I just finished reading The Gospel According to Jesus by Chris Seay and I thought it was fantastic. Tackling issues that face the Church and Christians today; surveys indicate that 84 percent of Christians have a misunderstanding of the true meaning of the word righteousness. Referring to God's restoration of our sinfulness and not personal piety or some code of moral purity, pastor Chris Seay offers that Jesus came to breathe life and light into the depths of all darkness.
Chris starts out the book with Chapter 1 called Righteousness or Righteousness? Digging into Matthew 6:33 "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things will be given to you too" Chris unpacks what "His righteousness" means as well as, through research from the Barna Group, what our culture today views as "His righteousness". I thought this was great and also challenging as I took time to really think about what how I would define "His righteousness".
The next chapter, Kingdom Without a King, he challenges us to really examine what "kingdoms" we are surrounding ourselves with and who is the King of those kingdoms.
Chapter 3: What Is the Gospel? Chris examines that question, what is the gospel? Once we know what the gospel is, he then asks, what do we do now?
Chapter 4: Imago Dei. In this chapter, Chris looks at how we are all made in the image of God. Knowing that, he asks how are we living in community with each other...with others who are also made in God's image.
Chapter 5: We Fell, but Can We Get Up? I thought this chapter was excellent. Chris talks about how, a lot of us have an obsession with sin avoidance and how that has not actually helped us avoid sin. He does a great job of unpacking how we, as Christians, should reflect the image of God and compared it to holding up a mirror. Because of sin, that mirror becomes bent and distorted and we end up not reflecting God but we end up looking at ourselves...selfishly. He also does a great job of explaining how we should shift of focus from sin avoidance to recenter ourselves on Christ!
Chapter 6: Set Your Heart, this chapter continues on and unpacks worship and bringing Jesus back to the center.
Chapter 7: Justification: Rise or Fall? This chapter digs into justification and righteousness
Chapter 8: Shalom, the Fruit of Justice. This chapter starts to unpack what it might look like to live out righteousness, to live a life through a restored, liberated heart made possible through Jesus.
Chapter 9: The Ten Commandments of a Shalom Life, Chris wraps up the book with 10 practical ways to start applying in my own life. This is a great conclusion to an outstanding book. He unpacks what practices have worked for him and how we can live for God's kingdom and His righteousness.
Another thing that I really enjoyed about this book happened at the end of each chapter. Each chapter concluded with a conversation with people in Chris Seay's life, other authors, pastors, etc. and they discussed the topics addressed in the chapter. It was a great insight to how these different topics can and have been applied. He talks with Gabe Lyons, Shane Claiborne, Rick McKinley, Alan Hirsch, Mark Batterson and Dan Kimball and through these conversations I think it helps to see the gospel according to Jesus more clearly.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it. Through the Biblical references, through his own stories and through his conversations with others, he really got me thinking about what the message and gospel of Jesus really means and does that message shape my daily life.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opionions I have expressed are my own. 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."
...but this time of year, Egg Nog hits the shelves at the grocery store! For me, this is a sure sign of the Christmas season.
...and I love to add egg nog into my coffee. It makes a perfect creamer and the flavor reminds me of Christmas and decorating for the holidays. Growing up, as my family would decorate our Christmas tree we would always have a glass of egg nog and listen to Christmas music.
I just finished reading The Gospel According to Jesus by Chris Seay and I thought it was fantastic. Tackling issues that face the Church and Christians today; surveys indicate that 84 percent of Christians have a misunderstanding of the true meaning of the word righteousness. Referring to God's restoration of our sinfulness and not personal piety or some code of moral purity, pastor Chris Seay offers that Jesus came to breathe life and light into the depths of all darkness.
I finished reading The Pocket Guide to the Bible by Jason Boyett and what a fun book to read. It is about the Bible and I did learn a few new fun facts. It was clear that Jason Boyett did a lot of research in order to pack this book full with so much information. 
Here is the before picture, yellow house with green and red trim.
...and the after. Milk Chocolate brown with white trim and black shutters. Shutters? Well, I am still working on the shutters for the windows. When we replaced the windows, I found that the shutters were built into the house, so when the windows came out so did the shutters. Through the winter I am going to be building some new shutters!
The backside of the house. Big thanks to all the guys who came over and helped paint! We really appreciate all your help, we couldn't have gotten the house painted before winter without you!
During this whole process, we still had the leaves to deal with. Fall in our neighborhood is very pretty with all the colors, but it is also a lot of work when those pretty leaves fall to the ground. This pile may seem large, but this was only about half way through our process of cleaning up the yard! I love those trees!
The book club that I am in recently finished reading UnChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, and I learned a ton reading this book. Through research done by the Barna group these two guys look at the perceptions of Christians through the eyes of outsiders.
Sunday morning Chad, Shay and I met up with Erin and Megan in our hotel lobby around 6:15 to head to the course. We split ways once we got to Grant Park, I headed into the "A" corral and wished the rest of the crew good luck! The first mile we head under the road, I saw Heather on the corner, thumbs up!
In the background, Chad throws his hand in the air as Chad and Shay run by!
Chad pumps his fist in the air...determined to finish!
Coming through at mile 11, I was no longer having fun...tummy troubles caused me to stop 4 times to use the port-o-potties, that combined with high temperatures made it a rough day for me.
Chad and Shay had a little trouble around mile 11 too...they lost each other! Shay was about two blocks in front of Chad and as the picture shows a little puzzled as to where he went!
Chad asking the question "Have you seen Shay?" Thanks to the great support of our cheering section they were quickly reunited!
Erin and Megan are all smiles as they run together through mile 11!
As the day wore on, I peeled off my jersey and as you can see I am barely closing ground on the guy walking in front of me...rough day as I round the corner to the finish line!
Shay gives a big wave as she and Chad make their way to the finish line!
Erin also making her way to the finish line!
Post finish resting our legs and drinking lots of water!
The Finishers!
On our way back to the hotel we found this little guy....RRRAAAWWWRRR!
Here are a few "official" photos from the marathon.
Chicago Marathon...the end
