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This is a review of the book "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive when Opportunity Roars" by Mark Batterson
Mark was pastor of National Community Church in D.C. since this book was written in 2006, I am not sure if he is still there or not.
The book has a lot of good stories in it of taking steps of faith including those who Mark know personally and some of his own steps and missteps of starting a church and trying to start a church right out of seminary. This book is based off in part on a passage in 2 Samuel 23:20 that says,
"Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion."
Having read this story about Benaiah as a teenager, this passage always made me like Benaiah because of his raw courage. You see him continue on into Solomon's reign and he ends up taking the place of commander of Israel's army.
There are a lot of great points the author makes in this book. He talks a lot about faith and how sometimes God calls us to do dramatic and sometimes hard to understand things that require faith. Most of all, I think the thing that meant the most to me in this book is the call to pursue God with childlike faith and to pray large prayers.
Having said that, we don't know the circumstances that led Benaiah to go down into the pit with the lion or if he was pressured to do so or if he was trying to rescue someone else. We don't know. The book takes a lot of liberty to speculate about the reasons and to assume the best of Benaiah when the truth is that Benaiah may have just been showing off. Having said that, this book is about 171 pages and has a lot of truth in it that we could all benefit from being reminded of.
Mark was pastor of National Community Church in D.C. since this book was written in 2006, I am not sure if he is still there or not.
The book has a lot of good stories in it of taking steps of faith including those who Mark know personally and some of his own steps and missteps of starting a church and trying to start a church right out of seminary. This book is based off in part on a passage in 2 Samuel 23:20 that says,
"Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion."
Having read this story about Benaiah as a teenager, this passage always made me like Benaiah because of his raw courage. You see him continue on into Solomon's reign and he ends up taking the place of commander of Israel's army.
There are a lot of great points the author makes in this book. He talks a lot about faith and how sometimes God calls us to do dramatic and sometimes hard to understand things that require faith. Most of all, I think the thing that meant the most to me in this book is the call to pursue God with childlike faith and to pray large prayers.
Having said that, we don't know the circumstances that led Benaiah to go down into the pit with the lion or if he was pressured to do so or if he was trying to rescue someone else. We don't know. The book takes a lot of liberty to speculate about the reasons and to assume the best of Benaiah when the truth is that Benaiah may have just been showing off. Having said that, this book is about 171 pages and has a lot of truth in it that we could all benefit from being reminded of.