The SAMPLE copy of the No-Stress Bible Guide I was given to
review was clearly not meant to be an all-inclusive reference. It came across
to me like a CliffsNotes version of the Bible. That’s great if you’re studying
for a test on the Minor Prophets or you have to write a paper on the salient
points of Paul’s missionary journeys.
I’d rather sit down with the whole Word of God and ask the
Holy Spirit to open the eyes of my understanding. I’m glad I don’t have to pass
a test or write a essay, but what I’m doing seems much harder. I’m humbling my pride,
crushing my selfish will, and learning to love my enemies. For this I want the
whole counsel of God.
I expect this guide to fully meet the needs of some readers, but it’s not for me.
Jill Savage compares the empty nest years to the encore of a
musical. You get to pick your favorite parts to play again, she says. You can
enjoy being a grandparent without having to stay up all night with a fussy kid.
It should work this way in theory, but I have a friend who is single-parenting
the son of her 30-something-year-old mentally challenged son. She loves her
grandson dearly, but raising him was not what my friend had envisioned for her
retirement. Life isn’t so cookie-cutter neat as to reward every parent with an
encore season, especially for the economically depressed or those who deal with
chronic illnesses.
Even so, Empty Nest explores many relevant concepts
from a Biblical viewpoint. Savage writes candidly about her Christian family grappling
with the news that one of their sons called to tell them he is gay, and another
son who called to say his girlfriend was pregnant. When you reach the empty
nest stage of life, it is time to let some things go and grab hold of other
things. One of the things you may need to let go is the idol of what other
people think of you. When your adult children call with news that is upsetting,
is what others will think of you one of the first things you consider?
Savage suggests holding onto relationships. She says your
kids probably already know where you stand on moral issues, and the color of
their hair isn’t important, even in family photos. Give them words of
affirmation. Don’t enable, but love.
The most encouraging part of Empty Nest for me is
seeing that although Jill Savage has spent years in ministry, she admits to the
same types of struggles and disappointments I might have in my own family. Yet,
she is not defeated by it. She isn’t bogged down with self-blame, but she is
carrying on with what God has called her to do.
This
short devotional is similar in style to other Barbour Publishing devotionals I
have reviewed recently, The 5-MinuteBible Study for the Anxious Heart,
and The Bible Promise Book For the Anxious Heart.
The
format this devotional follows is listing a topic of difficulty, such as I Can’t
Take the Stress, followed by a recommended passage of scripture, and a key
scripture verse. Next, a section called Understand presents several questions
to help you think about the topic in terms of the scripture that was just
presented.
In a
section called Apply, we are given practical advice to carry out the wisdom
found in scripture. A short prayer ends the devotion with a petition for God’s
help in the topic of study.
Of the three devotionals reviewed, I found the Difficult Times to be the most relevant for me. Perhaps it spoke to a need at that moment in my life, or maybe the subtlety of this third book being written by a different author made the distinction for me. Regardless, I recommend all three of these devotionals, whether or not you are anxious or going through difficulties. Hide these truths in your heart for the times you will need them.
David Fajenbaum was, by his own admission, an ordinary kid.
He wasn’t especially talented academically or athletically, but he did have an
almost autistic-like hyper focus which allowed him to spend hours watching game
films after his football teammates had already gone home. It allowed him to
power through study sessions when other friends had wandered off to watch TV.
It was this hyper focus that allowed Fajenbaum to play
football at a Division I school, despite a broken leg his senior year in high
school. It was his hyper focus that he relied on when his long-time girlfriend
said she didn’t feel like he was making her a priority, and they should take a
break. “Fine,” he said. “We’ve got lots of time.”
But as this young med student pressed into his studies and
gym workouts, he experienced an unexplainable fatigue, enlarged nodes, and
blood moles. What was this? Fajenbaum’s organs began to shut down and doctors
could not identify the problem. In the ICU on the brink of death Fajgenbaum
insisted on a test for cancer. When the nurse came back with the results of no
cancer, but something called Castleman Disease, she thought she was bringing
good news. Not so.
What could Fajgenbaum, a young doctor, do stop his body from
succumbing to this little known disease? Could he find a cure in time to save
himself?
This is a true medical thriller, being played out in real
time for some Castleman patients. Find out what happened to Fajgenbaum, and if
there is any hope for others diagnosed with Castleman disease.
The Bible Promise Book for the Anxious Heart is a collection
of short devotions meant to displace anxiety with healing, comfort, and peace.
The devotions are comprised of Bible verses, the author’s own prayers, and hymn
lyrics.
The devotions are alphabetically arranged, from Abilities to
Worship. So if you have a problem with worry, let’s hope you don’t also have
OCD and a compulsion to read through all the devotions that come before Worry,
before reading the section on Worry!
I liked that the author used several different translations
of the Bible, instead of chaining the reader to a single translation. In this
way Thompson had the freedom to select the translation of that verse which best
stated the sentiment of the topic of that devotion. It also gives the reader a
chance to see what may be a favorite verse, in a refreshing new way.
If you want to banish anxiety from your heart, this book is
a great resource of prayers, scripture, and hymn lyrics to point you toward comfort,
healing and peace.
James E. Beitler III is an associate professor of English at Wheaton College, so it isn’t surprising that he should write a book on rhetoric, or persuasive speaking. Beitler looks at rhetoric in the church as he examines five prominent Christian thinkers and writers of the last hundred years (C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Desmond Tutu, Marilynne Robinson, plus worship). Beitler matches each of those thinkers with a season of the church calendar from Advent to Pentecost.
The title of Seasoned Speech was likely inspired by Colossians 4:6 English Standard Version: Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Seasoned Speech is replete with footnotes and content notes, the notes sometimes taking up more space than the text which the note is referencing.
Beitler spends a great deal
of time in the beginning of the book defining rhetoric, and discussing how he
is using it in this book. In society today, and especially in the news media,
rhetoric has taken on a decidedly negative connotation. Beitler uses it in a
positive sense, as persuasive speech that may cause one to choose to become a
Christian.
My personal favorite master of rhetoric examined in Seasoned Speech is Desmond Tutu. He
boldly proclaimed his faith at a place and time when racial tensions put his
life in jeopardy. His words were persuasive and his personality charismatic. In
a church where armed soldiers lined the walls, Tutu was able to rouse the
frightened congregants into a worshiping, dancing crowd that made the soldiers
feel no threat.
Beitler believes rhetoric is rarely used in the church, and if it is used at all it is by the clergy. He hopes that will change. Rather than the lay-person using a simplified formula and failing at witnessing, Beitler would like to see all Christians trained in the use of rhetoric; for aren’t all Christians called to witness?
When I saw the title
of this book, I thought it would be a rehash of a little booklet I read decades
ago called Tyranny of the Urgent. Some of the principles may be the same,
but Burton brings everything into present-day context. She examines some issues
that weren’t even dreamed of in the 1960s when Tyranny of the Urgent was
written.
Burton is a busy wife, mom, speaker, life coach, and author with a background in psychology and motivation. With all that going on, she certainly needs to be able to master her time!
Writing from a Christian perspective, Burton uses personal
stories from her family as well as examples from the lives of friends to
illustrate her points. Burton introduces the idea of thinking about
time in the same terms we use to think about and discuss money. We can be in
time debt, be time poor, and even build time wealth.
For those who want to get the most out of this book and
start to apply Burton’s lessons, she gives meaningful assignments and exercises
to help you realize how you are spending your time and discover the motivation
for the choices you are making.
Burton’s writing is clear and the book is well organized. It’s
About Time offers a significant value in a small package. Is it time to
reorder your priorities?
Animal-lover Melissa Loomis was seeing to her two barking dogs one early morning, in hopes she could quiet them before they woke the neighbors. She discovered their barking was incited by a raccoon climbing over the fence into the back yard. One of the dogs went for its tail pulling the raccoon from the fence and into the yard.
Melissa knew she had to separate the raccoon from her dogs, as much for the raccoon’s safety as the wellbeing of her dogs. She reached into the fray to grab the dogs’ collars, and it was then that the raccoon bit her hard on the right wrist and scratched her left arm. Using both hands, Melissa grabbed the wild animal and hurled it back over the fence.
Thus begins the story of the injury that cost Melissa her hand and lower arm, opening the way for what the doctor treating Melissa calls a series of miraculous happenings to align just right so that in 2016 Melissa could become the most advanced bionic woman on the planet.
The groundbreaking medicine in this case was not just a prosthetic
hand that could grasp and hold in a surprisingly helpful way. The new
breakthrough was an artificial hand that could send signals to the brain mimicking
feeling.
This was great news for Melissa in her tragic circumstances,
of course. Although it was experimental at the time Melissa went through it,
Dr. Seth closed the book by describing efforts to bring the same technology to
the amputees at Walter Reed Hospital, which treats wounded American soldiers.
This is an inspirational book if you can look for the many positives that come out of the story. If you are prone to stand with your mouth agape when the amputation occurs, not able to move past that point, Rewired may not be for you. For the rest of us, let’s follow Melissa’s example of rolling with life’s punches and looking for the good that comes our way.
The 5-Minute Bible Study for the Anxious Heart follows this
formula:
Read – the short scripture passage selected for the
study.
Understand – by pondering the provided prompts throughout
your day.
Apply – what you have learned with further thoughts from
the brief devotion.
Pray – with help from the author’s provided prayer. Allow time to hear from God.
Following Thompson’s formula, you should be able to hurry
your anxiety through each one of these devotions in five minutes flat. If you
are that pressed for time, I can see why you are anxious.
I’m sure the ultra busy person loves the condensed “5-minute” Bible studies. No doubt this one can calm your anxious heart, because God’s Word always accomplishes what it is sent out to do. But I believe if you linger a little longer over the scripture, prompts, and application; and take time to add your heartfelt sentiments with Thompson’s prayer, you will receive much more benefit from these studies.
The scripture passages have been wisely selected and the
rest of the study’s words carefully chosen. Thompson wasn’t rushed when she put
this Bible study together. Do yourself a favor and stretch these studies until
you perceive God’s Word taking root in your heart. At some point you will
realize it is no longer an anxious heart!
John MacArthur has written a strong defense of the Bible as
God’s Word. He lays out a very clear argument that the Bible is under attack in
today’s world, but the Bible is Truth and it is Authoritative.
Throughout the book MacArthur repeats his view that God
speaks to His people only through the Bible. Hunches, intuition, words of
prophesy, and words of wisdom are not – according to MacArthur – valid ways to
hear from God.
MacArthur condemns the Charismatic Movement for relying on
the above methods “while the Christian in the pew has the Bible unopened beside
him,” a phrase MacArthur repeats at least half a dozen times.
I wholeheartedly agree with MacArthur on the inerrancy of
Scripture, and that the Bible is Truth. But not every Christian who seeks
extra-Biblical means of obtaining God’s direction leaves his Bible closed. Not
everyone who identifies as a Charismatic is Biblically illiterate.
Otherwise I believe MacArthur has written a fine book. He
uses multiple scriptures and is well-versed in the Word of God.
