Jesus > Religion
It took me a while before I decided to get this book, because it's one of those popular Christian books, and I hate following trends. But once I got it, I couldn't put it down, I absolutely loved reading it. It was not what I expected at all because Jeff was very honest about his personal life. I'll try not to spoil it, but the first chapter got me hooked, because his upbringing wasn't what I expected from a credible Christian poet. Goes to show that God can use anyone in any situation.
I remember when the poem "Why I hate Religion but love Jesus" went viral. It was all over my Facebook page and Tumblr feed. It surprised me because, I thought it would be your typical Jesus freak poem but I was I pressed by the quality and accuracy of the argument. I am a sucker for sound Biblical doctrine with a modern swag to it. And just like the poem addressed many key questions, the book goes more in depth and provided clarity. So, I highly recommend it.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
“Genesis 1 says that everything he created was good. Everything. That means music, art, politics, food, animals, plants, and trees are all good in and of themselves. Things aren’t evil, but our abuse of them is evil. You’d be hard-pressed to find something that the Bible calls inherently evil. Almost everything the Bible condemns is an abuse of God’s original intent or use when he created it. God created everything, so it doesn’t have to be labeled “Christian” to be good.....There is no divide between secular and sacred, and we completely miss it when we insist there is”
As Christians we should be setting the bar for good art and culture, not trying to sequester ourselves away and only copying other art in order to make it “Christian”. After all we have the creator as our Dad, and if we suck at creating then we're sinning"(Pg. 161).
“If we give God glory for explicitly Christian things, we are thieves. He wants all the glory”
