Why read ‘The Reason for God’?

I am just coming to the end of reading The Reason for God by Tim Keller. With just one chapter to go I can say already that it is a book I would recommend to anyone and this is why:

If you are a skeptic, agnostic, atheist or in any way negative towards the Christian faith then this book attacks all of the major topics that I’m sure you would have questions about. The first half of the book seeks to answer some of those big questions and statements such as ‘how could a good God allow suffering’ and ‘science has disproved christianity‘. Having looked at these kind of questions and arguments the second half of the book is then to show you why you should believe Christianity. For this reason I would endorse this to any non-christian.

But if you are a Christian then I would recommend this book just as much. I think there are lots of big questions that Christians have about their faith that they are often scared to ask and try to brush under the carpet – this is a great book for looking at some of them and seeing the answers for them. My main reason for recommendation though would have to be how this has encouraged my walk with Jesus. A little snippet fresh from the chapter about the resurrection:

‘Sometimes people approach me and say, ‘I really struggle with this aspect of Christian teaching. I like this part of Christian belief, but I don’t think I can accept that part.’ I usually respond: ‘If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all He said; if He didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what He said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like His teaching but whether or not He rose from the dead.’ This is how the first hearers felt who heard reports of the resurrection. They knew that if it was true it meant we can’t live our lives any way we want. It also meant we don’t have to be afraid of anything, not roman swords, not cancer, nothing. If Jesus rose from the dead, it changes everything.’

The rest of the chapter brilliantly and heart-warmingly shows why.

Whoever you are and whatever your stance to the Christian faith I wholly recommend this book.

Counterfeit gods

I think Tim Keller is brilliant especially when it comes to idolatry and what that looks like. He has certainly helped me see more clearly areas where I have been worshipping idols and not the living God.

Wholly reccomend his newest book – Counterfeit god’s.

What is Idolatry?

Recently I have been thinking a lot about Idolatry. This is mainly because I was giving a talk on Ephesians 5:1-21 at our youth groups in which Paul talks about imitating God, and not anything or anyone else, which is essentially idolatry.

I had some really useful material from a seminar track at New Word Alive 2009 by Dr Dan Strange. Here are some really useful thoughts on idolatry.

‘Idolatry is radical self-harm. It is also radically, terribly ironic. In trying to be as God, we have ended up less human. The principle affirmed in several places in the Bible is that you become like the object of your worship (e.g., Ps 115:8; Is 41:24; 44:9) is very apparent. If you worship that which is not God, you reduce the image of God in yourself. If you worship that which is not even human, you reduce your humanity still further.’ The Mission of God by Chris Wright

We never learn that false gods never fail to fail. This is the only thing about a false god you can depend on.

Sin isn’t only doing bad things, it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than God. Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us. Sin is primarily idolatry. Tim Keller

Here is what I think is a prominent example of these points, in a very sad situation. The quote is From Johnathan Edwards, the Gold Medalist who once professed a real love for Jesus.

“I never doubted my belief in God for a single moment until I retired from sport. Faith was the reason that I decided to become a professional athlete, in the same way that it was fundamental to every decision I made. It was the foundation of my existence, the thing that made everything else make sense. It was not a sacrifice to refuse to compete on Sundays during my early career because that would imply that athletics was important in and of itself. It was not. It was always a means to an end: glorifying God.

But when I retired, something happened that took me by complete surprise. I quickly realised that athletics was more important to my identity than I believed possible. I was the best in the world at what I did and suddenly that was not true any more. With one facet of my identity stripped away, I began to question the others and, from there, there was no stopping. The foundations of my world were slowly crumbling.

When you think about it rationally, it does seem incredibly improbable that there is a God.” (Taken from The Times Online – read full article here, an interview of Johnathan Edwards with Matthew Syed on June 27th 2007)

When the object of your worship is taken from you, your world will begin to fall apart. Unfortunately, this was Athletics for Johnathan Edwards. I hope you don’t feel I’m personally attacking him, I’m not, I just think his situation is a very real and scary example of how, without knowing it, we can build our lives upon idols.

The Prodigal God

prod-i-gal – adjective

1. recklessly extravagant

2. having spent everything

In this short book Tim Keller aims to tackle some of the misunderstandings about the famous parable of ‘The Prodigal Son’ (Luke 15:11-32). Keller argues that actually both sons in the parable are lost, both equally need saving.

One big point Keller makes is that it is actually God who is prodigal by definition (see above). God’s love for the world is recklessly extravagant, this is shown in the story how he accepts the younger brother back with open arms (Luke 15:20-24). Secondly in God’s love he spent everything He had in the person of His son, who died in my place and yours on the cross, that we may be reconciled to God and know true life.

Heart warming for the believer, and challenging for the un-believer.