The Wager: Satan bets against you and you should too.

The Fiction Story: The Wager by Bill Myers Follows the career of Michael Steel, a successful Hollywood actor. He has the limo, the nice house, money, and people willing to to do anything to please him. The only thing unusual about Michael Steel is that he is also a Christian.

So far, Michael has not had tremendous struggle balancing his faith and his Hollywood career, but that was before the dreams started, before he began being tested, tempted and taunted by the Devil.

The dreams are always the same; God and Satan having a conversation about him. Satan desires to wreck his faith by causing him to fail in Jesus' teaching in the sermon on the mount. God seems to think that Michael can adhere to the teachings. Michael Steel himself is not so sure. Never the less, the dream jostles him awake with a prayerful promise to attempt to live out what he has always believed.

Cue Satan, stage left with a box full of evil tricks. Immediately Michael hits trouble. Trials and temptations come from his directer, his co-stars and the aggressive Press. Some trouble he manages to produce himself. Of course God has his own tricks and does not leave Michael to struggle alone. As is always the case, God has his own purposes and in the end He uses Satan's intentions to accomplish them. As the reader we see His plans for Michael unfold and play out.

The Christian Story: I have to say, I like this books abundant use of scripture. There is really too much to go into dept on all of its usage, but in whole it is the sermon on the mount. If you are not familiar with it go ahead and take some time to read it.... I'll wait.

That was fast, Did you just skim it?

As Michael is being tried in all the different points of the Beatitudes, the story does well to illustrate the depravity of man and the impossibility of keeping the righteous standards of God; Michael does not meet with wild success.

"Satan bets you cannot succeed

and he is right."

After a series of failures, and some help from his sister, Michael learns that while his intentions were sincere, he did not have a real relationship with the God he was seeking to please. This knowledge came about in one of my favorite lines from the book.

Memorable Lines:

"No make-believe relationship can last. Whether between husband and wife... or man and God."

The line occurs after a scene in which Michael realizes his marriage is irreparable. It had carried on to long, not as a relationship but as an image of a marriage. Likewise, Micheal comes to understand that he was not having a relationship with the God he claimed to follow but only trying to "live rightly" as if he did.

If I May:

I would like to make a point of my own right here. While the story in no way minimizes the effort believers are to make toward righteous living, it does not overtly make it clear that effort is still a vital part of christian living.

The point is clearly made all throughout the Bible that we are called to condition ourselves and "live rightly." Both Christianity and this story, The Wager, are not simply about trading effort for a relationship, it is about trading self-effort for a relationship that produces effort.

What I Did Not Like:

If I'm going to point out something I did not like about the book, it would be the conversations between God and Satan. What I did not like about it was that it breaks one of the rules of thumb I have for my own writing - that is, do not attribute words to God/Jesus which were not actually spoken (ie, in the Bible) Often, even paraphrasing the words of God can be problematic. Authors must be super cautious if they choose to go this rout.

After saying all that, I need to point out that Bill Myers did a fair and responsible job in the God and Satan dialogue sections.

"On your own you lose.

With Christ you win."

Final Point:

I'll leave you with a notion that I believe should point you toward the gospel. At the end of the book God tells Satan (in different words) that only those who lose will win. Michael had to come to the realization that he is incapable of living a righteous life. After admitting his inability, he was ready to live a real Christian life of faith, in a relationship with the one who is righteousness.

If you would like to read through the sermon on the mount latter you can find it in Mathew 5, 6, & 7

Until next time, remember Christ the author of salvation and the reader of out hearts.

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#Sermononthemount #truth #fictioncandle