First of all, a plug for the best non-bookstore in the area: Ollie's. Bookophiles - get in your car and go to Ollie's right now! What a wild, crazy, eclectic, ever-shifting collection of "inspirational" books they have! At Ollie's you'll find everything from Bibles to devotional books to Christian fiction to Jesus-books to hyper-academic theological treasures - mostly for $3.99. Ollie's is better than your basic Christian bookstore, and more fun. See Ollie's Bargain Outlet - "Good stuff Cheap!" (This is a chain - in Monroe it's on North Telegraph next to Lowe's.)
I picked up (for only $3.99) Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne's Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said?. This is a great read, even if I think it still needs more red-lettering since I'm guessing I'll give it a grade of "Incomplete" because (I suspect, as a result of reading Shane's Jesus for President) it is very light on healing and deliverance, which Jesus did tons of. You don't think that when Jesus tells his disciples that if they abide in him they will do the things he has been doing that he intends to leave out the healing and deliverance he has been doing (which form much of the gospel account)?
Nevertheless, the book is very good, and I have always liked Tony Campolo. Shane's voice is very important, since he not only has Jesus' views on money and things correct, he and his community are living this out. And let's not forget - love is the greatest.
So, e.g., consider this. Shane writes (he once lived and worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta):
"We opt for survival, security, and comfort rather than the cross and suffering love of Jesus. We choose the American dream instead of the gospel dream. But the freest people I know are the folks who have learned to live like the lilies and the sparrows. Once a reporter said to Mother Teresa that he couldn't do what she did if he was paid a million dollars. She answered, "Yes, for a million dollars I wouldn't do it either." I think Jesus is showing us that there is a pearl, a prize, worth leaving everything for. So it's not about what you've left, but what you've found." (Red Letter Revolution, 16)
And, presumably, Mother Teresa couldn't do what she did if she was a bazillionaire, since the management of her wealth would weigh her down.
