Book Review - Yawning At Tigers (5/8)

When was the last time you heard a sermon or read something remotely close to God’s holiness? How about the last time prior to that? I bet that will probably leave you scratching your head for a little while. Now compare that with the love of God, i’m sure that would be an easy question to answer, but wouldn’t it surprise you that God is far more often praised for his holiness in the bible? What’s with this skewness in our churches today?

With this concern in mind, Drew Dyck hopes to remind today’s christians that God is holy, and a untameable God. Dyck introduces God as a being who’s holy, one who’s set apart, one who’s the ‘other’, and fully worthy of praise. He mentions the importance of having the vision, the vision of God’s holiness which no doubt will shape and mould our lives. I agree with him on this point, as the common aphorism states ‘your attitude determines your altitude’, so much of weaknesses in today’s christianity often lies in the low, trifling view of God.

Dyck also brings out the point of the relief of holiness in this book. RELIEF you say? How can holiness be relieving? Well, it can, because you and I are meant to be holy, and by being holiness we will find relief from our greatest enemy: sin. (You have to read the book for this and many more! I shall not reveal too much)

Often as I read, I find my self thinking, have I have too low a view of God? Have I been worshipping a puppet God? And this is the strength of the book, it help us to reflect on what kind of God we’ve been worshipping, is that the same God as the God described in the bible? Far too often we want a tame down version of the God of the bible, but that will only be to our detriment. We need to recover a right of God, and soon, because God is far, far too valuable to be tamed.

This is a great book for all christians, but especially preachers or small group leaders. Ask yourself this, does your church treat God as holy? If not, read, be enthralled and repent.

Rating: 4.5/5

If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.