Necessary Christianity: What Jesus Shows We Must Be and Do

In this thoughtful if repetitive debut, pastor Alexander lays out ways for Christians to manifest devotion through action. The author contends that “life in God and with God is less about what we could do and more about what we must do,” and explains how readers should live out mandates from Jesus’s ministry. Alexander tells of how Mary and Joseph lost young Jesus and found him speaking with religious leaders in the temple in Jerusalem, where he explained, “I must be about My Father’s business,” demonstrating the dedication Christians should have for communing with God and studying the Bible. In Luke, crowds in Capernaum pleaded for Jesus to continue working miracles there, but he said, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also,” which Alexander interprets to mean that Christians should answer God’s call wherever it leads. The directives blend into each other and boil down to variations on submitting oneself to God’s will (“I must accept and assert God’s plan” differs only slightly from “I must yield to the will of God”), but the scriptural analysis smartly elucidates how this theme manifests throughout the Bible. This offers incisive biblical interpretations, if limited practical guidance. (Aug.)