Book Review: The Heart Mender by @andyandrews (Andy Andrews)

 

The Heart Mender: A Story of Second Chances

Ever read a book that you just kind of wish is true?  That's my take on The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews.  It's a charming story of love and forgiveness, and it's woven into the historical setting of World War II America.  For the narrative alone, the book is worth the read, but the message it contains is well worth absorbing as well.

However, let's drop back a minute.  This book was originally published under the title Island of Saints.  I read Island of Saints and enjoyed it greatly.  Now, Andrews has released it under a new title, with a few minor changes.  All of this is explained in the Author's Note at the beginning, but should be noted for purchaser's sake.  If you read Island of Saints, you're rereading when you read The Heart Mender.  Now, go ahead and reread it.  It will not hurt you one bit.

Overall, the story is well-paced.  There are points where I'd like more detail, both in the history and the geography, but Andrews states his intention of shrouding actual identities, and it's hard to shroud someone's identity if you give precise directions to their home.  So, for the purpose of providing setting, the story provides enough detail.

If you've read Andy Andrews before, you know he's not just this story for entertainment.  Woven throughout the story are various lessons and messages.  Most of these come back to the central theme of forgiveness, but there are other gems within. 

One of the additional features of The Heart Mender over Island of Saints is a "Where are they now?" section.  It closes out the work nicely.  Also present is a study guide for contemplation or group discussion.

I would highly recommend this book.

Ack!  Correction to original: Booksneeze book!  Read Disclosures! Free book for review.

Beyond the Review: Here's one additional issue with this book.  In the Author's Note, Andrews assures us that this is a true story, blurred enough to respect privacy.  As evidence, there are photos that stated to have come from his own finds in his yard and general links to the broader history referenced in the book.  There is no way for a third-party to verify or disprove the facts of the story.

Now, as far as I can tell, Andy Andrews is a man of integrity, and I'll take his word for it, but it's important to recognize that the message of the story will be ignored if he's shown to have been false.  I've recently read another book that my wife reviewed that contained moving elements that were there to reinforce the author's point.  He waited until the end to acknowledge that, while half the book was non-fiction, the other half was complete fiction.  It destroyed his point, because he had used the fictional section as his illustration of how something was possible when it was, in fact, only his imagination.

So, to Andy Andrews and authors and publishers everywhere: don't fake it.  I've read enough to know that life presents amazing and strange stories that are unbelievable but true.  So I can see this as possible.  I'll accept Andrews claim that he's heard more stories similar to this one, and would even believe these types of things happened in Southeast Arkansas (we had both a POW Camp and Japanese Internment Camps down here).  But don't blow it: if you lie to your readers, especially to assure us something is true that you know isn't, you hurt both yourself and your message.  Keep it straight.  There's a line there, and you shouldn't even flirt with it.

Not an accusation to Mr. Andrews.  As I stated: I believe him, and do not doubt his integrity, but it's a point worth mentioning multiple times: don't fake non-fiction.

Revolution…

Timing is everything, and I haven't wanted this post to be perceived as targeted at one particular political escapade.  However, now that tonight (March 22) we're one day removed from Congress approving a trillion dollar health insurance change law, and there's no telling what will come next, I'm going to finish writing this post and then program it for later.  If something major happened yesterday, I'm not commenting on that directly.

I'm pondering the general direction of our country.  That direction is apart from itself and adrift from the intent of its founding.  It really is.  We have made great strides as a nation.  We've come to the understanding that "all men are created equal" is to be understood as "all humans are created equal" whether they look like us or not.  We've embraced, at least in idea, that race or gender has no place as a determinant in the future of a person.  We've acknowledged that those old enough to be drafted are old enough to vote, even if not old enough to purchase handguns or beers.

However, we've also made some mistakes along the way.  We've become a nation that makes more money than ever before but has no idea why it matters.  We're willing to trade lives for convenience, whether they are young or old, drafted or volunteer.  We're so concerned about offending others that we will trade our security for it, and then lose that too. 

Meanwhile, there's a growing agitation among Americans.  The people are getting fed up with the government, the governing bodies are getting fed up with the people, and the disconnects are getting stronger.  Don't think the government's tired of the people?  Go visit the US Capitol.  Can't get in? That's right, you can't.  They won't let you.  $600 million (or more) was spent to build a visitor's center you can go to, so you can stay away from the people that represent you.  More and more people are speaking up that we're losing our liberty as Americans.

It's been going on for years.  The federal government ran a surplus in 2000.  Then, rightfully, the effort was made to stop running a surplus.  Except that, if you have debt, you have no surplus.  You pay down debt.  And then we went and spent back into a deficit, and maxed out the nation's credit.  The government is now on track to meddle in healthcare enough that costs will exceed what people can afford.  There are also pending bills that will escalate the cost of anything considered possibly environmentally bad that will make energy costs untenable.  These laws are being pushed into being by people that also hold that people shouldn't own guns or eat cheeseburgers.  With the government taking responsibility for everyone's healthcare (they are), how long before I can't own a gun because it's a health risk or can't have a cheeseburger because grilling is causing global warming?

The difficulty is that many people who wish to protest these things have expressed in can happen "over their dead bodies" or that "you can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead fingers."

Ladies and gentlemen, that's exactly what's going to happen.  We have allowed ourselves to become so divided, not by ideology or heart, but by time.  We don't take the time to gather together, we don't know our neighbors.    We are so busy chasing the dollars that we spend on stuff imported from our enemies that we are too exhausted to put any effort into what we ought to be as a nation.

And so, true patriots will be willing to die for their country and their liberty.  The enemies of liberty will be glad to help us with this.  We are quick to quote Jefferson or Franklin about liberty, even Patrick Henry, but we rarely remember the quote from Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

We must grasp that the difference between dying for the sake of liberty and dying to assure liberty to our posterity is organization.  We've seen easily in Iran the necessity of an armed populace to hold off tyranny, which is part of the purpose of the Second Amendment.  The First Amendment contains an important freedom we neglect to consider: the right of the people to "peaceably assemble."  The Founders were not thinking of protests.  They were remembering the drill of Minutemen in the commons and public areas, preparing for the potential need of revolution.  They were remembering the need for an organized effort to overthrow tyranny.

If we are going to secure for ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty, we've got to read the history and understand the roadmap our Founding Fathers left us: a free press to proclaim the wrongs of government; a free pulpit to proclaim the Word of God (and free any other religion you want, but they weren't thinking of Wiccans at the time); free assembly to discuss the problems; and free petition to express directly to the government what the wrongs and problems were.

When those are found inadequate, the right of the people to keep and bear arms is necessary, lest the militia cease being well-regulated and the state cease being free.

People, it's time we stop individual bickering and bantering.  Are we serious about liberty or not?  Are we willing to stop being bought off or dissuaded by one party's promises over another's?  We're in this mess because we've allowed Republicans and Democrats to play us against each other to their own gain.

It is time that we begin to do something.  Give it another election, certainly, but we must begin to assemble and petition.  Not assemble and shout, not assemble and disrespect, but assemble and organize our views of what is wrong and why, and what to actually do about it.  Then, express what steps we will take to see those petitions met.  And what consequences if they are not.

Unless we want to bequeath to posterity the saying that "The fundamental difference between revolution and martyrdom is organization."

 

Doug

Monday Morning May 10

It's Monday morning again.  Weren't we just here last week?  Ok, so it comes once a week.  Well, to the day:

Step 1: Review recording from yesterday's services.  It's awful.  Too much space between recording point and source.  The microphone we're using is not designed to pick up a single speaker across a gymnasium.  So, this week, we've got no sermon audio for you.  Which, in all honesty, doesn't bother me that much.

Why?  Well, I'm not sure I was well on track with my speaking skills.  The text was good, the outline was good, but the delivery, I thought, sounded a little shaky.  Part of it was that we had a children's skit at the beginning of the service, and one of the participants was about as hammed up as one can get.  He's usually a good kid.  Just a little on the goofy side, like his father.  So, it was a little hard to recover from my son's antics in the skit.  I think my voice was shaky from it, and I didn't project well. 

Which is a big deal for me.  I use a headset microphone when I preach, but I really prefer to not need it.  If you're dependent on the technology, you're beholden to it, for good or for ill.  So, I try to be able to go without it.  Not so yesterday.

Step 2: online the recording: Not going to happen, not with the quality issues. 

Step 3: Review statistics from yesterday: attendance, giving down from last Sunday.  I know we had some folks out to see their mothers for Mother's Day, a few others out due to baseball tournaments.

Step 4:  Post Sermon Outlines:

Text: Matthew 9:35-38

Theme: Workers for the kingdom

Date: May 9 2010 AM

Location: CBC Monticello

1. The Kingdom of God needs workers

   1. There are people in need physically

   2. There are people in need spiritually

   3. There are people that are ready to enter the Kingdom

2. Mothers are a part of that:

   1. First role:

      1. Expanding the kingdom from home

      2. Few have more impact on children than their mothers

         1. “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world” (William Ross Wallace)

      3. Mothers grow the kingdom first by influencing their children to follow Christ:

         1. In prayer

         2. In example

         3. In compassion

         4. this does not diminish the father's responsibility, but supplements it

      4. Mothers grow the kingdom from home by prayerfully encouraging their husbands to be servants of Christ first

         1. by not demanding to be kept equal with the world

         2. by accepting the derision of the world for their Godliness

         3. Proverbs 31:10-31; Titus 2:3-5

   2. Second role:

      1. Releasing their children to serve Christ

      2. How many times have you chosen rightly because of the encouraging mother in your life?

      3. Biblical examples of Hannah, Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist); Timothy's mother and grandmother

      4. Historical examples:

      5. A Godly mother encourages her children to place the kingdom of God first in their hearts, above all else

3. We ought to, as a church, encourage Biblical & Godly Motherhood

   1. In our teaching

   2. In our actions

   3. In our fellowship

   4. In our training of younger generations

 

Text: Philippians 3:17-21

Theme: Citizenship test

Date: May 9 2010 PM

Location: CBC Monticello

1. Citizenship Matters

   1. Many of us have grown up in America as American citizens, and don't grasp the historical implications of citizenship

   2. The modern age is really the first that extends nearly identical privileges to citizens and non-citizens. In the USA, voting and jury duty seem to be the main 2 differences.

      1. Realistically, there are many more, from not needing to renew “alien” status cards to not being deportable to various individualized benefits depending on what part of the government you're dealing with

      2. There are also substantial advantages we would see if we were outside of the US-in terms of US Embassy/Consulate help

      3. But, to most of our normal lives, we just don't see it

   3. In the Roman Empire, only a portion of the population were citizens. They had more rights and lower taxes than non-citizens. There were legal rights, voting rights, and property ownership rights

   4. Look at Paul's statement in Acts 22:23-28

2. Yet here, Paul is highlighting which citizenship really matters

   1. It is as citizens of heaven that we derive our identity

   2. Any other citizenship comes second

3. We would do well to focus our attention on examples worth following

   1. Since we are to be focused on our citizenship in heaven, our examples should reflect that:

      1. Walk according to the pattern Paul and others showed

      2. Walk according to the hope of Christ transforming us

      3. Walk according to the subjection of all things to Christ.

   2. Since we are to be focused on our citizenship in heaven, our examples should not be those that:

      1. Walk as enemies of the cross of Christ in word

      2. Walk as enemies of the cross of Christ in deed

      3. Walk as enemies of the cross of Christ in belief

4. Where will we find our examples to follow?

 

 

Step 5: Start looking at this week: Graduate recognition Sunday, Baptist Association Board meeting tonight, business meeting Wednesday.  Sermons to prep: Matthew 10:5-15; Philippians 4:1-2 (or 3).  Books to be read: Holiness  by J.C. Ryle; The Good News We Almost Forgot by Kevin DeYoung; and for fun: The Revolutionary Paul Revere by Joel Miller.

 

Have a good one!

Book Review: Radical by David Platt

It's a two book review week.  Next week, there will only be 1, and then 1 the next week.  After that, I'm not sure when my next book reviews will come.  I've got a few books I'd like to get read for my own personal growth, and then there's the desperate need to gather and grow for ministry purposes.  Then this fall school starts, and I'll be writing book reviews for the academic process.  That's going to be different from the blog book review writing.  Anyway, read the Disclosures! regarding whether or not I get paid for reviews.  Summary: I don't.  WaterBrook/Multnomah gave me the book, gave me a copy to give away, and asked that I send you on the link to their website for more info.  Enough said.

Review:  The subject of today's review is Radical by David Platt.  The subtitle is Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.  If you'd like to take a read at the first chapter, there's a link right here.  Here's how the book looks:

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

This book stirred several reactions in myself, but I'm going to limit my responses in this review.  I have become somewhat of a cynic, and tend to question those who write books that tell us to question things.  Part of me thinks it's fair, but it doesn't add to an understanding of the text.  So, let's just look at the text.  What has David Platt presented us with in Radical?

This is a book that is designed, basically, to present questions more than answers.  In that end, Platt succeeds.  He has organized a book that builds well from chapter to chapter, leading the reader to the point he's aiming at: that we can not always be both effective followers of Christ and effectively fulfill the American dream of wealth and privilege. 

There are 219 pages of content, including a challenge at the end to consider a change in life for one year.  These pages are easy to read, the typeface is clear, and the margins are adequate for making notes as you read through it.

The one difficulty I had with the book itself was that it is somewhat loose on direct application.  I assume that the purpose was for the reader to draw their own conclusion, but I would have liked to have seen more direct suggestions.  At more than one point, Platt raises a question of whether we should all either sell everything or all go into international missions or other wide-ranging questions, then backpedals to say, "but we may not all have to do that." It's a bit of a hedge in my opinion, but it does not destroy the overall value of the book.

To read or not to read?  Read it.  Buy it and give it as graduation gifts to high school and college graduates this year.  Then keep a copy for yourself and read it.  If we would push through even a portion of these ideas in the next 3 years in American churches, we'd see an amazing difference.  (The SBC wouldn't even need a GCR Task Force!)

The review package included a copy of The Radical Question, which is a summarizing booklet of this work.  It would be an excellent quick handout to church members on a Sunday morning, coupled with a sermon on the need for evangelism.  I wouldn't rush to buy the booklet for personal reading, but for handouts, it would be great.  If you're going to buy, buy the book.

 

Doug

Some Extended Thoughts on SBC Life

In 1925, a loose organization of churches came together to find a way to establish stable support for their collective efforts. What was born from the experience is now called the Cooperative Program. It's grown to be the funding basis for over $300 million in annual support for mission work, higher education, political activism, and coordination.

The difficulty has become this: where money goes, power and controversy follow. The truth seems to be that there is rarely enough money to go around. I remember the first year the IMB went over a $200 million budget, and it was wonderful! Then, it became not much, and has since become far too low. Same thing with the budgets of seminaries and the North American Mission Board.

As such, we've had our share of fighting and disputing over the years about how to prioritize and spend the money. We've had plenty of moments where we've not been pleased with how the decisions were being made. It has extended, at times, to disputes with the people involved. Sometimes this has been because the people have been the wrong people in the wrong place, but sometimes it's just been that we have not been willing to allow people to hold different priorities or different ideas.

This has not been good for us as Southern Baptists. I think we have, over the last 50 years especially, but probably longer, probably all the way back to the turn of the 20^th Century and the battles with Landmarkism and Norrisism, become a fighting people. Not just a people that fights for things, but just people that fight. It's one thing to fight for something. We should fight for the truth of God's Word. We should fight for providing care for widows, orphans, and the weak. We should fight against evil things and evil people. We have struggled to do these things.

Yet we have also sometimes behaved like an army without an enemy. We've institutionalized our willingness to fight so much that, even if we don't have a valid reason to fight, we need to do it. We won the “Battle for the Bible” but then we had to pick a fight over specific interpretations of the Bible. An example would be our absolute insistence that women not teach men to the point that we, as Southern Baptists, have fired women from teaching Biblical languages in seminary. Which is odd, since the Scriptures don't speak to seminary qualifications. We've added to the idea that deacons not be given to much wine, but subtracted from being the husband of one wife.

Book Review: Plan B

Today, we're going to take a quick look at Pete Wilson's new book,  Plan B.  It's coming out today from Thomas Nelson Publishers.  And, of course, to warn you: I got the book free from Thomas Nelson in exchange for writing this review.  It's from their Booksneeze program and you can read more in Disclosures! if you need to.  Of course, I think the FTC (and any government agency) should be a little more concerned about real problems than whether or not a blogger with a small audience paid for the books he reviewed or got them free…moving on:

Plan B: What Do You Do When God Doesn't Show Up the Way You Thought He Would?

Review: Pete Wilson has written a good book here.  I don't think you'll see it go down in history as one of the great classics of Christian writing, but neither should it rapidly find the "please, just take this book away" pile.  It's written in an easy style, and the content is well grounded in Scripture.

What Wilson has done in this book is take a look at the various ways that our lives don't turn out the way we expect.  Whether it's failed marriages or lost jobs, tragic deaths or crippling accidents, there are few tragedies that are not addressed here.  Wilson then goes on to give Biblical examples of similar, and sometimes worse, situations.  These are given to highlight the fact that God has often not followed exactly the plan people have expected Him to follow. 

One of the things to like about this book is the inclusion of a study guide at the end of the book.  This helps with the idea of using the book as a group learning experience.  I'd recommend that.  First of all, it will help combat the syndrome in our churches that we expect our Plan A to always work out, when we should openly realize that it often won't.  Second, group study and group discussion of the ways God has worked through the Plan B, C, D, and on down will strengthen others.

I had a few dislikes in the book.  There's no way around this one, and that is: Pete Wilson is a pastor.  As a pastor, he knows people's life situations and confidential issues.  Some of these he shares anonymously, while others he apparently received permission to share with names and details.  I would prefer he stick with the stories that he has permission to share with details.  People's curiosity is often piqued by anonymous stories, and it costs you credibility to assure that while you can't say who it was, you know it happened.  It may seem like you lose your most powerful examples that way, but you keep the focus on the content, not the curiosity about the sources.

My other disagreement would come from some of Pastor Wilson's Bible passage choices, but those are open to interpretation.  It's not that he chooses bad Scripture, just that my understanding of the context, especially of direct application of Old Testament prophetic passages, is different from his. 

I don't hesitate to recommend this book at all. 4 stars out of 5.

 

Now, a new occasional feature of my book reviews

Beyond the review: While I mostly liked this book, and fully agree with Pastor Wilson's reasons for writing it, I wish this book wasn't necessary.  Essentially, this book is written to help us see past the fluff version of Christianity that many Americans have come to believe in.  And that's got to stop.  You have preachers being arrested in supposedly free European countries, preachers being executed in Communist dictatorships like China, Christians being slaughtered in Africa, and while I'm writing this review, Tom Ascol has tweeted that he heard from a brother in Christ that has had a price put on his head in his Muslim community.

Folks, it's time we grow up in the American branch of the church and realize that our American Dream planning and God's Kingdom are more and more exclusive of each other.  We're so wrapped up in ourselves that we can't see what we're supposed to be doing.  Our churches, myself as a pastor included, have got to teach what the Bible teaches, rather than making Christian faith into a "it's all going to be okay" self-help group.  Sure, it's all going to be okay.  At some point during the Millennial Reign of Christ or shortly there after in Eternity.  We've created a faith that lacks any form of substance that will truly sustain people.

And we've got to stop it. 

Monday May 3

In case you've ever wondered, not that you've asked, but I typically spend my Mondays trying to process the Sunday before.  I go back over notes about the service, attendance information, notes from any committee meetings, and sometimes listen to the worship service.  I try to figure out what went well, what went poorly, and what caused anything else.

This I usually do while I'm getting the church sermons put together to put online.  I'm not sure either one of these is doing anyone any good, but the exercise in futility helps me to understand some things better.  How was yesterday?  Well, we had some technical problems in the morning service which caused a rough start, but it went ok.  Music was alright.  Solo was good, but bizarre microphone popping was a distraction.  Sermons were ok morning and evening, not great, but not the worst I've ever delivered.  Committee meetings in the afternoon was about as I expected it to be.  Meanwhile…

 

I've now got the files ready for the Media Player, so here are the sermons and the sermon outlines:

Go To FileFactory.com

(By the way: STE-000.mp3 is Sunday night.  New recording device named the file that, and I forgot to change it.)

Text: Matthew 9:14-17

Theme: A Burst Life!

Date: May 2, 2010 AM

Location: CBC Monticello

1. Text:

   1. Explanations:

      1. Fasting:

         1. The Pharisees, as many of the religious people of the day, fasted at least 1 day a week

         2. The purpose being to help the person focus more on God and less on things

      2. Wine fermenting

         1. Grape juice poured into skins to age: normal practice

         2. In the process, gas bubbles are formed and escape

      3. Bridegrooms and Feasting

         1. A time to celebrate new life

         2. A time to celebrate hope for the future

         3. A time to celebrate covenants

   2. Quick notes:

      1. Recorded also in Luke 5:36-39

      2. Also: patching clothes: most of us are well aware of that principle

2. Principle:

   1. There is a time for mourning

   2. There is a time for fasting

   3. There is a time for feasting

   4. There is a time for celebration

   5. There is a time for repair

   6. There is a time for newness

3. Application:

   1. The parable associates the work of God in our lives as if it were the new wine being poured into wineskins

   2. The point is:

      1. God's work in our lives is not guaranteed to be easy

      2. God's work in our lives can, in fact, be destructive if we are not willing to change the formats we expect God to work in

      3. God's work in our church is the same way

      4. We cannot expect God to work in us or our church and have things remain the same

ARE YOU PREPARED TO HAVE GOD BURST YOUR LIFE?

 

Text: Philippians 3:12-16

Theme: Fughetaboudit!

Date: May 2 2010 PM

Location: CBC Monticello

1. We're looking at the balance between God's work in our lives and our responsibility for our own lives

   1. Christ has made us His own: we are already fully bought by God

      1. This is complete

      2. This is irreversible

   2. We are responsible for living up to what God has done in us

      1. This is not complete

      2. This is reversible

2. How will we accomplish what we are responsible for?

   1. By forgetting the past:

      1. First, forgetting our failures

         1. We must acknowledge they exist

         2. We must accept God's forgiveness

         3. We must stop trying to undo the ones that cannot be undone

            1. Marriage

            2. Children

            3. Other Permanent decisions

      2. Second, forgetting our successes

         1. That's right

         2. A ship does not sail on yesterday's wind

3. We must press on to the goal

   1. It is to us to supply the energy

   2. We can because God has already bought us

   3. We can because God is with us

   4. We can because God has commanded us

   5. It is a matter of the will

4. Notice the collective nature of the terms: we, many, us

   1. This is not a task for loners

   2. This is not a task that we abandon others in our pursuit of doing

   3. This is a task for the church!