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posted by Robert on 05/3/09

I just couldn’t make myself put it down! The story was entertaining and fun, yet the underlying principles were profound and powerful. I starting reading it to a group of friends. They laughed. They listened. Then they asked me to read another chapter!

To be honest, I don’t have the time to read very much these days. But this book grabbed me. I haven’t finished it yet, but if the rest of the chapters are as good as these first ones, I believe The Noticer by Andy Andrews will be a bestseller. It is based on the true story of Andy’s life and the remarkable transformation that he experienced from being a homeless man sleeping under a bridge to one of the nations’ best known and best-loved communicators.

Take a few minutes and enjoy listening to the first chapter.

The Noticer MP3 (30 min)

Read the first chapter

2 Comments » | posted in Book Reports

posted by James on 01/21/09

“Titus was listening with all his ears, but he said nothing, for he hoped that the man would speak further…. He could have slipped away in the dark easily enough, and was half-minded to do so. Then he reflected that he might learn something more of his mysterious birth and parentage, if he stayed; besides, he had a strong curiosity to see the much-talked-of Barabbas; and underneath all, was an unconfessed desire to share in the exciting events which were soon to follow.”

Thus precedes the poignant climax of Titus: A Comrade of the Cross, by Florence Kingsley, 1894. Set in the historical setting of Christ’s public ministry on earth, this volume follows a fictional character, Titus, the son of a Greek-raised Jew, in his search for truth beyond the paganism of the Greeks and the hypocrisy of the Jews. The storyline is amazingly accurate to the Bible and portions of the book are direct quotes thereof. In some respects, it is a dramatized commentary! The delicate balance between mercy and justice is brilliantly portrayed in it’s heartbreaking apex of which I must say no more, as doing so would defeat the purpose of having salted the oats. If you have read and enjoyed Ben Hur or The Robe, you will certainly enjoy Titus, though it is written much more simply yet no less eloquently.

6 Comments » | posted in Book Reports

posted by Daniel on 10/14/08

Who likes books on theology? Long discourses on religious beliefs always seemed boring and needless to me. However, in Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis takes the ordinary Christian doctrines we are all familiar with and expounds on them in a fascinating and exciting new way. He offers rational explanations for why things are as they are, and proposes Christianity is the only valid answer to life’s questions. The books forces those who are undecided about Christianity to face the facts and either accept Christ or reject Him. But it is also excellent for those who already believe, because it helps them to understand more fully the basic principles of their faith and share them persuasively with others.

Mere Christianity challenged me to take my personal convictions seriously. What do I believe? Why? It also opened my eyes to the effectiveness of using analogies and illustrations to get points across and make them more interesting to others. I especially appreciate how C. S. Lewis used his literary expertise to explain magnificent truths so clearly.

“Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

Author: C. S. Lewis
Publisher: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.
Date: 1952
Genre: Theology

7 Comments » | posted in Book Reports

posted by Michael on 02/27/08

Our family recently read the short book of 2 John and I began to see how important this book is for every Christian to understand. “And this is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, that, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. …He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.” I have recently seen how ”new age” teaching is a monster of lust and hatred wearing a mask of love and peace. What would the enemy of our souls like more than to re-define Jesus Christ, deny the fact of sin, and mock at God’s salvation? By doing so he could do what he likes best: unleash the passions of sin to destroy life and property and hinder us from entering into eternal life. Why would we call on the name of Christ if Acts 4:10-12 is a lie? Furthermore, sin cannot be dealt with while I pretend it does not exist. Notice Psalm 45:6-7 “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: the scepter of Thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” Think of the joy and the freedom that comes from knowing God and hating sin and overcoming the temptations that Satan sends to destroy our lives. Remember Psalm 97, especially verse 10: “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of His saints…”, and again Hebrews 12: 28-29: “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire.” Finally, “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

7 Comments » | posted in Book Reports, Tidbits

posted by Daniel on 10/5/07

A few months ago I received a gift from a cousin for participating in his wedding. It was a medium-sized book by C.S. Lewis. Not expecting much, I started it that evening, but little did I know how strongly it would enthrall me from the very first chapter.

With a comprehensive vocabulary and astounding way of describing things, C.S. Lewis outlines his intellectual and spiritual journey through the early years of his life, telling of his espousal of atheism and return to Christianity. In this autobiography of a conversion, I was continually amazed at C.S. Lewis’ literary genius and ability to put into words thoughts and feelings we have all experieneced, and which I’ve been aware of but never attempted to define before!

At one point, when describing a situation from his own life, he makes an interesting observation: “Nothing, I suspect, is more astonishing” (and, may I add, more exciting) “in any man’s life than the discovery that there do exist people very, very like himself.” This fact is, I believe, the reason this book was so thrilling for me to read.

The central motif of his story is the course of “Joy” in his life, which he defines as “the sublime experience of the transcendent” and must be strictly distinguished from both happiness and pleasure. It is that “unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction”, and which, when experienced, becomes of incalculable importance and causes all else to appear insignificant in comparison.

It is at the culmination of the book when he discovers that this “Joy” – that fleeting glimpse of the eternal – is actually a harbinger, a precursor of a greater Something (or rather, Someone), and finds true satisfaction in a fulfilling relationship with That which Joy was pointing towards.

I had previously associated C.S. Lewis exclusively with “The Chronicles of Narnia”, but reading “Surprised by Joy”  has broadened my understanding of him as an author. If his other works are as spiritually and intellectually rich and engrossing as this one, I certainly anticipate reading them!

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