My Review of "Strangers at My Door"

This book was difficult to read. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and his wife, Leah, are the founders of Rutba House in a small section of Durham, NC, called Walltown. Walltown is a predominately African-American community. Rutba House is a Christian communal house that takes in homeless men and women so that they can land safely and try to take control of their lives.

Strangers at My Door: True Stories of Finding Jesus in Unexpected Guests is an account of all those folks.

And that's where this book was difficult for me. It's a challenge to all I've thought about homelessness, poverty, and prison.

It's also a challenge to think about and practice a radical Christian hospitality. A hospitality that moves beyond supporting our local food pantry, and, instead, making a place at our table.

My husband is a minister. So you'd think this wide-open, mind-blowing love that looks a lot like the Jesus of the Gospels is at the how we keep our home. Jesus cared for murderers, tax collectors, prostitutes, and the demon-possessed, without judgment or finger pointing. So what would happen if we did the same.

Strangers at My Door is inspirational. These stories challenge me.

But no matter the challenge, I'm also beyond grateful for these stories and for the homeless people, drug addicts, and criminals who have names at Rutba House. I've learned so much from them.

I've loved reading stories like these because they challenge me to be more gracious and more openhearted. So I think this book is a 5-star, must have read for all those Christians who aren't sure what we can do about poverty, homelessness, drugs, and those in prison.

__________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Comments

My Review of "The Prayer Wheel"

Patton Dodd, Jana Riess, and David van Biema's The Prayer Wheel: A Daily Guide to Renewing Your Faith a Rediscovered Spiritual Practice brings a long-lost diagram that can be used to structure a 28-day discipline of prayer back into the practice of modern Christian spirituality. The diagram was found in a 12th-century German book of gospels that emerged at a rare book dealer in Manhattan in 2015. They begin with a cursory explanation of the wheel's origins but are primarily interested in reviving the use of the wheel to guide and enrich prayer by tying each day to a different thematic element of scripture. In concentric rings representing sections of the Bible and through seven "contemplative paths toward God" arranged like spokes through the rings he wheel uses Christianity's "big ideas" about the Lord's Prayer, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, events in the life of Christ, and the beatitudes to form a progression of prayer. The Praye

My Review of "The Tea Planter's Wife"

Dinah Jefferies' The Tea Planter's Wife is a fun novel that vividly depicts the 1920s. Gwendolyn Hooper, her 19-year-old heroine, speaks for an empire-branded breed of gutsy young British women who left the security of England to embark on extraordinary adventures abroad. Not the back-packing, "lonely planet" travels of today, gap-year kids constantly connected with the folks back home via internet and smartphones, and usually safely and predictably back home for good inside a year. Girls like Gwen married men who made their living and fortunes out in the colonies -- or what until very recently had been colonies -- and went out to join them, standing shoulder-to shoulder with their husbands to face down hardship, danger, disease, monsoon, drought, and not least the simmering and sometimes murderous resentment of locals. That makes The Tea Planter's Wife so much more than a love story -- it's a recognition that girls like Gwen had guts, and c

My Review of "How to Be a Perfect Christian"

At first I was a little uncertain about The Babylon Bee's new book, How To Be a Perfect Christian: Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living . Even the title betrays so much of what makes the website so popular: Sarcasm and humor. But once I started this book, I simply couldn't put it down! There are some amazing tidbits about doctrine -- which, in an interesting way, makes you start wondering what it is that authentic Christians believe, not the cultural Christians who are the punch-line of nearly every joke in this book. But there's a coloring page to boot! You simply cannot miss this book. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review here.

The Mrs. & the Minister

Search This Blog