Dare to be Uncommon

FIVE STAR REVIEW: The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge by Tony Dungy

I don’t know about you, but next year I want to lead an Uncommon Life. And this book will help you do just that.

About two years ago, I read Indianapolis Colt’s former coach Tony Dungy’s book Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance. In that book, he urges readers to lead an “uncommon” life and writes in his introduction: “At the end of the day, I’m sure of one thing: accumulating stuff and women and titles and money are wrong keys. Fitting in, following the crowd, and being common are not what we’re supposed to do. There’s more in store for us.”

Indeed, there is more in store for us as Christians. A true Christian is uncommon, because they are holy. When we accept Jesus Christ as our savior through salvation, we become holy and separated from the world—set apart for a special use. We become uncommon.

This year, I am going to dare to be even more uncommon and as a pastor, urge my congregations to be more uncommon as well. To help me with that I will dive into this wonderful resource—Dungy’s newest book, The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge. It gets people into the Word of God each day and reflects on Jesus in a practical, down-to-earth kind of way. Each devotion focuses on one of seven themes, each theme repeating every seven days: Core, Family, Friends, Potential, Mission, Influence, and Faith. Each devotion starts with Scripture (which for me has to be the foundation), and then Dungy interprets the verse or often shares a story from his life correlating to the verse. Some are about his wife and family and some are about football and coaching. Each one-page daily devotion ends with an “Uncommon Key” for you to ponder throughout the day. For example, on November 30 the “Uncommon Key” is, “Ask God where He would like you to be busy today. When you enter into and develop a relationship with Jesus Christ, allow Him to determine the areas where He wants you to be involved the most.”

I am suggesting that Jesus is calling us to be busy reading God’s Word this year. It is a Christian’s nourishment. This devotion is set up in a way that it can be started any time of the year, so if you are just now thinking about getting it, don’t say, “Well, the year has started, forget it.” No, start today and endure. Dungy in Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance quotes Cal Stoll, his football coach at the University of Minnesota: “[He] often told us, ‘Success is uncommon, therefore not to be enjoyed by the common man. I’m looking for uncommon people.’”

Be uncommon, and in doing so, enjoy the victory of being set apart for God!

*Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book. (Visit www.tyndale.com for more information)

MORE...

*Watch Tony Dungy's video about the book at http://www.coachdungy.com/index.php/the-one-year-uncommon-life-daily-challenge/

*Check out Tony Dungy's website at http://www.coachdungy.com/

WIN A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK!

You can win a FREE gift certificate for this book!

All you have to do is become a follower of my blog. It is that easy. I will draw one follower from random who signs up to follow during the month of January!!

A hardy book well worth it

FOUR STARS: REVIEW OF As Silver Refined: Answers to Life’s Disappointments by Kay Arthur

This book is well worth purchasing. It is so meaty and hardy—and is virtually two books in one. The book itself is more than 275 pages long while the additional 13-week Bible Study at the end consisting of 75 plus pages. Talk about really being able to dig into God’s Word!

The book talks to readers about refining their lives—how God can take what is impure and make it pure and turn the dull into beautiful. Issues in the book include how to use one’s past to move forward toward the future and how God can use the things in your life to make you into someone He “can use in the lives of others to show them that no matter where they’ve been, no matter how deep the hole, no matter how painful the trial, there’s hope. There is victory (page 118).” Chapter topics include: understanding disappointment, past regrets, facing stress, victory over discouragement, and the secret of endurance.

Arthur also weaves in her own personal stories of suicide, her prodigal son, and her father’s unexpected death throughout the book allowing the reader to connect. It is also chocked full of Scripture which I appreciate. This is no surprise, though, after all Arthur is the queen of Inductive Bible study at Precept Ministries.

*I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Mark Batterson has done it again!

FIVE STARS: SoulPrint: Discovering Your Divine Destiny by Mark Batterson

Mark Batterson has done it again!

I have been a big fan of Batterson since I read In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, and Soul Print doesn’t disappoint. As always, Batterson is a masterful writer that makes the biblical stories jump off the page. The book is full of deep insight, but also contains plenty of humor. Soulprint is educational and entertaining all rolled into one!

Using biblical David as a foundational prototype model, Batterson shows readers how to find their unique soulprints. While our chief objective is to be just like Jesus, Batterson says our other destiny is “to be unlike anyone who has ever lived…to become like Christ is to become unlike anyone else. He sets us free from who we’re not, so we can become who we were designed to be.”

The book is separated into five major sections—Holy Confidence, Lifesymbols, The Crags of the Wild Goats, Alter Ego, and The Devil’s Workshop—which helps readers discover their authentic, unique soulprint. At the end of the book is a very useful tool where Batterson notes the key ides from each chapter along with discussion questions to use for further self-discovery or with a group.

This book is a must read for those seeking to stretch themselves for the sake of discovering their divine destiny.

*I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

A special book bound in spiritual love

REVIEW: His Little Princess by Sheri Rose
Shepherd [FIVE STARS]

I have two “Little Princesses” in my life—my two nieces—and it would be a joy to read this book to them each day.

The book is unique in that it is a devotion and prayer book for young girls, something often not seen. But being a “big Princess” myself, I also found the wisdom and prayers it contained encouraging and uplifting. The book is arranged with a Letter from the King (Holy God) one page and on the opposite page a prayer for the Princess(your little one). The devotion topics range from respect, beauty, courage, character, thankfulness, to Jesus our Savior.

My favorite thing about the book is that each letter and prayer is based on Scripture. This is the bind that I consider most important. For example the Letter from the King entitled “My Beautiful Creation,” is based on Nehemiah 9:6, “You alone are the LORD, Creator of the heavens and all the stars, Creator of the earth and those who live on it, Creator of the ocean and all its creatures. You are the source of life, praised by the stars that fill the heavens.” How magnificent! Shepherd takes the Bible’s already glorious words and truths and puts them in a form that young girls can grasp.

Another thing that I like about the book is the “Little Princess” prayer that goes with each letter. This book teaches girls not only to be thankful for all God has done for them in reading the Letter from the King, but it also teaches them how to pray and offer up thanksgiving for all God has done for them. And I like how each prayer ends: “In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.”

This devotional book would be a treasure for any mother, father, grandparent, uncle, or aunt to read to the “Little Princesses” in their lives. Not only will the Princesses be blessed, but they will, too.

*I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Get your Chazown on!

4 STARS: Review of Chazown by Craig Groeschel

This book disturbed me.

Don’t worry, that’s OK…that is what is supposed to do.

Author Craig Groeschel asks, “Are you willing to let God disturb you with dreams so big that you don’t know how they’ll be accomplished?”

If you are, this book will help you create a roadmap of how to get there with God’s unique purpose for your life.

The book was broken up into small, bite-sized chapters which I enjoyed. It gave me time to pause after each chapter and reflect on the topic at hand, and it also helped me feel like I was succeeding (even if it was just in a small way by reading 33 chapters in a few hours) so that I could move on to succeed in a big way for God.

The book is also two-for-one…a workbook fit into a book. Groeschel offers additional free online resources and worksheets to go along with the book to make your time and energy more productive and focused on finding your God-given “Chazown,” which is the Hebrew word for vision.

By working through the book you can create your personal vision statement and then move forward to set it into action. Groeschel is a practical pastor—which I have liked in his other books as well—in that he lets the reader become the driving force in the book. For example, it is up to the reader to decide what part of his/her vision statement on which to work first (there are five fundamentals he suggests). “Go and live your action plan in that part of your life for a while, then come back and create a plan for another area,” he writes. I appreciate this. Sometimes when we want to make changes in our lives, we create a list of those changes, but when we see how long the list is (at least for me) it is crushing. So instead of going forward with gusto to change and cross things off the list, we sometimes just do nothing. I believe doing it in bite-size pieces, as Groeschel permits, will ensure success in the long run instead of trying to swallow it all at once and get suffocated.

Rejoice in knowing that God chose you to live right now. So get your “Chazown” on!

*I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Holes can only be filled by the Holy

FOUR STARS:
REVIEW: {W}hole by Lisa Whittle

In this book, author Lisa Whittle walks the reader through how to truly become whole. We all have holes in our life story that can only be filled by God and Whittle shows how to give Jesus access to those holes so He can fill them.

She focuses on three main holes in one’s life: the hole of religion, the hole of roles, and the hole of experiences. I highlighted, dog-eared a great many pages of the book for the truth in which they spoke into me and holes from which I suffer.

Throughout the book, Whittle weaves her personal story with Scripture and action points to help the reader fill his/her own holes. At the end of each chapter she poses poignant questions for the reader to consider. Sitting down the book after each chapter and pondering on the questions are worthwhile.

In the Appendix she offers results of a 2010 research study conducted by Barna Research about how Christians feel about their self-perception, their priorities in life, their intentional service for God and more. The results are very eye-opening.

At the end, she writes one of my favorite things in the book: “We claw and grasp and reach and strain to stay afloat by our own efforts. All the while Jesus wants us to face the end of ourselves so He can fully begin.”

*Tyndale House Publishers has provided you with a complimentary copy of this book.

REVIEW: Lioness Arising by Lisa Bevere

TWO STARS: Looking for more meat for my lioness teeth to tear into

As an animal lover, I was excited to get this book and read about how women are supposed to be lionesses to wake up and change the world.
The author states that since Jesus was the Lion of the tribe of Judah, we are to be the lioness. I really like that picture!

But then the book fell short for me. There are some good quotes which caused me to ponder, though, like the one from Matthew Arnold (a 19th century British poet and philosopher): “If ever there comes a time when the women of the world come together purely and simply for the benefit of mankind, it will be a force such as the world has never known.”

Overall, unfortunately there just didn’t seem to be enough meat for my lioness teeth to tear into. Maybe it wasn’t the book, though, maybe it is me—a pastor who is already fierce and wants to become fiercer. I believe this book is more aimed toward women who need to first discover and embrace they are a lioness, not those who already know they are.

*I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.