Thursday, February 24, 2011

Lucky by Glenn Packiam

Blessed, Fortunate, Happy…Lucky
Glenn Packiam uncovers how we live as luck-bearers in
Lucky: How the Kingdom Comes to Unlikely People.
 
579%20Packiam%20Cover%20HIDallas/Ft. Worth, TX—Who are the lucky?  The lottery winners?  The rich?  The famous?  In his new release, Lucky: How the Kingdom Comes to Unlikely People, Glenn Packiam uncovers how the poor, hungry, mourning, and persecuted are lucky because the kingdom of heaven, its fullness, comfort, and reward, is theirs despite their condition.  Packiam redefines the word lucky by studying the word’s context as used in Christ’s beatitudes in Luke’s gospel.
 
According to Packiam, “Jesus took an inherently nonreligious word, a word from normal, everyday conversations, and filled it with divine implications.  It turns out the ones we ought to call ‘lucky’ are the ones that God is blessing with the arrival of His kingdom.  In doing this, Jesus redefined who the lucky ones are.  They are not the ones culture lauds as successful, not the ones we secretly aspire to be.  He turned our appraisal of the good life on its head.  There is a great reversal that is coming; indeed, it has already begun.  And the ones who are receiving and participating in the kingdom of God are the ones who are truly lucky, deeply blessed.”
 
And just like the people whom Jesus was addressing in Luke, we are called lucky, not because of our pain or brokenness but because, in spite of it, we have been invited into God’s kingdom.  The trajectory of our lives has been altered.  What’s more, we now have a part in the future that God is bringing.  God has come to us in the midst of our messes and mistakes.  He invites us to surrender, to live in a different way, and to participate in His work of rescuing and redeeming the world.  We have a part in the future that God is bringing.  Packiam encourages his readers to discover how lucky they are that God has invited them to participate in His work of carrying this luck to the world.  In his book:
 
  • Packiam challenges us to rethink the blessing that has come to us in Christ.
  • He challenges us to recover the call to carry that blessing to the world.
  • He reminds us that God brings His kingdom to unlikely people, making them luck-bearers to the rest of the world.
 
Like Abraham, we have been blessed to carry blessing, to live as luck-bearers to the unlikely and unlucky.  We are receiving and participating in His kingdom.  And for that we are lucky indeed. 
 
579 Packiam Photo CroppedAbout the Author: Glenn Packiam is an executive pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he oversees spiritual formation and serves as the teaching pastor for New Life Sunday Night.  As one of the founding leaders and songwriters for the Desperation Band, Glenn has also been featured on several Desperation Band and New Life Worship albums and recently released his debut solo album, Rumors and Revelations, also with Integrity Music.  Glenn has written a few well-loved worship songs like “Your Name,” “Everyone (Praises),” and “My Savior Lives.”  Glenn is also the author of Butterfly in Brazil: How Your Life Can Make a World of Difference and Secondhand Jesus: Trading Rumors of God for a Firsthand Faith. Glenn, his wife, Holly, their two daughters, Sophia and Norah, and their son, Jonas, are enjoying life in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. 


This is a spotlight post from B&B Media Group

Handle with Prayer by Charles Stanely


Prayer Power
Cultivating a Prayer Life that Makes a Difference
 
576 Stanley bk cover
Why do Christians so often fail to open the gift of prayer that God has given to them?  God desires to communicate with His children.  He desires to unveil the hidden.  Yet many times we are satisfied not knowing.  In this revised and refreshed edition of Dr. Charles Stanley’s Handle with Prayer, readers will be inspired to revive their time of prayer with God. 
 
Prayer is essential to the life of every believer.  It connects us with our heavenly Father and opens the door for Him to move in our lives, to impact our circumstances, and to help us make wise choices.  Handle with Prayer is a definitive guide to the power and practice of prayer.  This modern-day classic is a must-read for anyone craving a rich, intimate prayer life that produces results.  God wants to help us through difficulties and to reveal the unseen.  Yet few of us would claim to have a satisfying prayer life.  Dr. Stanley reveals that prayer is the ultimate resource for every believer.  Inside he shares:
 
  • How to pray with authority
  • How to receive answers to prayer
  • Why prayers can seem to go unanswered
  • How to pray in God’s will
  • How to pray for others
 
Originally released in 2000, this book has already sold over 250,000 copies and now it features new artwork, an enhanced study guide, and updated content to connect with today’s readers.  Using stories from his own life, Dr. Stanley engages readers with his insight and truthfulness.  According to Dr. Stanley, “Jesus encourages us to pray.  He tells us to ask, seek, and knock.  We ask for things, we seek understanding, and we knock on doors of opportunity that lie before us.  The Lord is saying that in every area of life we can find what we are looking for by talking to the heavenly Father.”
 
The included study guide offers key insights that can enhance your journey in prayer and help you apply principles that can revolutionize your time spent with God.  So uncover God’s solution for whatever you may face and discover how life is best when handled with prayer.
 
InTouch_Programoftheyear_MediumMarket_Headshot[1]About the Author: Dr. Charles F. Stanley, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta and founder of In Touch Ministries, demonstrates a keen awareness of people’s needs by providing practical Biblical truths for everyday life.  His In Touch teaching program is broadcast worldwide in more than 50 languages.  Dr. Stanley is also a New York Times best-selling author who has written more than 35 books, including: In Step with God, Landmines in the Path of the Believer, Living the Extraordinary Life, A Man’s Touch, Handle With Prayer, How to Listen to God, Eternal Security: Can You Be Sure?, The Gift of Forgiveness, How to Keep Your Kids on Your Team, The Wonderful Spirit-Filled Life, The Source of My Strength, How to Handle Adversity, The Blessing of Brokenness, Success God’s Way, The Handbook for Christian Living, Into His Presence, and When Tragedy Strikes.


This is a spotlight post from B&B Media Group

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Moby-Dick Book

I was on yahoo news doing my daily news read and I came across this:

If you're familiar with Herman Melville's classic, "Moby-Dick," you know that the title character -- an enormous white whale -- destroyed a whaling ship commanded by Captain Ahab. That set the obsessive Ahab off on his fabled quest to wreak revenge on the creature that upended his life.
And now it appears that a much-later group of maritime adventurers have uncovered the real-life vessel that served as Melville's inspiration for Ahab's quest. Melville modeled the character of Ahab on one Captain George Pollard, and researchers have found what they believe is the wreckage of the ship Pollard commanded two years after a whale felled his first whaling ship. But Pollard's second ship ran afoul of the weather instead of an enormous symbol of nature's impersonal tampering with human fate (as was the case with Ahab's famed craft, The Pequod). During a night storm some 600 miles off the coast of Hawaii, Pollard's ship --The Two Brothers -- struck a coral reef, capsized and sank.
As the AP's Audrey McAvoy reports, Marine archaeologists who'd been scouring an area 600 miles northwest of Honolulu appear to have uncovered the wreckage of the Two Brothers, which went under in 1823. McAvoy says that the elements have eroded away much of the structure of the vessel -- but "researchers found several harpoons, a hook used to strip whales of their blubber, and try pots or large cauldrons whalers used to turn whale blubber into oil."
In an announcement released today, the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument--which bills itself as "the single largest conservation area under the U.S. flag"--said that the find of "nationally significant wreckage" is "the first discovery of a wrecked whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts."
"For the past 188 years, the wreckage of Two Brothers has been lost on the ocean floor," the group's announcement explained. "The vessel was part of a fleet of several hundred whaling ships that were part of America's economic and political expansion into the Pacific, transforming the region, including Hawaii, both economically and culturally, and resulting in the near extinction of many whale species. The whaling fleets were also greatly responsible for early explorations of the Indian Ocean and the Polar regions."
Melville's novel has been an obsession of history and literature geeks alike for generations. Meg Guroff, a magazine editor and one of the internet's preeminent "Moby-Dick" authorities, maintains a website -- Power Moby Dick -- which features a transcribed and fully annotated version of the entire novel. Guroff told The Lookout that she found news of the apparent discovery of The Two Brothers "amazing."
"This story surprised me in so many ways. There's only one existing wooden whale ship in Mystic, Connecticut, but I didn't know that they hadn't discovered any wrecked wooden whale ship from Nantucket before now," Guroff told us. The whaling industry "was a major economic force of the 19th century that's kind of just vanished."
Guroff added that the find actually makes "Moby-Dick" seem more real: "The most amazing discovery would be the Essex itself"--that would be Pollard's first, whale-ravaged ship. "But to have this ship, the one that Captain Pollard sank after he survived this ordeal ... just kind of crosses the boundary between story and reality."
According to historians, Pollard and members of his crew were adrift in the Pacific for three months after the Essex sank. As later accounts made clear, the ordeal was harrowing, with survivors staving off starvation and mental anguish, and resorting to cannibalism in order to survive. In fact, Pollard was forced to eat his own cousin in the waning days of the shipwreck's aftermath. It's no wonder that he may well have held a grudge against the whale that sank his ship. Nevertheless, Pollard, unlike Ahab, did not surrender his life to the pursuit of whales: After he survived the sinking of the Two Brothers, Pollard retired from the whaling business.

Here is the link to the actual site

I haven't read this book yet (I know....shameful) but I do plan on reading it this year or the next. I would like to read it with my daughter so it will definitely be this year or the next.

Have you ever read this book? What did you think of it?

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Meet Me On Monday

This is a fun meme hosted by Java at Never Growing Old.

Every Sunday she posts five get to know you questions that you can copy and paste into your own Monday post and we can all learn a little more about each and every one of us!!


Questions:

1. Have you (only you..not a group) ever won first place in anything?

Nope....

2. Are your toes always painted (sorry guys...this question for girls only)?

No, not during this time of year anyway. Too cold. During the summer yes, I wear all my open toes sandals and heals!

3. What color eyes do you have?

Brown

4. Look to your left....what do you see?

Through my bedroom door into the kitchen with an unopened bottle of Strawberry-Banana V8 juice.

5. Soft cookies or crunchy cookies?

Soft! I have to be in certain mood for crunchy.... and that almost never happens.

WWW Wednesday

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions...
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll read next?


I currently am reading...
  • Passport Through Darkness by Kimberly L. Smith


  











  • Love & War Devotional for Couples by John & Stasi Eldredge









  • A Billion Reasons Why by Kristin Billerbeck
  








  • Jesus In The Present Tense by Warren W. Wierse
 











I recently finished....
The last book I read in the past couple weeks was Left At The Altar by Kimberley Kennedy












My next reads will probably be the same next week. I like having a variety like this because it depends on my mood what I want to read and I am already almost halfway through all of them. But I am almost done with Passport Through Darkness. I am putting Laughing With Lucy by Madelyn Pugh Davis and Bob Carrol Jr aside. Even though I am a huge fan of I Love Lucy/Lucy Ball, I am having hard time getting into this read. So far it is good, Madelyn is funny and I like her writing style so it's nothing against Madelyn and Bob, It just doesn't fit my mood lately. 
Also, I should have my review for The Nightmare Before Jesus by Sonya S. Molina up soon. Hopefully in the next week or so. 

I am so excited about my reading this week! They are all so good!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.
I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme, you are encouraged to go and visit the others participating in this meme, or at least as many as you can!


Since this is the one year anniversary for BookJourney hosting this meme, she has a special contest going on. And - so that I don't get it mixed up or messed up, instead of trying to explain it, go to her site and read more about it. There is a chance to win a $20 gift card to Amazon! Don't miss out on that!

This week I signed up to be part of the Word Shakers Online Book Club hosted by BookJourney. 

I finished reading and posted my review for Left At The Altar by Kimberley Kennedy 



This next week I continue my devotional read with Hubby: Love and War by John and Stasi Eldredge




















Passport Through Darkness by Kimberly L. Smith






















I have also started on Laughing WIth Lucy with Madelyn Pugh Davis & Bob Carrol Jr.

I would love to add another book to this but I know almost too well I will not be able to get to it since I am in the middle of changing my schedule around...going to the gym for 30-60min on treadmill and bike...trying to get into my "beach body" before summer is here. Also I am hoping to get myself a bike soon...with an attachment so that my Girlie can ride with me during these rides, I think she would enjoy it. Maybe it will rock her to sleep...? 
Anyway, I am hoping to get deep into these books and maybe (????) finish them this week...

How did you get your reading in when you were a stay-at -home mom/dad (to a young child) ? I know I will be getting more reading in as she gets older but she is almost 2. A lot of you know what I am going through right now with a child that age lol.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Musing Mondays

This week's musing (again, thanks to Squidoo), asks...
What's the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn't put it down?

For me, it would have to be Possession by Gene Gutteridge. It was for review from Tyndale. I really could not put it down and highly recommend it. It is a Christian mystery/thriller. And so good! I look forward to reading the rest of her books!
 









Before that was a book called Everything I Never Wanted To Be by Dina Kucera. A memoir I read for review from Pump Up Your Book. It was sad, funny, encouraging, endearing. Very good and another book I highly recommend. 
Both of my reviews are up if you are interested :) 

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Prayable- Loving Your Body

I received this prayer in my inbox and thought you readers might enjoy it. As we all know we all have issues and insecurities about our bodies:

Owning It


Every curve and corner,
every breath and impulse,
it's all mine.
And with the courage

You've instilled in me,
I finally hold it in my hands,
I stand firm and own it.

Please help me keep this grasp.
Keep me wise and reverent,
and keep me mindful that
this set of precocious hips
is no less than a gift of Yours.

A gift to be honored,
a gift to be adored,
a gift belonging only
to the woman You gave it to.

-  Abigail Wurdeman
 

Friday, February 4, 2011

Friday Finds

 What great books did you hear about/discover this past week? Share with us your FRIDAY FINDS!

:D

 Here are my finds:

The Next Christians Participant's Guide: Following Jesus in a Post-Christian CultureThe Measure of a Man

 
Loving Your Spouse Through Prayer: Praying God's Blessings Into Your Marriage

 The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons

The Measure of a Man by Gene A. Getz

Loving Your Spouse through Prayer by Cheri Fuller

Thursday, February 3, 2011

iShine Bible For Tween Girls REVIEW

This Bible was created specially for you. The Bible is God's way of telling us about who He is and who we are. This Bible is about helping you to understand how God looks at you and will help you face the most important decisions of your life.

This tween Bible for girls is so cute and very feminine.  Pink with stars and flowers with sparkles.  And since it is NLT (New Living Translation) it is very easy to read and understand. Also, if your girl has a smartphone (or a phone with this app) it has those square pixel things for them to take a picture and it takes them to a link with a message, activity or video to watch. Very interactive for the tween girl. There are pink pages throughout this Bible with questions, help, and advice. My personal favorites are at the very back of the book, a few pages of  "Great verses to memorize". It tells you where to find the scripture and what the scripture is about. And a couple pages of "Great stories of the Bible".  The scriptures to memorize is a great way for them to add scriptures to their prayers as well. And, since the Bible is small and compact, they can put it in their purse or backpack easily.
I completely love this Bible! I will recommend this tween Bible to every parent with a young girl and to the young girl herself. 
My one thought about this concept is that maybe they should have a tween Bible for girls who are tomboyish as well.


                                             I received my copy of this book for review from Tyndale Media Center

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Left At The Altar by Kimberley Kennedy REVIEW

Left at the Altar: My Story of Hope and Healing for Every Woman Who Has Felt the Heartbreak of Rejection

 Kimberley Kennedy was twenty-four hours away from being the woman who had it all. She was about to marry her perfect man-until, on the eve of the wedding, her fiance uttered five words that crushed her perfect world. I just can't do it. Suddenly her life went from blockbuster love story to a Lifetime movie gone bad. But her story doesn't end there. Through her numbing pain, public humiliation , and extreme anger at God, Kimberley wants you to know that you're not alone and shares her perspective on
  • How not to let rejection define you
  • Tools for healing and moving on
  • How to shape your future story
And in a unique twist, Kimberley goes strait to the source and lets the men ( aka The Rejectors) speak from their perspectives on breaking up.`

When I first chose to review this book I thought that because of the title this book would be about a woman telling her story of how she came to find the man who she thought was perfect for her then the day of the wedding he leaves her and she tells us of her pain, how she got through it and moved on and ends in inspiration with her telling the readers that they need to do the same in order to find love again. 
I was half right.
But there was so much more to the book than that as well.  There is a chapter devoted to the guys perspective which was actually pretty enlightening. One guy said that after the 3-4 month mark is typically when both sides begin to show the real them ( letting the guard down). At this point the woman usually wants to know where the relationship is going. The guy wishes the woman would just let the relationship breathe for a while. But since she wants to know where it's going he begins to feel smothered. Resulting in a relationship ending badly. 
The author also notes throughout her book that even though she may not have noticed it, felt it or saw it, that God was with her through the entire thing. She had constant love and support when she needed it the most. She was able to move on and love again.
There are a ton of stories on heartbreak and breaking up, tons of advice, tips, and help on how to overcome the feelings of rejection and desperation and more. Anyone who had ever dealt with any kind of rejection that reads any of the many stories in here will think 'I'm not crazy! I'm not the only one who did it! (like me;). This book is very helpful, enlightening and a joy to read. I enjoyed her writing style, graphs and advice that she gave that helped her. I would recommend this to pretty much anyone.


                                                                 
                                                                 I received my copy of the book for review from BookSneeze 

WWW Wednesday

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions... • What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you'll read next?



I am currently reading two books:
Love and Marriage Devotional for Couples by John and Stasi  Eldredge

Passport Through Darkness by Kimberly L. Smith










I recently finished reading: 
Left at the Altar by Kimberley Kennedy (review up later today)











What I will read next:
I am planning on reading two books this week, the one is 

 Laughing with Lucy by Madelyn Pugh Davis with Bob Carroll Jr.
( I am a huge I Love Lucy fan. I saw this at the library and had to get it!)












and I am going to start on another book by John L. Betcher:

A Higher Court
I am sure I am going to enjoy this book. The back of the book sounds great!