Going Deep is a fictional story that uses real life preacher Gordon MacDonald and his wife in a story of fellowship and church growth. The two come to the realization that their church should be filled with deep people and set out to create a program to train deep people. After setting up their program, they take several years to impliment the program and grow depth within a number of select individuals.
The idea is great - a church of deep people will glorify God by their Christlikeness more than a church of shallow people who don't know much about their beliefs and don't live fully committed lives that produce spiritual fruit: joy, kindness, faithfulness, patience, etc. This idea probably would have made a good "how-to" instructional non-fiction book. I think the fiction format could have worked if the story had been well-thought and more realistic.
When I pick up a book about "deep people", I expect to find something deep within its pages. Instead of giving readers an "Ah-ha" moment, this book is dragged across 400 pages in a painful diary format: Pastor woke up, ate breakfast, talked to Joe, went home, ate dinner. Next day, pastor called Pete, went home, talked to wife. The book drags on like this and by the time you are 50% through the book, they still haven't even decided how to impliment the learning program. The last part of the book is rushed through 2 years of "implimenting the program" by skipping weeks at a time between meetings. Prayer is described as "a one sentence "I'm thankful for..."." When there is a cultivating depth meeting, it's all that unrealistic corny dialogue that Christian books and movies are notorious for and there is no depth to the meetings or dialogue.
Example of rushing through growth meetings without any details: "AS THE WEEK SPASSED [Yes, that's an error in Kindle ebook], WE STUDIED THE LIVES OF OTHER biblical heroes...AFTER WE’D FINISHED STUDYING TEMPERAMENT, THE GROUP began studying the so-called spiritual disciplines. Gail and I outlined some of the ways the Bible called people to a life of devotion... We spent time talking about how to read various parts of the Bible and internalize what we were reading. We even looked at the structure of the Bible, its division into Older and New Testaments. One night we reviewed the sections of the New Testament and talked about the purpose of each of the small letters that Paul and the other apostles had written. Then there was the subject of meditation, or reflection, something more easily understood by the introverts and harder for the extroverts."
After completing the book, (without any disrespect towards the author) I must wonder if Gordon MacDonald took the time to sit down and actually think about what a real life successful program would look like. If he did, all those details that would create a successful program in real life, are left out of this book. This book has the feel of the author coming up with a good idea, not wanting to put much thought into how the idea would be carried out in real life, and just banging out a warm fuzzy fictional story, while he left out all the "deep" details.
I would not recommend spending your precious time reading this book. If you are looking for any good ideas on becoming deeper, you won't find it here. This isn't a bad book, but it isn't especially good either - long, drawn out, boring, slow to accomplish anything. By the end, I'm left going "that could have been so much better."
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
Not Recommend: Heaven Is For Real by Todd Burpo
This book is written by Penecostal preacher Todd Burpo. He re-tells and describes his own son's journey to heaven in a near-death-experience. I would give this book 0 stars because this book doesn't come close to matching the true heaven in the Bible. Read these quotes from the book itself and decide for yourself if this matches the version of heaven from the Bible.
- Angels sang to Colton: “angels sang to me” “Well, they sang ‘Jesus Loves Me’ and ‘Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho,’” he said earnestly. “I asked them to sing ‘We Will, We Will Rock You,’ but they wouldn’t sing that.”
- Angels look like: “one of them looked like Grandpa Dennis, but it wasn’t him, ’cause Grandpa Dennis has glasses.
- “I was sitting in Jesus’ lap.”
- [Man who died] “He had to have Jesus in his heart! He had to know Jesus or he can’t get into heaven!”
- “Did you know that Jesus has a cousin? Jesus told me his cousin baptized him.”
- “Hey, Dad, did you know Jesus has a horse?” “A horse?” “Yeah, a rainbow horse. I got to pet him.”
- “What did Jesus look like?” “he has brown hair and he has hair on his face,” he said, running his tiny palm around on his chin. I guessed that he didn’t yet know the word beard. “And his eyes . . . oh, Dad, his eyes are so pretty!” “What about his clothes?” “His clothes were white, but it was purple from here to here.” Another word he didn’t know: sash. “Jesus was the only one in heaven who had purple on, Dad. Did you know that?” In Scripture, purple is the color of kings.
- “And he had this gold thing on his head . . . a crown, and it had this . . . this diamond thing in the middle of it and it was kind of pink.”
- “Colton, where are Jesus’ markers?” Without hesitation, he stood to his feet. He held out his right hand, palm up and pointed to the center of it with his left. Then he held out his left palm and pointed with his right hand. Finally, Colton bent over and pointed to the tops of both his feet. “That’s where Jesus’ markers are, Daddy,” he said.
- “What do people look like in heaven?” “Everybody’s got wings, but mine weren’t very big.”
- “Okay . . . did you walk places or did you fly?” “We flew. Well, all except for Jesus. He was the only one in heaven who didn’t have wings. Jesus just went up and down like an elevator.” The book of Acts flashed into my head, the scene of Jesus’ ascension, when Jesus told the disciples that they would be his witnesses, that they would tell people all over the world about him. After he said this, the Scripture says, Jesus “was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’”1 Jesus went up. And will come down. Without wings. To a kid, that could look like an elevator.
- “Everyone kind of looks like angels in heaven, Dad. All the people have a light above their head.” I couldn’t remember angels having lights over their heads specifically—or halos, as some would call them—but I also knew that Colton’s experience of angels in storybooks and Scripture did not include lights over angels’ heads. And he didn’t even know the word halo.
- “Well, what did God’s throne look like?” “It was big, Dad . . . really, really big, because God is the biggest one there is.”
- “And do you know that Jesus sits right next to God?” Colton went on excitedly. “Jesus’ chair is right next to his Dad’s!” “Colton, which side of God’s throne was Jesus sitting on?” I asked. Colton climbed up on the bed and faced me on his knees. “Well, pretend like you’re in God’s throne. Jesus sat right there,” he said, pointing to my right side.
- “Well, who sits on the other side of God’s throne?” I said. “Oh, that’s easy, Dad. That’s where the angel Gabriel is. He’s really nice.” Gabriel. That makes sense. I remembered the story of John the Baptist and the moment when Gabriel arrived to deliver the news of John the Baptist’s coming birth. The angel told Zechariah, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.”
- He saw the gates of heaven, he said: “They were made of gold and there were pearls on them.” The heavenly city itself was made of something shiny, “like gold or silver.”
- The flowers and trees in heaven were “beautiful,” and there were animals of every kind.
- “What does God look like?” I said. “God the Holy Spirit?” Colton furrowed his brow. “Hmm, that’s kind of a hard one . . . he’s kind of blue.”
- “Jesus shoots down power for Daddy when he’s talking.” Sonja shifted on the bed so that she could look directly into Colton’s eyes. “Okay . . . when? Like when Daddy talks at church?” Colton nodded. “Yeah, at church. When he’s telling Bible stories to people.”
- The book claims Colton met his sister in heaven and she was old enough to give him a hug and talk to him. But in real life, Sonja had a miscarriage and they never knew if the baby was a boy or girl. So the claim is the miscarried baby is now approximately 4-7 years old.
- The book claims Colton met his grandfather but the grandfather was not old. He was in the prime of his life. Colton says "No one is old in heaven."
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
- Angels sang to Colton: “angels sang to me” “Well, they sang ‘Jesus Loves Me’ and ‘Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho,’” he said earnestly. “I asked them to sing ‘We Will, We Will Rock You,’ but they wouldn’t sing that.”
- Angels look like: “one of them looked like Grandpa Dennis, but it wasn’t him, ’cause Grandpa Dennis has glasses.
- “I was sitting in Jesus’ lap.”
- [Man who died] “He had to have Jesus in his heart! He had to know Jesus or he can’t get into heaven!”
- “Did you know that Jesus has a cousin? Jesus told me his cousin baptized him.”
- “Hey, Dad, did you know Jesus has a horse?” “A horse?” “Yeah, a rainbow horse. I got to pet him.”
- “What did Jesus look like?” “he has brown hair and he has hair on his face,” he said, running his tiny palm around on his chin. I guessed that he didn’t yet know the word beard. “And his eyes . . . oh, Dad, his eyes are so pretty!” “What about his clothes?” “His clothes were white, but it was purple from here to here.” Another word he didn’t know: sash. “Jesus was the only one in heaven who had purple on, Dad. Did you know that?” In Scripture, purple is the color of kings.
- “And he had this gold thing on his head . . . a crown, and it had this . . . this diamond thing in the middle of it and it was kind of pink.”
- “Colton, where are Jesus’ markers?” Without hesitation, he stood to his feet. He held out his right hand, palm up and pointed to the center of it with his left. Then he held out his left palm and pointed with his right hand. Finally, Colton bent over and pointed to the tops of both his feet. “That’s where Jesus’ markers are, Daddy,” he said.
- “What do people look like in heaven?” “Everybody’s got wings, but mine weren’t very big.”
- “Okay . . . did you walk places or did you fly?” “We flew. Well, all except for Jesus. He was the only one in heaven who didn’t have wings. Jesus just went up and down like an elevator.” The book of Acts flashed into my head, the scene of Jesus’ ascension, when Jesus told the disciples that they would be his witnesses, that they would tell people all over the world about him. After he said this, the Scripture says, Jesus “was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’”1 Jesus went up. And will come down. Without wings. To a kid, that could look like an elevator.
- “Everyone kind of looks like angels in heaven, Dad. All the people have a light above their head.” I couldn’t remember angels having lights over their heads specifically—or halos, as some would call them—but I also knew that Colton’s experience of angels in storybooks and Scripture did not include lights over angels’ heads. And he didn’t even know the word halo.
- “Well, what did God’s throne look like?” “It was big, Dad . . . really, really big, because God is the biggest one there is.”
- “And do you know that Jesus sits right next to God?” Colton went on excitedly. “Jesus’ chair is right next to his Dad’s!” “Colton, which side of God’s throne was Jesus sitting on?” I asked. Colton climbed up on the bed and faced me on his knees. “Well, pretend like you’re in God’s throne. Jesus sat right there,” he said, pointing to my right side.
- “Well, who sits on the other side of God’s throne?” I said. “Oh, that’s easy, Dad. That’s where the angel Gabriel is. He’s really nice.” Gabriel. That makes sense. I remembered the story of John the Baptist and the moment when Gabriel arrived to deliver the news of John the Baptist’s coming birth. The angel told Zechariah, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.”
- He saw the gates of heaven, he said: “They were made of gold and there were pearls on them.” The heavenly city itself was made of something shiny, “like gold or silver.”
- The flowers and trees in heaven were “beautiful,” and there were animals of every kind.
- “What does God look like?” I said. “God the Holy Spirit?” Colton furrowed his brow. “Hmm, that’s kind of a hard one . . . he’s kind of blue.”
- “Jesus shoots down power for Daddy when he’s talking.” Sonja shifted on the bed so that she could look directly into Colton’s eyes. “Okay . . . when? Like when Daddy talks at church?” Colton nodded. “Yeah, at church. When he’s telling Bible stories to people.”
- The book claims Colton met his sister in heaven and she was old enough to give him a hug and talk to him. But in real life, Sonja had a miscarriage and they never knew if the baby was a boy or girl. So the claim is the miscarried baby is now approximately 4-7 years old.
- The book claims Colton met his grandfather but the grandfather was not old. He was in the prime of his life. Colton says "No one is old in heaven."
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
Not Recommended: The Book of Man by William J Bennett
This book is supposed to be about "What it means to be a man" by giving examples of men for our boys to look up to as heroes. The author gives us about 500 different stories of men from ancient history to modern day politicians, athletes, celebrities, etc. He says, these men present an ideal of manhood. He tells us that our boys should follow these examples of "real men" and learn how they should live and the things to which our boys should aspire. The author lists these men as examples worth emulating - as heroes to be honored by our boys. I was SICK and DISGUSTED when I read the list of men William Bennet holds up as heroes. What is Bennett's standard for picking these men as heroes? "Every community, even Sodom and Gomorrah, has one individual in it who might be identified as worth admiring." No wonder this author picked non-Christians and unethical men to represent the "heroes" in this book. This is the LAST book anyone should hold up as an example for their sons.
Bennett's heroes include Shakespeare, Colin Powell, Alexander the Great, Winston Churchill, Navy Seal Creed, William the Conqueror, Ronald Regan, Plato, Homer, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Thomas Carlyle, "Pistol" Pete Maravich, A.G. Spalding, Leo Tolstoy, Buster Douglas, Davy Crockett, Aristotle, John Locke, John F. Kennedy, Charles Dickens, Robert Morris (current day pentecostal megachurch pastor), Abraham Lincoln, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, George Washington, and more.
I found much of what the author had to say as mindless ramblings, lacking logic and any conclusive purpose. Example: The author starts the introduction by giving us a statistic: "In 1954, 90% of American men worked. Today, that number is 80%". Instead of considering the many possibilities for this decline, such as unemployment, immigration, retirement, and other factors; the author immediately jumps to the conclusion this decline is due to laziness and men leaching off the government. While laziness is certainly a factor, the author doesn't even consider that it might not be the only factor. He portrays this as a direct correlation.
Next, Bennett takes an even bigger leap - "In 1970, 80% of men 25-29 were marriaged, but in 2007, only 40%". He immediately blames what he calls a decline in marriage on the fact that there are too many aimless men! When we all know that men and women are getting married later and later in life these days due to educational and career-oriented goals! This author is SOOOO far off base, it's ridiculous! I feel like this author misses the point time after time.
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
Bennett's heroes include Shakespeare, Colin Powell, Alexander the Great, Winston Churchill, Navy Seal Creed, William the Conqueror, Ronald Regan, Plato, Homer, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Thomas Carlyle, "Pistol" Pete Maravich, A.G. Spalding, Leo Tolstoy, Buster Douglas, Davy Crockett, Aristotle, John Locke, John F. Kennedy, Charles Dickens, Robert Morris (current day pentecostal megachurch pastor), Abraham Lincoln, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, George Washington, and more.
I found much of what the author had to say as mindless ramblings, lacking logic and any conclusive purpose. Example: The author starts the introduction by giving us a statistic: "In 1954, 90% of American men worked. Today, that number is 80%". Instead of considering the many possibilities for this decline, such as unemployment, immigration, retirement, and other factors; the author immediately jumps to the conclusion this decline is due to laziness and men leaching off the government. While laziness is certainly a factor, the author doesn't even consider that it might not be the only factor. He portrays this as a direct correlation.
Next, Bennett takes an even bigger leap - "In 1970, 80% of men 25-29 were marriaged, but in 2007, only 40%". He immediately blames what he calls a decline in marriage on the fact that there are too many aimless men! When we all know that men and women are getting married later and later in life these days due to educational and career-oriented goals! This author is SOOOO far off base, it's ridiculous! I feel like this author misses the point time after time.
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
Highly Recommend: Radical Together
David Platt's Radical together is about living the Christian life and putting your faith before the world's culture. In a day and age where we are all pursuing the American Dream, Platt urges readers to return to Christ and put Jesus back into the place of most important in our lives. Platt outlines 6 ways we can live in obedience and serve God - creating radical amazing lives.
I found this book an easy read and very inspirational. It was deep enough to get me thinking but not too difficult to understand. I think the great part about this book is that it is motivating and makes you excited to be a Christian again. For me, this book returned me to the days of me youth when I wanted to run out there and be a missionary and live for God!
Platt follows in line with some of my other favorite authors (like Francis Chan, Frank Viola): calling Christians back to being REAL Christians and living the life and not a shallow Christianity. This is the Christianity that the 18-35ers have been seeking and missing in mainstream church! This is the reason we all left the churches. We couldn't find others who really wanted to LIVE Christianity. I highly recommend this book.
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
I found this book an easy read and very inspirational. It was deep enough to get me thinking but not too difficult to understand. I think the great part about this book is that it is motivating and makes you excited to be a Christian again. For me, this book returned me to the days of me youth when I wanted to run out there and be a missionary and live for God!
Platt follows in line with some of my other favorite authors (like Francis Chan, Frank Viola): calling Christians back to being REAL Christians and living the life and not a shallow Christianity. This is the Christianity that the 18-35ers have been seeking and missing in mainstream church! This is the reason we all left the churches. We couldn't find others who really wanted to LIVE Christianity. I highly recommend this book.
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
Not Recommended: Absolute Love by By R. I. Willroth
We all want to be loved and be loving people. This book is about what love is. Is it that human love inside of us or is it something more? This book teaches the general Christian believe that GOD IS LOVE. Love is GOD.
I was very excited to be reading another book on love, except instead of a psychology book, this one was a Christian perspective. Problem is, this book is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO painful to read, I barely (and I really mean barely) got through it. I had to force myself. My eyes went buggy and my brain died and I had to re-read many sentences and some paragraphs over. The book is boring, drags on, is redundant and is written in a PHD language. Yikes... God should be simple, not clinical or in-comprehendable! This book is terrible in that it is very difficult to comprehend. Given, I am only a Straight-A Bachelor's degree student, this book is very difficult for a lay person to read! Ugh... unpleasant to the max.
I got this ebook on 09/16/11 and it I didn't finish it until 10/01/11. And normally, I go through 3-4 books a week. Even though the subject of love is interesting, this book certainly was not.
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
I was very excited to be reading another book on love, except instead of a psychology book, this one was a Christian perspective. Problem is, this book is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO painful to read, I barely (and I really mean barely) got through it. I had to force myself. My eyes went buggy and my brain died and I had to re-read many sentences and some paragraphs over. The book is boring, drags on, is redundant and is written in a PHD language. Yikes... God should be simple, not clinical or in-comprehendable! This book is terrible in that it is very difficult to comprehend. Given, I am only a Straight-A Bachelor's degree student, this book is very difficult for a lay person to read! Ugh... unpleasant to the max.
I got this ebook on 09/16/11 and it I didn't finish it until 10/01/11. And normally, I go through 3-4 books a week. Even though the subject of love is interesting, this book certainly was not.
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
Recommend: More Lost Than Found by Jared Herd
The author writes about finding your way to God even if it is outside of organized religion and the church. He talks about how the youth of today aren't or shouldn't write off Jesus just because they write off the church. He explains that the church is NOT Jesus, so throwing out a bad church, shouldn't also equal throwing out Jesus.
The author also focuses on how church expects too much instant perfection from Christians and how new believers should be accepted with their sins and allowed to slowly shed those sins, instead of instantly stop living in sin. His example is a girl who sleeps around. He tells us maybe she should be allowed to continue to sleep around, as long as she works on some aspect of her life and make that part better. As long as she wants to change something, she should be accepted. She can always work on the sleeping around someday in the future, when she's ready to give that up.
I don't know his views but the author almost sounds like a Universalist or at least someone who really wants to make it as easy as possible for others to become Christians. He tries to tell the reader, it's okay to be disillusioned by church, just keep Jesus! Your angry feelings are okay. Your sins are okay. You can still love Jesus and Jesus will still love you.
The author spends a lot of time explaining that church WITHOUT culture doesn't seem to work and how church/Christian life needs to incorportate culture, not seperate from it. In other words, he seems to imply Christian music, Christian school, Christian books etc are put together to form a seperate Christian only society and when Christians try to come back into real life jobs/society, they are lost. They have seperated themselves from reality and now are unable to cope with an Unchristian culture. He also explains that Christians who seperate from non-Christian culture, lose appreciation for culture. He spends time telling us the value of culture and what it says about how we are raising our families. Culture and its elements (such as rap music) reflects human happiness/unhappiness, dissatisfaction, anger, etc.
Excerpt from PROLOGUE: I vaguely remember finding Jesus when I was a child, but I vividly recall losing him. My family’s carefully pruned image was shattered when my [minister] father’s affair became public. I didn’t know what sins my father had committed, but I knew this church had robbed him of his ability to be happy or to be home long before the choir started whispering about his transgressions. I watched him die there in that church while he gave his life to others. I would go to church, and then I would reenter life [and culture, leaving my Christian beliefs behind]. Perhaps the violent rejection of [the Christian] message by those on the outside isn’t an issue with Jesus—it’s an issue with how the Savior has been translated for them. Engage with God in a genuine way, a way that is not divorced from everyday life.
I'm not sure what to make of this book. I enjoyed it and it is thought-provoking and certainly not "mainstream" Christianity. It is challenging those mainstream beliefs and mainstream Christian lifestyle. Sadly, this book also seemed very fragmented and skipped all over the place with different ideas. The book didn't seem to make a coherent story. Although it had some VERY good points, I felt lost by the end of it and like I had to re-read it to try to make sense of it. I never did get the "jist" of what he was trying to convey. Or maybe this book just doesn't make sense by the end. I like the book for the good points it has and how it make me think, but I would guess most people will give it 3-4 stars.
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
The author also focuses on how church expects too much instant perfection from Christians and how new believers should be accepted with their sins and allowed to slowly shed those sins, instead of instantly stop living in sin. His example is a girl who sleeps around. He tells us maybe she should be allowed to continue to sleep around, as long as she works on some aspect of her life and make that part better. As long as she wants to change something, she should be accepted. She can always work on the sleeping around someday in the future, when she's ready to give that up.
I don't know his views but the author almost sounds like a Universalist or at least someone who really wants to make it as easy as possible for others to become Christians. He tries to tell the reader, it's okay to be disillusioned by church, just keep Jesus! Your angry feelings are okay. Your sins are okay. You can still love Jesus and Jesus will still love you.
The author spends a lot of time explaining that church WITHOUT culture doesn't seem to work and how church/Christian life needs to incorportate culture, not seperate from it. In other words, he seems to imply Christian music, Christian school, Christian books etc are put together to form a seperate Christian only society and when Christians try to come back into real life jobs/society, they are lost. They have seperated themselves from reality and now are unable to cope with an Unchristian culture. He also explains that Christians who seperate from non-Christian culture, lose appreciation for culture. He spends time telling us the value of culture and what it says about how we are raising our families. Culture and its elements (such as rap music) reflects human happiness/unhappiness, dissatisfaction, anger, etc.
Excerpt from PROLOGUE: I vaguely remember finding Jesus when I was a child, but I vividly recall losing him. My family’s carefully pruned image was shattered when my [minister] father’s affair became public. I didn’t know what sins my father had committed, but I knew this church had robbed him of his ability to be happy or to be home long before the choir started whispering about his transgressions. I watched him die there in that church while he gave his life to others. I would go to church, and then I would reenter life [and culture, leaving my Christian beliefs behind]. Perhaps the violent rejection of [the Christian] message by those on the outside isn’t an issue with Jesus—it’s an issue with how the Savior has been translated for them. Engage with God in a genuine way, a way that is not divorced from everyday life.
I'm not sure what to make of this book. I enjoyed it and it is thought-provoking and certainly not "mainstream" Christianity. It is challenging those mainstream beliefs and mainstream Christian lifestyle. Sadly, this book also seemed very fragmented and skipped all over the place with different ideas. The book didn't seem to make a coherent story. Although it had some VERY good points, I felt lost by the end of it and like I had to re-read it to try to make sense of it. I never did get the "jist" of what he was trying to convey. Or maybe this book just doesn't make sense by the end. I like the book for the good points it has and how it make me think, but I would guess most people will give it 3-4 stars.
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
Recommend: Right From the Heart by Bryant Wright
Right from the Heart is a 365 day Christian devotional that comes in a small size 7inches tall by 5 inches wide. The book is a little more than one inch thick but the the font/print is not too small to read - maybe a 10 point font. Each page has one bible verse and a life application or story to go with it for each day of the year. It takes less than 5 minutes to read through the page and no daily devotional is longer than one page.
This devotional is perfect for giving me a glimpse of God each morning, right before I start my crazy day schedule. I love that it only take 5 minutes to sit down and get a little gem to carry with me throughout the day. This book is easy to read and not too complex/hard to understand.
The only other devotional I have read is Utmost for His Highest and I found this devotional much easier to read. At the same time, it wasn't as deep, but it still serves a very good purpose - it makes you feel good, without being really heavy reading. I would expect women and new Christians to especially enjoy this book. But men should go with Utmost for His Highest and so should intellectuals and those who enjoy theology. This book would probably be a little too basic/shallow for them. So I recommend this book for women who enjoy Christian fiction and devotional lovers. Serious thinkers and theologans will probably not find a lot here but light reading and happy feelings. :)
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
This devotional is perfect for giving me a glimpse of God each morning, right before I start my crazy day schedule. I love that it only take 5 minutes to sit down and get a little gem to carry with me throughout the day. This book is easy to read and not too complex/hard to understand.
The only other devotional I have read is Utmost for His Highest and I found this devotional much easier to read. At the same time, it wasn't as deep, but it still serves a very good purpose - it makes you feel good, without being really heavy reading. I would expect women and new Christians to especially enjoy this book. But men should go with Utmost for His Highest and so should intellectuals and those who enjoy theology. This book would probably be a little too basic/shallow for them. So I recommend this book for women who enjoy Christian fiction and devotional lovers. Serious thinkers and theologans will probably not find a lot here but light reading and happy feelings. :)
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
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