The Shack: THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

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Young skirts the issue of crime and criminals somewhat. God says that he loves his children all equally no matter what they have done and this is shown in a very strong scene in the text. This one scene was probably the best of the entire work. Counter to this, or maybe because of the focus, Young suggests that responsibility is a man-made construction that has no use in God’s eyes. The idea that we could all live together in peace and harmony sounds lovely, but ignores the fact that we live in a world with lots of “broken” souls. The Puritans were clear about responsibility and made sure that able-bodied people worked or starved. We have strayed very far from the principle of responsibility and I thought it was highly irresponsible of the author to suggest that we don’t need to act responsibly. I personally think that if people strived and were honest about what they were capable of and what they could contribute to our society, then we could take much better care of those who are not able to work to support themselves. This book is pure drivel. As I was going through it I thought that it had to be a first effort from this author. Bingo. At the end of the book there was a note from the author in which he said 'I had never tried my hand at creative writing before.' Lies are a little fortress; inside them you can feel safe and powerful. Through your little fortress of lies you try to run your life and manipulate others."

Huh?? What Bible is the author reading? What about St. Paul telling us to be imitators of Christ. Is that really the reason for Christ's death on the cross? Hell, why not go all Sesame Street and make sure we have someone in a wheelchair and HIV positive people represented!?!?! Ah, sneak those guys in on the next edition.) I can suspend disbelief in books about zombies, vampires, genius eleven year old girls, chimera, reasonable Republicans (okay, that one was difficult) but I couldn't do it with this book, or other books like it, because these books have a agenda to make you believe in the stuff they are writing about and that makes my stomach turn. At the beginning the ever narrating narrator narrated (and I paraphrase) 'You may not believe in Mac's story here. He doesn't care, maybe this book isn't for you'.....okay.....'But then again maybe it is!' ***drama sting**** The police in the film adaptation are convinced that Missy’s disappearance is the work of a serial abductor who has taken at least five young girls over the years, providing a link to the original killer but without using his name. Luhar, Monica (22 October 2015). " 'Finding My Way': Sumire Matsubara on Acting, Diversity, and Connecting with Her Roots". NBC News . Retrieved 26 October 2020.The entire beginning of the book bored me and seemed second rate. The characters and conversations didn't ring true to me. I only kept at it because I had heard that something amazing would await me later in the book. Also, I never forgot that this was a book and a story that someone made up. When my attitude towards the book changed as it became more meaty, I still felt that story-wise, it was cliche, predictable, and even hokey. When it came together at the end, I did have a greater appreciation of the way the plot elements came together, but most of the time I thought certain components of the story weren't very well done. Okay, enough bashing, because this was an incredible book that should be read by everybody. That I rated this a 5 in spite of the things that I didn't like, should tell you that there is something very amazing about this book. There is no way I can convey the impact of the thought-provoking and possibly life-changing conversations we become privy to. I don't know that you would much care for the book if you were a total athiest, not atuned to the spiritual at all, but people of all spiritual and religious persuasions will find aspects of this book deeply worth pondering. You must read it. These forms alternately challenge and minister to the main character. The voice telling the story is not the main character and may very likely sound like Case no. CV 10-3246 JFW (JCx) Plaintiffs' opposition to defendant William Paul Young's motion to dismiss the first amended complaint". US District Court, Central District of California, Western Division . Retrieved 30 July 2011.

At the center of the book is the most difficult of all theological dilemmas: the goodness of God and the problem of evil. Where is God in the midst of pain and suffering? How can a good God allow the kinds of horrific evil that humans and other creatures experience? Why doesn’t He do something to stop it? Why does God seem so unconcerned about suffering and injustice? Intense and complex, these questions have almost universal appeal. And He said to all, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it." (Luke 9:23-24) To sum up my review: This book has the power to make all human artifice utterly fall away... to make the traffic out the window, the people in conversation next to you, the very coffee mug you hold in your hand, all seem infinitely unreal, while leaving you alone in the very presence of God.Personally, I didn't feel any great sense of peace or satisfaction while reading this story. While I can see why some people felt that this book restored their faith and gifted them with a greater sense of empathy, it just didn't work that way for me. I saw where author was going, I just wasn't jumping on board that train. And the author thought himself progressive and hip by coming up with these 'radical' ideas....well, maybe, sadly they are for some special folk; but to me it just felt forced, racist and sexist...in my humble opinion. Billboard 200: The Week of March 18, 2017". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media . Retrieved March 16, 2017. Jesus is fully human. Although he is also fully God, he has never drawn upon his nature as God to do anything. He has only lived out of his relationship with me, living in the very same manner that I desire to be in relationship with every human being. He is just the first to do it to the uttermost—the first to absolutely trust my life within him, the first to believe in my love and my goodness without regard for appearance or consequence. (99–100) The person who lives by their fears will not find freedom in my love. I am not talking about rational fears regarding legitimate dangers, but imagined fears, and especially the projection of those into the future. To the degree that those fears have a place in your life, you neither believe I am good nor know deep in your heart that I love you. You sing about it, you talk about it, but you don't know it."

Invariably, they responded to my negative response with something along the lines of "You have to! It changed my life! I was full of questions, and life stunk, and then I read the book, and God made sense to me, I understood quantum physics effortlessly, and all of a sudden I could spin flax into gold!" The characters in this book were not fleshed out at all. Most writers know that to develop a character you have them do things that show the reader who the person is....you don't just narrate what they did and how they felt. The reader has nothing invested and couldn't give two poops what happens to the characters when you tell instead of show. A little girl died violently in this book and I was completely unfazed by it. That is a miserable failure. This book is a story of God sharing his heart with a broken man. The first section of the book will hit you in the chest, as it describes what the author calls "The Great Sadness" of the novels protagonist.He did so as a dependent, limited human being trusting in my life and power to be at work within him and through him. Jesus, as a human being, had no power within himself to heal anyone. . . . Only as he rested in his relationship with me, and in our communion—our co-union—could he express my heart and will into any given circumstance. So, when you look at Jesus and it appears that he’s flying, he really is . . . flying. But what you are actually seeing is me; my life in him. That’s how he lives and acts as a true human, how every human is designed to live-out of my life. (100) Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." (Luke 24:45-48) There is a tremendous amount of the author’s philosophy delivered in this book that I will react to through the remainder of this review.