Would you do surgery on yourself? No? You need a surgeon? Okay, would you help your surgeon do surgery on you? How about heart surgery?

Of course, in the physical realm, we would never perform heart surgery or even try to help our cardiac surgeon do the procedure. But in the spiritual realm, it's required. Although we become new creations when we are accept the Master, the process of sanctification -- becoming like Yeshua (Jesus) -- is the work God does in us with our cooperation and with us doing a lot of the work.

Clutter Free Christianity, What God Really Desires for You by Robert Jeffress describes how to assist God in performing heart surgery on you. He describes six fundamental areas where we need to have a change in heart in order to become more Christlike: We need to learn to (1) forgive, (2) obey, (3) trust, (4) be content, (5) serve others and (6) pray. This process is a lifelong journey toward transformation.

Clutter Free Christianity focuses on what God really requires from us in order to have a relationship with Him. Too often we get busy with our "to do" list -- we volunteer our time, we cook for various functions, we take Bible study classes, we chaperone the youth retreat -- and we lose sight of what God really wants us to focus on in order to be good disciples of the Master. The funny thing is, when we focus on the changes our heart requires, the "to dos" of corporate worship become easy. You'll never learn to forgive, trust, be content, etc., from cooking for a church supper, but if you work on forgiveness, trust, being content, etc., cooking for a church supper will naturally flow out of those heart transformations.

This book is great for baby believers, but is even better for those who have been at it awhile -- it brings back your focus to what really matters to God.

This book was like bad cold--I couldn't shake it.

Dealing with the heart of the matter in following Christ, there wasn't a lot of new information for me. Which is why I kept trying to put it down...but every time I'd read a little I found I wanted to keep going.

Jeffress is witty, real and smart in his writing. I felt like I got to know him in this book. Like a great mentor, he gently and compellingly kept encouraging me to do what I already knew I needed to be doing to strengthen my walk with Christ.

I have to admit I let a little pride get to me when I began to read this book. I thought it would be like a lot of the other Christian books I've read that don't speak to me but God knew what He was doing and spoke to me through this book at the very time I needed it most. If you are like me, the average American, then you can do a some introspection and see that like me you are busy 25 of 24 hours given to us each day. We allow or schedules to become so full that it's hard to squeeze in anything else even if it's what we need most. Clutter-Free Christianity by Robert Jeffress is a great book to help you stop and look inward and realize that we don't need more busyness but to de-clutter our lives and make time for God.

I throughout the introduction the author really lays it out, God's desire is to have a relationship with Him and what happens (shown through Biblical accounts) when His people don't spend their time focusing on God and allowing His Spirit and our work change us into becoming more like Christ. Mr. Jeffress goes on throughout the rest of the book talking about our personal areas where we need to allow God to work in us so that we can reflect Him more and show His glory as we live our lives where God placed us: in our families, communities, work place and churches.

I think the best quote in the book that really summed it up for me is "without God's power we can't become like Christ and without our effort we won't become like Christ".

This is one of the most thought-provoking books I've read in a long time. It has definitely been a key in my growth process and will be for a long time. Dr. Jeffress asks seemingly simple questions that can haunt you all night! Such as, do you really want to be like Christ? At first thought our answer is "Of course I do!" But think about it . . . if that's the case why aren't we spending our time and money the way He did?

By focusing on connecting our hearts to God's power, this book addresses the key elements of our faith: forgiveness, obedience, trust, contentness, service, and prayer. And instead of just telling us what we should do, Dr. Jeffress helps us create a specific plan that will help change our lives.

I would definitely recommend buying this one -- it is one I'll schedule to read at least once per year.