Okay. Full disclosure. I never read this book. I just finished a road trip to Dallas for some training and purchased the audio book before I left. So I didn’t read it. I listened to it.
That feels better now that it’s off of my chest. I can tell you that I really enjoyed this book. There’s something special that happens when you stop and remember how awe-inspiring God is, and Francis Chan is especially gifted at persuading us to do just that.
There were a few quotes that even while driving down the road, I noted the point on the iPod where he said it.
- I quickly found out that the American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity.
- Some people claim that we can become Christians without necessarily becoming disciples. I wonder, then, why the last thing Jesus told us was to go into the world making disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that he commanded. You’ll notice that he didn’t add, “but hey, if that’s too much to ask, just tell them to become Christians. You know, the people who get to go to heaven, without having to commit to anything.”
- This place of trust isn’t a comfortable place to be. In fact, it flies in the face of everything we’ve been taught about proper planning. We like finding refuge in what we already have rather than what we hope God will provide.
- I wrote this book because much of our talk doesn’t match our lives. We say things like, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and “trust in the Lord with all your heart,” then we live and plan like we don’t believe God even exists. We try to set up our lives so that everything will be fine even if God doesn’t come through. But true faith means holding nothing back.
