America - Turning a Nation to God

In this compelling call from Dr. Tony Evans, he challenges Christians to live out the word from God spoken to Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7-10 saying, "...if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 
This is exactly what we need and Dr. Evans book gives much to work with toward Christians uniting to ask that forgiveness and receiving healing for our land.  He does an excellent job of pointing out that the church has lost it's saltiness and no longer has the influence in America that it once had.  We have given up trying in many instances.  He also includes specific resources for churches to utilize in becoming united for the cause of serving a suffering world and regaining our influence.  He tells of spending an afternoon with Billy Graham and during their talk "...Dr. Graham leaned toward me in his chair and voiced his frustrations on how churches would come together for the sake of evangelism but then go back to their own disconnected corners after his event had ended.  If these churches were kingdom minded, he postulated, their collective impact in the community would have been ongoing." pp.139.  Pointing out that Christians are best and most effective when united, not when sitting in their own corners.
There is much to read in this book about uniting across church boundaries to be effective once again in our country.  I especially appreciated the background and history he gave of how the Israelites ended up where they were when God gave that word to Solomon and how that is relevant to us today.
This book is easy to read and I commend Dr. Evans for tackling a huge and important topic and laying it out in simple terms.  We tend to think if the answer is not complex, then it can't be the right answer.  But, is that not exactly what we are called to?  Childlike faith with heartfelt prayer is what we are called to.
This is a very good read and I highly recommend it.  In fact, I give America five stars!
Look for it's release from Moody in January 2015.
I was given a complementary e-book copy of this book from Moody Publishers in exchange for my honest review.  These words are my opinion.
Read more at the link I have included below.

America Turning a Nation to God

The Sea Captain's Wife

Beth Powning has written in novel form the life of a sea captain's wife.  There were those who sailed with their husbands and those who stayed behind, waiting for his return.   This book gives the narrative as taken from extensive historical research but written with such heart that I felt the story in my bones!  Azuba Galloway is the heroine in this tale.  She sails with her husband Nathanial on his merchant ship, the Traveller.  Bringing along their young daughter Carrie, on a life changing journey, they set sail from Whelan's Cove, New Brunswick.  A typical voyage for a ship such as this one would be 2 years.  That is enough time to see life, death and birth!  Azuba longs for the sea and the freedom it brings.  Nathaniel longs to keep her safe from the savagery and violence of life on the high seas.  She convinces him to take her and Carrie along, as many captains take their wives and children.  Ms. Powning writes these characters with passion and humanity. The intensity of emotions is almost exhausting! You will not soon forget the lives of these seafarers and families.  I could barely put it down for the compelling writing that brings these characters right off the page.  Set in the 1860s, during the sunset of the Age of Sail we read of the passing of a way of life that was the lifeblood for many a sailor and captain.  This is a masterpiece of stellar fiction.  I give The Sea Captain's Wife five stars!  Read more about this fascinating life and more of Beth Powning's works at the links I have included below.
Beth Powning
Maritime History of the United States

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This is the story of a small island in England that was occupied by the Germans during WWII.  The Literary Society started quite by accident but filled a need in a bleak time.  I liked the characters well enough and the variety of personalities that were each a part of the book gave it needed depth.  However, not quite enough depth for my taste.  Without giving away the plot let me just say the story is told in a series of letters written back and forth.  The letters come to be written because one of the main personalities in the story has been tasked with writing a series of articles about life on the island of Guernsey during the German Occupation.  The book moves along fairly well as varied people are drawn into the letter writing via word of mouth or references to the young lady writing the articles; people who lived through that time want to write her with their experiences.  It does have a good amount of situations that made me chuckle.  It has a well written romantic development.  The letters are written just the way we would have a conversation and are easy to read; in other words, the way we used to write letters to one another.  Despite all this, I just couldn't get into the story, for lack of a better way to put it.  In fact I did not finish this book, which was disappointing to me but I stayed with it halfway through, wanting to give it a good run!  So, knowing that I was not engaged in it I committed the unpardonable literary sin;  I skipped to the back and read the ending.  This did not give me satisfaction.  The end is merely the last letters written by the main characters to and from one another.  Since I gave it up many pages before that, the importance of the ending was mostly lost on me because of developments in the last half of the book, which I did not read!  This book was published in 2009 and I have read rave reviews for it.  So, don't take my word for it.  What I write here is only what I think.  Get it and read it if you want.  Many reader reviews gave it 4 to 4 1/2 stars.  I give The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society 3 stars.
See you soon!
Jeri

Keepers of the Covenant

How do I begin? The story itself is a bookfull! Let me start by saying this is the book of Ezra personified for the contemporary reader.  Lynn Austin has written Book 2 of the Restoration Chronicles with an eye to the human story behind the story.  God's story, as recorded in the two books I mentioned has so many lessons for us about His covenant relationship, his mercy, obedience to God's law, but it also documents the history of the return of all the of Jews from exile and captivity in Babylon.  Keepers of the Covenant relates the return of that remnant that did not go back the first time.  It is filled with God's people trying to do the right thing.  The author writes believable characters that speak to the reader in their human flaws and foibles.  It reads easily and moves smoothly from chapter to chapter.  I had a difficult time reading the story of Reuben, a Jewish boy who's father is killed in the battle on the 13th of Adar.  The story begins with Haman convincing King Xerxes to have all Jews annihilated.  A second decree allows the Jews to defend themselves.  None the less, Reuben's father is killed in that battle.  The ensuing anger on Reuben's part was hard to read but very convincing.  He turns to a life of thievery and drinking.  Ms. Austin writes this book as it may have been (probably was) lived.  She does a good job of writing so we can relate to it.  My only criticism would be that the author sometimes writes the dialogue and situations in a modern frame of mind and language making it a little confusing.
It stands out as an example of God's mercy and grace.She draws a clear picture of how we can sometimes drift into the way of the world without noticing it, just as some of the Jews did after living in Babylon for several generations.  Living in the world as a Christian is a hard thing to do and not be drawn in.  The main character, Ezra, says the following to his wife about that when talking about the earlier battle; "...believe there was a genuine spiritual renewal going on.  It was easy to rise up in faith and heroism when we faced a clear-cut enemy.  It's much harder to resist the enemy of gradualism and assimilation, much harder to maintain a passion for God when we're bogged down in the daily routine of life."  Amen!  Ain't it the truth?!  This reminded me that faithful people since the beginning of time have faced the same struggles we face today.  While not a blockbusting, all consuming read, I enjoyed this enough to think I would like to go back and read Book 1 of the Restoration Chronicles.  I give Keepers of the Covenant four stars.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House, the publisher, in exchange for my honest review.  These words are my opinion.

Unbroken

Unbroken is the true story of Louis Zamperini's survival at sea after he was shot down in World War II in the Pacific.  You may be familiar with the author's other story, Seabiscuit, written about a horse that came from an unremarkable background to win the Kentucky Derby and become a national legend.  Laura Hillenbrand is the name of the lady who wrote both of these stories.  I did not read Seabiscuit.  I saw the movie and was moved to tears.  Absolutely excellent.  Unbroken, not so much.  It is a horrific story of a WWII catastrophe, and true for sure.  The book includes pictures. (who had a camera for this?) And yes, my heart goes out to our survivors and grieves for our lost.  I live in a family with military history, all four branches of the service including my husband, son, brothers, and others. This account is not lost on me.  I get it.  It is a story extravagant in its scope and pretty well written.  It covers Zamparini's life from childhood to his 81st birthday when he is one of the carriers of the Olympic Torch, in Japan no less in 1998.  This book was published in 2010.  I read it about two years ago.  A friend had recommended it right after it came out.  I did not get around to reading it until my son gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card for Christmas in 2012.  I remember, and you may as well, when this came out it had mediocre reviews from some who thought that the minute detail was too detailed for someone his age to remember so many years later and be able to recall especially with the emotional and mental trauma that had occurred. Thus, it was said the story was too good to be true.  And it goes on a long time.  I think it is true but I think she should have stuck to the WWII disaster that was his life during that time.  That was the story.  This is a biography.  The bibliography alone takes up 65 pages. She did her research.  And she interviewed Louis about 75 times.  She spent seven years writing this book.  This was obviously a labor of love for Ms. Hillenbrand.  I give the narrative and the writing five stars.  I give the finished product  3.5 stars.  It is worth the time it will take to read it, but you may find yourself wondering is this embellished for the sake of story telling?  Or, does he just have a fantastic memory and she is a fantastic writer with the raw material before her?  I really don't know.
This quote is at the front of the book  "What stays with you latest and deepest?  of curious panics, Of  hard-fought engagements or sieges tremendous what deepest remains?"    ---  Walt Whitman, "The Wound-Dresser"

Thanks for being here.  See you soon!
Jeri~

Agents of the Apocalypse

Rarely do I read anything unfolding the book of Revelation that helps me understand what it is all about.  This book however, does just that. It is subtitled A Riveting Look at the Key Players of the End Times which describes it well.  Dr. David Jeremiah has laid out the major themes in Revelation that we all know of but may not understand well.  This book is arranged so that each chapter begins with a story for the prophecy that makes the subject matter more real.  The author then follows that story with a section he calls “The Scripture Behind the Story” in which he brings to light the real-world application of each end-times prophecy.  All of the key players are here, from The Exile to The Two Witnesses to The Dragon, The Victor , The Judge, and more.  This is a chilling call to awareness and accountability.  The thought comes to mind that this is Revelation for Dummies-and I say that with all due respect.  This book gives the reader no reason to think that they cannot understand what is happening in the Revelation as given to John the Apostle on the Isle of Patmos;  which also calls us to let no excuse keep us from fulfilling the Great Commission, as we are commanded to do.  Agents of the Apocalypse is a call to be ready for the end times.  I give this book five stars!

Visit Dr. Jeremiah at his website David Jeremiah.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher, Tyndale in exchange for my honest review.  These words are my opinion.

Escape Under the Kenyan Moon

Carol Myrick has truly been tested and refined.  God has a way of doing that when you seek Him out for total dependence on His strength.  She was a typical mid-western young woman at a large University during the time the story she relates to us took place.  She tells of meeting a man she fell in love with, and continued to love for many years, even through the nightmare of domestic abuse.  This is her life simply and beautifully written much as she would tell you if you were sitting down to have coffee with her.  The beginning of what would eventually be her Escape Under a Kenyan Moon was really in 1976, when she met her future husband.  Carol writes with a clarity and completeness that can only come from personal experience.  She met and fell in love with Otieno Habembe while they were students at O.S.U.  Otieno came from Sigulu Island, a small primitive island in Lake Victoria in East Africa.  He was given a UN scholarship to come to America to study and obtain a degree, which he did in Food Science and Nutrition.  She married him causing a rift between her and her family.  They moved to Africa and he accepted a job at Kenya Canners, a company owned by DelMonte.  All was well for a time and then his growing dissatisfaction eventually evolved into physical abuse of Carol.  She continued to love him and hope that he would not release his temper on her.  She realized, through the candid and loving declarations from close friends, that she must leave or she would lose her life.  She began to pray and God began to work.  Through a series of truly miraculous events, her friends, an American couple who were missionaries, helped her obtain all necessary paperwork to leave the country in an unbeliveable 48 hours, and this was no easy task!  Only with God's divine intervention was she able to take her children and board a plane to come back home.  Her flight from Africa came in March of 1982.  This is a heart-wrenching account of heartbreak and hope, of despair and miracles.  Escape Under the Kenyan Moon is easy to read and written with everything necessary to complete the story for the reader, making it a truly good book.  I wholly recommend you pick this up and read it.  I give Escape Under the Kenyan Moon five stars!
Visit Carol at her website Carol Myrick