After last year's Fall into Reading challenge from Callapidder Days, Katrina is encouraging us to return to our bookshelves with the Spring Reading Thing 2007. She writes:

Have you fallen behind on your To-Be-Read list? Do you have five books that you've started but haven't finished? Have you been meaning to get around to that great book your friend recommended but just haven't done it yet? Do you love to read and to find out what everyone else is reading? Then this challenge is for you!

I've spent some time looking through my bookshelves and the piles of books that sit waiting for more bookshelves to be built to pick some that I hope to read before the end of the challenge. Feel free to steal any of my ideas or to suggest any that you think I should read in the future!

Practical Prayer
by Derek Prime
After hearing him speak on prayer a few years ago, this has been one of the most useful books I own. Things have been a bit more difficult recently, so I think I need to read this - then, more importantly, put it in to practice!





The Inheritance of Loss
by Kiran Desai
I was given this as a present for my birthday, so you can tell how long it has been sitting on my bookshelf. She loved it but I've tried to read it a few times but not got past the first chapter yet...





A Third Testament
by Malcolm Muggeridge
This looks at the spiritual lives of some very influential men of God throughout the ages, such as Augustine of Hippo, Blaise Pascal, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Deitrich Bonhoeffer. I've read a lot of their writings so I am looking forward to learning more about them.




Perfecting Ourselves to Death
by Richard Winter
This is described on the back as "the 'perfect' book for those who struggle with perfectionism". I know that I tend towards this so it will be helpful to look at the positive and negative sides of perfectionism and what to do about it.




How to Read a Paper: The basics of evidence based medicine
by Trisha Greenhalgh
My final entry is really for work. I've got a few interviews coming up so this will be good to read - it currently just sits on my bookshelf looking impressive!






Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter.
Edwin Paxton Hood, American minister (1820-1885)

This comes from John Dekker's Journal - let me know if you do this too!

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback?

I do most of my reading in bed or on the train, so I prefer paperback. For reference books or my favourite books, hardback is best.

Online purchase or brick and mortar?

Online is fine if I know exactly what I am looking for, but I look to wander round bookshops, looking at books, picking them up and taking plenty of time to decide what to read next.

Barnes & Noble or Borders?

We don't have Barnes & Noble up here, so I'll have to say Borders, especially as they have good coffee and muffins there too. If you ever come to visit me in Scotland, we'll have to go to visit my favourite bookshop - Leakie's in Inverness is an amazing second hand bookshop. It is in a huge old church and has books on everything imaginable!

Bookmark or dog-ear?

I'm with John on this one - never dog-ear a book. I have plenty of bookmarks although if you flick through some of my books, you'd be able to tell which trains I was on at the time and when!

Mark or not mark?

I can't mark books, but I keep notes in a notebook for the different books I read. My diary is also full of little messages to myself based on whatever I was reading that day.

Alphabetise by author or alphabetize by title or random?

For someone who is just a little more than a little obsessive, I am uncharacteristically unorganised with my many books. They have expanded out of the bookshelves and now form artistic piles on the floor! I've gone for purposely not organising my books to encourage folk to have a look at all the piles, rather than keeping all the 'religious' books in one section.

Keep, throw away, or sell?

If it was a good book, I'll keep it. Otherwise, it will be added into the latest charity shop box or given to a friend or one of the family in case they might like it.

Keep dust-jacket or toss it?

I actually don't know my answer to this. Looking at my bookshelves from where I sit at the moment, I have so few hardbacks that came with dustjackets. I'd most likely keep them, I think.

Read with dust-jacket or remove it?

If it is a reference book and I am reading it at my desk, the dustjacket can stay on. If I am reading it in bed, it will need to come off.

Short story or novel?

I like good long complex novels to really get your teeth into over months (well, days...).

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)?

It depends. Roald Dahl has written some great collections of short stories and I'm enjoying reading Tove Jansson's A Winter Book. It's good to be introduced to new authors through anthologies.

Lord of the Rings or Narnia.

Oooh, tough choice! They are both amazing! I loved the Chronicles of Narnia as a child, but Lord of the Rings is so amazingly detailed.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?

When I am tired - I always want to read more. When I am supposed to be working and revising, I have to make myself stop at chapter headings. I was sitting my finals for medical school when the fifth Harry Potter came out so had to hide it from myself until the afternoon after my final exam. The results were coming out that afternoon so sitting out in the sun and reading Harry Potter was the perfect way to distract myself from the impending news!

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?

It depends what sort of mood I am in. I definitely have more gothic phases yet sometimes curling up with Jane Austen is the best way to spend an evening.

Buy or Borrow?

I'll buy more often, but I love borrowing from friends and recommending books from my bookshelves for my friends to borrow.

New or used?

Both.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse?

I'll take recommendations from friends but enjoy just wandering round bookshops, particularly good second hand ones.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger?

If there is not going to be a sequel, then please tie up most of the loose ends, or I will spend the rest of the night wondering what happened!

Morning reading, afternoon reading or night time reading?

I get some time to read on the train, but I tend to read medical journals or more serious tomes then. In the evening, I'll read fiction. I can't go to sleep without reading, at least for a few minutes. It helps me to wind down a little from the busyness of the day.

Standalone or series?

I can't really decide here. Looking at my bookshelves, almost all of them are standalone books, but I have a few collections of books by the same author.

Favourite series?

Is it a bad thing that I want to ask my boss not to make me work on the 21st July? It's just that my friends will be reading it too and I don't want to know the ending until I've read it.

Favourite book of which nobody else has heard?

The Apothecary's House by Adrian Mathews

Favourite books read last year?

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour by Kate Fox
God is the Gospel by John Piper

Favorite book of all time?

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Mere Christianity by C S Lewis
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Tolle lege, tolle lege.
Take up and read, take up and read.
Augustine of Hippo, early Christian theologian (354-430)

The righteous, loving Father humbled himself to become in and through his only Son's flesh, sin and a curse for us, in order to redeem us without compromising his own character. The biblical gospel of atonement is of God satisfying himself by substituting himself for us...The concept of substitution may be said, then, to live at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin in man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.

John Stott, The Cross of Christ (IVP, 1986)

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:10

My post on Mark Driscoll's Death by Ministry provoked a bit of debate on the other side of the world with Sherrin and Phil getting into some conversation. It certainly was not meant to discourage men from going into the ministry or women from marrying them! It was just to remind us of the pressures our pastors are under and what we can do to help that, as well as offering advice to any of us who are busy.

As I said to Sherrin, several of my friends have said, "I'm never going to marry a minister" and married nice men who then, a few years down the line, felt they were called to the ministry. They are all minister's daughters - is there a connection?

I think there must be many wonderful things about growing up as a child of the manse, as we would say in Scotland. I see the Christian maturity of my friends whose fathers are ministers, because of the Bible teaching they have received, the other ministers and missionaries they have met and learned from, and the practical examples of Christian service, hospitality and fellowship.

A couple of books that friends recommended to me as a minister friend of mine and I were considering courtship were Who'd be a Minister's Wife by Heather Tinker and We're in this Together: Living with Leadership by Celia Bowring. If you are heading down that line, I can commend them both to you.

He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children.
Psalm 78:5

How do we balance our belief in God's sovereignity over all of our lives and our responsibility to actively pursue God's will for our lives? It's the next subject dealt with in Debbie Maken's Getting Serious about Getting Married.

On one hand, there is God's sovereignity and the knowledge that his plan for our lives has been in place since before the world was created. This, however, does not mean that we are simply puppets, only able to act when God pulls our strings. Is refusing to actively pursue a marriage partner an example of acting like this? Maken describes it as "not trusting God. Rather it is refusing to follow his design for our lives."

She goes on to blame this partly on people's laziness but mainly on teaching from the church that "Singleness is a gift". If it is a gift, there are a lot of people who are not happy with it! Paul is clear that celibacy is a gift, but given to a select few set aside for a task that required them to be single. However, where does that leave the other millions of Christian singles?

I like the analogy of job applications. While I believe that God has planned a job for me, I can't just sit around hoping that a phone call will mysteriously come to offer me my next post, blaming my unemployment on "God's will". Instead, I sort out my CV, fill in job applications and attend interviews. Perhaps we should be considering our relationships in the same way.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2

Throughout Advent, I have been using a devotional called O Come, Emmanuel, which includes hymns, carols, poems and stories inspired by Christmas.

Today's Bible reading is Philippians 2:5-11 and it is accompanied by Christina Rossetti's In the Bleak Midwinter. It has been fascinating to read about the origin of many of these carols and of the lives and faiths of their authors and composers, so another day I hope to share some of what I've learnt about them. However today I want to look a little at this carol.

Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain;
heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Rossetti reminds us that Christ's humility was revealed in that he was born in lowly conditions that others would think beneath them. It certainly wasn't a suitable birthplace for a king! On the day that the firstborn of all creation, the one who would sit on the throne over all heaven and earth, was born as man in a great plan ordained before the creation of the world, the heavenly angels would rejoice, but on earth only some local unlearned shepherds would come to worship him. Instead, the world would reject him and ultimately kill him.

He made himself nothing knowing all this, submitting himself to the will of the Father of his own free will, being willing to suffer a painful death and the separation from the Father to make atonement for us. How else can we respond but to give him our hearts?

Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11

Continuing my study of Debbie Maken's Getting Serious about Getting Married: Rethinking the Gift of Singleness, I have been looking at the fifth chapter, "What We've Been Taught". She opens with a story:

Suppose a young woman showed up at a church starving to death...The last thing we'd say is, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God"...To abuse Scripture in such a way would contradict God's own design as our Creator to satisfy hunger with food...Sadly we often refuse to employ the same logic when it comes to the hunger of singleness.

Any of us who have dealt with singleness and at all struggled with it will not argue that the church often replies with "radically inflated, politically correct, feel-good answers" that fail to get to the bottom of the upset people feel. Often the real issues are ignored as the church teaches that "marriage will just happen if only you'd stop worrying about it", or asks you "Is Jesus not enough?", or suggests you consider "are you called to singleness?" (quickly followed, almost immediately, by "So are you called to the mission field?").

As much as I initially liked the analogy, I have to disagree with it too. The hunger for food and the "hunger of singleness" just are not the same. Without food, we will die. The desire for marriage and a family, while causing people turmoil and upset, will not cause us to die. Life can indeed carry on without it and, until that day, we just need to learn to live with it.

Most of us in this situation do not feel called to a lifetime of celibacy which would makes things much easier. I try (and I stress that I try - I do not set myself up as someone who always gets this right, it being much easier to say than do something) to remember that singleness is the gift for today, and today is all I need to worry about. Maybe tomorrow will be different but, as I wrote a few days ago, we are commanded not to worry about tomorrow.

Leslie Ludy wrote of her sister-in-law, Krissy:

She didn't put her life on hold simply because she hadn't yet met her future husband. She gave herself to serve others, and lived a radiant, peaceful, vibrant life - content with where God had her. One day, someone asked Krissy if she felt she was "called" to singleness. After a moment of thought, Krissy replied, "Today I am."

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Deuteronomy 8:3

What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?

There are so many things I don't understand, but I have decided to spend some time focusing on the doctrine of the Trinity this year. I believe in the Trinity and I understand, at some level, the concept of God being three persons in one. I want to really understand it though, as much as it is possible this side of heaven!

This is particularly important as I spend a lot of time talking to Muslim colleagues and friends who have no understanding of this and believe that Christians worship several gods. (I have also discovered that many Muslims think the Trinity is God the Father, Jesus and Mary.)

Part of the difficulty is that the term "Trinity" is never used in the Bible although there are many references throughout both the Old and New Testament to the Trinity. I want to take proper time studying the Bible so that I can understand this doctrine, which is so central to our Christian faith, and hopefully also be in a position to better explain it to others. Friends have recommended Donald Macleod's little book, Shared Life, so I might start there.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Matthew 28:19

It's been a while since I last shared my reading of "Getting Serious about Getting Married: Rethinking the Gift of Singleness", so I want to return to looking at it, given all its controversies.

In the fourth chapter, Debbie Maken makes the point that there is a lack of male leadership in family, schools, society and the church. Men are told to "Have fun, live for the moment, don't answer to anyone, and always leave your options open." Men are being supported in "second childhoods" and as "perennial students", with all that that lifestyle entails.

As a young successful professional woman, often I feel this success is blamed for my singleness. It is perceived as a bad thing to be female, successful and financially self-sufficient. Maken says that "in Western culture, we often equate a woman's lack of economic need to be married to a desire of not wanting to be married."

Why has this changed in little over a generation? She blames "an education system that allows and promotes indefinite leadership, a lack of leadership in the home, and a lack of leadership within the church."

I have to agree with her. But what can be done about it? The church needs to take a more active role in teaching the Biblical view of manhood, womanhood and the family. Parents need to look to Scripture for guidance and teaching on biblical roles, and then to demonstrate them in their own family and to teach them to their children. I'm not sure what can be done about the schooling system, where are certainly problems with teaching male leadership in schools, which has caused an inappropriate expression of manhood through aggression. After a conversation with a friend who plans on homeschooling his children, I am perhaps (to my surprise) moving towards that idea. This is however a subject for another day!

For I have chosen [Abraham], that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him."
Genesis 18:19

What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?

I think I have managed to deal with this one already thanks to Katrina's Fall into Reading challenge. I haven't progressed very far though so I will need to get cracking... I'm finding the accountability very helpful though, so I will have to reconsider this question in the New Year once this challenge is over. I have found an interesting site from Christianity Today that I might use to help me pick next year's books: The Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals

Be as careful of the books you read as of the company you keep, for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as the latter.
Edwin Paxton Hood, English clergyman (1820-1885)

Continuing my reintroduction into society and normal life after that exam, I am going to make a late contribution to the Fall Into Reading challenge set by Katrina of Callapidder Days. She started it to encourage people in their personal and family reading, with the built-in accountability of sharing these goals with others. It's been running since the 23rd September but I've got until the 21st December to read my books. After pottering around my house looking for those half-read or abandoned books, here is what I found!

"Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell
A friend gave this to me as a birthday present and told me she had loved it. It has been sitting on my book shelf for months however, so hopefully this will be the impetus to read it. I hope it is worth it!






"The Fellowship of the Ring" by J R R Tolkien
Of course I have read this before - it is an absolute classic and if you haven't read it, you should! I just found it while wandering around my house looking at bookshelves and realised that I hadn't read this since I saw the Lord of the Rings films years ago.




"Taken by Communion" by Dan Schmidt
This was in the Bargain Basement of my local Christian bookstore. I haven't read it yet, so I am not sure if that was for good reason or not! The blurb on the back says that Schmidt "offers a refreshing perspective on the Lord's Supper...Discover what happens when you are taken by communions - when the one who longs to love us draws hear." I'll let you know how I get on.

"The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Currently this just sits on the bookshelf looking impressive. I really should get round to reading it.








"The Rich Single Life" by Andrew Farmer
This has been sitting in my Favourites column of my web browser (it's an online book) since the beginning of August! Eek!

The third chapter of Debbie Maken's Getting Serious About Getting Married deals with how marriage and singleness have been seen through history. It's true that there has been a major sea change in the last fifty years in the importance of marriage to couples, to the family unit and to society. Where was this starting point?

My first surprising discovery was that marriage was considered to be a solemn and necessary duty and commanded of all Christian men and women for, in the words of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the 'procreation of children' and as 'a remedy against sin'.

This was supported by the teaching of the Longer Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith, based on Scriptural teaching in Proverbs 5:18, Malachi 2:14-15 and Joel 1:8.

Marriage was thought to be preferable to singleness, with the Puritans exhorting spouses to look to each other "to be better fitted for God's service and bring them closer to God" because married life was "far more excellent than the condition of the single life."

Individuals, the church and society at large all had this duty to marry and to encourage the institution of marriage. This was shown in the laws and statutes that laid down the proper conditions for marriage and the value and protection that it commanded. Now we have a situation where marriage is being eroded as outdated and unnecessary and, rather than challenge these views, the church is going along with the rest of society.

Malachi 2:15

A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.

C S Lewis, English theologian and writer (1898-1963)

Sir Richard Steele, Irish essayist and dramatist (1672-1729)

Continuing my book study, I have struggled with the latest chapter of Debbie Maken's book. Chapter 2 is entitled "What the Bible says about being single", but I am not sure if it really does say what she says it does.

The main focus for this chapter is first Jesus' teaching in Matthew 19:4-11. Martin Luther wrote that only those people who were physically unable to participate in marriage or who had received a special direction from God to be single were exempt from the creation ordinance of marriage so "apart from these groups, let no man presume to be without a spouse." Maken takes it another step further saying that "Being single without meeting the necessary criteria...is just as unbiblical as sexual activity outside marriage." Strong stuff, but I am not sure that she is justified in taking this point so far.

Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 7 is tackled too. I agree with her point that we have to take this passage and interpret it in light of the rest of Scripture, including Paul's own writings, where the importance and value of marriage is extolled.

Maken suggests that it was written for a particular situation faced by the Corinthian church so should not be used to form a complete 'policy' on marriage and singleness. It is difficult to know in what circumstances this letter was written. Commentators disagree on what the "present distress" might be. Some suggest that this refers to a particularly difficult period of famine and persecution faced by the Corinthian church, while others say this is the general trouble that comes with following the Lord.

John Calvin, in his commentary that "here you have two things worthy of observation. The first is, for what purpose celibacy is to be desired - not on its own account, nor on the ground of its being a state that is nearer to perfection, but that we may cleave to God without distraction - that being the one thing that a Christian man ought exclusively to look to during his whole life. The second thing is, that no snare must be put upon men's consciences, so as to keep back any one from marriage, but that every one must have liberty allowed him."

I am used to the subtle teaching within the church that there is almost a higher spiritual state achievable by single people, so I was interested to read this chapter. While I want to agree with her basic principles, I have real difficulty justifying this from Scripture. In the meantime, I will be again enouraged by Calvin who said, "the Apostle would wish those who are at present practicing chastity, to continue in it and persevere; but as they have no security for the continuance of the gift, he exhorts all to consider carefully what has been given them."

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.
I Corinthians 7:17

I really do believe that God does know best and has all his plans "for wholeness and not for evil", plans to give me a future and a hope. But there is another part of me where Satan knows to attack that just wonders if God is hiding some good gift from me - yet it is a gift that I believe he has set a desire for in my heart. One of my deepest desires is to be married and have a family. I feel content now where I am, but the thought of being in this same situation for the next forty years sometimes breaks my heart. So it is a relief to hear from this author that these feelings are not wrong, but in fact reflect God's intended plan for our lives.

I love reading. I always have done. I just gobble books up! From Enid Blyton and CS Lewis, to Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, to JK Rowling and Alexandre Dumas...from JI Packer and Paul Brand, to Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, to Helen Roseveare and George Herbert - a random selection from the piles of books that surround me reflecting an electic collection! I try to read a wide variety of books from all sorts of writers on all sorts of topics to inform, educate and challenge me. But with my tendency to read quickly and my limited time, I maybe don't spend as much time as I should pondering.

With this in mind, I have decided to start a new habit. Inspired by a good friend who does this, I have decided to read my next book with my notebook in my lap and my pen in my hand. I am going to try to take time each day to sit and read slowly, savouring the words and the ideas, jotting down useful sentences and adding my own questions and thoughts to it.

As for the next book? Well, it is one which has been greeted by such controversy! I've read so many articles by people I respect either praising or denouncing the author for her ideas. "Getting Serious About Getting Married: Rethinking the Gift of Singleness" by Deborah Maken challenges the prevailing view of the Evangelical church that singleness is a 'gift from God', saying instead that it is unnatural and goes as far to say that it is actually unbiblical and against God's plan!

It was given to me by a friend who wanted to know my thoughts on it. I did my usual quick readthrough and found myself wavering on where to stand - I think there is a lot of truth in there but I felt that sometimes she took things too far. So let's see if the notes help to clarify or clutter my mind! In the meantime, see what some others thought: Camerin Courtney, Tim Challies, Candice Z Watters

The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains, proves that he has no brains of his own. Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all people. You need to read ... Paul cries, "Bring the books" -- join in the cry.
Charles Hadden Spurgeon (1832-1894)