The Choice; a book review

Book Review

The Choice by Andy Robinson

Published by Sovereign World Ltd

ISBN 978-18522407117

I was moved by this autobiographical account. It is both deeply disturbing and hopeful; disturbing because the nature of evil is candidly treated and hopeful because it deals with a broken man being put together again.

In writing such a book the author faced three traps. He could have been twee, shocking for the sake of it or he could have adopted some artificial style which was not his own( e.g. He could have larded it with religious terminology.) It is to his great credit that he avoids all of these traps by telling his story in a straight forward manner and letting the lessons emerge from the narrative.

The lessons I derived from this story were about the nature of evil and the power of God. Christians need to treat evil with great seriousness because of its dangers and because society includes people who have been broken by alcohol, drugs, broken relationships and the occult. Whilst Christians should grasp the reality of evil they should not sink to a hopeless defeatism but should be filled with an awareness of the sovereignty and power of God. This should not lead to a fragile triumphalism but to patience and prayer. Salvation can be gloriously sudden but for many of us it can be a painful and long process. Its growth continues until the day we leave this earth. Andy's testimony includes both the conversion experience and the struggles that follow.

Patience and prayer are emphasised in the advice to parents with wayward children. I think this advice is well put, so I would recommend the book for parents. I would also recommend it to Christians and to folk who are curious about Christianity but be warned, if you are subject to depression, this book is very bleak in parts. All should be prepared to be challenged. All can expect to be blessed.

Peter M. Grinham © 9.11.'12

October Walk

All views were grey upon the sandy beach,

As I stood there in autumn's misty gloom.

The very sights I knew were out of reach.

I was alone within this fog bound tomb

My sight was so bereft of things I knew,

I thought I stood upon an unknown shore.

Within the mystic vastness slowly grew,

A sense of strangeness and of so much more.

A harmony of unmade sound I heard;

For rhythm, the lapping of the gentle sea,

For tune, the piping of a lonely bird.

This symphony of love was balm to me.

There was a presence in the vast grey space,

The whisper of an unrequested grace

Peter M. Grinham © 29^th October 2012

October Walk

All views were grey upon the sandy beach,

As I stood there in autumn's misty gloom.

The very sights I knew were out of reach.

I was alone within this fog bound tomb

My sight was so bereft of things I knew,

I thought I stood upon an unknown shore.

Within the mystic vastness slowly grew,

A sense of strangeness and of so much more.

A harmony of untamed sound I heard;

For rhythm, the lapping of the gentle sea,

For tune, the piping of a lonely bird.

This symphony of love was balm to me.

There was a presence in the vast grey space,

The whisper of an unrequested grace

Peter M. Grinham © 29^th October 2012

A Walk on Mersea Beach

I found myself as seldom found. I was alone,

Beneath my feet a tawny beach of sand and stone

And by my side there lay the dappled sea,

In which the sun had worked a mystery;

A thousand golden sparks in joyous dance,

And with them sails of white did flap and prance,

Man's happy answer to the sun's great toil,

White gems from man in nature's golden foil.

The heavens above were filled the sea gulls' call

With tales I did not understand at all.

And in my nose that sense which takes us back,

Was filled with tang of salt and rotting wrack.

With gentle breath upon my ageing face

I took from God an unexpected grace,

A joy He made for you and made for me.

It's nature's pure and sinless ecstasy.

Peter M. Grinham © 27^th August 2012

True Love

Too late I learned the nature of true love,

Discerned her subtle graces from above,

Not in the passion of a wild youth,

Or in man's obsession for the truth,

Not in his lust for games and manly sport,

Projects with cogs or bytes of any sort,

But in the essence of a mother's tears

The caring that defies the unsaid fears

The living for the other, not the self;

For them the centre and for us the shelf.

Peter M. Grinham © January 2012

Prayer and the disciple

Prayer and the Disciple

Modern Education is a curious thing. We set the teacher a frightening task. Teach this child. And then as if this were not a big enough task, we disadvantage the teacher at about thirty to one; thirty pupils all with different abilities and dispositions, each needing the individual attention of the teacher. Our forbears did it differently. The craftsman showed the individual apprentice how it was done and inspected the individual's work. Certainly, there were group situations and teaching, but there were times for individual interaction.

Being a Christian is a bit like being an apprentice. Jesus is the master and we have to learn to do things like the Master. Matthew 10:24-25 explains it.“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters”. It is based on a respect for the superiority of the Master and a close imitation of what he does! In Luke 11:1 we see such apprenticeship in action “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”The apprentice had seen the Master do it, that great art of prayer and wanted to do it like Him. His response ,”the Lord's Prayer” is one of simplicity. It is both a model and a starting point. It is helpful to shape our own prayers on this great pattern prayer, beginning with His sovereignty and finishing with our fragility, requesting the fulfilment of our basic needs.

Prayer is a big issue. In it the Christian faces the dilemma that should not be a dilemma between intimacy and reverence or as some have put it between God Almighty and God all matey. Some see it as a deeply special activity requiring sanctified places and arcane words. Others treat it with the carelessness they treat our water supply. The Bible has something about this in Ephesians 6:18-19

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, “

Nothing is off limits. Nowhere is off limits.”... neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” (John 4:21). The qualification on all this is “in the Spirit” Prayer is an act of listening and not simply of asking. As we pray we should be informed by Scripture and sensitized by contemplation. Our daily experience should be seen in the context of divinity.‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’Acts 17:28 This is Paul on Mars Hill. Prayer should be the very breath of our existence. As air is the essential element of our physical life,so prayer is the essential element of our spiritual lives.

What happens when we pray? God listens and often calls on someone else to act! In Acts 9:11” The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying” God hears Saul's prayer and then asks Annanias to act. Miracles have been evoked, and mountains moved by prayer but it is in the arena of the human heart that we most frequently see this power unleashed. Prayer will change your attitudes and your actions.

Pray carefully. Pray continuously.

Bible Quotes from the New International Version