Dying to Live: The Paradox of the Crucified Life

[This is an earlier review I wrote roughly five years ago.]

Clive Calver has written a brief, provocative book on Jesus’ startling remark: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) Consumer Christianity is an expression to describe the modern Christian phenomenon that one’s Christian experience is just like anything else one might buy: a home, a car, laundry detergent, french-fries, etc. Whenever your current “place of worship” is no longer satisfying your worship needs, do what any other intelligent consumer would do: switch brands. This usually amounts to finding a new “place of worship” so that it meets your needs. Forget about conflict resolution; forget about taking part in change; forget other members in your community’s needs; but definitely be sure to forget about obeying God or glorifying Him. Bottom line: what’s in it for you? Calver never explicitly refers to his target using the expression Consumer Christianity, but he leaves no doubt that this self-centered, pragmatic orientation is a recipe for spiritual destruction.

Many are not so crass in their spiritual ambitions. Calver is equally eager to help long-time Christians who find themselves spiritually starving and desperately foraging for spiritual panaceas: increasing volunteer hours, ingesting all the newest Christian literature, etc. Calver claims that we need to completely reorient our thinking:

I was looking for resurrection in my Christian life. The only problem was that I hadn’t foreseen that resurrection is necessarily preceded by crucifixion. There has to be a kind of death before one can be resurrected and enter into new life.
The truth was, all the time I was looking in the wrong direction. I had been searching for something new to add to my spiritual life, but God wanted to subtract my intrusive will and replace it with his will.
Dying to Live, p. 6

Certainly, volunteering and reading are both good; nevertheless, Calver’s arguing that if we’ve developed this kind of fix-it attitude towards our spiritual lives, we’ve placed the cart before the horse: death comes first.

One might be tempted to see Calver as advocating some kind of super-spiritual “navel-gazing”: change the way you think and all will be better. This book is not abstract nonsense. “Like a valuable gemstone, the Christian life has many facets. Each chapter of this book deals with one facet.” (Calver, 10) The facets (chapter topics) include crucifixion, personal surrender, discipleship, giving and others. To concretely illustrate these facets, Calver provides a variety of personal, historical and international anecdotes. Many of the figures Calver describes are hard-core slaves of righteousness who have grasped Christ’s call to the cross in both word and deed. In one case, Calver tells the story of a Rwandan woman named Beatrice. Her husband had been badly beaten during the genocidal conflicts between Hutus and Tutsis of the early 1990’s. Many years later she unexpectedly found herself sharing the table of fellowship with the man who had savagely beaten her husband. She never so much as received an apology or even faint recognition of this horror that had so severely scarred her family. Beatrice persevered through both the injury and the added insult of the injurer’s near-absurd failure to even remember the incident. This reminds us Christ’s words, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing”––a plea uttered for those who had nailed his limbs to a post! (Luke 23:34) Even from fellow believers, we might not always find basic human decency, let alone the special handling that advertisements tell us we “deserve.” Christ calls on us to love even our enemies. Calver provides implicit guidance for living the crucified life through commenting on examples just like Beatrice’s.

Take care that you don’t let reading this book be another quick fix for your spiritual life. Calver tells the story of Major W. Ian Thomas. After years of spiritual striving and frustration, Thomas received an inner sense from God along these lines: “You see, for seven years, with utmost sincerity, you have been trying to live for Me, on My behalf, the life that I have been waiting for seven years to live through you.” (Thomas, quoted in Calver, 84) Get out of Jesus’ way. Let Him live his crucified life through you.

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Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus

[This is an earlier review I wrote roughly five years ago.]

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus (SAFJ) was the most compelling book I’ve read in years. For my job, I read numerous titles: most of them in tandem, picking them up and putting them down, whittling chapters away over months. Not so here: I could not put down Qureshi’s very personal, gripping tale of coming to faith in Christ.

Approaching a book like this, a Christian believer might be tempted to reason as follows: Islam is a merciless religion of hate and violence. Qureshi surely had a miserable childhood under the draconian rule of his parents and imams. He bore this heavy burden joylessly but dutifully, because it was all he knew. No doubt, upon discovering the good news of freedom in Christ, he tossed off Mohammed’s heavy shackles in exchange for the easy yoke of faith in Christ. Qureshi’s story is far more fascinating than this one-dimensional portrait. Qureshi is the Muslim Saul of Tarsus: he had a joyful childhood; he had a loving family; he was part of a warm Muslim community; he loved Islam and the Quran; he was a top student, receiving his MD; he was morally upright by almost any standard; and his family was financially comfortable. Like Saul, when he surrendered to Christ, he had much to lose and little to gain. But also like Saul, he couldn’t deny the truth of the risen Jesus Christ. SAFJ chronicles Qureshi’s journey from his happy Muslim childhood up to just past his conversion.

Philippians 3:4b-7 (NIV) If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

The book is divided into ten sections and a whopping fifty-three chapters. Don’t worry, the main body of the book doesn’t break 300 pages; indeed, the shortness of the chapters only increases its readability. The first section begins gives a window into some of ins-and-outs of orthodox Islam while mingling details about Qureshi’s very early life. This section is valuable in its own right, given the place Islam occupies in current national discussions. Much of the rest of the book involves Qureshi’s struggle against Christianity during his years in college, as well as his close friendship with a young Christian named David. Again, if only for the sake of seeing David’s skill in friendship evangelism, the book would be worth the read. Throughout, one learns about how Muslims view the Bible and Jesus; one learns striking details about Mohammed, the origins of Islam and the Quran; one also learns why so many Muslims are ignorant of such reliable and easy-to-access information about their own religion. The book also provides a decent apologetic for biblical Christianity, especially the resurrection.

I give this book my highest recommendations. Viewed as a text on apologetics, SAFJ is lively read filled to the brim with the relationship between biblical Christianity and Islam. Viewed as an autobiography, one can’t help but get caught up in Qureshi’s inner experience of torment as he faces the prospect of leaving behind the beloved religion of his family.

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Reclaiming Love

[This is an earlier review I wrote roughly five years ago. NB: This was before Ravi Zacharias’s ignominious exposure.]

Ajith Fernando’s book Reclaiming Love could just as easily be called Reclaiming 1 Corinthians 13. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast.” Such citations are commonly found on inspirational posters featuring leaping dolphins, ocean spray and hazy sunrises. It is quoted at weddings and even mocked in movies like the popular comedy, Wedding Crashers. As this demonstrates, Scripture is not immune to the phenomenon encapsulated by the adage, familiarity breeds contempt. Fernando breathes life back into this compact passage of Scripture expressing one of the most difficult aspects of Christian living: sacrificial love. It would be hard to find a better man for the job. For four decades, Fernando has faithfully led grass-roots movements among the urban poor of Sri Lanka. But, Fernando is more than a salt-of-the-earth Christian servant: he also deftly comments on the original Greek terms found in Paul’s epistle.

The book opens with, “Following the Way of Love.” Along with setting the stage for the rest of the book, he writes the following:

A few minutes before writing these words, I was mourning the fact that I had helped someone at considerable cost and he had not turned out the way I hoped. The thought came to me that I had wasted my time and energy and suffered unnecessarily…When we love, we are achieving the basic goal in the life of a Christian. Love is not only a means to an end; it is an end in itself.
REclaiming Love, p. 25

I could not have put it better. Love is the way of Christ, the way of the cross.

From chapters 3-18, Fernando takes his readers on a nearly word-for-word tour of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. On patience alone, Fernando spends three separate chapters. Fernando points out that the word Paul uses, translated as ‘patience,’ specifically applies to relationships (as opposed to the English word’s broader usage.) Especially in the West, where people can barely hold marriages together, learning patience is essential for even the most rudimentary Christian service. The other chapters likewise challenge the me-first mindset of 21^st Century America. Fernando concludes with, “It’s Worth It!” where he draws from the remainder of the chapter (1 Corinthians 13: 8-13). As the title suggests, this chapter is devoted to persuading the reader that living a life of sacrificial love is far more than dutiful drudgery. Following Paul’s lead, Fernando makes the case that love is not only the highest virtue, but it will be a central part of our eternal experience.

Just as Fernando reclaims love, he likewise reclaims this dense chapter of Scripture from its needle point fate amid the heaps of fifty-cent thrift store decorations. Between Fernando’s thoughtful exposition of Scripture and convicting anecdotes, the reader will benefit greatly from this rich little text. I highly recommend it!