Must read for Christians who live in a "safe" environment.
591644
This book has had an impact on my life greater than any other book I've read in the past few years.  Those of us in America tend to forget that there were more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than all the other centuries combined.  To read the story of those who follow Christ faithfully no matter what the cost is convicting, inspiring and challenging.  Nik has visited and interview Christians in some of the hardest places in the world to live for Christ.  If their stories don't move you, you must be dead!
3792406
I repented a good number of times when I was reading this book. It was very sobering just imagining the horrors that the lost go through in Hell. And there is no rest, no peace and no love, just constant fear, pain, suffering and torment. I am so glad Jesus had Mary write this book to warn us of the judgment we will face if we refuse to turn away from sin and come to Him to be saved.

For the Christian, this book is a wake up call because as we serve Christ, we can loose focus and start living a life of sin or start compromising. No, we are to love Him with all our hearts and live clean and holy lives before Him. If you are a backslidden Christian, this book will help revive you.
2341346
REVIEW:  SAFE HOUSES OF HOPE & PRAYER
(Spokane, WA: Rising River Media, 2014 Revised Edition, 218 pages)
by R. Maurice Smith

Spokane, WA's pastor/author, Maurice Smith's Safe Houses of Hope & Prayer is more than a practical guide to organic church in your house.

It is his passionate plea from the heart calling God's people to look up, look out and find ways to let the spirit of the Living God flow in and through them to His glory.

He has not proposed a new way, but taken an ancient model from the days that Jesus' disciples walked this earth to reinvigorate Christians of the 21st Century. He challenges contemporary Christians to care, to reorganize, to care, to serve, to care, to train up or disciple new and old Christians, and most of all to care for one another, including those who do not yet know Him.

He describes some nuts and bolts, do's and don'ts, not only in a contemporary cultural context, but with humor pushing toward the relevance of Christian thought and action.

A man with a pastor's heart and an apostolic vision, Mr. Smith likens God's calling to a free flowing river of grace and goodness, rather an capturing the water in a static swimming pool.

Pastor Smith outlines the Priorities for an organic house church, those things that were vital in the post-Pentecostal lives of the early church.

First, there was teaching. More than just sharing and expanding knowledge of the things of God, but teaching for transforming lives in loving God and loving our neighbors.

Second, the organic house church is a laboratory and an expression of genuine fellowship. Learning and preferring fellowship with house church members, including the messy parts of life, is to share a common life in the Kingdom of God and drink from a common River of His Spirit in the bond of Christ (page 80).

 Third, breaking bread together is both the practical and the symbolic Communion of this little body of people with one another.

And the fourth priority is prayer. Recognize that prayer is the
life-breath of the soul and of the Church (page 85). Prayer and ministry go together as the works of the church. In the organic house church there is flexibility to engage in one, some, or even all these priorities, as an expression of the needs of the body and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Living in and out your faith in Jesus Christ is the objective of the organic house church.  Never easy, but always challenging to live beyond the routine of going to church, the organic house church is the call for men and women to be the church in the 21st Century.

Safe Houses of Hope & Prayer and all his books are available on R. Maurice Smith's website at [...] through Amazon.com!

Review by David M. Wallace, Elder at Central Seventh-day Adventist Church; Vice President of He's Alive Television; and Coordinator of the World Prayer Team, Spokane, WA, 2015.
4689475
Many people say they want to be a Christian, saved or become a believer without even the slightest inkling about what we can become in Christ Jesus. And while we are not physically in the garden, we can live under the protection of God, and realize that we need Him to deliver us from the evil one on a daily basis. When we are born, we are either born into a blessed siuation, or a cursed one (and sometimes it's a little of both.)
Regardless of how we start, or the curses we invite into our lives by our own actions, God in His word gives us an out, a way of escape.  You do not have to remain an addict to drugs, sex or acumulation. You can lay hands on the sick and they will recover.  You can walk on water if Jesus asks you to. You can get bitten by serpents and not be harmed. And if you are stunted in your growth as a Christian and if you are hungry enough to want to leave that funk, there is a way out, even if it means a particular form of repentence, a not so popular word to many so-called believers.  A disciple is called to be set apart, dedicated to God...anointed for special service to Him.  I have read hundreds of books in seminary and a part of several Spirit-filled churches, and still this is the best book (as a teaching tool) I have come across in the last 15 years.  This is not "Chritianity for Dummies", but "Food for the Hungry Soul".
1333129
More books like this one need to be written to really reveal the life of the Christian in the church, at home, etc.
How do you know you are a normal Christian?
Well this leader has done his best to help all of us understand what it is to be a 'Normal Christian'.
When it comes to 'identity'....who are you in Christ?  The writer teaches if your are 'average' you are a slave, and if you are 'normal' you are a bond servant/friend.
This is a book that every Christian should read to determine are you a normal Christian or not.
This book is full of Truth and Chapter Two 'Revival Myths' is just for all to digest.
Read and grow in the Father His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
1636367
I wish everyone who professes to be a Christian would read this book!  This book is the perfect example of what God would have us do.  We "play Christianity" but do not really walk the walk.  It is about time the church doors open up. We need to go to those who truly need to see "Jesus' unconditional love in action," and in turn, welcome everyone to join our church family so they too can grow up in God's Word and serve Him.  Read this book! Perfect for a Bible Study in your neighborhood or small church group.
4409938
The pastoral staff of our church just completed our third reading of this book and we will most likely be reading it again in the future.  The author so clearly shows the progression of temptation. The illustration using a fictional pastor is a story I have seen repeated in real life over and over again throughout my thirty plus years in ministry.

Following the counsel of the Steve Hayes will certainly help you stay Safe & Sound: Protecting Personal and Ministry Relationships.
4152269
I used to hear on the radio and television Christian shows how Christians were persecuted in other Countries. And during the eighties you would hear this often. But once you read this gem of details you are fully aware of how living for Christ is a daily walk and a true sacrifice. The Word says the way to heaven is a narrow road few make it in. If these soldier for Christ did not make it in then we are all doomed. For sure people all over the world are suffering for being a Christian even in America society wants us to stifle our views and accept everything as truth. For there is a way that seems right unto a man but the way therein is death.
Read this with a prayer and conviction that you will not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
4679716
We had read this book quite a while ago.  I would suggest this for every Christian to read to realize what they say really is what they get, and to guard their mouth from being negative.  Wonderful book!
1554244
This book is one of the must read books for any christian. I have been a believer for almost a lifetime but the writer explains things I have had trouble reconciling. thanks for the opportunity to comment on book that explains many of the things christians have not considered.
3978515
This is a must read for all Christians, young and old. This book will give you a sound basis of the principles of spiritual warfare.
2797285
Neil Anderson has added another valuable book in the area of living out the Freedom in Christ that every believer has -- even if they don't realize it or don't want to experience it.  Too often the Christian community establishes "standards" of behavior, not by the standards of Scripture (God's revealed truth), but by tradition or societal/cultural norms.  Although I would have never thought of myself as a legalist, the application of freedom principles, as opposed to legalism, hit too close for comfort a number of times as I read this book.  Every believer should evaluate the "Why" of our moral, ethical, worship, and fellowship standards.  If in line with Scripture great, but this book will challenge any honest thinker to be grounded in what God has said, not simply in what the Christian culture around us has said.  Some times our Christian culture is well-sourced in the truths and principles of Scripture, but more often than what I might have said five years ago, we have formed non-Scriptural culture in the Christian community. This book will help prompt a good evaluation of where we are and what we do.
201703
Most of us don't have a positive view of barbarians. Visions of Conan usually come to mind. That's not exactly the kind of barbarism that Erwin Raphael McManus is talking about in his book "Unleashed- Release the Untamed Faith Within." McManus is talking about moving out of the civilized pews to the uncivilized streets with our faith.

I was raised in a church-going family. At one point, the doors of the church weren't open without us going through them. It was safe and civilized. Everyone knew what was expected and didn't have much toleration for deviation. A safe Christianity that required nothing more than singing the correct hymns and keeping my eyes closed during prayer. I was one of the people who McManus describes as having "grown up in the church and effectively Christianized but have never genuinely met Christ."

Now decades later, I've come to believe that there should be more to my faith than the safety of the group and predictability of the service. There had to be more than me sitting in the pew being entertained and feeling good for making the effort to go. Now that Jesus has met me where I am, and I've genuinely come to know who he is, I'm ready to step off the cliff.

McManus allows, o.k. pushes, the reader out of the comfortable pew into unpredictable streets of the kind of faith that Jesus exhibited. Just as he did with his children, McManus encourages believers to take a step on the more dangerous path.  A barbarian faith doesn't forego corporate worship. Instead it encourages the believer to take the worship outside and take on the world with it.

Every Christian who wants to go beyond the safety of the pew needs to read this book. Every Christian who wants to keep the status quo needs to read this book. Every Christian needs the challenge that McManus offers in "Unleashed"  for a more vibrant and honest faith.

I want to become a barbarian as John the Baptist was (without the locust maybe). I want to learn to boldly go forward with my faith in a way I've never done. "Unleashed" is a guidebook to becoming an uncivilized Christian.
3601680
Just think how much better a place this world would be, if others would follow the excellent example set by Ms. Fedencia Castillo-Morales.

This book was a real wake-up call to me in that we can be much more unselfish and more worshipful of our loving Lord, Jesus Christ.

I highly recommend the book as a model for Christian parents and children.

Patrick S. Woods

Founder, Supply Chain Education
722593
This is NOT an anti-religious or anti-Christian book, if fact, the author is a church youth group leader.  This book shows how a church gone wrong perverts the Christian message of grace and makes believing a terrible burden.  I particularly recommend this book to Christians as a warning of what a church must not become - good churches do go bad sometimes.  From what I have learned about cults, both from reading and from people involved with them, this is a chillingly accurate view of a pretty typical cult.  I highly recommend this book for adults and teenagers.  It's a good read - very hard to put down.

Readers should be aware that the name "Cult Awareness Network" as mentioned in this book no longer refers to a watchdog organization warning people about cults - the name has been bought by an advocate of a religion usually considered a cult and is now dedicated to whitewashing these dangerous groups.
1532886
This book is a great tool to use in a discipleship role because the questions that you get to answer makes this book "No Fear" very much like the Hall of  Faith of  Faith found in Hebrews 11 of great Christians who fought the battle to the very end. The stories that were told gives me encouragement to live and die for Jesus on a daily basis. I liked how Tony Perkins showed us stories from the Bible in comparison to real life scenarios. We live in a world that the name of Jesus offends many people, but Jesus says that if we deny him in front of others he will deny before his father in heaven and we will spend a lifetime seperated from the love of God in hell. Christians must take a stand for their faith I am seeing and hearing many Christians willing to die for the cause. Being  a Christian does not mean our life is going to be easy. I wish my youth group had the same faith I did growing up and not afraid to share their faith without being scorned or mock.

I highly recommend reading this book and several others to give you strength when you are weak, study what other Christians are doing for standing on the word of God, because it is not being taught in the school systems yet our public school systems rather teach on Islam. Today more than ever we have to be that voice of forgiveness, love, peace, and hope to a world that has lost faith in these things that Jesus had taught us from the beginning of time.
2903108
This is a very well-written book.  It's like a "wake-up call" for Christians (myself included) who may have developed a tendency to overlook certain behaviors and attitudes that many or most don't think of as sin.  It is a humbling challenge to re-examine areas of your life that you may have considered "safe".