‘Rescuing Ambition’ by Dave Harvey – Book Review and Giveaway

I can personally attest to the fact that, as a Christian, I have been taught that ambition is a bad thing. In ‘Rescuing Ambition,’ Dave Harvey makes the case that ambition, properly applied, can be a godly virtue.

Here is the description of this interesting book:

This pioneering book rescues ambition from suspicion by putting it to work for the glory of God.

Many think of ambition as nothing more than the drive for personal honor or fame. As a result, ambition—the God-implanted drive to improve, produce, develop, and create—is neglected and well on its way to paralysis.

For some, dreams are numbed. For others, there are no dreams; life just happens. And for those who are dreaming, motives are often confused. One thing is certain: ambition needs help.

Dave Harvey is calling for a rescue. He wants to snatch ambition from the heap of failed motivations and put it to work for the glory of God. To understand our ambition, we must understand that we are on a quest for glory. And where we find glory determines the success of our quest.

Has your God-given ambition been starved and sedated for too long? Are you ambitious? It’s time to reach further and dream bigger for the glory of God.

Here is the biography of the author:

Dave Harvey (DMin, Westminster Theological Seminary) is responsible for church planting, church care, and international expansion for Sovereign Grace Ministries, having served on the leadership team since 1995. He is the author of When Sinners Say I Do and a contributor to Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World.

Here is Dave Harvey explaining how we fight selfish ambition:

In the Foreword, C.J. Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Ministries states that Pastor Harvey has helped him to change his mind on ambition:

          Humble ambition. Is such a thing even possible?

          If you asked me twenty years ago, I would have said, “I don’t think so.”

My friend Dave Harvey is one of the men who have helped me see otherwise. Humility doesn’t have to quench ambition. And ambition – the right kind – doesn’t have to trample humility. In fact, we honor the Savior by cultivating both. (p. 9)

In the Introduction, Pastor Harvey shares that our culture has distorted the concept of ambition:

You see, I believe that ambition – godly ambition, that is – is noble force for the glory of God. But let’s face it: ambition has mostly hovered outside respectability. For church leaders from Augustine to Jonathan Edwards, ambition was synonymous with the love of earthly honor, vainglory, fame-hunting – pretty slimy stuff.

Today’s cultural climate doesn’t help. The prevailing worldview in the West involves a distrust in big ideas and man’s ability to achieve them and the firm belief that objective truth doesn’t exist. But when we deny truth, we suffocate ambition.  Without truth as a foundation and ideas worth exploring, meandering replaces meaning, confusion trumps conviction, ambivalence swallows aspiration – nothing really matters all that much.

Ambition must also be rescued from a wrong understanding of humility. That may sound crazy, but I’m serious. I think this issue quenches a lot of evangelical fire. Humility, rightly understood, shouldn’t be a fabric softener on our aspirations. When we become too humble to act, we’ve ceased being biblically humble. True humility doesn’t kill our dreams; it provides a guardrail for them, ensuring that they remain on God’s road and move in the direction of his glory.

Ultimately, it’s we ourselves who hold ambition hostage. We’re sinners, we love ourselves, we aspire to bring glory to ourselves, and we’ll drop godly dreams if something more attractive shows up – and in the process, the right kind of dreams die.

So this book is my little attempt at a rescue operation. The idea is to save ambition – specifically, godly ambition – and return it to where it belongs. To do this, we must snatch ambition from the dust heap of failed motivations and put it to work for the glory of God. (pp. 14-15)

When we become a Christian, God wants to shape our ambition:

God has an agenda: it’s to bring us into the image of his Son. And one way he brings about this change is through our dreams and ambitions. God works in us through that to which we aspire.

Sometimes God brings our dreams to life; sometimes he doesn’t.  But how we respond to his work becomes an important intersection for change in our lives. As we cooperate with him, we discover that it’s not ultimately about nailing the promotion, or raising well-behaved kids, or winning the Daytona 500 – as good as all those things may be. It’s about something bigger: how I become like Christ while I pursue those dreams. (p. 70)

Sometimes God makes us wait for our ambitions:

Waiting is God’s backhoe in the excavation of our ambitions. Waiting unearths and brings to the surface what we really want.

Yet, waiting is a strange thing. God’s purposes are not a bus stop where we just sit, waiting for the right option to come by. No, we keep walking while we wait, and we wait while we walk. This may sound ironic, but it serves many purposes. (p. 72)

He then goes on to enumerate what waiting does for us:

1.   Waiting purifies our ambitions.

2.   Waiting cultivates patience.

3.   Waiting redefines our definition of productivity.  (pp. 72-73)

An interesting point that Pastor Harvey makes is that contentment requires divine power:

At the heart of discontent lies this conviction: “I don’t have what I deserve.” The gospel answers with this cheery news: “You’re absolutely right. And you can thank God for that!” The gospel turns our complaint on its head and reminds us that regardless of our state – high or low, plenty or hunger, abundance or need – we live infinitely above what we really deserve. (p. 129)

In the Afterword, Pastor Harvey explains why he wrote this book:

I wrote it because I don’t want the past to rob us of the future. I don’t want the people I love and the people you love to be conformed to the world’s way of thinking about today or tomorrow.

As Christians, there’s much in the past that we love, but we’re also called to the future. It’s a future secured by the cross and commissioned by the Savior. A future both given and grabbed, protected and pursued. It’s our future if we dare to believe God’s promises.

The future is too important to put off until tomorrow. We must dream about it today.

I believe God wants ambition back in our understanding of godliness and spiritual health. Sure, let’s not fail to evaluate our motives and strive for humility – that’s essential. But let’s not be paralyzed by self-analysis.

God calls us to “run with endurance the race set before us” (Heb 12:1). He calls us to run it in such a way that we win the prize (1 Cor. 9:24), to forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead (Phil 3:13), to invest our talents wisely (Matt. 25:14-30), and to be people “zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14). Those are biblical ways to exclaim, “Keep the pistons of ambition pumping for God!”

Let’s not just kick-start a conversation. Let’s move into the future expecting that God can use us to make a difference.

That’s why I wrote this book. (pp. 215-216)

I have to admit that I have difficulty with selfishness and discontent. I guess that makes me human; I am not unique from others. I appreciate how Dave shows us that God wants us to be ambitious – but ambitious for Him! There is nothing wrong with that – that’s how He wired us. That is a relief to me!

You can order this book here.

This book was published by Crossway Publishers and provided by them for review and giveaway purposes.

___________________________________________________________

I have one copy of this insightful book that I would love to send along to one of you! 

There are several ways to gain entry:

1) Leave a comment here on the blog, telling me what you think of this book. Please make sure to leave your email address in this format – sample[at]gmail[dot]com.

2) Follow me on Twitter; I will more than likely follow you back!  If you are already a Twitter follower, that counts, too!  Please leave a new comment to that effect.

3) Follow me as a Google Friend on this blog; if you are already a Friend, that counts, too!  Please leave a new comment to that effect.

4) Become my Facebook friend.  Please leave a new comment to that effect.

5) Follow this blog as a NetWorked Blog Follower after you’ve become my Facebook friend.  Please leave a new comment to that effect.

So there are five chances to enter!  Please limit one entry per option.

This giveaway is for U.S. residents only.  The deadline for entry is Monday, October 25, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. EST.  A winner will be chosen via the Random Number Generator on Tuesday, October 26, 2010 and will be contacted via email.  The best to all of you!

‘A Memory Between Us’ by Sarah Sundin – Book Review

I have been reading and reviewing long enough here on my blog that I am getting to the second books by select authors. The latest book to fall into that category is ‘A Memory Between Us’ by the wonderful Sarah Sundin.

Here is the synopsis of this novel:

         

Can they overcome the past to find a brighter future together? 

Major Jack Novak has never failed to meet a challenge – until he meets army nurse Lieutenant Ruth Doherty. When Jack lands in the army hospital after a plane crash, he makes winning Ruth’s heart a top-priority mission. But he has his work cut out for him. Not only is Ruth focused on her work in order to support her orphaned siblings back home, she also is determined not to give her heart to any man.

As the dangers and tensions of World War II rise to a fever pitch, Jack and Ruth will need each other more than ever. Can Jack break down her defenses? Or are they destined to go their separate ways?

From the English countryside to the perilous skies over France, A Memory Between Us takes you on a journey through love, forgiveness, and sacrifice.  

Here is the biography of this author:

Sarah Sundin is the author of A Distant Melody. She lives in northern California with her husband, three children, a cat, and a yellow lab prone to eating pens and manuscripts. She  works on-call as a hospital pharmacist and teaches Sunday school and women’s Bible studies. Her great-uncle flew with the U.S. Eight Air Force in England.

Sarah does a terrific job in researching the world as it was back in World War II. Her attention to detail is amazing! I have had an interest in World War II since I was in elementary school, when my sixth grade teacher assigned us to read ‘The Diary of Anne Frank.’ This excerpt shows both Sarah’s depth of knowledge of her subject, as well as Jack’s desire to take down the Nazis:

He set hands on hips and surveyed the airfield, the coordinated rush of men and trucks, the smell of aviation fuel and nervous excitement – boy, was it swell. At Thurleigh Army Air Field, two squadrons from the 94^th had been training with the veteran 306^th Bomb Group, while the other two squadrons took lessons from the 91^st Bomb Group at Bassingbourn. The 306^th was Jack’s younger brother, Walt’s, group.

Former group.

“Poor kid.” Jack couldn’t wait to get back in combat and take a few shots at the Nazis who had put Walt in an Oxford hospital with his right arm amputated. (p. 16)

Jack had a strong faith, having graduated from seminary and expecting to follow in his father’s footsteps as a pastor. He had his flaws, however:

He forgot to pray. Jack paused on hands and knees. He was his father’s namesake, his father’s image, except Dad wouldn’t forget to pray. Neither would Walt, and Walt was the only Novak man who wasn’t a pastor. His older brother, Ray, probably prayed whole psalms from memory, translated them into Hebrew for fun, Greek and Latin if he was bored.

But Jack – fine pastor he was. He closed his eyes. Lord, please direct this mission. Guide these bombs straight to the target. Please keep us safe and get all 169 planes back intact. He opened one eye and glanced at his watch. Time to report to his station. In Jesus’s name, amen. (p. 17)

Ruth’s faith was weak. When Jack makes Ruth’s acquaintance at the hospital in which he was taken after an accident, he gave her food for thought:

          His lips bent in a little smile. “Know something? God loves you.”

Ruth almost dropped the empty syringe. Her mind whipped back to her prayer at the end of her shift. “Excuse me?”

“He does,” he said, voice slurred, eyes closed. “God really, really loves you.”

How could this man know? He couldn’t have heard her pray. She hadn’t spoken out loud, had she? “Why-why did you say that?”

‘S’true. Christ died for you. S’all you need to know.” (p. 27)

Ruth had a hard time forgiving herself for indiscretions that happened in her life ten years earlier as a very enterprising thirteen year old. On a furlough to London, her imagination ran a little wild:

She dragged herself up the steps of the monument and circled the marble rising in carved splendor to golden winged figures on top. Ruth gazed up at Queen Victoria bright in the midday sun in all her marble purity. The queen looked down her pure white nose with disdain in her pure white eyes. She knew. She knew Ten-Penny Doherty in her filthy shame, sullying her beautiful land. (p. 163)

Another nurse, May, became a close friend of Ruth. She helped Ruth grow closer in her relationship with the Lord:

          “….Have you asked God to forgive you?”

“So many times I’ve lost count.” Her mouth puckered. No, she would not cry her first day at the School of Air Evacuation.

“Then he’s already forgiven you. Now you can heal.”

Ruth’s head shook from side to side. As a nurse, she knew of no procedure or medication or surgery to remove shame.

“God can heal you. Trust him.” May patted Ruth’s hand. “The first step was taken for you. Your secret’s out in the open.”

She closed her eyes and tried to laugh. “Oh yeah, that helped.”

“Didn’t it?”

Ruth held her breath. Hasn’t she told whiny Lieutenant Baker how a closed wound festered? Her wound had been closed for eight gangrenous years, but now it had lanced, now it was exposed to oxygen, and now perhaps it could heal. (p. 222)

I really enjoyed how Sarah incorporated the story of the Book of Ruth into this story of Ruth. Here’s an example; Jack gave her a beautiful evening gown:

Ruth stared at the gown, the note, the gown again. Why on earth did Jack feel compelled to buy it? She’d gone twenty-four years without a fancy dress, and she hardly needed one now.

The silk caressed her hand, as cool and slippery as water. Jack knew she’d never owned anything this nice. He was trying to fill a hole in her life, Boaz lifting the corner of his robe to cover her. (p. 269)

As time went on, Ruth realized God was trustworthy, and had her best interests at heart; she needed to be patient:

Now she knew it was the Lord’s doing, not hers. Ma always said God would provide, and he did. How much more would he have provided if she’d trusted him? She’s been too impatient to wait for him, like Sarah giving Abraham her handmaid, like Jacob stealing his father’s blessing. God still provided in spite of their sin, in spite of hers, but with long-reaching consequences and broken relationships. (p. 278)

I really loved the ending to this book; it was quite satisfying. Sarah did a great job of fleshing out these characters, and making us care about them and their well-being.

This book would be great for a book club. These are Discussion Questions at the ends that are deep and thought-provoking. They focus on the book and its characters, then on the reader. Here’s an example of one:

Jack sees Ruth as wearing a “cloak of shame.” How does shame weigh Ruth down? How does she learn to throw off her shame, and how does this change her life? Have you ever felt the burden of shame? Have you thrown it off? (p. 439)

I read the first book in this ‘Wings of Glory’ series, ‘A Distant Melody,’ and loved it (you can read my review here). That book focused on Jack’s brother, Walt. This book was equally as good! I am glad Sarah is keeping the memory of the ‘Greatest Generation’ alive for those of us who never personally experienced that turbulent time in world history.  

The third book in the ‘Wings of Glory’ series is entitled ‘Blue Skies Tomorrow;’ it will release August 2011. It will follow the storyline of the third Novak brother, Raymond. I am sure it is equally as spectacular as this one, and I look forward to reading this next work by this wonderful author!

You can order this book here.

This book was published by Revell, and provided by the LitFuse Group for review purposes. I am happy to be participating in the blog tour with these other bloggers.

Three Winners of 'Green Like God' Have Been Chosen

The Random Number Generator has chosen the three winner of 'Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet' by Jonathan Merritt. The three winners are:

1) Charity

2) The Green MomSter

3) Paris

Congratulations, ladies! I will be making contact today.

Thanks to those of you who entered. This is a great book! If you would like to order, you can do so here.

There will be more giveaways and reviews to come, so please stay tuned!

Thanks to Val at FaithWords for making this happen!

‘Little Town of Bethlehem’ DVD Review

For centuries, there has been conflict in the Middle East. A new movie, ‘Little Town of Bethlehem,’ addresses this issue.


Here is the press release for this important documentary:

There is no shortage of opinions, emotions, and actions regarding finding “peace in the Middle East.” While some are familiar with the issue and others are personally impacted by the conflict, many more are unaware, uninformed, and unconcerned about this critical global issue. Little Town of Bethlehem is a groundbreaking new documentary that shares the gripping story of three men—a Palestinian Muslim, a Palestinian Christian, and an Israeli Jew—born into violence and willing to risk everything to bring an end to violence in their lifetime.

Filmed on location in the West Bank, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem, Little Town of Bethlehem brings awareness to a growing non-violent movement in the Middle East that rarely, if ever, makes international headlines.

Sami Awad is a Palestinian Christian whose grandfather was killed in Jerusalem in 1948. Today he is the executive director of Holy Land Trust, a non-profit organization that promotes Palestinian independence through peaceful means. Yonatan Shapira is an Israeli Jew whose grandparents were Zionist settlers who witnessed the birth of the Israeli nation. Today he is an outspoken advocate for the non-violent peace movement, both in his homeland and abroad. Ahmad Al' Azzah is a Palestinian Muslim who has lived his entire life in the Azzah refugee camp in Bethlehem. Today, Ahmad heads the non-violence program at Holy Land Trust, where he trains others in the methods of peaceful activism.

Little Town of Bethlehem honestly and respectfully shares Sami’s, Yonatan’s, and Ahmad’s stories. With all three men referencing both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi during individual interviews, it is clear that their words, thoughts, and actions on nonviolence are still profoundly impacting today’s nonviolent movement. The images of these three men standing firm in the face of overwhelming opposition are inspirational, but Little Town of Bethlehem is not just about inspiring viewers. The filmmakers also raise the question, “Can the cycle of violence be broken?” 

Little Town of Bethlehem was produced by EthnoGraphic Media (EGM), an educational non-profit organization exploring the critical issues of our time. Other feature films and documentaries from EGM include The Grandfathers (2009), Miss HIV (2008), and the award-winning End of the Spear(2005) and Beyond the Gates of Splendor (2002).

Little Town of Bethlehem was created with a global youth audience in mind. But this film will connect with any viewer who desires a deeper understanding of conflict resolution. “The major themes in the film are universal and timeless. The desire to end violence through nonviolence is not a demographic phenomenon, though often it is youth that mobilize. The theme of this film is appropriate for anyone who deals with conflict. This hopeful message of equality is for all,” says Jim Hanon, chief creative officer at EGM and the film’s director. “Little Town of Bethlehem doesn’t focus on who’s right or who’s wrong. The focus is on three men from different places and with different backgrounds who struggle together toward this common goal through nonviolence. We feel that the nonviolent approach promoted by the film is a humanitarian message with the power to transcend religions, nations, politics, languages, and cultures.”  

Here is the trailer for this fascinating documentary:

I found this documentary to be really enlightening. I thought it was interesting how they compared the situation in the Middle East in the present day to the Civil Rights struggle in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.  

It seems as though there will never be peace in that region. The Bible tells us that there will be conflict until Jesus returns. We can continue to pray that He comes soon, and that there is some understanding between all of the different religious beliefs until that time comes.

You can order this DVD here.

This DVD was produced by Ethnographic Media and provided by the B & B Media Group for review purposes.

Winner of 'The Black Madonna' by Davis Bunn is....

The Random Number Generator has done its job again, and chosen a winner for 'The Black Madonna,' the exciting and fast-paced novel by Davis Bunn. 


And that winner is.....


Ann Lee Miller!


Congratulations, Ann Lee! I will be making contact with you this morning to get your address.


Thanks to all who entered. There are a lot of John Cusack fans out there; great casting choice!


Thanks also to Rebeca at Glass Roads PR, who made this giveaway possible!


For those of you who didn't win, you can order your copy here!


Please come back soon for other giveaways!