April was a strange month, and my reading choices probably reflect that. I had so many big, stressful decisions on my plate I deviated from my usual non-fiction fare, and read a ton of free novels off of the Amazon bestseller list. None were really notable enough to review here, but maybe you can relate to needing some mindless entertainment when life is throwing a lot at you! I feel like my free time is somewhat limited, so when I do sit down to read I like it to be something educational, or something along the lines of personal development. But, God created us with an imagination, and it has been refreshing to deviate from always needing to be productive. Let’s give ourselves a break once in a while!
Speaking of personal development, one of the books I read this past month was called More by Todd Wilson. The byline is “Find your personal calling and live life to the fullest measure.” This book was a little bit of a dry read for me, but part of that could just be my current circumstances. I did have a huge takeaway from this book and it is this – we aren’t capable of even comprehending the whole picture of what God has ordained for us, so we need to just be faithful in the small things and trust that he knows better than us. Wow, did that ever hit me right where I am living! I don’t know why God has allowed my marriage to fall apart, but I am concentrating on being faithful in small things like finances and I have seen his blessing and provision as a result.
“Instead of experiencing an adventurous journey with God and gaining an ever increasing clarity on who he has made us to be, we become stuck in today. we fail to embrace and step into the story God has uniquely designed for us.”
The book says that our lives are a story written by God, and we need to step forward in faith and trust the author. It says that by redefining success, we can discover our calling. When I am in a little better frame of mind, I definitely plan to pick this book up again. There are a lot of pretty profound ideas about what our purpose is.
If you flounder a bit with calling and purpose, this book approaches the topic from a new angle.
Another book I read this month is Core Christianity by Michael Horton. This book focuses on “the 4 D’s” of our faith – drama, doctrine, doxology, and discipleship. Let me preface this by saying that I have always been a firm believer that you do not need a degree to thoroughly understand and study the Bible. As a matter of fact, if the words eschatology or semantics come out of someone’s mouth I think a hard eye roll is the only logical response. But as Horton states in this book, we like to study things we are interested in, and as believers the doctrine behind our faith should be interesting to us. He is a professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary in California, so I think it’s notable that I didn’t roll my eyes once while reading this book.
This book succeeds in breaking down church history and doctrine in a way that is not only easy to understand, but very interesting! This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to know the “why” behind many questions that often surface about our faith.
My only criticism of the book is that he is obviously a Calvinist, and I don’t subscribe to every single thing they believe. It didn’t in any way ruin my appreciation of the book, just a note.
The last book I just got done reading is None Like Him by Jen Wilkin. I’m going to be honest, I chose this book because I thought the cover was pretty. That might sound insane, but I feel like if you are an avid reader, often you CAN judge a book by it’s cover. After I read the introductory paragraph, I knew I was going to like this lady.
“If you had told me five years ago that I would one day write a book for Christian women that led off with a quote from Proverbs 31, I probably would have punched you in the face.”
What this book is really about is how we can become God-fearing women, and what exactly does that mean anyway? She goes through several ways that we differ from God – He is infinite, we are measurable. He is self-caused, we are limited by human creativity. He is self-sufficient and without needs, and we are ultimately needy.
“Our primary problem as Christian women is not that we lack of self-worth, not that we lack a sense of significance. It’s that we lack a sense of awe.”
That quote really struck me.I am so caught up in my everyday life, and how God isn’t fixing things the way I think he should that I have completely lost my awe. God isn’t like us, and we can’t stuff him into human terms and reasoning.
This book would be awesome to go through in a book club or women’s small group! I liked it so much I am giving you a chance to win a copy. Enter in the widget below, and please let me know what you have been reading in the comments!
Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.
Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”
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