Money secrets of the Amish, by Lorilee Craker

I'm from Guatemala (and still living there) and I've been intrigued by the Amish community and their practical beliefs, so I thought this book would be a great opportunity in order to get to know them better. At least, the kind of "knowing" that one can get trough a book.
Since I've been interested in them, the money-saving practices wasn't a surprise and I wasn't that hard to convince that the Amish point of view is correct. Really correct.
However, the thing that surprised me was the 'cheap-ways' around a lot of their life.
I know that 'cheap' isn't a fair term but that's the best adjective that I could find, that really can explain how the Amish ways look from this side of the fence. I mean, my wife and I try to be really good managers of God's blessings in our life, but come on! 'Repairing' the car with dock tape when you can make or pay a real job?
The book showed  me where I'm standing: If you can afford something... well... buy it! The big question, at least for me, is: Can you really afford it? And that means: Buying that or really-repairing that, would be an obstacle in your walk with God or will get you or your family in trouble? If the answer to that question is a 'yes', then you can't really afford what you wanted to buy.
I mean, I don't believe in the prosperity gospel but I don't believe in the the poverty gospel either!
This book might be a good 'get to know the Amish money ways' guide, but I think that, for the common people that want to get out of debt and want to get control of their finance... well... it's a little scary.
Even for people in my country, where the 'Amish way' about use and re-use stuff is almost 'our way'... it's a little scary and radical way of life.
Sorry.

¿Por qué alabamos?

"Redimidos"... ¡Qué nombre el que nos da la Biblia!
Cuando pienso en este término, pienso en alguien que ha sido secuestrado y rescatado, y es esa imagen la que me impacta, porque alguien que ha sido secuestrado no necesita música relajante, pastillas antidepresivas o pláticas motivacionales; un secuestrado necesita ser rescatado y punto. No importa cómo, no importa cuándo y no importa dónde. Simplemente necesita que alguien lo libere.
Además, un secuestrado no decide quién lo salvará, cómo ni dónde lo hará. Un secuestrado no puede hacer nada más que esperar que la libertad llegue y, cuando llega, ni siquiera puede decidir si quiere ser libre o no; esto es lo que me fascina de este término: "Redimidos".
A veces hablamos de "aceptar a Cristo" pero la verdad es que nosotros no tenemos nada que aceptar y no podemos "encontrar" al Señor, porque estamos presos.
Nosotros sólo podemos esperar, en nuestra cautividad, a que la mano de Dios llegue y nos libere.
Tampoco podemos escoger cómo ni dónde lo hará. Puede ser de noche o de día, en una iglesia, en el cine o en la camioneta, por boca de un pastor, un evangelista o un amigo.
Es más, un redimido sólo se da cuenta de que su cautividad en el momento en que el Libertador llega a liberarlo.
¡Y es por eso que, al ver la incapacidad en la que estábamos sumidos, la única reacción natural de los redimidos sea cantar y alabar a Aquel que nos liberó!

Max on life, by Max Lucado

Max Lucado has written a answers book instead of the lot-of-lessons-from-a-single-verse book that he's an expert at.

Do you have real and honest questions about home, faith, family, sex, salvation or almost any other topic? This is the book for you!

The straight and simple answers are great.

This is a nice book, but it's not one of my Max's favorites. Why? Because the one thing that I love about Max is how he can unfold a simple bible verse and teach so much lessons from that one verse. That's the Max I love to read.

However, this book contains straight and simple answers to a lot of important questions that we all have (or had) in our lives so, for me, more than a book, is a "FAQ guide". I think that it's a book to be consulted from time to time.

=)