Here’s the latest book review by our third oldest and senior in High School. I’ll be honest – it took him forever and a day to finish this book, but he finally did it! I’ll take it as a W.
So thankful for incredible, godly writers like John MacArthur. I love that he can make what can seem like mythological characters in a story into real live men, who aren’t all that different than you and I. Please encourage your kids to read this! This is definitely on my ever growing list of books to read in the future.
Book review
The story of Twelve Ordinary Men is one which takes place both in the past as well as in the present. John MacArthur writes about the lives of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. He discusses how ordinary and unspecial men become some of the most influential people in all of history.
He begins the book by analyzing Jesus’ selection of each disciple as a whole. He then articulates how each of them were selected not for any special talent that they possessed, but rather for the lack of special talents that each possess. From there, Macarthur goes into depth about the lives of each disciple. He explains how each of the twelve were selected along with each way they were molded by Christ during their time with Him. He reveals how each disciple is a representation of us as humans in the ways in which we act, and shows how we all can find ways to change in order to represent Christ in the most accurate ways. He uses the disciples as an example for how we must change in order to reflect Christ.
One thing that is an important lesson that I learned from reading this book is that none of us are too broken to be used by Christ. Each of the Disciples were broken in their own way, they were all lost and didn’t know what to do. But in each of their cases, Christ molded their brokenness to make them whole and use them for His mission in spreading the Gospel out to the rest of the world. Christ used their flaws to change them into a great use for His kingdom. He shaped them to become the best version of themselves which impacted every aspect of their futures. Additionally, a massive lesson in the book is that He didn’t stop there. Everyday, Christ changes and uses each and every one of us. As Macarthur shows through his story, Christ uses some of the lowest people in society of the time and calls them to the highest calling imaginable. Christ uses all of us in beautiful ways the same way that He did with His disciples. Twelve Ordinary Men shows Christ’s extraordinary ability to work with the “ordinary” people, and take and use them to make something beautiful.
