Deus Misereatur

Urban Hinterlands: Planting the Gospel in Uncool Places by Sean Benesh My rating: 4 of 5 stars In this teeny 94 page paperback, Sean Benesh, developer of Urban Strategy and Training for TEAM, Church planter, and accomplished author, gently challenges a modern trend in church planting. Instead of automatically going into the sexy city and mod midtown, the author writes "about church planting in seemingly unlivable places" (44); "in cities or neighborhoods that many have written off. Uncool. Unappealing. Unlivable. Sketchy" (77); "to begin shifting our attention toward uncool neighborhoods and cities" (79). That's the book in a nutshell, yet the shelves and chiffoniers of this essay are filled in with personal stories, facts, figures and rationale. Though Benesh is primarily focusing on church planters rethinking where they are called to go, nevertheless this little manual is a valuable re-assessment for those pastoring and ministering in estab...

The People’s Book : The Reformation and the Bible Ed. Jennifer Powell McNutt and David Lauber IVP Academic ISBN: 978-0-8308-5163-8; April 2017; $25.00 The 500 th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation is upon us, and one of the rousing slogans attributed to the early Reformers was “ Scripture alone ”. It is very fitting, then, that “The People’s Book: The Reformation and the Bible” has recently rolled off the presses. This 250 page paperback is the compilation of work presented at the Wheaton Theology Conference in 2016, and is edited by Jennifer Powell McNutt, associate professor of theology and history of Christianity at Wheaton College, and David Lauber, associate professor of theology at Wheaton. This readable volume “examines many of the facets of the Bible as the people’s book during the Reformation by reflecting on matters pertaining to access, readership, media, culture, diffusion, and authority as well as its place in the worship context, as the arbiter o...

“ I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation ” (Psalm 18.1-3, 46). Holy God, we pray for all nations and countries, these United States of America, and for the leaders of the world, such as Governor General of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sir Tapley Seaton; Governor General of Saint Lucia, Dame Pearlette Louisy; and Governor General of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sir Frederick Ballantyne; as well as our Oklahoma State Representatives, to include Mike Sanders; Earl Sears; Shane Stone; and Chuck Strohm . O God be gracious to us and bless us and make your face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let ...

Safe People: How to Find Relationships that are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren't by Henry Cloud My rating: 5 of 5 stars I hate books like this one because I'm pretty certain the authors are talking about me! It was like that in the abnormal psychology class in college. Of course, Cloud and Townsend are not really talking about me, but about people in general. Yet, since Genesis 3 all of us have been playing manipulative and maladjusted relational games. We've grown up in families that have fine-tuned sinful patterns, and we are deeply ensconced in layered family systems that have handed off, generation after generation, ways of using, and being used by, other people. That's why books like this one are so personal, because all of us have trends that lean toward the models displayed throughout. Nevertheless "Safe People" is about breaking free of those harmful relational habits, and learning to see why we are attracted to unsafe people. But the goal o...

The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by Rod Dreher My rating: 5 of 5 stars The first eighteen years of my life I grew up with those weekly siren blasts; it’s the Oklahoma way. Every Saturday at noon the storm sirens kick off and wail for five minutes. Truly it’s the “song of my people”. Though the weekly alerts blaring out can be annoying, they are helpful in familiarizing yourself with the sound and reminding you that you are in Oklahoma, and if you hear them blasting at any other time, it’s real and you best take cover. The 272 page hardcover, “The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation” is something like those weekly sirens. As the author, Rod Dreher, senior editor at “The American Conservative” and accomplished writer, states in several places in the book, he is sounding the alarm! This volume is a readable resource, and stuffed full with stories, anecdotes, ideas and strategies. Since there are loads of other r...

Strengthener of the weak; fortifier of the faithful, rescuer of the wayward, restorer of the repentant; your steadfast love is good and endures forever . It is you who do great wonders so that by your most holy, wise and powerful preserving you govern all your creatures and all our actions; your steadfast love is good and endures forever . It is you who delivers your people from their enemies, elevating them from their low estate in due time, drawing them from the miry bog and setting their feet on a rock; your steadfast love is good and endures forever ! O LORD Most High, you are to be feared for you are the great king over all the earth; We pray for all nations and all leaders to include President Klaus Iohannis of Romania; President Vladimir Putin of Russia; and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda; along with our State Representatives such as Brian Renegar, Mike Ritz, Dustin Roberts, Sean Roberts, Michael Rogers and Todd Russ . Bring all peoples of every nation and land to clap ...

Facing Down la Santa Muerte (Recently I met with a young man in his mid-20s and we talked about this subject. That got my wheels turning. And so, taking my cue from the religious cult in Mexico, "Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte" “Our Lady of Holy Death,” I would like to talk about facing down death.) La Santa Muerte lingers around in the shimmering shadows of my periphery at every doctor’s appointment; at every exploratory medical procedure; at every birthday; with every new ache and pain in my body. And she would pirouette around Paul, as can be seen in how often he addresses his own death in Philippians, 2 Corinthians and 2 Timothy; and yet Paul would respond: “ as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain ” (Philippians 1.20-21). Before we co any further, let me ask you: What ...