Hinds Feet on High Places - 4 stars

Hinds Feet on High Place **** 
by Hannah Hurnnard

 A True Depiction of the Christian Walk


This book is a powerful allegory depicting the Christian life. This book is a lot like Pilgrim's Progress. As a matter of fact, the author was greatly influenced by Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

The story is about a girl named "Much-Afraid" who lives in the "Valley of Humiliation" who has a crooked mouth and crooked feet. Even though she is a member of the "Fearings" family, she loves the Shepherd with all of her heart and desires to be in His service. She longs to have "hind's feet" and "leap upon the high places". She also loves the Shepard and desires to be with and be one of his servants. The Shepard knowing her desire to be with him, agrees to give her hinds feet and take her to the high places on one condition - he must place the thorn-like seed of love in her heart.

As a member of the Fearing family, plans were under way for her to marry "Craven Fear", who also happened to be her cousin. However, since Much-Afraid has fallen in love with the Shepherd, she no longer desires the things her family members desire. She absolutely does not want to have anything to do with her family nor is she interested in marrying "Craven-Fear". All she wants is to follow the Shepherd to the high places.

The Shepherd grants her request and sends her on the journey to high places. He also sends along two companions to help her along the journey, they are to follow her all the days of her journey to the high places. Who are these companions? They are not goodness and mercy, but the very ones whom they Bible tells us will help to build patience and character in our lives as we serve Christ.

Along the way, "Much-Afraid" builds a lot of altars where she sacrifices her own will and takes up the Shepherd's will.

Through much suffering and enduring, storms, ridicule from loved ones and going through deserts, valleys and pit falls, "Much-Afraid" and her two companions finally reach the high places where their names are changed and they are transformed. Although the journey to the high places was rough and tempestuous and sometimes very scary, the shepherd was always a call away.

This is an awesome book that does not paint a rosy "name it and claim it" picture of following Christ, but accurately depicts what it means to follow Christ. To be a true follower of Christ, you have to do what Jesus said to do, which is deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Him. This book will make a great addition to your Christian library.

It is sad to note that towards the end of her life, the author of this book Hannah Hurnnard wandered away from the Christian faith into the "New Age" movement. As one raised in a Christian home, it seems she knew about Christ, but never really knew Him. Very sad indeed.


Reading level 10 and up.

Faithful Women and their Extraordinary God (5 stars)

Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God
* * * * *

 by Noel Piper

Ordinary Women, Extraordinary God!

Thank you Mrs Piper for such a treasure! If you are like me and love reading biographies of ordinary Christians who made themselves available so the Lord could do exploits through them, then you will certainly love this book. This is the biography of five ordinary women, who lived in different eras in history and in different countries who were willing to be used by God in extraordinary ways. The women are:

Sara Edwards - A true Titus 2 woman who selflessly supported the ministry of her husband, Jonathan Edwards;

Lilias Trotter - She was born in to an upper class family in Victorian England but chose to served God as a missionary in Algeria North Africa;

Gladys Alward -She left her home in England in 1932 to serve the Lord in China;

Esther Ahn Kim - stood along side the persecuted believers during the Japanese occupation of Korea;

Helen Roseveare became a doctor to the people of the Congo.

I love the way Mrs Piper showed how the Master Designer of the universe was working to bring the ministries of these women to pass.

“With one exception, these women didn’t know each other. But I can almost picture each one passing the baton of faithfulness from her generation to the next.

In 1758, as Sarah Edwatds lay dying in New England, “she expressed her entire resignation to God and her desire that he might be glorified in all things; and that she might be enabled to glorify him to the last.'

Not quite 100 years later in England, Lilias Trotter was born into a family of a similar social standing as the Pierreponts, Sarah Edward’s family. When Lilias dies in 1928 in Algeria, Gladys Aylward was in London trying to persuade her brother and friends that someone needed to take the gospel to China. Soon she realized that God was calling her.

In 1940, as Gladys was trekking across the Chinese mountains with 100 children, Esther Ahn Kim had already been a prisoner for the gospel’s sake for a year in Korea. Esther was released in 1945, the year that Helen Roseveare, a medical student in England, became a Christian.

And Helen Roseveare’s life crosses the years of our lives, as she passes the baton of faithfulness to us, this generation.

May God give us eyes to see the crossings of these womens lives with our lives. And even more, may we see God more clearly in our own lives because of what we see in the loves of Sarah Edwards, Lilias Trotter, Gladys Awlard, Esther Ahn Kim, and Helen Roseveare."

Not only was I captivated by the stories of these women, I was also challenged to live a life worthy of the Lord where he has called me to serve, which is wife, mother, Church member and Christian sister.

These biographies are not very in-depth and as such make for a very easy and enjoyable read, it does serve to wet your appetite by creating a desire in you to want to know more about the life and ministries of these ladies.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have read it twice and can see myself reading it a couple more times. This book will bless you and your family tremendously and will definitely be a great addition to your library.

Reading level 10 and up.

Book Review -Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire - 5 stars

Fresh Wind Fresh Fire * * * * *

by Jim Cymbala

A House of Prayer!

 

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire will challenge you to pray and seek the Lord in everything and for everything. The book challenges you to pray, not just for results, but to get to know the one who loves you.

This is the story of how God took a struggling dying church with a struggling minister and turned it into one of the biggest churches of our time. This book is filled with story after story of how the Lord transformed the lives of people with the gospel and the power of prayer. What good is it to have the right teaching and doctrine, but no power from the Holy Ghost? Pastor Jim Cymbala not only teaches sound doctrine, but also emphasizes the importance of personal and corporate prayer without all the theatrics of the charismatics.

Pastor Cymbala does not just talk about prayer, he prays, his church prays.  Even their choir practice is a prayer service!   In most mega churches where thousands attend Sunday morning services, only about a few hundred usually show up for their weekday prayer meetings. Not so with the Brooklyn tabernacle, not only do thousands show up for Sunday morning worship, thousands also show up for Tuesday night prayer meeting. As a matter of fact, people show up and wait in line for hours before the church doors are open - for the Tuesday prayer meeting!

Through his sound biblical teaching and corporate prayer, the Brooklyn Tabernacle have been able to reach all kinds of people, from prostitutes to cross dressers to crack addicts, drunks and homeless bums, all have not only experience salvation, but a true change in their life styles with evidence.

Here are some quotes: " The more we pray, the more we sense our need to pray. The more we sense a need to pray, the more we want to pray."

"Prayer is the source of the Christian life, a Christian lifeline. Otherwise, it's like having a baby in your arms and dressing her up so cute - but she's not breathing! Never mind the frilly clothes; stabilize the child's vital signs. It does no good to talk to someone in a comatose state. That's why the great emphasis on teaching in today's churches is producing such limited results. Teaching is good only where there's life to be channeled. If the listeners are in a spiritual coma, what we're telling them may be fine and orthodox, but unfortunately spiritual life cannot be taught."

"If my church or your church isn't praying, we shouldn't be boasting in our orthodoxy or our Sunday morning attendance figures."

The book is filled with testimonies of lives that have been transformed through the prayer of the saints. Pastor Cymbala also shares a testimony of how God transformed a member of his family through the prayer of the saints.

Once you start to read this book, you won't be able to put it down. This is a must read!

Reading level: ages 18 and up

Book Review - The Scent of Water - 3 stars

The Scent of Water - Grace For Every Kind of Broken

 * * *  by Naomi Zacharias

The gospel is missing in action. 

This book is the story of Naomi Zacharias' work and life with Wellspring International. You could call this an autobiography of her life, sort of,  since she talks about some aspect of her personal life, not just her work with Wellspring.

What is Wellspring International? According to the book, Wellspring was set up "to research global needs for women and children at risk and to develop a process of due diligence to evaluate organizations seeking to meet those needs. Our mission is to facilitate financial support to meet such needs by providing donors the confidence that their gifts were managed with integrity and were meeting legitimate purposes." She details some of her work in this book, which is very interesting. This book is an enjoyable read.  The work that Wellspring does is truly commendable.

Through the ministry of Wellspring, children who would not have been able to afford liver transplant, get it, prostitutes enslaved in the red light district in Amsterdam (where prostitution is legal), are given hope and opportunity to live a better life and much more. Through her work with Wellspring, Ms Zacharias travels to different countries on different continents to help meet the need of the less fortunate. Wellspring is doing a good job. While talking about her work with Wellspring, she also talks openly and honestly about some areas of her personal life especially her divorce.

While I applaud the work the author does through Wellspring, I do have one major issue with the book - there is no gospel message in it pages! As a Christian author involved in Christian ministry, the book seemed to lack the gospel message. In all the good that was done to the less privilege through Wellspring, there was no mention of ever sharing the good news of the gospel with any of them. Perhaps the gospel was presented, but there is no mention of it in the book. As Christians, we are called not only to minister to the needs of the poor and oppressed but also to preach the gospel to them. In His response to the disciples of John the Baptist who wanted to know if Jesus was the Messiah or not, Jesus said to tell John that the "poor have the gospel preached to them." (Luke 7:22). Jesus is the only hope for the poor and the oppressed.

Also, the Scripture is replete with what a Christian woman should look and act like, so I found it very disturbing that the author who professes to be a believer in Christ, encourages women to read Jean Bolen's book "Goddess in every woman" to find out which " goddess archetype is prominent in her person." seriously?! She sees her own goddess archetype as Artemis and "Artemis pursues her own course and appears strong outwardly" Why this would even be in a book about a Christian woman and her work with a Christian ministry is beyond me!

I do not question Ms Zacharias' faith in Christ, I question her wisdom in leaving the gospel message out of her book. While everyone who reads the book will surely commend the work of Wellspring International, we should not forget that as believers, we  have been called to preach the gospel in season and out of season.

Reading level: age 18 and up