Sunday, May 1, 2016

None Like Him by Jen Wilkin - #review #giveaway

   

God is self-existent, self-sufficient, eternal, immutable, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, sovereign, infinite, and incomprehensible.

We're not.

And that's a good thing.

Our limitations are by design. We were never meant to be God. But at the root of every sin is our rebellious desire to possess attributes that belong to God alone.

Calling us to embrace our limits as a means of glorifying God's limitless power, Jen Wilkin invites us to celebrate the freedom that comes when we rest in letting God be God.


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MY REVIEW

Twenty to thirty years ago I heard of a group of people who were trying to "create God in their own image".  Some years later, I read an article about a family, where one of the children (in the exuberance of youth) said, "The Christian God cannot be very powerful.  He cannot be summoned like ours."  I remember thinking at the time, that any god who can be summoned by mere mortals cannot be very powerful at all.

In comes Jen Wilkin's book "None Like Him".  In it, she outlines ten ways God is, that no one and nothing else is.  God is omnipresent...or 'all places at once'.  That's kind of a hard concept to wrap one's mind around.  If I am in Kentucky, I cannot be in Utah visiting my brother at the same time.  I cannot be in more than one place at the same time.  God is in all places at all times.  The term omnipresent, along with omniscient and omnipotent were terms with which I was familiar from my youth and Sunday School (years before they ever came up in public school).

I have struggled for years with the feeling of  'not being enough'.  In the world, it hurts sometimes.  So, how do I cope with.  So how do I feel about being frail and human, and God being omnipotent?  Does it make me feel bad because the chasm is so wide?  Actually, no.  I accept that there are things greater than me - and God is definitely at the the top of that list!  It helps me from 'getting too big for my britches' as Mamaw would say.  (And it's something I sincerely hope our Presidential candidates remember in the coming months.)

I found Ms. Wilkin's book very easy to read.  She brought concepts which were 'up in the clouds' down to earth, and did so in such a way as to seem like I was talking with a friend.  Sometimes, books of a religious or philosophical nature may seem like the author is dispensing wisdom from their place on high to the rest of us mere mortals.  As for me, I tend to get worked up about how some people feel better than others due to "x" (where "x" is education, or wealth, or whatever).  It's probably one of those things I need to trust God with.

And that, for me, is where None Like Him really shines.  We are blessed to have an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God in our corners, even if we don't always understand His ways or His plan for us.  In the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, and even with some people today, they try to scare people into obedience by telling them how they will be destined for that very hot place if they don't fall in line.  It doesn't have to be that way.

Now I have a confession.  I read straight through the book (over a couple of days).  By that I mean that I did not stop and look up references, or fill in the discussion points at the end of each chapter as I went along.  I tend to go slowly in my scripture studies, but wanted to make it through the entire book for this review.  Starting today I am going back through the book a second time, taking time to look up the references and journal about the questions, and maybe even do a little memorization.

None Like Him would be a wonderful addition to any Christian book shelf.

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MEET THE AUTHOR



I'm a wife, a mom to 4 great kids, and an advocate for women to love God with their minds through the faithful study of His Word. I write, speak, and teach women the Bible. Our family calls The Village Church home. The views and opinions expressed here are solely mine.

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GIVEAWAY!!!

Thanks to FlyBy Promotions for providing a copy of this book to giveaway in connection with the review.  Please leave a comment for the author and I randomly choose a winner from the comments.  Please make sure I have a way to contact you.

Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”

9 comments:

  1. This book is a treasure. Thanks for your excellent review. Thanks for this great feature and giveaway. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

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  2. Nice review. cheetahthecat1986@gmail.com

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  3. OooH! I have been wanting to read this book because I LOVE her book, Women of the Word!!!! I am a little confused about the giveaway though. Do I leave a comment here for the author or on the website, and if it is on the FlyBy website, is there a link to that? I could be totally missing it, and if so, sorry!

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    1. Sorry, Elle, You leave the comment here. You've left the comment, and I subscribed to your blog, so I have way to get in touch with you if your name/comment is drawn! Thanks for stopping by the Back Porch!

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  4. Wow, this looks like a great book! I love studying about God and His attributes, I regularly read from Tozer's two volumes, "The Attributes of God". And this phrase, "at the root of every sin is our rebellious desire to possess attributes that belong to God alone". WOW - I never really through about that but it's a correct statement. Thanks for sharing this resource with us on Tuesday Talk - and welcome to MTO! Be sure to introduce yourself over there when you get time. I appreciated your comment on my blog, as well.

    I hope I win the giveaway! :)

    http://www.rearreleaseregroup.com/

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    1. I've not come across the Tozer work before. Will have to keep a look out for it. Thanks for the info, Ruthie!

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  5. Very interesting thank you.

    marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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  6. This would be a great book to have! Thank you for the giveaway! bbbneys31@gmail.com

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