My Review:
Four Letter Words taught me the importance of exploring
the truth of our Faith in God. The book starts with four words for each
chapter. Some of the topics include Truth, Know, Pain, Wait, and much more. The
book was written on how to response to critics of God and Faith. Bill shared a
question that proved an important point. He started asking, “How do you know?”
We believe that the moon is round and not flat but how do we know this. We
believed in the people in authority who taught us that it is in fact round. Most
of us haven’t traveled to the moon to see what it looks like. The thing I learn
from this book was people can’t say there isn’t a God if they haven’t seen him.
They can’t prove he doesn’t exist. I have Faith in the fact that God is very
much alive! Bill also shared in one chapter that Jesus is the only God that
exists on love and compassion for others. Christianity is the only religion
that helps hurting people in the world. Other religions aren’t preaching on
showing love to your neighbors. Some of the other gods claim that you must kill
in order to receive the mercy of god where you can get into heaven. I would
recommend this excellence book for teenagers and adults who want to learn how
to stand up what your Faith. It has many key points on how the world views God.
The book is very eye opening and has a great potential to help lead people to
Christ. I also enjoyed the interactive QR enable codes throughout the book.
They assist readers into digging deeper into their Faith. The book shows why people tend to
reject the Lord’s truth. Some are just told what to believe and they haven’t
decided why they believed what someone else told them! This book confronts truths that most
people would run away from. Faith is extremely important and we must know what
we believe so we can effective lead others to Christ.
“I received this book for free from Litfuse Publicity
Group for this review”.
About Four Letter Words:
Thou shalt tolerate every opinion... except the
Christian's. Today's postmodern "prime directive" leaves many
followers of Jesus tongue-tied. In the global village, isn't it unreasonable,
and even dangerous, to suggest that the Bible has a monopoly on truth?
The church needs a new breed of Christ-follower. We need
Christ-followers who are alert to today's touchy ideas, the truths that fire up
more heat than light. We need Christ-followers who can make a clear case for
the Bible's worldview; who are ready to help our friends think through their
beliefs; who can recognize inconsistencies and challenge them; and who can do
all of this with humility, confidence, humor, and love. For more information
visit http://fourletterwords.org.
About Bill Giovannetti:
Dr. Bill Giovannetti is a professor at A.W. Tozer
Theological Seminary and the senior pastor of Neighborhood Church of Redding.
An experienced speaker and author, Bill informs the mind in ways that touch the
heart. He enjoys life with his wife and two kids in northern California. For
more information about Bill and his other books, visit http://maxgrace.wordpress.com and http://fourletterwords.org.
About the Giveaway:
Bill is celebrating the new Kindle edition of Four Letter
Words (for only $4.99)! He’ll be traveling coast to coast over the next few
weeks on this virtual book tour and he's celebrating by hosting a great
giveaway!
Click here (http://fourletterwords.org/2012/01/contest-giveaway)
to find out how you can win two gift certificates to Amazon (in the amount of
$50 and $25) and free downloads of his yet-to-be-released title,
Recession-Proof: Living a God-Blessed Life in a Messed Up World.
Bill Giovannetti serves on the faculty of A.W. Tozer
Seminary and is the Senior Pastor of Neighborhood Church of Redding. Four
Letter Words is his second book. He has written numerous articles and is a
popular speaker. Bill hates legalism, loves grace, and teaches that God is
infinitely more committed to us than we will ever be to him. He is a graduate
of Trinity Seminary and earned his doctorate at Fuller Theological Seminary.
What's Four Letter Words about, and where did you get the
title?
Four Letter Words is about defending your faith in
Christ. If you've ever felt tongue-tied standing up for Jesus, this book can
help.
Even though our culture claims tolerance as a virtue,
that tolerance stops at Christianity's front door: witness the hostility
directed toward a sincere Christ-follower like Tim Tebow. Judging by reactions
to him, you'd think he just cussed out his grandma when all he did was say a
word for Christ. Speaking God's truth and living your faith is quickly becoming
today's profanity. Tougher days are coming; we need to get ready.
There has never been a truth-system more satisfying,
consistent, logical and beautiful than Christianity. I wanted to help God's
people rise up and say so.
What four letter words do you write about?
True: who says your truth has to be my truth too? Know:
how do you know God is real? Pain, Evil, and Ouch: why doesn't God stop the bad
stuff? Damn: how can a loving God send people to hell? Word: What makes the
Bible so special? Wait: isn't it unreasonable to expect today's people to live
by biblical standards of sexuality? Hope: what good has Christianity done in
the world?
The book has ten chapters, discussion questions (in the
book and downloadable from the website), and 208 pages.
Did you ever struggle with your faith? How did you work
through that?
Even though I've been a pastor for a long time, I
struggle with my faith a lot. My earliest struggles – back in high school days
– centered on scientific stuff, like evolution. In the book I tell the story of
how I made peace with faith in a Creator God and how I fit together science,
logic, and the gospel in my own heart.
Now that I'm a bit older, my struggles come more out of
pain and suffering. Why does God let people hurt? I cover those topics too.
Struggles are normal – we just can't let them overwhelm
our faith or uproot our joy. It's super-important for us to know every question
raised against Christianity has an answer. I try to provide some of those
answers along with simple talking points for everyday conversations.
Who is this book for?
This book is for anyone who either struggles with faith
or who wants to help friends who struggle with faith. I wrote to strengthen
faith and equip believers to share faith. Our church has used this book with
high school students, young adults, and senior citizens—it's been really well
received across all age groups. Other churches are using it in small groups and
youth groups.
I would love to see this book in the hands of every high
school graduate and new college student: they need to be inoculated from the
anti-Christian venom they're going to experience.
Toward the end, Four Letter Words invites readers to
faith in Christ so it can be resource for evangelism too.
Discussion questions are included.
What's with the QR codes?
Part of my geek credentials, I suppose. As far as I know,
Four Letter Words is the first QR-enabled book for the general market. QR codes
are those postage-stamp sized boxes with indecipherable patterns inside – Quick
Response codes. I wanted to make the book an interactive experience: just scan
the codes with any smartphone and you'll go straight to relevant videos, audio
.mp3's, and websites. Each chapter has a lot more resources on the website
(www.fourletterwords.org) which you can reach either through the QR code or
just by visiting the site. The geek-tech stuff in no way overwhelms the written
word; it just supplements it. I hope readers like it. What did you think?
What's your spiritual background? How did you get started
with Jesus?
I was reared in a tiny Chicago gospel church. I was
loved. I was cared for. I was taught the Bible. That church was my second
family. They introduced me to Jesus. I received him when I was young and
devoted my life to him. But it wasn't until young adulthood that I began to
appreciate how much Jesus was devoted to me. That discovery rocked my world. I
shifted from rules to relationship and from guilt to grace. I dedicated my life
to encourage instead of tear down. I strive to free others from guilt, shame,
and legalism, and to help people discover life and love through God's amazing
grace.
Would you say that Christians are persecuted?
Not so much in the U.S., but persecution is definitely
coming. It's not that Christians are changing; it's that culture is running
from God so fast that yesterday's normal is becoming today's weird. Christians
will be increasingly marginalized. Tell a typical college student he needs to
be celibate till marriage and he'll look at you like you're Amish. Why don't
you hop in your buggy and trot along. A generation ago, our culture would have
supported that value. Today, culture attacks it. It's going to get tougher to
stay strong for Jesus.
We need a new breed of Christ-follower: alert to the
beliefs that tick people off, and ready to fire the weapons of truth and grace
with courage, compassion, humor, and love.
If you could be a superhero, what would you want your
superpowers to be?
There's this guy on the TV show Alphas named Gary Bell
who can literally see the entire electromagnetic spectrum: radio waves, phone
texts, television signals, digital transmissions, and the Internet. He sees it
in the air around him. I want that. Is that enough to renew my geek-card?
Name one movie you consider wildly under-appreciated.
That's easy: Tremors. Yes, the one with Kevin Bacon
fighting giant worms that eat people. Creepy comedic genius. My wife loves it
so much she rolls her eyes and leaves the room every time I turn it on.
TWEET THIS: Four Letter Words by @BillGiovannetti answers the ? what do I do when my faith clashes with my culture? Click to win! http://ow.ly/8FbDW
FACEBOOK THIS: Thou shalt tolerate every opinion… except the Christian’s. Today’s postmodern “prime directive” leaves many followers of Jesus tongue-tied. In the global village, isn’t it unreasonable—and even dangerous—to suggest that the Bible has a monopoly on truth? Four Letter Words by Bill Giovannetti is a great resource for youth and adults who are looking to answer the question, “What do I do when my faith collides with my culture?”http://litfusegroup.com/blogtours/text/13453469
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