Skip to main content

Dirty Glory

In my last post, I referenced a book, Dirty Glory by Pete Greig and said I would post a review. So here it is! Pete founded the 24/7 prayer movement and Dirty glory is a kind of sequel to Red Moon Rising which told the story of the start of 24/7. I haven't read Red Moon Rising yet, but as Pete says at the start of Dirty Glory, it can be read apart from Red Moon.

 The book has great insight and makes important points about prayer, what it is and how we do it but above all else I simply found this book inspiring. The best compliment I can pay to Pete is that every time I had read a bit (be it a chapter or simply a few pages), I felt inspired to pray afterwards. I also found myself remembering moments and experiences with God that I had forgotten. As I was reading one day, I remembered a time I went on a prayer walk and having such a sense of God's presence that it was like all a swell of energy in me that I had to do something with, so I ran, as fast as I could (I was not dressed for running!). I ran to a park where I knew Beth, my wife was with our son, Reuben so I could tell her about my experience. This led to a season of seeking God and spending more time in prayer. I wasn't just remembering these things in my head, but instead by reading this book remembering how it felt!

There are so many inspiring stories and people in Dirty Glory. Every time I speak to someone about the book I want to tell a different story. Soldiers in Crimea seeing a figure who it turned out to be someone at home praying for them, miraculous provision, divine protection and amazing godly interventions. The book reminded me that prayer isn't about hitting and hoping, about simply presenting your wish list to God, but instead is about an opportunity to have an encounter with Jesus, about seeking him in all things and finding him in all things, just perhaps not always in the way we would expect.

If you want to be inspired, to know what God is up to around the world and if your prayer life could do with a boost, I highly recommend Dirty Glory.

 You can follow Pete on Twitter: @petegreig
or Instagram: @pete.greig
Find out more about 24/7 prayer: www.24-7prayer.com











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I don’t know what to do.

I don’t know what to do. I’m sure we’ve all said it, or at the very least, thought it. Perhaps you know the desired outcome, you just don’t know how to get there. Reflecting recently, I recognised that this would be a great name for my autobiography (if I ever wrote one). Beth (my wife) often says to me I’m really good at blagging it, which in my job is kind of a strength and weakness. I’m not sure if ‘blagging it’ is the best way to describe this particular gifting of mine, perhaps ‘thinking on the spot’ or ‘ being adaptive’ would be better. At it’s best this particular gift allows me to respond to a crisis or issue as soon as it is presented, perhaps someone is struggling with something pastorally that I’ve never had to deal with before, and it is helpful being able to navigate these situations. At it’s worst, I don’t prepare as much as I should for a talk, or training evening, and can to some extend wing it. Either way I’m grateful that these experiences haven’t killed me (yet). Wha...
Post a Comment
Read more

A year of Intentional discipline.

Each year, like many, I review the year that has gone and look ahead to the year to come. I have a journal I call my Eagle Journal, where I try and write something every day. It doesn’t have to be anything particularly profound, sometimes it’s a quote from a TV programme or book, other times it’s a funny quote from someone, or a summary of what has happened that day. I love how it has enabled me to remember things that I otherwise would have forgotten, like the date of our first ever baby scan, or times I laughed uncontrollably with friends. We are often waiting for the next big thing to happen in our lives, to the extent that we miss the significance of the innumerable small things.  The review I then do of the year, looks back at my favourite quotes, moments, books and films. Straight after the review in my journal, I then look to the year ahead. I write about my expectations and goals for the year to come, and I will also give the year a description, based on what I know or sens...
Post a Comment
Read more

Out of Chaos

How do we deal with devastation, sweeps of destruction caused by nature? Where is God? Didn’t he create this? Now all we see is a mess. On the 11th March 2011 an earthquake hit Japan, a Tsunami, swept inland, gobbling up buildings, cars, homes and people as if they was just another grain of sand on the beach. How do I as a Christian respond to such terror, to such pain? I have to go back to the beginning, creation. God spoke, light. God spoke, seperate, land and water. God spoke, Earth green up. God spoke, Fish swarm, birds fly. God spoke, Earth generate life. God spoke, let’s make human. God spoke and into being came sky, land, light, creature of every kind, food, vegetation and human beings.What was there before? The message bible puts it ‘a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness.’ Nothing, emptiness. How about Chaos? God spoke into chaos, and out of it came order. God spoke and the chaos ended and life begun. Thousands of years later a guy who seemed like no ...
1 comment
Read more