January Book: Believing God

Believing God by Beth Moore Hardback: 270 pages Publisher: Broadman & Holman Publishers First Released: 2004

Source: Bought from Half.com.

Why I Chose This Book:
I chose Believing God to be our January/February book club discussion book because it's God-focused, Scripture-based, and contains truths that can transform lives.

This book is easy to read and understand while still digging deep into the word. The author illustrates her points using accounts from the Bible as well as from her own life. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who feels like being a Christian hasn't changed them much, or who feel like they're stuck repeatedly falling into sin and can't get free, or those who are seeking the abundant life Christ came to give us.


Back Cover Description (slightly modified):
Do you believe God or merely believe in Him?

Do you take God at His word, believing what he has told us, or do you just believe in His existence and the salvation He offers?

What does it mean to believe God? Abraham and Moses believed God. This planted in them a seed of faith that grew into towering oaks of steadfast trust and belief. Hebrews 11 is full of other examples of bold belief. In Believing God, Beth Moore explores what it means to believe God and how this can transform our lives.


Excerpt from Chapter One
Is it working? Your belief system, that is. Is it really working? God's intention all along has been for the believer's life to work. From divine perspective toward terrestrial turf, God meant for His children to succeed. God stated unapologetically in Joshua 1:8 that conditions exist under which "then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success"� (NASB). Are our Christian lives successful? Are they achieving and experiencing what Scripture said they would? In a recent sermon my son-in-law preached, Curt told us the only way we were going to impact the world and the next generation is to prove that our faith in Christ is real and that it works. For countless Christians I'm convinced it's real. My concern is whether or not we have the fruit to suggest it works.

I fear the reality of most Christians differs dramatically from our theology. We bear little resemblance to a church causing the gates of hell to tremble. I squirm as I suggest that the gap between our theology and our reality is so wide we've set ourselves up for ridicule. The sad part of it is that some of us are working pretty hard at something that is hardly working. Why do we spend so much time and energy on spiritual exercises with few effects while the rest of the world sleeps in on Sundays? Why are some of us getting up before dawn to have a quiet time with effects drained to the dregs by noon? Why are we running out of ink in our highlighters marking Scriptures that rarely jump off the page and onto our pavement? Why are we doing everything we can to convince others to do something that hasn't worked terrifically well for us? Why won't some of us admit that for all practical purposes the present belief system of most Christians isn't working?

Certainly those of us who have accepted Christ as our Savior have received the automatic and glorious result of eternal salvation. However, the primary reason God left us on earth after our salvation was for our Christianity to "succeed"� right here on this turf. We're getting by but getting by, was never our destiny. We were meant to be profoundly effective. Why have we accepted average? Are the few effects most of us see and experience all Christianity has to offer? Is this it? All we can expect? If so, someone out there needs to feel sorry for us.

I'd volunteer except that I no longer buy it. Our status-quo system of contemporary Christianity isn't working, and I'm bucking it. Thankfully, so are a number of others. Some of us no longer want to play like the emperor has new clothes when he's walking around, as my grandmother would say, as naked as a jaybird. The church, comprised of all believers in Jesus Christ, is generally pretending she's cloaked with kingdom power and effectiveness while in reality she has exposed herself in powerlessness to the ridicule of the world. We can't blame the devil. For the most part we've dumbed-down New Testament Christianity and accepted our reality as theology rather than biblical theology as our reality. We've reversed the standard, walking by sight and not by faith. We want to be the best of what we see, but frankly what we see is far removed from God's best.


Read more from chapter one.