Review: Christian Living Beyond Belief

April 5th, 2006

Yesterday I finished reading a new book called Christian Living Beyond Belief–Biblical Principles for the Life of Faith. The author, Cliff McManis, is the pastor of Children’s Ministries at my church and also my husband’s “boss”. I really appreciated this book as Cliff unfolded in Biblical detail the responsibilities and disciplines of the Christian life.

Some of the topics Cliff addresses include: worship, fellowship, discipleship, giving, church membership and obedience. He offered challenging Biblical insight on giving, evangelism and prayer–these three were my favorite chapters.

Giving–From this chapter I was most challenged by Cliff’s examination of Proverbs 3:9-10 which says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first-fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim with new wine.” I’ve heard teaching from this passage several times but always thought how opposite I was from it. I never consider myself wealthy, and I don’t have crops, barns or drink wine so I wasn’t sure really what the challenge could be personally from these verses.

Cliff enlightened my understanding of giving and that it is to be more about my heart attitude and obedience. God has given me all that I have and from a thankful heart I need to give back to Him. I may not have crops or barns, but I need to give to Him first. I used to have a mentality that said, “After I pay the rent and the bills, grocery shop and fill my car up with gas…then I will give.” This is an entirely wrong approach to giving. I need to be giving to the Lord and others as often as I have opportunity. I may not always be able to give money, but I can offer all that I have. Cliff said,

“When we fail to give to God we dishonor Him. If we faithfully honor
God by always giving to Him from the first fruits of all our income then
He will reward us…God will meet all our basic needs with great
abundance when we honor Him with our money by making Him the priority.
The bottom line is, ‘Do you trust God at His Word?’” (Pp.111-112)
Evangelism–In his chapter called “Go!” Cliff looks at the command of the Great Commission from Matthew 28:16-20. There is quite a bit of debate on what evangelism is these days. Some people think evangelism means witnessing to third world countries, bringing someone to a church service, leaving gospel tracts in public places, supporting missionaries, building relationships with non-believers, and I’m sure the list could go on. Cliff provided a refreshingly Biblical perspective on this by explaining that in order for someone to become aware of the Gospel, they need to hear it and in order for them to hear it, we need to speak it to them. For the bulk of the chapter Cliff explains what the Gospel really is and why repentance is necessary for salvation. Believers are not supposed to only look like Christians on Sunday morning, and then live like they aren’t the rest of the week. Evangelism should be a part of our everyday Christian walk. Cliff said,
“God has appointed us to represent Him wherever we go–at home,
with the relatives, with the neighbors, on the job, to the mailman, to
the checker at the supermarket, to the barber, with the waitress at
the restaurant…Focus on the depth of your ministry to people, and
let God worry about the breadth of it.” (pp. 126,130)
Prayer–This was by far my favorite chapter in the book. I am learning a lot about prayer lately and Cliff helped to guide my study of it in Scripture and helped me see some ways that I can be more efficient and faithful in prayer. Cliff said,
“According to the Bible, prayer is talking to God. It is personal
conversing and communing with the Creator of the universe. God
talks to us through the Scriptures; we talk to God through prayer.” (p. 165)
This chapter takes a deeper look at how we can learn to pray like Jesus prayed and taught His followers to pray in Luke 11 and Matthew 6. Our prayers should be in private, God-centered, according to His will, with a dependent attitude, and confessing of our sins. As I read this chapter I became convicted that I need to put excuses aside and apply my mind and heart to the practice of prayer.
“In this day and age, countless people will argue, ‘I can’t pray like
that–that’s unrealistic–I’m too busy…I can’t ever be alone…my kids
won’t allow it…my job requires too many hours.’ Excuses, excuses.
It’s just a matter of priorities. Do what Jesus did–get up very early.
It’s a sacrifice. We make sacrifices for lesser things all the time. We
need to be heavenly-minded and stop being so earthly-minded all the
time. Prayer is hard work; prayer is a struggle. But it’s worth it.” (p. 167)
All in all this book was simple to read and edifying for developing a right mindset of spiritual growth. I agree with John MacArthur’s endorsement, “Cliff’s approach is straightforward and biblical, and serves as a helpful resource…” You can purchase Christian Living Beyond Belief from Kress Christian Publications or Barnes and Noble’s website.

2 Comments

  1. roberta
    April 5th, 2006

    I keep reading positive reviews of this book, I need to read it for myself!

  2. Bradford Smith
    April 6th, 2006

    I just got a copy of this book too! It’s pretty neat to actually see it in published form after watching Cliff spend so much time writing it.

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