“Human communication was meant to be based on humans’ “response-ability” to God’s commandments. In fact, the Hebrew word for “listen” derives from “obedience.” Good speakers must first be obedient listeners so they know what they are talking about” (Quentin Schultze, An Essential Guide to Public Speaking: Serving Your Audience with Faith, Skill, and Virtue, 27).

“The world has embraced lawlessness because the church has embraced lawlessness. We have carnal presidents because we have carnal “Christians.” We have a culture saturated with ennui because we are too bored, waiting for the end to come” (R. C. Sproul Jr., Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life, 53-54).

A parable is more than a story. It is a story on target, set to shatter any listener who gets in its way. Yet a parable’s trajectory is unpredictable, except to one who knows a man’s secrets (152).

BOOM SHAKALAKA. Satire fans can direct their twinkling-eyes on this newly repackaged (and edited) read, and my guess is that fresh recruits will join the woe-singing-chorale in decrying the foibles of 60’s and 70’s Christian E.V.A.N.G.E.L.I.C.A.L.I.S.M. [Doh-Re-Mi-Fa-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-So-La-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha]

Having not read satire in a while, it was a bit difficult to get back into the genre at first . . . I read a page, and cringed, read another page, and cringed some more. I had just about loosened-up to Bayly’s roughhousing, however, when . . . when . . . how do I put it? Ah, yes — it was when, for the first time in my life, I simultaneously laughed-out-loud (LOL!) and thought I had thrown-up in my mouth. Bayly’s sketches of Christian hypocrisy, neo-Judaizers, and squirrelly-Saints are brutal, indeed. But they are brutal because they are parables; they are more than a story.

Yes, these stories are on target. So, like the narcissistic teenagers who cringe when they read Catcher in the Rye–because they can relate with Holden Caulfield, The Gospel Blimp (And Other Parables) will make evangelical Christians cringe–because, if we’re honest with ourselves, we can relate to some of the less-than-honourable-characters. As the copy on the rear jacket says, “And, really, if you’re not looking in the mirror you’re missing the point.”

Read this book. And don’t miss the point.

Disclaimer: Clearnote Press provided me with a review copy of this book. 

“There is something wrong with a Christianity which rejects the Old Testament, or even with a Christianity which imagines that we are essentially different from the Old Testament saints. If any of you are tempted to feel like that, I would invite you to read the Book of Psalms, and then ask yourself whether you can honestly say from your experience some of the things the Psalmists said. . . . Read the Psalms and the statements made in them, and I think you will agree that these men were children of God with a great and rich spiritual experience” (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Faith on Trial, 11-12).

In the vein of the prior post regarding EMU, more food for thought provided by Peter Leithart on same-sex relationships, gay-marriage, etc., and trending in American culture.

From the January/February 2014 issue of Christianity Today, a heading reads “CCCU school mulls shift on same-sex relationships.” The short article states:

Death by Living is N. D. Wilson’s newest nonfiction book, and sort-of a follow-up to 2009’s Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl. I read Notes in 2009, and re-read it in 2010 . . . I also led a men’s book study/discussion group over the book. Notes was a fun read. Humorous and rewarding. But at points the prose was forced. However, I just finished reading Death by Living, and it is a great book. Overall, less humorous, but the prose is tight. Reading this book was effortless and sheer joy. Oh, and convicting. 

“Young men, I beseech you earnestly, beware of pride. Two things are said to be very rare sights in the world–one is a young man that is humble, and the other is an old man that is content. I fear that this is only too true” (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 23).