Monthly Archives: July 2009
The Pilgrim’s Progress (now in living color)
I named my second son after John Bunyan (1628—1688). Bunyan is a literary giant from the Puritan era. His classic book, The Pilgrim’s Progress, is one of the best selling books of all time and has undergone dozens of editions and translations over the centuries. The newest version is set to hit bookstores at the end of September in a deluxe, updated, 240-page, colorfully illustrated version from Crossway ($16.49 over at Amazon).
The book’s text has been edited and updated by C. J. Lovik and the book’s 30 illustrations were contributed by award winning painter Michael Wimmer. As the release date approaches for this book I’ll have a full review. But for now, I wanted to post two illustrations. Crossway permitted me a sneak peak into the book a few days ago. Here is an exclusive look at two of the paintings.
Illustration copyright © 2009 by Michael Wimmer. Posted by permission of the publisher. The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come (Crossway 2009), p. 18.
Illustration copyright © 2009 by Michael Wimmer. Posted by permission of the publisher. The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come (Crossway 2009), p. 129.
Nice illustrations! … I’ll have more for you in a later review.
My favorite (used)bookstore
OMAHA, NE—My favorite used bookstore is an unkept mess. It’s the neighbor to a tattoo parlor and a bar—an unlikely location for literature.
Inside, the bookstore is drastically underlit to begin with and smoky from all the cigarettes burned by the owner at his junk-strewn desk. The fire chief would not be happy. Bookshelves stretch 15 feet into the sky, far out of reach of customers and to an altitude that makes the spines illegible (except for the oversized tomes). The owners have stuffed the overflow book stock wherever they find open air, either horizontally over jammed shelving or—what appears to be the favorite option—in piles of books strewn on the floor. This overflow further congests the tight walkways. To view the recent additions to the store, shoppers must humble themselves on one knee and squat down to the floor level to view the spines. Other shoppers step over each other as the walkways. Just by posture you can determine whether someone is new to the store or a frequent visitor. The curiosity of a newbie will be satisfied by walking upright. The frequent shoppers snail along at floor level.
This makes me question who is prioritized in the store landscape. Is it the frequent shoppers or the books? And will there come a point in the store when there is no longer room for the shoppers and it becomes a pool of books with no outflow? How many more books must be added to the collection until the morning unlocking of the store will include a routine avalanche of books pouring out from the front door and out upon the sidewalk and into the street?
I have friends who despise such used bookstores and will never buy or read a used book. They watch too much Seinfeld. I love used bookstores, and especially this one.
Vacationing, planning, writing
For the next two weeks I am vacationing with my wife and kids. It will be a loooong road trip (1,250 miles each way) and I’d appreciate your prayers for safety. We are presently in Nebraska and enjoying the unseasonably tolerable July weather.
One of the road trip highlights was our stop at the Bob Feller museum in VanMeter, Iowa. Housed at this museum are all types of uniforms and baseballs from Feller’s hall of fame pitching career in baseball. Included is the bat that Babe Ruth leaned on in 1948 during his famous farewell photo taken at Yankee Stadium shortly before his death. The Yanks were playing Cleveland that day and somehow Ruth grabbed Feller’s bat. Cool to see such a treasure of baseball lore buried in a tiny farm town hidden by the Iowa countryside. After leaving the little museum we stumbled upon the high school baseball field and my son and I tossed a ball for about an hour. Surely Feller learned to throw a fastball here on this grass. I yelled across the field to my wife who was setting out lunch on a picnic table, “Is this heaven?”
As time has allowed on this trip I’ve been using the downtime during this vacation to write and finalize a book proposal. While I cannot yet reveal the book’s topic, I mention it for your prayerful support. I’ll be submitting my proposal to the publisher within the next month and find myself in need of your prayers (as always).
And because one or two of you care, here were the three books I chose to bring along on summer vacation:
- Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace by Joseph Williams
- A Concise History of Christian Thought by Tony Lane
- Commentary on the Book of Psalms: Volume 1 by John Calvin
I’ll blog as time allows (which may be infrequently until I return to D.C.). I appreciate your prayers.
Off to a day at the zoo.
Tony
Fool Moon Rising
If you were a reader of this blog back in 2007, Tom Fluharty needs no introduction. You’ve already heard about my love and respect for this man. While my family and I lived in Minneapolis we met Tom, his wife Kristi, and their wonderful family and I doubt our lives have been the same since.
Tom is a world-class painter/illustrator and the only thing more amazing than his family and his artistic skill and his passion to lead worship in his local church is the story of how God broke into his life and converted him. I sat down with Tom two years ago in Minneapolis to record his testimony.
Today I’m honored to announce that Tom and Kristi have completed their first children’s book, Fool Moon Rising (Crossway 2009). The book is now available for pre-order and will be available at the end of September. Parents and grandparents now have at their fingertips an attractive book that will help them explain to their children the stark contrast between a self-glorifying life and a God-glorifying life. This distinction is a very critical lesson in life, but it’s not always a spiritual lesson that parents find easy to articulate to children, and especially in a way that highlights the importance of our Savior. This book does it!
I’ve read this book 20 times and I love it! My kids love it! I think any reader of Fool Moon Rising will be compelled by the lively illustrations and hear the unmistakable urgency of its message.
To help you get a feel for the book’s storyline, development, its purpose, authors, and to see examples of Tom’s illustrations, see the following website:
Here is the publisher’s description:
This rhyming, rollicking tale tells of a crime of cosmic proportions: the moon, blinded by pride, fails to see the true source of his abilities—the light provided by the sun. He boasts of his ability to shine, to change shape throughout each month, and to swell the tides. One day, overwhelmed by a piercing ray of sunshine, the moon repents of his pride and changes his ways, and from that point on he is happy to reflect the sun’s light.
This beautifully illustrated book introduces the concept of humility to children. Readers will be reminded that everything we have, including our gifts and talents, is from God. Just as the moon learns to boast only of the sun, children—and their parents—learn that to boast of anything other than the Son is utter foolishness.
God’s Rod
“I used to think it was a ‘cruel’ doctrine to say that troubles and sorrows were ‘punishments.’ But I find in practice that when you are in trouble, the moment you regard it as a ‘punishment’, it becomes easier to bear. If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.”
—C.S. Lewis, Answers to Questions on Christianity.
Calvin’s “pastoral variation of the Institutes”
“…only two years lie between the appearance of the commentary on the Psalms (1557) and the publication of the last Latin edition of the Institutes (1559). Given certain passages which are duplicated nearly verbatim in both works, it is noticeable that Calvin worked on both books simultaneously. In light of the distinction in genre and reading audience as well as the correspondence in content, I would like to define the commentary on the Psalms as a pastoral variation of the Institutes. In his commentary in particular Calvin applies himself to the main themes of the Institutes and gives them form so that they are directly applicable to the practice of living in faith. This would also explain why Calvin sometimes brings issues into consideration during his exposition which neither appear in the text of the Psalm nor seem to directly relate to it, and meanwhile Calvin makes far fewer references to contemporary events and situations than others commentators from the era do. Hence discussions of such things as the Lord’s Supper and the Trinity do not occur at all, and the matter of election scarcely occurs.”
—Herman J. Selderhuis, Calvin’s Theology of the Psalms (Baker Academic 2007) pp. 283-284.
The Plowman’s Education
“In Isaiah 28:26 we read that God instructs the plowman, teaching him how he is to do his work. But this instruction does not come to the plowman in writing, in so many words, nor in the form of lessons at school; it is a teaching, rather, which is contained and expressed in all the laws of nature, in the character of air and of soil, of time and place, of grain and corn. What the plowman must do is conscientiously to get to know all those laws of nature, and in this way to learn the lesson which God teaches in them.”
—Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith (Eerdmans 1956), p. 65.
“Obedience is its own reward”
At times I flip back in my Moleskine notebook of sermon scribbles to recollect what I was learning 12 months ago. It’s a humbling exercise to realize that very little of what I actually hear during a sermon will stick in my brain for a year. And it’s a bit discouraging, too. Apparently I require chronic review of everything I’ve ever learned (paradoxical, I know).
But I do remember one sermon from last summer. At about this time at Covenant Life Church, Joshua Harris’s father Gregg Harris preached a fantastic message on the topic of parenting (so good I remember it!). The entire message is worth a listen but the following excerpt previewed the topic of parenting and highlights an essential character of the wisdom literature of Scripture. Obedience is its own reward.
Harris said,
“The thing that we sometimes fail to understand about God’s Word, and the wisdom that it offers us, is that it’s intended to be the light upon our path. Some of us read our Bible’s like a man looking into the glare of his flashlight in a dark cave. He is as blind as if he had no light at all because he is not relating what Scripture says with what he’s doing. It’s intended to be a light upon the path.
Sometimes we fall into the mistaken notion that when we obey God’s Word that somehow we are putting God in our debt. But obedience is its own reward. When you step over something that’s in your way because you are walking in the light of God’s Word, you don’t suddenly turn to God and say, ‘Okay God, I obeyed, now pay me!’ The fact that you did not fall on your face is reward enough. And sometimes we fail to make that connection.
Wisdom itself is that ability to see how one thing relates to another in God’s purposes. That this relates to that because of who He is—and He is good and wise. And when we understand this, the commandments of the Lord and the wisdom literature of the bible become a delight to us, not a burden. It is not a distraction from what would have been more enjoyable but rather it’s rescuing from what would have been horrible.”
—Gregg Harris, sermon: “Don’t Waste Your Kids,” July 27, 2008, Covenant Life Church, 1:39-3:15 markers.
And for more on the idea that “obedience is its own reward” check out Deuteronomy 6:24, 10:12-13, and Proverbs 9:12. May we live this out, being people who truly delight in God’s Law (Psalm 1:1-2). And may I never forget it!
