Die Young: Burying Your Self in Christ [Paperback]

Hayley DiMarco (Author), Michael DiMarco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2012

You’re Never Too Old to Die Young

In a world that tempts you to chase happiness through self-centeredness, Hayley and Michael DiMarco shoot straight with you. Living for yourself will destroy you, and the only path to real life is through death to self. Here, the DiMarcos give you the rewarding (and sometimes counterintuitive) reasons for choosing to live for Jesus as you dig deep and bury yourself in Christ.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

HAYLEY AND MICHAEL DIMARCO are the best-selling authors of a combined total of over 30 books, including God Girl, God Guy, Dateable, Cupidity, and B4UD8. Their Nashville-based company, Hungry Planet, is focused on producing books that combine hard-hitting biblical truth with cutting-edge design.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Crossway (January 31, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433530570
• ISBN-13: 978-1433530579
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #346,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Paradox of "Death to Self" Meaning "Abundant Life" January 14, 2012

By David P. Craig TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

In this short book Hayley and Michael DiMarco offer seven chapters that cover seven paradoxes of the Christian life. Each chapter contains Bible verses, practical principles based on those verses, and short sidebars by both husband and wife as to how these principles have impacted their personal lives. This is essentially a handbook focusing on how Christianity teaches the opposite of what your flesh desires - which ironically leads to death - and how dying to self and living for Christ leads to an abundant life. Therefore, the younger you die the longer you will live. They carefully weave a model of robust Christ-like discipleship and articulate the importance of the gospel, justification by faith alone, and sanctification based on Christ alone. However, they also show that our faith does "work" itself out in the way Christ changes us from the inside out as we die to self and live for Him.

The seven chapters include these paradoxes:

1) "Death is the New Life" deals with what it means to die to self, learn contentment, and how suffering can be a very positive outworking of God's working in our life. It also tackles what it means to be holy, and live a life of faith, hope, peace and love. One of the questions for reflection in this chapter was very thought provoking: "Will suffering destroy your hope and your faith, leaving you with nothing solid to stand on, alone and empty, or will your suffering destroy the parts of you that tie you to the things of this earth and keep your focus off the God of heaven?"

Some other gems from this chapter include:

"There is no fruit that grows from a seed that refuses to die."

"When your life and all that it entails isn't your portion, but God is your portion, then it will never diminish no matter what the world may bring."

"There is a death that comes that isn't meant to destroy you but to destroy that in you which was never meant to replace the hand of God in your life."

"In the economy of Christ, love isn't meant for self but for others."

2) "Down is the New Up" is described perhaps best in the chapter as "the bottom isn't such a bad place because it is only from the perspective of your own lowest point that you are able to see your sinfulness and need for a loving Savior and to be saved." The chapter focuses on the importance of humility and contentment as opposed to pride. The perfect model of humility led to Christ becoming a man who died on a cross and procured our salvation.

3) "Less is the New More" is about how God gives more than anything we can get from the world. The less we have - the more we see how much we have in Christ. One of the key points of this chapter was, "The less there is that competes for our attention and favor in life, the more attention and favor we can give to God."

4) "Weak is the New Strong" focuses on how waiting and depending upon God to work inspite of our weaknesses actually leads to great strength and a servants attitude that contributes to God's working through us in a powerful way.

5) "Slavery is the New Freedom because slavery to God gives those of us who embrace it freedom from all the other gods which express their hold on us in the form of struggles, addictions, fears, worries, and all other sins in our lives." They also articulate how "our submission to God and to others proves our faith in God's sovereignty."

6) "Confession is the New Innocence" is all about the crucial importance of confession and ongoing repentance in the believer's life. Here are some excellent quotes from this section:

"Without confession of guilt there is no innocence for the sinner...Confession precedes forgiveness...Our resistance to confession does two things: it keeps us from the forgiveness our sins need, and it also calls God a liar because to fail to confess is to say `I have not sinned.'...Confession of the biblical sort is the act of verbalizing not only error and remorse but also truth...So proper confession calls out the sins we committed and not just the pain we inflicted...Confession is best done instantly, and immediately...In the life of a Christian there are two kinds of confession. There is the confession that we make to God regarding our guilt and need for His forgiveness. This is the saving kind of confession that saves us from our guilt and makes us innocent. And there is the confession that we make to man regarding our guilt and our need of healing. Repentance is your changing your ways, determining what sin is in your life and how to avoid it from here on out...To refuse to be honest about our sin is to refuse to agree with God that there has never been and will never be a perfect person besides Jesus...Confession reveals not only our sinfulness but God's righteousness."

Hayley and Michael are very transparent about their struggles with sin throughout the book - Michael commenting on this fact writes: "That's why the majority of our sidebars in this book are confessional; they destroy pride in us, create healing, and maybe even encourage the same action/reaction in you. Confession lets the confessor and the hearer (or reader) know that they're not alone both in the pursuit of healing and the dismantling of a double life."

7) "Red is the New White" - is on the necessity of Christ's atoning blood to make us "white as snow." The author's write, "As red covers white so well and so permanently, so blood covers the sins of man...You must, in order to receive justification, believe that the blood is enough. You must die to the part of you that insists it do its part to participate in this salvation thing and help God out...If your heart has a hard time believing justification by the blood, then consider killing the part of you that would argue against God's gracious and necessary gift."

I highly recommend this book - especially for new Christians, young Christians - mature teens and college students. This book is loaded with good practical theology and will help you die to what's killing you, and help you live a more abundant life in Christ by mortifying the flesh.

*Note: I was given an advanced copy of this book by Crossway and was not required to write a positive review.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Die Young and Live for Him February 21, 2012

By Michael Manning

Format:Paperback

I really was challenged by the book Die Young: Burying Your Self In Christ by Michael & Hayley Dimarco from Crossway Publishers. In this book the Dimarco married duo explain what Paul is saying in Romans 12 regarding a "living sacrifice" that we need to deny ourselves so that we do not serve our own personal desires but instead serve His. What a mindset that is counter cultural. This book helped me realize that even though the authors of sacred Writ lived and taught a Gospel that is almost 2 millennium old it is as much applicable in modernity as ever. The authors illustrate in each chapter paradoxes that dying young enables: Death is the New Life, Down is the New Up, Less is the New More, Weak is the New Strong, Slavery is the New Freedom, Confession is the New Innocence, and finally Red is the New White.

I received an advance copy of this book from Crossway.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful book on the believers identity in Christ February 21, 2012

By Dave J. Jenkins VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Few issues are more important for Christians than understanding who they are in Christ. In a world that continues to entice the Christian to succumb to worldly pleasure recently there have been many books published on the identity of the Christian, and Die Young: Burying Your Self in Christ is one of them. Written by best-selling authors Hayley and Michael Dimarco Die Young is a helpful book that will introduce the Christian to who they are in Christ.

Throughout the book the authors drill deep into the fact that the Gospel turns life upside down by highlighting what results from this: death is the new life; less is the new more; weak is the new strong; slavery is the new freedom. Die Young is written in a warm, engaging pastoral and conversational tone that makes reading this book really easy. This book has seven chapters and only one hundred and sixty three pages.

The only weakness of this book relates to its structure and flow, as throughout the book they have "Here Lies" sections which contain the personal stories of the authors. These personal stories are helpful and instructive but it would have been better if these stories were woven into the material in the book than given separate pages throughout the chapters in the book.

Reading Die Young was helpful for me as it helped me to gain a better understanding of who I am in Christ. Die Young will be helpful to Christian teenagers and adults to understand who they are in Christ and what the life and death of Christ means for those who have given their lives to Him. I recommend reading Die Young by Hayley and Michael Dimarco to be instructed on how a death to self-frees the Christian to live with the fearless love and rock-solid hope that Jesus intends for His people.

Title: Die Young: Burying Your Self in Christ

Authors: Hayley and Michael Dimarco

Publisher: Crossway (2012)

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the Crossway Books. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."