Our Small Groups have been studying The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller for the last six weeks. We have 11 copies of this book left over and will sell them to you for $10. Yes folks, that's $5 off!! If you've been wanting to read it or pick it up for a gift for someone, now is your chance.
Leave a comment on this post and let me know you want one, then I'll leave it at Southwood Central with your name on it it. You can pay for it when you pick it up!
Enjoy!
Pastor Sara
Last night, like about 1000 other Lincolnites I got the chance to hear Greg Mortenson speak. Mortenson is the author of the book Three Cups of Tea, a Three Cups of Tea young readers edition, and a children's book called Listen to the Wind. (Each of these books will soon be available in Southwood's library.) Greg also has a new book coming out in December called Stones into Schools.
Read the Journal Star article here.
The title of the book Three Cups of Tea comes from something Greg learned when he was rescued by a small Pakistani village after a failed attempt to climb K2. It takes three cups of tea to build a relationship, the first cup we are strangers, the second cup we are friends, the third cup we are family. You know what happens over those cups of tea? Conversation - the essential ingredient to building strong relationships.
From a blog post I wrote last summer after I had read the book, Here are a couple of my favorite lines from the book Three Cups of Tea:
"In times of war, you often hear leaders - Christian, Jewish, and Muslim - saying, 'God is on our side.' but that isn't true. In war, God is on the side of refugees, widows, and orphans."
And from a young woman, educated at the first school built:
"When I was a little sort of girl, I would run away and hide my face. But after I graduated from the Korphe School I felt a big change in my life, I felt I was clear and clean and could go before anybody and discuss anything."
Greg is an incredibly humble man, and that is inspiring. He is building schools one at a time in order to break the cycle of violence. He quotes an African proverb that says: "If you educate a boy, you educate and individual. If you educate a girl, you educate a community." I am just now finishing up a book on the global condition of women called "Half the Sky, Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" look for a review of that next week. I am so thankful that Greg Mortenson is encouraging and equipping girls and women to be educated and to then educate and care for their families and their communities.
You can learn more about Mortenson's work here and see some of his speaking appearances here.
Did you hear Greg last night? What inspired you? Have you read the book?
Pastor Sara
Today Michelle DeRusha (a Southwood member) is blogging about being a scripture reader in church. Michelle Blogs at Graceful, check out her blog - lots of great stories of faith in every day life.
First, I am especially impressed with the amount of preparation Michelle puts into reading the Bible passage for our congregation. I often have people come and find me before a service wondering how to pronounce names or places. I love when its clear as I'm sitting in church that the reader has really thought about the passage.
Second, I'm interested in Michelle's thoughts on the different translations. We are so lucky to have many different English translations of the the Bible. We use The Message translation a lot around Southwood. Like Michelle, at first I was turned off by it - feeling the true meaning of the passage was distorted some how by modern language. But the more I've read it, the more it opens things up to me that I never would have noticed in a more traditional translation.
I recently found a Bible that has The Message and the New International Version (NIV) side by side. I find myself studying from this Bible most often. (I snapped a picture from my cell phone of this Bible to give you an idea of what it looks like.) Sometimes when I think The Message is a little too hokey, I hop across the page to see what the NIV says - its a great resource.
So, If you read scripture for worship how do you prepare? Do you get nervous? Which translation is your favorite?
"The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that." James McCosh
Pastor Sara
Some years ago I read the book Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell. I found it on one of those "take a book, leave a book" shelves in a coffee shop somewhere. I honestly couldn't put it down, I burned through that book about the life of "Luke" the apostle who wrote the Gospel of Luke. I was mesmerized at how this man who never met Jesus took up the mission of tracing his steps, meeting the people who knew him, and diligently writing out the story that would become one of our sacred texts.
I knew all along that this was a work of fiction - but it still opened my mind up to thinking about the real lives of Biblical characters. I remember thinking after finishing Caldwell's book that this Luke character was someone I knew. This is still one of my favorite books of all time.
I remember thinking this again when I read Anita Diamant's book The Red Tent, and Walt Wangerin's The Book of God.
This summer we've been focusing on the People of God, from Abraham and Sarah, to David and Daniel, to Martha and Mary Magdalene. I hope we've done a good job of making these characters real, people who struggle just like we do, people with faith and hope just like ours.
I was excited today to see Lincoln Libraries' list of novels that feature Biblical characters. Check out the list. I've been wanting to read Joseph Girzone's Joshua series for some time - my dad has read and highly recommends all of them. I've also wanted to read Johnny Cash's (yes, the singer!) The Man in White about the apostle Paul.
Have you read any of these or other fictional books that feature Biblical characters? Any recommendations?
Happy Reading!
Pastor Sara
My current status: Sara Spohr is studying the Bible in preparation for a sermon.
I'm studying Peter to be more specific. This Sunday we continue our summer sermon series on people from the Bible and this week Peter takes center stage.
I just wanted to fill you in on a couple of great new resources that I picked up this past weekend for Bible Study. The first is a website with all kinds of information about the Bible. Check out Enter The Bible.
The Second resource is a little book called Crazy Book, A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Biblical Terms.
This book is just what it says a dictionary of Biblical Terms, and its packed with both great information and humor. Here's an example, each Biblical character mentioned in the dictionary reports a little status update.
Here are a few from the "S" section:
I can't believe I'm going to encourage Christmas shopping before I've eaten my turkey. But I wanted to let you in on a great gift idea and a deal.
I have 9 copies of the book When The Game Is Over It All Goes Back In The Box by John Ortberg. Many of you that have read the book have said you wish friends or family would read it too. Give it to them for Christmas!
We sold them for $15, but these last 9 are only $10. What a deal. Email me and let me know if you want one and I'll leave a copy with your name on it in the office.
Pastor Sara
This Sunday was Global Mission Sunday, we lifted up our brothers and sisters in Christ in Tanzania and Honduras. You can hear Sunday's sermon about these three sisters here. I've been thinking about siblings and what it means to be connected to a family. Whether it be our family of origin or our family in Christ, being a part of a family defines who we will be as people!
I've been reading The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield. This is the selection for the Lincoln Library's One Book One Lincoln. Here's a great line from the novel:
This is what happens when we think of a global church, when we think of the church including brothers and sisters around the world. Our world gets "vibrated" a bit because we see the needs of others. We begin to see our stories as interconnected with the stories of others in a new way.
How does being connected to others affect your life? Have you ever felt the vibrating in your life because someone else in the web has been disturbed?
Pastor Sara
I'm intrigued by six word memoirs. (count them....that's 6!) It's a project that's turned into a book. Maybe it's true, maybe it's folklore (hey! that's 6 words!), but supposedly Hemingway's response to a challenge to write a story in 6 words was: "For Sale: Baby shoes. Never worn." Now there's a six-worder that makes you want to know more! Here are some others from the book entitled (in 6 words) Not Quite What I Was Planning:
I still make coffee for two.
Sperm too potent, now have triplets.
Never really finished anything, except cake.
Asked to quiet down; spoke louder.
See more illustrated six-word memoirs here (6 words again!)
So the whole 6 word thing has me thinking....How would you describe your faith story in just 6 words?
Here's mine:
God is God. I am not.
How about you? Just try it! (see? 6 again...it's easy!) Comment to this post so we can see your six-word faith story. (I've done four 6-worders just in this post....c'mon! you can do it!)
Kim Turnage
In the summer I love getting a little more time to do some reading. My favorite thing about reading is finding new ways that people express their faith in words, in stories, or in action. It seems like even if the author didn't intend something to be spiritual - I always seem to find the spiritual in it. Its what I look for and I love when it happens. This summer I've read a couple of non-fiction books and one great novel.
First I read Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Three Cups of Tea was recommended by Faye a long time ago. I finally got a chance to read it. Now it is actually one of the One Book, One Lincoln finalists. It is the story of Greg Mortenson's quest to climb K2 that turned into a quest to educate girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He eventually founded the Central Asia Institute and has built over 60 schools. You can see more of the projects here and visit the CAI website here.
Here are a couple of my favorite lines from Three Cups of Tea:
"In times of war, you often hear leaders - Christian, Jewish, and Muslim - saying, 'God is on our side.' but that isn't true. In war, God is on the side of refugees, widows, and orphans."
And from a young woman, educated at the first school built:
"When I was a little sort of girl, I would run away and hide my face. But after I graduated from the Korphe School I felt a big change in my life, I felt I was clear and clean and could go before anybody and discuss anything."
Next I read Canoeing With The Cree, by Eric Sevareid
After my own canoe trip this summer, my brother-in-law recommended Canoing With The Cree. This is the true story of two high schoolers in 1930 who decided to canoe from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay, 2250 miles. What an amazing story of adventure, perseverance, and admiration of creation.
My favorite line was this:
I cannot imagine how a lake could be more thrillingly beautiful than God’s lake. Its no wonder that name, God’s country indeed. Such sights as this are reserved for those who would suffer to behold them.
It reminded me of Martin Luther's understanding of faith - Luther said:
It is impossible to write well about [Faith] or to understand what has been written about it unless one has at one time or another experienced the courage which faith gives a man when trials oppress him.
Finally, I've just finished reading My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok.
My Name is Asher Lev is a story about a young man's struggle between the secular world of an artist, and life as a Ladover Hasidic Jew. It is really a very dark book, but I was enthralled in Asher's attempts to bring his experiences of family, pain, and faith to life in artwork.
One touching moment was a conversation between Asher and his mother about death. Asher asks her why people die and her response is this:
"So life would be precious, Asher. Something that is yours forever is never precious."
What have you been reading?
Pastor Sara
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