Never judge a book by its cover
Posted by: Simon Brading
Filed under: General
Last week, I randomly picked up a copy of Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer and read the back cover. Having not read the book myself (yet), but being aware to some degree of her fruitful ministry, I was a little confused to find there was no mention of Jesus or the gospel on the back cover, so slightly impulsively tweeted and put on facebook:
“Just read the back cover of one-million-copy bestseller Battlefield of the Mind.Cant believe it doesnt mention Christ or the gospel,not once”
Since writing that, a few close friends who’ve read the book have kindly said it is a gospel-centred book… and flicking through the book I’ve found a wealth of scriptures on nearly every page… which is very humbling and encouraging. Also, I’ve found out that sometimes publishers may not mention Jesus/Gospel as a way to get secular people reading it – which is fair.
I was stupid to go public about a book I’ve never actually read. If my comment has caused you to avoid the book, or write off the author, I’m sorry. I was being impulsive, dismissive and a bit immature. The truth is their ministry feeds 50,000 people a day, has 45 orphanages around the world and led 6500 prisoners to Christ last year through their prison ministry… so I have no grounds to point the finger.
Finally, I’ve since found out there’s another version of the same book with this on the back:
Believing the call on her life is to establish believers in God’s Word, Joyce says, “Jesus died to set the captives free, and far too many Christians have”
Sounds like the gospel to me. Completely my bad, sorry, please forgive me.
Simon