Tag Archives: Christian living

Review: LEAP for Faith, by Gary Cox

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LEAP for Faith, by Gary Cox (Bryler Publications, 2011)

The Christian life is a journey, which Eugene Peterson has dubbed “a long obedience in the same direction.” Believers need to grow spiritually. We also need to respectfully and responsibly share our faith with family, friends and co-workers. In-their-face agendas build walls, not relationships.

So how do we grow? And how to we encourage those who are spiritually interested but not ready to make a full commitment to a God they’re only beginning to suspect may exist?

Part Bible study, part spiritual workbook and part novel, LEAP for Faith takes a fresh look at these perennial questions.

Canadian author Gary Cox addresses spiritual growth in the form of LEAP: Look and Listen, Explore and Examine, Acknowledge and Accept, Practice and Pray. And as Nick, one of the book’s main characters, says, it’s not a one-time sequence:

“P is both the last and the first step. With prayer you go back to looking and listening for God at work in your life. Seeking to discover what he wants to teach you. It’s a cycle, and each cycle expands your understanding and deepens your relationship with the Lord.” (p. 246)

The book contains 27 short chapters that follow the fictional case study of Troy, a man beginning to wonder about God, and Nick, his Christian friend. Each chapter ends with personal-application discussion questions and with Scripture passages to consider.

For new Christians or those considering the faith, there’s a helpful section at the beginning called “My Bible” that demystifies the process of looking up Scriptural references and offers suggestions on Bible reading and accessible translations.

Older-in-the-faith Christians will find Nick’s gentle model of teaching an encouragement, and the simple but logical LEAP system is easy not only to share but to apply in our personal devotions.

I found it a helpful book, easy to read and to follow. Troy and Nick are fictional examples illustrating how the LEAP process might play out in real life. It would dilute the focus of the book to bring a fully-featured novel into play with subplots, detailed characterization and the traditional conflict and plot arc. Allowing their journey to follow a straight path makes an easier teaching tool.

The only negative I found in the book was the need for more copyediting. My husband and I bought four Bryler Publications books at the same time, and the three we’ve read to date all had editing/formatting errors (one was missing an entire chapter) so I’m thinking this is a publisher issue.

LEAP for Faith can be used in private study or in a six-week group setting. Additional resources and videos for groups and group leaders are available on the LEAP for Faith website. The first two chapters are available for preview here.

[Review copy from my personal library. Disclosure: the author is a personal friend.]

Writers and Musicians

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Fans of Canadian suspense writer Linda Hall will be happy to know some of her stories are available in various ebook formats through Smashwords. Currently there are two free short stories, one 99-cent short story and the novel, Steal Away, for $2.99. The short stories may not be suspense, but Steal Away is the first in a series featuring private investigator Teri Blake-Addison. I highly recommend it, and you can read my review of the paper version here.

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A Better Way is a new blog from Canadian writer Jan Cox, reflecting on the “better way” Jesus told Martha that Mary had chosen… and discovering how we can choose that way as well.

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Part of living the better way–God’s way–is gratitude and praise. Check out Marcia Laycock’s excellent post, “Maybe it’s Time we Pay Attention,” on Grace Fox’s Growing with Grace blog.

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The Barn Door Book Loft spotlights and interviews 3-6 Christian authors each week and hosts book giveaways.

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I’ve been captured recently by the music of Geoff Moore, specifically his new album, “Saying Grace,” which is not yet widely available (you can get it at any of the stops on his cross-Canada tour with Steven Curtis Chapman). I wish I could share my favourite tracks with you: “I Believe,” “Saying Grace” and “The Long Way.” You can hear some of his other music on the Geoff Moore facebook page. Or searching YouTube will bring up older material including a duet with the legendary Larry Norman: “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?”

Review: Promises You Can Count On, by Natalie Gidney

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Promises You Can Count On, by Natalie Gidney (Word Alive Press, 2009)

Bible promise books, complete with a helpful index, are great resources, and every Christian’s bookshelf should have one. But you only need one.

That’s why Promises You Can Count On takes a different approach. Natalie Gidney focuses on ten essential promises, including peace, salvation, grace and joy, and invites readers to “claim them and watch and see what He can do.” (p. 6)

This slender book is ideal for new believers or for those considering faith in Jesus Christ. It’s also a good refresher for more seasoned Christians. Each chapter draws on a number of Scriptures to explore one of God’s promises. With an easy conversational style, Natalie looks at what this promise can mean in our lives, and she offers candid examples of what it’s meant in her own.

Naturally, salvation is one of the early topics. It may surprise some readers, then, to see forgiveness rounding out the number ten spot as the final chapter. But as Natalie explains, forgiveness is something that’s required of us as well as something we need from God. That can be a hard truth to hear, and I think she’s wise to build up to it.

In some ways, forgiving others—or ourselves—isn’t possible until we’re sure we can trust God’s promises. So it makes sense to immerse ourselves in them first and grow our faith.

Promises You Can Count On was a finalist in the Relationships category of The Word Guild’s 2010 Canadian Christian Writing Awards (for books published in 2009).

Canadian author and speaker Natalie Gidney blogs at Promises for All. You can watch her interview on 100 Huntley Street: part 1 and part 2.

[book source: my personal library]

God’s Unfailing Love

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The NIV declares of God, “his love endures forever” 43 times. “Unfailing love” appears 40 times, always describing God’s love. These results are just from the Old Testament. The New Testament overflows with God’s love too, so I assume the writers used phrases that translate differently.

But Old Testament life seems to have a harsher edge to it than New Testament and into today. God was preparing the way, but the Messiah had not yet come. The Holy Spirit came to individuals but not to all. If God spoke to a person it was usually through a prophet or an angel.

God was preparing a people for Himself and there were a lot of growing pains. There still are, even now when we can rely on the Holy Spirit living in us, Christ in us, the hope of glory.

In the middle of the hardship of Old Testament life as God sculpted a reluctant people for Himself, when their actions often required correction in the form of invading armies and exile, His Holy Word proclaims His unfailing, forever-enduring love.

Whatever we face today, we can know and rely on God’s love God for us. There is hope.

 

Review: One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp

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One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully, Right Where You Are, by Ann Voskamp (Zondervan, 2011)

One Thousand Gifts is a rare book: at once a very personal story of one woman’s journey, and yet it’s everywoman and everyman’s story. It’s a journey we can all join.

Which of us hasn’t struggled with ingratitude? It is, after all, Satan’s oldest lie. It can root so deeply that we don’t even see it anymore.

Listen to how Ann Voskamp describes it, describes the too-familiar wretched state and the haunting questions that lured her out of it:

“If I’m ruthlessly honest, I may have said yes to God, yes to Christianity, but really, I have lived the no. I have. Infected by the Eden mouthful, the retina of my soul develops macular holes of blackness…. One life-loss can infect the whole of a life…. Now everywhere we look, we only see all that isn’t: holes, lack, deficiency.” (p. 16)

“How do we choose to allow the holes to become seeing-through-to-God places? To more-God places?

“How do I give up resentment for gratitude, gnawing anger for spilling joy? Self-focus for God-communion.” (p. 22)

For Ann, the answer started with a Greek word, eucharisteo [yoo-khar-is-teh’-o], which means ‘thanksgiving’ and which contains the root words of ‘grace’ and ‘joy’. From reading her Bible, she discovered “Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle” (p. 35). And that’s what God proved in Ann’s own life as she kept her friend’s challenge to list 1,000 blessings—gifts—from God.

She came to this point in her life with more pain than some of us have: the most significant cluster in the form of losing her younger sister as a child. But whether you’ve lost more or less, whether it’s been taken from you or you’ve given it away, you can find healing in these pages.

Read the book slowly, let it encourage your spirit by its message and by the poetry that is Ann Voskamp’s prose. Walk with her as she learns to thank God for the sweet blessings—graces—in her day. Keep walking as she learns to see His grace in the painful moments, to practice what she calls the “hard eucharisteo” by giving thanks even when what He gives doesn’t look like grace to our eyes.

If you like simple, plain language and straightforward sentences, this may not be the book for you. I’ve included some excerpts to give a feel for the flowing language. And be aware that poetic language often uses imagery for a soul’s intimacy with God that strictly-literal thinkers may find difficult.

But if you’re one of the many who choose to read this book, you will be challenged and changed by the example of an ordinary Canadian woman who dares to have a heart like King David’s and to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving to God in the good and in the bad—not denying the pain, but trusting the Master Designer not to waste it.

This is how Ann describes what she discovered in her list of now well over 1,000 gifts:

“In eucharisteo, I count, count, count, keeping the beat of His song, the love song He can’t stop singing, this long song of longing. That He sings love over me?

“What else can all these gifts mean?” (p. 204)

One Thousand Gifts is a book to read contemplatively, and to keep near to read again. My friends are buying extra copies for their friends rather than lending a copy they might not get back. I can see why. Click here to read an excerpt from One Thousand Gifts. And here’s a link to the book trailer, which is a gift in itself.

Canadian author Ann Voskamp writes a daily encouragement blog at A Holy Experience. She’s also a regular contributor at the DaySpring blog, (in)courage.

Oh… my list? I’m at #33 today. And loving it.

[Review copy source: my personal library]

Review: More Questions than Answers, by Eleanor Shepherd

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More Questions than Answers: Sharing Faith by Listening, by Eleanor Shepherd (Resource Publications (a division of Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2010)

No matter  how secure our faith, we all have questions, issues, things we don’t fully understand.

In More Questions than Answers, Eleanor Shepherd reminds us that honesty about these very things is the beginning of a journey that benefits us as well as the friends with whom we walk.

“When walking with our friends, we encourage them to explore faith with us. We admit that our knowledge of faith is incomplete, but it is growing. We want them to join us as together we test our spirituality and meet for ourselves the ultimate truth, Jesus Christ. We call our journey together spiritual accompaniment.” p. xvii

Spiritual accompaniment is unconditional friendship. Our non-Christian friend is not a project to be discarded if she doesn’t come to believe as we do. Nor is our Christian friend to be set aside if he doesn’t grow as fast as we’d like.

We benefit personally from accompanying others. We learn not to be threatened by questions we can’t answer—God doesn’t vanish in a puff of smoke if we can’t explain Him. Our faith doesn’t vanish either. By honestly and prayerfully facing them, we grow deeper in our faith.

More Questions than Answers is divided into three sections:

The Listening Process addresses the art of listening. It includes basics of psychology, counselling etc, but always at lay-person’s level.

Discovering and Sharing Faith teaches how to go about spiritual accompaniment, illustrated by personal examples. It warns of the obstacles we may face.

Finally, The Source reminds us to listen to and rely on God. There is a short Bible study to develop our spiritual listening skills, and a shorter “Gospel in a nutshell” to help us answer when a friend asks how to become a Christian.

This is a book for Christians who want to be more valuable spiritually in the lives of those around them. It isn’t evangelism-by-the-numbers; it’s investment in the lives of those God gives us.

I appreciate books like this that emphasize faith conversations rather than confrontation, and that teach us to value the whole person.

Canadian author Eleanor Shepherd is a retired Salvation Army Officer now serving with Opportunity International Canada in Quebec. You can catch up with Eleanor at her blog. She also contributes to the Canadian Authors Who are Christian blog.

[Book source: my personal library. A version of this review first appeared in Faith Today Magazine, Jan/Feb 2011.]

Focusing Prayer

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A recent post at Under the Cover of Prayer asked, “Is Prayer Your Steering Wheel?”

It’s worth reading the whole article (the link is in the title). What has come back to me repeatedly this week stems from this quote:

I could take a few moments and ask for direction and inspiration. Before I start to make dinner I could take a moment and ask for help in achieving a balanced tasty meal. Before I go to tap dancing lessons I could stop and focus my mind on God, asking for calmness and the ability to recall the steps and do my best.

Am I flipping from activity to activity without stopping to thank God, to seek His favour and ask for the Holy Spirit to be present as I go about each task? (read the full post: “Is Prayer Your Steering Wheel?“)

Most of my mornings begin with an informal prayer committing the day (and my loved ones) to God’s care and leading, and it’s understood that God is God and whatever I do is open to His leading.

But, like Jan asks in quote above, how often do I consciously stop and commit my current activity to Him? Submit it to Him? Acknowledge His right to direct, shape… or interrupt it?

If I’m writing, working on homework for a course, driving, attending a funeral, preparing a meal… those are just some of the times the question has come up. Each time, I’ve stopped for a quick prayer.

It’s probably not bringing anything into better alignment, but it’s reminding me Who’s leading, and that whatever it is I’m doing needs to be seen as service to Him.

I think these short commitment-prayers will make me more able to see God’s gifts, to see His love for us and to show it to others. And they’ll remind me to listen for His opinions rather than formulating my own.

What do you think?

 

On God as Our Source of Comfort, Why Praising Him is Crucial, and What’s the Point of Life?

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I manage most of my blog subscriptions through Bloglines (thank you, MerchantCircle for keeping this service going) and hadn’t logged in for a while. Among the posts waiting to be read were three that I’d like to share today:

“What Satisfies You?” at Captured by God mentions an idea from Lysa TerKeurst’s book, Made to Crave.

What we think about most is an indicator of what we are trying to fulfill ourselves with. Is it God? Or is it something else? [Read God’s Girl’s full post here for a practical example of what this can look like–and the difference it can make.]

In “Tuning our Harps” at Canadian Writers Who Are Christian, Judith Lawrence writes:

We may not feel like singing God’s praises when things go wrong in our lives, we may want to wallow in our misery. However, a difficult situation is not the time to hang up our harps but a time to sing the Lord’s song with even more vigour. [Read Judith’s full post here, and consider what freedom from captivity might look like for each of us.]

In “What’s the Point” at InScribe Writers Online, Karen Toews shares “a twisted version of inspiration for 2011 or my dose of ‘this is the real world, girl'”. Selections from the book of Ecclesiastes convince her that there is a point. [Read Karen’s full post here.]

Thank you, God’s Girl, Judith and Karen, for encouraging words for the journey.

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

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No matter how busy you are, and especially if you’re busy and stressed… find five minutes today to watch this video trailer for Ann Voskamp’s new book, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are. You will feel better. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhOUaszMGvQ]

How does one live life well? In the book trailer, Ann Voskamp makes it sound so simple… yet so hard… but attainable. Doesn’t it stir something in you?

The book has just released in the US and won’t be available in Canada until February 1, although apparently the electronic version was available in time for Christmas. Reader response has been huge, and I think it’s because the premise touches a need so deep in our hearts that most of us don’t even recognize it until someone like Ann Voskamp articulates it.

You can read an excerpt of One Thousand Gifts, and refresh your spirit with a visit the community at A Holy Experience. To read more about how a quiet Canadian writer attracted such a large international following, see Emily Wierenga’s article about Ann Voskamp in ChristianWeek.

I had the privilege of attending a blogging workshop Ann taught at Write! Canada in 2010. We came to learn how her A Holy Experience blog gained so much attention, in hopes that we could do the same. Instead, she challenged us to write what God gives us–gives each of us–and to be faithful in delivering that message with excellence, as an act of worship, even if it only reaches one person. None of us went away disappointed. Her words and the example of her attitude inspired us, and a number of new blogs were born that day.

This is a woman with a gentle, authentic spirit and a true heart, and in One Thousand Gifts she’s sharing a message that can make a difference in our lives.  The book is on my must-read list for this year. I’ve already put my name on the list at my local Christian store.

One Thousand Gifts is a Bloom (in)courage book club selection, and the club is offering a limited quantity of free copies to those who need them, plus the opportunity for others to act as sponsors for these books. You need to live in the US to be eligible for a physical book, but Zondervan has made e-books available for international participants. As a bonus feature for all participants, beginning February 6 there will be weekly videos with Ann Voskamp discussing the various chapters of the book.

You can learn more about the book at the Zondervan site, and read Violet Nesdoly’s review of One Thousand Gifts at Blogcritics. And consider accepting Ann’s invitation to “Come join the community taking the dare to LIVE FULLY” at A Holy Experience.

Review: Sailing Between the Stars, by Steven James

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Sailing Between the Stars: Musings on the Mysteries of Faith, by Steven James (Revell, 2006)

Sailing Between the Stars is the best book I’ve read in 2010. And I’m writing this in December, not January. I felt safe, understood, reading Steven James’ musings. Not that it’s comfortable reading, but that he talks honestly about many of the same questions I have. He affirms the value of asking the questions, of not trying to pretend we know all the answers correctly and absolutely.

I may have finished the book with more questions than when I started, but that’s okay. It means a lot to know I’m not the only one who has them, and I’ve learned that honest questions don’t cause us to vanish in a puff of confusion. If anything, they let us be more real. And they point us to the Source of all answers, the God who is bigger than our comprehension.

Steven James puts it this way:

“The questions, not the explanations, are what draw me deeper into the wonder of the dance.” p. 164

His writing is gentle and lyrical. If you like Mark Buchanan’s books, you’ll like this. It’s poignant at times, whimsical at others, and there are a few places that had me laughing out loud.

And while the topics aren’t easy to nail down with a “definitive” answer, there’s no philosophical mumbo-jumbo to exclude the average reader. There is one heavy-duty word, agathokakological (follow link for definition), but it’s introduced naturally through an anecdote about a child’s spelling bee and since it describes us, I think it makes the point that we’re more complex than we can understand.

You can read an excerpt of Sailing Between the Stars here.  Here’s a quote from the beginning of the book to set the tone:

“Imagination dwells at the heart of Christianity. It’s a worldview of wonder. …And it’s packed full of paradox…which makes many believers today uncomfortable.” p.19

If the mystery and paradox of faith threaten you, you’ll want to give the book a miss. I don’t know what I’d have thought if I’d read it in my younger days, when I “knew” more of the answers. Now that I’ve begun to be more sure of God and less sure of myself, I found a lot of truth in this book.

In prose and occasional poetry, the author ponders some deep topics: the good and evil in each of us, joy and pain, love and failing, humility, free will, doubt, unanswered prayer. In voicing our common weaknesses, he points to the mystery of Jesus, who alone lived life to the fullest and who came to point us to the Father.

None of these topics are addressed with an “I’ll tell you what to believe” agenda. He just explores them and leaves us to explore too… and to trust the God who actually sees the full picture.

Right now, Sailing Between the Stars is featured at Christianbook.com for $1.99 USD. It’s worth full cover price, but at this price why not buy in bulk for your spiritually-musing friends? It’s also available through amazon.ca. Amazon.com and chapters-indigo.ca are both sold out, and I can’t find it on the publisher’s site. So glad I found a copy when I did. This is a definite keeper and re-reader.

Steven James blogs occasionally on writing, faith or life, at Musings and Meanderings. His website showcases his intense thriller series, The Patrick Bowers Files. I’ve reviewed book one, The Pawn, and I’d love to know what happens next in Patrick Bowers’ life. Still working up my nerve….

[review copy from my personal library]