Review: "Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear"

Who is not afraid? Living in the world at this time, would we not consider a person strange who did not have fear? We are afraid we don’t matter. We fear we won’t have enough. We fear what our children have to face. We fear the future. We fear doubting God and His Word.

Max Lucado’s new book, Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear, is the latest book I am reviewing for Thomas Nelson Publishers. You can check out the product information on their website at http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=9780849921391&dept_id=110301&TopLevel_id=110000&title=Fearless&author=Max-Lucado

I have long enjoyed Max Lucado’s books. His writing is warm, friendly, and thoroughly based in the Scripture. Lucado knows how to tell a story. His ability to tell a story is extremely effective and approachable by pretty much everyone I can think of. His works would be great for discussion groups and/or Bible studies.

In this latest book, he addresses the things that we fear – those I mentioned above and more. And then he does what every good preacher should do, he directs the reader to the Scripture and more specifically to Christ and how He answers the fears that plague us. He shows the reader that the Only Answer to our fears is Jesus Christ and His Promises. In fact, the book contains a discussion guide which “examines” and “exposes” each fear and then gives a Scriptural battle plan for defeating it.

The one fear that Lucado says we ought to hold on to and, in fact nurture, is our fear of God. He shows through the example of the Transfiguration how our knowledge and understanding of God ought always to be growing as we progress in sanctification, and that is accompanied by a holy fear – an awe and reverence that continues to humble and amaze us.

My one disappointment with the book is Lucado’s reliance on The Message – a paraphrase of the Scripture. It is dangerous and unwise to use a paraphrase as though it is the Scripture because paraphrases, as enjoyable and easy as they may be to read, contain errors. I hope he will refrain from relying on paraphrases in the future and use any legitimate translation – there are plenty of readable ones.

Also released with the book is the booklet, Imagine Your Life Without Fear, which collects several chapters of the main book into an inexpensive handout, which could prove useful in evangelism.

I would recommend the book and applaud Lucado for turning the reader from fears to Jesus, but I would recommend that one reads it with a Bible in hand and look up the actual verses, rather than reading the paraphrases.

[This review appears on my blog and at Amazon.com.]