"The Bible teaches us that God 'demonstrates his own love for us' (Romans 5:8) in how he came to us in Jesus. He didn't expect us to climb up to him. He climbed down to us. He got his hands dirty so we could have our hearts cleaned."
In Dirty God, Johnnie Moore gives us a human, humble Jesus who came to give us grace that really can be experienced, felt, and freely given. Jesus wasn't and isn't a well showered, clean shaven, spotless man with nothing to offer but God who took on man to reach us, to live and eat with the dirtiest of dirty, to love and care for the sickest of the sick, to touch a hardest of hearts, to save the worst of us: "Jesus inaugurated a kind of faith the spirit of which is encapsulated in the words of the great missionary C.T. Studd: 'Some wish to live within the sound/ Of church or chapel bell,/ I want to run a rescue shop/ Within a yard of hell.'"
In part one, Moore gives us a Jesus who we can actually see and touch. A Jesus who we can relate to, accept and know that he was really on earth instead of a god who was aloof, absent and uncaring. He was real. Like you and me. He dressed like us, ate like us, lived like us. He became us for us: "We think of God as far away- like a famous person we admire but don't really know. We kind of keep track of what's happening in his story, but surely he doesn't know much about ours, and if he does, he doesn't care enough to know." He came to bring us grace.
And it can be received, it can be 'gotten'. Moore closes part one with grace. The given grace of God. Grace for us to really grasp and understand. A grace in which God "knows us fully , and he loves us just the same." If we can really, fully comprehend this kind of grace, then we need to share it, spread it, and get our hands dirty.
In part two, Moore extends the grace past you and me. He challenges us to give it.
"God expects us to get our own hands dirty, just as he dirtied his own. He wants to meet us- not in the sanctuary but in the slums. Where hopelessness resides is where the rivers of grace are meant to flow more freely...God's not waiting for us at the alter. He is waiting for us to take the alter to the streets."
If our Dirty God roams the trenches, we need to be willing to live out the love God has shown us.
"He didn't want his followers to stand out as walking billboards, their t-shirts painted with cliches and bible verses...He imagined our difference as having more substance, a more subversive quality, and greater effectiveness...we should seem different because we are living out what we believe in a way that causes others to wonder what curious belief undergirds our lifestyles."
Are your hands dirty?
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This book is a life changer, or a life challenger I should say. It'll challenge your ideas of Jesus, grace and paying grace forward. It'll challenge your actions and thoughts. Moore writes in a way that really brings Jesus and grace from the pedestal to your level, no matter how far down the ladder you think you are. His humor and style are perfect for the committed Christian and one who is seeking this grace and love.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free from booksneeze.com for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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