Customer Reviews

Your God is Too Safe

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Ever feel like your stuck spiritually? Mark Buchanan did, and out of it poured this book about moving beyond our ideas of God and getting to know the real God of the Bible.

Many Christians get stuck in what he calls the Borderland, the land between salvation and sanctification. The first half of the book goes into detail about the life in Borderland and what keeps us there. Such things as pride, laziness, fear, doubt, self-reliance, and more are all looked at.

The second half explores ways we can get to know the God of the Bible, who isn't safe and who might ask much of us. But by getting to know Him, we move beyond the familiar into a rich spiritual life. Mark doesn't go for something out of the ordinary here. And there are no quick, sure answers. Instead, he goes looks at familiar disciplines of the Christian life. But he goes beyond the familiar and looks at why we do them and how they can affect our lives.

This book is wonderful. We get an honest look at the life of a Christian and the struggles involved. It's filled with examples from life and the Bible to help explain its points. And it's written in an easy to follow style. Yet it's filled with so much, it's often hard to digest. I'm already planning a reread there's so much here to chew on.

The first half might have been a little long. He had me convinced I needed the second part with the introduction. Still, if you want to grow in your relationship with God, this is the book for you.

I mentioned to a friend that I was reading Mark Buchanan's book Your God Is Too Safe and that I had recently finished The Rest of God. "What's Buchanan like?" he wanted to know. The best I could do was to suggest that the style and theme of his writing is quite a lot like what he'd find if he read John Eldredge. But unlike Eldredge, Buchanan's books are actually grounded on some solid theology. I was surprised to find that I enjoyed a book that was endorsed by the likes of Philip Yancey and Eugene Patterson. Yet it is also endorsed by J.I. Packer who says, quite accurately, "Within a framework of biblical orthodoxy, Mark Buchanan's jabbing insights minister a salutary pastoral shake-up, drawing and driving us sluggards to come closer to our God."

Buchanan believes that evangelicals have constructed a God of their own making: a God who is too safe. He is a loving God, but a God who is entirely predictable. But the truth is, this God bears little resemblance to the God of Scripture--a God who is entirely unpredictable. We dislike God as He really is, and so we run away from Him like Jonah or hide from Him like Adam. Where we end up when we do this is a place Buchanan calls "borderland," a strange and safe place that promises nothing and delivers nothing. Your God Is Too Safe is a wake-up call--a call to escape this borderland and live with God in "the holy wild."

In the first half of the book, Buchanan lays the groundwork, showing how and why we run and hide from God. The primary reason is bad theology: a steady traffic of invented or distorted ideas about God. But "God isn't nice," he says. "He isn't safe. God is a consuming fire. Though he cares about the sparrow, the embodiment of His care is rarely doting or pampering. God's main business is not ensuring that you and I get parking spaces close to the mall entrance [this was written pre-Osteen too!] or that the bed sheets in the color we want are--miracle!--on sale this week. His main business is making you and me holy. And for those of us who love borderland more than holy ground, whose hearts are more slow than burning, that always requires both the kindness and the sternness of our God." After suggested that the Catholic cult of Mary arose because of a dark and punishing medieval portrait of God the Father, he challenges evangelicals. "In Protestantism, I think we've simply substituted the safe god. But the biting irony is this: Neither the safe god nor the tyrant god are the real God...the true God is far more fierce and fearsome than the bullying and petulant god of our imaginations. But His anger is not irritability: It is the distillation of His justice, His hatred of evil. It is what we would want, even demand, from a good God." This is a cutting insight and one that challenged me. As Tozer said, we need to take refuge from God, in God.

The second half of the book challenges Christians with spiritual disciplines. "We have to train for the spiritual life. That's the most lost idea to the world, and it requires whole books and sermon series to establish its value, even its validity." We need to practice holy habits and to weave these habits deeply into our lives. Like all habits, good, holy habits eventually come to define us and to become our ways. They may be awkward and feel unnatural at the beginning, but they will soon become natural, beautiful and indispensable. The disciplines Buchanan teaches are: practicing the presence of God, understanding the wounds that have inflicted us and allowing God to heal them, confessing sin both to God and to others, solitude, fasting, reading Scripture, service, prayer and delight. Among the better chapters are those dealing with fasting, confession of sin and solitude. Buchanan discusses these without falling into the contemplative, New Age practices that have become far too common in the church today. He provides practical advice on how to proceed in developing such disciplines.

As may be clear by now, Your God Is Too Safe is quite a good book. Buchanan writes with force and conviction and a good deal of urgency. But one concern stayed in the back of my mind throughout the book. While Buchanan's theology is generally sound, he often quotes those whose theology strays outside that framework of biblical orthodoxy mentioned by Packer. He quotes Philip Yancey on a few occasions and holds up Mother Teresa and Saint Francis as examples of people who have "gotten it." He portrays Richard Foster as an expert on the spiritual disciplines. When I see people holding up Mother Teresa as the example of Christian virtue I always wonder just how much that person understands about biblical theology. How can a person truly understand justification, and yet hold as an example a person who denied it? Are there not better examples we can use? Do we really feel that Mother Teresa was such a wonderful example of Christian virtue, or is she just the easy and popular example? This was an ongoing disappointment with this book.

Like Wild at Heart, Your God Is Too Safe will not appeal to all Christians (though, unlike Eldredge's book, this one is targetted at both men and women). My father, for instance, cannot tolerate terms like "the holy wild" or "woundedness" or "brokenness" and would get little enjoyment from this book. But for those who enjoyed the style of Wild at Heart but objected to the content, Your God Is Too Safe may have appeal. However, I would not recommend it in place of a book such as Don Whitney's "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" - a book that will provide a more consistently biblical framework in developing and enjoying the spiritual disciplines. Buchanan's book is good. It is challenging. But it is not the strongest, most Scriptural treatment of the topic.

Mark Buchanan is surely among the finest Christian writers of our day. His scriptural insights, lucid illustrations, and moving anecdotes ring true and speak profoundly to the modern Christian reader. Buchanan delves deeply into the realities of spiritual struggle and discouragement; of joy and discipline. I remember turning to a friend once and crying out, "How hard is this (Christianity) supposed to be?!" Buchanon answers that question, and others, with eloquence I have rarely seen matched. I'm on my second reading of the book and have bought twelve copies to give to friends. Of the two young pastors I have given copies to, both have passed additional copies along to others, and have raved about it. Read it!

Where are you spiritually? Are you hot or cold? Perhaps you're warm or as Buchanan would say in a place called "borderland". This book is about being in a place where God is not glorified nor are you edified simply because of where you decided to rest and remain. Mark Buchanan, with skillful rhetoric, persuades readers to persue God as he has persued us with the giving of His Son. It exposes our hiding places in tradition, security, fears and the distorted theological perception we have of God deceptively believing that He is only a safe God. Buchanan also tells us that God is not only after our obedience, but He's also after the condition of our hearts and whether or not we share in His concerns, reflecting His mercy, grace and other communicable attributes. Get this book if you're up for a challenge and desperate to leave "borderland".

Other reviewers here have done a great job of describing the contents and layout of "Your God is Too Safe." Let me highly recommend it in more personal terms. God used this book in my life at a time when my ministry, family, and faith all seemed broken beyond repair. It was loaned to me by a pastor after a "coincidental" conversation. As I read the book, I cried again and again - tears of appreciation, understanding, repentance, pain and, finally, hope. Buchanan asks the really tough, honest questions about God that I had struggled with my whole life; how do you trust a God Who, at times, makes His actions appear untrustworthy? How do you surrender to One Who tells you that He will consume you? How do you deal with the frustrations of the paradoxes He has built into this human history? What does it really mean to trust? to follow? to worship? Buchanan not only articulates the feelings, but gently, firmly shoves us back to the Word of God and the God of the Word, instead of the "God" we try to create for ourselves, in order to comfortably "worship/control." This book was instrumental in starting me back down a long road of recovery, and I have given copies of it to many other people since. Some of them have also been shattered - and transformed - after reading it and acting on it . . . the book is not "safe," anymore than God is - but, both are indeed "good." Any thinking, questioning, hurting Christian, especially those struggling with any type of addiction issues, will greatly benefit from this book.

This book is definitely for the believer. Mr. Buchanan leads the reader through the discovery of how we "create" our own god because of our fears of getting to know the real "God". His suggestions for fixing this dilemma are perhaps known but it is a message that any mature believer needs to be reminded of on a regular basis. Buchanan gently reminds us of the benefits of following the true, living God.

The approach to the writing is scholarly and perhaps cumbersome for the less experienced reader. However, the annointing on this book is powerful. The Lord will use it to draw you closer to Him if that is your desire.

I highly recommend it for any believer that wants to have a closer relationship with the Lord!

I am once again placing an order for another copy of Your God Is Too Safe because I keep giving my own copy away. There are so many great sections here, but I especially like his reminder that truly serving Christ may mean that we will be TREATED like a servant, something we don't always like to consider. Well worth reading and re-reading, underlining and dog-earing more each time.

If you enjoy living as an "armchair Christian", this book will offend you, will probably inspire you to roll your eyes and put it aside. But, if you know in your heart of hearts that what you have in that armchair of Christianity can't be all there is, then this book is for you. Mark Buchanan will not inspire you with pithy little statements, the kind that 'feel good' pastors feed you, all the while ignoring the truth of Scripture. Instead, he will unveil the struggles in your heart and call those struggles what they are. You will find yourself in these pages, and be embarassed to have your truth unveiled for what it is. Then he will provide you with some excellent tools for dealing with the struggles you have, and assist you in moving toward Christ. I can highly recommend this book for those who realize that Christianity without a deep longing for Christ in your heart is no Christianity at all, just a cheap imitation of the real thing.

Buchanan always stretches me. He takes his readers into the "holy wild," introducing them to the God whose "main business is not ensuring that you and I get parking spaces close to the mall entrance or that the bed sheets in the color we want are on sale this week." "His main business is making you and me holy. And for those of us who love borderland more than holy ground, whose hearts are more slow than burning, that always requires both the kindness and sternness of our God."

This book is best summed in a quote Buchanan gives from C.S. Lewis's "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" in a scene in which the children are somewhat fearful about meeting Aslan upon learning from Mr. Beaver that Aslan is a lion. Lucy asks if Aslan is safe, to which Mr. Beaver replies "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king, I tell you."

Get this book. You will read it more than once.

Well written, easy to understand and follow. All points well made with scriptural passages that back up message. This book really made me think and open "the" door I was looking for.