Book Review: Dancing with my Father

Author: Sally Clarkson

List Price: 13.99

ISBN: 978-0-307-45706-6

Binding: Soft Cover

Release: January 2010

Do you sometimes feel victimized by circumstances? Are you overwhelmed by weariness, fear, or discouragement? Do you wonder, Where can I go to claim the promise of Jesus that my joy could be made full?

This book* chronicles Sally Clarkson’s journey through depression and disillusionment. It is a heartfelt book that speaks to that inner place when a person has given up, and all they want is to be re-awakened and rejuvenated. I appreciated her sincerity and her willingness to go through those places of hurt again to help us understand that we are not alone. And as women, it is sometimes easy to find yourself losing your joy for the God, and the things you once found joy in, and I am sure that many women will find this encouraging.

There are some questions at the end of each chapter entitled “finding your rhythm in God’s joy” which can be helpful in determining where you lack joy and what you can do to refresh yourself.

I had a few concerns however:

This book was just plain DEPRESSING! (in the beginning)

I mean I understand that people go through things, and I understand that some people need to read about the depressing things in order to sympathize, but I just felt heavy and down while I read the book. She learned joy in the end and encourages all of us to pursue God, but I just couldn’t shake that feeling off.

Depression is not from God, so therefore we must resist it! (James 4:7)

I would still recommend the book, because there are quite a few things that many can read and learn from, but as for me, I would rather read a book filled with hope that concentrates on the fact that in the spirit (our spirit in Christ), we already have joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control etc. (Galatians 5:22-23) Therefore all we really need is to figure out a way to build upon our faith, diminish our unbelief, and get the manifestation of these spiritual truths into our physical lives.

For more information and to purchase the book click here

*Random House (Waterbook Press) provided me with a free copy to review.

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This is NOT how I will meet my Husband

I was walking down the street the other day and I walked by this attractive guy. We exchanged greetings and continued. Not more than 5 seconds later I heard him say “I know it’s snowing, but I would love to meet you.”

I blushed.

Wow he would like to meet me, I felt privileged and attractive, especially since I hadn’t put any make up on or even taken a shower by that time.

“So what do you say?” He asked. I was quiet.

He started to walk towards me and that was when I heard it.

“This is NOT how I will meet my husband.” It came from me, but yet it did not. I knew I needed to listen to this voice, but I was tempted and flattered by this gentleman’s attention. Thankfully I listened and told him I was not interested.

—

Many times when we (Christians) expect to hear from God, we think that He will speak in an audible voice and he will say “Mary! stay away from him, or don’t do that!” But most times, God speaks to us in that small still voice. God is spirit, so He speaks to our spirit and our spirit speaks to us. We can hear from God either through a word of knowledge, where we just know something, and it doesn’t make sense that we know it. Other times He can speak through our spirit and we hear it in a first person voice, that we often think that we are speaking to ourselves, not knowing that it is God speaking to us.

I’m not sure whether it was a word of knowledge or a voice in my spirit, but I do know that I realized that this was not the way I would meet my husband. So by the grace of God I was able to reject the deception of the devil.

How about you? How often have you heard from God and ignored Him? Or can you even tell when you hear from God?

Check out this teaching by Andrew Wommack on Hearing God’s voice.

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Book Review: Mother-Daughter Duet

(Getting to the Relationship you want with Your Adult Daughter*)

Authors: Cheri Fuller & Ali Plum

  • Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
  • On Sale: February 16, 2010
  • Price: $13.99
  • ISBN: 978-1-60142-162-3 (1-60142-162-1)

God healing us versus us trying to fix each other feels eternally better.

There are few books that you read that really change your life, and this was one of them. By concentrating on the importance of respecting your daughter as an individual, and as an adult, the authors highlighted issues that exist within the mother-daughter relationship that most people cannot even begin to explain.

A daughter wants to feel that her mother is not trying to “fix” things for her, but instead that her mother has confidence in her that she will figure even this tough situation out, and she will find a solution. Instead of giving advice on everything, especially when the advice was not requested, just listen and provide support. (Respect, Love, Patience, Forgiveness, Kindness…etc.)

What extraordinary advice!

The paradigm shift for me was realizing that I had been trying to change so many people’s lives, and trying to tell adults what to do with their lives. These adults who had taken care of themselves before they even met me! These adults who were no longer children, and were certainly not my children!

Needless to say- I wholeheartedly recommend this book. If you have a great relationship with your mother (or your adult daughter), it could always be better and if you have a not-so-great relationship, then this book will provide you with an opportunity to start afresh.

The chapters are insightful and discussion questions at the end of the book are also very helpful.

For more information and/or to purchase this book Click here

* Random House provided me with a free copy of this book to review

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Book Review: Revolve 2010 Biblezine

Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 400
Vendor: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: 2009
Dimensions: 10.62 X 7.88 X 0.05 (inches)
ISBN: 1418541516
Text Layout: Biblezine

Features include:

* The truth about guys from Chad Eastham (featured speaker on Revolve Tour and author of The Truth About Guys)
* Behind the scenes of The Word of Promise: The Next Generation, with stars Jordin Sparks, Cody Linley, and Corbin Bleu
* Celeb Drama-Trauma
* Q&A with Jenna Lucado
* Quizzes aimed to increase self-awareness and point readers to Scripture
* Free music downloads from Group1Crew, Stellar Kart, and Britt Nicole

This is a great tool* to use in addition to a regular Bible. It kind of reminds me of the Topz devotional (Everyday with Jesus) that I used when I was growing up. The NCV translation is easy to understand (almost a little too easy). The graphics and images are pleasant and attractive. The magazine format makes reading the Bible “cool” again.

My concerns

  1. The NCV translation takes away any kind of interpretation from the book – we must remember that the Bible is written to our hearts, and not to our heads.
  2. There is just something about this Biblezine that loses that concept of “The Holy Bible”- It’s just a tad bit too casual
  3. While I understand that it is important to be culturally relevant, we must also realize that it is our place to train young ladies in the way they should think…i.e. while talking about boys and stuff might be interesting, it might be better to show why it is not so important to talk about boys and stuff, but instead to focus on God.

In conclusion…it is a nice book. I understand where that there is a struggle for the writers to be interesting and attractive, while remaining true to the word, and for the most part they have achieved this balance.

As long as this Biblezine is not seen as the final word, but a stepping stone, or supplement to other studies in the word, then it will not be too harmful.

* Thomas Nelson provided me with a free copy to review.

For more information and to purchase click here.

"The Good Guy" Parable Explained

If you have not read The Good Guy Parable, read it here.

So what do you think about the story? Would you call this guy a “good guy”…I mean everything else he did was good, but you were sure that he would hit you whenever you stopped “paying attention.”

Unfortunately too many people think that this is how God is. We say that God is a good God, but yet we think that He would punish us with diseases and heartbreak because we don’t pay attention, or we are disobedient, or we are busy doing other things. But God is not like that, God is a good God – if it’s evil its not from Him (James 1:17). God is good and gracious He will never “crush” us because of our sins. Our sins have consequences that can try to crush us, and the devil will always try to crush us, and this world because it is evil will always try to crush us…that is why we must stay away from evil.

God is not an unjust judge Luke 18:1-9 you don’t have to persistently seek Him to get your prayers answered- all you have to do is ask in faith, and you will receive Luke 11:9-12

God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), his kind of love is patient, kind, gentle, and he is not easily offended…(1 Corinthians 13:4)

When things and people try to condemn us, what then shall we say to these things? – this is what we say: Since God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own son, but gave him up freely for us, will he not along with him give us all things? Who can make us debtors to them for our mistakes? it is God that Justifies us. Who can condemn us? When Christ has died for all our debts, and is even now sitting at the right hand of God interceding on our behalf. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ – and since you don’t purposely harm those you love (and God never makes mistakes) we know God will never harm us. (Romans 8:31-39)

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"The Good Guy" – A Parable

What if I told you I had a friend who had a friend who had seen you around. And he was a really nice guy. He had fallen in love with your character, how you cared for people and the way you acted around your family and friends (and enemies). He liked the way you interacted with the less fortunate and how you always tried to help others.

There were some things that concerned him, such as how angry you could get over little things, or how you always said you would be on time but you were always late, or how you took your friends and family for granted often. But he did not care, he had fallen in love with you and he wanted to have a relationship with you.

You may be overwhelmed that someone would like you that much, and even though you were a little suspicious of anyone who would know so much about you and would still be interested in you, you decide that you are willing to give him a chance.

So you start dating this guy and he really is the epitome of perfection. He holds the door open for you every time. He makes sure you are safe when you cross the street together. He protects you from crazy people and even from some of your crazy family members. He would never let anyone say anything bad about you. He is ALWAYS ready to put anything away and listen to you, whenever you are concerned. He knows when to give advice and when to just sit and listen. He knows the right time to hug you and comfort you and the right time to look at you smile and let you know that he is confident that you would make the right decision.

Needless to say he is perfect in the right way. Not in the sickening way where you just can’t stand him, but in the perfect way that is perfect!

And one day you are on a date and he is talking to you about something – maybe he is saying how much he likes you and appreciates you being in his life and how much he wants to serve you…and your eyes start to glaze over – you are wondering to yourself what you could have done to deserve such a great guy and you start thinking about and comparing to your past relationships.

The next thing you know, he leans over the table and slaps you (hard enough that you see at least 17 stars), then he says that he just wanted to get your attention – and then he continues telling you about how much he loves you and how great of a guy he really is…

What would you think???? Would you still call this guy a “good guy” knowing that he would always hit you when you did not pay attention?

For the “good guy” parable explained click here.

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