Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Humanitarian Jesus

Humanitarian Jesus: Social Justice and the CrossHumanitarian Jesus

Humanitarian Jesus is a book written by Christian Buckley and Ryan Dobson.  I heard about this book through several different websites.  It sounded interesting, even though I wasn't exactly sure what it was about.  When I saw this offered on the Christian Audio website, I knew that I had to snatch it up.  Now that I have finished listening to this book, I have been referencing it all of the time.  This book definitely got me to think.

The book deals with the balance between doing things for people and the sharing of the gospel.  The author illustrates this debate well with the pictures of a sandwich and a tract representing the two sides of the debate.  He asks, do you give a tract before the sandwich, after the sandwich, or stick the tract in the sandwich?  This is much bigger than a sandwich and a tract, but I think you can get the point.

My favorite part of the book is the fact that in the second half the author interviews several different people who are illustrating the balance of these two sides of Christian Humanitarian work.  The main part of the book and the interviews were very interesting and held my attention throughout.

If you are interested in this book, I highly recommend it.  It left me feeling convicted in two ways.  One, I definitely felt the need of, "We're not doing enough!"  There are such great needs in this world, and I know that we just aren't doing as much as we should be doing.  But even more so than that, I felt convicted that I am not even doing as much as I could be doing right now.  With the resources that I have and the things that I own, I am not doing enough right now.

Visit Christian Audio and download Humanitarian Jesus.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Living Faith: In the Goodness of God

God is good...

...All the time!

That is such a great statement, and one that we are learning at Church.  We have been discovering the reality of God's goodness and His unchangeability in the beginning verses of the Book of James, but there are many in our Church that are also learning this lesson through the trials that they are enduring.

If you have been questioning the goodness of God in your life, then you may need to heed James' warning in  verse 16 of chapter 1, "Don't be deceived, my beloved brethren..."

Download and listen to Living Faith: In the Goodness of God