Monday, August 29, 2011

Smack-dab in the middle of God's love Brennan Manning and John Blase Book review



This book falls smack-dab in the middle.

The art, for me, is in the middle, certainly not bad, but not 100% my style.
The readership to most benefit from this is kids smack-dab in the middle of elementary(and above).

The truth about God it presents,however, is smack-dab top notch!

It clearly communicates that we can be right in the middle of God's love and that He has so much love, he can love the big things, the small things, and everything smack-dab in the middle! ALWAYS a good truth to be reminded of!

Another nice aspect of this story is the introduction of Mexican culture. The art and main characters reflect this and there are numerous references to Mexican food, the art shows clothing and landscape of that land.

The main couple are childless, but have a great love for kids,so there is opportunity for side discussion about that. The story also comments about how in love they are as a couple and they are shown as a strong, vibrant couple married and later in life, so a nice image contrasted to the breakdown of marriage seen all around us.

Overall the book falls high on the recommended list. This book was provided as a complimentary copy to me by Thomas Nelson Publishers in exchange for a fair,honest review of the product.

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Rumors of God-Experience the kind of faith you’ve only heard about by Darren Whitehead & Jon Tyson

The rumors are true, God can and does live and move and work in His people and faith can be real enough to be seen and experienced.

The authors do a great job in covering 10 major areas of living out the Christian life/ living by faith. I was skeptical that they could cover enough of each topic(such as the concepts of abundant life, generosity, love, grace, freedom, commitment, community, justice...) in a chapter to make it real, or deep enough to move and inspire or challenge the reader. They did it.

It is written in an easy to read and understand form, they use scripture well, and I love how their goal is to move people to act/respond on each given topic. They do a wonderful job of leading the reader to want to apply what they have just learned in a natural way(as compared to a blunt, “here is the concept- what cha gonna do about it?” approach).

I found personal insights and got new information from most of the chapters, which was great, and unexpected. Usually if I get a handful of insights, or inspirational quotes I feel the book was time well spent.

I am confident you would find that to be the case too!

This book was provided to me free from Thomas Nelson Publishers in exchange for an honest review of the materials.