All Posts Tagged With: "forgiveness"

The Shack

December 1st, 2008 • stephenlawes • 4 comments • Related • Filed Under

I hope you have enjoyed November’s Christian Book Club book of the the month “The Shack”. By now you should have completed all 18 chapters. As we started reading this book I told you about how controversial it was. People seemed to love the book or be really upset with it.

Personally, I really enjoyed the book. It was well written and kept my attention. I generally have a lot of stuff going on and there are some book that I really struggle to read over the course of a month. The Shack really got my attention and I found myself making time to read it. I enjoyed the interaction between Mack and the representations of the trinity. I don’t feel like I need to defend the theological aspects of the book becasue it is not a book on theology. It is a story. There is tremendous power in story and I think it is very possible for God to be able to use a story like to help people embrace a walk with Jesus.

I also felt the forgiveness parts of the story were really well done. One of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, used the power of story to teach on forgiveness. In his book, Prince Caspian, Lewis uses the power of story to present the impotance of forgiveness. Working the Mack character through forgiveness to help lift the great sadness was a wonderful use of story.

I am including a comment by Amanda on this post in case you didn’t read the comment section on week 2.

Comment by Amanda on 15 November 2008:

At first, I was surprised that Papa was a woman! Jesus was portrayed in a way that I had read before and I suppose that Sarayu is kinda how I’ve thought of the Holy Spirit, just not as a female. At first, I wondered why Young would portray Papa as a woman, however, as I read further, I realized that God and Jesus were showing up in the forms that Mac needed them to be. Had God initially been a huge gray headed guy who was all ruling, then Mac would have not been comforted in the least.

One of my favorite chapters is chapter 7 where Jesus and Mac spend time on the dock at night. What a picture of the true and awesome friendship that we can have with Jesus! I too understand that this is not theology, but I think we can pull some great theological concepts from the story.

The conversation that takes place in chapter 8 is heavy! It’s the conversation I can see all of us having, no matter our life experiences. How many times have we battled the question of the Holy Trinity and the chain of command. And how many times have we said “That’s not fair!” I was especially touched by the place that Mac tells Papa that he will never understand how Missy’s death will be justified. And Papa simply tells him it won’t but that it will be redeemed. Wow! What a concept!

I love that Mac expresses his anger toward Papa, Jesus and Sarayu. I think too often we feel as Christians we feel that we have to be thankful and righteous and proper all the time. God is our friend, and when we are upset, we tell our friends, we don’t hold back. We let them know how we feel. I really feel that this is the type of relationship that God wants from us, we are just hesitant to give it to Him.

I am going to leave the “Shack” comments open for a while as I would like to hear from all of you on your thoughts of the book.

I will also include a link here in case you need to order a copy of the book.

729230: The Shack The Shack

The Weight of Glory - Week 4

July 22nd, 2008 • stephenlawes • 2 comments • Related • Filed Under

At the Christian Book Club we are in week 4 of “The Weight of Glory” by C.S. Lewis. This week (we actually have 9 days or so for this part of the reading) we will be reading and discussing: “Membership”, “On Forgiveness”, and “A Slip of the Tongue”. I look forward to hearing from you (July is a busy vacation month and I know that some of you have been away so don’t feel bad if you haven’t had a chance to post, this is supposed to be fun not a chore. If you don’t have anything to say or have been too busy, don’t worry about it.)

I think you will enjoy the reading on forgiveness this week. Lewis is wonderful on the topic. If you have read the Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity you will know that forgiveness lies at the heart of a lot of what Lewis wrote about.

August is fast upon us and we will be reading Phillip Yancey’s “What’s So Amazing About Grace”. If you don’t have a copy I will put a link below so that you can order one and have it in time for the August club on Christian Book Club.

45653: What"s So Amazing About Grace? What’s So Amazing About Grace?
By Philip Yancey

Your God is Too Safe - Discussion 2

May 5th, 2008 • stephenlawes • 2 comments • Related • Filed Under

I have been enjoying your comments on Christian Book Club Online this week. I wanted to share some of the things that jumped out at me as I was reading this week and get your feedback. I was touched when I read the story of Paul Yonggi Cho on page 47. What a great picture of bitterness and forgiveness. I re-read it twice and was all goose pimply both times. I enjoyed the discussion on obedience on pages 48-50 as it related to Jonah. What did you think?

I agree with the idea that technology has been a blessing and a curse. What do you think? Losing our imagination causes us to lose the idea of the Christian life as an adventure. I also like the discussion on page 42 that revolved around the question “What is it you want Me to do for you? I would like to hear from you about these things and about your thoughts as well.