This book was sent to me in exchange for an unbiased review.
We are in a battle, and Ed Rush makes that abundantly clear as he walks the reader through the life of Christ, the Warrior King and a man on a mission. I like that the author is fairly self-effacing about himself. He is transparent about his weaknesses and foibles. I also appreciate what he did for our country as a fighter pilot in Iraq. All those are things in this author's favor.
Rush talks of the power available to us through the Holy Spirit and that prayer, fasting, and obedience are part of the "power pattern," and this is awesome. He talks of Jesus telling His disciples to wait until they are clothed with "power from on high" (Luke 24:48-49). He talks of the authority we have been given by Jesus' Great Commission to "go and "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:18-20).
This results in Rush concluding that you should make disciples by choosing fellow warriors who "love to spend time with Jesus, who understand his word, who cast out demons, and who make disciples" (Location 1433-41). Amen! Loved that.
Rush clarifies the mission:
"So what is our new mission on earth? Here you go: exercise our authority and crush Satan."
But then he doesn't go on with that. He doesn't flesh out what it means to make disciples of all the nations. I would have liked to hear more about the Great CoMISSION to go out making disciples of all peoples of the world. This was disappointing because part of "crushing Satan" is seeing his dominion diminish throughout the darkest parts of the earth (Matthew 24:14)! That is what the disciples did after they were clothed with power on high (Acts 1:8). Where is the call to go to the ends of the earth to start disciplemaking movements throughout the most unreached people of the world? Where is the call to a lifelong commitment to disciplemaking? It builds up to that crescendo about halfway through the book, and then it falls short for me.
Warrior did not "wow" me like it did all the other reviewers on Amazon.com. But most of those reviewers were written by men. Rush gives solid biblical advice. I wish he would have given a William Wallace war cry to go into enemy territory and fulfill the Great Commission, but that doesn't always sell books and fill stadiums.
Rush is a man's man. So I think he is probably speaking to the men out there who need a good military kick in their personal lives and families, there is nothing wrong with that, but Rush built up my expectation to believe that his charge would be bigger and beyond that, and I have to admit I was disappointed! So close, yet so far.
For more on what you can do to take up the battle cry, go to Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: http://www.perspectives.org/site/pp.aspx?c=eqLLI0OFKrF&b=2806295
No comments:
Post a Comment