Book: Believing God.Author: Beth Moore
Info: Copyright 2004: Nashville: B&H Publishing Group.
Where acquired: Kindle download.
Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars): ✮✭✮✭
What it's about: Moore gives a call to action for Christ followers to stop merely believing in God, but to believe who He is and what He says.
Favorite Quotes:
"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." - Location 107
"You and I can be safely tucked in the family of God and have the full assurance of a heavenly inheritance without ever occupying the land of God's fulfilled promises on earth. - Location 210
"I don't want to be counted among the faithless who never claimed the land God promised them. All that will matter about our earthly lives when we receive our heavenly inheritance is whether we fulfilled our callings and allowed God to fulfill His promises. I know I'm going to make it to heaven because I've trusted Christ as my Savior, but I want to make it to my Canaan on the way. I want to finish my race in the Promised land, not in the wilderness." - Location 216
"Faith is the only thing that will ever close the gap between our theology and our reality." - Location 220
"If God said it, I want to believe it. If God gives it, I want to perceive it. If Satan stole it, I want to retrieve it." - Location 474
"Beloved, no one, no matter how brilliant, persuasive, or credentialed, should have the right to take away our hope. The God we serve is able." - Location 650
What I Liked:
- Beth Moore writes and teaches in the same style--in conversational style rather than a lecture.
- Not only are her real life examples vivid, but humorous as well. OK, in some passages, she just plain cracked me up. The story about her nearly getting in a fight with a fellow minister in Chapter 8 is a good one.
- The study is based on the book of Joshua. We are studying Joshua in Sunday School at the time of this writing, so it's a great companion to what I'm learning.
- Kindle version doesn't have real page numbers.
- The "aside box." (Been a while since I've had to fuss about that one). Plus, it's in a squiggly font that's hard to read.
- The author never said what her class did with the "blue cords" mentioned at the beginning of the book. She said she would, but I never saw where she did.
In case you didn't know, I was Bible trained in a non-denominational church for the first 26 years of my Christian life. I've been a part of my current church (a denominational church) for the past four years. Yes, we have some doctrinal differences, but none of them are "go to heaven" issues. All of the essential fundamentals of following Christ are the same. So, what I don't get is that it took Beth Moore, who is widely accepted in denominational churches, to say what I've heard in the non-denominational churches for years. The "name it, claim it" Moore warns the reader of is the very "With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak (II Corinthians 4:13)" she's preaching.
Quite frankly, we have let buzzwords and prejudice keep us from learning from each other and from living a full Christian life. We've let other people's opinions, rather than the Word of God, dictate what we believe. I'm glad someone in denominational circles had the courage to write something like this.
Update (2017): I purchased a print copy for my personal library.
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