Word/Pictures

About a month ago, one of my mentors recommended that I read The Shack by William Young. I visited the website, thought it looked interesting enough, and then remembered my reading list for seminary.  I just don't have time to read much for pleasure these days.  Two weeks later, I was visiting a close friend on a day trip and noticed he had a copy of the book on his coffee table.  I asked him about it and he told me it had changed his life.  Now I don't know about you, but when a book comes at me from multiple directions with powerful testimonies, I tend the listen up.  I believe that God the Spirit uses just such circumstances to get our attention.  Not only did my friend love the book but he also bought a number of copies to give away - and I got one.  So I rearranged my priorities and began reading The Shack.  

And after finishing it this week, I am changed.  Forever.  This book has impacted me like no other except for Scripture.  Without spoiling story line or details, I have been given a series of thoroughly biblical word pictures about our God, the action of grace, and the calling of life.   And these pictures have changed how I view and understand everything - my relationship with God, who God is, what grace is and how it is applied in our lives, marriage, ministry, seminary, friendships, EVERYTHING!  

In seminary, I have realized that I am guilty of viewing God too much as a historical figure. Jesus lived 2,000 years ago and books of the Bible were written between 3,500 and 2,000 years ago.  And I fell into the trap of assuming that God was then.  He did things then.  And today all we have is a record to study.  But The Shack attacked that assumption with ferocity.  

God is here and now.  Active.  Seeking.  Loving.  Forgiving.  Reconciling.  Healing.  Relating.  

And to see this God - Three in One - portrayed and meet Him in a new, fresh (and deeply biblical) way, please read this book.  If you have ever experienced tragic pain, brokenness or loss and wondered how an all-loving, all-powerful God could have allowed it, please read this book.  If you devotion times are dry and you assume that God was then but is not now, please read this book.  The bottom line - if you are a follower of Christ alive in 2008, please read this book.  And to make it super easy, click the 'Buy The Shack at Amazon' link to your left under places to go.  

Be prepared - my prayer is that each of you will hear the same ravings from others in your life. And I bet you will.  Because God the Spirit uses such circumstances to get our attention so that He can take us to the shack and change our lives.