Have you ever read a book that resonated so closely to your own life that you wondered if the author was watching your life? That’s kind of how I felt while reading James Rubart’s book, The Man He Never Was. This book hit pretty close to home, and brought some truths to light that I need to stop and think about in a little more depth.

The book is about a former NFL star, Toren Daniels, who suddenly reappears after being missing for eight months. Where he has been and what has happened to him is a mystery, but one thing is clear. His deepest struggle, his ability to control his anger, is gone. He is a new man, it seems.

But the search to find just how this has happened is what this book is all about. And it is a fascinating story. Even though it is fiction, it grabbed me and pulled me into the light of some truths that I haven’t quite grasped in such a way before. One of those truths is this: No matter what my sin may be, anger and rage in Toren Daniel’s case, there is no way any of my own efforts are going to be able to fix it. Sin can only be eradicated by the sacrifice that was made for that purpose; it can only be conquered by Jesus.

The second truth I need to dig into a bit deeper is the idea of my dual nature. Jesus died for my sin, and my sinful nature has been put to death. But the good side of me? That’s been put to death as well. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Both side of my nature, the good and the bad, have to die so that Christ can live in and through me. Because even my best efforts at good aren’t good enough.

Several years ago, I was exposed to the stories of Walter Wangerin when I watch a performance of his story, Ragman, at a youth leader’s conference I attended. At that moment I was hooked. I purchased Ragman: And Other Cries OF Faith and devoured it. Every now and then, I get it out and reread a story or two for inspiration, but I have never pursued any of Wangerin’s other works.

Until now.

I recently received a copy of Wounds Are Where Light Enters, and I am having a hard time putting it down. Several of the stories I have read through tear blurred eyes, and others have stirred my soul like I remember the Ragman story doing.

In this volume, Walter Wangerin relates several stories from his life, from both his role as a pastor and his role as a father. Each of these stories provides a glimpse of the incredibly expansive grace of God, sometimes in relation to those Wangerin has ministered to, but more often to Wangerin himself.

I have been inspired and encouraged by reading this book, and I’m sure that it will be one that I return to for strength and encouragement in days to come. I know that the grace of God has peeked out of these pages, and is daring me to see it in the everyday events of my own life.

I have been an on and off fan of Mark Batterson’s work for several years. I was a big fan of his book Primal, and it was an excellent help to my spiritual growth at a time when I desperately needed it. I was less enthusiastic about his book The Circle Maker. I felt like it was a bit of a stretch, and presumed too much that Scripture didn’t support. So I was slightly hesitant to read Whisper. But I am glad that I did.

I can’t place it on par with Primal for a couple of reasons, but I did find it encouraging and helpful. In Whisper, Batterson strives to discover and explain the different ways that God speaks to us today. He identifies seven different voices through which God communicates, and digs deep into each of them, one at a time. The first one he discusses is Scripture, God’s primary way of communication to his church today.

I was somewhat disappointed at the level of trust he places in the other six voices though. It seemed as if he held these voices – desires, doors, dreams, people, promptings, and pain – as authoritative as God’s Word. I disagree with that. I believe that God can, and does, communicate through some of these other voices; but I do not think they are to be held to the same level as Scripture.

I have long been a history buff. And one of the genres I enjoy within the category of history is the “what if” idea, such as, “What if this had happened instead of that?” That is kind of the take on history that Jeremiah Johnston uses in his book Unimaginable.

First of all, I expected something a bit different than what Johnston presents here. I’m not sure what I really expected, maybe something more imaginative, more fictional, but that’s not the purpose of this book. Instead, what Johnston has done is look at history and show what it would look like if Christianity did not exist. What I did not expect, perhaps blindly on my part, is that he would draw from history those things which already point to what it would look like in such a world.

That sounds a bit confusing, and I’m not sure how to articulate it very clearly. Maybe an example would help. Without Christianity in our world, there would be no value to the human life. And if life holds no value, then things such as slavery, abortion, euthanasia, communism, fascism, and more would run unhindered. But we have already seen in history how those kinds of things have affected the lives of millions. Slavery is an institution we have fought for ages, around the world in various forms. Abortions occur in epidemic proportions. Communism and fascism have cost the lives of countless millions of people. And the list could go on.

It’s kind of depressing. Johnston shows what a world without Christianity would look like, and we see that it is our world.