A Sacrifice of Obedience was written through the years 2002 and 2003 as an intended sequel to Make Me Like Jesus. It was never published.
Fifteen years have now passed. As I look at the world around me, it seems less likely than ever that Christians in very large numbers will be drawn to a message about sacrifice or obedience. And I am no different. I resist both imperatives just like everyone else. I had hoped by this time in my life to be a little further along.
But obedience remains the bull’s eye of the Christian faith, and the very personal bull’s eye of my own life. Thus, the time at last seems right to revisit this manuscript and share it with whatever fellow pilgrims there may be on that isolated and occasionally lonely path.
You who read these words may be few. Even in Christendom, where the image of the cross looms large in the imaginations and theologies of its many churches and their members, the actual cross-life of sacrifice and obedience is not so well known.
Yet to such a life we are called. It is the only life to which we are called.
Let us, then, courageously explore together a few high points along the Lord’s earthly Calvary road to see what they have to reveal about that life.
A devotional, engaging, and thought-provoking journey of discovery into the high mountains of God’s Fatherhood, by best-selling author and George MacDonald biographer Michael Phillips.
If you long for a closeness to God that somehow has eluded you, perhaps it has something to do with how you think about him.
"Daddy! Abba!"
How many times have we all wanted to cry out those words to God, to run into the arms of the Father where we would feel safe and secure, to be able to know him and know that he understands us completely.
Would you like to know God in that way? In this book you are about to embark on a unique journey that will lead you into the arms of God the Father.
Not often does a book come along that truly makes a difference in the way people think and act. This is such a book. What we have come to expect from Michael Phillips is a great novel with deep spiritual insight. This is not a novel, but following the tradition of George MacDonald and Hannah Hurnard, Phillips uses his storytelling craft to weave through the book a beautiful allegory that parallels our spiritual journey to discover the intimacy and presence of God.
A God to Call Father explores an often-overlooked aspect of our spiritual life. It suggests that we are plagued by a misunderstanding of the character of God the Father—who he truly is and what he is really like.
