Refreshing, Thought Invoking.

Published by Thomas Nelson, May 7 2013 - 224 pages, hardcover
What is time and what does it mean for us? N.D. Wilson does a remarkable job in his book Death by Living, weaving theology and story telling like only a few writers before him have ever done. From the get go we see his love for stories, the works of C.S. Lewis and Tolkien are mentioned all throughout the book, and rightly so, for Wilson’s ability to write and articulate himself is comparable to the likes of Lewis and Chesterton.

This book does not dive straight into the meaning of life, time, and etc. but rather takes the scenic route to get to the point. Like the works of Chesterton and Lewis, one cannot appreciate them if read with haste and such is Death by Living. Although I’m not used to reading story books (this is not a fiction book) with theology weaved in the background, this was a masterful work by Wilson which made me slow down as I read, forced me to ponder, and reflect on the time I’ve spent and have yet to spend here on this planet. 

If you are looking for a refreshingly different book on spiritualty look no further. Wilson’s masterful story telling skills mixed with his knowledge and experience of God simply calms the soul of the reader. Should you get this book? Yes, but do me a favor and don’t read it to fast, enjoy it, brood over it, and may God bless your reading of this book.
Thank you to Thomas Nelson for providing me with this copy of this book, may it be a blessing to many others.

Unveiling Grace: The Story of How We Found Our Way Out of the Mormon Church

A fascinating and truly gripping story, Unveiling Grace, allows a rare glimpse into the Mormon church. Lynn K. Wilder writes about her family, how they converted too, and from Mormonism, and all the other stuff in between. I personally have a heart for Mormon people, seeing how sincere they are, I always wondered what goes on inside their world and how do I introduce the TRUE gospel to them. This book equipped me with what I was looking for.

It’s a unique perspective because it allowed me to see why people become Mormon, what happens when you become a Mormon – and what it takes to maintain being Mormon. It taught me many of the interworking’s of the Mormon church and doctrines they believe and teach. I believe and know from personal experience that nothing is more effective in teaching other’s about the truth unless you know where they are coming from and can show that you understand what they teach but can show them that they are wrong – that’s exactly what happened in this book. It provides the information needed to understand the Mormon church and how Mormon’s act and think.

I love how in the back of the book, although done throughout the book, it gives a chart showing the discrepancies between what the bible teaches and what the book of Mormon teaches. In no way does this book bash the Mormon church, but it points out, respectfully, how wrong the church is and how contrary their beliefs are from the true gospel.

With all this information mixed in with a divine story I could not put this book down. I feel ready, equipped, and compelled to go out and share this story and the good news of the true gospel to any Mormon that crosses my path.

If you have any interests in learning why the Mormon church teaches a false gospel, and what exactly that false gospel is, or if you have missionaries coming to your door, friends, family, or anyone that is Mormon in your life I HIGHLY recommend this book. This book has the power to change lives.
Thank you to Zondervan for providing me with a copy for my honest review of this book, it has truly been a blessing to read and encourage everyone to read it too!

NIV Leadership Bible: Leading by The Book - By Zondervan

A leader faces decisions and consequences (good or bad) almost on a minute-to-minute basis, in fact we all do no matter what status we have and the NIV Leadership Bible attempts to guide the reader into making Godly and wise decisions. The bible it self is well made and beautifully organized. Beautiful cover, great sized print, but unfortunately the publishers chose to leave out red lettering for Jesus, something I value.

The “leadership” part of the bible is organized into 52 weeks, with each week being structured around a particular skill (week 1: Long-range planning; week 2: Structure/ Organization; etc.). Each week is further divided into a 5-day outline always introducing the skill, e.g. long-range planning, and who God is, who I am, how it works, and what I do. Essentially this is a daily devotional (for 5 days of the week), which talks about the skill and perhaps a character that portrayed that specific character or a story in which it is seen.

The readings/devotionals are really a quick read, some a minute or 2, others a tad bit longer, but in my opinion do not have to much depth or anything profound to say. Sure there are some days which contain more substance then others but in general I did not walk away having learnt anything new. The real substance of the daily devotionals, for me anyway, was not reading what the authors had to say any particular day but sitting meditating and trying to apply what I just read for myself in my daily life – but to be perfectly honest though this bible makes it easier to do this because it lists the skills for you, it is in no way necessary and if one sits and mediates and tries to apply scriptures to their daily life anyway then they probably wont come up with anything new reading the daily devotionals in this bible.

There are other aspects of the bible which are nice such as character profiles, which relate to leadership in some way, introductions to each book in the bible, which are also more about the leadership skills that are found in the book then a thorough introduction of the books. As well as “insights” boxes all throughout the bible which are small blurbs here and there discussing a skill or personal development issue relating to a verse or passage in scripture, something I found of zero value to me personally.

Again though these features are nice, they are put there to show leadership skills and qualities, not for a thorough and in depth look at character profiles and introductions to each book – there are study bibles meant for that. So for the purpose that this bible is a leadership bible I say it attempts to do the job well, it brings in as much opportunities as possible to talk about leadership skills and qualities, I just feel a lot of it lacks substance. These are my personal opinions and statements, I given this bible for my honest review of it.

The Gospel of Yes: We Have Missed the Most Important Thing About God, Finding It Changes Everything

WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, 2012 - 228 pages
When I read the title of this book the first thing I thought of was the movie Yes Man. Although I really enjoyed the movie I just felt that it wouldn’t make for such a great “Christian Living” book. Once I actually opened the book the introduction actually drew me in and I finally realized that this was not based off of the movie Yes Man…

So I kept on reading and to my surprise I actually agreed and enjoyed much of this book! I’ve read much of the skeptical reviews about this book and yes I have a complaint to make as well, but overall I enjoyed what Mike Glenn had to say. Based on some of the negative reviews I’ve read I think many did not give the author a chance and probably gave up reading this book a few chapters in. My complaint is similar to what many others have expressed which was the constant use of the word “yes”. I’ll be honest I was so sick of reading that word; by the end it seemed to appear ever other line (it didn't, but sure seemed like it). Some of the statements would actually be profound but are simply ruined by this word “yes”. It seems to me if the book were re-written without the whole concept of “yes” it would be much more powerful and beneficial to readers.

Excluding the whole “yes” business Mike Glenn did a fine job discussing subjects ranging from forgiveness to marriage, child rearing, and pretty much anything else you can think of. It was an all-encompassing book.

One other point that I’ve read from other reviewers as well, we should be carful to know when to say “no” and when to say “yes”. Mike Glenn does not talk about the “no” although I will give him credit that he encourages reading the bible and praying, and through that w are able to find out when to say yes and when to say no. If nothing else this book teaches people to be more receptive to the concept, if they don’t agree with what Mike Glenn has said at least they go search for it in the gospels for the right guidance for themselves.
Thank you to WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this book in exchange for an honest review.

These Are the Days of Elijah: How God Uses Ordinary People to Do Extraordinary Things

Chosen Books, Apr 15, 2013 - 189 pages

Spectacular book. These Are The Days Of Elijah by R. T. Kendall took me completely by surprise; I’ve never heard of R. T. Kendall before but love the story of Elijah so I decided to check this book out. It completely exceeded my expectations. I’ve read the story of Elijah for myself dozens of times – not to mention how many times I’ve heard it! But this book has taught me so much more and opened my eyes to so many insights into the story of Elijah.

R. T. Kendall takes the story of Elijah from beginning to the end, breaks it down into 21 chapters, and does a fantastic job offering his insights and years of study on Elijah. Before each chapter begins there is a passage to introduce what the chapter will be about, in almost every occasion I thought to myself  ‘Oh I know where he’s going to go with this’ – I was wrong every time. I am so impressed with Kendall’s wisdom, the simplicity in which he is able to take difficult passages and make them so easy to understand.

Seriously, I loved this book, when I started reading it I couldn't put it down – I would read 50+ pages in one sitting and HIGHLY recommend it. It’s simple, very interesting, and profound.
I want to thank the publisher, Chosen Books, for a copy of this book. I absolutely loved it.

New Spirit-Filled Life Bible - Kingdom Equipping Through the Power of the Word (NKJV)

I’ll begin by saying that I am not reviewing the translation of the bible itself (NKJV), which is my favorite of all bible translation, but instead I want to focus on the content itself added throughout the pages of this bible. I have read many bibles of all sorts from cover to cover and I’ve never come across a bible like the New Spirit-Filled Life Bible by Jack W. Hayford.

I have to make another disclaimer and that is I am neither a Pentecostal nor a Charismatic, nor do I hold the belief of speaking in tongues. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I ordered this bible and to be honest I approached it with some skepticism that I would like/agree with the added information inside. I was gladly proven wrong when I opened it and began reading the added content throughout.

I mentioned that I do not believe in speaking in tongues and was worried that this would be a rather large theme that the authors would pound in, but on the contrary other than two “Kingdom Dynamics” sections inserted in Acts 2:4-13 and 1 Cor. 12:10 I found little mention of the gift of tongues inserted inside the bible. Of course at the very end of the bible the authors go much deeper into spiritual gifts, especially the gift of tongues, but I felt that because it is at the very end I did not feel like the authors were pushing their belief on me and could have easily ignored these sections if I wanted to.

So why did I enjoy this bible so much and recommend it to anyone I know? Well I like the fact that it takes the things mentioned in the bible as literal facts. What I mean by that is take Genesis 1-3 for example, in the “Personal Application” section preceding Genesis it specifically mentions that these chapters should be taken as actual history, not some allegory. I love that, considering the last study bible I read, in it’s preceding to the book of Genesis it said the exact opposite stating that chapters 1-3 of Genesis should not be taken literally as science today disproves the literal creation story –- I was outraged.

I’ve already mentioned the “Personal Application” part preceding each book but I also loved the “Christ Revealed” and “Holy Spirit At Work” also preceding each book of the bible. It truly opened my eyes to see things as I have not understood or saw them before. Eye opening and profound many times, I loved these sections and have never seen them in other bibles.

This bible has simple but easy to understand charts, timelines, study notes, truth-in-action charts which allow you to see a particular truths in each book and the actions we can take to walk in the way of that truth. There are also “Kingdom Dynamics” boxes, as I’ve already mentioned, all throughout the bible also offering incredible wisdom and insight that I have not thought of before on my own. I know I’ve had a lot to say about this bible but one of my most favorite features is the “Word Wealth” boxes throughout the bible which take words from the bible and using Strong’s concordance discuss he word and its real Hebrew/Greek meanings. I always love to get to the bottom, the actual meaning of things and this feature in the bible allows me to do just that. I love it!

There are simply to many features that I love about this bible, and true I do not agree with all the interpretations, beliefs held by the authors, or all the study notes but those are honest beliefs and interpretations of Pentecostal/ Charismatic denominations and just because they do not fall into what I have been taught does not make them wrong or this bible any less holy than one that does not include these beliefs. I highly respect the Pentecostal/ Charismatic people and am very grateful for this bible. I was able to learn much about their beliefs and respect them very much.

Having said all this, I recommend this bible to everyone, study it, learn from it, and although I especially recommend this bible to Pentecostal/ Charismatic believers, I see no reasons why other denominations cannot also read, enjoy, learn, and grow deeper in whatever their beliefs are using this bible.
I want to thank Thomas Nelson for providing me with this copy of the bible for an honest review. God bless you all.

Beautifully written. Well organized. Simply a fabulous read.

Thomas Nelson Incorporated, Feb 19, 2013 - 516 pages

What an incredible journey John MacArthur takes us on. One Perfect Life by best-selling author John MacArthur is nothing short of fantastic. Without a doubt MacArthur put a lot of time and effort to take verses and prophetic passages throughout the bible of Jesus and makes one seamless continuous account of His life and mission. With Matthew as the base, MacArthur pulls the other four gospels together and makes it one grand story without missing links, parables, stories or discrepancies. Matthew is said to be the base because it was written to the Jews and along with one of the missions of this book shows how the Old Testament prophecies pointed to Jesus as being the Messiah. MacArthur begins the book showing how all signs pointed to Jesus as the Messiah and inserts the proof directly from one part of the bible into the gospel stories as he goes on to make it all the clearer for the reader to see and understand.

What is so beautiful about MacArthur’s work is how he shows and marks the transitions from one passage or verse to another and where that passage comes from in the bible. The passages are word for word without any additions of his own. MacArthur does, however, provide a short commentary at the bottom of each page for references, deeper understanding or further study.

All in all, I have never read another book the puts the goals together so neatly and well organized with exact notations of the passages so if the reader wanted to they could as easily follow it in their bible as in this book. Beautiful work and highly recommended!

This book was provided by Thomas Nelson, all opinions expressed were based on my own readings and thoughts.