Book Nook: Remarkable Faith

When we think of heroes of the faith, we think of the big names - Peter, Noah, Moses, Paul. But Jesus didn't always use those as His examples for life. I recently had the chance to review Remarkable Faith: When Jesus Marveled at the Faith of Unremarkable People. These "unremarkable people" suddenly come to the forefront in this new book - people who were in need, dependent on others, foreign, and certainly not who the high class society of the day would see as standards of faith.

There are eight stories involved: the father of a demon-possessed boy, the paralyzed man, the Roman centurion, the bleeding woman, the Samaritan leper, the mother of a demon-possessed girl, blind Bartimaus, and the woman who anointed Jesus. In each case, Jesus held them up as a beacon of faith, people who were looked down on, cast out, or from the wrong country.

These were all stories I had heard before, and the accounts in the book stayed true to the Biblical rendering, while demonstrating exactly how and why each of them were looked at by Jesus as the bearer of strong faith. It's a great book for anyone who feels like their faith isn't strong enough because they haven't done great works or influenced a great number of people. Jesus doesn't always ask that of everyone, instead He asks each of us to trust Him, whatever our situation.