Strap in your seat belts and prepare for a raucous ride on this train load of uncomfortable truth. Can I give this book a hundred stars? Please read this book. Please. Pastors give this to your sheep. Let me tell you why.
It's embarrassing to be a Christian today - in and out of church, and not for the good reasons Jesus told us about. There is just so much hypocrisy, over spiritualizing and falsehood. As the authors point out ask anyone what they think of Christians and you won't hear good things. Worst part - we know it. Yet for the most part we don't do anything about it. "I'm Fine with God..." illustrates how:
* We decry immorality while practicing it in secret
* We cloister ourselves and loose contact with reality. We have our own language, schools, and worldview which not only seems freakish to others but isn't necessarily biblical
* We make ridiculous claims against science and appear ignorant
* On and on it goes - Rapture fixation, prosperity, misrepresentations of scripture and our faith, bigotry, misogyny, and racism justified by false theology
Judgmental attitudes, gossip, cruelty, sloth, gluttony are all real and just as pervasive as the overt immorality that we are so quick to point fingers at. Yet they have excuse - he who sins is a slave to sin. We have no excuse. Here are some of my stories and I promise they are 100% true:
* A Christian woman attempted to cheat me on a business deal. She ended the conversation by asking if "I knew Jesus as my personal savior."
* A contractor took my money but did such shoddy work that it would not pass code inspection. His response "you can't sue me because it's against the bible." No refund, no correction. He got sued.
* I said "hell" once to woman accidentally in a normal conversation with her and her husband. She actually fell back into the sofa as if I hit her. Come on, get real.
* As a single man I shared with a men's group how lonely I was (and sexually frustrated). I was told to "curl up with a bible when I went to bed." I made the guy an offer, "how about I trade you a night with my bible for a night with your wife."
"I'm Fine with God..." has hundreds of examples of bizarre and testimony destroying behaviors all written in a funny easy style: arguing over Christmas trees and the Easter Bunny for example. I didn't find the book critical - I found it frank, honest, cleansing. A loving Father corrects his children, the wise accept it.
For years churches have used Rick Warren's book "A Purpose Driven Life" for home study and even church wide revivals. "I'm Fine with God..." needs to be the next book studied in our churches. I would give this book to every believer - new or old. The early Church changed the world by the blood and the power of their testimony. This book is a wake up call, a mirror to see our aberrant behaviors that are destroying our effective testimony to the world.
"Christians cannot expect to speak with any authority in the culture when they have marginalized and compartmentalized their own position in society." 39
We all ache to please the Father. We all ache to have an effective testimony. We learn Romans Road; we attend evangelism classes; we wear WWJD jewelry. Perhaps our offensive and ridiculous behaviors have become so ingrained that we fail to recognize them. "I'm Fine with God..." is the first step in seeing how distorted our behaviors and perspectives have become. Read this. I promise that if you allow it to change you your life will be more pleasing to the Lord.
