Nearing Home

"Growing old is not for sissies". That's one of the best phrases I have ever heard... or read.
Billy Graham says that, as a christian, he has taught to die as a christian but no one taught him how to live as one the last years before death.
I was expecting a lot of insight and lessons in this book. I mean, a lot of 'spiritual wisdom' but the 'physic' side of the 'golden years' (as Graham doesn't like to call them) appears to be way too strong to ignore them.
I liked the book but it was the fifth 'wrong choice in a row' for my reading. I can't recommend this book because I didn't like it as much as I was anticipating, but it obviously doesn't mean that it is a bad book.
It must be a good book, great even!
It's just not my type of reading.
Sorry... again.

I wanted a Coke but a Lemonade was just fine!

I really needed to read a book like this with stories that made me feel hope and encourage.
The lessons are valuable and the title 'When God Makes Lemonade' is really beautiful.
You will identify yourself at least in one of the stories and I'm sure the stories have the power to help you see beyond your present situation (no matter how lemonish it is) and take a look to what God might be doing in such circumstances.
I know it helped me.
Having said that, about the content of the book, I have a comment on the form of it:
I've been choosing my readings in a strange way because, I really like this kind of book with true stories that can make me feel hope. What I don't like is the way this one is written because it is too detailed for me. For example, a conversation goes like this: I said, and he said, so I said, then he said, so I replied... etc.
Bottom line: Great content, good writing (for me, personally).
I wanted a Coke but a Lemonade was just fine!

Not my kind of books

I'm not a fan of biographies or pages written like a biography and, after fighting to read this book "Seven Men And the Secret of Their Greatness" by Eric Metaxas, I'm still not a fan of bios.

I've been choosing badly my readings lately but, in this particular case, I can say that I didn't like this book because I don't like the category; not because the book is bad (in fact, I think that the book is good if you like a bio).

So, I can't say anymore about it. Sorry.

Resurrection year, by Sheridan Voysey

Being in the same situation than the marriage of the book (9 years for us) it was a little tired for me to read the book because... well... there are a few days in this kind of trial that you just don't want to remember.
The one thing that I'm really thankful for is that it doesn't end in a 'happy miracle' because, let's be honest, there are a big lot of christian marriages out there that didn't have their 'miracle' and had to learn to live life and enjoy it and be thankful for the life that they received even if it doesn't have a baby in it.
So, I don't know if I can recommend this book or not so I will go with the safest recommendation: Read it at your own risk.
Sheridan, thank you very very much for the honesty. People that doesn't have to live what we have had to live can't understand the frustration, anger and confusion that a christian has to endure in this kind of trials.
Best of love and blessings for your marriage!

Simply God, by Rick Richards

I suppose this is a book full of good thoughts but I can't be sure because, well... I tried to read it but I just couldn't take the personal writing style.
I mean, I don't like at all when a writer uses a lot of corny phrases and 'pop' ideas and stick them to God. The little that I managed to read felt like a 'new age' book or something like that.
I have nothing more to say. Sorry.

What a war!

"Gods at war" by Kyle Idleman is a power book!

You may think that idolatry is an ancient problem or a "old testament sin". You can be sure that you are not an idolater (like I was sure about myself) but you WILL discover that a lot of gods have take foothold in your heart.

I strongly recommend pastors and teachers to read this book and then share it with their congregations.

The author gives you weapons to discover the false gods in your heart by asking the right questions. Also, he gives you a great advice: False gods must be replaced with the real God or they will be replace with another false god.

Pleasure, power, money, love, family... The gods are gods because we turn them into gods and we give them the power to rule over our lives.

And the final word from God is clear: Choose! Your gods or Me!

This book will hurt you. It will confront you. But it will set you in the right path toward the real God.

It took me 4 weeks to read it but not because it was a bad book, not at all, but because we had to make a sermon series about this at church. It is THAT good!

A Theography... indeed

In 'Jesus, a Theography', by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, we can see the life of Jesus in a whole new way: From God's word's perspective.
The reading took me a very long time but not because the book was bad but because there were so much to take in from its pages.
I think that every christian should read this book in order to get close with facts about the Lord that we seldom forget. For example, thanks to Sweet and Viola's work, we can see the great importance of the answer that Jesus gave when asked for 'whom is my neighbor', or the great and dangerous thing that Jesus did when he spoke in public with a samaritan woman.
Bottom line, this book is excellent but take your time to read it and meditate every single thing that you find inside of it.