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The Impossible Command
How would you react if you opened your front door expecting to see your loved one there but were instead met by state troopers telling you your loved one has died in a car accident? What if your child were born with a birth defect? If you lost your job or your home burned down?
216 pages, Perfect Paperback
First published January 17, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 6, 2019
When tragedy strikes, our human response is to ask, “Why, God?” and seek the answer. Russ Irwin points out that we are to thank God for everything. We don’t ask why he blesses us. Why do we demand an explanation when he seems to be doing the opposite? Sometimes God reveals the answer at some point, but He May never do so. Thanking Him always shows our spiritual maturity and acknowledgment that God is Sovereign. This is the impossible command of Ephesians 5:20. Truly, our response is a measure of faith and that faith grows if we prepare ourselves in advance to give thanks FOR everything.
January 9, 2024
So thought provoking. I wish I had read this at 18 and had the knowledge to know how to be grateful in ALL things .
January 24, 2012
This book has two purposes: how to know and obey Eph. 5:20 (Always give thanks for everything), and how to gain a better understanding of God’s sovereign control.
Irwin rightly feels that we should be preparing Christians ahead of time to face tough situations, tragedies, cancer, and death. As D.A Carson writes: “It is important to establish Christian structures of thought that are already ‘givens’ before pain and bereavement strike”. Irwin feels that few Christian leader train their people ahead of time to face tough situations.
Using two real life examples, he lays out the challenge and practice of giving thanks not IN all things but FOR all things as commanded in Eph. 5:20. Dan and Bettie from Dayton, Ohio faced tragedy. They struggled to understand why and how a good God could allow such a thing to happen. [To avoid spoiling the book, I’ll mention the tragedies in general terms only.] Gradually, the Scriptures begin to give them comfort and teach them to face tragedy more from God’s viewpoint than man’s.
The Hookes are a new couple, Christians also, who move in next door and become good friends with Dan and Bettie. They too face a terrible tragedy. Dan and Bettie struggle to comfort and encourage them by sharing lessons they have learned the hard way.
Dan and Bettie move to Kansas to take a better job, where they join a church and discover the pastor is teaching Eph. 5 with an emphasis on God's sovereignty over everything. The teaching makes sense, comforts them, and accelerates their growth in Christ. They learn that they are commanded to be filled with the Spirit, meaning to be under the control of the Spirit. They discover there are three ways to measure this according to the text: singing joyfully to the Lord, givingthanks for all things, and living at peace with all men.
As Dan and Bettie ponder this teaching from the Word, many questions arise. Irwin uses their example of growth in understanding tragedy to help us prepare for it. He includes helpful quotes from many who have gone through grief and pain. Helen Roseveare who was raped and beaten in the Congo learned to trust God without understanding the reasons for the painful experience.
Each of us needs to ask ourselves some key questions. Do I love God more than anything or anyone he has given? Is what I have my own or is it a gift of undeserved grace? Can I trust him when He does not give me the reason why things happen? Do I believe that He has control over the universe and works all things for the good of His people?
I highly recommend this book. All of us need to be prepared with a Christian attitude toward suffering, pain and loss. And yet, as Irwin recognizes, being human we probably will not be able to give thanks immediately for bad things.
The only weakness I see in Irwin’s book is in the area of our common humanity. I would have liked to have seen a description of Christ, the Perfect Man, reacting in the Garden of Gethsemane to the horrific prospect of death on the cross and separation from the Father. I see a recognition here of the supremacy of God’s will, but I also see the agony of Christ as he asked the Father to let this cup pass from him. Certainly, Christ accepted God’s will as good and perfect which ultimately led him to revel in His role as the Saviour of the World. But as man he suffered terribly through the event. Surely, in tragedy our initial approach as human beings will be sorrow, pain, agony. We will approach those who suffer with empathy, not by reciting Rom. 8:28 or Eph. 5:20.
In spite of this quibble, I feel every Christian should read this book. The more prepared we are to accept the Big Picture of God’s sovereignty, the more comfort we will find in the tough situations of life
Irwin rightly feels that we should be preparing Christians ahead of time to face tough situations, tragedies, cancer, and death. As D.A Carson writes: “It is important to establish Christian structures of thought that are already ‘givens’ before pain and bereavement strike”. Irwin feels that few Christian leader train their people ahead of time to face tough situations.
Using two real life examples, he lays out the challenge and practice of giving thanks not IN all things but FOR all things as commanded in Eph. 5:20. Dan and Bettie from Dayton, Ohio faced tragedy. They struggled to understand why and how a good God could allow such a thing to happen. [To avoid spoiling the book, I’ll mention the tragedies in general terms only.] Gradually, the Scriptures begin to give them comfort and teach them to face tragedy more from God’s viewpoint than man’s.
The Hookes are a new couple, Christians also, who move in next door and become good friends with Dan and Bettie. They too face a terrible tragedy. Dan and Bettie struggle to comfort and encourage them by sharing lessons they have learned the hard way.
Dan and Bettie move to Kansas to take a better job, where they join a church and discover the pastor is teaching Eph. 5 with an emphasis on God's sovereignty over everything. The teaching makes sense, comforts them, and accelerates their growth in Christ. They learn that they are commanded to be filled with the Spirit, meaning to be under the control of the Spirit. They discover there are three ways to measure this according to the text: singing joyfully to the Lord, givingthanks for all things, and living at peace with all men.
As Dan and Bettie ponder this teaching from the Word, many questions arise. Irwin uses their example of growth in understanding tragedy to help us prepare for it. He includes helpful quotes from many who have gone through grief and pain. Helen Roseveare who was raped and beaten in the Congo learned to trust God without understanding the reasons for the painful experience.
Each of us needs to ask ourselves some key questions. Do I love God more than anything or anyone he has given? Is what I have my own or is it a gift of undeserved grace? Can I trust him when He does not give me the reason why things happen? Do I believe that He has control over the universe and works all things for the good of His people?
I highly recommend this book. All of us need to be prepared with a Christian attitude toward suffering, pain and loss. And yet, as Irwin recognizes, being human we probably will not be able to give thanks immediately for bad things.
The only weakness I see in Irwin’s book is in the area of our common humanity. I would have liked to have seen a description of Christ, the Perfect Man, reacting in the Garden of Gethsemane to the horrific prospect of death on the cross and separation from the Father. I see a recognition here of the supremacy of God’s will, but I also see the agony of Christ as he asked the Father to let this cup pass from him. Certainly, Christ accepted God’s will as good and perfect which ultimately led him to revel in His role as the Saviour of the World. But as man he suffered terribly through the event. Surely, in tragedy our initial approach as human beings will be sorrow, pain, agony. We will approach those who suffer with empathy, not by reciting Rom. 8:28 or Eph. 5:20.
In spite of this quibble, I feel every Christian should read this book. The more prepared we are to accept the Big Picture of God’s sovereignty, the more comfort we will find in the tough situations of life
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews