FEEL BETTER FAST AND MAKE IT LAST

Thursday, November 29, 2018

FEEL BETTER FAST
AND MAKE IT LAST
By Daniel G. Amen, MD

OVERVIEW: In Feel Better Fast and Make It Last, you'll discover powerful brain-based strategies to quickly gain control over anxiety, worry, sadness, stress, and anger, strengthening your resilience and giving you joy and purpose for a lifetime.

AUTHOR: Dr. Daniel G. Amen is a physician, a double board-certified psychiatrist, the founder of Amen Clinics, a 10-time New York Times bestselling author, and an international speaker. Together with Pastor Rick Warren and Mark Hyman, MD, Dr. Amen is also one of the chief architects of Saddleback Church's Daniel Plan, a program to get the world healthy through religious organizations. Dr. Amen has written, produced, and hosted many popular public television shows about the brain that have aired across North America. He has spoken for the National Security Agency, and his work has been featured in outlets, including Newsweek, Time magazine, HuffPost, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and Men's Health.

MY REVIEW: Most of us know people who need to overcome negativity, anxiety, anger, stress and trauma. Maybe not all of these, but at least one or two. I wanted to get this book hoping to help my friends. I found out that I could be a friend to myself by reading it and following Dr. Amen's wise counsel. I agree with him that "No one feels joyful all the time, but with an understanding of how your brain, mind, and attachments work—and of strategies to enhance their functioning—you are more likely to love your life and feel better every day.

The book is divided into seven different and helpful parts. An example is part 5 about nourishment. Dr. Amen talks about the feel better fast diet and then lists foods that help you feel great now and later. I especially liked part 7 about love. He states that doing the right thing is the ultimate act of love for self and others. I agree. Yes! We need to know and do the right thing. We will feel better!

I agree with Andrew Newberg, MD who wrote, "Fascinating and important neuroscience information on how to boost your mood, quiet anxiety, and increase your overall brain health, I highly recommend it."

(I received this book from Tyndale House Publishers for a fair and honest review.)

FINDING FAITH IN OURSELVES AND SOMETHING BIGGER

Tuesday, October 02, 2018

THE HUNDRED STORY HOME
A Memoir of finding faith in ourselves
and something bigger
By Kathy Izard

OVERVIEW: In The Hundred Story Home, Kathy Izard invites us to live out our own stories more fully. She wrote The Hundred Story Home not to convince you to solve homelessness in your community but to help you solve the homelessness in you. This beautiful memoir reminds us that not only can we help change the world, but in doing so we change ourselves. Following an insistent whisper, Kathy quit her job as a graphic designer and began to do what seemed unimaginable: build a home for Charlotte's homeless. Kathy was a mother of four, in the second half of her life, and the task didn't make any sense, yet it proved to be her first step in finding her way home.

AUTHOR: Kathy Izard was an award-winning graphic designer for twenty years in Charlotte before launching the pilot program Homeless to Home for the Urban Ministry Center in 2007. She successfully demonstrated this Housing First program could succeed and led the city-wide effort to build Moore Place, Charlotte's first permanent supportive housing for more than one hundred chronically homeless men and women. For more information, please visit KathyIzard.com.

MY REVIEW: If you have a heart for the plight of the chronically homeless, this is  a book you will want to read. If you know, are related to or feel deeply concerned about someone with bipolar disorder, you will be interested in this book. Most of all, this book will help you find faith, strengthen your faith, find faith in yourself or something bigger.

I was immediately interested and drawn into this book when I discovered what it was about. As a minister for over forty-seven years I knew that Jesus had a heart for the homeless and so did I. I just never knew what to do about it. I still don't know how to handle the homeless situation in my own city of Phoenix. But I now know more than I did before reading this book. I was also drawn in because like Kathy's mother, who was mentally ill, I have a niece who I love dearly that has a bipolar disorder.

I agree with author Courtney Westlake who said, "Compelling and convicting, The Hundred Story Home is a powerful testament to the way one person can affect transformation at the deepest levels. Kathy's beautiful storytelling propelled me outside of my comfort zones...It's impossible to read The Hundred Story Home and walk away unchanged."

(I received this book from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for a fair and honest review.)

PRAYING THE PROMISES

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

PRAYING THE PROMISES
Anchor Your Life To Unshakable Hope
By Max Lucado & Andrea Lucado

OVERVIEW: In Praying the Promises, Max Lucado invites you into a deeper understanding of the peace and security God offers his people. Through thirty Bible promises, reflections on the lives of biblical people of faith, and guided prayers, you will see a clearer picture of the promise of God and how he is the rock you can build your life upon.

AUTHORS: Max Lucado has more than 130 products in print. He is America's bestselling inspirational author. He serves the Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, where he lives with his wife, Denalyn, and their mischievous mutt, Andy. Andrea Lucado is a freelance author of English Lessons: The Crooked Path of Growing Toward Faith. She has a master's degree in English literature from Oxford-Brookes University and contributes regularly to online and print publications such as Relevant magazine and She Reads Truth.

MY REVIEW: Max Lucado's daughter, Andrea joins him in making this a special book. They believe that praying the promises of God will anchor your life to unshakable hope. They don't promise a money back guarantee but they could have because you won't being asking for one. It works!

This is a small, beautifully bound volume that you will want to always have close at hand. You will not want to part with this special book but you will purchase extra copies to give as gifts. The world is a mess. We need help. We need hope. "For every problem in life, God has given us a promise. We can find hope by praying those promises."

Praying The Promises has a brief introduction and then thirty promises from God. So needless to say, this is a book filled with Scripture. Thirty times a section begins with a Scripture that sets a theme. Then the Lucados write briefly about that theme. And that is followed by four promises of God. And the section closes with praying the promises. "Trouble comes but so does God."

(I received this book from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for a fair and honest review.)

ETERNITY IS NOW IN SESSION

Thursday, September 06, 2018

ETERNITY IS NOW IN SESSION
A Radical Rediscovery Of What Jesus
Really Taught About Salvation,
Eternity, And Getting To The Good Place
By John Ortberg

OVERVIEW:  In Eternity Is Now In Session, bestselling author John Ortberg + engages in a radical rediscovery of what the Bible really says about salvation, + recaptures the New Testament definitions of salvation, eternal life, and the Good News of the gospel, + dispels the myth that eternal life is something we can only hope to experience after we die, and + talks about what it really means to be a disciple. And most important, he explains how we can experience the unspeakably rich, interactive fellowship and joy that exist between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Eternal life—here, now, every minute of every day.

AUTHOR: John Ortberg is the senior pastor of Menlo Church in Northern California and the bestselling author of many books. He has a PhD in clinical psychology and an MDiv from Fuller theological Seminary. He and his wife, Nancy, live in Menlo Park, California, and have three grown children. You can follow John at www.johnortberg.com and on Twitter and Facebook @johnortberg.

MY REVIEW: John Ortberg is one of my favorite authors. He writes in a way that flows and is easy to understand while writing about extremely difficult topics. Of all his books my favorite is If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat. And now, Eternity Is Now In Session has logged in at second place.

This is an extremely important book because it deals with one of life's most important subjects—salvation. Ortberg says his book is a radical rediscovery of what Jesus really taught on this subject. And it is. At least for me it is. His opinion on what Jesus means when He talks about eternity is one that I think all of us need to listen to. I was helped by a quote in the book from Brenda Colijn who when talking about eternal life said, It is "primarily qualitative rather than quantitative." That is good. Very good!

This good book will help dispel the myth that eternal life is something we can only hope to experience after we die. We need this good news. Eternal life is now in session.

(I received this book from Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for a fair and honest review.)

BIG ONE DAY BLOG SELL

Friday, August 17, 2018

I have been blogging for 13 years. Well, that's not exactly true. I have been a blogger for 13 years.

There was a time when I posted on my blog every day. Not so much anymore.

Almost all of my blogging friends have closed shop.

Many of us are spending more time on Face Book and less on blogging

In recent years most of my posts have been book reviews. However, that too is now in decline. At one time I was reviewing books for many different publishers. Most of them have stopped having book reviews and I am now down to only two.

This week I renewed my interest in posting to my blog and did three. How about that? Three in one week. I would be pleased if you turned aside and read them clif74blog.blogspot.com.

Many of my dearest friends who say they are interested in what I am thinking and doing have never even once looked at my blog.

Well, that's all I wanted to say about blogging.

Oh, what about the BIG ONE DAY BLOG SELL? That was just hopefully to get your attention.

IT WORKS FOR MACY'S.

BOB, BOB, BOBBING ALONG-----A Love For Fish And Fishing

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of hours spent sitting on a grassy creek bank with a fishing pole in my hand. I loved to see the bright little bobber on the line start to move. It meant a bluegill was messing with the worm on the hook. Ah, the days of youth.

There was also much joy in moving up to the wily days of sneaking into ponds where I didn't belong and casting out a long trotline. Coming back hours later to find a catfish on almost every hook.

Deep sea fishing gave me thrills up my spine and sickness in my stomach. Sometimes fish. Sometimes nothing.

I love fish and other sea food. I have enjoyed it from near and far.

Journeying to Ethiopia to help with a famine, I found myself eating almost nothing but fish. I ate it in a beautiful hotel restaurant in down town Addis Ababa  when a respected Doctor suggested it from the menu. I ate it out in the bush, of all places, in a small restaurant that seemed to almost appear out of nowhere.

In India, I enjoyed one of the largest prawns I have ever seen. It was so large I used a knife and fork to cut it up and eat it. It will always be one of my favorite memories because a dear friend and missionary to India found such joy it buying it for me and watching me eat it.

I had a big smile on my face when I enjoyed fish and chips in London, England. I have always liked Long John Silvers and Red Lobster is a favorite. But my favorite of all time was in the lovely little town of Rockport in beautiful New England. Maybe it was because I was with my wife and daughter.
Come to think of it, maybe the joy in all of this----fishing and eating came/comes not from just the activity but from who I am/was with.

Ah yes. That's it. Who I'm with! So as I go bob, bob, bobbing along I hope to see YOU soon.