Customer Reviews

Story: Recapture the Mystery

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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The greatest story ever told-that of Jesus-is retold in this book, Story, by one of America's most brilliant young authors, Steven James. James retells the story from a postmodern perspective that gives it a new taste and makes the story come alive for the younger generation. James begins with the Garden of Eden and goes through to the eternal kingdom of heaven.

James has a Masters of Arts degree in storytelling. He has worked with youth at risk and has written twelve books with powerful messages for youth as well as the older generation. I have heard him speak and felt he had unusual perspectives and made a fascinating storyteller. He is a young man who loves God and is committed to following Him with his whole heart and leading others into that path also. This comes through in his writing as well.

James fills the chapters with his stories, retold Bible stories, plus free-verse poetry. His poetry, written in short lines with no caps, is lyrical and powerful-beautiful and often painful to read. For example, "the greatest scars/are not found in wounded hearts, / but in overlooked ones./there is no greater pain / than the ice of loneliness."

This book is difficult to describe. I start to say it is not a pretty book, but then I find it is a beautiful book. It is graphic in its descriptions. The poetry is stirring and disturbing, as all good poetry should be. Men will find it especially appealing because of the style of the author: he is definitely a rule breaker. As a result, the book is not in a typical layout or religious style. Parts are hard-strong and good-no sugar coating. I would not recommend it for young teens or as a gift. If you want a book to make you view Jesus and the story of the Bible from a whole different vantage point, to feel His pain and wonder of it again, this is that book to savor and treasure. - Elece Hollis, Christian Book Previews.com

To say that STORY is just a story is to say that the Louvre is just a storeroom for paintings.

I have had an extremely rewarding time reading what I can only describe as one man's love for God. Steven's writings are filled with many dichotomies: Pain & Joy, Guilt & Grace, Lies & Truth, Depression & Redemption, Loss & Reward, Darkness & Light, Poetry & Prose, Today & Tomorrow, and Lonely Places & Eternal life in God's Kingdom.

If you want to go below the surface and discover some of the depths you can go in your relationship with Christ, read this book. I challenge you not to find parts of yourself written into the STORY.

Recently a book grabbed me and wouldn't let go. And it wasn't the Bible, yet... it WAS the Bible... seen through the heart of a storyteller. Story by Steven James is a fresh view of the Gospel that fills the soul with the realness of Christ and lets you experience the deepness of God. This book will meet you where you are on your walk with Christ and reveal the truth to you.

I highly recommend it for anyone who is searching for Christ or for those who desire a closer walk with him. Steven James has true God inspired insight into the scriptures and can present it like none other. I closely identify with his heartfelt longing, in every moment, in every breath, to fall deeper in love with the one who died in his place.

Story is a book for every shelf....but don't just let it sit there. Take it out, embrace the mystery and see yourself as you were meant to be seen, a deeply loved child of the God of the universe, who spilled his blood to save ours. This is a Story that will change your life...for eternity.

Steven James, thanks for this. It has touched my heart, opened my eyes and filled my soul with the reality of what Christ really did for me. God is truly using you to advance the kingdom. Please keep writing; I'll keep reading.

I also recommend Becoming Real: Christ's Call to Authentic Living by Steven James. Check out my review and see why.

Wow. What a Story.
Story is the latest handiwork by Steven James, a little-known but extremely gifted writer and speaker.
Story is a re-imaging of redemptive history, from Creation to Fall to Israel to Christ's birth, ministry, death and resurrection.
It is a captivating interweaving of stories, penetrating observations, and evocative images and poems quite unlike anything I have ever read before.
It has the potential to speak powerfully both to post-moderns who have little knowledge of the Bible, people who are comfortable in their pretty dead religion they would call Christianity, and people who are truly devoted followers of Christ.
One of the fascinating things about the book is that it is intentionally not dry and theological, intentionally imaginative and readable, and yet is fairly full-orbed in its theology and doesn't try to soft-pedal the seriousness of sin nor the cost of truly following Christ.
As James writes, "It's all one story. And only when you finally untangle it, see its scope, and enter it for yourself do you realize that the story has finally entered and at last untangled you."
And that's what he does-he untangles it, sees its scope and majesty, and then plunges you deeply into it and invites you to follow Jesus. His chapter devoted to the wedding of Cana, and his imagining of how Jesus acted at a wedding, is worth the price of the book by itself. And there's zinger after zinger that will make you stop and think, regardless of where you are in your journey with God:
You'll never understand Easter without first seeing the chains in your own heart.
I've peddled God like the peanut guy at the ballpark. "God! I've got some red-hot God here!"
When Christianity becomes something other than entering into and living out the story of God, it becomes something other than Christianity.
When you string enough wasted moments together, you get a wasted life.
I don't think there are too many followers of Jesus around anymore. There are plenty of churchgoing admirers, but most of us would rather not leave our nets behind and follow him. Instead we prefer dragging the nets onshore with us so we can have the best of both worlds.
Believe the story and you'll finally enter it for yourself.
Buy this book for people who don't know the truth; buy this book for people who think they know the truth but have yet to be changed by it; buy this book for people in love with the truth but hungry to know it deeper. Buy this book.

Story is Steven James' simultaneous telling of the Biblical narrative and his own journey of reading the Bible. The two stories are intertwined well, though at times it does get confusing. It isn't a Cliff's Notes for the Bible. It is James' telling of how the Bible has affected him, and what the individual stories mean to him.

The book is thoughtful, and the author raises many questions, doubts, and fears that many other people have. The unique aspect of this book, however, is the tone the narrator takes. James does not preach, and is not concerned with trying to convince you of anything. It is almost as if there is no agenda, like reading a journal of an honest, self-aware person.

James also sprinkles poetry and scripture through out the book, making it an interesting read that never drags. The reader is never allowed to get into a boring rhythm, glancing over words. James makes sure that the prose is deliberate and meaningful, making this a slow, careful read. Definitely an interesting story.

If faith and belief don't work in the trenches of real-life struggles and doubt, then they have no worth. It's one thing to sing praises on a Sunday morning with hundreds of others who share like beliefs, and a whole other thing to sing those praises when locked alone in a room with bankruptcy papers, divorce decrees, or the death certificate of a loved one.

Steven James is a writer who never backs away from the questions. His fiction is some of the best out there, and his non-fiction wrestles with reality while never letting go of a childlike faith. In "Story," he is like that child who takes faith by the hand and goes trudging off into the dark corners of the world, the scary places, where doubt and despair reign. He does not turn a blind eye, but looks for profoundly simple truths and answers in the story of God's Word. He starts from the premise that this story is too wild and messy to be a nicely spun fable or fabrication. He starts from a point of faith that this is, indeed, a true story given to us by God through Scripture.

The story of Easter comes into particular focus through this small but rich book. We are taken from death, to life, to resurrection and reunion. Along the way, James points out our sinfulness and selfishness, adding himself to the mix. In his words, "We live in an upside-down world...We hurt those closest to us and then spend our time worrying about what strangers think of us...We spend our careers pursuing the two things we know corrupt people the most--power and money."

An earlier reviewer called this book "poetic but shallow." I have to wonder if he engaged with the book, or simply peeled back the paragraphs and looked for Greek definitions of New Testament words, found none, pronounced it shallow. This is a very deep book. It deals with concepts, and applies those to the rubber-meets-the-road places of daily life. Yes, it expects you to believe, but it moves beyond Sunday morning praise to lonely-dark-times praise, and shows that the power of God's story is ever-present to those willing to take faith by the hand and walk through that valley of death to new life and new hope.

Poetry, story, and truth come together in this book. Read each chapter, savor each poem and sidebar. Recapture the mystery.

I'm not going to say this book "changed my life." It didn't and I don't think the author, Steven James, would want me to claim it did. What it did do, though, was give me a banquet of food for thought. It caused me to re-think God's story, how things happened, how history unfolded, how the battle of the ages, the struggle for the human soul, unfurled. It helped me see Jesus as a man, like all of us, human, and yet so much more, because he was also God, our Creator, Lord, LORD, Savior. James' way with words made the book an enjoyable read. I would recommend this book to anyone tired of viewing the story of the Bible, God's story, through the same old tired lenses. Take a gander, I think you'll be challenged and provoked to do some deep thinking.

In his charmingly artsy, poetic, story-teller style, Steven James has carefully crafted each sentence of Story with the goal of helping us live in the pages of God's Word.

Steven takes our hands and walks us through the devastating downfall of man. He waits and hurts with us during the long years of God's silence. He joyfully accompanies us to the wedding, where the mystery of God's Son begins to be revealed. Steven agonizes and cries with us at Golgotha, then rejoices with us at the future wedding at the end of our days. Steven takes us down these paths of experiencing the Story, so we may be enlightened and enriched by that journey.

This book is rich with emotions, longings, prose and truth. Oh to memorize and quote the lines of Story when the occasion begs for it.

It's true -- it's hard to understand just part of the Bible. But when you can get the big picture, when you can see how and why it all happened and remember the motivating force of God's pure love behind it all, then it starts to make more sense. The message of this book reminds us that it is our choice to believe -- to experience the wonder and mystery of things that we don't have the capability to understand. It made my heart pound to find a book so real and yet so right. Jesus' magnetic and contagious personality burst forth from the pages of this book. I highly recommend it. It is fresh and alive. It is not about religion -- it is about relationship!

This is a fresh new look at the Bible from creation thru Christ's resurrection. I could hardly wait to pick it up and read more of the story. It has brought home to me the story of God's love for man, and for me, in a way that no other book, bible teacher, or preacher ever has before. It has reignited my love for God in away that I can't explain. At the risk of giving way part of the story my favorite part takes place at the wedding. I encourage you to read it and see for yourself how wonderful this Story is.