Created To Need A Help Meet – Book Review

In a follow-up to the hard-hitting Created to Be A Help Meet by Debbi Pearl, her husband Michael Pearl penned a long-anticipated book for husbands.  Many women, having read the book for women have asked, often in desperation, for a matching book for their husbands.  And now it is finally here.  Hopefully.

Having never read the book for women, my review will be focused on this book only and will not compare it to the original, which, as far as impact and results in our marriages, is viewed in very high regard in my circles.

Created to Need A Help Meet is an easy read; you will probably finish it in a few days.  It is actually the most entertaining book for husbands I have ever read, but that isn’t saying a lot, this type of book is usually very dry.

As any book, Created has good and bad.  On the positive side, the book has wonderful tips for husbands, some hard-hitting words for those husbands among us who need it, and some great humor.  You’ll be sharing quips from this book for a long time.  A few negatives exist as well, and we’ll get in to those towards as well.  At the end, we’ll discuss one of the central teachings of this book, which I have not yet decided whether I completely agree with.

Let’s get started with the positives.  And if this is too much detail, let me just give you the bottom line: read this book. Read the rest of this entry »

The Life of Pi – An Atheist Parable?

Life of Pi poster

 

“And so it goes with God.”

My wife and I experienced The Life of Pi in 3D the other night.  We were both delighted with the visual experience and fanciful story.  It is truly a wonderful movie in many ways.  The story was simple and captivating, and the acting was very believable.  However, the really outstanding part of this movie was the visuals, which I don’t believe I have ever seen the equal to in a movie of this type.

The thing that interested me more than anything about this movie was the talk of it being spiritual, and in some sense proving the existence of God.  Back in 2010, President Obama wrote Yann Martel, the author of the book: “My daughter and I just finished reading Life of Pi together. Both of us agreed we prefer the story with animals. It is a lovely book — an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling. Thank you.”

So what is this “proof of God” that Obama mentioned?  Well, I’ll tell you what I saw, and I will try to spoil as little of the movie as possible for those of you who have not seen it.

The first part of the movie begins with the hero as a young boy getting interested in God.  He is first a Hindu because of his family, and then learns about Jesus from a priest.  Afterwards (it almost seems like this part is added to appease the Political Correctness Police) he also learns about Islam.  The young lad decides to follow all three religions to the chagrin of his atheist father, who warns him to begin with “reason” before he blindly believes a religion.  In a scene set in the future, we see that this boy, as a grown man still holds to the same belief that all religions are equal, and all gods are valid … even doubt has a prominent place, as he puts it.  Basically, our hero is preaching a relativistic view of faith.  In his view, all faiths are equally true and valid.

Somewhere along the way we are told that this story might prove the existence of God.  We know by this time that this god will not Christian idea of God, but rather god in the sense of a “higher power.”  As the story progresses you see the young man’s faith in god (not any particular god) grow and it is actually quite good to see him praying and calling out to god in his troubles.  In fact, as a Christian, it is quite easy to enjoy the story Read the rest of this entry »

New Year, New Plan

The dawn of a new year always brings out the visionary in me. I sit and daydream, sip hot chocolate, and jot things down in my notebook. Unfortunately, like most people, my goals and aspirations tend to be forgotten sometime in February, and the amazement of a year gone is the only thing that brings me back to thinking about who I could be if only.

Will this year be any different? Will it see me rushing through life at a hectic pace, wishing I had time to slow down and drink in the enjoyment that life can provide? Will I spend time in a bathrobe, hot tea and a good book? Will I pick up that guitar that my 3-year old likes to trample on? Will I sit in a coffee shop writing? Will I lose track of time talking to my best friend, my dear wife? I sure hope so.

My plan for this blog in 2013 is to write posts once every couple of weeks or so. Mostly when I’ve read a new book, watched a good movie, or heard a good sermon. Will anybody want to read my thoughts? I hope so, but strangely, this is becoming less and less important.

2013 needs to be the year where I enter fully into the life I have been given. I spend way too much time thinking of problems beyond my circle of influence, watching unprofitable entertainment, and daydreaming about what I could accomplish. This year will be different, with the help of God, I will be engaged with my wife and family on a new level. We, together, will achieve a family that glorifies God to the best of our abilities. Beyond that, I have no goal for 2013.

If you are reading this and know me, shoot me a comment and tell me if you have seen any difference in the new year.

My Overwhelming List of Things to Teach My Children

As parents of two wonderful children, my wife and I are deeply concerned with their education.  We made the decision to home-school them and as our little girl approaches her first year of formal teaching, we are scrambling to figure this out.  I wonder how many parents will relate to our current situation.

My lovely wife is handling 99% of the work in reading books on the subject, researching the best curriculum, buying the materials, and dragging me to home school conventions.  However, the education of my children is a primary concern on my heart and mind as well.  Over the past few months I have begun to consider what I want my children to know when they leave home.

Following are the results of my reading, research and thinking.  The sheer quantity of topics, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t get everything, might be overwhelming, but when you consider that much of it will be covered in the curriculum already and also that we have 10+ years to do it, the task becomes manageable.  I want my wife and I to return to this list at least every year and come up with goals to focus on for the upcoming months.

The first half, Topics for Parents to Teach, are the categories in learning that will rarely, if ever, be covered in school curriculum.  These are things that it will be the parent’s sole Read the rest of this entry »

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Pre-Flood Mysteries

The antediluvian world, the world before the flood, is shrouded in obscurity.  Very few chapters are written about it in the Bible, five to be exact, and yet it was at least a period of two thousand years.  What happened back then?  How did people live?  What was the world like?  This period in history has long held impenetrable mysteries … until now.

Let’s take a brief journey through recent scientific discoveries and the history that they illuminate for us.  First, the biblical evidence:

Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Genesis 2:5-6 (NASB)

These verses speak of a pre-flood world where it never rained.  Instead of rain, a mist came up from the earth to water the ground.  But how is this possible?  Was the hydrologic cycle not working?  This cycle, described several times in the Bible, is the scientifically proven process that happens when water evaporates from the oceans and accumulates in clouds which then empty over land.  If it had never rained, then what was preventing this process? Read the rest of this entry »

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