Hole in Our Gospel

The last 4 days of CNY holiday been a great time for me and my wife. We are able to take time off from the hectic corporate lifestyle and just enjoy meeting up friends and reading books and not forgetting catching up with my ICI studies. One of the day, we spend some time at the Borders book shop. My favorite section is always the Christian books segment. As I was glancing through all the books in the rack, one book catch my attention. As I was reading the foreword and some details about the author, I get very excited. From the first moment that I cracked open the book my heart was captivated by the story of how this man, Richard Stearns, felt the call of God on his life, how he tried to ignore it, runaway from it and then finally accept that God had chosen him for such a time as this.

The Hole in Our Gospel is the compelling true story of a corporate CEO who set aside worldly success for something far more significant, and discovered the full power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to change his own life. He uses his journey to demonstrate how the gospel was always meant to be a world-changing social revolution, a revolution that begins with you

It's 1998 and Richard Stearns' heart is breaking as he sits in a mud hut and listens to the story of an orphaned child in Rakai, Uganda. His journey to this place took more than a long flight from the United States to Africa. It took answering God's call on his life, a call that hurtled him out of his presidential corner office at Lenox-America's finest tableware company-to this humble corner of Uganda.

Richard Stearns shares his own struggle to obey God whatever the cost, and his passionate call for Christians to change the world by actively living out their faith. Using his own journey as an example, Stearns explores the hole that exists in our understanding of the Gospel. Two thousand years ago, twelve people changed the world and Richard believes it can happen again.

In one of the interview, Richard Stearns was posted with the following question: "You see a hole in our gospel. What is it, and why is it there?"

Richard Stearns replied "Many people believe that the gospel — and its message of salvation — represent a private transaction, almost a “fire insurance policy,” between them and God. I contend that Jesus Christ proclaimed a broader, bolder vision of the gospel, a gospel that proclaims Christians are to be “salt and light” in the world. Jesus intended that his followers would be on the vanguard of a social revolution that would change our world. We were to lift up the poor and the downtrodden; care for the sick; fight for the oppressed; challenge injustice; and love our neighbors — and our enemies — as ourselves. Our faith was never meant to be only a “fire insurance policy” for our own security. It was meant to change everything in our world."

Every since I started reading this book I have been telling my friends that they have to get a copy of this book. Rarely have I found a book that can radically transform how you view what's going on in the world around us.

Be Blessed.