Book Review: Cast of Characters from the writings of Max Lucado

I recently had the privilege of reading Cast of Characters, from the writings of Max Lucado. I received the book through a program called BookSneeze that provides bloggers with free books in exchange for honest reviews. The description on the cover reads “Common people in the hands of an uncommon God.” Basically, this book is a compilation of stories from several books by Max Lucado. Each chapter is about a different biblical character and illustrates not only how God used these common people for his purposes, but also tells of what these people would look like in modern day.

While the majority of the chapters tell of people most of us are familiar with (Job, Paul, and Lazarus to name a few), one of my favorites was about the lesser known Jairus, from Luke 8:41-56. Oh, everyone knows about his daughter, whom Jesus raised from the dead, but this story is about Jairus. A leader of the synagogue who begged Jesus to heal his little girl, Lucado compares him to a modern day church leader. “The kind of man you would find leading a prayer at the football game or serving as president of the Lion’s Club…He was a good man. His marriage wasn’t all it could be, but it was better than most. His church was full. His name was respected.” I felt a connection to this man that I never had just skimming through his story in Luke. He is brought to life in a whole new way by his story in this book, as are all the others who are part of this Cast of Characters.