For those in search of Christmas Gifts and good causes to support, Madeleine Scherb's--A Taste of Heaven provides a nice guide to foods and goods made by cloistered Monks and Nuns. The book itself might make a nice gift!
I was reminded of the book by the person who sent it to me, and I think enough of the book to have recommended it even without the reminder.
I've found myself reading a lot of Timothy Keller recently, and if the books I have read so far are any indication, it is entirely like that I shall be reading more in the near future.
from Counterfeit Gods Timothy KellerWhy did we completely lose sight of what is right? The Bible's answer is that the human heart is an "idol factory."
When most people think of "idols" they have in mind literal statues--or the next pop star anointed by Simon Cowell. Yet while traditional idol worship still occurs in many places of the world, internal idol worship, within the heart, is universal. In Ezekiel 14:3, God says about elders of Israel, "These men have set up idols in their hearts. Like us, the elders must have responded to this charge, "Idols? What Idols? I don't see any idols." God was saying that the human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because we think they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.
And who can deny it. It's like a playdough factory, we no sooner press out and reshape one idol than another one, one that we never suspected lurked within, takes its place.
Can be found here.
is available here.
