The Little Friar

Adrienne Peterson's The Willow Basket:  A Novel weaves together the stories of three women into a rich narrative tapestry of history, romance and the supernatural -- without ever losing the real humanity of her characters and a compelling sense of time and place. When Ceci Bouchard inherits a trunk of mementos that belonged to her nineteenth century matriarchs, Mary and Maria, the most curious item inside is a willow basket, an ancient artifact from Mexico, supposedly endowed with mystical powers.  Whether it's the basket, or Ceci's own exponential imagination, Mary and Maria seem to be sharing with her their lives in the 1840s.  Peterson taps into a dynamic period of history somehow missed by most writers of historical fiction.  It's the era in which Irish immigrants were scorned and brutalized by those who came before them and when the US decided to fulfill its "manifest destiny" by starting a war with Mexico.  Peterson has thoroughly researched the l...

John Steward's From Genocide to Generosity:  Hatred Heals on Rwanda's Hills is the most important contribution to mission studies in 2015.  Steward, who served in Rwanda with World Vision in 1997, where he was engaged in reconciliation activities and programs in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, has engaged in mission trips in the area since then.  From Genocide to Generosity shares some of the essential insights and lessons learned from this engagement, within the Church and beyond, and gives voice to local staff and friends in the ministry of reconciliation by narrating their experiences and contribution.  It provides a number of working programs that encourage evangelical transformations and healing between Tutsis and Hutus -- like workshops on personal development, healing the wounds of ethnic conflict, healing of memories and community restorative justice.  From Genocide to Generosity is ultimately the story of Christian hope -- that where there ...

Benjamin Walton's Preaching Old Testament Narratives deals with one of the major struggles each preacher must face early in ministry:  How to preach Old Testament narratives faithfully.  Utilizing the wisdom and method Haddon Robinson first shared in his introductory preaching text, Walton helps pastors preach with exegetical, homiletical and theological insight. Walton walks preachers through the process, from selecting and analyzing a narrative text to shaping and then delivering such a message.  The book is packed with valuable preaching ideas and tools.  This volume will find a welcomed spot on many a preacher's bookshelf. I particularly found Chapter 2, "OT Narratives:  From Text Selection to Take-Home Truth", the most helpful.  There, Walton offers an in-depth process for every part of preaching Old Testament narratives -- from selecting a text, identifying contexts, analyzing plot, and determining the original author's theological message....

Although, therefore, that infancy, which the majesty of God's Son did not disdain, reached mature manhood by the growth of years and, when the triumph of His passion and resurrection was completed, all the actions of humility which were undertaken for us ceased, yet today's festival renews for us the holy childhood of Jesus born of the Virgin Mary:  and in adoring the birth of our Savior, we find we are celebrating the commencement of our own life. For the birth of Christ is the source of life for Christian folk, and the birthday of the Head is the birthday of the body.  Although every individual that is called has his own order, and all the sons of the Church are separated from one another by intervals of time, yet as the entire body of the faithful being born in the font of baptism is crucified with Christ in His passion, raised again in His resurrection, and placed at the Father's right hand in His ascension, so with Him are they born in this nativity. -...

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, upon them the light has dawned. You have increased their joy and given them great gladness; they rejoiced before you as with joy at the harvest. For you have shattered the yoke that burdened them; the collar that lay heavy on their shoulders. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given , and the government will be upon his shoulders. And his name will be called: Wonderful Counselor; the Mighty God; the Everlasting Father; the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and uphold it with justice and righteousness. From this time forth and for evermore; the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. -- Isaiah 9.2, 3b, 4a, 6, 7

On the first day of Christmas ... Welcome Jesus, our humble gentle Savior, welcome to Bethlehem, where we have loved and fought and longed for the peace the world can never give. We ask for your peace, your love, your gentleness, and the courage to live that way. Almighty God, you gave your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and be born of the Virgin Mary; grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Son of God, Child of Mary, born in the stable at Bethlehem, be born again in us this day that through us the world may know the wonder of your love.

I bid the readers and followers of The Little Friar a very happy and blessed Christmas. May our Savior bestow upon you every good gift. May the love of the Father be born anew in your hearts. May the Spirit fill you with joy, adoration, and abiding hope. Yours in the Incarnate Christ, + Julius

Dear God, There is an empty chair near the tree, an ache in our hearts and tears on our faces. We may try to shield one another from the grief we bear but we cannot hide it from you. We pray for (names) , whose presence we miss so much in these days of peace and joy. Open our hearts and minds to the healing, the warmth, the light of your presence. We pray, Lord, and we trust that those we miss have found the place you prepared for them, their home within your heart. Open our hearts, Lord, to joyful memories of love shared with those who have gone before us. Help us tell the stories that make the past present and bring us close again to those we miss. Teach us to lean on you, Lord, and on each other, for the strength we need to walk through these difficult days. Be with us as we cry and sing our our way through Christmas cards and carols; help us find and open the present you bring: the gift of your peace in the birth of the child we call Christ....

John C. Maxwell is one of the most important and read Christian authors to connect leadership studies with Christian living.  In this one-year devotional, Leadership Promises for Every Day , Maxwell brings together selections from his other works to offer short daily devotionals that connect common leadership problems/challenges with God's word.  These are each short enough to read even at work to start the day with a new "perspective" on leadership, based on biblical principles. Though they are short, they are powerful, and completely applicable to those that work for someone, are a boss over others, or even a self-employed person. With a high quality leathersoft cover, Leadership Promises makes a great gift. ________________ Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers < http://booklookbloggers.com > book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions...

Ted Koppel's Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath sounds the alarm over the likelihood of a devastating cyberattack on the infrastructure of the United States.  Kendra's recent studies in emergency management have taught me just how serious an attack of this sort would be -- not simply upon daily life, but also upon any response and recovery. Koppel insists:  " We remain distracted to this day by the prospects of retail terrorism when we should be focused on the wholesale threat of cyber catastrophe".  His concern is an attack on America's three "surprisingly vulnerable" electrical grids, which link some 3,000 electric power companies to distribute electricity nationwide.  Taking down a grid would leave millions in a desperate search for light and power.  Such an attack can be launched from anywhere, would be difficult to trace, and might involve China or Russia (the greatest threats), terrorist groups, or rogue sta...

N. Turner Simkins' Possibilities:  Perseverance, Grace and the Story of One Family's Life with Leukemia chronicles the father's moving account how his youngest son battled with leukemia.  It's a beautiful and sincere book that causes us to think deeply about our own lives, however ordinary it may seem to be.  Like life itself, little Brennan Simkin's story is one of pain, tragedy, and grief, but in-between are redeeming moments of affection, love, and understanding. Some of the hardest parts of Possibilities for readers lead to some of the most graceful moments in a young life.  This book quickly exposes the detachment that names our modern lives, and calls for our conversion -- to live lives of compassion and kindness and hope in the face of overwhelming sadness. Maybe this was why Jesus had to die on the cross, and he still suffers in other forms like that of the innocent leukemic Brennan.  He suffers also in the anguish and tears of Brennan's pare...

Monte Wolverton's The Remnant is the most amazing, challenging dystopian novel I've ever read. The year 2062 saw what was called the "Final War".  Major cities and nations were devastated.  The war, combined with environmental disasters and pandemics, has left the world with merely a tenth of its previous population.  A world government was formed and the World Federation banned all religion.  All religious literature was destroyed.  If a person would not sign the Affidavit of Renunciation, they were taken to work camps.  The world economy was now based on this free work force. In 2131, Grant and a number of others escape from their work camp for Christians.  His parents and grandparents had been Christians and he still believed.  He and his small band set out on a quest to find authentic Christianity.  What they find is a commentary on what happens to Christians when there is no Bible to guide them, no authority or standard. Grant ...

The Jesus Bible, NIV Edition brings together introductory essays by several renowned pastors (Louie Giglio, Max Lucado, John Piper, Ravi Zacharias, and Randy Alcorn) with study aids to help readers grasp the central and unifying message of Scripture:  Jesus Christ. This edition is textured and woven material over board -- so it's durable for long-lasting use -- and has a number of profound study aids.  Readers will find sixty-six book introductions that each center on Jesus in the narrative (this is by far the best part of this new study Bible from HarperCollins).  But there are also over 300 full-page articles and nearly 700 sidebar articles reveal Jesus throughout all of Scripture -- packing this study Bible with far more detail than I can cover in one simple review. The single column text of the NIV comes with space in the margins for your own notes, though I wish the paper were thicker so that those notes wouldn't bleed through the page.  And there's a si...

God of all hope and joy, open our hearts in welcome, that your Son Jesus Christ at his coming may find in us a dwelling prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Praise and honor to you living God; your coming will be like a thief in the night, like lightning flashing across the sky. Grant that we may be ready, and our hearts answer, Come Lord Jesus. God faithful and true, make us eager with expectation, as we look for the fulfillment of your promise in Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Judah Smith's How's Your Soul? Why Everything that Matters Starts with the Inside You! begins with one of the most significant spiritual assertions of Christian faith:  God created us for a healthy life.  From there, Smith cobbles together a disjointed collection of ways to rest in that faith instead of trying to give one's own soul what it needs. And let's be honest:  Just because we have that faith doesn't mean our spiritual lives are healthy.  Smith taps personal stories, biblical accounts, and contemporary culture for truths about what the soul needs to be satisfied, and conveys them in a sermon's rambling fashion.  His "four Rs" talking points of rest , responsibility , restraint , and relationship are taken from the Genesis account of God's creation of the soul:  Rest replaces worry, responsibility gives life a purpose, restraint leads to maturity, and relationship brings in helpers. God is the anchor of our spiritual lives, and...

Katherine Woodward Thomas' Conscious Uncoupling: 5 Steps to Living Happily Even After sets out to empower recently separated couples with a program designed to bring "dignity, goodness, and honor" to the end of a relationship.  After making suggestions for salvaging the relationship via counseling and communication, Thomas outlines the five steps of conscious uncoupling, which include "find[ing] emotional freedom", "reclaim[ing] your power and your life", "break[ing] the pattern", "becom[ing] a love alchemist", and "creat[ing] your happily-even-after-life".  Thomas uses her own experiences as points of instruction, sharing her inability to let go of an old flame and the struggles she's faced in her own divorce. Conscious Uncoupling is filled with some of the latest studies about divorce and its psychological impacts -- showing that divorce affects the brain in the same ways that the brain experiences the ...

God for whom we wait and watch, you sent John the Baptist to prepare for the coming of your Son; give us courage to speak the truth even to the point of suffering. Almighty God, you sent your servant John the Baptist to prepare the way for the coming of your Son; grant that those who proclaim your word may so guide our feet into the way of peace, that we may stand with confidence before him when he comes in his glorious kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Judge and our Redeemer. Praise and honor to you living God for John the Baptist, and for all those voices crying in the wilderness who prepare your way. Amen.

I just heard the news that American Methodist Theologian Tom Oden has passed away. Oden was a former liberal who turned "orthodox" after discovering the church fathers -- under the wisdom of a Jewish theologian, Will Herberg.  He was deep in liberalism, writing his dissertation on Freud and Bultmann -- Kerygma and Counseling .  But the church fathers turned him towards the light of the evangelical and apostolic faith, for which he became a key advocate. He exposed the suicide of liberalism in his book Requiem: A Lament in Three Movements -- which is the best critique of contemporary liberal theology I've ever read.  I was introduced to Oden as an undergrad.  One of my profs had written on Oden's theological return to the fathers as a pastoral theology.  Oden's Pastoral Theology shaped so much of what I understand about the pastoral life, and his three-volume Systematic Theology is a wealth of information for preachers.  For Methodists, Oden's work on ...

David Bowden's When God Isn't There: Why God Is Farther Than You Think, but Closer Than You Dare Imagine is filled with all the pat answers that neo-Calvinists love to use to explore the questions of our suffering and God's presence.  The book sadly suffers from a poor theology that has so little to do with proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ that I could hardly finish it. There are times in the Christian life where we wish we can see God or feel God's presence -- especially when we suffer.  When we suffer, we wonder where is God in all of this.  Bowden's theology can hardly walk into a hospital room or cancer ward, so it hardly resembles Jesus at all. That's the primary complaint I had for When God Isn't There .  That the theology in this book cannot walk into a hospital or sit at the bedside of the suffering means I simply cannot take it seriously as a conversation partner, and even less as a practical book that explores God's presence i...

You might have heard of the protest movement Buy Nothing Day (BND). BND is an international protest against consumerism and it's held the Friday after Thanksgiving, what is commonly known as Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. The basic thing to do on BND is just opt out, don't shop on Black Friday.  But BND protests can take on all sorts of forms. A strange and public form of BND protest is the Zombie Walk.  Here's a video of the 2012 Zombie Walk in a Portland mall.   During a Zombie Walk you dress like a zombie and go shuffling through a mall, making a comment about how consumerism has robbed us of life, personality and moral agency.  We're just dead, obedient zombies when we rush to the malls on Black Friday. I expect that people might find the Zombie Walk ridiculous.  But there's huge biblical precedent for prophetic rebuke taking the form of performance art.  The biblical prophets did things like the Zombie Walk. Cons...

The American Association of Patriots has collected a number of fabulous essays into its How to Talk to Your Cat about Gun Safety and Abstinence, Drugs, Satanism, and Other Dangers that Threaten Their Nine Lives .  Two of these essays -- evolution and gun safety -- are among some of the most important topics for feline safety these days. Cats have many things on their minds, like where to sun themselves today, and cannot become bogged-down in science and theological discussions.  How to Talk to Your Cat about Gun Safety has some excellent advice for handling some of those difficult discussions. But, without a doubt, "How to Talk to Your Cat about Gun Safety" is the best.  Once a cat is taught how to handle a gun and the responsibilities that come with it, you will immediately reap the benefits.  A cat packin' heat while you are away becomes a formidable adversary for any miscreant who wanders onto your property. Frankly, and probably to the ...

Kari Kampakis' Liked: Whose Approval are You Living For? is honest about what we all desire -- we want to be liked. God made us to live in community and to need friends. But what about when our desire to be liked takes our eyes off of God? Kampakis challenges us to consider if we care more about what our friends think about us than what God knows about us. She reminds us -- especially our teens -- that the only audience that really matters is God.  God loves us as we are.  Our deepest desire to be known and loved can only be met by God.  But in our culture of social networking, it's easy to develop negative media habits that interfere with our healthy devotion to God and to the fellowship with God that names the Christian spiritual life. She reminds us of the importance of developing a godly character and what it means to have positive social media habits. She distinguishes between social friends and real friends, the ones worth our time and effort. This is an imp...

Praise and honor to you, living God; you chose the Hebrew people and brought them step by step to look for a redeemer, and hope for the Christ. Give us grace to see our need and recognize salvation when it comes. God of Israel old and new, write in our hearts the lessons of your law; prepare our minds to receive the gospel made visible in your Son Jesus Christ. Living God, you called your people out of Egypt and gave them the covenant; prepare our hearts to hear your call, so that we may receive with joy the gospel of your Son and be your faithful people, now and for ever. Amen.