The Grace of God

Andy Stanley is one of my very favorite communicators; I have heard him speak numerous times at the Catalyst Conference. He brings new light to scripture as he draws insight for the Christian life and leadership that I had never seen before. Most of my interaction with Stanley’s thoughts and ideas have been within the realm of leadership, so I was excited to read a book of his that fell outside those boundaries. The Grace of God is not a leadership manual but an examination of biblical history and God’s grace which runs through it.

In The Grace of God, Stanley turns his keen exegesis to the subject of grace instead of leadership. He examines how the grace of God was present from the Garden through the early church and beyond. The book shows how God’s grace has always been present and highlights the lessons we can learn about grace from people like Rahab, Jonah and the repentant thief crucified alongside Jesus

There wasn’t anything particularly earth-shattering or paradigm-shifting in The Grace of God. The book feels like a sermon series on grace that was turned into a book. That isn’t a slight against the book; if it is based on sermons then they were great sermons. A book like this, though, seems to be more encouraging and edifying than thought-provoking and challenging. As an encouraging and edifying book about God’s grace, though, The Grace of God does superb job of examining grace biblically and applying those lessons to our everyday lives.

This book was provided for me free by Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Adventures in Booga Booga Land -- Vol 1

The introduction episode introduces us to the Marty the monkey and Gerard the Giraffe. Each adventure relates to the parables of Jesus. Episode 1 conveys the parable of The Workers in the Vineyard with its story of how Marty and Gerard get a job and learns that the boss, Stan, can be generous to others who don't deserve it. Episodes 2 portrays Marty and Gerard as the Wise and Foolish Builders. The final episode, The Lamp under The Bowl, features our heroes building a lighthouse and keeping it lit. These stories are appropriate for early elementary aged children.

I watched the DVD with my 6 year old son. Personally, it lacked substance for me, but he enjoyed it. The animation and silly situational comedy reminded me of several cartoons that come on the kids channels that contain such questionable material. There were instances of minor violence, Marty's improper use of power tools and Gerard's using dynamite to explode the rocks, but over all it was nothing compared to what is found on TV. I didn't find it offensive, but then I don't leave power tools laying around for my son to find.

The lighthouse episode totally lost me. It was unclear what the light was that Marty and Gerard were catching in the bottles that eventually provided light for the lighthouse.

I was provided this DVD for free in exchange for my review through the Thomas Nelson Booksneeze program.