The Red Letter Questions: Meditations on the Questions Jesus Asked by Don Harris © 2007 Bridge-Logos.

I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but with the exception of a few literary masterpieces, my favorite book is usually the last one I read. I suppose because the plot and characters are fresh on my mind and I’m still embracing that warm, fuzzy happy ending feeling.

The book I recently finished will continue to be one of my favorites for many years to come. In fact, I’m likely to study it like a primer. The book is entitled The Red Letter Questions by Don Harris, a non-fiction that quite literally changed my life.

In the pages of The Red Letter Questions, Mr. Harris manages to turn the focus of Jesus’s questions off the scribes, Pharisees, and even the disciples and redirects them on the reader in the modern time. His approach makes a great deal of sense, if the Bible is indeed a relevant tool and living document.

Being a good rabbi, Jesus taught by asking questions, wording them in such a way so as to induce His followers to draw their own conclusions. Harris places his readers at the very feet of Jesus. Those dark, discerning eyes boring into our souls as He asks, “Why are you fearful?” “Why do you think of evil in your hearts?” “Why do you not believe Me?”

We might be tempted to hide behind the blood, worried that even entertaining such thoughts might upset our well appointed theological equation. I fear that a part of Jesus’s anquish on the cross was not only looking ahead two thousand years at the sin yet to be committed, added to the weight of transgression already on His shoulders. Surely He lamented for His children who would strive on in blind faith, afraid to trust their own spirits, who might even equate questions to a lack of faith.

If you’re hungry for some brain food and aren’t afraid to step out of the box, Don Harris’s The Red Letter Questions is the best choice on the menu. It is appetizingly well written. If I was Oprah, I’d buy a copy of this book for everyone I love.