30 September, 2010

City On Our Knees, by TobyMac



City On Our Knees: If We Gotta Start Somewhere Why Not Here, is a collection of stories compiled by TobyMac, a Grammy Award-winning artist, producer, and songwriter. His desire through this book, and the song of the same title, is to inspire a passion in believers to take on our communities for Christ - regardless of position, ethnicity, social or financial statues, or life choice.

Each story is actually a mini-biographical sketch of someone who was willing to sacrifice, or use whatever the Lord had given to them, in order to make a difference for the Kingdom. The stories chosen span history, bringing the reader to early church history, to the Welsh and early North American revivals, to college youth willing to give their lives to reveal the atrocity of Hitler’s regime and save lives, to a young girl battling a life-long terminal illness who through her lemonade stands (and the ones it encouraged) continues to make a huge contribution to finding cures and relief for other children even though her condition claimed her life at age eight, to a wealthy family who was willing to adopt one who was a social minority in their community, to a family adopting an African child and taking on the task of financially supporting his whole orphanage with the help of others, etc.

This book has a very contemporary feel to it (the cover and slipcover made me dizzy), and I can see youth who are familiar with his music (I actually didn’t know who he was), showing keen interest in it. However, all of us ought to take its message and words to heart and honestly, I really enjoyed reading the stories he compiled and was greatly challenged by them. His heart for people exudes through this book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Bethany House Publishers (A division of Baker Publishing Group). 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: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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