Grace Notes

Battles in Faith, Tradition and Religious Expression Bodie Hodge, General Editor Published by Answers in Genesis, 2013 What is Christmas to you?  What should Christmas be?  What is myth, tradition, or the truth behind our celebration?  Trusted Bible scholars at Answers in Genesis have set about to answer these questions and many more.  This book is a collection of essays by several authors answering questions and countering traditions, which makes for some overlap in content.  However, if you have a question or wonder about a Christmas tradition, or why we should even celebrate Christmas, this book will help.  It is an interesting book which relies heavily on the Bible (as it should since we are supposed to be celebrating Christ's birth), but also presents archaeological and astronomical evidence as well as customs and traditions of the time of Christ's birth.  By the way, you do know that Christ is not part of Jesus' name, right?  It is a title which means "the a

Published by:  Thomas Nelson, Inc. 2012 I am a die-hard King James Bible reader.  I love the language of the translation, and have never felt I was in over my head, as many claim to be when they read this translation of the Bible.  Maybe it's because I have been reading it all of my life.  Several years ago I received a different version of the Bible, made a comparison of some of my favorite parts and areas I consider very important doctrinally, and found that comparing the two versions was enlightening.  So when Shelton Interactive offered to allow me to review the new Compass, the Study Bible for Navigating Your Life , I was thrilled.  I was especially excited to see this new translation, because it features The Voice translation by Ecclesia Bible Society (I had previously reviewed The Voice in it's New Testament form).   Let me just say I can't put this Bible down.  It has become my at home go to translation.  Yes, I still carry my King James to church, but now I

Crepe myrtle, sage and cannas in my back yard. This has been the strangest weekend for me.  I worked last Sunday afternoon and evening getting payroll ready to be processed a day early since this week had  a holiday in it.  So I was able to take off Friday and have a four day weekend.  I have been extremely busy at work lately and it has carried over into getting home late most evenings, so Thursday I didn't really know what to do with myself.   Yesterday was much easier, and today was fun!  Tomorrow starts Vacation Bible School so next week will be busy, too.  I am very thankful I was able to take these four days off!   Because of the rain and thunder storms my son and I opted not to go to any fireworks shows this year.  Or any parades.  I guess when you hit the big 17 you just feel like a kid if you go to a parade.  Well, being a 40 something woman, sometimes I think it's nice to feel like a kid and go to a parade.  However, we just hung around the house after goi

PRAIRIE SONG By:  Mona Hodgson Published by:  Waterbrook Press 2013 Although Prairie Song is the first book in a new series called Hearts Seeking Home, by Mona Hodgson , it picks up where the story left off in the series The Quilted Heart.  Prairie Song follows Anna Goben, her mother and her grandfather as they leave their home in Missouri for the promised land of California.  Anna hopes the trip and the new home will be the catalyst that will change all their lives.  They suffered a terrible trauma during the war (Civil War) in the death of Anna's brother.  Now they have an awefull secret -- her mother is an alcoholic -- and her grandfather has given up on life.  This is a family who is just living from day to day and not experiencing a life of contentment or joy. Anna is right.  The trip brings about change in her family, if not change as she had hoped. And along with friends who leave Missouri with her family, she finds new friends along the trail.  And could she also

One of the many lakes in the park  Shakespeare Theatre, Montgomery, Alabama Several days ago I wrote the following, and just want to share.  If you are ever in the area you might want to check out the Shakespeare Theatre and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts , both located on the grounds of the Blount Cultural Park. This is incredible. I am sitting at a picnic table in front of the Shakespeare Theatre in Montgomery, Alabama, in the Blount Cultural Park . I dropped my son off with my brothers in Pike Road this morning. Of course I am not going to drive all of the way back home and then back again when he is finished. It's a little more than 25 miles one way! So I am at Shakespeare, enjoying this beautiful morning. It's a little after 8:30, the birds are singing, there is a soft breeze blowing, and it's not yet hot, which is wonderful. The sun is shining, the geese and ducks are on the pond and on the lawn, and walkers and joggers pass on the

Seven Steps to Knowing, Doing and Experiencing The Will of God for Teens Seven Steps to Knowing, Doing and Experiencing The Will of God for Teens Experiencing God at Home By: Tom Blackaby, Mike Blackaby and Daniel Blackaby Published by: B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2013 I was very pleased with this book! It is written by the son and two grandsons of the famous Henry Blackaby who wrote Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing The Will of God . I have never read the elder Mr. Blackaby's book, but I am certainly now entertaining the idea of finding it and reading it. His son and grandsons have made that great of an impression on me. I just about guarantee that if you have a teenager in your life and you give them this book, they will learn much about how to learn about and serve God in their daily life. More than likely they won't be able to put the book down. It is written in such a way that it captures the attention. It shares personal

Experiencing God at Home By Tom and Richard Blackaby Published by B&H Publishing, Nashville, Tennessee 2013 As an adult, what is the most difficult area of your life? Where do you often have to make the hardest decisions, and sometimes experience what are your greatest failures or greatest accomplishments? If you are a parent, it would be in raising your family. And if you are a Christian, it is raising your children to become followers of Christ, to accept Him as their own. That's what this book sets out to accomplish. It applies guidelines from Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God. It is the belief of the authors, and my belief as well, that it is harder today to raise Christian, God-fearing children, than it has ever been. If you don't believe it, think about your own youth and compare it with the experiences and temptations our own kids have to deal with today. The Blackaby's use their own families as examples of how to raise God

SAMMY EXPERIENCES GOD By Tom Blackaby and Rick Osborne Illustrated by Isabella Kung Published by: B & H Kids, Nashville, Tennessee, 2013 Normally I don't mention illustrators, because I normally don't read children's books anymore since I have teenagers. However I read this book, and I must say I was highly impressed by the illustrator. The illustrations take up the whole page, edge to edge, of every page of this book. The text is superimposed on top. On top of the illustrations are representations of the main character's sketches. Sammy is a young boy who loves to hear his dad read Bible stories to him. He calls them “God adventures”. While his dad reads, Sammy sketches what he learns. One particular night he asks God if he can be in a God adventure. Over the next few days Sammy desperately tries to re-enact what he has learned in the Bible. Stories about Jacob, King David, Moses, Elijah, Abraham, Paul and Timothy. Each time he is di

 I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference By Thom S. Ranier Published by: B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2013 This little book is packed. With ideas, attitude and conviction. Seven small chapters focusing what I can do to be a better church member. Each chapter is summed up with a pledge and study questions. The book is less than 100 pages long so it doesn't take long at all to read. However, I would suggest reading and studying one chapter at a time, absorbing what Mr. Ranier is saying, and learn how to apply that to your life before continuing on to the next chapter. This book is as much about what a church member should not be as what one should be. I mentioned that this book is convicting. It is! One of the most convicting chapters for me is chapter 4, I Will Pray for My Church Leaders. Do you know how hard it is to be a Christian leader, especially in this day and age? You think the devil comes after you,

The Winnowing Season Amish Vines and Orchards Book 2 By:  Cindy Woodsmall Published by:  WaterBrook Press, 2013   This book continues the story of Rhoda Byler and Samuel and Jacob King, as begun in Cindy Woodsmall's previous book A Season for Tending .  If you love Amish fiction, this book is for you.  The tornado that devastated the King apple orchard is now taking it's tole on Rhoda, Samuel and Jacob.  Tensions are high as they try to rebuild, while at the same time preparing to make the move to Maine where they plan to form a new Amish community while at the same time expanding their business. Rhoda, Samuel and Jacob must deal with their pasts before they can have a chance at the future.    Problems arise when Rhoda is called before the church on the night before she is scheduled to leave for Maine.  If she fails to attend, her brother and his family will not be permitted by the church to go to Maine.  Rhoda must show her quiet strength and her faith in God.

Freefall to Fly:  A Breathtaking Journey Toward a Life of Meaning by:  Rebekah Lyons Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Copyright 2013 Freefall to Fly is a raw, emotional, honest look at what happens when you let go and let God take control.  How do you find the meaning and purpose in your life, or is life wrapped up in your family and day to day responsibilities?    Over the course of two years Rebekah Lyons dealt with panic attacks and had to face the reasons of why she was having them.  For a season they stopped, and then they returned.  What was the cause?  She had a fear of mental illness, because her father was debilitated and in assisted living because of all the drugs he had been prescribed over the years to deal with his own mental illness.  Rebekah discovered that her panic attacks stemmed from the fear of letting go.  Not willing and not knowing how to turn complete control of her life over to God.   Rebekah tells how the short online documentary Boatlift: An Unto

Dandelions on the Wind By:  Mona Hodgson WaterBrook Press Maren came to America from Denmark as a mail order bride, right at the beginning of the American Civil War.  Her intended was a friend of her family, and she felt safe in knowing she would be cared for and would have the opportunity to bring her remaining family to America once she was married.  However, no one counted on the fact that Maren is going blind.  A wife who has difficulties seeing is not what her groom had intended, so he escapes to the war.  Maren takes various jobs, but eventually settles in with a grandmother raising her four year old granddaughter, Gabi, alone.  The girl's mother had died during childbirth, and the death of his beloved wife was more than Rutherford, otherwise known as "Woolly", could take.  So like Maren's intended, he joined the war and has not seen his daughter or his mother-in-law since the day of Gabi's birth. The war is now over and soldiers are coming

       

Tuesday morning I listened to a great story on Troy Public Radio entitled " He Helped Discover Evolution, and Then Became Extinct ", a story about Alfred Russell Wallace.  I have an insatiable curiosity and love hearing about nature and new things, so I listened with interest, although caution. One comment in particular caught my attention:  By 1855, Wallace had come to the conclusion that living things evolve. But he didn't figure out how until one night three years later. He was on the island of Halmahera, ill with a fever, when it came to him: Animals evolve by adapting to their environment. While I believe that plants and animals can adapt to their environments, I firmly believe this is limited to the characteristics God has given to the plant or animal.  As a Christian I wanted to yell out, questioning them as to why God couldn't have just made these creatures this way, specifically for this area of the world. It's good to get the opinions and belief

Be Still My Soul By:  Joanne Bischof WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group   This wonderful book is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains  in the early 1900s.  It tells the story of deep set family beliefs, where how you and your family are perceived by others is very important, at least to Lonnie's family.  This is a story of false accusations, hope, the beginnings of love and forgiveness.    Lonnie is a gifted young singer who is one day forced by her father to sing in public.  She meets young Gideon, the most sought after bachelor in the hollow and beyond.  Lonnie and Gideon are caught kissing in the dark by Lonnie's father after Gideon walks her home from the gathering.  Lonnie's father forces a quick marriage between the two young people, a marriage that is not wanted by either one.   What happens when Lonnie and Gideon strike out on their own and meet with difficult challenges that are almost too hard to overcome?  Will she ever forgive and

North of Hope: A Daughter's Arctic Journey By:  Shannon Huffman Polson Published by Zondervan, 2013 Shannon last spoke with her father and stepmother on Father's Day 2005.  She is on the return journey home after visiting her brother and his wife.  Her brother is in the car behind her when she receives a phone call.  It's from Alaska, and is the police are asking for Shannon Huffman.  Dread settles in.  Her father and stepmother are in Alaska kayaking down the Hulahula River located in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  Disbelief as the officer explains that her father and his wife have been killed.  She pulls over the to the side of the road, her brother behind her.  He crawls in the car with her and they sit stunned.  What had been an adventure for experienced Alaskan adventurers Richard and Katherine Huffman has become their final days on earth.  They have died a gruesome death.  Mauling by grizzly. A year later Shannon and her adopted brother Ned, along wi