Perze got me two books for mother’s day, but RZacharias’ newest book didn’t hit stores until July 1st, which delayed its arrival.  I finally received it a couple days ago and started reading them yesterday.  Yes, I am reading them simultaneously, taking turns one chapter then another, hoping to catch some relevance between them, and surely enough, I couldn’t have made a better choice.

The red book is entitled, “The Christian Athiest” which deals with issues Christians face in their faith, almost categorizing their behavior as those who do not believe in God, yet professes Christianity.  I jumped to the chapter “I believe in God, but I don’t believe in the church.”  I believe the best line that best summarizes all its pages is the idea that we should not merely “go” to church, but we should better “be” the church!  It was a simple yet amazing statement that he expounded on, claiming that if we only were truly God’s hands and feet, instead of complaining what ought to be done, we could fulfill what the church in the book of Acts accomplished.  The greatest tragedy in our churches today is the skewed perspective that we get OUR needs met first, or the church is an obligatory ritual that supports the definition of our faith.  But if we came to church to truly LOVE God and LOVE those we can minister to in the church, it fulfills God’s greatest two commandments which cover all.  It would truly be an exciting idea to have a mobilized church for God’s glory, and not our own, not fulfill our criteria of feeling better, feeling whole, which ironically is never satiated unless we go to church to wait on God, to serve Him, and to go to church for God and not for us.

I’ll write more about Ravi’s book and how these two books relate some other time…when I have some quiet time.  But I wish there was an avenue to discuss books like these, books that challenge the christian life.