I Am with You Always

by G. Scott Sparrow

Book Overview

I Am With You Alwaysis a stunning collection of first-person accounts of everyday people who have had visitations from Jesus that have saved or transformed their lives.??From dramatic healing encounters during near-death experiences to gentle reminders to live a spiritual life, these encounters span a wide spectrum of experience.??Yet each seems to have one central purpose: Jesus appears to those whose lives need spiritual attention, growth, or healing.??In...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 055309713X
• ISBN13: 9780553097139
• Release Date: March 1995
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Length: 229 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A beautiful book about different people meeting Jesus Christ

I found this to be truly one of the best books I ever read.My sister bought it for me, for my birthday, and I have readit many many times. I highly recommend it to anyone. They arereally beautiful true stories of people meeting Jesus Christ in real life. I'd give it 100 stars if I could!

What A Find!

When I started this book I was a little disappointed. I had expected something like the "Chicken Soup" books. This book gave a very indepth study of Jesus encounters and I enjoyed it very much! Now I need a good book on how to meditate!

Review for Online Journal for Practicing Preachers

George Gallup says one-third of all American adults 18 and over have had a "religious experience," which he defines as a "particularly powerful religious insight or awakening." He says this is true for quarter of the adults who do not go to church and 40% of those who do. I suspect Gallup's numbers may be low because people are not always willing to label their experiences as "religious," and many of us are reluctant to discuss them with others. I Am With You Always is a collection of stories of Christ encounters by Scott Sparrow, a psychotherapist. They come from persons he counseled, others he met on the lecture circuit and his own personal experiences. Sparrow defines a Christ encounter as"... any experience in which a person perceives the presence of a being whom he or she identifies as Jesus or Christ." He summarizes the experiences reported and states his own outlook: "Jesus can awaken us to a relationship with him. As the great physician, he can heal our bodies and our hearts. As taskmaster, he can confront and initiate us, encouraging us to remove obstacles to a closer relationship with him. As the consummate teacher, he can instruct and guide us into areas of new growth. And as the bridegroom, he can come to reassure us that we are, above all else, loved. [p. 223]" Sparrow's work has little in common with the current glut of books about angels and channeling, or the stories TV evangelists tell. Most of his accounts are of dreams or experiences in meditation: few are about near-death experiences. They are experiences you, and I, and people we know, might have had: consistent with Emmanuel, God with us, the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. There is surprise at the way Jesus looks in a dream: "Instead of the traditional Christ figure, he was wearing a gray pin-striped suit. He was bald-his face didn't look like the traditional Jesus face. Actually he resembled my uncle Ed. I knew unquestioningly, however, that it was Jesus." Later in the same dream the Jesus figure explains,". .. Of course, everyone would come to see me if I descended from the clouds in a white robe with angels attending; but that is not my purpose...Those who truly know me will recognize me in spirit--the rest will not know me. In this way I am gathering my true followers." I Am With You Always is sometimes inspiring, sometimes very moving. Mostly, however, it is affirming of our own encounters with the risen Lord. The ring of truth in these experiences of others has a grace which helps us evaluate and accept the ways in which Christ may be addressing you and me. Jim Stampler

Review for National Catholic Review, Nov. 17, 1995

They are clerks, homemakers, psychiatrists, ministers, construction workers and teachers. They are Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, agnostic and atheists. They are married, single, divorced and remarried. They are women, men, boys and girls. They are healed, consoled, challenged, commissioned and most often simply affirmed. They are contemporary Americans who have tangibly experienced the risen Jesus Christ. He comes as a brilliant light emanating warmth and love. He comes as a voice communicating forgiveness, acceptance, confrontation or direction. He comes as a translucent, glowing face. He comes as a tall, bearded figure dressed in a white robe. He comes as a balding, middle-aged man, mildly overweight. He meets people in their dreams, in their homes, at their workplaces, at hospitals, at churches, in parks, forests and beaches. He meets people as they walk down the street. He meets them in their cars. In l Am With You Always, G. Scott Sparrow has compiled an extraordinary collection of peoples' firsthand accounts of their experiences of the risen Christ. Sparrow, a therapist who has had his own visions and dreams of Jesus, orga nizes and analyzes the accounts according to the "type" of Christ encounter that occurs: awakenings, physical healings, emotional healings, confrontations, initiations and instructions. Collected over five years, the stories included are mostly excerpts from letters sent to sparrow by individuals who had discovered that he was studying Christ encounters. The stories were often contributed by people who were telling their stories for the first time, as this was the first time they'd found someone they thought might believe them. It is tempting to be skeptical about this book. It is especially tempting to disbelieve sorne stories as wish fulfillment, such as when Christ comes to people dressed like the standard poster image of him: long brown hair, thin heard, glistening blue eyes and a classic Nordic profile.It is also tempting to disbelieve certain episodes in which Jesus appears in the present and is chiefly interested in exalting Mary, defending the Catholic church or lecturing about the moral decay of contemporary society. But such reports are rare. What is really surprising cans nd refreshing -- even convincing -- is that in nearly all the encounters presented (a) Jesus comes to people unbidden; (b) his primary object in most of his appearances is to affirm people and tell them that he loves them; and (c) he is remarkably uninterested in what many of our religious leaders would claim to be the important spiritual, moral issues of the day. An tinmarried woman deeply involved in a relationship encounters Christ, who tells her simply "I am with You always."The woman writes: I am not a holy person and I don't know why Christ came to me, except to tell me that I need not fear loneliness." Jesus does not reprimand the woman nor insist

Review for Online Journal for Practicing Preachers

George Gallup says one-third of all American adults 18 and over have had a "religious experience," which he defines as a "particularly powerful religious insight or awakening." He says this is true for quarter of the adults who do not go to church and 40% of those who do. I suspect Gallup's numbers may be low because people are not always willing to label their experiences as "religious," and many of us are reluctant to discuss them with others. I Am With You Always is a collection of stories of Christ encounters by Scott Sparrow, a psychotherapist. They come from persons he counseled, others he met on the lecture circuit and his own personal experiences. Sparrow defines a Christ encounter as"... any experience in which a person perceives the presence of a being whom he or she identifies as Jesus or Christ." He summarizes the experiences reported and states his own outlook: "Jesus can awaken us to a relationship with him. As the great physician, he can heal our bodies and our hearts. As taskmaster, he can confront and initiate us, encouraging us to remove obstacles to a closer relationship with him. As the consummate teacher, he can instruct and guide us into areas of new growth. And as the bridegroom, he can come to reassure us that we are, above all else, loved. [p. 223]" Sparrow's work has little in common with the current glut of books about angels and channeling, or the stories TV evangelists tell. Most of his accounts are of dreams or experiences in meditation: few are about near-death experiences. They are experiences you, and I, and people we know, might have had: consistent with Emmanuel, God with us, the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. There is surprise at the way Jesus looks in a dream: "Instead of the traditional Christ figure, he was wearing a gray pin-striped suit. He was bald-his face didn't look like the traditional Jesus face. Actually he resembled my uncle Ed. I knew unquestioningly, however, that it was Jesus." Later in the same dream the Jesus figure explains,". .. Of course, everyone would come to see me if I descended from the clouds in a white robe with angels attending; but that is not my purpose...Those who truly know me will recognize me in spirit--the rest will not know me. In this way I am gathering my true followers." I Am With You Always is sometimes inspiring, sometimes very moving. Mostly, however, it is affirming of our own encounters with the risen Lord. The ring of truth in these experiences of others has a grace which helps us evaluate and accept the ways in which Christ may be addressing you and me.