Thursday, May 7, 2015

Book review: Companion Guide to the Old Testament

Companion to the Old Testament by Ted Leach is exactly as it sounds.  It is the companion guides to help a reader better understand the history, culture, languages of the Old Testament with other religions.  The publisher describes it as “This book helps Christians understand how the Old Testament is “community property” shared by Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is a constructive resource for interfaith discussion, particularly for people of different faiths (or no faith) who are seeking to identify some shared principles of our common humanity.”
I think this book would be great for a religions scholar to have on their shelf but I found most of it too difficult to understand.  Not necessarily the concepts but the way it was written.  I felt like I was in a lecture hall with a professor that knew he was smarter than all of us teaching his pupils how ignorant they were on the subject.  It I don’t think that’s how the author meant it but that’s how I felt.  I felt wrong for having different opinions on subjects he discussed.
All in all I do not think I will be recommending this book to any of my friends and family.

Note: I was given a copy of this book to read and review.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.

Book Review: Savor

Savor: Living Abundantly Where You Are, As You Are: 365 day devotion by Shauna Niequist is a January through December quick devotion filled with half page thoughts by the author on how to better look at what God has given you that day and where he has placed you.  It’s about living in the present, not looking to the past or future of what could be or should have been.  She tries to help lead the reader through enjoying life and seeing how God provides for us daily.  When we open our eyes to it we will be amazed at all that God does for us in a single day, let alone the entire year.

I enjoyed this devotional.  Each day is a verse and then her telling a story or anecdote with a point.  Each devotion is a page or less.  She also gives a question or thing to do for that day.  Each devotional is insightful.  You can tell each one means a lot to her as we go on this journey with her to stop over analyzing and planning and to thank God for what you have today.

Note: I was given a copy of this book to read and review.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.