Reaching for the Invisible God

Rating:
Summary: Good, Not Great
Review: I've read a few of Philip Yancey's works now, and this one was not by any means my favorite. In his other books, Yancey is much more biblical and direct. In this volume, he waxes philosophical as he speaks of the Christian's challenges to live by faith and not by sight.

He describes the challenges of longing after God, believing in God, interacting with God, being transformed by God, growing in God, and finally being liberated by God. This book has some good insights along the way, and is an enjoyable read. Yancey's reputation as a leading Christian author is reinforced here once again.

While good, this book was lacking in greatness. His work here pales in comparison to "The Jesus I Never Knew" and "What's So Amazing About Grace?" For die-hard Yancey fans, this volume is undoubtedly another winner. The rest of us are left longing for the punch that is so powerfully present in Yancey's other writings.

Rating:
Summary: Yancey at his best
Review: If we know God's presence permeates the world and that He lives INSIDE of us, why do we allow mindless fleeting trivialities the world distract us and cause us to neglect His presence? I have learned so much from this book. In the chapters "Out of Control" and "Makeover", I was moved to tears as I found myself relating/identifying with Yancey's personal confession on his struggle of faith as a Christian journalist. On more than occasions, I had to put the book down and pray a confession to God.

One of my own weakness is the lack of daily devotion towards prayer. I often think, if God knows the outcome in every event, what is the purpose of prayer? and Yancey wrote "If Jesus saw the need to pray, sometimes so urgently that he spent all night at it, so should I." Very well said.

Not only is his controversial writing style mind-engaging, but its also spiritually edifying as he meticulously scrutinizes the giant heroes of faith from the bible. The author gave me a glimpse of King David as I had never seen. Into life's triumphant glorious success and sinking in destitution in the valley of shadow, David never once stop acknowledging and praising God - and thats why he was a called by God "a man after my own heart".

What I respect most about Yancey is that he doesn't look down at the reader and lecture with his wealth of knowledge, but rather fashion himself in humility, candidness, sincerity, and often shares inner confessions of weakness with the reader as a friend. Unlike the traditional inspirational books which feed on momentary emotional encouragement, Yancey really challenges the reader to think deep and evaluate our relationship with God and how to grow from a Christian baby to a mature adult. (childlike faith vs. childish faith)

In a detailed comparison between child/parent, husband/wife relationship to man/God relationship, Yancey pinpoints the core of its foundational element which stems from trust and faith embodied in love. There's not much we can do to please God (even our flawed faith is a gift to us from His Grace) but what matters is our intentions, and our heart's desire to know Him and love Him. Although at times its hard to fathom the reasons behind the innocent tragedies in the world (and in our own lives), all we can do is just simply trust with childlike faith and "at all cost" fidelity. God said it the best in Issiah 55 "for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nether my ways your ways. as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts than your thoughts."

"Disappointment with God" is also another excellent read as with "What's so Amazing about Grace". It amazes me to see the author's amass collection of quotes and passages from famous authors embedded throughout the book (I guess that's his style, althoughtI think its a bit too much). Yancey is just getting better and better with each publication, this is going on my top 10 favorites and will be reread again. My next read will be "The Jesus I never Knew".

Rating:
Summary: Excellant as always....
Review: In this latest Yancey book he touches the theme of Faith in something unseen but elemental to our survival as Christians. Where is God, how do we KNOW him & his plan for our lives? By using examples of others searches including his own. Yancey helps us explore this Dark to Light transition we all go through with emphasis on what we can find on the other side. It helped me a great deal to know I wasn't the only Christain to fall into draught in my realationship with my Lord, that many much greater than I have struggled down this path again & again. It is possible we all will again, this doesn't mean the end of our faith just another learning step to our walk. Most likely the changes, doubts & failures won't stop happening until we leave these mortal clay vessels. We are loved & forgiven & saved anyway. Blessed be, L<><

Rating:
Summary: What this book will do for you....(and what it won't)
Review: It will not give you pat, "Christianized" answers...
It will not solve your problems...
It will not be like other inspiritaional Christian books that give you that warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

Instead, this book WILL...
sharpen your heart and soul in deeper ways of thinking about and processing this invisible God, give your doubts to your faith a reason to exist (if they haven't already had one), help you realize that honest, soul-searching doubt is as essential to faith as anything else and help you on this daily journey to the heart of this God who we think is out there but don't always know for sure.

There were days when I didn't want to read this book because it felt like a burden in the sense that I was being faced with honest realizations about my faith that perhaps I didn't want to face. There were times when I would wrestle with what the balance of believing in God and following Him is and also days where I thought hard about there being no God at all. All in all, this book forced me to challenge myself, which is why I think it proved to be such a wonderful book.

"Reaching for the Invisible God" is better than "What's So Amazing About Grace?" in my opinion because here, Yancey is stripped, vulnerable and completely honest. There were many times in "Grace" where I sensed Yancey holding back, in fear of what some Christians may say about him or in fear of how Christians would lash out against his words. (What a sad, sad, sad world this is when disciples of Jesus are lashing out against each other when we tend to have different opinions or viewpoints on "issues" in the Christian circle!)

Thank God, in this book, Yancey seems to come alive and what is shown is not always pretty, but thankfully, it is more real and honest to what the Christian life looks like. Thanks Mr. Yancey for helping this college guy out.

Rating:
Summary: My Experience
Review: Never have I read a book that came closer to capturing my entire life as a Christian than that of Philip Yancey's Reaching for the Invisible God. Two verses continue to describe my halting journey of faith: Mark 9:24 and John 6:68 (I believe, help my unbelief, and who else offers anything better). I was stunned to read what Yancey had to say about these two, they so coincide with my own experience. It seems that daily experiences can often overwhelm my focus on Christ by bringing up all the same questions that persist - pain, suffering, why evil in a world created by a good God, why random badness like earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, why random sickness, birth defects, whatever. I mean, this could go on and on, as it often has in my own life to the detriment of any spiritual advance. Only by focusing on a God personified in Jesus and displayed through the Spirit in humans can any progress be made. I actually met Yancey years back when I did some book reviews for Campus Life. All I could see then was an Art Garfunkel look-alike. It's taken me decades to see what an outrageously gifted writer and Christian he has become and probably was then. This book did for me more than any of his other outstanding books did, such as Disappointment with God, Where is God when it Hurts, The Jesus I Never Knew, and What's So Amazing About Grace. But that's just me. If I should ever talk to Yancey again, I fear I wouldn't know what to say. He took the words out of my mouth in writing a book that hit the nail on the head like no other.

Rating:
Summary: ostriches will not like this book.
Review: Once again, Yancey asks all the right questions. How do I relate to a God who is invisible when I'm never quite sure he's there? Is God playing games? What can we count on this God for? Why do bad things happen, even to good people? Are the many terrible things that happen on earth God's will?

Does the great Yancey come up with all the right answers? No! That's what makes his work so continually valuable. He is bold enough to identify and walk along the fault lines in the popular "problem-solution" approach to God, which bases itself on the "if I do this, God will do that" mentality. In wisdom, he looks back and acknowledges that there is a big crack there. In this book, Yancey concludes that God's style is "ironic"... and (for whatever reasons unknown to us) God's direct intervention in the affairs of human beings should be seen as the exception rather than the general rule. Any Christian that denies this is simply being ostrich-headed! (my words there).

God may be "ironic" but it is important to note that nowhere is God portrayed as a cosmic killjoy, or an otherwise indifferent bystander as concerns his creation. The following excerpt best describes the focus of the book: "The world is good. The world is fallen. The world can be redeemed. If this sequence describes the story of the universe, then I must learn to look at the world, and myself, through that lens. Faith means developing an ability to accept that point of view, which I will never fully grasp until I reach the summit, no matter how things look along the trail. I learn to trust that God's mysterious style of working on this planet, and of relating to us his creatures, will one day fit into a pattern that makes sense."

This is a book that fleshes out what God has told us all along in Romans 8:28. He is REDEEMING. This is not doom and gloom, nor is it "pie in the sky", but it IS a reminder of the very definition of "faith". From this book I learn that there will always be aspects of knowing God that will acquaint me with mystery in the very place where I sought (or demanded?) certitude. Reaching For The Invisible God is subtitled "What can we expect to find?" I think the answer is perhaps that... He is invisible! Incidentally, another question kept going through my mind as I read the book... In what way could it possibly strengthen my FAITH if God were visible? Doesn't "visibility" preclude, or at the very least, displace faith? Doesn't Hebrews 11:1 tell us that "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things NOT SEEN?"

Rating:
Summary: The Invisible God
Review: Over the years I have read so many books on Christian faith. Most were very good. However, with all of them I walked away still wondering why I wasn't "getting it". After reading Yancey's book, I know I am not alone...and I know why. It was the best book of this type I have ever read and highly recommend it to anyone that is frustrated with an invisible God that we can't help but love and serve.

Rating:
Summary: The words are visible
Review: Philip Yancey explores our relationship to God in very profound and rewarding prose. He takes us through all the areas of faith and meaning, (using insightful stories), eases away the false expectations, and reveals the true nature of our journey. It is reassuring to find a book that can explain so elegantly what we can expect when we turn our hearts toward God.

Rating:
Summary: Normal Philip Yancey territory
Review: Philip Yancey is an expert in writing about the struggles, the doubts, and the uncertainties of the Christian life. In other words, he writes about reality. There is no sugar-coating from Yancey. No "Now I am happy all the day" type sentiment. But through all that gritty reality, he can still experience a deep faith in the God who is unseen, and often seems absent. Given that, there is not a lot about this book that distinguishes itself from his other works. This is familiar ground to those who have read some of his previous books. I do like his discussions of some of the non-traditional "attributes" of God (especially intriguing is the treatise on God's shyness). When I first noticed the chapters on the stages of faith as Child, Adult, and Parent, I cringed at the thought of the possibility of pop-psychology mumbo-jumbo being advocated, but these are some of the most valuable chapters in the book. His discussion of the strengths and "weaknesses" of the different persons of the Trinity is also very interesting.

Philip Yancey obviously reads a lot of books. Most of his ideas seem synthesized from the various things he has read. It takes a very alert, organized mind to bring all this together. I don't know how many of his ideas in this book are original, and how many are "borrowed", but Yancey remains one of the most interesting writers on the Christian scene today. Although this is familiar Yancey territory, few writers stake out that same territory with the same skill and near-brilliance.

Rating:
Summary: Normal Philip Yancey territory
Review: Philip Yancey is an expert in writing about the struggles, the doubts, and the uncertainties of the Christian life. In other words, he writes about reality. There is no sugar-coating from Yancey. No "Now I am happy all the day" type sentiment. But through all that gritty reality, he can still experience a deep faith in the God who is unseen, and often seems absent. Given that, there is not a lot about this book that distinguishes itself from his other works. This is familiar ground to those who have read some of his previous books. I do like his discussions of some of the non-traditional "attributes" of God (especially intriguing is the treatise on God's shyness). When I first noticed the chapters on the stages of faith as Child, Adult, and Parent, I cringed at the thought of the possibility of pop-psychology mumbo-jumbo being advocated, but these are some of the most valuable chapters in the book. His discussion of the strengths and "weaknesses" of the different persons of the Trinity is also very interesting.

Philip Yancey obviously reads a lot of books. Most of his ideas seem synthesized from the various things he has read. It takes a very alert, organized mind to bring all this together. I don't know how many of his ideas in this book are original, and how many are "borrowed", but Yancey remains one of the most interesting writers on the Christian scene today. Although this is familiar Yancey territory, few writers stake out that same territory with the same skill and near-brilliance.