In the first book of his Apprentice series, The Good and Beautiful God, James Bryan Smith reveals and challenges us to work through the false narratives that misconstrue our vision of God. Once these false narratives of God have been swept away, we can examine the false narratives that we hold about ourselves. This is where The Good and Beautiful life picks up.

Using the Sermon on the Mount as a framework, James Bryan Smith looks at the various underlying factors in our predilection to sin.

Take anger, for an example. Smith describes anger as the natural result of two factors: fear and unmet expectations. These two factors are reinforced by the false narratives we hold about ourselves such as "I am alone," and "I must be in control all of the time" (73). If we want to get rid of our anger issues, we need to start by replacing the false narratives that feed our anger. Band-aids will not do when we need surgery.

Following each chapter, Smith suggests a "Soul Training" exercise to help with the topic at hand. For anger, he recommends observing the Sabbath. It seems unrelated at first, but if you follow his argument, nothing forces us to let go of our need to control the world like Sabbath practice.

This book is a simple yet wise. It's easy and enjoyable to read, wholly lacking in the self-help drivel that passes for spiritual reading and formation today. ( )

Jesus taught more about the Kingdom of God than any other topic. This is seen most prevalent in His teachings found in the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. For centuries many people believed that the Kingdom of God is resigned to some future eschatological event. However, Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is here now only to be consummated in full upon His return. Until then, we live in His kingdom, incarnating His life to others while living holy lives transformed by the renewed power of God. Smith introduces many false narratives that we have become accustomed to in our lives and delicately puts them to rest with Scripture. He touches upon such issues as: Anger, Lust, Lying, Pride, Avarice, Judgementalism, and Worry, just to name a few. These seem to be issues most of us seem to struggle with quite often. Smith uses Scripture on how to overcome these issues so we can be a brighter light in a darkened world. He ends the book by providing simple, yet Biblical ways to stay in touch with Jesus in relationship with Him each day. Some of the content of this book is drawn from notable authors/teachers as Dallas Willard and Richard Foster. I didn't agree with all of its content, but there are certainly a lot of truths to glean from this wonderful book. ( )