Monday, August 21, 2006

Entry #2---awesome book I read---review!!

 Just to warn you ahead of time.......this is a little long............

 

    I started reading this book, a little at a time, about 2 months ago.  It was sooo very good.  I've never read any of Max Lucado's books before, but I do love his daily email devotional & the "Upwards" on Christian radio stations, so I figured his books had to be good, too.  This was my first & it's enough to have me hooked.  Now I've got to decide which one to read next!!  (If you've read some of his stuff, give me some suggestions!!)
    The title is "It's Not About Me".  The funny thing is, I got this from a lady on the MOMYS (Mothers of Many Young Siblings) list who lives in another state.  She offered it for about $1 & I bought it from her.  Not even a week after receiving it, someone suggested this very book to me as a study for our singles dept.  Funny how God works out those neat little coincidences!
    I can tell you it's 'good' & encourage you to read it, but I figured I'd go one step further.  If you want to hear some of the highlights of the book, read on.  If not, go ahead & delete this now.  I'm going to give you a couple of the really "WOW" quotes from the book's most meaty-deep chapters & then let you decide if it's something you want to follow up & read.  Trust me...you won't be sorry.
    The message to the book is simple--- "It's Not about Me", but it's presented in a different way than I've ever seen that particular topic covered.  Read on to see what I mean...........
 
From Chapter 2, titled "Show Me Your Glory":
1.  When our deepest desire is not the things of God, or a favor from God, but God Himself, we cross a threshold.
 
2.  (in talking about Moses reaching a place where he asked God to show Himself to him....)Gleaming.  Bright as if backlit by a thousand torches.  Unknown to Moses, but undeniable to the Hebrews, is his shimmering face.  When he descended the mountain, "the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face."  (2 Cor 3:7).
    Witnesses saw, not anger in his jaw, or worry in his eyes, or a scowl on his lips; they saw God's glory on his face.
    Did he have reason for anger?  Cause for worry?  Of course.  Challenges await him.  A desert and forty years of great challenges.  But now, having seen God's face, he can face them.
    Forgive my effrontery, but shouldn't Moses' request be yours?  You've got problems.  Look at you.  Living in a dying body, walking on a decaying planet, surrounded by a self-centered society.  Some saved by grace; others fueled by narcissism.  Many of us by both.  Cancer.  War. Disease.
    These are no small issues.  A small god?  No thanks.  You and I need what Moses needed--a glimpse of God's glory.  Such a sighting can change you forever....................................
    At that moment I realized something.  I could look around and find fear, or look at my father and find faith.
    I chose my father's face.
    So did Moses.
    So can you.
 
From chapter 4, titled "Holy Different"
1.  What you are to a paper airplane, God is to you.  Take a sheet of paper & make one.  Contrast yourself with your creation.  Challenge it to a spelling contest.  Who will win?  Dare it to race you around the block.  Who is faster?  Invite the airplane to a game of one on one basketball.  Will you not dominate the court?  And well you should.  The thing has no brainwaves, no pulse.  It exists only because you formed it & flies only when someone throws it.  Multiply the contrasts between you & the paper plane by infinity, and you will begin to catch a glimpse of the disparity between God & us.
 
2.  Trace the universe back to God's power, and follow His power upstream to His wisdom.
 
From chapter 6, titled "His Unchanging Hand"
.....Even the strongest among us must eventually rest.  Lance Armstrong can maintain a bike speed of 32mph for a solid hour.  Healthy college males last 45 seconds at that speed.  I'd make 30 before wanting to throw up.  Armstrong lives up to the last half os his last name.  He is strong.  But at some point hemust rest.  His head seeks the pillow and his body seeks rest.  ......Call Jim Eubanks strong.  Swimming 70 laps a day and holding 1/2 a dozen endurance swim records would be proof alone.  But still logging a daily mile in the pool & winning races at age 85?  Don the Speedo & flex those lats, Mr. Eubank.  You are strong, but you won't be strong forever.
    God will.  The words "I'm feeling strong today" he has never said.  He feels equally strong every day.
    ........Think about it.  God never pauses to eat or asks the angels to cover for Him while he naps.  He never signals a time out or puts the prayers from Russia on hold while he covers South Africa.......  Need a strong hand to hold?  You'll always find one in Him.  His strength never changes.
 
2.  Catch God in a bad mood?  Won't happen.  Fear exhausting his grace?  A sardine will swallow the Atlantic first.  Think he's given up on you?  Wrong.  Did he not make a promise to you?  "God is not a human being, and he will not lie.  He is not a human, and he does not change his mind.  What he says he will do, he does.  What he promises, he makes come true". (Numbers 23:19).  He's never sullen or sour, sulking or stressed.  His strength, truth, ways, and love never change.  He is "the same yesterday & today and forever". (Heb 13:8)
 
3.  Cemetaries interrupt the finest families.  Retirement finds the best employees.  Age withers the strongest bodies.  With life comes change.  But with change comes the reassuring appreciation of heaven's permanence.  His "firm foundation stands" (2 Tim 2:19).  His house will stand forever.
 
Chapter 7, God's great love
1.  .......at the time Martin Luther was having his Bible printed in Germany, a printer's daughter encountered God's love.  No one had told her about Jesus.  Toward God she felt no emotion but fear.  One day she gathered pieces of fallen Scripture from the floor.  On one paper she found the words "For God so loved the world, that He gave...".  The rest of the verse had not yet been printed.  Still, what she saw was enough to move her.  The thought that God would give anything moved her from fear to joy.  Her mother noticed the change of attitude.  When asked the cause of her happiness, the daughter produced the crumpled piece of paper from her pocket.  The mother read it and asked "What did he give?".  The child was perplexed for a moment and then answered "I don't know.  But if he loved us well enough to give us anything, we should not be afraid of Him."
    Had God given his children a great idea or lyrical message or an endless song.....but he gave Himself.
 
2.  I know what my dad did.  Much to his credit, he let me help him.  He gave me jobs to do-- holding wrenches, scrubbing spark plugs.  And he knew my limits.  Never once did he say "Max, tear apart that transmission, will ya?  One of the gears is broken."  Never.  For one thing, he liked his transmission.  For another, he loved me.  He loved me too much to give me too much.
    So does God.  He knows your limitations.  He's well aware of your weaknesses.  You can no more die for your own sins than you can solve world hunger.  And according to Him, that's okay.  The world doesn't rely on you.  God loves you too much to say it's all about you.  He keeps the cosmos humming.  You and I sprinkle sawdust on oil spots & thank him for the privelege.  We've peeked under the hood.  We don't know what it takes to run the world, and wise are we who leave the work to his hands.
 
Chapter 9, My Message is About Him
I believe Satan trains battalions of demons to whisper one question in our ears: "What are people thinking of you?".
 
Chapter 10, My Salvation is About Him
Your salvation showcases God's mercy.  It makes nothing of your effort but everything of His.
 
Chapter 11, My Body is About Him
This chapter talks about various things in how we care for our bodies & how that can either focus us further or take us further away from His glory.  This particular part really moved me.  It's in reference to sex.  If you'd rather skip this one, just scroll on down to the next quote.
 
Casual sex, intimacy outside of marriage, pulls the Corinthian ploy.  It pretends we can give the body and not affect the soul.  We can't.  We humans are so intricately psychosomatic that whatever touches the soma impacts the psyche as well.  The me-centered phrase "as long as no one gets hurt" sounds noble, but the truth is, we don't know who gets hurt.  God-centered thinking rescues us from the sex we thought would make us happy. ......... Casual sex is a diet of chocolate-- it tastes good for a while, but the imbalance can ruin you.  Sex apart from God's plan wounds the soul.
    Sex according to God's plan nourishes the soul.  Consider his plan.  Two children of God make a covenant with each other.  They disable the ejection seats.  They burn the bridges back to Mama's house.  They fall into each other's arms beneath the canopy of God's blessing, encircled by the fence of fidelity.  Both know the other will be there in the morning.  Both know that the other will stay even as skin wrinkles and vigor fades.  Each gives the other exclusive for-your-eyes-only priveleges.  Gone is the guilt.  Gone the undisciplined lust.  What remains is a celebration of permanence, a tender moment in which the body continues what the mind & the soul have already begun. ..........
    Such sex honors God.  And such sex satisfies God's children.
 
Chapter 12, My Struggles are About Him
Your faith in the face of suffering cranks up the volume of God's song.
 
Chapter 13, My Success is About Him
God lets you excel so you can make Him known.
 
There is so much more, but these are just the big "WOW" quotes that jumped out at me.  I hope you get a chance to seek out this book & read it.  It's very much worth it.  It's a small book & if you have the time, it could be read cover to cover within a day's time.  Let me know if you read it & how you like it!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Max Lucado is my favorite Christian author. I've read most if not all of his books.  The Applause of Heaven I highly recommend too.

This one you reviewed "Its Not About Me" is also very good

betty

Anonymous said...

Hi Betty sent mr over Nice journal:) i have added you to my alerts so i will be back:)

Deb