Great! ( )

Big God may be the most important book I've read all year!

Orlando Saer postulates that society has shrunken God down to a manageable size. In essence, we've abandoned the God of the Bible and opted instead for a pigmy deity who is incapable or unwilling to intervene in the affairs of man. Saer recognizes that the downsizing of God has been, in large part, because of the failure of the modern church to give satisfactory answers to the problem of suffering. The church has offered solutions rooted in their desire to "let God off the hook." These theologically vacuous answers diminish God.

In this brief book (141 pages), Saer lays out a case for how we can "unshrink" God in our understanding of suffering, in our evangelistic efforts, in our decision-making, and in our prayer life. His sage counsel is spot on! Saer succeeds in painting a God-sized picture of God! He manages to do so without the burdensome milieu of theological jargon.

Big God is a MUST READ for Christians today!

Ten Great Quotes:

"The idea is that some things are of God; other things are of us. And it's a pretty common way of thinking. But it's not a biblical way of thinking" (50).

"the truth is that the things which happen in our lives are all down to us, and all down to God, at the very same time. It's not either-or; it's both-and! Even the trivial things, even the bad things, even the things that happen as a result of the worst possible motivations. . . . one reality can be looked at from two different perspectives and so explained in two different way" (50).

"If you ever need a sense of the significance of your life, think about his: every single thing you think, say or do - even the tiniest, most trivial detail, even the things you get wrong - is contributing to God's will being worked out in the world" (55).

"God doesn't want to be let off the hook for the presence of suffering in the world!" (64).

"The desire to make the gospel 'relevant' has led to Christians around the world modifying it and so effectively robbing it of its saving power" (87).

"When you remember that God really is in the driving seat, the pressure's off. All the anxiety we've been feeling about 'falling out of God's will' vanishes. All the paralysis which has taken hold of us while we wait for specific directions melts away. All the energy we've been investing in trying to listen out for God's voice can be channelled into other more productive uses. It's just very, very freeing!" (108). ( )