Tuesday, December 19, 2017

The Treasure Principle

In the Revised and Updated The Treasure Principle, Randy Alcorn helps us see Jesus spent more time talking about money and possessions than about heaven and hell combined.  But too often we do not want to hear what Jesus said about money and possessions. As a result, we miss out on the many blessings God has in store for us, because we seek our blessings from those material things.

Jesus offers us the opportunity to embrace the abundant life.  It’s a life filled with hope, grace, mercy and power and love, but it does not come through the temporary things, it comes through the spiritual life, devoted to following Jesus.

This is the premise out of which Alcorn writes.  He uses a number of scripture references to make his points.  This is a short and easy to read book which will speak very clearly about money and possessions.  There are a number of excellent resources and study questions in the back of the book as well.

Overall, I would recommend this book to read.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

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NKJV Unapologetic Study Bible!

I was looking forward to receiving the NKJV Unapologetic Study Bible, because it is not the typical Study Bible as we know.  I appreciated the fact that there were a number of articles throughout this Bible.  These articles help you to make better decisions regarding the passages you are reading. 

The print is not too small and seemed to be the right size for easy reading, which is really important.  The words of Christ are in red, which helps.  This Bible is not about giving all kinds of reference notes, there are some, but not many. 

Each book of the Bible has an overview section which helps the reader to know what the main subjects of the book are about.  There is some reference material in the back of the Bible, but that is not the purpose of this Bible. 

Overall, I thought this was a very nice Bible, very readable as there are two columns on each page to read the Bible.

I  was provided this book in exchange for an honest review from booklookbloggers.


Saturday, December 02, 2017

The Courage to Grow!

I appreciate devotionals which are real and relevant.  This devotional perfectly meets that requirement.  Annie Downs has written a powerful and beautiful devotional entitled, 100 Days to Brave: Devotions for Unlocking Your Most Courageous Self.  


The subtitle is the point of this devotional which covers 100 days.  These are short, easy to read devotions designed to help the reader find courage through God when life is a struggle.  The devotional feels personal and real.

This is an excellent devotion and one I would highly recommend, even as a Christmas gift.

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

Friday, December 01, 2017

Interactive Devotional!

Picturing Heaven by Randy Alcorn is a fun and interactive devotional for those who love to draw and color.  The devotionals are short and simple, but the coloring is intense and really will stretch the reader to use their imagination.  I was really impressed with the quality of the pages and the designs.

The interaction by the reader with the book should give them a greater appreciation and longing for heaven.  You can add a journal, writing down your thoughts and feelings as you were filling in the lines with various colors. 

There are 40 different devotionals and 40 different pages to color.  Some are more intricate and involved than others.  This is not a quick color inside the lines and you are done.  Instead, this will take time, time to review and time to consider how God is calling you to the next stage of your life.

I received this book from Tyndale Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

Embracing God's Grace!

Too often in the Christian world, we live according to a ‘works righteousness’ motif.  We erroneously believe that what we do is more important than who we believe in.  Jerry Bridges is trying to break down that wall.  His book Transforming Grace is all about this. 

He uses a great deal of scripture as he leads the reader from chapter 1, dispelling the myth of performing to earn grace, to a discussion of who needs grace, ultimately to a final discussion of appropriating God’s grace and what it looks like.  This is a powerful book for readers.  Bridges emphasizes the fact that Jesus’ death on the cross was all we need.  Because of the work of Christ, we are forgiven and we do not earn forgiveness.  It cannot be bought, in fact, it was bought for us by Jesus.  So, it is a gift, which we must receive.

I believe it is easy to forget about God’s grace.  We loses sight of it and Bridges book is a great reminder that we desperately need to hold onto God’s grace in our lives.

I really appreciated the Discussion Guide in the back of the book.  This is not a quick easy guide.  Each chapter has about 10 pages for discussion, thus making this a book which can easily be used for a group discussion.

Overall, this is an excellent book which I would highly recommend.

I received this book from Tyndale in exchange for an honest 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...