Francis Chan Asks, “Is This Really Church?”

It’s no secret that I greatly appreciate the ministry of Francis Chan. While I don’t like putting people up on pedestals, there are few biblical teachers today who have had as much impact on my life as he has.

When I recently reviewed Francis Chan’s book, Crazy Love, I mentioned that the updated edition included a section talking about some changes that occurred in his ministry since writing the book. With that as a preface, I’d like to share a video with you.

If I’ve pieced together the history correctly, I believe this sermon coincides with that shift in his ministry. I watched this video around the same time I first read Crazy Love, and it had just about as great an impact on me.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan (Book Review)

Outside of the Bible, there are very few books that I can say have truly changed the course of my life. Crazy Love by Francis Chan is one of them. So when I found out that a newly revised and updated edition was being published, I knew I had to review it. Thank you, David C Cook, for sending me a copy.

The premise of this book is simple. God’s love for us is crazy; we should therefore live a life of crazy love for him.

In the first chapter, Francis paints a picture of God—an awesome, beautiful, terrifying picture. From the start, we see just who this God we serve really is. Next, Francis describes who we are. When it comes down to it, we’re pretty insignificant. He compares us to a movie extra hidden away in the background of some scene, but we act as though we’re the star. Make no doubt about it, the “movie” of life is all about God, from start to finish.

But that’s not where it ends. After comparing our squalor to God’s splendor, we are shown that God loves us. For some utterly incomprehensible reason, the God of the universe loves us. He loves us so much that he sent his Son to die for us, to redeem us, to adopt us as his children.

Who Is Qoheleth?

At 4:15 on the morning of May 12, 2013, Tessa gave birth to our first son, Qoheleth Andrew McKnight. We are so blessed! Tessa has written more about our home birth, which you may read on her blog.

The name Qoheleth is pretty unusual, and we’ve been getting plenty of questions about it, so I figured it’s about time to explain the name and why we chose it.

Qoheleth comes from the book of Ecclesiastes. However, you won’t see it in most English translations. That’s because it has been traditionally rendered as either “the Preacher” or “the Teacher.”

A more literal translation would be “the assembler” or “the gatherer.” This could mean that he assembled the people in order to teach them (thus the traditional translation). It could also mean that he was a member of the assembly. Or it could refer to the many experiences he gathered. I tend to favor the latter, given the content of the book of Ecclesiastes.

Trinitarian Letters by Paul Kurts (Book Review)

I actually feel bad about publishing this review. I know that what I have to say will come across as very harsh. Should the author read this review, I apologize. I mean no personal disrespect. However, I promised to provide an honest review upon receiving a free copy of Trinitarian Letters. What follows is my honest opinion.

The first thing that struck me about this book was the formatting. I don’t usually comment on such things, preferring to focus on the content of books. However, this book was nearly impossible to read past the ALL CAPS SHOUTING. I don’t think there is a page in the book without shouting. In some places, the author even applied bold formatting to his all caps text. I also found an instance of no fewer than 35 exclamation points in a row.

Trinitarian Letters was published by West Bow Press, which is the self-publishing division of Thomas Nelson. The fact that it is self-published is quite evident. In addition to the problem with shouting, there are hardly any pages that do not suffer from atrocious spelling and grammar mistakes.

The Name of Jesus or Yeshua?

I had a great conversation on Facebook the other day, regarding the name of Jesus. Amado and I were talking about Messianic Judaism and specifically how many refer to Jesus as Yeshua.

They do have a point. Jesus isn’t really his name (and Christ certainly isn’t his last name, but that’s perhaps another post).

Jesus is actually an Anglicization (English version) of the Greek name Iesous. And Iesous is a Hellenization (Greek version) of the Hebrew name Yeshua.