Friday, September 28, 2012

WIsdom Meets Passion

I read this book, Wisdom Meets Passion, by Dan Miller and his son, Jared Angaza with a lot of interest and hope for what it would teach me.  I believe we are in a great cultural shift which has been occurring, but one in which we really seek to avoid acknowledging and dealing with, at all cost.  The subtitle is ~ “When Generations Collide and Collaborate.” 

The part that drew me in was the phrase ‘. . . collaborate.’  What does it mean for two generations, who have very different views of the world to work together in order to make a difference in the world?  I was hoping to get a clearer idea from this reading.

I enjoyed and appreciated the stories, the dramatic out of the box faith of Jared, his willingness to risk everything for what he believed God was calling him and his family to do.  His father, Dan’s, willingness to let his son go.  You see, Jared didn’t want the entrapments of our world, ‘houses, cars, material possessions, etc.’ so he and his wife adopted a son and moved to Africa, which is his passion.

I like what the back cover says – Yesterday the world ran on formulas -- on all things black and white with tried-and-true wisdom. Today things run on dreams and are covered in gray and fueled by passion. But as it turns out, formulas don't work well without feeling, and dreams don't come true without dedication. Enter Wisdom Meets Passion, offering proof that when generations – and their beliefs – come together, something incredible can happen.

I believe that to be very true.  Too often we give up on what we are passionate about and grab what pays the bills.  That’s more of what I got from this book.  It’s an interesting read to see the thought process of how father and son reconcile their different approaches to life.

I received this book from Booksneeze.com for the purpose of giving an unbiased review.

I review for BookSneeze®

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Breaking Free from Fear

As a Pastor who leads Bible Studies, I am always on the lookout for new material and thoughts about different ways to engage those who attend.  With that in mind, I thought this would be a great opportunity to read through Kay Arthur’s study, Breaking Free from Fear.  This study comes from her Precept Ministries.  It is designed to be a 40 minute Bible study, accomplished with no homework.  I’m not sure I like that idea, but I understand her purpose is to help the busy person to engage in Bible study as opposed to saying I don’t have the time, so I can’t do it.

Kay’s style is to have the reader mark their book with different symbols, such as putting circles, squiggly lines, triangles, crosses, underlines, etc. around certain words or phrases.  That seems to take away from my flow of reading.  But that can always be adapted to the readers style and preferences. 

Overall, as I read through this book on helping each person break free from fear, I found it helpful as she used a great deal of scripture to help the reader gain a better understanding of Jesus’ place in their life.  This is an open ended book, with thoughtful questions, related to the passages, as she hopes to move the reader beyond being a slave to fear.  Her conclusion is our way to resolve our fears is to have a healthy fear of the Lord.  She begins each chapter with a short thought and ends with a Wrap Up section.

I believe this would be an excellent resource to help people move through life with a healthy fear of the Lord and reduced fear of the world.

I received this book from Waterbrook Multnomah for the purpose of this review.  All opinions are my own.



Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Unstoppable

There's a new book coming out by Nick Vujicic which should be great.  Watch this 1 minute video to learn more . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii4JNtDPSaA&feature=player_embedded

If you would like to read an excerpt from the first chapter, click on this link . . .

http://www.scribd.com/doc/98561664/Unstoppable-by-Nick-Vujicic-Chapter-1-Excerpt

 I hope this blesses you!

Pastor Michael

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...