Review of A Garden of Love

In A Garden of Love, Thomas B. Clarke shares his personal observations about the flowers he grows in his work for the Gethsemane Prayer Garden at Faith Chapel in Syracuse, New York. The purpose of the garden is not that it just be a pretty place to enjoy "lots of beautiful flowers. Rather, the flowers are intended to help soften our hearts so that we may be more effective in speaking to and hearing the voice of the Lord." (unnumbered page preceding the Acknowledgments page).

I liked that there were full color pictures on each two page spread. I enjoyed reading about flowers, many of which I have never seen growing in Southern Alabama gardens, and none of which I grow. I enjoyed the author's encouragements for the Christian faith, relating each to scripture.

I had a hard time relating the particular plant chosen to the characteristic he wanted to emphasize. For instance, he chose Coneflower (Echinacea) to relate to patient endurance. He said that he chose it because it looks like a crown. I don't see any crowns in that flower even after reading the entry. I also don't really follow the idea of crowns for patient endurance. It seems that it would have been more appropriate to use a flower that endured over a long season or was perennial. I don't know. It just seemed a reach to relate this flower to this spiritual characteristic.

He did not use herbs and flowers that have traditionally been associated with different characteristics. For instance, sage has long been associated with wisdom. Every flower he chose was chosen because he personally likes the plant. This is fine. It just seemed that some of the choices were made not because of the plant, but because he likes the spiritual characteristic and wanted to discuss it.

I would rate this book as readable. This one problem should be noted, because it really took from the power of the book.

I received this book for free from Bookcrash.com in exchange for an honest review.

Review of Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan

I read this book on the suggestion of a fellow blogger.

This book contains a short history of hymns through the ages, from Biblical, Ancient, and Medieval hymns through the much more familiar German, English, Gospel Hymns and Contemporary Praise songs. In the German hymns, the author features a hymn by Luther and one by Zinzendorf, two great reformers of the church. Luther's was familiar to me and I expect it would be familiar to you--A Mighty Fortress is our God. Though I was familiar with Zinzendorf, I was not familiar with the hymn quoted in these pages.

That was the way of things in this book: I was familiar with one out of every two or three hymns, especially in the older hymns. The newer hymns were more familiar to me. With entries by William Gaither and Darlene Zschech, I suspect that most Christians would be familiar with these hymns.

After this, he offers a section in which he goes into much greater detail about six hymns. Each of these hymns are given about a chapter each.

I liked this book. I liked learning the history of hymns I have heard all my life. I enjoyed reading his opinions about the place of hymns in modern worship. I enjoyed reading the hymns (and singing the ones I was knew.)

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Seeds Family Music New Album- Purity

One of my very favorite CD series has a new CD out!

Several years ago, I was looking online for scripture memory CD's and happened (by the grace of God) to find this wonderful website: Seeds Family Worship. I first bought the above CD. I loved it! My son loved it. My daughters, after they were born, loved it. It is so well-written that I will listen to this music even if the children are not in the car. We have since bought every CD they have written, and all of them are excellent. The other titles are The Power of Encouragement, Seeds of Faith, Seeds of Character, Seeds of Praise and Seeds of Purpose. 

Because all these scripture memory songs are the exact words of scripture, set to wonderful music, my children and I have have learned about 60 scripture memory verses from this CD series alone.

I have other scripture memory CD's. We have tried lots of them, but these are my favorites. They are wonderful, singable, toe tapping songs.

For the release of their newest title, they have asked parents to read through the Purity Pledge and make this pledge for their families. I encourage you to read through the list of scriptural things they are challenging you to implement in your families, and then implement these things. The list of things are all things we need to see in society and in our lives. I took the pledge this morning. May God grant me the grace to live up to these commitments.

The link to the new scripture memory songs is here.  For some reason, it seems to be only available as a digital download this time.

I received no compensation for this promotion. I just really like and believe in these products. They are a great way to plant some seeds of the Scripture into the lives of your family.

Review of Switched! TJ and the Time Stumblers Book by Bill Myers

I haven't read any of the other books in this series. This is the fifth book about a girl named TJ and two time travelers from the twenty-third century, and their misadventures in the course of a middle school in the present time.

This is a chapter book for children with 156 pages and no pictures, a fact which concerned me a little when I first received the book. Would my children like this book? Would they be able to follow it?

I read it to them while they drank hot chocolate in the mornings. I decided that if they couldn't follow it or didn't like it, I would read it to myself. The first day, both of the older ones liked it a lot and laughed through the entire passage we read.

After the second day, my middle daughter no longer liked the book.When I asked her why, her answer was because TJ became bald. (I can understand this. Bald is a hard condition for a girl.)

My son laughed through the entire book. He enjoyed the silly problems that complicated things for the characters. He liked that the book was funny. He liked the characters. He liked the way the author wrapped up everything in the end.

I liked the book with only a few draw-backs. The book is entitled "Switched!" Well, it seems that the author wasn't content to switch the main character with her arch enemy, but had to switch many other characters as well. I personally felt that there were too many switches to make the story line easy to follow, but it didn't seem to cause problems for my children as they heard the story read aloud.

The book was good enough that we ended up reading one day for over an hour, because we were lost in the story and wanted to find out what happened next.

Recommended, but with the caveat that there are lots of characters who switch bodies, making it hard to keep straight who is talking.

I received this book free from Tyndale Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Tyndale. It opened an entirely new series to my family. We will probably read some more of these books.

Review of December 1941

I read this book from cover to cover. I have read many books about World War II and was looking forward to reading this book. I was greatly disappointed. The author states at the beginning that he used the newspapers of the day to write the book, along with some previously undisclosed top secret documents. 

Each chapter is titled according to the day. There are 31 chapters. The first six chapters happen before Pearl Harbor, and though the author does reveal some information that the government had prior to Pearl Harbor day, he spends an inordinate amount of time and energy covering sporting events (70 year old football games, anyone?), entertainment news and other extraneous things that I am not interested in now, much less when they are so old. Many of the stars of the day that he reports on to the point of exhaustion are not even people I recognize and they certainly are not important to the story line he was trying to achieve.

When the author finally gets to Pearl Harbor day, I expected the pace to pick up, but this was not to be the case. I assume that he did it this way because he was following newspaper articles, but the one chapter that should be mesmerizing and gripping was boring and confusing. I know that Pearl Harbor day happened on December 7, but from the author's account it could have just as easily have happened on December 11th. It wasn't until December 11th that the author got around to revealing the seriousness of the attack. 

By Christmas day things were going badly for America in the new war, but the populace was strongly supportive. The author is still reporting on football scores and movies at the theaters. There is more war news, but often there are long lists of people involved in different aspects of government work, to the detriment of plot progression. Often, he jumps from one subject to another, without any cohesion. 
I didn't like this book. I wanted to like it, but I did not.

I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review.

Summaries of Several Spurgeon Sermons about Isaiah 28:24 to 29

I love Spurgeon. I will just say that to begin with. There have been so many times in my life that a Spurgeon sermon was just the recipe for some need I was experiencing or scripture I was pondering.

I have recently read three of his sermons relating to the scripture Isaiah 28:24 to 29, which say 


         "When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil? When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field? His God instructs him and teaches him the right way. Caraway is not threshed with a sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over cumin; caraway is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a stick. Grain must be ground to make bread;so one does not go on threshing it forever. Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it, his horses do not grind it. All this comes from the LORD Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom." 


This scripture has really been on my mind lately. I have been pondering it. And Spurgeon is just the ticket for carrying the pondering farther.

That's the background.

Now for only the highest highlights from my readings. I may come back and give more info on each sermon in another few posts.

From  The Ploughman (Remember, Spurgeon was British, so the spelling is British.)

• The ploughman perseveres. He keeps at his work until it is done. 
• When the Holy Spirit brings a man to the place he is downright earnest in his praying, it won't be long before he finds peace. 
• Keep your hand to the gospel plough. Continue in well-doing.
• Then, answer the question in negative. Ploughman doesn't only plough. He has other jobs.

From A Feast for Faith 

• Prayer: Lord, work salvation in me. I will have nothing to do with my own merit or strength. I will be dead that Thou mayst live in me. I will be nothing. Be Thou my all in all.
• Sitting at Jesus' feet with Mary is the very best preparation for doing the work of Martha without being cumbered by it.
• Don't run ahead of the cloud that leads by day. Keep in pace with the Spirit.
• When we are content to wait on God's plan, it opens to us very wonderfully.
• When we do know God's plan, we must carry it out, for the same God who is "wonderful in counsel" is "excellent in working." (KJV).
• When you resolve to carry out God's plan, expect His singular assistance.
• Whenever there is the working of the sword of Joshua and the prayers of Moses, there will also be the almighty arm of God.

From The Principal Wheat

• "The wisdom of earth is a reflection of the light of heaven."
• God is the great teacher of agriculture and handicrafts.
• If God instructs in gardening, will He not much more instruct us in the "tillage of our lives", if we ask? 
• The farmer knows what is the most important crop to cultivate and makes it his own.
• The farmer gives the principal thing the principal place.
• The farmer selects the best seed for sowing, not accepting mealy, moldy seeds.
• The farmer tends the principal crop with principal care. 
• Do these things, because from your principal care you may expect your principal crop.

I would encourage you to read the entire sermons at the connecting link, if you get a chance. But even if you don't, I hope these notes will encourage and instruct you today. 

Review of Bound for Glory by Timothy Botts

This book has 52 African American spirituals, with the words to the songs, a reflective passage about the song, and a beautiful calligraphic letterforms painting. I personally liked the reflective passages that were written by the artist, because he would usually explain the process behind his art.

Some of the old spirituals were unknown to me, but many were familiar to me and would probably be familiar to you: Rock-a-My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham, We are Climbing Jacob's Ladder, Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho, Them Bones, Them Bones, Them Dry Bones, Go Tell it on the Mountain, He's Got the Whole World In His Hands, and This Little Light of Mine are among the more familiar songs. I found myself singing to my children while reading this book.

After reading it the first time, I went back and re-read the calligraphic letterform paintings. I love them. They are beautiful. They are art. The pictures are so stunning, in fact, that I wanted you to see an example of them.
 

 


After reading this book, I have decided to purchase 2 copies for friends of mine. One person was a singer in a college choir. They sang many of these songs in performances. The other has suffered a devastating loss and I think this book will comfort her.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for an honest review.