YOU WERE BORN FOR THIS Bruce Wilkinson Book Review

You Were Born for This
7 Keys to a Life of Predictable MiraclesBruce Wilkinson, author

Reviewed: Unabridged AudioBook
Compact Discs
Publisher: Random House
ISBN:  978-0-307-57728-7
Retail Price:  $30

Bruce Wilkinson is a very well-known author of books related to the Christian faith.  His Prayer of Jabez was a best seller.  His Secrets of the Vine has been read and used for study by church groups.  He is a part of the evangelical Christian author circuit and has many good things to say.

The issue that I take up with inspirational works such as this is the entitlement message it brings.  It is true that God blesses his faithful flock of believers, it is true that he has given us leaders, teachers and preachers to hold us up, bring His message, and give us His word to live by.  What this book does is says that we Christians deserve  this.  We should expect it to happen.  It implies the message that God is present to do our bidding, what we want--and that is absolutely backwards.

We are here to serve God, and that God is present within us by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit is to flow out of us into the world where we are to serve as Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Son of God taught us to do.

What are you going to do if what Bruce Wilkinson tells you is supposed to happen if you are right with God doesn't happen?  Where does that leave you?  Does God exist to perform miracles for us and through us that make us happy, or do miracles happen because they glorify our Heavenly Father?  If God's desire is to make us happy and life wonderful, then what does that mean if we are not happy and life isn't wonderful?

"The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name." Acts 5:41 NIV.  The fact is, the Christian life is not always wonderful, and included in the not-wonderful part is the expectation of suffering for the sake of the faith, for when faith is under persecution, the church grows.

This may be the book for you, and you will find it to be an inspirational, faith-building teaching.  You can tell that it brought questions about what we Christians are born for to my mind.

Mary Katherine May and husband, Rick, own QualityMusicandBooks.com, an online Christian music, book and gift webstore based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.