ENCOURAGING THE HEART TOWARD GOD

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Have you ever experienced a deep sense of God's presence in your life?

In Celtic tradition the place where such a feeling is felt is called a "thin place". It is the place where the veil that separates heaven and earth is nearly transparent. It is a place where we experience a deep sense of God's presence in our every day world. A thin place is where, for a moment, the spiritual world and natural world intersect. It can be a sudden momentary awareness or profound unexplainable experience.

Pressing into Thin Places is a collection of stories, experiences, and learned truths expressed through poetry and prose. This book is one rich in the faith experience and in the assurance that God is love. It gives readers permission to be authentic and to acknowledge doubt, questions, even depression. Dr. Wills writes about the importance of prayer in strengthening faith and reminds the readers that Jesus tells us over and over again that we must have faith.

This is a book that will help you to feel closer to God after reading it, or at least it did me. As I laughed and cried my way through this little book I thought to myself, "I know many people who need to read this." I felt like I had joined with Dr. Wills in her own search for peace, hope and meaning in the midst of loss and pain. Her book encourages praise and appreciation at all times, for God's heart toward his children is unchanging. This book will encourage you celebrate in the struggle and ultimate triumph of faith founded in Jesus Christ, the beauty and diversity of creation, and the hope to be had in this life and the next through saving grace.

Dr. Margaret Harrell Wills is dedicated to the ministry of encouragement, helping people experience hope, wisdom, and faith in their spiritual journey. Dr. Wills received her doctoral degree in higher education with a teaching field of history from the University of Arkansas. She taught history at the University of Arkansas in Fort Smith, Arkansas. She is a writer and poet. She is a graduate of Chuck Colson's Centurion Program for Worldview Leadership.

I recommend this book as the kind you would want to give as a gift of encouragement to someone who is about to give up. It will bring light into darkness and renew hope.

(Thanks to The B & B Media Group for giving me this free book for review.)