Review of Jesus Freaks

Jesus Freaks

• Genre: Short Stories
• Author: DC Talk
• Overall rating: 9 of 10
• How I heard about it: DC talk Album
• Suggested Audience: New Christians, Dead Christians, Lazy Christians anyone that has gone 10 years without reading it and people that don’t know what this whole Christ thing is about.

I first must admit that it has been years since I have read this book in its entirety. Jesus Freak is a compilation book written by compilation authors. The members of the band DC Talk Kevin Max, Toby Mac and Michael Tait, with help from publishers compiled stories of those that have given all for the cause they could not give up. These stories transcend Nations, Cultures, Centuries and generations. If you have been a Christian for a while and not read this…forgive me for saying shame on you.

From the very beginning I must warn people, there is a very good chance one will cry at least once during this book. I remember fighting back tears many times there are so many moments in which one feels hopeless and inspired at the same time full of sorrow and full of joy all in the same point of time. This book tells the stories of nearly hundreds of Christians that were killed for the faith, starting off with the very first known Martyr Stephen from the book of Acts. The book tells stories from thousands of years ago in Rome, Jerusalem and Greece, Stores from hundreds of years ago in Germany, France and England and stories from present day in Iran, Iraq and Egypt. It really causes one to think about what Christ called them to give up in order to follow him. This is hard to swallow at times in a sheltered nation like the United States but the Gospel is dangerous. It has brought entire governments to its knees and resulted in millions of deaths. I think anyone that calls themselves a Christian needs to be ready and willing to die for Christ. While in a nation like ours it is extremely unlikely one will ever be called to It is important to realize the reality and live your life accordingly. Theses stories have a way of shoving this reality in ones face and forcing people to do some soul searching to figure out what they would do in some of these situations.

I choose not to ruin the book by telling everyone the best parts but my favorite story is that of the Roman Century that has an outbreak of Christianity within the unit. This outrages the commander so he forces everyone in the unit in the middle of a shallow pond in the middle of winter and forces the non-Christians to stand guard next to bathtubs full of hot water that are open to anyone that denounces Christ. All the stories within this book are this intense and really grab the reader. This is defiantly one of those that I had trouble putting down when I was 12.
Overall this book is just great. The only possible concern I have is the book dose get a little graphic at times…..but so does the Bible and so does life. I might suggest parents maybe pick and choose what stories to read to kids under about 8 however I would just hand it to just about anyone else. Life is violent and this is probably the cleanest most forgiving way possible to introduce this reality to kids. The graphic nature of this book should not take away from any of the power and inspiring nature it is bursting at the bindings with.