In Choose and Choose Again , the reader will encounter story after story of different people, most of whom are from Hope Community Church of Detroit, where Pastor Butcher has been sharing the healing love of God for thirteen years. They represent men and women, African American, Caucasian, Latino, and Asian, urban and suburban, professional types and prostitutes, clergy and addicts, drunks and lawyers and convicts―wounded human beings who have found themselves empty, dying, and longing to be filled.
The stories are not only about their own healing and restoration but also about how the love of God heals. Butcher hopes that readers will find before them a path of healing that they feel compelled to embrace. He begins with his own story of emptiness and despair, and his journey to healing, but the ultimate power of his message is that this healing journey is for anyone who is willing to own his or her emptiness and hold one’s heart out to God, who is desperately longing to love each person all the way home.
There's nothing like a modern devotional book to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. However, I would have appreciated this book more if it had seemed a bit less irrationally positive, and if it had pulled its weight intellectually.
The basic premise of this book is that God's love is underestimated. That is perfectly true. It compellingly says that God can't be underestimated, and that He chases us desperately, and His love knows know bounds. That is also true.
However, there are some serious flaws that it embraced wholeheartedly. To see my full opinion, head over to my blog. :) http://literarycafe.weebly.com/home/c...
Warning: don’t read in public for the beautiful love of God portrayed in the stories and heart of Butcher will bring you to tears of hope, gratitude and freedom! A must read!
Choose and Choose Again by J. Kevin Butcher is a very good book. He tells stories of all different kinds of people in all different kinds of lives. All are lonely and searching, every if they have everything here on earth they still are searching for the mighty love of our Father in heaven. You will read and experience how they lives have changed when they realize that God loves them and is always with them. Some of the people grew up with horrible lives, horrible parents and horrible things happened to them, but some grew up with seemly normal, happy lives. They all are lacking the love or understanding of a parent, both mothers and fathers. All children need that and when they don’t have it they don’t know how to react to God the Father the lover of all. Very interesting read and I recommend it.
I received my free copy from Net Galley for my review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255
If God is love, then why is it so hard to experience that love? Detroit pastor Kevin Butcher guides us beyond the vagaries of feelings to show that knowing God’s love is less about *feeling* and more about *choosing*—choosing again, and again, and yet again, to return to God’s love no matter what. Chapter 10, “Deeper than Feelings,” was salve to my soul. With refreshing bluntness, he also urges us to confront head-on the one who exists entirely to deprive us of God’s love. “Satan hates our guts and lies to us because he wants us dead. He’s not playing. Do we get that?” There is nothing more important in life than knowing and growing in the love of God. That love is worth fighting for. This book shows us how.
one of the very first christian books I read after becoming a christian. It was very convicting and yet showed dearly the love of God in such beautiful testimonies.
- “I couldn’t bare the thought of those three precious lives dealing with the legacy of a dad who wouldn’t face his pain & chose to pass it on to them instead.
-* God longs to fill us with his love, but the enemy wants to convince us that we can be followed with anything and everything else.
- * The biggest issue in the body of Christ, isn’t that believers don’t love God— but that we aren’t sure he loves us. - how can I love “like he loves me” if I don’t understand his love? I can’t! I need to be fully awake in his love to be able to show HIS love to others.
-* the meaning behind satans lie, (taking the fruit from the tree of good & evil) “by keeping this good tree from you, God proves that he doesn’t love you. He only loves himself.”
-* The emptiness inside us has to be filled, and we all wrestle with the lie that it can be filled with anything but the love of God.
-* “It is difficult to give language to pain, that pain is language shattering” but if we want to heal, “we need to find language to express that pain”
-fear doesn’t motivate love because there “is no fear in love” ; instead, “perfect lives casts out fear
-* we grieve because we love. the greater the love, the greater the loss, and the greater the need to grieve our way to joy.
-* It is not only true that “ weeping endures for the night but joy come in the morning”. But also that weeping literally leads to and creates space for the joy we all so desperately want to experience.
This book of personal examples of God’s love poured out for all is really enjoyable. Some of the stories are tough to read - and some are so foreign it’s tough to understand. But remembering that Jesus’s blood was shed for all is good! There are some ideas that I need to sit with and look into a bit more. I know that God forgives all. I accept that! But the idea of repetitive sins that one is not willing to give up - and not willing to move away from - that I’m not sure about. It sounds nice, but is it true? That’s really the only idea that I recall struggling with; the rest seemed to hold the line. I read an e-version and I think a paper version would be beneficial in order to reread and highlight easier.
“God loves you.” That phrase has been so numbed down for me. I’ve heard it all my life, and I’ve always remembered it in my hardest moments. But I’ve never truly understood the depth of His love. It really was just a phrase that I used as a comfort. Because “oh, God loves me, I’ll be okay”. This book told of so many incredible stories of broken people being endlessly pursued by Gods life-changing love. Gods love is the one thing that can heal our deeply wounded heart, battling mind, and weak spirit. Second book to make me cry.
Chapters 10 and 14 really stood out to me. The book is mostly made up of stories, which I wasn’t expecting, and while some were hard to relate to because they were so intense, they were powerful in their own way. It was a good reminder that God is constantly pursuing us, even in the darkest places, and that choosing His love is something we have to keep doing—it’s not just a one-time thing.
Incredible book that is full of testimonies of God's redeeming love. I loved this book. I am giving it five out of five stars. I recommend this book to anyone who is searching for healing and reconciliation and is in need of finding God's unconditional love. This book will not disappoint!
This book is filled with story after story of God’s awesome love. It’s about broken people and how in their search for happiness or if they are just giving up on life, how got changes them with his amazing love. It’s all about God. This book has something for everyone. It’s well written and easy to follow. Its a really great and inspiring book. There’s a story here for everyone and I’m pretty sure you’ll find one that you’ll be able to relate to.
From the very first story , I knew I would be in an emotional journey that would feel my heart with compassion and understand the hurt these people have gone through. Everyone has a story . Some may be hard to hear, but the stories are real and bring people to their most desperate moments. What really struck me hard was , am I showing Gods love to everyone? Do I have the compassion that Jesus has for everyone ?
The book is heart wrenching at times but really opens my eyes to struggles that people face everyday. One of the subjects that the author talks about is forgiveness. It is one of the hardest things for someone to do. Why do you have to forgive the person who beat you, abused you and made you feel worthless? How can God forgive us for messing up and falling so low that we can't get up? "We long to be forgiven because we sense that if we aren't forgiven, we can't be loved. We're so afraid it's impossible to be both forgiven and loved-by God." When you feel unconditional love it is being set free.
Each story in this book is a testament to what God can do for each of us. I loved that the author reached out to hurting people and helped them to find freedom from pain and introduce them to God. I see homeless people everyday living on the streets, begging for food and trying to survive. This book made me understand that I need to do more than just look at them as I drive by. We all can do something to show others they are loved and accepted. It is never to late to ask forgiveness and release the chains that have bound us for so long. It is time to get out of the church, look at our community and share our story.
I had a hard time not crying throughout the entire book. Each story that is shared is real, hard to read at times but showed me that there are so many people that have been changed by the love of God. I hope you take this book, read it slowly , pause and pray and ask God to show you how to be His hands and feet. Lead me everything to the hurting, the lost and the ones who have drifted away. Allow me to be the vessel that shows them they are loved and forgiven. Teach me to reach out and not be afraid.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Tyndale Blogging . The review is my own opinion and I was not compensated for it.
From the beginning of time God has been reaching out in love to show us the truth about who He is. Again and again He seeks to confirm His amazing love for us, but time and again we struggle to believe it is really true. We receive messages from so many sources that can persuade us to question and doubt it is true for us. And sometimes it can be easier to believe it for someone else than for ourselves.
Those messages meant to keep us from the truth are often so powerful that we still hear them after we have first come to know Jesus as our Savior. We are saved by grace, but can quickly fall into believing and living as though now we must add performance to that in order to still be loved by the Lord. That belief can come from things we heard in our home growing up and even from some well-meaning brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.
In J. Kevin Butcher’s book, Choose and Choose Again, we hear the stories of many who struggle with believing the Lord loves them because they have not attained the standard they believe the Lord desires of them to be worthy of His love and attention. Many of the stories come from people who have discovered Hope Community Church in Detroit where the author is the lead pastor.
I cannot thank Pastor Kevin Butcher enough for this book. I picked up the book after seeing his message at my church, one of a handful of times I have witnessed his emotional, heart wrenching talks. This book filled me with hope at a time when I am struggling with our world. This book is for devoted Christians, those that have walked away from God, AND those that have never known God's love. An incredible read.
I was intrigued by this book and am so glad I picked it up and read it. This is one of those books that really gets you to thinking, written in an utterly candid and raw manner that really speaks to you this book is about God's love and how little we understand it. This book is about people from all walks of life, the prostitute, the druggie, the Pastor, the good kid and everyone else in between. This book is for anyone who has felt empty and never good enough. This book is a reminder that we have to choose and choose again in our daily lives to embrace and relish God's love. This book was encouraging and yet at times so heartbreaking, to realize what a broken world we live in and how many people are truly hurting and don't know the redeeming love of God. I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
J. Kevin Butcher, the author of Choose and Choose Again, has placed many powerful testimonies in this book. As someone who has known the depths one can let oneself slip into, then pull out of with God's love, he is able to reach some that others would look over. Often times he does it with simple words of love from God.
I often found myself in tears as I read a chapter, partly because the story itself was touching, but also because I wonder if I would have thought to look into these people's hearts and shared words of love with them.
This book is such a blessing. I am going to share it with my other family members and recommend it to all of those that I know. I am ever thankful for the author and Tyndale Publishers for sending this book my way.
I was given this book by Tyndale Publishers in exchange for my honest review.
What did you like about the book and why? The power of the stories people shared and how well they impact everyone. It is based on God so if you do not believe or are trying to learn, it will help.
- What did you not like about the book and why? nothing, I found it to be written well and easy to follow.
- What did you learn? Everyone has a different idea or story to share and the book holds some really great ones.
- To whom would you recommend this book and why? Adults and older teens who maybe have lost their way or are wanting to learn a bit more while connecting with the hearts and minds of others.
"If I struggle all the way to the end and sometimes even willfully choose to resist God, will the love of the Father still come for me?" This book is full of stories of people who struggle (like all of us) and the hope that is there for all of us. The prodigal son never stopped being a son. This book reminds us of the relentless, extravagant love of God that is for all of us. It's honest, raw, and thought provoking. It's not just stories of hope and healing, but it also brings up the hard questions that most of us have, if we're honest. That's what made the 2nd half of the book the 'meat' of the book.
I loved this book. I've heard Kevin Butcher speak before and I felt like this book was an extended conversation with him which is what I always wanted after he spoke. He shares stories from his Detroit church to illustrate the love of God and how we must continually choose God's love.
The stories were powerful and there were several times I had tears in my eyes. I appreciated that Kevin also used stories that didn't always have a happy ending.
Loved this book! It's not just another book about God as Father and the love He has for each of us but it's filled with real stories about real people and their own journey to knowing they are loved by God, including the author's own story. It's compelling, engaging and it's relatable no matter where you are on life's journey.