Die Young; burying your self in Christ, by Hayley and Michael Dimarco

Let me first say that Crossway Books sent me an Advance Proof of this book, it has not yet been released to the public.  I want to thank Crossway for making this available to me.

If you were to be told today that you had a week to live how would it change your life?  What would you do different?  Who would you talk to?  What projects would you finish?

Also, if you were told that you were going to die what would you do to try and avoid it?  Or change the outcome? Or maybe you might even feel sorry for yourself and start to go into depression.  No one wants to die, it's a strange thing, knowing that heaven waits for us, we still don't want to die and leave our loved ones behind.

The Dimarco's book looks at death, but it's death to self, not a physical death.  They take a radical stance regarding self death because frankly Jesus took a radical stance at self-death.  Jesus said, if you want to follow me,  then pick up your cross daily and follow me.  In other words, die daily and follow me.  Death is not easy, death is not fun, death is not a picnic, BUT, self-death is guaranteed to bring you freedom and happiness that you have never been able to imagine.

The opening comment from Hayley is, "At the moment that I died my life changed forever. . . " What an interesting statement.  Of course your life changes forever once you die.  But let's step away from the physical death and look at the self-death.  That type of death also will change your life forever.

Each chapter takes us through another aspect of the self-death.  This book is radical and the way it looks at the issue seems radical, but it is really thought provoking and good.  I have not marked up a book this much, nor written in the margins this much in a long time.

Here are the subjects of each chapter;
1.  Death is the New Life (Spiritual life comes out of our self-death)
2.  Down in the New Up  (Luke 14:11 sums it up, "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted")  Are you willing to be humbled?  Are you willing to lead a humble simple life and not try and exalt yourself?
3.  Less is the New More (It's not those of us who have nothing but those of us who wish for more who are poor, Hayley & Michael Dimarco)  Hayley's personal story is that you had an idol in her heart, it was the idol of Shopping Therapy.  She discovered that buying is a drug.  Materialism is our downfall, we hoard when we should disengage and give away.
4. Weak is the New Strong, (bottom line, when we are weak HE is strong).  Here is an excellent quote from this chapter, "After a time we start to learn that passion doesn't equal strength, and our sinful nature rears its ugly head."  We live defeated lives because we are struggling with sin.  Admit your weak and seek the help of Him who is strong.
5.  Slavery is the New Freedom.  (would you rather be the slave or the master?)  In our culture we all believe that we need to be in control of our lives.  But the Dimarcos show us that it is actually more freeing to be a slave to the Master.  The Master gives us our marching orders.  The Master watches out for us.  The Master provides everything we need to do the task we have been called to.  So, it is freeing to be the slave rather than have all the struggles of being the master.

Well, you can see that each of those chapters, as well as two more, have lots of info that you will need to delve into.  The book will drive you to stop and meditate on scripture.  It will force you to admit that you haven't necessarily looked at scripture in a proper manner.  Each chapter has loads of scripture, stop, look them up, read them, write them out, pray them out and ask our Lord and Savior to drive those points home into your life and then start applying them.

Another neat feature of the book is that every few pages you stop and have a personal story (thought) from either Hayley or Michael about their lives and how their lives demonstrate the points they are trying to make.  These are very encouraging snapshots.  They are honest, and often times hit way to close to home for comfort.

At first I wasn't to sure that I was going to like this book.  But I must admit that it took me longer to get through it than normal, why?  Because I kept going back over and over the points they were making and looking at the scripture, writing notes and then asking the Lord, through prayer, to bring these lessons home into my life.

I can't wait for this book to hit the store shelves so that I can order ten of them and take my small group through it.

Thank you Crossway and Hayley and Michael for such a pertinent reminder of why we need to die to self and live for Christ.

Christian Apologetics Past & Present, Volume 2, 1500 to present day

In this second volume from Crossway Books we have biographies and writings from Christian Apologists from the 16th century to present day.  The book starts with Martin Luther and moves through to modern day Apologists such as Os Guiness.

The editors have put together brief biographies of those writers they are highlighting and then give us either an article they have written or a chapter out of one of their famous works.  The intent of the this work is to help every Christian learn more about those writers / theologians who have shaped our thinking in regards to Christianity.

This second volume is over 700 pages, so it is not a quick read, but it is an extensively researched and produced volume that will help everyone who works through it to learn more about the Early Church Fathers up to an including our most modern day thinkers.

Since it is a collection of writings you can pick and choose how you will read through the work.  You can first read about your favorites or read about Apologists you have heard about but have never read.  So, pick and choose the ones you want to start with, but don't ignore those you don't know, you will be encouraged by all of the depth of knowledge and wisdom these thinkers share with us.

Finally, it is hoped that as you become familiar with these scholars that you will want to read other works that they have penned or the full work from which the articles in this work are taken from.

What a valuable tool.

Enjoy!