A Heart for God

The other month one of my favourite online Christian book shops had a sale and I bought a stack of books. That along with the Matt Challies 2017 Reading Challenge prompted me to purchase the book A Heart for God by Sinclair B. Ferguson. I was intrigued and wanted to read the book.  It is a short book 11 chapters and just 128 pages but packed with so many truths.

Here are some of my highlights from the book:

Chapter 5 is titled The Ever Present One, he talks about two questions that Moses asked, "Lord, who am I?" and "Lord, who are you?"These two questions define so much of what we should be asking, looking at ourselves and then looking and knowing who God is.

Chapter 9 is titled The Faithful Provider, one of the ways that we can look at the providence of God is through tracing it biographically and the example that is given is Joseph. "What his brothers did was genuinely significant--and hurt Joseph deeply. But Joseph had eyes to see that God was also at work, and that his purposes had been fulfilled not just in spite of his brothers, but even through their actions!" That is knowing God is at work through the actions of others.

Another example in this chapter was Naomi. I have to say that I have studied Ruth numerous times and heard various sermons but reading this chapter gave me some new insights. I also felt that the quote below was a good summary of lessons learned in Naomi's life.

"Naomi discovered this refuge under God's wants through some very dark experiences, and in situations which are difficult to understand. But when we place them in a large context, four lessons become clear. First, God's providences at times are painful and severe; second, through these experiences he may touch the lives of others; third, he brings us to an appreciation of his ways with us that we would otherwise lack; and fourth, he fulfils his purposes through us in way that far exceed our expectations."

Being reminded that at times God's providences are painful is good. I can easily come up with a list of painful times of life but through those need to remember that is working. He is the faithful provider.

The second to last chapter is the book is Let Us Worship God! A portion of the chapter looks at Psalm 92 and is broken down the tone basis, the blessings, the character and the fruit of true spiritual worship.

The last chapter is titled, Remember the Lord. We do so quickly forget and so we need to be reminded.

I found the book easy to read but one that I wanted to read slowly and ponder. It is short and one that I will plan to read again to be reminded of who God is and what he has done.

Beth

This is my own review based on the book I purchased.

Books on Prayer

One of my goals for this year was to read six books on prayer. I figure that is one book every two months. I want to read books that challenge me to pray more, give me new ideas on how to prayer, and deepen my prayer life.

I want to share these books with you as I read them this year.

The Bible - I will just include that in the list. I am reading through that this year.

Enjoy your prayer life by Michael Reeves - This is a short book and easy to read, just 46 pages.

"Prayer the chief exercise of faith" - John Calvin

"If prayer is 'the chief exercise of faith', then of course everything -- the world, the flesh and the devil -- conspires against prayer."

No wonder prayer is hard work.

"It is the word of God, the gracious message of Christ that awakens faith and so prayer -- and so that must be the basic shape of our everyday communion with God."


Praying the Bible by Donald S. Whitney - This is a nice small hardback book. In this book the author walks you through how to pray the Bible beginning with the problem with our prayers and how praying the Bible is the solution. He gives you a method to do this.

This book really spoke to me as this reflects some of my thoughts. I have wanted to get behind a "shopping list" or giving God a "to do list" prayers. Learning to pray the Bible helps us to speak God's words back to him, we see God's heart.

I have a few more on the stack and I will share with you when I finish reading them.

Beth

Books about Chess

Chess is a game of thinking and logic. Chess is also a historical game filled with the king, the queen, knights, castle, bishop, and the pawns.

I thought I would share some of the books that we have on chess. I think most of these are things we bought at thrift stores.

The Kids Book of Chess by Harvey Kidder - This is almost a storybook. It begins telling with what is chess and the history. Then it tells how to move the pieces and a bit about each piece. This is one of my favourite books about chess. I love that the illustrations have the medieval feel.

Then it teaches you how to play? This is an interesting book to read and learn to play while reading. Did you know that the term checkmate comes from the Persian shah mat meaning "the king is dead."

Osborne First Skills Starting Chess - This books introduces you to the pieces and then how the pieces move. There are puzzles throughout the book to test your skills. This book includes how to play queen and kings which is what Miss K is learning to play.

DK Chess for Kids by Michael Basman - This is a typical DK book with lots of photos. It includes the pieces and how they move and a bit about beginning, middle game, and end game. One nice feature is that it has a glossary which is helpful when you need to learn all the terms. This is a great resource as well.

Chess From first moves to checkmate by Daniel King - This is probably my least favourite of the books we have. It might be the metallic looking chess pieces. It is still a good reference book and does have quite a bit on some of the famous chess players though it is dated. I know that because my husband keeps me updated on the current top chess players.

There are numerous books written on chess but these are great books for beginners and to have to understand the historical aspect of the game.

Do you play chess?

Beth

Choosing Him All Over Again - Review

This review is part of the Choosing Him Blog Tour which I am delighted to be a part of along with nearly one hundred other inspiring Christian bloggers.

Recently I was given the opportunity to read a book that is about to be released, Choosing Him All Over Again by Juana Mikels. "She had everything that is supposed to make a young woman happy: handsome husband, dream job, new home, great vacations, fun friends and plenty of money. But she isn't happy." (from the back cover of the book).

That is where the story begins. Juana begins telling of her old life where she had all of those things. As I read bits of that old story, one thing that really challenged me was to guard my thoughts. It began with a thought that she could have better. As that thought stayed in her mind, she began to act on the thought until she wrote the note and left. Juana writes, "Oh! What a foolish woman I was! For me not to know what God's Word had to say about how to live life was to give an open door to wickedness--wickedness packaged as 'thinking what's best for me-'".

Reading that I saw anew how the evil one wants our thoughts and how we need to guard the thoughts that we allow to stay in our minds. It began with a thought. I realise that I need to take captive my thoughts.

While this Choosing Him All Over Again is a story of romance and redemption, it is also written to challenge each of us in our walk with the Lord. We all want romance and need redemption.

As Juana shares her story and how God redeemed her marriage, a large part is encouraging each of us in our relationship with God and in our marriage. One helpful section for me was Eleven Checkpoints to refresh your marriage. Included in that were some practical tips on things that you can do to refresh your marriage.

I found this book easy to read and yet challenging in my relationship with the Lord and with my husband.

The book is published  by Ambassador International and is available from Amazon in both paperback and Kindle versions. It is also available from Barnes & Noble.  There is also a free downloadable companion Bible study guide.


I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Beth

Nature Books

I was wandering in the thrift store the other month and found some natures books on the shelf. I love when I find a collection of books at one time. You also can't beat the 69 cents per book.

These are part of a set of nature books written by Margaret Waring Buck. She was born in New York in 1905 and was an illustrator and naturalist. Some of the books she wrote were In Ponds and Streams, In Yards and Gardens, In Woods and Fields, Where they Go in Winter, Along the Seashore, Animals through the Year and a few others. These books where published in the early to mid-1950s.

The books are illustrated in black and white and while I love the color books that we find there is something simple about these illustrations. These are perfect for nature artwork.

I have a dream of having a nature shelf or table and these books would be perfect for this. They have a vintage look that I love as well.

Have you found some fun books at a thrift store or maybe a new author there?

Beth

Happy Birthday to You, Dr. Seuss

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss. We celebrated early but did not eat green eggs and ham. We celebrated with a cake but a rake. We celebrated with friends because that it the way we celebrate.

I planned ahead and reserved books from the library. I don't think we have a single Dr. Seuss book here in the house. We had books about Zooks and Yooks. We had red Swedish fish but no blue fish. We had one fish and then two fish.

We baked a cake which was a group effort. Miss K was very excited to help. She loves birthdays, cake,  and celebrations. She helped to make the cake. It was so rewarding to hear her read the box and tell me what we needed to add to make the cake.

The hat shape was handcrafted by Bob. He looked at a photo from the cake a few years ago and went to work with the knife. He even mixed up the icing and started to ice the cake but then asked me to help around the edges as it was crumby. That is just were you put the icing on a bit thick to cover all the crumbs.

This afternoon we had the party. We had a time of reading books. We read quietly and then some of the kids read a book aloud. I have to say that some of those books are long.

There are quite a number of Dr. Seuss quizzes that you can find online. We had teams and asked some of these questions. Miss K even got a few of the questions right. Do you know how many books he wrote? Do you know crows name in Fox in Socks? Do you know who eats their bread butter side down?

Then I asked the kids to pick a book and copy a picture from the book. Miss K was hard at work copying from Maybe You Should Fly a Jet! Maybe You Should be a Vet!

Bob and the older girls were busy drawing.

Bob's preferred medium is pencil. I do think this thing is quite impressive. I don't remember what book he was copying from.

Since no party is complete without cake, we enjoyed our cake and ice cream.

It was a fun day and we did not eat green eggs and ham. We did not eat them for breakfast. We did not eat them for lunch or even brunch.

What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book? I think mine is the first book he wrote, To Think that I saw it on Mulberry Street partly because I remember my mom reading that to me as a child.


Beth

Praying for the People of Asia

As I pray for the people of Asia, often certain pictures come to my mind. I think of the lady at the vegetable stand from years ago. I didn't speak much Chinese but we managed to communicate and I regularly bought my vegetables from her. I picture of some of my students in the various classes that I taught during my time there. I picture of co-workers, vendors, people that worked in the factories. I think of students that we knew living in the US or UK now returned home.  I picture people we met when we traveled to Asia.

This lady is one of those that often comes to my mind.

I don't know much about her other than she is from the Bai people group (Bai means white) and she worked in the market. I pray for her -- pray that she will come to know God who will make her heart white as snow.

Pictures and stories help me to pray for people. Many of those come from my own experiences and travel but there are many places that I have not been. I found Asia: Its People and Its History a wonderful resource giving you a mental image as you pray.

We can't go to all those places but we can pray. One of my favorite quotes is from J.O. Fraser, "I am feeling more and more that it is, after all, just the prayers of God’s people that call down blessing upon the work, whether they are directly engaged in it or not." Prayer is one thing that we can do here.

Order your copy now before the release at a reduced price.

Listen to a bit of the author's heart as Bonnie Rose shares why she wrote this book.

"Several years ago, God began to turn my heart's attention to the stories of the persecuted Church. I had always had a heart for the persecuted in China, but I never grasped how widespread the persecution of Christians was until much later. I started reading about men and women who lived in Laos and Burma, India and Pakistan, and many other places. They were suffering terribly for their faith in Christ. This wasn't the stories of the heroes of the faith of yesterday that I had grown up hearing about, or what I had thought were isolated stories from one nation. These were stories of families--including children--who were suffering right at that very moment for their faith.

Reading their stories gave me a burden and broke my heart. I had to do something, but I didn't know what. Writing and sharing about their stories gave me a way to process what I was reading and feeling and a way to hopefully encourage others to become involved and share their stories as well."

This book has been one that I am enjoying personally as well as my children. I love hearing my children pray as they learn more about the People of Asia.

Beth

Christmas Books

I know it is after Christmas. I decided to just write a list of some of the books that we read and enjoyed this year so we will remember for next year and maybe some others can have ideas on new books to add to their Christmas book collection. I have a few Christmas books and would love to add some more. Since our books are in storage we had to make do with what a friend loaned us and also what we got from the library.

The Clown of God  by Tomie dePaola-- This book makes me cry. It is a reminder to do everything to give glory to God even if it is juggling. I borrowed this from the library and would love to have a copy.

An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco - I love most of Patricia Polacco's books. I love the bright colors in the artwork; I love her simple stories so many about her life or her family. This was about her grandmother's youngest brother. Oranges were a special Christmas treat and the family was waiting for father to return with the oranges. While waiting, the family feeds the hobos passing through on the train. Frankie meets Jump-Up Billy and notices that he is shivering and cold so he gives his sweater the one his older sister had given him for Christmas the year before to him secretly. Father returns with the oranges just before Christmas. I could tell more of the story but that would take away from the fun of reading it. I will say that Frankie does something wrong and then confesses it but his family does something very special for Frankie. That alone is enough to make me cry but then you learn it was his last Christmas and you are so thankful for what the family did.

The Nativity illustrated by Julie Vivas - This is basically the telling of Luke 2 with illustrations but it is a fun way to read that passage.

The Gift by Aliana Brodmann is a cute Hanukkah story about a girl using her money to give to another.

Angela and the Baby Jesus - I loved the way that Angela showed a concern for baby Jesus. She didn't want him to be cold. I read that to Miss K and that night she brought her baby to me wrapped his swaddling clothing also known as her pink blanket and told me it was baby Jesus.

The Sweet Smell of Christmas by Patricia Scarry - This was a cute story about a bear and all the smells of Christmas. I love books by Patricia or Richard Scarry so this was a fun one to read.

The Very First Christmas by Paul L. Maier - This was written to give you the true facts of Christmas by going through the Luke story and giving you the background facts.

These are some of the Christmas books that we enjoyed this year. I am thinking next year that I will wrap some of the books and see if we can get a book a day. I think that would get the kids involved in wanting to read the books.

Do you have a favorite Christmas book that I should add to my list?

Beth

Recent Reading

I thought I would share a bit of what I have been reading recently. As we were leaving Asia, I picked up a book, Not Less Than Everything by Valerie Griffiths.

Here is the summary from Amazon, "The book traces the stories of some of the early women missionaries in China who tried to tackle the painful custom of foot-binding. Often struggling with poor health, isolation and criticism from the expatriate community, the women of the China Inland Mission pioneered initiatives into the vast interior."

The book began with the early women missionaries to China beginning with Maria Tarn Dyer who sailed to Penang in 1827. Her daughter, Maria, married Hudson Taylor. Susie Garland was a new person to read about. She was from Australia. She was concerned about the blind people and so she developed a new way to teach blind Chinese to read. The Trio was about group of women, Mildred Cable and sisters,  Eva and Francesca French spent 20 years in one area and then later in life began traveling along The Silk Road. The book went on through to the 1950's and Phyllis Thompson.

I started and finished the book on our flight from Asia to England. It was about a 12 hour flight so that does give plenty of time to read and the book was written in such a way that I wanted to keep reading. The book also made me want to read more about the Trio especially Mildred Cable.

When I arrived here and wanted something else to read, I picked up a copy of Mountain Rain: A New Biography of James O. Fraser by Eileen Crossman. I had heard about J. O. Fraser and his work among the Lisu people. I had watched Breakthrough the other year.

Here is the summary from Amazon, "James Fraser was only twenty-two when he abandoned a promising career and went to China. At first sight of the Lisu tribes people of Yunnan province he felt an immediate affection for them, and for the rest of his life he labored to bring them to Christ and to Christian maturity. Packed with personal letters, insightful anecdotes and riveting stories of missionary life in China, this superb biography by Eileen Crossman, his daughter, shines with God's constant faithfulness and power over evil."

This book was not as easy to read as Not Less Than Everything based on the fact that it took me longer to read. Some might have been the writing style and some was the fact that I felt there were parts of the story that were missing that I would have liked to know.  I did come away from the book aware of J.O. Fraser's dedication to the Lisu people and the difficult task of living, working, and traveling in such a difficult area. He also felt strongly that prayer was what was going make the difference in the work. There are a number of quotes from him are prayer that personally remind me of the importance of that in our daily life.

One quote in the book that really encouraged me was, "James believed it was no more necessary to be faithful in preaching the Gospel than in doing something like washing up dishes in the kitchen. 'I am no more doing the Lord's work in giving the Word of God to the Chinese,' he wrote, 'than you are, for example, in wrapping up a parcel to send to the tailor. It is not for us, . . . to choose our work. And if God has chosen it for us, hadn't we better go straight ahead and do it, without waiting for anything greater, better or 'nobler'."

The last book on my stack of recently read books, is The Power to Save: A History of the Gospel in China by Bob Davey. The book begins with the Nestorians and some of the Catholic mission work. That is just given as background and the book is clear that Catholic and Protestant are not the same. In September 1807 is when Robert Morrison arrived. The book continues giving various key people and events in China both with missionaries and with the Chinese believers. This book condenses almost 200 years of history into about 300 pages. It is a good overview and history of missions in China.

Yes, there is a Chinese theme to what I have been reading. These are just various books that I picked up to read. These are just my comments on what I was reading. I was invited to spend time in the CIM archives and do more reading. I realize the sacrifice, the dedication, and the love for God and the Chinese people that so many of the early missionaries had.

Just sharing a bit of what I have been reading. We have another flight this week. I guess I will need to find a book or two to read though it is not as long of a flight.

Beth

Stacks of Books

The other year I discovered the Classical Christian Education Support Loop's 1000 Great Books List. When we were in Pennsylvania, we read through as many as our library system there had on the 1-3 Picture books reading list. Now here in the NW we are seeing what books the library here has. We read through the books pictured above. Today we went to the library and got about 10 more. I love reserving the books online and just going in to pick up the books.

It is fun to read these good books. The list has introduced us to so many good books. We enjoyed Hilda the Hen Who Wouldn't Give Up, Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing, Amos and Boris, Andy and the Lion and many others.

I think we might have read all but about 20 on the list.

J is slowly working his way through the either through his own reading or through books that I read aloud.

This list has been helpful in finding good books for the children to read. I have copies of this printed and included in my homeschool planning notebook.

What is your favorite book on this list?

Here is the stack that we picked up later this week. I have more on hold. We need to quick read these so we can get some more.

Beth

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