Another Book I Won't Read
I probably won't read any more of this book.
In a Pit...
I read the first chapter - well, part of the first chapter - online at Amazon and, well, I'm not impressed.
In a Pit...
I read the first chapter - well, part of the first chapter - online at Amazon and, well, I'm not impressed.
I'm supposed to be. We're all supposed to be. Mark has some good stuff to say about courage and about how God turns our difficulties into opportunities
Here's the point: God is in the resume-building business. He is always using past experiences to prepare us for future opportunities. But those God-given opportunities often come disguised as man-eating lions. And how we react when we encounter those lions will determine our destiny. (page 14)
Okay - I don't argue with anything that he says here. My problem is that he takes an obscure passage of Scripture and builds an entire book on it. This is 9 chapters of...well, Christian self- help, really (chapter 9 is, please try to look surprised, "Unleash the Lion Within"). Sigh. God's word - fodder for feeling good...argh...
For what it's worth, I think Batterson's got a great topic for a book - how God often takes what we see as adversity and turns it into opportunity. And, honestly, it's a great title. I WANT to want to read the book. But I can't.
You can only batter a couple of verses so much... 9 chapters from 4 verses is...wow - I mean maybe 9 chapters from these four verses but from a guy who wasn't even in the top three Mighty Men? Hmmm...dunno.
Seriously, you want a book about God turning adversity into opportunity - how about Joseph (the son of Jacob/Israel, not the stepdad of Jesus - though, HE gets about 18 verses, so maybe a book there, too - heh) who had to face, to put it midly, a fair amount of adversity before he could see the opportunity that God was setting before him...
Now, Batterson's really doing some innovative stuff at National Community Church, and I think the book probably has some good stuff to say but I'm frustrated by taking God's word and speculating and stretching and assuming all kinds of motives and meanings that really aren't there.
Why did Benaiah face a lion in a pit on a snowy day? Batterson says it's because God was setting him up for greater things. That he found himself in that pit so that he could become the head of David's bodyguards.
I think Shammah son of Agee, the Hararite, called him a chicken...
Hey, that would sell... :)
Why not a book on Joseph? Because Benaiah's odd little encounter with a lion (and, oddly, a handsome Egyptian - why handsome, God? What an odd detail...) makes for a better "hook." And so what if we really don't know anything about what REALLY happened in that pit or WHY God really allowed this guy to survive facing a lion. It's better not to ask those questions. Or, if you do, just pray the prayer of Jabez seven times a day for seven days and God will expand the horizons of your understanding enough to see insights into the Old Testament that even God didn't know were there...
So, that's why I won't read this book. Unless somebody can convince me...
Here's the point: God is in the resume-building business. He is always using past experiences to prepare us for future opportunities. But those God-given opportunities often come disguised as man-eating lions. And how we react when we encounter those lions will determine our destiny. (page 14)
Okay - I don't argue with anything that he says here. My problem is that he takes an obscure passage of Scripture and builds an entire book on it. This is 9 chapters of...well, Christian self- help, really (chapter 9 is, please try to look surprised, "Unleash the Lion Within"). Sigh. God's word - fodder for feeling good...argh...
For what it's worth, I think Batterson's got a great topic for a book - how God often takes what we see as adversity and turns it into opportunity. And, honestly, it's a great title. I WANT to want to read the book. But I can't.
You can only batter a couple of verses so much... 9 chapters from 4 verses is...wow - I mean maybe 9 chapters from these four verses but from a guy who wasn't even in the top three Mighty Men? Hmmm...dunno.
Seriously, you want a book about God turning adversity into opportunity - how about Joseph (the son of Jacob/Israel, not the stepdad of Jesus - though, HE gets about 18 verses, so maybe a book there, too - heh) who had to face, to put it midly, a fair amount of adversity before he could see the opportunity that God was setting before him...
Now, Batterson's really doing some innovative stuff at National Community Church, and I think the book probably has some good stuff to say but I'm frustrated by taking God's word and speculating and stretching and assuming all kinds of motives and meanings that really aren't there.
Why did Benaiah face a lion in a pit on a snowy day? Batterson says it's because God was setting him up for greater things. That he found himself in that pit so that he could become the head of David's bodyguards.
I think Shammah son of Agee, the Hararite, called him a chicken...
Hey, that would sell... :)
Why not a book on Joseph? Because Benaiah's odd little encounter with a lion (and, oddly, a handsome Egyptian - why handsome, God? What an odd detail...) makes for a better "hook." And so what if we really don't know anything about what REALLY happened in that pit or WHY God really allowed this guy to survive facing a lion. It's better not to ask those questions. Or, if you do, just pray the prayer of Jabez seven times a day for seven days and God will expand the horizons of your understanding enough to see insights into the Old Testament that even God didn't know were there...
So, that's why I won't read this book. Unless somebody can convince me...
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