THE HOLE IN THE GOSPEL by Richard Sterns

I have just started reading the book, The Hole in the Gospel by Richard Stearns.
Although the author is the President of World Vision ,this is not a book about child sponsorship, it is a book about understanding what it means to live out God's love in our lives.I strongly share his view on methods of evangelism. The following are some of my favorite quotes from the first few chapters:

"Focusing on "the afterlife"(heaven) reduces the importance of what God expects of us in this life."
( I have always been uncomfortable focusing people on reaching heaven through salvation as their MAIN goal in becoming a Christian ,as it really makes every day of living seem meaningless.Living each day by sharing God's love through kindness to others is what i feel i want to share!That to me is what the gospel is.)

"Christ commanded us to go into the world- to bear fruit by lifting up the poor and the marginalized,challenging injustice,wherever we find it,rejecting the worldly values found within every culture, and loving our neighbors as ourselves."

"God's love was intended to be demonstrated not dictated."

"Our charge is to embody the Gospel so that others can see, hear, and feel God's love in tangible ways."

"God is responsible for the harvest-- but we must plant, water and cultivate the seeds."

"It is rare that a simple recitation of the gospel will cause people to instantly change their minds.
It usually takes much more than that. Our own narratives typically involve a journey of discovery marked by relationships with respected friends and loved ones, reading, discussions, learning about the basis for Christian faith,seeing the difference faith made in the lives of people
we knew and witnessing genuine faith demonstrated through acts of love and kindness toward others. In other words, before we became ripe for harvest a lot of other things had to happen first."

I personally believe offering unconditional love to others in need, developing true relationships , sharing your own testimony and publicly giving the glory to God when good things happen in our lives ,can be some of the best tools of evangelism. Seeing the love of Jesus through our lives can be more of an honest effort at evangelism that preaching the gospel to someone. I feel sharing honest love to others is really what the gospel is all about.

I read a story about a group of pastors who traveled out of country on a church planting mission but no one would come to their meetings.One pastor who was walking around the village then began to see that many people were sick and dying in that village due to contamination of the water well by animals too close to the site. He and the group of pastors then began to set out to clean up the well that was the cause of so much disease and death in this village.After doing so many villagers came to their meetings. Reaching out in love to those in need better demonstrated the love of God- much more than any meeting could. Love brought them to Christ- not a meeting!! This is a good example of getting the cart before the horse. Why do we go on mission trips- hopefully to genuinely help others in need and in that process many come to faith not the other way around. Let's all share that love that Jesus demonstrated for us in the gospel story, not just on a mission trip but in every day we live!!

"Same Kind Of Different As Me" by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

I just finished reading the book Same Kind Of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.
It is an amazing true story and a NY times bestseller. It is a great, fast, summer read and I highly recommend it! It is told through the eyes of these two authors in a unique way.
It starts out with each man writing his own chapter and alternating until their lives come together toward the middle of the book. When their lives come together it shares what transpires in this process of faith and friendship. I especially enjoyed it as i do volunteer work at a Chicago church -based homeless soup kitchen and that is where Ron and Denver meet. It describes some of the characteristics of this homeless man and how he has to live so very guarded on the streets, closed off from everything and everyone, until Ron and his wife come along. It explains so much about the often non-conversational and yet intense personalities of some of the homeless men and women we meet. It gives you a look inside their lives and hearts ,as well as those who struggle to serve them. Ron's wife is the motivating factor but as it turns out, Ron comes along for the journey and his life is forever changed by this man he meets and befriends ,with his "life wisdom" from a life of slavery and later homelessness. It demonstrates that one person's passion for good and serving others CAN not only profoundly change the lives of others but also change themselves- it will change them for the better as well as doing good for others.It is a touching story and reads so very fast as very short chapters- a real page turner, i could not put it down ... the characters and their new relationships draw you in.

Some of my favorite quotes are the following:

from Ron:when driving away at the end of a visit to Denver's original home town where he grew up as a share cropper and where some of his relatives and neighbors still lived on the same land:"We left just before dark, and as we drove away the images of poverty and squalor burned themselves into my brain like hated tattoos. I could hardly believe places like that still existed in America. I thanked Denver for taking me there and for taking my blinders off."Then Denver said- "Mr. Ron,they're livin' better than I ever did when I was livin here. Now you know it was the truth when I told you that bein' homeless in Fort Worth was a step up in life for me."

when Denver asked Ron to introduce him at a church he was asked to preach at, instead of saying Denver's life story as the preacher wanted him to say, he asked Ron to say this:"just tell em I'm a nobody that's trying to tell everybody 'bout Somebody that can save anybody".

from Denver:"I worried that i was so different from them that we wadn't gon' have no kind a' future. But i found out everybody's different- the same kind of different 'as me. We're all just regular folks walkin down the road God done set in front of us. The truth about it is, whether we is rich or poor or somethin in between, this earth ain't no final resting place. So in a way, we is all homeless - just workin our way toward home."

One Anothering

I just started reading the book " Authentic Relationships- Discover the Lost Art of 'One Anothering'...." by Wayne and Clay Jacobsen . They offered a great list of Bible verses that address this concept of "one anothering" ( i love that phrase!!),so i thought i would share them with you- in case you don't have this book:

Loving... "one another"(John 13:34)
Forgiving...(Eph 4:32)
Accepting...(Romans 15:7)
Bearing with...(Eph 4:2)
Being devoted to...(Romans12:10)
Honoring...(Romans 12:10)
Greeting...(2 Cor 13:12)
Being Hospitable to...(1 Peter 4:9)
Being kind and compassionate...(Eph 4:32)
Sharing with...(Hebrews 13:16)
Serving...(Gal 5:13)
Carrying others burdens...(Gal 6:2)
Building up others...( 1 Thess 5:11)
Encouraging...(Hebrews 3:13)
Comforting...(1 Thess 4:18)
Stimulating others to love and good deeds...(Hebrews 10:24)
Instructing...(Romans 15:14)
Admonishing...(Col 3:16)
Praying for...(James 5:16)
Confessing your sins to one another...(James 5:16)
Being of the same mind toward others...(Romans 12:16)
Submitting to one another...(Eph 5:21)

I would add Gal 5:6- "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

Getting Started.....

Two new books I recently purchased and am about to start reading are about "living missionally in our communities," a topic our church is exploring at present( I bought them on Amazon.com).

The Hole in our Gospel by Richard Stearn, CEO World Vision

Authentic Relationships-Discover the Lost Art of One Anothering
by Wayne and Clay Jacobsen

Join me as i read these in the coming weeks and discuss my thoughts. Or add a book that you have read and that has really impacted your life, to share with others. I will try to keep my posts and comments(as i read them)short to make them quickly readable to make room for others to share their thoughts as well. If you are responding to the same book try to write the comments under that book entry to keep things somewhat cohesive for readers. Thanks.
Happy reading to you all!!

P.S. I realize that i have not configured this site to allow others to list THEIR reviews of books they have read or are reading, as i can do! So forgive my slowness to technology as i try to figure this out. Meanwhile feel free to just write your book reviews in the comments section of the most recent book review I did just making it clear that it is about YOUR book. I hope this will work temportarily :(