Book Review
Dirty God
Jesus in the Trenches
by
Johnnie Moore
It takes a lot for me to read a book in a sort amount of time. The times it has happened are pretty rare, and my husband was impressed with how fast I read Dirty God. It was amazing to me too! There was something about this book I just couldn't put down. Moore did a great job of sharing stories and Biblical accounts to share his point of view. I was really drawn to God's grace through this book. Perhaps it came just at the right time for this people pleaser to hear these words. I often think to myself that God's grace is amazing, but it's just too good to be true. He must want something more from me than just to accept it. I often find myself bending over backwards to make people happy. I never like to have people upset with me. It's just how I am. This book really reached out to me and helped to see the truth I have always known and helped me really experience what I have always heard.
"He doesn't simply tolerate out need for second and third chances; he doesn't begrudgingly make a way for our repentance. Instead, he takes pleasure in helping us "turn our hearts back again." He will move mountains and call down fire and trust us one more time, even when our track record would make any sensible person do the opposite."
Maybe it's because I have been longing to live in this kind of life. A life where I am fully alive in God's grace and fully giving it to others. I want to live a life where others start to wonder why I act this way and the only possible answer is God.
I love that Moore gives good practical ways that we can take it and use this in our lives. He talks about getting God's grace and then talks about how we should turn around and give that same grace out to others.
"Most of the time, grace is most evident in the small things and in everyday moments. It's evident in how we respond in the office when someone treats us unjustly. It's visible in the little decisions we make when faced with an opportunity to serve ourselves or someone else. It's evident in the practice of virtues like hospitality, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. It's visible when we run upon someone in need at the most inopportune moment, or at times when we have every reason in the world to retaliate and, instead, we turn the other cheek.
But on occasion, in a rare and probably difficult moment, grace must rise to a higher place. It must exhibit itself in a more extravagant form, a form more akin to the way in which grace waged war against sin on the cross."
I read the story of the Amish school girls who were killed and the way the Amish community poured out grace on the killers family. I thought to myself I want that, yet I find it difficult to give grace in the small things. This book has challenged me to change the way I see grace. To change the way I receive it from God and the way that I give it out to others. Highly recommend this book to everyone!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255
