Welcome to the latest Reading Review! Today I'll share with you another book I received free from the BookSneeze website, "Our Favorite Sins: The Sins We Commit and How You Can Quit" by Todd D. Hunter:
"Our Favorite Sins" is a book about what the book of James tells us gives birth to sin- temptation and (as Mr. Hunter puts it) our "disordered desires." Several temporary ways to avoid sin are discussed, as is the lasting solution to our sin problem, which is changing our lives from the inside out. The overall theme of the book is the fact that we shouldn't rid our lives of desire, but we should instead reorient our desires toward the things of God.
The book was a
fairly easy read, thought provoking, and I would definitely recommend it.
I found it very interesting the types of sins that most Christians say they
struggle with were things like anxiousness, procrastination, eating, media, and
laziness.
While the
premise of changing the focus of our desire is not new,
I liked the visualizations employed (our pursuing the path of sin is called a
"downward staircase" instead of a "slippery slope"), the importance of time spent in prayer and silence, and the emphasis placed on the fact that our duty
to mold our lives to that of our Savior isn't earning us anything.
I do, however,
wish that more of the prayers in the book would have come from the Psalms or
other scripture instead of works of men. Also, some of the views
indirectly expressed by the author do not appear to follow the ideas New
Testament.
Yet another aspect that I intend to periodically include in the blog is a segment on book reviews. Since "book review" inherently does not adhere to the rules of alliteration, I've decided to denote these segments as: "Reading Review". I've technically already reviewed one book on the blog, but as the official first Reading Review, I present to you...Desire by John Eldredge.
Although I did not take away as much from this book as I did from the other book I've recently read by the same author (see link above), this one did present a few good thoughts. The subject of the book is desire (obviously) and about genuinely building our desire for God and heavenly things (vs things of this world).
The author points out that there are typically two viewpoints of desire. The first view is that taken primarily by those who are "of the world"- our desire is paramount. We do what we want because it makes us feel good. The author notes that we are essentially trying to fill ourselves with earthly desires for alcohol, drugs, sex, wealth, etc. instead of acknowledging that God is the only thing that can truly satiate our desire.
The second view is that taken primarily by those in the religious world who tend to view Christianity simply as a list of dos and don'ts - desire is inherently evil and must be suppressed. Those possessing this viewpoint consider desire to only exist in the forms of the carnal/earthly desires listed above; therefore, this desire must be exterminated.
There is, of course, a middle road that the author tries to encourage the reader to take. We must rid ourselves of the earthly desires that we possess when we are a slave to sin and instead harbor deep in our hearts a desire for God...to know Him and to emulate His Son.
There are three main things that I did not particularly care for in this book. The first was that several comments/examples the author gives/makes are contrary to what the Bible teaches. The second is that the book as a whole seemed very repetitive (not in a reinforcing way). The third is that the author provides no suggestions as to how to improve/grow our desire for God, which I personally would've found helpful since my super-organized nature often causes me to struggle with a "check-list" mentality. (Please note: the commands of God are very important and should be followed; however, the motive behind adhering to these commands should be love of God: Jhn 14:15, 21).
