God: A Good Father

by Michael R. Phillips

In this startling book, Michael Phillips challenges the established Christian to step out of the status quo and into a breathtaking new relationship with God the Father. In a style reminiscent of John Bunyan's classic Pilgrim's Progress, Phillips acts as a "guide" on a journey to the place of the presence of our Heavenly Father. A "divine restlessness" will stir your heart as you follow Michael Phillips out of the "fogbound lowlands" of our typical existence and you climb to the "mountain home of Abba Father", learning to know Him - His love, His goodness, His trustworthiness, His forgiveness - and choosing to live in His heart and drink of His water of life forever!

152 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Librarian Note: there is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.

Michael Phillips has been writing in the Christian marketplace for 30 years. All told, he has written, co-written, and edited some 110 books. Phillips and his wife live in the U.S., and make their second home in Scotland.

Reviews

[Joellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how this author takes you on a gentle journey to knowing God as Abba, Father. His imagery was so satisfying too!

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure what bothers me about this book. But, I dnf.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am listening to this book along with The Mystery of Providence. Talk about contrast. Both books are excellent though parallel truth or maybe paradoxical? This author, I think, has written fiction as well so he is good with words. He focuses on the love of God the Father for his children. He writes that humans are essentially good whereas our puritan John Flavel focuses on the sinful nature of humans. God created humans good and all of his creation (Genesis 1-2). Humans do have a sinful nature but they also have a good nature. I mean, how many people who are not believers still do good things and are "good people." I find some believers are reluctant to call humans "good" for fear of downplaying the sin nature.

He magnifies the love of God rather than the nature of humanity. He has a few chapters about how our views of our human fathers has a tendency to mess up our understanding, appreciation and grasping how much God loves us, each of us. He has a chapter on the how we really must continue to be like children. What does he call that? Not childishness, something else....can't remember now.

The disappointment we feel from other humans especially fathers fogs our comprehension of God as the ultimate good loving father. I would say if we put spouses, lovers even in the same category as God that will also mess a person up.