It's really all about God

He said some really interesting things there.

Religion as a "God management system"?

What do you think? This might be an interesting book to read.

The Search for God and Guinness

I just finished reading THE SEARCH FOR GOD AND GUINNESS, a biography of the beer that changed the world and I gotta say, it was pretty great. The first chapter alone is worth the price of admission! This book is full of beer history, Irish history, and the long tradition of the Guinness family and it's undying commitment to social justice and care for the working class of Dublin. The first chapter is a thorough history of beer, the brewing process and the way that religion and beer have been inextricably linked throughout the years. The rest of the book tells the story of the Guinness family; it's business genius, it's commitment to God, and to the needy.
The Guinness family has been classified in three groups, The brewing Guinness', the banking Guinness' and the Guinness' for God. The author, Stephen Mansfield, makes a point of saying that he is hesitant to use the phrase "Guinness' for God" though, because the implication is that the other family members were not "for God". He writes:
"They did not see themselves as secular, but rather as called. They did not see themselves as apart from Christian ministry, but rather as in the Christian ministry of industry and trade. They did not think of their brewing work as a menial way to pay the bills, hoping that they might compensate for such worldliness by giving occasional service to the church. No, they had absorbed the great Reformation ideal that everything a man did was to be done for God and that his calling and his vocation were usually the same thing. They understood that this transformed workbenches into altars and the labor of a mans hands into liturgies pleasing to God."

CLICK HERE to purchase The Search for God and Guinness

Tell her I don't want her to go

Last night as we were sitting down to dinner I got a call telling me that my Grandmother's doctor had found cancer spreading throughout her intestines. He was doing a surgery on her large intestines when he made this discovery. He said, "We'll have to keep her here for about 5 days, then all you can do is take her home and make sure she's comfortable."
We all sat at the dinner table and cried.
I got up after a while and put on my jacket to go. I told the boys, "I don't think the hospital will let little guys in there because they're worried about the swine flu. I'll let Granny know you said hi, OK guys?"
As I turned for the door Obadiah stopped me.

"Dad..."
"Yeah Buddy?"
"Can you tell Granny something for me?"
"Sure man, what is it?"
Through his tears he said, "Tell her I don't want her to go."

The Simple Life

I just finished reading Simple Life, and I highly recommend it for you if you feel like you are too busy, or if you are trying to find focus in your life. The authors surveyed over 1,000 people and kept hearing that people were busy, stressed, nervous, and without a clear direction. The areas that needed the most work in the survey respondents were time, relationships, money and God. The authors propose that with clarity, movement, alignment and focus you can achieve the Simple Life. This is good stuff. I definitely recommend this book.

Also, if you're a church leadership type, get "Simple Church". Excellent.

GET IT HERE