Dinesh D’Souza does NOT use the Bible to prove life after death. Instead, he challenges the atheist on his own grounds, science and philosophy.

But this is no “Christian rant” against atheism either. The book is written in a thoughtful and polite style. However it does seriously invade long-held assumptions about mortality and materialism.

A little bit science lumped together with a heavy dose of philosophy, this very readable book is a delight to any who would read it. It even wins the grudging approval of Christopher Hitchens, one of D’Souza’s sparring partners.

By using the scientific method, D’Souza stays away from the irrational and emotional apologetics of so many believers who seem to feel they are losing ground to the other side. The book squarely faces the questions raised (and unanswered) by the materialistic worldview. The arguments come from the worlds of genetics, medicine, astrophysics and sociology.

“What happens after we die?” is the big question here. And it is a question we should all be asking.

Long on evidence and thoughtful investigation, the book might have been stronger had it invested a little more in the myriad stories of so-called “near death experiences.” Aside from that it satisfies the reader, believer or not.

You’ll come away feeling that you’ve read a nice, and informative, letter from a very dear friend. This one is a winner.

To order from Amazon click “Life After Death: The Evidence”

Golda Mier lived from 1898 to 1978. Served as Israel’s Prime Minister between 1969 and 1974. Her earliest memory was of the violence her family suffered in a pogrom against Jews in her native Russia.

The family immigrated to the United States while she was a young girl. But the memory of that horrid day and the political activism of her older sister led her into Zionism with a passion. She was soon at the core of Zionist activities and raised millions of dollars to aid a country that did not exist.

The atrocities of World War 2 brought the Zionist ideal to reality. Though outnumbered and outgunned by the Arab opposition, Israel enjoyed prayers and support from the world during those crucial days when the nation was literally born in a gun battle.

Israel suffered (and won) four wars between 1947 and 1973. Victorious each time, their early history reads like something from the Old Testament–exactly like the Old Testament.

I happened to be reading Zephaniah and Zechariah at the time I was reading Golda. The prophetic parallels and fulfillments are incredible, almost creepy. You can strongly see God’s hand at work guiding the affairs of nations.

This book will give you hope. Certainly more hope than what you read in the newspaper. It is proof that the plans of God won’t be thwarted.

Great read, more like a novel than a history book.

You can buy it at Amazon by clicking on Golda.

America’s Prophet: Moses And The American Story

America has lost its moorings. So, what else is new?

We live in strange times. The current era of American history seems to be dominated by nothing but unfinished business. From wars to the economy to presidential promises nothing seems “finished.”

Even the entertainment industry is grappling for direction. Network television is threatened by the quality of cable, yet seems unable to produce quality programming. The music business supports TV that searches for talent as if they are looking for the second coming of the Beatles–someone to strike a new path forward.

The rest of the culture is just as lost. We’ve lost any sense of a unifying value system–in other words we’ve rejected Christianity and have found nothing to take its place.

Along comes Bruce Feiler with his book, America’s Prophet: Moses And The American Story.

Time Magazine gave it two full pages in a book review. Feiler is a NY Times bestselling author. In other words this book has something to say to the general  culture. And it has something for you…

And what does it say? It tells how a man living 4000+ years ago shaped and shapes the history of our country. It’s no secret that the founding fathers found him an irresistible icon for their dreams of a new country that would provide freedom for all. But it doesn’t stop with Franklin, Jefferson and Washington.

Today’s presidents from Carter to Obama have called on Moses as their role model to move into a new day. Martin Luther King hailed Moses as his role model and so did Ronald Reagan in his quest to open eastern Europe.

So, why should you read the book? Well for one thing it is fun. It reads like a novel. But more importantly, you should be reading what the nation’s decision makers are taking in. They, as much as anybody, are grappling for a value system that can unite and invigorate our tired republic. If they are looking for answers in people like Moses, you can be a part of the solution, providing those answers and the values that can take us into a new day.

America’s Prophet: Moses And The American Story ]]> http://www.ralphmoorehawaii.com/reviews/?feed=rss2&p=120 http://www.ralphmoorehawaii.com/reviews/?p=118 http://www.ralphmoorehawaii.com/reviews/?p=118#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:54:16 +0000 hoperem http://www.ralphmoorehawaii.com/reviews/?p=118 I’m shocked . . . in a very nice way.

As a pastor who thinks he lives and breathes disciplemaking I find myself rocking on my heels after picking up Bill Hull’s “Choose The Life: Exploring A Faith That Embraces Discipleship.”

One sentence grabbed me by the throat and won’t let go, “Nothing fails like success. . .” He goes on to say that success at modeling anything other than Jesus gets you nowhere. But what about guys like me who try with all their might to emulate Jesus? Success can get to us to.

This is the first book I’ve picked up in more than 30 years that actually challenged me to rethink our approach to disciplemaking. We’ve built a model straight from scripture, resisted the tides of churchthink and stood our ground in a dark world. We’ve made disciples and planted many churches. In short, we succeed at what we do! But, we are not Jesus, only humans trying to be like him and this is where the blister begins. We act like we know all the answers (and all the questions).

Bill Hull, in this great read challenges even life-giving discipleship that has fallen into its ruts of contentment.

I’m still getting into the book, but had to write about it because it is so good.

He says things like, “Jesus was irrelevant and unnecessary to his culture . . . even though it cost him everything, he became the most relevant and necessary man of history.” It seems that we struggle to be relevant only to find the world thinking us un-necessary.

Another thing I like is his press to think in terms of disciplemaking prior to evangelism. We once did a campaign called “Seven For Heaven” where we distributed Bible markers where people could build a prayer list of seven people they want to evangelize. I now wonder if we should limit that to just one or two people per person. By this I mean to teach our people to pray for one person to begin discipling into the gospel through intentional relationships. This book is all about process and people.

This is a fun read and I’ll try to keep posting as I get further into it.

Choose The Life: Exploring A Faith That Embraces Discipleship

]]> http://www.ralphmoorehawaii.com/reviews/?feed=rss2&p=118 http://www.ralphmoorehawaii.com/reviews/?p=116 http://www.ralphmoorehawaii.com/reviews/?p=116#comments Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:59:28 +0000 hoperem http://www.ralphmoorehawaii.com/reviews/?p=116 By: Ori Brafman & Rom Brafman

This is one of those books that will change the way you look at the world–irrevocably!

SWAY belongs to a difficult-to-describe genre of books like Starfish & Spider; The Tipping Point or Outliers. Like jokeless stand-up comedians these authors look at life through different lenses than everybody else.

Their observations stand ouside the door of conventional thinking but they knock hard on that door. When you open it, you are forever changed. You simply can’t go back to your old paradigm. To try would be like trying to un-pop a tub of popcorn.

Why would a pilot who was head of safety for KLM override training and the pleas of his co-pilot taking off in muddy fog only to plow into a taxiing aircraft killing himself and hundreds of others? What would make a person reject a sound offer of free money just to spite another person who stands to get a little more? Why would a cash reward for doing something nice keep a person from wanting to do it again–worse yet, why would the potential for a cash reward keep a person from doing the right thing in the first place?

All of the above behaviors are irrational. But they happened. And they will happen again. Understanding the “why” behind these impulses and a dozen others will change the way you live life, operate your business or minister with your church.

Books like this used to be “banned in Boston” thank God they are available to us today. Simply reading SWAY just saved our church nearly $30,000 in this year’s budget. It could yet save us even more. AND…we’ll be more effective in the bargain.

This is a must-read!

Agree or disagree with him, Peter Wagner is first and foremost a theologian. His works on Pentecostalism drastically changed the face of Christianity and mission in the 1980s.

I found this book, unread, on my shelf while looking for another. It answers most of the questions I have about the biblical foundations for much that goes on today in the name of spiritual warfare. Read it in a day because I couldn’t put it down. The book strengthened my prayer life.

Much of what we’ve enjoyed in a culture bending prayer movement in Hawaii comes out of what has always appeared to be more experiencial and a little light on theological grounds. Wagner comes to the rescue…

He deals with “identificational repentence,” not just from the book of Daniel but from the New Testament. Territorial spirits and how to deal with them come straight out of the life of Jesus and then his disciples. Paul did some of this too.

Perhaps best is his argument that an argument from silence cuts both ways–in other words silence doesn’t prove that something happened (we all know that) but it also doesn’t prove that something didn’t happen. I call Wagner’s conclusions “tip-of-the-iceberg” thinking. He teaches that if you can find a little of something in the life of the apostles you can reasonably assume that there was more of it. The gospels and Acts don’t record everything they did, only representative moments. A pretty strong argument for a well-reasoned theology of prayer that intends to change the world around.

This book should be in print–thank God for used booksellers.

Read a great book yesterday!

It was one of those reads that sneaks up on you then kicks you right where you sit down—but in a good and positive way.

My friend Jimi Calhoun wrote “A Story Of Rhythm & Grace” which intends to import God’s values of live, acceptance and inclusion from the world or Rock & Roll into the church.

Importing biblical values from the world of Rock seems like a difficult task until you read the book. In many ways the secular arts are more concerned about brotherly love than your average evangelical church—white, black or otherwise.

Jimi played with most of the great names of the 60s and 70s including Stone, Hendrix, Dr. John and even John Lennon. He tells their story and those of many others… like the night he took Mick Jagger into black clubs to listen to the music. The important thing about that story is that Jagger was never “out of his element.” Here was white rock royalty hanging out with people not only different, but decidedly lower on the totem pole—yet he was there as a friend and a learner.

Jimi is pretty open with his feelings. He tells stories from growing up that will bring tears to most eyes. When you are done with the book you’ll feel frustrated and warm and fuzzy at the same time.

You’ll remember good, perhaps great, friendships you’ve had with people from other cultures which is a definite feel-good. But you’ll understand how your view of the friendship may have differed from theirs. You come away understanding the importance of understanding (of the mutual variety).

I remembered the day my black friends showed up to defend me from a white bully who menaced me after school. And I remembered the day I “remembered” that my best friend at work was black—I had simply seen him as a friend and brother. Those are good memories.

I also remember a friend saying the mountain where I took him snow-skiing was “too white” for him. I first thought he was talking about the snow. I’ve heard people say the same thing about a church I pastored even though we prided ourselves in reaching out to all peoples. The book caused me to re-assess lots of things about our church and ministry.

In the end it caused me to think institutionally and intentionally. Admit it, your church is an institution and as such it can expand its love base. But only if you are intentional about it. Not intentional as in quotas, but intentional as in creating opportunities for understanding what the other person feels.

I am biased because it was written by a friend. But this is a good read!

The longer title, “Trusting God When You Have Cancer: Help and hope for the road ahead,” clues you to the stuff between the covers.

Written by Ron Pinkston and Jerry Cook this one is a little different. It contains letters these men wrote to one another while suffering the indignities of cancer. A little like Jefferson and Adams corresponding about the indignities of old age.

Ron is forthright and honest about his fear and suffering. The rest is vintage Jerry Cook. The guy’s insight reminds you of C.S. Lewis (In fact, if you like this book, go treat yourself to his “Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness.”

Jerry’s take on the loveliness of “denial” is enough to make the book worth every penny. You know–denial that negative thought process that keeps you from facing reality in its ugly face. Well Cook thinks you need a denial day every few weeks… in fact he scheduled them and went on a picnic or some other such cancer-defying activity.

You’ll smile as these two friends grow stronger and their friendship deepens through the journey. At just 48 pages this is a healer for anyone facing similar trials.

My wife struggled through breast cancer seven years ago. It was no party. If we could have read this book, together, right after the first horrifying doctor visit and again during the green-around-the-gills and red popcycle days of chemo we’d have been far better prepared for those wretched days.

Alister McGrath a former atheist with a hint of nostalgia for the bad old days in Northern Ireland will poke you till it hurts.

He’s smart enough to know that we all go nostalgic for the follies our adolescence. His happened to have happened outside of Christ and in the days of the Irish “troubles.” He’s also smart enough to know that Jesus Christ is the answer to the world and its woes…

However, he isn’t buying absolutist positions about God. Neither does he buy a faith devoid of imagery and imagination. In fact he pictures atheism thriving only when it captures human imagination. The halcyon days of atheism were the 19th Century when it was easy to “imagine” a world without God–one filled with human freedom and dignity. It was a make-believe world existing in the heart of Victorian England, and Europe, just before a real-life godless era dominated by the likes of Hitler and Stalin.

McGrath clearly lays the greatest bloodshed in history at the feet of the atheists. But he also pops us a good one for ceding ground to them throughout Reformation history.

Seems our forbears had a knack for sterilizing everything but the preaching. And even that gets pretty pedestrian. They killed art in the church (and out of it). Ironed every wrinkle of emotion out of church services. This left both gospel and church easy prey for their detractors.

McGrath sees hope in the joy and imagery of Pentecostalism in developing nations–especially as they export their exuberant, experiential faith to the developed West.

He warns against TC, or “Theologically Correct” speech as a near cousin to Politically Correct speech and just as destructive. Whenever the church spends its strength in cannibalism it is least appealing those those who need it most.

The book concludes with a prediction to the further rise of faith and the twilight of atheism. You’ll love McGrath even as he pokes his finger in your eye! A definite read-and-pass-along book!

One hot book! This book brings the data to support a New Testament model for training and multiplying church leaders.

Turns out that most of our “tools” fail us when they are in ample supply. The “Shining city upon a hill” that the Puritans established grew into a decidedly un-Christian nation by the time of the American revolution.

Life on the prairies was as rough as a Western movie. The cities were worse. But first the Methodists, later the Baptists prevailed and the United States became one of the most Christian nations on earth. Certainly the greatest fountainhead of overseas missionaries the world has known to date.

And it didn’t happen the way you’d imagine. Congregationalists, Episcopals and Presbyterians had a lock on religion in the colonies. The “establishment clause” forbid the government from funding religion, causing those groups to lose some of their prestige and power. But something else happened that changed history.

Methodist circuit riders and unruly tent meetings began to draw spiritually hungry people by the thousands. by 1860 the Methodists virtually ruled American spiritual sentiment. Why? Because there were lots of them. Their leaders rapidly multiplied themselves through disciplemaking and sacrifice. They didn’t bear the burden of expensive theological training. Their pastors didn’t demand high salaries and people met in rough buildings or under trees.

Then something happened. The prosperous Methodists started building seminaries and lovely church buildings. People grew more sophisticated. Pastors more critical of the Bible. And, the already lively Baptists began to surge to dominate the national scene–for mostly the same reasons the Methodists had reached predominance. While Methodism suffered slow torturous decline (until the 1990s when a reform movement began taking hold), the feuding Baptists expanded wildly. Again, it is a story of revival meetings, bivocational, home-grown leaders and rudimentary buildings. As the data unfolds, everything you and I so desperately need, we really don’t.

But, what about today? This is the 21st century. We need to compete in a high tech world. Well, today the better funded and more sophisticated are still losing ground. Now it is the tidal wave of often self-appointed Charismatics that are growing gangbusters while many smugly dismiss them for crude behavior and a simplistic view of God, the Bible and life itself.

Turns out, however, that “Humans want their religion to be sufficiently potent, vivid, and compelling so that it can offer them rewards of great magnitude. People seek a religion that is capable of miracles and that imparts order and sanity to the human condition.” That kind of faith seems to occur best in its simplest forms.

The book comes at church history from an economic-sociological viewpoint. The paradigm and deep data give it a unique authority.

There never has been such a strong documentary for the rapid multiplication of churches. A bit of a slow read, this is still a super tool for building confidence in home-grown leaders. I just took my church planters discipleship group through it. Faith grew!

Click here to read more about it:

The Churching Of America, 1776-2005: Winners & Losers In America’s Religious Economy

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