The Ancient Practices Series: In Constant Prayer

When I first started reading this book, it seemed like a yawner to me. I couldn't seem to really get into the book, but I had committed to reading this book in its entirety as a condition of getting this book for free from BookSneeze. I'm really glad I stuck it out, because this book turned out way better than I thought.

After reading a different book from BookSneeze the night before, this book didn't seem all that great.  Thankfully the book was not a long book and I was able to get through rather quickly.  However, about a third of the way through the book, I actually started to get into it.

Benson is a poet, a writer.  He's not a theologian.  He doesn't even have a college degree.  He doesn't go into depth about the history of prayer.  He is sort of sarcastic, but I found him to be raw and real on the topic of prayer.

He talks about "The Office", which is a type of prayer that is done every day throughout the day.  Well, it's not just one prayer, but a series of prayers that have been recited for what I gather thousands of years.  What spoke to me and got me more interested in this book was Benson's own struggles with prayer itself.  He grew up in a Christian home and was surrounded by God stuff, but inspite of that, just even the fact of praying consistently, even if for a short bit, was incredibly challenging.

He puts this in language that is plain and understandable.  There is an honesty that is refreshing.  But, it gives us room to improve, to seek God. 

In the back of the book, there is sample Office prayers.  I've heard the term "the Office" before, but after reading this book, I have a better understanding of the background and can see the purpose.  What truly spoke to me about the value of constant prayer is "Discipline is the price of freedom."

I may explore some of the other books in the series.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley

This book is so good.  This is not your feel good book at all.  I remember when I was attempting to decide on this book or on some relationship book on men & women, or something else.  The title seemed reasonable and the little excerpt resonated with me and I felt this was more appropriate than getting a relationship book.

It was exactly perfect for me and the timing in which I received the book, Tuesday of last week.  The book floated and sat around for a few days before I picked it up, but once I did last Friday, I couldn't put it down.  My heart, mind and soul was ready to hear cold hard truth, and that I soaked it up.

The back of the book cover "Now where you want to be?  Wondering how you got there?" really hit me hard.  Furthermore, it asked, "Why is it that smart people with admirable life goals often end up far from where they intended to be?"  Not that it resonated with me, but just that very question alone pricked my bleeding heart all the more.

Pastor Stanley is a pastor.  He relays various experiences he's had as a pastor & people he's pastored sharing all sorts of things that I can relate to.  As a reasonably intelligent person, I've found myself in some pretty tough circumstances of life.  Stanley expounds on how I got here in a very point-blank sort of way.  Truth, God's Truth, brings much clarity to everything.

Just like one of the reviewers wrote in the book, I would also like to agree.  Wished I had this book and the wisdom, clarity & courage to do what this book said when I was a teenager.  Had I done this, I doubt I would've faced all these hardships in my life that I had.

Stanley gives a story about "The Wizard of Oz" and the yellow brick road that has a really good spiritual and physical impact to me.   God does give us a "Yellow Brick Road", but most of us fail to take this path, as we want the path we choose.

I love that Stanley brings Proverbs 27:12 into this.  It says that a wise man when he sees danger, he takes refuge.  A simple man keeps going.  He explained what this verse means.  When a wise man sees danger, he changes his direction.  He doesn't keep going in the direction of the danger.  A simple, naive person ignores the danger signs and keeps going.  Wow, this is so powerful as this speaks to me. 

He has so many little sayings that make total sense:

• "Direction, not intention, determines destination."
• "Attention determines direction."

Those 2 are very powerful to me.  There is so much good stuff in this book, that I think I need to read it again and do a better outline.  It is chalk full of wisdom that I realize I have not been a prudent person and that there is much work ahead of me.  In my finances & relationships with men, I have been incredibly simple & unwise.  I began last summer really changing my direction in terms of relationships.  Now I need to attend to the finances.  Let's see what God will do.

I am very appreciative to BookSneeze for sending me this book to review and for giving it to me for free.  This would make a great Bible study book.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Same Life, New Story by Jan Silvious

Same Life, New Story: Change Your Perspective to Change Your Life  took me a little longer than I thought to read it.  I started out strong and got distracted by all sorts of things and in the middle of reading other books.  However, cranked out most of the book in the past 2 days and finished very late last night.

Have you ever watched a movie where you had to pay attention to what was going on because there was a number of different stories going on at the same time?  If you didn't, you really couldn't follow?

This book is sort of like that, but not as bad as a 1.5-2+ hr movie.  You can come in the middle of this book, but the author does have a a purpose.

There were 10 chapters in this book and each addressed a woman in the Bible where her story started out one way, but ended a completely different, surprising way.  She talks about each woman in chronological order for each chapter beginning with Naomi in Chapter 1and then ending with Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mom in Chapter 10.

The Biblical women were really interesting as I learned a number of things I never knew.  Like, I didn't know that Rahab was a part of the lineage of Jesus.  Rahab was a prostitute.  Silvious gives the lineage of each woman as to how they played a role in the birth of Jesus Christ as well as the courage & wisdom it took to make the choices these women made.  They could've continued with where they were in life, but they made a series of choices that has impacted mankind for all eternity.

This sort of falls in line with The Butterfly Effect that I read last year.  Silvious not only talks about these 10 heroic women in the Bible, but many, many other women in the Bible.  Interspersed within each chapter as she talks about the main Bible woman for that chapter, she has stories of women today and in the past century that have changed their lives by no longer putting up with the crap they were going through.

Each woman had ONE life, but they decided they wanted to write a NEW STORY for their lives.  However, Silvious also gave numerous examples of women who chose NOT to write a new story and you gather that each of those women continue to sink deeper into their own pits.

As I'm at my own cross point in my life, this book is very appropo for my situation and I can read about many dozens of women who decided to not be defeated by their circumstances, but trust God in who He said He is and that He is in control.  We now have the Bible, but back in the days when each of these Bible women lived, the Bible didn't exist yet, as we know it now. 

I'm encouraged and blessed by this book.  Silvious went back and forth in each chapter from the main Bible woman to stories of today and also other Bible women within the chapter.  I found that distracting, or maybe I wouldn't have if I was reading it when it wasn't late at night and I wasn't tired.

It would be interesting to do the 10-Week Bible study on this.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Healing Code by Dr. Alex Loyd & Dr. Ben Johnson

This is a really good book and I read it in less than 2 days.  About a year ago I heard about Dr. Alex Loyd and the only things that were offered were his packages on his website that were super expensive for me and not within my budget.

I borrowed this book from the library, but had to get on a waiting list to get this book, which took almost 2 months.  Wasn't sure if the book was worth getting or not and if it was quackery or not.  I tend to be a skeptic and need things proven to me first.

Last week I finally bought the book on Amazon:  The Healing Code.  I read through the book in 2 days as I was so fascinated with what was being talked about in the book.  Since I'd heard Dr. Loyd online on webinars, my curiousity was piqued.  However, he kept talking about God and I wasn't sure if he was referring to the God of the Bible or if it was some New Age crap.

Once I got to reading this book, I realized more and more that Dr. Loyd was talking about the God of the Bible.  He talks about issues of the heart, the spiritual heart is the root cause of all sickness, disease and problems in our lives.  He says that these issues create stresses that our body can deal with, but enough of those stresses impede our bodies from functioning as God designed our bodies to, which is to be self-healing.

Those stresses are embedded into all the trillions of cells in our bodies and unless we remove them, they continue to make us sicker.  However, as we address the spiritual issues of the heart like unforgiveness, sabotaging behaviors (harmful actions), wrong beliefs, love vs selfishness, joy vs sadness/depression, peace ve anxiety/fear, patience vs anger/frustration/impatience, kindness vs rejection/harshness, goodness vs not being good enough, trust vs control, humility vs unhealthy pride/arrogance/image control, self control vs loss of control, we are able to remove these blocks and allow our bodies to heal.

This is not a Christian book per se, rather it is a book written by 2 experts in their fields who are Christians.  Healing comes from God and this book does not say that it heals you, rather it's a tool that is used to help you get out of the way of yourself.

This book has come down in price from when it first came out in 2010.  Woohoo!  I love a good bargain.

The Pain-Free Program

This is an incredible book.  I think this will be a great compliment to The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, 2nd Edition by Clair Davies.  I'm really into alternative healthcare, especially where I don't have to inject anything.

This book talks about imbalances in our bodies, how they are caused, and what to do to correct them.  Instead of the one size fits all that many programs have, he has 6 different body forms that we can look at to see which most closely fits our bodies.  You can also have multiple forms and he tells you how to evaluate these.

Each form takes 10-14 days that you're supposed to do the exercises.  He has exercises tailored for each form.

For example, if one hip is higher than the other, you do certain exercises to bring this back into balance.  It takes time and he goes into explaining what is happening with each exercise.  Over time, the muscles will adjust to the correct form or into better form.  Some chiropractic adjustments may be needed.

Although I haven't tried the exercises yet, I will be doing them starting this week and hope I see an improvement in my own form to be more balanced.  I borrowed this book from the library and if I find the exercises work for my body, then I'm going to be buying the book.

On This Day In Christian History

I simply loved this book, the way it was organized, everything about it.  Some of the language was "old" to me, but that was still good.  Every day talked about a different person.  Sometimes that date was significant because of the person's birthday, other times their death, or it was (often the case), something significant happened on that day because of that person.

Many of the people, I'd never heard of, which was fine because I learned something new.  Other people I'd heard of, but not known much about.  Though there was always only 1 page on the person, it was enough to pique my curiosity to go further if time permits.  So very fascinating.

Each day's devotion has a "title", which signifies what is being conveyed or the theme for that person.  Dates are given.  I don't know of the historical accuracy of any of the entries, but they were all interesting to me.  Some people were martyred for their faith.  Others died peacefully.  At the bottom of each devotion, was Scripture that tied the theme together. 

It really encouraged me that there were so many great men and women of faith.  It was cool to learn how some hymns came about, too or what the significance of certain holidays or expressions that were used.  I think as my kids get older, I'm going to have them each use this as a devotional for a year.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Prayers That Rout Demonds & Break Curses

This is 2 books rolled into one.  John Eckhardt has this book broken down into 2 individual books, but since this was available, this is what I got.  This is a totally incredibly powerful book. 
I have not read the whole book or even most of the book, but I've gone through (skimmed a lot of it) a lot of it.  What makes this book so powerful is that it addresses many spiritual things in one handy place.  This book is under 400 pages, but it's a small book of about 4" x 6".  It's compact and can fit into a backpack or a purse. 

The Bible verses that are quoted are actually paraphrased into prayers.  Love it. 

The first book "Prayers That Rout Demons" is broken down into 5 major sections:

I.  Plugging Into the Power Source
II.  Preparing to Engage the Enemy
III.  Confronting the Enemy's Tactics
IV.  Destroying the Enemy's Forces
V.  Experiencing Deliverance & Release

Each of the 5 sections have short declarative prayers based upon Scripture (there are Bible references), but before that, it goes on to explain the significance of that section.  Love this.

This book is about releasing & declaring the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit, into our lives and into the lives of others.  God is the complete source of our victories & breathroughs.  I so need these in my life.

The second book "Breaking Curses" is broken down into 12 sections:
1.  Curses Caused by the Spirit of Idolatry
2.  The Curese From the Seduction of Jezebel
3.  The Curse of a Seared Conscience
4.  Cursed by Spirits of Infirmity
5.  The Spirits of Alcohol & Drunkenness
6.  Spirits Bringing Curses of Rape & Sexual Abuse
7.  Cursed by Pornography & Pedophilia
8.  Cursed With Lawlessness & Rebellion
9.  The Curse of Ungodly Soul Ties & Godlessness
10.  Wicked Plots Against the Godly
11.  Loose Yourself From Belial's Curses
12.  Safe From the Curse of Belial

Each of those sections has an explanation Biblically & historically followed by a series of prayers.  This second book is a bit different than the first in format.