Customer Reviews

Rich Mullins: A Devotional Biography: An Arrow Pointing to Heaven

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A good friend gave me this book. I cannot think of any gift I have received (except for my salvation) that has been more meaningful. This is a wonderful book. This is a great book. I am grateful to James Bryan Smith for writing it, thankful that Rich Mullins lived it, and I stand in awe of the fact that God the Father truly authored it all long ago.

This book, like the life it describes, is an arrow pointing to heaven. This is not a simple biography. This is no attempt at making a saint out of Rich Mullins. This book is a good long reflection on how God has uniquely acted and spoken through the life of one man.

"An Arrow Pointing To Heaven" is divided up into ten chapters (plus a wonderful introduction by Brennan Manning and an afterword by Rich's brother David). Each chapter centers around a theme that Rich sang or talked about often. The book comes with a CD with ten songs on it. Each chapter is named for a song on the CD. The songs express the theme of the chapter. The songs and themes are:

First Family (about the legacies our families provide), Creed (about the Church), The Love of God (about...the love of God), Boy Like Me/Man Like You (about trusting Jesus), Calling Out Your Name (about God and the beauty of creation), Bound To Come Some Trouble (about the growth found in struggle and pain), My One Thing (about the freedom of the simple life), Growing Young (about sin and temptation), Brother's Keeper (about showing love through our actions), and That Where I Am There You May Also Be (about death).

Each of these chapters taught me some great lessons. This book is life changing. The last three chapters in particular were really moving and challenging to me.

There are wonderful quotes by Rich and Rich's friends (as well as various other famous Christians) throughout the book. Some are humorous, some challenging, some emotionally moving, but they are all woven masterfully into the whole by the author. Some of my favorite quotes by Rich are:

"I would rather live on the verge of falling and let my security be in the all sufficiency of the grace of God than in some kind of pietistic illusion of moral excellence-not that I don't want to be morally excellent, but my faith isn't in the idea that I'm more moral than anybody else. My faith is in the idea that God and His love are greater than whatever sins any of us commit." (Chapter 8)

"I think that part of being human is being alone, and being lonely. I think one of the stresses on a lot of our friendships is that we require the people we love to take away that loneliness. and they really can't. And so, when we still feel lonely, even in the company of people we love, we become angry with them because they don't do what we think they're supposed to. Which is really something that they can't do for us." (Chapter 6)

"a spiritual thing is folding your clothes at the end of the day. A spiritual thing is making your bed. A spiritual thing is taking cookies to your neighbor that is shut in or raking their front lawn because they are too old to do it. That's spirituality. Getting a warm, oozy feeling about God is an emotional thing-there is nothing wrong with it-I think there is nothing more practical than real spirituality." (Chapter 9)

"An Arrow Pointing To Heaven" is one of the ten best books I have ever read. This book speaks so much truth and love--the truth and love of Jesus Christ. I not only recommend this book...I urge you to buy it now. You will not regret it.

Brennan Manning talks about how a ragamuffin is someone who is honest about themselves and their failings, passionate about being intimate with God and does not conform to the expectations of cultural christianity for the sake of it. Rich Mullins was a ragamuffin ... someone who took the challenge of being intimate with the Father ... impacting and influencing those around him with the possibilities of living a Christ centred life.

This book is great ... it is not just a biography ... nor is Rich Mullins made out to be a "saint". This book is an honest and candid look at a man ... who just wanted to love God and love those around him. It is a challenging read and the reader comes away with a hunger for a deeper walk with Christ.

Reflections on each chapter are included with the intention of guiding the reader into a deeper look at themselves and their relationship with God.

I read this book very quickly because i was excited to have it but I am now going back into it and reading it slowly and thoughtfully ... which is the best way to be impacted by the treasure within.

Buy it!!! The bonus CD is great as well!

This is far from traditional biography or hagiography. This book does what all great literature from Christian history has done- points people to God. Brennan Manning's foreword begins "Jesus of Nazareth ruined Rich Mullin's life. And out of the ruins he recreated a ragamuffin of startling originality; no human being even remotely resembles him." Manning ends- "This book deserves to be read and reread. It is a treasure."

Before reading this book, I had heard the name Rich Mullins, but never really followed his life or ministry. After reading the book, I felt like his friend, althought He has been gone and with the Lord many years now. The honesty and depth of spirituality and relationship with the Lord melted my heart as I read truth after truth of a life that spoke the Gospel message. Saint Francis of Assissi once said "Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words." Rich lived His life that way. The book comes with a C.D. which I allowed to get into my spirit. The thing that really touched me the most is the way he conveyed the absolute unconditional furious love of God that he has for us his children. I saw a side of the gospel that is so missing in much of our Christian churches and that is the message of Gods Amazing Grace. I could sense the presence of God with me most of the time I was reading the book and would highly recomend this book to anyone on a journey to find God or someone who's been on the road for many years. It will touch your heart, bring tears to your eyes and enlighten your soul. I can't recomend a book any more highly than this one. A must read

There is no book that I can think of that strikes me harder than An Arrow Pointing to Heaven. I do not read through this book; I cry through it. Granted not every chapter struck me terribly hard, but the majority did. I long to live life with the same passion and intensity as this man. I long to be free to love as he did and experience "the reckless raging fury they call the love of God" as he did.

Smith accurately calls it a devotional biography. It is indeed an explanation of Rich Mullins' life, but it seems almost as if it were written not quite for that purpose primarily. Instead, Smith takes 10 aspects of Rich's life and music that were impacting and powerful and made Rich who he was and displays how those points of truth, beauty, and love played out in the man's life, calling each reader to live with the same vibrancy and desire for God and others. Don't misunderstand; you'll still find a good overview of Rich's life as well as a number of beautiful details, but that almost feels secondary to the drive to urge us to make Rich's life our own.

Which is exactly what Rich would have wanted, I imagine. He wanted people to know the love of God as he had and even more. He was, by his own admission, a ragamuffin, and his desire was to point to his savior, not himself. And that just made his soul that much more beautiful.

I saw Rich Mullins in Concert a few years before his death. I was in awe of his musical ability, but what I remember is not how well he played, or even what he said, with the exception of telling how he came up with the words for LET MERCY LEAD. What I remember about that concert was that he was standing about 50 feet in front of me at the left side of the stage, without wearing shoes, playing his hammer dulcimer. I was an ardent fan of Rich before his death, and since then, of course, I've become a greater fan. But, without Jesus in his life (or my life, for that matter), I would never have heard of or cared about a guy named Rich Mullins. An Arrow Pointing to Heaven is a great book for people who are fans of Rich Mullins. However, it is an even greater book for people who are struggling with sin and temptation, troubles in their lives like parents getting divorced, death, or wrong choices, or something as simple as someone wanting to know more about their direction in life. Small group leaders and especially youth leaders will love this book because it is full of group discussion ideas (refer to the GROWING DEEPER section near the back of the book). From reading this book I have learned a lot more about Rich than I would know if he were still alive, but there is much more to this book than that. I don't feel sorry for Rich anymore because of his untimely death. Take a few hours away from your busy calendar and prepare to be challenged.

The stories about Rich in his day-to-day life moved me beyond what i can express. This is the only book besides Brutchko that i've ever read in one evening. It is that inspiring and life giving.

Without giving away too much, some of the personal stories that moved me were: His pulling over the van at 11:11 p.m. to pray for his friends; his always helping with the set-up at his concerts; the writing of a song about a little girl who wasn't supposed to live; his literal giving of the shirt off his back to Mr. Foster; and his giving of all the profits from one of his tours to a church in Bogota.

I simply don't love Jesus the way Rich did. He struggled, wrestled, gave, and prayed like no one else I've ever met. Thank God for his life. Thank God the Mullin's family let Smith write this book.

Life is hard, but God is good. Rich embraced that contradiction and mystery with reckless abandon. "From the place where morning gathers you look sometimes forever 'til you see what time may never know, what time may never know..." I long to see the sunrise and see beyond time to the pulsing love of God like Rich did. May God increase the wideness in all of our heart's to behold Him as clearly as Rich Mullin's did.

More than a biography of Rich Mullins' life, this book is an exposition on the love of God. Smith uses Mullins' life, legacy, music and writings to illustrate the ovrewhelming expanse of God's love.

I read with a highlighter in hand and almost every page is marked with gems and key points that I will want to use as illustrations. In fact, there could be a complete series of Bible studies on the love of God using the chapter titles of this book as session topics.

This book helped me to see clearly the struggles I have with investing in people only as long as they respond to my investment. A clear explanation of unconditional love challenges that approach to ministry.

For those who love Rich Mullins' music and those who have (unbelieveably) never heard of Rich Mullins, this book is a key theological statement.

This book is a must-read for not only fans of Rich Mullins, but for anyone who wants to know God better. Each chapter challenges the reader to reveiw his or her own beliefs and struggles about issues such as sin, suffering, heaven, and God's love. Readers who already know Rich's work will find a lot of the familiar beauty of his words quoted throughout the book; they will be pleasantly suprised by the gentle strength and beauty of Smith's language, as well. This book is not a celeb bio to be read once and tossed aside; it is a treasure to be kept and read over and over again.

This book is a great look at a man who was a thoughtful servant of God. I would recommend it even for people who aren't familiar with Rich's music. What a humble man he was! This book makes Rich's music come alive and give us a look at the real man behind the tune. One point I found especially interesting was that Rich didn't understand how people could learn every word of his songs, but weren't familiar with the Bible, or have a personal relationship with God. Rich didn't want to be worshipped as a great musician. He truly want all the glory to be God's. Rich was an inspiration, and though I never knew him, I miss him as someone who must have been a great teacher.