Marked by Love

Do you consider yourself "Marked by Love"? When people see you, do they know you are a child of God? Do your actions and words show His love to others? In this compelling book, the author gives the reader thoughts to consider about life and faith. Interesting read. I will read this one again. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and this is my personal honest opinion. No review was required.

Thank you to Barbour Publishing for the free review copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This book should have to be read by anyone who proclaims they are a Christian. Stevens takes one thing, love, and expands on how this one thing is something that we all should be doing to everyone. He challenges readers to live through a lens of love. 

One of the things I loved the most about this book was the transparency in which Stevens wrote. He shared his life and time when he wasn't so loving. I think this helped me to connect fully with this book. His honesty and reflections added so much truth and depth in this book. It also helped me to see his love for Jesus. 

He also made me think about my theological beliefs, and I was made to stop and reflect on some of my beliefs while reading. I will still be considering the ideas he presented for a while to come. 

If you want a book about the love of Christ and what that tangibly looks like, I recommend picking up this book. I also can't recommend it enough to anyone who says they follow Jesus.

This was a good book that will make you stop and look at how you live. It will make you ask yourself are you living for Christ, can people see love in you, or do they see just another person. You never know what a person is going through, so we need to be kind to everyone. Thank you Barbour Publishing, Inc Shiloh Run Press via Netgalley for the ARC copy of this book.

Essential Reading. For Everyone. Christian or Not. Stevens does an excellent job of speaking his message and not really worrying about whose toes he steps on - indeed, he almost seems to make it a point at times to try to step on *everyone's* toes in some way. Yes, the book comes across as overly preachy and overly WASPy at times. But the core of the message is absolutely essential to us all, and very likely the key to saving this nation (no matter what nation you may be in) and indeed the world. The *only* reason this book is getting 4 stars rather than 5 is specifically because of the times of overly preachy and overly WASPy - but seriously, get through those parts if you don't like them, and concentrate on the rest of the message here.

I don’t know much about Tim Stevens beyond what he has written about in his new book, Marked by Love, but I know enough to the point where I wouldn’t mind sharing a cup of coffee with him in some café at some point.
That might strike you as strange, for Stevens once called himself a fundamentalist Christian. If you know me, you know that I’m anything but a fundamentalist. Heck, Stevens also considered himself to be an evangelical at one point, and there are things about evangelicalism that unsettle me. However, where he and I share common ground is that the two of us are aware of the baggage that the word “Christian” brings. Stevens now calls himself a “disciple,” which is probably the best word to describe him – based off of this new book. That’s an accurate term because, in the end, a disciple is what he’s interested in being, not just a mere Christian.

Indeed, Marked by Love – despite being written by someone with conservative leanings – is a book that expresses dismay at what Christianity has become. Even Stevens takes issue and umbrage with some elements of the political and religious right, which he calls out in his superb tome. Essentially, this is a book that calls for the teachings of Jesus to be more closely followed, and that we should express ourselves in our dealings with others from a posture of love, always. Don’t know how to deal with the Mexican family that moved across the street? Seek to understand them and love them. Feeling anxious about a lesbian or gay couple in your own backyard? Do the same. Though the book is fairly short at a tick above 200 pages, it is weighty and thoughtful and full of wonderful stories.

One of the things I like about this book is that it speaks for itself. At no point does Stevens pepper the close of a chapter with all sorts of discussion questions that would bog things down. No, he ends chapters with effective cliffhangers for what’s to follow. This works quite well because Marked by Love is a hard book to put down. What’s particularly refreshing is that even the author candidly admits that he is not perfect, that he has gotten road ragey at points in his life and there were times where he was hangry and didn’t do the right thing. While some may be quick to criticize and call Stevens the blind leading the blind, I found it to be absolutely refreshing to hear from someone who admits that he’s not perfect and has been prone to do the sorts of things that this book advises you not to do.

Marked by Love is also an effective quasi-memoir meets quasi-preaching and teaching. You get a sense from reading this book that Stevens is a man with nothing to hide and he doesn’t get vague as some Christian authors are wont to do to obscure details that may be embarrassing or incriminating. Stevens is quite up front about his “sins” (though I don’t like that word as a progressive) and things that he has done wrong. Time and time again in this book, the author is more apt to recount a story where he didn’t show love to his fellow neighbour, which offers a way to show that there was a higher road that could have been taken. In doing so, Stevens doesn’t come off as a “holier than art thou” type – he’s simply a relatable human being who takes his Christianity very seriously, even if he might not always be the stand-up person he could have been.

A book such as this is all about the timing, and if you look to what’s happening politically in the United States, you’d think that the timing is ripe. While the book does get a little political, Stevens is acute enough to look at issues from both sides. He echoes a problem I have with the religious left in the States – that certain high-profile Christian Democrats use the same rhetoric and smear tactics that those on the right use, rather than trying to lead by example and, well, to quote a certain First Lady, go high. While Marked by Love is probably going to be read by those on the religious right, and that’s probably the target market for this book, it’s astonishing to me to read someone who identifies with being a conservative who is just as weary of the state of the world as some of us progressive types at the back and forth that goes on between the two political camps.

If there’s one thing the book does wrong, it’s that it tiptoes into atonement theology, which I found strange for a book about love. My problem with atonement, as I’ve discussed elsewhere at length, is that I cannot believe that a loving God would sacrifice his only Son to pay for humanity’s sinfulness. It doesn’t make sense, and it paints God as a monster. What that theology is doing here, as it’s present in one of the 31 chapters of this read, is a bit baffling. Wouldn’t God, if he so loved his Son, not put that Son to death to pay for the misery inflicted by humankind? Wouldn’t there be a better, more loving way for humanity to be “saved”? Suffice to say, I found the one chapter that talks about Jesus’ death as salvation to be a bit baffling. I guess I know why it’s there – consider the audience – but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

Despite that one criticism, I found Marked by Love to be an absolutely refreshing read. What astonishes me about the book is that, usually, when I sit down to review Christian volumes, I find it’s easy to drift into “I like this book (or don’t like this book) because it agrees (or disagrees) with my own sense of being a Christian.” The thing with Marked by Love is that it is written by a guy whose worldview I would, under normal circumstances, find hard to agree with. However, Tim Stevens is a good man coming from a good place, and, despite whatever differences we may have, have come to a sort of middle ground in articulating that we Christians need to be doing much better and showing love in its various guises to the people we know and those we don’t necessarily. I guess you could say that any Christian book that relates a story that involves Sarah Silverman (!!!) is going to get glowing press from me. Put it another way, Marked by Love is a remarkable read by someone I shouldn’t even probably be agreeing with. That I do is just my way of saying that I hope to do a coffee with Stevens someday. If he’s anything in person like he is in this book, I’m plenty sure that he’s full of interesting and useful things to talk about.

When Christ was on earth, God spoke twice: "Jesus is marked by My love." The only thing that marks Christ and His followers is love. View life through a filter of love. If Christ's followers are marked by love, it will revolutionize the world the way He did. Tim Stevens' father, Ron Stevens, was the epitome of love. He loved his wife like Christ loved the Church. Ron loved his Coworkers like a true Servant Leader. Ron helped people by putting their needs above his own. Ron treated others with utmost respect and honor. Ron Stevens' life was marked by love for seventy-seven years. His legacy lives on in his son's life and through this book. "Marked by Love" is a passion project, straight from Tim Stevens' heart. The one and only way to make a profound impact upon the world is Love. When all our thoughts, words, actions, reactions and beliefs are processed through a filter of love, we will change the world, God's way. Love is all that matters. The entire game of life is won or lost solely depending on how well we love others and serve them the way Jesus did. This inspiring book is a journey through life, "Marked by Love."

Stevens reminds us in this world of anger and hate that Jesus was marked by love. He has included thirty readings, thirty challenges to see if our lives are marked by love. It is only by love that we can change the world.

My favorite reading was the fifth one, Famous Last Words. After telling a couple of stories about dying people and their last words, he writes about Jesus washing his disciples' feet. John 13:13-14 says Jesus knew God the Father had put all things under his power. Then he washes the feet. Jesus knew He was the most powerful person on the planet yet showed His love by doing a servant task. In case the disciples miss the lesson, Jesus tells them, “This is how you love one another.” (Loc. 360/2237) This changes everything, Stevens says. “What if love became the filter through which everything [we] did or said flowed?” (Loc 374/2237) How would that change our relationships, our discussions, our actions?

That is just one of the thought provoking chapters Stevens has included in the book. His writing is not preachy nor accusative. He honestly shares his journey, frustrated with “Christians” giving Jesus a bad name. (Loc 413/2237) His problem is not with Jesus, he says, but with what Christianity has become. (Loc 435/2237)

I recommend this book to people who are frustrated with Christianity today. If you want to be marked by love, to be a different kind of Christian, this book will give you good encouragement to be so. You won't be preached at. You'll only read some really thought provoking essays that just might change your idea of what it means to be a Jesus follower. You may not agree with everything Stevens writes. I didn't. But I did appreciate the challenges.

Food for thought: “...you can study all you want … you can win every religious argument – but if you aren't becoming more loving in the process, then it is all worthless.” (Loc 103/2237)

More food for thought: “Imagine if every person on planet Earth who claims to follow Jesus would do just [these] three things: 1. Love God. 2. Love yourself. 3. Love the next person you see.” (Loc 1035/2237)

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

This is an interesting book. He has some really good points that I agree with, and there’s also a couple that I don’t. I liked his writing style. He’s given me some things to think through. I’m not on the same page with this author on everything theologically. But the point of this book is well-taken and will help me as I interact with others of different viewpoints.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.