Book Review: Divine by Karen Kingsbury
May 19, 2012
Available in the All Saints Amazon Bookstore.
Reviewed by Lillie Ammann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This modern-day retelling of the Mary Magdalene story was obviously written in response to The DaVinci Code. The author talks about the heresy of The DaVinci Code in the introduction and in the discussion questions.
Mary Madison experiences seven modern demons—such as abuse, addiction, and promiscuity—and is delivered from them by the divine power of the Lord Jesus Christ. She devotes her life to serving Him and helping save other women who are trapped like she was.
I have only one tiny disagreement with anything in the story—Mary does a lot of lobbying for government funding of programs to help women that I think might better be done by churches and private organizations. However, she also works extensively in the nonprofit community and directly with individuals so her advocacy of government programs isn’t a major issue.
Book Review: Terror by Night by Terry Caffey
May 14, 2012
Terror by Night: The True Story of the Brutal Texas Murder that Destroyed a Family, . . . by Terry Caffey
Available in the All Saints Amazon Bookstore.
Reviewed by Lillie Ammann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book had such an impact on me that I’m still thinking about two weeks after I’ve finished reading it. If I could give a higher rating, I would rate it 10 stars.
Although it reads like a novel, this is a true story of a horrific crime that included the murders of the author’s wife and two sons, severe injuries to the author, the destruction of his home by arson, and the conviction of his daughter along with three others for the crime.
Terry Caffey was in the medical supply business but had been very active in his church and on the verge of being ordained as a minister. By all accounts the family was loving and happy except for what seemed like normal teenage rebellion from a sixteen-year-old girl who was involved with a boy the parents didn’t approve of. Then a week after his father’s funeral, the family was brutally attacked in their home. Terry awoke from unconsciousness (apparently the killers thought he was dead) and found his wife dead next to him and the house engulfed in flames and smoke. He couldn’t reach the three children he thought were on the second floor and crawled for hours to the nearest house, expecting to identify the killer and die himself to join his family in Heaven.
But God had other plans, and Terry lived, though severely physically and psychologically injured. He had some hope when he learned his daughter was found safe, only to have his hopes dashed when she was arrested as the mastermind of the murders. As would be expected, at first he didn’t want to live, and he wanted to save the state of Texas the cost of executing the killers. He felt he could kill them himself.
But through a series of amazing events, remarkable people, prayer, and reading the Bible (especially the Book of Job), he reached the point that he could forgive the killers and even convince the prosecutors to bargain for life without possibility of parole instead of the death penalty. He said that Jesus had died for his sins, and he wanted the killers to have time to find the Lord and be saved before they died. He stood by his daughter throughout the ordeal and lobbied for her to get a sentence that would make her eligible for parole at age 59 so she would have some hope. He continues to visit her every visiting day. He has since been ordained and regularly gives his testimony in churches and prisons.
Though I have summarized some of the high points of the book, I highly recommend you read it yourself. There is so much more there, and the spiritual impact is so strong that all Christians will wonder how they would react if something this unimaginable happened to them. Could I forgive the people who took away everything? Is my faith strong enough to make a new life after the old one was destroyed?
My Reading Plan Was Random; God’s Wasn’t
April 24, 2012
(from A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye, blog of Lillie Ammann)
All of the following books can be found in the All Saints Bookstore:
This year for Lent I gave up reading all fiction (Christian and secular) and all secular nonfiction and read only Christian nonfiction. I did not have a reading plan of specific books or topics. I simply read free Kindle books in the order I downloaded them, as follows:
- The Disciplined Life (Ebook Short) by Calvin Miller
- The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask: (With Answers) by Mark Mittelberg and Lee Strobel
- Not God’s Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith by Holly Ordway
- The Rule of St. Benedict by St. Benedict
- Philippians: The Fellowship of the Gospel (Preaching the Word) by R. Kent Hughes
- Suffering and the Sovereignty of God by John Piper and Justin Taylor
- What Is the Gospel? (9Marks) by Greg Gilbert and D.A. Carson
- Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? by Philip Yancey
- Craving God: A 21-Day Devotional Challenge, based on Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food by Lysa TerLeul
- Raising the Dead: A Doctor Encounters the Miraculous by Chauncey W. Crandall
- Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt
- Hell Is Real (But I Hate to Admit It) by Brian Jones
- God’s Story, Your Story: When His Becomes Yours by Max Lucado
- Why, O God?: Suffering and Disability in the Bible and the Church by Multiple Authors
- Listening to God (Life Principles Study Series) by Charles F. Stanley
- Friendship with Jesus by David L. Miller
Considering that I chose the books simply because they were free, it would seem that the readings would be random and disconnected. But even when my choices are random, God’s plan isn’t. There were a few overriding themes among everything I read:
- God blesses us so we can bless others, not so we can live the American dream.
- We can communicate with God through prayer, reading His Word, listening to the Holy Spirit, and learning from other Christians.
- God is sovereign—He is in control of everything. He can heal physically if He chooses, but if He allows us to suffer, He doesn’t explain Himself to us. Even if physical healing doesn’t come in this earthly life, spiritual healing is always available.
- The heart of the Gospel is the substitutionary atonement of Jesus on the cross. It is all about Him, not about us.
- God’s Word is true—He means what He says, and His Word tells us that Heaven and Hell are real and that accepting Jesus Christ as Savior is the only way to end up in Heaven and not in Hell.
- Each of us as Christians has an obligation to witness to others so they have the same opportunity we do to spend eternity with the Lord. If we loved unsaved family and friends, we will be more concerned about their eternal life in Heaven or hell than being embarrassed about taking about faith.
- Christians should expect to suffer and experience trials and tribulations as Jesus Himself told us we would, but sufferings are part of His perfect plan working together for our good, even when we can’t understand.
- We need to show compassion and God’s love to others who are suffering, both individually and corporately.
Of course, there is much more to learn from these books, but I was struck by the unity of themes among so many disparate and seemingly random titles.
You can read my reviews of all of these books on Goodreads.
Book Review: No Little People
March 24, 2012
No Little People by Francis A. Schaeffer
Available in the All Saints Bookstore
Reviewed by Lillie Ammann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The book contains sixteen individual sermons on a variety of topics. I was not familiar with the author, and from the title I wondered if “no little people” involved building self-esteem or something. I was pleased to discover that the theme of the sermon is that when it comes to serving God, there are no little people. None of us we aren’t worthy to do what God calls us to do. The Bible is filled with people who had weaknesses, yet God used them their weaknesses in their service to Him. All of the sermons were excellent and well worth reading.
Book Review: Not God’s Type
March 15, 2012
Not God’s Type by Holly Ordway
Available in the All Saints Bookstore
Reviewed by Lillie Ammann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
As someone raised in a Christian home, it’s hard for me to imagine a life with no knowledge of Christianity. The author was an intellectual and an atheist who thought that the Bible was a fairy tale and that smart people didn’t believe in God. As a professor of English literature, though, she was intrigued by the faith expressed in some of the poems she loved. She fenced in competition, and her fencing coach was a Christian. He never tried to evangelize her, which would have sent her running the other direction. However, he and his wife were always willing to answer her questions. The book describes her journey from atheism to orthodox faith. She gradually came to realize that there are rational reasons for faith—it is not just emotional. Her coming to faith was similar in many ways to how C.S. Lewis, one of the writers whose books helped her, became a believer. Holly Ordway has gone from scoffing at Christians and faith to sharing her passionate faith through her writing and in her life. Highly recommended.
Book Review: Powerful Prayers for Troubled Times
March 10, 2012
Powerful Prayers for Troubled Times by Stormie Omartian
Available in the All Saints Bookstore
Reviewed by Lillie Ammann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Powerful prayers to pray for our country and specific situations, as well as a reminder of how important it is that we pray for our country and our leaders.
Book Review: On Earth as It Is in Heaven
March 6, 2012
On Earth as It Is in Heaven by Warren Wiersbe
Available in the All Saints Bookstore
Reviewed by Lillie Ammann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It seems obvious after reading this book, but after saying the Lord’s Prayer daily (usually more than once a day) for most of my life, I had never realized that three of the requests in the prayer focus on God and three focus on the needs of the person saying the prayer. The prayer begins with hallowing God’s name–focusing on the glory of His name–and continues with the request for the coming of His Kingdom and the accomplishing of His will on earth. Then it moves into requests for the pray-er: physical needs (daily bread), forgiveness of sin, and victory over trial and temptation. This book made me realize that I often fail to give God glory in prayer and jump right into my own needs. The Lord’s Prayer provides a wonderful pattern for all our prayers.
Book Review: The Applause of Heaven
February 29, 2012
The Applause Of Heaven by Max Lucado
Available in the All Saints Bookstore
Review by Lillie Ammann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The style is simple and entertaining, but the message is powerful. This book ties the Beatitudes together in a way I hadn’t thought of before. Rather than a series of individual items, they are interrelated.
Book Review: Safely Home
February 24, 2012
Safely Home by Randy Alcorn
Available in the All Saints Bookstore
Reviewed by Lillie Ammann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is one of the most powerful and moving novels I have ever read. Ben Fielding, am American businessman doing business in China, and his college roommate, Li Quan, an assistant locksmith in a poor town in China, are reunited after twenty years. Though Ben brought Quan to Christ, Ben lost his faith and made success his god, while Quan gave up his chance for success and endured severe persecution for his faith.
I thought I had a heart for the persecuted church before reading Safely Home, but reading about the daily life of a persecuted Christian really made an impact. Even though the story is fiction, the persecution is very real to Christians around the world. God preserve and bless them!
Two from Galilee: Book Review by Anita Forbes
December 29, 2011
Two from Galilee is available in the All Saints Bookstore
Marjorie Holmes brings to life a love story between Mary, a virgin teenager, and Joseph, a carpenter. Their divine love story was entwined in the culture of that era, family conflict, and the prophetic birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are given a gracious glimpse of what the lives of Mary and Joseph might have been like as they lived day to day in preparation for their life together. But one day their lives took a drastic change when an angel appeared to Mary and announced her calling to be the blessed mother of a son, whom she was to name Jesus, who was destined to save His people from sin. Take a moment this Christmas season to read a story that will truly give a life changing perspective of the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Then shout “Emmanuel! God is with us!”
Marjorie Holmes also wrote a sequel, Three from Galilee, which depicts the life of Jesus as he was growing up.
