WALKING, THE WAY

A born-again Christian writes about his faith.

“No one wants or looks forward to the trials of life—spiritual, physical, emotional, or financial,” Newcombe writes in his nonfiction debut. “It doesn’t matter the trials’ frequency, variation, or magnitude; it is always a blessing to have someone standing by you as you live through it so that you need not face it alone.” In the wake of his own renewed Christian walk with God, the author wants his readers to turn to God for help. He occasionally paints a bleak picture of humans as prey not only to the temptations of Satan, but also to the allures of their own flesh. Physical and moral dangers lurk everywhere, he believes. In Newcombe’s theological viewpoint, this is not a negative thing. “It makes me smile and fills my heart with joy when I hear about a fellow disciple enduring a trial,” he writes, since the prayer such trials evoke allows the Holy Spirit to move through the hearts of the faithful. “You know that God is glorified amid the trial.” The view of Christian worship presented throughout the book is firmly based on the promise of redemption, which Newcombe sees as an essential chance for Christians to change. “This new life in Christ brings freedom, the ability to ask and grant forgiveness where grudges were held,” he writes. The fact that the faithful are freed by their faith is stressed again and again. The stories and elaborate parables Newcombe relates in order to shore up these precepts sometimes take a bit too long to gel. But even so, the author’s happy, friendly voice permeates the book. His fellow Christians will find this account both thought-provoking and heartening even if they don’t agree with every theological point or conclusion Newcombe derives from his own reading and praying (particularly the Manichaean parts about the world being full of Satan’s snares).

A talkative and very inviting personal Christian faith memoir based on stories of trust and redemption.