Book Review - Dug Down Deep

Tonight I am reviewing the book "Dug Down Deep" by Joshua Harris. First a little information about the book and then my thoughts follow.

Publisher's Info
What will you build your life on?

With startling transparency, Joshua Harris shares how we can rediscover the relevance and power of Christian truth. This is book shows a young man who rose quickly to success in the Christian evangelical world before he realized his spirituality lacked a foundation—it rested more on tradition and morality than on an informed knowledge of God.

For the indifferent or spiritually numb, Harris's humorous and engaging reflections on Christian beliefs show that orthodoxy isn't just for scholars—it is for anyone who longs to know the living Jesus Christ. As Harris writes, "I've come to learn that theology matters. It matters not because we want to impress people, but because what we know about God shapes the way we think and live. Theology matters because if we get it wrong then our whole life will be wrong."

Whether you are just exploring Christianity or you are a veteran believer finding yourself overly familiar and cold-hearted, Dug Down Deep will help you rediscover the timeless truths of Scripture. As Harris challenges you to root your faith and feelings about God in the person, work, and words of Jesus, he answers questions such as:

What is God like and how does he speak to me?What difference does it make that Jesus was both human and divine?How does Jesus's death on the cross pay for my sins?Who is the Holy Spirit and how does he work in my life?

With grace and wisdom, Harris will inspire you to revel in the truth that has captured his own mind and heart. He will ask you to dig deep into a faith so solid you can build your life on it. He will point you to something to believe in again.

Author Bio
Joshua Harris is senior pastor of Covenant Life in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which belongs to the Sovereign Grace network of local churches. A passionate speaker with a gift for making theological truth easy to understand, Joshua is perhaps best known for his runaway bestseller, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, which he wrote at the age of twenty-one. His later books include Boy Meets Girl, Sex Is Not the Problem (Lust Is), and Stop Dating the Church. The founder of the NEXT conferences for young adults, Joshua is committed to seeing the gospel transferred to a new generation of Christians. He and his wife, Shannon, have three children.

My Thoughts
I've read some of Joshua Harris' books in the past and have enjoyed them. When I had the opportunity to read this book, I jumped at the offer. I did this because the book was promoted as digging down to orthodoxy. I phrase it as theology for the rest of us. I remember being in college and working through a heavy volume of systematic theology. It wasn't something I enjoyed. So I was curious to see how the author would approach it. My opinion is that he does a good job. The book isn't written to be an exhaustive scholarly work, but the thoughts of of a regular person wanting to ground their faith. He works to make some of the foundational truths of the Christian faith more accessible. Having come across a lot of Christians that only scratch the surface of what it means to follow Christ, I feel it is very timely to encourage others to go a little deeper. Especially in the hour that we're living.

The book is easy to read, but as you do you find yourself having gut checks every so often. It comes down to confronting what you believe and asking yourself if it is Biblical. I walk away from the book tempted to pull out my Systematic Theology text that sits abandoned on a shelf and starting to dig into it with my Bible right beside it. I'd encourage you to pick up a copy and read it.

My favorite place to buy books is Amazon and you can find the book there. Or of you are inclined, you can find out more about it from the Waterbrook Multnomah web site.

This was book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah.

Welcome to Reality

Last night my wife and I had the pleasure of spending all night with our youth. It was our youth ministry's annual all nighter. We've been doing them for several years now and believe we know what to expect. This year we experienced something different. All the teens that were there seemed more subdued than most years. We still had a lot of fun, but overall there wasn't as much hyperactive craziness. As we discussed this, my wife made an interesting observation. Normally we have the all nighter right near New Years Eve. This year we had to wait later into January. This means that our students came after having woke up early in the morning and having spent an entire day at school. This is in stark contrast to them normally having been on Christmas vacation for a week and itching just to get out and do something. A day of school completely affected how they acted during the night. Perhaps they got a little taste of what the leaders go through to be there. From a leader standpoint, I think we should do it this way every year.

An Ounce of Prevention

Perhaps a better title for this post would be "$200 of Prevention." I'm not a big fan of buying extended warranties. They are for the most part worthless. However, there is one extended warranty that I'm a big believer in, namely, Apple Care. New Macs come with a year of warranty coverage, but you can extend it to three years by purchasing Apple Care. For my laptop, the price was somewhere over $200. It's expensive and if you never use it you feel stupid for buying it, but when you need it it's priceless.

After youth service this past Tuesday, my laptop was shut. A few minutes later I tried to open it up. Nothing. I figured it was incorrectly thinking that it was still attached to the projector that we had used. I forced it to power down and tried restarting it. It tried to start, and then nothing. Over the next few hours I restarted it multiple times, took the battery out and then restarted it, and even zapped the pram. Nothing worked. It wasn't a good feeling. Thankfully, there's an Apple store in Cleveland and after calling and talking with Apple Care, I made an appointment.

I drove there this morning as the snows approached. They took my computer, examined it, and declared it to be a bad logic board. Logic boards are expensive. I priced a repair online and it came in at $800. For that amount you might as well buy a new computer. I would have been in dire straights, but Apple Care jumped in to my rescue. I was informed that it would take about a week for them to get a logic board in and installed. The cost to me? Absolutely zero. That zero is a really beautiful word. Thanks to Apple Care, an expensive repair that I wouldn't have been able to cover is going to be taken care of.

So, my advice to anyone that is considering buying an Apple computer is simple. Buy Apple Care. It may seem pointless at the time, but amazingly wonderful if you need it.

And yes, I've drank the Kool-Aid and it was delicious.

The Bible in 2010

It's hard to believe that 2010 is already here.  One of my goals, as it is every year, is to be in the Word of God.  For the last several years I have been using the 5 lane reading plan.  I like it, but I think it's time to try a different one.  Even good things can hinder us when they become simple pattern.  I'm hoping a different reading plan will refresh my time in the Word.  I'm using a plan from Youversion.com.  Not only can I view it online but it also syncs with my phone.  Youversion is a great site and if it's not already in my links it will be soon.

It's almost two in the morning and I need some sleep.  Here's to a great new year serving the Lord.