From Publishers Weekly
Blackaby, the Baptist minister who wrote the bestseller Experiencing God (1998), has crafted a serious, meaty argument that God wants His people to become His lifelong and dearly beloved friends. The way to do that, says Blackaby, is to emulate Abraham's response to God. Abraham practiced immediate obedience, even if he didn't understand the full picture of God's plan. Blackaby explains that obedience brings a fuller depth of knowledge of God, not only to the one called to be obedient but to his or her immediate family. Blackaby also uses Abraham's times of disobedience to show the tragic consequences when would-be followers take matters into their own hands. The author argues that disobedience can affect future generations, as when Abraham chose to sire a son with his wife's handmaiden, Hagar (rather than wait for God to fulfill his promise through his wife, Sarai), or when he passed Sarai off as his sister to the Pharaoh Abimelech. Blackaby maintains that God can still be gracious even while demonstrating consequences. Faith, in his opinion, is more than just a verbal statement--it is mindful obedience to God's voice. Each chapter closes with excellent questions for study and response. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Book Description

God called Abraham to be His friend. Henry Blackaby uses the example set by Abraham to show how God uses difficult events, traumatic circumstances, and trying life experiences to lead us to spiritual maturity. Readers will learn how God interacts with His people to transform them into men and women He can call friends. From the first time we respond to God's Spirit in our lives through the choices that help us develop a worthy character, Abraham's story shows us how we can be transformed and become friends of God.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Through years of prayerful study, Henry Blackaby has uncovered powerful ways God shaped Abraham to be His friend. The Bible's amazing portraits of Abraham, Blackaby tells us, show how God can make a follower a true friend, and how faith and obedience lead to a lifetime of joyous blessing.

The way forward is, of course, not always easy. Sometimes, Blackaby explains, God uses difficult events, traumatic experiences, and even our own faithless choices to lead us on to spiritual maturity. But from the first time we respond to God's call through the choices that carry us farther along, Abraham's story rings with assurance. Created to Be God's Friend demonstrates that God can be trusted to take us to a new place of purified character, growing love, and untold benefits.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly