It occurred to me that some of my favourite books (in my profile) haven’t actually got their own post. So I thought I would start to rectify this by writing about one of my very favourite books, Your God is too safe by Mark Buchanan (Multnomah, 2002).

The title is a bit of a reminder of the J.B. Phillips book, “Your God is too small” where Phillips was expounding the idea that our view or perception of God was way too small. In this book Buchanan is saying our perception of God has become way too comfortable. We concentrate on all the comforting aspects of God’s character and forget the aspects that we find confronting.

Mark begins the book by explaining how after he had been a Christian for a few years he got bored with Christianity. He was going through the outward routines of Christianity but there was no joy or life in it. The first part of the book looks at the things that cause this to happen.

The second part of the book looks at what the Christian life should be like when we live it like God intended. How to develop the practice of knowing that we are constantly in God’s presence. How spiritual disciplines shouldn’t make us weary but rather make us more alive and more joyful.

I really enjoy Mark Buchanan’s books especially the way he uses stories to bring new insights to old truths.