Day 169 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks

I expected Created to be God’s Friend by Henry T. Blackably to be an easy read full of great insights. I read his book Experiencing God (and worked my way through the study guide) and loved it.

This book, however, is well… not so great. Blackaby was an English major in college, so I was shocked at how difficult his writing was to read. Sentences were cumbersome, he apparently doesn’t believe in the use of pronouns – especially when referring to God, and he tended to emphasize (by the use of italics) words that didn’t warrant emphasis… at least one word per paragraph.

Anyway, the premise of the book is to go through the life of Abram (later Abraham) and see how God refined him to the point of being called His friend. It would have been a great study, if you didn’t have your eyes jumping all over the page because of the non-essential italicized words; the repetition of entire pages, almost back to back, and the poor structure of not just the sentences but the entire book.

There were numerous times when I’d be reading along and then BOOM, different topic… um, dude, where’s the transition?

Other times I’d read a couple of pages, turn to the next page and would have to backtrack to make sure that a page wasn’t double-printed. Almost word for word were some of the paragraphs.

I know repetition will help the reader remember what is being taught, but this was to the extreme.

Then there’s the “here’s what happened in my life” stories that he adds in. In his attempt to describe a situation where he’s talking with one of his sons or his wife or another pastor… the wording is just… well, if he really talks this way, I’d be hard-pressed to listen more than a second or two.

In his telling of how he came to write Experiencing God he writes, “I replied (a little uneasily), ‘Do you clearly, unmistakably, undeniably feel I should write this?'”

Two lines later, “My reply was, ‘You’ve caught me at a most significant time. Only yesterday did I make a solemn commitment to write if God should clearly show me that I should. I don’t have an option. I will do it immediately.'” (page 34)

Seriously? Do you really talk like that in conversation?

Anyway, the idea behind the book is a good one… it’s just not laid out very well in this particular book. I also have a problem with one of his statements – a theological problem – that I need to talk to one of my pastors. I think Blackaby is way off the mark with how he interprets something, but I’ll wait until I get feedback to post anything about it.

Overall, I’d say skip this book. There really isn’t anything new presented here that you’re not going to pick up from reading other books on Abraham or just from listening to your pastor. And this book is so poorly structured and written, it’s not worth the effort.