Monday, August 06, 2012

Max Lucado on Life


I was looking forward to reading this book by Max Lucado.   Max On Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions was an easy to read book, which frankly was frustrating.  Don’t get me wrong, he has a lot of great things to say, and his viewpoints about life are great, but I wanted something which would take me a little deeper theologically.

Basically, Max is operating like a “Dear Abby” character, answering questions which people have sent in over time.  He breaks the chapters down as follows ~

1) Hope: God, Grace, and "Why am I here?”
2) Hurt: Conflicts, Calamities, and "Why me?"
3) Help: Prayer, Scripture, and "Why church?"
4) Him/Her: Sex, Romance, and "Any chance of a second chance?"
5) Home: Diapers, Disagreements, and "Any hope for prodigals?"
6) Haves/Have-Nots: Work, Money, and "Where's the lifeline?"
7) Hereafter: Cemeteries, Heaven, Hell, and "Who goes where?"

He covers most every basic topic we have in life.  I had no problem agreeing with Max’s basic theology.  Again, my issue was wanting something deeper, which would challenge me a little more.  For the casual reader who is not wanting deep theology, this is a great book to read to help answer life’s questions and gain perspective from a man I believe is one of the greatest Christian writers of our time.

Disclosure:
I received this book free from the publisher through the [BookSneeze®.com] I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the [Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."]

I review for BookSneeze®

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Relationships Matter


This book is a reprint of a 2004 book, entitled "Out of the Question . . . Into the Mystery," and is subtitled, "How we got the point but Missed the Person."  This is a very powerful book by Sweet and is very challenging.  The premise for Sweet is that we've lost our first love.  Jesus should be our first love, we should have a dynamic faith, yet we have allowed belief to trump faith
 
Of course we need both, but Sweet believes we've bought into rules over faith.  We talk about belief, but not about the relationship which should come from our belief in Jesus.  We don't exhibit the transformed life Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Sweet believes we are missing the point and relationships should be the cornerstone of our faith.  Without relationship, relationship with Jesus; then relationship with one another, we cannot demonstrate love.  

Some quotes from Sweet include ~ 
  • "We are more in love with our principles of peace, than we are with the Prince of Peace."
  • "We don't follow Jesus because we understand Him or because we know the truth about Him.  We follow Jesus because He is the Truth, and He leads us into truth through our relationship with Him."
  • Faith in God is a relationship involving all of who you are and all that is around you.  Faith is a lived encounter, a relationship of truth with the divine."
There are great study questions at the end of the book.  As this would be great for a book study, albeit a very deep one.  Overall, this is another excellent book from Leonard Sweet.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.


Fun Kids Devotional

God Gave Us the Bible: 45 Favorite Stories for Little Ones is a very well done, hardcover introductory Bible for parents to read with thei...