Thursday, January 8, 2015

Review: Ordinary:How to Turn the World Upside Down by:Tony Merida

 Ordinary: How to Turn the World Upside Down
About the Book:
What if the path toward an extraordinary life is becoming more ordinary?

Ordinary is not a call to be more radical. If anything, it is a call to the contrary. The kingdom of God isn’t coming with light shows, and shock and awe, but with lowly acts of service. Tony Merida wants to push back against sensationalism and “rock star Christianity,” and help people understand that they can make a powerful impact by practicing ordinary Christianity.

Through things such as humble acts of service, neighbor love, and hospitality, Christians can shake the foundations of the culture. In order to see things happen that have never happened before, Christians must to do what Christians have always done­. Christians need to become more ordinary.

Let’s think together about how we, ordinary people, doing ordinary things, might turn the world upside down.


About the Author:
Tony Merida is the founding pastor of Imago Dei Church in Raleigh, NC. Tony is the author of Faithful Preaching, co-author of Orphanology, and serves as a general editor and as contributor to the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series (B&H Publishing Group) along with David Platt and Danny Akin. He is married to Kimberly, with whom he has five adopted children.

My Review:
 Upon receiving this short read, I was pleasantly surprised at the sub title--How to Turn the World Upside Down. I am always one for jumping on board with just about if not all causes that involve the Father or spreading of the gospel--so I was more than a little curious about the contents of this book. The author began with noting how Jesus picked "ordinary" individuals to spread the gospel. They were "ordinary" individuals that did "extraordinary" things to tell the world of the Messiah. The one thing that disappointed me was the constant threads throughout the book about human trafficking or adoption. It disappointed me, I guess, because I thought I would find out more ways other than these two things to go all out for Christ.

 God loves "ordinary", he doesn't want a flashy show to draw people to Himself. Along with each chapter heading, the author gives you several suggestions in order to magnify the Gospel to others. In the chapter entitled, Neighbor Love some of the suggestions were feeding the hungry, visiting prisoners, serving the elderly, etc.  So as I read along the author showed several other ways to spread the Gospel in the most humbling way by serving others, just as the disciples did. They didn't boast or brag they set about the work that the Lord, trusted them to do against all odds and against all haters. This is what I believe the author is telling us that we should do as unto service for our Lord.

**Disclosure** This book was sent to me free of charge for my honest review from Cross Focused Reviews.

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