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Gospel Amnesia Forgetting the Goodness of the News
In Gospel Amnesia, Luma Simms, diagnoses many of the ways we degrade or suppress our consciousness of the gospel, and what happens as a result. When an individual Christian—or a whole Christian culture, at all levels—has gospel amnesia, it affects us all. This book is about the affliction of assuming, forgetting, and marginalizing the gospel, the symptoms of this condition, and its one cure.
- GenresChristianNonfiction
84 pages, ebook
First published January 15, 2013
13 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Luma Simms
3 booksLuma Simms is a wife and mother of five children (3 girls and 2 boys). She is the author of "Gospel Amnesia: Forgetting the Goodness of the News" and works as a freelance writer. Her educational background includes a B.S. in physics from California State Polytechnic University Pomona, and one and a half years at Chapman University School of Law before leaving to become a stay-at-home-mom.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 2, 2014
I appreciate both Luma's humility and her honesty as she confesses her own periods of gospel amnesia, times in her life where she forgot or neglected the goodness of the good news. In this book she explores various ways gospel amnesia may manifest itself and offers the only prescription: sustained focus on the cross and a right understanding of the person and work of Christ.
February 17, 2021
The author’s transparency about her own experience makes this book super relatable. We never move on from the gospel. Jesus is the way to salvation, and remains the truth by which we continue needing to live our lives as Christians. When we move away from this simple truth or make other things more central - we are forgetting the very thing that is core to our actual relationship and standing before God. There is tremendous danger when we forget the gospel, but there are so many good things we can put in its place, that we don’t realize it at times. Such good and needed truths!!! Definitely recommend.
December 25, 2018
"My hope in this small and humble work is to encourage you to look at the cross, to fall in love with Jesus anew or maybe for the first time, not only for the sake of your own soul, but also in the hope that a fervent gospel-centered revival can be set ablaze “to the praise of his glorious grace.”
"I know your deeds; you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up!" (Revelation 3:1b-2a)"
"I know your deeds; you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up!" (Revelation 3:1b-2a)"
September 28, 2018
Great short read
Awesome short book . Helpful to see areas where I have Gospel Amnesia in my life. The writer does a good job helping apply the gospel in tangible and sometimes brutally honest ways. Well worth your time
Awesome short book . Helpful to see areas where I have Gospel Amnesia in my life. The writer does a good job helping apply the gospel in tangible and sometimes brutally honest ways. Well worth your time
February 13, 2024
Very good book for introspection
The book was concise enough for a quick read. However, with some good introspection it took me a few days to finish reading.
Highly recommend
The book was concise enough for a quick read. However, with some good introspection it took me a few days to finish reading.
Highly recommend
December 15, 2017
I appreciate the author's honesty in sharing her own gospel forgetfulness and agree that this is a needed wake up call for the American church. The examination of the different types of gospel amnesia was helpful.
February 18, 2014
Gospel amnesia is the term Luma Simms uses for those who think they've progressed past the gospel; "This book is about the affliction of assuming, forgetting, and marginalizing the gospel; the symptoms of this condition, and its one cure."
Luma Simms writes with open honesty born out of her realization that she had lost her love for the gospel. The only way out of this amnesia is to love Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. And "unless we are overpowered by the grace and glory of God through self-conscious gospel immersion we can become ensnared to almost anything."
Simms divides the problem into three modes:
1. Distraction mode- So busy...
2.Progression mode- believing that dwelling on the gospel stagnates us, that once we "get" that we need to move on to headier "more important" doctrine.
3.Presumption mode- which has the ability to lead to different personalities- the church one and the rest of the week one.
These modes are, of course, subtle and varied. For instance, we can get so caught up in traditions of a church that they move to center and displace the gospel. Or we can make a good thing such as righteous living to become a distraction which "diminishes the gospel, (so that) we will be wrapped up in ourselves, becoming so self-focused that we are impotent as vessels for the work of Christ in this culture."
By forgetting how much God loves us and how much He hates sin, this gospel amnesia leads to a lack of love for Christ and for people. Forgetting the gospel leads to a judgmental, bitter, loveless life.
Simms writes with encouragement precisely because she's honest enough to admit she's been there. She writes hopefully because she's recovered her first love.
And she gives some excellent guidelines for recovering from this gospel amnesia.
Luma Simms writes with open honesty born out of her realization that she had lost her love for the gospel. The only way out of this amnesia is to love Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. And "unless we are overpowered by the grace and glory of God through self-conscious gospel immersion we can become ensnared to almost anything."
Simms divides the problem into three modes:
1. Distraction mode- So busy...
2.Progression mode- believing that dwelling on the gospel stagnates us, that once we "get" that we need to move on to headier "more important" doctrine.
3.Presumption mode- which has the ability to lead to different personalities- the church one and the rest of the week one.
These modes are, of course, subtle and varied. For instance, we can get so caught up in traditions of a church that they move to center and displace the gospel. Or we can make a good thing such as righteous living to become a distraction which "diminishes the gospel, (so that) we will be wrapped up in ourselves, becoming so self-focused that we are impotent as vessels for the work of Christ in this culture."
By forgetting how much God loves us and how much He hates sin, this gospel amnesia leads to a lack of love for Christ and for people. Forgetting the gospel leads to a judgmental, bitter, loveless life.
Simms writes with encouragement precisely because she's honest enough to admit she's been there. She writes hopefully because she's recovered her first love.
And she gives some excellent guidelines for recovering from this gospel amnesia.
January 20, 2014
Read the entire review at Grace for Sinners
Luma Simms loves the gospel and desires it to be central. Gospel Amnesia is part memoir, and part polemic. Throughout she weaves her own story of gospel amnesia to encourage and edify. She doesn’t come across as expert writing from her theological armchair (“Most of my life has been spent finding one way or another to atone for myself” p. 11). She writes from an experience of God’s grace. She had forgotten the gospel and was pursued by God.
She also argues for the centrality of the gospel in the life of the church and against the all too common practice of shelfing the gospel for the latest and greatest fad in the do better, try harder of Christian living. Because these two elements are deftly woven together, you feel like you’re receiving life giving instructions from a co-laborer in the trenches.
. . . .
Luma Simms loves the gospel and desires it to be central. Gospel Amnesia is part memoir, and part polemic. Throughout she weaves her own story of gospel amnesia to encourage and edify. She doesn’t come across as expert writing from her theological armchair (“Most of my life has been spent finding one way or another to atone for myself” p. 11). She writes from an experience of God’s grace. She had forgotten the gospel and was pursued by God.
She also argues for the centrality of the gospel in the life of the church and against the all too common practice of shelfing the gospel for the latest and greatest fad in the do better, try harder of Christian living. Because these two elements are deftly woven together, you feel like you’re receiving life giving instructions from a co-laborer in the trenches.
. . . .
March 16, 2018
Good book about evaluating your heart and helps you get focus on the Good News.
I read this on #KindleUnlimited
Quotes:
"Our hearts are deceptive, and unless we are overpowered by the grace and the glory of God through self-conscious gospel immersion, we can become ensnared to almost anything."
"By forgetting God's love we can easily slip into forgetting the depth of our own sin because we focus on what we see as the world's sin."
"Acknowledging we can do nothing without the grace of God, we plead for a desire to seek the things of God, we plead for a desire to read his Word, and we plead for the Lord to fill us with his Holy Spirit."
“As long as we keep our “little” sins hidden in the dark we have no hope of overcoming and standing victorious over them.”
I read this on #KindleUnlimited
Quotes:
"Our hearts are deceptive, and unless we are overpowered by the grace and the glory of God through self-conscious gospel immersion, we can become ensnared to almost anything."
"By forgetting God's love we can easily slip into forgetting the depth of our own sin because we focus on what we see as the world's sin."
"Acknowledging we can do nothing without the grace of God, we plead for a desire to seek the things of God, we plead for a desire to read his Word, and we plead for the Lord to fill us with his Holy Spirit."
“As long as we keep our “little” sins hidden in the dark we have no hope of overcoming and standing victorious over them.”
December 12, 2015
Great book
This book points Christians back to their first love and the gospel I really enjoyed reading it. It is also written at a level that anyone can understand.
This book points Christians back to their first love and the gospel I really enjoyed reading it. It is also written at a level that anyone can understand.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews