The Shack

When my wife and I first got married, we moved into a house that had been literally used to store hay from the early nineteen seventies. It was a shack. I couldn’t afford much and this man from Springtown told me he would let me live in the old house if I would take care of his cows and his 400 acres. So that’s what I did.

While it looked terrible on the outside, my father in law and I spent three months redoing the walls, the ceiling and the floors. By the week of my marriage, we had converted a rundown cabin into the Brewer’s hillbilly palace. It was awesome.

We spent our first three years of marriage in young loves bliss until a tornado threw the coupling of a train into it; but that’s a whole other story.

Twenty years later, I look back and think wonderful things about that old house. It was a special time and means a lot to me. So when I saw a book called The Shack on the Christian best-seller list, it caught my eye. I knew I had to read it.

My wife and I went through the book like a June bug through a duck because we couldn’t put it down. When finished, we talked about it so much we read though it again. In the past six weeks, Leanna and I have given away at least twenty copies to family and leaders on our ministry team.

It’s a keeper. Now I am a big reader and enjoy a lot of books. Because I’m a history nut, I read a lot of biographies. I highly recommend Billy Graham’s Just As I Am. It’s a fantastic read. I have got to tell you, the biography that has made the biggest impact on my life so far is Save Me From Myself by Brain “Head” Welch. What an incredible story of how God changes and redeems our lives.

Because I’m a nerd, I read a lot of Astronomy stuff. Because I’m a traveler, I read a lot of history on specific places. I have a subscription to Texas Monthly, Astronomy and Success magazines. I tend to pick up copies of Outreach and Biblical Archeology. I canceled my subscription to Savage Sword of Conan years ago but still miss it.

Some books fall into a category of everybody-ought-to-have-to-read sometime in their life. A few no-brainers for me would be To Kill A Mockingbird and A River Runs Through It.

Different reads have meant different things to me through the years. I judge a book by the way it changes or upgrades my life. Some of the top keepers on my shelf that made the biggest impact would be The Body by Chuck Colson. Foxes Book of Martyrs, The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus. A Divine Confrontation by Graham Cook,
The Diary of Ann Frank, Fresh Fire by Mario Murillo and others that have rocked my world from time to time. The God Chasers and The Prayer of Jabez were best sellers that I got a lot out of and I don’t usually get best sellers.

So of course I was suspicious when I picked up The Shack. I highly underestimated the effect this book would have on me. It challenged me in so many ways to review my relationship with God and where I think God is when life really stinks.

This week’s sip from the Carpenter’s cup comes perking with encouragement to stay teachable. Keep moving forward. Remain progressive and live life full of transition.
Graham Cooke says the greatest threat to a new move of God in your life is the last move of God. I don’t want what I’ve learned to keep me from learning anything else and I don’t want my last experience with God to keep me from finding him again and again. I’m determined to be teachable because I don’t want miss what new things the good Lord has for me.

Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

Contact the Brewer @ www.FreshFromTheBrewer.com