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Watch: Wide-Awake Faith in a World Fast Asleep
To be asleep is to be oblivious to being oblivious. The danger of sleep is the danger of carbon it’s colorless and odorless, and you’re anesthetized before you know it―before you ever hit the floor. And for the follower of Jesus, it’s just as dangerous―because the Christian who is “asleep” is spiritually unreceptive. If anything will be our undoing, sleep will.
In this thoughtful, engaging, challenging book, Rick James dives deep into the New Testament’s teachings on spiritual wakefulness, calling Christ-followers to defy the darkness and remain awake as they await Christ’s return. Because being awake―continually in prayer, watchful for God’s will, expectant of open doors, cautious of sin, desiring to serve, eager to repent, continuously giving thanks, willing to witness, embracing of humility, overflowing with kindness, persevering in obedience―changes everything.
In this thoughtful, engaging, challenging book, Rick James dives deep into the New Testament’s teachings on spiritual wakefulness, calling Christ-followers to defy the darkness and remain awake as they await Christ’s return. Because being awake―continually in prayer, watchful for God’s will, expectant of open doors, cautious of sin, desiring to serve, eager to repent, continuously giving thanks, willing to witness, embracing of humility, overflowing with kindness, persevering in obedience―changes everything.
272 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 9, 2023
Second time reading this. A sobering reminder of the importance of staying away and observant spiritually as the world around us works to steal our time in the doldrums of life and ultimately lead us into slumber. Four stars because sometime the stories can feel like too many, but I enjoy Rick’s humor with the hard truth of reality.
February 4, 2017
Review
Watch is a book which aims to call all Christians to a wakeful state whilst awaiting for Christ’s return, because to be awake, as in continually praying, cautious of sin and so on, will change everything and make the believer spiritually strong in facing all that Satan can throw at them, as Luke 21:36 reminds us.
Rick James, thinks a great deal about how he can present Jesus to college students and how each person can take Jesus into his or her everyday life. He has degrees in theology and advertising both of which he applies in his work through the use of humour and metaphor, topped with biblical substance.
When I first saw the title of this book I was excited to read it, thinking that it would give me a new insight into how to improve my own faith in everyday life. However, I was somewhat disappointed with the book. James’s attempt at humour was lost on me and I found it was not necessary in some areas. For example, in chapter three he says “There’s really no way to go through Ephesians 6:10-20 verse by verse in ... a chapter.” and then he finishes with a quip “Not gonna happen”, a comment implied by the first statement and thus superfluous. When I read that he is always thinking of ways to present Jesus to college students such statements made more sense and explained the style of writing more - it sounded like it was aimed at a younger audience so the way I read it would affect my reception of it.
In spite of the things that irked me with this book, because I was reading it with an older set of eyes and with a theology degree myself, I can see that there is a great deal of value within it, particularly for college students or those new on their Christian walk. I would certainly recommend it for younger people to help them understand how to help keep their faith strong.
I received a complimentary copy of the book for review purposes from Tyndale House.
Watch is a book which aims to call all Christians to a wakeful state whilst awaiting for Christ’s return, because to be awake, as in continually praying, cautious of sin and so on, will change everything and make the believer spiritually strong in facing all that Satan can throw at them, as Luke 21:36 reminds us.
Rick James, thinks a great deal about how he can present Jesus to college students and how each person can take Jesus into his or her everyday life. He has degrees in theology and advertising both of which he applies in his work through the use of humour and metaphor, topped with biblical substance.
When I first saw the title of this book I was excited to read it, thinking that it would give me a new insight into how to improve my own faith in everyday life. However, I was somewhat disappointed with the book. James’s attempt at humour was lost on me and I found it was not necessary in some areas. For example, in chapter three he says “There’s really no way to go through Ephesians 6:10-20 verse by verse in ... a chapter.” and then he finishes with a quip “Not gonna happen”, a comment implied by the first statement and thus superfluous. When I read that he is always thinking of ways to present Jesus to college students such statements made more sense and explained the style of writing more - it sounded like it was aimed at a younger audience so the way I read it would affect my reception of it.
In spite of the things that irked me with this book, because I was reading it with an older set of eyes and with a theology degree myself, I can see that there is a great deal of value within it, particularly for college students or those new on their Christian walk. I would certainly recommend it for younger people to help them understand how to help keep their faith strong.
I received a complimentary copy of the book for review purposes from Tyndale House.
November 1, 2016
Wonderfully written; ideas flow from the author in a refreshing way with his skill of humor mixed with storytelling, his points finding their true center. Great read for any follower of Christ desiring to stay apiritually awake and alert to their God-given purpose and plot.
December 19, 2016
What did you like about the book and why? I like that it moves the spirit in a Christian to do more while in turn trying to wake up the spirit.
- What did you not like about the book and why? It is not that I do not like it, but that author does fill this book more so with ideas then fact.
- What did you learn? I feel like the author teaches through a lighter tone and can help to really reach deeper to bring out the light.
- To whom would you recommend this book and why? Adult Christians would be the target audience as they will benefit the most as well as connect.
I recevied a complimentary copy.
- What did you not like about the book and why? It is not that I do not like it, but that author does fill this book more so with ideas then fact.
- What did you learn? I feel like the author teaches through a lighter tone and can help to really reach deeper to bring out the light.
- To whom would you recommend this book and why? Adult Christians would be the target audience as they will benefit the most as well as connect.
I recevied a complimentary copy.
February 24, 2017
This was a book I was looking forward to reading as I have noticed all around the world how Christians seem half asleep. To me, that means being politically correct, to being "luke warm", which is where Revelation 3:16 talks about being luke warm as worse than being cold. At least by being hot or cold you know what your beliefs are and stand by them.
So I wanted to like this book before I even began, but was sorely disappointed by the first few chapters. The writing was too rambling for me, James veered off in so many directions within one chapter that it was hard to keep up. He stuck anecdotes, paragraphs from books, and life experiences that didn't seem to align properly with that the topic at hand was. I started to feel it was too academic, getting too deep and educational where a simple explanation would have sufficed. I got lost - fast.
I ended up skimming the rest of the book. Where it gets hard is how to rate it. There were many, many good topics discussed (how we often we mistake the voice of God with our own voice, how evil truly does prowl around to tempt and destroy us in subtle, almost unnoticeable ways, etc.) but I felt I had to wade through a lot of unnecessary words/thoughts/quotes/etc. to glean those snippets of wisdom. I think a really good edit would have trimmed this book down into a more direct and readable book.
This book was given to me by Tyndale Publishers in exchange for my honest review.
So I wanted to like this book before I even began, but was sorely disappointed by the first few chapters. The writing was too rambling for me, James veered off in so many directions within one chapter that it was hard to keep up. He stuck anecdotes, paragraphs from books, and life experiences that didn't seem to align properly with that the topic at hand was. I started to feel it was too academic, getting too deep and educational where a simple explanation would have sufficed. I got lost - fast.
I ended up skimming the rest of the book. Where it gets hard is how to rate it. There were many, many good topics discussed (how we often we mistake the voice of God with our own voice, how evil truly does prowl around to tempt and destroy us in subtle, almost unnoticeable ways, etc.) but I felt I had to wade through a lot of unnecessary words/thoughts/quotes/etc. to glean those snippets of wisdom. I think a really good edit would have trimmed this book down into a more direct and readable book.
This book was given to me by Tyndale Publishers in exchange for my honest review.
January 11, 2017
"Watch" is book to help people wake up from their spiritual sleep. It will help people to see how and why our world is fast asleep spiritually through different topics that apply to modern life. Some of the chapters titles are: Sensory Data, Sleepless Cities, Psychedelic, Homeland, Speak Now, etc. There are examples given from the author's experiences, other people's experiences, information from books, news stories, etc. It will help people understand better how to get past the awkwardness of living a spiritual life that are different than the norm. It highlights a lot of areas that are relevant to any era.
I liked the Scripture examples of being spiritually and physically asleep in this book; I believe I connected to the topic of being spiritually asleep well. I was hoping for some more ancient examples of how to come out of sleepfulness, and how they can be applied to today's times though and found myself getting lost in the various modern examples given.
I found myself interested in the "Why I Hate Community" points section in Chapter 4, since spiritual community has been a hard thing for me to get connected to pretty much my whole life. I liked that even though the author had some important reasons why he doesn't like community, that it seemed to help him spiritually to get over the uncomfortableness and experience community in spite of them. That is an encouragement to me to help me get over the uncomfortableness I often feel regarding congregation / spiritual community.
In my opinion, this book does a great job of showing how a lot of the world is fast asleep, but I really didn't connect with anything about how to become and stay awake spiritually. I loved learning that demonic (impure spirits) look for places to rest (based on Matthew 12:43-45), and it helped me think about how I should be on the watch for ways demonic spirits may try to come into my life, and to bring that to God when it happens so he can drive them away.
I felt like this book has a humorous tone, which will help people that like humor to find some truth in humorous ways, although I think the book did have a serious tone at times as well.
My review= 3 out of 5 stars
I received this book free for the purpose of writing an honest and unbiased review.
I liked the Scripture examples of being spiritually and physically asleep in this book; I believe I connected to the topic of being spiritually asleep well. I was hoping for some more ancient examples of how to come out of sleepfulness, and how they can be applied to today's times though and found myself getting lost in the various modern examples given.
I found myself interested in the "Why I Hate Community" points section in Chapter 4, since spiritual community has been a hard thing for me to get connected to pretty much my whole life. I liked that even though the author had some important reasons why he doesn't like community, that it seemed to help him spiritually to get over the uncomfortableness and experience community in spite of them. That is an encouragement to me to help me get over the uncomfortableness I often feel regarding congregation / spiritual community.
In my opinion, this book does a great job of showing how a lot of the world is fast asleep, but I really didn't connect with anything about how to become and stay awake spiritually. I loved learning that demonic (impure spirits) look for places to rest (based on Matthew 12:43-45), and it helped me think about how I should be on the watch for ways demonic spirits may try to come into my life, and to bring that to God when it happens so he can drive them away.
I felt like this book has a humorous tone, which will help people that like humor to find some truth in humorous ways, although I think the book did have a serious tone at times as well.
My review= 3 out of 5 stars
I received this book free for the purpose of writing an honest and unbiased review.
December 29, 2016
We don't know the day or hour of Christ's return. We are to remain awake and keep watch. (Mark 13:32-37)
James identifies sleep as a fitting metaphor for one “who has been quickened by God's Spirit but remains oblivious and unresponsive to spiritual reality...” We get distracted from our spiritual lives. Being awake, James says, is a matter of perspective and awareness.
James explores a number of aspects of being awake. There is discerning God's will, being alert to spiritual warfare, experiencing trials, realizing that the resurrected Christ lives within, awareness of the life to come, not being a hypocrite, and being ready to share the gospel.
I found this book to be a bit rambling and not as structured as I'd like. He tells lots of stories. Sometimes I wondered what the story had to do with the lesson he was teaching. I did enjoy learning about the brotherly origin of Adidas and Puma. And it was interesting to find out why dogs stick their heads out of car windows.
But there was a long section on memory to introduce us to the use of our senses to discern God's will. The connection? “Memory is a matter of bringing to bear all of the input from all of the senses.” He argues that we must also have a multisensory approach to discerning God's will. But did I really need to know how Joshua Foer remembers the order of a deck of cards or about memory palaces? Many of the stories with which he began each chapter just seemed irrelevant.
Perhaps this book is aimed at a younger crowd that loves reading stories about movies and contemporary people. James did give a few illustrations from godly people and I enjoyed those much more than the others.
I was not captivated by this book nor was I greatly encouraged to be awake and watchful. The topics seemed all over the place and there was just too much irrelevant information in the way of stories. I had a hard time following the trajectory of the book. Others may find this book inspiring, especially those who have not read much on living a fervent spiritual life.
I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
James identifies sleep as a fitting metaphor for one “who has been quickened by God's Spirit but remains oblivious and unresponsive to spiritual reality...” We get distracted from our spiritual lives. Being awake, James says, is a matter of perspective and awareness.
James explores a number of aspects of being awake. There is discerning God's will, being alert to spiritual warfare, experiencing trials, realizing that the resurrected Christ lives within, awareness of the life to come, not being a hypocrite, and being ready to share the gospel.
I found this book to be a bit rambling and not as structured as I'd like. He tells lots of stories. Sometimes I wondered what the story had to do with the lesson he was teaching. I did enjoy learning about the brotherly origin of Adidas and Puma. And it was interesting to find out why dogs stick their heads out of car windows.
But there was a long section on memory to introduce us to the use of our senses to discern God's will. The connection? “Memory is a matter of bringing to bear all of the input from all of the senses.” He argues that we must also have a multisensory approach to discerning God's will. But did I really need to know how Joshua Foer remembers the order of a deck of cards or about memory palaces? Many of the stories with which he began each chapter just seemed irrelevant.
Perhaps this book is aimed at a younger crowd that loves reading stories about movies and contemporary people. James did give a few illustrations from godly people and I enjoyed those much more than the others.
I was not captivated by this book nor was I greatly encouraged to be awake and watchful. The topics seemed all over the place and there was just too much irrelevant information in the way of stories. I had a hard time following the trajectory of the book. Others may find this book inspiring, especially those who have not read much on living a fervent spiritual life.
I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
January 16, 2017
Not bad, but neither is it spectacular. Took me a very long time to actually start reading it after initially flipping through the pages. It does have a rather interesting book cover that caught my attention, probably due to the rooster that I currently have in the backyard that crows around 4 am. A time that is nowhere near a time that he needs to be crowing. In fact, this particular rooster is useless, because he doesn't do a very good job in watching his flock of hens. What he does do a good job of, is eyeballing me and wondering when I'm not watching him so he can make his dash and attempt to flog me. But me, I'm always watching out for him, like him for me.
But back to the book. The synopsis of the book is that you have a "wide-awake faith in a world fast asleep." I find myself often pondering this ideology which is why I was curious to read this book.
I found the book to be relatively easy to read, and with enough bible quotes not to feel like I was being preached upon. If you are wanting a theological discussion on how the world of Christians are sleeping, then this is not the book for you. It is not deep, for which I was thankful for, and was just enough thought provoking that made me look into my own life and look for ways to make changes. But, neither will I be calling up fellow church member to have an in-depth discussion on this book.
It was divided into chapters, and each chapter had short stories sprinkled with bible verses to make the point across. I like that I am able to pick up the book and be able to start reading in the middle, without getting lost because I didn't read each page by page by chapter by chapter.
Would I recommend this book? Um, maybe. It's light reading and something to pass the time on a trip. For me, I enjoyed it for the most part.
I received this book complimentary from the publisher, Tyndale Publisher, via the Tyndale Blog Network. The review I wrote was my own honest opinion, without any pressure to present a positive review.
But back to the book. The synopsis of the book is that you have a "wide-awake faith in a world fast asleep." I find myself often pondering this ideology which is why I was curious to read this book.
I found the book to be relatively easy to read, and with enough bible quotes not to feel like I was being preached upon. If you are wanting a theological discussion on how the world of Christians are sleeping, then this is not the book for you. It is not deep, for which I was thankful for, and was just enough thought provoking that made me look into my own life and look for ways to make changes. But, neither will I be calling up fellow church member to have an in-depth discussion on this book.
It was divided into chapters, and each chapter had short stories sprinkled with bible verses to make the point across. I like that I am able to pick up the book and be able to start reading in the middle, without getting lost because I didn't read each page by page by chapter by chapter.
Would I recommend this book? Um, maybe. It's light reading and something to pass the time on a trip. For me, I enjoyed it for the most part.
I received this book complimentary from the publisher, Tyndale Publisher, via the Tyndale Blog Network. The review I wrote was my own honest opinion, without any pressure to present a positive review.
September 4, 2017
It is rare for me to start a book and not finish it. I started, and did not finish, this book twice. I'll explain in a bit.
Rick James, a former ad-agency art director, who has a long engagement in collegiate ministry, sets out wake up sleeping Christians. Using the Gethsemane scene in the gospels where Jesus goes off to pray, returning only to find his disciples asleep. Jesus' advice to them was to stay awake, or alert.
Read more at: http://jasoncstanley.com/book-review-...
Rick James, a former ad-agency art director, who has a long engagement in collegiate ministry, sets out wake up sleeping Christians. Using the Gethsemane scene in the gospels where Jesus goes off to pray, returning only to find his disciples asleep. Jesus' advice to them was to stay awake, or alert.
Read more at: http://jasoncstanley.com/book-review-...
January 31, 2017
I loved the description of this book because I couldn’t agree more that our world, particularly our Christian world, is asleep in their faith and we need to live wide away.
This book did approach the subject a bit differently then I anticipated but it was still very well written. I loved James’ tone as writer. He is taking on a very heavy subject but he manages to keep a light, and even fun, tone throughout.
He shares personal stories, which always draws me in and also shares his thoughts and ties them into scripture. This is a very powerful read and with some great thoughts and insights that will challenge you and your faith.
A copy of this book was given to me by the publisher. All opinions are my own.
This book did approach the subject a bit differently then I anticipated but it was still very well written. I loved James’ tone as writer. He is taking on a very heavy subject but he manages to keep a light, and even fun, tone throughout.
He shares personal stories, which always draws me in and also shares his thoughts and ties them into scripture. This is a very powerful read and with some great thoughts and insights that will challenge you and your faith.
A copy of this book was given to me by the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews