When self-help isn’t enough
‘Life can be exhausting,’ admits Jon Rashbrook and Phil Brookes. And like a Rubik’s Cube™, we twist and turn the combinations of our life, looking for personal completeness. But what if we were actually designed to live an entirely different way?
‘Like completing the Rubik’s Cube™,’ they argue, ‘we can try thousands of combinations on our own, but without an understanding of how the puzzle works, we are unlikely to find the solution.’
In their new book Life as it Could Be Jon and Phil explore how a relationship with God, rather than self-effort, can reshape your life. If you tried and failed with the self-help route, maybe now is the time to check the truths Jesus has to offer.
‘We believe that the simplest way to live life well is to understand how God originally created us to be, Jon tells Challenge readers.’ In sixteen short studies they take the reader on a spiritual journey.
Friends for more than twenty years, Phil and Jon work closely together at The Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) in Guildford, a world leader in music industry education.
Phil and Jon are also founding members of the pioneering Brookwood Community Church in Surrey, where Jon was pastor for five years. ‘One of our main motivations for writing the book was to be able to communicate to others our experience of God’s love and grace in an unreligious and simplified way. ‘Our relationship with God is like a journey which deepens as our faith, trust and experience of him develops. ‘Ultimately it’s not what you’ve GOT to do, it’s about what has been done FOR you. What Jesus offers is freedom from the things that aren’t working. ‘And in this time of recession when people will be re-evaluating their lives, hopefully our book will be helpful because money is the ultimate God substitute. All of us to a certain extent, put security in our tangible physical wealth. ‘When those things are shaken even those of us who have known God for years, have to learn to turn to him first rather than just going to him for the shortfall. Jesus has to be at the centre of what we do.’
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