Book Review - "Should We Fire God" & GIVE-AWAY

Good Evening to All!

My First Book Review, so please be gentle.....LOL!
The Title of the Book was called "Should We Fire God?" by Jim Pace and comes to me through the the generosity of Hatchette Book Publishers . Yes, I know, I must admit at first when I saw the title I was a bit offended abut then I noticed the "subtitle "Finding Hope in God When we Don't Understand, so that reassured me. After all, He is our Creator. He can do NO WRONG... Right?

Please forgive the photography. One of these days, I'll learn how to take a picture.

BOOK REVIEW

Jim Pace is a Co-Pastor at New Life Christian Church at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. He not only was the Co-Pastor there, he had just graduated from there some years earlier. He helped found the Ecclesia Network, a group of churches devoted to discussing and learning from the emergent church movement.

What got him started on this book was when a lady in his church e-mailed him questions about where God was during the September 16, 2007 Virginia Tech Shootings. There were 32 dead, and 17 injured, not counting the people who were injured trying to get away. Anyway, Pastor Pace was at a near by coffee shop when the first shots rang out. Needless to say, there is A lot of personal feelings poured into this book, which makes me feel closer to the author.

I really enjoyed the book. It is definitely one that I will read over again. It is very thought provoking and it has "reflection questions" at the end of each chapter which I like. This book is full of information. It covers Biblical history about how even great people of the Bible such as Abraham, and Gideon doubted God's ability or His reasoning, it has Pastor Pace's personal experiences and his reservations, and he talks about his family.

When we think about God, for some reason we tend to think about what He can do for us "in the now" rather than what He did for us when He was here, walking on earth. We spend our time thinking why didn't He keep that tornado from doing so much damage. Why did He let that gunman kill all those people. That's all well and good, but when we start doubting His ability and His reasoning, we need to think about what He did back then. Healing those He came in contact with and even those He didn't. ( The centurion's daughter) The Centurion had the kind of faith that We need to have today. Jim Pace brings that back to my mind today. We act like spoiled little children when God doesn't come to our rescue EVERY TIME. (My words not his), but he does say that we start to EXPECT God to do something all the time and therefore we take HIM for granted and don't show our appreciation when He does help.

This book covers instances stemming from individual losses to massacres, to World Problems, and Pastor Pace discusses how we should NOT give up on God, nor "Fire Him". He knows better than we do what needs to be done. After all He knows the past, present and future of everything and everyone. Pastor Pace brought up the Parable in Matthew 14:24-30 about the farmer and his wheat, where the farmer's workers went to him and said there were weeds in the wheat that needed to be removed, and the farmer told them to let the wheat and weeds grow together until the harvest then they would separate the weeds from the wheat. If they had tried to separate it too soon, then the wheat would have been uprooted also. Thereby destroying both the good and the bad. That is why God holds off at helping us at times. Well, why couldn't we just tighten the belt a little bit. Just help a little more? Another point he brought up was the fact that if someone started making a list of what God should help with, where would it end? I've heard people say take away the pain. The problem there lies in the fact like Pastor Pace says, we need pain. If all pain is taken away and someone steps on a piece of glass, but doesn't have any pain, complications would definitely set in. Infections would be inevitable maybe even foot or leg amputation. God knows best. We need to let HIM do His "job" and praise Him all the time, whether He helps us right then, or not.

He brought up the fact that even though we know God's there, we wonder if he can handle everything life throws at us. Which of course the answer is "yes", but at the time of our trials and tribulations, the doubt sets in. We don't stop to think that there is a reason why God does not intervene EVERY TIME, and NO it's not punishment. He always comes back to the conclusion that even though we have our doubts at the time, God has a GOOD reason for not intervening in EVERY instance. He reiterated what I have said many times. If everything is good all the time, and if He got us out of our problems EVERY TIME, then we would have lost our freedom of choice, and not only that, we would begin to take it for granted that HE would be there and expect it rather than appreciate it. I think this book should be number one on a reading list of those who have gone through personal loss, doubt, and anger at God. I'm not sure, but I think that includes about everyone of us that breathes.

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PLEASE BE SURE AND LEAVE A COMMENT FOR EACH ACTION you do, be it Following on Google, Facebook or Twitter. If you already follow, leave a comment saying you already follow and would like to be entered in the Give-Away. Don't miss out by not leaving comments. The book is really good.
Thanks! PJ

BOOK REVIEW GIVE-AWAY

PLEASE, PLEASE, Leave a comment for each action. Each action is one entry. Therefore each entry is one comment.
The Give-Away will last 2 weeks, at which time I will turn to Random. Org. for the winning numbers of the comments. the Afternoon of March 27 is the deadline for entries. You have up to 4 chances -1 for each requirement. The conditions will be the normal ones, such as Leave a comment maybe giving me a little advice how to make my book reviews more interesting. Follow me on Google AND Facebook (if possible for you) as I am trying to get past 20 followers on Facebook so I don't have to search for my blog every time I go to Networked Blogs site, and Twitter. Be sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do as they will count one entry each. There will be 3 winners.

Good luck to y'all! I know whoever wins this book will definitely enjoy it.

May God Bless!