10 of those

True Devotion

A couple of wise friends recommended this book to me as a December read, and so I went with their suggestion (despite a slightly dull cover!). And Chapple has surpassed my expectations. This is a truly brilliant book that gets to the heart of true devotion with clarity, rigorous reasoning and Jesus-pointing writing. His opening chapter places the gospel at the heart of any definition of spirituality and makes the excellent, and often forgotten point, that spirituality and therefore devotion must be responsive to the gospel rather than constructed and conjoured up from any other place. Chapple speaks into the heart of misconceptions and misguidances regarding our devotional relationship with God. With rigorous explanation and exegesis, he makes it clear that we have all we need in God's revelation of himself, his works and his promises in his Word and that anything that does not 'conform' to the Bible is misleading and damaging. He particularly challenges the 'mystical' ways that are espoused in various circles - those which encourage the inward journey to discover more of God, those which push for contemplative emptying of the mind to get closer to God, those which cite the 'God feeling' as an indicator of how our relationship with Him is going..and various other traditions and methods that may well have been passed down through church history. Chapple is direct and to the point as he challenges, but the tone of the book is not one of judging and lecturing but a desire for every Christian to love what they have in Christ and to grow in their secure and wonderful relationship with God. Having exposed the non-word conforming ways of various traditions, Chapple goes on to positively demonstrate and argue for meditation that is fuelled by the word, works and person of Christ and all that is found in God's word. The last chapter is brilliantly practical as he unpacks what true devotion is based on and what it might look like. The final pages offer rich Christ-centred praise that wonderfully lifts the reader's eyes to the Saviour who is at the heart of all true devotion. This book has leapfrogged up my list of books read in 2015 and sits comfortably in the top 5. I think it is a very well written, important book that made me want to grow in devotion to God and lifted my eyes to Jesus. It made me more aware of temptations to go down misguided paths that claim to enhance devotion and pushed me back to the gospel and how it is at the heart of our walk with God. Definitely worth picking up...and persuading others to read too.

Felicity Patterson