Tuesday, February 25, 2020

From the Grave

     BOOK REVIEW:   Lent is a time for recalling our death to sin and life to God. From the Grave aids in that by combining A. W. Tozer's best reflections on faith, suffering, and spiritual progress. Each daily reading is paired with Scripture to guide hearts in the way of the cross, the "pain-wracked path" to life.

     MY REVIEW:   Lent is not a season I know anything about, beyond its being a season of remembering and preparing for Easter. I picked up the book mainly because it was Tozer.
     The book is a compilation of daily readings taken from A. W. Tozer's books and sermons about various related topics. The index will tell where each reading was taken from. Many are from his book "The Root of Righteousness". Each reading is accompanied by a Bible verse selected by the publisher. The book is technically written by Tozer, though I would love to see how it would be written had he compiled the devotional on his own.
     The chapters are divided between seven weeks, Monday-Saturday. The subjects are such as: 'The Uses of Suffering', 'True Faith Brings Commitment', and 'Raised with Christ'. I really enjoyed the book. It is full of convicting passages, yet always brings out the hope and joy we have when we truly die to self and live in Christ. Perhaps the most convicting passages to me were those on the Cross. One line says: "So we talk a lot about the deeper life and spiritual victory and becoming dead to ourselves---but we stay very busy rescuing ourselves from the cross". We as Christians know we have to die to ourselves and live in Christ, but we don't always understand how completely we have to die--we try to find a compromise that allows us to remain in partial control. This book really challenged me to surrender completely.

I received a copy of this book from MOODY PUBLISHERS and was not required to write a positive review.