'Face to Face' by Monte Kline

 

 Meeting God in the Quiet Places
Has God Spoken to You Lately?
Imagine a whole new way of meeting with God that would transform your Christian life. What if you could create special times alone with God for illumination, direction on decisions, and just the sheer enjoyment of being in His presence like nothing you've ever experienced before? What if you could come face to face with God? Following the pattern of Abraham, Elijah, Paul, and other biblical characters, Face to Face shows the way to create those life-changing encounters. Today we must rediscover the secret and power of meeting God in the quiet places.
You will discover:
-A way to meet with God and hear his voice
-Keys to escaping the noise and busyness of life
-An alternative to Christmas list praying
-How to capture your spiritual transformation
-How to encounter God through Personal Retreats

MY THOUGHTS:

This is a very handy and easy-to-read guide for anybody who wants to plan a personal retreat with God. I'm happy to be able to recommend it to anybody who never knew there was such a book, but could benefit from the advice about tailor designing one to suit our needs.

In the first part, the author looks at histories of Biblical folk who took time to make personal retreats. There are many more than we may think. He suggests tips for us to get to know the real Person of God, instead of getting away and trying to worship someone we've made up in our own heads. He also gives tips at the outset about how we can increase our thirst for God, if we find it lacking. This includes the way we may prioritise 'urgent' demands and our true attitude toward mundane, routine tasks. There's also a good, comprehensive section about fasting, if we should choose to include this component in our retreats. As I've often found instructions about fasting a bit waffly and unclear in other books, I appreciated this one.

So that was all interesting, clear reading, but my favourite section is the one which sets out recommendations about setting up our own retreats. I love the idea that rather than regretting the fact that we can't take many long retreats in a year, it's possible to take several one day, closer to home ones for the same benefit. I like even more that this book stresses the value of doing just that, to take away the guilt some of us may feel for putting aside the time. (I'm imagining my family saying, 'Mum's taking one of her retreats' and being fine with it.)

Toward the end, Kline even includes an excerpt from a journal he kept on one of his own retreats, to give us a springboard to help plan our own. I'll definitely keep it on hand to refer to when I need it.

Thanks to the author for providing me with a review copy.

4.5 stars