The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected, by Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis
The Insanity Of God: A True Story Of Faith Resurrected, By Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis. Bargaining with checking out routine is no demand. Reading The Insanity Of God: A True Story Of Faith Resurrected, By Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis is not type of something marketed that you could take or not. It is a point that will transform your life to life much better. It is the thing that will certainly offer you several things worldwide and also this cosmos, in the real life and also here after. As just what will be provided by this The Insanity Of God: A True Story Of Faith Resurrected, By Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis, exactly how can you haggle with the many things that has several perks for you?
The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected, by Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis
Read Online Ebook The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected, by Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis
The Insanity of God is the personal and lifelong journey of an ordinary couple from rural Kentucky who thought they were going on just your ordinary missionary pilgrimage but discovered it would be anything but. After spending over six hard years doing relief work in Somalia and experiencing life where it looked like God had turned away completely and he was clueless about the tragedies of life, the couple had a crisis of faith and left Africa asking God, "Does the Gospel work anywhere when it is really a hard place?" It sure didn't work in Somalia.
Nik recalls, "God had always been so real to me, to Ruth, and to our boys. But was he enough for the utter weariness of soul I experienced at that time, in that place, under those circumstances?" It is a question that many have asked and one that, if answered, can lead us to a whole new world of faith. How does faith survive, let alone flourish, in a place like the Middle East? How can Ggod truly overcome such evil? How do you maintain hope when all is darkness around you? How can we say "greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world" when it may not be visibly true in that place at that time? How does anyone live an abundant, victorious Christian life in our world's toughest places? Can Christianity even work outside of Western, dressed-up, ordered nations? If so, how?
The Insanity of God tells a story - a remarkable and unique story to be sure, yet at heart a very human story - of the Ripkens' own spiritual and emotional odyssey. The gripping narrative account of a personal pilgrimage into some of the toughest places on Earth, combined with sobering and insightful stories of the remarkable people of faith Nik and Ruth encountered on their journeys, will serve as a powerful course of revelation, growth, and challenge for anyone who wants to know whether God truly is enough.
The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected, by Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis- Amazon Sales Rank: #3357 in Audible
- Published on: 2015-09-10
- Format: Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Running time: 587 minutes
Where to Download The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected, by Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis
Most helpful customer reviews
105 of 110 people found the following review helpful. Intense! By Nikole The Insanity of God by Nik Ripken (with Gregg Lewis) is a soul-searching book that surpasses some missionary books and blogs I have read by its raw delivery.Nik Ripken is a pseudonym. Some of the names in his stories have been made-up to protect those Christians in persecuted countries from discovery by their governments. It's a book that takes us around the world as Nik interviews believers from countries hostile to Christianity. Intermixed in the book is his testimony.Nik grew up a non-believer. He didn't have the traditional church background like his wife, Ruth. He became a believer, dated Ruth, and their marriage began with a commitment to follow Jesus. Nik almost made me cry on page 54 when at Nik and Ruth's wedding, Nik's mom intended to divorce Nik's father. Coming from a committed Christian family, Ruth felt shock.Ruth and Nik's mutual commitment to follow Jesus at all costs took them to the Horn of Africa. The early part of the book speaks about their beginnings and their work in learning a variety of African languages. Nik's focus though became the country of Somalia, and in the early nineties it was war torn. Ruth and Nik were a team and after moving around the Horn of Africa learning to be missionaries, they settled in Nairobi and formed a relief organization of their own.Nik made many trips into Somalia, staying sometimes for days to map out the needs, making local contacts, and researching how their new relief organization could help, but Somali caught Nik unaware. The starvation, the deaths, and the inward fighting left Nik feeling helpless. His Americanized faith did not prepare him for spreading the Gospel in a country that had maybe one or two believers in it. Persecution was common.When Nik's organization air dropped aid supplies to Somalia, villages would flock to it. The next day Muslims would arrive in the village, beat the men and rape the women for simply taking western aid. The Muslims warned the village that if aid was accepted again worse would happen. Nik found this frustrating how evil seemed to have the upper hand. In several areas Nik spoke about what was happening in Somalia as evil. Never have I read a missionary's story that read so intense. The last one I read felt glossed over in what they experienced as if the area was not that dangerous. Nik effectively communicates and describes his experiences in Somalia, Nairobi, China, former Eastern Block countries, and Russia without padding anything. It doesn't feel like he is holding anything back.Nik was in Somalia at the time when the events of "Black Hawk Down" occurred. Nik worked in Somalia for a month at a time, spending the in-between times in Nairobi with his family. Nik struggled to cope with the starvation he witnessed and the frustration of only serving the Somalians physical needs. Many events challenged Nik.A woman in a village tried to force her child on him. He wrote, "I was overwhelmed with the desperation of those mothers. I wondered what I would have done if it was my family that was starving. Would I consider giving away my son if that was the only possible way that he would live? The questions haunted me." (pg. 58).Then, Nik's son, Tim, dies from an asthma caused cardiac arrest. Tim was a teenager. This event triggered Nik's questions. He and Ruth had always wondered just how far they would go for Jesus. Wasn't faith supposed to be easier?Tim's death was the catalyst in Nik's worldwide search for answers. At first, the purpose was to find out how Christians in countries hostile to Christianity survived for purposes of learning how to reach Nik's beloved Somali's. In all actuality, the wound caused by the death of Tim made Nik reach out to believers in other countries.He went to Russia and the Ukraine to interview people who once lived under the Iron Curtain. God showed up supernaturally in every country in ways that could make even the most disbelieving human being question his own atheism. This happened in China and the other countries he visited, too.What struck me was when God spoke to him in an underground church in China. The hard truth Nik spoke would have in this country brought on accusations of being judgemental to these underground churches. Nik wanted to help them financially, but God silenced him literally. Out of the millions of believers, a few hundred were struggling, starving families. God instead asked Nik to relay this message:"If ten million believers in your movement cannot take care of four hundred families, do you have the right to call yourselves the Body of Christ, the Church, or even followers of Jesus?"The shock the underground church displayed melted into conviction. They swore to take care of the four hundred hurting families. The underlying theme in the book got through to me.Most believing Christians in hostile countries embrace persecution as normal, "like the sun rising in the east." Hearing stories of God moving worldwide like in Old and New Testament times reminded me how Americans are soft when it comes to their faith and how we take the Bible for granted. In China, a leader of an underground church is not trusted until they've been to prison at least once. Tales of Muslims encouraged through visions and dreams to seek Jesus and finding Bibles, even in an Islamic book store, was amazing.The Insanity of God woke up my faith.Even though there were times when the change of font was distracting and I felt that the end of the book lacked the punch it had throughout, going on too long towards the end, I gave this book five stars. I've never heard a missionary speak like this in person or in any book or blog I've read. It's always been about support raising or I felt missionaries were holding back in some way, but The Insanity of God made me realize how much I take God for granted. Even though I've witnessed some supernatural answer to prayer, living in America can make you complacent.And why not? Some of our churches are as large as college campuses. We don't worry about being shot, bombed, or imprisoned here. In fact, we try to do things ourselves without inviting God into it or letting Him show us He can handle our situations. This book made me re-think my faith.* Book given by publisher to review.
49 of 51 people found the following review helpful. Beautiful..Simply beautiful By Treinhart I didn't want to read this book. Why? Reasons l am not proud of. I felt compelled, so I finally did. I am for ever changed. There is no going back once you read this account of God s people. Jesus is really alive in our present world. Reader, beware your heart will be rent for Jesus.
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful. A perspective-giving read By John Kitchen It would be wrong to say I "enjoyed" reading this book. Perhaps "appreciated" is the appropriate word, though to my ears it sounds too weak. Almost "haunted," but not in a creepy way. More in a Holy Spirit pursued-kind-of-way. Certainly the many accounts of faithfulness under the most extreme pressure inspired me and moved me emotionally. But what I appreciate most about this book is the way it serves as a corrective to our American, western-tilted understanding of what a life of following Jesus means and requires. Here is not just a call to faith, but to faith shining forth as faithfulness ... at any cost. If you are like me you'll read it and then talk about it. A lot. But you'll think about it even more, your heart simply unable to get free of a number of the timeless, crystallized statements of truth. Burrs lodged in the heart--heaven-sent irritants that strangely work in a healing sort of way.
See all 1038 customer reviews... The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected, by Nik Ripkin, Gregg LewisThe Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected, by Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis PDF
The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected, by Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis iBooks
The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected, by Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis ePub
The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected, by Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis rtf
The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected, by Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis AZW
The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected, by Nik Ripkin, Gregg Lewis Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar