Right Side Up - Pt 6

Chapters 9 and 10

So we end with a focus on the 'tin tacks' issues for living a Christian life such as when to tell people you've become a Christian (Paul's is a wise answer that takes variation in background and circumstances into account) and how to share the Gospel with others. This section is part advice and part testimony of those who have gone before. The testimonies throughout the book have been great! And they've been personally helpful – for the first time I found the experiences I've had with my non-Christian family articulated by someone else. And Rachel's account of telling her friends she'd become a Christian was very good. It reminded me that I need to be more consciously supporting the new Christians I know as their relationships may well be going through this sort of painful transition. Why hadn’t that occurred to me before? Rachel's account was very thought provoking – a reminder of the spiritual opposition out there to the Gospel, and that the Spirit is the only means for people to accept it. How interesting too, that she had some relationships strained while others (like those with her sisters) were repaired by her following Jesus!

The book began with an autobiographical story and it ends with a fictional story that fills the entire of chapter ten. How satisfying! What a clever illustration too, a final ramming home of the radical nature of turning your life right side up. Just in case you were still left wondering what the Bible's all about, there's a thorough overview in the appendix – which fills in any gaps remaining after Paul's frequent excursuses within the book itself. He's even done up a table for us! And there's an appendix on whether we can trust the Bible anyway. What more remains to be said to the new Christian? There's a bit of flogging of Matthias Media material going on towards the end of the book, but why not, they have such excellent resources! Would I recommend this book to new believer? I think I've made it clear on the way through that I most certainly would. It's great to have another trusted book sitting on the shelf ready to give away.