With a son who has been reading quite a lot of adventure books lately, I instinctively chose “The Ride of a Lifetime” by Kitty McGregor when I saw that it was available for review.
Once he rode for gold-buckle dreams. Now ride with Lucas McCade as he scouts the back trails over the rolling hills of Oklahoma and encounters the paths of the powers of darkness. It promises to be the ride of a lifetime!
Unlike the other books that my son chose previously, this turned out not so much as can’t-put-it-down like the rest that he has read. He was halfway through when he dropped reading and totally forgot about it. So I picked it up instead and read through. The Ride of a Lifetime is about a teenager named Conner McCade who just moved from Texas to Oklahoma so that his father, Lucas McCade can get a new job at Falling Star Ranch. As I read on, I figured it was not much of a read for my son anyway. So it is a good thing that he stopped.
There are a few things that might a little too disturbing for my son to read at his age. There are pages that talked about occult activities, human sacrifice, et. al. The book also talks about a typical big church with its usual ministry activities with its pastor more concerned to please people than attending to his flock like he should. Overall, it is a book that reminds its readers that it is spiritual warfare we really are in.
In the book, one of the members of the occult mentioned this:
“…Nobody took a stand and fought to keep their spiritual standards! They take their religion for granted. Christians just jump aboard their little ‘Hallelujah train’ every Sunday morning and ride it for an hour or two, and they think that quick trip lasts them for another week. People are so spiritually asleep. Let’s just say that evil can sit right beside them on those church pews, and they don’t even know it. Everybody is so distracted with things in the world, and honestly, most people can’t even comprehend why their God would love them anyway. Most churchgoers are more worried about where they’re going to eat Sunday dinner than they are about the things of your God.”
Wow! Now if we will ever be honest about it, isn’t that a little too accurate in our own churches sometimes? Our brokenness despite our salvation can easily have us walk down this road. This is why we are called in Philippians 2:12 to “..work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.” Our sin nature easily distract us from what’s essential. That is, our relationship with God that we need to nurture constantly.
For the mentioned reasons, this book is not for everyone. But it sure is a good read that reminds believers about the reality of the warfare that might not be so visible but nonetheless real.
Disclaimer: This book was given to me by WestBow Press in exchange for an honest review.
