A 12-week journey with “the girls”

FOUR STARS

REVIEW: Trusting God By Sharon Jaynes, Gwen Smith, Mary Southerland

Do you want to grow more in your relationship with God?  In your trust in God?

Then dig into Scripture and a devotional with “the girls!”

This book is targeted to women who are looking to draw closer in their relationship with God.  This would be a perfect book for a group of girlfriends, a women’s small group at church, or anyone looking to grow deeper in their trust with God.  While you can do the book on your own, it would be much more fun to do it with girlfriends as well as help you be accountable to daily devotional reading.

This daily devotional is creatively divided up into 12 weeks, with each week containing five devotions and a sixth day for reflecting on the week’s readings and space for journaling.

The devotions are simple (most 3 to 4 pages), yet they are very real and intentional with soul searching thoughts.  One of my favorite devotions in the book is by author Sharon Jaynes who tells the story of when her golden retriever puppy had puppies, relating the story to the intimate love and care God has for all of his creation.

Written by women, for women, these devotions are relatable; and reading these devotions, you feel like the authors are your girlfriends next door.

For more information, visit http://www.girlfriendsingod.com.

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

A Les Miserables masterpiece!

FIVE STARS

REVIEW: Les Miserables presented by Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre

This is my second book on CD by Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre, and it was just as wonderful as the first one I experienced!

Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre does a superb job of dramatizing the story and making it animated.  This is just not a normal book on CD – it is alive!

The Victor Hugo classic Les Miserables is hot right now with the movie now in theaters starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and Anne Hathaway.  But there is just something special about hearing the story in this way and being able to use your imagination to picture the characters.

The famous story is about the redemption of former prisoner Jean Valjean and how he saves the life of a girl named Cosette.  Be warned, though, if you listen to this in your car, as I did, you may need to carry extra tissues as I found myself crying as the story pierced to the soul of Jean Valjean as well as myself.  It is a touching story and one that is very spiritual.

I highly recommend this 3-hour CD set to anyone who wants to experience Les Miserables for the first time or experience it again in a new way, as well as for anyone who wants to make their drive time fly by with a story that may just change your view on life.

*Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this CD set for an unbiased review.

To learn more, visit Focus on the Family Radio Theatre at http://www.focusonthefamily.com/radio-theatre.aspx

TWO STARS: One church’s journey, but not all

This is a book about the success journey of one mega church—Gateway Church in Dallas, Texas (http://gatewaypeople.com/).

Author and Pastor Robert Morris outlines in five sections what he believes it takes for a church to be successful:

1. A vision

2. Church shepherds

3. Church leaders

4. Church government

5.Church culture

As a pastor, I particularly found the church shepherd’s section valuable.  Morris also includes helpful reminder chapters that church leaders need to do like keeping the Sabbath and not putting one’s family on the back burner.

But while there were a few tasty morsels found throughout the book, I finished feeling underfed.  This book is not a “how-to” book, so it doesn’t give detailed instructions on how to grow your church but rather tells Gateway’s story and their principles.  Also, the section on church government did not apply to me as I belong to a denomination that already has a “church government” in place and does not have the freedom to create its own like Gateway does.  So that whole section was not very useful.  Additionally, I missed throughout the book talk of female leadership at his church.  After doing some research on the internet I discovered the church’s position paper on women in leadership says that while women are welcome to serve in ministry, they are not to hold position of Senior Pastor or Elder.  This may explain the lack of women mentioned.  Since I am a female pastor, I found this unfortunate.

While there were some things I found useful and highlighted in the book, overall after reading I felt undernourished.

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

Radio Theater a treat!

FIVE STARS

REVIEW: Oliver Twist by Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre

I am huge reader, but I humbly admit that I had never read Oliver Twist.  Besides never reading it, I have never really listened to a book on CD.  But, I decided to give a book on CD a shot and very pleasantly surprised!

I say: “Well done, Focus on the Family!”

This was no ordinary book on CD, but rather a full-cast audio dramatization of the story.  As I listened to the CDs in my car, there were times I did not want my trip to end because I wanted to hear more of the story.  The Charles Dicken’s classic Oliver Twist is a story about a boy whose mother dies while giving birth to him, and thus he becomes an orphan.  Oliver unfortunately endures horrendous trials and ordeals throughout his life.  But glory to God there is redemption.

Focus on the Family did a masterful job putting this five CD disk set together (as well as a behind-the-scenes DVD).  The characters come to life through their amazing vocalizations.  I knew right away when someone started speaking which character was talking.  They embodied their roles.  The audio dramatization was not just voices, though.  There was also intense filler noises that set the scene perfectly like dogs barking, carriage rides, and so much more.  This CD helped the story come alive and created a movie my imagination.

While this was my first book on CD, after this wonderful experience, it will not be my last!

I encourage everyone to turn back to a simpler time of the 1940s when family radio theater was popular and experience Oliver Twist.

To learn more, visit Focus on the Family Radio Theatre at http://www.focusonthefamily.com/radio-theatre/oliver-twist.aspx

*Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this CD set for an unbiased review.

Greater is grrreeeaaaat!

FIVE STARS

REVIEW: Greater: Dream Bigger. Start Smaller. Ignite God’s Vision For Your Life. 

By Steven Furtick

Greater is grrreeeaaaat!

This is my first book read by author and Pastor Steven Furtick, and I look forward to reading more. 

While this book is serious in nature—about how we as Christians should be seeking the greatness God has for us—it is filled with well-written humor!  There were many times I was reading and just burst out laughing.  My husband kept asking: “What are you reading that is making you laugh so much?”  It is good reminder that yes, Christians can have a sense of humor.

The book is centered on the life of the Old Testament prophet Elisha.  Furtick does a superb job of taking the stories of Elisha found in Scripture, exegeting them so the everyday person can make sense of them, and then tying them back in to our lives today.  He does what any good pastor would do: proves that Scripture is alive and well today and isn’t just stories of the past that have no connection to us today.

Furtick makes many good points in the book as I can attest to with stars, underlying, and notes all over the pages.  It is a book I plan to go back to and not just forget.This book is worth it! 

It will encourage you to be more like Elisha—to go where God is calling you to go and do what God is calling you to do.  When you do that, it will not just be good or great, but GREATER!

For more information on the book and some free resources, visit http://greaterbook.com/. 

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

Planning to check out Unstoppable

There is a brand new book coming out in a few weeks that I am looking forward to reading… Unstoppable by Nick Vujicic.  If you don’t know who Nick is, he is an inspiration!

I already one of Nick’s books Life Without Limits last year (you can read my review of that book at http://karabookkorner.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html).

For this newest book, be sure to check out the short video about Nick, and you will see what I mean about him being an inspiration: http://bit.ly/NxKhEa.

And you can even read the first chapter of the upcoming book at http://scr.bi/NxKSFT.  I like what he says so far in this chapter…it is about putting faith into action and never passing up an opportunity to share your faith in Jesus with someone else (you will need to read the first chapter about the heart wrenching regret Nick has with Felipe).

So check it out.  I plan to!

Useful, beginning, step-by-step book about becoming a Christian investor

FOUR STARS

REVIEW: The Invested Life: Making Disciples of All Nations One Person at a Time by Joel C. Rosenberg and Dr. T.E. Koshy

As a pastor, I have a heart for discipleship.  So, I was excited to get my hands on this book.  This is a practical manual on how to be a Christian disciple and disciple others.

Authors Joel C. Rosenberg and Dr. T.E. Koshy point to key figures throughout Scripture who had mentors who discipled them, and in turn, they discipled others—for example Jethro who mentored Moses and Moses who then mentored Joshua, Elisha who was discipled by Elijah, Jesus who mentored his twelve disciples, and Paul who discipled Timothy who then discipled other faithful followers and so on.

Discipleship is in the Christian tradition, in the Christian blood.  It is something we are called to do.  The authors sound that alert that today, though, we seem more interested in spreading the Christian message far and wide (which indeed is something we are called to do), but we lack in leading people into a deeper walk with Christ and do not truly disciple and train followers.  While we of course cannot disciple everyone, the authors say we as Christians are each called to disciple a few (a small group around us), just as Christ did.

The book walks through defining discipleship, how to be a disciple, following Jesus’ discipleship model, how to prayerfully choose who will disciple you, how to get started discipling others, and how to track your progress with a discipleship checklist.

If you are a pastor, lay leader, or mature Christian who seeks to disciple others, or if you are someone who seeks to be discipled by a mature Christian, this is a useful, beginning, step-by-step book about how to go through the process.

*Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for an unbiased review.

To learn more, you can download the first chapter at - http://files.tyndale.com/thpdata/FirstChapters/978-1-4143-7637-0.pdf