Voices of the Faithful with Beth Moore and others

What can I say about Voices of the Faithful with Beth Moore and others except wow! This yearly devotional was an idea that Beth Moore had after hearing so many stories from missionary friends. She, with Kim P. Davis, compiled a year’s worth of stories from the mission field around the world, along with specific prayers. The stories, or devotions, are organized by specific aspects of the Christian Life or the Lord by month. For example, April is stories relating to God’s grace, October is stories relating to Spiritual Warfare. Each story is short, just one page long, and there is one story for every day of the year.

I knew when I went to open this book to start reading that I would be blown away by what I was about to read. And I was not disappointed. Some stories made me laugh, some made me cry, some made me stop and put the book down and just ponder the awesomeness of God and His incredible faithfulness, even in the most impossible situations. Time and time again I would think about who was writing these stories (many are unnamed) and realized that they are real people, like you and me, who are just out there living their life. Except, as Beth Moore writes in her introduction, they gave everything for Christ. That alone makes this book inspiring and encouraging that if you are a believer of Christ, than you can live like that. You too can live by faith and give everything you have and everything you do for Christ.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone. I especially recommend it to those believers who might be questioning where they are at in their faith or what they are doing. It will lift your spirit and encourage you to press on in the faith.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

A Year With God by R.P.Nettelhorst

Even though A Year With God: Daily Readings and Reflections on God’s Own Words by R.P. Nettelhorst is an Old Testament yearly devotional, I took it with me on my vacation to Florida and read passage after passage with my husband as we enjoyed a getaway together.

I really enjoyed how Nettelhorst wove together daily Scripture passages with history, insight, questions and tidbits of trivia from a variety of sources, including quotes from persons such as Abraham Lincoln. I find this devotional to be easy to read while at the same time making you think. Nettelhorst  also used different versions of the Bible throughout the devotional, which was very refreshing. I find that reading a different version than the one used in daily quiet time can sometimes give new insights and a fresh breath into a well-known passage of Scripture. Another neat feature of this devotional is that it is divided up into sections such as “hope and fear” and “perseverance and quitting ” as opposed to day by day (i.e. Jan 1, etc).  A person who might be going through a particular season in life could turn to a needed section and read through the daily readings, which are one page in length, and receive encouragement for their situation.

I would recommend this book to others, especially those interested in the Old Testament and its’ rich tapestry of history.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com &lt;http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Your Money God's Way by Amie Streater

What happens when you budget and you give and you’re still out of money at the end of the month? Maybe you have a Counterfeit Conviction about your finances.

  Your Money God’s Way by Amie Streater is a really excellent, eye opening Biblical approach to why people do the things they do with their finances. It is a book on finances, but not the kind of book I was initially expecting (something like a financial plan). The book was, in some ways, even better – it uncovered counterfeit convictions (half-truths or sometimes just plain lies we tell ourselves) about our finances and why we do what we do.  Streater battled these counterfeit convictions with Timeless Truths: principles from the Bible applied to the situation, backed up by Scripture.

An added bonus for me was that a lot of the Timeless Truths can be applied to other areas of your life – say self esteem issues. Of course we are talking about Biblical principles here and the Bible applies to every area of your life, including finances. I was challenged by the book and as soon as I finished it I went over to my computer to review our budget and get to work on our finances. I will definitely be applying some of the Timeless Truths to my own life as I work to get rid of my own Counterfeit Convictions.

 I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Product Review - Click Clack Canisters

I finally bought some storage containers for my flours and sugars yesterday at Target (after waiting and searching for just the right ones). These are from Click-Clack, a company in New Zealand. They are supposed to be airtight and you actually have to squeeze the blue butterfly-like tabs to take the lids on and off. You can actually see the air being squeezed out of the canister. I originally was looking for something with a pretty design made of porcelain or some like substance, but those are all priced at hundreds of dollars (at least the ones I looked at). These are utilitarian and they'll do the job, and they are priced at $13.99 for the large ones and down. The only thing I don't like about them is when you wash the lids (which aren't dishwasher safe - the canisters are though) is that they retain water on the inside of the white-opaque disc on the inside. It did dry out over time, but that was a surprise in the morning (after leaving them out all night to dry). They also come with a manufacturer five year warranty. A company that takes the kind of pride in their product where they back it for that long (nowadays) is a company that knows its' product must be a good one! :D I'm looking forward to many years of use from them.

Old and New

This used to be a blog that I used for my English Lit class . . . that was quite a while ago. I have decided to use it for something else, although indirectly related, and so here it is: Tegan's Musings 2. Tegan's Thoughts was taken as a name . . . (There is another Tegan around in the blogging world!). Anyway, I hope you enjoy! :)

Fare Thee Well :(

As I stated in my opening sentence for my advanced comp class blog, this is the last blog that I "have" to post for this class. However, I may continue to write about different books that I read, as sort of a running commentary for myself. I have such a long "to-read" book list, I'm sure I'll not be short of material to comment on. :)

I have really enjoyed this class. Some of the texts were hard for me to grasp, and consequently I found myself re-reading quite often. I am a fan of Charles Dickens and of Virginia Woolf, so it was nice to have an "excuse" to have read some of their work, which I hadn't previously read. I had started Great Expectations when I was 15, after reading A Tale of Two Cities, but for whatever reason, I never finished it, and it has been on my "to-read" list since then (that's over 10 years!! I know, I know, that's really terrible!)

English is not my major and though I have always wanted to take English classes, they never held precedence on my college courses list (science usually won out). I have read many classics on my own, simply because I was interested in the author or the book; I suppose that interest in literature comes from my Mom, being an English teacher herself. The same goes for writing. She taught my brother and I Shakespeare to memorize when we were kids. My brother was always much better at that than I was, and he had whole scenes memorized when he was only 8 or 9 year old! Needless to say, my brother is a very adept and capable reader and writer and is actually quite well read. When he does write, his writing is some of the best I've seen. You can't tell him that though . . . perhaps while he is in Iraq for the next few months, he'll start writing a bit . . .

Anyway, I have digressed from where I was originally going with this post. I have also really enjoyed reading everyone's discussion responses and was actually rather pleasantly suprised to find people who agreed with my interpretation of a certain text! I also like that everyone had a chance to say what they wanted, whereas in the classroom setting, there are always those intraverts who prefer to remain silent and absorb everything and not return their own feedback.

I may look into taking more lit classes in the future and at the very least getting a hold of some syllabi so I can do some reading on my own. . . . :)