Thursday, March 24, 2016

Do You GET Redemption? Matt Bays Certainly Does!

When the reality of your pain doesn’t line up with what you’ve been taught in church, then what? 

While there are some things in this book with which I might take issue, that doesn’t keep me from experiencing awe and wonder that this book was ever written in the first place.

You see, many people – most people, if you really think about it – who have experienced the depths of depravity, depression, and disillusionment that author Matt Bays shares between the covers of this book . . . they just don’t make it back.

Sin, and man’s inhumanity to man, and just walking about in a broken world has not merely hollowed them out . . . it has gutted them, and left them writhing in pain and misery.  And that becomes their life.

By God’s grace . . . by God’s redemption of every aspect of Matt Bay’s life . . . Matt has not only “survived.”  He has taken the next step.  He has chosen to live, not to merely exist.  He has chosen to risk opening himself up to more pain, if it should happen along.  He has chosen to love someone who might wind up abandoning or abusing him again.  He has chosen to reach out to others, when most would be found curled in the fetal position.

The story is not pretty.  It’s not a nice and neat parable, with a homiletical application to finish it off.  But it’s a story that needs to be told, and a story that needs to be heard.

Because God is still in the redemption business.  And business is good.  Business is booming.

Imagine a life where gratitude overpowers anger, hope overcomes despair, and hunger for God replaces indifference to him. 

That’s what redemption looks like.

5 stars for a life-changing glimpse of The God Who Is There

FINDING GOD IN THE RUINS
Matt Bays
ISBN 978-0-7814-1383-1
Religion / Christian Life / General
David C. Cook
256 pages
$16.99 U.S.