General Books - Page 12

Safe People: How to Find Relationships That Are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren't

Henry Cloud, John Townsend

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 41 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

not what you think it is 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I was looking forward to reading this book and when I started to read it I realized it was a religious book disquised as a different type of book. I am very disapointed and might send it back. Be aware.

Forgettable, Uninspiring 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The first part of the book was okay, as it outlined the types of people who are "unsafe", but it completely wimped out on the reader. The authors give no solutions for improving relationships or finding safe people.

I expected that the book would be a lot more practical, and it just wasn't. It was very clinical and dry. Additionally, I find some of the concepts a tad spiritually "iffy". They seem to play fast and loose with scriptures, applying scriptures to situations that would have benefitted from any number of different scriptures. It was weird. His interpretation of scripture was a little odd. Also, most of they said was not backed up with a lot of scripture when you really evaluate it.

Also, it was poorly written. The sentence construction was poor. Technically it was correct, but overall a hindrance when you have to read a sentence three times to figure out its point. They just aren't versed in the art of writing.

In all a really dull and uninspiring read. Not at all helpful. I wish I had something better to say about it, but I don't. It was disappointing and forgettable.

Editorial Review:

Safe People answers questions about painful relationships with a voice of encouragement and hope. Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend offer solid guidance for making safe choices in relationships. They help identify the nurturing people we all need in our lives, as well as ones we need to learn to avoid.

One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life

Kerry Shook, Chris Shook

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Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Take the 30-Days to Live Challenge at www.OneMonthtoLive.com!

What if you only had one month to live? How would you make each day meaningful? How would you relate to others differently? What would you do to make the rest of your life really matter?

With eye-opening insights and soul-inspiring truths, One Month to Live will challenge you to embrace the life God has entrusted to you and you alone, and to live it out moment by moment with wholehearted authenticity, honesty, and integrity.

Each chapter overflows with inspiring quotations, colorful true stories, and questions for reflection. The four sections, which can be read over four weeks, help you examine the core areas inside you that long to be exercised and expressed: how you’re made to live passionately, love boldly, learn from your mistakes, and leave a legacy that endures for generations after you’re gone. Complete with uplifting action points, each of the thirty chapters–one per day in a life-changing month–offers you fresh strategies for overcoming habits that mire you in mediocrity.

Open yourself to the challenge of embracing your mortality and being empowered to live each day engaged in being fully alive.

The Jesus I Never Knew

Philip Yancey

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Total reviews: 168 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Jesus I used to know 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Philip Yancey, in THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW, lets slip with a few secrets that you never learned in Sunday School (nor even, for that matter, in THE DA VINCI CODE). Example: Have you heard the one about Jesus catching a bad case of leprosy? (p. 79). [He got it from rubbing spit-and-mud on an elderly leper, neglecting then to wash his hands before lunch. Two weeks later, when the lesions appeared, Jesus healed himself using the same trusted remedy, and Presto! he was good to go.]

Yancey's disclosures are precisely what make this book so important: Indeed, THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW has been "Critically acclaimed as the most significant book of the last ten years" (and it's not just Phil Yancey who says so, I take that quote directly from the book jacket).

Phil grew up long before the days of Christian video games, like that one in which you blast to smithereens the Jews who want to nail Jesus to the cross. As a child, Phil Yancey thought that Jesus was just some two-dimensional bearded figure in a boring flannelgraph story; after which, the teacher gave you KoolAid and sugar cookies. Later, as a teen, Phil was able to admire Jesus as a role model--a bootlegger who, when his Mom rebuked him, sassed her with such rude remarks as "Woman, what have I to with THEE?" But when Phil (as a grown man) finally came to know the true Lord of glory, he discovered "a Jesus who is brilliant, creative, challenging, fearless, compassionate, unpredictable, and ultimately satisfying"--not unlike Robert Powell in Franco Zeffirelli's film version (p. 77); in fact, I'd say almost EXACTLY like Robert Powell in Franco Zeffirelli's film version.

I actually like Jesus, quite a lot. Jesus, back when I first knew him, was (a.) the Son of Yahveh, and (b.) a very nice, well-adjusted person, which, when you consider those two facts side by side, is no small accomplishment. And I totally agree with most of what Phil has to say in this book about the real Jesus: "brilliant," yes; "creative," yes; "challenging," absolutely. I endorse all of his epithets except the last: "ultimately satisfying?" Not! Just ask Mary Magdalene, she'll back me up. "What would Jesus do?" is a fascinating question, but it's exactly what we never knew; and (trust me!) no one tried harder to find out the answer, than Mary Magdalene.

My favourite part of Phil's book is Chapter 4, "Temptation: Showdown in the Desert." Here's the story, which is one that Philip Yancey never used to know. In 28 CE, Jesus and I spent six weeks together, hiking in the wilderness and then taking a tour of Jerusalem. We talked. We reminisced. We shared our fantasies. My idea was for Jesus to have a little fun while he lived among humankind, maybe even commit a harmless sin or two, just as a life-experience; but he was not open to that suggestion (Mark 1:13). When he became hungry, I tempted him to turn stones into bread. He didn't bite. When he felt discouraged, I tempted him to throw himself off a pinnacle without getting hurt, thereby to prove his divinity. He didn't jump. Testing the limits of his courtesy, I offered him a sizable chunk of real estate - the entire planet - if he would pay me a single compliment of the sort Yahveh gets every day of the year. No thanks. And when he was horny - yes, Jesus was tempted in all points like any other man, but without sin - I'd catch his attention with some short-togaed Roman shiksa and whisper in his ear and say, "Hey, Jesus, how'd you like some o' that before returning to Heaven!" (Hebrews 4:15).

But Jesus would just his squeeze eyes shut in that cute way he has, and say, "Woe unto you, Lucifer, for trying to make me think about that!" (Matt. 4:1-11).

In retrospect, I have always felt my timing was off: for it was immediately after the baptismal service - right after he saw his Father looking down on us from Heaven - that I tempted Jesus to dabble in sin. I should have tempted him to dabble sooner, during his adolescence. Instead, Jesus' unassailable virtue struck a harmful blow to my self-esteem. It's quite unusual when I earnestly tempt someone to sin, for my suggestions to be rejected flat out. But with Jesus I hit a brick wall. I tried every rhetorical, Jesuitical, trick in the book. I could not even make Jesus WANT to dabble in sin. So I guess you could say that, between the two of us, Jesus proved himself the better man. He is certainly more obedient than I am. Well, more power to him! I've got no beef with Jesus. I just wish that I could have got to know him a little better before he scooted back up to Heaven and left us with a planet full of Christians.

--L

Editorial Review:

Philip Yancey reveals the real Jesus beyond the stereotypes, revolutionizing the reader's passion for Christ.

The Power of a Praying Parent (Power of a Praying)

Stormie Omartian

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 60 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Knowledge of God's Word is POWER! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The Power of a Praying Parent - A Book of Prayers by Stormie Omartian is an excellent tool for all parents to have. I purchased the book to give to a couple that was expecting a new baby. A gift for the baby would have been good, but this book was better to assist and keep the parents motivated to pray.

Parents are not perfect and no one can ever have too much information. That is why no matter how much you read the bible, attend church, and watch christian television...it is always good to have something new, fresh, and scriptual to keep you on your toes along this parental journey.

The book contains prayers that concern various areas of parenting. A scripture is paired with each prayer. A space for your personal prayer notes is also included. The prayers, scriptures, and personal notes can be used to encourage yourself and others as needed for a lifetime.

A great book to supplement this book with is "Single Parent Support - A Collection of Inspirational Scriptures" on Amazon.

I give this book 4 stars and highly recommend it for all parents. Parents come in all fashions (married, single, widowed, grandparents, god-parents, foster parents, teachers, aunts, uncles, adoptive, etc.). So get this book and be encouraged.

Reviewed by:
Pamela Jarmon-WadeSingle Parent Support: A Collection of Inspirational Scriptures

Editorial Review:

Stormie revisits her bestselling book for parents (more than 1.4 million copies sold) by adding some new material and the wisdom gleaned from even more years of being a mom. After decades of raising her own children along with her husband, Michael, she looks back at the trials and joys of parenting and the power found in praying for her kids. In 30 easy–to–read chapters, Stormie shares from personal experience as to how parents can pray for their children’s

• safety
• character development
• adolescence
• peer pressure
• school experiences
• friends
• relationship with God

Now adults, Stormie’s grown–up children reflect on the way their praying parents raised them—and what a difference it made.

The Dream Giver: Following Your God-Given Destiny

Bruce Wilkinson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 106 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bestselling author Bruce Wilkinson shows how to identify and overcome the obstacles that keep millions from living the life they were created for. He begins with a compelling modern-day parable about Ordinary, who dares to leave the Land of Familiar to pursue his Big Dream. With the help of the Dream Giver, Ordinary begins the hardest and most rewarding journey of his life. Wilkinson gives readers practical, biblical keys to fulfilling their own dream, revealing that there's no limit to what God can accomplish when we choose to pursue the dreams He gives us for His honor.

Are you living your dream— or just living your life?

Welcome to a little story about a very big idea. This compelling modern-day parable tells the story of Ordinary, who dares to leave the Land of Familiar to pursue his Big Dream.

You, too, have been given a Big Dream. One that can change your life. One that the Dream Giver wants you to achieve. Does your Big Dream seem hopelessly out of reach? Are you waiting for something or someone to make your dream happen?

Then you’re ready for The Dream Giver.

Let Bruce Wilkinson show you how to rise above the ordinary, conquer your fears, and overcome the obstacles that keep you from living your Big Dream.

You were made for this. Now it’s time to begin your journey.

The Practice of the Presence of God

Brother Lawrence

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Total reviews: 87 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Radical...not necessarily practical 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Brother Lawrence's spiritual classic can be summarized in a few short steps:

1. Have a mystical vision of the divine love of God. (Unfortunately, no hint of how this can be accomplished is given.)

2. Renounce the world and everything in it. (Larry Bro apparently had no family, career, or other extenuating circumstances, so he joined a monastery as a lay brother and cook.)

3. Pray ceaselessly, even while you're asleep. Don't worry about temptation, your neighbor, suffering, mortification, responsibility, complications, penance, formality, growth, doctrine, vocation, redemption, and anything else you can think of.

After around four to ten years of tormenting doubt and fear (by his accounts) you'll be ready to bask in the warm glow of grace!

The message of complete faith in God is indeed a great one. But the line between self-sacrifice and self-indulgence sometimes gets blurred. We are not given an account of any works of charity, love, or mercy that Brother Lawrence may have accomplished. Only that he went around happy all day. Somtimes he was so giddy with God's love that he would have to pinch himself to keep from giggling in front of other people. Then he derides normal people for not being drunk all day on spiritual consolations.

What is truly ironic is that Brother Lawrence's path was, at the time, thought to be a great shortcut. Compared to the discipline required of monks in those days, I'm sure it was. Nowadays, Deepak Chopra Winfrey would probably be unimpressed. The great Saints would probably recommend that you pick up your cross and eschew the easy path.

Editorial Review:

The Practice of the Presence of God is among the most enduringly popular of all Christian devotional works. It is a collection of conversations with a simple seventeenth-century French Carmelite monk who, through the simplest of everyday activities, was able to achieve a profound intimacy with God. Brother Lawrence's teaching has resonated with Christians for more than three hundred years, and it is fitting that it is now available in this beautiful edition with a fine full-cloth cover, a sewn binding, and a ribbon marker.

Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear

Max Lucado

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 73 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Traveling Light 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is the best book I have read. It deals with the common burdens of life and how to hand them over to God. I thought it was so good I bought the large print book as well for my Grandfather to read.

one of the best from Max Lucado 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I'm a big fan of Max Lucado's writings. He is easy to read and down to earth in his approach to getting solid biblical points across. This book is one of his best. New christians as well as those farther along in their christian walk will enjoy this book.

Editorial Review:

Weary travelers. You've seen them-everything they own crammed into their luggage. Staggering through terminals and hotel lobbies with overstuffed suitcases, trunks, duffels, and backpacks. Backs ache. Feet burn. Eyelids droop. We've all seen people like that. At times, we are people like that-if not with our physical luggage, then at least with our spiritual load. We all lug loads we were never intended to carry. Fear. Worry. Discontent. No wonder we get so weary. We're worn out from carrying that excess baggage. Wouldn't it be nice to lose some of those bags? That's the invitation of Max Lucado. With the Twenty-third Psalm as our guide, let's release some of the burdens we were never intended to bear.

Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs

Bill Hybels

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Speed of the Leader, Speed of the Team 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Bill Hybels revs up in chapter one--and the good stuff is still kicking in chapter 68, "Read All You Can." He writes, "I have little patience with leaders who get themselves into leadership binds and then confess that they haven't read a leadership book in years. If you're a serious-minded leader, you will read." In the book's foreword, Henry Cloud writes, "Great leaders do their homework so that weariness and unsteadiness are kept at bay."

Amen to that vote for lifelong learning, also affirmed in the "Book Bucket" one of 20 buckets in my book, Mastering The Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-profit. Consequently, I was eager to read the latest book from Bill Hybels, one of the most gifted leaders I've ever met. Axiom, with 76 pithy leadership proverbs, doesn't disappoint.

"Speed of the leader, speed of the team," was and is one of Bill's oft-mentioned axioms. Few leaders make this pronouncement because the camera immediately focuses in on them. As the first president of Willow Creek Association, I watched Hybels up close and he always shared that core value confidently, yet humbly. His walk and his talk backed it up. He writes, "If you cannot say, `Follow me,' to your followers--and mean it--then you've got a problem, a big one."

He elaborates. "Follow my values. Follow my integrity. Follow my work ethic, my commitment, and my communication patterns. Fight as I fight. Focus as I focus. Sacrifice as I sacrifice. Love as I love. Repent as I repent. Admit wrong as I admit wrong. Endure hardship as I endure hardship." Then he concludes this one-page proverb with the whole point of it. "When requisite actions back them up, these are the words that set followers' hearts soaring."

Scan the 76 mini-chapter titles and you'll be pulled into the street-smart, God-smart wisdom. They include: Language Matters, Make the Big Ask, Hire Tens, The Dangers of Incrementalism, Never Say Someone's No for Them, The Tunnel of Chaos (a key idea in my Culture Bucket), Disagree Without Drawing Blood, Admit Mistakes and Your Stock Goes Up, and Arrive Early or Not at All.

Warning! Don't carelessly toss these axioms into your repertoire without understanding the biblical and leadership context. In my days at Willow, "Don't Screw Up" was a common benediction at meetings--but it created anxiety, not blessing. The leader knew how to communicate it, but the lieutenants didn't.

Editorial Review:

Winning leaders have winning points-of-view—succinct, practical, portable leadership proverbs that help them arbitrate decisions and arouse troops to action. In Axiom: The Language of Leadership, Pastor Bill Hybels reveals sixty God-given, from-the-gut truths that continue to raise his game and his vision, thirty-plus years into his local-church leadership experience.

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas

Nancy Guthrie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An anthology of Advent readings collected from the writings and sermons of 22 classic and contemporary theologians and Bible teachers.

Between purchasing presents and planning travel, enjoying holiday pageants and attending parties, it is all too easy for Christmas to silence the sacredness and crowd out a quiet anticipation of the season’s truths. So when editor Nancy Guthrie decided she wanted a reflective book of Advent readings that would help her pause and consider the riches of Christ come to earth, she embarked on what she calls “a sacred adventure,” putting together such a collection herself.

The result—this special volume—draws from the works and sermons of classic theologians such as Whitefield, Luther, Spurgeon, and Augustine, and from leading contemporary communicators such as John Piper, J. Ligon Duncan, Randy Alcorn, John MacArthur, Francis Schaeffer, R. C. Sproul, Skip Ryan, and Joni Eareckson Tada to beckon you and your family into the wonder of Jesus’ incarnation and birth.

With its high view of Scripture and its focus on the gift of Jesus, this lovely book is sure to ready your heart and mind for a fresh experience of “Immanuel, God with us” this and every Advent season. Open the cover and discover what Christmas was meant to be…

Raising a Modern-Day Knight: A Father's Role in Guiding His Son to Authentic Manhood

Robert Lewis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Many good insights 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

As I began reading this book, my initial reaction was negative. The author obviously was portraying knighthood in a romantic fashion, one drawn more from Hollywood movies than research in the area. It wasn't long, however, that I gave him a mulligan on that one and listened to the more important points he was making. I finally decided that if he wanted to use a romanticized notion of knighthood, I could deal with that because he was also saying a lot of things that needed saying. Lewis' premise is that boys have know idea what a man is. That resonated. I also liked his principles of manhood: A real man rejects passivity, accepts responsibility, leads courageously and expects the greater reward. Even more appealing to me was his assertion that ceremonies that mark key life passages in ways that make them memorable for a lifetime are important. While I am proud of the men my sons have grown to be, even without the book, I can see how memorable ceremonies in their lives would have been advantageous. All in all, this is a book with enough insights in it that it would be worth the time of any father, but especially of boys in the 10-12 year-old age range.

Editorial Review:

What does it mean to be a man? Moreover, how does a father instill these qualities in his son? Using as an example the process by which a boy moved through the medieval stages of knighthood, author Robert Lewis identifies parallel stages for today's fathers to create ceremonies to commemorate significant milestones in a young man's journey toward becoming a modern-day knight. Beginning with a biblical perspective of manhood, author-pastor Robert Lewis shares a unique approach to shaping a boy into a man by equipping him with three essential elements: a vision, a code of conduct, and a cause (Christianity) in which to invest his life. Complete with ceremony ideas to celebrate accomplishments and ingrain them in his mind, this softcover is as insightful as it is practical in raising a boy to be a chivalrous, godly man.