Book Review: Bold as Love by Bob Roberts, Jr.

Bold as Love 

By Bob Roberts, Jr.

This book really blew me away.  If you don’t like to be challenged, this book is not for you.  It reminds us, or teaches us depending on where you are in life, what loving like Jesus is all about.   It will show you how love can be hard and scary but possible with God.  I’m going to quote from the book in this review because there were so many nuggets of wisdom within its pages that I just have to share some of my favorites. 

“It’s time for us to learn to live our faith in public.  To do that, we must overcome our fears.”  I am blessed to know quite a few people who live their faith in public.  But sometimes I wonder if I am and I know the fears that I need to overcome are the fears of rejection and confrontation.  But as you read Bold as Love you’ll find that sharing your faith doesn’t need to be confrontational – and if you start with serving, sharing can come easier after the trust is there.  The author also reminds us that sharing our faith can be done “in a polite way”.  “I believe that Jesus really is the only way to God.  But that doesn’t mean I’m better than anyone else or that this gives me a right to be arrogant.  Truth is wrapped in boldness, but with humility, not arrogance or hate.”  I love that. 

Bold as Love does stress the relationship between Christians and Muslims.  And the author and his church strive for a relationship with their Muslim neighbors to make friendships and understand each other, even though they do not have the same beliefs.  While reading about this I learned about “multifaith” - different faiths coming together to achieve goals.  I have to say that multifaith is much more palatable than interfaith, which to me sounds like we’re all going to try to blend together.  That doesn’t work for me.  I can’t agree that Jesus is God and also that he’s just a good teacher or a prophet.  And I’m not going to give up my belief to be agreeable.  The author writes, “Multifaith not only respects but encourages religious people to say exactly what they believe, no matter how stark the differences.  But it encourages them to do so in the spirit of peace.”   I know this can sound scary, but if you read all the stories that the author brings from his life, you’ll see that it can work.  And you’ll be challenged to try it yourself.

I would strongly recommend this book.  It will make you think about things differently than you have before.  It will bring up ideas that are new to you.  At least it did for me.  I could discuss this book further, but I don’t want to write a book about the book – just get Bold as Love and read it.  You won’t regret it.

Book Review - Wild Grace by Max Lucado

This is quite frankly one of the best books I’ve read in a while.  I liked it so much that I immediately wanted to start a teen small group to use it.  I think all teens would be affected by this book.  The personal stories keep the book extremely interesting.  They lend themselves well to connecting to all teens, it seemed that whatever the circumstances, there was something that someone would be able to relate to.  The book did a great job of explaining God’s Grace in a way that was wonderfully understandable and moving. 

There were so many parts of this book that I wanted to highlight.  I chose not to because I may give the book to someone who is a little more in tune with the age group targeted.  As a person who works with junior youth age kids, I wanted to read it to see if I could use it in one of my groups. I think it would be appropriate for eighth graders, but may be a little too advanced for sixth and seventh, depending on how much the child has seen in his or her lifetime.  I thought some of the stories may have been more than  my sixth graders were ready for.

I would absolutely recommend this book and plan on reading the version for adults as well - Grace.  I got so much out of the teen version, I thought reading the one written for someone my own age may be even more beneficial.