Draw the Circle

Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge by Mark Batterson builds upon his earlier work in The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears. Batterson provides readers with a 40 day devotional to help focus his readers on a greater prayer life. Each entry is 5 to 6 pages in length and covers a variety of prayer related topics. Batterson’s writing used excerpts from The Circle Maker, stories of those impacted by the original book and tales from Batterson’s own prayer life.

Batterson opens with “The forty-day prayer challenge is going to change your life (Batterson, 7).” Personally I feel this promise falls short. To me Draw the Circle is more of a devotional than a challenge. To me a challenge is something that requires action steps and reflection. I assume that these can be found in Batterson’s The Circle Maker Prayer Journal. If I evaluate the book as a devotional, I find it typical of that book type. And I believe those who enjoy Batterson’s writing style will likely find this enjoyable and enlightening.

I sadly am not a huge fan of devotionals, though I have read a few. Yet I was still able to find thoughts for reflection. These include need to provide variance to our prayer life to avoid ruts, the need for specific and non specific prayer and stories of God working in the lives of the prayerful. I probably would have enjoyed this more if I had thought of it as a devotional and not a challenge.

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Who Do You Think You Are?

Mark Driscoll in Who Do You Think You Are? Finding Your True Identity in Christ confronts his readers with a simple truth.  They are experiencing an identity crisis.  He notes that many Christians place negative labels on themselves instead of realizing that their salvation has made them image bearers in the likeness of the Trinitarian God.  So instead of viewing ourselves as being in the image of Adam, the sinful man, we need to understand how we are copies of Jesus, the holy divine man.  To demonstrate our true identities, Driscoll explores the book of Ephesians with his reader.  He points to our true indentity that includes that we are, saved, blessed, saintly, rewarded, adopted and loved.  How often we forget we are loved!

I have never read a Driscoll book or heard a Driscoll sermon.  I have often heard he is a fiery personality.  I did not get that impression from this book.  Yes, he is realistic about how Christians are often obstacles to other Christians.  And he pushes us to be more than legalistic.  But I did not see him as controversial in this book.  Maybe this is a reflection of my own thoughts!  In the end, I believe this is a helpful book, for Christians that are struggling to understand who they truly are!  

Review Copy Provided by Thomas Nelson 

The Purpose Driven Life, Expanded Edition

I cheated.  Author Rick Warren requests you take 40 days to read The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? so you can reflect on each chapter.  Instead, I read through it in 8 days.  So, it is possible, okay I know, I missed out on the full impact of the book.

In The Purpose Driven Life, Warren walks his readers though the theological and practical spiritual steps to living on purpose.  Each chapter is a daily meditation that focuses on one topic and finishes with points to consider and questions to ask.  For the expanded edition, Warren has added codes that can be scanned by a smart phone and provides access to videos that accompany the chapters.  The book is broken into sections on living for God’s pleasure, living as part of God’s family, living to imitate Christ, service and missions.  At the conclusion of the book are numerous appendixes for additional resources, including some free ones, and Bible verses.

Lately, I have been complaining about generic Christian books and my frustration over them.  In many ways I can see how The Purpose Driven Life provides nothing really new and is generic. But even when I read the first edition over 8 years ago I never got the sense that Warren was trying to provide breakthrough ideas.  Instead, I think he was attempting to make 2,000 years of theological study fit within a container that was understandable to the general public.  The reaction and book sales make it clear that he accomplished his goal.  So in many ways I feel like generic Christian books are trying to copy the Warren success, rather than this book being part of the problem.

I really do suggest reading this book as a group.  I can remember when I did this in weeks one and two our group discussed questions like what job does God want me to have.  But by the time we dug into the content the question really became what kind of person does God want me to be.  Ironically and results may vary, that is when jobs and other personal requests opened for the group.  The Purpose Driven Life was one of the most successful group studies I have been part of.

I really would recommend this book as a small group tool or a book that would be helpful to a new believer.  Even for those who have been around for awhile it can be very useful.  I found myself contemplating Warren’s comments about how the church is filled with servant-leaders not servants.  And the new chapters on envy and people pleasing are highly insightful.  All in all, the expanded edition only helps to build on the success of this highly popular book.             

Review Copy Provided by Thomas Nelson

Twelve Unlikely Heroes

Twelve Unlikely Heroes: How God Commissioned Unexpected People in the Bible and what He Wants to Do with You by John MacArthur outlines the lives of 12 figures from the Bible who proved to be heroic though they may have seemed ordinary.  Those profiled are drawn from the Old Testament, such as Joseph and Gideon, and the New Testament, like John the Baptist.  Though the biographies are predominately from the Old Testament.  Many will be familiar with like Joseph but the book also includes more obscure figures like Enoch and Onesimus.  Though these heroes were all very different people, MacArthur shows how all were people of faith and acted on God’s direction. 

Overall Twelve Unlikely Heroes is clear and easy to read.  Some of the chapters are balanced more towards Christian living teachings, like the Enoch chapter, due to a lack of biographical information.  Other chapters, like Joseph, are more heavy on biography due to the vast amount of primary and secondary material available.  Honestly, the chapters that were the least effective for me were Joseph and Miriam, which was really heavy on Moses, because they cover material that others have presented from pulpits, videos and other books.  It was profiles for James, Mark, and Onesimus that were the most effective to me since they are figures we hear less about.  I also appreciated MacArthurs use of tradition and church history to help expand on the Biblical information we have on these figures, while be transparent to their source.  Overall, Twelve Unlikely Heroes is accessible book that could serve as a good introduction to the lives of these early heroes.    

Review Copy Provided by Thomas Nelson

Heaven Change Everything

Heaven Changes Everything: Living Every Day with Eternity in Mind by Todd and Sonia Burpo is a devotional that builds on the story of Todd Burpos’s bestseller Heaven is for Real, which details the Burpos’ son Colton’s experiences during a near death experience.  There are 42 entries which are written by one or both of the Burpos that follow the same format.  Each chapter opens with a brief excerpt from Heaven is For Real, followed by a narrative that builds on the principles of the excerpt or discusses events that have happened since the publication of the first book, a thought to contemplate and finally a Bible verse linked to the devotional’s main point.  The topics covered vary from serving, grieving, the afterlife, evangelism, prayer and many more.

As I read though this devotional, I found that it would be what most would expect from a devotional reader with brief chapters that can be mulled over.  I believe that this offering would be of interest to two audiences.  First, fans of Heaven is For Real will likely enjoy this text since the Burpos expand on stories within the original book and share stories from their life about what has happened since.  The second audience is those who are wrestling with grieving.  Having lost a child to heaven, and have him returned they speak of loss in a different way than others that did not walk through journey.  Additionally, as a pastor and his wife they have seen and helped others in their periods of loss.  Overall Heaven Changes Everything is a typical devotional that fans of Heaven is For Real will likely pick up to enlarge the story of the Burpo family. 

Review Copy Provided by Thomas Nelson

Grace by Max Lucado

Grace!  It is a powerful and often misunderstood concept.  And it is foundational to our faith.  Max Lucado in Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine attempts to wrap his readers’ minds around this complicated and important word by showing examples of grace in action in the lives of ordinary people, who often prove themselves extraordinary, and the pages of the Bible.  Lucado notes that we often have a wimpy picture of grace and that he wants readers to understand the transformative power of grace.  The grace that Lucado offers is one that reshapes the recipient giving us a heart transplant in his words.  The chapters of Grace shows how grace changes us to be more giving, more caring, and more receptive to the work of God.  The main text is followed by a study guide. 

So, if you have read and liked a Max Lucado book before, you probably know what you are getting in Grace.  The book is easy to read and Lucado’s strength is his ability to write in a clear and entertaining way.  Most anyone can pick up and understand this book.  The chapters are brief and easy to read through in a devotional style.  So, if you have read and not liked a Max Lucado book before, you probably know what you are getting in Grace.  So for those who dislike Lucado’s style you already are well aware of this and probably should not pick up this book.  Grace is a typical Lucado book sure to please Lucado’s core audience.       

Greater: Dream Bigger, Start Smaller. Ignite God's Vision for Your Life

Greater: Dream Bigger. Start Smaller. Ignite God’s Vision For Your Life by Steven Furtick looks to inspire learners to stop living mediocre lives and step into the life of greatness God has meant for them.  Furtick provides both practical, theological and inspirational advice for believers to escape their a life of waste to one that is greater, greater than labels, greater than earthly success, greater than our own dreams.  To show us how to live this greater life, Furtick relies on two chief illustrations.  The first is the prophet Elisha who went from plowman to Israel’s most distinguished prophet of his day.  The second is stories from Furtick’s own Elevation Church and the people that he does life with.  Furtick directs our attention to Jesus, the ultimate example of one who lived a life using the principles Furtick has discovered to being greater. 

The following is probably more of my thoughts on “Christian” publishing and not Greater persay.  Why as a belief group that speaks living in freedom do we need so many “self-help” books.  Furtick himself acknowledges that he could be seen as just another self-help book.  My question is why does he need to address that issue?  Let’s be honest, self-help books are ones we read, consider, and then forget about as we pick up the next title.  I call it Generic Christian Book and they tend to have the themes of look to Jesus, throw off the bonds and live in freedom, do more for Jesus.  Don’t worry they also tend to all give us the same recipe; have faith, pray, read your Bible, be nice to animals (okay I made that up).  Honesty this is not about our authors but us as consumers.  Publisher and authors are putting these Generic Christian Books out because we are buying and reading them, but as I look around are we living them with the swagger that says the Father loves me and I am free!  Often, I think no.

With that being said, Greater is a text that I would drop into the category of Generic Christian Book.  Yes, I like the use of Elisha.  Yes, the books are well written.  But I think a “mature” believer should have read much of this elsewhere or heard similar concepts from the pulpit.  Greater should be of benefit to a new believer who needs to move past that old mediocre life and does not know how yet, but it is us “mature” believers that seem to need this sort of message again and again and again and again.  Reading with a bad attitude, some of the examples from real life mentioned in the book did not impress me.  And I was frustrated with impression given early in the book that one with deep faith who takes a deep risk will have a windfall soon after, especially when Furtick discusses in depth later in the book the difficulties walking out on faith will experience. 

Honestly, I was probably pre-disposed to not be as open to Greater as others who will pick it up.  I almost feel bad saying it but I see it as a trend within theBbody.  Maybe I am reading too many Generic Christian Books improperly giving me the impression that we are staggering in our belief instead of strutting with confidence.  As someone who reads a lot, I say let’s start listening and living the messages of a book like Greater instead of recycling and re-reading it’s concept that we need to live lives of greatness.     

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