Review of WITH: Reimaging the Way You Relate to God--Part One

I first heard the author on a Christian radio station and Skye Jethani's ideas resonated with me in my church experiences and observations. This new book has not been on blogs that I have noticed, however I think it has something to say to all Christians and it will merit more than one post. Scott McKnight says it will do for this generation what J. B. Phillips' Your God Is Too Small did for a previous generation. Jethani points out four views in terms of relating to God.

All of life is under God and He determines what will happen--what His will is. We need to follow His will or receive His judgment.

Jethani writes: "Many popular forms of modern Christianity leave little room for God." p. 49 Their existence is over God. Natural laws or principles control life.

Life from God includes the prosperity gospel or the name-it-and-claim it gospel. God exists to bless me and is giving us a second chance..

Life for God means that the Christian needs to have a mission to fulfill to help usher in God's kingdom.


Which is the correct view? There is some truth in each of these positions, but Jethani writes:

Having trusted Christ and the sufficiency of his sacrifice on the cross, [many people] assume any further experience of God must wait until death, when they will be set free and ushered into his presence. This view dismisses the remaining years of life as an inconvenient delay before entering eternity, and it sees the earth as little more than God's waiting room. But this is not at all consistent with what Scripture teaches. p. 110, 111

What does Scripture teach? This blog gets very little comments of late and I encourage your comments before part two on Jethani's book is posted.