A God to Call Father: Discovering Intimacy With God

by Michael R. Phillips

Book by Phillips, Michael R.

Genres: Spirituality

252 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1994

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

[Carlos Montijo · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a huge disappointment. I thought it was going to provide some meaty theological discussion, but this wasn't the case. The author kept emphasizing free will, almost to an extreme, much like another horribly disappointing book, Get Off Your Knees and Pray by Sheila Walsh (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/70...), which didn’t even address the tough theological questions that it mentioned (because all it did was mention them).

I can’t stand these modern "Christian" books. According to Phillips, it's wrong to believe that Jesus saved us from God, even though the Bible says, "...having now been justified by His [Christ's] blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:9-10).

Phillips also stressed that there are many “borderline” and “valley” Christians who are “saved” but not in a truly intimate relationship with their heavenly Father; and he kept making huge assumptions about how most Christians know this or think like this or don’t know that. While Spurgeon described that, just as there were several levels in Noah's ark, some of which were closer to God, so there are levels of Christians; Phillips trivializes salvation, much like a flu shot that someone took a long time ago.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could I would have given this book 3 1/2 stars.
There were elements of it that I found very encouraging, challenging and personally edifying.
However, there were also aspects that I found a bit distracting, especially as Phillips wove into the learning and growing portions of the text a form of allegory that sometimes really worked and sometimes didn't (for me at least).
I was glad to share his journey in discovering what it means to have a personal intimate relationship with Father God.

[Teri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy the narrative in this book. It felt as if Phillips had too recently read "Hinds Feet in High Places" and paired it with inspiration from A.W. Tozer's "The Pursuit of God" hoping to create a poetic, allegorical classic of his own.

Phillips' message is good but the writing pained me as 3 chapters with only one narrative voice would have communicated the importance of living in God's love and goodness. The concept of the mist, the mountain, and the traveler fell flat... and took far too long a time in that fall.

[Michael Burdick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good look at life in the garden as it was meant to be. If you want relationship over religion, this is a good one.