Fellow Stumbler

I really enjoyed this book and couldn't stop reading. Lisa Harper is a wonderful author and speaker. I only wish she was coming to my local Women of Faith Conference to speak! How great it would be to meet her in real life! This book is like a diary and devotional all in one. She shares stories about her personal life and some things are so funny. I'm so glad she shared some of these things with us. Sometimes we think we're the only ones who have gone through something and nobody else would understand. We are not alone! I love that after each chapter there is a section for prayer, personal reflection, and/or group discussions. There is also a space for journal entries. Oh how much God longs for us and loves us even when we stumble! This book is inspiring.



I received this book for free from Booksneeze.com for my honest review.

The Life of John Newton- A Review

We all know the song he wrote, but not a lot of people know the man. John Newton lost his mother at a young age. She made him read his bible and always believed her son would be a preacher. His father was gone a lot so he never really knew him. Once his mother passed away, his father still did not return until years later. He then had a new step-mother and more children came along. John was not close to his father and was very rebellious. He was always looking for trouble or trying to cause someone else to get in trouble. John wanted to leave the ship he worked on with his father. He had big dreams of making more money somewhere else. John ended up a slave of a slave trader, becoming like one of the slaves. He was mistreated, starved, beaten, and the like. He would not return home unless his father sent for him. His father eventually did, and he was eventually made captain of his own slave trader ship. During a bad storm he started reflecting on all the miracles Jesus had performed in his favor, all the times he almost died, but was spared. He began reading scriptures, learning Latin and Greek so he could read text in different languages. John Newton got out of the slave trading business and began to seek work for God.

This is a really great story, and since most of this book is John's letters he had written you have to do some translating and read carefully. If you want to learn about John Newton and how his life was radically changed, this is a great book to read.

I received this book from Attic Books, A Division of New Leaf Publishing Group in exchange for my honest review.

It Really Is Hands On

The greatest children's bible ever for your little ones! I love everything about it. There are actual scriptures included with the bible stories. From the first story and through the rest of the book there are hands on activities that you can do with your children. Each passage also ends with some prayer time and discussion questions for you and your children. They also end with "The Jesus Connection" which shows how Jesus is involved in all scripture. I think that is such an important thing for young children to learn! I am so glad that it's included. There are other activities to do with your children at other times during the week. These activities give you the opportunity to bring up the story again and have conversation with your children. We are really excited about this Bible and will be using it everyday for our bible lessons! You can find this book for a really great price over at Amazon.com





I received this awesome book from the awesome people at Tyndale Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful Illustrated Bible

Beautiful illustrations and all the bible stories are there. My daughter really enjoyed flipping through the pages. I can't wait to start reading with my children. This is more a "religious" thing than a Holy Bible thing. It's written out like a story and where you can find it in the bible is along the top of each page. There are some specific pages with photos of artifacts, maps, and paintings. 
The thing that caught my attention is on pages 314 & 315. The page is titled "The Christians" and it has some pics with some little captions under them. The Gospel of Thomas happens to be one of them. HUH?! Exactly!!!! Not in the bible for a reason! It was not spoken by God. 
Then there's the part where they have Paul giving Christianity a "new start". It does say on the page with publishing info that this was published by DK as "The Children's Bible" and as far as I can see they publish a wide range of books. Not just Christian books. This book is what they call the "watered-down" version if you will. Some things that I read would not be found in your King James bible as it is told here. Once we read more of the bible stories I hope I am not disappointed any further. While reading to my children I will have to make sure what I read is real truth and not the "religious" version of the story.

The Family Illustrated Bible was provided to me by the fabulous people at New Leaf Publishing Group in exchange for  an honest review.

Why God Won't Go Away-A Review

The reason I chose this book is because there weren't a lot of others to choose from that seemed interesting to me. Also because I recognized that Alister McGrath, former atheist himself, was the author. I've heard of him but never read anything of his.

I learned something new with this book. There's a movement going on called New Atheism. I thought this book was on atheism in general. There's a certain few atheist leaders talked about in this book, so you really have to pay attention to what you're reading. This book does open your eyes to the different types of atheists out there and what they believe (or shall I say what they don't believe).

The New Atheist believe that religion is the reason for all the evil and violence in the world. HAHA!! Of course we all know it's the other way around. If people would turn to Christianity and except Jesus as their Savior and do as He has asked us, there would be more peace!

At the end of the book McGrath states "The ironic fact is that New Atheist anger at the persistence of faith has inadvertently stirred huge interest in the whole God question. It's made people want to reflect on the other side of the story." So people are going to church to see what this God thing is really about and most likely converting to Christianity. Should we thank God for these Atheists?



I received this book from Booksneeze.com to review. These are only my thoughts about this book.

Country Club Mystery

"Double Fault" by Jerry B Jenkins and Chris Fabry is book number 7 in the Red Rock Mysteries collection.  Ashley and Bryce are on another  mission to solve another mystery. They signed up for tennis camp at the nearby country club. They discovered that it might be closing for lack of funds, and all of a sudden strange things were going on and the club was losing more money. Someone stole Bryce's ATV and went cruising on the gold course and tore it up. Someone added chemicals to the pool that made it dangerous. Bryce was setup when someone stole from the safe. Is it the local land developer and his son? Is it the high school boys? Someone does not want that country club around anymore and you can bet these twins will get to the bottom of it.

Crimes Solved

"Missing Pieces" by Jerry B. Jenkins & Chris Fabry is the first book I've read from their young readers collection. It was a very quick read. Twins (brother & sister) have a detective bone in their body and love to solve mysteries. This particular story had 2 mysteries going on. Bryce had one to solve and Ashley was working on one. Bryce is working on figuring out who's been smashing mailboxes. He thinks he has it all figured out until he finds other evidence. Ashley, in the meantime, is trying to help the lunch lady find her missing daughter who was supposedly killed in an apartment fire. Mrs. Garcia never believed her baby was killed because there was never any evidence of a body found. It was interesting and perfect for any reader who is in to reading larger chapter books.

Kids Love It

Now, if your looking for a deep, spiritual book on creation don't get this one. It's written for children and from their point of view. This story is very cute and my kids loved the illustrations. My 3 yr old said, "I like when she splashed in the mud because I did that when I was a baby." Very easy for my son to read to his sisters too. God did create everything and this is a cute little reminder for children that God is our Creator. Yes, even your toes were made especially by Him.









I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah to review and share my opinion.