MANAGING WORRY AND ANXIETY

Thursday, January 30, 2020

MANAGING WORRY AND ANXIETY
Practical Tools To Help You Deal With Life's Challenges
By Jean Holthaus

OVERVIEW: Integrating both the psychological and spiritual aspects of anxiety, therapist Jean Holthaus offers this research-driven and faith-informed approach to understanding why we experience anxiety and shows us how to more effectively manage it by developing three essential skills: Living in the Present Moment. Suspending Judgment. Believing Yourself to Be Competent and Equipped by God. Our world is never going to be a completely safe and understandable place. In the midst of this, our hearts and minds can still experience greater and lasting peace. The practical tools Holthaus offers help us get there. (From the back of the book)

AUTHOR: JEAN HOLTHAUS has more than twenty-five years of experience providing therapy. She currently works as a clinician and manages two clinics for Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services. Her professional experience includes working with individuals, couples, and families dealing with abuse, anxiety, depression, marital issues, divorce, spiritual issues, changes of life, parenting, and more. A member of the National Association of Social Workers and the American Association fo Christian Counselors, Jean lives in Iowa.

MY REVIEW: You need to read this book! Managing Worry And Anxiety offers practical tools to help you deal with life's challenges. We all have them. Challenges. They are everywhere. We worry about our families, our jobs, our finances, our security. We are anxious about many things.

I was a Senior Minister for forty-seven years. I counseled others about how to have peace in their lives, worry less and live with more joy. And yet, I was bothered by the same things they were. As the years have passed and I have spent more time in the Scriptures and prayer. I experience greater peace and have more joy in my life. I wish I had read Jean's book when I was young. Now that I am old I don't need it as much.

This excellent book has eleven helpful chapters. The one I found most helpful was chapter eight—Living in the Present Moment. I recommend this book to you and your friends who may need it.

(I received this book from Revell, A Division of Baker Publishing Group for a fair and honest review.)

100 WORDS OF AFFIRMATION YOUR WIFE NEEDS TO HEAR

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

100 WORDS OF AFFIRMATION
YOUR WIFE NEEDS TO HEAR
By Matt Jacobson

OVERVIEW: Matt Jacobson wants you to discover the powerful ways you can build up your wife in love with the words you choose to say every day—words every wife needs to hear. This book offers you 100 things to say to your wife that deeply encourage, affirm, and inspire her. Start speaking these words into her life and watch your wife—and your relationship—transform before your eyes. (From the back of the book.)

AUTHOR: Matt Jacobson was an executive in the publishing industry for twenty-five years and has been a teaching elder/pastor at Tumalo Bible Fellowship for the past sixteen years. Matt is also the founder and teacher at FaithfulMan. com. an online social media community focusing on the topics of marriage, parenting, and biblical teaching. He is the author of the bestselling 100 Ways to Love Your Wife. He lives with his wife, Lisa, in the Pacific Northwest, where they have raised their eight children.

MY REVIEW: 100 Words Of Affirmation Your Wife Needs To Hear is a companion volume to 100 Ways To Love Your Wife. Two special books every married man needs to read. Hopefully you are already affirming your wife in many ways. It's doubtful that you have been saying these same 100 words. And you don't need to be saying these same words in the same way Jacobson suggests. But you do need to be saying affirming words of your own. This book will help you find those words!

Jacobson's book is an excellent gift for a man to give to a friend. You will bless his life and the life of his wife. If a man has a troubled marriage, this book can help. If he has a good marriage, this book can make it better. Buy this book. Read it. Put it into practice. You will be blessed!

(I received this book from Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group for a fair and honest review.)

SHE PRAYS

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

SHE PRAYS
A 31-Day Journey 
To Confident
Conversations 
With God
by Debbie Lindell

OVERVIEW: In She Prays, Debbie Lindell invites you on a thirty-one-day journey to experience a confident and conversational relationship with your heavenly Father. She shows you how to replace the pressure to perform in prayer with a faith-filled expectation—trusting that God is delighted with every conversation and every word we whisper to him. Her desire is that your soul will be transformed as your confidence in prayer grows, and that your faith will be strengthened as you see God work through your prayers in ways you never imagined possible. (From the back of the book.)

AUTHOR: Debbie Lindell is the author of She Believes. She and her husband, John serve as lead pastors of James River Church in Springfield, Missouri. In 2003, Debbie launched the Designed for Life Women's Conference, which today draws ten thousand women annually from across the nation and around the world. This flourishing sisterhood reflects the passion of her heart—encompassing women from all walks of life who celebrate one another through life-giving and authentic connection. Find out more about Debbie and the Designed Sisterhood at LebbieLindell.com.

MY REVIEW: My book shelf holding books on prayer groans under the weight of so many books. All but one or two, written by men. When I saw the title She Prays. I said to myself, "You need that book." I come from a background that doesn't encourage women to pray in front of men. As a result I haven't heard many women pray. But when I have I have been moved by their heart felt sincerity. And believed that we were having a confident conversation with God.

I agree with author, Sheila Walsh, "If you have ever struggled to know how to pray or what to pray for, this book will be a gift and a guide." Debbie Lindell knows how to pray. What she shares in this book will bless your prayer life. The book is broken into four parts: She Prays With Understanding, She Prays With Knowledge, She Prays With Trust and She Prays With Power. This is a 31 day journey to confident conversations with God.

(I received this book from Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group for a fair and honest review.)

100 WAYS TO LOVE YOUR WIFE

Monday, October 07, 2019

100 WAYS TO LOVE YOUR WIFE
The Simple, Powerful Path To A
Loving Marriage
By Matt Jacobson

OVERVIEW: This book offers husbands practical, hands-on advice to start applying immediately. Maybe you are just entering into marriage and want to start off on the right foot. Maybe you have made some mistakes along the way and are struggling to connect. Or maybe you want your marriage to go from good to great. Where ever you currently are in in your relationship, let Matt Jacobson help you learn how to love your wife well. (From the back of the book)

AUTHOR: Matt Jacobson was an executive in the publishing industry for twenty-five years and has been a teaching elder/pastor at Tumalo Bible Fellowship for the past sixteen years. Matt is also founder and teacher at FaithfulMan.com, an outline social media community focusing on the topics of marriage, parenting, and biblical teaching. He is the author of 100 Words of Affirmation Your Wife Needs to Hear. He lives with his wife, Lisa, in the Pacific Northwest, where they have raised their eight children.

MY REVIEW: This is a small but powerful book. It can be life changing—if followed. Jacobson lists the different ways for a man to love his wife and then he makes brief comments about each way. When I say, "brief" I mean it! Very brief. In fact, I find it difficult to call this a book. And yet it is. It's a collection of wise ways to a loving marriage.

Out of the 100 ways that Jacobson gives to love your wife, I found only two or three that I may not have already thought of. But for most of us it isn't really the inability to think of these things. It's having the motivation to DO THEM. I'm eight-five years old and have been married for over sixty years. I knew 100 ways to love my wife before reading this book. I just didn't do them. Or at least, not consistently. Jacobson's book has woke me up and I feel motivated.

Young men or those recently married would be wise to run out and buy this book. Read it. And then follow it. By all means—do it! This book provides a simple, powerful path to a loving marriage.

(I received this book from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group for a fair and honest review.)

THE JOY OF DISCOVERING WHO YOU ARE

Monday, August 19, 2019

THE JOY OF DISCOVERING WHO YOU ARE

In his excellent book, SOUL PRINT, Mark Batterson tells the story of Corrie ten Boom traveling the world sharing her story of the atrocities she experienced at the hands of the Nazis. After a speech she would hold up a needlepoint she had been working on. The backside was a jumble of colors and threads with no discernible pattern. And she'd say, "That's how we see our lives. Sometimes it makes no sense." Then she'd turn the needlepoint over to reveal the finished side. And Corrie would conclude by saying, "This is how God views your life, and someday we will have the privilege of seeing it from His point of view."

Who are you? Who am I? There has never been and never will be anyone else like you. The same is true of all of us. We all should be on a journey to be all that God made us to be. Our moments of life are important. Moment by moment. Everything that has and will happen to us is shaping us to be who we are. I want to be me. I want to be who God intended for me to be!

I truly believe with all of my heart that God intended for me to be a preacher. I look back over my life and I see many of the moments meant to shape me into being ME. Of course I do not recognize them all. But I do recognize many that to my mind, point me in the right direction.

Don't take life for granted. Thank God for His providence. He is leading. Follow Him into the joy of you BEING YOU! Nobody else can be. Just you. Press on with Joy.

Corrie ten Boom often concluded her talks with the following poem:

                                 My life is but a weaving between my God and me,
                                 I do not choose the colors, He works so steadily,
                                 Oft times He weaves in sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
                                 Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside
                                 Not till the loom is silent, and the shuttles cease to fly
                                 Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why,
                                 The dark threads are as needful in the Weaver's skillful
                                        hand
                                 As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has
                                       planned.

CHURCH REFORMED

Thursday, August 01, 2019

CHURCH REFORMED
By Tim Bayly

OVERVIEW: In this book, Pastor Tim Bayly exposes lies the American evangelical church has believed and calls us to a simple, humble pattern of church that is clearly rooted in the Bible. It is a call to reform—a call to repent of the ways we have left God's design for the church, and a call to embrace what we see modeled for us in the Bible and in those places in church history where our fathers in the faith have been careful to show us what the Bible teaches. (From the back of the book)

AUTHOR: Tim Bayly was ordained a pastor in 1983. Since 1996, he has served as senior pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Bloomington, Indiana. He is the author of Daddy Tried and co-author of The Grace of Shame. Tim and his wife Mary Lee have five children and twenty-some grandchildren.

MY REVIEW: This is a book about the church. The Scriptures make it plain that Christ is the head of the church which is His body. Christ loves the church and we should too. Those who are baptized are added to the church—His body. Tim Bayly has done an excellent job in this book of showing that in today's culture we have messed up God's plan for the church. He calls for reform!

Church Reformed points out what the church should be, what it should do, and why it matters. Tim Bayly writes clearly about how the church has gone away from God's pattern found in the Scriptures. He then takes what he calls the pattern and breaks it down piece by piece: the teaching of the Apostles, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer. I was a senior pastor for forty-seven years. I agree with Bayly that the early Christians set a marvelous example for us and that we need to follow that example.  I do not agree with everything that he says about baptism, the breaking of bread, etc. However, that does not take away from my favorable opinion of the need for this book. Tim Bayly loves the church and wants all Christians to love the church and be faithful to God's plans for the church as found in the Scriptures. I highly recommend this book.

(I received this book free from The Barnabus Agency for a fair and honest review.)