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Category Archives: Religion
Real Life Real Miracles by Galrow and Wall
This book is not just a “feel good” book with stories to make you smile, it is full of TRUE life stories about how God works in people’s lives to bring glory to Him.
Real Life Real Miracles
True Stories That Will Help You Believe
By James L. Garlow and Keith Wall
Bethany House
November 2012
There was one story that should pique anyone’s interest about life and God’s power to heal. In this story, the lady’s name is Noelle and she was living out a generational curse of deafness that had started generations earlier. As soon as she turned 20 years old, she started losing her hearing, and this was quite an adjustment for someone who loved music! At the age of 50, God changed all of that. She went to a song service expecting great things, and God came through in a big way — she could hear again!!
This reminds me of the story in the Bible of the 10 lepers who were healed and the ONE that had to go and tell EVERYONE what God had done for him.
This book will bring you peace and happiness and help you to remember that when God moves in your life, YOU WILL KNOW IT. It will also inspire you to want Him to move in your life and to remember to ask Him to and to expect great results! That is how I felt when I read this book.
Shelley Walling is a 43 year male who is on disability retirement from complications from brain surgery. He was an Electrical Dispatcher for 11 years until the surgeries, he now enjoys spending time with his wife and two girls who are still at home along with four grown boys as well. He and his wife have an interest in sustainable and off-grid living and hope to live off-grid one day. He likes to read books about nutrition and medicine, Christian fiction and end times theology.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
A Year with G.K. Chesterton
G.K. Chesterton has an amazing, and mostly forgotten, capacity for intelectual wit and a book that proposes offering a daily dose of that wit is fine by me. The problem is that it’s not much of a devotional, which is what this book is trying to be.
A Year with G.K. Chesterton
365 Days of Wisdom, Wit and Wonder
Edited by Kevin Belmonte
Thomas Nelson
October 2012
Each day you get a brief Bible verse and a devotional (although who wrote the devotional is not clear as they aren’t cited) and then a quote that loosely fits the discussion from a writing of Chesteron’s. Sometimes it works, like March 4th where there is a passage from Job 28 then (someone’s) devotional about the failure of Agnosticism followed by two wise and witty quotes from Chesterton that do tie in. Other times, the book doesn’t connect the dots for us. So many of the devotionals start with the pasage then move on to a poem or song (uncited and unclear) and then move to Chesterton. Some just jump straight to Chesterton leaving the reader to form the connections.
As a devotional this book fails, but as a collection of quotes it wins. In fact, I enjoyed simply reading through the quotes and skipping everything else. If this were simply a collection of quotes by topic it would have been much more interesting. Even a calendar with quotes for each day makes more sense than this devotional format. It’s not that devotionals can’t be made from quotes, but that Chesterton didn’t write most of this as a devotion but as a lecture, argument or conjecture. It just isn’t the right genre for his work.
Scott Asher is the Editor-in-Chief of BookGateway.com. His personal blog is AshertopiA – a land flowing with milk and honey… and a lot of sticky people where he turns real life into stupid cartoons, writes on Christianity, Zombies, and whatever else he wants and posts Bible studies from his classes at church.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
NIV One Impact Bible
When the text hasn’t had anything new to say in 2000 years I guess some feel you have to spice it up with margin notes and devotionals to sell it. I just don’t see the difference and I don’t a compelling reason for this book being printed.
NIV One Impact Bible
by Terry Squires
Zondervan
October 2012
This Bible is the NIV but with devotional notes. While the notes are good – expecially for new believers or seekers – they don’t add as much to your devotional life as an actual devotional might. Consider [[ASIN:0929239571 My Utmost for His Highest: Updated Edition]] for an in depth, truth stuffed devotion. Compare that to the devotions in this Bible and you see that they fall far short. And this isn’t to say you gotta go with a great historical devotional. Most of today’s devotions are much better than the content added in the margins and text of this Bible.
So is the point to carry only one book? If so, why not carry a Kindle or just use your smartphone or tablet apps? You can have hundreds of devotionals and Bible versions at your finger tips.
I’m for printing as many NIV Bibles as possible and getting them in the hands of anyone who wants to read them. But I’m not for printing Bibles with different notes so that people who already own five Bibles can buy one more.
Scott Asher is the Editor-in-Chief of BookGateway.com. His personal blog is AshertopiA – a land flowing with milk and honey… and a lot of sticky people where he turns real life into stupid cartoons, writes on Christianity, Zombies, and whatever else he wants and posts Bible studies from his classes at church.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
Unstoppable by Vujicic
This is an awesome book! Imagine a man with no arms and no legs has been told he is a security risk, once he is told this, he lets his friends know how to pray through and that God is in control and he will take care of everything. He talks about how when was younger, that things did get discouraging and how he attempted suicide once, because he could not see what God had in store for Him. He did reach out to others and they asked him questions and became his friends and he also realized God had a plan for him.
Unstoppable
The Incredible Power of Faith in Action
By Nick Vujicic
Waterbrook Press
October 2012
This book is filled with inspiring stories from people he has met in his many travels throughout the World. One I can identify with is how Pastor Leon Birdd began his ministry with a story that sounds like a parable told by Jesus. He was working as a carpenter and driving a truckload of furniture in a rural area outside Dallas in 1995 when he saw a middle-aged man walking on the road. At first glance he thought he might be drunk, but as he drove by the man, he felt the Holy Spirit speak to his heart. He found himself stopping to offer him a ride. When he pulled alongside the man, Leon noted that he seemed to have trouble walking. Leon asked him “Are you Okay? The man replies suspiciously “I’m not drunk if that is what you are thinking.” Leon tells the man, “You seem to be having a hard time. I’ll give you a ride.”
The man, Robert Shumake, was telling the truth. He had difficulty walking because he had undergone several brain surgeries which affected his mobility but not his determination in helping others in need. For years Robert had been taking coffee and doughnuts to feed the homeless in downtown Dallas every Saturday morning.
“How do you do that when you can hardly walk?” Leon asked.
“People help me, and now you’ll help me,” he said.
“I don’t think so. What time do you do this?” Leon asked.
“Five thirty in the morning.”
“I am not going to drive you, especially at that hour,” Leon said. “Even the Lord isn’t up at five thirty in the morning.”
The next Saturday, though, Leon awakened at five o’clock in the morning, worried that Robert might be waiting for him on a street corner. He feared for Robert’s safety since the location that he’d suggested for their meeting was a rough part of the city. Once again the Holy Spirit seemed to be working through him.
Before sunrise he found Robert standing on a street corner with a thermos filled with five gallons of hot coffee. Robert asked Leon to drive him to a doughnut shop, where they loaded up on pastries. They then proceeded to downtown Dallas. The streets were empty. “Just wait,” Robert told Leon. With the big thermos of hot coffee they waited.
As the sun rose, homeless people appeared one by one. Nearly fifty people assembled for Robert’s coffee and doughnuts. Leon could see from the smiles and joy exhibited on these people as they accepted the hot coffee and doughnuts that Robert was sowing seeds and that he clearly needed help so he began assisting him each Saturday morning after that. In the months that followed, Robert’s health declined.
“Robert, what happens when you can’t do this anymore?” Leon asked one day as they packed up.
“You’ll do it,” Robert said.
“No, you really need to get someone else,” Leon insisted.
“You will do it,” Robert said again.
Robert was right. Leon Birdd became Pastor Birdd, an ordained minister with an inner-city mission supported by nine local churches and other donors. Although Robert died in 2009, the seeds he planted have grown into full-blown open air services with music and celebrations of faith. Now every Sunday morning, more than fifty volunteers join Pastor Birdd in feeding the bodies and ministering to the souls of hundreds of homeless in downtown Dallas.
This story was so inspiring to me, because I also have had multiple brain surgeries and have been looked at funny by others as well, so I can relate to Robert’s life.
This book was well written and the whole book was a testament to what God can do. When you put “Go” in front of “disable”, you get “God is able.” Let Go and Let God.
Shelley Walling is a 43 year male who is on disability retirement from complications from brain surgery. He was an Electrical Dispatcher for 11 years until the surgeries, he now enjoys spending time with his wife and two girls who are still at home along with four grown boys as well. He and his wife have an interest in sustainable and off-grid living and hope to live off-grid one day. He likes to read books about nutrition and medicine, Christian fiction and end times theology.
Finding God in the Hunger Games by Gire
You know the Philosophy of… books? Like the Philosophy of the Simpsons where the authors break down the actions taken by the characters in that show to decompress the philosophies behind the actions? I love those kinds of books. I love when someone looks behind the show, book, movie to draw conclusions about what the characters believed or espoused or why they acted in such and such ways. This is not a book like that.
Finding God in the Hunger Games
by Ken Gire
Christian Audio
September 2012
This is an ultra short book, with tons of unnecessary information that I came to believe was included to get the page count to publication length, that doesn’t AT ALL go into anything to do with the Hunger Games and God. In fact, the author early on states that there is NO connection between the Hunger Games and God. (He tries to make the parallel between the book of Esther that also doesn’t mention God, but God is in every part of the story, like Shakespeare is not in his works as a character, but is in his works in every word and page. But that doesn’t work at all here. God is not here and the author never intended to put Him in and none of the characters act like there is even such a thing as a god.)
So if God is not in the Hunger Games and the book isn’t about that what is the book about? Let me give you an example of what you can connect in short form: Panem, where the story in the Hunger Games takes place, means “bread” in Latin, which is the language of the Romans, which persecuted Christians and had the circus, which is where Christians died, which reminds us that we will all die, which brings up the End Times, which makes me scratch my head about what the heck is going on! This isn’t a stretch or a fabrication. Each of those topics are covered in depth but nothing at all about God in the Hunger Games.
As a Christian and a teacher I would have expected a tact bout how a soulless world where God was conspicuously absent would be like this hopeless, vile place where decadence and selfishness are pervasive and then move towards how the Hunger Games is a great starting point in apologetic conversations about what it would really mean to have a world without God. But the author doesn’t even go here; the most obvious connection.
(There, I just wrote a better book than the author did about God in the Hunger Games.)
This book, or pamphlet, is a mess of ideas that aren’t terrible but aren’t about the Hunger Games. This isn’t exegesis (finding God in the Hunger Games,) or even eisegesis (writing God into the Hunger Games). This is Proof Texting and then Tangent (finding a word in the Hunger Games that reminds you about what you wanted to talk about.)
Shame on Christian publishers for capitalizing on the success of the Hunger Games and rushing a sub-par book to print.
Scott Asher is the Editor-in-Chief of BookGateway.com. His personal blog is AshertopiA – a land flowing with milk and honey… and a lot of sticky people where he turns real life into stupid cartoons, writes on Christianity, Zombies, and whatever else he wants and posts Bible studies from his classes at church.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
Date Your Wife by Buzzard
Another book on how men are constantly inept and can’t figure out how to meet the needs of women? Not interested? I don’t blame you. As a man, I’ve kinda had enough. Woman are hard enough to understand without a bunch of books blaming us. Fortunately, this is not that type of book.
Date Your Wife
by Justin Buzzard
Crossway
June 2012
It is also not a book with a bunch of ideas but no context. It isn’t about spending money to make her happy either. This is about how to view marriage through the same lense God views you in relationship: through grace. Since men are supposed to sacrifice for their wife like Jesus sacrificed for his Church this is exactly right.
The author takes us through our misconceptions about marriage and marriage roles and where we get it wrong but never plays the blame game. He then moves directly to how to get it right and gives positive insight into making changes and decisions to build a relationship based on grace and the Gospel instead of a works-righteousness type relationship so many other books focus on. (And that type we always fail.)
This is a great little book. (Little is the right term: it is smaller than paperback and only a little over a hundred pages, so this is almost gift book sized. Or pocket sized for us men who are reading it without wanting our spouses or others to know we are.) I recommend it to men who are interested in a good relationship, not a good brow beating.
Scott Asher is the Editor-in-Chief of BookGateway.com. His personal blog is AshertopiA – a land flowing with milk and honey… and a lot of sticky people where he turns real life into stupid cartoons, writes on Christianity, Zombies, and whatever else he wants and posts Bible studies from his classes at church.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
A Shot of Faith to the Head by Stokes
Our culture is dominated by challengers to faith in Christianity and God and reasoned voices in response seem to be silent. How is a Christian supposed to answer non-believing critics that don’t even speak their same language? Apologetics is about defending the faith, not about evangelizing atheists. Enter philosophy.
A Shot of Faith to the Head
By Mitch Stokes, PhD
Thomas Nelson
April 2012
While it seems like Christians have no response – if you simply rely on the secular media – in reality, which is to say the marketplace of ideas, Christians not only have a response but the right response. Stokes takes one step then another in a devastating deconstruction of philosophical evidentialism (the idea that a belief must be supported by evidential facts to be rational), which atheists and philosophical non-believers try to use to show faith in God is irrational.
A test: do you know how to disprove the claim that faith in God is irrational? And no, you can’t appeal to the Bible or your faith to prove your faith. Just using logic and philosophy, which are the languages of the “cranky atheist.” If not, then this book is definitely for you. As it was for me.
Too often we Christians are bombarded with so-called facts about of faith and how it is blind and not rational, therefore not for intelligent or thinking people. Atheists even call themselves “free thinkers” to bring home the point. We MUST learn to defend our beliefs using the language that the atheists use and not fall back to “I just do” arguments.
Our faith is perfectly rational and the most logical of all worldviews. We just need to be reminded why. Stokes does a great job of breaking this down for us. Highly recommended.
Scott Asher is the Editor-in-Chief of BookGateway.com. His personal blog is AshertopiA – a land flowing with milk and honey… and a lot of sticky people where he turns real life into stupid cartoons, writes on Christianity, Zombies, and whatever else he wants and posts Bible studies from his classes at church.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
The 21-Day Dad’s Challenge
Babies have no choice. Toddlers and young children idolize you. But once they grow out of that we’re gonna have to do something more than simply bring their father. To have the relationships we want with our kids as they grow we are going to have to work for it.
The 21-Day Dad’s Challenge
Edited by Carey Casey
Focus
September 2011
This book is set up to be read as a devotional starting with a story and ending with an idea to connect with your children. Each devotion is easy to read, easy to digest and easy to implement. Unlike some books on relationships this book doesn’t require you to go spend money; instead it focuses on spending time not spending money.
Each day is written by a different contributor, like sports stars Shaun Alexander and Tony Dungy, and well known Christian writers like Josh McDowell and Randy Alcorn. It’s tied together by Focus on the Family and Carey Casey editing.
I found that each chapter had nuggets of truth and held valuable lessons. I didn’t get through it in 21 days, but over the course of reading the book I did come up with many ways to make its influence last longer that just three weeks. It is a worthwhile book for Christian fathers who want to build long lasting, strong relationships with their children.
Scott Asher is the Editor-in-Chief of BookGateway.com. His personal blog is AshertopiA – a land flowing with milk and honey… and a lot of sticky people where he turns real life into stupid cartoons, writes on Christianity, Zombies, and whatever else he wants and posts Bible studies from his classes at church.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
My First Handy Bible by Olesen and Mazali
My First Handy Bible has thirty three Bible stories in this carry along feature for babies and toddlers. This board book is durable with a hard back cover and a latch to hold it securely shut. Easy to clean up all those messes little ones seem to make.
My First Handy Bible
by Cecilie Olesen and Gustavo Mazali
Hendrickson Publishers
January 2012
The stories are told in a simple format that is easy to read. The stories are perfect to hold the attention of any on the go toddler. This Bible has beautiful illustrations that your little ones will love learning about the truths of God’s Word.
My thoughts:
This is a perfect Bible for little ones. What child doesn’t love to carry around toys and books? The yellow handle is perfect for little hands. I can think of many toddlers who would love carrying around this Bible.
The most important thing is that you are teaching God’s word to them. Why not start early; your toddler can tote their own bible to church with them. Simple sentences retell Bible stories from Genesis to Revelation.
I have read this to my children who are much older a few times already. My not toddler son thinks it should be his Bible. Needless to say it will be a gift to one of my little nieces out of state. This would make a perfect baby shower gift for any expecting mother. This is a delightful Bible that will be a blessing to any child up to three years old.
ReneeK is a sweet tea addicted mamma who loves to cuddle up to a good book. She blogs at Little Homeschool on the Praire and writes about family, homeschooling, having a special needs child, and about whatever else tickles her fancy.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
NIV Life Journey Bible
At first blush, it seems unclear why we need yet another Bible + [fill in the blank advice, features, topics]. How many Bibles does an average Christian need on their shelf? Apparently, Zondervan and other Bible publishers feels that there is no limit because there seems to be no limit to the Bible + topic craze.
NIV Life Journey Bible
Find the Answers for Your Whole Life
by Henry Cloud, John Townsend
Zondervan
July 2012
The good? Printing Bibles is never a bad thing and if someone who may be going through or has gone through tough psychological issues picks this up and reads it then it was worth it. It is a hard bound, large size Bible with the current version of the NIV, which is also a plus. Also, the inserted info from the writings of Cloud and Townsend is solid advice and fits well into the test.
The problem? This is merely a Bible with clippings from Boundaries and other Cloud and Townsend inserted into it and if someone already has a Bible I’m really sure what they from buying this as opposed to simply adding Boundaries to their library. I’m also not a fan of the subtitle, which implies that the Bible itself can’t provide answers for your whole life.
The bottom line is this: if you need a Bible or you prefer not to read the full Cloud and Townsend library (or don’t want to buy the books separately) or you prefer to have your commentary inserted in to the Bible then this is a good Bible. If you are worried about the trend of Bible + topic and (like me) are starting to wonder if these Bible options have saturated the market, causing more confusion then maybe you ought to pass.
Finally, I want to be clear that my criticism about the commentary added to this version of the Bible should not be construed to mean that I have an issue with or believe that the commentary is not valuable, only that I wonder at the reason for the current glut of Bible + topic and found this version to be acceptable but not necessary in my opinion.
A note about this version of the NIV: This NIV features the most current version of the NIV (2010), which is based on rock solid textual criticism and exegesis from the perpetual Committee on Bible Translation that brought us the original 1978 and 1984 NIVs that so many in the English speaking world trust and also 2005′s TNIV. Some may complain about the pronoun changes in this version compared to the older version but it is important to point out that all versions have pronoun (and other) determinations made by the translators. Each time the decision is made based on the common language and culture of the reader and the fact is that in 1978 “a man” would commonly be understood to be “a person” while in 2012 that is simply not the case. A “man” in today’s language is a “male” and a “person” could be either. All that to say that this version of the NIV is an extremely trustworthy translation into today’s English vernacular.
Scott Asher is the Editor-in-Chief of BookGateway.com. His personal blog is AshertopiA – a land flowing with milk and honey… and a lot of sticky people where he turns real life into stupid cartoons, writes on Christianity, Zombies, and whatever else he wants and posts Bible studies from his classes at church.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
Heaven is for Real by Burpo
Little Colton Burpo, aged four at the time of his vision, went to Heaven and when he came back told his parents about what he saw there. Then seven years later, Todd Burpo, his father, wrote everything down, it gets published by one of the biggest Christian publishers and becomes a best seller.
Heaven is for Real
by Todd Burpo
Thomas Nelson
November 2010
At the time of this review, nearly two years after its publication, Heaven is For Real is #4 in the best sellers list on Amazon. For Theology! And number 7 for Christian Living, number 27 for Religion and Spirituality. While it could be that Christians just don’t publish enough good books to knock older and/ or inferior books off of top seller lists, the real issue here is that Christians don’t know how to tell if something is good theology or not. Bereans we modern day Christians are certainly not.
That Colton has a dream or vision I accept. That he dreamt about Jesus I accept. The rest I – charitably, at best – suspect may have either been hopefulness, misremembering or creative thinking. Consider what Colton says about Heaven: it has a gate made of big pearls, gold streets, everyone (even humans) have wings of various sizes, everyone has halos around their heads, everyone wears white robes with colored sashes, Jesus has glowing green/gold eyes for just a short list. What do all these things have in common? American cultural bias. Especially, small town flannel Jesus on a wall in the nursery bias. Colton is a pastor’s kid, who understands Heaven in an amazingly literalistic way (the use of valuable stones and metals in describing Heaven is a way of conveying what Heaven is like, not what Heaven looks like.) Wings and halos? Colton’s Heaven truly is a wonderful life. [groan]
There were times in the book that I was emotionally moved by the story. When Colton talks about his little sister (lost to a miscarriage) I felt the pain and recognized the beauty in the promise of restoration to family. But emotionalism can’t override theology and truth.
We Christians have a responsibility to test all these kinds of stories in light of Scripture and to hold fast to what is true and toss out what is not. This book has a lot of what is not and very little that we can verify from the Word. As such, I cannot recommend it to you. Instead, I recommend a good book on how to read, interpret and understand the Bible, like Gordon Fee’s [[ASIN:0310246040 How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth]] or Hank Hanegraaff’s [[ASIN:0849919703 Has God Spoken?: Proof of the Bibles Divine Inspiration]].
A note to Thomas Nelson: Zondervan broke with Rob Bell over his theologically “interesting” possibly heretical take on Hell, but you had no issue publishing theologically “interesting” possibly heretical takes on Heaven. Use the same standard that the Bereans used when deciding to believe Paul: test manuscripts in light of Scripture. If they don’t match then pass on them – no matter how much money you can make on it. Your publication mark is like a stamp of approval for Christians who trust you.
Scott Asher is the Editor-in-Chief of BookGateway.com. His personal blog is AshertopiA – a land flowing with milk and honey… and a lot of sticky people where he turns real life into stupid cartoons, writes on Christianity, Zombies, and whatever else he wants and posts Bible studies from his classes at church.
True Images: The Bible for Teen Girls
With the current glut of feature Bibles one has to wonder whether there is actually value to another one of if this is merely a way to make more money. In the case of True Images, the answer is firmly in the adds value category.
True Images
The Bible for Teen Girls
Zondervan
June 2012
This NIV features the most current version of the NIV (2010), which is based on rock solid textual criticism and exegesis from the perpectual Committee on Bible Translation that brought us the original 1978 and 1984 NIVs that so many in the English speaking world trust and also 2005′s TNIV. Some may complain about the pronoun changes in this version compared to the older version but it is important to point out that all versions have pronoun (and other) determinations made by the translators. Each time the decision is made based on the common language and culture of the reader and the fact is that in 1978 “a man” would commonly be understood to be “a person” while in 2012 that is simply not the case. A “man” in today’s language is a “male” and a “person” could be either. All that to say that this version of the NIV is an extremely trustworthy translation into today’s English vernacular.
Why a featured Bible focused on Teen Girls? Frankly, I think this is a long time coming. We’ve seen for years the proliferation of Bibles for Men and Women, for students and apologists, and for kids and generic teens, but one specifically built for teen girls and the trials they deal with was missing. (This version is an updated version of the True Images Bible from 2007 with the newest NIV and articles.)
What I especially liked were the full color pages with quizzes, to-do lists, and interactive panels. Zondervan took a page out of any teen magazine here and flips the script from worldly “can-do-ism” to “what-God-did-ism.” The Truth or Dare sections are inserted on to the page where the text deals with a truth that sometimes we forget to apply to ourselves. For instance, Judges 11:34-35 includes a quick note saying:
“Lord, if you’ll only do this, I promise I’ll…” In desperate times, spouting pledges to God is all too easy. However, God takes your words seriously. So should you.
The Genuine inserts bring the truth of the Gospel home by challenging teens to be real. Mirror Image pages tell stories of women from the Bible and how their stories intersect with the teen reader.
As the father of a teen daughter this Bible comes at just the right time. She struggles with how to respond to quite a lot of the issues that this Bible highlights for readers. Those tips and insights along with a reader-friendly excellent translation make this a top notch Bible for teen girls.
Scott Asher is the Editor-in-Chief of BookGateway.com. His personal blog is AshertopiA – a land flowing with milk and honey… and a lot of sticky people where he turns real life into stupid cartoons, writes on Christianity, Zombies, and whatever else he wants and posts Bible studies from his classes at church.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
