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Book Review – God On The Streets Of Gotham by Paul Asay

God On The Streets Of GothamWith all the hype of the new Batman movie this summer, I was intrigued by the concept of Paul Asay’s book, God On The Streets Of Gotham. It was a very interesting read.

Asay’s basic premise is to dig deep into our fascination with the Caped Crusader for more than seventy years. And in that exploration, he finds several stunning similarities: how Batman portrays several aspects of God, and how he is descriptive of us.

Asay looks at every angle; from revealing character studies of Batman’s foes, to a comparison of the bat tools to the Paul’s armor of God, Asay show us how we might find elements of faith in the Dark Knight’s story.

While I was fascinated with much of the book, there were times when I found myself wondering if maybe Asay was over-analyzing things just a bit. Sometimes it just seemed to be stretched a little too far; and he was searching for glimpses of God that the writers never instilled into the hero of Gotham.

But for the most part, and despite my moments of skepticism, I enjoyed reading God On The Streets Of Gotham. If you’re a Batfan, you might enjoy it as well.

Who is your favorite superhero? Batman? Or someone else? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

If you are interested in reading God On The Streets Of Gotham:  What The Big Screen Batman Can Teach Us About God And Ourselves, by Paul Asay, you can purchase it at Amazon.com.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Tyndale House Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Also, some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.“

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A New Bible Reading Plan – 9 Months Later

Back in January, I started a new Bible reading plan. I decided to use Professor Grant Horner’s system of reading through the Bible.

It has been incredible!

Bible

Allow me to give you a brief synopsis of the plan.

The Bible is divided into ten different reading lists: the Gospels, the Pentateuch, Major Epistles, Smaller Epistles, OT Poetry, Psalms, Proverbs, OT History, OT Prophets, and NT Church (including Acts, Romans, and Hebrews).

Each of these lists have differing amounts of chapters in them. When you read one chapter from each list each day, you’ll finish each list at different points. When you finish a list, you simply start it over. This means that you will never be reading the same ten chapters each day. Each day puts new scriptures together, drawing your attention to the comprehensiveness of God’s Word.

As I said, it’s been incredible!

Today, I finished the last chapter of Malachi, which is in the longest list. That means that I’ve read every chapter in the Bible this year. But at ten chapters a day, I’ve read much of it more than once. For example, the shortest list is Proverbs. I’m currently in my ninth reading this year of the book of Proverbs. Or the 62 chapters of Poetry… I started my fifth reading just the other day.

At this point, I’ve read more than 2500 chapters so far in 2012. With only 1189 chapters in the Bible, this plan has helped me read more in a shorter time frame than any other plan I’ve ever tried.

And I’m loving it!

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Memorize Scripture – Week 35

For the next few weeks, I want to memorize the passages from what many people refer to as the Romans Road.

There are several different variations of this series of Scriptures through the book of Romans, and mine may differ a bit from what many people list.

That’s ok. I think my version is a little more comprehensive than most.

The first passage is found in Romans 1:16:

Romans 1:16

It’s pretty simple, isn’t it?

The gospel is the power of God for salvation.

That’s truly Good News!

And nothing to be ashamed about!

What do you do to foster boldness when sharing the Gospel? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Top Posts For August 2012

Summer seems to be officially over, now that it is September.

And with the end of the busy summer season, most kids are back in school. We homeschool, so our kids are still running around the house.

But, for the most part, my schedule will begin to settle down a bit. I hope…

I have a lot of reading to catch up on, and a lot of writing as well. I’ve got a couple of projects in the works that I hope will become very fruitful as ministry tools.

Speaking of tools, August was a month of focus for me as a dad. I wrote several articles in the Dad Toolbox series. I’m looking forward to more!

August Word Picture from Wordle.net

In case you missed them, here are my top seven posts for the month of August:

  1. The Difference Between Purpose, Vision, and Mission
  2. Memorize Scripture With Me!
  3. Why You Need To Develop A Philosophy Of Ministry
  4. Tips For Becoming More Consistent In Your Bible Reading
  5. My Current Philosophy Of Ministry
  6. Why A Daughter Needs A Dad
  7. The Principle Of The Path by Andy Stanley – Extended Review Part 5

I was slightly amazed to see that the number one post for this month had almost six times as many views as the next one on the list! And it’s been in the number one spot since May! That’s pretty awesome to me.

The rest of my list is filled with posts dealing with spiritual growth or youth ministry, and the final two spots are book reviews.

One topic that didn’t make the list, yet, is my new series on becoming a Dad of significance. The Dad Toolbox is a series I started at the end of July, and I have some incredible plans concerning this that I hope to share in the very near future. I see a tremendous need for fathers to step up and become great dads. While this has been an important thing to me over the last several years, in the past few weeks, it’s become a burning passion. I’ve been devouring books, periodicals, and blogs on the subject, and find myself craving more. Not just information, but I find myself craving to become the best dad I can possibly be.

My favorite post written in July was part of that series: Being An Intentional Dad. In order to be a great dad, you have to be intentional. You have to be deliberate.

I’m looking forward to see how September unfolds and what’s in store!

If you are a blogger, leave a comment with your top post for the month. If you don’t blog, leave a comment with a favorite post or blog that you read this month.

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Being An Intentional Dad

This is part of the The Dad Toolbox series, providing tools and resources to be a great dad. Read more from the series!

If I had to place my finger on the one crucial element that it takes to be a great dad, it would be the idea of intentionality.

In order to be a great dad, you have to be focused on being a great dad. You have to be intentional.

Intentionality Bullseye

It’s too easy to just go with the flow, to stay in the rut.

For example, the other day I came home from the church where I work. It had been a long day. I had got a lot accomplished: planning our youth ministry fall kick-off, adding some elements to the church website that I administrate, and a bunch of other stuff. And, since I use a standing desk, my feet were feeling pretty tired.

My usual routine is to come home, kick off my shoes, and relax for a little while. And by relax, I really mean that I don’t relax, because with five kids, and another on the way, there is no such thing as relaxation. My one year old girl was in my lap, showing me the oatmeal on her shirt. My ten year old daughter was asking me something about her science book. And in the midst of this, within moments of walking in the door, this conversation happened:

Titus (my eight year old son): Dad, can we go find a geocache?

Me: Hi, Titus.

Titus: Dad, can we go find one?

Me: Hi, Titus.

Titus: Oh… Hi! Now can we go find a geocache?

Jadon (my three year old son): Can I go find a zeocass too?

And so, I loaded up my two boys, and off we went to find a couple of “zeocasses”. We found two, and got rained on.

But here’s the thing: both my boys absolutely loved it, and the fact that I took them geocaching in the rain showed them that I value them.

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Memorize Scripture – Week 34

Do you ever get the feeling that we are missing something in American Christianity that the rest of the world may have figured out?

I do.

And I think I know what it is… partly, at least. Look at our passage for this week.  You can find it in James 5:16:

James 5:16

You can walk into any bookstore and find dozens of book on the power of prayer. They are everywhere. But when you walk into most churches, you hear phrases like “How can I be sure God hears my prayers?” and “Why won’t he answer my prayers?”

If prayer is so powerful (and it is), then why don’t we experience that power more often? What are we missing?

I think James gives us a hint at the answer in the first part of this verse. We love the second part, the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective part, but we overlook the first half of the verse to get to the part we like.

James tells us to confess our sins and pray for each other. The result? Healing. And only then does he speak of the power of prayer.

Confess my sins? Are you kidding me? I don’t want anyone knowing that stuff!

The simple truth is that if we don’t, we hamstring our effectiveness in other areas, such as prayer.

I realize that this isn’t the complete answer to the problems Christianity is facing in America today. But I believe it is a key component to our spiritual growth, both as a community of believers and as individuals.

The only question now is who do I unload my list of dirty laundry upon?

Do you have someone in your life to whom you can confess your sins? If not, what might it take to develop such a relationship? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.