He does not regret opening himself to the searching work of God. Jamie Buckingham says that what he's experienced so far had produced a solid contentment. And what does all this tribulation and discomfort produce. When Christ calls a man to follow Him, Buckingham learned through hard experience, he must sever idolatrous and sentimental relationship - especially blood relationships - in order to make room for the genuine love of God. And he broaches the sensitive subject of one's relationship with one's parents. He tells, too, how writing books and getting published helped him see another side of his voracious ego. He also tells how he learned to forgive old debts, how he, a Southern Baptist, was baptized in Cape Code Bay by an Episcopal priest, and what his son's experience with music taught him about demons.
To bring him to the baptism of the Spirit there were his wife, his publisher, and some harsh confrontations with his pride. The answer to that question is what makes this book lively reading. And what, specifically, are some of the people and circumstances that God has employed in Jamie's life. If, however, we continue to follow Jesus, choosing his way instead of our own, the Holy Spirit will lead us to people and circumstances that will bring our sin to the surface where it can be confessed and forgiven. Thus it is that, at conversion, the Holy Spirit may make some dramatic-looking changes in our lives, but the bulk of our sin remains, largely untouched, hidden beneath the surface. We have customarily pushed the pain of unhappy experiences beneath the surface where it stays quite alive in the subconscious mind. Our lives are like placid lakes which are, however, deeply polluted.
This is Jamie Buckingham's testimony in which he begins with the premise that there is much more to our Christian experience than what first meets the eye.
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