I have to admit that curiosity was what brought me to read this book, Living the Quaker Way by Philip Gulley. I realized that I knew little about the Quakers (in my misinformed mind they were sort of like the Amish), but that the words on the back cover about the simplicity of the Quaker lifestyle resonated in me and I wanted to know more.
Gulley, a Quaker pastor, starts the book by handling some of the usual questions people have about the Quakers--questions similar to mine--about their beliefs and practices. The first chapter, "What is a Quaker?" is devoted to this. I learned that a Quaker congregation is called a meeting, and that a meeting may or may not have a pastor. However, at the end of the chapter I did not know much more than when I began it; essentially, it seems, a Quaker can be pretty much anyone who believes pretty much anything, There appears to be no doctrinal foundation that defines a Quaker. Rather, they seek to live by five principles: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, and equality (SPICE being the acronym). The rest of the book is spent expounding on these principles.
My evaluation of this book is divergent: on one hand, there is the issue of whether Gulley did what is promised in the title, which is to explain how Quakers live and to describe how their principles appeal to our electronically cluttered, money-grabbing, isolationist world. He did do this. I do believe that anyone who is seeking to embrace the Quaker way has a lot of information here. Gulley is engaging, gentle, and his stories are warmhearted. I am sure that Quakers live lives that are good, compassionate, and engaging in the needs of the world around them.
However, as an evangelical Christian I was disappointed to find little mention of Jesus in this book and very little Scripture. The very name for this people came from George Fox's admonition to a judge to "tremble before the word of the Lord"; the judge then ridiculed him, calling him a "quaker". I would have a hard time recommending a book to others that does not present the Bible as absolute truth. Quakers do not apparently believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation, and in fact it appears to me in the reading of this book that salvation is not even defined as important.
I know that because of Gulley's emphasis on integrity, he would give me the thumbs up for being honest about my feelings towards Quakerism, while being respectful of his right to practice it. I hope that comes across in this review.
Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers for review purposes.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Saturday, September 14, 2013
wretched below...blessed above
From the time the people of Israel leave Egypt, we see them at their wretched worst. They quarrel. They complain. They challenge authority. They rebel. God deals with their sin over and over in discipline--the ground opens up and swallows one group of rebels and fire devours another. Yet He keeps instructing them in how to worship Him. Sets up His sanctuary in the middle of the camp and hovers there as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The view from below is of a wretched people whom God is shaping, through discipline and instruction, to be His.
The view from above, however, is quite different. When the Israelites come to the border of Moab, the king of that country gets scared. He calls for a famous (or infamous, really) diviner to come and curse the Israelites for him. Balaam comes, but God tells him he can only speak what He tells him to say. He looks over the camp and sees the formation God told them to set up each time they reached a new destination: the shape of a cross with the tabernacle in the middle. Hmmmm. He is not allowed to curse them, in fact he says, at God's command:
“He has not observed iniquity in Jacob,
Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel.
The Lord his God is with him,
And the shout of a King is among them....
“For there is no sorcery against Jacob,
Nor any divination against Israel.
It now must be said of Jacob
And of Israel, ‘Oh, what God has done!’" Numbers 23:21, 23 NKJV
From above, God does not see sin in His people. He doesn't see wickedness. He sees Himself in the midst and He tells the enemy that there is nothing he can do to harm His people. They cannot be cursed, b/c God Himself has blessed them. Instead, all people must look at Israel and see miracles that He does for and through them. He is shaping them, through discipline and instruction, to be a holy people--but He doesn't discuss that with the enemy. That's between Him and His kids.
Are you a Christian? If so, despite the wretchedness of our flesh that we live in the midst of, despite the quarreling and complaining and rebellion we deal with in our flesh all the time (I don't know about you, but sometimes I am just miserable with myself, all by myself...no one else even knows!)---God looks down from above, through His Son Jesus, and sees us clean from sin. He sees Himself in the midst of us, in the tabernacle of our heart. He is shaping us, through discipline and instruction, to be holy; but that's between each of us and Him. He will not put us on blast to the enemy. There is nothing the enemy can do to change our standing. We cannot be cursed, b/c God has blessed us. Everyone around us must look at us and see miracles God has done for and through us.
Glory to God. Thank You Jesus.
The view from above, however, is quite different. When the Israelites come to the border of Moab, the king of that country gets scared. He calls for a famous (or infamous, really) diviner to come and curse the Israelites for him. Balaam comes, but God tells him he can only speak what He tells him to say. He looks over the camp and sees the formation God told them to set up each time they reached a new destination: the shape of a cross with the tabernacle in the middle. Hmmmm. He is not allowed to curse them, in fact he says, at God's command:
“He has not observed iniquity in Jacob,
Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel.
The Lord his God is with him,
And the shout of a King is among them....
“For there is no sorcery against Jacob,
Nor any divination against Israel.
It now must be said of Jacob
And of Israel, ‘Oh, what God has done!’" Numbers 23:21, 23 NKJV
From above, God does not see sin in His people. He doesn't see wickedness. He sees Himself in the midst and He tells the enemy that there is nothing he can do to harm His people. They cannot be cursed, b/c God Himself has blessed them. Instead, all people must look at Israel and see miracles that He does for and through them. He is shaping them, through discipline and instruction, to be a holy people--but He doesn't discuss that with the enemy. That's between Him and His kids.
Are you a Christian? If so, despite the wretchedness of our flesh that we live in the midst of, despite the quarreling and complaining and rebellion we deal with in our flesh all the time (I don't know about you, but sometimes I am just miserable with myself, all by myself...no one else even knows!)---God looks down from above, through His Son Jesus, and sees us clean from sin. He sees Himself in the midst of us, in the tabernacle of our heart. He is shaping us, through discipline and instruction, to be holy; but that's between each of us and Him. He will not put us on blast to the enemy. There is nothing the enemy can do to change our standing. We cannot be cursed, b/c God has blessed us. Everyone around us must look at us and see miracles God has done for and through us.
Glory to God. Thank You Jesus.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
BOOK REVIEW: Appointments with Heaven
Heaven is closer than we think.
The book Appointments with Heaven, by Dr. Reggie Anderson, is a beautiful, simple collection of stories about the life of the author and the people he has watched go to heaven as their attending doctor. Born and raised in the simple country of the south, Dr Anderson is honest with us about the struggles of faith he had in his late teens and early 20s after a trauma in the family. When he returned to his faith, it is clear that God gave him an unusual ability to experience the spiritual realm in a way few of us do.
Dr. Anderson, in conversational and easy language, tells us of his experience with Jesus that transformed his life. He shares the special knowledge God has given him to know when someone is about to go to heaven and what it is like to sit with someone as they go. Although many in the world are afraid of death, Dr. Anderson's stories make it clear that, for those who belong to Jesus, there is no fear but only peace and joy. He says over and over through the book that heaven is closer than we think, and he tells about person after person for whom he saw Jesus "part the veil" to come and receive unto Himself.
The other side must be told as well, and so we do hear about an unrepentant man who refused the gospel to the end--and how Dr. Anderson was there in the room for the experience of his death, one very different than those for whom Jesus came. It is a reminder that just as heaven is real, so is hell.
This book is gentle and sweet. It is quietly persuasive. It would be a wonderful book to share with someone who needs extra reassurance of what awaits him at the end of life--or with someone who does not believe anything awaits him. The close relationships between Dr. Anderson's family and that of well known Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman's family lend authenticity to his accounts, for those who may need that. The Chapman family has not been excluded from the grief of losing someone, and as their story is tenderly retold in this book it confirms all the rest of Dr. Anderson's experiences.
I was super blessed to receive a copy of this book for free from Tyndale House Publishers.
Here is a wonderful youtube video of Dr Anderson talking about the amazing opportunities God has given him to sense heaven close at hand.
The book Appointments with Heaven, by Dr. Reggie Anderson, is a beautiful, simple collection of stories about the life of the author and the people he has watched go to heaven as their attending doctor. Born and raised in the simple country of the south, Dr Anderson is honest with us about the struggles of faith he had in his late teens and early 20s after a trauma in the family. When he returned to his faith, it is clear that God gave him an unusual ability to experience the spiritual realm in a way few of us do.
Dr. Anderson, in conversational and easy language, tells us of his experience with Jesus that transformed his life. He shares the special knowledge God has given him to know when someone is about to go to heaven and what it is like to sit with someone as they go. Although many in the world are afraid of death, Dr. Anderson's stories make it clear that, for those who belong to Jesus, there is no fear but only peace and joy. He says over and over through the book that heaven is closer than we think, and he tells about person after person for whom he saw Jesus "part the veil" to come and receive unto Himself.
The other side must be told as well, and so we do hear about an unrepentant man who refused the gospel to the end--and how Dr. Anderson was there in the room for the experience of his death, one very different than those for whom Jesus came. It is a reminder that just as heaven is real, so is hell.
This book is gentle and sweet. It is quietly persuasive. It would be a wonderful book to share with someone who needs extra reassurance of what awaits him at the end of life--or with someone who does not believe anything awaits him. The close relationships between Dr. Anderson's family and that of well known Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman's family lend authenticity to his accounts, for those who may need that. The Chapman family has not been excluded from the grief of losing someone, and as their story is tenderly retold in this book it confirms all the rest of Dr. Anderson's experiences.
I was super blessed to receive a copy of this book for free from Tyndale House Publishers.
Here is a wonderful youtube video of Dr Anderson talking about the amazing opportunities God has given him to sense heaven close at hand.
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