God Is Closer Than You Think: This Can Be the Greatest Moment of Your Life Because This Moment Is the Place Where You Can Meet God [Hardcover]

John Ortberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2005

What Are You Waiting For? Intimacy with God can happen right now if you want it. A closeness you can feel, a goodness you can taste, a reality you can experience for yourself. That's what the Bible promises, so why settle for less? God is closer than you think, and connecting with him isn't for monks and ascetics. It's for business people, high school students, busy moms, single men, single women ... and most important, it's for YOU. God Is Closer Than You Think shows how you can enjoy a vibrant, moment-by-moment relationship with your heavenly Father. Bestselling author John Ortberg reveals the face of God waiting to be discovered in the complex mosaic of your life. He shows you God's hand stretching toward you. And, with his gift for storytelling, Ortberg illustrates the ways you can reach toward God and complete the connection---to your joy and his.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ortberg, megachurch pastor and author, bases this book on the belief that God is near and knowing him is possible for everyone who wants to feel his presence: "The teaching of Scripture is that God really is present right here, right now.... The Spirit of God is available to you and me: flowing all the time, welling up within us, quenching our unsatisfied desires, overflowing to refresh those around us." Ortberg's suggestions—to believe that God is in everything, to seek him in the daily and mundane, to learn to recognize and encourage God-inspired thoughts, to look for him in the people you meet and to obey his promptings—though not new, provide readers with a series of ideas and activities to begin to change the way they see God in their lives. Ortberg approaches this as a pastor teaching his flock, rather than as a fellow traveler recounting his own search for God; he shares little of his personal experience and is largely dependent on quotes from other contemporary Christian writers to make his main points. Also, the book's cover and chapter titles are quite complex. However, those looking for an approachable, quick read on a difficult subject will appreciate this guide, which alludes to the mysteries of God's intimacy with Christians, but doesn't get bogged down in too many details. (Apr.)
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Review

Ortberg, megachurch pastor and author, bases this book on the belief that God is near and knowing him is possible for everyone who wants to feel his presence: 'The teaching of Scripture is that God really is present right here, right now.... The Spirit of God is available to you and me: flowing all the time, welling up within us, quenching our unsatisfied desires, overflowing to refresh those around us.' Ortberg's suggestions---to believe that God is in everything, to seek him in the daily and mundane, to learn to recognize and encourage God-inspired thoughts, to look for him in the people you meet and to obey his promptings---though not new, provide readers with a series of ideas and activities to begin to change the way they see God in their lives. Ortberg approaches this as a pastor teaching his flock, rather than as a fellow traveler recounting his own search for God; he shares little of his personal experience and is largely dependent on quotes from other contemporary Christian writers to make his main points. Also, the book's cover and chapter titles are quite complex. However, those looking for an approachable, quick read on a difficult subject will appreciate this guide, which alludes to the mysteries of God's intimacy with Christians, but doesn't get bogged down in too many details. (Apr.) -- Publisher's Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan; First Edition edition (March 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310253497
• ISBN-13: 978-0310253495
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Ortberg is a pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Menlo Park, California. He is the bestselling author of Faith & Doubt; When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box; God Is Closer Than You Think; The Life You've Always Wanted; Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them; If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat; Love Beyond Reason; and (with Kevin Harney) the multimedia curriculum Old Testament Challenge. He and his wife, Nancy, have three children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Excellent Book by John Ortberg, October 28, 2005

By 

George P. Wood (Springfield, MO) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God Is Closer Than You Think: This Can Be the Greatest Moment of Your Life Because This Moment Is the Place Where You Can Meet God (Hardcover)

If God is always with us, why is he so hard to find?

John Ortberg sets out to answer that question in his new book, God Is Closer than You Think. It is an insightful, theologically rich, easy-to-read book about experiencing God's presence in the day-to-day routines of life. Ortberg begins the book with two pictures.

The first picture is "The Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo, which adorns the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. "Before Michelangelo," Ortberg writes, "the standard paintings of creation showed God standing on the ground, in effect helping Adam to his feet. Not here. This God is rushing toward Adam on a cloud.... It is as if even in the midst of the splendor of all creation, God's entire being is wrapped up in his impatient desire to close the gap between himself and this man." We sometimes talk about our search for God, but the truth is otherwise. "The story of the Bible isn't primarily about the desire of people to be with God; it's the desire of God to be with people."

But how do we spot God's presence in our lives? That brings us to Ortberg's second picture: "Where's Waldo?" You know who Waldo is, right? He's the nerdy guy in funny glasses and a striped cap who's always lost in the crowd. The trick is, you've got to find him. He's always there on the page, somewhere. You just need the eyes to see where. Similarly, we need eyes to recognize God in the details of life. "He's lurking where you least expect him. He's right there on the page. He's anywhere people are willing to see the whole world with eyes incapable of anything but wonder, and with a tongue fluent only for praise."

Most of God Is Closer than You Think consists of practice advice about how to see God in our day-to-day routines:

We need to make "the decision to live ... continually in Jesus' presence."

We need to realize that the present moment "can be the greatest moment of your life because this moment is the place where you can meet God."

We need to pay attention to our thought life: "What we say, do, hear, or imagine ultimately makes our minds receptive or deaf toward the still small voice of God."

In our interactions with other people, we need to say a "CIHU prayer"-"Can I help you?" For God is present with us when we are helpful to others.

I could go on, for God Is Closer than You Think is full of great advice and quotations and stories. But you need to read it for yourself. I particularly benefited from Chapter 9, "When God Is Absent," which is all about Job. And Chapter 10, "The Hedge," was also thought provoking. It is about a simple prayer, "Make up there [heaven] come down here [earth]." To which I think we can all offer a hearty, "Amen!"

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and practical survey of Christian Life, May 2, 2005

By 

FaithfulReader.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God Is Closer Than You Think: This Can Be the Greatest Moment of Your Life Because This Moment Is the Place Where You Can Meet God (Hardcover)

I, like most people, am somewhat familiar with Michelangelo's famous painting of God and Adam that graces the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The fresco, called "The Creation of Adam," depicts God and Adam the moment before their outstretched hands meet. But in the introduction to his book, GOD IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK, John Ortberg points out something that, in my focus on their fingertips, I'd never noticed before.

"If you look carefully at the painting, you notice that the figure of God is extended toward the man with great vigor. He twists his body to move it as close to the man as possible. His head is turned toward the man, and his gaze is fixed on him. God's arm is stretched out, his index finger extended straight forward; every muscle is taut."

Ortberg goes on to say that, before Michelangelo, the standard paintings of creation showed God standing on the ground, helping Adam to his feet. But that's not the case here. "This God is rushing toward Adam on a cloud, one of the 'chariots of heaven,' propelled by the angels. It is as if even in the midst of the splendor of all creation, God's entire being is wrapped up in his impatient desire to close the gap between himself and this man. He can't wait."

Adam's posture, on the other hand, is more difficult to interpret. His arm is partially extended toward God, but his body reclines in a lazy pose, leaning backward as if he has no interest at all in making a connection. "Maybe he assumes that God, having come this far, will close the gap. Maybe he is indifferent to the possibility of touching his creator. Maybe he lacks the strength. All he would have to do is lift a finger."

Like Adam, all we must do to touch God is to lift a finger, and in GOD IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK Ortberg encourages readers to seize the opportunities all around us. "God is still in the business of coming down to earth: to this cubicle, this email, this room, this house, this job, this hospital room, this car, this bed, this vacation. Any place can become Bethel, the house of God. Cleveland, maybe. Or the chair you're sitting in as you read these words," he writes.

Ortberg is a megachurch pastor (formerly at Willow Creek and now at Menlo Park Presbyterian) with a knack for distilling sometimes-obtuse spiritual principles into concepts that are easy to digest. Here, he takes the abstract theological concept of God's omnipresence and puts skin on it by teaching readers both how to recognize God in their world and how they can be in a vibrant, moment-by-moment relationship with that present God.

Those two tasks require covering a lot of ground, and GOD IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK is something of a survey of the Christian life. As such, it's an excellent introduction to intentional Christian living, though it might be a little lightweight for readers who already hang with the likes of Dallas Willard (whose work has had a strong influence on Ortberg). Still, it offers a lot of bang for its buck with important insight found on just about every page. Chapter four is especially practical as it provides specific ideas for ways to observe and interact with God throughout the day. Read it with a highlighter close at hand.

--- Reviewed by Lisa Ann Cockrel

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, April 18, 2005

By 

Susan (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God Is Closer Than You Think: This Can Be the Greatest Moment of Your Life Because This Moment Is the Place Where You Can Meet God (Hardcover)

More than any Christian book I've read since CS Lewis, this book is applicable to my real life -- not the life I'm supposed to have or wish I had, but the life I really have, where I get impatient on the highway or completely forget to think about God for hours at a time. Ortberg's book weaves contemporary references (The Princess Bride and Monty Python) with solid scriptural analysis and his own experience to provide many ways to understand how close we are to God. While reading it I found myself thinking in new ways about God's presence -- at work, in my relationships -- and I have even seen results in my own life. This book is not the usual "take two quiet times and call me in the morning" pastoral prescriptive.