me.  His discipline had not been as a God of judgment, but a God of love who, like a father, was trying to bring me back to Him.  Shortly after I came to this revelation I was again able to proclaim Christ in my life.  We returned to Church not just attending, but as participants.  Although at that time being ministry was not an option because the Elders wanted to see growth in me prior to letting me get involved with ministry again.

Shortly after my rededication, Pastor Tim and Pastor Mark, started a Men’s Bible Study on how to study the Bible.  Raised as a pastor’s son, I knew I needed to read my Bible, and I even studied some in sermons I prepared, but this was different.  This encouraged me to regularly dig into the Word of God, and not just to read over a passage and meditate, but to dig into word usage, meanings, link to other scriptures.  This study method has revitalized my growth.  Now when I got into the Word I’m enthralled, and dedicated in finding out what it says. 

Do I still wrestle with sin? Oh yeah! However, what has changed is my feelings towards my sin.  I hate it, and I fight against it.  Daily I have to go to my Father, and ask Him to guide me and direct me.  That’s why I choose 1^st John to study.  First John knows we are going to sin, but he reminds us that sin starts wherever our mind is occupied.   I would strongly encourage you, who are saved, to read 1^st John, taking time to look up words like walk used in verse 6 and 7.  It may surprise you.  For those of you who are not saved, this may seem strange to you, but know that I am praying for you, and if ever you have a question please contact me and let me know so I can attempt to answer it.  I don’t have all the answers, but I know who does, and that’s Jesus Christ.  Fortunately down here in Texas I have a great Pastor who is good at helping me figure out things I don’t know, it may take him some time, but he tries to help.

God bless, and may Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit speak to your heart today.