Book Review by Andre Viljoen
I have just read this classic and can see why it has deeply touched the lives of millions of readers since it was first published in 2002.
Jack Frost shares key lessons from his lifelong quest for the freedom and fulfilment that he eventually found in experiencing the unconditional love of Father God and learning to daily give it away to the next person he met.
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In the first part of the book — “A Revelation of Father God’s Love” — he shares his experiences — as a rebellious teenager, a hard-as-nails sea captain, a remote husband, a strict father, and a striving minister — that were shaped by his distorted image of a vengeful and angry God.
He also writes about a personal encounter with God’s love in 1996 that reset the course of his life.
I especially appreciated his fresh insights drawn from the familiar Luke 15 parable about the father and his two sons who each left home (i.e. their father’s embrace) — a straying from intimacy that all too often plays out in the lives of Christ followers.
Intimacy with God and others
In part two of the book, he once again draws on his ongoing failures and successes in marriage and ministry, to highlight common hindrances to experiencing and sustaining the intimacy with God and others for which we were all created. His uncovering of these everyday hindrances is full of practical wisdom and many of us will relate to his insights on particular pitfalls which we have faced — or may be facing.
The third and final part of the book — “Processing Father’s Love — rewards readers with more, relevant, personal testimonies and practical guidance.
Frost commends the blessing of big, life-changing love encounters with God, whether in the secret place or at revelation-filed conferences. But, he says, it takes daily walking in the Spirit and genuine humility to experience the deep, abiding personal and family restoration that come from experiencing God’s love.
I particularly enjoyed the chapter on “Walking in the Spirit” which provides keys to cultivating our renewed “inner man” and quieting our problematic “outer man”. The book concludes with a strong call to restore the heart of the family.
Experiencing Father’s Embrace is well worth the read, and is one of those books you may well want to keep on the shelf to revisit along your journey.
Jack Frost died of cancer in 2007. His wife Trish, together with a large team at Shiloh Place Ministries, continue to impact churches, leaders and families all over the world the with a revelation of Father Gods’s love that began with Jack’s encounter with the Father in 1996.
The book can be purchased online at http://revivalbooks.co.za/index.php/product/experiencing-fathers-embrace-by-jack-frost/
