You do not want to like Brian Tome. You do not want to like Free Book either.
You begin the book wanting to dislike his passionately gruff start. He is certainly passionate, but will this be another frustration with YOU, the reader for not being as passionate as the author? Well he is right; your life is unnecessarily safe.
You want to dislike his tactless attack on the things that destroy freedom for you. Like your slavery to different masters and a lack of authenticity! (How dare he call YOU unauthentic?)
You do not want to like being told forgiveness of ‘that person’ is the only way to live a life of freedom. Yet, you begin to understand how important it actually is.
You do not want to like his use of terms like ‘strongholds’ and ‘bondage’ because you are reminded of early 90’s praise songs, but for some reason it all makes absolute sense.
You do not want to like Tome’s seemingly oversimplification of things like those moments your faith is ‘blah’ or ‘balanced’. His insights into what scripture has to say about those times are not the ones you want to agree with, but you have to. The solutions really are more simple than we make them out to be.
You do not want to agree with the different areas revealed in your life where we may have to give some things up in order to experience the life of freedom. You certainly do not want to be told that freedom awaits you in connecting with messy people in Christian community.
You do not want to like Brain Tome or Free Book but you cannot deny the insight into a life of freedom. Once you see the life of freedom and how to present that life to others with grace and truth, you start to like this book a little bit more.
The book was a slower read than I typically like to have. It bogged me down a bit as a reader, and it was not an easy book to read. As a book review blogger for booksneeze.com and Thomas Nelson, I was required to read my free advanced copy from beginning to end, and it was a difficult requirement to meet.
