God Has Never Failed Me, but He's Sure Scared Me to Death a Few Times!

by Stan Toler

For anyone feeling frazzled, stressed, confused, hurt or angry, Stan Toler offers a winning combination of hilarious and poignant reminders that God is still at work and that He's 100% faithful. Combines humor with solid scriptural truths

Chapters include: Coping with Life When You Can't Even Program Your VCR; Pinto Beans and Fried Bologna Now That's a Feast of Faith; and When Nothing's Happening, Something's Happening

Great gift for anyone needing wisdom, encouragement and a whole lot of laughter

Genres: Christian, Nonfiction, Humor

218 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

Stan Toler is senior pastor of Trinity Church of the Nazarene in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and hosts the television program, "Leadership Today." He conducts seminars throughout the U.S. as the Model Church Instructor for INJOY Ministries, a leadership development institute for pastors. He has written over 30 books and is co-author of The Year Round Church Event Book.

Reviews

[Christy Trever · Rating 5 out of 5]

God Has Never Failed Me, But He's Sure Scared Me to Death a Few Times by Stan Toler is a humorous yet powerful look at clinging to faith in the midst of adversity. Toler, who won me over with The Buzzards are Circling But God's Not Finished With Me Yet, is like the perfect pastor. He starts each chapter with a humorous anecdote and then uses that to bring the reader to understand his point. Then when attention may drift, he uses a powerful personal story to bring it home. Every chapter focuses on trusting in God's faithfulness even when it seems like nothing is going right. God is 100% faithful 100% of the time.Toler keeps the tone light, but he never lets the humor get in the way of his message of hope for readers.

[Butterball · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very encouraging book and helped me realize more than I knew.

[Camiwar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful compilation of stories to uplift the spirit! I read this book as part of my morning devotions and literally laughed out loud more than once.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book starts with a lot of try-hard humor that doesn't quite land, along with very basic teaching. The final few chapters have great theology and much better, less frequent attempts at humor.

[Chickadee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stan Toler is an author who knows his subject matter. Having personally faced times of crisis and heartache, he writes in a manner that speaks to you, no matter what you’re going through.

Stan writes about God’s faithfulness even in the midst of life’s battles and encourages his readers with humor and hope. It was inspiring to me to read that even as a child, Stan was raised in a household of faith. As his childhood home was burning to the ground, Stan’s father stood praising God in the midst of tragedy – the lost everything materially but none of their family was harmed.

In Chapter 1: Pinto Beans and Fried Bologna – Now That’s a Feast of Faith, Stan recounts the Christmas of 1961 where his family had no food for Christmas Day. His father was laid off and the family was scrimping and saving in order to keep the lights on. Again, Stan’s father stood in faith and declared to his family that God would provide. They popped popcorn that night for dinner. The next morning (Christmas Day) they were awakened by a knock on the door and people from the Fifth Avenue Church shouting “Merry Christmas!” God had sent those people with gifts, clothes and a thirty day supply of food!

Stan comments: “Since that day, I have always believed that God will provide, and that God is never late when we need a miracle!”

If you need a faith boost – I strongly suggest reading this book. I was encouraged and inspired and felt stronger spiritually, reading Stan’s stories of God’s provision.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Toler's writing is light, engaging and an easy read even though the topics he covers may not always be so. My only difficulty, if I was to name one, is that sometimes there are so many stories, they jump from one to the next without maintaining any tangible connection to the topic of the chapter. On occasion it reads more like a Coffee Perks, or one of those snippets-and-quotes papers you find in a diner and it becomes a conscious effort to remember what he is talking about.

But on the whole, both books are worth the read simply because they do treat life with an eye to the humorous that can be found in any situation. And sometimes we have to be able to just laugh at the ironies of life.

[Anneka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of it was amusing, some of it was a little dated. Maybe it's because I'm used to reading books by Max Lucado, but I felt like this book could have dug a little deeper, encouraged more in depth thought. Not bad. Worth the time, just expected better.

[Rose]

F Tol

[Elaine]

Encouragement through humor.