What! Is God Too Safe?

What is it you and I say of the Lord God? "He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust (Psalms 91:2)?" We are safe in God, but how safe is our God? Is your God too safe? Think about it for a minute or two, then read on.

Pastor, freelance writer and author, Mark Buchanan provides a look into the answer of this question in his book Your God Is Too Safe, Rediscovering the Wonder of a God You Can't Control.

WHAT! HOW CAN GOD BE TOO SAFE?

Your God Is Too Safe opens with a chapter entitled The Refuge of the Stuck. It's about Borderland, the place between two borders and why we may choose to be stuck there. Borderland is familiar. It's safe.

Mark Buchanan wastes no time in going after this concept of a God who is too safe. Over and over he exposes our comfortable ideas and concepts of who and what God is in the light of Scripture.

The writing of Your God Is Too Safe is engaging and easy to read. The material the author presents is designed to make you think and react to who and what you believe God is and desires for you.

ARE YOU LIVING IN BORDERLAND?

"Who is the god of borderland?" Mark Buchanan asks. He answers with, "the god who is too safe." It didn't take me long into the book to realize I have spent a large part of my life living in borderland. Chapter after chapter, case after case, the author lays out clearly how we get stuck in borderland and often why we choose to remain there.

Part Two of Your God Is Too Safe opens with a chapter called The Place of Holy Habits. The case is made for the absolute necessity of prayer becoming a holy habit. I found myself under conviction for my own lack of a holy habit of prayer.

Your God Is Too Safe was a little slow getting into, though once into it, the intensity increased dramatically. I read all of Part Two, Life In the Holy Wild, without putting the book down!

I found myself challenged to seek God for who He is and for what He is. I found myself hungry to step out beyond borderland into the holy wild. One quote from Your God Is Too Safe I will always remember is this: "Consumption is killing us. Go fast and live." Again, think about it.

GETTING OUT OF BORDERLAND

If you're stuck in a rut, bored with your life in Christ, Your God Is Too Safe is a good book to jog and jab you out of your comfort zone. I recommend this book to any desiring the expectancy of walking with Christ, looking to escape from borderland.

Word Spirit Power: What Happens When They Are Married?

On one side stand the routine, the boring, the old-fashioned. On the other side stand the sign-seekers, the flash of lights, the smoke, always pushing for a new experience, a new high. What would happen if the two sides were to meet?

Word Spirit Power, What Happens When You Seek All God Has to Offer brings this meeting of the two sides to forefront. The book is a composite work of three authors, R.T. Kendall, Charles Carrin, and Jack Taylor.

WORD PLUS SPIRIT EQUALS POWER

Word Spirit Power, What Happens When You Seek All God Has to Offer is written in three parts, each author presenting his part. Each author begins his part sharing his personal testimony then moving into their chosen topic. All three of the authors have tremendous experience in the Word.

R.T. Kendall introduces the concept of a remarriage of the Word and the Spirit. He concludes his portion of the book with an exciting revisit to the coming of Isaac.

Jack Taylor brings to the book both insight and experience in the second part, Spirit. He laces his testimony throughout his portion of the work.

Charles Carrin brings to us the result of the remarriage of the Word and the Spirit in his part of the book, Power. He opens with his testimony of being transformed by the power of the Spirit. He weaves his testimony throughout his portion of the book.

WHAT WORD SPIRIT POWER DOES FOR ME

Though I do have doctrinal differences as an Apostolic Pentecostal, I must agree it is time for a remarriage of the Word and the Spirit. I really like R.T. Kendall's work in Isaac Is Coming. There is truly going to be an outpouring of the Spirit. The second coming of Christ is the promise. But before Christ returns, he will make ready a bride prepared to meet him. This requires the moving of the Spirit. If we are the generation to see the return of Christ, we are the generation which will see the outpouring of the Spirit.

Word Spirit Power, What Happens When You Seek All God Has to Offer is a call to action for me. It goes beyond belief and acceptance. Even the apostle Peter writes of the angels desiring to look into these things (1Peter 1:12). Part Three, Power, by Charles Carrin is an exciting way to end a book! I read his portion from start to finish in one sitting as I could not put it down.

YOU HAVE NOW BEEN EXPOSED

"You have now been exposed" are the first five words of the conclusion of Word Spirit Power, What Happens When You Seek All God Has to Offer by R.T. Kendall. Even though I have doctrinal differences, Word plus Spirit equals power! I recommend this book to any interested in the work and the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

I received this book free from  Chosen Books . I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

GLOBEQUAKE By Wallace Henley: A Review

EARTHQUAKE OR GLOBEQUAKE?

Call it the Great Recession. Wars; Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, now Syria. Rogue nations obtaining nuclear weaponry. A divided America? Record-breaking heat coupled with severe storms. What on earth is going on? Is it the rumbling of a regional earthquake? Could it be a globequake?

Wallace Henley uses these issues and more to make the case that we can live in an unshakeable kingdom in his book Globequake, Living In the Unshakeable Kingdom While the World Falls Apart.

STANDING FIRM IN THE GLOBEQUAKE

Globequake, Living In the Unshakeable Kingdom While the World Falls Apart gets to the heart of the shaking of our world. It provides only one reason for globequake: the centrality of God. The lack of being God-centered is examined along with the blessed hope we possess in being God-centered.

Wallace Henley presents us with the concept of spheres in which we operate. We are to be ambassadors for Christ in each of these spheres in which we function. The spheres are:

• The sphere of person
• The sphere of church
• The sphere of family
• The sphere of education
• The sphere of governance
• The sphere of business-marketplace

Globequake, Living In the Unshakeable Kingdom While the World Falls Apart is not a book of gloom and doom. Wallace Henley offers rays of hope in the midst of darkness. He offers knowledge of stability in the midst of chaos.

WHATEVER CAN BE SHAKEN WILL BE SHAKEN

Wallace Henley presents a tremendous amount of information as to the shaking of our world. He goes into great depth explaining what globequakes are and what causes them. He goes to great lengths detailing how we can obtain stability and strength to stand firm while everything around us shakes. The wealth of information is presented in a progressive manner.

Globequake, Living In the Unshakeable Kingdom While the World Falls Apart is a little difficult to read at times, somewhat like a textbook. Some concepts are readily understood while others require thinking time to fully comprehend them. The book is at times interesting and at times a little boring like a textbook. I do like the underlying theme which runs throughout the entire book. That is the truth of maintaining Jesus Christ at the center or core of everything we are and do.

WHAT NOW?

The bottom line is that we must maintain our focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We must be kingdom-minded always. The world around us will shake and it will fall. If all we see is the shaking and the falling we will shake and fall with it.

Though I find Globequake, Living In the Unshakeable Kingdom While the World Falls Apart interesting, I cannot recommend it as a "must read" kind of book.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."