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Challenging Lifestyle
Based on the Sermon on the Mount. Our culture is obsessed by lifestyle. Magazines and websites tell us what to wear, how to get fit and what to drive. But Jesus lived, and taught about, a radically different kind of lifestyle. How to deal with anger. How to handle money. What to do when faced with difficult people.
In this engaging and fascinating book, Nicky Gumbel takes a closer look at the Sermon on the Mount and presents, with his familiar mix of humour and wisdom, the way Jesus tells us to live our lives.
In this engaging and fascinating book, Nicky Gumbel takes a closer look at the Sermon on the Mount and presents, with his familiar mix of humour and wisdom, the way Jesus tells us to live our lives.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
3 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Nicky Gumbel
180 books87 followersNicholas Glyn Paul Gumbel, known as Nicky Gumbel, is an English Anglican priest and author in the evangelical and charismatic traditions. He is known as the developer of the Alpha Course, a basic introduction to Christianity supported by churches of many Christian traditions.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 17, 2014
The Sermon on the Mount is both fascinating and challenging. It is revolutionary in the way it looks at character, lifestyle, inner life, relationships and attitudes, and challenges the listener to think deeply about their personal life and Christian faith.
BUT it is challenging and we need to understand it to live it. This book tries to explain the Sermon on the Mount by exploring what it means in our contemporary context and looking at the implications of the Sermon for our lives today. It isn't easy.
This is a great book but I do have some reservations about its explanations. If I had read this book at age 19 then I would have given each chapter a huge cheer. Now at 48 with many years of life behind me I am more reflective. I do appreciate the wisdom that is found in this book and the opinions of the author but I also appreciate and understand the complexity of life and the way we live it. I am also much more aware of my own human frailty.
Having said all of this brokeness, human frailty and sin should not prevent us from trying to live in a way that is ethical and based on a faith that is real. I think this is the challenge and the correct attitude is for us to try and to keep trying to live in a way that tells forth the glory of God.
I had a really good reading experience with this book which led me into reflection and prayer. I decided to read this as one of my Lent books for 2014 and despite a few ups and downs with the book it was an excellent choice. It was excellent because it had a simple way of making me think even when I disagreed about some of the issues discussed in the book.
Challenging Lifestyles is a kind of follow on book from the Alpha Course but can be read without doing the course. It provides a step by step guide on different issues of everyday living. The book is quite ambitious because it takes the Sermon on the Mount and uses this as a basis for addressing some of the most complex issues that people face - marriage, adultery, anger, integrity, love, use of money and other issues.
I found it helpful to reflect on these core themes. I have been a Christian all my life and the fact is life with all its beauty and grace can actually be quite hard especially when the way of resolving a problem is beyond the reach of an individual. Although the answers and teachings given in the bible can appear to be very clear and straightforward, the application of them can be very difficult taking time, deep pastoral care for people, prayer, persistence, tremendous grace and what Eugene Peterson calls a long obedience in the same direction.
I don't know if the book gives enough emphasis on the need for people to seek help and the fact that sometimes things just don't resolve themselves in the way we would want them to. There is the huge issue of sin, of human frailty and of brokeness, and I would have wanted to see resources of where people can go for help if they need it.
In spite of this I enjoyed reading it. I could see where things in my life have simply not gone the way I feel God would have wanted and yet even in those hard circumstances there is hope.
Of course there are some things I didn't agree with in this book, particularly what I feel are sweeping statements. I also found that I had differences in emphasis but my cultural background is very different to that of the author and so that is to be expected. This is not a rule book. It is a good reflection of biblical teaching and does its best to apply it to some of life's big questions.
It was interesting to see the different way the Beatitudes are given emphasis. For me 'blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness - has always been about righteousness in society and thirsting after social justice. Here it was given a different perspective - individual righteousness.
The chapter on anger and forgiveness led me to reflect on forgiveness in my life. I find that for me forgiveness is a process. There are people who have cast great shadows over my life by their actions and whenever I think about these I have to forgive anew. Very often I am forgiving for the sad loss of what might have been. I found this chapter on forgiveness and anger to be releasing.
In the chapter on adultery I fully appreciated the important points that were made especially about the insidious nature of adultery but there were some sweeping statements that I didn't agree with. I felt the chapter kind of assumed that marriage is always a good thing. In principal it is when it works but for many people it is a place of pain and danger, and sadly death. So for me it is good, strong marriages that are good.
I also disagreed with the statement that 'marriage is God's norm'. Just because it is in the bible does not make it God's norm. I think God's norm is a human being, fully alive and living this fullness in what ever status they find themselves whether married, single, divorced, widowed. Marriage and children are wonderful but not for everyone and I don't think God intends it for everyone.
The chapter on divorce was actually very good. I didn't agree with one statement (only one though). The author does not believe that separation is acceptable. Really? Tell that to the millions of women and men who have to flee their home because of violence. When two women a week are murdered in the UK because of domestic violence to say that separation is wrong is to be either very naïve or to be blind to the horror that exists in some of the marriages around us. For some people separation can save their lives and the lives of their children. To be fair to the author he does acknowledge that the NT position is that marriage is permanent and divorce should only be allowed in extreme circumstances and later on in the chapter he does acknowledge that physical abuse can lead to the breakdown in marriage.
The one thing I did appreciate most in this chapter was how to make a marriage work. I think it is very easy to ignore the fact that marriage take work, time and commitment. The author points this out toward the end of the chapter on divorce and I think that this emphasis should have been made at the beginning. All relationships even friendships need time, communication, commitment and love and this requires real work. I found that even though I didn't agree with a few of the statements in that chapter, I fully agreed with the chapter in its entirety.
The chapter on Fasting was very helpful and encouraging, giving some background about the purpose of fasting and different ways of fasting too. It warned against legalism and emphasised the practice of fasting as a spiritual discipline.
My favourite chapter was chapter 14 on 'How to Stop Worrying and Start Living'. I am not someone who worries because I have learnt not to but I really appreciated the way the chapter emphasised 'living' and living for others. The mention made of Wiliam Wilberforce and his campaigning for 45 years for the abolition of slavery helped me to look at my own campaigning efforts in the field of HIV prevention and human rights for LGBT people. It helped me to refocus and see these not as passing activities but as mission and God's calling. I do recognise this generally but this book helped me to focus on this issue for Lent.
So I thought it was a good book for teaching in church about the way things ought to be. It is not a book I would use in counselling people who have found that the way it ought to be isn't the way life actually is for them.
Having said this the title is very appropriate - because life in all its joy can be extremely challenging and to live a God kind of life even more so.
This is a very good book tackling some really difficult issues. I am glad I took the time over Lent to read, pray and reflect on the issues raised here.
BUT it is challenging and we need to understand it to live it. This book tries to explain the Sermon on the Mount by exploring what it means in our contemporary context and looking at the implications of the Sermon for our lives today. It isn't easy.
This is a great book but I do have some reservations about its explanations. If I had read this book at age 19 then I would have given each chapter a huge cheer. Now at 48 with many years of life behind me I am more reflective. I do appreciate the wisdom that is found in this book and the opinions of the author but I also appreciate and understand the complexity of life and the way we live it. I am also much more aware of my own human frailty.
Having said all of this brokeness, human frailty and sin should not prevent us from trying to live in a way that is ethical and based on a faith that is real. I think this is the challenge and the correct attitude is for us to try and to keep trying to live in a way that tells forth the glory of God.
I had a really good reading experience with this book which led me into reflection and prayer. I decided to read this as one of my Lent books for 2014 and despite a few ups and downs with the book it was an excellent choice. It was excellent because it had a simple way of making me think even when I disagreed about some of the issues discussed in the book.
Challenging Lifestyles is a kind of follow on book from the Alpha Course but can be read without doing the course. It provides a step by step guide on different issues of everyday living. The book is quite ambitious because it takes the Sermon on the Mount and uses this as a basis for addressing some of the most complex issues that people face - marriage, adultery, anger, integrity, love, use of money and other issues.
I found it helpful to reflect on these core themes. I have been a Christian all my life and the fact is life with all its beauty and grace can actually be quite hard especially when the way of resolving a problem is beyond the reach of an individual. Although the answers and teachings given in the bible can appear to be very clear and straightforward, the application of them can be very difficult taking time, deep pastoral care for people, prayer, persistence, tremendous grace and what Eugene Peterson calls a long obedience in the same direction.
I don't know if the book gives enough emphasis on the need for people to seek help and the fact that sometimes things just don't resolve themselves in the way we would want them to. There is the huge issue of sin, of human frailty and of brokeness, and I would have wanted to see resources of where people can go for help if they need it.
In spite of this I enjoyed reading it. I could see where things in my life have simply not gone the way I feel God would have wanted and yet even in those hard circumstances there is hope.
Of course there are some things I didn't agree with in this book, particularly what I feel are sweeping statements. I also found that I had differences in emphasis but my cultural background is very different to that of the author and so that is to be expected. This is not a rule book. It is a good reflection of biblical teaching and does its best to apply it to some of life's big questions.
It was interesting to see the different way the Beatitudes are given emphasis. For me 'blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness - has always been about righteousness in society and thirsting after social justice. Here it was given a different perspective - individual righteousness.
The chapter on anger and forgiveness led me to reflect on forgiveness in my life. I find that for me forgiveness is a process. There are people who have cast great shadows over my life by their actions and whenever I think about these I have to forgive anew. Very often I am forgiving for the sad loss of what might have been. I found this chapter on forgiveness and anger to be releasing.
In the chapter on adultery I fully appreciated the important points that were made especially about the insidious nature of adultery but there were some sweeping statements that I didn't agree with. I felt the chapter kind of assumed that marriage is always a good thing. In principal it is when it works but for many people it is a place of pain and danger, and sadly death. So for me it is good, strong marriages that are good.
I also disagreed with the statement that 'marriage is God's norm'. Just because it is in the bible does not make it God's norm. I think God's norm is a human being, fully alive and living this fullness in what ever status they find themselves whether married, single, divorced, widowed. Marriage and children are wonderful but not for everyone and I don't think God intends it for everyone.
The chapter on divorce was actually very good. I didn't agree with one statement (only one though). The author does not believe that separation is acceptable. Really? Tell that to the millions of women and men who have to flee their home because of violence. When two women a week are murdered in the UK because of domestic violence to say that separation is wrong is to be either very naïve or to be blind to the horror that exists in some of the marriages around us. For some people separation can save their lives and the lives of their children. To be fair to the author he does acknowledge that the NT position is that marriage is permanent and divorce should only be allowed in extreme circumstances and later on in the chapter he does acknowledge that physical abuse can lead to the breakdown in marriage.
The one thing I did appreciate most in this chapter was how to make a marriage work. I think it is very easy to ignore the fact that marriage take work, time and commitment. The author points this out toward the end of the chapter on divorce and I think that this emphasis should have been made at the beginning. All relationships even friendships need time, communication, commitment and love and this requires real work. I found that even though I didn't agree with a few of the statements in that chapter, I fully agreed with the chapter in its entirety.
The chapter on Fasting was very helpful and encouraging, giving some background about the purpose of fasting and different ways of fasting too. It warned against legalism and emphasised the practice of fasting as a spiritual discipline.
My favourite chapter was chapter 14 on 'How to Stop Worrying and Start Living'. I am not someone who worries because I have learnt not to but I really appreciated the way the chapter emphasised 'living' and living for others. The mention made of Wiliam Wilberforce and his campaigning for 45 years for the abolition of slavery helped me to look at my own campaigning efforts in the field of HIV prevention and human rights for LGBT people. It helped me to refocus and see these not as passing activities but as mission and God's calling. I do recognise this generally but this book helped me to focus on this issue for Lent.
So I thought it was a good book for teaching in church about the way things ought to be. It is not a book I would use in counselling people who have found that the way it ought to be isn't the way life actually is for them.
Having said this the title is very appropriate - because life in all its joy can be extremely challenging and to live a God kind of life even more so.
This is a very good book tackling some really difficult issues. I am glad I took the time over Lent to read, pray and reflect on the issues raised here.
June 2, 2021
The best book I read. While reading this book I felt like it’s a religious book of Christians but the values and lessons the writer is trying to teach us are realistic and more valuable.
Here is the video link as a summary from this book.
https://youtu.be/F0OefhN4AZo
Here is the video link as a summary from this book.
https://youtu.be/F0OefhN4AZo
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews