You remember of course the movie You've Got Mail starring
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan who owns a small bookstore that is put out of
business by a chain bookstore owned by Hanks that just moved in to the
neighborhood? My wife and I had a small bookstore back in the late 90s. I
didn't get into this for the profits but rather for the evangelistic
opportunity. Consequently we didn't make much profit but did indeed
disseminate some great books.
WorldNetDaily ran an article today titled Christian Booksellers Implosion by Jim Fletcher. He describes an industry, Christian books, that is imploding under its own unethical standards which include promoting books that are anything but Christian. I've written a number of posts on just such books that Christians gobble up unaware that the message inside is anything but biblical. You can easily pull up the article at wnd.com if you want the specifics given by Mr. Fletcher.
There was a day when you could walk into a Christian bookstore and find quite a number of good, even great books. I still go in these few remaining stores all the time and at the very best it is pablum upon pablum intermixed with a very few books, usually classics, that are good. Most of the store is Christian wall hangings, curio fillers, music, movies and children's items. These things serve a purpose and our son was well stocked with James Dobson's Adventures In Odyssey, Bullfrogs and Butterflies and Psalty but the concept went from being a nice addition to the main course.
The books in our store were 100% quality Christian literature. I've really never seen a store like it if you would permit me to say that... with one exception, Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service (cvbbs.com) of Carlisle Pennsylvania which is really and Internet business that you can also go in and browse. It's really a sad situation, what I describe here and what this article describes. I'll give you juts one example of the books that sell and I'll add a post I wrote on it at the end......Heaven is For Real.
There's a link on this page titled Isaac Crockett.....Novella. That's a short novel that I wrote pre-9/11 about a bookstore. I think that I adequately explained in that story how a Christian bookstore could be a great force in the community, but those days are gone. It was tough to get Christians to buy good books fifteen years ago and it would be harder still today. Isaac Crockett is a rock star and a Christian who falls in love with a Roman Catholic girl and the story takes place primarily on the boardwalk of Ocean City, New Jersey. I'm trudging along on a sequel right now that is post-9/11, post John Paul II and post-America as God had blessed it, used it according to His purposes and now withdraws His hedge of protection as we are as the great American jurist once wrote...Slouching Towards Gomorrah.
There was a rash of sound Christian literature published in the 90s and maybe a little before that and a little after. They actually made you think but they are few and far between today. Or maybe they're not but rather the bookstores don't carry them. I'm in Barnes and Noble all the time also. It's a great period for Current Events books thanks to Barack Obama who motivates but the Christian section is.......horrid......I can't think of a milder word. Even that is only three sections of shelves that in my local store is followed by New Age and preceded by True Crime.
No, the bibliophile is being replaced by the electronic reader. Departing is the smell of the page, the caress of the book itself and the precision of underlining a profound comment. As for the Bible, the Word of God itself, one needs a physical book. No, not in a spiritual sense, for God's words to us would (pierce) to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow....if relayed to us on a billboard, which they are and of which I am always thankful for when I see them, but we need the book as one of the few remaining links to a Christian age not infatuated by what we are able to do but humbled by what we are able to discern.
Heaven Is For Real......The Book Is Not.......May of 2011
Well, I'm way behind on this one. A few days ago I heard about the new book sensation, Heaven Is for Real. I picked it up and read it in little more than an afternoon then went to the New York Times Best Seller list and in some sort of Freudian Slip I went to fiction and started scrolling backwards. Well, I was back into February and no Heaven Is For Real. Then it dawned on me...non-fiction, for I had trouble even putting the book into that category. Indeed, according to what I then read, it had been Number 1 for 12 weeks and has only slipped to Number 2 this past week. What can I say? It's sad that this is what Christians read, what they so easily fall for, what they are totally unprepared to discern.
For those not familiar with this book, as I wasn't until three days ago, a pastor's son has an out-of-body experience on the surgery table and is taken to heaven. This loving father is certainly sincere but he also erred in discernment of what happened. There are two ways to address this, the first being to list the ways that the book is not Scriptural but I think that it's more important here to address this genre of Christian literature. You're probably not too happy right about now, if you have read this far, but if you can read on a little bit further I'd like to give you some things to at least think about.
You wouldn't want this story to be true! If it was legitimate, then maybe the hundreds of similar stories that came before it could be legitimate also and even if only a portion of them were legitimate you would then be living a Christian existence where personal testimony, experiences, imagination, the paranormal and even chicanery would rule. You would have given up our bulwark of strength in the reasoning mind that God gave us and of reading God's Word under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and this for a mess of pottage. You would have given up order and precision for the chaos of emotive evidence. When I was about 16 years old, a man came up to my friend and I at a shopping center and showed us some very nice watches.... supposedly they were inventory that he was trying to get rid of...right! Well I bought one and it worked perfectly for about the same number of weeks that Heaven Is For Real was Number 1 on the best sellers list. The book will be gone soon, possibly they will make a movie of it, but then another incredible story will come along.
I have another thought to ask you to consider; I submit to you that, on a scale of excitability, all the thrills that you may have had reading this story do not compare with even the shortest verse in God's Word....."Jesus wept." (John 11:35) I'll even go further than that...even if you could take the trip that this little boy supposedly went on, the excitement of thoroughly understanding even one of the great Doctrines of Grace as they relate to our own salvation, of a lost sinner deserving of condemnation but pardoned through absolutely nothing in or of ourselves, of God's choosing us in spite us and keeping us despite our many frailties, then it would make that trip even less than trivial, to be discarded for the real joy of seeing Jesus through the eyes of faith according to His Word!
Friends, this is not a discerning age for the world or the church and America is at the precipice in no small measure because of it. Maybe you think that it is a discerning age and we are just fine. J. I. Packer once commented, to the best of my memory anyway, that the term giants often used to describe the Puritans was inaccurate for they were normal men, it was only that we are in a church age of Pygmies that we see them as giants.
Please do not take my statements to where I never would take them, that being that there is nothing valuable being done in the church today for there is. One need go no further than missionaries of the true gospel, than servants who give and give and give with no concern for their own well being, than pastors who literally wear out dealing with the challenges of this age, than the faith shown by you and multitudes of others in living in a world that mocks its Creator and rejects its Savior, but we are also called to handle the Word of God correctly.
A glass can only hold so much liquid, our time can only be portioned out on so many things and this age is a candy store of diversions, a haberdashery of excuses to wear and a fitness club to make us think that we are healthy. The book of Jeremiah tells us to ask for the old paths, where the good way is... (Jeremiah 6:16.) Even the wonderful authors of today mine the works of those who came before us. One has to mine gold or at least pan for it. It doesn't usually wind on Best Seller lists.
Recommended: A 24/7 Internet radio ministry at www.refnet.fm
WorldNetDaily ran an article today titled Christian Booksellers Implosion by Jim Fletcher. He describes an industry, Christian books, that is imploding under its own unethical standards which include promoting books that are anything but Christian. I've written a number of posts on just such books that Christians gobble up unaware that the message inside is anything but biblical. You can easily pull up the article at wnd.com if you want the specifics given by Mr. Fletcher.
There was a day when you could walk into a Christian bookstore and find quite a number of good, even great books. I still go in these few remaining stores all the time and at the very best it is pablum upon pablum intermixed with a very few books, usually classics, that are good. Most of the store is Christian wall hangings, curio fillers, music, movies and children's items. These things serve a purpose and our son was well stocked with James Dobson's Adventures In Odyssey, Bullfrogs and Butterflies and Psalty but the concept went from being a nice addition to the main course.
The books in our store were 100% quality Christian literature. I've really never seen a store like it if you would permit me to say that... with one exception, Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service (cvbbs.com) of Carlisle Pennsylvania which is really and Internet business that you can also go in and browse. It's really a sad situation, what I describe here and what this article describes. I'll give you juts one example of the books that sell and I'll add a post I wrote on it at the end......Heaven is For Real.
There's a link on this page titled Isaac Crockett.....Novella. That's a short novel that I wrote pre-9/11 about a bookstore. I think that I adequately explained in that story how a Christian bookstore could be a great force in the community, but those days are gone. It was tough to get Christians to buy good books fifteen years ago and it would be harder still today. Isaac Crockett is a rock star and a Christian who falls in love with a Roman Catholic girl and the story takes place primarily on the boardwalk of Ocean City, New Jersey. I'm trudging along on a sequel right now that is post-9/11, post John Paul II and post-America as God had blessed it, used it according to His purposes and now withdraws His hedge of protection as we are as the great American jurist once wrote...Slouching Towards Gomorrah.
There was a rash of sound Christian literature published in the 90s and maybe a little before that and a little after. They actually made you think but they are few and far between today. Or maybe they're not but rather the bookstores don't carry them. I'm in Barnes and Noble all the time also. It's a great period for Current Events books thanks to Barack Obama who motivates but the Christian section is.......horrid......I can't think of a milder word. Even that is only three sections of shelves that in my local store is followed by New Age and preceded by True Crime.
No, the bibliophile is being replaced by the electronic reader. Departing is the smell of the page, the caress of the book itself and the precision of underlining a profound comment. As for the Bible, the Word of God itself, one needs a physical book. No, not in a spiritual sense, for God's words to us would (pierce) to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow....if relayed to us on a billboard, which they are and of which I am always thankful for when I see them, but we need the book as one of the few remaining links to a Christian age not infatuated by what we are able to do but humbled by what we are able to discern.
Heaven Is For Real......The Book Is Not.......May of 2011
Well, I'm way behind on this one. A few days ago I heard about the new book sensation, Heaven Is for Real. I picked it up and read it in little more than an afternoon then went to the New York Times Best Seller list and in some sort of Freudian Slip I went to fiction and started scrolling backwards. Well, I was back into February and no Heaven Is For Real. Then it dawned on me...non-fiction, for I had trouble even putting the book into that category. Indeed, according to what I then read, it had been Number 1 for 12 weeks and has only slipped to Number 2 this past week. What can I say? It's sad that this is what Christians read, what they so easily fall for, what they are totally unprepared to discern.
For those not familiar with this book, as I wasn't until three days ago, a pastor's son has an out-of-body experience on the surgery table and is taken to heaven. This loving father is certainly sincere but he also erred in discernment of what happened. There are two ways to address this, the first being to list the ways that the book is not Scriptural but I think that it's more important here to address this genre of Christian literature. You're probably not too happy right about now, if you have read this far, but if you can read on a little bit further I'd like to give you some things to at least think about.
You wouldn't want this story to be true! If it was legitimate, then maybe the hundreds of similar stories that came before it could be legitimate also and even if only a portion of them were legitimate you would then be living a Christian existence where personal testimony, experiences, imagination, the paranormal and even chicanery would rule. You would have given up our bulwark of strength in the reasoning mind that God gave us and of reading God's Word under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and this for a mess of pottage. You would have given up order and precision for the chaos of emotive evidence. When I was about 16 years old, a man came up to my friend and I at a shopping center and showed us some very nice watches.... supposedly they were inventory that he was trying to get rid of...right! Well I bought one and it worked perfectly for about the same number of weeks that Heaven Is For Real was Number 1 on the best sellers list. The book will be gone soon, possibly they will make a movie of it, but then another incredible story will come along.
I have another thought to ask you to consider; I submit to you that, on a scale of excitability, all the thrills that you may have had reading this story do not compare with even the shortest verse in God's Word....."Jesus wept." (John 11:35) I'll even go further than that...even if you could take the trip that this little boy supposedly went on, the excitement of thoroughly understanding even one of the great Doctrines of Grace as they relate to our own salvation, of a lost sinner deserving of condemnation but pardoned through absolutely nothing in or of ourselves, of God's choosing us in spite us and keeping us despite our many frailties, then it would make that trip even less than trivial, to be discarded for the real joy of seeing Jesus through the eyes of faith according to His Word!
Friends, this is not a discerning age for the world or the church and America is at the precipice in no small measure because of it. Maybe you think that it is a discerning age and we are just fine. J. I. Packer once commented, to the best of my memory anyway, that the term giants often used to describe the Puritans was inaccurate for they were normal men, it was only that we are in a church age of Pygmies that we see them as giants.
Please do not take my statements to where I never would take them, that being that there is nothing valuable being done in the church today for there is. One need go no further than missionaries of the true gospel, than servants who give and give and give with no concern for their own well being, than pastors who literally wear out dealing with the challenges of this age, than the faith shown by you and multitudes of others in living in a world that mocks its Creator and rejects its Savior, but we are also called to handle the Word of God correctly.
A glass can only hold so much liquid, our time can only be portioned out on so many things and this age is a candy store of diversions, a haberdashery of excuses to wear and a fitness club to make us think that we are healthy. The book of Jeremiah tells us to ask for the old paths, where the good way is... (Jeremiah 6:16.) Even the wonderful authors of today mine the works of those who came before us. One has to mine gold or at least pan for it. It doesn't usually wind on Best Seller lists.
Recommended: A 24/7 Internet radio ministry at www.refnet.fm
