The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The holocaust told from the strange perspective of a ten-year old boy who is the son of the German Commandant at Auschwitz. Very moving. Thanks to Donna for letting us know about this one.

The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

What a great read! Thanks to Connie for loaning me this book. I had always been interested in him, trusting that there must be more to this man than all the jokes. I was fascinated by his life in rural Vermont, his education at Amherst College, and the pathway of providence that led him to the presidency. Also struck by his account that after the shocking death of his son from blood poisoning, the presidency lost all of its attraction to him.

Anna Karenina

I found the account of the conversion of Levin very uplifting (See Part 8 - Chapters 10-14). There is something here of a faith that recognizes that a life dedicated to God is to be lived out in real living, if that makes any sense.

What is the What?

I highly recommend this book, which is the story of one of the so-called "lost boys of Sudan." It shows us that there is no escaping brutality and misery in this current age. You cannot simply leave it behind in one country or another. This book provides an excellent illustration of the challenges that millions face in this world of depravity and sin. Here we also see the glimpses of grace and opportunities that point us toward God's plan for something beyond this world of sin and misery.

We need to pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who face troubles that are far beyond anything than we can imagine. I have come to the conclusion that there is no point in comparing trials. There is a sense in which I can never really understand the trial of another person. In fact, I can never really understand my own trials. Each significant loss is a horrible grief, but each loss can be embraced, and is part of the way that we are made to be people who are still standing, though we have faced trouble. That is something for which we can be thankful...

The Pontiff in Winter

Interesting take on John Paul II from the perspective of a "progressive" Roman Catholic journalist. The book was written prior to the death of JP II, but very much anticipating the coming transition to a new pope. JP II was an amazing figure of the 20th century. He tried to combine the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas with phenomenology. The pope was a follower of the paranormal, and came to believe that he was the fulfillment of prophecy, particularly the secret third prophecy of Fatima.

A Distant Grief

A Distant Grief

By F. Kefa Sempangi

(His dates: ?- , Copyright 1979, Publisher: G/L Publications; Regal Books Division)

(No notation) = Direct Quote, [P] = Paraphrase/Summary, and [Magee] = Magee Observations

[Magee] Introduction

Visited Uganda in 2007 – African Bible College – Spiritual Emphasis Week

Contents

Forward

Preface

1. The Fugitive Woman

2. Stitching: Save a Child

3. Are You Being Broken?

4. Take Us Too!

5. Jolly Joe is Here!

6. Thunder in the Fire

7. You Are Burning Us

8. I Need a Vono Bed

9. Give Us the Gun!

10. Human Sorrow, a Distant Grief?

11. We Are Going to Kill You

12. I Hear Their Screams

13. Return to Amsterdam

14. We No Longer Follow Kefa

15. Standing in the Holy of Holies

16. Only Four Days Ago

17. Our First Tomorrow

Editor’s Postscript

Teaching Notes

Forward

Richard Halverson

Preface

Author

1. The Fugitive Woman

1962 – Independence

1962-1971 President Milton Obote

Amin “the champion of liberty”

“Welcome home to the freedom country!”

[P] The author began teaching art history at Makerere and met an impoverished woman with three children he had seen in fund-raising posters. People had given, but she received nothing. At first he was angry, but later convicted.

2. Stitching: Save a Child

[P] Dutch foundation provided help for the foundation of a children’s home in Kampala

For every child we were able to accept, twenty were turned away.

Penina (author’s wife): “The humble poor know a deep secret. They give from themselves, not from their surplus. They give from the abundance of their hearts.”

There is a giving to serve others and there is a giving to serve oneself. There is a giving to promote and a giving to dominate. But without love there is only paternalism and self-importance. There is only the giving of surplus, not the giving of special treasures.

3. Are You Being Broken?

1877 – Alexander Mackay – Scottish Presbyterian missionary and trained engineer

October 9, 1885, the first blood of Christian martyrs was shed in Uganda. In less than a year King Mwanga, the Moslem king of Baganda, had killed more than 40 Ugandan believers. Many of those victims were Christian page boys of the Baganda court who had refused to participate in the rites of sodomy.

Every time I met Mondo he would greet me with the threefold challenge:

“Are you repenting?

“Are you walking in the light?

“Are you being broken?”

Together we determined to make Christ the beginning and the end of all our expectations.

“Brothers and sisters, I fear there is too much brokenness here. We are walking too much in the light. We must remember that the devil will not stand for this.” He was silent for a moment. Then he trembled, and he spoke these words, “It is a frightening thing to be a child of God.”

4. Take Us Too!

Okelo was the first of many children to come to the Kijomanyi Home as a result of brutal killings by Amin’s soldiers.

I became convinced that the regime of Idi Amin was not merely tyrannical but demonic.

God taught me my own expendability.

5. Jolly Joe is Here!

[P] The story of Joe Kiwanuka’s conversion

6. Thunder in the Fire

[P] Battle with false gods

7. You Are Burning Us

[P] More battle with false gods

8. I Need a Vono Bed

A religion is true if it works, if it meets all the needs of the people.

9. Give Us the Gun!

[P] The story of a gentle elder who learned to trust God through the horror of an attack by some of Amin’s Nubian assasins

10. Human Sorrow, a Distant Grief?

There is a boundary beyond which human beings cannot comprehend evil in the world. There is a boundary beyond which everything is a senseless chasm. It is here in the nightmare of utter chaos that human feeling dies. It is here where death and terror seem to have full dominion, that even the deepest of human sorrows becomes a distant grief.

11. We Are Going to Kill You

We have not come for a church service. We have come to hear the Word of God! Go rest yourself and come back to preach again!

I do not need to plead my own cause. I am a dead man already. My life is dead and hidden in Christ. It is your lives which are in danger, you are dead in your sins. I will pray to God that after you have killed me, He will spare you from eternal destruction.

In that moment, with death so near, it was not my sermon that gave me courage, or an idea from Scripture. It was Jesus Christ, the living Lord.

12. I Hear Their Screams

Every night I go to bed and I see the faces of the people I have killed – (converted Nubian assassin)

13. Return to Amsterdam

[P] Studies in Amsterdam – urged by friends not to return to Uganda, but went ahead anyway.

14. We No Longer Follow Kefa

[P] In hiding in Uganda but in grave danger

15. Standing in the Holy of Holies

[P] Escape from Uganda after being betrayed to the authorities by one of the elders

16. Only Four Days Ago

[P] Back in Holland after only four days. They were not safe in Kenya because of the Nubian assassins in that country who would capture targeted Uganda refugees and return them to prison and death in Uganda. Example: Jolly Joe – He was not safe in Kenya. The account of His grace-filled but brutal death with Amin himself involved is a story of demonic brutality and Christ-like grace. This is the confrontation of the cross.

17. Our First Tomorrow

[P] Life at Westminster in Philadelphia… the simple idea that tomorrow I will go shopping brought tears to the eyes of a family that had lived only with fear. Yet there was a distance from God that had to be addressed. It was a movement away from the life of a dependant child of God into the posture of a more detached debater examining theological controversies…. So much suffering. Yet God is not detached. He is with us and is working out good purposes.

Editor’s Postscript

[P] At the writing of this book Amin was still in power, and the foundation started from their apartment in Philadelphia was helping Ugandan refugees in Kenya

[Magee] Closing Thoughts:

1. There is an ugly power to evil that is so very shocking and jarring. Why would human beings do the things that they did in Uganda under Amin?

2. It is within such a setting that the power of redemption is also seen.

3. The Lord is not far away from us in our suffering.

4. This world cannot be the end of our story.

5. Our life is not just a forum for Christian debate in a self-justifying insistence to be right. Our pursuit of doctrine needs to be about God and about others, and not about us. I am struck by something I thought about when I was in Uganda: The church in the west needs African ministers who care not only about Western immorality, but also Western heresy. They need to do this not to prove that they are right, but as an act of love toward God and toward the church in the West.

6. There is a detachment in the life of prayer in our world of comfort that is its own demonic problem.

7. The confrontation of the cross in the Christian life under oppression – Demonic brutality and Christ-like grace.

The Micah Mandate

The Micah Mandate

By George Grant

(His dates: 1954- , Copyright 1995, 1995, Publisher: Cumberland House)

(No notation) = Direct Quote, [P] = Paraphrase, and [Magee] = Magee Observations

[Magee] Introduction

I am not a Theonomist or a fan of the reconstruction of American government according to Old Testament Law

Contents

Introduction: A Fractured World

Part One – An Imbalancing Act

1. From Pillar to Post

2. In, Out, or Of

Part Two – Justice: To Do Right

3. Legal Entanglements

4. Good News vs. Nice News

Part Three – Mercy: To Do Good

5. Living as if People Mattered

6. Oddities and Rarities

Part Four – Humility: To Do Well

7. Our Codependent Love

8. Just Do It

Part Five – The Right Balance

9. Having It All

10. Where the Action Is

Teaching Notes

Introduction: A Fractured World

Divided

[P] We need to be heavenly minded so that we will do earthly good.

The best that I can offer you is the tried and true, the old and familiar, the well-trod sod.

Part One – An Imbalancing Act

1. From Pillar to Post

FINDING BALANCE

Biblical balance… entails far more than a happy medium between virtue and vice… A well-rounded, wholehearted fully integrated life… It is the singular fruit of incarnational faith.

A SHORTHAND STATEMENT

Micah 6:8 ⁸ He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

A snapshot of Biblical balance

A COVENANT LAWSUIT

[P] Context of verse

JUSTICE

Justice and righteousness

MERCY

Mercy and authority

HUMILITY

The proper attitude toward the person of God Himself

TIPPING THE BALANCE

Thomas Chatterton

WE LIKE HE

2. In, Out, or Of

A good theology will invariably produce a good garden

WORLDLINESS

A worldview is simply a way of viewing the world.

A vision of life and faith that integrates justice, mercy, and humility before God will cover the whole spectrum of heaven and earth

BACK TO THE GARDEN

The spiritual revealed and made manifest in the physical

THE GREAT COMMISSION

A full-scale assault on the evil and privation of the dominions of darkness

BOTH/AND – NOT EITHER/OR

A BALANCED WORLDVIEW

Patrick Henry

MICAH’S WORLDVIEW

Part Two – Justice: To Do Right

3. Legal Entanglements

FAITH, HOPE, AND POLITICS

Smothering influence of partisan ideology everywhere

LEGALISM

Legalism abolishes the significance of the cross.

LAWLESSNESS

Like legalism, lawless disobedience is heresy.

THE PURPOSE OF THE WORD

There must be a basis for truth and justice… The Bible is that standard.

1. Reveals the moral standards of God’s sovereign rule.

2. Convicts us of sin and leads us to Christ

3. Testimony to the nations

4. Blueprint for living

[Magee] This seems more to be a discussion of the purpose of the Law, rather than a purpose of the Word, which may be revealing.

MANIPULATING GOD

[P] The pagan way of viewing God

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians

BETWIXT AND BETWEEN

Whitefield

TAKING THE OFFENSIVE

4. Good News vs. Nice News

TAKING OFFENSE

People can’t be ambivalent about Biblical justice.

PLURALISM

Now the assumed basis of American culture and life.

HELL ON EARTH

Rampant immorality has begun to significantly erode the stability of our cultural foundations.

LEGISLATING MORALITY

That’s what legislation is.

Good and bad matter.

HELLFIRE AND BRIMSTONE

Edwards – Sinners in the hands…

TRUTH, JUSTICE, AND THE AMERICAN WAY

Provokes us to an unflinching demonstration of justice – in both word and deed

Part Three – Mercy: To Do Good

5. Living as if People Mattered

SERVICE

Biblical service is a priestly function of mercy

DOING UNTO OTHERS

God cares for the needy. And His people are to do likewise.

Mercy goes far beyond mere politeness.

The balanced Christian life necessarily includes merciful service.

GOOD DEEDS

Titus 2:11-14 ¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

TO THE UTTERMOST

Most of the church’s greatest heroes are those who willingly gave the best of their lives to the less fortunate. Service was their hallmark. Mercy was their emblem.

Acts 6:7 And the word of God continued to increase…

A LIFE OF SERVICE

Washington’s submission to authority and especially His orderly resignation of his commission

GOOD SERVICE

Where there is mercy there is hope.

Jonathon Edwards: “That religion which God requires, and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull, lifeless wishes, raising us but a little above a state of indifference. God in His Word, greatly insists upon it, that we be in good earnest, fervent in spirit, and our hearts vigorously engaged in mercies.”

6. Oddities and Rarities

WINNERS AND LOSERS

There was a time when martyrdom was among the church’s highest callings and greatest honors… But no longer.

E. M. Bounds

PEER PRESSURE

The worldliness of the modern church

COMPROMISE

Daniel was a man of principle…. Daniel understood the nature of his opposition. Compromise would have been fruitless.

Joseph

David

Early Christians

STEADFASTNESS

The enemies of the gospel often mistake this single-minded dedication to the work at hand as a kind of prideful know-it-all aloofness. That many Christians today make the same mistake is a telling commentary on the modern evangelical mindset.

WORK

1. All honorable work is holy.

2. God calls each person to his or her gifts.

3. Work is intended for the benefit of the community.

4. The high ideals of the work ethic can only be attained through Christ’s restoration.

BEYOND THE WICKET GATE

Bunyan

DONE WITH

In the center of Bedford England… statue…

The Lord Magistrate of Bedford at Bunyan’s sentencing (1673): “At last we are done with this tinker and his cause. Never more will he plague us: for his name, locked away as surely as he, shall be forgotten, as surely as he.”

A world and life view rooted in the grace of the sovereign God and the uncompromised maturity of diligence in daily work.

Part Four – Humility: To Do Well

7. Our Codependent Love

Cotton Mather

KNOWING GOD

If we fail to come to a full and accurate knowledge of God… then we are not only like to miss God’s purpose and will for our lives, we are likely to make a mess of the world around us as well.

THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S

Nebuchadnezzar

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

Nebuchadnezzar learned his lesson and changed his heart and his life. What about us?

FEAR OF GOD

Richard Baxter: “The proper knowledge and fear of God leads us but to two postures of the spiritual service of worship: corporately in yielding of our praise in the church, and individually in the yielding of our time in the world.”

The balanced Christian life always maintains this two-fold expression of holy knowledge and fear: putting a high priority on the centrality of the church and sanctifying whatever time God grants us.

THE CHURCH

1. The church renews the minds of fallen men through the teaching and preaching of the Bible.

2. The church readjusts men to genuine life through sacramental worship.

3. The church reforms the lifestyles of men through discipleship.

TIME

Our time is not our own.

[Magee] Important idea here of ordering our lives according to the patterns of the New Testament. This point is obscured by the author since He accepts the church seasons as normative without any persuasive biblical basis. I think that the answer from the Scriptures would be a full understanding of the week and the day that would form the appropriate rhythm for the Christian life.

Diligence

Patience

INFORMED BALANCE

C.S. Lewis: “It was through pride that the devil became the devil: pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”

While all the world runs from dependency and co-dependency, the knowledge of God beckons us to humbly welcome them both – the former as we fearfully acknowledge God’s sovereign rule and reign in the world and the latter as we yield to the gracious provisions of the church in space and time. Living the balanced Christian life demands both.

8. Just Do It

THE DISCIPLINE OF FASTING

[Magee] We used to fast until the dinner meal once per week in the years of the life of the church. I am not sure what happened to that practice. Perhaps next year as we start our walk through the Bible and our once a month gatherings we can resume the practice on a monthly basis.

THE DISCIPLINE OF PRAYER

Athanasius prayed five hours each day. Augustine once set aside eighteen months to do nothing but pray.

1. Not a means of self-promotion

2. Habitual

3. Hedged by God’s will

THE NEHEMIAH MODEL

HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE?

They fasted and prayed.

RIGHT WHERE HE WANTS US

Dependent

Part Five – The Right Balance

9. Having It All

The Micah Mandate is peculiarly the domain of the ordinary.

PRIESTLY SERVICE

Salt of the earth

PATRON SAINT

James Alexander Bryan (Brother Bryan) Birmingham, AL

10. Where the Action Is

The cure is simply the church adhering to its essential calling. It is found when the elect of God yield to their divine mandate in every aspect and in every detail of their lives.

A CULTURE WAR MAELSTROM

Augustine

TINY PUSHES

Titus 3:8-9 ⁸ The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.

[Magee] Closing Thoughts:

1. The premise of this book is excellent (a look at Micah 6:8 as a snapshot of a biblical way of life). I am very distracted by the exegetical leaps that the author takes to move us in the direction of reconstructionism. I do not believe that the Great Commission sends us off to remake the civil magistrate according to Christian principles.

2. I do think we should give some hard thought to how we are living out these three ideas together: justice, mercy, and humility.

3. The three are interesting… Why are they given together? Justice and mercy make sense. One without the other will be an excess for a creature. To do both is quite a trick. We could easily begin to think too highly of ourselves for achieving such a great goal. Humility is the constant reminder of who we are, and requires us to define justice and mercy from the Word of God, in the presence of God, and by the power of the Spirit of God.

4. Our best bet to live according to Micah 6:8 is to have communion with God in a life of word-sacrament-prayer by the power of the Holy Spirit. A life of that kind of humility before God will surely be expressed in righteousness and mercy.

5. Another way of looking at the life for us is 2 John – with truth, love, and obedience.

6. Stay in the Bible all the time, and you will address all issues that should be addressed.

7. We need to be zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14