Wasting Time with God - by Klaus Issler (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Wasting Time with God Klaus Issler considers seven character traits and companion disciplines to develop in light of God's friendship with us in order to help us make more room in our lives for him.

Review Quotes

"[Wasting Time with God] is more than a solid piece of scholarship; it is a feast of personal, practical spirituality. . . . It is refreshing to see a book that addresses the head and the heart with such effectiveness."

"Wasting Time with God is hardly a waste of time. It is a nuts and bolts discussion of how to grow in intimacy with God. It is clearly written and well grounded. This is a book well worth reading and wasting lots of time on. I highly recommend it."

"Drawing from profound personal experience of God, Issler brings Christian theology to real life via pursuit of deep friendship with God. Attentive readers will be powerfully challenged to enter into such dynamic friendship and its resulting community of God. This is theology that goes to the heart of a reader."

"For the cultures that are community and relationship oriented, as is the case in Africa, Klaus Issler's book would be an eye opener on what really being a Christian is all about. It is my hope that any person seeking to have a more personal experience of God would read this book."

"I love the title, and I know I shall love the book! Anything that helps people intentionally put themselves into his presence and apply his dynamic life-changing Word has to be read, marked, learned and inwardly digested."

"In Wasting Time with God, Klaus Issler compellingly connects knowing and loving God with our ability as members of the body of Christ to know and love one another. Christian women in particular who intuitively resonate with the community aspects of faith will be enriched by the author's biblically sound insights into the correlation between rich relationships with one another and an increasingly intimate relationship with our God. This work of the heart is an honest quest to move beyond a primarily 'cerebral' faith to an increasingly intimate relational one with the divine--a quest made significant by its refreshing integration of intellectual excellence, sound theological scholarship and spiritual humility. Issler has also created a welcome voice of balance on the person and work of the third person of the Trinity. For those who have tended to ignore the person and work of the Holy Spirit, Wasting Time with God is an articulate reminder that he is there to know and experience more fully."

"Issler's treatment, solidly grounded in Scripture and carefully researched across a broad spectrum of sources, provides a welcome antidote to the exhausting and draining message of modern society. . . . It deserves a wide circulation and possesses many valuable principles for granting busy readers the permission to 'waste time with God' and grow more deeply in the most eternal relationship we will ever experience."

"My greatest prayer for women is that they spend time with God. Life is so much better the deeper our friendship is with God. Klaus Issler explains to our hearts and minds who God is and how to deepen that friendship."

"So many Christians are consumed with the perceived busyness of their faith. They forget that their relationship with God is meant to be personal and intimate, characterized by a deep enjoyment of him. In his book Wasting Time with God, Klaus Issler reminds us of the simple joy and pleasure of being God's friend, and provides guidelines for communication and a closer, more intimate relationship."

"The single most urgent task facing the people of Christ today is to present a vision and a reality of life in God now that is adequate to the plain teachings of the New Testament and is realistic in the contemporary setting. Klaus Issler makes a huge contribution to that end with his highly intelligent, informed and practical book, Wasting Time with God. I recommend it strongly to individuals and to leaders among the multitudes now seeking the life that is life indeed. It is plain, solid instruction on how to 'seek first the kingdom of God and his rightness' in such a way that you find them."

"The testimony of this book is that relationship--even friendship--with God is possible. More importantly, the stunning affirmation of the book is that the eternal God wants friendship with his people."

"This book is eminently practical while remaining rooted in good theory based on Scripture and theology. . . . It is a book for all seasons, for all believers. Worth 'wasting time' to read!"

"To know God--lofty as that sounds--is to encounter severe spiritual culture shock. We humans, says Klaus Issler, must achieve this major paradigm shift a step at a time. Our seeing, our hearing, indeed our whole way of thinking must be revamped and stretched to a higher dimension. Wasting Time with God, however, does not take the reader on a mystical skyride. Here is Encouragement 101. This plainspoken author simply clarifies that the God of the Bible has already rolled out his red carpet and provided his personal Guide for his children. Our postmodern world begs to see this kind of reality in walking shoes."

About the Author

Klaus Issler (Ph.D., Michigan State) is professor of Christian education and theology in the Ph.D. program in educational studies at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, in La Mirada, California.