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Fire from Ashes: The Reality of Perpetual Conversion
Popular bloggers and podcasters Fr. Joseph Huneycutt and Steve “the Builder” Robinson explore the reality of life in Christ as perpetual conversion—falling and rising, falling and rising again. No matter how cold the ashes of our hearts, with Christ’s help we can fan them back into flame. Illustrated with Steve’s inimitable cartoons.
- GenresChristian
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 15, 2014
Fire from Ashes is a brief book (less than 150 pages) written by Fr. Joseph Huneycutt and Steve Robinson, both podcasters or former podcasters at Ancient Faith Radio. The premise of the book is the struggle and need of perpetual conversion. There is no such thing as "once saved always saved," and anyone who tells you otherwise is in heresy. We must remember that even the righteous man falls seven times and rises again.
The book begins with the story of a heroin addict named Mark who used to work for Steve. Steve compares him to St. Dismas the Good Thief who died on the cross next to Jesus. Both lived less than stellar lives, but both reached out to Jesus on their deathbeds and took a chance on Him being able to save them. This story was taken from one of Steve's podcasts, so it was familiar to me, but it still moves me everytime I hear it. A lot of Christians don't like to hear these deathbed conversion stories, but we should rejoice every time a soul makes it to Heaven. The book says, "The 'deathbed conversion' is the instant realization of the futility of our life and the acceptance of our personal responsibility and guilt for our sin, but it is also a turning to the love of God in the sufferings of Christ for our sins." AMEN!
Chapter Three is one that I feel will relate to most people, because it discusses habitual sin. There are many types of habitual sin, but the authors choose to discuss pornography and masturbation. This seems reasonable, since that is a habitual sin that is much more prevalent today with the advent of the Internet. The authors take the time to remind us that it is good to struggle with sin. If we are struggling, we are least putting up a fight. It's when we stop fighting against our sins that we are defeated. However, we are not alone in this fight. God is on our side. The saints are on our side. The angels are on our side. Our Church is on our side. We would do well to remember this.
Overall, this was a very approachable book and you could see the personalities of the two authors in not only the words on the page, but the illustrations they provided as well. What I especially loved about this book was all the examples they used from Scripture and the Church Fathers. The examples that St. John Chrysostom and St. Moses the Black provided will stick with me a long time. Though the target audience for this book is Orthodox Christians, I believe it would be helpful for Catholics as well. We are all sinners in need of perpetual conversion and this book does a fine job explaining what perpetual conversion is and how to live it.
The book begins with the story of a heroin addict named Mark who used to work for Steve. Steve compares him to St. Dismas the Good Thief who died on the cross next to Jesus. Both lived less than stellar lives, but both reached out to Jesus on their deathbeds and took a chance on Him being able to save them. This story was taken from one of Steve's podcasts, so it was familiar to me, but it still moves me everytime I hear it. A lot of Christians don't like to hear these deathbed conversion stories, but we should rejoice every time a soul makes it to Heaven. The book says, "The 'deathbed conversion' is the instant realization of the futility of our life and the acceptance of our personal responsibility and guilt for our sin, but it is also a turning to the love of God in the sufferings of Christ for our sins." AMEN!
Chapter Three is one that I feel will relate to most people, because it discusses habitual sin. There are many types of habitual sin, but the authors choose to discuss pornography and masturbation. This seems reasonable, since that is a habitual sin that is much more prevalent today with the advent of the Internet. The authors take the time to remind us that it is good to struggle with sin. If we are struggling, we are least putting up a fight. It's when we stop fighting against our sins that we are defeated. However, we are not alone in this fight. God is on our side. The saints are on our side. The angels are on our side. Our Church is on our side. We would do well to remember this.
Overall, this was a very approachable book and you could see the personalities of the two authors in not only the words on the page, but the illustrations they provided as well. What I especially loved about this book was all the examples they used from Scripture and the Church Fathers. The examples that St. John Chrysostom and St. Moses the Black provided will stick with me a long time. Though the target audience for this book is Orthodox Christians, I believe it would be helpful for Catholics as well. We are all sinners in need of perpetual conversion and this book does a fine job explaining what perpetual conversion is and how to live it.
February 15, 2024
This is a short book that is big on reality. A spiritual book that doesn’t shy away from examining our earthiness, our ugliness, our sin. This doesn’t mean that it is not hopeful—it absolutely is. The Christian life is a struggle. There is no such thing as “one and done”
In an authentic Christian life. The good news is, that isn’t the expectation.
In an authentic Christian life. The good news is, that isn’t the expectation.
April 25, 2015
I really liked this book. It is very short but full of incredibly practical insight on how we continually need to turn our hearts towards God. The authors make no grand sweeping promises and they offer no quick and easy solutions to difficult problems, which makes the book far better than the usual self help fluff inherent to the genre.
July 19, 2014
Simple, direct, and approachable insights into the psychological and patristic understanding of sin, judgment and repentance and why constant struggle is necessary within the Christian life. Full review to come
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews