Read an Excerpt

Introduction, pg. 2

American Christianity has sometimes been described as “a mile wide and an inch deep.” One survey taken by the Barna Group reported that 85% of American Christian men find attending church to be spiritually unchallenging. They are bored by what they encounter there. Is that the case with you? If so, could this decline in spiritual vitality be related to the meaninglessness of many of the words that should convey the joy and adventure of our Christian journey?

Most definitely!!

It’s high time to set the record straight.

Take, for example, the word “life.” How basic could a word be? But what type of life does the New Testament present to us? How does the life you are experiencing now relate to the life you will experience in the ages to come? And what exactly did Jesus mean when he said, "As the living Father sent me and I live by the Father, he who eats me, shall live by me?" These are profound questions.

How about the word “mystery”? What was so amazing about the mystery that Paul would base his ministry on it and want to be remembered mainly as a “steward of the mystery”? (I Corinthians 4:1) Then there’s the message of the kingdom. What was so intensely practical about this kingdom that Paul first spent two years in Ephesus and then two more years in Rome preaching about it? What would it be like to hear two years’ worth of glorious ministry on the kingdom of God? That sounds like a journey of discovery worth embarking on. Are you ready to go?

Part of our inheritance as Christians is to fully comprehend these words that can fill us with passion, joy and longing for our God. My aim in writing this book is to challenge seeking believers to explore and then reclaim the deep meaning and experience of these words to such an extent that when we hear them, we can’t help but exclaim, "How sweet the sound!"