Book recommendation: Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris

Beginning with the Amish tradition of “Rumspringa” and ending with the concept of “humble orthodoxy,” Joshua Harris’s new book Dug Down Deep strives to answer the question, “What will you build your life on?” And in my opinion, it answers the question very well.  It’s not a comprehensive book on Christian theology, but it’s not trying to be either.  Using stories and illustrations from Harris’s life and family, the chapters cover topics (doctrines) such as theology, God’s holiness, Jesus’ incarnation, justification, sanctification, the Holy Spirit, and the importance of the church.

If I had to pick favorites, I particularly liked the chapters on sanctification, the church, and the closing chapter on “humble orthodoxy,” both of which, “being humble” and “believing correctly” (orthodoxy), should be inseparable, when sadly, so often they are not.

As the title of this post indicates, this is not intended to be a review, but merely a recommendation.  It’s a well-written book, it flows well, it’s accessible, and it deals with a topic that is often missing in today’s churches and in the lives of the Christians who make up those churches.  But that can change.  Read the book.  Develop a taste for good theology.

You can read the first chapter at this link.

Who needs theology? According to J. I. Packer in his book “Knowing God,” we all do.

In the first chapter of J. I. Packer’s book Knowing God he proposes the question, “Who needs theology?” and then offers this response:

A fair question! — but there is, I think, a convincing answer to it.  The questioner clearly assumes that a study of the nature and character of God will be impractical and irrelevant for life.  In fact, however, it is the most practical project anyone can engage in.  Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives.  As it would be cruel to an Amazonian tribesman to fly him to London, put him down without explanation in Trafalgar Square and leave him, as one who knew nothing of English or England, to fend for himself, so we are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it.  The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God.  Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you.  This way you can waste your life and lose your soul. [emphasis mine]

That paragraph helps to explain why I have not once regretted spending four years of my life earning a bachelor’s degree in Bible from a Bible college that took God and his Word seriously.  I have been asked from time to time what possible value that could have in today’s world, and my answer is, “Every possible value.”  Like Packer said in the above quote, this is God’s world, and it, and our life in it, does not make sense to us if we do not know him first and most of all.

In the preface to the 1973 edition of Knowing God Packer explains that “the conviction behind the book is that ignorance of God — ignorance both of his ways and of the practice of communion with him — lies at the root of much of the church’s weakness today.”  He then identifies two trends that have produced this result.  Here’s one: