My Soliloquy

Marriage = The Ultimate Friendship and Life Together

steviegoddard — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 04:30:00 +0000

I’m not married, but coming from a broken home, and seeing mostly broken homes around me, I’ve made the study of marriage a hobby of mine. I make it a habit to watch the marriages around me, be they good or bad, and I take note of what I like and what I don’t. I’ve also read many books on the topic in order to discover other people’s opinions on the matter, in order to develop my own. Most recently I read Real Marriage by Mark and Grace Driscoll. About half the book addresses marriage directly and the other half talks more about sex. I’d say it was a good book, but not for those who squirm at the topic of sex. I actually found it slightly refreshing to find a Christian book that actually deals so openly about the topic. The world has the monopoly on sex, and sex issues, and I feel like this book kind of takes sex and puts it back in a godly light. The title of the book, Real Marriage, really explains the book as a whole though. I could have done with a little less sex talk, but seeing as there isn’t another Christian book out there that deals with sex as openly, I can understand why they discussed so much surrounding the topic. The Driscolls did a good job at using their story and other to show the struggles of marriage, and how they can be overcome. A lot of people enter into marriage with the wrong ideas of what is expected of them and what they expect, so I think this book is a helpful read to anyone who is, or wants to be married. Marriage is about the ultimate friendship, and life together. I wouldn’t say this book was my favorite as far as relationship books go, but I was able to get something out of it, even if I didn’t agree with every opinion of the authors.

The Grace Effect

steviegoddard — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 06:38:29 +0000

Grace is the greatest gift but so often we take it for granted. I grew up as a church brat and this made me very familiar with the story of God’s grace. I always just accepted it as fact but for a long time never really grasped the depth of what it means to be saved by grace. God’s grace is what makes Christianity different than any other religion. Without the grace of God we have no faith. Grace is the foundation we stand up. We are not just saved by grace, but literally receive everything good because of and through grace. I just finished reading The Grace Effect by Larry Taunton, and was really remind of just how amazing God’s grace really is. For many the term ‘amazing grace’ is just a cliché, but it truly is amazing. In His book Taunton shares the story of his families experience of adopting their daughter from Ukraine, and how God’s grace was better understood through the experience. It’s a heart wrenching story at times, where the lack of grace in a culture is seen in the corruption of the orphanages and adoption process, but also shares how God’s grace comes and has such a great effect on the life of a little Ukrainian girl and her adoptive family. I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it, especially if anyone is in need of a reminder of just how grace the effect of God’s grace is in the lives of the individual and whole cultures.

Fyodor Dostoevsky – a Lame Biography

steviegoddard — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 21:33:05 +0000

I’m a big fan of biographies, and especially those of writer’s whose work I’ve enjoyed. I chose to read Peter Leithart’s Fyodor Dostoevsky for this very reason, but when I got the book I was a little disappointed. Instead of being written like a normal biography it’s written in story form, so the events of his life are written out as if they are happening in the story. I’m assuming that Leithart did a good deal of research in order to able to write the story with such detail, but it also has to be assumed that he took artistic license in order to create dialogue, and I’ve never been a fan of writers doing that. For people who aren’t a big fan of the normal form of a biography though, this style of telling an individual’s story might be enjoyed. It was a decently written book, though to me it did seem to jump around quite a bit, but at least change in scenes were clearly marked. I probably wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone who already enjoys a good biography, but perhaps to someone prefers to only read in story form, this would be a good way to learn about the life of an interesting man.

God’s Love

steviegoddard — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:39:00 +0000

It’s the desire of everyone’s heart to know true intimacy. We’re wired to know intimacy and be known in the same way. If we’re honest with ourselves there is a deep down void where this desire hasn’t been fully met. Maybe you’ve known what it’s like to have a deep love with your spouse. Maybe you’ve never experienced true love at all. No matter how much human intimacy you’ve known, there will always be a void because we’ve been created to ultimately desire intimacy with our Creator and Father. Love is a complicated thing is our world of pain and broken relationships. No one makes it through this life with an unscathed heart. Everyone will fall short in love. There is only One that can bring us true, fulfilling intimacy and that is God Himself. The great news is that it is His greatest desire to do so. He loves us more that we can ever comprehend, and He wants us to come to Him and know that love; share that love. In the book Close Enough to Hear God Breathe, Greg Paul talks about this deep intimacy, and the reality of God’s desire for us to know Him there. We experience so much pain in this world, and it leaves us with wounded hearts. We’re trained to listen to the lying voice of the enemy, and then fail to hear God speaking His love over us. We need to see once again the truth of God’s love and His desire for us. We need to draw close enough to God that we can hear Him breathe. So close that He is all we hear. I found that this book would make a good starting point for someone needing to know the truth of God’s love, and hear Him speaking it over us.

Grace

steviegoddard — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:10:30 +0000

Grace. We all need it. It is essential for our very lives. Grace is God pouring out on us was we don’t deserve. This is seen over and over again in the Bible and can be seen in every moment of our lives. When we sin we deserve nothing less that punishment from God, yet instead He came in the form of His Son to take the punishment for us. This was the ultimate show of God’s grace, and it is given to us freely. Grace is one of the greatest gifts in the world. It’s so multifaceted though that I think few really have a grasp on the depth of this gift. In Andy Stanley’s book The Grace of God, he goes into some of the pieces of grace that are often taken for granted or just flat out misunderstood. It seems that human nature cares about life being fair to us, but yet grace is the opposite of fair. Fair is us getting what we deserve and grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve. You’d think we’d quickly take God up on this deal, but too often we’re held back by something, keeping us from receiving all the depth of grace that God desires to give us. At other times we get annoyed when someone doesn’t the punishment they deserve. We want grace for ourselves, yet aren’t so quick to give it to others. Stanley addresses all this and more in his book on grace. If you’re at all interested in this topic I would recommend this book. Using many great grace-filled stories in the Bible, Stanley illustrates how God operated in grace in the Bible and how He’s pouring it out on us still.

Preposition of Choice: With

steviegoddard — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:33:36 +0000

There are many different ways that people choose to relate to God. Even in Christianity the way a person carries out their relationship with God will vary from person to person. I don’t think this is the way that God intended for His relationship with us to work. He made a garden so that He could walk with us, and we went and screwed that one up. Then He gave His life for us on the cross so that our sins wouldn’t keep us from being able to walk with Him. All throughout the Bible we see a theme of God wanting to be amongst His chosen people. God wants to do life WITH us. This idea of doing life WITH God is the whole premise of Skye Jethani’s book WITH. Jethani’s discusses that five main ways that Christians choose to approach how they relate to God. We align ourselves to God choosing these various prepositions and that becomes our philosophy. Sadly, it would seem that the majority choose to do life For God, Under God, Over God, and From God, rather than with Him, as He truly intended and desires. There is so much pain and turmoil in the world today, and the lives of Christians are no exception, but in most cases this is because we have a wrong perception of who God really is, and how we are to relate with Him. In relationship WITH Him is the only place that we will find unwavering faith, unrelenting hope, and unconditional love. Every Christian is meant to live life with this three things overflowing within them, yet how many actual do? I know that I don’t. While reading Jethani’s book I decided that I want to truly live my life with God. In no other way will I find any sense of meaning, purpose, or fulfillment. Only in being with God can I be who He created me to be because I was created to be with Him.

Rumors of God

steviegoddard — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 03:14:37 +0000

It’s all too common, whether we admit it or not, that in our present state of Christianity there is a dissatisfaction nesting right below the surface of our happy Christian lives. Many of us know Bibles, and have been taught how to behave as good Christians. We go about our church lives, boldly declaring the promises of God, yet something is unsettled within us because of the lack of evidence for these promises coming to fruition in the reality of our lives. We’ve heard the stories; rumors of God’s promises actually happening, and of communities that actually practice being the Church to those around them. We hear such things, but we look around us and question the validity of our faith. We long for more. We hope and declare; wait and question the rumors. In there book, Rumors of God, authors Darren Whitehead & Jon Tyson gather together the major “rumors” of the Church and unveil the truth and reality of these things we’ve only heard about. In my own walk, I’ve become very cynical. I’ve been raised going to church and even have a Bachelor’s in Theology, but I wonder where the reality of the Christian faith lies. The authors of this book have done a very good job at addressing some of the issues that too many Christians find themselves questioning. If you’ve found yourself ever questioning different aspects of faith, i.e. love, hope, grace, community, justice etc., then I would encourage you to get your hands on a copy of this book. In reading it, I was definitely given a lot to think about, and after putting the book down, felt refreshed and ready to better face the “rumors” of faith with an expectant attitude, believing that we can all “experience the kind of faith you’ve only heard about.”

New Atheism: A Losing Propaganda

steviegoddard — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:11:56 +0000

Most antagonists like to make an outcry against what they stand opposed to, in an effort to strengthen their cause. Sometimes though, if the cause that is hoping to be strengthened, has a faulty foundation, there is no amount of noise making that can fortify its mission. Rather, in some cases the opposite occurs, in that there is so much noise making, an idealistic earthquake can take place, and the outcome is a shaken, unstable and ultimately questionable cause or belief. Such a set of circumstances would seem to be laid out for our observation in the new by Why God Won’t Go Away by Alister McGrath. This book talks of the worldview of New Atheism, what it stands for, how it operates and why it has lost momentum to its rival ‘Religion.’ McGrath goes into detail about what this system is all about, the stances of its main leaders, and discusses reason why this system is losing ground. New Atheism is more than just not believing in a God, it’s is a propaganda against faith as a whole, with the desire to eradicate the religious systems from society. Atheism vs. Religion is a complicated topic, but one that all people of faith should be equip to discuss. This book by McGrath is a good read for anyone who would like to obtain information on the current situations with New Atheism, as well as some good apologetics or defenses for the stance of a person of faith.

The Waiting Game

steviegoddard — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 04:20:17 +0000

Waiting. It’s one of the few things that every person’s life has in common. I think that everyone at every moment is waiting on something or someone. It seems like when we finish waiting on one thing, another thing of equal importance takes it’s place and we continue to wait. The “waiting game” is a fact of life, sometimes unpleasant, restless, and down-right painful, but nonetheless, it is reality for everyone. Eileen Button, takes this reality and faces it head on in her book, The Waiting Place. In this compilation of essays, Button takes us through different times in her life that stand out to her as memorable waiting places, and shares the lessons that she learned during these times. In the midst of our waiting places, we often get impatient and feel stuck, but in this book, Button describes the significance of our waiting places, and how we can appreciate them. Life is full of delays, but sometimes what seems like an excruciating delay to us, is actually a time in life that we should examine, and perhaps even cherish. Sometimes we want to rush through a season of life or a reoccurring experience, but there is something to be learned from every moment of life. If we will only take opportunity of the waiting places to peer into life’s little truths and hidden treasures, we will handle the times of waiting with much more grace. Rather than feeling like life is one waiting game after another, and having the desire to rush through each hand that is dealt us, we should approach our times of waiting with a little more thought and understanding; looking to see what gems of wisdom and memories we might take away from our waiting places. I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone who has found themselves to be in a trying waiting place, and needs some encouragement.

Coffee Table History

steviegoddard — Tue, 17 May 2011 03:46:33 +0000

Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan, would only make a good coffee table book. In this book the writer takes 150 hymns and tells the stories behind them. The book is set up that on one page is the short story of the hymn and the on the opposite page is the sheet music for the hymn itself. Reading through this book I got the feeling that the buyer would only be purchasing half a book because the other half is just the hymn. In this way though it does make a very nice coffee take piece, whish is probably what I’ll be using my copy for. I found that some of the stories behind the hymns to be very powerful though, and because of that I’d say that this book is worth taking a look at even if it’s just to glance though it and read the stories behind your particular favorite hymns. We don’t see a whole of attention given to hymns in today’s church service and such, and that’s because hymns typically only speak to the older generation. I’ve found this to really be the case in my own circle. There are some hymns that I find to be powerful but the majority I don’t care for. In this book though, Morgan shines a little bit of light on the power behind each of these hymns. Many of them have a real history to the penning of their words, and this brought a lot more meaning to some of them. Over all though I only really cared about the history of the hymns that I actually find powerful. For someone who is an avid hymn lover though this book would probably be a lot more interesting.