Last Few Reads of 2014

Rounding out 2014 are the following books (and one last one that deserves its own post):

This year, I am part of the C.S. Lewis Institute Fellows program. One of the books we read was Mere Christianity. The next time I read it, I want to read it in order. Because of the program, we were jumping all over the place but still read the entire book. It drives me crazy to read things out of order. 

I've heard a lot about this book from friends. It was interesting to read in light of where our culture is today compared to where Lewis' culture was when he wrote this book. 

Some of my favorite parts (WAY TOO MANY -- read the book!):

• Progress means not just changing, but changing for the better (13).
• Free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having (48).
• A Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble (63).
• Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before.... either into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature (92).
• The Churches should frankly recognise that the majority of the British people are not Christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives (112).
  YES! This is not just limited to British people. We need to quit holding people to a standard they don't hold for themselves. 
• No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.... Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later (142).

The chapter that hit me the hardest was probably the one entitled, "The Greatest Sin". It was all about pride, a sneaky little vice that can rear its ugly head at any moment.

Another book for C. S. Lewis Fellows program was this one, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. It was a small booklet and quick read. 

Don't you want to be the kind of person who, when they see themselves in a mirror or reflected in a shop window, does not admire what they see but does not cringe either (35)?

I finally read this book, another one I've heard a lot about from friends.

It was different than I thought it would be. I didn't realize it was more of a storytelling of her own love story with Jim Elliot than how to date well, although I did find it slightly annoying that the foreward was from I Kissed Dating Goodbye author Joshua Harris. 

If you're looking for a straight-forward talk about purity and how it looked for her, read this book.