It's Not What You Think

This book wasn't what I thought. 

I expected to read this book and not learn anything new. I was wrong, and humbled. 

I read Jefferson Bethke's first book, Jesus > Religion, in college and found that it met a need that I had at that time, namely seeing that a relationship with Jesus is greater than following man-made religious traditions. 

I found that this book was similar. It met a need, seeing that the story God is writing is so much greater and beautiful than I could ever imagine. 

To start off this review, I enjoy and appreciate Jefferson Bethke's work as a whole: his books, vlogs, and spoken word videos. I even follow him and his wife on Instagram. So when this book first came out, I was interested in checking it out, but I wasn't sure what to expect. I had planned on waiting a bit to read it, but Book Look Bloggers offered a chance for me to receive the book for free in exchange for a review. Free books? By an artist I enjoy? Sign me up!

I flew through this book, but found that it really challenged me to think about things from Scripture I had never thought about before, like the implications of Jesus being King and Lord and what it means that God's Kingdom has come. 

Each chapter offered an aspect of something in Scripture and how we often lose the significance of it through nominal Christianity. Jefferson Bethke doesn't make any new claims in his book. He simply opens up Scripture and points out things that are easy to miss, like the significance of the Sabbath, the temple, and many other things and how these things impact our overall view of God's story. 

My only criticism of this book is that each chapter feels like its own thought, and Bethke struggled in relating each chapter back to his main point. While the main point is clear, namely that Christianity is not what we think, I would have liked to see each chapter related back to that main point in a more clear and concise way. 

This is a book though that I would recommend to many. It isn't a deep theological read, but it's a nice appetizer to even richer theology, depth, and meaning of the full Biblical narrative. 

If you're interested in learning more about the book, check out the It's Not What You Think book website here.