Review of Words (Christian Fiction Book Club)

The Christian Fiction Book Club meets every six weeks at different book blogs. This month we read Words by Ginny Yttrup, and I answered a few of the discussion questions below.  This time it's hosted by Julie at My Only Vice.  Feel free to come join the conversation here and check out some of the other blogs as well!

Note: I’m not a book blogger/reviewer per se, but I am a book lover.  Hopefully it’s okay if I crash this Christian Fiction Book Club Party

I’ve not read anything by Ginny Yttrup before and I don’t read books like Words too often.  Not because they’re bad, but because they’re difficult.  The subject matter dealt with in this book caused me to read through it at a much slower pace than is normal for me.

The main characters deal with the loss of loved ones due to one’s own choices and the loss of innocence due to the choices of others.  There’s death and pain and abuse (both physical and emotional) and I could only read a few chapters before my heart was overwhelmed with all the emotions.

Through it all is woven the idea of forgiveness.  Forgiveness of ourselves, forgiving others, and forgiveness from God.  Also through this book was the mantra that the truth will set you free.

This book definitely had some edginess but a little less romance.  The romance that was there felt pretty natural and played a supporting role to the greater romance between God and His children.  This was interesting because normally in a story where there are extreme and intense circumstances, the romance feels the same, and it feels unreal.  Sometimes that’s what I’m looking for.  In this case, that would have taken away from the deeper meaning of the story.

Overall, although this book was a little hard to read, it was definitely worth it.  We all need a reminder of forgiveness and that the truth sets us free.

The questions I chose:

6. Sierra struggles to accept God’s forgiveness.  Many of us share that struggle.  How can we, as Christ’s followers, truly embrace God’s grace in those difficult areas of our lives? (see Matthew 11:28)

In order to embrace God’s grace we have to have a right understanding of how big and great God is and how tiny and bad we are.  A lot of people can’t accept grace because they think they can do it on their own.  We know in John 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”  So doing it ourselves is out.  Or people think their sin is too big for God or He doesn’t love them.  Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior.  He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.”  So I’d say he loves you and is pretty powerful.  So all you have left is to accept God’s grace through forgiveness of sins.  Let the truth (aka Jesus) set you free.

11. What displays God’s power to you?

I’ve really seen God’s power in the storms we’ve been having recently.  I love hearing the thunder and seeing the lightning.  It reminds me of Job 37:2-3, “²Listen closely to the thunder of His voice, And the rumbling that goes out from His mouth. ³Under the whole heaven He lets it loose, And His lightning to the ends of the earth.”

I also really see God’s power when someone comes to faith in Jesus who I didn’t expect.  I saw that a lot in my short excursion overseas.  I would doubt, yet God would prove faithful.

The next book we'll read is Pompeii: City of Fire: A Novel by TL Higley.  The date for this book is on July 2 so you have plenty of time to read it and join in on the discussion. 

 Anything to help a poor college student out.  Kacie Woodmansee is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com