Thursday, December 26, 2013

PARTLY CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED WORRIES by Kathy Collard Miller



This book was written by someone who grew up in my home town. How could I avoid getting a copy? I hadn’t read the summaries or reviews before sending for it and expected a novel. Instead I was delighted with a women’s Christian non-fiction book that is sprinkled through with wit and wisdom.
All of us worry periodically, some more than others. Ms. Miller gives positive methods to overcome our destructive worries through faith. Worry, after all, is a pointless emotion that resolves nothing and can cause physical and mental harm. She carefully explains that’s not God’s plan for us. She quotes many authorities, including those in the Bible.
 
Through the retelling of stories told to her, as well as her own, she conveys successful ways to overcome our anxieties. We can never be completely free of worry, but we can channel our thoughts and actions in positive directions. By reminding ourselves to trust and have faith in God, our Father, we can live better, happier, more productive lives by allowing worry to fall off our backs like so many raindrops.  
I took a while to finish this book because I slowly read each page, attempting to garner all its wisdom. I highly recommend it. — Gail Lewis
 
Product Details
  • Print Length: 193 pages
  • ISBN: 193849976X
  • Publisher: Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas (November 4, 2013)
  • Language: English

Thursday, December 19, 2013

THE LAST SECRET OF FATIMA By Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone


Everyone loves a secret and none have fascinated the world more than the three secrets of Fatima given to Sister Lucia in 1917. In The Last Secret of Fatima the curtain is pulled back and all becomes clear.

Written in Q & A fashion, the book’s content is derived from a series of interviews Giuseppe DeCarli conducted with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. The interviews were free-wheeling and expansive in nature. Each of the three secrets, or messages, Mary gave to Lucia to hold for the Pope are revealed in their entirety. Along with them, we gain insights into the apparitions themselves when Cardinal Bertone details his meetings with Sister Lucia. The book also discusses the way in which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — later Pope Benedict XVI — viewed the messages.

For me, some of the most interesting portions revolved around the attempt on John Paul II’s life and his subsequent Entrustment of Russia and the World to Mary’s protection. A man with strong Marian beliefs, JP II became known as “The Fatima Pope.” I feel I’ve come to understand him and his Papacy in ways I never did before. The Last Secret of Fatima is definitely  recommended reading.
E G Lewis
Product Details:
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Image; Reprint edition (August 6, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0385525831

Monday, December 9, 2013

BETHLEHEM'S BABY by Sheila Deeth

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!



Today's Wild Card author is:


and the book:

Cape Arago Press (September 2, 2013)

***Special thanks to Edward Lewis for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sheila Deeth is a prolific writer whose works span multiple genres. Besides the popular Five-Minute Bible Story™ Series, she is also the author of the What Ifs…Inspired by Faith and Science books, as well as several children’s Bible Picture books. A life-long Christian, she has spent many years as a Christian Educator and Sunday School Teacher. Sheila’s writing reflects her familiarity with a wide spectrum of Christian beliefs.

Ms. Deeth was born in England and earned a Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University. She now lives with her husband in the Pacific Northwest where she enjoys reading, writing, and running the Coffee Break Bible Studies and the Writers’ Mill writing group when not meeting her neighbors’ dogs on the green.

Visit the author's website.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

With the introduction of Bethlehem's Baby, Biblical author, Sheila Deeth, turns her prodigious writing talents to familiar tales from the New Testament. This Sixth Volume in the ever-popular Five Minute Bible Story Series looks at the characters and events leading up to and immediately following the birth of the Christ Child...from Caesar Augustus and Herod to John the Baptist, Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and many more.

This series of 40 linked short stories is aimed at the Middle Grade Reader. Each one is chock full of insights, information, and her trademarked quirky humor, making them a joy for youngsters to read or hear. Each story contain Biblical references and ends with a prayer, making them work equally well for reading to younger children, or grandchildren, at bedtime or naptime. Like all books in the Five-Minute Bible Stories Series they'll have your children begging for “just one more.” Fully Illustrated and Contain Author’s Notes.




Product Details:
List Price: $3.99
File Size: 725 KB
Print Length: 123 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Cape Arago Press (September 2, 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00EY172MA


AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:

IN THE BEGINNING

~ 1 ~

GOD

(The Old Testament)
In the beginning, God created the universe. He made stars and planets. He made the sun, moon and earth. He made mountains and seas, flowers and trees, birds and bees, and animals and people. And everything was good.
God made the world like a painter creating a beautiful picture. He mixed its colors together, designed its patterns, and added light and dark in all the right places. When God finished painting, the earth was good enough to hang on the wall of heaven.
God made the world like an author writing a book. He worked out the details, solved all the mysteries, and linked all the pieces together. When God finished writing, he gave us his words in the Bible so we could read them. Meanwhile angels rejoiced to know what he’d done.
God made the world like a programmer designing a computer game. He set up all the scenes, made voices for the characters, and planned how all the rules would make everything work. But computer games often have bugs in them. Our world was so good when God finished making it, there wasn’t a single mistake in it anywhere.
But God didn’t hang the world on a wall when he’d finished. He didn’t leave the Bible on a bookshelf to look nice. And he didn’t sell his program to people who wanted to play humans on their computer. Instead, God made the world like a gardener who works in a park. When he’d finished planning and planting everything, God stepped right into the park to help the people look after it. God’s park was a beautiful place called the Garden of Eden.
God worked in his Garden of Eden every day, feeding animals, helping bees, watering flowers, cleaning the rivers, and pouring sweetness into beautiful berries hanging from the trees. God walked and talked with the people in Eden, loving them like a father loves his children. He taught them to play and he kept them perfectly safe. No one was ever hungry in the Garden of Eden. No one was tired or sick. Nobody ever had to work too much and no one was ever bored. Even plants and animals were perfectly safe in Eden, everything beautifully in balance, living and dying in due season with no sickness, no loneliness, no sorrow and no pain.
But then the people in God’s garden, the people God had chosen to be his very own children, broke God’s rules. They didn’t care that the rules were there to keep them safe, or else they didn’t remember. They just wanted to do as they pleased and have fun and pretend they were in charge. So they ate the fruit of a special tree that wasn’t theirs to eat.
Now God’s Garden of Eden began to change. With people making their own rules nothing ever worked like it should. Seeds weren’t planted at the right time, and crops were harvested too soon. Farmers didn’t store enough food. They didn’t take proper care of the animals. They didn’t move when the weather changed, and they built their houses in foolish places then complained when their buildings burned down. What a mess! But God was still watching and helping his people. He hadn’t finished with them then, and he hasn’t finished with us yet.
God sent his people out of the broken garden, out into the world where we have to work for a living, and fight for freedom, and struggle for safety and space. God still protects us of course, but he can’t keep us completely safe because then he’d have to make us always do exactly as we’re told, and most of us aren’t very good at that.
Still, one day, when the time was perfectly, wonderfully right, when everything was just as ready as it could ever be, when everyone was in the perfect place at the perfect time, God came into his world as a baby boy called Jesus. Like a painter stepping into his picture, or an author talking to his characters, or a computer programmer trapping himself inside the world of his game, God became Jesus and lived as a human child, just like you and me.
Because of Jesus, the world really is going to be perfect one day. No one will be hungry. No one will be sad. No one will get sick or scared. There’ll be just enough food and drink for all the people and animals, just enough rain and sun, just enough laughter and fun, just enough of everything good, and nothing of everything bad, all because God became man and saved us all.
Thank you God for our beautiful universe and the lovely planet we live on.
Thank you for caring so much for your creation and for caring so much for us.
Thank you for sending Jesus to live among us and save us.
And thank you for your Spirit who helps us live how you want us to.


Bethlehem's Baby is truly a joy to read to your children and/or grandchildren. They will love it! It is available as an eBook. The Kindle version can be purchased at Amazon by Clicking Here