Review - Grieving God's Way: The Path to Lasting Hope and Healing by Margaret Brownley

I chose to review this book because I am studying to be a counselor and I knew that the issues of grieving and loss will come up eventually in my practice. I am a Christian so I wanted to look at something from this perspective. Grieving God's Way is a 90-Day Devotional. Each day begins with a description, talking about the stage of grief that the person may be going through. It shares a Bible verse and talks about the meanings behind it as it relates to grief. It gives tips to get through it: deep breaths, prayer, exercising, etc. It is divided into three sections: Healing the Grieving Body, Healing the Grieving Soul, and Healing the Grieving Heart. Although it does not necessarily take one through the classic stages of grief that I have learned about in my counseling courses, it is a nice resource for a spiritual person to use when they are grieving the loss of a loved one. I would encourage anyone that is having issues with grief to seek counseling or even just reach out to others who have gone through the same thing. Yes, a book like this can be helpful, but it should not be the only resource someone turns to in a difficult time such as this.
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I receive these books free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review - I am a Follower: The Way, Truth and Life of Following Jesus by Leonard Sweet

I decided to read this book because I am in a job field right now where it is all about leading people in the right direction and getting them to follow you. What I have seen and heard about churches and pastoring is quite similar. If you are a good pastor, your church will be on the right path and following Jesus. I thought this book would help me to discover a little more about how to follow Jesus, but I think I would have been better off simply reading the Bible and learning more that way. This book was very dry and hard to get into. That is why it took me so long to read it. I enjoy books that flow well and keep you interested, and this was not one of them for me. It was presented as a new concept, but as a Christian I already know that I should be following Jesus, and I hope that I can learn about following simply from the Bible. Isn't that kind of the point? If you are unsure of where to get started, maybe you should read this book. If you are a pastor that is doing more leading than following, maybe you should read this book. I just could not get into it so I cannot really give it a good review feeling the way I do. My recommendation - the best book every written - THE BIBLE!! That will show you how to be a follower of Jesus!
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I receive these books free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review - Why God Won't Go Away by Allister McGrath

It's been a while since I've done a review. I've been reading so much for school I haven't really had a chance to read for recreation or to write reviews.
This book was quite an interesting read, but a little disheartening to me at the same time. To read about people who claim that everything can be rationally explained and then turn around and give completely irrational arguments to try and support their claims just boggles the mind. There is a lot of information in this book, so to really know what I am talking about, you have to read the book. McGrath does a great job of presenting a kind of history of the "New Atheism" which is not just not believing in God - it's almost an anti-God movement. I have always read in the Bible how we should be prepared for those working against us Christians. I had never really encountered anything along these lines until recent arguments on Facebook with people who claimed they wanted rational argument, but fell apart as soon as I presented what I felt to be a very rational explanation of God. Social media really has brought these ignorant ideas to the forefront. McGrath speaks about this in the book as well, detailing how the New Atheist's movement has grown as well as crashed and burned through social media. All in all, an interesting read if you want to know what we are up against as Christians.

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I receive these books free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Put Your Dream to the Test: 10 Questions to Help You See it and Seize it by John C. Maxwell

I recently read Put Your Dream to the Test by John C. Maxwell. The premise of the book sounded good to me. Do you have a dream? How do you know if you can achieve it? Follow these steps...Reading the cover, I thought that this would be the gist of this book. What I got was something different. Some really obvious things that tell you that you will be able to achieve your dream were laid out in the book. It was so simple and obvious, I could have written these ten questions myself. I lost interest about halfway through, but I did continue reading it as I was reviewing it for Thomas Nelson Publishing's Booksneeze program and felt they would appreciate a full review. What are some of these questions? Is my dream really my dream? Do I see it clearly? Is it within my control? Do I have a strategy? Do I have people in my life that will help me realize my dream? I guess to someone who really didn't know where to start, this book would be a good jumping off point. But when you already have a dream and realize what you need to do to get there, this book is not for you.

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I receive these books free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires, The Respect He Desperately Needs by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs

This book was first recommended by the pastor at my church who spoke about it in a teaching on the book of Ephesians. When it came out to review, I jumped at the chance. This book builds upon solid biblical principles with respect to how husbands and wives should treat one another. As a wife, I can say that I definitely desire love. I asked my husband about it, and he does want respect. This isn't debatable at all. This book does establish a sound basis to build upon and it is biblically based, so that is a good thing. The only thing that I really didn't like about this book is that Eggerichs seems to make the assumption that women always view things in certain ways and men always view things in other ways. He makes assumptions that are a bit old fashioned about women staying home and taking care of the family while men go out and work. Unfortunately it doesn't always happen that way this day and age. So sometimes the roles are reversed a little and the woman has to work hard all week at work while the man is home with the kids. Love and respect are still relevant in this scenario as I'm sure the man still wants the woman to respect what he is doing at home, but most of the stories he describes are "traditional" husband-wife roles. Again, that's the only problem I had with the book. It's a wonderful read, easy to read and follow, a lot of personal stories that are indeed relevant. The hardest part is putting it into practice. This is a book I'm sure I will pick up and read again numerous times. I will definitely recommend it to friends and family.
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I receive these books free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Your Money God's Way by Amie Streater

Your Money God's Way by Amie Streater is an insightful look at why we, as Christians, have so much difficulty staying out of debt. Ms. Streater outlines seven "counterfeit convictions" that often take us away from where we need to be as Christians. She talks about how to clean up our misconceptions about money and focus on a view that is Biblically sound. God would not want us to be broke, our lives to be chaos, etc. so we should turn to God's word in The Bible to direct us. Many Christians do this, but run across those "counterfeit convictions" and get trapped in that mindset. One thing that really struck me was the discussion about giving. Part of the discussion talks about our intentions and our attitude when giving. The insight that we should "learn to say no" is very important. We should not feel like horrible people when we refuse to give a loan to a friend. We need to make wise financial decisions and we also need to reflect God's intentions for us. We need to remember that our money, though we work for it, ultimately is God's money. I recommend this book to anyone who is struggling financially and even those who aren't really struggling. Those who are comfortable and have more than they need can learn concepts about giving (tithing) from this book as well.
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I receive these books free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Everyone Communicates Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently by John C. Maxwell - A review

The most effective managers and employers know how to communicate and connect well with their employees. I've learned this through my experiences communicating with others as well as my experiences with managers who do not do this very well. This is a book that can benefit anyone from a manager, to a pastor, even husbands and wives trying to learn how to communicate and connect effectively. Maxwell lays out keys to connecting. He talks about what connectors do and then highlights how we can do this effectively. He then summarizes by discussing how we can connect with individuals, groups, and in public speaking using the key we had just learned in that chapter. This was an engaging book that gave many tips on how to connect with others and use it to benefit yourself and others. I enjoyed how Maxwell included quotes about connecting within each chapter. The stories of people who embody each of these characteristics helped to show how effective they can be. John C. Maxwell is a great writer and I would love to see him speak as well if I ever get a chance. This book is very straight forward and full of a lot of insight. I recommend it!

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I receive these books free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”