Book Review: Wasabi Gospel

If you were going to write a book on the hard sayings of Jesus, which ones would you pick?  Money? Divorce? Communion? What if you had only 160 pages, and had to pick only seven sayings?  Shawn Wood took on the challenge in his new book Wasabi Gospel.  It’s a quick read, but because he picks only seven sayings, it allows him to stick to a single theme.  What is it? 

"The chapters in this book attempt to touch on a few of the more radical sayings of Jesus. In this book, I also attempt to paint a picture of words that, when applied to our lives, will radically change us."

Wood moves from extreme forgiveness, to loving your enemies, to putting the Kingdom before money, to childlike faith.  He provides prayers to guide spiritual growth at the end of each chapter.  Wood also interweaves the chapters with journal entries of a fictional “Laura,” who struggles with life and faith.  By the end of the book this is effective, though I worried that it would prevent sharing this book with any actual “Lauras” who live these same issues.

The best parts of the book for me were Wood’s encouragement to take the Christian life past “getting to go to heaven” and moving it into a Kingdom-centered life focused on glorifying and serving God.  I recommend this book as a gentle introduction to the Kingdom-centered life.  Its short length and seven chapters would make it a good book for a small group, especially for young marrieds.

On July 8, the book becomes available for pre-order.  Thanks to Shawn for providing a digital copy of the book to me to review.  If this is a title you are interested in purchasing, please consider placing your order on July 8 to increase the visibility of the book… and the gospel.