Everything: a book review

Happy Tuesday, lovelies! I wanted to share with y'all today about a book that I had the privlege of reading before it was published. You are going to love it! Mary DeMuth is an author that I have loved from books and her blog. Her style is great, like talking with your best girl over coffee... I love reading and feeling a closeness with the writer. So when she put out the word that she was looking for a launch team to review her newest book, I jumped at the chance. And Everything arrived in my inbox.



Now calling a book Everything may seem a little pretentious, but the subtitle perfectly rounds it out: What you give and what you gain to become like Jesus. Start to finish, this book challenged me to look at how I live in light of the gospel... and I must admit at some points I didn't like what I saw.

I think I was most challenged by what Mary calls the 'AYDI gospel'. AYDI stands for 'all you do is' and she was talking about our Christian campaigns to 'save' people by luring them into making some sort of decision... 'All you do is pray this prayer and you are done'. But we neglect to tell them the hard parts~ that living the gospel message means laying down your life and dying to yourself. I think this is what Bonhoeffer was speaking of when he coined the term 'Cheap Grace'. We are selling something that doesn't cost anything. And we then have a lot of 'converts' who don't want to or know what it is to become disciples of Jesus. This chapter and others forced me to look at my life, what I'm living and what I'm preaching, to see if they line up with this message of cheap grace, or if I'm truly willing to lay it all on the line to follow Him.

I was also sort of smacked in the face by a chapter about control. I like control. I like to be in charge of my own life (and the others in my life may or may not tell you that I like to be in control of their lives too... ahem...). In the last year, I have really embraced letting Jesus and His Spirit, His Word control me. I have found such freedom in living a life transformed by Him, but I must admit there are areas that I still cling to. And I'm not sure why... control. Mary says this: "We need an exchanged life where Christ woos and changes us. Christianity is not a self-improvement program! It is resurrection! It is a new life! And it is expressed in a total exchange of identity!" Reading this was a lightbulb moment for me~ I can't be a new person if I'm hanging on to some parts of the old. It reminds me of Jesus' example to the Pharisees about the outside of the vessel being clean but being filthy on the inside. It's all or nothing.

I seriously could go on and on and expound upon many other things in this book. It's a great one for whatever point in your journey you may be at, and I feel so thankful for being part of Mary's launch team. She is a woman of tremendous character and ministry! By the way, if you're interested in getting your hands on a copy, you can find it here or here.