The Top Shelf: 10 Books for the Road

Summer is upon us, and with it the season of vacations.  And if you're cheap like me, this means avoiding costly plane rides by driving to whatever semi-exotic destinations you've selected as the setting for your time of rest and relaxation.  But conversation, pop music, and games of 20 Questions only go so far, and it's just a matter of time before you're stuck in traffic somewhere, bored out of your gourd, ready to dismantle the stereo system with your bare hands if the blasted DJ plays freaking "We Are Young" one more time.

So without further ado (and in honor of my upcoming cross-country road trip with a dear friend whom I have not seen in years--here's lookin' at you, kid), I present...

10 Books for the Road

(Or the gym.)  By which I mean: audiobooks.  A disproportionate number of them are narrated by Brits (or other natives of the UK) because, well, I'm a sucker for accents. Plus they sound so much smarter and more sophisticated than us Americans. (Yes, I'm a bit of an Anglophile.  What of it?)  You may also notice that the sci-fi/fantasy genre is rather heavily represented here, but what can I say?  Nothing holds my attentions like dragons.  Battling vampires.  In space.

The Top Shelf: 20 Great Reads

I've been getting a lot of requests lately from friends looking for book recommendations.  Granted, there are a lot of good books out there.  But some of the 5-star material is meant to be studied or pored over meticulously, as opposed to just read and enjoyed.  And, of course, there are a ton of amazing books that everyone knows are amazing, and that everyone has read already (or decided not to read for whatever reason).  And there are those zeitgeisty books that everyone is talking about around the watercooler--the ones with a 100+ person waitlist at the local library.  But you already know about those.  That's not what this list is for.  I'm not going to include, like, Pride & Prejudice, or To Kill a Mockingbird, or The Help, or Hunger Games, or Harry Potter, even though I've read them and enjoyed them and I wholeheartedly suggest you read them if you haven't already.

Instead, I want to recommend some great books that don't get as much hype--books a lot of folks haven't ever heard of, at least in my (limited) experience.  If you have heard of them--or have even read them--well, then I guess you get to give yourself a big old pat on the back. (And if you've got recommendations of your own, feel free to sound off in the comments--I'm always looking for good books!)

To wit, I present, in no particular order, this list of 20 Great Books I Recommend to People Who Are Just Looking for a Good Read.

Hymns for Lent VII: Christ the Lord Is Risen Today

[NOTE: The seventh in a series of seven blog posts on Lent. The full series is available here. Enjoy!]

On this Easter Sunday, we turn our eyes from the tragedy of the cross to the glorious victory of the empty tomb by examining one of the best known Easter hymns--or one of the hymns most associated with the celebration of Easter Sunday:  Christ the Lord Is Risen Today.  The full version clocks in at ten stanzas, the first seven of which are attributed to Charles Wesley.  The last three were borrowed from a similar 14th century hymn called 'Jesus Christ Is Risen Today'.  These days, it's fairly common for churches to truncate the hymn down to about four or five verses

Hymns for Lent VI: Rock of Ages

[NOTE: The sixth in a series of seven blog posts on Lent. The full series is available here. Enjoy!]

Appropriately enough, this will be our final meditation on Good Friday before moving on to celebrate the resurrection.  Written by Anglican cleric Augustus Toplady, this well-known hymn was inspired by a fissure in a gorge where Toplady found shelter during a storm.  This fissure (or the one where folks believe Toplady hid, at any rate) is now marked as the 'Rock of Ages' and can be visited by tourists.

Hymns for Lent V: Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted

[NOTE: The fifth in a series of seven blog posts on Lent. The full series is available here. Enjoy!]

It's Maundy Thursday now, and Holy Week is well under way.  We continue our meditation on Good Friday with the rather directly titled 'Smitten, Stricken, and Afflicted,' by Thomas Kelly.

Hymns for Lent IV: Beneath the Cross of Jesus

[NOTE: The fourth in a series of seven blog posts on Lent. The full series is available here. Enjoy!]

Continuing the theme of meditating on the events of Good Friday, we turn to a well known and much-beloved hymn:  'Beneath the Cross of Jesus,' written by Elizabeth Clephane shortly before her death.  As noted by the editor of the magazine where the hymn was first printed (after Clephane's death), 'These lines ex­press the ex­per­i­enc­es, the hopes and the long­ings of a young Christ­ian late­ly re­leased. Writ­ten on the ve­ry edge of life, with the bet­ter land ful­ly in view of faith, they seem to us foot­steps print­ed on the sands of time, where these sands touch the ocean of Etern­i­ty. These foot­prints of one whom the Good Shep­herd led through the wild­er­ness in­to rest, may, with God’s blessing, con­trib­ute to com­fort and di­rect suc­ceed­ing pilgrims.'

Amen.

Hymns for Lent III: Ah, Holy Jesus

[NOTE: The third in a series of seven blog posts on Lent. The full series is available here. Enjoy!]

Having contemplated Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday, we now move on to Good Friday and the crucifixion itself with the hymn 'Ah, Holy Jesus', or as it is known in the original German, 'Herzliebster Jesu'.  What better way to start off Holy Week?

Hymns for Lent II: Go to Dark Gethsemane

[NOTE: The second in a series of seven blog posts on Lent. The full series is available here. Enjoy!]

Maundy Thursday is pretty much the only big Holy Week day, other than Holy Saturday, that doesn't get much in the way of an official observation.  We have church services on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, of course, and lots of churches have some sort of church service or gathering for Good Friday, but Maundy Thursday services are fairly rare in the Protestant denominations (though they're increasing in popularity for some reason).  But the events of Good Friday--Christ's sacrificial death on the cross--really start on Thursday night, in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Hymns for Lent I: Ride on, Ride on in Majesty

INTRODUCTORY NOTE:  In the weeks before Christmas, I blogged through several of my favorite (fairly) well known Christmas carols.  It was a very helpful, and a great reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.  I've decided to do something similar for Lent--just seven this time, not twelve.  It will be a bit tricky, since it's hard to find hymns that meditate on Christ's suffering without moving on to celebrate His resurrection.  But then, perhaps that is for the best, since He is risen.  Anyway, here goes.

Traditionally speaking, Lent is a time of somber meditation and self-denial. During this season we remember the temptation of Jesus Christ and his eventual death on the cross. The culmination of Lent is Holy Week--the week leading up to Easter. (An excellent timeline of the Holy Week is available here.)  It's easy to skip ahead to Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and we'll be talking a lot about the events of those days in this series. But Holy Week doesn't start in Gethsemane. It starts on the Sunday before, on the road into Jerusalem.  Which is where our first hymn starts off.

The case for Lent from a (sort of) Reformed perspective

[E]very year somehow it's so easy for Easter to slip up on us, and suddenly we're saying, 'Oh, my goodness, it's palm Sunday already!' Let's think of some ways to be prepared, to be waiting for Easter. [...] 

In some churches, fasting has been a traditional way of expressing dependence on God during Lent. Of course, like any other religious observance, fasting is only as significant as the intent of the heart. The practice may be nothing more than legalism, or on the other hand, it can be a way of saying, 'Oh, God, I want you more than I want any of the good things in my life--food, videos, crossword puzzles, shopping, etc. You are the one who fulfills my desires.' 

We may find that a fast of some sort helps us recognize our reliance on God.  Whether it's a fast from some particular food or meal or from some activity, such as watching TV, reading the newspaper, or surfing the Web, we need to remember that fasting is two-sided. It's not just turning away from something for a while, but it is also turning toward God. In the time that is 'added' to our day through fasting from some activity, we might:

• consider the depth of our sin and the height of God's love in Jesus, asking God for forgiveness.

• remember Jesus' forty days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness, and consider the temptations that hit us the hardest.

• pray for our enemies and the people in our lives who are most difficult to like.

• pray for the salvation of a neighbor, coworker, or family member. 

[...] Even if we don't feel led to fast during Lent, let's ask God to show us what it is that we depend too much on, and ask him to help us cut back that dependence while we lean all the more on him.

~Treasuring God in Our Traditions, by Noël Piper (pdf available here)

Christian fasting is a test to see what desires control us. 

Fasting reveals the measure of food's mastery over us--or television or computers or whatever we submit to again and again to conceal the weakness of our hunger for God. 

A real lived-out human act of preference for God over his gifts is the actual lived-out glorification of God's excellence for which he created the world. Fasting is not the only way, or even the main way, that we glorify God in preferring him above his gifts.  But it is one way.

~A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer, by John Piper (excerpted in Treasuring God in Our Traditions)

I grew up observing Lent.  Which makes sense, since my family attended a Protestant church that observed Lent (along with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, which we commemorated with a sunrise service in a local cemetery), but even when we switched to a much less liturgical church, I continued my Lenten activities.  And while I understand much of the hostility to liturgy, church calendars, and the empty legalism that so often accompanies Lent, I still cherish this tradition.

Politics and the sovereignty of God

As God can protect his people under the greatest despotism, so the utmost civil liberty is no safety to them without the immediate protection of his Almighty arm. I fear that Christians in this country have too great a confidence in political institutions . . . [rather] than of the government of God.

~Alexander Carson, Confidence in God in Times of Danger: A Study of God's Providence in the Book of Esther, quoted by Jerry Bridges in Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts.

Bridges goes on to say:

Government bodies at all levels are increasingly telling us what we must or must not do . . . sometimes they are good decisions, at least from our point of view; sometimes they are bad decisions.  At all times, those decisions, apparent or not, good or not, are under the control of our sovereign God.  We should put our trust in God, not in the decision-making powers of politicians, governments officials, and even Supreme Courts.

As the American government retreats from its previous high esteem and respect for religion, American Christians should be encouraged by this reminder that the sovereign God who preserved Israel through slavery in Egypt and exile in Babylon is just as sovereign over our current political situation.  If He wants to protect His people from suffering, He can and will do just that.  As we face the increased threat of negative consequences for speaking the truth about sin and salvation, this knowledge is a great comfort.  Even if abortion continues unabated, even if the law tries to silence those who would share the gospel, we trust that no hardship or suffering will fall on us that is not part of God's sovereign will. And by and large, we do a decent enough job of believing this--of trusting that God is sovereign over seemingly negative circumstances.  If worst comes to worst, we know God is in control.

However, just as prosperity can be more damaging to faith than adversity, I think perceived political success can distract us from trusting God.  If we succeed in out efforts to outlaw the mass slaughter of the unborn, if we defend the sanctity of marriage, if we get the bible back in schools, if we protect religious liberty--whatever our own 'Christian' political goal, we (or I) tend to believe that if we are successful, then prosperity and blessing will follow.   While pursuing justice and protecting the rights of Christians are worthy goals, the simple fact is that our security does not come from rulers or powers of principalities.  The best government in the world is no protection if the Lord sees fit to allow (or cause) seemingly negative circumstances.  Even if we succeed in every possible 'Christian' political endeavor, we will still suffer.  Jesus assured us we would.  Our security does not come from good laws any more than we are doomed by bad laws.  Again, striving for just laws is good.  But we should not delude ourselves into thinking that good laws will eliminate suffering.  We endure suffering or enjoy blessing when God sees fit to bring it into our lives, regardless of the kind of laws we live under.

Our hope in adversity and in prosperity, under unjust and unjust law, must still be the sovereign and holy God.

Caroling the Gospel (But Not Really), Bonus Round: Some Children See Him

[NOTE:  This is from a series I did on another blog.  Hence the tardiness.  I promise, it was timely when I first wrote it.  The full series is available here.  Enjoy!]

This Christmas carol doesn't actually include the gospel, but it does address an aspect of the Christmas story that is often overlooked.  Written by an American jazz musician in the 1950s, it's probably one of the most politically correct Christmas songs around--which accounts for its popularity among recording artists (though lots of folks are unfamiliar with the song).  I love this Tennessee Ernie Ford version. 

Caroling the Gospel XII: I Wonder as I Wander

[NOTE:  This is from a 12-part series I did on another blog.  Hence the tardiness.  I promise, it was timely when I first wrote it.  The rest of the series is available here.  Enjoy!]

This carol--one of my favorites--has an unusual backstory.  In 1933, a folklorist/singer collected a song fragment in Appalachian North Carolina--he heard a little girl sing it, and after asking her to sing it several more times, he used the song fragment to compose "I Wonder as I Wander."  Perhaps that's why the song always sounds best when sung by a female voice with little or no instrumental or choral backing, and the best backing usually has a bluegrass feel to it.  It is a solitary song (hence the use of the first person singular) and the haunting melody works well unadorned by musical accoutrements.  I really like the Jewel/Sarah McLachlan version, which strips the song down to just the melody with a single subtle vocal harmony, but I can't seem to find the video online.  Joanie does an ok job though.

Caroling the Gospel XI: Of the Father's Love Begotten

[NOTE:  This is from a 12-part series I did on another blog.  Hence the tardiness.  I promise, it was timely when I first wrote it.  The rest of the series is available here.  Enjoy!]

This is, I think, the oldest carol I've looked at.  The words date from the early 5th century, and the music--Divinum Mysterium--was written in the 11th century.  Which makes a lot of sense--the music feels old.  This song works best sung by an acapella men's choir, largely in unison (in other words, as monks in the 11th century might have sung it).  It was translated from the original Latin into English in the mid-19th century.  With nine verses, it's usually truncated in church services or musical performances--the first, sixth, and ninth verses are the ones I've heard most often, though the third and seventh verses are particularly gospel-filled.

Caroling the Gospel X: O Holy Night

[NOTE:  This is from a 12-part series I did on another blog.  Hence the tardiness.  I promise, it was timely when I first wrote it.  The rest of the series is available here.  Enjoy!]

As this song is also known as Cantique de Noel, it's hardly surprising that this beloved carol originated in France.  Written in the 1800s to a pre-existing poem, the literal translation of the French is actually quite a bit meatier than the modern version--check it:

Midnight, Christians, it is the solemn hour,

When God-man descended to us

To erase the stain of original sin

And to end the wrath of His Father.

The entire world thrills with hope

On this night that gives it a Savior. 

People kneel down, wait for your deliverance.

Christmas, Christmas, here is the Redeemer,

Christmas, Christmas, here is the Redeemer!

May the ardent light of our Faith

Guide us all to the cradle of the infant,

As in ancient times a brilliant star

Guided the Oriental kings there.

The King of Kings was born in a humble manger;

O mighty ones of today, proud of your greatness, 

It is to your pride that God preaches.

Bow your heads before the Redeemer!

Bow your heads before the Redeemer!
 
The Redeemer has overcome every obstacle:

The Earth is free, and Heaven is open.

He sees a brother where there was only a slave,

Love unites those that iron had chained.

Who will tell Him of our gratitude,

For all of us He is born, He suffers and dies. 

People stand up! Sing of your deliverance,

Christmas, Christmas, sing of the Redeemer,

Christmas, Christmas, sing of the Redeemer! 

'To erase the stain of original sin and to end wrath of His Father . . . for all of us He is born, He suffers and dies.'  This is some striking gospel language.  But a few years later, along came a Unitarian minister who did his own 'translation' and surprise!  Most of the gospel-y bits got removed.  This new sanitized version is the one we know today, more's the pity.

Caroling the Gospel IX: The First Noel

[NOTE:  This is from a 12-part series I did on another blog.  Hence the tardiness.  I promise, it was timely when I first wrote it.  The rest of the series is available here.  Enjoy!]

'Noel', of course, is the French word for 'birthday' (as in 'joyeoux noel'), from the Latin 'natalis'.  Despite this French connection, the carol has its origins in 18th century England, specifically Cornwall (which is why you may have seen it anglicized as 'the first nowell').  This is yet another carol that tends to be excerpted in popular versions (of which there have been many).

 

Caroling the Gospel VIII: Good Christian Men, Rejoice

[NOTE:  This is from a 12-part series I did on another blog.  Hence the tardiness.  I promise, it was timely when I first wrote it.  The rest of the series is available here.  Enjoy!]

Set to a tune knowns as 'In Dulci Jubilo', this German/Latin hymn dates back to the Middle Ages.  That's right--it was originally a macaronic blend of both German and Latin.  The most well-known English translation dates from 1853. 

Caroling the Gospel VII: Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming

[NOTE:  This is from a 12-part series I did on another blog.  Hence the tardiness.  I promise, it was timely when I first wrote it.  The rest of the series is available here.  Enjoy!]

This lesser known carol--both lyrics and music--hails from 16th century Germany (though a fifth verse was added later).  The 'rose' referenced has been connected to Mary (by the Catholics) and to Jesus (by the Protestants) since the song first appeared.  The slow pace and eerie harmonies make this a less common choice for carolers, though it's yielded some interesting professional arrangements.  Usually only the first two verses get any attention, but it's worth examining in its entirety.

Caroling the Gospel VI: We Three Kings

[NOTE:  This is from a 12-part series I did on another blog.  Hence the tardiness.  I promise, it was timely when I first wrote it.  The rest of the series is available here.  Enjoy!]

We're back to the 19th century with this one, but we're staying on U.S. soil.  Originally written for a Christmas pageant in New York City, this song has been covered time and again by popular artists, from the Beach Boys to the Barenaked Ladies (I actually really like their version) to Blondie.  Jose Feliciano even recorded a version.  However, as with many other carols, the pop versions (and sometimes even the church versions) are usually somewhat truncated.

Caroling the Gospel V: Sweet Little Jesus Boy

[NOTE:  This is from a 12-part series I did on another blog.  Hence the tardiness.  I promise, it was timely when I first wrote it.  The rest of the series is available here.  Enjoy!]

Another lesser known carol--dating not from 18th or 19th century Europe, but from the 1930s in this very country.  Composed by Robert MacGimpsey in 1934, it was written in the style of an African American spiritual, and some versions even include the non-standard grammar and spelling associated with the genre.