TrueFaced (by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol and John Lynch)

(Amazon UK link)

In trying out new books, I sometimes follow recommendations from book sites, from reviewers, or from the backs of books I've enjoyed. That's how I came across 'The Misunderstood God', which I thought was excellent, and then 'Bo's Café', which I thought reasonably good, but not great.

The authors of the latter - Bill Thrall and Bruce McNicol - have combined with another writer, John Lynch, to write a non-fiction book which also sounded interesting. So I bought it a month or two back, and have just finished reading it, over a few weeks.

I found 'TrueFaced' to be a very encouraging and eminently readable book. I could perhaps have sat and read it in one sitting. But I preferred to read just a little at a time so as to think about what I'd read through the day.

The book is basically about trusting God and living in his grace. It takes a metaphorical view of the two broad choices open to Christian believers: that of trying to follow good intentions in order to please God, or simply to trust him.

The authors point out that neither is 'wrong' - whichever 'room' we find ourselves in, we're there for the best of motives. The problem with living out of good intentions is that we tend to adopt masks, trying to present a good appearance to everyone else and being unwilling to admit to our deepest needs and worries.

None of what was said was new to me, but the way it was written was most encouraging and also very reassuring. It probably wouldn't go down too well with some evangelicals, certainly not the more fundamentalist of them; yet the older I grow, the more I find myself wanting to get rid of every hint of legalism and pretence, and live from day to day in God's love.

Highly recommended.