Review of Unashamed to Bear His Name By R T Kendall

I have never read any of Dr. Kendall's work. The author description says that he has written more than 50 books. This was a surprise to me, since I haven't even heard of the author.

I liked what the author had to say about the stigma of following Christ. I liked the way he pointed out the different stigmas associated with different parts of the God head. From page 158, "The truth is that all three persons of the Trinity have their own stigma. The stigma of God is that He is the most maligned person in the universe. He refuses to clear His name in advance of the Final Judgment. ... Second, there is the stigma of the Son of God--Jesus Christ. ... [W]e examine the stigma of the Holy Spirit--the Third Person of the Godhead."

There were many points I could agree with, and much to ponder in this book. It is well written and fairly concise at 200 pages.

I did find that many of the things were so deep or heavy that it bogged me down and I would have to put the book aside for a few days until I was ready to continue.

Disclaimer: I received this book from Bethany House for free in exchange for an honest review. I received no other compensation.

Review of Called to Controversy by Ruth Rosen

I have really been lucky in my most recent review books. First, I had the great privilege of reviewing Call to Wonder, and now I have the wonderful privilege of reading this book.

I chose this book, because I spent several years in a Messianic Jewish congregation. It was a watershed time in my life. Through the Messianic Jewish congregation, I met some of the most amazing people--people who had a lifelong influence on me. Through that period of my life, too, I learned so much about the Jewish base for Christian beliefs and deepened my understanding and appreciation of the Bible, both Old and New Testament.

Many of the experiences from that time in my life are such a blessing to me, so I really wanted to read the book about the founder of Jews for Jesus. Jews for Jesus was not very active in the community where I was a member of the Messianic Congregation, but we were aware of their mission and admired it.

And the book does not disappoint. It is beautifully written.

This is the story of the life of Moishe Rosen, founder of Jews For Jesus. It goes through his normal Jewish upbringing, his marriage and the eventual process that opened his eyes to the understanding that Jesus was the Messiah for the Jews, as well as the Gentile's Savior. After his conversion, he attended a Baptist church and learned a great deal. He also experienced a huge culture shock, because some of the expressions used in the church caused him consternation.

He went on to attend seminary at a conservative college. Then served on the staff of the New York missions board. The experiences he had there were instrumental in leading him to the next step: Jews for Jesus. At first, this was just a catchphrase, but eventually the work of Jews For Jesus outgrew the missions organization with which it was associated and became a separate entity.

Jews for Jesus was a controversial group, but their work was always founded on and saturated in Scriptures, both Old and New Testament.

This was a fantastic book. I enjoyed learning more about this group I have heard of for so many years. Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful for the opportunity to read it. I really enjoyed it. 

Review of Call to Wonder by R. C. Sproul, Jr.

RC Sproul Jr's book studies the scripture, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

He looks at this scripture from the personal perspective of a father with eight children, one of them a special needs child. In this very personal and deeply moving book, he discussed some of what he has learned about this passage from his role as the father of his children. He covers God's call for us to trust Him the way a child does. His next chapter is about God's call to wonder, especially as it relates to nature. He also discusses the desire that children have to please their fathers and how we should respond in this manner to our Heavenly Father. Children, as a general rule, unless given reason to do otherwise, trust in the love their fathers have for them. We should do the same. Then he goes a little way down a different perspective, that we should by no means remain children, but should mature in the faith. Fathers delight most in their children when their children are happiest, and so we should be filled with joy.

 I found this book to be a book that I could not quickly scan through, but felt it needed time to ponder. It really moved me and challenged me. It caused me to pray about how God would have me to apply it to my life. These are all things I treasure in a book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Tyndale in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Tyndale.

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.

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.

Review of Going Deep by Gordon MacDonald

I really enjoyed this book. My only hesitation in recommending it wholeheartedly is that it is fiction. This did not really happen. Too bad.

In this fictional account of a New England church, Pastor Gordon MacDonald and his wife go to a Red Sox game with their neighbors and good friends, the unchurched and unsaved Sorianos. Mr. Soriano asks Pastor MacDonald what the church's elevator story is. The pastor doesn't know the term. It is a story that a person tells to the other person in an elevator that succinctly sums up the mission. If the story is compelling enough, it causes the other person in the elevator to invest to a tune of $20 million.

This question starts the pastor on a search that leads him to pray for a "great idea" that will make the church more like the one he described in his elevator story. A church member hands him a quote from Richard Foster. "The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people or gifted people, but for deep people." (page 23).

This quote begins to focus the pastor's quest, so he and his wife and some others work to define "deep people." They come up with things like: worshipful reverence for Jesus. Caring about others. Caring about the church. Calm and certain in the face of difficult circumstances. Unashamed to speak about God's grace and favor in life. Vigorous daily devotions. Faith and optimism in God's power. Influence others because people look to them for "inspiration, guidance, and assurance." (all of this from page 123).

After agreeing on the definition of deep people, the church determines to cultivate them in their church. A small group of people, both men and women are chosen for a year long discipleship in order to cultivate a "deepening" experience with Christ in their lives.

The remainder of the book is dedicated to this process. Enough information and supplementary books are given that it would be entirely possible, if you desired, to re-create this for yourself, using the books provided and praying your way through it.

Highly recommended.

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

Review of Grumble Hallelujah

When I read the title, I expected this to be a book that would make me laugh at myself while overcoming complaining. That is not what this book is about. It is about the author's own complaints about her own life, most of which are very petty. Some of the complaints she has include 1) that her electricity went off because of a storm, 2) that her nice expensive home is not as nice as the person's across the street, 3) that she doesn't have a lake house, 4) that her friends get to take "dream vacations" while she takes stay-cations, and that her book "...ended up in publishing purgatory for years." (quote from page 53.)

I expected to be challenged to find the truth in God's word that gratitude is better than complaining. I expected to laugh at how silly I am to complain when my life is so good. But what I got instead was a theology based on other people's Facebook posts. She constantly quotes Facebook status updates and then takes that one line quote, internalizes it, and forms her chapters around that. 

This was not a good, enjoyable read for me, and I cannot recommend the book unless you want to hear a lot of complaining, no real answers for your problems, and many, many Facebook status posts. Ugh.

If you would like to be challenged and helped to overcome real problems, I would recommend The Blessing of Adversity: Finding Your God-given Purpose in Life's Troubles instead. 

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Tyndale for the opportunity to read this book.

Review of Love You More by Jennifer Grant

This is a delightful book detailing the personal story of one family as they adopt their daughter after having three children. I loved this book and found it highly readable. I really liked that the point of the book was not to shame the reader into adopting. I also really liked the way Mrs. Grant relates to her children. Her visible love for each of them and the way she loves each one individually and equally was a great bonus in this book.

She candidly speaks of the impatience to have her daughter home and the blows that adoption made to her peace of mind. Though her story doesn't seem all that unusual to me, (knowing many people who adopted) she seemed genuinely and totally surprised that the adoption took so long, that it was so emotionally draining, that it cost her so much in emotional reserves, that she went through the motions day after day.

I enjoyed it. I don't plan to adopt. But I love to read well-written true stories about family life, and this book fits that description.

I received this book from Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review. I received no other compensation for the book.

Revew of George Washington Carver by John Perry

George Washington Carver is someone I really like and admire. His work has been really beneficial to people in my area. I actually know people who testify that they have personally benefited from his work with peanuts and sending out Jesup Wagons.

I was looking forward to reading this book, because I expected to learn more about his admirable qualities. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book by John Perry. His view of Dr. Carver as a petty, self-promoting person who happened to be kind, but rather uninformed was really disturbing to me.

There were some things that were good about the book, but in order to find them, I had to look past the author's bias against Dr. Carver. For instance, I really liked finding out that Dr. Carver believed in direct observation of nature and hands-on experiences as essential to learning. I liked learning that he felt the student must encounter nature, that nature is both entertaining and instructive, and that nature both encourages investigation and stimulates originality. Dr. Carver's teaching style was to lead walks through the woods, and bring specimens to class. He felt that hands-on is better than lecture or text book learning.  These are points I can actually use in my homeschooling.

He also felt that nature was a window through which to view God's glory, and that nature is a way through which God speaks to us every day, every moment and every hour of our lives. I can see that.

I received this book from Book Sneeze in exchange for an honest review. I am thankful to Book Sneeze for sending me a copy for review.

Review of Safely Home by Randy Alcorn

Safely Home by Randy Alcorn is the story of 2 old friends. One was from China, the other from the US. They met at Harvard during college. They shared a dorm.  20 years passed. The American was now in line for the CEO of a large American corporation. His boss thought it would be a good idea for the American to go to China to live with his old friend from Harvard, in order to increase business in China. The boss thought they could sell more in China if they better understood the culture of the consumer.

The Chinese man had become a Christian during his stay in America. The American man was able to locate the Chinese man, and the Chinese family invited him to stay at their home for six weeks. From the moment the American arrives in the home of the Chinese, the book is a fast paced, roller coaster ride. The book is exciting, adventurous, and challenging in ways I never expected. I don't want to say too much about the story line, because I don't want to spoil any of the twists and turns.

I loved this book. I loved the rollicking, action-adventure, don't-want-to-put-it-down quality of the writing. I loved the view of the differences between the persecuted church and the American church. I loved the honor accorded to the Christians in the persecuted church by Mr. Alcorn. 5 stars.

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

Review of A Well Planned Day Planner

I LOVE my copy of The Well Planned Day Planner. You have a choice of either a pdf file or a beautifully spiral bound notebook. I chose the pdf file, so that I can print only the pages I need.

The colors are beautifully calming. If your homeschool is anything like mine, anything that would add an element of calm is welcome. Upon browsing the planner, several wonderful things showed up. First, there are quotes by some "Old Dead Guys" I love: Spurgeon and Billy Sunday, among others. Second, there is a weekly catechism. This looks like a nice addition to our Bible time. Additionally, up to four children can be planned on a single page.

There is a "Monthly List of Books to Enjoy," which I plan to use in the past tense--for books that have been read by my children or to my children. There is also a wonderful monthly field trip list page. The monthly bills and expenses can be posted right there with the other information to keep me on track. There is even a weekly menu planner, along with a weekly priorities list and a weekly school chart. And at the front of the planner, there is a Keepsake Page. It allows you to jot the ages of each child this school year, attach a photo and answer some questions about things that were family favorites this year (favorite read aloud book, favorite game to play, favorite movie watched.) Wonderful!  All of this is personalizable for my tastes.

In addition to all of this, there are short articles scattered throughout. Each is like a magazine article to encourage moms in their homeschooling adventure.

I am thrilled with my copy of The Well Planned Day Planner.

FTC disclaimer: I received a copy of The Well Planned Day in exchange for an honest review. I received no other compensation for this review.

Review of We Shall See God by Randy Alcorn

When I first heard about We Shall See God by Randy Alcorn I was very excited. I have treasured the things that the Lord has taught me through Spurgeon and this book was written by Mr. Alcorn using sermons by Spurgeon.

Well, the book is simply fantastic! I loved it. It is set up like a devotional with 50 days of devotional thoughts on heaven. First, Mr. Alcorn quotes a passage from one of Spurgeon's sermons, including the scripture and then Mr. Alcorn himself comments on the quote.

The Spurgeon quotes were not stilted as they sometimes are and Mr. Alcorn's thoughts flowed very well with what Spurgeon had said. I have read many devotional books. Always in the past I would read them quickly from start to finish in order more like one would read a regular book. With this book, I read it as a devotional. I would read one or two of the devotional days (not necessarily in order, but according to which title sounded interesting) then I would ponder those thoughts all day long.

Anything by Spurgeon has always been fodder for deep pondering for me and fodder for moving further in my Christian life. And this book is no different. The only difference (if it can be counted as one) is that this time I have also got the words of Mr. Alcorn to ponder.

I have never read any other books by Mr. Alcorn, but this book is enough to interest me in some of his other works. I would be interested in reading Heaven by Randy Alcorn now that I have read this book.

Tyndale Publishing sent this book to me in exchange for an honest review. I am so grateful. I have enjoyed every moment with this book. Thank you, Tyndale Publishing.

Review of Secrets of the Vine For Women by Darlene Marie Wilkinson

I read this book with anticipation, since John chapter 15 is one of my favorite parts of scripture. The book was short--only 110 pages of actual text. And the way she presented the scripture did not have very much depth. 

Each chapter begins with a fictional account of a vineyard at harvest time. From there, Mrs. Wilkinson goes on to say a little about John chapter 15. Her first point is that there will be discipline if a believer’s life consistently bears no fruit. The second point is that there will be pruning if there is some fruit. Then she speaks of much fruit. In this section, she mentions that Jesus “asks us to become more and more dependent on Him, and the amazing result is an abundance of fruit.” P. 83.

The book was all right, but it was by no means outstanding. It did not challenge me in any way. I much prefer books like Radical by David Platt, personally. 
It would be a good book for a new Christian, and would perhaps be a good book for a women's Bible study, but it is not a good book for someone who desires any type of depth or challenge. 

I would like to thank WaterBrook Multnomah for sending me a free copy of this book. They required nothing from me other than an honest review.