Ten Words To Live By: Delighting in and Doing What God Commands
Christianity isn’t about following rules, it’s about a relationship. The rise in popularity of this phrase coincides with a growing disinterest and misunderstanding regarding the role of God’s life-giving, perfect law in the Christian life. Rather than the source of joy it was intended to be, the law is viewed as an angry god’s restrictions for a rebellious people.
In Ten Words to Live By, Jen Wilkin presents a fresh biblical look at the Ten Commandments, showing how they come to bear on our lives today as we seek to love God and others, to live in joyful freedom, and to long for that future day when God will be rightly worshiped for eternity. Learn to see the law of God as a feast for your famished soul, open to anyone who calls on the name of the Lord.
About the Author:
Jen Wilkin is a speaker, writer, and Bible teacher. She has a background in women’s ministry, and has organized and led studies for women in home, church, and parachurch contexts. Jen’s passion is to see believers become articulate and committed followers of Christ, with a clear understanding of why they believe what they believe, grounded in the Word of God. You can find her at jenwilkin.net.
When I saw that this book in Crossways, I could not wait to get my hands on it. I always try to read every book that Jen Wilkin writes, because her view on the things she writes about is unlike anything I have ever heard or read. Wilkin has been blessed with such a way with words that allows every reader to understand the point that she is trying to make. Her books are that only book that I have to force myself to highlight only the key important things. There is always too many good things I feel the Lord teaching my through Wilkin’s words, that it feels like I end up with the whole book highlighted.
Being a teenage does not allow me to read a bunch of theology books, because most are geared towards an older audience who understand the complex nature of theology, but with Wilkin’s books everyone is able to understand the firm point she is trying to make. Even when Wilkin uses words that are often difficult to understand, she often takes the time to explains what she means. She is able to write her books in a way that allows readers who are new and familiar to the Bible to learn from what she writes. I always find myself struck by what she says. There is so many things that I have never noticed before in my walk with Christ. One point that Wilkin made that really hit me hard, was when Wilkin made a point to tell us that,
“Our idolatry is a “both-and” arrangement: I need God and I need a spouse. I need God and I need a smaller waist size. I need God and I need good health. I need God and I need a well-padded bank account.”
While I might need a spouse, a well-padded bank account, or even a smaller waist, I find myself in needing God and Sports. I find so much of myself in being good at any sport that I play, when I am not good at them I often lose myself in trying to work to be better at that sport. Instead of giving it to God and realizing my sin, I often continue on sinning until someone calls me out on it. Reading these sentences helped me to realize my sin.
In reading this book, you not only learn about God’s word, but you also learn to study the Bible in different ways. She shows you how to look and listen to all the Lord has to tell you. She takes well-known Christian beliefs and allows you to see things that you never saw before. For example,
Bearing the image of God does not mean we look like him in physical terms but rather in spiritual terms—not so that others may worship us, but so that they may worship him.
We all learn, during our walk as Christians, that we are made in the image of God, but we fail to dive deeper into what it truly means to be made in the image of God. In one simple sentence, Wilkin is able to write not only what is means to be made in the image of God, but she is able to write it in a way that everyone will understand. She firmly expresses how she believes we are to react as Christians made in the image of God.
I received this book from Crossway’s Blog Review program in exchanged for my honest review. My thoughts our my own.
