A Sweet & Bitter Providence by John Piper

If there's one word that I can describe the words in the Bible, that would be inexhaustible. I've read the book of Ruth twice before I've gotten across this book and I would say, I never got to see the book of Ruth as John Piper saw it and praise God he wrote a book about it.

The first two tries in reading the Book of Ruth, I'd always tell myself to bathe in the sovereignty of God that was displayed in that book. You'll always notice the pain that Naomi have experienced in the 1st chapter and the grace and the glorious wisdom of God exercised in the last chapter, but never did I see the details such as racial significance and the obedience and purity that Ruth and Boaz demonstrated.

This book is really timing for me in the season I am in, as it challenges me to be patient and trust in God even in pain, to take risks in order to work towards the desires that is ever present in me, and to reach a level of maturity in my faith in God.

The book consists of 4 chapters bringing us along the journey that Naomi and Ruth encountered and how they acted and trusted on God above all things. And this is something that I would suggest for those who are eager about something yet discouraged that things are not working out the way they're hoping it to be and for those who are currently in pain hoping for a better day. I got to read this one over a couple of weeks and I'm sure that there are those who read more than I do would get to finish this faster and would enjoy it as I had.

My prayer and hope is that this short post would display the enthusiasm and the gratefulness that I have for John Piper in unpacking the book of Ruth in such a light manner, lighter than how he writes, to help me understand pain and love God more even in dark times.

A Sweet & Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God, by John Piper

In The Beginning God...

Joshua Harris helped me realize one thing when I started reading Dug Down Deep. I realized that I knew nothing of God. I had opinions and have followed other peoples opinions, but I didn't know anything about the God of the Bible. Yes, I've been to Sunday schools and have attended church all my life, I even led youth services before and preached in small groups, and yet I still found myself stuck in sin, and I sinned a lot. And because of my deeds and actions and what I knew was missing in my theology, I agreed with what Harris wrote, let me quote him.

We're either building our lives on the reality of what God is truly like and what he's about, or we're basing our lives on our own imagination and misconceptions.

We're all theologians. The question is whether what we know about God is true.

Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

(Isaiah 6:5 ESV)

These were Isaiah's words after seeing a vision of the Lord. This is truly something that we've clearly lost in this day and age. We can just utter the Lord's name in vain and just dismiss the idea of a supreme being hovering over us in this world. Discussing things about God is not accompanied by reverence but an idea that can easily be grasped and be debated upon. We embrace our ability to think and reason and we place God in a place wherein we can totally grab whole of his entirety and shelve the idea within the confines of our mind. In this generation, the fear of the Lord is totally lost and buried and replaced by the fear of man.

Woe is me! is something that I would tell myself after reading Tozer's classic. This booklet, written in the 60's, is still packed with pure theological knowledge that would make you understand something that we've completely lost. The reality of God is far greater than anything we can imagine. It is one of the things that we should recapture, and Tozer left us this book to help us seize what was revealed to him back in the day.

I would tag Knowledge of the Holy as one of the hard reads that would demand the full attention of the reader. It's written in King James English as you'd expect from a great mind back in the 1960's. It discusses the attributes of God as seen through scripture and from Tozer's studies. This is something I would recommend anyone who would want to be captivated by the magnificence of God. I would also suggest this book for anyone who would want to have a head start in the study of God. I would put this book side by side with A.W. Pink's The Attributes of God. Rarely do we see books that would discuss the known attributes of God in this day and age.

Grab hold of this book if you would want to recapture the Woe is me! and see how far we are from the God of the Bible. 

On Fasting

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

(Matthew 6:16-18 ESV)

There was a time that I was distasteful of fasting. Not just because I loved food, but because I've always thought of this as pretentious or hyper spiritual. I didn't quite understand and found it hypocritical to see people fast and pray. The reason behind this distaste was because the people that I had around me who does such things lived lives which you may define as someone of a lower level of spiritual maturity. I've always thought that fasting was only for those who in the graduate school of the faith. It's for the hardcore and shouldn't be done by the lowly beginner sinner like me. Boy was I wrong.

Reading Through Genesis

As I would always say, the Bible is inexhaustible. You can read a book a number of times and you'll always get hit, be wooed, or be left in awe with the things that you read. There will always be something different the next time you read it. This is something that I have always enjoyed. Knowing and finding and experiencing God through the experiences written in the Bible which Paul would describe as "profitable" (2 Tim 3:16).

I'm blessed to have my girlfriend to go through the Bible with me this year. In fact it's by her urging that we go through it together so that I would have the ability to go through ALL the books of the Bible this year. As implied, I've never read all the books of the Bible. I read a lot, but I always get redirected to go from one book to another, which would make me leave the others untouched. She knows how helpful it is to get to read the whole Bible and I'm blessed that she's urging me to do that because I haven't read the whole book yet.

This month, we're going through the book of Genesis together. It doesn't mean that we'll get to end reading Genesis by months end, it's more likely that we'll be done before February ends. We're just starting this habit this month and I want to invite you guys to go through the whole Bible with us chronologically as well. I was compelled by this interview why it's good to go through the books chronologically instead of verse per verse or chapter per chapter. It's also good to get the background of the books which is why I would like to share the introduction that Ligonier.org provided for the book of Genesis.

So come, and join us through this adventure! And I would like to invite you to post your comments here as well as you join us in this journey. And since most of you readers happen to be my friends, I would expect you to be here. Kidding aside, reading through God's words are always helpful for our completion and for equipping us for every good work.

Yes, Christian Hip-Hop Exists

I'm a big fan of Hip-Hop music. I'm also a big 2pac fan and I'm not ashamed to admit that yes, I can still rap along Pac songs. But rapping along with 2Pac and Biggie will leave me with one or two or three words to say since I don't think I'd be rapping along all their lyrics anymore. For this reason I had to look out for something more of the genre where I find myself now. To others it might feel like I'm moving backwards but this is something that I enjoy. I love that I'm a new creation who enjoys serving and praying that I'm changed daily to live a life worthy for God. So with that in mind, I try to stay away from the music that I used to listen to. And this is a big dilemma because these are the tunes that I play when I workout and to psych myself up before playing ball.

So this is where I'm getting at. Thank God, God is the God of everything and I thank Him for saving talented artists like Lecrae who would create Hip-Hop music that would edify God. This song in particular was inspired by John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life, which happened to be one of my favorite books as well. So check it out, for those of you who haven't heard of Christian Hip-Hop yet, enjoy.

Wisdom vs Risk Taking

When it comes to big tasks, we Christians are so guilty of banking on faith alone when it comes to doing things. We usually just say yes and run towards the big unknown without getting to think of what we need to do to get things done. Faith is good, and the wisdom that the Bible provides for us is part of the Faith that we should exercise. This book was created for us to know Christ, our Lord, more and more and to direct us to live lives worthy of our calling.

So with that said, I would want to direct you all for this good read regarding Productivity and Project Management.