Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Next Door Savior - A Book Review

I’ve been reading Max Lucado’s books for a long time. During my freshman year of college, I had a dog-eared copy of one of his books on the life of Christ. I don’t remember the title of the book, but I remember how powerful it was. The book would make me cry. Lucado has a way of portraying God that makes you realize just how great God really is.

Next Door Savior is just as good as the dog-eared book from college. It made me cry. It raised my awareness, once again, of how much God loves us. Each chapter in this book covers an aspect of Jesus’ life and character and talks about just how accessible God is.

One of my favorite passages:
Jesus has been there. He experienced “all the pain, all the testing” (Heb. 2:18 MSG). Jesus was angry enough to purge the temple, hungry enough to eat raw grain, distraught enough to weep in public, fun loving enough to be called a drunkard, winsome enough to attract kids, weary enough to sleep in a storm-bounced boat, poor enough to sleep on dirt and borrow a coin for a sermon illustration, radical enough to get kicked out of town, responsible enough to care for his mother, tempted enough to know the smell of Satan, and fearful enough to sweat blood. But why? Why would heaven’s finest Son endure earth’s toughest pain? So you would know that “He is able . . . to run to the cry of . . . those who are being tempted and tested and tried” (Heb. 2:18 AMP) (Next Door Savior, page 24).

Why is this book encouraging? Because Jesus understands! However I feel, no matter what is going on in my life, Jesus gets it. He’s been there. I can rest assured that none of my feelings are foreign to Jesus. Because He understands me, He can help me. Jesus can carry me through life because He experienced it Himself.

If you haven’t read any of Lucado’s books, I’d encourage you to pick up any of them and read through it. It will encourage you in your walk with God. I think this book would make a great devotional by reading a chapter each morning and pondering the message throughout the day.

Thank you to Booksneeze for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. All thoughts are my own!

2 comments:

Julie Fukuda said...

It sounds like a powerful read.

Kath said...

That passage almost made me cry just now...
Thanks for dropping by me, Cassandra. I look forward to more inspiring words from you :-)