A Pilgrim's Guide to Rest

by Byron Yawn, Ryan Haskins, Jon Moffitt

It’s almost certain that you’re living the Christian life in the wrong direction. The path you’re on leads from duty to acceptance. You live to gain acceptance before God. Every day you’re becoming the type of person that God would be pleased to save and call His own. Your trek is all uphill and filled with perpetual uncertainty. But this is not the flow of the Gospel — at least the one uncovered and rediscovered in the Reformation. The one defended by the Apostles. The one which was incarnate and walked among us. That Gospel always flows away from moralism. Therefore, Christianity is the antithesis of moralism, and life is lived from acceptance outward. We don’t do what we do in order to get something, but because we already have it. However, making that turn and heading back the opposite direction is no easy thing. Acceptance is a strange horizon when we’ve been conditioned to pursue assurance rather than rest in it. A Pilgrim’s Guide to Rest is an explanation of what that turn looks like and the freedom it can yield to the weary pilgrim.

251 pages, ebook

Published September 1, 2018

Reviews

[W Sweet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gets to the heart of the gospel, while pointing out how our culture has slipped back into the error of adding to the sufficiency of Christ. This book indeed has been a God-send for me in that it has shown me how I can move forward from a position of REST.

[John Rakshith Prabhakar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most encouraging book I've read in a while. It helped me rest in Christ better!

[Nicholas Pokorny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A theological treatise on why Christians need to rest in the fact that they do not have to earn their place nor maintain it in Christ.

I find some of the writers' dogmatic assertions to be indicative of Reformed Theology as a whole (other places on the internet assure that sentiment). Their unfounded assertions and lack of current theological trends add to their unwillingness to study certain matters further. This results in one less star.

The other reason for deducting a star from rating this book is their unwillingness to cite works to support their claims, unless those claims were in their favor (an inconsistency that shows from beginning to end).

A good book on the larger issue at hand. I recommend it to any Christian.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up

I've been a fan of Theocast for a while now and was excited to finally read their book! If you listen to their podcast, everything in this book will sound familiar. I've heard them say that people have said the book is like the podcast on steroids. Instead, I would say that the book is an organized overview that *guides* the reader through a transition from Pietism/Legalism to a Reformed/Confessional world. It's not so much an amplified version of the podcast but more of a structured and compassionate discussion of a lot of the topics they explore in the podcast. I love Byron's chapters as he walks us through how we got to our current evangelical context. Knowing the history is so important. I also really enjoyed Ryan's chapter. Highly recommend for all the weary pilgrims out there!