WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT OF US?

Sunday, March 29, 2009

BOOK REVIEW--THE HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL

A lot of good things get holes in them. I have discovered holes in my pockets, my socks, my shoes, and just this morning I found a hole in the bottom of the basket in my pool skimmer. These are all valuable things—but none as valuable as the gospel.

Richard Stearns says we have a hole in our gospel. In his powerful book, The Hole In Our Gospel he asks, “What does God expect of us?” and then he gives the answer that changed his life and might just change the world.

Having traveled more than a million miles to dozens of countries around the globe as president of world Vision, Stearns shares compelling stories of the revolutionary power of the gospel—the gospel without a hole—that is truly good news for a world broken by poverty, disease, and injustice. And he urges readers to join him in making this vision a reality. As CEO for a large company he lived in a two-hundred-year-old stone farmhouse with ten bedrooms on five acres, drove a royal blue Jaguar XK-8 and had children who loved their school and their friends. He had worked more than twenty years to get to the top of the corporate ladder. He gave it all up. He committed career suicide. He did it for God.

This fresh look at the gospel will take you to a deeper understanding of your own faith and inspire you to do your part to demonstrate God’s love for a hurting world. This book broke my heart. I realized that as a minister for forty-seven years that I preached a gospel with a big hole in it. I preached as forcefully and lovingly as I knew how. And yet I never drove home the heart of the gospel. You could have listened to me preach for many years and you could have come to the conclusion that going to church, studying the Bible and avoiding the most serious sins was about all God expected from you as a Christian.

In its simplest form, here is the answer to the question, what does God expect: *We are to love God. *We are to love our neighbors. *We are to go and make disciples of others who will do the same. Read this book and let the impact of Isaiah 58 and Matthew 25 change your life.

I agree with Luci Swindoll who said, “Brace yourself…this is one powerhouse book!”