God Is Closer Than You Think - If God Is Always with Us- Why Is He So Hard to Find- Description:

God Is Closer Than You Think : If God Is Always with Us, Why Is He So Hard to Find? review:
5 stars (God Is Closer Than You Think) - I think the book was great. Easy to read & a lot of ideas to think about.
5 stars (as expected) - The book was well-packaged. I recieved it on time, and everything was as I expected it to be.
4 stars ("Closing the Gap is our Choice") - In Michelangelo's painting of God and Adam, Ortberg makes the point that God is so close to Adam, all Adam has to do is lift his finger to touch God, but God purposefully left that space in order to leave room for man to choose whether or not to be intimate with Him.



This book is written is an easy almost conversational style; you feel that you are simply listening to the author speak . His spontaneous sense of humor breaks in frequently as his serious train of thought is mentally interrupted by a comical twist . He can't resist - and lets the reader in on the joke (often in brackets). The smile in his words is infectious and you find a smile on your own face in response.



Because the author writes with warmth and simplicity you are drawn into the embrace of his message - intimacy in your daily walk with God. Ortberg expresses the invitation of a God who is close - and who yearns for fellowship with those who are His - a God who is there in the mundane moments of our life - as well as our mountain-peak experiences. He is a God who hides Himself in the daily events of our life - not to make it difficult for us to find Him but to give us room to recognize Him or not if we so choose.



Ortberg has a way of gently reaching into the heart of the reader revealing what has perhaps been covered over. His gentle rebuke resonates the truth that we turn away from God because we are doing something we don't want Him to see. We hide , just like Adam and Eve in the garden after they had sinned .



He talks about the seven pathways in which we most naturally sense God's presence and experience spiritual growth. We are all different and for each of us one pathway will come more easily for us than the others. For me personally, when I read the first pathway I had the embarrassed feeling of someone who thought they were alone and then glimpsed a grinning face at the window watching them. He could not have described me more accurately, but I had never thought of it in light of a `pathway' .



Because of `my pathway' (smile) there were a few things I could criticize. For example, I do not agree with the teachings of many of the people he quotes from - but the quotes he uses are applicable to his point. Also the author seems to take for granted that his readers are already `born again' and members of the body of Christ. He does not address `how' to become a child of God or make it clear that it is necessary before we can draw close to the Father God who desires to be close to his children.



All in all, I was blessed by the book, and although the book was a quick read, the deposit in my heart remained for me to ponder.