Summer Reading Club weeks 4 and 5

I am knee deep in VBS planning this week (it starts Monday- I am one of the directors so I work more the week before than the week of-I delegate everything next week!) Sooooo....here are the 2 books I did manage to squeeze in to my time.

SRC blog is here



Short but excellent book. Matt Redman is an amazing songwriter (which everyone reading this probably already knows). To be able to get inside his mind and passion for worship music was very eye-opening. Matt explains how our worship should be ALL about God and not us or what we are going to get out of it. Matt tells us "to worship facedown is the ultimate outward sign of inner reverence". One day we know that EVERY knee will bow to Jesus but what a wonderful thing to bow now. Have you ever been brought to your face before Him? At Creation Northeast a few weeks ago now I was listening to Chris Tomlin sing "Amazing Grace" and I was so overcome with the magnitude of what Jesus had freed me from that I could no longer stand up. I was facedown in the dirt on that field and no one else was around but me and Jesus.

Matt takes us through different aspects of worship. What is it, what it is not, how it may look and how God is to be approached. One of my favorite quotes is "Yet let's not be fooled into thinking that this story is all about us. It never has been, and it never will be." Not many people today buy into that notion at all. I was also struck by the chapter pertaining to silence. We are such busy people and silence just does not seem to exist in our world. We miss God because of this....busyness (is that how you spell that?) and noise work to satan's advantage! There is a quote by Bill Hybels in the book "Is the ambient noise level of my life low enough for me to hear the whispers of the Lord?" Wow....ask yourself that one!

The chapter called AWESTRUCK hit me right between the eyes. I like the word "awesome" and I used it alot. That is going to change. Job 25:2 tells us that "dominion and awe belong to God". Awe is to be God's alone. Not a person, not a song, not a trip, not a movie....only God. I want to reserve my awe for the only one worthy of it!

I enjoyed this book and I actually thought about the Christian artists I enjoy listening to and wondered if they approached their music in the same way Matt tries to do.





Not exactly light reading but worth the effort. I read this for the other book club I am in! I have read alot of CS Lewis but not this one. This book is a collection of addresses that CS Lewis spoke between 1939 to 1956. It addresses many of the issues of the day (which are also the issues of our day). CS Lewis speaks in such a way to expand your mind but not too over your head. It is difficult to review this book because each address is a totally different topic. Just let me say that it was worth my time to sit down and read this (but once again it is not light reading...turn off that tv and read it!).