John BeVere's 'Extraordinary' Book

Last week, a kindly person treated me to John BeVere's new book Extraordinary and I have been dipping into it ever since. Like a fine wine, you need to take your time with a JBV book; savour it, don't gulp it down like cheap cider (not that I'd know, obviously!). This book does touch on some previous themes covered far more extensively in other books but I don't think that is a bad thing; we need to be reminded of truth or else we forget! At the time of blogging, I am only up to Chapter 8 but I keep getting a feeling of deja vu: has JBV has been listening to Pastor John's preaches and reading his notes?! Here is a brief synopsis of some of the themes of JBV's book so far...

• God's unconditional love v. God's conditional favour
• The Fear of the Lord
• Judgement Day and the link with rewards for obedience
• The Danger of Deception
• Our Projected Image / Perceived Image / Actual Image (i.e. the 'Keeping Up Appearances' Syndrome that taints the lives of so many Christians today).
• The anaemic nature of so much preaching today in contrast with the true power and nature of God's Word.
• The true nature of grace.

Many of these topics have been covered by Pastor John and others during Sunday messages here in the Church and it is exciting to hear the affirmation and confirmation of these words coming through the pages of a book from someone like John BeVere for whom we have a great deal of respect. I know in my own life how his book Under Cover radically impacted my life when I first read it several years ago; it kept me on the right path!

BCC may not be the most popular Church in the UK; we may not have the glossiest leaflets, the slickest music team or the poshest coffee. But that matters not one jot. Scratch away the surface of BCC and what you find is the living, pulsing, dynamic, prophetic Word of God delivered by passionate, committed and anointed men and women of God who are full of the Holy Spirit and pursuing a spiritually confrontational life of no compromise in this world today.

Thank you John BeVere for being used by the Lord to encourage us to continue to preach messages that do more than simply increase knowledge or tickle ears (2 Tim 4:3) but, under the inspiration and intervention of Holy Spirit, speak prophetically and with great authority into the lives of those who have ears to hear (Hebrews 4:12, Revelation 2:7ff).