Terribly Interesting

This is one of those books that will change you if you give heed and listen. The voice of culture tells us to grow and build exponentially. It occurs in our Christian culture as well. We are impressed by the one who has amassed the most followers. The problem with this mentality is that it completely denies the descending way of Christ. He drew people in to serve them and renew their hearts. Right out of the gate, Gordon takes us into addressing the sin of his own drivenness as a pastor. What a refreshing thing to see a man in a high profile position allow his heart to be taken to task by the Holy Spirit. God convicted him of the many ways that he had been moving in his own power and agenda. He was doing it at the great neglect of those closest to him. Gordon lays out some simple ideas that can change how you relate to God and others. We can do quite a lot by being teachable and learning to truly listen to others. There is even a section about how to listen to your critics a...

 Oh how I loved this book. The story deeply touched my heart. It all started when fifty-five year old Jim Bradford ended up in a diner on a Saturday morning looking for coffee. It was a place he never really went to, but somehow ended up there that morning. He noticed a small boy sitting in a booth all alone. He began inquiring about him and went over to speak with him. After leaving the restaurant, Jim couldn't get HK out of his mind. He went back repeatedly to visit with him at the diner. Eventually, the two of them became best friends. HK's grandmother and caregiver allowed Jim to take her grandson out to church and to eat. Jim saw to it that HK's needs were met. His blindness and Cerebral Palsy were no match for his charm and caring heart. I hope that you will read this book or read about the story. Jim stepped straight into the fatherless generation and made a difference. HK has gone on to do amazing things as well. You'll see how his personality has gar...

Beth just rereleased Get Out of That Pit for it's 10th anniversary. I had read it before when it was initially released, but decided I could probably stand to read it again. I read a lot of books, around a hundred a year. I don't always remember every detail of them, but I did in this case. I remembered nearly every part of this book. I remembered it so well that I could tell you where I was sitting in my house ten years ago when I read different chapters. That tells you that it had a profound impact on me. I think this book is full of power. It is desperately needed still, a decade later. It is a current word to the church. I think so many of us in the body of Christ are ill-equipped in handling the misdeeds of others that we unintentionally shame them into a pit. How rare is the hand that acknowledges sin and still offers a hand up.   Now, one thing I love about Beth Moore is that she never wavers of her tireless preaching of the sovereign power of God. She makes n...

I am a fan of Sophie. I like that she is talking about nothing and yet driving a point all the way home. I always appreciate the fact that she isn't trying to impress me with her great knowledge or holy wisdom. She just tells what God is teaching her with all the humility she can muster. I like it. Send me the straight shooters.  I read this book when it came out and I liked it, but for some reason I decided to buy the audio at the end of summer. I think I had just made one too many long trips with three kids and the thought of driving four hours home almost took me out. I wanted to listen to somebody talk to me, somebody that sounded like family. It worked. I think it was divinely inspired because my four hour trip turned into over six hours and I arrived home no worse for the wear. It was like riding around with an old friend. I actually liked the book more the second time around. I think I needed to hear it more. I needed to be reminded of the importance of certain th...

I had purchased this ebook quite a while back because it was on sale on Amazon. I didn't start reading it until recently after a nudge from the Holy Spirit and my friend Jana. I could identify with the story right away. This woman and her husband had fancy government jobs and the perfect little farmhouse in the country. Then our wild God decided they would be best suited to live in a run down neighborhood in the inner city.  She goes on to document how God taught her to interact with people nothing like her, people who were scary. Her neighbors were in and out of prison. She brought some of them into her home. This is a tale of laying down expectations, perfection, and control. It'a lesson I have learned in all the stages of construction. Let the people in anyway. The people are what matter. We aren't here to build a facade of loveliness for people to admire. We are here to build into the hearts of human beings.That will hurt more than anything else you will ever do,...

It took me several weeks to get through this book. It may be the most intense and bloody book I have ever read. Someone, or many people, died on every one of the 528 pages. It was brutal. Another reviewer stated how heavy and packed with information it was. I can second that. I do have to say that Mr. Paul Andrew Hutton did his homework. I was truly amazed at how he was able to get all of this information in here and still tell it like a story instead of as a text book. Bravo. I learned many terrible things while reading this book. People this short time period ago were pretty heartless. A few short generations back, people were literally violently killing everyone they didn't agree with. I learned that the Europeans are the ones that brought scalping to our country. The Apaches would rarely even do it because it was so brutal. Reading about how one goes about scalping another person almost did me in. There were bad people all around in this story. The white man stealing...

Let me be honest. I didn't read this book when it came out because of the title. I never even read past the title to what the book was about. It was too goofy for me. Recently, as I was trying to find something to give to a friend of mine, the cover flashed in my head. Then I ran across it and actually read the premise. I thought, oh, I need to read this. So, I bought a few copies. Sophie is a great author. Maybe you remember her from A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet. My friend Amy and I at book club. We ate Southern fare and discussed A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet. Amy was crowned Queen of the South and led from her throne...complete with dog. A post shared by Stephanie Cherry (@heystephcherry) on Apr 27, 2014 at 8:21pm PDT I loved that book. This one did not disappoint either. I needed to read it because I was reading some other heavy books and even though Sophie deals with hard hitting subjects, she does it in light-hearted story form. Sometimes, she dr...