John Eldredge - Maybe......MAYBE NOT

Let me chronicle my love / dislike affair with the ministry of John Eldredge...

1. Wild at Heart released (circa 2002) - I readily joined my Reformed brethren in condemning this work that I had not read based on the little of it that I did read that contained glaring Arminian overtones.

2. Wild at Heart read (circa 2004) - Found the book a welcome respite from the intense books and studies at school. Loved the book the more I read it; found it somewhat easy to overlook the theological faults in the book. Promoted the book to various friends. Eldredge had 'struck a chord' with me on many fronts. Bought (never read) a few other of his books.

3. Wild at Heart reviewed - My passion for this book having subsided solely with the passing of time, I perused various reviews, such as the one in MacArthur's book Fool's Gold. Still a fan of the book, I dismissed MacArthur's review as typical dogmatic, defensive Johnny Mac (who I have always loved).

4. Frustration regained (present) - One of Eldredge's newer books, Epic, received a favorable review from World's Marvin Olasky. I bought the cd and Kristie and I listened a few weeks ago in the car. The first half is good, quite good in many respects. Eldredge, as a much better exegete of the movies than Scripture, rightly hammers home the fact that the Bible is the consummate story - that of creation, fall, redemption.

The second half, however, turns sour and lays bare the faults in Eldredge's whole teaching ministry. In Eldredge, the main goal in salvation / redemption (more appropriately self-actualization) turns out to be the regaining of one's heart. Ultimately, salvation is not about Christ, His beauty, His presence here and in Heaven, but is about finding freedom for our hearts....freedom to discover the nature-loving, fist-fighting Russell Crowe man inside us all. I cannot hope to add much to the good critiques of his work that are readily available in many places. Pick up Epic on cd at your nearest Lifeway (it was $7 for me). Glean the good and consider the bad....

My final assessment : The bad definitely outweighs the good in Eldredge. He has much to say that is sooooo appealing to many men today. However, his version of the Gospel should be held in suspicion by all lovers of the Truth. No ultimate good news can be found in a message that centers on man 'finding himself' - this is man-centered through and through. I took great comfort for a season with Eldredge as my therapeutic guide; I felt that I was truly, finally finding myself. The glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is ultimately a heralding of the most awesome news, however: God rescues us from ourselves through the objective work of Christ 2000 years ago that is applied to us by the Holy Spirit through faith. "Who will rescue me from this body (this heart even) of death?" Thanks be to God - Jesus Christ, the wildest man who ever lived.

My Beautiful Wife

Go to this link to see Kristie
http://www.westernrecorder.org/wr/wrsite.nsf/stories/200650-KBC-MB

Goodbye 2006!

Being an only child has some great advantages. Since John doesn't have any siblings, we had his parents all to ourselves for our Christmas vacation in North Carolina. Lucky for us, they were both off work the entire week as well, so we got to log some serious hang-out time with them. The seven hour drive between us makes this all-too-rare an occasion. Thanks for everything Steve and Joan!

Here are a few highlights from our week:

- Had a great time visiting friends we hadn’t seen in a long time, including the Lovells, the Braffords, and Jared Taft.

- Got to meet baby Brammer and baby Brafford – two little guys who were born in 2006 but we hadn’t met yet.

- Practiced my golf swing a bit while accompanying John and Steve on the golf course with Joan…I’m thinking of taking lessons.

- Hit up Tony’s for our favorite milkshake in the whole world. If you're ever in Gastonia, Tony's is a must-visit (along with Sake Express).

- Saw “The Pursuit of Happyness” – great movie.

- Finished North & South, a great (and very long) mini-series about the Civil War that we began watching earlier this summer with Steve & Joan.

- Played some Scrabble with John’s grandparents. Our game is about to hit new heights with the new Scrabble dictionary Steve & Joan gave us for Christmas...oh yeah.

- Took naps whenever we felt like it.

- Loved having more spare time to read. John picked up “America Alone” and read some of Machen's "Christianity & Liberalism". I worked on “70 Great Christians”, as well as one of my presents from John, “The Disciplines of a Godly Woman”.

And now, we’re back in the saddle here in Louisville. John is really enjoying his J-term class called “The Classics of Christian Devotion”…he’ll be back here with some new posts soon. Until then, here are a few pictures from Christmas…

We couldn't believe how big baby Brafford was.
We loved meeting this little guy during our
breakfast with good friends Buddy & Laura.

Here I am on Christmas Day holding
baby Brammer, our newest little cousin.

John somehow always seems to get "smile for
the camera" confused with "make a crazy face!".
Isn't his junior high baseball jacket cool?!
(John with his parents)

I love being the designated golf cart driver almost
as much as John loves playing golf.
The 70 degree weather was a great bonus!

The greens weren't exactly green, but that didn't
matter much for the golf fanatics.