My Top Three Books

Posted on January 9, 2017January 8, 2017 by Matthew Laker

My Top Three Books from 2016

I have found that reading is a great way to push myself and expand my thinking. The best part about reading is that it stirs my thoughts and helps me think through situations or circumstances I find myself in. It also has a way of relaxing and energizing me.

Many may not call reading a spiritual discipline, but many times in my life it serves as a road to align my life with Jesus. It helps me connect with Jesus.

2016 was a year of transition for me and the first part of the year provided extra time for reading. As a whole, 2016 was a big year of reading for me.

My top three books this year had to be:

The Art of Being Broken by Aaron Mark Reimer

Discipleship Shift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples by Jim Putman

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero

Each book, in their various ways, helped me think deeper about my work and helped in understanding myself and others better.

Another book called Recovering the Scandal of the Cross, was in the running for top books for me this year as well and perhaps you could say it is number four. It has been a while since I’ve read a more direct theological book; it pushed me on how I communicate about Jesus, and to re-look at what the significance of Jesus’ death to our culture is. I suspect I will come back to this book again as I wrestle with its topic.

The book I think that may take the number one spot for me this year is Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. I did a write up of my take away from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality here – http://matthewlaker.com/emotionally-healthy-spirituality-by-peter-scazzero/

I meant to have written my takeaways for the book The Art of Being Broken, but never had the chance to. I actually know the author, which is really cool. The book came into my life in the beginning of 2016 and at the time, I needed its message. There’s a good chance this is why it was in my top three. Maybe you need its message too.

I have also listed below other books I completed reading this year. Perhaps there is one there for you in the year ahead. Do you have any recommendations for me?

It should be noted these are affiliate links below:

The books I read in 2016

The art of Being Broken by Aaron Mark Reimer

Discipleship Shift: Five steps that Help your Church to make Disciples who make disciples by Jim putman and Bobby Harrington.

Emotionally healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero

The Give to live: The freedom of being generous with your life by Stan Toler

“Living Forward: A proven Plan to Stop Driving and Get the life you want” by Michael Hyatt, and Daniel Harkavy

Following the movements of the spirit. – spiritual formation by Henri Nouwen with Michael j. Christen and Rebecca J. Laird.

Glorious Mess: Encountering God’s Relentless Grace for Imperfect People by Mike Howerton

Thriving in Babylon: why Hope, Humility, and Wisdom matter in a Godless Culture” by Larry Osborne

Cracking your Church’s culture Code: Seven Keys to Unleashing Vision and Inspiration by Samuel R. Chand

4 keys to hearing God’s voice by Mark Virkler

The Subtle art of not giving a fuck by mark manson – I never did finish this one

The Road Back to you: An enneagram journey to self-discover by Ian Morgan Cron, Suzanne Stabile

The Power of Blessing by Kerry Kirkwood

The Jonah Complex: Rediscovering the Outrageous Grace of God by Greg Haslam – I did not read it all

Jesus speaks: Learning to recognize and respond to the LORD’s voice by Leonard Sweet, Frank Viola

Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: atonement in new testament and contemporary context by Mark d. baker and joel b. green

Gideon – Moving from fear to embracing Jesus

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Matthew Laker

Part 1

Following Jesus involves moving from fear and being lost to embracing Jesus and wholeness.

For many followers of Jesus, we wonder if Jesus is really with us. Gideon was no exception. He too wondered, just where is God? I was reading through the book of Judges and came across the story of Gideon. Like Gideon we wonder “is God really leading us?” and “can we trust him?”

Yet the scripture shares in Hebrews 12 that Gideon’s faith is one for us to learn from. Gideon’s story is found in the book of Judges, starting in chapter 6. There is much in the story of Gideon that can help us understand ourself and God.

As I read and reread the story of Gideon I kept wondering, what is it about his life–his faith–that convinced the author of Hebrews that there is an example for us to follow?

When we look at the whole story of Gideon we watch as God moves and calls him from fear to embrace faith. Gideon is constantly asking God to reveal himself again so that Gideon can know that God is with him. In God’s grace, he continues to remind Gideon who he is.

God speaks to Gideon, not as Gideon sees himself, but in a fashion of who he was created to be. Gideon is not defined by current circumstances. Gideon looks at his situation and wonders where is God? Fear is a driving force and there is tension in the journey of walking away from fear and embracing faith.

There is much we can learn from Gideon, but one overarching storyline is the call to leave fear, to leave the idols and embrace faith in God. The mess the people of Israel find themselves in comes as a result of not listening to God.

They failed to listen, they failed to remember who God is and what he has done. Because of this, they are driven to other things outside of God to find security, power, and hope. Fear becomes strong in their life. Yet God watches and waits for them to call out. As they live in their fear and rejection of him, they finally call out and grace is seen.

Gideon is taken on a journey of re-discovering who God is and comes to the point of realizing God is sufficient, God is life and he has nowhere else to turn. At that point, the leaving fear and embracing God and his promises, Gideon embarks on entering, engaging and experience the life he was created for. Yet Gideon is not perfect which is why we can relate to him so much. His story does not even end well. In face he moves back into fear. However, the message is the same for us. Jesus waits for us to call out, and grace is given. He calls us to leave fear and embrace him.

Where are you needing to let go of fear and embrace who you are in Jesus?

Take time this week to listen to who God says you were created to be.

A road away from Stress.

Posted on October 7, 2016October 2, 2016 by Matthew Laker

Are you being thankful for what you did accomplish?

From time to time I find myself in the midst of a busy week. I take one thing off the to-do list and another goes on. This is not bad or good, it just is. I came home from the day’s work and had not completed the list I wanted for that day. I was sharing with my wife, ok complaining, that I did not complete my list. I was frustrated with my limited capacity.

Then my wife asked a great question. In the moment though, I did not understand what she was getting at until I finished answering her question. She patiently waited for me to share my answer to the question. Then said, “why not celebrate and be thankful for what you did accomplish.”

Her question was “what did you accomplish today?” It was a great reality check question. We need to ask such a question from time to time to gain a better perspective of our situation in life.

Sometimes my expectations keep me looking at what I did not accomplish this week or day. Expectations can help drive us, but we need to celebrate and be thankful for what we have accomplished. It can be exhausting always running after the list that never ends.

Perhaps you find you have a long list and feel frustrated at not completing it. Ask yourself, what have I completed, have I taken steps in the right direction today. Celebrate and be thankful.

Perhaps at the end of your day, you can create a celebration or thankful list. You can do this mentally or write it down. Writing it down is a great way to help process your thoughts and also lets you look back on your life.

Here is some help to get started, it will just take five minutes.

What can you celebrate from your day?

What steps to accomplishing a task or tasks did you complete?

What do you have to be thankful for in your day?

Being thankful is a road to helping you relieve stress and gain perspective.

Tools in my backpack to help me keep a quiet time

Posted on October 5, 2016October 14, 2016 by Matthew Laker

In all of our lives, there are foundational practices that need to be part of the regular rhythm of life. As I journey with people, often when I ask about people’s quiet time, their head drops or they look away. They know they need to develop this area but have not. A few along the journey honestly have never really developed a quiet time in their life.

What is a Quiet time?

A quiet time is the intentional regular rhythm of pausing to pray and sit with Jesus. Often it involves scripture reading but does not always have to.

My 3 purposes of a Quite time.

a. To provide reflection space in my life to gain a better perspective of myself, circumstances, and Jesus.

b. To hear from and listen to the Holy Spirit.

c. To align my life with Christ’s

There are more, but these are my top three.

Developing and practising our quiet time is like going on a hike. In that journey, there are some useful tools to have in our backpack.

Here are four tools I carry in my life that help me in the journey, or rhythm, of a quiet time.

1. Calendar – Set time aside to meet with Jesus. We do it with everyone else. You can still have that spur of the moment time. For example, unplanned times where you find yourself praying or worshiping in music, etc. You need those, but you also need scheduled times of hitting the pause button in your life. So find a time that works and do it.

2. A Framework – Many people, when starting out, need the assistance of a framework to help them know what to do in this time. The framework is just a tool to help you hear from Jesus. There are many good ones out there. For example Lectio Divina. Here is an outline you can read to help and you can read a little more about it here.

3. A Bible and a journal – Many people use this time to reflect upon scripture and read scripture. I suggest having a bible reading plan can be a great help. A journal as well can help you process your thoughts.

4. Understand yourself – It is important to know how you best connect with Jesus. It is important to know your personality and character and who God calls you to be. There are a number of great tools that can serve as jumping off points to help in this.

In my journey of practising a quiet time these are a few of my tools that have proved to be helpful. It is important as well to also be aware of the space you are in and what your distractions will be.

Finally, give yourself some grace. Just because you missed that one time does not mean the world is going to end or you lose God’s favour. You already have God’s favour, that is why we want to spend time with him.

What tools are in your backpack?

What is one step you can do today to develop the rhythm of quiet?

What is one tool you need to use to develop the rhythm of your quiet time?

Why do I have so much stuff?

Posted on September 23, 2016September 22, 2016 by Matthew Laker

Moving is always one of those times you really get to see how much stuff you have. In a five year time we moved four t, times. Two of those times we went into a smaller place and this meant we had to downsize our stuff. The last move was six hours away and I did not want to make two trips with the truck. We sold items, and gave away lots and lots.

In the process I observed a few things, but here is one from my experience.

One thing I observed is we become emotionally attached to things. – I am getting better with this now than I ever have. However, there are a few things that would be harder to lose.

This emotion at one level perhaps has to do with identity. Our stuff gives us identity, the more we have the better we feel in the moment. Deep down we believe the commercials we watch in media that share our life would be better if we had – fill in the blank.

We all fall into the trap that we have to keep buying. That also may point to something deeper that needs to be dealt with.

In this time, I was reminded of the words of Jesus:

Matthew 6:19-21English Standard Version (ESV)

Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

¹⁹“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust^[^a^] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

If I sit on this idea for a moment, I realise all this stuff can be the focus of my heart, but for why. Yes, material possession can make life easier, however for many of us, we have become consumed by the things we own. This consumption fails to help us flourish in life.

This is where the problem is.

As Jesus followers, we are to live simple. As Jesus followers, material possession is not a sin, but when we cross the line of it consuming us it is. It blocks us from entering, engaging and experiencing the life we were created for.

In our life, we struggle to live simply. Living simply will look different to everyone. The core of it, I believe, is not being consumed by our things.

In my life, I have started to think through more of the how’s and why’s of why we buy things.

We are asking the questions, why do we need this? How will this enhance our family? Yes, we will still buy some toys, but I think we are smarter about it. As we get ready to move into our new home, I am sure that we are going to have to live in the tension of filling our life and house.

Reflection questions:

1)What if you had to move into a one bedroom place. What would you get rid of? (Ok Perhaps this is a question for families)

2)What if you had to get rid of half your stuff? What would go?

3)Make a list of “this is what I need in order to live.” How does that change the way you live? Does it help you focus on Jesus more? Does it help you build treasures in heaven?

4)Do you need to declutter and give out of your abundance?

5)Why do you go shopping?

What have you found helpful?