When People Are Big and God Is Small
Michael Wee reviews Edward T. Welch's book, When People Are Big and God Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man.
It is quite common that people’s focus is on themselves. We become self-centred or focus on our own individual needs. In our worldview of Christian gospel and life, we see that people are big and tends to treat God whom we believe in as small.
Dr Edward Welch, a counsellor and faculty member of Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, writes with deep insights into the Christian life. An easy to read book, he divides it into two sections.
The first is on ourselves and asks the question: why we fear others. The second part is on overcoming the fear of others.
In the latter, he carefully brings the reader to remember to ‘fear God and keep His commandments’. The high point of the book is to know and appreciate what is really ‘fear God’. He traces the matter through the Old Testament and early church history.
Tha author also gives his own personal experience and looks at Martin Luther, the monk. He also discusses Daniel and his friends — Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They fear God more than Nebuchadnezzar. Through these, we would see that God wants us to trust Him as we go through life experiences.