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If God Were Real: A Journey into a Faith That Matters, by John Avant
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In this provocative book, pastor John avant encourages readers to uphold a consistent practice of what they believe, not just a verbalization of what they believe. If Christians truly believe in God, they should live genuinely changed lives as the ultimate proof that He is real.
Many Christians live their lives as if they do not believe in God. They go to church and praise His name on Sundays, but in their daily lives they don’t think about the Lord that often. They don’t show much concern or charity for others. They don’t feel gratitude to the Lord for His blessings. They don’t allow God’s love to be reflected in their actions—giving Christianity a bad name in the process. In their practical, day-to-day lives, many Christians are almost living as though they are atheists.
Pastor Avant witnesses many Christians not living up to their claims, and he asserts that there is not much Christ left in that form of Christianity. In If God Were Real, he challenges Christians to consider whether or not they believe in God. If they do, Pastor Avant wants readers to consider what life would be like if they lived as if they believed in God. He advocates for the pursuit of a new Jesus movement that resembles Christ’s original followers—followers who were so steadfastly devoted to Him that their every action reflected His glory. With If God Were Real, readers will embark on an adventure of discovery of the real God and a life lived in praise of Him.
- Sales Rank: #1041661 in Books
- Published on: 2009-07-07
- Released on: 2009-07-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.44" h x .20" w x 5.50" l, .44 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 224 pages
Review
"Here's a prophetic, passionate, and practical book that I hope will inspire the church and individuals to join a new Jesus Movement." -- Lee Strobel, author of The Case for the Real Jesus
"This is a road map for a life of real passion and joy following the real God in the real world." -- Chris Mortensen of ESPN
"John Avant is such a refreshing kind of preacher and writer. He says if God were real, Christians would act like...well, Christians. And guess what, John likes atheists. But that's not surprising; after all, Jesus loves them. If God were real, indeed." -- Louisiana State Representative Frank Hoffman
About the Author
John Avant, PhD, is the author of Passion Promise and Authentic Power, as well as numerous national articles. A pastor of a 7,000-member Baptist church, he has served as vice president of the North American Mission Board and has been deeply involved in missions and church development around the world. He and his wife live in Louisiana and have three children.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1
If God Were Real...the Illusions of Ordinary Life Would Be Shattered
We all need illusions. That's why we love movies.
Monica Bellucci
Shattering the Illusion That Christian Life Is Boring
Who doesn't love a great movie? All of the most exciting and wonderful parts of life are right there on the screen to be enjoyed. Romance? Just come to my house anytime my wife, Donna, is watching television, and there's a pretty good chance she'll be watching Sleepless in Seattle. I thought the movie was kind of touching the first time I saw it. But Donna still cries, even now that she has the lines memorized.
As for me, I'll take a movie with raw, masculine courage every time. Nothing beats Gladiator or Braveheart for making you glad to be a man. Or how about pure adventure, like the Indiana Jones films? What could be more cool than watching Indiana get out of every trap -- and along the way eat monkey brains, defeat evil, and get the girl?
Yes, movies are one of life's pleasures -- even though we know that what they show us are just illusions. Could it be that we love movies because they allow us to experience, if only for a little while, what we'll never really have? Or what we aren't sure we can ever really be?
But what if life is meant to exceed even the best of what we see on film?
What if we are meant to live out the greatest romance of all?
What if we are designed to be powerful and courageous?
What if life could actually be filled with suspense and adventure and we really could live happily ever after?
Well, shouldn't we expect all these things to be true if God is real? If the One who created this vast universe with a word really did come and live as one of us, die and rise again for us, and promise to fill us with his Spirit, why would we not expect all that and more? Especially since Jesus himself said he came so that we "may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10).
Yes, things don't always go smoothly in the movies. In fact, a movie with no tension is boring. As Christians, we know that we won't live happily ever after until we get to heaven. In this world we will have pain and difficulties -- but not boredom! Not if God is real.
The movies that seem so exciting to us might be boring when compared with the real lives we are meant to live.
If we actually lived as though God is real.
My friend Gary Witherall calls this kind of life "adventuring for God." Gary is one of those Christians who really believes in God. He has definitely traded in practical atheism for authentic faith. Gary and his wife, Bonnie, put their authentic faith into action as missionaries in Sidon, Lebanon. Regardless of the personal risk involved in taking their Christian witness to a place where many are hostile to Christianity in general and especially missionaries, Gary and Bonnie sought to show God's truth through their authentic, caring lives. They deeply loved the Palestinian people they served.
The following was written on the website of Operation Mobilization, the mission agency with which Gary and Bonnie served: "Some people talk about being on the cutting edge; some actually live there. Fewer choose to live on the bleeding edge of humanity, where nothing is humanly certain except great need, where risk defies other definitions, where light shines the brighter for the enveloping darkness. Sidon in Lebanon is such a place, and Bonnie and Gary Witherall were some of those few."
Gary's belief has been tested in the most extreme ways. In fact, Gary and Bonnie's life should be made into a movie. It already has been written as a book. Total Abandon is the story of Bonnie's murder. Bonnie, a nurse, was shot by a terrorist as she entered the clinic where she cared for Muslim women. The authorities quickly got Gary out of Lebanon. Less than a month after Bonnie's murder, Gary wrote the following in his journal: "Nothing remains and yet I have everything. I lost my wife, my ministry, my beautiful apartment overlooking the Mediterranean, my friends there, my Arabic classes, and three classes a week studying Islam. The little Honda we drove on the bumpy roads through the crazy traffic. The warmth of Bonnie lying quietly asleep next to me. I was robbed but have been found today steadfast, strong as a piece of steel yet completely broken. Lord, sustain me."
Those were not just words in a journal. Since those days of crushing loss, Gary has returned to Lebanon many times, including once with my own daughter. He has stood in front of the place where Bonnie was murdered and preached forgiveness and love to the same culture that killed his wife. And then he sang with my daughter and the others there,..."Blessed be the name of the Lord...You give and take away...My heart will choose to say,...'Lord, blessed be Your name.'"
Those who know Gary watch him live in boldness, forgiveness, joy, and service to others -- even to those who would kill what he loved most. Who lives like this? Only those who believe God is real!
That's what it's like to believe in God. Gary is living, breathing, weeping, laughing evidence that God is indeed real. If God does not exist, Gary has done an incredible job of inventing God's impact in his life!
I've gotten to know Gary well since Bonnie's death. I have laughed and cried with him, counseled him, and received counsel from him. And I had the privilege to help officiate his wedding to Helena, his beautiful new wife (and the granddaughter of a martyr).
God is real to Gary. This man believes it -- and then actually lives as though he does. This has not led to an easy life, but it has led to the adventure of real life. Gary has known passionate love, tragedy and heartbreak, terror and suspense, renewal and new love, courage, danger, and adventure. All of the things we flock to see in the movies are his in real life.
Living for God shouldn't be boring. When we live as though God is real, the true adventure begins. So maybe, after all, living a boring Christian life is a conscious choice, not an inevitable state. Perhaps for most of us the issue is not whether God is real but whether we really want the life that results from living like he is. Perhaps "adventuring for God" is a little too dangerous and risky for most of us. So the question may be, is it worth it to live as though God is real?
Shattering the Illusions of Religion
I've served as a pastor for twenty-seven years and served in a mission agency for two years. I have had the opportunity to see many lives like Gary's -- enough to convince me that only God could be responsible for what I have seen in them. But I have to admit that I've also seen a lot of the opposite -- lives of those who believe in God, who love Jesus, but who have just settled into lives that are nothing like the adventure of following the real God. Most of these are not bad people. They love their families and friends, try to live decent lives, and serve in their churches. But something is missing. Many of them are just overwhelmed with the stuff of life. They're too busy trying to figure out how to afford a third car payment or how to get their son's grades up to think much about such "deep" things. They may never have stopped to wonder if there could be something more to their experience of God -- something that could dramatically impact those allconsuming daily struggles.
Now, living a life of adventure is not, in itself, evidence that God is real. Some people live lives of reckless adventure without God. But my point is that if God is real, there's no need to live a boring life! We are meant for more. You can live a life of temporary adventure without God, but you cannot be an authentic follower of the real God without adventure. And why would you want to?
Many people do want very much to experience more than what they currently know of God. Every pastor hears regularly from those folks who want to "go deeper." I want a deeper knowledge of God too. In fact, I can't think of anything I want more. But my experience has been that many who want to go deeper are actually afflicted with an insidious spiritual disease I call Deeper-Sleep Syndrome. They make the mistake of thinking that going deeper means getting more knowledge about the Bible, having more Bible studies or worship services, or learning some spiritual mystery that they've somehow missed all these years. But as they dive into these things again and again, they're in danger of going so deep that they end up in a deep spiritual sleep, unconscious of what God really wants. That's Deeper-Sleep Syndrome.
The cure is actually quite simple. If God is real, surely he wants us to know him and to know him deeply. In fact, he says he has already told us all we need to know. "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness" (2 Peter 1:3). Knowing more about God is a good thing; but acting on what we know is the real answer. James 2:17 says, "Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
So if we were to begin to really live out the teachings of Jesus, we would find ourselves in the middle of an incredible spiritual adventure.
Can it be that simple? After all, isn't that what Christians are already doing? Or at least something close to it?
I'm not so sure. When I examine my own life, I wonder how much I'm really seeking to follow Jesus, to do exactly what he said. Am I just a part of a church system that does its best to reinvent the words of Jesus to make what he said more palatable for our modern sensibilities, more in sync with the ways we really want to live? Maybe the nineteenth-century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard had it right:
The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly.... My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be...
Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
A Journey with A Challenge
By K. Nolan
WOW! What a Journey - and it's just beginning. The Challenge -- to really live like I believe God IS REAL...I can't begin to condense this must-read into a few sentences, and feel hard-pressed to choose just one of the many underlined statements/passages, so I won't! I'll choose three which is still a struggle!!! But here are a few that stepped on my toes:
Most Christians are either so sheltered within the religious shell of their churches that they don't really know any non-Christians, or they are actively working to oppose them. Or both.
Maybe the key to being a part of a movement of God is deciding that I really want to be a part of it!
The greatest love ever demonstrated was lived out not in feelings of sweet, heart-fluttering romance but in screaming, tortured agony.
The chapter on families -- If God Were Real...Our Family Life Would Shock the World -- well, here's another quote ---- "Children who live our family life on a mission with the real God will not easily trade that in for anything this world has to offer."
All of this from just the first half of the book --- WELL, WELL worth the read!!
Along with two other books I have read recently, this is one I wish I could just have a case full and hand them out!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A convicting State of the Church Address
By Branson Boykin
Dr. Avant provides a compelling view of the current status of the American church and calls us all to action. With what Christianity has become today, we're better off severing ourselves from it and simply call ourselves "Christ followers." Because, sadly, if we were to actually do what God calls us to do, if we were to act like God were actually real, many churches in this country would want nothing to do with us. Reader beware, reading this book may grow in you a desire to live dangerously and to escape the safe bubble we've all put ourselves in. A great buy and a great read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Confusing Titles, Excellent Writing
By Rusty Taylor
The title of this book is misleading. My initial question was: does this book argue for or against the reality of God? I was quite surprised to find that the book has nothing to do with the existence of God. Instead, it discusses how Christians should act if they truly believe that God is real.
The same ambiguous phraseology crops up in the chapter titles. As I came to the beginning of each chapter, I read its title and before proceeding to read the chapter, I tried to guess what the chapter was about. I was right only once. In fact, most of the titles left me clueless.
With that said, I found this book to be very well written, engaging, and challenging. Avant's excitement and passion come through clearly in his writing. Avant is honest and direct. He says what he thinks. Christians always need to be challenged. We need to re-evaluate ourselves constantly. Avant succeeded in helping me to re-examine and re-focus my life and my convictions. That says a lot about a book in this genre. Not many succeed.
So, if you are willing to hear open and honest constructive criticism, read this book. If you are too set in your ways to ever consider the possibility that you might need to improve, don't bother because it will probably only make you mad.
Either way, if you do read this book, be sure to ignore the titles and jump right into Avant's excellent writing.
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