Secondhand Jesus
God has offered us firsthand knowledge of His love, His grace, and His power. Yet so often, we too easily settle for someone else's descriptions, the Cliff notes from another's spiritual journey. We are content for "God-experts" to do the heavy lifting and then give us the bottom line. And like any secondhand information, after enough times through the grapevine, the truth about God deteriorates and crumbs of rumor are all that remain.
But when life derails, and things don't go as we had planned, our thin view of God is challenged. In those critical moments, we can choose to walk away from God, or to let our questions lead us home. When we choose to wrestle with God, to engage Him for ourselves, we-like Jacob and Job and David-will see rumors die and revelation come alive.
It's time to hear the magnificent, Divine Invitation. It's time to take God up on His offer and embrace the mystery and majesty of knowing Him for ourselves.
Top Highlights
“Here’s what I’ve learned: Rumors grow in the absence of revelation. Every time we keep God at arm’s length, declining an active, living knowledge of Him, we become vulnerable to rumors. Lulled by false comfort and half-truths about God, we—in Keith Green’s famous words—fall asleep in the light.” (source)
“God is to be obeyed. But not for the blessings that might come in this life. God is to be obeyed because that is the proper response to an Almighty God. Obedience reminds us that we are the servants, He is the master. It’s not a way to get God to do something for us. In fact, obedience isn’t about getting anything; it’s about giving everything. Obedience does indeed lead us to blessing—God Himself, the greatest blessing of all.” (source)
“ How often in our lives is Christ living among idols, specifically the idol of increase, victory, and success?” (source)
“ What we have in common as human beings is not our drive for success; it’s our experience of suffering.” (source)
“We’ve taken God’s love to mean His subservience to us.” (source)
Product Details
- Title : Secondhand Jesus
- Author: Packiam, Glenn
- Publisher: David C Cook
- Publication Date: 2010
- ISBN: 9781434700322