Well folks, it’s summer time, okay, I know technically it’s not here yet, but when your temperature hits 
above 90 degrees, it’s summer time! I have a love/hate relationship with the summer. I love the feel of summer time, the attitudes that fill the air, the carefreeness of the population, and the laid back approach to life! I hate the temperature, absolutely hate it, here in Austin. However, a very big pitfall of the summer time for many is to put our minds and spirit into cruise control, and especially if you are church-folk, allow the church to feed you once a week, at best!
Don’t do this, use this summer as a time to simply dive into some subjects you’ve always wanted to, but never found the time too. Educate yourself about things that peak your interest. Maybe mix it up a bit. For example, in our culture we often hear of, in the church world, the conservative Christians and the liberal Christians…folks, there’s no such thing! There are Christians…and then there are Conservatives who use the Bible to further their cause with much proof-texting and there are liberals who use the Bible to further their beliefs via proof-texting, but there is no liberal/conservative Christianity. Usually with this so called conservative-Christianity we have subjects like theology, orthodoxy, and moral discipline; then on the liberal-Christianity side we have things like environmentalism, justice, community, peace, etc…
What if,
again, just pretend like you are living on the edge, what if you dabbled in both…Like, what if you picked a few books in the areas of justice, community, etc and a few books in orthodox theology and read them together, and rested in any tension that is produced…I know, that’s just crazy talk. Almost like a tree, it doesn’t just need water, and it doesn’t just need sunlight, it needs both, maybe it would be good for you to add both, and do some good summer mental and soul feeding, and not rely on the Sunday message or the biased media…Here are some suggestions:
Theology and/or Spiritual Deepening: obviously there are many others
- The Cross of Christ
- The Divine Conspiracy
- Forgotten God
- Crazy Love
- Maybe even just take one book in the Bible and read through it slowly and chew on it…or gorge and read as much of the Old Testament as you can in chronological order
Justice and Mercy Issues: There are obviously other good ones out there
History and Culture
- Post American World
- Global Capitalism
- God is Not One
- Founding Faith
- Maybe find a country, that you’ve always wanted to know about, and get a good book on it, and read it…
Anyway, this was supposed to be a short post, sorry…have a great summer!
Emmaus Life 
Great stuff here. Can’t believe I’m just stumbling across it. Will add it to the links on my blog. Thanks!