ENOUGH PB [Mass Market Paperback]

Have you ever been caught up in the troubled waves of dissatisfaction? Perhaps you've attempted to treat your hungry soul with addictive sinful behaviors? There is hope for you. Jesus Christ is enough.

Enough is authored by former missionary Helen Roseveare. This small volume of six chapters addresses the sufficiency of Christ for salvation, assurance and emotional support. That is, if we allow Him to be enough. Or do we want "Jesus plus" the added benefits of success, wealth or adulation? Can we thank God when He removes us from a place of ministry and gives us a thankless job that prevents us from using our gifts?

She delves into issues she faced as a missionary in the Congo: trusting Jesus, forgiving herself when she failed, and the sufficiency of grace. Even as a missionary she was not immune to pride's ugly grasp.

This book made me reflect on the meaning of the "fellowship of his sufferings." Our suffering can lead us to a deeper knowledge of who God is. I marveled at the strength of her faith as she documents her response after being captured and abused by rebel soldiers. She stated it seemed as if God asked, "Can you thank me for trusting you with this, even if I never tell you why?"

I highly recommend this book. It would make a great read on a long road trip.

Christian Focus Publications provided a complimentary copy of this book to me. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own.

I would highly recommend this book. New believers will have their eyes opened and be prepared for the trials that they will encounter. Seasoned saints will be reminded of God's care for His children as their hearts resonate with Dr. Roseveare. Another refreshing aspect of this book is the honesty of the author with her own struggles. I also enjoyed the way she ended each chapter with an appropriate hymn. Topics covered in this book include the following : salvation, assurance, emotional support, pleasing God, happiness, contentment and finding our sufficiency in God. This would be a great book to buy multiple copies and hand out to people who need encouragement.

I recently received a complimentary copy of a new book by Christian Focus Publications entitled, "Enough." The author is Helen Roseveare, who was a missionary in the Congo in the mid-20th century and witnessed (and suffered through) some terrible atrocities. In the book, Roseveare describes how she came to understand God better through the many of years of her missionary activity. You can really understand a woman who is united to Israel, which means "wrestles with God." The notions of God with which she grew up prove, in one case or another, largely untrue, and often Roseveare reaches a more BIblical understanding of who He truly is.

Let me start by saying that I liked this book. I would not recommend it to anyone, but it is nonetheless the story of a woman united by faith to her Lord and learning to find sweet repose in Him. The book itself is rather short (only 74 pages, including the Prologue and Epilogue), so there wasn't a lot of material apart from her thoughts with which to ground oneself in her story. All the reader knows about Roseveare is what she reveals in her thoughts about God. Despite that, she is forthcoming about her deficiencies and faults as a sinful human. One can sense that despite the book's short size, Roseveare wrestled to write every page.

Now let me turn to what I did not like. Again, I want to be clear that overall I liked this book. If Roseveare's conclusions about the nature of God were not Biblical, I would not be as gracious. Though she does not use the language, she clearly comes to an understanding of law-gospel and admits her semi-Pelagian attitude formed early in her life and that appeared to influence much of the rest of the book. But I never quite got the sense that she truly understood Pelagius' error. Roseveare appears unwilling to let go of the mistaken notion that somewhere, despite her sin, there is something good inside her that can grasp God's infinite holiness.

Perhaps her reference to having attended a Keswick Convention early in her Christian walk has something to do with this. The book itself reveals a woman not entirely reliant upon something completely "other," or "holy," but rather upon her ability to comprehend such a being through her personal experiences with Him. Yet the Bible describes our God as univocal - though man is created in His image, there is not even one aspect of God that is in any way identical to man. For this reason, God condescends to communicate Himself to man through man-made forms, such as covenants. In other words, God and His means are entirely external to man. Though He changes man internally, that is the fruit of His labor. We need not seek the fruit to explain who God is, for the fruit itself will not be perfectly revealed until our Lord returns in glory. Rather, we need to seek Him where He reveals Himself - through His Word and His church, which administers His Word and His sacraments. Where is the church in Roseveare's book? It is completely absent. Where is the Word? Apart from snippets here and there, again, the Word is absent. Indeed, I was left to conclude after finishing the book that had Roseveare not experienced what she did in Congo, she would be no more mature in her understanding of God than at the beginning of the book, when her own friends doubted her self-professed faith. Should we conclude that apart from such life-transforming experiences, mere humans cannot grow in their knowledge of God?

It is possible that this book touched a nerve in me, specifically since what Roseveare describes appears to be the norm for much of modern evangelical Christianity. We seek God in our thoughts. God becomes a subjective reality rather than an objective one. We internalize Him rather than find Him externally. This "god" is nothing more than a golden calf, crafted by human hands to make us feel good about who we really are. But it certainly isn't the God of the Bible. I don't doubt that Roseveare knew that God, for her understanding of Him is clearly informed by having wrestled with Him through His Word and, possibly, through His church. Unfortunately this isn't apparent in the book itself. Like I wrote before, I liked it for what it was, but I wouldn't recommend it.