Book Review: Has God Spoken? by Hank Hanegraaff

I recently read through Hank Hanegraaff's Has God Spoken? and must admit that it was better than I expected.  I have heard Mr. Hanegraaff on the radio (Bible Answer Man) and while I did not always agree with everything that he said I found him to be knowledgeable and well spoken.  

In this book he discusses how we can know that our Bible today is reliable, accurate and divinely inspired.  Hanegraaff utilizes several acronyms to help us remember his salient points.  The book is divided into four sections: Manuscripts, Archaeology, Prophecy & Scripture-- each showing the mounds of evidence that the Bible is in fact God's inspired Word.  

I appreciate that Hanegraaff does not shy away from contradictions or "errors" that are supposed to exist in our version of the Bible.  Rather, he addresses these head on and explains or expounds, but does not make excuses. 

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the truth about how we got our Bible.  After this reading I have a new appreciation for just how reliable our scripture is. The integrity of the manuscripts, the evidence offered through archaeology, and the fulfilled prophecies can leave little doubt that what we possess today is an accurate copy of what God has spoken.

Snow in Okinawa!

So last Saturday we all enjoyed playing in the snow.  No, it does not snow here, but our local shopping center decided to rent a snow making machine and let the kids slide and make snow people and enjoy the cold white stuff.

It was really warm too, like 65 degrees F, so most people were dressed in shorts and flip-flops which made a nice contrast to the snow.  The girls had an absolute blast for the 5 minutes that the snow lasted.

Book Review: Extraordinary by John Bevere

This book doesn't quite live up to its title.  While Extraordinary makes many excellent points, there are also a couple that I disagree with.  The title, Extraordinary, refers to the kind of life that God would have us to live.  

Too many people focus only on what happens here and now with little thought of what happens afterwards.  Too many Christians focus only on what happens afterwards and do not put enough effort or thought into life here on earth.  Bevere stresses that while we do have the knowledge and assurance of eternal life, we ought not neglect the life we have on this world.  Christians ought to be the pinnacle of excellence in every field.  The world should emulate our excellence, he writes.

How we can live this “excellent life” is through a “grace-powered” life.  Grace is not just the basis for which we are saved, but it is an empowering force that enables us to live a life that is pleasing to God.  When we live this way, we “bring creativity, insight, resources, and other benefits of life and Godly power to those we influence.”  In other words, as we look for ways to reach out to the hurting, we can influence others in every area of our life.

While these and some other good points are made and backed by scripture, the problem I had was with two other points.  First, Bevere states that it is due to our lack of faith that God does not work as much as He could in our life. While this is true, I feel he takes it too far when he states “it’s ludicrous to believe that God doesn’t want us healthy.”  In Bevere’s view, if we had enough faith we would always get healed.  Worse, he goes on to say that when we stand before God, we will be judged on how much faith we had.

The second problem I had is when Bevere states that “men and women will determine whether or not the will of God gets done on this earth!”  While I do agree that we do not always listen to what God wants us to do, I do not agree that God’s Will is subject to man.  I believe that God’s Will will be accomplished regardless of man.  If God wants to use you to do something and you refuse to do it, then God will have someone else do it instead.  God will always do what He wants to do, when He wants to do it.  To suggest that God is limited by us and our faith is an extraordinary, but misleading, claim.

This book was provided by Waterbrook Multnomah Press in exchange for an honest review.

The opinions expressed are my own and have not been influenced in any way.

Year in Review 2011

Here's a little video we put together of our main events this year:

Free Album Download

We're not too familiar with Josh Garrels-- actually, I've never heard of him.  Apparently, he is an award winning Christian Music Artist.  He felt that God wanted him to give away his latest album, so he did!


If you're interested, here is the link for the free download:
http://joshgarrels.bandcamp.com/

And hey, Merry Christmas, from us and Josh!

Christmas Blessings!

Merry Christmas to our friends and family around the world.



We had a (mostly) quiet Christmas at home with family.

Debe's mom and two sisters came over Saturday night and mom stayed for Sunday.

We had  a nice church service and a yummy lunch.

We feel very blessed this year and pray that you have too!


Some images:

Christmas Caroling

Our school has a tradition of going Christmas caroling around some local shops in the community.

While optional, many staff, students and parents showed up.  We had enough participants that we made two groups.


In addition to singing, we also handed out candycanes attached to tracts.



Both groups planned to end up finishing up at Jusco (its like a Walmart).  Afterwards, we got some grub...