Have you ever read a book that caused you to say, “Ouch!”? Not because you got a paper cut while turning one of the pages or because the cost of the book was so exorbitant,  but because you wondered how God could arrange this particular book to be in your hands on this particular day in the midst of this particular set of circumstances that you were dealing with. One in a Million by Priscilla Shirer was that kind of book for me. I had to put it down several times in order to truly process what I was reading.  But I couldn’t put it down for long. I couldn’t wait to see what the next chapter would say to me.

Priscilla Shirer, Bible teacher and daughter of Pastor Tony Evans, is probably best known for her Going Beyond conferences and her Bible studies published through LifeWay Christian Resources. Our ladies’ Bible study group at my church just finished her study on Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted, which was my first encounter with Priscilla. It was a great study (that I highly recommend), so when I saw One in a Million, I was anxious to read one of her books. I was so impressed!

Priscilla gets the title, One in a Million, from the book of Exodus where approximately two million adult Israelites are rescued from bondage in Egypt and begin their journey to the promised land. You may know the story: out of the two million adults; only two men are allowed to enter the promise land.  Two out of two million! That’s one in a million, literally. Priscilla uses the journey of the Israelites through the wilderness, their whining and complaining, their doubt and fears and lack of trust in God to illustrate how we as Christians shrink back from God-sized challenges, take the easy way out, and let our comfort level decide our commitment level.

One illustration that bounced off the page for me happened while Priscilla was out for a run one morning.  She realized it was going to rain soon, and she began to pray that God would rain down his presence on her.  Almost immediately it began to pour, so she did what any of us would do. “I ran. The Spirit spoke. ‘This is what My people do, Priscilla. They pray for rain, and when it pours, they run back home.’  Yes, we want God to move. We ask Him to. We pray with boldness…but when His move ends up moving us, we aren’t too sure anymore…It’s easier to remain in the safety of where we’ve always been, doing the things we’ve always done…And so we run for cover –back to the comfort zone that has kept us from really experiencing God as He now wants to be experienced” (p. 41-42).

I don’t know about you, but most days, I wouldn’t put myself in the one-in-a-million category. I have too many doubts, too little faith, and spend more time than I want to admit complaining. But One in a Million was a right-on-time book for me, confirming in my life that God is asking me to take bold steps of faith. This is definitely a book I will re-read this year.

One in a Million is also a seven-week video Bible study. Priscilla’s teaching and stories on the video and out of the workbook were combined and then published in this book form. Her newest Bible Study, Gideon:  Your Weakness, God’s Strength, released May 1^st.

Published by B&H Publishing Group

ISBN:  978-0-8054-6476-4

Review by Christy Carmean

“Margin-less is being thirty minutes late to the doctor’s office because you were twenty minutes late getting out of the bank because you were ten minutes late dropping the kids off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from the gas station—and your forgot your wallet. Margin, on the other hand, is having breath left at the top of the staircase, money left at the end of the month, and sanity at the end of adolescence…Margin-less is not having time to finish the book you’re reading on stress; margin is having the time to read it twice” (p. 13).

Wow, that paragraph alone was enough to convince me that I needed to read Margin by Dr. Richard Swenson; and more importantly, to take a look at my life to see where (not if) I have become overloaded.

Dr. Swenson, a medical doctor, began to notice in his own life and in the lives of his patients a reoccurring problem that wasn’t really addressed in his schooling or in his church—the problem of margin-less living.  He personally saw the toll that living without margin played on his life, health, and family.  He determined to find margin in his life, no matter the cost.  His book, Margin, is his instructions for you to be able to follow him on this road that few choose today.

Margin is divided into three parts.  The first part he diagnoses the problem—pain: the pain of progress in our society, the pain of problems, the pain of stress and the pain of overload.  His main point is that our lives have become pushed to the limits. As we have been stretched to the extremes physically, mentally and emotionally, we have lost the margin in our lives and have damaged our relationships and health. In our society today, the amount of anxiety, depression, and hostility should warn us that we have a huge problem.

In this second section, Dr. Swenson offers his prescription:  Margin. He divides the section into chapters where he focuses on four areas, emotional, physical, time and financial. The prescriptions are very practical; things that you have probably heard before—maybe even obvious ones. He suggests things like laughter, napping, turning off the television, and using a budget. Some of his suggestions you are probably already incorporating into your life. But others are good reminders, and he suggests some good motivation to revamp your priorities.

I really appreciated how Dr. Swenson personally follows the prescriptions that he recommends. He says about his family, “We only buy older cars and seldom buy new clothes. We eat simply…I get by with one sport coat. We cut and burn wood…and survive without central air conditioning…we often buy used books…yet we have a rich and fulfilling life in every way” (p. 137).

In the third section, Dr. Swenson talks about finding health through contentment, simplicity, balance, and rest. He does a good job of offering his own findings, but more importantly shows how God’s Word points us toward healthy lives.

Overall, this was a practical book that came across my path at a great time. While the information was not earth-shattering, it was an important reminder for me that I have to take active steps to make sure that I have margin in my life. Margin won’t happen accidentally.

Published by NavPress

ISBN:  978-1-57683-682-8

The story begins in first century BC, with a true story of a Jewish man named Honi. Israel was experiencing a serious drought. Honi, an old sage who was living in the outskirts of Jerusalem, drew a circle around him in the sand and prayed, promising not to leave that circle until the rain fell. God answered with rain and his story became a powerful testimony of prayer.

Mark Batterson, lead pastor of National Community Church (NCC) in Washington, D.C., and author of several books including In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, takes the illustration of Honi and has written a book that is filled with his personal journey of praying circles around himself, his family, and his city. He shares part of his journey with the NCC – some obstacles, their dreams, their prayers, the times God said “No,” and some amazing miracles that were specific answers to prayers.

He says about prayer: “Prayer doesn’t just change circumstances; more important, it changes us. It doesn’t just alter external realities; it alters internal realities so that we see with spiritual eyes. It gives us peripheral vision. It corrects our nearsightedness. It enables us to see beyond our circumstances, beyond ourselves, beyond time” (p. 135).

Using the Biblical stories of Joshua and the battle of Jericho, Moses and the quail, and Daniel in the lion’s den, Batterson promotes a bold approach to prayer. He includes the idea of taking God’s words in the Bible and praying them back to Him as well as fasting and praying in combination. Let me say that I read this book with caution because I want to be wise and avoid the “name it and claim it” types of prayer. At times, Batterson seems to approach that line.

While I admit that I don’t agree with all of his philosophies of ministry, and I would have left out the chapters on goal setting, I was extremely challenged while reading this book. My personal prayer life is in need of some stretching and this book helped give me the kick that I needed. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who needs that!

Review by Christy Carmean

Published by Zondervan

ISBN: 978-0-310-33302-9

“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affections for any other gods” (Exodus 20:4-5a).

If you’re anything like me, you read that section of the Ten Commandments and mentally breathe a sigh of relief. Finally there is a Bible passage that you can check off the list. This is certainly a commandment that I don’t have to worry about breaking, right? I mean, I live in the Midwest—Small-town USA. No idols here.

Or maybe there are. Dee Brestin’s book Idol Lies talks about the struggle we all face: keeping God as the first priority in our lives and not replacing Him with temporary and unfulfilling substitutes.

Dee believes that many Christian women live their lives forgiven from the penalty of sin. We are saved and will spend eternity in heaven. But at the same time, we live in slavery to sin because we have not allowed God to deliver us from its power.“Every believer needs to be set free, and it begins with getting past our denial, with seeing what we really idolize, and admitting this to God and to others. We may think, for example, that our deepest desire is for God, but in reality we are running to food, friendship, or Facebook to fill up our soul. We may think that our identity is in Christ, but in reality it may be in the success of our ministry, mothering, or marriage” (p. 6).

She breaks down our heart idols into three basic categories:

Control/power

Affirmation/approval

Comfort/security

While this isn’t an exhaustive list, these are the root issues of most of our idols. Idolatry separates us from God, keeps us chained to our sin, and robs us of our joy.

Dee writes a very personal book, filled with examples of her own life. She is very honest, sharing the idols that she discovered in her own heart and her progress as she works to replace them. She also shares many other examples of women who struggle with idols in their lives. One that especially stood out to me was her perspective of Martha in Luke 10. While this is certainly not a new story, I appreciated how she showed that Martha’s manipulation was a symptom of the idols of control and approval. Her idols were getting in the way of her service to Jesus. Martha didn’t need to change her type-A personality; she needed to soften her heart and allow God to be in control.

Dee realizes that to deal with many of these idol lies in our lives, we need community and accountability. She includes a 10-week Bible Study and Discussion Guide in the back of the book. Each week there is link to her website where you can watch a short video of her teaching that goes along with the chapter. I am really excited about this study, and plan to start it next month with my Bible Study Group.

I really can’t recommend this book highly enough. God is certainly using Idol Lies in my own life to unveil sin, bring conviction, and to journey down the road to a closer relationship with Him.

Published by Worthy Publishing

ISBN:  978-1-61795-072-8

Review by Christy Carmean

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-3

What season of life are you in? It’s easy to look outside and say that we are in winter season.  But there is more…what season is your career, your ministry, your marriage, your relationships? Richard Blackaby, in his book The Seasons of God , helps you look at the circumstances of your life to better understand what God may be doing.

Blackaby, pastor and son of well-known author Henry Blackaby, writes an easy-to-read and easy-to-apply book for everyone in any season. The book is divided into three parts. “Embracing the Pattern” is the first section, where he sets the groundwork listing ten laws of the seasons of life and benefits of having a seasonal perspective. One idea that really resonated with me was the need to know what season I am in so that I can better relate to a variety of people. “If you’re in winter, you may view people in spring as naïve, immature, or out of touch with the real world. You may grow impatient with people in summer who seem to be consumed with their own responsibilities. It might be hard for you to be around people in autumn who are hitting their peak just as you’re coming down from yours. It’s all a matter of perspective. The world would have far less conflict if people understood how to relate to others in light of seasonal differences” (p. 39).

Section Two is called “Embracing Each Season.” Here Blackaby spends time explaining and categorizing each of the four seasons. Then he breaks down each season in regards to our identity, our relationships, our roles, and our faith. He uses lots of Biblical, historical, and personal stories so we can see examples of how to identify the various seasons. It was interesting to think that one person might find themselves in different seasons at the same time. A recently-retired woman who has just become a new grandmother might find herself in the spring of her grandparenting years, in the summer of her relationship with Jesus, the autumn of her marriage, while at the winter of her career. Figuring out where we fit into the seasons of our lives can not only help us as we relate to others; it can also help us maximize what we need to learn in each season and grow because of our knowledge.

The third section of The Seasons of God is called “Thriving in All Seasons.” Richard offers some great practical advice on how to experience real joy, find laughter, and hold on to hope in the midst of every season.  I personally was challenged by his family’s intentional goal to make their home a fun place to be.

Each chapter of the book contains ‘Reflect and Respond’ questions which would make this a great book for a reading club, a Bible Study, or Sunday School Class. This is a book that would work well for men and women, young and older, mature or needing to grow. I don’t know about you, but I want to make sure that I am gleaning God’s purpose for me in every season of my life. The Seasons of God has helped me to start looking for the seasons in my own life in order to embrace them fully.

Published by Multnomah Books

ISBN: 978-1-59052-942-3

Review by Christy Carmean

Ortberg, pastor and author of numerous books including If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat and The Life You’ve Always Wanted, understands this intensely personal battle that we face on a daily basis. Am I in the process of becoming the best version of myself—the version of me that God created me to be? Or am I stagnant—wasting time and procrastinating resources? Am I willing to settle for something less than the best because it is easier?

The Me I Want to Be is divided into seven parts and includes sections on the ideas of flowing with the Spirit, redeeming my time, and deepening my relationships. I particularly appreciated chapter 13, which discusses the fact that the areas in which you find your strengths are also the areas that you are vulnerable to sin. “Certain temptations are especially troubling for me, and some sins are more appealing than others. Even if we both struggle with the sin of lashing out in anger, I am likely to have it triggered and express it in different ways than you do. In other words, we don’t sin at random. Our sin takes a consistent and predictable course” (p. 146). Personal examination of my sin, as well as my pattern of sin, can only lead me to becoming a better version of myself.

Ortberg writes a very practical and easy-to-read book that is for new or seasoned believers alike. No matter how far along we are in our journey of walking with Jesus, all of us struggle with comparing ourselves with others, wishing that God made us more like Suzie or Johnny or Billy Graham. I was challenged again while reading this book that God has a personalized plan for my life. He fearfully and wonderfully hand-crafted me to do the good works that He planned from the beginning. He is very interested in bringing me opportunities for growth (challenging situations and difficult people). Every day He is moving me closer to the me that He knows I can be. So while most days I really wish I had already arrived—I am learning to embrace the process.

Published by Zondervan

ISBN: 978-0310275923

Review by Christy Carmean

“No!”

“Didn’t I ask you to take out the trash?”

“Hurry up or we’re going to be late!”

If you grew up or live in a typical home, those phrases probably sound pretty familiar. You may have heard them from your parents. You may have even decided that when you grew up, you would never say those same words to your kids. And yet, kids don’t come with a parenting manual. Sometimes I find myself in the midst of situations with my kids where I wish for godly advice on how to raise them. That’s why I was very excited when a friend recommended the book Parenting with Love & Logic by Foster Cline and Jim Fay.

Love & Logic is a Biblically-based model of parenting. Cline and Fay recommend parenting in the way that God as our Father parents us. God permits us to make decisions that may be bad for us, and then allows us to learn through the consequences. Mistakes are opportunities to learn. If we wait until our children are teenagers before we allow them to make choices, they are faced with decisions that may have large consequences. But if we let our kids make decisions, some good and some poor – and then allow them the opportunity to learn from the consequences at a young age – they can learn personal responsibility and good decision-making skills.

Cline and Fay boil down their Love & Logic principles into two rules:

1.  Adults must set firm, loving limits using enforceable statements without showing anger, lecturing, or using threats.
2. When a child cause a problem, the adult shows empathy through sadness and sorrow and then lovingly hand the problem and its consequences back to the child (p. 57).

Love &Logic is divided into two sections. In the first half of the book they lay out their philosophy of parenting in general terms. The second half of the book is the parenting manual you have always looked for – forty-eight strategies to deal with common parenting issues such as bedtime, lying, chores and temper tantrums. The book is a gold mine of ideas for creative discipline, sample conversations, and suggested wording to use in order to better communicate with your kids.

I’ll admit that I have read Love & Logic twice already in the couple months that I’ve had it. With three elementary-age kids, this book is right where I live right now. This will be a book that I will continue to reference for years to come. You might not, however, find yourself in the same life stage that I am in. Cline and Fay have a whole series of books – for parents of tiny toddles and teenagers, grandparents, and even educators. I would encourage you to check out their website: http://www.loveandlogic.com for lots of great resources.

Published by NavPress

ISBN: 978-1-57683-954-6

Review by Christy Carmean

Unglued:  Upset, disordered, to become extremely upset or angry; to fail suddenly or completely

- Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary

All of us as women can admit, if we are honest, that we can fall into the category of being unglued with hardly a minutes’ notice.  Crazy traffic, lost shoes, overdue bills, tardy companions, raging hormones, and so much more can have us flying off the handle. Usually, it is the people that we love the most that end up experiencing, witnessing, and receiving the brunt of these failures. Are we stuck in this cycle of out-of-control emotions? Will we always struggle with these tendencies in our lives? Will we be women who are known for coming unglued? Lysa TerKeurst, in her book Unglued, shares honest personal examples, Biblical teaching, and practical advice on how to hold our emotions in check in the middle of trying situations.

Lysa, president of Proverbs 31 Ministries and author of numerous books including Made to Crave, describes four categories of people who are unglued:

Exploders who shame themselves,

Exploders who blame others,

Stuffers who build barriers, and

Stuffers who collect retaliation rocks

Unfortunately, we may find ourselves in each of these categories depending on the person and situation that we are dealing with. Lysa is very open and honest when sharing personal stories from her own life of how she has responded in each of these categories. While she admits that changing these sin patterns in our life may seem impossible at times, she talks a lot about imperfect progress. “The day I realized the glorious hope of this kind of imperfect change is the day I gave myself permission to believe I really could be different.  Imperfect changes are slow steps of progress wrapped in grace…imperfect progress” (p. 14).

Lysa talks a lot about our feelings, emotions, actions, and how we find ourselves out of control. She shares, “When someone else’s actions or statements threaten to pull me into a bad place, I have a choice. I do. It may not feel like it. In fact, it may feel like I am a slave to my feelings – but I’m not. Remember feelings are indicators, not dictators. They can indicate there is a situation I need to deal with, but they shouldn’t dictate how I react. I have a choice” (p. 72). Wow – Feelings are indicators, not dictators – that phrase is going on an index card at my house…not only for me, but my pre-teen daughters!

I don’t know about you, but my schedule is pretty full. Life is busy and some days are just spent reacting to situations. Then, throughout the rest of the day, I replay my reactions to those situations that I didn’t handle very well. Lysa is right there with me (and I bet you too). She talks about the need to decide ahead of time how to handle tough situations. We may need to take a time out and find a quiet place to find perspective before we respond. We may need to set healthy boundaries in a relationship. We may need to take some time to analyze our feelings and insecurities to see what they are trying to tell us. Unglued is filled with these practical ideas and so many more to help us find perspective, self-control, and peace during stressful moments.

Reading this book was like sitting at the kitchen table sharing life stories with your best friend. I was really encouraged that I am not alone in this struggle. I don’t have to live like an unglued woman. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I can make imperfect progress today!

Published by Zondervan

ISBN:  978-0-310-33279-4

Review by Christy Carmean

If we are really honest with ourselves—we have all been there. Maybe for a few days or weeks, but some of us for years. Most of the time we suffer in silence. It’s just not acceptable to talk about it openly. When it is mentioned, people always use past tense. No one else seems to be experiencing the same thing. We feel alone and wonder if we are ever going to make it out of this valley that we seem to be stuck in. I’m talking about spiritual dryness—wandering in the wilderness—feeling disconnected from God. Author Connie Cavanaugh breaks the silence with her book From Faking It to Finding Grace.

You are not alone. Connie did not write about what she hasn’t experienced firsthand. For over a decade, she struggled with spiritual dryness. Like Connie, you may be wandering in the wilderness. Wanderers have drifted away from a close relationship with God, but often still go to church and stay involved in ministry. Wanderers feel “forsaken by God. Because we have been blind to His activity or deaf to His voice for some time, we feel abandoned. We think God doesn’t care” (p. 38). Connie writes, however, that her years in the wilderness were not wasted time. God had a plan to use her experience to bring hope to others.

But first she had to get out of the wilderness. Through a very interesting wake-up call (all I can tell you is that it involves a pooper-scooper—you have to read the book to get the whole story) and a faithful friend who challenges her, Connie commits to obey. Her first steps out the wilderness. She is asked to speak at several conferences. As she shares her story, she finds that telling the truth, stepping out of her comfort zone, surrendering to God’s call, and acting in obedience, all give her hope. God has not abandoned her. In fact, He is pursuing her!

She discovers that faith is not the absence of doubt. In fact, “without doubt there can be no faith. Remember what faith is: It’s Peter stepping out of the boat onto a liquid surface that he knows will not hold him up unless Jesus is in control. Anyone who doesn’t have a moment of doubt as they consider stepping out onto water is too stupid to be fishing in the first place! Saying yes to Jesus in the midst of doubt is mature faith” (p. 122).

Connie spends the last third of the book in a section called “Living with Mature Faith.” It is a great group of chapters about spiritual disciplines, living authentically, and filling the unique ministry that God has created just for us. While there is no step-by-step method to staying out of the wilderness, following the principles she lays out are great life long practices for living a faith that grows.

While I am not in a period of spiritual dryness right now, this book has been very helpful for me to read. I will enjoy keeping this as a reference to pass on to others who may be struggling and to read again when I encounter dry patches.

Published by Harvest House Publishers

ISBN:  978-0-9369-1528-1

Review by Christy Carmean

When I read that quote it causes me to do some soul searching. Am I a deep person?  What am I doing to promote personal depth? And then the next level of questions—am I a part of a Bible study or church or community that contain deep people? What am I doing to promote deep people around me? Is this even something that I think about? Gordon MacDonald, author of Going Deep, asked these questions and began to develop a plan for cultivating deep people in his church.

Going Deep reads like a novel. In fact, you could read it as a novel and just enjoy the memorable characters and the interesting story line. But Going Deep also has an incredible depth (pun intended). It begs to be explored, to be pondered, to be applied in our own lives.

Gordon writes himself and his wife Gail as the pastor/wife characters in the book. During a two year period, Gordon and his fictional church go on a search for a great idea to develop deep people—people who are influential in their jobs, communities, and churches. The book takes us through the entire process of exploring ideas, narrowing their focus, and implementing a plan for leadership development.

Gordon, author of numerous non-fiction books including, Ordering Your Private World, Building Below the Waterline, and A Resilient Life has recently branched out into fictional writing. This is Gordon’s second fictional book where he returns to the same church people he introduced in his book, Who Stole My Church? This is not a sequel— you don’t have to read the other book first. But I also highly recommend the book Who Stole My Church, an engaging story of a church journeying together to unite the younger and older generations.

Far and away, this is the most influential book that I have read this year so far. Even before writing this review, I have recommended this book to numerous people. My husband has even read it—and also loved it! Are you a person who longs to go deep? Who desires to have God use you to influence others? I can’t recommend this book strongly enough.

Published by Thomas Nelson

ISBN:  978-0-7852-2608-6

Review by Christy Carmean