Recommended Children’s Book: Chronicles of Aedyn

By | September 18, 2010
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I was going to recommend a book here, possibly in a list of recommendations or possibly in a more extended comment.  I finished reading this story to the kids tonight and everyone enjoyed it.  Before writing, I thought I’d hop over to Amazon and see more details about the book (since we found it in our church library and had no prior knowledge of it).  The major details (cost, timing of the sequel) were no surprise.  But in the reviews I learned that the characters were one-dimensional, the plot was unoriginal, and the storyline was slow (in the first half).  I guess I can’t like the book after all.image

I am not a literature specialist, and I haven’t read widely in the genre of children’s Christian fantasy.  I have read the Chronicles of Narnia but I have a long way to go before I fully understand all that is going on.  I could see some similarities, but those were good things, in my opinion (since Narnia was good, who wouldn’t want another such series?).

The Chronicles of Aedyn is written by Alister McGrath, a well-known British theologian.  The first book came out this year and the second is due out in January.  Our family would recommend this as an interesting book which was well written and easy to follow.  The kids recognized many biblical allusions, and I recognized many more.  It was a pleasure reading a book written by someone who knows Scripture so well and incorporated it so beautifully.  I enjoyed not only the surface allusions, but the substructure built on biblical theology as well.  If you have kids 6-15, I think your family would like this book.

Hosea and Joel

By | September 17, 2010
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Hosea

I know you ‘re going to be flying through these small books now, so I ‘ll keep my comments briefer. The key to understanding Hosea is to recognize that the story of Hosea and his unfaithful wife Gomer is a picture of God and his unfaithful wife Israel. God always did good for his people, but again and again they turned away. If a lot of this book seems difficult and hard to understand, don’t be discouraged; it’s a tough one.

Joel

Joel describes a recent locust plague that devastated the land (ch. 1). This made the people sad. But Joel said: watch out, the “day of the Lord” is going to be like a locust plague, but worse. What happens on the “day of the Lord”? First, God defeats and judges all of his enemies. Since you don’t want to face God’s wrath, now is the time to repent. Second, God will deliver his people and establish his kingdom for them.

Yom Kippur

By | September 16, 2010
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The most holy day of the year in the Jewish calendar begins at sunset tomorrow.  Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement” and its strict observance is commanded in Leviticus 16.

Arutz-7 has a summary of the significance of the day.  It begins:

The highest of the High Holidays – Yom Kippur – is only about a day away, and Jews around the world are preparing by attempting to become better people.

Such a notion immediately distinguishes Judaism from Christianity.  The latter denies the value of the law in helping one to become a better person (e.g., Rom 7:7-12).  Instead, Jesus and his followers taught that one could become righteous only by trusting in one who was perfectly righteous.  Indeed, Abraham was considered righteous without ever celebrating Yom Kippur (Gen 15:6).

Arutz-7 continues:

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is a Divinely-designated day that the Torah explains “will atone for you [plural] to purify you from all your sins before G-d.” Such atonement, however, must generally be accompanied by teshuvah, a process that includes introspection, confession of sins, remorse, and a commitment not to repeat them. One must also appease and ask forgiveness from those he has harmed or insulted over the year.

There is great value in repentance, and Jews and Christians would probably agree that it should not be limited to one time per year.  But repentance is not sufficient for atonement.  For that one needs the shedding of blood.  As Leviticus 17:11 says,

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

The Arutz-7 article continues:

The prayers for Yom Kippur, which take up most of the day, are replete with the various concepts of teshuvah, as well as acknowledgement of G-d’s goodness in affording mortals this opportunity to exonerate and improve themselves.

Does this make God good?  Is he good to give them the opportunity to make themselves better?  God of course is always good.  But if everyone who ever tried to make himself better failed, then ultimately God’s goodness accomplishes nothing.  I can think of something better: how about if God atoned for my sin, removed my guilt, and declared me righteous?  That would be much better.

Isaiah agreed and he predicted that a person would come who would do just that:

Isaiah 53:5 (ESV) But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

If those who are without atonement have reason to observe this day, how much more do those whose sin has been fully and finally forgiven.

My $3,000 Book

By | September 14, 2010
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Perhaps you recall my post a few years back about a commentary on 1 Kings that I really wanted but that cost $2,736.18.  This is a good commentary, but it’s not old and it’s not made out of gold.  It was published by a major company (Anchor) in my sons ‘ lifetime (2001).  It has 556 pages, all made out of paper.  I was mystified why the book was so rare and so expensive.  I consulted major seminary librarians.  I scoured the net.  I could find no reason other than that the book was out of print and no one was selling it. 

Since that time I have maintained a constant search for this book.  I receive daily email alerts whenever any books I am searching for are found and several times in the past year one was located and I placed an order.  In each case, within a few hours or days, I received a message from the bookseller that the book was unavailable.  Apparently someone beat me to it, or they realized that the book was really worth about $2,706.18 more than I had paid for it.

My patience has, however, paid off.  It was not unusual last week when the book was located and I placed an immediate order.  I was, however, shocked to find the actual book in my mailbox a few days ago.  (Sidenote: the return address said “Bookmans” and I had a similarly named professor visit me that very same day.  True story.) 

Now I have that book.  Here’s proof.

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If you think this one is expensive, check out this one that may fetch up to $10 million in an upcoming auction.

UPDATE: The very first thing I looked up in this book was in error, unless Hiram reigned from 970-636.

UPDATE #2: Bonus points to any of my readers who can identify the shirt I’m wearing.  Double points if you designed it.

My Name in Ink

By | September 13, 2010
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I know that this is going to disappoint some of you, but I trust that you can look past the exterior and not allow it to change your feelings about who I am inside. 

Last year I got a tattoo. 

Bolen-tattooIf you ‘re apt to look down on me, I point out in my defense that it is in a location that is easy to conceal, so I’m not always flaunting it.  As you can see, I’m staying in good shape.

One Month

By | September 11, 2010
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Kelli’s C-section is scheduled exactly one month from today.  I’m hoping the baby will decide on his own to arrive one day sooner.  It seems to me that it would be hard to forget your birth date if it was 10-10-10.

Kelli is looking very good.  It’s not easy being pregnant in your final month, but she is very good about seeking strength in the Lord.  The kids are excited.  We ‘re all excited.  One month, God willing.

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Who Is This Guy?

By | September 10, 2010
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Read this slowly and determine who said these words.

I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He.

Clearly this could be no one but God.

This conclusion is obvious when you see what the Lord said in Isaiah.

Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it.
Let him declare and lay out before me…
yes, let him foretell what will come (Isa 44:7).

Only God knows the future and tells it to his people so that he demonstrates his utter incomparability.  Here he is again:

I am God, and there is none like me. 
I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come (Isa 46:9-10).

Truly amazing, this God is.  But the first quotation was from Jesus (in John 13:19).  Just who does he think he is?

Daniel

By | September 8, 2010
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A lot of Daniel will be familiar, and thus easy, for you [my son]. But parts of it are tough. Let me try to help you make sense of everything. Those stories that you already know in chapters 1-6 are more than just entertainment for kids. They make a very important point: God will protect his people even when they are in exile. This is even more important when you understand the rest of the book.

The rest of the book (chs. 2 and 7-12) says this: you (Israel) are going to be in exile for a long time. It doesn’t tell us exactly how long, but it says that there are going to be four kingdoms (four parts of the statue in ch. 2 and four beasts in ch. 7). Only when the fourth kingdom arrives does God’s kingdom come and smash the kingdoms of earth.

The most important chapter of the book is chapter 7, because this is the “big picture” that makes sense of the rest of the prophecies. The two animals in chapter 8 are kingdoms #2 and #3 from chapter 7. The war described in chapter 11 is during the time of kingdom #3 and then at the end (v. 36) it jumps to #4 (and the key for this is given in chapter 7). A lot of this is too much to take in when you ‘re reading quickly through the Bible, but one day you ‘ll want to come back and try to “crack the case.” It’s a lot of fun; perhaps you remember a few weeks ago when I seemed really happy. That was the week I was studying Daniel.

Four Weeks

By | September 7, 2010
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Three weeks ago I was studying Luke.

Two weeks ago I was studying Acts.

Last week I studied the Gospel of John.

This week I’m in Romans.

Good times.