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Sacrilege


2012 is starting out really well as far as my book choices. Last week I reviewed Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris. I thought this was a good place to start a year because it laid a foundation of truth.

Then I jumped right into Sacrilege by Hugh Halter. I must admit, the title had me scared a bit for what I would find inside. But you know what they say about judging a book by its cover. So I jumped in anyways.

And...

I say jump in with both feet, my friends. What Hugh basically does is to break down the Beatitudes and explain how deviant these words would have sounded to the original audience.

Hugh writes in a very easy to follow manner. He explains in the introduction that he is writing as if to his daughters in a letter, so they may know the real Jesus. Also near the beginning he defines how he is using the term sacrilege. It comes don to tipping holy cows. That sounds mean, but these cows had it coming. Really.

What we need to understand is that people did not sit through Jesus' teaching like we do through a sermon. Instead of obedient silence and perhaps a smattering of 'Amens', there would have been shock and awe. Imagine gasping, scoffing and disbelief and I think we get a bit closer to the reactions Jesus would have become accustomed to.

Hugh weaves the Beatitudes together and shares some very clear implications for how we follow Jesus, from the sharing of communion to the sharing of our resources to how we spend our Sabbaths. He even returns our focus to how we respond to people.

In the end, nothing is too sacred to be questioned and yet Hugh finds the true character of Jesus to be uber-sacred. Yes, uber.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is new to the faith and needs to start out right, before getting comfy with the holy cows. Oh, and for the rest of us, this would be a great opportunity for a  refocusing.

I received this book for free from my good friends at SpeakEasy. They ask me to say something but don't tell me what to say. They're cool like that.
 
Hugh Halter is a church planter, pastor, consultant, and missionary to the US. He is the national director of Missio and is the lead architect of Adullam, a congregational network of missional communities in Denver, Colorado.You can vist him at his blog if you'd like; http://hughhalter.com

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