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

Book Review: How People Change - 5 stars

How People Change * * * * * (5 stars) by David Tripp and Timothy Lane 

Real Practical Biblical Christianity Explained. 

This is truly an awesome book and a must have for every believe in Jesus Christ. No Christian home should be without this book. Tripp and Lane have done an excellent job in writing this book. This is NOT another self help book. This book begins with Christ and focuses on Christ all the way.

In this book, Tripp and Lane answer the question that serious Christians have been asking for some time, "why is the life style of professing Christians not different from that of their unsaved neighbors?" The answer according to Tripp and Lane is because most professing Christians have a huge gap in their understanding of the gospel.

In their words "Often there is a vast gap in our grasp of the gospel. It subverts our identity as Christians and our understanding of the present work of God. This gap undermines every relationship in our lives, every decision we make and every attempt to minister to others."    They go on to say that because the gospel gap in our lives must be filled, "If we do not live with a gospel-shaped, Christ-confident and change-committed Christianity, that hole will get filled with other things. These things may seem plausible and even biblical, but they will be missing the identity-provision process core that is meant to fill every believer."   Some of the things on the list will surprise you.

Using lots of case studies (real life examples with names changed), Tripp and Lane go on to show us how real change can happen in our lives and what it will look like as it is happening. This book is on its way to becoming a true Christian classic.

Reading level: ages 18 and up

Book Review: Escape From Camp 14 (5 stars)

Escape From Camp 14 * * * * * by Blaine Harden 

The Ultimate Devaluing of Human Life 

If you are like me who was not aware of the full extent of the brutal regime of North Korea, you are in for the shock of your life! This book is a narrative about Shin who was born and raised in one of the worst concentration camps in the world, the concentration camp in North Korea known as camp 14. The prisoners in this camp are beaten and tortured routinely.  He saw a camp guard beat his classmate to death for stealing five kernels of corn because she was hungry.  Shin is the first person (and I pray not the last) to escape from North Korea's camp 14.

According to South Korean's intelligence agency and human rights groups, there are six concentration camps in North Korea. The biggest is the same size as Los Angeles. Electric barbed wired fence and armed guard encircle most of these camps. Two of these camps, 15&18 have reduction zones where those fortunate in the camp are indoctrinated in the teachings of their leaders Kim Jung Il and Kim Il Sung. If they are good learners and can convince the guards of their loyalty, they are released but monitored for the rest of their lives. The remaining camps are called "complete control districts" where prisoners classified as "iredeemables" are kept and never released. They are worked to death.

Shin's camp 14 is a complete control district. Shin was born a slave and raised behind the barbed wired fence of camp 14 all because his blood was tainted by perceived crimes of his father's brothers. Thus, he lived below the law.   For him, nothing was possible. "......... His mother beat him (when he ate her lunch ration out of hunger) and he viewed her as a competitor for food. His father was allowed by guards to sleep with his mother just five nights a year, ignored him. His brother was a stranger........Love and mercy and family were words without meaning. God did not disappear or die. Shin never heard of him......"

This book showed in gory details, the ultimate devaluing of human life. Western thought has been largely shaped by a Judeo-Christian values that emphasizes the dignity of human life based on the Biblical teaching that man is made in the image of God. Cultures that do not embrace this teaching are left with nothing by the survival of the fittest mentality, which when taken to its logically conclusion will end in situations like this.

Blaine Harden did an excellent job in writing this book. The book is an easy read in terms of the writing style, but a very difficult read in terms of the content. You will come to understand the total depravity of man, once you read this book. The events of this book show us that man is not basically good as some would have us believe, but we are born with a sin nature which can only be redeemed and transformed by Christ Jesus.

Reading level: ages 18 and up

Book Review: First We Have Coffee (5 stars of 5)

First We Have Coffee: And Then We Talk * * * * *    by Margaret T. Jensen 

The Face of Christian Love and Hospitality!

What a great book! If you are looking for biblically based book on how to show Christ's love to your family, friends and even strangers, look no further.

The author's mom is truly a model of what a Christian wife, mother and woman should be. In these days when Christians have been become like the world, cherishing their "privacy" and failing to reach out even to their next door neighbors with the love and hospitality of Christ, this book is a breadth of fresh air.

 Showing Christian love and hospitality is not about how much you have in your bank account or how big your house is, it is about how much room you have in your heart. This book was a real page turner, I could not put it down. I got it about 3pm and was done before bedtime at 10pm, in between making dinner and other chores.


 If you are seeking the Lord on how to reach out to those around you, even your family, this is the book. While this book will bless any one who reads it, I think it will inspire wives and moms the most.

Reading level: ages 12 and up

Book Review: Seasons (4 stars of 5)

Seasons: A Real Story of an Amish Girl  * * * * by Elizabeth Byler Younts

 

True Contentment!

A very moving story about the author's grandmother. The author takes us through the different seasons of her grandmother's life, through the pains, joys and trials she had to endure growing up in a poor Amish family and how her faith brought her though it all.

 As you read this book, you will laugh and cry. The book was an easy read and a page turner. While the book was sad and heart wrenching, the trials she went through taught her how to be selfless and thankful.

 In spite of their poverty, she never complained nor whined about what she never had. She found things to be thankful for.  On page 13 (in my kindle version) she writes:

  "....I loved my parents, sisters and brothers.
 We were all generally healthy.
I loved school and my teacher Mrs Massey.
 We had a house.
We had peaches to eat and give away."

As you read the book, you will feel the sweet personality of the young Amish girl coming through the pages. This book really challenged me to search my heart and reexamine the things I hold to too tightly. I really loved this book.
Reading level: ages 10 and up

Book Reviews

I recently started a book club with a couple of friends and as such decided to start blogging again. This time, I plan to review books that I have read personally as well as some from our book club selection.