For your first week of reading, Why Trust Jesus? Here's several questions that I want you to ask yourself but also ask your friends in your community group/ book study group.  After you have read Norman Geisler's foreword and my introduction, consider these questions.  

1. What characteristics do you look for in someone else, before you can trust them?

2. What are the greatest barriers to trusting Christ daily in your own life? Is it intellectual, emotional, or self-sufficiency? Talk it out. 

 3. We have all probably been let down by Christians. Maybe a pastor or priest,  a father or mother, an ex-lover. In the midst of  disappointments or failures, why do you believe the Christian faith is most trustworthy? Or more specifically, why Jesus? 

4. What steps will you take this week to grow in trust?

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Even before Apple pulled back the curtain on its new iPad--the iconoclast himself holding the brand new device and calling it "a truly magical and revolutionary" product--the anticipation for the Apple Tablet was enormous. The publishing world in particular was gaga in the days leading up to the announcement, a lot of industry leaders wondering whether or not the Apple tablet will revolutionize the distribution of newspapers, magazines, and books in the same the iPod transformed the music industry.

Whether the iPad ends up revolutionizing the way we buy and consume digital content of all kinds remains to be seen. But at first blush I do believe Steve Jobs has once again done something extraordinarily well. He hasn't just created a device; he has tapped into our imaginations. By calling the iPad "magical" rather than "useful" or "universal," Jobs has soared above the ordinary by placing this device--and let's face it, the iPad is just a device--into the realm of wonder rather than utility. If Steve Jobs is to be believed, the iPad isn't a device to merely help you do things more efficiently. It is device that will help you dream of doing things better.

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There are many 1/8-read-books lying around, but here a few I’ve shared the most consistency with this summer.

“Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu,” by Michael Battle
For those pondering reconciliation, race relations, South African history, or a theology of love, this is your guy and this might be a great book to add to your collection.

“The Inner Voice of Love,” by Henry Nouwen
Brilliant. Not a light book, or one you’ll want to read to read straight through, but definitely one with an uncanny ability to review life at varying points of its journey. If you’re the heart-felt, slightly (or wholly) melancholic type, Nouwen will become a dear friend. I’ve never read something by him that didn’t shift the landscape of my interiority.

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I was recently interviewed by Campus Crusade for Christ (CCCi.org) regarding the new release of More Than A Carpenter. My dad first wrote this book in 1977 and it has since sold over 15 million copies. I was able to help him update it for a new generation. I really believe it will be one of the most effective evangelistic tools for the next generation. Here's why.

CCCi.org: Why re-release More Than a Carpenter after 32 years?

Sean: Many people have written off apologetics as no longer relevant in our so-called "postmodern world," but nothing could be further from the truth. This generation has been dubbed solely relational, but rationality is also important in reaching and equipping them.

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I did something for the very first time the other day.

I saw a new book coming out in hardcover and thought, Boy, if I had a Kindle, I would totally download that one.

What is happening to me?

I work at a publishing house! I love the printed page! I love ink on paper! I love books!

And yet, for that particular book (and if you’re curious, it was Michael J. Fox’s Always Looking Up), I was interested enough in the content to want to read it, but not so interested that I wanted a hardcover that was retailing at $25.99.

And, really, it wasn’t so much the price that was stopping me. It was the thing—the hardcover book. Some days, the thought of accumulating even one more thing wears me out.

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Angry Conversations With God (Faith Words, March 12, 2009)

By Susan E. Isaacs

Susan Isaacs is not your average Christian comedian. She’s not even your average Christian. So don’t think for a second that Angry Conversations With God is your average Christian spiritual memoir. It’s anything but.

Exploring this “middle-class white girl’s dark night of the soul,” Isaac unpacks her warped, twisted ideas about God’s will, sex, sin and salvation in fictional accounts of actual therapy sessions where she took God to marriage counseling. To call this memoir creative would be the understatement of the year. Creative and original, yes, but it’s also chock-full of saucy language (i.e., profanity), bitterly painful memories and shockingly angry tirades at God.

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As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda
By Catherine Claire Larson (Zondervan, Feb. 1, 2009)

It’s said that reality is stranger than fiction. In the case of Rwanda’s people, it’s also more gruesome. Catherine Claire Larson, a writer and editor with Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship, sets out to add to the litany of works about Rwanda’s genocide with As We Forgive.

Inspired by a documentary by the same name, Larson retells seven stories about the genocide and its aftermath (some of which are in the film). What’s even more amazing is the miraculous way some victims are working toward reconciliation by forgiving their perpetrators -- many of whom have been released from prison and are even helping victims rebuild their homes and lives.

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Originally published at The Curator Magazine, January 2, 2009.

The Amazon Kindle and iPhone apps like Stanza are beginning to make inroads in the e-Book market. But nothing will ever really replace paper books. Why, you ask?

10. No need to wait until the pilot gives you permission to use personal electronic devices.
9.  It’s OK if you forget to charge your real book.
8.  Unwrapping a download is so anti-climactic.
7.  Speaking of which, it’s hard to wrap a download.

My very first reason to be hopeful of the year:

People seem to be reading more. The whys and wheretofores are still under investigation, but it's heartening news. Even if all someone read last year was a Harry Potter or Twilight book . . . they practiced the discipline of reading a book.