“Falling in Love with God” – Book review

And understanding how God has so faithfully stood by us—even when we don’t thank him, think of him, or even remember him—is a key part of the process of falling in love with God.
BOB HOSTETLER

Lots of Christians may claim to *know* God. But how many genuinely *love* him?

This book—Falling in Love with God—is meant to help with the transition from head knowledge to heart love. Using the Old Testament book of Hosea (and modern love song lyrics—nice touch), author Bob Hostetler writes of learning how to grow a deeper relationship with God.

Does he succeed? It depends on where you are already and where you want to go. But either way, we all have room to grow, and this book can help guide you further along the continuum.

While I wasn’t as impressed with this book as I was another Hostetler book, Quit Going to Church (loved that), if you’re wanting to study Hosea, this is the one for you. (And if you want a modern Hosea novel, read Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers).

So how do you fall in love with God? You begin unwrapping how much he loves you. It’s a lifelong project. And as you go, you’ll find yourself loving him more and more. (A great book on that is The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love with the God Jesus Knows by James Bryan Smith.)

Quotes from How to Fall in Love with God:

Because, you see, one key to falling in love with God is experiencing the scandal of God’s love for you.

God didn’t ask Hosea to proclaim his love, to prophecy his love, to preach about his love, until Hosea had tasted on a human scale the extent of God’s condescension.

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We talk about choosing Christ. We sing, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” and that’s certainly how it looks from our perspective. But from the Bible’s perspective—and from Hosea’s perspective—it looks more like this:

     “You were dead in your transgressions and sins . . . gratifying the cravings of [your] sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. . . .

     But because of his great love for [you], God, who is rich in mercy, made [you] alive with Christ even when [you] were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Ephesians 2:1,3,4-5 NIV

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I have discovered that the only thing that will heal my waywardness, my unruly heart, my tendency to wander from God and get into all sorts of trouble, disappointment, and dysfunction is letting God love me.

It’s his love that heals me.

That’s why I pray. That’s why I read the Bible every day. Because I have just one job every day, and that is to put myself in God’s hands and let his love heal me and make me more and more like the tree he talks about in Hosea 14. That’s my experience.

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View the trailer for Bob and Falling in Love with God.

My thanks to ACU Press/Leafwood Publishers
for the review copy of this book

Are you a Pharisee?

Arrogance is the ultimate blind spot.

. . . I’ve noticed something strange about this sin that God hates most. It’s usually found among people who think they love God most.

Spiritual arrogance is not a back-of-the-line sin; it’s a front-of-the-line sin.
LARRY OSBORNE, Accidental Pharisees

No one wants to be called a Pharisee. It’s a label for holier-than-thou’s, for hypocrites, for legalists. (But do be aware of its fuller meaning.)

So while we don’t intentionally set out to be a Pharisee, how can we avoid becoming one?

Here are 6 pitfalls found in Larry Osborne’s book Accidental Pharisees. Look for what applies to YOU (not someone else you know). 

1. Pride
When comparison becomes arrogance

Do you have a personal list of “Thank God I’m not like them!”? Do you think your interpretations are the most accurate ones? Do you get frustrated with those who don’t know as much as you know? Do you brag about your church for something other than Jesus?

As valuable as biblical knowledge is, I think it should come with a warning label. The fact is, the more we know, the more we’re tempted to look down on people who don’t know what we know.

. . . When we use the Bible as a prop, every issue and doctrinal disagreement becomes a flash point, an opportunity to show off our superior knowledge and understanding, a way to set us apart.

We forget that the entrance exam to heaven is a blood test, not a Scantron.

We forget that pride and a lack of love nullifies our knowledge, even if it’s a full and complete understanding of all the mysteries in the Bible.

2. Exclusivity
When thinning the herd becomes more important than expanding the kingdom

Do you think the bar of Christianity needs to be raised to keep the riffraff out?  Have you ever used the NIMBY rationale to keep people out (not in MY back yard!)?

While Jesus did draw some lines in the sand, he magnificently broadened the circle to include those once left out.

Jesus didn’t come to thin the herd. He didn’t come to recruit “special ops” Christians.

His goal was to expand the kingdom, to bring salvation to people who previously were excluded. He came to seek and find the lost, including a large group of folks no one else wanted to invite to the party.

Everything about Jesus’ ministry was designed to make salvation and the knowledge of God more accessible. It started with his incarnation.

3. Legalism
When sacrifice crowds out mercy

Do you have a litmus test to be passed for inclusion into your church? Afraid to preach too much grace for fear of it being abused? Destroy others’ freedom by your personal restrictions?

I remember once asking my pastor why we had so many extra fences that weren’t in the Bible. He told me they were for our safety. Apparently, God’s fences weren’t good enough. So we added some extra ones to help him out.

. . . One thing that makes legalism so dangerous is that it always flows out of the best of intentions. Legalists never see themselves as legalists. They see themselves as obedient. They never think of their extrabiblical rules as extrabiblical. They consider them to be profoundly biblical, the careful application of all that the Bible implies.

. . . If we’ve meticulously researched an issue, thought deeply about it, prayed about it, and believe God has revealed something to us, most of us assume that everyone else who is led of the Spirit and intellectually honest with the text will come to the same conclusion. We can’t imagine God being pleased with two opposing applications of one Scripture. Yet as shocking as it may be to some of us, one Scripture can have two opposing applications.

4. Idolizing the past
When idealism distorts reality

Do you idolize the New Testament church (or your church’s past) as the good old days? Think sins today are worse than in times past? Decided “the way it’s always been done” is always good enough?

Look to the past to learn from it and gain perspective, but not to romanticize it nor to be angry about it.

God has always drawn straight lines with crooked sticks. Abraham was a liar, Moses a murderer, David an adulterer, and Peter a denier.

But a strange thing happens with the passage of time.

The farther removed we get from the stick, the more likely we are to credit the stick (rather than the divine artist) as the reason for the straight line.

5. The quest for uniformity
How uniformity destroys unity

Do you confuse unity with uniformity? How big is your list of things worth fighting over? How diverse is your church family (consider more than just race or economic status)?

Jesus loves us in our differences, not despite them. As his believers, he’s made us one; we don’t have to push to make it so. It already is.

We become accidental Pharisees when we lay down boundary markers that are narrower than the ones laid down by Jesus and then treat people who line up on the wrong side of our markers as if they were spiritual imposters or enemies of the Lord.

Our goal may be to protect the flock.

But boundary markers that are narrower than the ones Jesus laid down don’t protect the flock; they divide the flock.

They sow discord among brothers, something God says he’s not too fond of. They also result in a rash of friendly fire.

6. Gift projection
When my calling becomes everyone else’s calling

Do you think others should do the same things you do? Do you value some gifts or callings higher than others? Do you envy somebody else’s gifts?

If you’re hardwired for adventure and risk taking, don’t play it safe. That’s not how God made you.

But don’t judge the spirituality of others through the lens of God’s calling on your life.

Despite what you may think, you’re not living on the ragged edge because you have greater faith. You live there because God wired you for risk and adventure.

If you’re the type who’s scared to death by risk, don’t sweat it. There’s no reason to feel guilty because you don’t want to go stop sex trafficking in Bangkok, wade your way through the Amazon jungle, or spend your summer digging wells in Africa.

Stick with what you’ve been called to do. If God wants you to take a risk, he’ll give you the will and the power to pull it off. He promised. And he won’t need any drive-by guiltings to get his message across.

Conclusion
Unfortunately, I relate to several of these. You probably do too. Sometimes we grow slowly out of our blind spots. But with increased vision of our own self-righteous motives, we can pray for greater focus on Jesus. After all,

Our hope is not in what we do for God. Our hope is in what God has done for us.

That’s the gospel. That’s discipleship in a nutshell.

And that’s what keeps people like you and me from becoming accidental Pharisees.

* * *

Is it easier for you to see traits of Pharisees in yourself or in others?

Which areas hit closest to home with you?

RELATED:

• I thought I understood
• Humble Orthodoxy – Book review
• The one true church?
• When you can’t keep the rules

MY THANKS TO BOOKSNEEZE
FOR THE REVIEW COPY OF THIS BOOK

Know-it-all faith? Or humble orthodoxy?

How can we be arrogant about a truth that is completely outside of anything we’ve done?
JOSHUA HARRIS, Humble Orthodoxy

I don’t know, but we definitely can.

And so this short book by Joshua Harris—Humble Orthodoxy—talks us down from our arrogance.

Originally written as the closing chapter in Dug Down Deep, it’s been expanded because it’s something Christ followers need. Despite being saved by grace, we’re still too conceited about our own knowledge, our own works, our own goodness. Yuck. No wonder we’re often seen as unattractive to the world.

Need proof? As Harris points out,

If anyone thinks arrogant orthodoxy doesn’t exist, he’s never read the comments section of a Christian blog.
One of the mistakes Christians often make is that we learn to rebuke like Jesus but not love like Jesus. Sometimes it seems that almost everyone who cares about doctrine is harsh and angry.

And sometimes it seems the more we know, the haughtier we get (despite Paul’s warning about this in 1 Corinthians 8:1).

But it doesn’t need to be that way. Harris says, “Truth matters, but so does our attitude. We have to live and speak and interact with others in a spirit of humility.”

The more we come to know the essential doctrine of grace, the more we should grow in humility.

We don’t have to be jerks with the truth.
We can remember how Jesus showed us mercy when we were his enemies. We can demonstrate a humble orthodoxy, holding on to our identity in the gospel.
We are not those who are right; we are those who have been redeemed.

I know I haven’t arrived. Sometimes the closer I get to grace, the more intolerant I am of detractors from grace. How can I espouse something that I don’t embody?

Repentance has to start with me—“Shouldn’t individuals and churches that hold most faithfully to orthodoxy and biblical truth be the most frequently filled with godly repentance? …We all have good cause to tear our robes.”

So I’d recommend this little book as another tool in our arsenal of killing our pride and lifting up our Savior. Harris doesn’t always hit it spot-on (in my opinion) but he’s at least pointing us in the right direction and awakening us to our wrong attitudes about being right.

Because when all is said and done and we look back on what we once believed, we’ll realize we all had many things wrong.

We’ll realize to our shame that to differing degrees we trusted in our intellect, our morality, the rightness of our doctrine, and our religious performance when all along it was completely grace.

Grace. Complete grace. That’s humble orthodoxy. That’s Jesus.

* * *

THANKS TO WATERBROOK MULTNOMAH
FOR THE REVIEW COPY OF THIS BOOK

“Draw the Circle” – 40 Day Prayer Challenge

If you pray to God regularly, irregular things will happen on a regular basis.
- MARK BATTERSON from
Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge

Don’t be fooled into thinking this “40 Day Prayer Challenge” is a lite version of Mark Batterson’s original book, The Circle Maker.

This is much more than a little devotional; it’s a a full book unto itself.
 
A book about praying.
Fervent praying. Confident praying. Persistent praying.

Bold prayers honor God and God honors bold prayers.

I’ve been using it to coincide with the 40 days of Lent. It’s encouraged me to pray consistently to release and reframe some religious injuries misconceptions from my past (and we all have some, right?).

So why is the book entitled Draw the Circle?

Not because there’s something mystical about circles. It’s just an image to remind us to pray without ceasing. To march around our Jericho’s over and over until God brings the walls down.

Batterson tells the story of Honi, a Jewish scholar in the 1st century BC, who drew a circle around himself and vowed to stay inside it until God sent rain to end a drought. It’s not something Batterson is recommending we do literally, but representatively we can be equally diligent in prayer.

The Israelites circled the city of Jericho until the wall came down. That’s what a forty-day prayer challenge is all about.

Too often we quit circling almost as soon as we start. Drawing prayer circles is a metaphor that simply means “praying until God answers.”

It’s a determination to pray as long as it takes, even if it takes longer than you ever imagined. Drawing prayer circles isn’t some magic trick to get what you want from God.

So that’s what I’ve been doing. I draw a circle around the words in my prayer journal each day. Then as I add new words, I work backwards to circle the previous words in prayer, again and again.

I circle words like “Be compassionate” and “Move into new” and “Share grace” and “Spread Jesus.” Over and over and over.

I’m not demanding that all roots of bitterness be gone in 40 days—Batterson wouldn’t suggest we demand anything either—but I do trust Jesus to continue draining negativity away from me, transforming me, as I seek his help. 

One of the biggest misconceptions about prayer is that it means outlining our agenda to God as a divine to-do list. The true purpose of prayer is to get into God’s presence so He can outline His agenda for us.

So whether you have a particular issue you’re praying about or just praying in general, I’d recommend Batterson’s book as a read-along. It’ll help you stay focused.

More quotes from Draw the Circle:

* Too often we pray ASAP prayers — as soon as possible. We need to start praying ALAT prayers — as long as it takes.

* We can’t create divine appointments. All we can do is keep them. We can’t plan God-ordained opportunities. All we can do is seize them. We can’t perform miracles. All we can do is pray for them.

* The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory. That’s why I keep a prayer journal.

* It’s not our job to answer; it’s our job to ask.

* He did not say, “You will build My church”; He said, “I will build My church.” The key pronouns are I and My. The church belongs to Jesus Christ. So does the battle. So does the victory.

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THANKS TO BOOK SNEEZE
FOR THE REVIEW COPY OF THIS BOOK

Book review – Simply Jesus

Paul said that it was the throbbing ambition of his life to experience Jesus. . . . Is it yours?
JOSEPH M. STOWELL, Simply Jesus

That’s what this short book is about. Preferring Jesus over all else.

You can be satisfied to just know about Him, or you can enter into an experience with Jesus. Only you can make the choice.

And this choice determines the difference between religion as usual or the satisfaction of connecting with Jesus, the One we were created to enjoy.

Author Joseph Stowell uses strong, succinct language to drive home his point that knowing Jesus (not just knowing about Jesus) is the highest pleasure of our lives.

He wants to be more than just another volume in your encyclopedia of biblical facts.

He didn’t die for you to simply strike a deal guaranteeing heaven. He died for you to make you His own and to grant you the unspeakable privilege of experiencing Him personally.

He talks about getting tired of “me,” but never tiring of Jesus. About choosing to either flaunt our own goodness or deepening our experience of Jesus’ goodness. About transitioning from being self-absorbed to being Jesus-absorbed.

He says experiencing Jesus begins with two attitude shifts:

1. Stop rejoicing in ourselves and start rejoicing in Jesus
2. Valuing Jesus above everything

Overall, this is a good book, especially for those beginning in their faith. It encourages the reader to stay focused on the thing that really matters: Jesus Christ.

* * *

Thanks to WaterBrook Multnomah
for the review copy of this book

Book review: “A Year of Biblical Womanhood”

To declare that your way is the only way effectively eliminates any fear that you might be wrong, or at least pushes it below the surface for a time.
- RACHEL HELD EVANS, A Year of Biblical Womanhood

Forget what you’ve heard about this book. And what you may have heard about Rachel Held Evans.

Because if you read this book with a clean slate, you’ll find a Bible-believing woman sincerely seeking to honor God, honor his truths in the Bible, and honor her husband in their marriage.

To do so, she places herself in a self-imposed, year-long experiment to look for and practice scriptural principles in the Bible concerning women.

Some are from the Old Testament, some from the New. Many are hard, and some are virtually impossible for our day. But all are to help her sort out mixed messages she’s heard all her life about the appropriate roles of women in the home, in the church, and in our culture.

I found myself inexplicably drawn to Proverbs 31:25: “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.” I was pretty sure I couldn’t find “strength” or “dignity” in the women’ section at Kohl’s, but when I considered the sheer absurdity of someone like me doing something like this, the best I could do was laugh at the days to come. And there was something strangely liberating about that.

Her monthly experiments revolve around these twelve virtues:

• Gentleness
• Domesticity
• Obedience
• Valor
• Beauty
• Modesty
• Purity
• Fertility
• Submission
• Justice
• Silence
• Grace

As she explains it, “I took my research way too seriously, combing through feminist, conservative, and liberal commentaries, and seeking out Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant perspectives on each issue.” She interviews a wide range of women: a polygamist, an Amish grandmother, a pastor, a Quiverfull daughter, an Orthodox Jew, and many more, all as she combs through her Bible to see which practices and principles line up, and which don’t.

Her experiments make you laugh in places, cry in places, and go hmmm in other places. Her explanation of the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 has lit quite a fire for once again honoring godly women as “women of valor” or in the Hebrew, eshet chayil:

In Jewish culture it is not the women who memorize Proverbs 31, but the men. Husbands commit each line of the poem to memory, so they can recite it to their wives at the Sabbath meal, usually in a song.

. . . Eshet chayil is at its core a blessing—one that was never meant to be earned, but to be given, unconditionally. “It’s like their version of ‘You go, girl!’” I explained to Dan at the dinner table that night, glowing from the nerdy high of learning a foreign-sounding phrase.

Kudos to her husband Dan, by the way, for being a good sport through it all. He kept his own journal throughout the year, also worth reading, and excerpted throughout Rachel’s story.

At the end of her year’s experiment, Rachel identifies 10 things she wants to continue from the project and add into her regular life. They include:

• Eat more ethically
• Identify and praise women of valor
• Embrace the prospect of motherhood
• Make room for ritual and remembrance
• Honor Dan
• Keep loving, studying, and struggling with the Bible

Time and again I returned to the prayer of St. Teresa of Avila that I discovered back when the project first started: Let nothing upset you, Let nothing startle you. All things pass; God does not change. Patience wins all it seeks. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone is enough.

So what does a biblical woman look like?

You’ll not discover a prototype. We’re all uniquely made in the image of God.

But don’t take my word for it. Or Rachel’s. If this topic pulls strong emotion from you, neither refute nor recommend Rachel’s book until you read it for yourself, alongside an open Bible. That’s what an eshet chayil would do.

[When Rachel elaborates on the sin of gossip, or loshon hara (“evil talk”), she reminds that “according to the Talmud, loshon hara kills three people: the one who speaks it, the one who hears it, and the one about whom it is told.”]

Regardless of the conclusions you end up drawing, I pray we can all agree on this:

And I believe that my calling, as a Christian, is the same as that of any other follower of Jesus. My calling is to love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love my neighbor as myself.

Jesus himself said that the rest of Scripture can be rendered down into these two commands.

If love was Jesus’ definition of “biblical,” then perhaps it should be mine.

________________________________________

Title: A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband “Master”
Author: Rachel Held Evans
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (2012)
Available at: Thomas Nelson | Amazon

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More than a biography — “Jesus: A Theography”

The end product of biblical Christianity is a person—not a book, not a building, not a set of principles or a system of ethics—but one person in two natures (divine/human) with four ministries (prophet/priest/king/sage) and four biographies (the Gospels). 
LEONARD SWEET AND FRANK VIOLA, Jesus: A Theography

What’s this book about?
Jesus. Totally.

Jesus from before time. Jesus in creation. Jesus in the stories of the Old Testament (or First Testament, as the authors call it to emphasize unity between the Old and New). Jesus in the flesh in the Second Testament accounts. Jesus now. Jesus still to come.

Jesus is the human face of God.

He is also the inbreaking of the eternal into time. This is a good definition of the kingdom of God, which is embodied in Jesus.

Why you’d like it
It will show you new ways to see Jesus now by seeing him anew in old stories. Some you’re familiar with: Jesus as deliverer (Moses); Jesus as Shepherd (David); Jesus as sacrifice (lamb). Jesus as the new Solomon, the new Temple, the new Elijah.

But authors Sweet and Viola include other nuances as well, such as Jesus as the new Joseph, the new Isaac, and even the new Boaz (our kinsman-redeemer). The gospel of John as the new Genesis. The parallels between the days of creation and Jesus. The church as the new Eve. Jesus as personification of the Torah. The day of Pentecost as the reversal of Babel.

During His ministry, Jesus spoke on four issues more than He did anything else:
     1. The kingdom of God—the manifestation of God’s ruling presence, here now and yet coming.
     2. Life—the eternal life that is embodied in Himself. A life that would be imparted to His followers after His resurrection. A life that they would live by.
     3. His Father—the offer to have a relationship with God as Father, the same relationship He had with the Father.
     4. Himself—He (Jesus) was the fulfillment of the entire First Testament story and promises.

This book aims to bring a new connectedness not just between Old (or First) Testament and New (or Second) Testament, but between all the stories and Jesus. The narratives, metaphors, signs, and symbols all point to Jesus—either his person, his work, or his character. 

Why you might not read it
It is long—over 400 pages. But the length is necessary to get all the material in.

And note that about 1/3 of the book is end notes (which are interesting in themselves, by the way). So the book’s length isn’t quite as daunting as it may first appear.

You might not agree with everything (but if that were a legitimate reason for not reading a book, we’d never read anything, right?!). A few analogies here and there were stretched (to me). But overall, I found it invigorating and thought-provoking.

Some may or may not take offense at this (I don’t):

The Bible in itself is not the Word of God. The Word of God is a person (John 1:1).

Neither does the Bible have life, power or light in itself any more than did the Jewish Torah. These attributes may be ascribed to the Bible only by virtue of its relationship to Him who is Word, Life, Power and Light.

Life is not in the book, as the Pharisees supposed, but only in the Man of the book (John 5:39).

. . . The Bible isn’t about salvation; it’s about Jesus Christ. Salvation is one of the things Christ does. But Jesus is far more than Savior.

Do I recommend you read it?
Definitely. It can give you a greater appreciation of God’s big plan throughout time to reveal himself to us through his Son.

The person of Jesus, not the red letters, is the crux of the story. The righteousness of God is revealed in red on the cross, not in red ink on the page.

The more you know him, the more you know you’re loved by him. And the more you know he loves you, the more you’ll love him back.

At the Jordan River the Father’s voice was heard from the heavens, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Consider those words for a moment. Before His baptism, Jesus had done no ministry yet. He had healed no sick person. He had set no one free. He had not selected His disciples, or done any mighty works for God.

And yet the Father’s full pleasure was upon Him.

There is a message here for every adopted child of God. God’s pleasure is not based on what you do for Him. It’s based on whether you are His child.

________________________________________

Title: Jesus: A Theography
Author: Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (2012)
Available at: Thomas Nelson | Amazon

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MY THANKS TO THOMAS NELSON
FOR THE REVIEW COPY OF THIS BOOK

A new daily devotional – “God Is My Refuge”

If you’re looking for a devotional book that only takes a few minutes of your day, but goes deep enough to make a difference, I recommend Kathy Howard’s new book, God Is My Refuge.

Designed specifically to help you through hard times, this book is divided into twelve chapters that can be read in any order, so you can pick out the chapter each week that most matches your current life’s season.

Chapter topics:

• Trouble
• Need
• Loneliness
• Illness
• Fear
• Broken Relationships
• Uncertainty
• Weariness
• Worry
• Temptations
• Grief
• Discontentment

Within each chapter, Kathy gives five days of devotional thoughts, scripture readings, reflection questions, and prayer prompts.

An extra feature also included in each chapter is one new memory verse per week, with tips each day on how to learn it. So at the end of twelve weeks, you’ll have twelve scriptures quietly tucked into your heart for whenever you need them.

Kathy is one of my co-writers at Do Not Depart, so I’ve seen time and again her heart’s desire to glorify the Lord. We did a study last fall on her book Unshakeable Faith. In that book as well as this one and all her writings, she wants to stay true to God’s words, pointing us upward to him, not just inward to ourselves, as we deal with life’s difficulties. She reminds us often that God is bigger than our troubles, and that he is faithful to stay beside us through them.

Read a sample daily devotional

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Women in Syria—real or fiction? Book review of “Dreams in the Medina”

Sometimes it takes a story to make you care.

“You know, it's dirty to wash your feet in the same sink as we wash our food.” Leila turned back and saw that Maha had stepped out of the kitchen to confront Leila, who just stared back at her for a moment.

Then Leila understood. Of course. Maha is a Christian and does not know our traditions. How could Leila explain to her that she herself didn't much like washing for prayer in the same kitchen where she washed her dishes, but there was nowhere else in this building where she could wash. It would be too dirty to wash in the bathroom, where only evil spirits dwell, and there was no other sink in the building. In her house in the village, as in all good Muslim homes, the sink was outside the toilet room, but here there was no separate sink.
KATI WORONKA, Dreams in the Medina

I listen as Kati encourages us to pray for what’s going on in Syria (in real life). And I do offer a prayer in those moments. But it seems so distant and almost unreal.

Until I internalize a story. Even a fiction one.

I suspect that’s one reason Kati wrote her book, Dreams in the Medina. To bring to life what’s only been flat. And she has succeeded.

This novel shows the intersecting lives of college-age women enrolled in the University of Damascus. There are Muslims, Christians, English literature majors, lawyers-to-be. No two characters are the same, thus demolishing our stereotype of the “typical Middle Eastern woman.”

As the stories progress, we are effortlessly educated on the geography of Syria, the diversity of religious practices, even food choices and lifestyles.

But it’s the people that keep us reading. While differences between them and us are great on the outside, the inside struggles are similar across the globe. Love, happiness, traditions, God—narrowing the gap between we and they.

And we grow to imagine they could be our own friends. And thus we make the leap to care about the real people who are alive now in Syria, who are fleeing or fighting or grieving, in this very moment.

If you need to care a little more, too, sure, watch the news and read web updates and pray about it.

But don’t rule out a little fiction to prod you along. Sometimes it’s just the awakening you need.

* * *

Get Dreams in the Medina for only $2.99 on your Kindle. Other formats also available.

Read more about Kati’s journey and reasons for writing Dreams in the Medina.
You can like her Facebook page to learn more, too.

My new favorite book

Words do mean something, and when ideas are put into words in such a way that they lead to or reinforce fallacious notions, it is appropriate to challenge the use of those words.
- STEVE MCVEY, 52 Lies Heard in Church Every Sunday

So let me use clear words:
I love this book.

I hunger for the truths in it that displace the lies (or at least misconceptions) we take for granted. I love how it digs down deep to the bare bone truths about God. About grace. About church. About us. I marked enough notes from it to be a stand-alone book itself.

Here’s why I think you might like it, too:

• because you’ve had enough of a watered-down gospel
• because you want to grasp grace more fully
• because you wonder about the validity of the clichés we all say
• because you like your truths straight-up instead of diluted
• because you need to think clearer about what you’ve always heard
• because you know God loves you but want to believe it even more

Also because it has short chapters (I’m growing to appreciate those more and more); it’s written clearly; it’s full of scriptures; its author is humble; it’s packed with freedom and love and Jesus.

Now to give you some quotes . . .

Disclaimer: Although each lie and corresponding truth in the book are encapsulated in a minimum of words, please note I’m still lifting these segments out of their greater context. So if they don’t make sense, read the book for yourself or ask me for the larger background behind it. Thanks. [Bold and italics are mine.]

Lie #1
Salvation is giving your life to Christ.

Grace revolves around what He has given us, not what we give to Him! You receive eternal life not because you gave Christ your life. You receive eternal life because He gave you His Life. The distinction might seem subtle, but it’s important. 

Lie #6
Your greatest need is to love God more.

People often feel that they ought to love God more already. So why don’t they? They can’t. So what is the answer? It’s right there in 1 John 4:19: “We love, because He first loved us.” It isn’t possible to love Him as we want to until we understand how much He loves us. Then, and only then, we will find love for God swelling up within our hearts. 
 
The key to loving God more, then, is to focus on how much He loves us, not on how much we love Him at any given moment in life.

Lie #10
You can go too far with grace.

Grace is personified in Jesus. So to say that you can go too far with grace is like saying that you can go too far with Jesus. It simply isn’t possible.

Some people are afraid that if you teach the pure grace of God, people might be encouraged to go out and sin. That kind of fear shows a lack of clear understanding about what grace does in a person’s life. When God’s grace really takes hold of us, it does the exact opposite of encouraging sin. It causes us to draw near in love and faith to God, which is where we find a greater desire to walk in a manner pleasing to Him.

Go too far with grace? There’s no way. Most people haven’t gone far enough in their understanding of it.

Lie #17
You should live by the teachings of the Bible.

So we aren’t to live by the teachings of the Bible. We are to live by the life of the Christ who indwells us! The Bible teaches us more about Him and what it means that we live in union with Him. Our actions flow out of that knowledge, not out of some moral code we wrongly try to draw from Scripture.

There are Christians today who talk more about the Bible than they do Jesus. That should be a red flag. The Bible is not an end unto itself. …The Bible is a grace book that points us to Jesus Christ. He is the end that we pursue. If we are not led to the person of Christ and to faith in Him, like the Pharisees, we are missing the whole point of the Bible. 
 
We absolutely love our Bibles, but we live by the life of Jesus Christ.

Lie #30
You should make Jesus Lord of your life.   
 
We must make Jesus Lord? Do you see the underlying pride in that perspective? We must make Jesus be something? Who do we think that we are that we can make Jesus be anything?

The straight truth of the Bible is this: Jesus Christ is Lord.

We don’t have to make Him Lord. We simply remember and rest in His Lordship.  

Lie #44
You shouldn’t do anything that might offend somebody.  
 
Even Jesus didn’t always choose His actions on the basis of who might be offended by them. Jesus often offended people, especially self-righteous ones. If never offending anyone is the mark of living up to what God expects, then even Jesus wouldn’t qualify. 

So we relate to people from a heart of love, but we don’t allow ourselves to be controlled by public opinion. You are free in Christ. Be willing to limit your freedom for the sake of a weaker brother or to promote unity, but never give an inch to a Pharisee, the legalist who wants to make rules for other people to obey. 

And there is more, so much more. Words and The Word. I’m ready to go read it again.

Click thumbnails below to see the Table of Contents

* * *

Have you ever held a belief that you had to replace with a more accurate truth?

Live second

Have you seen an “I Am Second” video? I love them. They’re first-hand stories about Jesus changing lives. One story at a time.

Author Doug Bender later collected the stories into a book, I Am Second.

And now he’s written a daily devotional to make it personal for each of us.  Live Second: 365 Ways to Make Jesus First officially releases December 9, 2012.

Divided into twelve themed sessions for 52 weeks, each day contains scripture passages to read, questions to think about, a weekly video to watch, and prayers to pray.

Also starting December 9 and for four days, those who’ve previewed the devotional (including me) are sharing their own stories on their blogs about living second.

So join us as we walk through spiritual journeys of living second.

* * *

We need you to create – “Creating Space” review

At a certain point in our lives, we were told that creating isn’t practical, efficient, or responsible.

We need to get the laundry done, cook dinner, clean the house, pick up after the kids, work long hours, pay the bills, and tackle a thousand other responsibilities.

Who has the time to be creative? Who would be foolish enough to invest untold hours into making something beautiful and long lasting?
- ED CYZEWSKI, Creating Space

This is a book to remind you that finding, developing, and sharing your creative gifts matter.

Which people like me need to hear. Because I tend to be more about efficiency—getting things done—than about creating. But in order to run most efficiently, I need to take time to nurture creativity. To document beauty. To make art (which means different things to each of us).

Ed Cyzewski understands. He’s a new dad. And he’s feeling the time crunch that comes with new responsibilities. That’s one reason he wrote this short book, Creating Space: The Case for Everyday Creativity:

Coming from the American Christian tradition, I tend to focus on the practical things of life. Whether that’s the overly spiritual “saving souls” becoming the highest goal or the grounded Christian left that makes “fighting poverty” the holiest of callings, I’ve struggled to find a place for my creativity.

How could I justify taking time to write stories when there were so many needs, both physical and spiritual, in our world?

Ed argues that “some kind of creativity has been hard-wired into all of us.” And we need to do what we can to let it out.

Not only for our own souls, but for those around us.

You have gifts to share. When used well, creativity isn’t just about you. It’s about what you have to give.

. . . God isn’t freaking out that he accidentally made you a poet, seamstress, chef, or musician. These are sacred gifts that you dare not neglect.

So in this book we’re reminded we’ve been given permission and safety by our Creator to take time to tap into those gifts he’s designed into us.

And not just for the product, but also for the process—to continue becoming who he’s made us to be.

Blogging is one form of art that Ed encourages in his book. If you’re a blogger, this is reassuring: “Good blogging, like other forms of good creativity, is an art that becomes a gift.” It’s the service of a unique perspective that creates a meaningful gift.

But that doesn’t mean creating is easy. It can be hard work and time-consuming and even seem dangerous, especially when you put your gifts out there at large.

Yet playing it safe is even more dangerous by not “participating in a greater story that has been woven into our world and that links us to one another.”

We need you to create.

Will you create something?

* * *

What form does your creativity take?

Get Ed’s little book on your Kindle for only $0.99!

Your right to rest

I am convinced that women today have not been taught, nor do they understand, the biblical principles of rest.

They have somehow bought into the false belief that, for the Christian woman, rest is selfish and unscriptural.

Nothing could be further from the truth!
- DENISE GEORGE, A Woman’s Right to Rest

Right away she lays it out plainly:
women are tired because they’re not resting enough.

But, but, but . . . we women say . . . we have too much to do; we don’t get enough help; people are depending on us, etc.

George says rest anyway.
Jesus did.

And by “rest” she doesn’t just mean prop your feet up and take a nap (although that is one kind of rest—do it when you can!), but she lists fourteen distinct types of biblical rest that women (and men) can incorporate into their daily lives.

14 types of rest

• Physical rest
• Mental & emotional rest
• Trusting soul rest
• Resting in prayer
• Heart rest
• The rest forgiveness gives
• The rest of contentment
• The rest of commitment
• Resting in caretaking
• Resting in beauty, harmony, and peace
• The rest of selected memories
• Resting in friendship
• Resting in times of crisis
• The rest of heavenly assurance

She says not only are we given permission to rest, but it is our right, by our Creator’s design.

And I agree.

Rest is an obvious fruit of grace. If there’s anything we should understand about grace, it’s that it brings a cessation of work. Not just in a physical way (our bodies are created to be be still for 1/3 of our lives), but also in spiritual, mental, emotional, and relational ways.

Spiritual rest or soul-rest is knowing a loving Heavenly Father is in control of every aspect of a woman’s life and that she can completely trust him.

Soul rest also means that she can know with certainty that God loves her and promises to bring good results from the bad things she might experience on a daily basis.

I admit there were times I thought the book makes it sound too easy: just trust in God and voilà, you’ll find rest. Well, yes, but it’s more of a process for me; I still struggle and hurt and ache over painful things that can rob me of rest. I have to fight to not stay in those places when I find myself there (and hopefully I’m learning to linger there less and less).

How to rest

I suppose the author knew those like me need the “how” as well as the “why” about rest, so at the end of each chapter, she offers a series of practical suggestions. They aren’t groundbreaking ideas, but sometimes we need to have repeated, all in one place, what we already know but may feel too tired to come up with ourselves.

For example, under “The Rest of Contentment,” she suggests:

* Make a list of the possessions you own that you could easily live without. Then write down all those essential things you own and thank God for them.

* Go to a quiet place and contemplate Paul’s words in Phil. 4:12. Ponder “the secret” Paul has learned.

* Ponder the word “envy.” Do you envy a friend or neighbor? How is this envy displacing Christ’s rest in your heart? Pray that God will release you from this envy and restore his peace.

The practical suggestions are then followed by “Personal Quiet Time to Rest, Study, Reflect, and Pray,” which includes scriptures to contemplate, questions to reflect upon, prayer suggestions, and room to write down decisions made as a result of reading the chapter.

If you’re doing the book as a group study, that section is followed by yet another at each chapter’s end, “Group Bible Study” which is a shorter version of scriptures to read and questions to discuss.

I thank God for granting me a season of rest as I transition out of my role as a homeschooling mom, so I didn’t have a strong sense of urgency to go deeper with several chapters in this book.

But if you’re at a place of unrest in your life—for whatever reason and of whatever type—this book is sure to address it and help you reestablish equilibrium again through the grace of God.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30

* * *

Day 30 of . . .

THANKS TO LEAFWOOD PUBLISHERS
FOR THE REVIEW COPY OF THIS BOOK

“Grace” by Max Lucado — Book review

Grace is God’s best idea.

His decision to ravage a people by love, to rescue passionately, and to restore justly—what rivals it?

Of all his wondrous works, grace, in my estimation, is the magnum opus.
- MAX LUCADO

Oh, I think Max Lucado gets it!
Grace!
Not that his other books haven’t pointed to it for years, but this one looks it straight in the eye and never blinks.

And don’t think he’ll give you wimpy grace here. This is the real thing in all its bold, loud, audacious flavors.

Here’s my hunch: we’ve settled for wimpy grace. It politely occupies a phrase in a hymn, fits nicely on a church sign. Never causes trouble or demands a response. When asked, “Do you believe in grace?” who could say no?

This book asks a deeper question:

Have you been changed by grace? Shaped by grace? Strengthened by grace? Emboldened by grace? Softened by grace? Snatched by the nape of your neck and shaken to your senses by grace? God’s grace has a drenching about it. A wildness about it. Grace comes after you. It rewires you. From insecure to God secure.

. . . Grace is the voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off.

Page after page, chapter after chapter, Lucado fleshes out what grace looks like in the person of Jesus Christ and all its beautiful aftereffects.

The best review I can give is to step back and let you read more of the words for yourself:

Grace is God as heart surgeon, cracking open your chest, removing your heart—poisoned as it is with pride and pain—and replacing it with his own.

Rather than tell you to change, he creates the change.

Do you clean up so he can accept you? No, he accepts you and begins cleaning you up. His dream isn’t just to get you into heaven but to get heaven into you.

---

Of all the things you must earn in life, God’s unending affection is not one of them. You have it. Stretch yourself out in the hammock of grace.

You can rest now.

Get the picture? Not yet? Okay, here’s a little more. . .

---

He dispenses his goodness not with an eyedropper but with a fire hydrant. Your heart is a Dixie cup, and his grace is the Mediterranean Sea.

You simply can’t contain it all.

So let it bubble over. Spill out. Pour forth. “Freely have you received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8 NIV).

---

Grace. Let it, let him, so seep into the crusty cracks of your life that everything softens. Then let it, let him, bubble to the surface, like a spring in the Sahara, in words of kindness and deeds of generosity.

God will change you, my friend. You are a trophy of his kindness, a partaker of his mission. Not perfect by any means but closer to perfection than you’ve ever been. Steadily stronger, gradually better, certainly closer.

This happens when grace happens. May it happen to you.

After reading this book, if you didn’t appreciate God’s gift of grace before, certainly you can see it clearer now.

Let grace—let Jesus—happen to you, too.

* * *

Day 24 of . . .

THANKS TO THOMAS NELSON
FOR THE REVIEW COPY OF THIS BOOK

Stronger than you think

I don’t understand how grace works. After the apostle Paul begged the Lord three times to take away his handicap, he received this answer instead,

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 Corinthians 12:9

But whether or not I understand it, I want to believe it, and if his grace is proved plenty in my lack, I want to embrace it.   

So what am I to do with Les Parrott’s new book, You’re Stronger than You Think?

Am I?

Or is Christ? Thankfully, Parrott writes as a fellow believer that the Lord is our source of strength. He divides his book into three ways we tap into that source: through our mind, our heart, and our soul.

The Power of Your Mind

As one who can specialize in analyzing, I appreciate Parrott’s admonition here to stop that.

You may think you’re gaining valuable insight by analyzing every detail, but you’re not. Overthinking is not your friend. It makes your mind tense, keeps you stuck in your head, and immobilizes your motivations.

There’s a difference between thinking rationally versus reasoning excessively. The latter leads to a cluttered mind that becomes burdened and sluggish. Instead, clearing our mind of overstimulation can open us up to the grace of hearing the still, small voice of God (or maybe his loud one!) and of receiving his answers in true strength.

The Power of Your Heart

The paradox of finding our strength when we own our weakness isn’t just psychological mumbo-jumbo. Hiding or ignoring our weaknesses can make them stronger, but exposing them to the Light can bring healing. God often teaches us our most valuable lessons when we’re at our lowest points.

Trying to go it alone can sabotage our heart’s power. God made us to be a people who connect, and in those connections—with others and with him—we find common strength.

We are most real when we are most known and loved. And here’s the secret: The more real we become, the more love we experience. And the more love we experience, the more real we become.

The Power of Your Soul

Emptying ourselves—surrendering—is not giving up, but is our greatest opportunity to fill up. In losing our life for Love’s sake, we find it. Parrott says,

Emptied of what? Of the burden we so often carry—the burden of needing to get our own way. It’s the burden and tension of holding on to our lives with clenched fists.

While not easy, and never to be done under our own power, surrendering a life of soul safety means picking up a life of risk. And therein lies more passion—and strength—for our souls.

Passion does not produce commitment. Commitment produces passion.

Once you give yourself to a person or a project, you become passionate. It’s not the other way around. Your commitment fuels a devotion and a passion that last long after the average person has given up.

Parrott suggests these practical ways to make this real: release your burden, bless your pain, start a gratitude journal, make a plan for being less helpless, quit playing it safe, do it anyway, and take a bold step.

What is our source of power to accomplish any of these things? The grace of God. And how do we make peace with being too weak on our own? The grace of God

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13

* * *

THANKS TO TYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHING
FOR THE COMPLIMENTARY COPY OF THIS BOOK

Day 17 of . . .

“I Exalt You, O God” - Book review

Luke’s account of ten lepers who cried out to Jesus to heal them is an insightful story that helps us see how important thanksgiving is to our worship. [See Luke 17:15-18]

. . . Ten were cleansed; only one returned to give thanks.

Jesus emphasized the uncalled-for disparity between the many and the one: Where were the other nine?

The lesson is obvious. God does note when we take time to thank Him and when we don’t.
JERRY BRIDGES

If you’re like me, you have some awesome times of private worship to God, but you also have your fair share of ho-hum moments when you feel too tired or frustrated or rushed to put much energy into intentional, personal times of worship.

Here’s a thirty-one day devotional by Jerry Bridges I can heartily recommend as an aid for all of us: I Exalt You, O God: Encountering His Greatness in Your Private Worship.

In thirty-one short but meaningful chapters (days), Bridges offers a framework for you to learn more about one of these four attributes of God:

• his greatness
• his holiness
• his wisdom
• his love

He begins each day with a more specific breakdown of one of the attributes by retelling a Bible story or providing a personal example, then moves into a simple prayer, followed with a short series of verses rewritten in the first person for you to respond to God directly.

Excerpt from Day 22: A Mystery Too High

. . . God’s wisdom, however, is infinite; ours is finite. This absolute difference is one that I think we fail to grasp. We tend to assume we would understand if God would just explain. We don’t really believe that “his understanding no one can fathom” (Isaiah 40:28).
. . . Humility should be a hallmark of those who fear and worship God. To accept that God’s ways are often mysterious, that His wisdom is infinite and ours only finite, is an important expression of humility. Then we can say with David, “My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me” (Psalm 131:1).

Father in heaven, I praise and thank You for how Your wisdom and Your ways are so infinitely high and exalted and incomprehensible. You are truly God Most High!

“How awesome is the LORD Most High, the great King over all the earth!” Your “understanding has no limit,” and Your “greatness no one can fathom.” Psalms 47:2; 147:5; 145:3

By putting you more in touch with who God is through Christ (this book is thoroughly saturated in scriptural truths), you appreciate his love and grace more and more, overflowing naturally into a response of worship. 

It takes you to the heart of who you’re designed to be: a person formed by God to declare his praise (Isaiah 43:21).

On Day 31, Bridges says,

My desire has been to help you develop such a view of God’s love that you can’t help but be motivated to fear and worship Him, to love others, and to wholeheartedly obey and serve Him.

I want you to experience joy in these responses and to grow in that joy more and more as you increase in the knowledge of His love.

My desire is that both you and I will be so overwhelmed by Christ’s love that it will indeed compel us to live not for ourselves but for Him.

An intense and intentional gaze at his grace and love can’t help but elicit renewed and delightful worship from every sincere heart.

* * *

MY THANKS TO WaterBrook Multnomah
FOR THE REVIEW COPY OF THIS BOOK

Day 6 of . . .

“The River” – Book review

I still get that butterfly feeling in my gut.

. . . I think that feeling will always be there whenever you connect with something bigger than you. It’s part of what makes life beautiful.

If you stay connected only to that which is small enough for you to understand and control, then you have nothing.
- from The River: A Novel

The River is the first novel by singer/songwriter Michael Neale. And if this is an indication of what’s in him, I hope he’ll continue letting more of it out.

It’s a beautiful story about Gabriel Clarke and his tragedies and triumph with The River, but the bigger story is the underlying theme to be willing to take chances and push yourself beyond what you think your limits are.

While it’s not the greatest literature I’ve read, the story was compelling. It was challenging. And it touched me. Even surprised me (and I’m not easily surprised in these kinds of stories).

I particularly liked the set-up, from the beginning of “From an Entry in a Journal” and the Prologue to the Epilogue at the end. An 11-question reading guide is included, with heavy-hitting questions like this,

# 8. Tabitha tells Gabriel, “most people don’t take time to really see what’s all around them.” Have you ever been guilty of this? How can you make sure you’re “seeing” what’s around you? What’s the consequence if you don’t?

And lastly, one of my favorite quotes from the book:

Don’t ever settle for the shore, Gabriel. Get all the way in.

Get all the way in. That’s good, real-life advice I’m taking away from this piece of fiction.

* * *

THANKS TO THOMAS NELSON
FOR THE REVIEW COPY OF THIS BOOK

“Hell—A Final Word” – Book review

He entered a year-long research project to search out the truth on hell. He meticulously read through every reference—direct and obscure—in both the Old and New Testament about the final fate of the wicked.

When he finished, he was surprised by the conclusion he was forced to acknowledge.

After deliberating what to do with his newfound knowledge, Edward Fudge decided he had to share it, even at risk to his professional and personal reputation. He published a 500-page book, The Fire that Consumes, in 1982 (now in its Third Edition, 2011).

Now thirty years and much discussion later, he’s summing it up again in a smaller, more accessible book, Hell: A Final Word.

You probably formed your own beliefs about hell long ago, hopefully based on scriptures you read for yourself and scholars you know you can trust. But don’t let that stop you from re-reading scriptures in proper context to continue gaining knowledge.

As Fudge says in his introduction,

“If, like me, you take the Bible seriously (whether or not you also take it literally), you know that hell is part of its vision of the final future. That means we also must take hell into account in our own understanding of Last Things, else we will find ourselves looking at a distorted picture when measured by the book we all claim to follow.

“That, of course, will require much thought—which itself calls for certain preparation if we are to do it well. Chief among those preparations, I suggest, are an open Bible, an open heart, and an open mind.”

So for the next 51 short chapters, Fudge takes you through scripture after scripture on all verses relating to hell and eternal destinies.

While his conclusions might not be the popularly accepted “traditional” view (if there is one such thing), they are backed by highly-respected scholars and are very logical. He encourages you to take a fresh look at what the Bible really says (or doesn’t say) on hell, eternal punishment, judgment, death and Hades, immortality of the soul, and more.

The book concludes with “A Most Surprising Quiz on Hell,” followed by “Check Your Answers by the Bible.”

Here are a couple samples:

Question:
3. Based on an actual event, the Bible uses the expression “eternal fire” to signify:
   a) fire that destroys forever (Sodom and Gomorrah);
   b) fire that cannot destroy what is put in it (Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego);
   c) fire that continues to burn indefinitely (the Burning Bush of Moses).

Answer:
3. In the Bible, the expression “eternal fire” signifies choice (a), fire that destroys forever, as with Sodom and Gomorrah.

Popular tradition says hell will be like Moses’ Burning Bush which never went out, or like the non-consuming furnace into which their enemies threw Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. However, the Bible warns that hell is a consuming fire which destroys both body and soul.

Jude 7; Matthew 25:41; Matthew 10:28.

Question:
16. Throughout his writings, Paul says that the lost will:
   a) go to hell and burn alive forever;
   b) die, perish, and be punished with eternal destruction;
   c) go to heaven but hate every minute of it.

Answer:
16. It’s choice (b). Throughout his writings, Paul says that the lost will: (b) die, perish, and be punished with eternal destruction.

If you picked choice (a) “go to hell and burn alive forever,” you will really be surprised when you look for anything like that in Paul’s writings. Choice (c) is wrong, since all who finally inhabit God’s eternal kingdom will enjoy every “minute” of unending eternity!
Romans 6:23; Romans 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 3:17; Philippians 1:28; Philippians 3:19.

I found Fudge’s book easy to read, yet thought- and study-provoking. In the end (no pun intended), I know God will do what God will do, regardless of what theory I believe, and I’m fine with that. But in the meantime, it’s nice to understand his will and character a little more clearly, and love him even more because of it.

* * *

Thanks to ACU Press/Leafwood Publishers
for the review copy of this book