Like most people in the late twenties I carry with me a few extra pounds. In high school I could eat whatever I wanted because I played sports year around. Now the most activity I get is chasing my kids around the room when they don’t want to get in bed! With 3 kids it is just hard to find the time (notice I didn’t say too hard).
For a long time I have known that I needed to lose weght, but it wasn’t until I discovered my BMI (Body Mass Index) that I knew I need to get things under control. Your BMI is a measurement of your body fat based on your weight nad your height. A normal range is 18.5-24.9. Needless to say, my currently does not fall in that range (If you are curious about your BMI go here).
So when I had the chance to review Never Say Diet by Chantel Hobbs I was quite excited. I was getting a diet book without the embrassment of going to the store and buying it! The heart of the book is the very personal story of how Chantel manage her own weight loss program-losing over 200 pounds! I believe that her appraoch is quite balanced, making recommendations regarding exerciese and eating habits, but also realizing that there are issues at the core of why you became overweight in the first place that must be addressed.
Chantel is very open about the steps she took, including plastic surgery to remove excess skin, but recognizes that this step may not be an option for everyone. There were many parts of the book that more focused to a female audience that I simply skipped over. Overall the results don’t lie, so far this year I have lost 6 pounds (which includes a couple of weeks when I didn’t stick to my workout routine).
As Americans, most of us could do a better job of regulating the food we put into our bodies and maintaining a better activity level (besides the activities of TV, video games, and blogging). As a Christian one must also remember that the only way for me to continue to carry out God’s mission on this earth is for Him to have a body to use.
The Greatest Words Ever Spoken may be one the greatest resources a Christian ever owns. Author Steven Scott has taken all of the words from Jesus and organized them into approximately 200 categories. These categories are organized into 9 major headings:
- What Jesus says about Himself
- What He Says about the Father
- What He Says about the Holy Spirit
- Words about Eternity
- Words about His Followers
- Words about Humanity
- Words about God Reaching Out to Us
- Words about How to Know God
- Words about Personal Relationships
While there certainly is some overlap with the categories, the breakdown makes it quite easy to find what you are looking for in the index. I say that this is a great resource because it is certainly not the type the book that one reads from cover to cover. The introduction to the book provides some suggestions about how to make the best use of this resource: a quick reference guide or for topical Bible studies.
Personally, I have been using it during my morning Bible to simply take a quick look at the words of Jesus on the topics of Spiritual Maturity and Spiritual Priorities. Particularly on the topic of Spiritual Maturity I have wondered why certain passages were selected, however the questioning, I believe has led to the desired result. I also appreciated the fact that in the section on the promises of Jesus that Scott includes any necessary condition to be met in order for the promise to be fulfilled.
This is certainly a valuable resource that I will be keeping in my library, and I would encourage you to add it to yours as well!
I have spent my whole life as a part of the Church of Christ. For those unfamiliar with this group, our core belief is that we are trying to follow the example of the church as displayed in the New Testament. An emphasis is putting on calling Bible things by Bible names and trying to match the pattern that we find in the New Testament.
In recent years there has been much debate over how effective we have been at achieving this goal and even if this a goal that should even be attempted. So, to some extent I have I stopped reading CoC members books as they wrangle with one another over the ins and outs and have tried to focus on other things.
But last year a book caught my attention: Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices
by George Barna and Frank Viola. The book examples some of the practices of Christianity that have been “borrowed” from pagan cultures during the early development of the church. Quickly after this book was released a companion to it, Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity
by Frank Viola was released. While I haven’t read it yet, I am certainly looking forward to it. And then today at the Goodwill I found this book: Rethinking the Wineskin: The Practice of the New Testament Church
- The Purpose of the Church Meeting
- The Focus of the Church Meeting
- The Location of the Church
- The Nature of the Local Church
- The Leadership of the Local Church: Who Were They?
- The Leadership of the Local Church: How Did They Lead?
- The Content of the Local Church
- The Boundary of the Local Church
- The Function of the Local Church
- The Pattern of the Local Church
- What Shall We Do?
I really can’t wait to see the conclusions that Viola reaches. If I were reading just these titles from a CoC author I would already know many of the outcomes, so it will interesting to see if someone else comes to the same/similar conclusions.
