SAYING IT WELL

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

SAYING IT WELL

Touching Others With Your Words

By Charles R. Swindoll

OVERVIEW: Bestselling author and master communicator Charles Swindoll has been effectively speaking to others for over fifty years. In Saying It Well: Touching Others with Your Words he shares his secrets on how to talk so people will listen. Filled with techniques, stories, and models that clearly explain the formulas for successful speaking, Swindoll teaches readers the foundational principles for how to communicate, from preparing for a speech, organizing thoughts, and filtering out the superfluous to overcoming fears, grabbing the listener's attention, and knowing how and when to stop. With humorous stories and inventive, practical tips, one of America's premier communicators shares decades of experience on how to speak with authority in every situation, persuade others to consider the reader's perspective, overcome the reader's fears of public speaking,and love others more effectively with the reader's words. He also shares his personal story and his journey to becoming a world-famous speaker.

AUTHOR: Dr. Charles Swindoll has devoted more than four decades to two passions: an unwavering commitment to the practical communication and application of God's Word, and an untiring devotion to seeing lives transformed by God's grace. Swindoll graduated magna cum laude from Dallas Theological Seminary and has since been honored with four doctorates. For his teaching on Insight for Living, he has received the Program of the year award and the Hall of Fame award from the National Religious Broadcasters, as well as multiple book awards.

MY REVIEW: "Who is the best preacher you have on tape?" I asked the lady in the church office. She didn't hesitate. "Have you heard Charles Swindoll?" "No." I said. "I have never even heard of him." That was many years ago. I borrowed a couple of cassette tapes from the church library. That was over thirty years ago. I have been listening to Charles Swindoll ever since. I have heard him preach from his pulpit when he lived in California and I have heard him speak at Bible conferences. I have listened to more of his sermons on tape than I can remember and I have read most of his books. He is one of my favorite preachers!

I recommend this book to all preachers―especially young ones and to anyone who speaks publicly and wants to touch others with their words. Swindoll not only knows how to say it well from the lectern he says it well in writing. Because of my great fondness for him as a person, I especially enjoyed the way he shared his personal life. Even though it is only January, I can say without doubt―this will be one of my favorite books of the year.

(I am thankful to FaithWords of Hachette Book Group for giving me this book for review.)

WHY JESUS?

Friday, January 27, 2012

WHY JESUS?

Rediscovering His Truth In An Age

Of Mass Marketed Spirituality

By Ravi Zacharias

OVERVIEW: In this book, bestselling author and radio evangelist Ravi Zacharias analyzes the "spiritual" movements of the past forty years, debunking thier claims and returning the reader to the classic, biblical definition of Jesus' person, work and teaching. Focusing on Christianity's centrally important tenet—the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ—Zacharias makes a passionate, imaginative, and convincing case that the biblical Jesus is the real Jesus.

AUTHOR: Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias (born 1946) is an Indian-born, Canadian-American evangelical Christian apologist. Zacharias is the author of numerous Christian books, including Gold Medallion Book Award winner Can Man Live Without God?^[1] and bestsellers Light in the Shadow of Jihad^[2] and The Grand Weaver.^[3] He is the founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, host of the radio programs Let My People Think and Just Thinking, and visiting professor at Wycliffe Hall of Oxford, where he teaches apologetics and evangelism.^[4] Zacharias studied as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University and held the chair in Evangelism and Contemporary Thought at Alliance Theological Seminary from 1981 to 1984.^[5] Commentator Chuck Colson referred to Zacharias as "the great apologist of our time."^[6]

MY REVIEW: Ravi Zacharia has done it again. This is one amazing book! This is a book about the deep, irrepressible spiritual hungers we all have. These are confusing times we live in. We live in a world that mass-markets numerous paths to truth. But of course all these paths do not lead to truth. Zacharia has given careful research and deep thought to this subject. After traveling in numerous countries and many conversations over a period of forty years he is able to offer thoughts that lead to truth. Many today say they are not "into" religion but they are "into" spirituality. Ravi Zacharia looks into all of this, the forms of new spirituality and the religions that have provided the underlying worldviews from which these popular forms of spirituality have emerged. Finally, he looks at what it is about the message of Jesus Christ that, if properly understood, still offers the beauty, the power, and the only hope of any future for mankind. At the point of his conversion C.S. Lewis said, "I thought I had come to a place. I found out I had come to a person." that's what this book is about: examining the places we wish to be and those we should walk away from until we find the Person for whom we are looking. This is an important book. I recommend it without reservation!

(My thanks to FaithWords of Hachette Book Group for this book to review.)

WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT WHAT OTHERS THINK OF US ?

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ME?

WHY DO I CARE?

Answer to the Big Questions In life

By Edward T. Welch

OVERVIEW: Peer pressure, codependency, shame, low self-esteem--these are just some of the words used to identify how people are controlled by others' opinions. Why is it so important to be liked? Why is rejections so traumatic? Edward T. Welch's insightful, biblical answers to these questions show that freedom from others' opinions and genuine, loving relationships grow as we learn about ourselves, others, and God. This interactive book includes questions for individual or group study and is suitable for teenagers and young adults.

AUTHOR: Edward T. Welch, MDiv. PhD, is a licensed psychologist and faculty member at the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation. He has counseled for thirty years and is the best-selling author of many books including When People Are Big and God Is Small; Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave; Blame It on the Brain?; Depression: A Stubborn Darkness; Crossroads: A Step-by-Step Guide Away from Addiction; Running Scared: Fear,Worry, and the God of Rest; and When I Am Afraid: A Step-by-Step Guide Away from Fear and Anxiety. He and his wife Sheri have two married daughters and four grand-children.

MY REVIEW: This is a book I needed to read sixty-five years ago. I agree with Walt Mueller, Founder and President of Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, who said, "This book is life-giving. And since God gives us limited years on his earth, it's a book for those who are young to read sooner rather than later!" This is especially for younger people but it will challenge people of every age. I especially like the way the author brings Scripture alive to help with this problem. The book is well written and easy to read. Most of us know people who are trying to win approval and escape rejection. You can bless them by giving them a copy of this book that just may challenge them and change their lives.

(Thanks to B & B Media Group, Inc. for giving me this book for review.)

EXCUSABLE DUE TO HIS YOUTH?

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Talented young preachers are putting forth a message lifting up Christ while putting down religion.

It sounds good. I know I certainly worship Christ and not religion.

But at its heart the message of Jesus versus religion is wrong.

Many keep embracing this message while saying, "Yes, this is wrong but we need to excuse it because of his youth."

I'm sorry but that is just not right. We need to lovingly correct this mistake not excuse it!

Please read, think and pray about the words of Kevin DeYoung as quoted in a Christianity Today article by Glenn T. Stanton posted 1-20-2012:

If you want Jesus, you have to take him for who He was. You can't re-construct a stripped down, organic anti-corporate version of what you think He should be. Jesus' gospel is a scandal to all of us, the hipsters and the geezers. It's different than your fabulous pair of pre-worn skinny jeans.

James tells us about religion, that there is some religion that God is quite big on.

So it's not a question of Jesus and religion or Jesus minus religion. It's Jesus and what kind of religion. And this is a bit of the problem with the "Just give me Jesus" and the "Jesus Plus Nothing" approach to faith. We'd like to make it all that simple. Jesus never did. He just didn't. He gives His church certain trappings for good reason.

Does the system of religion (of belief and practice) take you regularly to Christ, compelling you to cast yourselves before him in adoration and upon him in desperation? Or does it given you a false sense of your own self-sufficiency and superiority based on the system itself because it fits with your sense of right?

One is what each of us need. The other is rooted in the original and devastating sin of pride. So no, religion is not the problem. Our rewriting the script is.

INTO THE NEW YEAR

Monday, January 23, 2012

The days of this year seem to be moving forward at a rapid pace.

 Regardless of how I describe it, this year is moving. It may be sinking. I'm not sure. If so, it is not a forward movement but a downward one. You can see I am confused. The year is definitely going. I'm just not sure if it is going up, down, forward or where the heck it is going---but it is going.

Yes, I am amazed that this month is almost gone. Kaput. Gone.

Don't ask me why I am amazed, surprised. It is always this way. "Here today. Gone tomorrow."

Every year, for fifty-three years when we take down our Christmas tree, my wife says, "We will just turn around a few times and be putting it back up." Of course it never happens that way but she always says it---and always will.

Why? Because life seems to be "flying" by. 

"What is your life? You are a mist that

appears for a little while and then vanishes."

                                                                                               James 4:14

I have already done a lot of "stuff" in this new year. The Lord willing, I will do a lot more.

I want to try and do everything I do to the glory of God. He does so much for me!

Yes. January is going. But February is coming. I'm kicking it up a notch into pure joy!

PRAYER FOR THE HEART AND WILL OF GOD

Saturday, January 21, 2012

I LIKE THIS PRAYER OF THOMAS A KEMPIS

Grant me, O Lord, to know what I ought to know,

to love what I ought to love,

to praise what delights thee most,

to value what is precious in Thy sight,

to hate what is offensive to Thee.

Do not suffer me to judge according to the sight of my eyes,

nor to pass sentence according to the hearing of the ears of ignorant men,

but to discern with a true judgment between things visible and spiritual,

and above all things always to inquire what is the good pleasure of They will.

---Thomas A Kempis (Germany/C. 1380-1471)