This is an amazing thought provoking book. I liked it, but I didn’t at the beginning. I thought this is another one of those books where the authors tell you all the good things they and their organization is doing for the poor and the environment. As I turned the pages I begin to understand how all the organizations are working throughout the world helping to alleviate some of the poverty. I did not always agree with their views or those of the interviews, CEOs and President, of various humanitarian organizations. You probably won’t either, but they will get you thinking about the world’s problems.
Jesus was and is the most humanitarian person ever. He fed the multitude, healed the sick/lepers, raised the dead and gave sight to the blind. He also walked away from a number of people without doing anything for them. Jesus did not come to feed the poor or take care of the environment. He came to save our souls (forgiveness of our sins) so we may have external life with our Savior. His main purpose was to proclaim God’s salvation and His Kingdom. Jesus said there will always be poor among us.
As one interviewer pointed out – when we look at human suffering, we react, we don’t respond, Most of the time this doesn’t help. Another stated – don’t look at the issue – look at the people. People are living in trash dumps, being sold into slavery, prostitution, dying daily by the thousands for lack of clean water, AIDS, etc.
The question is: do you feed the hungry and then talk about Jesus and forgiveness or do you talk about forgiveness and then fill their stomach. Maybe you feed them, plant a well for clean water and let someone else worry about their salvation.
Some churches are beginning to take creation seriously – they are concerned about the environment, we must look at the people – not the issue. We must take everything to God and let the Holy Spirit guide us. We must step outside the four walls of the church. Jesus commands us to go out into the world and be disciples.
Highly recommended. The book will certainly get you to thinking – is there anything I can do – can I do more or am I going to ignore the problems and let someone else do the work?
Mary Asher, the Golden Reviewer, is a founding book blogger for BookGateway.com. She describes herself as “An 80 year old avid reader reviews the newest in Christian fiction and non-fiction with a sprinkle of the secular on top.”.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
Ted Dekker along with Carl Medearis, his guide, and Samir, their man with the contacts, travel from Egypt to Syria and many points in between in an effort to sit with many of the ideologues of the Muslim world. The authors state that the goal is to find out what the important Muslims at each of the stops, be them Hamas or Hezbollah or unaffiliated (officially) think about Jesus’ teaching on loving our neighbors as ourselves. Dekker calls the book a travelogue and it is a fitting description as the book documents their travels in the Middle East, more than actually deals with the issue at hand, which is to say that the question of how important Muslim thinkers and influencers think Jesus’ teaching fits with their agenda and actions. Each of the conversations that Dekker has with each of the Muslim leaders is shared verbatim in transcript form so that there can be no issue of out of context quotes or agenda driven choices of quotes.
