I have a lot of books stacked on my desk in my home office waiting to be read. I recently received an advanced copy of Divine Intention: How God's Work in the Early Church Empowers Us Today. My cyberfriend, Larry Shallenberger, is the author of this new book published by Victor Books. I met Larry via the message boards at www.theooze.com a place that I frequent occassionally for entertainment and conversation among believers and seekers from all over the nation - even the world.
Larry's book has made it to the top of my stack so I'm looking forward to diving into it soon. Currently, I am reading another Larry's book. Larry Osborne's book titled A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God: Spirituality for the Rest of Us. I like how Osborne thinks. He asks legitimate questions about how "normal" people grow spiritually. For example, how do Christ-followers learn doctrine? Usually, we don't learn the doctrine of the Trinity, for example, in a classroom but in the laboratory of life. We learn on a need to know basis. When you discover that the guy in the cubicle next to you is a lifelong Latter Day Saint who does not embrace the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, that's when you begin to learn about it.
Osborne (Senior Pastor of North Coast Church in Vista, CA) questions the Church's linear approach to discipleship and spiritual growth. Spiritual growth doesn't always happen through a course of study at church on Sunday nights. Spiritual growth happens as we live life with our eyes wide open to what God wants to show us each day and with anticipation for the divine appointments that he brings to us.
I'll probably post some thoughts and quotes from these two when I complete them. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment