Steven Mosley has identified the 10 Commandments of the New Testament by building on the 10 most common action verbs used by Jesus and the apostles. In this brief, simply written book, his terse-but-powerful sentences caused me to pause and reflect. Any book that will do that for me rates a high recommendation.

Steven Mosley has identified the 10 Commandments of the New Testament by
building on the 10 most common action verbs used by Jesus and the apostles. In
this brief, simply written book, his terse-but-powerful sentences caused me to
pause and reflect. Any book that will do that for me rates a high recommendation.

A plot description of "Accident" might make it seem like a conventional mystery/thriller novel, and yet it is not that at all. It's not a thriller (though it is a sort of moral and metaphysical mystery) and it is certainly not conventional. Mosley's use of language is innovative without being obscure -- he uses the rhythms of his words, sentences, and sentence fragments both to create suspense and to force the reader to pay as much attention to what is not being said and thought as what is (it's no surprise that the book was made into a film with a script by Harold Pinter).

"Accident" begins with a car accident. The narrator of the book, who we soon discover is a professor of philosophy at Oxford, lives near the accident site and is the first person on the scene. He discovers in the car a half-conscious woman and a dead man, both of whom are students of his. He carries the woman to his house, then calls the police. But he doesn't tell them about the woman.

The book moves backwards in time from there, and we get to know who these characters are and their tangled relationships to each other. At the end, we return to the accident, now fully understanding all of the forces playing into the situation.

The book is not quite 200 pages long, and yet its texture is so rich, its moral and philosophical questions so difficult, its language so perfect that it lives in the reader's (or, at least, this reader's) mind as books of twice its length do not.

Mosley has written a practical book about prayer and receiving answers to prayer. In some ways, the book is very freeing. He advocates following the New Testament example of praying for people we know (vs. someone's second cousin from who knows where). He also encourages us to ask for answers in small steps, as per New Testament example. Rather than praying just for Sally to be saved, pray that she comes to church this Sunday, or that you will have an opportunity to share with her this week.

Mosley deals with some of the doubts, questions, and frustrations of prayer in a positive, uplifting way. As a veteran pastor, I have recommended this book repeatedly. Great material, simple, Scriptural, and practical.

Challenging - demanding - convicting. Slow going at first as it develops theses that brings the reader face-to-face with his/her spiritual condition in relationship to what the New Testament reveals. A must read - in fact, a must re-read several times to mine the depth of the truths presented.