Virtually Human

We live in an era when our information is increasingly provided by a search engine, and our interactions are via social media. Technological advance is hailed with optimism and increases in pace. But are we somehow being changed by the tools we develop? Are we becoming less human - more impersonal - in synch with a virtual world? But we hardly have time to frame these important questions, let alone find answers, before the next wave of technology hits us. This tends to provoke knee jerk reactions, either to look back to 'better days', or to embrace the change uncritically. But, as the authors put it in this book, 'the questions technology poses are not simply technological questions.' They are the old questions touching on the nature of human life. The big technology firms like Google and Facebook know this, and their advertising strategy is to provide consumers with a vision of human flourishing.

Here, immediately, a biblical perspective is required. What is the true vision for human life? Only in Jesus Christ are we set free and set right. All other stories are just that - stories. Fallen man seeks to set himself at the centre of the universe and put God out of the picture. The greater the power of the technology he develops, the more he magnifies evidence of his Fall in its employment. The internet and its related technologies provide unprecedented power, and these are now embedded in modern life.

Therefore in this book we are bidden to challenge attitudes and behaviour with scriptural truth. Personal ego, consumer culture, 'image', use of time and knowledge, empathy, community etc are all under the microscope. Parents may read this book with their children's online habits in mind, but will be reminded that their own interaction with the internet is to be examined first. We all want to be connected and in control, but unless we set some boundaries, we are in danger of being continually distracted, and failing to relate to real people in the here and now.

The authors are good at pointing out uncomfortable truths for us! But even if it is a rough ride at times, and I wouldn't go along with all the theology, be sure to engage with these issues, which a digital world thrusts upon us.

Virtually Human. Flourishing in a Digital World.
Ed Brooks and Pete Nicholas
IVP
p/b £8.99.

What a telling quote - 'When Facebook tells my friends that I am at home with my children, my children will tell you that I am actually on Facebook with my friends!'

The Life You Never Expected

Just received this thoughtful and valuable review from a couple who also parent special needs children:

The buckets of sound counsel in this book have been drawn from deep waters: ‘I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me’ (Psalm 69:2).  Perhaps it is only those floundering in the ‘deep waters that cross life’s pathway’ that will fully appreciate the spiritual and practical wisdom that saturates these pages.

In ‘The life you never expected’ Andrew and Rachel Wilson write candidly about the shock, disappointment and frustration of adapting to a life that not only wasn’t expected, but wasn’t wanted.  As the shock subsides and a ‘new ordinary’ replaces former dreams, so the authors explore the ‘Jobesque’ conundrum of faith in suffering.

The sub-title ‘Thriving while parenting special needs children’ is somewhat misleading and unfortunate.  At best it suggests that this is some kind of lifestyle manual with a spiritual twist; at worst some sort of prosperity gospel tackling life’s most complex questions in a flippant and superficial manner.  The introduction soon allayed these fears as the authors acknowledge that they are ‘feeling for God’s purposes in the dark’, ‘the need to find God and lean on him in the storm’, concluding that ‘for us, nothing short of a Saviour is enough’. Amen, to that!

The real value of this book is the way that the short, punchy chapters shift the focus away from the self-pity, self-indulgence and bitterness that are the natural domain of those feeling the isolation and pain of coping with life with disability. Our thoughts and coping strategies are recalibrated - lifted above the temporal drudgery to the uplifting, eternal realities revealed in God’s word. Perhaps, at times, the book is not telling us anything we don’t already know or have not already considered – but it does crystallise our disjointed musings with its clarity of style and biblical insight.

A few highlights:

• Thankfulness in a world of entitlement: ‘if what you have is greater than what you deserve, then that’s where thankfulness comes from. If what you think you deserve is greater than what you think you have, then that’s where bitterness comes from.’ And, of course, we deserve nothing – apart from death by sin. ‘Grace, by revealing both how much I have and how little I deserve, helps bring me to a place of humility and thankfulness’.
• Individualitis and the dung gate: this chapter demolishes the notion that ‘the world is mainly about me’. Malchijah is put forward as a role model – ‘he sits marooned in the midst of an incredibly long and dull list of names in Nehemiah 3....All we know is that he spent a short period of his life doing something very mundane, very smelly and very unnoticeable: he fixed a Dung Gate. Yet in his mediocre, ordinary way, Malchijah, along with all the others, helped establish the kingdom of God on earth....I was always inclined to think that God’s purposes came about through great leaders...travelling preachers, justice campaigners....Mostly, however, they don’t. They come about through millions of unnamed people doing unheard of things, in unnoticeable ways, to the glory of God. Repairing a wall. Teaching a classroom of seven-year olds. Sweeping a street. Running a business. Raising autistic children. Fixing a dung gate.’ 
• The true battle: ‘the fake battles are a whirlwind of phone calls, government services, websites, more phone calls, forms, applications, more phone calls. And each of these can distract me from the true battle, which more often than not, is not fought that way. Frequently , the weapons of the true battle include silence, prayer, thought, clinging onto a Scripture passage with my fingernails, singing through gritted teeth...reaching for Jesus through the mist of confusion or unanswered prayer....I love my kids most by not loving them the most, but by first loving Him’.

As might be expected from authors of a charismatic persuasion there is a chapter on healing, but, on the whole, this topic is handled in a fairly orthodox manner. Our bodies constantly heal themselves as part of what might be termed common grace; God can and occasionally does still heal miraculously if he chooses; the healing through means such as modern medicine is a gracious gift from a loving God; the healing in the last day when our bodies are raised incorruptible, spiritual, glorious – without affliction, pain or disability – ‘Autism and Down’s syndrome and schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s are swallowed up in victory’.  

We recommend this wise and thought-provoking book to all who ‘sink in deep mire, where there is no standing’ who are ‘come into deep waters where the floods overflow’ (Psalm 69 v 14). It may be part of God’s sovereign purpose that the deep waters last a lifetime – but, as this books underlines, full provision has been made in the gospel for the life we didn’t expect. 

#CrazyBusy

It's not wrong to be tired.  It's not wrong to feel overwhelmed.  It's not wrong to go through seasons of complete chaos.  What is wrong - and heartbreakingly foolish and wonderfully avoidable - is to live a life with more craziness than we want because we have less Jesus than we need.

What a fitting final paragraph to this excellent little book! Not only has it made me laugh, it has also made me stop & think - alot.  There are changes ahead...
Lorna
Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung, IVP, £8.99

Pierced

The 21st century evangelical world has been sent reeling by the emergence of a heresy hitherto perceived to be the province of liberal scholars.  It is no less than the denial of Christ’s real, personal suffering under the wrath of God for the sins of his people upon the cross.  At Easter time particularly the true meaning of the cross needs to be affirmed ie. Substitutionary Atonement.  In the first part of this book the three authors from an evangelical Anglican background set out to make plain how definite the teaching of the Bible is upon this subject.  To lay the foundation some Old and New Testament passages are closely examined.  Then the theological framework is put in place, and the views of some major figures in the history of the church consulted.  The second part consists of ‘Answering the Critics’, thus making the book very helpful, though unashamedly controversial in the best sense.  A must have for pastors, elders and the concerned person in the pew.

'Pierced For Our Transgressions' by Jeffrey, Ovey & Sach. Published by IVP.

RRP £17.99, but we have 2 on offer at £12.99.

Jeremy

Just the Two of Us?

There were groans around me as I unpacked this book from the publisher... 'oh no, it's another issues book' my colleagues were thinking!  But I felt able to fully justify my choice - we have only one other book directly on this subject in the shop, I often get them in but don't often feel they are good enough to take up shelf space.  This is one I will be putting on full view in the shop.  'Just the Two of Us?' is subtitled 'help and strength in the struggle to conceive' and is a really useful book for anyone to read, whether directly facing these issues or not.  Firstly, it is British - not only does this help when discussing the medical options available, but it also defines the style of writing (and I won't specify why for fear of causing offence to our friends across the water).  Secondly, it includes men, who let's face it are one half of every couple facing infertility issues.  Thirdly, it continually directs the reader to Scripture and reminds us of where our priorities lie in our Christian walk even when faced with such emotional and life changing (as planned by us) circumstances.  Written by two women who have walked this pathway with differing outcomes, it covers a wide range of issues including secondary infertility, miscarriage and stillbirth.  I found it sensitively written and usefully interspersed with a lot of anecdotal testimonies.  It is a good reminder to us all of how we can be sensitive and supportive to those suffering these particular trials in our Church families.
Lorna
'Just the Two of Us?' by Eleanor Margesson & Sue McGowan is published by IVP, £7.99.

John Piper on John Calvin

It doesn't read very clearly on the cover, but the full title of this slim paperback is 'John Calvin and his Passion for the Majesty of God'. It is an extract from an earlier book by the renowned pastor John Piper - 'The Legacy of Sovereign joy: God's Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther and Calvin'. Piper doesn't claim to be a historian, and leans heavily on others for this short biography issued by IVP in this 500th anniversary year since the great Reformer was born. But what Piper does is marshall the facts to show what Calvin's life's aim was. Contrary to much of today's 'self saturated evangelicalism' what Calvin discovered for himself was the importance and supremacy of the self authenticating word of God. Once found he laboured indefagitably to set the majesty of God set forth in it before others.

Calvin's conversion is dealt with instructively by Piper, and especially the solid conclusion that two things are needed for a saving knowledge of Christ - 'Scripture and "the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit." Neither alone suffices to save.' This instructive approach for today's Christians distinguishes the book from many others on Calvin. Piper's aim is a noble, and in this book, successful one. It is remarkably priced at just £4.99. I think IVP are on to a winner here. It will sell well, and deserves to.

Jeremy