When I first received my copy of this book to review, I thought
Oh no, It's huge. It's heavy-looking. I wasn't sure I was up to reading
something like this right then.
I'm not thinking that anymore. It is physically huge and
mentally heavy -- in fact, I'll confess I haven't even finished reading it yet.
But that's because I'm slowly digesting
the thoughtful insight and wisdom in this wonderful work.
This is a big, broad study of what is involved in
taking on the covering of "bondservant" of Christ. It analyzes
scripture in depth; it describes ancient covenants and the different covenants
in scripture; and ultimately (I see by the table of contents) gets into
spiritual warfare.
Now, this is not light reading or easy reading. This is one
to plot out a half hour every day starting in the new year to read, meditate
over, and pray through. And I highly recommend doing that. For the serious
believer wanting a serious relationship with Christ, I can't think of anything
more beneficial than to truly understand and absorb the principles related here.
The Bondservant's Life was a book that not only challenges
your understanding of what it means to follow God but also lays the foundation
in helping you understand the Bible as a whole. This book defines what it means
to be a bondservant of God. The key verse of this book is Revelation 1:1 where
Jesus is revealing the things that are to come to his servants. The author then
explains how the book of Revelation is written to God's servants and until we
understand what it means to be a servant of God, then we will not be able to
understand the prophesies in this book. The author then explains in detail what
a bondservant is all about. To do this, he goes back to the Old Testament law
and describes bondservants in the nation of Israel. Bondservants were people
who willing stayed and served their masters because of their love for their
masters. Every Christian is then called to serve God, our master, out of our
love for Him. A bondservant's life will be characterized by pursing God through
his word, live a life of complete obedience to God and walking totally
dependent upon the Holy Spirit. Every single Christian is called to this
radical commitment to God.
What does it mean to fully follow and abide in Christ? When
you truly call Him Lord, just what are you saying? John Brenner Chandler
details what a life like that entails in The Bondservant's Life.
Chandler uses the term bondservant to describe
what I've usually heard as being wholly devoted. I had heard of being a slave
to Christ, but Chandler uses the stronger term of bondservant, which denotes a
person choosing to remain a slave, and to remain with his master.
After explaining what a bondesrvant is and
chooses, Chandler goes into detail about the life a bondservant of Christ
lives. He talks about many aspects that our Christian lives should contain:
prayer, giving, and even fasting. He tells about how we will be opposed when we
try to live right, and what the destination of our lives will be.
What
does it mean to fully follow and abide in Christ? When you truly call Him Lord,
just what are you saying? John Brenner Chandler details what a life like that
entails in The Bondservant’s Life.
Chandler
uses the term bondservant to describe what I’ve usually heard as being wholly
devoted. I had heard of being a slave to Christ, but Chandler uses the stronger
term of bondservant, which denotes a person choosing to remain a slave, and to
remain with his master.
He uses both individual verses and passages from
the Bible, and focuses on people that illustrate what a bondservant is.
Chandler has quotes from various other writers and teachers, and there are some
of them I don't know, and a few that I have questions about. However, the
quotes he uses do not appear to be Biblically wrong as far as I can tell.
I won't deny that this is a long book, it is one
of the longest I've read. But it needs to be long to hold all of the
information that it does. I don't recommend trying to sit down and read it all
the way through. Not because of it being long, but because you need time to
think about what is written. No matter how long it takes to read it, I believe
it is time well spent.
I received this book from BookCrash in exchange
for this review.