Christ in You: My Review of this Impactful Book

When I recorded the video and podcast attached to this article, I had just finished reading Gary York’s Christ in You a matter of minutes before.

Available on Kindle at a huge discount in the USA and the UK for a few days. Free with Kindle Unlimited.

This article is an edited version of the transcript of the video. This is rapidly becoming one of my favourite writing processes. See this post and video for more on my system:

Let’s begin with a short section from the book:

“Imagine Jesus himself knocking at your door this morning. You swing it open, overjoyed at his arrival. You cancel your plans, eager to spend the day with him. You call your friends and neighbors to come for dinner. Jesus has come to my house. Yet this illustration exposes how little we grasp of Christ in you.”

The author Gary York is an interesting character. He doesn’t have a theological degree as far as I can tell, but he has a PhD in engineering.

I think sometimes when people have expertise in different backgrounds, it can really help approach the Bible in a systematic way, but from a slightly different angle to usual. I believe that you see this in him. He sets out to engineer what Christ in You really means in daily life.

It’s something that all Christians believe, at least in theory. But do we really focus on it? Do we really live in it? Do we really dwell on it?

As Gary put it in the quote, how much do we actually understand about it? Because we really would get excited if Jesus came knocking at our door. And yet, as Gary also points out in his book, Jesus Himself said that it’s better for us if His Spirit were living inside of us than if He Himself was here in flesh and blood. Better for us. This is a phrase that’s got under my skin before. This idea that more than Jesus himself, living on earth, walking around, that there is something even more amazing than that, Christ Himself living in us by his Holy Spirit. As Jesus put it, if I don’t go away, then the Holy Spirit can’t come.

One of the reasons for this being better is that Christ was limited in this world to one body, to one place. But now there are, if you like, millions of mini-Christs. Or there should be. I want to ask you, as I’m thinking about this book, the same question this book has asked me: Am I truly living in deep relationship daily with this Christ? I need this in order that my heart might become changed more and more to be like Him, that I might know more of His grace in me, and that I might be able to demonstrate more of Him to others.

Do I really know the joy of Christ in me? For me personally, the answer has been not enough. I’m not saying that I’ve never experienced God or had a personal relationship with Jesus. I’m not saying that at all.

But what I am saying is that this book that I’ve just finished reading was like a trumpet call calling me to a deeper life. It called me to more regular and reliable special times of meeting with Jesus. I feel almost like beginning all over again.

Wow, I wish I’d focused on this a bit more many years ago. I wonder how many of the mistakes I’ve made in my life, and I have made many, would have been avoided if only I had known Jesus more.

Knowing Jesus. Paul says that that was the thing that he wanted more than anything else. That he’d considered everything else as a loss, as trash, as human garbage in order to know Him. That knowing him is everything. I want to know Christ.

And if you want to know Christ, then there will be times when you have to share in his suffering and become like him in his death. There will be times when he will call you to sacrifice your own desires and your own comfort and your own sense of “look at me!” You give all that up in order that you could receive the real prize, the prize that He is calling us to.

What if Jesus didn’t need to knock on the door of your heart because He’s already there? What if you could connect with Him whenever you want to? What if you could really, truly know Him?

I haven’t been challenged as much by any other book that I’ve read in a long time. I’m very grateful to God for the work that Gary has done. This little review can only scratch the surface of what I’ve found.

I’m really excited to tell you that tomorrow I’m going to be interviewing Gary York, the author of Christ in You. And in the meantime, my understanding is that later today, the book should be available on special offer on Kindle. And if you already have Kindle Unlimited, then it’s available for free, or rather it’s included in that subscription.

It’s very rare that I read a book and feel that it will change my life. And I don’t think I’m saying that in any sense of hubris or any sense of exaggeration actually. My determination is that I will walk more clearly in the light of enjoying an experience of Christ in me as a result of reading this book. There are so many books, but this is one I would encourage you to read.

So I urge you to consider getting a hold of this book, even maybe beginning to read it before our interview tomorrow.

If you like it even half as much as I do please review it on Amazon, share it here, or on social media, and tell your friends about it. This is how you can help launch this book, not quite into space, but towards those who need it.

Buy Now: HUGE discount in the USA and the UK for a few days. Free with Kindle Unlimited.