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I just posted this review on Amazon:
Conversations About Jesus, April 15, 2014
This review is from: Missing Jesus: Find Your Life in His Great Story (Paperback)
At first, I didn't know quite what to think about this book. It had the conversational style of Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz), but without the postmodern stream of consciousness that characterizes Miller's writing and makes him enjoyable. But this book is more imbued with substance and purpose than Miller's work. It's title is "Missing Jesus," so maybe it followed John Piper's emphasis on God's glory throughout. It did much to exalt God's glory, but it struck a much more personal and vulnerable tone than Piper. Maybe it would be more systematic in nature, like J.I. Packer's "Knowing God?" Nope. There was much more dancing than driving in this book.
This is the book you read when you are lonely and perhaps have no immediate Christian fellowship with which to alleviate that loneliness. Maybe many of your relationships are marked by entertainment venues and superficial topics and cliches. If you feel that lack of substance--those brokenhearted, wound-binding words of fellow believers that direct your weary heart and eyes to Jesus, then this is the book for you. It seats you before the fireplace, hands you a glass of wine, and asks "Friend, where are you right now? Are you missing Jesus?" In return, you are given the freedom to grieve over the Jesus you have missed, or express joy in finding Him anew--or hopefully both.
I know I grow tired, both of superficial relationships and of abstract truths that are bandied about as cliches to cover over suffering rather than as balm for the soul. As Charles and Janet Morris open the door upon their lives, bearing their wounds before us, they direct us through their experiences and through their meditations on Scripture to the Savior who also bears His wounds before us.
I would say the lack of a logical flow to this book is its only weakness, but I wonder if such a logical flow would destroy the conversational demeanor of the book. I feel like I just sat down with a dear older brother and sister in Christ, was told of the ways in which they had missed Jesus, shown the ways in which I was missing Jesus, and walked through the Scriptures, which all testify to Jesus.
At the end of the book, I no longer found myself mentally before the fireplace, enjoying a glass of wine, mingled with tears. Instead, I found myself transported to the throne of grace, where Jesus will welcome me--the broken me who so often missed the joy of Jesus in this life--with open arms. And with those wounded hands of His, I know He will wipe away the tears. Even now, I feel the nearing of that touch through His Word and prayer, and Charles and Janet Morris remind me that His hand draws near. But in that coming Day, that great and glorious Day, I more eagerly await the healing, the embrace, and the eternal fellowship to be enjoyed at the throne of God and of the Lamb.
This is the book you read when you are lonely and perhaps have no immediate Christian fellowship with which to alleviate that loneliness. Maybe many of your relationships are marked by entertainment venues and superficial topics and cliches. If you feel that lack of substance--those brokenhearted, wound-binding words of fellow believers that direct your weary heart and eyes to Jesus, then this is the book for you. It seats you before the fireplace, hands you a glass of wine, and asks "Friend, where are you right now? Are you missing Jesus?" In return, you are given the freedom to grieve over the Jesus you have missed, or express joy in finding Him anew--or hopefully both.
I know I grow tired, both of superficial relationships and of abstract truths that are bandied about as cliches to cover over suffering rather than as balm for the soul. As Charles and Janet Morris open the door upon their lives, bearing their wounds before us, they direct us through their experiences and through their meditations on Scripture to the Savior who also bears His wounds before us.
I would say the lack of a logical flow to this book is its only weakness, but I wonder if such a logical flow would destroy the conversational demeanor of the book. I feel like I just sat down with a dear older brother and sister in Christ, was told of the ways in which they had missed Jesus, shown the ways in which I was missing Jesus, and walked through the Scriptures, which all testify to Jesus.
At the end of the book, I no longer found myself mentally before the fireplace, enjoying a glass of wine, mingled with tears. Instead, I found myself transported to the throne of grace, where Jesus will welcome me--the broken me who so often missed the joy of Jesus in this life--with open arms. And with those wounded hands of His, I know He will wipe away the tears. Even now, I feel the nearing of that touch through His Word and prayer, and Charles and Janet Morris remind me that His hand draws near. But in that coming Day, that great and glorious Day, I more eagerly await the healing, the embrace, and the eternal fellowship to be enjoyed at the throne of God and of the Lamb.
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