Who Do You Think You Are? - Mark Driscoll

The title of this book asks a simple question.  Who do you think you are?  Are you a son or daughter?  A hard worker?  A victim?  A successful person?  Someone with many possessions?  A painter?  A sinner?  You may be many things outwardly, but at the very core of your identity, at the very heart of were you draw your worth--or lack of it--who do you think you are?

In this hard-hitting book, Mark Driscoll uses the book of Ephesians to give believers a picture of who they really are, and why it really matters.

Everyone worships something, he points out.  It's not a choice of whether or not to worship, only what we will worship.  Will it be wealth?  Status?  Popularity?  Success?  Goodness?  It could be anything.  And what we worship defines who we are.  Deep down inside.  If you worship your parents' opinion of you, then their opinion will define who you are as a person.  If you worship money, you will gauge your worth by how much of it you are able to obtain.  If you worship good deeds, then your value is defined by how many you are able to perform.

But none of this can ever satisfy, or bring us peace.  Every idolatry is based on a lie.  But what is the truth?  Who are we?

After making the case that much of Ephesians is geared towards telling us who we are in Christ, Driscoll takes us through the book slowly, bit by bit, examining truths of how we should find our identity.  He tells stories of those who found their identity in what others thought of them, in the attractiveness, in their sin and failure, even, and of how this destroyed their lives and made them miserable.  But he doesn't stop there.  He goes on to say how they were able to find their identity in Christ, and with it, find peace.

We are loved.  We are saints.  We are justified.  We are redeemed.  We are Christ's.

The book is convicting and encouraging, as well as an easy read.  It's arranged in such a way that it flows easily from topic to topic, staying relevant to the overall theme always.  Some of the stories he tells of people with transformed lives can be a little dark, stories of childhood abuse, for instance.  So discretion should be used with younger audiences.  But his points are made firmly and Scripturally but very lovingly, always showing his deep desire that people would come to find peace in understanding who they really are.

I can't recommend this one highly enough.

Grace Pennington is a homeschool graduate, a prolific writer, and the oldest of nine kids. She's partial to Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis, Louisa May Alcott, and Daniel Schwabauer, but will consider almost any book. Most of all, she loves Jesus and desires to live her life for Him.