BIG GOD
How to approach suffering, spread the gospel,
make decisions and pray in the light of God
who really is in the driving seat of the world
By Orlando Saer
Christian Focus. 141 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 1- 781 912 942
Our biggest need is always to grasp more of the bigness of God. To that end, Orlando Saer, senior pastor of Christ Church, Southampton, gives us some big help!
In the opening chapter he reminds us that while we may say we believe that God is in control, in practice our thinking, living and even our teaching reveal that we have effectively shrunk God. He then sets out how the Bible teaches both God’s control over all things and our responsibility for all we think and do and say.
In the following chapters he goes on to show how this unshrunk view of God helps us rightly to understand suffering, evangelism, guidance and prayer.
In a book that engages with some of the hardest-to-grasp aspects of theology, which are also under attack in some quarters, Orlando never slips into theological-speak, and though he doesn’t explicitly engage with false teaching such as ‘openness of God theology’, it is clearly in his mind and his argument is biblically robust.
Heart beating faster
The author’s clear aim is to help all Christians, including those who have thought long and hard on these weighty issues as well as those who haven’t. He states: ‘I’d like to see your heart beating faster with joy and excitement at the thought of a God who’s equally involved in the grandest event of history and the tiniest detail of your life!’ and that thought certainly thrilled my soul.
It is so easy to dethrone God and make life all about our happiness, or to shrink God in the face of painful suffering, or to despair of God in the face of failure and so it was good to be reminded that ‘every single thing you think, say or do – even the tiniest, most trivial detail, even the things you get wrong – is contributing to God’s will being worked out in the world’.
This is a small book that wonderfully opens our eyes afresh to the biblically Big God who deserves all the glory and praise!
