Break Open the Sky - Saving our faith from a culture of fear - Book Review

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first got this book. The cover was very gripping. I also wondered how it was possible to write a whole book on the subject of fear and faith. I was very eager to find dive in! This book is a very easy read and I read it in a couple of days.

Going into this book, I very much hoped that it would be practical and not merely a pep talk about getting over fear. I was very pleased to find that he presented very heavy hitting and solid truth! He talked about how the Western World is more afraid as a whole than lots of different poor nations are - and he analyzed why. He also went through different things that we are afraid of such as suffering and taking risks. Stephan Bauman has seen a lot of hard and difficult things through his years of relief work in other countries - and yet I was intrigued by his perspective on suffering. That was probably one of the things that I enjoyed most about this book. He didn't shy away from difficult subjects - and suffering is included in that. As one who works to alleviate the sufferings of others, he had an intriguing perspective. He talked about how suffering is not something that we need to avoid and push away, but suffering is something that we can embrace without fear because God uses to draw us closer to Him than we could imagine.

I really appreciated the experience that he has. He was able to share many stories about believers and people in other countries and their stories. That added a lot of depth to this book!

Overall, this book was great and I'm glad I read it! Definitely something that left me impacted. We are really good at ignoring our fear and sometimes we need to face it head on with the truth - and that is what Bauman did in this book.

Here are a few links for those interested:
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/books/234659/break-open-the-sky-by-stephan-bauman/#details

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/authors/185732/stephan-bauman/

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. The opinion and content are entirely my own.

The Chamberlain Key - Timothy P. Smith - Book Review

Codes in the Bible? I would have to say I was pretty skeptical coming into this book. I had heard a little bit about this concept before, but I didn't really know much about it and I definitely was hesitant to believe something like that!

Reading this book was incredibly informative and enlightening. Timothy Smith shared his personal story along with sharing the things that he discovered. I appreciated his honesty and authenticity. Another thing that I really appreciated was how thoroughly he researched everything that was put in this book - he didn't just throw out theories or random things. He thoroughly searched everything out and had experts confirm his findings. That was one thing that really helped me out while reading this!

Smith shares his life story and steps of the journey that took him to this amazing discovery. It was an incredibly intriguing and compelling read!

I'm still not completely sure what I think about the concept of messages being encrypted into the original Hebrew documents, but this book really challenged me to start thinking about this. And I began to realize that the biggest reason I doubt is because I don't really think that God could communicate like that - and that's because I have put God in a box. But this book challenged me to think about the fact that God could quite conceivably communicate to us in this fashion! God is not restricted by our understanding! I think that this is the biggest takeaway I have from this book - that God is not restricted!


Here are a few links for those interested:

Chamberlain Key Debate & Discussion Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1827281677560431/
More information: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/books/537278/the-chamberlain-key-by-timothy-p-smith-with-bob-hostetler-foreword-by-eugene-ulrich-phd/
Author bio: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/authors/2135192/timothy-p-smith/

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. The opinion and content are entirely my own.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about God by Eric Metaxas - Book Review

I was very excited to get this book! I had heard the name Eric Metaxas and seen several of his books but hadn't had the chance to read any until I got this book. I've read lots of different Christian apologetics books over the years and they can have a reputation for being dry and somewhat boring, but that was not the case with this book. The question and answer format of this book made it interesting and personable. It was like a dialogue between two interesting people who both have their different opinions and views but are trying to understand the other side. It made it more like a dialogue than a sermon – which helps keep your attention!

I appreciated how Metaxas delved right into the controversial questions with boldness but not rudeness. That is something that I always look for when a Christian is addressing touchy subjects. It is important to have a listening and an understanding attitude – and Metaxas exemplifies that in this book. His answers are very respectful and yet incredibly sincere. You can tell that he is speaking from the heart and from his life experience and not just preaching a sermon. The best sermons are the ones that are lived out and not spoken!

There was only one thing that disappointed me a little bit in this book. All throughout the book, Metaxas emphasizes how Christianity is not merely a religion, but an incredible opportunity to have a deep, intimate relationship with God. He does a great job of focusing on this point and I really appreciated that because a lot of apologetics books don't talk about things like that. But then at the end of the book, when he had a perfect opportunity to explain how to have a relationship with God, he mostly talked about going to church and the importance of fellowship with other believers. While fellowship with others is important, the point of the whole book is fellowship with God. This book would be a great book to give unbelievers or people who are seeking to follow God and for that reason, I believe it could have done a better job of practically explaining what that looks like – and how you seek God. It's not hard to see that Metaxas has a relationship with God – and so because of that, he has the authority and the experience and the insight to explain what relationship with God looks like practically.

Other than that point – which is merely my opinion – I thought the book was excellently written. It was engaging and easy to read. It is a great book to read if you have questions about God and how He works. I would definitely read other books written by this author. 

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. But the opinion is completely and entirely my own.

More information: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/books/113616/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-god-but-were-afraid-to-ask-by-eric-metaxas/

About the Author: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/authors/68702/eric-metaxas/ 

Escapes Underneath the Berlin Wall - My Review of the book "The Tunnels" by Greg Mitchell

When this book first fell into my hands, I thought, "Wow. This is a big book! How will I ever get through it?" Although it was bigger than I had expected, I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting and gripping it was. I went through it fairly slowly but I didn't lose interest one time!

The book is about the Berlin Wall crisis as a whole, but specifically focusing on the tunneling attempts. The tunnels that were built are a dramatic pictur

e of how desperate the people of Berlin were to have their freedom. This book reads like a thriller and is filled with suspense and complex characters and the missions and the risks that brave men and women took for their families and loved ones.

This was a truly riveting book and I enjoyed it thoroughly! One thing I look for in a book about history is that it tells a story. Many history books are somewhat dry and filled with details and honestly, I quickly lose interest because of the writing style of the author. But Mitchell did a great job telling a story – the story of those who were passionate to have freedom.

In the acknowledgments, Mitchell writes: “When I started this book, I had no idea how many of the key tunnelers, couriers, and escapees were still living, or if they would be reachable, and if so, would be willing to speak with me. I made a list and, surprisingly, I was able to arrange lengthy interviews with nearly all of them, and then some.” It is evident when reading this book that his eyewitness interviews made all the difference in the world. He did a very thorough job and all of the interviews he conducted add an incredible depth to this book. It is almost as if he is writing down their story on their behalf. This book gave all the different perspectives from citizens of east and west Germany, members of the press, members of the government, etc. I appreciated how it showed all the different sides of the story.

I was definitely impressed by this book and although I do not appreciate the occasional language, I would definitely recommend this book to someone interested in this topic. “The Tunnels” definitely left me with a greater respect for the freedom that I have.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. But the opinion is completely and entirely my own.

Author's website: http://www.gregmitchellauthor.com/

Author's bio: http://www.gregmitchellauthor.com/bios/greg-mitchell

The Prayer of Sir Francis Drake

Several years ago I came across this poem that was attributed to Sir Francis Drake and it really was inspiring.

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

Late Night Thoughts...

Sometimes it's when you're really tired and really worn out when you hear Him speak the clearest. I think it's because when we are tired and ready to give up, we are ready to listen to Him instead of always listening to ourselves.

Sometimes it's those moments when you are feeling shattered and broken when you feel His love the strongest. Maybe it's because when we realize what a mess we are, we realize how complete He is.

Sometimes it's when you're experiencing heartache and pain when you realize that He is closer than He's ever been. Maybe it's because when you're hurting, you realize how much you need Him.

Because we need Him desperately.

                                

Breaking Boxes

I don't know about you, but from the time I was little, I had this concept of what prayers should sound like. And I guess I got these ideas from hearing other people pray. And so I guess I always prayed the way I heard other people pray. I didn't care to “experiment” with prayer and really open up my heart to God in prayer. I had my prayer life stored away in these nice little spiritual boxes and I was content with that. But recently, God has begun to break down the boxes that I've tried to put Him in.

I've been home from school for three months now and next week I'm about to go back. The way my school works is that I am there for three months and then I am home for three months. And for some reason I always thought that I would learn more during the semester than the off-semester, but God has shown me so clearly how He is my teacher. And while He may use another person or teacher to teach me, it is ultimately He who teaches and reveals those things to me. So since I have been home, God has continued to teach me more about who He is.

I just want to share a few things that He began to show me last semester and has been continuing to teach me since I've been home. I'm afraid that they might seem a bit jumbled and disorganized, but I'm going to give it a shot.

1. My prayers make a difference. God wants me to pray. I've grown up in a very conservative, Christian home but I confess that I had a very pathetic prayer life until more recently. And I think I know why: I didn't believe there was any power in prayer. I didn't realize that the most powerful force in the universe – God Almighty – heard those prayers and that they touched His heart. I may have known it in my head, but I didn't really believe it. I didn't realize that my prayers move the heart of God.

As I began to actually pray, I began to see God working in ways that went far above and beyond what I could have imagined – and through that, God began to dispel my unbelief and still is. God builds our trust and our faith through the experiences that He gives us and I've seen that true in my own life.

2. Prayer is warfare. In the past, I would begin to pray for someone or something for a period of time and then eventually just stop praying and give up because I wasn't seeing results. Looking back, I'm ashamed of that because I see how little endurance I had. I didn't tap into God's strength, but tried to fight the battle of prayer all by myself. I think many of us give up praying for someone too fast because we don't see what is going on in the spiritual realm. When we begin to pray for something that is near and dear to God's heart and pray in accordance with His will, things in heaven begin to shift and move around and Satan is being defeated. The problem is, we can't see it with our mortal eyes, so we begin to get tired and discouraged when we don't realize that progress is being made in the spiritual realm. And when we give up on praying for someone that God has put on our hearts to pray for, we are giving ground to the enemy. Satan cannot win.

Here is a helpful quote that gave me so much insight into what happens when we are praying for someone – particularly someone who is lost: “Legally, all souls belong to Christ because He paid for their sins on Calvary (1 John 2:2). But Satan, illegally and forcefully, continues to hold them bound in spiritual darkness until we take our rightful place and exercise our throne-rights by demanding their immediate release on the basis of Christ's shed blood and our delegated authority from Him. There is absolutely no reason for even one single soul to die and go to hell because Christ has already paid their redemption price. And the only reason why anyone will go to hell is that we have not taken our place of authority and bound the strong man, insisting on their salvation. The devil will not release them until we make him.” (Lee E. Thomas, Praying Effectively for the Lost)

We may not see results immediately when we pray, but our prayers are not in vain! God is working even if we can't see it. Faith is the evidence of things not seen – and we need to have faith that God is working.

3. Prayer is the work. Oswald Chambers said, “Payer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work.” I can't tell you how many times I heard that prayer – but God has shown me how true that actually is. Missions and evangelism are powerless apart from prayer. Mere words coming out of my mouth will not convince anyone. This is not to diminish the importance of missions or witnessing, etc. but I think that we put too much emphasis on talking and convincing other people and not enough on praying for others. Prayer is more powerful than my own words.

God taught me this in a very personal way recently. One of my closest friends was going through a difficult time and as much as I had tried to encourage this friend and as much as others had tried to encourage this other person, my friend seemed lost and confused. You see, nothing I could say made any difference. I think God brought this situation to me because I realized that only He can change hearts – I can't. So often I think that if I just explain something in a certain way or just say it using different words that I can speak to that person's heart and change their minds. But that's not how it works. God's Holy Spirit is the only one who can change people. So I found in this situation that the only thing I really could do was pray. And so I did pray. And I prayed a lot. I begged God to break through to my friend and to encourage my friend. And things didn't change overnight. They took months and months. But God had me continue to pray for my friend and one day when I was feeling especially desperate, I spent much of the day praying and asking God to come into the situation and change this person. I never felt so weak and so helpless than I did at that moment. I was completely powerless. And as soon as I was in that place of weakness, God demonstrated His strength by turning this person around – at the same time that I was praying for them.

Needless to say, this whole situation built up my faith in God so much. I realized that He hears my prayers and that He cares!

4. Pray God's word. My own words are pretty feeble sometimes and I don't always know God's will in a particular situation, but if I pray God's word, there is such power in those prayers because I can know that I am praying God's will.

For example, if I am praying for someone who is lost to be prayed, I can pray this passage: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; ... For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:1, 3-4, emphasis mine) So I can stand on this promise as I pray and tell God, “You said that it is your will that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth – so I ask that you would bring so-and-so to the knowledge of truth and to salvation.” If I pray in that manner, I'm not just praying what my will is, but God's will.

When I pray God's word and base my prayers off of God's promises, there is such power there! Because I am praying God's very heart back to God! There are verses in the Bible that apply to every area of life so there will always be a verse I can pray for every situation. If the Bible is the sword of the Spirit, using it in prayer invites that power into our prayers!! And that's so exciting guys!

So that's a few of the things that God is still teaching me. I don't know if that made a whole lot of sense, but I'm praying that God used at least part of this to encourage you and to help you with your prayer life.

I guess learning how to pray means breaking a lot of boxes of unbelief. I've kept prayer in my own little boxes for so long. I've had all these ideas of what prayer should look like and sound like, but I'd encourage you to seek for more than that.

We tend to pray the way we hear others pray, but that can be dangerous because then we are unwilling to venture into new territory. Don't be afraid to pray in ways you've never heard anyone pray before! Don't be afraid to be vulnerable before God and to tell Him everything that is on your heart. Don't be afraid to be desperate. Don't be afraid to plead and to beg. Don't be afraid to humble yourself before God. Don't be afraid to “experiment” with prayer and test God. Don't be afraid to listen to God and to ask Him how to pray.

Come before God with your prayer life and ask Him what is on His heart and what He wants you to pray about. You don't have to try to muster up spiritual sounding and powerful prayers, you just have to ask God to show you what to pray. Just listen to Him and I guarantee that there will be power in those prayers.

Prayer is conversation with God. If we can only understand that – it will completely transform our prayer lives.