TrueFaced: Trust God and Others With Who You Really Are

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Summary: This is it !!
Review: I have read many "self help", personal growth, and Christian books from CS Lewis, Max Lucado, Billy Graham, and Charles Swindoll to name a few. After awhile I found myself still hungry for one I could call home, and just stay with it, to re-read to continue my growth in becoming what God has made me.

This book is it.

Leadership Catalyst have something very special to share, and the founders and authors express it well in this writing

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Summary: Sin at the Doctorate Level - Great Theory, Less Application
Review: Tackling a subject - sin - that so few people (especially myself) objectively understand, authors Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and John Lynch of Leadership Catalyst in their new book TrueFaced: Trust God and Others with Who You Really Are provide such depth of insight and analysis that I found the pace of both my reading and my heart quicken with every turn of the page in hopes of figuring out why I do and think what I sometimes do and think. Not bad for a non-fiction book, especially one on a topic of conversation few of us choose to enter into on a regular basis.

The overwhelming strength of TrueFaced is its sense of complete and total understanding of how sin works itself into and out through our lives. Somehow, I got the feeling that absolutely every detail from both a theological and emotional vantage point actually got addressed, as every comeback or scenario I could think of to counter an argument was not only mentioned but usually expounded upon and resolved, often within the next few pages of the same chapter. The authors' points are well-supported biblically (both in an underlying as well as in a direct manner) and they sit quite firmly on a strong foundation of truth.

While the progression of explanation is quite logical and calculated, perhaps the fact that it all (finally?) seems to make sense (as if sin is such a simple concept that we should have caught onto its modus operandi long before reading this book) gives even more legitimacy to the validity of their ideas. In addition, there is plenty of brilliant insight and shrewd perception offered in helping us learn to recognize the subtleties of acts of sin (done to us or that we do), our involuntary responses to them, and the inevitable effects that come from them (see Chapter 2: How Did This Happen? for more on this).

A semi-lengthy discourse on a believer's two paths of choice (performance or trust) leading to two different rooms (The Room of Intentions or The Room of Grace) by two different means (effort or humility) is quite helpful in understanding one's motives and the sin or obedience that comes from them. And, at the end of each chapter, a "Did You Discover?" section summarizes the key points in an effort to ensure that in the midst of all the terms and concepts, you can still cut to the chase as to what's important.

As good as the analysis of TrueFaced is (and it is amazing - easily the best treatise on the taint of sin I've read), my only complaint is that the application of the authors' findings is much more difficult to get at, not so much because of their lack of solutions, but rather because of the nature of them. I understand in light of what they're teaching that a "to-do" list isn't part of the course of action they would prescribe, but I'm not sure I understand where to go from here.

Though there are some personal illustrations of what all this is practically supposed to look like, the details are general at best. Instead, say the authors, learning to trust God and others with myself is the only way to deal with unresolved sin. That's it. That's all. For better or for worse, that's everything. Even though I believe it to be true and most desperately want to figure out how to do it, I'm still not sure I know exactly how.

Then again, that's probably my performance side talking. Nuts.

Rating:
Summary: serious stuff for the serious Christian
Review: TrueFaced has become one of my favorite books. the truths found in this book have brought me higher in my christian life than anything else. these authors tell us not to try to take care of our sins, but realize that Jesus has already done this on the cross. we must live, if we've accepted Christ's sacrifice, as though nothing, not even our sin issues, are hindering us from God. only pride, not trusting what God says, can hinder us from this peace. the Bible tells us countless times to live in the new life, to put away the old man. this is what it is talking about. God wants us to trust in Him, not take care of all of our problems. that will come later, He merely wants us to TRUST Him. what did we do in our salvation except believe? nothing. and we must live that even after our justification --that we have no power over our sin, and only God can take care of them. yes, some things are hard to be understood and pursued in this book, but the truth mentioned above and the learning of it is more than worth the price.

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Summary: An awesome book on authenticity
Review: TrueFaced is an absolutely incredible book that every Christian should read. So many of us hide behind masks, hoping that people will love and accept us more if we act a certain way. And unfortunately, in the Christian community, being honest about who you are and what you're struggling with isn't usually accepted. This is a great book about God's grace and extending grace to other people. It's also very readable and I thought the authors were very humorous. I'm going to recommend this book to a bunch of my friends.

Rating:
Summary: Transforming Book
Review: TrueFaced is an excellent book in that it provides the reader with not only a concept to consider (the masks that we utilize to present certain, yet falsely construed individual personas) but also an attainable means of working towards a solution to the identified problem (through trusting grace, not works.) I found myself at peace after reading it, not because I was immediately transformed but because I knew that I could be and how.

Make sure not to put the book down if you don't find examples in the first half that you can relate to, the second half is much easier to identify with and well worth the read.