The words of Jesus—red letter words—are the most important and life changing ever spoken.
Discover the things Jesus thought were most important.
What He says about how to live.
His relationship with God and the Holy Spirit.
And His overwhelming love for you.
More than 115 passages from the Bible are considered with illuminating explanation and background facts. Most of all, discovering Jesus’ words will breathe life into your relationship with Him and help you draw close to the One who knows you fully and loves you completely.
The Red Letter Words of Jesus, a classic gift book by bestselling author Jack Countryman, will encourage you in your faith journey, whether you are seeking Christ for the first time or have been following Him for decades.
With Jesus’ words on one beautiful, highly designed page, and an informative explanation on the facing page, The Red Letter Words of Jesus will bring to life the teachings of Jesus in a new way.
Loved this. I didn’t realise it was meant to be a daily devotional so I read a few a day. Loved how the author unpacked the verse of the day. It was really challenging and definitely learnt from this book
[Note: This book was provided free of charge by BookLook/Thomas Nelson Publishing. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]
As the second book by this author I have read [1] by this author, I must admit I had some preconceived notions going in. For example, I thought for sure that the author was writing under an assumed name. Jack Countryman sounds just like what you would expect a patriotic and fairly ordinary mainstream Christian would call himself to keep his cover from being blown while running for political office, but as it turns out the gentleman is writing under his own name and is the founder of Thomas Nelson's gift department. This book certainly fits within that realm. In reading this book it took me a while to realize it was a devotional, albeit one of a particularly simple sort, and I felt for sure that there would be some kind of altar call before too long in the book, and sure enough it ended with a short altar call masquerading as a commentary on Revelation 3:20. At least it was nice to know that not all of my intuitions had gone awry, as a frequent reader of such devotional material [2].
In terms of the contents of this book they are very rudimentary, which I am gathering is the general standard of the author's work. The left side of the book is made up of well-designed and graphically enhanced citations of verses that are among those spoken directly by Jesus Christ, although it is by no means an exhaustive list. The right-side pages of the book, on the other hand, are made up of extremely short discussions of those verses, sometimes sticking close to the text at hand, sometimes discussing matters of contemporary political or cultural importance, and sometimes even making contradictions, as in the matter of making "judgments" about other people. The author muffs some opportunities to talk about the Sabbath when citing Jesus' claim to be the Lord of the Sabbath and adds very little depth to the scriptures that are talked about. To be sure, there are pleasant reminders about matters that believers should keep in mind, but there is very little here that demonstrates spiritual insight or intellectual depth.
Overall, this is a good book, and hopefully it will encourage people to read the Bible more, but for those of us who do read the Bible and books about the Bible, this book comes off as being awfully lightweight. If you want a book that will not be too demanding for a nominal Christian or a young person who might be looking to get a grasp of some of the short sayings of Jesus Christ taken from the Gospels (Matthew, Luke, and John far more than Mark) along with the closing altar call from Revelation 3:20, this book would make a good gift. If you're looking for a book that will challenge you or that will spark you to think about things you may never have thought about before, this book will likely come off as more than a little bit shallow and superficial. A large part of that is in the way the book is designed. With only a short page to devote to every verse, and only one verse covered at a time, there simply is no space to cover matters in depth, and the result is two or three very short paragraphs being all that can be said about even the most nuanced and complex and enigmatic of the quotations included here.
The Red Letter Words of Jesus is a lovely devotional with more than a hundred passages from the Bible that are explained. This devotional is a beautiful burgundy hard back book with gorgeous detailing on the cover. At the front of the book you have a "gift" page that is followed by a Bible verse on the left side and the explanation of the right side with each page having beautiful detail at the top. This would make a perfect gift or a great devotional for yourself.
This book may serve well as a devotional text but does not deliver what I expected from such a title. While I was expecting a text of only the words of Jesus, the book is a daily devotional which focuses on Jesus’s words. I suppose I should have read a sample prior to purchasing the book.
Basic, light devotional around the "Red Letter Words of Jesus". Good for a light devotional with little inspiration beyond standard interpretations. A few reflections may introduce some good thought for growth in Jesus' teaching, but most are very passive - just rest in comfort of Jesus saving you. Not particularly engaging for me, but others apparently do find value.
My friends Lori and Ed gave this to us for a gift. I incorporated it into my daily devotion time. I loved the commentary behind the verses that are red in the Bible.
This was a wonderful Easter gift from my sisterhood group. Thank you so much ladies. This is the perfect book to read right before falling asleep. It gives you peace and comfort the whole night through.