Dan Cooley's Blog, page 28

As One Devil to Another Review

 

[image error]AS ONE DEVIL TO ANOTHER

Giveaway Rules: For a free copy of this book please see the end of the review

 

About the Book: Did you ever read a book before going to bed, it gets a bit dull, and just about the time you set it down you get a quote so good you have to keep reading? And then you are about to put it down, and then comes another quote… Those are lousy bed-time books. This is one of those books. Some of my favorite quotes I put in a bit later.

 

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite books, and is written as if one demon is writing letters to another. As One Devil to Another takes off on that idea, and Richard Platt does a terrific job following in the large footsteps of Lewis. Where others have tried to follow Lewis and failed, Platt succeeds.

 

Do I still like Screwtape Letters better? Sure, it was demonically refreshing. But this is still fiendishly good.

 

One Devil tells the story of two demons through a series of letters from Scardagger to Slashreap. Scardagger is the mentor and uncle of Stardagger who is struggling to corrupt his first human.

 

MY REVIEW: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

The Good

I read a lot of books, but this is my favorite so far in 2012. Here is a taste of the style as Slashreap the demon writes his nephew Scardagger about…

·   Giving: “The more we can encourage them to consume, the fewer resources they will have to help their neighbors. Excess… lends itself to the Hellward Spiral, as greater consumption fosters the illusion of scarcity, and thus competition.” P. 11

·   Discipleship: “As that bothersome servant of His, G.K. Chesterton, observed, the Adversary’s instructions have not been tried and found wanting; they have been found difficult and not tried.” (Darn, lost the page number. But it’s in there, trust me.)

·     God and Humans: “… in their current state of existence they could no more endure His presence that we can. They could no more face Him in His true form and withhold their adoration than they could face a hurricane and choose not to be swept away. Their will only has value to Him—and to them—if they let go to Him freely.” P.132

·    Fun quote: “Unfortunately, the scientist is also a man who can think, and who uses his brain rather than his glands for this purpose. This is never a good thing.” P.151

·   Arrogance: “Arrogance gladdens His Majesty’s dark heart most of all, as it is the Virtue most closely associated with Himself. It is the habit of mind which causes a client to set himself up as a judge. It causes the wealthy man to pronounce the poor ‘lazy,’ the scholar to pronounce those less gifted ‘stupid,’ and every client to pronounce those with different weaknesses and greater crosses to bear than his own as ‘weak’ or ‘inferior.’ It is the complete demonic state of mind.” P. 13

 

The Bad

Someone else wrote, “The overall tone of the book was formal and somewhat pretentious.” That’s true. It’s my assumption it’s written in the same style as classical literature, more C.S. Lewis style, which does make it slightly harder to read.

For me, it made it hard to get into the book at the beginning. I kept wondering, “What is Platt trying to prove? You have a large vocabulary, I get it. Now get on with it!” But then, it changed.

Or I changed, I don’t know which. Somehow either he started writing where it was easier to read, or I acclimated, or a mix of both. Whatever happened I’ve one bit of advice.

DON’T GIVE UP! Keep reading and you will love it. And for Platt this advice: Write normal from the beginning next time. Thanks.

The Ugly

The guys in the demonical illustrations were wonderfully ugly. I noticed that although there are uncles and nephew demons, there were no female demons. Drawing them might have been a challenge. Just sayin…

Other than the content matter, the drawings, and seeing myself drawn into the demons traps, there was nothing ugly about the book. The book is terrific. The content was brutally ugly in order to be accurate.

I recommend this book, and may even give you a copy! However you should know…

I received a free copy of this book (value $15.00) from Tyndale publishers in exchange for my honest review (invaluable).

GIVEAWAY RULES

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There will be 1 winner

 

This Giveaway is Open to the US ONLY (sorry Canadian friends!)

 

Winner will be selected by DanielCooley.com

 

A Tyndale House Publishers Free Product Award Certificate will be given to the winner to exchange for a copy of this book (you can bring it to your local bookstore).

 

Giveaway Ends May 5th.

 

Mandatory: Leave a comment about the review on DanielCooley.com – click on blog. Leaving a helpful comment relating to this book would be appreciated and valid to the giveaway.

The Unpublished Article

[image error]Denied.

*  Were we too radical?
*  Too controversial?
*  Bad language? (You know me)

Pat, the vice-principle at Stapleton Elementary (where Cottonwood Church meets), wrote an article with me for Leadership Journal. Many of you said you wanted it read it.

Aaron wrote one earlier earlier in the year with me, which was published. You can read it here.

But this time Leadership said NO. You can't read it here. No link. Nothing. Nada.

Jerks.

Not really. Anyway, you can read it here. As in below here. Pat's part is at the end. Enjoy!

Dan

P.S. They are printing an article about Steve Lacy soon. I'll send the link when we have it.

 

OUR CHURCH-SCHOOL DILEMMA

(for leadership magazine 1204 words)

The Legal Dilemma

Last summer (2011) NYC 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to prohibit churches from meeting in their schools. It’s OK for secular groups to meet, but you know how church people can party. Churches can temporarily meet in the schools until things get sorted out – probably in the Supreme Court. As a country, churches’ being singled out for discrimination is an oddity. As history, it’s normal.

Meanwhile we have a window of opportunity to show the world the benefit of a church/school marriage.

Our Church Dilemma

“If Cottonwood [our church] somehow got obliterated by a possessed asteroid, people in Mexico would miss us. People in Haiti might cry. But here in West Albuquerque they’d have to look at the county records to see what was under the rock.”

That was my message four years ago. We were renting a 5000 sq. ft. store front for $5000 a month. It was lousy stewardship with no community impact. So – we made the decision to “Go Portable.” After praying for God to “close doors,” we looked at 27 possible locations in our vicinity. God answered. Only one came open.

Stapleton Elementary School.

This wasn’t where we wanted to be. It was too far north. It was hidden. And we didn’t have a choice. On January 1, 2009 we started regular services at Stapleton. It was the best decision (if you can call it that) we ever made.

We had heard some horror stories about churches meeting in schools. After doing some research (through other portable churches, outreach.com, portablechurch.com, etc) about successful church/school marriages we learned to:

Share Creatively

Whatever we couldn’t use as a portable church (most everything), we offered to the school before selling or giving it to someone else. We did this to the extreme. A few of the gifs included…

1. Flags: The history teacher has cool new flags (previously used for mission services) hanging all over his classroom.

2. Music Stands, etc: The music teacher was ecstatic to receive some of our gear that didn’t work in a portable application.

3. Chairs: The school now owns all our nice, padded stacking chairs. Giving them away seemed cheaper than buying a trailer to haul them around. They now own them. We use ‘em.

Our denomination has a “Block Party Trailer” they lend us for $100.00. It contains a jumping castle, cotton candy machine, popcorn, snow cone, grill, etc. We figure Stapleton is our block and we bring it in and man it whenever the school needs it.

Give Generously

Before our first service at Stapleton we held a garage sale at the school. We gave them 100% of the profits. It was only 1200 dollars, but it came at the beginning of the recession and budget cutbacks. Someone from our church at the sale heard a teacher say the gifted reading program was being cancelled due to lack of funds. This person wrote a personal check for another 500.00 to underwrite the program.

The school teachers in whose classrooms we meet receive an added bonus. Sometimes its gift cards for a teaching store, sometimes something more personal. Custodians usually receive something special over the holidays.

We donate backpacks at the beginning of the school year, and work with the school counselor to help needy families at Christmas. With only 150 people at an average service we were still able to help out both our friends in Haiti and give Christmas to six needy families at Stapleton last year. www.AdventConspiracy.org helped us to realize we could do way more than we thought possible.

Deal With Desires

It’s our desire for Stapleton Elementary to be known as the cleanest, sharpest school in Rio Rancho. To that end we cancel our normal service on the Sunday before school starts. We arrive at our normal 8:00 “set-up” time in our work clothes. Then we shovel, weed, rake, sweat and have a grand time. Others make cards for the teachers first day of classes. At 10 we have a mini-service in the cafeteria. We have brunch while we worship. The cooking helps to cover some of the other smells from a morning of outside work.

We try to help in whatever areas Stapleton desires. Some members help when the students are tested, other get involved in the school Family Fun Night, and still others help with the Staff Picnic. One weekend we put in a little sidewalk for the principle. Next to the custodians she runs the place, so we want her happy.

Results

This year Stapleton asked us if we wanted to set up a table at school registration. Did we! At the table we had a back-pack give away and a sign-up for those who wanted to be part of our Drill a Well in Haiti Christmas fundraiser. In one day we had 53 families sign up for the Haiti fundraiser. The well is something we just can’t do on our own.

I don’t know where this will lead us. We’ve only been at Stapleton 2 ½ years. For those paranoid NYC judges that think it’s a way for churches to indoctrinate school families with the gospel – I only wish they were right. That hasn’t been our case.

Those who had a church home before we started meeting there still do. Those who didn’t want to go to church still don’t. That may change over time, but the basic truth remains. . .

We do what is right because it is right. Outreach, at its core, is reaching out. As a result, if the possessed asteroid falls on us tomorrow we will be missed.

And if the NYC judges come down to NM, I believe Stapleton will be fighting right beside us for us to stay.

For us, for now, that is enough.

SIDEBAR: Thoughts from a Principle’s Perspective:

This former New York City girl will go head to head with any NY Court of Appeals to keep Cottonwood Church at our school! As the assistant principal, part of my job is to manage public facilities use. In the past, several churches asked to use our school and it did not feel like a good match.

When Pastor Dan Cooley met with me to ask about bringing his church to our school, it felt right. He was genuine and sincere. We worked out the logistics and he was so grateful for the opportunity. From the very beginning, it was all about giving back to our school. They take great pride in our campus. Throughout the year they volunteer time to clean up. They have had several garage sales and donated all of the proceeds to our school. We have a Family Fun Night to raise money for books, paper, and ink and they work side by side with our staff from beginning to end to help make it a success.

He has affectionately named this Ernest Stapleton Elementary School/Cottonwood Church endeavor “Staplewood!” They have been using our facility for over two years. I think it is great that we are blessed every Sunday with the Lord’s presence inside our school. During these scary and difficult times, we need all of the prayer we can possibly receive on a daily basis.

Pat Di Vasto

The Richest Man Who Ever Lived. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

[image error]The premise of this book is that if you will read a chapter of Proverbs a day, and apply it, your life will become more successful, happy, and lucrative.

The subtitle of this book bugged me, "King Solomon's Secrets to Success, Wealth, and Happiness." I just got back from a village in Northern Haiti, and this is the book I took to read on the plane. What a contrast. The truth is, if you're born in Pierre-Brizard Haiti you can memorize Proverbs and still die broke and young from dysentery.

But then Garry Smalley wrote the forward, and Gary Chapman and Ruth Graham are on the back cover recommending the book. I was unfamiliar with the author Steven Scott, but these are people I trust. I figured the titles must be there more as a marketing gimmick (read and get rich), than a statement of the author's theology. So… I read it.

The Good:

There is great stuff in this book. How could there not be when it is full of Proverbs from Solomon? Steven gives good advice, great stories, and fun examples mixed in with the parables. He also does a pretty good job of bunching parables on one topic together in his chapters on that topic. It would be a nice addition for teaching through Proverbs both in helping to categorize the parables, and in giving examples of each truth. His emphasis on application is motivational, which is the greatest asset in reading the book.

The Bad:

The premise of the book is that by studying Proverbs the author's life changed. His relationships were mended, he was able to keep a job, he made more money, etc. However it felt to me at times like Steven's ideas for success were shoehorned into Proverbs rather than drawn out of Proverbs.

The most glaring example of cramming an idea into the text is Chapter 3 "The Activity that Creates Extraordinary Success." Steven bases his entire chapter on the first half of one verse. Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no vision, the people perish." KJV. He then defines vision as, "a precise, clearly defined goal with a detailed plan and timetable for achieving that goal." (p. 33. He leaves out the last half of the verse "But he that keepeth the law happy is he.") We could put his definition in the verse then to read: "Where there is no precise, clearly defined goal with a detailed plan and timetable for achieving that goal the people perish."

It's the typical create a vision, make a plan, work the plan, and try not to mess up and you will have a better life speech.

But that is NOT what this verse is teaching.

The complete verse in the New King James reads, "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law." It's similar in the NASB, NIV, NLT, etc. NO other version uses the word "vision," because the word has changed meaning since 1611. When the entire sentence is read, it's obvious this passage is about divine revelation, "Happy is he who keeps God's law." Unrestrained are those who won't follow God's law. The French Bible says they are "without brakes," the NLT says they "run wild." There is nothing in this passage to suggest that we need to "make a precise, clearly defined goal with a detailed plan and timetable for achieving that goal" or we will perish.

As a result it leads me to believe the author wanted to get vision-casting into Proverbs, and this was the only way to do it. But messing with Scripture is bad.

The Ugly:

For me, the ugliest part of the book was the cover and first paragraph. After that it got better. The book starts with…

"Imagine going from a below-average wage to a personal income of more than $600,000 per month! Imagine losing nine jobs in your first six years after college, and then, on your tenth job, building more than a dozen multimillion-dollar businesses from scratch, achieving sales of billions of dollars. Imagine doing all of this by following specific steps taught by Solomon in the Old Testament Book of Proverbs. In a nutshell that is my personal story." (Page 1)

It's how the book was marketed, how they tried to get it to sell that bugged me most. Most of the book is really, really good. And, only one book is perfect - which brings me to my conclusion.

The best thing about this book is its emphasis, its overwhelming motivational encouragement to read a proverb a day. To study Proverbs.

The Richest Man Who Ever Lived is worth reading. If you are teaching through Proverbs it will give some great illustrations and examples.

But a better book is Proverbs.

 

I received this book free from Multnomah Books for review. I was (obviously) not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Daniel Cooley danielcooley.com

Unbelievable Coincidence!

[image error]It's Christmas 2011 and we thought it wise to have a special offering. We've wanted to put a well in Ira's home village in Haiti for some time, so we picked that as the project.

I figured 3k or so should do it, so Christmas might prime the pump and we could have the money in a year or so.

I was wrong.

We found out it was going to cost over $10,000! We have under 100 adults on an average Sunday, sometimes under 100 including children. 10k seems insurmountable, and last year we ended up in the red for our own bills.

Christmas raised around 2k, and then one of our home Bible study LifeGroups decided to see if they could raise some more – outside of just Cottonwood. They planned a line-dance, BBQ, silent auction fundraiser for mid-March. But it didn't happen.

The school had a conflict on that night, so they were forced to move it to the end of the month, Saturday, March 31.

The good thing about the date change is that some of us were able to go to Ira's home village of Pierre-Brizard in March. We brought back pictures. [image error]And information. And tons of energy. We stopped at the little school/church in the center of the village. It's the land Ira's dad owns, where his house use to be, and where the well will be put.

The village has one water-hole about a 15-minute walk from the village center. People go to the hole as early as 2am to try to get water. After filling up a few buckets, the hole is dry. It's a 2-hour wait before the hole fills up again. That makes it difficult for 250 people to get water. My assumption is the water would be relatively clean, if it wasn't also the water the animals drank.

So, we get back on March 16 and the fundraiser happens on the 31st.  At the end we are cleaning up and someone yells, "We did it!"

We did what?

We raised over $10,000!!

That's a God thing! Then we are praying, giving thanks in a big circle, many of us crying, when Ira suddenly realizes something.

"It was March 31, 1990, a Saturday like this,[image error] when my mother died." He said. "I was home, in our house on the land where we now want to put the well. The last thing she asked for, just before she died, was a cup of water."

Unbelievable. Inconceivable.

But not when God is behind it.

You can still donate for the well here and click on Haiti Well Fund. There will be more costs to keep it running than just the instillation. But somehow we all now believe God will provide the unbelievable.

Haiti Well Video!

The awesome well video from our last trip is on YouTube here. Happy watching!

 

Don't forget SATURDAY, 6PM IS OUR BBQ DINNER AND SILENT AUCTION for the Haiti Well Project!

 

If you can't come but want to give, you can give through paypal here.

Going Back in Time

[image error]Ira works somewhere in the Kirkland AFB, Sandia Labs complex in SW Albuquerque. He is professional, educated, and can speak and read English, French, Creole, and Spanish fluently.

He comes from a time-warp.

He found out recently that his home town in Haiti is still without clean drinking water. Our church is trying to raise the money to put a well in his home town of Pierre-Brizare. Since some of us were in Port-au-Prince last week, three of us made the trek. It took us 4 hours to go back 4000 years – it felt like what it must have been like for Abraham - their dependence on water and the digging of wells for the health and safety of the people.

For us weird white people it was Pierre-Bizarre. They told us they had a white person there once before, about a year ago. It wasn't difficult to draw a crowd!

An hour's 4wd drive through the mountains from the nearest real town (Henche), this place is both primitive and gorgeous. The people are wonderfully kind, but stuck in a dangerously beautiful situation.

They have gardens, and cows; goats and tall trees with mountain views. There are no alarm clocks ringing, no electricity to go out, no laptops to crash, no dentist or doctor to give them bad news, no faucet to drip or toilet to plunge or money to deposit. But then…

They have no stores, no way to save money or move, no clean water, no clinic, and no Jeeps. There are roosters to get them up, the sun to give light, [image error]neighbors for the latest news, donkeys for travel, and dirty water to drink. They had a voodoo priest to lie and give them good news instead of bad, but he came to Christ about a month ago. Now the truth gives them both hope and fear, for the truth is - drinking dirty water can kill. Jesus brings both living and clean water. Ira's nephew, Pastor Mose shares the living water of Jesus with the people there. We'd like to come along-side and bring clean water in the name of Jesus too.

It's a bit crude, but in the airport someone in our group was overheard suddenly realizing what they had done and saying, "I crap in better water than those people are drinking." Sometimes the truth comes home more drastically when we come home than when we are there.

Somehow Ira's family made it from Pierre-Brizare to Henche. From there Ira made it to Mexico, through college, and to Albuquerque. Now, 4000 or so years in the future from his birth, we would like to help him bring fresh, clean water to the village he once called home.

There are more pictures here, and cottonwood church facebook. This one is taken at a stop on our way to Henche from Port-au-Prince. A beautiful drive!!
[image error]

Bizarre Haiti Adoption

[image error]I thought I'd try to write a story a week or so for a while about our time in Haiti.

A few years ago the US government started requiring DNA testing for those who claim to be parents of children being adopted. This is, I assume, to help limit child trafficking. It's not always easy in countries like Haiti, where parents, transportation, and medical facilities can be difficult to obtain. One of the newest orphans to Maranatha Children's Home, (Gabriel, who has the most contagious chuckle) where we were working last week, was left on a garbage pile. Finding those parents may prove to be impossible. But, back to our bizarre story…

Some Haitian parents just had their first baby when mom unexpectedly died. Dad couldn't provide for the child and chose to put her up for adoption. This was the first time Maranatha (at that time Heartline Ministries) had to take a parent through the DNA testing process. The results were interesting.

Dad, who had no reason to question if he was dad, found out he wasn't the dad.

Bet he didn't spend any more money on flowers for that grave.

No real moral to this story, but pray for Gabriel will you? I'll post a picture of him when I get more pictures uploaded. What man treats as garbage God calls His masterpiece.

Eph 2:10 (NLT) We are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Haiti Well Village Found!

[image error]We made it to Pierre-Brizare yesterday, the location for our Haiti Well. Yippee! It was a real trip. Here's what happened.

At 6am Megan, Melinda and I were picked by Junior and Samuel. Junior I know fairly well from previous trips to Haiti. He is major fun. Anyhow the 5 of us piled into a tiny Suzuki wanna-be baby-jeep.

For three hours we road in the Suzuki up and over mountains, by a massive mountain lake complete with islands, and then got to the difficult part.

One hour to go 11 miles up 4wd type paths, over creeks, you name it. At the end of the road was… Pierre-Brizare.

If you click on the facebook link here, you can see pictures of Ira and his dad, two nephews, the current hole for water, the voodoo priest who recently came to Christ, etc.

It's been about impossible to upload photos, so it was easier to put some on facebook than to include them into blogs or emails.

If you click on the facebook link here, you can see pictures of our first day in Haiti, working at the Maranatha Children's Home.

Today was church in the morning and now getting organized for the week ahead. We made some great well contacts while at church – worship, fellowship, and networking – not a bad morning!

Haiti Earthquake 2012

[image error]Haiti had a small earthquake last night, a 4.6 I believe. Not much on the news about it. The missionaries we are staying with are safe, as their house made it through the 7+ major quake and has been checked out by structural engineers. Pray for the team as every small quake puts Haitians in great fear and we want to bring the peace of Christ. It's hard to trust in God when everything seems to be literally falling to pieces around you. We need wisdom. We leave in 2 hours. Oh boy!

The picture is from my son Caleb in Haiti in 2012, the boy he is holding was injured in that major quake. Caleb is going back with me today, as is Megan his older sister.

Will try to keep the updates coming!

Megan Goes to Haiti

[image error]Megan, our oldest, wants to tell you what SHE will be doing in Haiti. But first, some dad information...

This is her second missions trip. She started as a missionary criminal.

Her first is when she was really small, i mean tiny, and we were smuggling Bibles into Mexico. At that time, they were not allowing Bibles to be brought in. They had this second stop, about 20k into Mexico, where they would do a mega-search of your vehicle. We had her sit on top of the box of Bibles in the back of the truck. They never asked her to move. She's been in trouble ever since...

Here is Megan's latest email to me...

"You forgot to tell them what I'M DOING. Training Nannies and children with attachment issues and post trauma through games with Courtney."

Courtney was working with one of our families who adopted from Haiti and needed help with attachment issues. Their daughter came to the States right after the earthquake. The idea is to help those working with the children in Haiti to help kids with these issues now - before they come to the States. This is what Courtney does for a living, and she has been working with Megan and others to train them so they can train others.

Pretty cool, eh?