The shack: Where tragedy confronts eternity

The shack: Where tragedy confronts eternity

Author: Wm. Paul Young

Publisher: Windblown Media, Los Angeles

Year of publication: 2007

Reviewed by: Rev. Dr. J.N. Manokaran jnmanokaran@yahoo.com

http://jnmanokaran.com

Paul Young has written a brilliant Post-modern novel. It is written in contemporary style, with beautiful narratives, creative imagination and that portrays the struggles of people in their day-to-day lives. A reader would find it difficult to keep the book down, unless s/he completes it.

As a good author, he has used his imagination creatively and purposefully. It is amazing to see how he has weaved the biblical truths in cohesive manner. In that, the author reminds us of John Bunyan of Pilgrim’s Progress and also of Sadhu Sundar Singh, a mystic Christian leader from India.

The main character of the novel, Mackenzie Allen Phillips has a difficult childhood and could not relate with his father. Then he leaves home for good and does theological training. He is married to Nan and the couple have five children. The youngest daughter Missy goes missing during a vacation. Great sadness descends in his heart. He felt he failed to protect her and he could not trace her body and bury her also. The whole story is how he tries to wrestle with this irreparable loss.

Mack’s own childhood was not good or great. His father would drink quite often and beat his wife. Mack was guilty as he never stood up for her. Later, he walks out of his home, when his father beats him for sharing the family secret with a church elder. Hence, he was unable to relate to God as ‘Father’. He goes through ‘The Shack’ experience. In that, me meets God as African-American woman (she is addressed as Papa), Son as Middle-Eastern man and Holy Spirit in the form of Asian woman named Sarayu. The God head Trinity without a White personality. A weekend turns to be his memorable experience in which he comes out all his emotional baggage.

As a creative artist, he has taken liberty to relate with the young Post Modern audience. In that, he deviates from or challenges some of the evangelical ideas. The idea of the Trinity having weekend with Mack and related incidents could be hard for some evangelical Christians to understand or digest. It is also a theological treatise packaged in contemporary Postmodern vocabulary appealing to young people. Also, the author has presented the gospel in implicit manner, as much as possible within the context of a novel.

This book could be used to help people who go through emotional turmoil and understand the love of God in their lives. It could be as a Pre-evangelistic tool. Using this book in secular forums could create creative opportunities to present the gospel.

YokeBreaker 2009

" Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away " (Nahum 1:7, 13)

The rising generation of Philadelphia Church Villivakkam, celebrated their annual youth treat on October 2nd 2009. The time spent in organizing this event were filled with tremendous team work. selfless efforts and high levels of expectation.

And the treat by itself, was an opportunity of immense learning and self evaluation. For those, who submitted themselves to the lessons taught, this event was truly a yoke breaker.

YokeBreaker 2009 was a spiritual celebration without any extravagant frills and mass attracting entertainment bombs. It was focused on God's purposes, real, relevant and fun.

Yokes are not fastened on to our lives with a loud noise. They attach themselves very silently through the choices that we make and through the way we respond to issues in our every day relationships .

YokeBreaker was an eye opener, a heart talk, and the Master's voice in each of these areas. A sincere effort to apply the lessons taught gives way for a supernatural explosion that sets us completely free.

(Please click on each session, to read an excerpt of the message heard.)

Session 1: The power of Revelation.

Session 2: Honoring Parents

Session 3: Exploring Sexuality as God created it.

Each session had a generous amount of time allocated to ask questions relevant to practical concerns in our own lives. The answers given were something that called for immediate attention and application.

We worshiped, laughed, jumped, cheered, fought for scores, made new friends and ate scrumptious food.

And the event came to an end, with a united cry for the new anointing of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives. The Spirit of God enveloped the place with His sweet embrace, transforming the hearts and minds of everyone who prayed the prayer of submission. All the lessons learned throughout the day, were reinforced by the Holy Spirit, moving us to the next level of spiritual, physical and emotional progress.

YokeBreaker 2009 broke the yokes of some, prepared the soil for some, sowed the seed in some, and reaped a harvest in some. And more than anything, YokeBreaker 2009 fulfilled God's agenda in the life of each participant.

Visit My Master's Voice for an excerpt of each of the session.

Christian 'Neverlands'

Original Forwarded Message:

A man trusted ...... in WHAT!!! please see what he has done for his earthly life? what can we call this!!! I kindly request you to look at the pictures.

My Dad's reply to the forwarded mail

I think Michael Jackson earned all these by his own worldly talents though he originally started as a Gospel singer. But being a poor administrator of finance he did not enjoy his wealth to its fuller extent. I do not think he was greedy or stealer of someone's money.

By comparison , I think he is more honest than the so called 'Christian wolves' who amass personal wealth, Vanity and pride in the name of Evangelism to build their own castles.

Many of the so called soul savers for Jesus unnecessarily build dubious scriptural NEVER LANDS. in the name of intercession towers,competing with each other to conduct expensive concerts, meaningless conferences and Mosaic Mega churches by selling the GRACE of our LORD and deceiving the masses in the name of God's secret revelation.


I am an observant media critic, both Religious and Secular.

I observe that in Christian media, many presenters 'perform' without any perseverance in preparation and Prayer. They seem to have inadequate understanding and conviction about the specific call of God in their life and poorly imitate everything that seems attractive , commercial, self propagating and self gratifying.

I do not deny that there many excellent Christian TV programmes , I have been personally enlightened by some.

But Most of our TV programmes especially Indian Christian programmes are rubbish, wasting precious bandwidth.

Matthew 21:18-22

Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered.

We have many 'leafy' performers and orators out there, with absolutely no fruit. We don't realize that the Christian media has the highest responsibility in the Kingdom.

But we are allowing ourselves - the Kingdom of power and transformation to be portrayed as a bunch of jokers, always in need of money to build structures, asking people to pay our debts so that they can be free of theirs and a breed of 'spiritual' apes who pathetically imitate and compete with each other stealing each others' sheep instead of venturing into the lands of the unknown and the unheard.

End note :

I am not a fan of Michael Jackson.I just knew him as an eccentric entertainer. But after his death I read as much available material on him, saw many video clippings and have come to believe that if he would have been properly molded as a Christian Singer,and if the Christians he saw, in his family and beyond related to him in the spirit of Christ, he would have done a enormous service in the spread of Gospel.

THE CHURCH I KNOW

If this is not a place where tears are understood,

Where do I go to cry?

If this is not a place where my questions can be asked,

Where do I seek?

If this is not a place where my spirit can take wing,

Where do I go to fly?

If this is not a place where my feelings can be heard,

Where do I go to speak?

If this is not a place where you'll accept me as I am,

Where do I go to be?

If this is not a place where I can learn and grow,

Where can I be just me?

That's the church I know.

-Source Unknown

All our churches, and our Christian homes have enormous talent. When they are not crafted and channeled correctly, they get distraught and become vulnerable. With time, they drift away to the wrong places and become prisoners of wealth and loneliness.

As a church and in our family, it is our responsibility to recognize, appreciate, train and mould talent in the love, counsel, care and perfection of Christ.

Otherwise we will loose many more Michael Jacksons.

Let us stop judging the world and check the cancer that's growing in our minds and within our own body of believers.

Church Software - Free , Open Source , Public Domain

I found this software around mid March. My primary requirement was to find something that would help in dual display and song presentations.

I came across a lot of proprietary software like Easy Worship , Worship-him, Praise! and it was really getting frustrating when I saw their very heavy price tag ranging from a minimum of Rs. 10,000/- And I was beginning to lose hope when my good 'ol pal Google saved my day my landing me on the website of Church Software.

Before looking at Church Software, I did have a look at many other open source software like Openlp and Zionwrox, but the problem was that it did not support Tamil.

There was just one thing on my mind when I was searching, dual display for song presentation and that's it, but when I saw the mind blowing features that CS had to offer, it was just more than what I had asked for....

Presentations

• Church Service Planner - pre-select songs, verses for display.
• Easy selection of Bible multiple verses and instant display on projector screen in any supported language.
• Enhanced Quick Search with auto-flling and Bible Reference Only option
• Our LORD's worship songs display in any supported language.
• Managed MS Powerpoint - Display sermon slides using thumbnails.
• Blank Screen option added for all consoles which displays the background template/image without the Bible verse/lyrics
• Automatic Birthdays and Marriage Anniversaries display.
• Birthday and Wedding Anniversaries displays with photos if present
• Templates with background images
• Previous and Next butttons included for Photo Gallery and MS PowerPoints.
• Automatic projector selection and display.
• Type and update the projector immediately for any instant announcements.
• Grab the displayed presentation text and dynamically edit it. E.g., when the preacher stresses a word in the Bible verse, the projector operator can bold that word in the verse by grabbing the displayed text
• Lyrics Library. Preloaded with 4000+ lyrics for 6 major languages (English, French, Spanish, Tamil, Hungarian, Portuguese)
• Lyrics editor for adding/editing/pringing lyrics with transliteration option
• Used to display video presentations with preview. Supports many video formats.
• Capture streaming video from camera device and display it on projector.
• Transition effects between slides
• glGui 3.0 Music Player
• Sermon Recorder
• Church calendar events Display

Tools

• A complete Backup and Restore.
• A complete audit logs is available for every changes made in church members and budget.
• Virtual Keyboard to type in your own language even if OS does not support it. Transliteration is supported for some languages

Bible Study

• Bible search available for all supported languages. (Note: some language search may not be accurate).
• Bible available for all supported languages and all supported English versions.
• Bible Reading Planner for all languages.
• A complete Bible genealogy (based on complete-bible-genealogy.com)
• English to any language and vice versa is also available.
• Parallel Bibles to compare any number of versions.
• Detailed Bible liking genealogy with KJV+ Strong Dictionary.
• Export Bibles to e-Sword, SWORD, GoBible, PalmBible+ and Text.
• Completely Customizable
• Multiple themes for look and feel
• Church Logo, Background image, default language and many others can be customized.
• Menus in your selected language.

Church Administration

• Church Members Database. Birthdays and Wedding Anniversaries display fetches data from here. Members can be added, modified and removed easily.
• Photos can be included in Church Members database
• Chruch members can be exported to and imported from CSV (comma seperated files), Excel and Church Software Members (CSM) file
• Church financial budget is included for easy financial management.
• Church Calendar. Create events and display on projector and/or publish as ics.
• Print postal address labels of church members.
• Print ID cards for representing the church.
• Financial Report generator.
• Annual church report generator.
• Church attendance module with absent report.
• Chuch Members Report.

User Management

• Users for this software can be created and managed.
• User groups can also be created defining what access each group has.

Automatic Updates

• Updates are now made automatic.

Other Features

• Transliteration and Phonetics for most of the supported languages
• Complete Unicode support
• Preloaded with 154 Bibles from various languages/translations
• Preloaded 56 English Bible Versions

Honestly speaking!!! Many new things that could be done occurred to me only after having a look at the features enlisted. Mr Felix Jeyareuben (the father of Church Software) has not just brilliantly put together an efficient piece of code which requires a minimum piece of hardware but has also worked hard to identify the specific requirements of the church in its different dimensions.

Another very nice gesture of Mr. Jeyareuben to respond to every query regarding the use of the software through his forums without delay. He'd answer basic questions on usage as well as clear bugs in code with the same promptness.

The different versions of bible available are really very helpful when pastors quote verses for comparison and study.

I think an incredible work has been done on the song collections . And not just that, making the software being able to support 61 major languages is a clear evidence of the kind of herculean effort put in.

Churches using this software, should not just stop with just recommending it to others, but also try and contribute to this powerful initiative. Many things could be done

• You can send gospel lyrics of songs available in your language.
• You can send newly typed songs to get bundled for the benefit of all.
• You can provide new feature suggestions.
• You can do testing to find bugs.
• You can participate in Forums to help others with their ideas and issues.
• You can inform or provide new electronic Bibles for other languages to get included.
• You can design templates for use.

And the rest is left to your innovation and your heart to share.

When I was hunting for some worship presentation related products, I came across this marketing statement by a proprietary 'christian' software ....

"Purchase our new Shadow of the Cross PowerPak at 60% off and breathe new life into your worship service."

This is definitely not the kind of trend that we should be heading to.

I don't believe that true worship needs any extra frills. We can survive without expensive gadgets, smoky stages, sizzling performances, extravagant interiors, large LCD panels and trendy technology. The heart of worship is all about surrender and gratitude to the Creator King.

But an attempt of this kind, "does not just help to make worship better" but the hard work put in, is worship by itself.

The greatest resource for the church is not the money, or the building or the popularity of the pastor. But people. People who are ready to get together and work together in love and faith despite the differences in lifestyle, culture, education or spirituality.

But today, the sad fact is that, we have begun to imitate the world in our dealings and transactions.We look for personal profit, recognition and gain even in church.With all the "show",maybe we are doing many things perfectly right, but we are certainly not doing the right things.

Church Software has done the the right thing the right way. Technically, it is sound.And the spirit with which the software has been developed has truly made it honorable in God's sight.

Church Software is an attempt that compels the rest of the church to be go-givers and show the world not just our potential but also the Master's heart.

My verdict, Church Software is a one stop solution for the needs of the church, totally customizable, and truly Christian at heart.It is available for Windows/Linux and Mac machines.It requires just 256 MB RAM and 533 MB hard disk space.Bugs are constantly updated and new features are consistently added with increasing frequency. Developer guides are provided and the entire implementation is in java.It has tremendous community support and a steadily growing international user base.

What are you waiting for??

Use it, Recommend it and Contribute towards making it grow!!!

Download at http://churchsw.org/content/downloads

The Shack - William P. Young

I got this book on 16th January 2009. It was a paperback of about 300 pages. I was pretty jobless at that time, and in my usual pace I could have finished that book by 3 days. But I took 10 days to finish this book.

So what does that make you think about it..??

The story is narrated by Willie who is the closest friend of Mackenzie Allen Philips (Mack) the protagonist of the story.

So here's the basic plot as the author gives it and there are no spoilers ahead!!

Mack's youngest daughter Missy has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found on an abandoned shack deep inside a wilderness. Four years later, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack in a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there is the rest of the story.

Let me confess, the story took sometime to pace up. Maybe that was because I was so used to the style of secular fiction, where the drama and action begins quite naturally in the first few pages itself.

I was so used to a reading about blood,anonymous mails,high tech gadgets, state of the art apartments,kidnaps and genocide in the intro, that when this author speaks about rainfall and winter and wind and snow, for the first few paragraphs. I had to be a little patient.

The plot is divided into different topics, the titles of which seems like a fantasy movie, check that out, "In the Belly of the Beasts", "A Long Time Ago, In a Garden Far,Far Away"...

This book is heavy, very heavy in content. He communicates his thoughts with clarity. Each line is a sermon by itself, and you can hardly read more than 7 pages a day, because your mind would have absorbed so much.

There is action in the place where you least expect it. The dialogs between the characters are really long, but it just sticks so close with the plot that you can hardly get bored reading them.

The author has a great way of driving a very valid point through a simple conversation between the characters. I wish I could quote, but then I could never decide which one to put.

Maybe.. I'll try to list a few;

"Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid the will to power is to choose to limit oneself - to serve"

"Its not the work, but the purpose that makes it special"

"Jesus didn't hold on to any rights; he willingly became a servant and lives out of his relationship with Papa. He gave up everything, so that by his dependent life he opened a door that would allow you free enough to give up your rights"

"So many believe that it is love that grows, but it is knowing that grows and love simply expands to contain it. Love is just the skin of knowing"

There's still lot more. But I think it would be better if you read it yourself.

Though it is deals with tough stuff, the book has a prominent lighter vein. Certain parts of the story sets you laughing loud.

This book falls in the genre of theological fiction, as some would like to put it. But I think that it is just a feel good book, entertaining and thought provoking, but not something with a very strong biblical base. It does have a few errors.

My verdict.

Don't miss reading it! There's lot of hard work ,creative energy and wisdom in it. !!

But don't build your convictions or theological studies based on this book. Don't give in to non-Christians and new believers. If you are a discerning reader, read it and enjoy it thoroughly.

All human work is filled with errors and misinterpretations, and so is The Shack. However, it is closest to revealing the heart of God. God must be proud!!

Hurry!! get your copy!

Unlocking the Bible Omnibus - David Pawson

Dad had bought this book on February 2007  but only around mid 2008, I started reading it seriously. I haven't completed it yet, but I can't wait to tell you how immensely I have been affected by it.

I need to confess that I haven't yet read the Bible completely cover to cover .I feel ashamed about this and I don't want to justify it but the reason could be that at certain times, certain portions of the Bible seemed repetitive and uninteresting.I have no reservations concerning the fact that the lack of a longing for God's Word is a symptom of wickedness and, I am constantly at work trying to get my heart to consume God's Word and receive direction, discipline and discretion. 

When I tried to find out why Bible-reading was sometimes burdensome instead of being a truly wonderful experience, I realized that it was because my understanding of the background of the Scripture was shallow and insufficient.So I could not identify even the obvious treasures of God's Word.

Here is where David Pawson does a terrific job, by putting his years of enormous studies in a simple common man's language through his book; he makes you so interested in the Bible that you get committed to it.Now, this is the key to unlocking the treasures of the bible.

This book does not attempt to give a verse by verse commentary instead it provides a spectacular insight to the essence of the biblical setup and the stage where the Scripture was written.Does this sound like a dry history book to you? Then you are terribly wrong, the language and the presentation makes it as interesting as a novel.

It is quite a large book comprising of about 1340 pages. But remember, this book has put together enormously large eras of history and culture from the works of different people.Considering the fact, that an amateur like me would never be able to find all the required studies and reference books, this kind of a collection under a single binding is very helpful indeed.

Not just that, it shows us how we should read a particular book of the bible?, how the parts are divided?, what are the theological views of the book?, why should we read it?, what are the misconceptions existing?, what was the significance of the period in which this book was written?, What do we know about the person who wrote it and how his lifestyle has affected the way the book has been written? These are some questions whose answers will help understand the relevance of what God wants to communicate.

Some people have advised me not read bible reference books, commentaries, or even study bibles because I need to learn the truths by myself from the Holy Spirit. I don't deny their good intentions, because they are afraid that I maybe misled or get distracted.

However, I beg to differ. Bible references, studies and books such as "Unlocking the Bible  - Omnibus" help to understand the Word with more clarity. So that we can spend more time with the Holy Spirit to receive direction, discretion, and discipline from the Word. Without understanding the context of the Bible and the background of the Scripture, the reading becomes unconnected and boring. Eventually, the inspiration to consume more of the Word wears out.

This is not a devotional book, rather it helps you gain wonderful devotionals yourself, once you have understood the backdrop.I highly recommend this book to everybody who want to make their Bible-reading more rewarding.

The purpose driven life- Rick Warren

I'll be one among the many millions who appreciate this book. Written by Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church; *This book has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for advice books for one of the longest periods in history, while also becoming arguably one of the best-selling non-fiction books of all time, topping the Wall Street Journal best seller charts as well as Publishers Weekly charts with over 30 million copies in print by 2006.*

The book aims to enable you to discover the most important question, What on earth am I here for? The author calls you to have a 40 day spiritual journey and strongly urges you to read only 1 chapter a day so that you will have time to think about the implications for your life.

The journey begins by unveiling the purposes of God under these titles

• Purpose 1: You Were Planned for God's Pleasure (Worship)
  
• Purpose 2: You Were Formed for God's Family (Fellowship)
  
• Purpose 3: You Were Created to Become Like Christ (Discipleship)
  
• Purpose 4: You Were Shaped for Serving God (Ministry)
  
• Purpose 5: You Were Made for a Mission (Mission)
  

Each of these is fulfilled sequentially and built upon the other, i.e, one cannot function without accomplishing the previous.

Let me confess, that I did not take the 40 day spiritual journey, and I finished the book in a week.However I have re-read it many times, and during travel, this is one book that you will find in my backpack.This is the kind of book which impacts your thinking.This book has served as a great conversation starter at many places too.

I like this book not because I read it and Eureka!! I found my purpose, but because this book helped me look at the big picture of God's purpose instead of my tunnel materialistic view of success.There is not a single page that you can afford to skim through in this book.Each sentence drives a point to your heart.

Though some wont agree with the paraphrasing of Scripture from different versions, I think that the verses are not taken out of context.Usually the tendency is to skip the bible reference while reading a book, so instead of reproducing the complete reference he includes a reference id that could be looked up in the appendix to find out where it can be found in the Bible.

I know that Pastor Warren has many critics,but as far as this book is concerned, I can assure you of its clarity and its motivation is to glorify God's purposes.Short anecdotes, poetry and punchy one-liners make it even a more interesting read.There is also this 'question to consider' at the end of each purpose, that serves as good discussion topics with your friends.

The best part of the book is the way it deals with 'eternity'.It does not mince words yet the work is done gracefully.This book is not some Christian 'self-help' book aimed at topping best-sellers. Rather it is a no nonsense straight talk about the expectations of the Mighty Conqueror God.

I don't believe that our life should be 'purpose driven' rather it should be God-led.No one but the Holy Spirit can show us how to fulfill God's purpose in our life, but this book goes a long way in helping us realize that eternity is our goal and everything else we do on earth need to help us reach there.

Reference

*-Wikipedia