3rd December, 2004

CAROLE ADAMS

"Eldredge believes that Christians today are crippled by a belief that their hearts are wicked, even after they come to accept Christ as their saviour. By living with this belief we are held back from the abundant life which is our right. He makes it clear that this does not mean we will never have to battle our flesh or the world, after all we are in a war."

John Eldredge. Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive. Thomas Nelson, 2003.

In a compelling and challenging book, Eldredge explores the question so many Christians face in their day-to-day lives: where is the abundant life that Jesus promised to all believers, the promise that says: “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10). We are left in no doubt from Christ’s words that this promise is not just for the future, but here and now and on into eternity. So why do so few Christians feel that they are living every day fully to the glory of God?

The answers given are not new, but the way they are presented gives the reader new perspective. Eldredge reminds us that we are in a war, that we do have an enemy whose sole purpose is to stop us living the way that Jesus freed us to. We don’t have a choice about being in this war, as Christians we are in it, like it or not. The things of this world cover, veil or submerge reality so that we have real trouble seeing the truth. Stories, myths and legends are used to explain how we live in two worlds, or one world with two parts. One we see around us and one we cannot see - a point Eldredge aptly illustrates by drawing on different types of literature and film to illustrate the place of myth in helping us see the reality we live in.

Eldredge believes that Christians today are crippled by a belief that their hearts are wicked, even after they come to accept Christ as their saviour. By living with this belief we are held back from the abundant life which is our right. He makes it clear that this does not mean we will never have to battle our flesh or the world, after all we are in a war. The heart is the battleground and we must believe God when He says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh”. (Ezekiel 36:26).

The last chapters of the book explain how we can allow God to continually nourish and renew our hearts, which are precious to Him. There are four streams, the author says, through which we receive this abundant life from the hands of Christ: Walking with God, Receiving God’s intimate Counsel, Deep Restoration and Spiritual Warfare. Each of these streams is fully discussed, and Eldredge outlines practical ways that we can drink deeply from them, including specific prayers he has used, and using passages of scripture to help our understanding. He uses personal experiences as well as stories about people he has ministered to in each of these areas. As Eldredge says – we all have a story and we are all part of the much bigger story which we can only see through the eyes of our heart.

Waking the Dead is the kind of book that the reader might want to keep and refer back to regularly. It is nothing short of a wake-up call.