the prodigal God

I'm about halfway through this book and am loving it, so thought I'd pass on the suggestion. As usual it's a bit cheaper on Amazon.

What I love is that Tim Keller talks about the heart of the Gospel and of Christianity. He talks about the fact that the Gospel is just as much for people who are super-religious and have it all together, as for those who are a mess and know it. The latter group tend to get their need or God and the former tend to see themselves as self-sufficient, but are equally in desperate need of God. He talks about both being forms of making ourselves our own "savior," our own "god," and thus are rebelling from God, whether we seem to have it all together or not, whether we are "good" people or not. Anyway, the long short, good book! Really good book!

Oh, and as for the title, Keller points out two things: (1) "prodigal" actually means "recklessly extravagant; having spent everything", not wayward, and (2) the parable of the prodigal son, as it is often called (from Luke 18), is actually about TWO sons and is more about the Father's extravagant love than just the wayward son. I like it - God is definitely EXTRAVAGANT in loving us with what seems like pure recklessness.