I was given an opportunity to obtain a review copy of The Heart of the Story, by Randy Frazee. The title and description of the book interested me so I took advantage of the offer.

The author nearly lost me right from the get-go when he tried to provide perspective on how large the universe is:

“Think about this for a moment, If our solar system was reduced in size by a factor of a billion, the earth would be the size of a grape. The moon would be slightly larger than a basketball.” (p. 26)

I’m not an astrophysicist, but the last time I studied the solar system, the Earth was larger than our Moon. If that has changed, then I missed the press release. Perhaps the author lives in an area of the country where grapes are larger than basketballs?

I’m glad, however, that I pressed on and continued reading. I found the book worth while and the author does a good job of summarizing the movement of God behind the stories in the Bible.

Throughout the book, Mr. Frazee compares the lower story (what we see) with the upper story (the view from God’s perspective). The author reinforces the idea that God is the mover behind all the activities that are recorded in Scripture.

To illustrate the way Randy Frazee uses the upper/lower story idea, I quote from the book where the author discusses the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac:

As we will see later, God was also foreshadowing, in the Lower Story of Abraham and Isaac, the big climax of his Upper Story – the sacrifice of his own Son. As a matter of fact, the hill of Moriah just happens to be the hill of Jerusalem where Jesus will be crucified nearly two thousand years later.” (p. 39)

The book follows the order of the stories in the Bible so someone who is not familiar with the Bible can get a feel for the flow of Biblical history.

This book would be especially helpful to a new believer or someone who is interested in obtaining an overview of the Bible. Mr. Frazee does an excellent job of summarizing some of the major stories / themes in Scripture and setting them in context.

This would be an excellent resource for a discipleship class, the way Mr. Frazee presents the material stimulates thought and would be a good catalyst for discussion. An adult fellowship or small group Bible study would also benefit from working through this book. To work through the chapters in this book in parallel with the Scripture on which each chapter is based would be a profitable study.

The publisher was kind enough to provide a copy of this book for me to give away. Please leave a comment below indicating why you would like to win the copy and I will select a winner at random.