Excellent Teen NKJV Bible

I found this new NKJV Study Bible for Kids to be a really great looking and useful Bible.  While it is paperback, the colors on the cover were inviting and exciting.  The Bible is filled with so many helps, that in some ways it can be distracting, but that's not really a criticism.

The Bible has short and quick introductions, biographies, timelines, articles and more.  What I like about the Bible is that most everything contained in the helps seems to have a sense of action to it.  I think this would be enticing to younger kids, pre-teens and teens.

There is also a dictionary and concordance in the back of the Bible.  As the cover suggests, there is a lot of color contained in this Bible, which again, helps it to become more inviting.  Anything we can do like this, without changing the Word of God, to help younger folks open the Bible is a win to me.

I would recommend this Bible.  It would make a great addition to Christmas!

I received this Bible from booklookbloggers in exchange for an honest review.

Advent Devotional!

The Wonder of Advent Devotional: Experiencing the Love and Glory of the Christmas Season, by Chris Tiegreen is one of many books and devotionals he has written.  This is devotional takes the reader from November 24 to the end of December.

Each reading begins with a scripture on the top of the page, followed by a short devotion which focuses on the Christmas story, then he concludes each day with a reflection question.  Sometimes there are additional readings suggested and passages from hymns.

The readings are short and can be finished in a short period of time.  This book would be appropriate to give as a Thanksgiving gift so the person has the devotional in time for November 24, which is the next day!

The book features a nice hardcover which makes it feel much more sturdy.  Overall, I would recommend this devotional.

I received a copy of this devotional from Tyndale Press in exchange for an honest review.

Killing the Spiders!

In his book, Kill the Spider: Getting Rid of What’s Really Holding You Back, Carlos Whittaker takes us on a very important and significant journey as he becomes very vulnerable and open about the issues in his life and how he tackled them head on. 

He begins by sharing a story about a brown recluse spider being in his home, namely having his wife screaming about finding a spider in their bed.  This leads the reader to grasp the main point of this book is the fact that so many of us struggle to destroy the nasty cobweb when really it's the spider that needs to be killed.  Destroying the cobweb only leads to new and different cobwebs because we never took care of the real problem, the spider.

He shares his journey and how he was an overcomer by learning to destroy the spiders, which in turn led to no more cobwebs.  He helps us to see that we have to take part in the killing of the spiders, not just sit back and complain that God isn’t doing His part.

The book is engaging and easy to read.  There are 18 chapters, each about 10-12 pages in length.  This is a book which can be easily read, but it may lead you to uncover the spiders in your life as well.  And you won’t need an exterminator!! 

I received this book from booklookbloggers in exchange for an open and honest review.

NIV Color Code Bible

I was really looking forward to receiving this Bible from Thomas Nelson.  It has a great, colorful cover, it is hardcover and feels very sturdy and has a nice feel to it.

This Bible has color coding on every page.  There are different colors to represent different themes in the Bible.  The code is on the bottom of each page on the right side of the Bible.  For example, the codings represent topics such as ~

Animals; Family; Love; God; Sin; Jesus; Prayer/Praise; Washed Clean; Growth; and Heaven. 

The highlighted passages are a great addition to a kids Bible.  My only concern is that some of the colors are very similar and could be a little confusing.  The only thing I didn't like for a kids Bible is the fact that there are no Introductions for the various books of the Bible.  It would have been nice to have a 1 page introduction to help the reader gain a little knowledge prior to reading that book of the Bible.

Also, there are not so many highlighted passages that these would take away from the readability of the Bible.  It is tastefully done and I would recommend this Bible for others to use.

I received a copy from Booklook Bloggers in exchange for my honest opinion. 

Striving for Intimacy

In his newest book, I'd like you more if you were more like me: Getting real about getting close, John Ortberg has written an excellent book about intimacy.   The premise for this book comes in the fact that we all want intimacy, we want a sense of belonging, we want to be loved . . . but the problem comes in that we seem to universally make many mistakes and push people away rather than invite them in.

With that in mind, Ortberg writes about intimacy with one another and intimacy with God.  We often feel if we get too close to people we will end up getting hurt, so we erect barriers to keep people away and ourselves protected.

He explains, we will learn 

• how to recognize and respond to desires for connections.
• how to get past our fear of intimacy.
• how to sidestep common relationship pitfalls.
• how to make God and active part of our everyday lives.

This is book is filled with anecdotal stories, illustrations, discussions about scripture and God and is written in a very readable manner.

Overall, it is a very good book.  Possibly one of the deeper writings of Ortberg.

This book was provided by Tyndale in exchange for an honest review.