Walking with God by Dr. Stephen A. Gammon
Reviewed by Daniel L. Peterson
Walking is one of the daily activities we share in common. We walk from one room to another in our house, school or at the office. We may walk to the mailbox to retrieve our mail or we may walk to exercise. We can do it alone or we can be accompanied by others. We can also walk with God. Former Conference Minister Dr. Stephen Gammon’s book, Walking with God, invites his readers to join him and experience what a personal walk with God is like. This is not a book based on theory, but one that is deeply personal, experiential, spiritual, devotional, and for growing an intimate love relationship with God.
Walking with God promises to heighten your enjoyment of walking with God; expand your awareness of lessons God is trying to teach you; reduce your resistance to leaving your comfort zone in obedience to Jesus; and increase your anticipation of fruitful ministry for Christ until your last breath. That is a tall order for a book of this nature to deliver, and it does!
For instance, in Lesson One, Steve shares that he learned of God’s love from birth. He writes, “From the very beginning God showered me with gifts of life and love,” and “God wants us all to know that He loves us.” I didn’t begin to experience and learn these lessons until I was 20! But once the lesson is learned, it remains with you for a lifetime. The first twelve lessons are great reminders how personal and real God is, to the young and older alike. Another lesson Steve shares is how he learned that through the most basic prayer (“Help!”), God really hears and acts. In two specific incidents, one involving his father, the other his mother, God answered Steve’s cry for help! I was deeply moved by these testimonies to pray in like manner. It instilled in me to have more confidence in God knowing He truly does answer our prayers. This lesson also challenged me to be like Steve’s parents: to love children as they did. In Lesson 70, Steve shares an inspiring story of sacrifice that he and Helen made concerning their dreams and desires. Anyone who reads this story will be challenged to give sacrificial love in their marriage and other relationships.
Walking with God consists of fourteen sections, and by reading it from cover to cover, the reader will see a chronology of life lessons Steve learned over the nearly 60 years of his life and ministry. Each lesson begins with a scripture verse, a personal experience strengthened by other scriptures, and ends with three probing questions, to help the reader make some application in response to the lesson.
No matter where you are in reading the book, you never get the sense you are being preached at, but instead you feel you are walking with a very dear friend who is warm and transparent in sharing his personal walk with God.
Steve continues to walk with God. His book, Walking with God, will help you immeasurably do the same. I highly recommend you get his book to enhance your walk with God today and until your final breath. Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took Him. (Genesis 5:24b) May this be our destiny as we learn 101 lessons of life and ministry.
