signsoflifebooks.com

The art work of Signs of Life gallery artist Rick Beerhorst is featured on the cover of the August 2007 edition of Christianity Today. See more of Rick’s work in our on line gallery.

Here are a couple of interesting books we just got in. Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear, by Scott Bader-Saye and The Dawkins Delusion? by Alister and Joanna McGrath.

What one word would you say best defines The West today? Wealth? Power? Sex? Bader-Saye makes a good argument for considering Fear to be the culture-defining word for our postmodern society. We fear everything from terrorist attacks to not buying the right brand of deodorant to protect us from embarrassment. Parents are much more likely to say “be careful” than “be good” as their children go out to play. And many churches fear losing membership above fear of displeasing God. Yet scripture admonishes “fear not”. Drawing on everything from pop culture to Aristotle, Bader-Saye points out flaws in who we fear, how we fear and what we fear. Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear shows the link between love and fear, and points us toward replacing inappropriate phobias with courage and appropriate fear.

Science populizer Richard Dawkins’s recent harangue against what he calls “died-in-the-wool faithheads” The God Delusion, has been a runaway bestseller since its publication last fall. At his recent public appearance here at the University of Kansas, I’m told he ranted for an hour about the idiocy of religion, paralleling the content of his book. Fellow Oxford biology PhD Alister McGrath, joined by his wife, psychology of religion professor Joanna Collicutt McGrath, have written The Dawkins Delusion?, a short, readable, informative book to counter The God Delusion. To rebut Dawkins point by point, claim the McGraths, would produce a long, boring, piece of tedium. Instead they take a few of Dawkins’s more risible points and demonstrate that his diatribe represents an indefensible abandonment of his much-cherished rationality. This is an excellent antidote for anyone tempted to place faith in The God Delusion.

Now through June 23rd, some of our best CDs are on sale.  We started at 25% off on June 1st and the discount improves by 1% each day (except Sundays, when we’re closed).  Today is the 5th, so we are up to 28% off!  But once they’re gone, they’re gone!  You can wait until the discount reaches 40%, but you might risk loosing that CD you’ve had your eye on.  Come in often to see how things are progressing.

If there are any sale CDs left on the 22nd, we’ll finish up with a buy-1, get-1-free grand finale.  The buy-1/get-1 event is two days only: Friday, June 22nd and Saturday, June 23rd.

Don’t you just love this time of year when the local growers present their goods at the Farmer’s Market? Still it can be a hassle to plan your week around the Market schedule and buy gas for an extra outing.

Well, what if the Farmer’s Market came to you? What if, for a subscription fee, luscious, tasty organic veggies showed up on your doorstep once a week? What if this went on for the whole growing season? Would that be a deal, or what? Some friends of our, Tim and Diane Rebman, have come up with just such a fantastic deal! To top it all off, they’ll send you weekly e-mail updates about what’s happening in the garden interspersed with interesting facts about the vegetables you’ll be eating that week, and about gardening, organics, and life in general, all in Tim’s inimitable style.

To sign up for veggie delivery, or their newsletter, or just to find out more, drop them a line: timothyrebman at earthlink dot net (you’ll have to use the standard @ and period when you format the address - writing it like that is supposed to make it a trifle harder for evil spam robots to snatch the address from this post).

The May 4th Friday night concert that was to feature Tyler Clements and Jill Koch has been cancelled. But Tyler has a good excuse. His wife Lindsay had a baby Wednesday afternoon: “her name is Charlotte Ruth Clements and she’s beautiful” reports Dad. Hopefully we can reschedule Tyler and Jill at a time when Tyler is a little less busy.

Signs of Life is featuring povitica in our coffee shop again this Easter. Povitica (pronounced something like poh va teet’ sa) is the traditional dessert bread of Eastern Europe. Each is hand rolled by third-generation bakers locally so it is fresh for our customers. It is available in several flavors, but the most popular are the traditional black walnut and the scrumptious cream cheese. We offer Povitica by the loaf in an attractive gift box. You can take it home to enjoy with your Easter meal or give povitica as a gift to family and friends. We also have povitica by the slice in our cafe so you can come in and savor it with your favorite latte, chai, or juice.

For Christians, last month’s Ash Wednesday marked the start of the Lenten Season, a 40-day period (excluding Sundays) for fasting, solemnity, and personal introspection in preparation for Holy Week. Christians from various traditions—Protestant, Orthodox, Evangelical, Roman Catholic, Anglican—have long used this period to consider their own mortality and the seriousness of sin, as well as the forgiveness of God as offered in the Gospel. It is also a common occurrence for laymen and clergy alike to use the period to rededicate oneself to a disciplined spiritual life, reforming or recommitting certain habits to aid one’s contemplation of God’s words during this time. Along this note, several textual aids are available to the individual or group desiring direction during Lent, as well as several classic texts addressing themes appropriate to the season.

In the past couple of decades, there have been many texts published concerning the Spiritual Disciplines, but several titles have stood the test of time. Richard Foster’s classic work, A Celebration of Discipline, is lauded by many as one of the best treatises on the importance of the core spiritual disciplines. In the book, Foster outlines 12 disciplines under three broad categories: the Inward Disciplines, the Outward Disciplines, and the Corporate Disciplines. Thus habits like meditation, prayer, simplicity, service, confession, and worship are put in the context of personal, familial, civic, and communal life, giving the book a certain pastoral completeness.

Other titles in this category include Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life and John Calvin’s classic reader, Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life. For those looking for books treating individual disciplines, John Piper’s book on fasting, Hunger for God is very good. Also, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Meditating on the Word is a small treatise for those looking to grow in this important discipline.

Finally, the use of prayer books in lay life is an increasingly popular activity these days, especially during intensely devotional seasons like Lent. Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer has served a central role in Western directed prayer for over three centuries. Additionally, the Valley of Vision is an excellent compilation of Puritan prayers published by Banner of Truth. Finally, Phyllis Tickle has compiled a three-book series of directed prayer and praise for individuals and groups called The Divine Hours. The three book series contains Prayers for Springtime, Prayers for Summertime, and Prayers for Autumn/Winter, respectively.

We were sitting around at a meeting of the Lawrence Conservatives Club the other day. The whole membership was there. All three of us. We unanimously agreed to this proclaimation: Sin makes you stupid. We came to this realization when someone observed that the liberal agenda seems to consist mainly in irradicating the consequences of choices. Especially My choices. Especially My choices regarding sex.

Case in point: there has been a lot of talk lately about mandatory vaccination of pre-pubescent girls against HPV - a sexually transmitted disease linked to cervical cancer. Our local paper carried a big article about the issue, complete with opinions and quotes from several people who think its a great idea. One doctor called it a no-brainer, like the flag and apple pie. The article mentioned that some people have moral concerns, but it didn’t explain what those concerns might be, nor did it quote anyone who held those concerns.

When one of our members pointed out in a letter to the editor that some people were not at risk for STDs, he was vehemently and personally attacked in the newspaper’s on-line forum. These anonymous attackers went so far as to find out his wife’s name and use that in their diatribe. “You call that a culture of life?” they screamed. Well, yes we do. And if you weren’t blinded by your liberal agenda, you might be able to recognize it for what it is.

Now we learn, in a recent story in the Dallas Morning News, that there are reasons why we are suddenly hearing so much about making HPV vaccination mandatory. Millions of reasons, actually. The manufacutrer of the vaccine has been financing an aggressive lobbying campaign for the purpose of boosting sales. But they are backing down now due to a backlash among parents, physicians and consumer advocates. The conservative position has some economic traction for a change.

Signs of Life is having a sale on Art Books this weekend: Thursday March 1st through Saturday March 3rd. Buy any Art Book in stock at the regular price and chose a second one for free! The usual restrictions apply: the free book is the one of lesser or equal value to the purchased one; applies only to regularly-priced books; no special orders.

Come in and get a fantastic deal on beautiful books!

Acclaimed author and long-time leader of The Navigators, Jerry Bridges, returns to Lawrence February 2nd and 3rd to speak on the topic of What the Gospel Is, Isn’t, and Why It Matters. Mr. Bridges served in the collegiate ministry and community ministries of The Navigators, and for 15 years he was the Vice President for Corporate Affairs. This exciting conference is open to the public and sponsored by the University of Kansas Navigator group. Details are available at the KU Navs website.

Mr. Bridges is the author of over a dozen books, the most popular of which, The Pursuit of Holiness, has sold nearly one-and-a-half million copies. His publisher writes: Jerry takes holiness out of the realm of the impossible and brings it into the real world of our daily lives and decisions. Whether you’re continuing your pursuit of holiness or just beginning, the principles and guidelines in The Pursuit of Holiness will challenge you to obey God’s command of holiness.

The Jerry Bridges book we most often recommend at Signs of Life is The Gospel for Real Life. In it we are given the sage advice to “preach the gospel to yourself every day.” But what is the gospel? And how does it affect our day to day life? Here you will find profound answers to these questions; but don’t confuse “profound” with “hard to read”.  The novice as well as the mature Christian will both find this to be a very satisfying book.