Book Sharing for 060409

Name	Author (Year) Title	Message	Question	Answer
Tong, Johnny	Mark D. Taylor (1992): The complete book of bible knowledge	This book identifies and defines the names, phrases, events, stories, and terms from the Bible and Church History: the information that the author call biblical literacy.	What is the number one favorite Hymns or Gospel Songs in the American?	Amazing Grace
Chan, Agnes	Jim Cymbala & Dean Merrill; tr. Lily K. Yang楊高俐理; revised by Chris Su 蘇南洲(2000, 2002): Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire《疾風烈火》	禱告能使我們剛強壯膽；禱告能搖動神的手行出神蹟奇事；禱告是擴張神國度重要的一環。	當問及有關所屬的教會的情況及主的工作進展如何時，一般人會怎樣回答?	一般人會首以聚會人數，其次以建築物（教堂）和奉獻作答。但辛牧師在書裏說:『沒有任何教會…可以用聚會人數來衡量。』神要的教會是合乎祂心意的教會，一個大放膽量講及神的道，奉祂的名愛人,和不斷擴張神的國度的教會。
Lee, Philip	John Maxwell (2005): 25 ways to win with people	(1) Mine the gold of good intentions, (2) Give others a reputation to uphold; (3) Create a memory and visit it often; (4) Do for others what they can’t do for themselves	Do you want to learn the fundamental way to approach relationship?	The book provides twenty-five simple and specific skills that can help anyone improve in the arena of interpersonal relationships.
Lam, Irene	Dr. James Dobson (1993): When God Doesn’t Make Sense	God permits His children to struggle in order to keep them strong. “We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope”(Romans 5:3-4)	Why God lets bad things happen to us?	God lets us struggle until we recognize our dependence on Him. In doing so, He gives our faith an opportunity to grow and mature.
Lam, Ernest	Philip Yancey (1995): The Jesus I never knew	Beatitudes: Lucky Are the Unlucky Catholic scholars coined the phrase “God’s preferential option for the poor” to describe a phenomenon they found throughout both the Old and New Testaments: God’s partiality toward the poor and the disadvantaged.	What makes the poor deserving of God’s concern? ANSWER: “Advantages” of being poor: (1) know the urgent need of redemption; (2) dependent on God and powerful people, but interdependent with one another; (3) rest their security not on things but on people; (4) have no exaggerated sense of their own importance or privacy; (5) cooperation better than competition;	(6) distinguish between necessities and luxuries; (7) have dogged patience born of acknowledged dependence; (8) more realistic and less exaggerated about fears, know one can survive great suffering and want; (9) the Gospel sounds like good news, not a threat or a scolding; (10) respond to the Gospel with abandonment and totality because they have little to lose and are ready for anything. Suggested exercise: (a) substitute “rich” for “poor”, and change each sentence the opposite, (b) self evaluation by substituting “poor” with “I” to check if one’s attitude more resembled those of the poor or of the rich.
Lo, Oscar	Philip Yancey (1999): The Bible Jesus Read	The Old Testament might be difficult to understand and digest. But it is only through reading the Old Testament can one fully understand the different characters of our God, how He works, what He expects from us, and how He expects us to live.	Why reading the Old Testament is important in understanding our God?	(1) It is the Bible Jesus read. The more we comprehend OT, the more we comprehend Jesus. (2) Jesus & NT authors often quote from OT. (3) OT prophesizes about the 1st and 2nd coming of Jesus. (4) we need the background picture of the OT in order to appreciate how much love the Incarnation of Jesus expressed -- how much God gave up on our behalf. (5) We know God through the company He keeps.
Zia, Karl	George Barna (2002): A Fish out of Water	A Christian leader must always start from God’s calling and His vision. Most likely, a leader is called by God to lead in specific style or in specific area, and each one should team with people who have complementary aptitudes to achieve the best efficacy and efficiency.	How do you define leadership?	Leadership is the process of motivating, mobilizing, resourcing, and directing people to passionately and strategically pursue a vision from God that a group jointly embraces.
Chan, Stephen	C.S. Lewis (1940): The Problem of Pain	C.S. Lewis explanation on the problem of suffering from a purely theoretical standpoint.	If God were good, He would make His creatures perfectly happy, and if He were almighty He would be able to do what he wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both.	The possibility of solving the dilemma depends on a new defining of the terms ‘good’ and ‘almighty’, and perhaps also the term ‘happy’.
Tong, Ivy	丹布朗Brown, Dan (2003): 達文西密碼Da Vinci Code [KH: This is a fiction that presumes to be factual. It contains made-up half truths & lies that attack Christianity)	這故事是關於一位哈佛大學的符號學專家，被邀請到法國羅浮宮為達文西藝術品中的符號解碼，因而發現了有關耶穌的秘密，也因而成為被追捕的對象。秘密就是耶穌曾娶了抹大拉馬利亞為妻並且生兒育女，天主教教廷卻刻意隱瞞這事實，並且製造了今天福音書的那位神性的耶穌	這小說對下列問題有何看法? 1. 聖經是神的話嗎? 2. 耶穌是神的兒子嗎?	1. 聖經是人類創造的一份歷史紀錄，不是從神而來的。今日的聖經是由一名異教的羅馬皇帝君士坦丁所編的。 2. 耶穌只是個偉大而有影響力的人，他曾娶了抹大拉馬利亞為妻且有後代，並不是神的兒子。 [KH: These are based on lies. See: http://kwing.christiansonnet.org/church-news/ apol_Da-Vinci-code.htm]