Reaching for the Invisible God

Rating:
Summary: Don't Buy This Book
Review: I hate when non-Christians attack Christian books and claim to have read them. This isn't one of those cases. I am a sincere Christian who loves half of what Yancey writes and finds the other half to be somewhat forced. I bought this book with lots of anticipation. I loved the title and was eager to explore its contents. After several weeks, I was only able to make it halfway through the book. Boredom stopped me in my tracks. Not one of Yancey's best efforts. I'm not trying to be mean, rather, just want to give the purchaser a true observation. Don't get me wrong, two of Yancey's books are SPECTACULAR. Those would be "The Jesus I Never Knew" (Which I consider to be the best book ever written) and "Disappointment with God" (Which also was spectacular). If you want a good book, read one of these two works of Yancey's. As for "Reaching the Invisible God," I wouldn't buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Buy This Book
Review: I hate when non-Christians attack Christian books and claim to have read them. This isn't one of those cases. I am a sincere Christian who loves half of what Yancey writes and finds the other half to be somewhat forced. I bought this book with lots of anticipation. I loved the title and was eager to explore its contents. After several weeks, I was only able to make it halfway through the book. Boredom stopped me in my tracks. Not one of Yancey's best efforts. I'm not trying to be mean, rather, just want to give the purchaser a true observation. Don't get me wrong, two of Yancey's books are SPECTACULAR. Those would be "The Jesus I Never Knew" (Which I consider to be the best book ever written) and "Disappointment with God" (Which also was spectacular). If you want a good book, read one of these two works of Yancey's. As for "Reaching the Invisible God," I wouldn't buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful and Practical
Review: I like allot of Christains, KNOW there is more to my realtionship to God than what is preached or practiced in the church... This wonderful book is a view of many others on this same road. It's inspiring to know others have travel it before me & many will travel it after me. Christainity just might survive inspite of the current church teachings. "Life is a Journey, not the Destination"... I need a bumper sticker with this, It means so much to me & this view has made my life fuller, & in many ways more peaceful than it's ever been. I don't believe anyone can read this book & come away unchanged for the better. Blessed be, L<><

Rating:
Summary: Mystical
Review: I would like to use this forum to personally thank Yancey for another great and challenging book that left me asking more questions when I was done reading it than when I started. Bravo, Phillip! Christian authors continually bombard us with ways to live a better life, three easy steps, or prayers, and here is Phillip Yancey telling us that the stages of development in a life as a follower of Christ get more difficult as you mature to the point where God will leave you on your own to help your faith grow.

I read this book during a time of immense personal trial. This book taught me to have ambidextrous faith, able to take the good with the bad, equally. I cannot say that I have mastered this concept, or if I ever will, but thanks again to the author for challenging me to do so.

I look forward to the next book by Yancey, it is always a good and challenging read for anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Reaching for the non existent God
Review: I've read a few of Philip Yancey's works now, and this one was not by any means my favorite. In his other books, Yancey is much more biblical and direct. In this volume, he waxes philosophical as he speaks of the Christian's challenges to live by faith and not by sight.

He describes the challenges of longing after God, believing in God, interacting with God, being transformed by God, growing in God, and finally being liberated by God. This book has some good insights along the way, and is an enjoyable read. Yancey's reputation as a leading Christian author is reinforced here once again.

While good, this book was lacking in greatness. His work here pales in comparison to "The Jesus I Never Knew" and "What's So Amazing About Grace?" For die-hard Yancey fans, this volume is undoubtedly another winner. The rest of us are left longing for the punch that is so powerfully present in Yancey's other writings.

Rating:
Summary: Excellant as always....
Review: In this latest Yancey book he touches the theme of Faith in something unseen but elemental to our survival as Christians. Where is God, how do we KNOW him & his plan for our lives? By using examples of others searches including his own. Yancey helps us explore this Dark to Light transition we all go through with emphasis on what we can find on the other side. It helped me a great deal to know I wasn't the only Christain to fall into draught in my realationship with my Lord, that many much greater than I have struggled down this path again & again. It is possible we all will again, this doesn't mean the end of our faith just another learning step to our walk. Most likely the changes, doubts & failures won't stop happening until we leave these mortal clay vessels. We are loved & forgiven & saved anyway. Blessed be, L<><

Rating:
Summary: What this book will do for you....(and what it won't)
Review: It will not give you pat, "Christianized" answers...
It will not solve your problems...
It will not be like other inspiritaional Christian books that give you that warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

Instead, this book WILL...
sharpen your heart and soul in deeper ways of thinking about and processing this invisible God, give your doubts to your faith a reason to exist (if they haven't already had one), help you realize that honest, soul-searching doubt is as essential to faith as anything else and help you on this daily journey to the heart of this God who we think is out there but don't always know for sure.

There were days when I didn't want to read this book because it felt like a burden in the sense that I was being faced with honest realizations about my faith that perhaps I didn't want to face. There were times when I would wrestle with what the balance of believing in God and following Him is and also days where I thought hard about there being no God at all. All in all, this book forced me to challenge myself, which is why I think it proved to be such a wonderful book.

"Reaching for the Invisible God" is better than "What's So Amazing About Grace?" in my opinion because here, Yancey is stripped, vulnerable and completely honest. There were many times in "Grace" where I sensed Yancey holding back, in fear of what some Christians may say about him or in fear of how Christians would lash out against his words. (What a sad, sad, sad world this is when disciples of Jesus are lashing out against each other when we tend to have different opinions or viewpoints on "issues" in the Christian circle!)

Thank God, in this book, Yancey seems to come alive and what is shown is not always pretty, but thankfully, it is more real and honest to what the Christian life looks like. Thanks Mr. Yancey for helping this college guy out.

Rating:
Summary: My Experience
Review: Never have I read a book that came closer to capturing my entire life as a Christian than that of Philip Yancey's Reaching for the Invisible God. Two verses continue to describe my halting journey of faith: Mark 9:24 and John 6:68 (I believe, help my unbelief, and who else offers anything better). I was stunned to read what Yancey had to say about these two, they so coincide with my own experience. It seems that daily experiences can often overwhelm my focus on Christ by bringing up all the same questions that persist - pain, suffering, why evil in a world created by a good God, why random badness like earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, why random sickness, birth defects, whatever. I mean, this could go on and on, as it often has in my own life to the detriment of any spiritual advance. Only by focusing on a God personified in Jesus and displayed through the Spirit in humans can any progress be made. I actually met Yancey years back when I did some book reviews for Campus Life. All I could see then was an Art Garfunkel look-alike. It's taken me decades to see what an outrageously gifted writer and Christian he has become and probably was then. This book did for me more than any of his other outstanding books did, such as Disappointment with God, Where is God when it Hurts, The Jesus I Never Knew, and What's So Amazing About Grace. But that's just me. If I should ever talk to Yancey again, I fear I wouldn't know what to say. He took the words out of my mouth in writing a book that hit the nail on the head like no other.

Rating:
Summary: Normal Philip Yancey territory
Review: Philip Yancey is an expert in writing about the struggles, the doubts, and the uncertainties of the Christian life. In other words, he writes about reality. There is no sugar-coating from Yancey. No "Now I am happy all the day" type sentiment. But through all that gritty reality, he can still experience a deep faith in the God who is unseen, and often seems absent. Given that, there is not a lot about this book that distinguishes itself from his other works. This is familiar ground to those who have read some of his previous books. I do like his discussions of some of the non-traditional "attributes" of God (especially intriguing is the treatise on God's shyness). When I first noticed the chapters on the stages of faith as Child, Adult, and Parent, I cringed at the thought of the possibility of pop-psychology mumbo-jumbo being advocated, but these are some of the most valuable chapters in the book. His discussion of the strengths and "weaknesses" of the different persons of the Trinity is also very interesting.

Philip Yancey obviously reads a lot of books. Most of his ideas seem synthesized from the various things he has read. It takes a very alert, organized mind to bring all this together. I don't know how many of his ideas in this book are original, and how many are "borrowed", but Yancey remains one of the most interesting writers on the Christian scene today. Although this is familiar Yancey territory, few writers stake out that same territory with the same skill and near-brilliance.

Rating:
Summary: If there's a god, let him bless Phillip Yancey...
Review: There are too few Phillip Yancey's about: believers who admit that belief isn't easy, that questions are fair and unavoidable, that meaningful answers aren't pat ones. This book did not bring me back into the fundamentalist fold, but I truly felt blessed by Christian compassion and understanding when I read it.

"By their works shall ye know them": this guy's the real thing, and while we do not share every belief about the nature of God and reality, he commands my profound respect.