GOD IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK
By John Ortberg
Zondervan. 198 pages. £7.99
ISBN 0 310 25318 7
Even the front cover suggests that this is a creative book, and Ortberg sets out to dig us out of our ruts and move us onward in our walk with God.
He writes with a light touch, but constantly confronts his readers with down-to-earth reality as he fills the pages with examples from daily life and illustrations from the Bible you may well see in a new light.
The book will encourage those eager to deepen their spiritual lives, but it will also encourage those who are struggling, whose spiritual lives have become tired and jaded. The chapter on spiritual pathways allows us to be different, but spells out both the strengths and dangers of majoring on intellect, or emotion, worship or meditation or activity. Each of the ten chapters challenges us in different areas.
The Bible references and many other sources quoted are listed under their page numbers at the back of the book. Some people may be intimidated by footnotes but at least they would be clearly visible to the reader. This way most readers will miss them and the stimulus to explore further.
Being up-to-date in one culture can easily lead to being incomprehensible in another, and at times the American words and references have not crossed the Atlantic, but these instances are few. Read and be blessed with awe and wonder at our great God, and share this with others.
Valerie Griffiths,
freelance writer and lecturer, author of Not less than everything (women missionaries in China), Monarch, 2004
