Friend of Sinners

“Until we understand how much God loves us, we won’t let God lead us. We won’t let God help us. We won’t draw near to him or let him draw near to us. Love is the force that brought God to earth, and it’s the force that brings us to God.”

Last semester at Book Club cadence (Monday nights. 7PM. Starbucks on Curry Ford Rd.)  we read “Friend of Sinners” by Rich Wilkerson, Jr. In this book Pastor Rich uses his own personal stories to help us relate and fully understand God’s constant pursuit after the hearts of sinners. Yes, you read that right. SINNERS. For instance, look at the story of Zacchaeus (a story we all know and love). Zacchaeus was a greedy, deceitful tax collector. He was betraying his own people on the DAILY to gain more for himself. He was the absolute last person anyone thought Jesus would want to hang with; but because Jesus is after the heart of sinners he was the EXACT person he was looking for.

This book challenges us, as readers and as believers, to love people the way that Jesus did.  To extend the same type of unbiased, no limits love to the people that are the least like us and the least likely to be loved by the world.

I can’t even begin to explain how awesome and life changing this book was. It’s one of those books where you can’t help but highlight and write down everything.

Challenges us to really reevaluate how we approach people in our day to day lives.

He emphasizes that God’s love for us doesn’t stem from our holiness or how cool we are but on God’s infinite, reckless love for us.

Ashley Bridges