Take a look at some of items on the current list of best selling "Christian" books...The Power of Simple Prayer - "Our prayers are to show our connection to Him, our need for His grace, mercy and blessings. The Power of Simple Prayer can take you to a new level in your relationship with God."
Facing Your Giants - "Let God turn your stumbles into miracles! This blend of biblical truths with everyday examples will help you stare down life’s obstacles with faith."
The Confident Woman - "Discover the keys to becoming a woman who knows she’s loved and refuses to live in fear. Joyce Meyer examines the myth of female meekness and unlocks the power of confident action, love without reservation and sharing God’s grace with courage and conviction."
How to Hear From God - "Learn to recognize God’s voice guiding you in all the details of your life, bringing you closer to Spirit-led abundance as you walk in the fullness of His plan."
Look Great, Feel Great - "From health tips to biblical views on personal care—physical and spiritual—this is one book that will give you a makeover from the inside out!"
The Purpose Driven Life - "This biblically based program guides you on a 40-day spiritual journey to God’s purpose for you, reducing your stress, simplifying your decisions and preparing you for eternity."
Cure for the Common Life - "Experience the 'uncommon' and fulfilling life God intends for you with practical tools for exploring and identifying your own uniqueness."
Becoming a Woman of Freedom - "...will help you identify and lay aside the burdens that can make you feel "stuck" including past hurt and loss, poor self-image, approval seeking, busyness, doubt and fear, and unhealthy influences."
Seeking Him: Experiencing the Joy of Personal Revival - "Do you feel 'stuck' in your spiritual journey? Are you ready to set sail for personal revival? You'll be renewed and revitalized as you explore topics including honesty, humility, repentance, grace, obedience, and others."
Do you see an alarming pattern here? A few things come to my mind that make me sick to my stomach for the modern day "church". The church is committing massive self prescribed, pastor approved and church condoned Spiritual self help suicide and fleecing the pockets of many, many authors that are only too eager to turn a buck on this massively out of control church identity crisis.
Look at the life of Jesus...and the Apostles. Look at the Spiritual and Biblical giants throughout Christian history (Tozer, Spurgeon, CT Studd, etc.) Do you think they cared a rip about self actualization? About self-help? About reduced stress? Come ON church...how do you think THEY lived their lives? They lived in the extreme of faith, violently pursuing Jesus, aggressively serving others and seeking to save the lost!
Put this into perspective...how did Jesus, the Apostles and the foundational church of the book of Acts survive without modern day self help Christian books? Can you imagine Paul in prison (or David preparing for battle) reading "Facing Your Giants"? How about Queen Esther pouring over "Becoming a Woman of Freedom"? Maybe Job reading through "Cure for the Common Life" as he faces all his challenges?
Through scripture...ask Paul about his life...as an Apostle and as a martyr.
When did the Holy Scriptures stop being sufficient enough for our lives as believers? Don't get me wrong, there are many, many great books out there. Many outstanding books on Apologetics, studying scripture, etc. Certainly NOT any books about self improvement, self actualization or religious psycho babble.
1 Corinthians 13:5That breaths a pretty huge, black and white perspective into the situation doesn't it? Kind of tells me that I better read the Bible so I can know it's commands, know it's standards so I don't "fail the test". So I know who I am to be in Christ, and who He is in me, so I know who God is, what He expects of me. Not some book, by some author making money on my own pitiable desire to feel better about myself and my circumstances.
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?
1 John 2:3-6
We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
This "me" generation in the church however is almost certainly for the most part not saved...else would it look so much like the modern day world with it's demanding drive to have everything right and to be everything, to be liked by everyone else inside and outside of the church? Would the divorce rate in the church exceed the divorce rate in the secular world? Would the abortion rate in the church match the abortion rate in the outside world? Teen pregnancies...in the church? Backbiting? Church splits? Seeker sensitive and watered down messages?
John 15:19Does the world hate you? It should...and I'm not talking about whining because the nativity scene has been banned from the city park. When you step out and start speaking about Jesus - you'll know. Ever been threatened with or actually arrested for witnessing in public? Ever had someone storm away throwing a tract in the air and cursing your name?
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
1 Peter 4:12-19Examine yourself and tell me...why, please tell me WHY the church, pastors and these authors even BEGIN to think...it's necessary that we look, feel and act all polished and that we've got it all together. Then tell me why they tell us it's OK to think that way?
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And,
"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"
So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
Think about who killed Jesus. It wasn't the world...it was THE CHURCH. Think about why they killed him (in the natural realm). Because he called them to task. The pharisees and hypocrites of his day. Do you think there's any reason why the majority of what calls itself the contemporary church is any different?
When you take up your cross, when you lose your life to find it for Him, when you set out to seek and to save that which is lost, when you bring NOT peace but a sword - your life becomes nothing, your personal feelings and self worth no longer matter!
The souls and eternal destination of the damned is what matters.
Self help books have no meaning in this context. Self help books are for the pharisees and hypocrites of this day, because just as then, they are still self absorbed, self seeking, luke warm and will be spewed out.
Does that make you burn? Got some angst about what I pointed out? Examine your response in light of scripture.
I don't have all the answers, rest assured the answers can be found in the "Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel". Examine it, seek it, find it...change the world because of it. Don't expect that your life will be changed to something "easier", "better", "less stressful" or somehow "perfected" because of it.
Quit looking at your own life through your own perceptions and feelings...look at others through the eyes of Jesus and you'll forget about your own "troubles".
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6 comments:
It may be that the books you cite are unbiblical in content. But make that decision based on more than just the back cover, since the author usually doesn't write the back cover. (The publisher does.)
You seem to be a fan of John Eldridge. Read the backs of his books and you'll find similar language.
Ironically, you may not consider Eldridge a "self help" guy, but he is as much as the other authors you cite. His focus on "The Wound" and how to heal from it, how to become a "real man" can easily be construed as self-help.
Unfortunately, as you've noted, one can cite Scripture and use Christian words without being truly Biblical, truly "on point."
John Eldridge, for example, is popular and appealing, but he makes a lot of careless biblical interpretations, and some downright unbiblical ones. His use of scripture is widely regarded by orthodox conservative evangelicals as being problematic and often self-serving.
In fact, here is a lengthy essay about the theological problems with Wild at Heart.
As a fan of Eldridge, you probably won't like reading it, but the very accusations you have raised in this article are oft-repeated against Eldridge. If you read him with the same critical eye as you have just expressed in this blog post, you will probably come to the same conclusions.
Then you have to ask yourself: "How much of the way I think on a daily basis - influenced by Eldridge - needs to be thrown out and reset by Scriptural study?"
More broadly: Can we read Christian books and separate the wheat from the chaff - which requires intimate knowledge of Scripture - or are the books themselves simply chaff to be thrown in the fire?
There is ample argument for both sides, but clearly knowing the Scripture well - being a Berean - is prerequisite for either path.
I encourage you to start the threshing process on your own bookshelf.
Why not do a series of book reviews - with an eye toward Biblical purity - of what you have already read?
- A friend
Galatians 5:2a
Proverbs 26:21g
Proverbs 3:30e
I think "anonymous" makes a few good points, and I might add that any "self-help" book is going to try and convince the reader that they can fix the troubles in their lives by following the direction (Scripture directed or not) of the author.
Anyone who reads such a book (and I don't think all of the books listed in the original post are "self-help" books) and does not test it against the teachings of Jesus Christ and the work on the Cross is setting themselves up for disaster. Many Christian authors today write such books directed to the seeker, but they're embraced by "good Christians" everywhere as near-Gospel.
These books should be read with a sense of curiosity and checked against Scripture, for it is Scripture that provides the rules and is God's Word for us in all times. The bottom line is that there are many good books out there that help people understand, in a parable sense, God's Word a little better, but Scripture has the final say so.
Keep in mind, also, that just because an author quotes Scripture in his or her book, it does not make their teaching correct. Take heed in the translation that they use to support their ideas (Rick Warren's book uses the Message quite often, and the translations are very loose and, I think, often off the mark).
If any part of any book by any author instructs us to ignore or modify God's Word, or fails to hold us to accountability and obedience, then that teaching is false. By the way, I think that one of the most damaging "Best Sellers" that is not on your list is "The Good Life Now" by Joel Osteen.
Ultimately, the Bible is our Owner's Manual and has all of the info we need. The enemy traps us and discourages us by getting us distracted with non-Biblical pursuits, like customizing God's Word to our own desires. Our relationship with God deepens when we read the Bible (HIS WORD), serve one another and obey His commands. If we focus on His commands that say "do this" and not so much on what we are not supposed to do, then we will find that our obedience takes care of the "don'ts" in our lives.
Remember that God IS Love!! And if WE are to be more like HIM, then that is our Focus!!!
KM
"Friend/Anonymous"
You must know me, because if you read through my blog - I don't think you'd find any Eldredge fodder here.
I WAS a pretty big fan of Eldredge...
His book actually started me down this road of self-examination and Biblical discovery (yes, be a Berean!) that has taken me to this point of criticism of the "Christian self help" pandemic. I now do see the same problems with his writings as all these other self-help books.
In a nutshell, throwing out the "love others first" command in favor of fixing ourselves before we can "love others first". (and often abandoning it completely).
My daily thoughts and actions are no longer influenced by Eldredge...but by hard self examination (do I pass the test?) of Holy Scripture.
Who is "anonymous?" Please identify yourself, thanks!
Hello there, your friend from myspace! Excellent stuff, I quit reading those marshmallow books awhile back. Leonard Ravenhill, Michael Brown, Jack Deere, John Wimber...now those are people to read, where you can actually learn something that is useful. Thanks for your insights.
Rose aka Servant of the Lord
Chaz,
Before the conspiracy theories abound, just Google "Chazaq Wild At Heart". :)
Your blog's name is explained in the top link, so it isn't THAT hard to guess the Eldredge factor.
I wasn't sure whether you were looking at that influence in your walk yet... glad to hear you are. (As I am in my own life.)
Who am I? I left clues for fun, but you'll need an NIV to figure them out. :) I thought you'd figure it out in about 5 minutes, but I guess I watch movies like National Treasure too much :)
- Still a friend
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