My Next Two Books

It may seem a bit premature to some, but I already have plans to write a second and third book. =)

The second book will explore how we are to embrace the mystery of living between the ages. As I talk about in The Here and Not Yet, modern Jesus followers are living between two ages where we experience both victory and suffering, life and death. The key to living between the ages is to embrace the tension that comes with the mystery of life.

While I don’t have the full outline in front of me (yeah, I outlined this book early this year), I do know that I would like to explore the concept of the mystery in this book. One of the sad things about modernism is that it took the mystery out of life. Everything could be explained by science, logic and reason… or so the theory went. With the rise of postmodernism, the West cultures are realizing that we humans need a bit of mystery and beauty in our world.

This doesn’t mean that we need to stop exploring our world or seeking scientific reasons for things. Far from it!!!! Rather we need to learn to embrace the tension between the known and the unknown, the pursuit of knowledge and the mystery of not knowing. To live in the mystery is to recognize that there are something things that we will never know. And that is okay as we trust the One who does know. Besides, sometimes the questions are the answers.

The third book on my heart will dive deeper into the spiritual battle of the ten plagues of the exodus. As long-time readers know, I spent a good year or so trying to locate some sources that identified the various Egyptian gods and goddess targeted by the ten plagues. Initially the result of this research was to be included in my first book, The Here and Not Yet. However that book expanded to the point that I had to take some things out…this was one of the topics that I removed.

As there are some really cool concepts in this essay, I would like to expand upon it with some additional research. Perhaps finding some up-to-date books on classic Egyptian religion about the time of the exodus (granted that may mean looking at two different time periods as there is no set historical date for the event)…. Once I have a bit more understanding of the Egyptian religion at that time, then I can look at how the ten plagues targeted the god/goddess and effected the lives of the people.

Of course, I would love to write a book looking the inaugurated eschatology framework of the early church fathers. Yet this might have to wait and become a thesis for a future Master of Theology or Doctorate program after I complete my Master of Ministry degree…. Yeah, I’m a bit nuts…but, hey, it’s a fun kind of nuttiness so I’m happy with it. 😛