furious pursuit: a review

Occasionally I will receive a request to review a book on my blog. I have actually never accepted an invite to do this until now. In late November I received an email from a guy named Tim King asking me to read his book and blog about it. So I thought I would give it a whirl. I was interested because I saw the words “furious pastor” and I thought it would be a treat to read some rants from an ex-pastor who was angry.

I received the book and read it all in one sitting (I had an allergy testing appointment that lasted more than three hours). Tim King and Frank Martin co-wrote the book Furious Pursuit. Both are from Colorado Springs. The first thing that struck me was that neither of these guys were angry; they were both broken and humble men writing honestly and from experience. The book begins with a story of a guy who is discouraged who asks the question, “Why doesn’t God pursue me?” I was intrigued and began to read faster through the book.

Tim and Frank do a wonderful job of telling of God’s love affair with the human race by weaving stories seamlessly together. We see this love first in the garden after Adam and Eve sin. God comes to them to find them. We see this love when God comes to Noah and Abraham. We see this love when God comes to his people in Egypt. We see the God who comes to live with his people in the desert and in Jerusalem, we see this picture of love in Jesus. The picture of God with us. We have the hope of God living with us forever.

It is this love spoken of in the Text that King and Martin do a good job of revealing in our world. So often the Bible and its message can seem distant and foreign to us. Furious Pursuit reminds us that the God of the Bible, Immanuel, still pursues men and women by moving within our world and bringing hope to us. At times the book can border on feeling “me-centered”, but if the reader can understand the intent of the authors he or she will recognize this is not the case. The authors are pointing not toward "me", rather they are revealing the loving nature of the One God.

The book is a good read, and one that I would recommend to anyone. If you are interested in reading the book for yourself, or receiving any of the materials that go along with it please visit www.timkingbooks.com. Thanks both to Tim and Frank for the opportunity to review a well written book.