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Called & Accountable: God's Purpose for Every Believer

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This book was the match God used to re-ignite my passion for Him. This book is used by Him to refocus us - off of our "self" and onto His purpose. Always, eternity is in the balance! It is not about us, But His purpose, His Mission....Blackaby & Skinner straighten your thinkin'. The question is NOT "Am I able Lord?" but rather "Am I AVAILABLE for the Lord?"

While you may find some portions helpful, Blackaby's misuse of Scripture in unit 3 is deplorable. I simply quote his summerizations, indeed his "Thought for the Day" from page 89: "Our living Lord has accepted your life from the Father and is at work 'making you to become' all God wants you to be." Jesus Christ is not making us to become all God wants; it is the Holy Spirit at work within us. However, Blackaby made a false parallel between us now and the disciples while Christ still walked among them. The key events Blackaby overlooks are Christ's ascension and the Spirit's reception, i.e. Pentecost.

Further examples include Blackaby's egregiousness misuse of Romans 1:5-6 on page 79, which misleads any who do not read the verse in any translation other than the NKJV. In other of his citations of Scripture, Blackaby takes verses out-of-context for a message that amounts to manipulation of God's Word (see pp 79, 81, 86-87, 89, 92, and more!). I don't think Blackaby is stupid or suspect, simply lazy and careless in his authorship of this text.

One final example comes from the page 94 "Thought for the Day" which I will quote in full for contextualization. "You can never fully estimate the value of your life to God. To God, eternity is always at stake! Your obedience releases the fullness of God in accomplishing His purpose to redeem a lost world and even to inaugurate eternity in His fullness of time." A fine exhortation and reminder, but the end is nonsensical. Whether Blackaby refers to God or you (the reader) as the one to "inaugurate eternity in His fullness of time" the act is impossible. Eternity is now and always; it cannot be inaugurated or begun--not in the fullness of "time" no less!