So, I have several of Mark Batterson's books and really enjoyed his first -- In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Evening. It grabs your attention and makes you scratch your head in that you've missed that story somehow in the Bible. His most recent book - Chase the Lion - goes back to that original but it lacks the grandeur of the first which was a New York Times best-seller.
The structure of the book is rather predictable in that he talks about his first book to start off and then he moved into this newer rendition. Well, every chapter starts off with some story and then he talks about "chasing lions." He used a snippet of a verse in that chapter that mentions going the pit with that lion; however, he never really spent time explaining their importance or relevance to the chapter. he seemed to use the verses just to make it "more Christian" rather than doing some type of exegesis regarding the actual text.
Before I describe my largest concern, let me tell you that some good is here in the book. He has put forward a "manifesto of the Lion Chaser" and those have some good statements. In fact, one of them is the background to my computer -- run to the road! If you want to see them all, you can find them here: http://chasethelion.com/manifesto
Now, let's get into my big issue. On pages 10 and 11, the author quotes the minor prophet Joel and he totally missed (not a slight miss but a HUGE one). He used the prophet to lend credence to the summary of his chapter -- dreaming dreams is "the natural, supernatural by-product of being filled with God's spirit." That conclusion is not even remotely in the context of the of Joel's prophecy. If you read all of Joel 2, you will see that its a call to repentance and the Lord working in His people. They are to be satisfied in Him alone. What's the end of that work? The people call on God's name which moves them toward salvation and deliverance from sin because God will be the judge of all mankind. The statement about dreams concocted by Batterson is not the final product because salvation from sin and submission to His will is. In this case, the author chased the lion a bit too much.
There are some good one-liners in here; however, get his first book instead of this one.
To comply with new regulations introduced by the Federal Trade
Commission, I am offering this disclaimer: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.
