Book Review - "UNASHAMED TO BEAR HIS NAME"

Good Evening to All!

I must say, that at first I really wasn't sure about how I felt about "Unashamed to Bear His Name" by Dr. R.T. Kendall. This book was sent to me as a complimentary copy for my review by Bethany House Publishers. All of the opinions are mine alone.

This is a good book for those of you who are full of questions or are wondering why we as Christians should welcome the stigmas which go along with being a Christian.

I'm not talking about the person who thinks it is enough just to go and sit on a pew on Sunday mornings. I'm talking the Christian who literally "walks the walk" and talks the talk" of a Christian lifestyle. A person who has a loving devoted relationship to Christ. How many of you have felt the stares of people because of your modest dress, your meek demeanor, and things of that sort? How many times have we heard the quiet whispers behind our backs because we don't like to go out drinking and dancing? Those are stigmas for being a Christian, but you know what? Dr. Kendall shows us we are in good company. Read further and you will see why.

He did make several good points about a lot of the churches of today. For example, Have you notices how many of the TV evangelists actually preach out of the Gospels? Not very many, if any. They are concerned more with "healing and prosperity". They concern themselves with these topics because they think that is what "people want to hear about.

It kind of reminds me of regular television today. They show mostly TV shows and movies with lots of sex, nudity, violence and profanity, "because that is what sells. That is the state of our morals of society today. The state of the church thinking is that people want to hear about what God can do for them such as healing or helping them prosper.

The Gospel of Christ is not mainly about the physical healing and very little about prosperity. It is about Jesus Christ Himself, and the teaching of Salvation.

By appealing to people's fleshly natures i.e. money and health to become Christians is an attempt as Mr. Kendall brings out to destigmatize the Gospel. To water it down and take away it's main purpose, which is to help us get to know Christ better as well as His teachings. The Gospel of Christ is about SALVATION. People have a tendency to pass over that and want to hear only about the healing and prosperity part because that affects them NOW in this moment, and they can see and touch those results. Salvation results will be at Judgment. So a lot of people seem to put that off til a later date.

I do not agree with everything he says, but that is to be expected when there are doctrinal differences. I did however get a lot of good insights and information from this book.

Even with this difference of opinion about Salvation, I enjoyed reading his book. He brought up a lot of things that I have often wondered about and even encountered.

I liked the fact that he brought up the stigmas attached to different people such as Abel, Moses, Mordecai Rachel and Leah and several others.

He reminds me that it is truly a "blessing" to accept the stigma of following Jesus Christ. As children of God, we should actually welcome the stigma, because that pleases the Lord.

Of course this is only the "tip of the iceburg of what Dr. Kendall has to say, but this book is well worth the read.

Dr. Kendall goes on to have several different stigmas associated with the Following of Jesus discussed in his book, so the further I got into the book the better I liked it. I would definitely recommend this book to others.

When I first read the title of this book, it reminded me of the verse which has come to be one of my favorites: Romans 1:16, which says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

Good Night to All and May God Bless!