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From: doug
I am very aware that what speaks to one person profoundly may not have anywhere close to the same effect on someone else. So aware of that possibility I am still going to stick my neck out.
Fact #1 - I want to recommend a book to you called The Shack. (Actually there will be a couple of other recommendations included below.)
Fact #2 - “ The Shack certainly doesn’t need my puny recommendation when it is already #1 on the New York Times paperback trade fiction best seller list.
My Problem - I want to tell you all about The Shack but I can’t.
Let me explain how we came to find out about The Shack before it was published and why I can’t tell you much about it.
Back in 1999, we invited a couple named Mike and Sue Dowgiewitz to come and share their ministry with us. While here they left me a book that they highly recommended. It was called The Naked Church by some guy named Wayne Jacobsen. Quoting from the back cover of the book “The Naked Church is an invitation for believers to forsake superficial Christianity and discover true intimacy with God. At a time when it’s popular to be spiritual and easy to be religious, Wayne Jacobsen sounds the call back to the joy and freedom of a dynamic relationship with the living God.” (By the way, The Naked Church is out of print.)
I read the book and highlighted huge parts of it but eventually it ended up sitting on my bookshelf until the spring of 2006 when for some reason (internal guidance of spirit) I was not only led to pick up the book but search for Wayne on the internet. I found his site and on it I discovered an on-line book that Wayne and a friend had written under a pseudonym. The book is entitled “So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore.” It is still on line for you to read or you can order a copy. I started reading it and couldn’t put it down. As soon as I finished I handed my printed out copy to Kelly, my wife. I was curious as to her response. She enjoyed it thoroughly and it spoke to her as much as it did to me and if I compiled a top ten list of recommended books, it would be very high on the list. You can find links to the book etc. on our site at http://www.mnsi.net/~eaglesnm/html/links_etc_.html
The result of this was that I invited Wayne to come to Windsor and share his ministry with our little group. For some reason (internal guidance of spirit) he agreed and in May of 2006 we were blessed to spend a weekend with Wayne. Funny how one weekend and can change people’s lives dramatically. We added a couple of other books written by Wayne to our collection including Authentic Relationships and He Loves Me, and I recommend both of them very much.
While here, Wayne told us about a book that a friend of his, William Young, had written called The Shack. It wasn’t published yet but in Wayne’s opinion, it was an absolute must read. Wayne was helping with the editing etc. and they already had visions of turning it into a movie. The Shack was published in 2007 and today it sits at #1 atop the New York Times paperback trade fiction best seller list.
When I finished reading The Shack I immediately e-mailed Wayne. I simply wrote “I just read The Shack. I cried and I cried and I cried.”
I want to tell you all about this book, about this part or that part, about what happens here or there but I don’t want to spoil even one bit of the experience that you will encounter reading The Shack. I chose the word “experience” purposefully because I truly believe that in reading The Shack you will have an experience with God and I don’t want to ruin that experience by telling you parts of the story. So I am simply going to quote what is on the back cover of the book and hope that the words will encourage you to get a copy of this book, read it, recommend it and share it.
“Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his "Great Sadness," Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.
Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack’s world forever.
In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant “The Shack” wrestles with the timeless question, “Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?” The answer Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You’ll want everyone you know to read this book!”
Okay, there you have it. Now I need to shut up and simply let spirit guide you as to whether this is a book for you.
Blessings, shalom and namaste
Doug
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