November Book Review

Well, I know you all enjoyed Russ’s thoughts yesterday as much as I did. I keep telling him he needs to start his own blog, but I also like having him show up here every now and again so I hope he doesn’t. 

Today we are doing the November book review. Granted two of the books took longer than November to read, but I did finish them in the month so we are counting them. 

Here are some thoughts regarding all four as they appear in the photo from bottom to top.

The Bible – I have done an annual read through of the Bible for a number of years and I cannot recommend it enough. I also recommend reading different translations. This year was my second annual read through of the Christian Standard Bible.

My reading plan for any Bible read through is pretty simple. I take the total number of pages and divide by 365. The pages per day will vary depending on how much extra material is in your Bible. I didn’t read the extra devotional material in my CSB this year so I was able to finish the whole thing by mid-November. I liked that time frame and as always got a lot out of my daily reading. 

The Watchmaker’s Daughter – by Larry Loftis. This account of Corrie Ten Boom and her family, plus the Dutch people who sacrificed so much for their fellow country men and the Jewish people who were their neighbors and friends, was incredibly humbling. 

The faith of the Ten Booms and others during such horrendous circumstances had me in tears. I confess I had no idea how non-Jews suffered and how cruel the occupation of this country was. I didn’t know the courage of the Dutch to defend their country underground and provide safety for those the Nazi’s were hunting down.

The details of brutality are given in a way that is not gratuitous to violence and hatred but gets the point across clearly. It was enough without being too much.

The theme of the entire book is that of forgiveness and healing and trusting in God even when it is hard to see His hand. My faith grew as I read and I ask again the question I have asked myself so often, will I stand strong in faith and do what Jesus would do when doing so costs it all. I hope so. I pray so. 

I highly recommend this book. We could plug in so many countries and so many cruel circumstances where greed and power forgot to honor the lives of humans, all humans. But in each of these times, there has been a remnant who holds fast to the teachings of Christ and have lived accordingly, no matter the cost. And for this remnant all the glory went to God.

The way Corrie was refined in her faith by her imprisonment and ill treatment and then chose to work for the healing of many through forgiveness and grace has much to teach all of us who call ourselves Christians. The power of the Gospel works, even on hardened men and women. It is amazing, this grace <3

This Life We Share – by Maggie Wallem Rowe. This was gifted to me by the same friend who gave me The Watchmaker’s Daughter. Maggie Rowe writes a blog and gathered her material into this book. She even breaks the chapters into sections all centering around “journeys.” In fact the subtitle is 52 reflections on journeying well with God and others. 

It felt very familiar. 

Maggie takes every day stories and weaves them into lessons. I have marked about 10 pages that I want to revisit and take notes from. As the subtitle suggests, there are 52 writings, each about 3-4 pages followed by a few thoughtful questions for you to think about. 

The book is good and I recommend it, but it felt personally odd to read something so closely related to my own writing style and the way I apply my faith to daily, practical living and then write about it. I felt thrown off, like I have been plagiarizing someone who I have never read before, if that makes sense. 

Besides our own daughter, I don’t read any other authors who write in such a similar style as myself so it was kind of like seeing your own emotional doppelgänger. Hard to explain, but if you like my writing, I know you would like hers; and if you don’t, you probably won’t. 

But then again, if you don’t like what I write, you probably aren’t reading this so…there you go. 

Which brings us to the fourth book I finished. This one, like the Bible,  took longer than the month of November.

Daily Decrees for Family Blessing and Breakthrough – by Brenda Kunneman was also a gift from a different friend. This little book has 66 sections that follow a format covering such topics as “Unity and Agreement Among us”, “Understanding and Compassion”, “Anxieties Eased”.

Each section includes a lengthy paragraph called “Declaration”, a short Scripture verse and then several paragraphs offering a Word of Encouragement. Using Scripture, while speaking words of life is the focus of each of the sections. 

I found the positive affirmations helpful as I tend to speak negatively and critically. I wish I didn’t and I can blame my upbringing or any number of things that have tainted my hope that things will turn out well, but I struggle with pessimism and fault finding. And this is not godly. 

So I added this book to my morning devotions and I learned to speak out words of faith and trust. I found the words of encouragement to be very helpful in putting things in perspective. For one who is always waiting for the other shoe to drop, it was an opportunity to look at things through a fresh lens.

I do believe that I need to think and speak in faith and not lead by thoughts that are fueled by fear, doubt and dread. It is a habit that needed to be broken and the words of many of these chapters helped rewire my brain.

However, I did not always agree with some of the declarations. I think reading the Corrie Ten Boom book in conjunction with this other book reminded me that sometimes God’s people do not experience material blessings. Even when we are doing the right thing, we will face persecution, brokenness, financial loss, disease and hard times. 

But God is with us IN those things. And so that is what I focused on in the Declarations book. I know wonderful godly people who deal with great heartache and disappointment. Declaring that they shouldn’t have it is not Scriptural to me. There are too many references in Scripture to godly people who were doing what was right in God’s sight and still faced loss, suffering and health concerns.

I still think the book had good material to enhance my prayers and has much to teach me about speaking life and hope and fueling my thoughts and prayers with faith.

Some things are ours without question – peace of mind, forgiveness of sins, His love and faithfulness, eternal salvation when we receive Christ, the guidance and comfort of His Spirit, wisdom, discernment, a new heart, a transformed life and mind, spiritual healing and wholeness. 

These things are promised to us when we put our faith in God and receive His Son’s gift of salvation. And we can declare these things over our homes and families, but I also know that we will have trials and that many who have followed Him have not had wealth and health and freedom from pain and sorrow. 

So while I would recommend the book and I will be keeping and using in my prayer and devotions in the future, please read with discretion and search the Scriptures for deeper context when your discernment raises a question regarding something that is said to be a promise. 

I will say, though, that the negative, pessimistic, things-will-never-change thinking and speech I often “declare” is not founded in the truth either. Thus it is a good thing to read things that lift this kind of useless thinking out of the rut and set it on good and positive fresh ground.

Well, that’s a wrap on my books this month. 

Tomorrow we will be in December!! 

Eeeekkkk!!!!

Kidding. 

It will be a blast. 

Don’t forget to check in each day for the 25 day Countdown to Christmas!