Book Review: Reclaiming Love

Reclaiming Love: Radical relationships in a complex world by Ajith Fernando is a book about making Love your first priority.

 This book is an amazing collection of thoughts about how love can revolutionize everything.  Forgiveness, bitterness, envy, contempt, etc can all be fixed if we learn to love as God commanded us to.  This is more than the “I love you, you love me.”  This is “ Love because you have first been loved,” “The greatest commandment is this, to love your neighbor as yourself.”  This is everything Jesus has ever showed us about love, everything Paul and the apostles showed and wrote about as Jesus and love took over their life.

I really enjoyed this book.  He did an amazing job at explaining individual concepts (i.e. the best remedy for contempt or envy is love) and then getting very specific with examples of people in history and in his life.  I loved his use of Corrie Ten Boom’s story over and over again about how love is drastic and life changing.  I have always loved her story.

 

Note: I did receive a free copy of this book from www.booksneeze.com.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.

Book Review: The point

The Point: The redemption of Oban Ironbout by William E Jefferson is a book about a couple who go on a journey to Estillyen.  Estillyen is known for its monks and nuns who read stories to anyone who will hear.  Specifically they read a 10 part series about parts of the bible and Christ’s journey

Holly and Goodwin MacBreeze are traveling to Estillyen for two reasons.   One, to find peace after Holly was diagnosed with cancer and two, for Goodwin to find the cabin is grandfather spoke about when he was a child.  These needs for peace and answers send them to Estillyen which answers these questions and so much more.

I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn’t.  Something about the way it was written made it so hard for me to focus and keep reading.  The characters were interesting, the monks stories thoughtful and insightful but it could not hold my interest like I wanted. 

In the synopsis of this book it was compared to Pilgrims Progress and the Shack.  Although it is kind of like them in the method is it written I would not put it on the same level.  I am huge fans of those books and once I start reading I cannot put them down. This was just not the same. 

I wish this author the very best with the book.    Unfortunately this is not a book I will keep in my collection and continue to pull out and read over and over again.

 Note: I did receive a free 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: Intentional Walk

Intentional Walk; An Inside Look at the Faith That Drives the St. Louis Cardinals by Rob Rains is a collection of short stories and biographies of St Louis Cardinals players, coaches, and staff and how their life has been effected by their faith.  It is amazing how many Godly men have walked onto the field and supported the St Louis Cardinals.

Originally I chose this book for two reasons.  One, I grew up near St Louis and went to many Cardinal games so I was intrigued. Second, father’s day is coming up and I hoped this would be a great book to pass on to my dad.  This book came through for both.

I really enjoyed reading this book.  It has players who made many mistakes and found their faith late in their life/career and it has people who grew up with a very strong faith that influenced many on and off the field.  This book is very refreshing to know that there are still some amazing Godly men out there is positions of fame that use their gifts to glorify God. 

 

Note: I did receive a copy of this book from free from www.booksneeze.com to read and review.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.

Book Review: Bittersweet: A Savage Memoir

Bittersweet: A Savage Memoir by George Savage is just that, his memoir.   In this book George talks about everything in his life; family, growing up, jobs, cars, places traveled, and medical issues.  There is very little that he does not cover in this book.

I was very surprised about how this book was written.  From the publishers summary I was expecting a much different story than just this man’s memoir.  I think this book would be more suited for just passing among friends and family (or a freebie on amazon.com). 

In all honesty I really did not enjoy this book.  After the first couple chapters, I just wondered “Why am I reading this?”  There is so much detail in this book about his life; I guess I can only seeing friends and family caring about what car he had in 1951 and what he swapped it for.  This man lived in an amazing era of history and I found his childhood stories very interesting.  The family loss from TB, the wars, depression are all amazing times to read about how individuals and families survived and adapted during such harsh times. But this was only a portion of this story

Note: I did receive a copy of this book from www.booksneeze.com to read and review.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.

Book Review: Simply Delicious Amish Cooking

Simply Delicious Amish Cooking by Sherry Gore is a wonderful collection of Amish recipes from Northern Florida. I cannot wait to try all of them. The cookbook includes categories like breakfasts, seafood, meat, sides, desserts, and breads.  This cookbook contains over 300 recipes.

Sherry Gore has done a wonderful job compiling recipes, local Amish history, and helpful hints.  You can almost look through it and read it like a book instead of a cookbook.  Since I also live in Florida I found some the local favorites also in there.  Gator tail anyone?

I am very excited to have this book be added to my recipe shelf.  I am sure that I will use it for a long time.  These recipes only use common ingredients that most would have in their pantry. 

I did notice that a lot of the recipes depend on canned and semi-prepared items purchased at the store.  Although these are a great convenience, my family uses very little of these products.  We like to make everything with fresh ingredients and minimally processed foods.  I will have to adapt many of the recipes to meet my family needs.  It is still a great collection of simple meals that I will be able to reference often. 

Note: I did receive a free copy of this book from www.booksneeze.com to read and review.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.

Book Review: 7 men

Seven Men and the Secret of their greatness by Eric Metaxas include seven short biographies of great Christian men in history.  The men included in the book were George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jackie Robinson, Pope John Paul II, and Charles W. Colson.  All of them led amazing Impactful lives for the greater good of God’s kingdom.

These men’s stories are amazing.  I am moved by their faith what God was able to do with them (and in spite of them).  All of these men made huge impacts on human history just by following God and their convictions.  It makes me think what amazing things God has in store in our lives if we only listen and obey.

This book is meant for anyone who wants to know what it truly means to be a man/woman of God.  These men were not perfect but they believe God had a purpose for everything and did not waiver.  Some of them died for their faith.  Some were imprisoned.  All of them had enemies who did not understand them.  But they all had a deep relationship for God and that was all that mattered.

Note: I did receive a copy of this book free from www.booksneeze.com to read and review.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.

Book Review: 4 Abundant Life

4 Abundant Life by Drs. Eric and Joanna Oestmann is a book about examining your life and looking at the true questions of how is God trying to bless you and you are getting in the way?   These blessing can be in every area of our life.

Spiritual- Are you trying to earn salvation instead of accepting his gift that is already paid?

Self-Image- Can you accept God made you in the image of him and you are beautiful or do you use the world’s thoughts on beauty to define how you feel?

Are we all really the Israelite recently freed from slavery, moving towards the land of milk and honey but all we can do is look around at the very temporary present and say “This isn’t fun. I was better off in Egypt.”

One of my favorite quotes in the book is “To love is to forgive.  To forgive is to love.”  I had never thought of forgiveness as an act of love but is completely is.  Even towards our greatest enemy forgiveness is required and an act of love. 

Overall I enjoyed this book.  There are a few times where I felt like the authors detoured to a topic that technically related but seem disconnected.  There were a few chapters I skipped after reading about 1/3 of it because I didn’t see how it related. I got the point but it did not specifically relate to me.

  It’s meant to be a quick read (they say 4 hours).  Although it is a quick read this book could have a huge impact on your life and the way you allow yourself to look at things if you let it.

Note: I did receive a copy of this book for free from www.booksneeze.com to read and review.  The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.