Jun. 15, 2009 - Father's Day Blog Tour!!!
I had the pleasure of participating in the Father's Day Blog tour which allowed me the chance to read three books, unfortunately I only had the time to read the first two but after I finish the third there will be a forthcoming review done at An Ohio Reviewing Mom. So enjoy the blog tour!
1st book: "The Disappearance of God" by R. Albert Mohler Jr.
About the Book:
More faulty information about God swirls around us today than ever before. No wonder so many followers of Christ are unsure of what they really believe in the face of the new spiritual openness attempting to alter unchanging truth.
For centuries the church has taught and guarded the core Christian beliefs that make up the essential foundations of the faith. But in our postmodern age, sloppy teaching and outright lies create rampant confusion, and many Christians are free-falling for “feel-good” theology.
We need to know the truth to save ourselves from errors that will derail our faith.
As biblical scholar, author, and president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Albert Mohler, writes, “The entire structure of Christian truth is now under attack.” With wit and wisdom he tackles the most important aspects of these modern issues:
Is God changing His mind about sin?
Why is hell off limits for many pastors?
What’s good or bad about the “dangerous” emergent movement?
Have Christians stopped seeing God as God?
Is the social justice movement misguided?
Could the role of beauty be critical to our theology?
Is liberal faith any less destructive than atheism?
Are churches pandering to their members to survive?
In the age-old battle to preserve the foundations of faith, it's up to a new generation to confront and disarm the contemporary shams and fight for the truth. Dr. Mohler provides the scriptural answers to show you how.
My Opinion:
I enjoyed this book, I enjoy books that talk about what Christians should be and how they should follow God's Word as the inerrant truth for yesterday, today and tomorrow. While the author is President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and his writing does show a penchant for the Baptist denomination - this book is good for any denomination that wants to live like the disciples of old.
Mr. Mohler gets down into the nitty gritty that most churches ignore such as the ignoring of sin, sweeping Hell under the rug, and how we make God in our image and not in His Image. He uses some big terminology that may throw some people off in the reading of his book, but if you long to understand what is wrong in today's churches, wether it's Luthern, Baptist, Church of Christ, Catholic, Emergent, etc, it is imperative that you try to work your way through the book. You may want a concordance or a Bible/Theology dictionary at your side but it would be well worth it to read this book in it's entirety.
You can find more about purchasing this book HERE.
2nd Book: "The Knights of Arrethtrae Book 3: Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart" by Chuck Black
About the Book:
Sir Dalton, a knight in training, seems to have everything going for him. Young, well-liked, and a natural leader, he has earned the respect and admiration of his fellow knights, and especially the beautiful Lady Brynn.
But something is amiss at the training camp. Their new trainer is popular but lacks the passion to inspire them to true service to the King and the Prince. Besides this, the knights are too busy enjoying a season of good times to be concerned with a disturbing report that many of their fellow Knights have mysteriously vanished.
When Sir Dalton is sent on a mission, he encounters strange attacks, especially when he is alone. As his commitment wanes, the attacks grow in intensity until he is captured by Lord Drox, a massive Shadow Warrior. Bruised and beaten, Dalton refuses to submit to evil and initiates a daring escape with only one of two outcomes–life or death. But what will become of the hundreds of knights he’ll leave behind? In a kingdom of peril, Dalton thinks he is on his own, but two faithful friends have not abandoned him, and neither has a strange old hermit who seems to know much about the Prince. But can Dalton face the evil Shadow Warrior again and survive?
My opinion:
Wow! I had never heard of this author before this blog tour let alone this great, allegorical series and I feel very deprived! I picked the book up to read one morning and finished by that same afternoon. It was action packed with knights, a man that is supposed to remind the reader of Christ and all sorts of sword fights to fight for the Son.
The whole book is filled with parallels to the Bible and that is what the author strives for in his writing, he wants to serve the Lord, that is his main passion besides loving his wife and their six children. Normally I don't read allegorical fiction books because I feel as if they detract from the true Bible stories but I must say that Mr. Black really hit on something with this series as he maintains Biblical integrity.
I am thinking of letting my 7 year old read this book, it is geared toward youth and teens and some younger children may not be able to handle some of the fight scenes as there is mention of blood and a mention of a dead body. I don't think this takes away from it though because as Christians we know death is not the end but only the begining so for a child who can comprehend and understand that I think they could gain something from this book, namely about our Lord Jesus Christ.
You can find more information on purchasing this book by visiting Random Houses' Sir Dalton page.
3rd Book: "Eyes Wide Open" by Jud Wilhite (this is the book I have not had time to read yet)
About the Book:
I had it all backwards. The main thing was not my love for God, but his love for me. And from that love I respond to God as one deeply flawed, yet loved. I’m not looking to prove my worth. I’m not searching for acceptance. I’m living out of the worth God already declares I have. I’m embracing his view of me and in the process discovering the person he created me to be.
In Eyes Wide Open, Jud Wilhite invites you to discover the real you. Not the you who pretends to be perfect to satisfy everyone’s expectations. Not the you who always feels guilty before God. Not the you who secretly feels God forgives everyone else but only tolerates you. Not the you who looks in the mirror and sees a failure. The real you, loved and forgiven by God, living out of your identity in Christ.
A travel guide through real spirituality from one incomplete person to another, Eyes Wide Open is a book of stories about following God in the messes of life, about broken pasts and our lifelong need for grace. It is a book about seeing ourselves and God with new eyes–eyes wide open to a God of love.
You can find more about Eyes Wide Open here.
