I met Derek Jordan through an email exchange awhile back and he has been very kind to listen through many of my audiobooks over the last few months. I have appreciated his feedback, which he has most recently given on my first book, A Taste of Jesus. That book came about in my journey to better understand Jesus and his teachings, which I found more and more challenging the deeper I went. I was glad to see in his review that the book has been challenging for others as well.
An informative and eye opening book. It covers many challenging things about faith in Christ. For yourself to be growing the fruit of the spirit in general, but then covering some very specific and applicable things we face in the here and now. One of the big ones covered is loving your enemies and the issues we deal with in doing such. It also brings to light of the spiritual really does exist and we need to be doing something about it… even if it’s just believing and praying with such a mind.
There are thoughts on evolution and science, seeing it fit with God rather than be totally against. There are some very different viewpoints than one might have grown up with so one might need to be careful coming into this and be sure to search out the Lord/The Bible yourself to confirm truths. This book covers peace of Christ and the need for us to be better at accepting such a thing. It also covers political thoughts and seeing the world through the eyes of Christ, which is … hard. I can certainly say this is giving me a challenge in going into God’s word and being sure I know what God is calling out of me for my life and what that means for me interacting with others.
I personally enjoyed it – and continue to find I enjoy the way Jamin puts forth information.
Note: Interesting with the fact of this being an audiobook – there is music at the end of the book. Surprised me – and I enjoyed it – though I usually listen at 2x speed and had to slow it down to enjoy those songs.
And since we’re on this topic I thought I’d give a quick comment to a less positive review I got awhile back that had to do with my writing:
Couldn’t take another chapter of quotes!! The entire book is a collection of quotes. I’m sorry but it just doesn’t flow.
I just want to say that I agree that I used too many quotes in this book (though there are less than my first draft 😉 ). There were a lot of quotes for a few reasons:
- At the time I was collecting tons of quotes from my favorite authors and couldn’t help but share them. (I stopped collecting as much when I started reading too much to keep up with them.)
- I value quotes (especially scholarly ones when it comes to Biblical interpretation) because it shows that I’m not just speaking out of my own mind. I don’t always value my own thoughts, so I like to back them up.
- It was my first book. Were I to go back, I would trim down some of the quotes and get rid of others.
- In that particular audiobook, I said the word “quote” and “end-quote” at the beginning and end of every quote I read, including every Bible passage reference. I realize that can be tedious to the ear, so I’ve changed my narration style since then.
So in conclusion, I understand that critique. I haven’t heard others complain about it, but I think it’s a fair complaint.
I am glad to see that A Taste of Jesus has continued to draw in audiobook purchases throughout the years. Usually someone makes a purchase after a long time of nothing and then I see a few more purchases throughout the upcoming weeks, so I’m hoping that someone enjoys it and then refers it to others. Granted, I’ve also seen the book returned quite a few times and I imagine that has to do with the challenging content—especially my chapter on peace which continues to be a challenge even for me at times.
Anyways, thanks for reading and listening. If you want a free audiobook code for any of my audiobooks in return for a review if you finish it, hit me up 🙂
Jamin Bradley 