Second Guessing God: Hanging on When You Can't See His Plan
by Brian Jones
http://missjenniferd13.blogspot.com/2009/08/second-guessing-god-hanging-on-when-you.html
FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS FROM AMAZON.COM
- Paperback: 221 pages
- Publisher: Standard Publishing Company (March 30, 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0784718415
- ISBN-13: 978-0784718414
Average Customer Review
Editorial Reviews
ReviewSecond Guessing God manages to be hip, funny, and contemporary while at the same time viewing serious and weighty life issues through a theological lens. In essence, Jones has taken themes from works such as C.S. Lewis'
Surprised by Joy and James Dobson's
When God Doesn't Make Sense and repackaged them for a 21st-century audience. The end result is a book that's at times challenging and frustrating, but ultimately encouraging and uplifting. Jones, who serves as pastor of Christ's Church of the Valley in Philadelphia, infuses
Second Guessing God with personal anecdotes related to his family and ministry. He looks unflinchingly at the reality of suffering, trials, and doubt in Christians' lives, but wisely avoids offering pat answers. The book concludes with a wonderful chapter that anticipates an eternity in which, in the author's own words, "people don't hurt each other" and "newborns never die."
Second Guessing God is Jones' first book, but expect to hear more from this talented and thought-provoking pastor. --
Don Morgan, Aspiring Retail, January 2006 (Volume 2, Number 1).Brian Jones...expresses the heart's disappointment and longing with a directness that somehow always ends up leading us toward God. --
John Ortberg, author of If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the BoatFrom the Back CoverWhen I've gone through times of doubt and disillusionment, the overwhelming emotion I felt was fear: What if this never gets better? How long can I hold on? Brian Jones is the person you need to hear from at those times. This wise and encouraging book combines honesty with hope...
Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian
Brian Jones sensitively addresses the existential doubts I have heard raised in both universities and churches: Where is God in my pain, and can he really be trusted? As a seasoned traveler through this difficult terrain and now pastor to other travelers, Brian speaks with transparency and passion about such questions and of God's faithfulness and presence in the midst of them.
Ravi Zacharias, author of Recapture the Wonder
Brian Jones writes in a way that allows us to accompany him on his deep and meaningful journey toward trusting God. He takes our hand to lead us, and sometimes while we're walking and thinking he slips away and we find ourselves holding the hand of God.
Nicole Johnson, Women of Faith conference speaker and author of Fresh Brewed Life
I can't predict the future, but of this I am confident: Second Guessing God will not be the last book by Brian Jones. From the first paragraph I was captured by his open and engaging style. He dares to raise the questions and faith-doubts many of us have carried silently. You will appreciate his honesty and be strengthened by his counsel.
Gene Appel, lead pastor, Willow Creek Community Church
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Customer Reviews
Second Guessing God,
November 15, 2008 I took time to read this book after I put Allie down for a nap every afternoon a chore I didn't look forward to, by the way. But reading time has been scarce for me since we started taking care of this little girl and this became a time of day I looked forward to everyday and I anticipated reading through a chapter of Brian Jones' book every afternoon.
I have lived through the darkest year of my life and I've turned to books like this to help me put things in perspective. The simplicity of Jones' writing and very accessible wisdom have helped me do just that. This book is definitely worth your time. If you're a counselor or pastor or find yourself often comforting others, this book is a must read.
Used it to teach a spirituality class,
September 4, 2008 While looking for materials to teach a spirituality class during the summer of 2008, Fate handed me a gem when I came across SGG. Brian's writing style was instantly engaging, combining theology and practical application in an easy-to-read format that I finished in a week's train ride into work.
While the product description offers the question "Why does God allow bad things to happen," that is not what Brian directly addresses. What he superbly does instead is examine the following: where God is when life is full of struggle; what is God doing in the midst of our pain; and how to hang on to God's promises to be with us.
SGG lends itself well to an in-class format. Brian uses his own faith journey as a roadmap to impart spiritual recovery options that we all can follow, such as getting help from mentors, friends and family, and knowing that God is working upstream. SGG has the "right" mix of applicable Christian and secular references as well as personal and pastoral stories. From the silly to the serious, we laughed and cried along with Brian and those he met on his journey. Pastor Brian's revelation that he had faith challenges too surprised some. Yet, it was exactly that imperfect human aspect that gave them the OK to admit, and thereby work through, theirs.
The class and I debated about my struggle with the book title. The American Heritage dictionary says to "second guess" is to "To criticize or correct after an outcome is known." Brian did not criticize God for doing x or y or ask why God did it, IMHO. Instead, he cried out against what appeared to be God's unfairness and worked through his doubt leaving us with his vision of Heaven and many ways to restore our faith in difficult times.
All in all, a great read and very effective book.
Great Book,
May 7, 2007 This book is wonderfully funny and enlightning. It makes you look inward and see what need re-aligning.
A pastor on scraped and bended knees,
April 16, 2007 I saw this book on someone's wish list and was immediately intrigued by the title and decided to buy it. I am glad that I did. I have a deep respect for pastors, or anyone for that matter, that can share their short comings and their long findings about themself. It's like, "hey those shoes look familiar.... I think I walked in those just the other day!"
The last thing that I want to hear from a pastor is how they were brought up in a Christian home and yada yada yada.... had a supergodly clean life.
Not only is Brian Jones a man after my own soul, but I really dig his writing style. He will have a lump in my throat the size of a Jerusalem artichoke and the next second have me lauging out loud.
Lemme share a part of the book. At one point in his life, while he was second guessing God, he is talking to a friend and says his life is much like standing on the beach and the waves are taking the sand from under his feet, and that scares him.
His friend says, and this is my new fave quote: "In spite of all of this, I promise you can count on one thing: when the last grain of sand is finally gone, you're going to discover that you're standing on a rock"
Peeps have to know this or they will never survive the firey darts of satan. It is my new prayer that I see people as Christ sees them and to have a compassionate heart for the lost.
For the longest time I thought that I had no future as I have not planned my life out well enough. But now, I realize that it was all His plan. I will use my own life as a testimony to others. God has given me talents that will give me an edge to help others.
Thank you to the one who open'd my eyes to this book.
"Zooming down Agape Blvd. with the top down!"
More readable than "The Purpose Driven Life",
August 20, 2006 "Second Guessing God" by Brian Jones shows how to live a purpose driven life rather than tell how in "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren. Not that I am knocking Rick. However I read Rick's book just prior to Brian's. When reading "Purpose Driven" my wife got mad at me because I would leave her to go downstairs to read in the quiet. With "Second Guessing God" it didn't matter what else was on because it was so engaging. The detailed and funny stories have a purpose and have me wanting to do more to serve God.
I am not sure the title "Second Guessing God" has the pizazz this book deserves. The humble but upbeat style makes this book very engaging. While reading I felt privileged to know Brian from his sermons on Sundays and to have received hugs and handshakes from him.
Reality check,
June 2, 2006 Brian's transparent descriptions of his own spiritual journey assist the reader with realistic expectations of a life led for the cause of Christ. This book is a must read for anyone searching for meaning in his life.
Majors on how God is intimately involved,
May 7, 2006 Life gets hard, harder, impossible, and we silently (or maybe not so silently) scream, what are you doing God? In Second Guessing God, Brian Jones comes up with some outstanding answers.
Just as Joshua directed the priests to put their feet into the flooding Jordan upstream from the people in order to stop the waters so they could cross into the Promised Land, so does God work beyond our sight and understanding-upstream--in our lives. Here's another of Jones' similes. Want God to work in your life? Think of Jesus like a taxicab driver. You get in the passenger's seat and let Him take over.
Pastor, leader of a support group for the sexually abused, fellow traveler in this world of trouble, Brian Jones draws examples from coping with his own problems as well as a large background of listening to others' problems. He shares a wide scope of problems with the reader from the simple (if there are any such) to the horrific. And through it all he continually shows how God actually is working. Most of us do not receive instantaneous miracles, rather, God gives us perseverance for the long haul.
Second Guessing God majors on how God is intimately involved in all facets of our life, working through others, through circumstances, through our own acceptance of living this flawed life. Jones gives us a strengthening list of what God is actually doing, illustrating each item with Scripture, experiences, and a wide variety of quotes from C. S. Lewis to F. Scott Fitzgerald to Bart Simpson. What is God doing? Working in power and compassion; understanding doubt is real and providing help; imparting insight and help through the very trials we don't want; giving help through others' witness; and, breaking what seems a brass-bound silence with His Word, the Bible. The closing section of this book turns us back to those institutions that help, urging the broken to avail themselves of that help and the rest of us to be really get in there and help. Jones looks at the church, the ministry, and that wonderful promise to all of God's own ones, Heaven.
Second Guessing God arrived for me to review right after a major problem caused me to spiral despairingly downwards. I can vouch for it. This book truly helps. - Donna Eggett, Christian Book Previews.com
The Stories and the Strength,
March 31, 2006 LeRoy Lawson told a Writer's Clinic audience more than 25 years ago, "Dynamic writing follows dynamic living." Brian Jones was just a boy then, but without hearing Lawson's advice, he has followed it. His new book is the testimony of someone who has embraced life with all the energy a young man can muster. Second Guessing God reveals some of what Jones's life has taught him. He tells us story after story about oddballs and everyday people who have given him hope, shed light on his own personal pain or doubt, or forced him to reconsider what he believes about God. I found myself chuckling out loud at some of these stories and then, within pages, hiding tears. I predict every reader will laugh and cry as they identify with the unvarnished truth Brian exposes. Every reader will relate to the questions and the quandaries Brian admits he has faced. He offers hope as he unflinchingly admits his own weaknesses and then takes us to God's word for help. This is no pop-culture, pat-answer panacea for every ill. Brian looks to a wide range of literature and Christian classics for illustrations and insights. He readily admits his only response to some questions is "I don't know." He confesses his struggles and encourages his readers with theirs. As I read, I made a mental list of friends who will be helped by Second Guessing God. All of these could find courage to carry on from this highly readable book. But I know one person it has already helped. I will be stronger because I've read this book. I believe that will be true for everyone who reads it. Mark A. Taylor Copyright 2006 Christian Standard.
