A New book in the Media Library (and an older one, too!)
-- A Review

It's a hot summer day. The river is only a few yards away. You walk slowly (too hot to run) towards the water and step into the edge. As your feet are covered with the cool shallow water, the heat starts to recede. On into the river, the water is cooler and deeper. As you step in above your waist, the heat is forgotten, the comfort of the cool water over your feet is forgotten, as the shock of cold water hits you. But after a bit, your body adapts and the comfort returns.

Philip Yancey's current book Reaching For the Invisible God, what can we expect to find? is like that hot day at the river. It starts with some comforting chapters as we find ourselves and our Christian lives somehow reflected, however as we read on, "the water" is colder and more shocking. About one of Yancey's books, What's So Amazing About Grace?, Charles Colson of the Prison Fellowship Ministry said, "Once again he has produced a work with something to make everybody mad." How true of this book also, but yet once again, he has reached into our beliefs and caused us to do some thinking on our own. I can almost guarantee that when you're finished thoroughly reading any of his books, you'll be clearer in your understanding of your own faith and belief.

Another book by Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace? is available in our Media Library, and in my opinion, is a good companion to the above book. Grace, that one thing that makes Christianity the distinctive religion that it is, is made somehow clearer. Nothing we deal with is more important and yet is so hard to fully accept. God gave us forgiveness, justification, life - His Son - just because - just because He loves us. No requirements - we don't have to give up drinking, smoking, sinning, we don't have to pay for by giving, tithing, working, going to church - anything. We just accept it. Yancey looks at Grace in action in a world far more familiar with cruelty, war, slavery, vengeance, and unforgiveness. Read it. You have only to lose a few hours…and much to gain.

As we progress through the book, I've again become comfortable and the chapters are easier. God remains invisible and we still reach for Him, but hopefully, we will have had our faith strengthened.

I have read a number of Yancey's books. So far, I haven't found one I wouldn't strongly recommend (not one that I unreservedly agree with).

In Christ,

Joe Hinchey, Jr.