A calming and scripturally literate examination of how Christians can grow closer to God.
An impassioned prescription for Christians seeking to renew or deepen their faith.
Orgill’s nonfiction debut urges readers to consider two crucial truths: first, that the “power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only propitiation” for human sin, and second, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can function as a “High Priest” mediating between the faithful and God. Counterpoised with these essentials is the ever-present current of human backsliding that Orgill identifies as having started with Adam in the Garden of Eden and having continued to the present day’s “depraved America.” The alternative to the sin that can lead to a downward slide, according to Orgill, is love. “We could write libraries and still not say all there is to say about love,” he writes. “Simply stated, love is about the focus of your life.” The explicitly Protestant angle of the book is reflected in its insistence that salvation isn’t earned but bestowed: “We are saved by God’s Grace not by what we have done, but according to His mercy.” A key component of this belief is for the faithful to realize that their preoccupations can get in the way of their spiritual journey. “God’s voice is quiet and gentle and hard to hear when your own spirit is screaming about what it wants,” Orgill writes. “God desperately wants this relationship with you, to have you walk with Him.” The narrative gives detailed examples of the spiritual covenant with God, providing extensive quotations, many from the New American Standard Bible, and consistently interesting exegesis. This covenant, the author stresses, “is all about Jesus and His coming to establish God’s covenant through His shed blood.” Orgill is a reassuring and emphatic presence throughout, presenting readers with a simple and almost old-fashioned view of how Christians can look for faith and love within themselves. “God is there, in the peace, the quiet voice, when you are calm,” those readers are reminded, and that message is the most memorable takeaway of the book.
A calming and scripturally literate examination of how Christians can grow closer to God.Pub Date: April 9, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-973658-31-3
Page Count: 170
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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