Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey

Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey (Photo credit: Jordon)

Then again, and yet, America also has preachers like Philip Yancey, a Christian writer who speaks the truth in love, who preaches the Good News of the Gospel, going to the best and worst of places, in the best and worst of times, shining God‘s light.

I found Yancey’s book “What Good is God? In Search of a Faith That Matters” at Books-A-Million. Yancey’s excellent book is also wonderfully illustrated, in shadow and light, by Klaus Ernst. The book’s copyright is 2010, but Yancey writes real and always relevant.

Topics Yancey and Ernst cover in this book include life’s tragedies, and how God reaches out to people in the highest and lowest places, performing His good will, although, so much of the time, it doesn’t seem good. In the first chapter, Yancey explains that this particular book about faith started as he and his wife were completing a tour to five cities, sponsored by his publisher.

The couple’s last stop in that tour was in Mumbai, India, in 2008. “As it happened,” Yancey writes, “that was the horrifying night when terrorists attacked tourist sites with grenades and guns, killing 172 people.”

Title chapters indicate wide-ranging places and times and events, including all humanity. They include: “Virginia Tech: Campus Massacre”; “China: Winds of Change”; “Green Lake: Professional Sex Workers”; “Cambridge: Remembering C.S. Lewis” and “Memphis: An Alternative Vision.”

There are other chapters, all timely, and timeless. I hope you can find a copy of this book by Yancey, illustrated by Ernst. Recently, I highlighted a passage from the chapter “Middle East: Church at Risk.” Yancey, an American, wrote: “How differently would the world view my country if it associated the U.S. with ‘the Jesus Syndrome’ rather than with weapons, wealth, and the ‘Baywatch syndrome”?

It’s a tiring and difficult battle and sometimes we fail. But we don’t have to worship the golden calves in America, or anywhere. We can get God’s Good News of Jesus out to the whole world, as best we can, here, there, and everywhere, to the ends of the earth.

Jesus gave us the Great Commission, to take the Gospel’s Good News unto all the world, from wherever God happens to have us, right now, in this place.

So today (emphasis mine) from Isaiah 40:9, New King James Version, we offer a Holy Shout!

“O Zion,

You who bring good tidings…

‘Behold your God!”

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