Blessed, Fortunate, Happy…Lucky

Glenn Packiam uncovers how we live
as luck-bearers in Lucky: How the Kingdom
Comes to Unlikely People.

Who are the lucky? The lottery winners? The rich? The famous? In his new release, Lucky: How the Kingdom Comes to Unlikely People, Glenn Packiam uncovers how the poor, hungry, mourning, and persecuted are lucky because the kingdom of heaven, its fullness, comfort, and reward, is theirs despite their condition. Packiam redefines the word lucky by studying the word’s context as used in Christ’s beatitudes in Luke’s gospel.

According to Packiam, “Jesus took an inherently nonreligious word, a word from normal, everyday conversations, and filled it with divine implications. It turns out the ones we ought to call ‘lucky’ are the ones that God is blessing with the arrival of His kingdom. In doing this, Jesus redefined who the lucky ones are. They are not the ones culture lauds as successful, not the ones we secretly aspire to be. He turned our appraisal of the good life on its head. There is a great reversal that is coming; indeed, it has already begun. And the ones who are receiving and participating in the kingdom of God are the ones who are truly lucky, deeply blessed.”

And just like the people whom Jesus was addressing in Luke, we are called lucky, not because of our pain or brokenness but because, in spite of it, we have been invited into God’s kingdom. The trajectory of our lives has been altered. What’s more, we now have a part in the future that God is bringing. God has come to us in the midst of our messes and mistakes. He invites us to surrender, to live in a different way, and to participate in His work of rescuing and redeeming the world. We have a part in the future that God is bringing. Packiam encourages his readers to discover how lucky they are that God has invited them to participate in His work of carrying this luck to the world. In his book:

• Packiam challenges us to rethink the blessing that has come to us in Christ.
• He challenges us to recover the call to carry that blessing to the world.
• He reminds us that God brings His kingdom to unlikely people, making them luck-bearers to the rest of the world.

Like Abraham, we have been blessed to carry blessing, to live as luck-bearers to the unlikely and unlucky. We are receiving and participating in His kingdom. And for that we are lucky indeed.

About the Author: Glenn Packiam is an executive pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he oversees spiritual formation and serves as the teaching pastor for New Life Sunday Night. As one of the founding leaders and songwriters for the Desperation Band, Glenn has also been featured on several Desperation Band and New Life Worship albums and recently released his debut solo album, Rumors and Revelations, also with Integrity Music. Glenn has written a few well-loved worship songs like “Your Name,” “Everyone (Praises),” and “My Savior Lives.” Glenn is also the author of Butterfly in Brazil: How Your Life Can Make a World of Difference and Secondhand Jesus: Trading Rumors of God for a Firsthand Faith. Glenn, his wife, Holly, their two daughters, Sophia and Norah, and their son, Jonas, are enjoying life in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.

Lucky: How the Kingdom Comes to Unlikely People
by Glenn Packiam
David C Cook/March 1, 2011
ISBN 978-1-4347-6638-0/224 pages/softcover/$14.99

For review copy and interview information:
Karen Davis - 800-927-0517 x109

Comments