Book: "The Gift of Work" by Bill Heatley

Dallas Williard starts this book off with a high expectation of what is to come in Mr. Heatley's The Gift of Work.

Dave Moore told me about the book and was intrigued by the name; I agree. What a gift work can be; what a gift work should be; what a gift work IS!

The typical person, me included, does not properly embrace the challenge of work and thus, we run from the stress of our work; we want our work to be easy. How many times have we said...just a day without problems.

As Gary Thomas might say, "what if work was more about making us holy instead of making us money and/or happy?"

Outline and details of The Gift of Work forthcoming.

Forward

Prologue: Work - What Was God Thinking?
1. Changing Our Minds About Work

2. Kindgom Living
3. Redefining Success
4. You Are Here: God as Our Reference Point
5. Not a Trivial Pursuit
6. Training as a Disciple of Christ
7. The Nucleus of Change

Appendix A:
How God Is in Business by Dallas Willard

Appendix B:
Unto This Last by John Ruskin

Appendix C: Bussiness - A profession by Louis D. Brandeis

Book: "Water From a Deep Well" by Gerald Sittser

5/05/2024

It’s been 16 years success I first picked up this book. Fifteen since I finished it. I’ve circled back to it a few times, though not as thoroughly and seriously as this time. Most of my library is in boxes, but not Water From a Deep Well. 

Coming into and through 2008 was like a lumbering train slowly speeding up and getting out of control. I knew there were problems but couldn’t get a good handle on what was happening. I really didn’t understand what really happened until a free years later when I watched the movie “The Big Short.” 

“Water From a Deep Well” was a divine influence. It gave me some structure I weren’t have had otherwise. There’s a great deal I hadn’t learned that this book gave me the beginnings of. I’m grateful for Dave Moore for recommending it, and Brian Henson for bringing it back to my attention. 

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My "important parts" of this book is extensive and what I've notated below is at most the tip-of-the-iceberg. This is a history book that lives today.

8/16/2008: the more a read this book, and Hall's ".....with the Church Fathers," the more I realize I have not begun to touch the surface. History gives so much to learn about those that have gone before us and their struggles, triumphs, and revelations. I continue to realize how little I've been taught, and how little I'm passing on.

8/24/2008: reminder that, unless noted otherwise, what is written below is quoted from the book. I don't understand some of what the context. Much of it, like the sacrements (and most of whole window chapter) is foriegn to the teaching I've had to date.

8/20/2008: I just wrote up the notes for the chapter on "Word: The Spirtuality of the Reformers." The summary Sittser gives on the Reformers treatment of the Word is really good.

9/19/2008: I haven't finished this.....yet. The past few weeks' events have brought this book to my thoughts many times; the importance of the sacraments, church..what is it?, worship services, the importance of scripture reading in a church service?, leadership, fearing God.

3/1/2009: This book led me back to thoughts I had while reading Christopher Hall's Reading Scripture with the Church Father's. I've since gone back and listened to an interview Dave Moore had with Hall, which led me to the series Ancient Christian Commentaries on Scripture. I've purchased two, Proverbs/Ecclesiates/Song of Soloman and James, 1-2 Peter/1-3 John/Jude - what great reads!

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From the book;

Introduction -
Page 18: Every generation of believers faces the risk of becoming a prisoner to its own myopic vision of the Christian faith, assuming that how it understands and practices faith is always the best. C.S. Lewis cited this problem as a reason for reading old books. "None of us," he wrote, "can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books," for modern books (as well as the ideas and practices they convey) only tell us what we already know and thus reinforce our blind spots and prejudices.