Book Review- "Falling in Love for All the Right Reasons"

Friday August 12 (2005), I finished a book by Neil Warren, founder of eHarmony. The book is Falling in Love for All the Right Reasons. I got this book from Crossings; they sell mostly Christian books. The book basically explains each of the 29 dimensions of a compatible relationship. This book also tells how to find your future spouse. I believe this book is for people who are not currently married which I believe includes singles, divorced, and widowed.
The main things I agree with in the book are that each should believe similarly as the other and that each should have similar interests.

Bible Summary- June 8 through August 30

Old Testament: 2 Kings 3- Ecclesiastes 10

Psalms 71:17-103:14

Proverbs 18:9-24:12

New Testament: John 17:1-1 Corinthians 10:33

Book Review- "Job: A Man of Heroic Endurance"

Thursday evening (June 9, 2005) I finished a book by Charles Swindoll titled Job: A Man of Heroic Endurance. This is the seventh volume of the Great Lives From God's Word series. I told about the series in the review on the Ester volume.
The story of Job is a classical example on why bad things happen to good people. Before the experience, he was the richest person in his time. He was also the most righteous person in his time. Then in one day all of his possessions are destroyed, and on another day he loses his health. Yet after the experience, Job remained righteous.
To me a hero is someone who sets an example to follow. To me to endure is to survive and to remain faithful. So heroic endurance would be surviving and remaining faithful in such a way that others can follow. I believe Job did that.
There are two things I learned from this book that I did not know before.
First, Job was willingly to make himself vulnerable before his accusers. This I believe makes his plead of innocence more credible.
Second, Job still relied on God; though there was several times that he asked to talk with God. The relying on God I believe helped Job to go though the tribulation.
There are several things from this book that I did know before. They include the following:

Job like other old testament people did have thoughts of depression.
Job never cursed God.
Job got his children back and got double of everything else.

This is the end of the review. Read the book and then try to develop Job's character. The next review I plan to do is on "Falling in Love for All the Right Reasons" by Neil Warren which I received near the end of reading this book and which I started a little bit before finishing this book.

Bible Summary- June 1 through June 7

Old Testament- 1 Kings 11- 2 Kings 2

Psalms- 69:5-71:16

Probverbs- 17:20-18:8

New Testament- John 12:1-John 16:33

Bible Summary- May 25 through May 31

Old Testament- 2 Samuel 21- 1 Kings 10

Psalms 68:1-69:4

Proverbs 17:2-17:19

New Testament- John 8:28- John 11:57

Bible Summary- May 18 through May 24

Old Testament- 2 Samuel 7-20
2 Samuel 7 David wishes to build a house for God. 2 Samuel 8 David fights some enemies.
2 Samuel 9 David seeks for descendants of Saul so that he could show kindness for Jonathan's sake; He finds Mephibosheth son of Jonathan. 2 Samuel 10 David fights some Syrians.
2 Samuel 11 tells of the incident between David, Bathsheba, and Uriah. 2 Samuel 12 David takes his punishment.
2 Samuel 13 tells of the incident between Absalom, Tamar, and Amnon children of David. 2 Samuel 14 Joab sends a wise woman from Tekoa to David.
2 Samuel 15 & 16 tells of Absalom's taking over the kingdom.
2 Samuel 17 There plans of war being made on Absalom's and David's sides. 2 Samuel 18 they go to war; Absalom gets murdered by Joab.
2 Samuel 19 David mourns about Absalom (he only knows the Absalom is dead, not the murder). 2 Samuel 20 another rebel arises; Joab kills Amasa when pursuing the person.

Psalms- 64:1-67:7

Proverbs- 16:18-17:1

New Testament- John 5:24-8:27
John 5:24-47 Jesus tells of God bearing witness to Him.
John 6:1-21 Jesus feeds a multitude.
John 6:22-51 The crowd seeks for Jesus. Jesus does the "I am the bread of life" speech
John 6:52-71 Jesus continues the speech.
John 7:1-27 Jesus speaks with His brothers.
John 7:28-53 The Jews began to become divided about Jesus.
John 8:1-27 Jesus does the "I am the light of the world" speech.

Bible Summary- May 11 through May 17

Old Testament- 1 Samuel 24 through 2 Samuel 6
1 Samuel 24 tells about the incident of David and Saul in the same cave. 1 Samuel 25 tells about the incident between David and Nabal. The beginning tells of Samuel's death. In the end, Nabal dies and David takes his widow.
1 Samuel 26 tells about when David went down to Saul's camp, and 1 Samuel 27 tells what came directly after.
1 Samuel 28 tells when Saul seeks for a medium. In the beginning of the chapter, David meets with Philistines.
1 Samuel 29 David meets again with Philistines. 1 Samuel 30 David's wives get kidnapped. 1 Samuel 31 Saul and his sons get killed.
2 Samuel 1 David finds out that Saul and Jonathan are dead. 2 Samuel 2 David moves to Hebron and is anointed king for the second time.
2 Samuel 3 and 4 I think are kind of review of the last part of 1 Samuel through the first part of 2 Samuel.
2 Samuel 5 David becomes king and goes to battle. 2 Samuel 6 David moves the Arc.

Psalms- 60:1-63:11

Proverbs- 16:3-16:17

New Testament- John 1:29 through John 5:23
John 1:29-51 John the Baptist baptizes Jesus.
John 2:1-25 Jesus performs first miracle.
John 3:1-21 Jesus talks with Nicodemus.
John 3:22-36 John the Baptist talks about Jesus.
John 4:1-30 Jesus speaks with a Samaritan woman.
John 4:31-35 Jesus speaks with other Samaritans.
John 5:1-23 Jesus physically heals a man.

Book Review- "Through Gates of Splendor"

Sunday Night, May 15, I finished Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot, Jim Elliot's widow. This book is about five martyred missionaries in Ecuador. Their names are Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Jim Elliot. Each of them were married. Their widows names are Marj Saint, Barbara Youderian, Marilou McCully, Olive Fleming, and Elisabeth Elliot. Jungle Pilot by Russel Hitt tells the same story but focuses more on the pilot Nate Saint. I got this book (Through Gates of Slendor) through Insight for Living; Jungle Pilot I got as a gift.
The missionaries were killed by the Auca Indians, now known as Waorani. Before going to the Aucas, these men were missionaries of the nearby area. Ed, Pete, and Jim preached to the Quichuas; Roger preached to the Jivaros and Atshuaras; and Nate (the pilot) served each of these missionaries. Their wives worked with them. Each missionary family lived in one of five towns at the time of going to the Aucas. The Elliots lived in Shandia, the McCullys in Arajuno, the Flemings in Puyupungu, the Youderians in Macuma, and the Saints in Shell Mera.
I think that each of these men set an example that we all can follow.
First, they were dedicated to God and God's Will. They came to Ecuador out of obedience to God and they went to the Aucas to fulfill God's Will.
Second, they were dedicated to their families. These men included their wives in their plans and let them work with them. The also let their families back home pray for them.
Third, they had a plan that worked and stuck to it. After prayer, they formed a plan that would cause the Aucas to convert. Nate Saint before going to the Aucas came up with a technique that would lower objects in a bucket from his plane to a person on the ground. They used the same technique with the Aucas. I believe this was one of the first seeds of change of the Aucas. After some time, they landed in the Auca territory to preach to them.
Fourth, they were willingly to sacrifice their lives to preach the gospel. These men, like Paul and Martin Luther, went into the territory even after being warned that they would be killed. At times we would need to sacrifice in order to do what's right. Their reward is Heaven.
I am almost done with this review. To find out more about the men and their widows, read the book. Then when you finish, try to model their character.
The next book I plan to do a review on will be "Job: A Man of Heroic Endurance" by Charles Swindoll, which I took a break from when I started this book.

Book Review- "Esther: A Women of Strength and Dignity"

Wednesday, May 4, I finished a book by Chuck Swindoll. It is Esther: A Women of Strength and Dignity. This book is the second volume of the Great Lives From God's Word series. The series takes people from the Bible and tells about their lives. Before this book I read two other books from the series which are the ones on Paul (sixth volume) and Moses (fourth volume). As of now, there are seven volumes, four of which I own (these three and the one on Job [seventh volume]). I got each of these books from Insight For Living; their website is www.insight.org.

This book (Esther: A Women of Strength and Dignity) tells about Ester. Esther was a Jewish Women who participated in a beauty contest. The prize was being queen of Persia. Esther won the contest and later on she found out of a plan to kill her race which she (and her race) survived. All of this I think a person would need alot of strength. During the contest and even when becoming queen, Esther kept her race a secret out of obedience to her guardian Mordecai. And after learning of the plan to kill her race, she went to the king and told of the plan again out of obedience to her guardian. These things I think would take dignity to do.

One repeated phrase in the book is "the power of a women". I would agree. A women that has the character of Esther would have power indeed. The book in one chapter told that any women can have Esther's character; not just Esther.

One verse that is repeated in the book is Proverbs 21:1 which says "The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes." I think we can take comfort from that. Even though we can not control a person's heart, God can; all we would need to do is to put the person into God's hands. One chapter in the book has similar advice.

I just have a few sentences before I am done with this review. Read the book. Women try to develop Esther's character. Men try to find such a woman.

The next book I plan to do a review on will be "Through Gates of Splendor" by Elizabeth Elliot, Jim Elliot's widow, which I am reading right now.

Introduction

For those of you who do not know, I have two other blogs besides this one. They are http://mdbexpressions.blogspot.com and http://mdboffers.blogspot.com. Both of these can be accessed through the "View my complete profile" link. I will be making another blog to show the expressions that I am paid to write. On this blog, I will do the following::

reviews on books that I read (right after finnishing)
summaries on my Bible reading (on each Tuesday)
tell thoughts on various topics
give updates on several things

You are free to comment on any of my blogs. For any of the posts on this blog, you may tell your thoughts on it. If there is a topic you want covered, you may request it on this post or e-mail me at mdsb75@hotmail.com and/or mdsb7580118@yahoo.com. For reviews on books, if I own the book, I would do a review it.