Dave Dishman

Guidance from Overlooked Men and Women of the Bible

Page 466 of 476

DO NOT SPIT

 Sign on Howrah Bridge in Calcutta, where 150,000 people cross daily on foot. Corrosion due to human spitting  of betel leaf juice (like tobacco), is slowly destroying the bridge. I’ve crossed it several times, both on foot and in a vehicle, and the bridge felt stable to me, but I did see lots and lots of spitting…

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Honoring Saint Patrick

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day, a time of revelry and celebration of all things Irish. But do you know that the namesake of the holiday, Patrick, is one of the greatest missionaries the church has ever seen? And the real reason for this party is that Patrick brought the good news of Jesus to the pagan Irish? As you wear the green keep these thoughts in mind. I’m currently working on a book on missions and here’s a small excerpt about Patrick, which hopefully adds flavor to your celebration:

…about 400 years later, on an island far to the north, Irish raiders kidnapped a young English boy named Patricius and held him as a slave for several years. While he eventually made his escape and returned to England, something started to shift in his heart. The Lord, through visions, began to pull him once again to Ireland, this time to return as a missionary to his former captors. He sailed back to preach the gospel to the pagan Irish and eventually became Saint Patrick of Ireland, the first documented missionary outside the bounds of the Roman Empire. Patrick preached the gospel as far as he could go, “to the point beyond which there is no one,” to the western edge of Ireland. Only the sea remained…

If you’re intrigued, a couple great books on Patrick are How the Irish Saved Civilization (particularly the chapter on Patrick) and The Celtic Way of Evangelism, which focuses on his methodology.

On Travel…

Let me recommend the best medicine in the world:  a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.

– James Madison

Books I read in 2014

Here’s my booklist of works I read in 2014. Some are great, some not so much. Listed by title and last name of author:

The Book Thief – Zusak
The Power of Habit – Duhigg
Blindness – Saramago
Night of the Living Dead Christian – Mikalatos
Now What? – Lutz
The Rules of Life – Templar
A Death on the Wolf – Frazier
The Secret Holocaust Diaries – Bannister
The Advantage – Lencioni
Winners Never Cheat – Huntsman
The Lowland – Lahiri
The Magic of Thinking Big – Schwartz
The Big Rich – Burrough
Why Cities Matter – Um & Buzzard
The Pursuit of Happiness – O’Neill
Elephant Girl – Devine
Mystic River – Lehane
Iron Curtain – Applebaum
To-Do List Makeover – Scott
Killing Floor – Child
The Pause Principle – Cashman
Five Decades and a Forward View – Mott
The Powerful Percent – Burgin
To Change the World – Hunter
A Good Man Is Hard To Find – O’Connor
Restoring Your Spiritual Passion – MacDonald
Necessary Endings – Cloud
Platform – Hyatt
The Decisive Hour of Christian Missions – Mott
The Joy of the Gospel – Pope Francis
Write It Down, Make It Happen – Klauser
The Gift of Being Yourself – Benner
Essentialism – McKeown
Do The Work – Pressfield
The Gifts of Imperfection – Brown
Tribes – Godin
The Myths of Creativity – Burkus
Twelve Years a Slave – Northrup
The Critical Journey – Hagberg & Guelich
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Angelou
The Contemplative Pastor – Peterson
Courage & Calling – Smith
How the Irish Saved Civilization – Cahill
The Boy in the Suitcase – Kaaberbol & Friis
To Sell is Human – Pink
Day Job to Dream Job – Oberbrunner
The Search for God and Guinness – Mansfield
Close – Ken Cochrum
The Dubliners – James Joyce
Replenish – Witt
The Circle Maker – Batterson
The Flowers of War – Geling Yan
The Passage – Cronin
The Twelve – Cronin
Master and Commander – O’Brian
Gray Mountain – Grisham
To Sir, With Love – Braithwaite

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