God Gave Us Love

God Gave Us Love by Lisa Tawn Bergern with art by Laura J. Bryant introduces kids to God’s amazing love.  In this short board book Little Cub discusses with his Grandpa the nature of love; including love for family and others, like otters who can be tough to love.  Grandpa teaches Little Cub about the great depth of God’s love and how we in response should love those that are just not loveable, like our family, but also unlovable otters.  The lesson is told accompanying by charming illustrations of Little Cub and his family, and even otters.

This is a review of a board book edition of this title which have previously been printed in other formats.  It is packaged and targeted for children 0 to 3.  And honestly it does not work well.  For a board book, there are too many words on a page and too much content.  I’m pretty sure that the book has more words than this review, which is a bad recipe in my opinion for a board book.  And that content is well above the head of most of that age group.  Personally, I feel that this title would work much better with children closer to 5 than 3.  Personally, I would recommend buying a non-board version of this story and give it to children older than 3. 

Review Copy Provided by Waterbrook Press

Great Day Every Day by Max Lucado

Max Lucado in Great Day Every Day: Navigating Life’s Challenges with Promise and Purpose inspires his reader to make the most out of day the Lord has made.  The book is broken into three key sections, “Saturate Your Day in His Grace”, “Entrust Your Day to His Oversight”, and “Accept His Direction”.  In general the book focuses on reorientating one’s view of a day, not seeing it as either ordinary or a challenge to overcome.  Instead Lucado challenges the reader to see God’s hand in the day, and be able to make the most of every single day in completing the purposes that God has built them for.  He shows his readers how to overcome crisis, depression and fear in order to achieve these purposes by entrusting one’s self to the Lord.  By entrusting everyday to God, Lucado shows that one can overcome the challenges of the day to have purpose and direction.  The core chapters are all followed by a one page “Daily Compass” that helps the reader reflect on the content of the chapter.  There is also an extensive discussion guide for small groups.  Additionally, the text is followed by a 30 day devotional, which though not written by Lucado, follows the three themes of the book. 

Great Day Every Day is a reprint of Lucado’s earlier Every Day Deserves a Chance.  The main differences between the two versions is the “Daily Compass” was previously labeled “Daylifter”, the 30 day devotional is not present in the earlier version, and the packaging and art of Great Day Every Day has a more serious tone.  Lucado, as always, is a very good writer with chapters that are easy to read and comprehend.  I think this would be a decent resource for a daily devotional due to the shortness of the chapters, usually 5 to 9 pages, and the “Daylifter” wrap up.  Anyone who has read a Lucado book in the past will be familiar with this type of Lucado book and content.  This does appear to provide more for the customer dollar than the original printing with the addition of the 30 day devotional.  Overall Great Day Every Day is a typical Lucado offering which fans will enjoy. 

Review Copy Provided for Purposes of Review

Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis

Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis by Terry Lindvall examines the use of humor in the writing of author C.S. Lewis.  Lindvall breaks humor into joy, fun, the joke proper, and satire and flippancy.  The author then explores in depth Lewis’ each use of humor in his writings ranging from fiction to theological.  Lindvall shows that Lewis clearly enjoyed humor and uses a wide range of humor in this works.

Within 30 pages I knew I would not enjoy this book.  Don’t get me wrong, Lindvall’s analysis is through, comprehensive and well researched.  Sadly, it’s a book about funny things that is not funny.  Instead it is dense and the reader plods through text instead of runs.  Part of this is probably my point of view.  I read this book for fun, it’s about humor.  This book should not be read for fun.  It should be read for a serious understanding of Lewis’ use of humor.  I would call this text literary criticism, not biography, and was not what I expected or hoped for.  If I was to be asked to write a criticism paper of Lewis, this would be a must use resource.  I should not have tried to read this book for “fun.”  And I should have listened to my buddy who tried to teach me about sunk cost!

Review Copy Provided for purpose of review

When Work & Family Collide by Andy Stanley

Andy Stanley in When Work & Family Collide: Keeping Your Job from Cheating Your Family provides practical and theologically sound advice on balancing home and work life.  Stanley notes despite the negative connotations to the word “cheating” that everyone does it.  He reframes cheating as “choosing to give up one thing in hope of gaining something else of greater value (Stanley, 1)”  The book provides examples of the negative impact on the family lives of many well meaning people who worked hard but neglect sharing their time with their families.  Stanley examines the life of Daniel from the Old Testament to provide principles on making a stand for our families.   He notes that Daniel took the stand to not cheat on his God under the pressures of those who worshiped another God.  Daniel shows us a strategy to not cheat.  Daniel addressed the issue directly, asked for but did not demand change, and offered alternatives.  In the end Daniel was allowed to test his claim that he would benefit by not eating foods dedicated to false idols, a test that he decisively passed.

This is a reprint of Stanley’s Choosing to Cheat, a book that I have cited and used to help my decision making over the last few years even though I have never read it.  Stanley presents to us a message that we all need to examine, balance.  We all know that we can and do at times cheat our families and he does not shy away from this fact.  Let’s be honest many of us have cheated our families in order to support the work of the church.  Stanley shows us that we can balance our lives and that the benefit to us is better than any raise or work promotion.  This is a book that I think every parent, husband, wife, minister, breathing person should consider in determining how to best make decisions for their futures. 

Review Copy Provided by WaterBrook Multnomah

Why Men Hate Going to Church Completely Revised & Updated

David Murrow has updated Why Men Hate Going to Church, his renowned book with new information and text previously published by him in other books.  Murrow in this text uncovers the gender gap in churches, asking the question where are the men?  Murrow shows his readers that today’s churches are dominated numerically by women and that men are largely absent.  He explores the culture of the church noting that church vocabulary and words like love and relationship are tied to feminine culture and not masculine images.  For example, churches typically use pictures of Jesus as a lamb or dove while generally ignoring the word pictures of Jesus as a lion.  He also shows how church programs, largely academic and feelings based provide boys and men discomfort leading to a male exodus from the church.  In general, churches rely on volunteer positions that are better suited to female preferences instead of male.  And church programming generally also follows this trend.  Finally, he provides suggestions and practical examples of how to return men to church.  Murrow advocates that the greatest way to grow the modern church is call men back by changing our culture.  By bringing back men Murrow argues that men, women and children will all benefit.    

                                        

This book creates a lot of conflict in me in my ministry and my personal life.  My ministry has been within one that stereotypically is a women’s ministry, working with families and children.  Part of my personal call has been to have manly guys working within that ministry so kids can see both the masculine and caring side of men demonstrating balance.  But I see exactly what Murrow describes with curriculum that are largely intellectual in nature and put boys at a disadvantage with girls in the “competition” of Sunday school.  And I think that this realization is what has led me to also seek non-traditional curriculum and curriculum that relies on movement and diversity to help keep boys engaged in learning about Christ.  Honestly, one of my best days of ministry was spending a day with a predominantly boy youth group scooping horse manure.  There were no complaints as these boys completed a manly task in God’s name.  As a man I often found myself chaffing at his description of academic pursuits as womanly.  I personally excel in this area while my skills in car maintenance are completely lacking.  But with this prejudice aside I definitely see and have felt the issues he points out about language, frilly decorations and relationships.  My academic training is history, which warns that generalizations are not absolute.  So, there are exceptions to what Murrow describes, but the generalizations are widespread enough that leaders should take notice of this book and assess how their ministries are attracting or repelling men and boys. 

        

Review Copy Provided by Thomas Nelson

Bonhoeffer Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile Vs. the Third Reich by Eric Metaxas

Bonhoeffer Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile Vs. the Third Reich by Eric Metaxas surveys the life of 20^th century German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Born in 1906, Bonhoeffer was raised in a family of German intellectuals where success was assumed.  Dietrich chose the nonintellectual pursuit of theological study, and flourished bringing his family’s tendency for scientific discovery combined with a sincere belief in the God of the Bible.   Bonhoeffer became one of the leading voices of the German Confessing Church in the 1930s challenging the state authorized and often anti-God church of the Third Reich.  Bonhoeffer’s resistance eventually led to his participation in a conspiracy to assassinate Adolph Hitler leading to the failed Stauffenberg plot of July 1944.  In the aftermath of this attempt of the Fuhrer’s life, Bonhoeffer and other conspirators were arrested with Bonhoeffer executed by Hitler’s spiteful orders in the last days of the war in April 1945. 

Bonhoeffer Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy is an excellent book.  Metaxas has written a comprehensive book of a complex character a man who was an academic, teacher, son, brother, friend, pastor and a man who lived his faith.  Throughout the book Metaxas shows how Bonhoeffer’s decisions were guided by his faith, a faith that he believed should be lived out in his daily life.  This did not mean that Bonhoeffer lead the life of a secluded monk, instead his life was full of friends, sport, parties, books and music.  Instead of separating himself from “real” life, Bonhoeffer dived into it inviting God into those activities.  Additionally, it was this faith that guided him to stand for the oppressed, especially the Jewish community, within Hitler’s Germany.  From discussions on theology to the biography of a fascinating character who stood against Third Reich in an active way this book offers the reader much to think about and tension for Bonhoeffer’s fate despite knowing his eventual end as a Martyr.     

    

Review Copy Provided by Thomas Nelson

Theme Park Sabbath

Theme Park Sabbath: Some thoughts on rest, relaxation, and how to bring God into the little things like Space Mountain.