Secrets of the Vine by Darlene Marie Wilinson Book Review

I read a very interesting point in a book today.  The book is called Secrets of the Vine by Darlene Marie Wilkinson.  Darlene uses the verses from John 15:1-2, 5, and 8 to illustrate God and Jesus relationship to us.  In that verse Jesus talks to his disciples about being the Vine and they are the branches.  The illustration used in the book was that those verses talk about three different people.

The first person is Jesus, as the Vine.  He is the main stem that grows out of the ground and supports the branches.  What I found interesting is that the vine doesn’t produce the fruit.  The branches do, which is us.  Then there is the Vinedresser, who lovingly takes care of each branch without fail or without leaving any behind.  That Vinedresser is God.

We, ladies, as Christians, are the branches.  It is up to us to produce more and more fruit.  That is the point of this book.  God wants us to create fruit in abundance, and that in return blesses us in abundance.  How do we create fruit?  We are creating fruit every time we do something nice for someone else and God gets the glory for it.

Darlene shares 3 secrets in this book, but I am not going to reveal them. You’ll have to buy the book and read it to find out.  But what I can reveal is that by reading this book, you will learn how to become closer to God, how to harvest more and more fruit and how much our Father in Heaven loves each and every one of us.

By reading this book you will walk away knowing how to abide with God and know that He tenderly and lovingly wants the best for us.  This book is definitely something I would recommend to someone else!

WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book providing that I write a review in my honest opinion.  I was not persuaded to write this book review in any way.

The Reason Why by Mark Mittelberg Book Review

Have you ever wished that you could read a simple, yet thought provoking book about why Christians worship God?  Has there ever been a time when you wished that it made just a little bit more sense to you?  Or do you have friends who ask you questions, but you aren’t quite sure how to answer them?

Mark Mittelberg has taken the book The Reason Why by Robert A. Laidlaw and rewrote it to update for our times and standards.  He took a book that explained “in a thoughtful and accessible way why he [Robert A. Laidlaw] was convinced that faith in God makes sense” and put it into a language that we can understand now!  And believe me, you can understand it.

When I chose this book, I was thinking that it would be boring.  I know why I follow God, I just trust and believe.  But I thought there might be some easy ways in the book for me to explain it to friends who ask me questions that I can’t answer.  

The size of the book was a perfect size to fit into my purse!  I was actually starting to like it more and more by the way that it looked and felt.  I am a HUGE book feeler person.  lol  Do you know what that is?  I like the way that certain books feel in my hands.  I have favorite types.  This was one of those types that I liked.  That’s all the more I will say on that topic, before you all start calling the Wacky Farm to pick me up.

Mark Mittelberg took topics such as “Is There a God?”, “Can the Bible be Trusted?” and “Who Was Jesus and What Was His Purpose?” and created chapters from them.  In each chapter he goes into explicit but very simple details.  If you don’t understand why you are a Christian after reading this book, then read it again!  You will soon understand!

I think one of my favorite parts of the book was near the end where there is a place that explains the decision of Salvation.  Mr, Mittelberg than procedes with a prayer to assist those who are ready for that decision.  As I said before, this may be something that you need to do yourself, or maybe this can help you help your friend.  I want all of my friends to be in Heaven with me.  Don’t you?

After I am done with this blog review, I am handing this book to my friend to borrow.  She is a newer Christian and has questions.  I am sure this book will answer some of those for her!  If you or someone you know can benefit from this book, order it from Amazon.com for only $5.99 brand new or lower if you buy a used book today!

Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book providing that I write a review in my honest opinion.  I was not persuaded to write this book review in any way.

The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende

 

How many of you remember the movie The Neverending Story?  My sister and I used to watch this movie quite a bit.  It was one of my favorites.  I hadn't watched it in about 20 years, but I pulled it out the other night.

My yearning to watch the movie began when I picked up the book and started reading that.  Usually when I read a book that also has a movie, I like to read the book first, all of the way through and then watch the movie.  But this time, it had just been too long since I had seen the movie that I couldn't wait.

The book began very much like the movie.  Of course, there are a some differences like all books and movies.  I was enjoying the book.  Not even to the halfway mark though, the book was crawling into new territory.  And I mean crawling.

I think there is a reason why the movie only used part of the book!  The rest of the book went into this story that was just stranger and stranger.  I did not care too much for the rest of the book.  I was very glad to see that Atreyu and Falkor were in the story until the end though.  But I was disturbed that Artex never came back to life.  I always liked Artex.

I am going to keep the book for the kids to read.  You never know, they may enjoy the story better than I do.  And it will always work for a book to read for a book report!  If you'd like to check the book out on your own, click on the click from Amazon on the left.

I did this review because I wanted to.  The book is my own that I bought brand new at the bookstore.  It was not given to me to review.  The opinions are also my own!

 

Homemaking Help

Check this out at Homegrown Mom.  She has a great blog and now this awesome giveaway!  

If you are like myself, and you feel like you just weren't given all the basics for keeping house the right way you may benefit from this.  You can benefit even more if you share the information that you learn here with your daughters!

I can't wait to participate in this next month.  It is going to run for the 30 days of May.  I'm sure a lot of what I learn about cooking, cleaning and more I can pass onto my daughter to give her the abilities to take care of her family and home.  There will even be some guest bloggers and the chance now for you to sign up and become a guest blogger yourself!

Resurrection Sunday

What a wonderful day!  A day to rejoice and praise the Lord!  He conquered death and lives today!  He is my Lord, Kind of Kings and Holy of Holies!

This morning I went to Sunday school and taught the kids in my class about Resurrection Sunday.  I took a picture of all of the kids in their Easter best along with the crosses that we made last week.  I think they turned out cute!

After Sunday school the kids and I went to church.  We sang some beautiful hymns to celebrate and saw a lot of friendly faces.  My husband joined us at church today, which he does for every Easter and other special celebrations.  Or if I am performing a song with the hand bell choir.  Which today was both.  I love it when he comes!  He even braved it alone today, because he knew that I had to teach Junior church and leave him during the sermon.  (He has social anxieties.)

For Junior church I told the same Resurrection story but I made it simpler for the younger kids to understand.  We drew pictures today for a friend that moved away to tell them that we miss them and love them.  It was the sweetest thing!

After I was home, I pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.  I took a nap, visited with a friend and finished reading Assassins by Tim Lahaye and Jerry B Jenkins.  Book 6 of the Left Behind Series.  I am in love with these books!  I also picked out the book that I will start tonight and that is The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.

Do you remember that movie?  I loved watching the movie.  When I saw this book, I didn't know it existed, and I grabbed it up!  I couldn't walk past and not buy it!  I can hardly wait to read it!!  I hope it's better than the movie like books usually are.

What a glorious day!  Oh and I can't forget!  I hid eggs for the kids.  They love doing this yearly ritual.  I wanted to hide them outside, but it was raining everytime that I was awake or ready to do it.  I waited for a bit.

Tomorrow is Monday.  My favorite day of the week.  I am hoping that I can get a lot done.  I want to finish the Spring cleaning that I started. 

Have I said that it is so good to be back online?  I missed blogging so much!!  Now I can go back to trying to blog daily.  I like that goal.  Sometimes it is hard to reach, but it gives me a goal.

Before I leave, let me leave you with some Bible verses to think about:

And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priest and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day."                           Luke 9:21-22

And another:

The Father sent The Son to be The Savior of the World.    1 John 4:14

And a good favorite:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever shall believeth in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.                John 3:16

It's Good to be Back

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...    *note that is a sigh of extreme satisfaction*

I am so glad to finally have my internet service back!  I wonder if you've all forgotten about me...

I got my service back yesterday afternoon.  I was so excited!  The guy who came out to turn the DSL on was my hero of the day!

This morning I sit, sunshine streaming in my window, drinking my steaming mug of green tea with creamy clover honey and decided what better thing to do than blog.  I have missed blogging.  It was tough being away from Facebook and Blogger.  I don't know which was worse?  Seeing what others were up to, including my sister who lives all the way across the country from me, or telling others what I was up to.

Now you would think that without internet connection for over 2 mos. that I would have gotten a lot of work done.  Well, I didn't.  It just gave me more time to read!  We have even been pretty lax with school lately. 

I have lengthened my reading list considerable this year already.  I will have to compare to last year still, but I am happy with my progress.  I am currently reading Assassins by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.  It is Book 6 of the Left Behind series they wrote.  My goal is to read all 12 this year so I am almost half way there!  I just love these books too.  I get so into the story that I sit and read for hours without realizing how much time has passed.

My oldest daughter just had her birthday on Wednesday.  She is now 8.  Where does the time go?  I can't believe she is that old already!  We had a nice little intimate party for her with a couple friends and her grandpa.  Nothing big and spectacular this year for birthdays.  She chose a Spring cake mix and frosting with Easter egg and flower sugar decorations.

My green van just broke down the other day.  On Wednesday to be exact.  We were at Walmart.  We were so lucky though because I was walking back inside trying to figure out who to call for help (my choices were very very limited) and out is walking one of my best friends at church.  She was my hero for the day!  She drove me home and I had to leave my van there.  We got it home a couple of nights ago and Greg thinks it's the fuel pump.  Just like in my white van, remember the episode on the pass that scared us all?  So for the moment, we are driving my FIL car until we can fix the green van.  It's just always something.  Non-stop.

We had a new cat find us.  Kyle wanted his very own pet, preferably a cat.  Lo and behold, what do I find outside skinnier than skinny and starving for affection?  A kitten.  About 5 mos old or so.  Maybe a little younger.  He looks a lot like our other female, Feisty.  We often get them mixed up if we don't look close enough.  Kyle dubbed this new cat, Jerry.  So we now have a Tom and Jerry.  I will be posting pictures as soon as I get them all of off my camera.

I'm looking forward to today because it is supposed to be warm today!  The warmest it's been since our very cold Summer last year!  Lord knows I am waiting for Him to bring me some sunshiney goodness!

Other plans for today include going Easter goody and egg shopping, dying eggs and doing laundry to have clean clothes for church in the morning.  We are performing a song for Easter.  We as in, the hand bell choir that I play in.  We aren't doing anything special for Easter.  Just staying home and enjoying the day together as a family after church.

Well for now, I am going to sign out.  I have a few things that I want to get done today and I would like to try to finish my book.  I have 122 pages left and if given the time to read it, I can finish that within 2 hours.  Don't know if I'll be given the time to do it though....

Book Review for 31 Days of Power by Ruth Myers

31 Days of Power by Ruth Myers left me wanting for more.  The front cover of the book says “Learning to Live in Spiritual Victory” and I expected to be taught something.  Instead the book was filled with prayers to say for 31 days.  

The prayers were good prayers and used Bible verses, but I just expected more information.  I am aware that prayers are more powerful when you actually use Bible verses in them.  But I was not aware that I was buying 31 days of prayers.  I thought it was more like a devotional to help me for a month to learn about Spiritual victory.

The second part of the book talked about the dynamics of warfare as it was so called.  But I still found this section lacking.  Lots of Bible verses once again, but there wasn’t really extra information that helped to explain the verses.  

I read this book for 31 mornings.  I couldn’t wait for those 31 mornings to be over though.  

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the Multnomah Books book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Book Review for Fasting by Scot McKnight

I found the book Fasting by Scot McKnight to be boring and repetitive.  I thought that the author just kept repeating his ideas about fasting over and over but in different ways.  I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn’t.  I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.  Or for that matter, the other books in the Early Practice Series.

I also thought that the way that the author wrote about this serious issue was almost in a non-serious way.  I didn’t glean any helpful information from this book.  

The author kept using different of samples of fasting and I didn’t understand his language of fasting as body talk, body grief, body hope and the other weird ways that he put it.  I thought his way of explaining the whole subject was very confusing.  I had such high hopes for this book and it was just not up to my standards.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.