Review - Red Like Blood: Confrontations With Grace

Red Like Blood: Confrontations with Grace by Joe Coffey & Bob Bevington, Shepherd Press, 2011, 221 pages.

In Luke 7, we learn of an encounter between Jesus and a woman who was a sinner. She wasn't welcomed by the pharisee whose dinner she gate-crashed, but she braved his censure to perform a simple act of devotion to Jesus. Why? She loved much because she was forgiven much.

Red Like Blood reminds me of the woman in Luke 7. It chronicles the stories of people who love much because they've been forgiven much. These are real people with real struggles, real suffering, and real sin. Their accounts will move you to tears. Some may even shock you because Christians aren't always this candid and transparent. But the intent isn't to shock or magnify the sin. The intent of this book is to hold up the glorious grace of God made available to us through the gospel, and it succeeds in that attempt.

Although this book relates personal experiences rather than formally teaching doctrine, the whole gospel is held up. Sin is not sugarcoated. Confession and repentance are not minimized. The necessity for Christ's atoning death is clearly presented. The grace on display is not cheap emotionalism but a powerful life-changing grace beyond price. I appreciated this aspect of the book as I've read other works that were lacking in this regard.

If I could sum up Red Like Blood in a couple sentences, it would be:

- No one is beyond the reach of God's grace.
- The gospel is enough.

I highly recommend this book. Read it and you will be greatly encouraged.

*******

Now for a more personal take:

Without any excuses, Bob Bevington tells the story of his adultery, subsequent divorce from his first wife, Rita, and remarriage to his second wife, Amy. This struck a chord, a very painful one, because Rita's story is my story, too. As I read Bob's brutally honest account, I prayed for grace to finish the book and give him a fair hearing because I was firmly in Rita's corner. But who can limit what God can do? It seems almost out of a move script, but He granted repentance to Bob and Amy and enabled Rita to forgive them, reconciling them in Christ.

Because of their story, Red Like Blood is uncomfortably close to home and yet so encouraging to me. All sins are horrible, but adultery is unique. It's a deliberate betrayed by the one person you've trusted with everything you've got, the person who vowed "until death do us part." Only divine intervention can heal a rift of this magnitude, and not only heal but build an ongoing close friendship between the parties.

I would love my story to have the same ending. I don't know what God intends to do, but I can pray because no one is beyond the reach of God's grace.

(I received a copy of this book from Shepherd Press via Cross Focused Reviews. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.")