No, I'm not about to let off a big tirade of Disappointment with God, despite the title of this post. I spotted Philip Yancey's book "Disappointment with God"on the shelves and decided it would be worth a read, for 2 main reasons:
- We've all experienced a sense of disappointment with Him at some point in our lives
- I find that I can read Yancey's books easily - ever since reading "Soul Survivor" a couple of years ago, I've admired his ability to put things across in a way that is engaging and easy to follow.
Anyway, I've been reading Disappointment with God for a week or so, and I suppose I'm a third of the way through it. The biggest thing that struck me so far is the concept of an Old Testament God who is disappointed with us (or....in particular the Israelites), to such an extent that He is weeping for the broken relationship that He so lovingly created in the garden. I'd always cleanly divided God into two easy-to-digest parts: an Old Testament God who was all powerful, vengeful and ready to inflict destruction on the people when they had strayed too far from His rules; and a New Testament God who loved the world so much that He was prepared to give His only Son, Jesus to attone for our sins. The idea of an Old Testament God who could be hurt, who could feel like a saddened parent, who tries all sorts of ways to communicate with their child....this face of God never occured to me. Now I want to read the Old Testament again and find all the places where this new God, this God I never considered, can be found.
Anyway, these two books can be found here:
Disappointment With God - Philip YanceySoul Survivor - Philip YanceyBlessings,
Andy
