| Reviews – Books |
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| CHRISTIAN WRITING |
Wild Indians
and Other Common Misconceptions
by Carol Martin
 Some
people think missionary work is a special and holy calling that only very devout
people are capable of doing. Others think it is an incredible sacrifice with
painful primitive living conditions. And some think of the vocation as a wild
and amazing adventure. There is some truth in any of these observations, but
the real experiences revealed in Wild
Indians and Other Common Misconceptions gives us a powerful
insight into missionary life.
read the entire review |
Deception
by Randy Alcorn
 Ollie
Chandler is about as hard-boiled as a homicide detective
can be. He has pretty much seen it all. He’s
also lived through some tough patches, including the
loss of both a child and a wife. Death is part of his
world, but the biggest danger he faces might be the
death of his soul.
Randy Alcorn, popular Christian fiction
and non-fiction writer, has created a real page turner
with this novel. Deception is the third in a set of novels
read the entire review |
Furious
Pusuit - Why God Will Never Let You Go
by Tim King and Frank Martin
 There
is a lot of talk about the need for people to find
God. People are clearly searching for meaning and purpose.
All too often we seek it in the wrong things that will
never satisfy, usually power, prestige, finance and
romance. At the heart of it is a desire that is basically
spiritual, even if we don’t identify it as such.
Tim King and Frank Martin are the authors who collaborated on Furious
Pursuit – Why God Will Never Let You Go (Waterbrook Press).
They have given us a book that gets to the heart of why we all desire meaning
and purpose in life and why trying to find or chase God misses the point. The
reason we all have an inner urge to seek the Divine is because God pursues us!
God, the all loving, all powerful, ever present Creator of our lives is constantly
initiating contact. It’s just that we often don’t perceive it.
read the
entire review
|
Letters
to a Young Evangelical by Tony Campolo
 Campolo’s
latest book, Letters
to a Young Evangelical, is written
in a style reminiscent of the Apostle Paul. He writes
each chapter as a letter to two young Christians
known as Julia and Timothy. These two disciples are
meant to represent any interested young evangelist
in today’s society. The letters are written
with clarity, insight, honesty and wit and the author
does not shy away from hot-button topics that are
currently dividing believers in America and around
the world. Some of these topics include abortion,
gay rights, war (especially the current Iraq conflict),
feminism, Islam, the secular workplace and the environment.
read
the entire review
|
Free
of Charge - Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace by Miroslav Volf/Zondervan
Miroslav Volf is a distinguished theologian and his book, Free
of Charge – Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Zondervan)
explores two essential elements of Christianity. Giving and forgiving are given
great lip service by Christians, but how many of us consistently practice both?
Volf shows us in this book, both through personal experience, and from his interpretation
of the true meaning of giving and forgiving, how to practice these virtues.
read the entire review |
Confessions
of a Caffeinated Christian
by John Fischer/Tyndale-Salt
Water
 I
like John Fischer’s writing. He doesn’t come
across preachy. His style is more down-to-earth, a regular
guy who likes music, family and a good cup of coffee. But,
he also likes to dig into what it really means to be a
Christian, especially in these days of the latest “method” of
study, fellowship and witnessing. He’s willing to
take a look at form and try to find real substance. He
comes across pretty honest and open-minded.
In Fischer’s new book, Confessions
of a Caffeinated Christian, he uses coffee
and the coffee shop metaphor to illustrate aspects of his
faith walk. He needs something to give him a jolt each
day, something to provide some wide-awake alertness to
living the life God calls us to. And he knows, like a good
strong cup of coffee, he needs strength to admit how much
he needs Jesus to live life on life’s terms.
read the entire review |
Silent
No More
by Rod Parsley/Charisma House
 Rod
Parsley, the senior pastor of World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio, is concerned
about many things in our society and world. I share his concern about many of
them. We have a society that is for the most part self-centered and selfish.
I, too, am distressed about the media, the justice system, poverty, race relations,
the right of life issues and our educational systems. But I don’t approach
these concerns in the same way that Pastor Parsley does.
In Silent
No More (Charisma House) the author states that he is compelled
to speak out about certain issues. He says the times and our history demand it.
And that God is watching. Well, sure, God is watching, but I don’t think
he’s holding a big scorecard. Nevertheless, I won’t detract from
the serious issues that Parsley raises.
read the entire review
|
God's
Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left
Doesn't Get
It
by Jim Wallis/Harper San Francisco
 “God
is not a Republican or a Democrat.” This is a statement that has become
a rallying cry for many Christians in the past year. The United States has experienced
a lot of contention over religion and politics (the two topics we are supposed
to avoid in so-called polite conversation). In God’s
Politics the author, Jim Wallis, boldly calls for a new way
to approach political matters and flatly states that there is a moral responsibility
for the Christian believer – in fact, any person of faith – to look
closely at the messages God has sent us, through the Gospels and from people’s
hearts.
read the entire review |
Rumors of Another World
by Philip Yancey/Zondervan
 Something
about our lives and our world tells us there is more than meets the eye.
The saying, “things aren’t always as they seem” fits
this book well.
Philip Yancey has written a number of profound books, many of them bestsellers. In his latest effort,
Rumors
of Another World (Zondervan
Press), he approaches the God subject from a different angle. He deeply
senses an unseen world that transcends the physical that we live in. He
believes there are clues and messages at every turn. And this is something
he believes other people also sense.They are the ones who, in his words, “live
in the borderlands of belief”.
read the entire review |
The
Rabbi's Heartbeat
by Brennan Manning/NavPress
 The book, The
Rabbi’s Heartbeat, is set in four parts that address being true to ourselves, living
in a constant state of childlike love, accepting with responsibility the constant flow of grace and letting
your heart lead (not your head). Each section has a few short chapters and each can be taken as a short
devotional that will lead you to interior contemplation and joyful recognition that God loves us first. Children
don’t earn their parents’ love. Parents love them because they are their children. Thus it
is when we lean our head on the breast of our Savior and listen to the Rabbi’s heartbeat.
read the entire review |
The
Rock Cries Out by Steve Stockman/RELEVANTBOOKS
The inspiration for the book, The Rock
Cries Out, came from the songs of
several singer/songwriters who have proclaimed a
universal message about the human condition and the
need to do something about it. Not every one of these
artists may have answers and most do not profess
Christianity. Indeed, many of them may be, like many
of us, searching. Often the questions are the important
starting place.
The author, Steve Stockman, draws upon a wealth of material
from a number of music heavyweights. Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, David Gray, Radiohead,
Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen and others are writing about issues that any
Christian must confront if they are to truly call themselves a follower of Christ.
That these messages in song come from unlikely sources is a key point and one
well worth exploring.
read the entire review |
The
Gospel Reloaded by Chris Seay and Greg Garrett/Pinon Press
 In
the first Matrix movie Morpheus tells Neo it’s
the “question that drives you” and there
are plenty of questions driving the spiritual analysis
in The
Gospel Reloaded (Pinon Press). The
book is authored by Chris Seay, pastor of Ecclesia,
a progressive Christian community in Texas, and Greg
Garrett, professor of English at Baylor University
and author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated novel Free
Bird. Using the many different religious and philosophical
themes in the Matrix movies as a springboard they delve
into the characters, the plot and even the action and
special effects elements in a wide-sweeping exploration
of the big questions.
read the entire review |
House
of Gold,
by Bud MacFarlane Jr./Saint Jude Media
 Bud
MacFarlane’s third novel, House
of Gold, takes the premise of a millennium
bug and weaves another terrific, page-turning tale
of fear, doubt, faith and perseverance. The story combines
the apocalyptic suspense of Pierced
by a Sword with the tight knit band
of friends from Conceived
Without Sin, but the end time scenario
is based on the possibility of technology backfiring
rather than biblical prophetic doom. This makes the
book more plausible for a wider audience. MacFarlane
does have an agenda with his novels (and they are a
loosely connected trilogy of sorts), but he’s
not pushing his religion as much as demonstrating how
faith in God and divine love can carry us through the
bleakest times.
read
the entire review |
Soul
Brothers, by Richard Rohr/art by Louis Glanzman.
Orbis Books
When
people turn to the Bible for guidance most are looking
for words from God that they can apply to their particular
circumstances. Often the best lessons come from the
lives of the people we read about in scripture. Richard
Rohr’s new book, Soul
Brothers, is a collection of his
meditations and thoughts from scripture that allow
us to learn some important lessons. The writing was
inspired by the incredible artwork of Louis Glanzman – portraits
of a dozen different and prominent men in the Bible.
read the entire review
|
Dawn-Apocalypse
Rising, a novel by K.G. Powderly Jr. iUniverse Books
 There
are a glut of novels on the market about the “End
Times” – Biblical prophecy interpreted
by many as a period of great tribulation, evil and
the eventual judgment of mankind. The novel, Dawn-Apocalypse
Rising, book 1 of a new series by K.
G. Powderly Jr., takes a different tack
to present a story of God, judgment and eventual
redemption. The author starts with ancient times,
prior to the great flood that is present in nearly
every culture’s story as well as the book of
Genesis.
read
the entire review |
Doing
Business by Good Book by David L. Steward. Hyperion
Books
 The
Bible has all the key lessons for good business principles
that anyone would ever need. There are principles like
servant leadership, being honest, being non-judgmental,
maintaining integrity, striving for excellence, adapting
to change, having a vision and much more.
Doing
Business by the Good Book: 52 Lessons on success straight
from the Bible by David L. Steward with
Robert L. Shook (Hyperion books) is the newest entrée
on the business book shelves.
read the entire review
|
Next
Door Savior by Max Lucado. W Publishing Group
 Just
about anyone who has seriously explored who Jesus Christ
is has grappled with the enormity of the issue of fully
human and fully divine. It is so difficult to wrap our
minds around it that many people either put Jesus on a
lofty pedestal, up in the heavenly clouds with God or they
reject the divine incarnation, maybe opting instead for
the belief that he was just a really good man.
Max Lucado is smooth. In his
book, Next
Door Savior, his warm and anecdotal
style lures us into being at ease with this subject.
He has a wonderful way of pointing out Jesus’ human
qualities and makes him approachable. However,
once we’ve settled into the book and feel
good about how much Jesus was at home with saints
and sinners Lucado lowers the boom and leaves us
gasping at the extent God has been willing to go
to redeem us.
read the entire review |
Spiritual
Journeys: How Faith Has Influenced Twelve Music Icons
(various authors)
 Scantily
clad beautiful pop divas with a message of faith. Rough
and rugged troubadours that tout redemption and grace
while battling demons of addiction. Young rock singers
questioning the cosmos and professing powerlessness
to save themselves. Vegetarian techno mixers following
Jesus. Hip hop, guitar rock, country, folk, gospel,
rap, R&B and electronica. These are the sounds
of music and the voices of twelve music icons profiled
in Spiritual Journeys.
read
the entire review
How
Movies Helped Save My Soul by Gareth Higgins
 I’d
like to write a book like this. However, I am no more than
an amateur movie critic. Still, my love of cinema runs
deep and I enjoy discussing films, especially their spiritual
impact.
Fortunately for me, and you, Gareth Higgins has written a book
rich in discourse on the movies that have in some fashion influenced his spiritual
growth. How
Movies Helped Save My Soul ( RELEVANT books) is an audacious
title, but much like Higgins writing style, the title is somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
read the entire review |
Conceived Without Sin by Bud MacFarlane
Jr.
 What
is real friendship all about? Is it possible to be truly
intimate with another, even when talking about God and
religion? Does God guide people into our lives?
These are a few of the questions that might go through your mind while reading
Conceived Without Sin, the second novel from Bud MacFarlane Jr. These are good
questions for all of us to ponder. Because this very subject matter is the heart
of the book you can really benefit from reading it, and that makes this book
even more impressive than MacFarlane’s first effort.
read the entire review
|
The
Love Languages of God by Gary Chapman
Most everyone agrees that love is a good thing. How we both
express and receive love can differ from one person to the next. Gary Chapman
has spent a lifetime in exploring the various languages of love and has detailed that in
his previous books.
In The
Love Languages of God he shows us how we best experience God
in the love language we speak. While it is possible for us to experience God’s
bountiful love in more ways than one, Chapman believes we all have a primary
love language.
read the entire review
|
Rocket Readers Books — Teaching tools for developing reading
in young children with a Biblical emphasis edited by Heather Gemmen and Mary McNeil
Teaching young children reading and language skills
is important. No one would dispute that. How they are
taught is often a subject of debate. Now parents and
teachers can take an active involvement in teaching the
formative skills with, Rocket Readers, a new series of booklets that stresses a biblical
message in a fun and appealing format.
read the entire review |
Finding
God Where You Least Expect Him
by John Fischer
John Fischer’s writing leads into areas we often
don’t
travel, but need to. He confronts the contradiction in
us all. His new book, Finding
God Where You Least Expect Him (Harvest
House Publishers) looks at how we separate our
spiritual lives from our everyday living. Our tendency
to compartmentalize our lives this way is dangerous, because
it creates split personalities. We end up living two lives,
our “Christian/God life” and the life where
we spend most of our time, the material world.
read the
entire review |
Pierced
by a Sword by Bud Macfarlane Jr.
 End
time and apocalyptic thrillers are all the rage these days.
Most of them are focused on various Rapture scenarios or
the imminent rise of an Anti-Christ. The phenomenal popularity
of the Left Behind series has many other writers, agents
and publishers scrambling to capture lightning in a bottle.
The refreshingly different approach of Pierced
by a Sword, by Bud MacFarlane (Saint Jude Media) is
all the more enhanced because of this. This is a near-future thriller with prophetic
implications coming from a different direction.
read the
entire review |
Letters Between a Catholic and an Evangelical
by Fr. John R. Waiss and James G. McCarthy
You can tell that both Fr. John R. Waiss (Catholic
priest) and James G. McCarthy (evangelical
minister) have a good friendship. Their correspondence
via emails, letters and phone calls are their methods of
communication throughout this unique book, Letters
Between a Catholic and an Evangelist (Harvest
Books). Each exchange
is always prefaced by greetings and concerns for
each other
and their friends and family.
Once they jump into the topic, however, it is often like someone rang the bell
for the next boxing round! They both hold strongly to their positions. At first
this was bothersome. As I proceeded through the book I began to appreciate it
more. Clearly explaining each doctrine and the teaching behind it and the understanding
each man has is necessary, even if it gets frustrating.
read the entire review |
Fathering
Like the Father
by Kenneth O. Gangel and Jeffrey S. Gangel
 This
new book, Fathering
Like the Father by Kenneth Gangel and
Jeffrey Gangel and publishec by Baker Book House Company,
takes an interesting approach. The authors are a father/son
team,
so they
can speak both from personal experience as well as from
the timeless directions in the Bible.
The Gangel father/son team skillfully uses the stories
of various fathers in the pages of the Bible to illustrate
good and bad ways of being a father. It’s not so
much a precise formula as a group of guiding principles
drawn from Scripture combined with their personal experience.
read
the entire review
|
Things
You Should Know By Now
by Jason Boyett
 Things
You Should Know By Now (by Jason Boyett/Relevant Books)
is described as a “mini-life manual for the Quarterly aged, but the tips
and thoughts in the book are good for anyone. I found myself wincing at times
over things I should have known by 25 (according to the book) that I’m
still struggling with over 20 years later. Ouch! However, there is much good
wisdom-cum-common sense here.
read the entire review |
The
Messenger by Tim Woodroof
 Immerse
yourself in the world of the Apostle Paul and the early
church. In The Messenger (Navpress) Tim Woodroof
writes dramatically and with great description and feeling.
He literally swept me into the ancient world of the Roman
Empire, and filled my imagination, especially the people.
People who were cruel or kind, selfish or servile, handsome
or roughhewn; all of them living in a world that was being
changed in an incredible way by the “incredible Way”.
Through this novel I sensed the struggles of the church-going
Philippians, the new and future Christians, their hardships
and spiritual triumphs.
read the
entire review |
The
Tao of Enron: Spiritual Lessons from a Fortune
500 Fallout by Chris Seay and Chris Bryan
It
was inevitable that Enron’s bubble would burst.
You can only continue to hide your losses and shady business
dealings for so long. The fact that the people behind
the corrupt accounting practices continued on long past
the point of saving the company from financial destruction
is the real crux of Enron’s fall from a highly
regarded new economy corporation to its place among the
growing number of crashed companies.
The Tao of Enron (Navpress) by Chris Seay and
Chris Bryan explores what happened and speculates as
to why. Blame aside, the important lessons discussed
in this book are the true benefits you’ll get from
reading it.
read the entire review
|
Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging
by Brennan Manning
Review by Tom Gilbert
A secure child has a sense of being loved. This is one of the
key concepts in Abba’s
Child by Brennan Manning (NavPress).
The idea that God truly loves each of us, just for who we are,
without condition and continuously despite our many
mistakes, failings and hang-ups, is something that you might
struggle with. I do. Certainly the author does, as he relates
so honestly in this updated
edition.
read the entire review
|
Cheap Ways To...
by Jason Boyett, Margaret Feinberg, Josh Hatcher and Katie Meier
Now here is something different. Cheap
Ways To… is a new book (Relevant Books)
utilizing four authors and giving you financial advice
with a twist. It’s not really about stock investments
or even budgeting. It’s more about looking at the
way we live and finding contentment by better management
of our possessions, proper spending and making the most
of what we already possess.
read the entire review
|
Minding Your Emotions
by Steve Shores
 Feelings: we all have them, even if we try to deny them or stuff them. You may be one of
those reserved, stoic types. Or, you might be more open with your feelings—even
wearing them “on your sleeve”.
Thinking about our emotions, and further, understanding how they affect us, is
tackled by Steve Shores in his new book, Minding
Your Emotions, (Navpress). The
author is a writer and licensed professional counselor. He beautifully integrates
Biblical teaching and interpretation in to this book.
read the entire review
|
Let's
Roll! Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage
by Lisa Beamer (with Ken Abraham)
Review by Tom Gilbert
Let’s
Roll! Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage (by
Lisa Beamer with Ken Abraham/Tyndale Publisher) is a
national bestseller. The book captures the heroic character
of Todd Beamer. It tells of his involvement, along with
other brave passengers, in preventing Flight 93 from
becoming an additional weapon of huge destruction on
September 11, 2001. This book, however, is much more
than a gripping account of the events surrounding the
ill-fated flight on 9-11. It’s also a tale of two
people very much in love – in love with each other and
with God.
read the entire review |
The Good Book and the Big Book
By Dick B.
Review by Tom Gilbert
Alcoholics Anonymous’ remarkable early success is
the focus of The Good Book and the Big Book, by Dick B.
The author makes the case that the program and its twelve
steps
are
rooted in the Bible and its principles. His exhaustive research,
complete with numerous footnotes, shows that the early days
of A.A.’s fellowship relied
heavily on the Bible as well as devotionals and writings
by notable ministers and clergy for their recovery and consequent
spiritual awakenings.
read the entire review |
Restless
Pilgrim: The Spiritual Journey of Bob Dylan
by Sott M. Marshall with Marcia Ford
Book Review
by Tom Gilbert
The words are the thing. Lyrics are what Bob Dylan songs
are all about. Yes, there have been many great melodies.
He’s a songwriter after all. But, what we all want
to know are the lines, and the meanings, and the meanings
between the lines.
Restless Pilgrim: The Spiritual Journey
of Bob Dylan by Scott M.
Marshall with Marcia Ford (RELEVANT books) takes us through many words of Bob
Dylan. Some are in his songs, many are from various interviews over the years,
and more telling still, words from the Bible that Dylan uses.
read the entire review |
Revolution
in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan
by Tom Gilbert
Revolution is a word that conjures change, often radical, disruptive
or even violent change. It frequently makes me think
of war. So, to title a book Revolution
in World Missions is the equivalent of saying that the status
quo of missionary efforts is no longer effective. The
spiritual warfare we are engaged in needs strategic revision.
This is the message of K.P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel
for Asia.
read the entire
review
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