The Encouter

The Encounter by Stephen Arterburn is a sweet story that is highly sentimental and rather predictable, but if you want a easy read that gives you a little lift you will like this little book.

The book is fictional but the author has a long afterward that explains that it is based on different real life events----his own and those of others that he himself has encountered in his New Life seminars.

I read it in about three sittings and thought it would make a good Hallmark movie. (I like a simple movie with some conflicting relationships and a redeeming end.)

The best part of the book was the end where the author makes strong points about the need for and the power of forgiveness, as well as the destructive nature of anger.

Too bad he felt like he needed to explain to the Southern Baptists about his encounter in a restaurant where God taught him something that brought healing into life that involved wine.  The aside took away from the testimony of God's faithfulness to him and I thought totally unnecessary.

I received the book as an ebook from Thomas Nelson's Booksneeze Review program for bloggers. This is opinion is mine.

Stuck---The Bible Study

I have never reviewed a Bible Study before for a book company but I requested this one from Booksneeze the program by Thomas Nelson that allows bloggers to review books.

I can say I have done a cursory review only. As a Bible Study leader in women's ministry for 20 years, I was looking for something fresh.

I really don't like reviewing something that is meant to be used in group setting when I haven't experienced it in a group setting. After watching the video prompts that author has taped to begin the week's discussions, I thought that they were well produced and heartfelt. The author seems to be making a good effort at being real and vulnerable.

This study is geared to a younger crowd and it isn't the regular fill-in the blank type of Bible Study. It seems to try to appeal to all learning styles and both sides of the brain---experiential and pragmatic learners. The author's intention is to use the truths of the Bible to move the learners to action---become "unstuck."

I wanted to do this with my classes but it would have to be adapted some and I am not sure about how the older ladies would relate since most of them, I assume, are past being "stuck." I don't have the time to get a younger group together to do this and see how it would play out. Maybe I can do that in the summer when my regular classes don't meet.

The lessons include chapters on brokenness, anger, discontentment, fear, being overwhelmed, saddness, and getting "unstuck."

There is a good leaders guide and a set of conversation cards to use with a small group. The leaders guide is detailed and would be good for someone who doesn't have experience leading a small group.

The member's book would most likely appeal to a younger 20 to early 30 set as would the videos. The book is not big and cumbersome. However, the publisher was not thinking about putting a pen to paper when they chose the thin, almost glossy workbook pages. I don't think I have a pen that would both write on the pages and not bleed through. They are very thin. You can see the print through them pretty easily. It is the first thing I noticed when I picked up the study book.

As to doing this study with a class, I hate to say I can't give a go ahead. As I mentioned, I have not done it but as a leader who looks at expensive Bible studies in closed boxes, I wanted to give some insight for the leader who needs to know what's in there.

I really think this would be great for a small group of friends to do together in an informal setting like a living room. I don't know the price point so I don't know if that is possible.

Booksneeze provided me with study for this review. My opinions are, of course, my own.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

I closed up my book on the life and death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer amazed at the story of what I believe revealed an extraordinary life of faith in the midst of one of the darkest times in the history of Europe, in the history of the world.

It is quite daunting to pick up such a thick book, but quickly I was drawn into to the life of this man and his family.  The author did a great job of drawing out the influences of the people in Bonhoeffer’s life even from his earliest days and that really set the tone for who he would become as a young man called of God to preach the gospel of grace.

I have read many books of people whose lives were impacted by the events of the rise of the power of Adolf Hitler but not from this perspective, from one who held a patriotic love for the place and people of Germany and saw from very early on, that this man, Hitler, would lead his beloved country to no good end. He was right and Hitler destroyed so much.

This is the story of a life built on key relationships----first his relationship to God and his passion for theology and truth; second, his relationships to his family, and lastly his relationships with his piers and those he mentored and pastored. One interesting relationship documented in letters in the book were to his fiancé. The paperback volume, which I read, includes information about this relationship that was not included in the early hardcopies of the book.

It is also a book about decisions Bonhoeffer made knowing that he could sacrifice his very life by doing what he was compelled to do in the midst of the evil that had swept over the land of his birth, over the people he loved.

I put the book down, encouraged by a life that speaks loudly to think and to pray. In a world where very few things are often not thought through to the end, I see Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a man who did just that.

I highly recommend a slow and thoughtful read of this book. Congratulations to Eric Metaxas for bringing this book, this great man’s story to the world today.

Great teachers continue to teach even when their lives and their worlds are far away from our own. May we learn well from the great teacher, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Please note:  This book I received free from Booksneeze.com.  All opinions are mine and I did not give this favorable review based on anything other than my personal opinion regarding the book.

Rumors of God

I really liked the book Rumors of God by Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson. In a very straightforward way, these ministry leaders lay out some of the fundamentals of what it means to live out Christianity in and out of the church in the post-modern culture.  It is not a wake up call kind of book that is in your face. It offers the grace it talks about to the church and to Christians, but the book is an exhortation to make the “fame of the Lord” know in the land by living out the life that the Bible teaches, truths that are often so crowded by the culture that they have become only rumors.

In the third generation of rugged individualists, Christians must learn to love, offer grace, extend justice, and offer community and accountability if we hope to make the glory of the Lord know in a land that is blasting consumerism, self-gratification, and is increasingly isolating people from the fullness of life that God has for his children.

I particularly loved the chapters on grace and commitment.  And I love their story of the friendship and passion for God that started years ago in the country of their birth, Australia.  They cover important Biblical truths and share great stories and illustrations to show application of the Biblical themes addressed in the real world.

Often, I find books with two authors somewhat off kilter but I didn’t find this to be the case with book.  A quick read that will leave you with hope that God is not finished with the church in America----even as he sends his leaders from Australia.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 

Why God Won't Go Away

Alister McGrath’s book, Why God Won’t Go Away, is a scholarly discussion of the beliefs and worldviews of those who call themselves the New Atheists. This neo-aethism gained momentum for their views after the planes hit the World Trade Center in 2001. McGrath describes how this horrific event justified one of the fundamental beliefs of the New Atheists that religion in any form is evil and therefore, destructive and should cease to exist.

McGrath explains the viewpoints of the leaders of the New Atheist movement whom he referred to as the “four horseman.” The book puts forth the ideas that show the fundamental nature of the movement as being unable to back their philosophy and positions about religion with their own highly treasured beliefs in rationalism and science.

I read this book out of curiosity and to get myself out of my comfort zone when it comes to reading.  I won’t say that I particularly enjoyed it, but I learned a lot. Although I don't believe that the book really answers the question that is the title of the book, my only negative statement would be to say that I hated the last sentence of the book. I was somewhat taken aback and thought that the editor should have advised McGrath to leave out the one sentence that kept the book from ending on a positive note—at least, not a positive one for me. 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255