Friday, February 10, 2012

Preparation for Eternity with God


by Rick M. Streight
** (2 stars out of 5)


Let me start by saying that I really wanted to enjoy this book. The title intrigued me because my whole goal in life is to know God intimately in this lifetime in preparation for my eternity with Him so this book seemed to be right on point. But I just found that it missed the mark in many ways.

First of all I did not appreciate the cover. While I believe the imagery of the marriage supper with the Lamb is beautiful and awe-inspiring, the picture of the typical American newly-wed couple holding hands together in a field takes away from the ineffable reverent and unimaginable quality of the marriage relationship between us the Church and our betrothed, Christ. Something less mundane would have been much more appropriate.

The content itself was well-intentioned, but I found that many of the chapters consisted mostly of random (though relevant) scripture quotations with little to no discussion or application.

The book is also a little more shallow than I expected. It is more of a gospel outreach book than a deep, spiritually developing book. And maybe that’s why it didn’t resonate with me – I was hoping for rich thoughts on really preparing myself for my eternal relationship with God, but this book seemed more aimed at those who do not even realise that they are made for such a relationship and explaining that to them.

Additionally, I reviewed the electronic version of this book and found it very difficult to differentiate between the quoted scripture and the author’s words. Maybe this is not a problem in the printed version, but I do wish publishers would give more thought to the layout and presentation of their electronic materials.

Finally, I did not feel as though there was a prevailing theme or thought that tied this book together, even though it seems it would have been easy to tie it all together. It felt more like disjointed thoughts that all had to do with eternity with God, but no theme, climax, or idea to take away from the book.

No comments:

Post a Comment