What's DMCD Reading At The Moment?

I don’t usually blog on the Sabbath unless it’s on the topic of the Sabbath. I usually keep this time for family. Here I am though with my family enjoying life and embracing the rest as well as hopefully getting something good to eat eventually when Authrine has completed the sorting of Abigail’s hair. It is taking a while. I am hungry, but the Lord is feeding by the word.

This is not a long blog entry, just to update you on what I’m reading presently. Over 2009 there have been outstanding books in each quarter. In the first quarter saw the dominance of the brilliant The Call by Os Guinness. Not sure if I did a proper book review, but whatever you do, wherever you go – get this book. Brilliant I tell you. Then in the second quarter of the year I read Gordon MacDonald’s Ordering Your Private World which greatly assisted in the … errr … ordering … of my … ahhh … private … ermm … world. Truly though, this book really highlighted some issues that were so long neglected that it was the much needed wake up call and supportive tome to the Call.

So as you can imagine I was looking forward to the third quarter of the year to see which book would be the spiritual breakthrough. Funnily enough I had got the book towards the end of the second quarter in the year from the Beacon House of Prayer based in the northern part of the city. BHOP is a tremendous resource for the work I do at the YMCA and they have a fairly decent resource library. I’ve been meaning to give Richard Foster a chance ever since I started his book on the Freedom of Simplicity. I’ve wanted to read his book on Celebration of Discipline for years now, but never got round to it. So it was quite the surprise to get his book Streams of Living Water.

At first I didn’t pay it too much attention as I was completing the reading of some other books. Eventually I picked it up and gave it a bash and found it to be gripping reading. It is not one of those books that you cannot put down. It is one of those books that you cannot finish reading a section of because a thought will arrest you and leave you contemplating it for quite some time.

It really is quite something to be reading about such a generous approach to the different traditions that has influenced Christianity in its 2000 plus year history. I recognise just how much I’ve had a narrow opinion on faith and never really embraced the deeper historical aspects of what makes it such a rich and vibrant faith. It’s not about ecumenicalism as far as I’m concerned, but it is about appreciating yet again that when Jesus returns He will rightly ask if we were prayerful, holy, evangelistic, peace-makers through social justice, Spirit-filled and incarnational. Our tendency to be selective amongst these has meant we’ve missed out on so much faith in Christ has to offer. I hope to give a more detailed book review on completion on the book.

Other books on the go include the Kenny Dalglish autobiography of over 10 years ago. I’m still reading a number of football biographies (Paul McGrath, Sir Alf Ramsey and a Brian Clough tribute to name but three) as well as one on Eric Bristow who played darts don’t you know. There are a number of recommended books that I have yet to tackle and as I do so, I endeavour to keep you posted.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd