Ridiculous, Terrible Story & False Teachings on Angels
If you don't care about Biblical accuracy or a silly story, then by get this book because it's SUUUPER cute and sweet pictures. The pictures are adorable and fun. Yes, very very fun and cute. You will love it! Just look at all the 40+ people who gave it 4-5 stars.
BUT... if teaching your children biblical truths is important to you, you will not consider this book "innocent fun". You will fully agree with the other two reviewers who gave this book 2 stars. Cute pictures doesn't make up for a ridiculous story and the false teachings on angels.
Let's forget about the false teachings about angels for a second and just focus on the story. This book is completely ridiculous, starting with the first sentence ("Angels, angels, line up. Well done, everyone. Hmmm . . . has anyone seen Gabby?” “She fell over her harp, sir,” Parker said. “I think she took it to have it . . . well . . . straightened out.”). The story is of a ridiculous, clumbsy (always tripping), child-aged angel, who is a guardian angel in training. She stumbles and bumbles her way through sentences, not making any sense and this makes the other child-aged angels think she's funny. Another sample of the terrible dialogue: Gabby said. “Sorry I’m late, sir. I had a . . . well, how shall I say it? It was a . . . no, not really, it was more of a, well, and yet . . . on the other hand . . . you could describe it as . . . oh dear, perhaps just a musical mishap!”
Gabby says things that make so sense at all and can be quite irritating, like when someone tells her to look at the earthly children playing at the playground, she says: "They're playing with the ground . . . really?" Gabby said. "Wow, that doesn't seem like it would be a ton of fun, but I guess I don't know as I've never really had a `ground'." This story is really, not funny or cute. It makes for an ridiculous, confusing story. Terrible book.
My disclaimer - I received this book from the publisher free of charge but I always give honest reviews. I want you to be able to choose the best book based on stars because I know you have limited time and energy to read.
1 Star: Awakening by Stovall Weems
Like many "10-steps to a better life books" or "weight loss" books, this book promises if you follow 1-2-3, you'll get a new and improved spiritual life, but is seems unrealistic and fails to give any real inspiration or new insights. We've heard it all before - fast, turn to God and live the life. This book is full of promises with selected bible verses plucked out of context and inserted to make you "feel good". To me, it felt sales pitchy, dishonest, and like the author's main motivation was to make easy money from banging out an easy book.
Also, I noticed the author contradicts himself: such as when he claimed your motivation for fasting should be improving your spiritual life and NOT to lose weight. But right after he tells you not to use weight-loss as a motivation, he tells you how he lost 60 lbs! Why would he tell you this unless he actually means to entice you to use weight-loss as a motivating factor?
The book was easy to understand and a quick easy read but I've heard it all a hundred times and I didn't find it thought-provoking or anything new here. I would pass because I doubt it will change your life or add much to your life.
I read that Stoval Weems associates with Word of Faith cult, Charismatics and Pentecostals, so these groups may enjoy this book. If you are not one of these groups, you may wish to skip it for theological/belief reasons.
My disclaimer - I received this book from the publisher Water Brook Multnomah free of charge but I always give honest reviews. I want you to be able to choose the best book based on stars because I know you have limited time and energy to read.
Also, I noticed the author contradicts himself: such as when he claimed your motivation for fasting should be improving your spiritual life and NOT to lose weight. But right after he tells you not to use weight-loss as a motivation, he tells you how he lost 60 lbs! Why would he tell you this unless he actually means to entice you to use weight-loss as a motivating factor?
The book was easy to understand and a quick easy read but I've heard it all a hundred times and I didn't find it thought-provoking or anything new here. I would pass because I doubt it will change your life or add much to your life.
I read that Stoval Weems associates with Word of Faith cult, Charismatics and Pentecostals, so these groups may enjoy this book. If you are not one of these groups, you may wish to skip it for theological/belief reasons.
My disclaimer - I received this book from the publisher Water Brook Multnomah free of charge but I always give honest reviews. I want you to be able to choose the best book based on stars because I know you have limited time and energy to read.
5 Stars: Night Night Blessings
This review is for the Amazon Kindle ebook version:
SUPER cute, super colorful pictures - blues, pinks, purples, greens, yellows! This short, quick-to-read little book makes for a great children's prayer book. This is a rhyming book on thankful prayer only and not on prayers of request, which is a nice change from the normal prayer book.
This book is about a little child (gender neutral - looks like it could be a boy or girl, unsure) giving a thankful prayer to God for a full day's blessings - morning to night. The child thanks God for food, fun days, pets, toys, family time, oceans, Daddy's bedtime prayer, Mommy's kisses, the moon, God's love and all God's blessings.
Only issue is my ebook version has typos and also it Capitalizes in every other word, which is incorrect English.
My disclaimer - I received this book from the publisher Thomas Nelson free of charge but I always give honest reviews. I want you to be able to choose the best book based on stars because I know you have limited time and energy to read.
SUPER cute, super colorful pictures - blues, pinks, purples, greens, yellows! This short, quick-to-read little book makes for a great children's prayer book. This is a rhyming book on thankful prayer only and not on prayers of request, which is a nice change from the normal prayer book.
This book is about a little child (gender neutral - looks like it could be a boy or girl, unsure) giving a thankful prayer to God for a full day's blessings - morning to night. The child thanks God for food, fun days, pets, toys, family time, oceans, Daddy's bedtime prayer, Mommy's kisses, the moon, God's love and all God's blessings.
Only issue is my ebook version has typos and also it Capitalizes in every other word, which is incorrect English.
My disclaimer - I received this book from the publisher Thomas Nelson free of charge but I always give honest reviews. I want you to be able to choose the best book based on stars because I know you have limited time and energy to read.
4 Stars: Close Enough to Hear God Breathe by Greg Paul
Close Enough to Hear God Breathe: The Greatest Story of Divine Intimacy is a book that focuses on stories from the author's life. He tells a story about a human parent and their child and then relates that story to how God looks at us, His own children.
I found this book quite touching and beautiful. At first, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, because the author was relating stories about his own father and himself as the son and I didn't find that story very deep or touching. But as the book goes on, the author begins telling sad and tragic stories about other parents and their children. These stories are touching and may even bring a tear to your eye - especially one about a mother losing her son to drugs, alcohol, then homelessness and a young death at age 40. I'm not certain God relates to us quite like a human parent will relate to their son, but the stories are touching and the analogies are throught-provoking.
This book reminds me of the message in the fictional novel The Shack by William P. Young - in that it relates the God-human relationship to human parents and their kids. This book also mentions that God is father and the Holy Spirit is mother and Jesus is like their son. So again, that reminds me of The Shack book. Those who like the Shack will like this book. If you didn't like The Shack, you probably won't agree with this author's analogies.
My disclaimer - I received this book from the publisher Thomas Nelson free of charge but I always give honest reviews. I want you to be able to choose the best book based on stars because I know you have limited time and energy to read.
I found this book quite touching and beautiful. At first, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, because the author was relating stories about his own father and himself as the son and I didn't find that story very deep or touching. But as the book goes on, the author begins telling sad and tragic stories about other parents and their children. These stories are touching and may even bring a tear to your eye - especially one about a mother losing her son to drugs, alcohol, then homelessness and a young death at age 40. I'm not certain God relates to us quite like a human parent will relate to their son, but the stories are touching and the analogies are throught-provoking.
This book reminds me of the message in the fictional novel The Shack by William P. Young - in that it relates the God-human relationship to human parents and their kids. This book also mentions that God is father and the Holy Spirit is mother and Jesus is like their son. So again, that reminds me of The Shack book. Those who like the Shack will like this book. If you didn't like The Shack, you probably won't agree with this author's analogies.
My disclaimer - I received this book from the publisher Thomas Nelson free of charge but I always give honest reviews. I want you to be able to choose the best book based on stars because I know you have limited time and energy to read.
3 Stars: More Lost Than Found by Jared Howard Herd
More Lost Than Found is about next generation Christians drifting away from organized religion and church in search of a deeper spiritual connection with God, because they can't relate to the answers or lack of answers they find in the church. The idea is not that they leave Jesus, but they leave the church in search of Jesus only or a deeper connection to Jesus without all the religion and disappointment with the human institution of the church.
As I began reading this book, I was instantly hooked and thought this was going to be along the lines of many similar books: "Why Men Hate Going to Church by Murrow" "Finding Organic Church by Frank Viola" "House Church by Atkerson", "So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore by Jacobsen" and "If the Church Were Christian by Gulley". These books share the idea: "18-30 year olds are not finding Jesus and God in rigid judgmental churches, so they leave to find a personal experience with Jesus and God." Being a super devoted 27-year-old Christian girl, I relate to all my fellow 18-30 Christians who learn more at home in one day than from months of sermons. To us, church does not even come close to meeting our spiritual needs. It is too basic, too childish, and so unchallenging.
The best part of this book was when the author went into how adolescent rebellion was created when adults became fixated on money and careers and they forgot about their children. These parts of this book are very deep and very accurate from my own youth perspective. This book also goes into how teenage rebellion (as expressed in angry rap, tattoos, piercings) are the result of this anger that kids have towards their parents because there is no family connections and there are so many broken families now. The author also explains how historically, kids and parents were very much alike and shared many common interests - prior to the Industrial Revolution that made women work and family lose its place of importance.
So this book began fantastic! I couldn't put it down for much of the book... until Chapter 8. From Chapter 8-11, the entire book lost its purpose. It was almost as if these chapters didn't even belong to the same book. Or the author completely forgot what the entire premise of the book was about. Especially chapter 9-11 were disjointed, out of place and served no purpose in light of the previous fantastic focused chapters. These last chapters were spacey and gave no insights. The ending completely died. Maybe the author had to meet a publishing deadline and just banged out some fluff, because the ending chapter had ZERO to do with the first 1-8 chapters! It was the weirdest ending to any book I've ever read.
But because the first chapters were excellent, I would still recommend reading this book. Just skip the last chapters. :) I give this book 3 stars because there should have been an ending that made sense and wrapped up the ideas in the previous good chapters.
My disclaimer - I received this book from the publisher Thomas Nelson free of charge but I always give honest reviews. I want you to be able to choose the best book based on stars because I know you have limited time and energy to read.
As I began reading this book, I was instantly hooked and thought this was going to be along the lines of many similar books: "Why Men Hate Going to Church by Murrow" "Finding Organic Church by Frank Viola" "House Church by Atkerson", "So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore by Jacobsen" and "If the Church Were Christian by Gulley". These books share the idea: "18-30 year olds are not finding Jesus and God in rigid judgmental churches, so they leave to find a personal experience with Jesus and God." Being a super devoted 27-year-old Christian girl, I relate to all my fellow 18-30 Christians who learn more at home in one day than from months of sermons. To us, church does not even come close to meeting our spiritual needs. It is too basic, too childish, and so unchallenging.
The best part of this book was when the author went into how adolescent rebellion was created when adults became fixated on money and careers and they forgot about their children. These parts of this book are very deep and very accurate from my own youth perspective. This book also goes into how teenage rebellion (as expressed in angry rap, tattoos, piercings) are the result of this anger that kids have towards their parents because there is no family connections and there are so many broken families now. The author also explains how historically, kids and parents were very much alike and shared many common interests - prior to the Industrial Revolution that made women work and family lose its place of importance.
So this book began fantastic! I couldn't put it down for much of the book... until Chapter 8. From Chapter 8-11, the entire book lost its purpose. It was almost as if these chapters didn't even belong to the same book. Or the author completely forgot what the entire premise of the book was about. Especially chapter 9-11 were disjointed, out of place and served no purpose in light of the previous fantastic focused chapters. These last chapters were spacey and gave no insights. The ending completely died. Maybe the author had to meet a publishing deadline and just banged out some fluff, because the ending chapter had ZERO to do with the first 1-8 chapters! It was the weirdest ending to any book I've ever read.
But because the first chapters were excellent, I would still recommend reading this book. Just skip the last chapters. :) I give this book 3 stars because there should have been an ending that made sense and wrapped up the ideas in the previous good chapters.
My disclaimer - I received this book from the publisher Thomas Nelson free of charge but I always give honest reviews. I want you to be able to choose the best book based on stars because I know you have limited time and energy to read.
1 Stars: Our Last Great Hope by Ronnie Floyd
Ronnie Floyd's Our Last Great Hope Awakening the Great Commission is a book about missionary work and converting nonbelievers into Christians. This book called the task "the Great Commission" and describes it as "our last great hope" because the author believes the two most important things in life are 1) being saved and 2) saving others.
I give this book 1 stars because I think the author is a false teacher, selling his books for money and not living the life he is pressuring everyone else to live - read my complete review and you will see why I say this. Although this book was interesting, it came across sales pitchy and pushy - I don't like the author's message. I also don't agree with the author's emphasis on making missions the number one important thing in your life outside of your own salvation. I do acknowledge the book was well-written and thought-provoking.
In disagreeing with the emphasis on missions, I feel like the emphasis on missions is too strong and I'm not certain the Great Commission was meant to be outside of the disciples of Jesus' time. If it was meant to be outside the disciples time, then why do many bible verses suggest the mission was completed? Also, why did NO CHRISTIAN do any missionary work from the disciples time prior to 70AD all the way up to 1783AD? That's 1700 years of human lives without any missionaries? I think if God wanted missions to be so important, people would have been doing missions before 1783. Also, many conservative presbyterians believe the miracles, healings, tongues etc were only for the time of Jesus and the disciples. Google this and you will find a lot of supporting documentation this subject. It seems pentacostals are among the few who believe the miracles still apply to us today.
Along with emphasis on missions, Floyd is especially pushy about multiplying churches - bragging about what he's done. He writes as if creating 10,000 new churches in America equals saved people and God's will. Sorry but I feel like the current STATE of our churches is much more important than making more. Let's fix the ones that are not producing fruit in line with living like Jesus. We don't need more churches, we need better churches!
This book did make me think about my current views, so I think it is a good book for that. But this book really makes you feel like a crappy Christian or a bad person or even almost an unsaved person if you don't make missions number one in your life. I didn't like that feeling. It's like the author guilts you into missions.
I also looked up the author Ronnie Floyd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Floyd%20) after finishing the book and found he is pastor of CrossChurch, a megachurch (now 3 churches with over 16,000 attendees) and I don't agree with his views. Also there are some negative articles (I don't know how true they are) on him on google about pressuring Christians on tithing while his very own church only gives 2.2% to missions. If missions really is number 1 as he says in this book, why doesn't his own church live this? Why isn't the author living what he is preaching? Probably because he just wants the money from selling his books.
http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2009/11/ronnie-and-johnny-doggone-it-how-can-we.html
http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2010/02/floyd-and-gcr-they-are-astounded-at.html
My disclaimer - I received this book from the publisher Thomas Nelson free of charge but I always give honest reviews. I want you to be able to choose the best book based on stars because I know you have limited time and energy to read.
I give this book 1 stars because I think the author is a false teacher, selling his books for money and not living the life he is pressuring everyone else to live - read my complete review and you will see why I say this. Although this book was interesting, it came across sales pitchy and pushy - I don't like the author's message. I also don't agree with the author's emphasis on making missions the number one important thing in your life outside of your own salvation. I do acknowledge the book was well-written and thought-provoking.
In disagreeing with the emphasis on missions, I feel like the emphasis on missions is too strong and I'm not certain the Great Commission was meant to be outside of the disciples of Jesus' time. If it was meant to be outside the disciples time, then why do many bible verses suggest the mission was completed? Also, why did NO CHRISTIAN do any missionary work from the disciples time prior to 70AD all the way up to 1783AD? That's 1700 years of human lives without any missionaries? I think if God wanted missions to be so important, people would have been doing missions before 1783. Also, many conservative presbyterians believe the miracles, healings, tongues etc were only for the time of Jesus and the disciples. Google this and you will find a lot of supporting documentation this subject. It seems pentacostals are among the few who believe the miracles still apply to us today.
Along with emphasis on missions, Floyd is especially pushy about multiplying churches - bragging about what he's done. He writes as if creating 10,000 new churches in America equals saved people and God's will. Sorry but I feel like the current STATE of our churches is much more important than making more. Let's fix the ones that are not producing fruit in line with living like Jesus. We don't need more churches, we need better churches!
This book did make me think about my current views, so I think it is a good book for that. But this book really makes you feel like a crappy Christian or a bad person or even almost an unsaved person if you don't make missions number one in your life. I didn't like that feeling. It's like the author guilts you into missions.
I also looked up the author Ronnie Floyd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Floyd%20) after finishing the book and found he is pastor of CrossChurch, a megachurch (now 3 churches with over 16,000 attendees) and I don't agree with his views. Also there are some negative articles (I don't know how true they are) on him on google about pressuring Christians on tithing while his very own church only gives 2.2% to missions. If missions really is number 1 as he says in this book, why doesn't his own church live this? Why isn't the author living what he is preaching? Probably because he just wants the money from selling his books.
http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2009/11/ronnie-and-johnny-doggone-it-how-can-we.html
http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2010/02/floyd-and-gcr-they-are-astounded-at.html
My disclaimer - I received this book from the publisher Thomas Nelson free of charge but I always give honest reviews. I want you to be able to choose the best book based on stars because I know you have limited time and energy to read.
4 Stars: Water's Edge by Robert Whitlow
4 stars because the story was predictable right from the start and the mystery in this book was solved in the start of reading. Aside from knowing exactly how things would play out, this book was interesting and well-written. No deep romance and no cursing.
This book is about a big town lawyer, Tom, who temporarily moves back home to the small town in which he grew up to help dissolve his father's law firm after his father's unexpected death in a fishing accident. The public are told his father had gone with a friend, Harold Addington, to go fishing and both men had drowned after the boat flipped. Tom meets up with his childhood friends and many of the townsfolk who knew and trusted his father. All the people of the small town try to convince him to give up the big life in the city and to take over his father's small town honest law firm and to follow in his father's footsteps. During sorting through his father's files, our main character Tom discovers nearly $2 million in a trust account belonging to his father. The money is a mystery because the father had no money and owed back taxes to the IRS - leaving nothing to his son. So where did this money come from? Tom must investigate and solve the mystery of his father's and Harold Addington's death and also discover whether the money was stolen or embezzled and also if it belongs to the big company Harold Addington worked for if it belonged to Harold's family and thus would become the inheritance of his wife Esther and his daughter Rose Addington. Tom and Rose go back and forth searching to evidence in their fathers' belongings and work together to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
This book was an enjoyable read, so I would recommend it. But the story was very predictable and the romances were very blah and not at all romantic. There was no chemistry between the romantic characters.
My disclaimer - I received this book from the publisher Thomas Nelson free of charge but I always give honest reviews. I want you to be able to choose the best book based on stars because I know you have limited time and energy to read.
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