Night with a Perfect Stranger, by David Gregory

First Nick had Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, meeting Jesus face to face.  Shortly after that, his wife had a Day with a Perfect Stranger, meeting Jesus on a flight to Tuscon and coming to share her husband's faith in their mutual friend.  After five years of living the Christian life, Nick is feeling frustrated and dry, and gets to spend a Night with a Perfect Stranger.

In Night with a Perfect Stranger: The Conversation That Changes Everything, Nick has an argument with his dad in Chicago, decides to leave early and hits the road for a late-night drive home to Cincinnati.  He doesn't plan well in the fuel department, and moments after he sputters to a stop, out of gas in the middle of the night, here comes Jesus, in the flesh, hauling a gas can.  Jesus comes along for the ride, and Nick and Jesus get to catch up and get Nick redirected in his relationship with God.

Wouldn't we all love to have some face-to-face time with Jesus?  I love the way Gregory portrays him.  He is humble, patient, and kind, as you would expect, but he also has a great sense of humor, a friendly demeanor, and a way of making strangers feel comfortable, just the sort of person you'd want by your side in every situation.

The major theme of Nick's conversations with Jesus in Night is the father love that God has for us.  Unlike Nick's experience with his earthly father, who was judgmental, demanding, and whose love was conditional, God's love comes with no strings.  Our sin cannot diminish God's love for us, any more than small stones we throw at Hoover Dam can threaten its structural integrity.  We can do nothing to make God love us more, and nothing we do makes him love us less.  Like a newborn baby, who is unable to do anything for his parent, we are powerless to effect God's love for us.  Gregory manages to convey this message without coming across as giving license for sin or diminishing the need for our response to God.

With Dinner, Day, and now Night, Gregory gives us food for thought, presenting the gospel and guidance for growth in our relationship with God in a creative, compelling, sometimes provocative, but theologically sound ways.  Any of these is worth a look for the seeker and the seasoned believer alike.

Thanks to NetGalley and Worthy Publishing for the free electronic review copy.

A Day with a Perfect Stranger, by David Gregory

In Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, we meet Nick, who has dinner with Jesus and becomes convinced of his need for God.  In A Day with a Perfect Stranger, we meet his wife Mattie.  Mattie is somewhat pleased with the changes she has seen in Nick in the weeks since he met Jesus, but she's pretty skeptical about his sudden change and is thinking about divorce.

She's relieved to have a break from him as she sets off for a business trip, and ends up on the plane seated next to a most intriguing man.  Of course the reader immediately knows what Mattie takes some time to realize: her fellow passenger, who says he's a counselor, who speaks many languages, who has keen insights, is actually Jesus.

After the first flight together, Mattie "happens" to run into Jay at the coffee shop, and then they end up seated together on the next flight.  What a coincidence!  While Nick's meeting with Jesus was very cerebral, Mattie's conversations tend to be more personal.  With Mattie, Jesus emphasizes God's unconditional love for his children, and the fact that we are designed to delight in God (big nod to John Piper here).

I didn't find Day as satisfying as Dinner, but in Day Gregory nicely captures God's heart and his desire to have a relationship with us, no matter what.  After a day of travel sitting next to Jesus, Mattie's heart is softened and begins to turn toward the wooing of God.  Taken together, Day and Dinner make a great introduction to the gospel and a relationship with God.

Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, by David Gregory

On the heels of reading The Shack, in which a man struggling with his faith gets a written invitation to meet with God, I picked up David Gregory's Dinner with a Perfect Stranger: An Invitation Worth Considering.  In spite of the similar set-up and theme, these are two very different books.  Gregory's slim volume is less ambitious, but achieves more.

Nick, a workaholic who is distant from his wife and skeptical about church, receives an invitation in the mail to "a dinner with Jesus of Nazareth."  Convinced it's a prank by his buddies, he decides to play along and shows up at the appointed time.  By the time dinner's over, he's convinced that Jesus himself, not some actor, was sitting across the table from him.

Over the course of the evening, Jesus and Nick carry on a wide-ranging discussion about life, God, and salvation.  (I seem to remember another Nick who had a lot of questions for Jesus. . . .)  Gregory skillfully weaves many familiar apologetic arguments and evangelistic messages into their conversation.  Readers familiar with apologetic literature will recognize allusions to C.S. Lewis and others.

For example, they discuss the "many paths to God" as Nick offers what he knows of other world religions.  Jesus flatly states, "There is no path to God."  He elaborates: "A path is something you travel down by your own effort to reach a destination.  But there's no such path to God.  There is nothing you can do to work your way to God."

As you might expect of Jesus, he is warm and engaging, yet probing.  He patiently answers Nick's concerns, eventually winning him over.  You may never get an invitation to dine with Jesus, but Dinner with a Perfect Stranger might leave you longing to spend more time with him.