What would you do if you got a phone call and someone said, “We have your wife. You can get her back for 2 million dollars in 48 hours from now. Otherwise, we kill her!”

This is a book about the kind of husband that I would want to be.

Anyway, my wife picked up a few of his books at the library, and I started reading “Death By Meeting” because I have always had an aversion to meetings! He starts the book with a Fable about a fictitious company and character named Casey McDaniel… which I have found to be a totally engrossing story!

I’m sure there will be more posts on this guy and his ideas in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned!

This is my first book by Nelson DeMille… “Night Fall” – based upon the events surrounding the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996. Very fascinating and well written. I learned a lot about that event that I did not know. I completed it here on vacation in Steamboat, Colorado. I’ve got another one of his books at home to read next.

In that vein, I also recently reread the “Bourne Ultimatum” by Robert Ludlum. Probably because of the recent movie release. Basically the movies bear no resemblance to the books by their name. I am not sure why. The books are much better. I find that this is true almost all the time.

I am also reading my first book by Brian D. McLaren entitled “A New Kind of Christian.” It is a novel about two friends on a spiritual journey. Fascinating and challenging so far.

Are you living your dream, or just living your life? This question is addressed in a book I just finished reading by Bruce Wilkinson, author of the famous: “The Prayer of Jabez.” The book contains an allegorical story of a guy named Ordinary (a Nobody), who leaves the Land of Familiar to pursue his Big Dream. Along the way he meets Border Busters, Giants, and has other experiences in the Wasteland as he tries to escape his Comfort Zone. Bruce then ends the book acting as a Dream Coach answering some of the main questions we often have as we pursue our dreams. I found the book to be very interesting and personally challenging. I plan to read it again very soon.

The rest of the book traces a series of events over 20 some years as their lives go in radically different directions. Through Ben’s business interests in China, the two old friends meet again in China. Many changes have happened in their lives… marriages, divorce, children, careers… and Ben is exposed firsthand to the daily life of his friend and his family.

Randy Alcorn uses this basic plot to reveal what is going on in China today with Christians, especially those in the underground “house church” movement. It reveals through fiction, the very real experiences that fellow believers have as they must make a stand for their faith, including imprisonment, loss of property, torture and even the ultimate price – martyrdom.

Alcorn also interweaves sections of narrative from a “heavenly” perspective, imagining what angelic beings, and other Christians who have died in the past, might be thinking, talking and seeing regarding our life situations and the sufferings of the “saints” here on earth (The New Testament word “saint” refers to any true believer in Jesus Christ – not to some special class of super-Christians).

I recommend this book for anyone serious about understanding the normal Christian life as it has been experienced for most Christians, in most cultures, at most times in history. As Americans, we have little or no idea what a life filled with suffering for Christ is like. We avoid it, and don’t like to think or talk about it. We pray against it all the time. Yet, it is we who are the weaker and more unfortunate because of it.

Read this book. It will challenge you.