Klampert

I got this book about a month ago with a promise to review and blog about it. I read it in just a few days and then I realized that I had no clue what to say in my review.

I decided to cheat by looking at other people reviews of this book. Many had some little comments and some just copy and pasted some sections of text. No help there.

I went back to the book trying to figure out why I was having such a mental block.

The book is a testimony of a mans life and how God changed it.

I have read those books before and i usually walk away from it going… “wow…thats good stuff..” and then move on in life.

This book however did something a little different for me.

Let me preface this with the fact that I know the writers son. He is a great blog friend of mine, a wonderful father, husband, and fellow worship leader. Why is that part significant. Very simple.

God does amazing things and sometimes we get to see a small glimpse of it. Other times we get to see God change somebody and then that change has a domino effect on everybody and everything around this person. This testimony is just that.

I’m not going to go into too much detail about the mans life and what you can expect. That would ruin it.

The testimony in this book is a testimony much like that of the great men in the Bible.

A testimony of God taking wretched things and making them holy.

A testimony of the overwhelming grace of God.

A testimony that while old still is being worked to this day.

A testimony that forces a person to recognize there MUST BE A GOD.

This is a testimony that confounds the wise.

This is a testimony that is makes the devil shake because people have been changed by this mans life and are continually being changed through the domino effect of Christs amazing grace.

So why was it so difficult to review this. Simple..

Because this is more than just a book. It is proof that God is real and proof that God’s love is greater than we can imagine.

GO BUY THIS BOOK!

Here is the free chord chart to the song

Song Story – “Living Rain”
As introduced by Parachute Band member Simon Moore

“Living Rain” is one of the corner-stone songs on Technicolor, not just for the band but for everyone who was involved in making this album.

Right from hearing the first version it was SO obvious that here was a remarkable worship song that captured what we wanted this album to be all about – redemption songs that are just bursting with God’s full color love! 

Ric Knott, the same song writer who wrote songs like Surrender All on the last album, tells the story of bringing “Living Rain” to life really well.

From Ric: “I was in Indonesia on a Bible School that my in-laws run in Sept 05 and on a rare day off we decided to jam some tunes out. We came up with the verse melody there and then ran out of time. Later on, back in New Zealand, I started working on it again based on 2 Chron 7:14…’If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land’… and it all just fell into place. 

It really came out of a desire to write a song about being desperately thirsty for the Holy Spirit to come and heal our land. There’s something about singing that line: ‘over my street oh Spirit reside’ that brings that song right down into your neighbourhood and to the people that you love and see everyday. 

More than just a concept, but a ‘daily heartbreak’ for his refreshing and bringing it all back to our the beginning of our faith – the Cross and our first love and desire for him which we can so easily lose sight of.”

Have you heard of the book, The Shack? If you haven’t then please come out form under that rock.

I while back I wanted to see what all of the talk about it was so I bought the book, devoured it, and then reviewed it on the blog. I loved it.

Then I started to see all of the negative attention on the net. Mark Driscoll, who I love, describes the book as heretical and that it promotes modalism. Of course there are tons more online who preach against the book as well calling it evil and a non biblical representation of the trinity.

This past weekend my church did a mens retreat with another church form maine. We gave everybody in the groups a copy of the book, let them know it was fiction, it was not theology and more like a parable. They were told to read it and we would discuss it on the retreat.

I bet from the guys who claim it’s evil they would be screaming right now

“Noooooo. you are going to be teaching your men wrong doctrine….”

Well most read it and tore through the book and then God tore through them.

In our discussions we instructed our men to not get hung up on the theology because it is more an allegory and not a theological book. They were to see if they felt like some of the story was their own.

I was floored with what happened.

Did our guys change their minds theologically?

Did our men think  God was a big black woman?

Did they hink the Holy spirit was an asian woman?

No…No….and No….

So what did happen?

Freedom from anger

Freedom from past

freedom from Father issues

bigger view of God

An understanding that God cares.

Our men came face to face with a God that loves them and every one of them, one way or another, walked away understanding that God is bigger than they thought.

Is the Shack Evil? I don’t really care actually, but I am really glad that a simple story made God more real to some hurting and angry men.

Here is a video from Life in Student ministry blog. If you have not been there he was some great youth ministry resources and thoughts.

The bible says in Luke 19:40

“…If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise.”

I love that verse. Jesus is basically saying the entire universe will shout it’s praises if we don’t. Worship is everywhere.

I was thinking about it the other day though. Man wouldn’t it be cool if for one day we all stopped praising and then we could see the rocks actually sing. That would be sweet!