Title: Who? Me – “Never Thought It Could Be Me”
Author: Dr. Jeremiah Toney
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 9781984569141
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
Pages: 58
Reviewed by: Barbara Bamberger Scott
Pacific Book Review
Understanding that God can use anyone, anywhere, at any time, is the core of the work presented by author Dr. Jeremiah Toney in his book titles Who? Me – “Never Thought It Could Be Me”, who came to this conclusion based on his own life and experience.
As a small child growing up in rural Alabama, one of six children of a sharecropper family, Toney was partly raised by grandparents. One day, for no apparent reason, his grandfather looked at the little boy and said, “Preacher.” He believes his grandfather’s simple pronouncement was a prophecy. Along with attending Sunday school, going to the local drive-in movie theater with family and listening to men talking in the barbershop – talk that included the Bible – he was able to enjoy youthful adventures with his friends. When he reached his teens, his father got a job in the town of Troy. It was there that he encountered the New Life Christian Church and learned what it meant that God’s will would be done on Earth as it is in heaven, because God began slowly to “invade” his life and make Toney aware of his capabilities. Even when he once considered suicide, the author says he knew “deep inside” that God had a purpose for his life.
Toney served in the US Army as a Chaplain Assistant, eventually emerging as an evangelist who traveled the world preaching the Christian gospel. His short book is part autobiography, part exhortation to the reader who, he believes, is destined to be “next,” the newest convert, through reading his words. He urges readers to stop basing their lives around feelings, and to take seriously the freedom that God offers. He speaks in simple language with a purpose – to ensure that his reader, whoever he or she might be, can fully understand and appreciate his message for them. He asks that his reader ignore “the man in the mirror” and “put our will on hold.” “We lose so much time,” he states, “by disobeying God.” He advises repentance and membership in a “Bible based church.” In a chapter titled “Walking Into Your Season” he speaks to newly repentant converts. He suggests that they will now find purpose by examining that which burdens their hearts. Then new revelations will come and the new “season” of life will commence.
Toney sincerely believes that his book will draw readers towards a religious life. It can be read as a sermon, often powerful in its direct, forceful, personal language. Who? Me could be a useful focus for Bible workshops aimed at the renewal of spiritual life.
