The year of 2010 has been a year of change for me and one of the more pleasant changes has been the Wednesday book discussion that I’ve been co-facilitating with my sweet Okie-Laskan pastor-blogger-musician friend, Jason Stasyszen. In February, we started with Mad Church Disease by Anne Jackson and in May, we moved on to our second book, which we will wrap up today, The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel.
In case you haven’t made it by here every week since we started our discussion on The Christian Atheist, I’ll confess again that discussing this book was a challenge for me from the very beginning because I knew as soon as I read the Introduction that it was going to bruise my toes.
It did.
It was worth it.
For me, Craig Groeschel pulled away all of the excuses to make me face the ugly, disgusting truths about some of the weaknesses and flaws in my Christianity.
Hold that thought. I’ll come back to it…
In case you missed any (or all) of the discussion, let me share those links with you.
Chapter 1 – When You Believe in God but Don’t Really Know Him
Chapter 2 – When You Believe in God but Are Ashamed of Your Past
Chapter 3 – When You Believe in God but Aren’t Sure He Loves You
Chapter 4 – When You Believe in God but Not in Prayer
Chapter 5 – When You Believe in God but Don’t Think He’s Fair
Chapter 6 – When You Believe in God but Won’t Forgive
Chapter 7 – When You Believe in God but Don’t Think You Can Change
Chapter 8 – When You Believe in God but Still Worry All the Time
Chapter 9 – When You Believe in God but Pursue Happiness at Any Cost
Chapter 10 – When You Believe in God but Trust More in Money
Chapter 11 – When You Believe in God but Don’t Share Your Faith
Chapter 12 – When You Believe in God but Not in His Church
Now, back to the thought that you were holding for me… uncovering the hideous truths about the weaknesses and flaws in my Christianity…
I’ve got a lot of weaknesses and flaws. How about you? (That’s rhetorical. You don’t have to answer it.) And one of the things that I’m coming to understand more and more is that the weaknesses and flaws have to be addressed.
Why?
I’m so glad you asked!
Because even though God loves me just the way I am, He loves me too much to leave me that way. He wants me to become more and more like Jesus. The more I face and/or am faced by the truths about my ugliness, the more God is able to work in me to make me more like Jesus… To make me a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. He wants to work in me so that He can work through me.
Hold that thought for me, too. We’ll be revisiting it in coming weeks.
So, here’s the part where I make the big announcement about what’s next. After prayer and discussion, my co-facilitator and I have chosen The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns to be our next book for discussion. It comes highly recommended. And since I’ve cheated and started reading ahead, I can tell you that I am thoroughly enjoying it and can’t wait to discuss it with you! Next week, come on back here and I’ll give you more information and details on how you can win a copy. In the meantime, feel free to click the link and go buy copies for all of your family and friends.
Please take a few minutes and run by Jason’s place and our friend, Dusty’s place. I know they have some great thoughts on wrapping up our discussion of The Christian Atheist.
And I’ll see you back here, next Wednesday!
About Sarah Salter
I just read a real interesting book called “Messy Spirituality.” I don’t agree with all that the author is saying, but it goes right along with what you stated. We are messed up and we are not perfect, but God still uses us. I have enjoyed reading your thoughts on the book.
Okay, I love your thoughts 🙂
The book I read was excellent. And the stuff you wrote was more excellent. I guess I was suggesting the book I read, but with caution, because some of his theology is a little screwey. His heart is good.
Any rate, I know this makes less sense now 😉
“He wants to work in me so that He can work through me.”
Amen. Thank you Sarah for being willing to cosponsor this discussion. Your ensuing friendship and insight has richly affected my life.
Loving you and praying for you daily, keep your chin up and your eyes fixed on the Master.
Michael- Thanks for the cautious book suggestion and thanks for the encouragement! I’m so glad you’ve been blessed!
Dusty- That quote came from my notes from the sermon last night… The sermon that I’m going to send you & Jason a copy of. It was SO good! I’ll tell you, I was so hesitant to do this book discussion this time because I knew I was going to be in such a busy season. But I had a feeling that God wanted me to and I didn’t want to disappoint Jason. So, I put aside my hesitations and jumped in anyway. And I’m SO, SO glad I did! I can’t believe how much God showed me through the book, but even more than that, through you guys, your discussions, and your encouragement. WOW! Thank God for His work in us! And thank God for you both and for the others that have come along on this adventure!
It has been quite a process and I know it’s not over yet. We keep going, keep building, keep surrendering, keep standing (hile God keeps restoring, keeps redeeming, keeps freeing, and keeps delivering). I know the next book will be an amazing continuation of all this.
It’s been great to see things grow and expand with the book club (in every way). I just thank God for all of it! Blessings, Sarah…
Amen, Jason! 🙂
Sarah,
I’ve enjoyed your thoughts and your heart throughout the small journey of discussing this book. Many blessings to you!
The greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender.
William Booth
Thank you, Jay! And I really like that quote!
I enjoyed tagging along with you, and look forward to tagging along for the next one. it’s been the next-best-thing to actually reading the book. Thanks.
I’m so sorry I don’t always come here. But when I’m here it always challenges me and blesses me. And I like your list here too, like Dusty did. I got the book a few weeks ago thanks to Dusty. So I want to read all you have written about it every time I read another chapter. Thanks.
Ani, if you have any questions or anything you want to share about the book as you read it, come back ANY time! 🙂