Tuesday, March 29, 2011

'The Power of a Whisper'

I picked up this book, which inspired my colleague Glen VanderKloot's current sermon series at Faith Lutheran Church in Springfield, Illinois, last Thursday.

I've found it so gripping, challenging, disturbing, joyful, and inspiring, that, careting my reading of it into a busy schedule, I'm about to plunge into the final chapter. (And I'm an extremely slow reader!)

The book is about paying attention to the "whispers" of guidance which followers of Jesus receive from God--whether from reading God's Word or knowing God through it, or the counsel of trusted Christian friends, or circumstances. I have long been convinced that God has never stopped communicating with His children. This is one of the Holy Spirit's prime activity among us, I think. But in our worlds crowded with noise and activity, even committed Christians have increasingly closed our minds to God.

If this book does nothing but incite you to carve time out of your daily schedule to read God's Word, pray in Jesus' Name, and listen for God's "still, small voice," it will have done a great thing in your life...and through you, in the lives of others.

I don't agree with everything in this book. But as usual, its author, Pastor Bill Hybels, has written a book worthy of consideration from every Christian wanting to live for Christ in the everyday places of life. The chapter on justice is especially challenging and worth the price of the book, whether you agree with everything he writes there or not.

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