Book Quotes: Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges

Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate

The Greek word for saint is hagios, and it refers not to one’s character but to a state of being. Its literal meaning is “one who is separated unto God.”

In this sense, every believer — even the most ordinary and the most immature — is a saint.

Every true believer has been separated or set apart by God for God.

In the biblical sense of the term, sainthood is not a status of achievement and character but a state of being — an entirely new condition of life brought about by the Spirit of God. Paul describes it as “[turning] from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18) and again as having been “delivered … from the domain of darkness and transferred … to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).

The guerrilla warfare between the flesh and the Spirit described in Galatians 5:17 is fought daily in the heart of every Christian.

Sin covers a wide range of misbehavior. It covers everything from gossip to adultery, from impatience to murder. Obviously, there are degrees of seriousness of sin. But in the final analysis, sin is sin.

The truth is, all sin is serious because all sin is a breaking of God’s law.

If I complain about the difficult circumstances of my life, I impugn the sovereignty and goodness of God and tempt my listener to do the Sin, however, is much more than wrong actions, unkind words, or even those evil thoughts that we never express. Sin is a principle or moral force in our heart, our inner being.

Therefore, when I indulge in any of the so-called acceptable sins, I am not only despising God’s law but, at the same time, I am despising God Himself.

Every sinful thought and word and deed we do is done in the presence of God.

To walk by the Spirit is to live under the controlling influence of the Spirit and in dependence upon Him.

God does not tempt us to sin (see James 1:13-14), but He does bring or allow circumstances to come into our lives that give us the opportunity to put to death the particular subtle sins that are characteristic of our individual lives.

God is in control of every circumstance and every event of our lives, and He uses them, often in some mysterious way, to change us more into the likeness of Christ.

The Holy Spirit works in us to convict us and make us aware of our subtle sins. He then works in us to enable us to put to death those sins. Then He works in us in ways of which we are not conscious. And then He uses the circumstances of our lives to exercise us in the activity of dealing with our sins.

Our sins are forgiven and we are accepted as righteous by God because of both the sinless life and sin-bearing death of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no greater motivation for dealing with sin in our lives than the realization of these two glorious truths of the gospel.

Your heart is a battleground between the flesh and the Spirit

Everything we do is to be done to the glory of God.

Anxiety is a distrust of God.

Anxiety is a sin also because it is a lack of acceptance of God’s providence in our lives.

God honors our struggles, and the Holy Spirit will help us. The important issue is that we seek to honor God through our faith, even though weak and faltering, rather than dishonoring Him through rank unbelief.

Our whole lives should be lives of continual thanksgiving.

When God does bring relief, or when we see Him deliver us from the possibility of such an event, we should make it a special point to give Him thanks.

Even in the midst of the difficulty we are enveloped in God’s love.

Whatever the cause, the ability to achieve or succeed in any endeavor ultimately comes from God.

You have nothing that did not come to you as a gift from God. Our intellect, our natural skills and talents, our health, and our opportunities to succeed all come from God. We have nothing that will enable us to achieve the success that we did not receive from God.

The Scriptures say that we are to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Going beyond our normal duties to help someone else is one way we can bear each other’s burdens.

We are to cultivate hearts of compassion toward those in need and then put that compassion to work through our giving.

Resentment is anger held on to.

Bitterness is resentment that has grown into a feeling of ongoing animosity.

That anger, held on to, is not the only sin, it is spiritually dangerous.

God doesn’t cause people to sin against us, but He does allow it, and it is always allowed for a purpose — most often our own growth in Christlikeness.

Every sin we commit, regardless of how insignificant it seems to us, is an assault on His infinite glory.

God has a place and an assignment for each of us that He wants us to fill.

Book Quotes: A Meal With Jesus by Tim Chester

Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission around the Table

Jesus has come for losers, people on the margins, people who’ve made a mess of their lives, people who are ordinary. Jesus has come for you. The only people left out are those who think they don’t need God: the self-righteous and the self-important.

If we reject salvation at the margins, if we reject those whom God accepts, then we reject the grace of God.

God is ready to embrace us. In one sense we are far from God. But in another sense, God is very close to us

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;  let me never be put to shame! In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;      incline your ear to me, and save me! Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me,  for you are my rock and my fortress. (Ps. 71:1–3)

Only God is self-sufficient. We are creatures, and every moment we’re sustained by him. Even our rebellion against him is only possible because he holds the fabric of our universe together by his powerful word. Our shouts of defiance against God are only possible with the breath he gives.

We are the spiritually poor—with nothing to offer for our salvation; the spiritually crippled—made powerless by sin; the spiritually blind—unable to see the truth about Jesus; the spiritually lame—unable to come to God on our own.

God’s grace is the foundation for the Christian community.

Our attitude to the marginalized is to be shaped by our experience of God’s grace to us.

We’re called to follow Christ into a broken world.

Jesus bore the judgment we deserve, so that repentant rebels can experience the coming of his kingdom as good news.

We find in Jesus a pattern of suffering followed by glory. Followers of Jesus must follow the same pattern. Our sufferings aren’t redemptive, but we are called to follow Christ’s example of sacrificial love and service.

The Lord’s Supper is a call to God to act in keeping with his covenant: forgiving us, accepting us, and welcoming us to the Table through the finished work of Christ.

The cross humbles us all as we see the extent of sin, and the cross exalts us all as we’re welcomed into God’s family.

The resurrection of Jesus is the promise and beginning of the renewal of all things, and the future is a physical future on a renewed earth.

We need to begin our interaction with people with a question much more often than we do.

We mustn’t fear others’ pain or hide our own, for Christ is with us even if we don’t always recognize him.

Christ’s resurrection is the promise of a new world.

The glory, power, and wisdom of Christ, says Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, are seen in the shame, weakness, and foolishness of the cross.

The message of the Scriptures is that the Christ had to suffer and die in order to redeem.

Some of us have to learn that our guests matter more than our hospitality. Our aim is to serve, not impress.

Martha is distracted from hearing the Word of God by anxieties.

The reason we are sent out in mission is that all authority has been given to the Son. The world was without God, but now it’s claimed in Christ’s name.

Book Quotes: Sunday Best by Matthew Woodley

I read Sunday Best by Matthew Woodley back in 2012 and I found it inspiring. Here are the highlights I made while reading the book. 

We must be people of courage, with faith in our mighty God.

Revelation 21 says that those who conquer are the ones God is going to bring with him in the end.

We’ve got to be bold, courageous people.

God requires us to be courageous

Whatever steps of faith God is calling you to take, I promise you that forty-five years from now you won’t regret it.

We sinners sin, we sinners hide, and then we sinners confess. And when we confess, God extends his shalom to us. Shalom is richer than just peace; shalom is fullness, health, prosperity, and blessing. When we confess, God forgives.

We can walk in the light as he is in the light and can receive the peace of God.

Psalm 77 Even in the depths where questions loom large, remember that God is at work.

Sometimes God has to knock us down before he can pick us up. Sometimes God has to let our lives unravel before he can put them back together again. Sometimes God has to wound us before he can heal us.

We serve a God who came into the very depths of our human condition and, according to the Book of Hebrews, was put to the test in every conceivable way that we can be put to the test—with the exception that he never sinned.

We often don’t immediately and obviously see how God is at work in the circumstances that are swirling about us when we’re in the pit, sinking in the depths and wondering where God is. But the witness of the Holy Scriptures and the people of God through the ages is that God has never left his people alone and that he guides us through all the torturous pathways of life even though his footprints are frequently unseen.

You can see the devil’s footprints, but the footprints of our God are unseen. They lead through the sea, through the depths where we know he goes before us, where he walks beside us, where he lives within us, where he has promised never to leave us nor forsake us.

He leads his people to that land where there will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more death. There will be no more pits. There will be no more mire and muck to sink into. But we shall forever bask in the presence of our great and living God.

Psalm 107:1 God’s answer to our suffering is himself.

God is more concerned about conforming me and you to the image of Jesus Christ than he is about our comfort zones. God is more interested in my inward character than my outward circumstances—things like refining my faith, humbling my heart, strengthening my character, cleaning up my thought life.

God must be at the center of things. He must be at the center of our suffering. What’s more, he must be warm and personal and compassionate.

And God, like a father, does not always give advice. He does not always give reasons or answers. He goes one better. More often, God gives himself.

In Isaiah 54:5–6 God becomes the husband to the divorced woman. In Psalm 68:5 he becomes a father to the fatherless. In Zechariah 2:5 he becomes the wall of fire to those who need protection. In Isaiah 62:5 he becomes the bridegroom to the person grieving that she’ll never marry. In Psalm 103:3 he becomes the healer to the sick. In Isaiah 9:6 he becomes the Wonderful Counselor to the confused and the depressed. In John 4:13–14 he becomes living water to those who are thirsty. In John 6:35 he is the bread of life to those who are hungry for more than this world can give.

God gives us tiny little tastes of hell on earth so that we might be awakened out of our spiritual slumber with an ice cold splash of eternal realities in our face.

Suffering reveals who we are. That is its best benefit to you and me. When we suffer, when the pressure confines, when limitations crowd in, then evil begins to fizzle. All the things within us God wants to remove like dross begin to rise to the surface where they hit the bright clear light of day and the cleansing light of the Lord Jesus. As C. S. Lewis once said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, but he shouts to us in our pain.”

And so God allows suffering between him and us so that nothing will come between him and us.

If you feel like the world has passed you by, remember it passed by Christ first.

You can endure almost anything if you know God is sitting next to you.

God allows tragedy and chaos in our lives—for a couple of reasons. Tragedy reveals that we aren’t in control. Sometimes the best we can do with life is to manage it. But when it comes to control, we don’t have any, even with the best-laid plans. Tragedy also reveals how much we have to trust him. Sometimes we misplace our trust. We put it in our bank accounts or our abilities. We put our hopes in a relationship. Isaiah shows us that the only security we have in life, the only constant is the One who gives life—God himself. The only place we can place our trust in the midst of unpredictability is in God.

All of life belongs to God.

The power of the Word is the power of God himself.

 “God permits storms. He permits difficulties. He permits the winds to blow and the billows to roll, and everything may seem to be going wrong and we ourselves to be in jeopardy.” God’s guidance in our lives does not always steer us away from the storm. Sometimes he sends us into it. That’s the time to remember it’s not you who charts the course but Christ.

Christ’s ability to sleep in the midst of the storm helps us see a new dimension to the “peace of God.” We usually think of the peace of God primarily as something we experience. We think of a peace that we receive—the peace that passes all understanding. But our experience of peace must ultimately have its origin in God’s own peace. God is not anxious. God is not afraid. God is certain of the future. The wind and waves that are so troubling to us cannot reach him. And though he may be removed from them, he is not unmoved by them.

It’s interesting to note that sixteen of the thirty-eight parables of Jesus deal with money, possessions, their use, and their relationship to us.

Everything that goes well is a miracle of grace.

The promise is that God will take the bad things, and he’ll work them for good in the totality.

Book Quotes: Generous Justice: Timothy Keller

Generous Justice:  How God's Grace Makes Us Just is a great and inspirational. Here are some of the highlights I made while reading the book back in 2012. 

Walk with God, then, we must do justice, out of merciful love.

Why should we be concerned about the vulnerable ones? It is because God is concerned about them.

God is the defender of the poor

Just as Israel was a “community of justice,” so the church is to reflect these same concerns for the poor.

It is clearly God’s will that all societies reflect his concern for justice for the weak and vulnerable.

God gave humanity authority over the world’s resources but not ownership.

In short, all your resources are in the end the gift of God.

Therefore, if you have been assigned the goods of this world by God and you don’t share them with others, it isn’t just stinginess, it is an injustice.

Our sins create a barrier between God and us, but by his grace, the Lord makes a provision for sin.

Grace makes you just. If you are not just, you’ve not truly been justified by faith.

Faith without respect, love, and practical concern for the poor is dead. It’s not justifying, gospel faith.

Vulnerable people need multiple levels of help. We will call these layers relief, development, and social reform. Relief is direct aid to meet immediate physical, material, and economic needs.

To act “in line with the gospel” is to live consistently with the truth that we are sinners saved by sheer grace.

The church is a support system.” It is a place of healing and grace.

God is a craftsman, an artisan.

God created all things to be in a beautiful, harmonious, interdependent, knitted, webbed relationship to one another.

The world is filled with hunger, sickness, aging, and physical death. Because our relationship with God has broken down, Shalom is gone—spiritually, psychologically, socially, and physically.

In most societies, physically handicapped people are forced to adapt to the life patterns of the non-handicapped,

The strong must disadvantage themselves for the weak, the majority for the minority, or the community frays and the fabric breaks.

It takes an experience of beauty to knock us out of our self-centeredness and induce us to become just.

In Jesus Christ, God identified not only with the poor but also with those who are denied justice.

Book Quotes: Cross-Cultural Connections: Stepping Out and Fitting In Around the World by Duane Elmer

I recently came across Kindle Notes which shows what you have high-lighted in different books we have read on our kindles.  Here are some highlights I made while reading Cross-Cultural Connection while I lived in Peru as a ‘missionary’.

• But it is also good to see that we are part of God's activity in this world.
• Transforming the way we think takes careful reflection and humility.
• How you do your job affects how people see Christ and respond to your message of Christ's love.
• You represent Christ in your cross-cultural ministry.
• "Culture shock is when you experience frustration from not knowing the rules or having the skills for adjusting to a new culture."
• The God who took Joseph to Egypt is the same one who takes you to a place of service. As he was faithful to Joseph, he will be faithful to you.
• Thank God for bringing you to this place and being with you.
• Remember the word yet. "I can't do it ... yet. It will come.
• God guides you to new places and promises to be with you there. He will never abandon you.
• Suspending judgment is a life skill that builds and preserves relationships.
• Inquiry is simply the art of asking questions. A good dose of curiosity helps.
• Even in new relationships, trust starts with small acts and builds into a solid and healthy relationship. Patience pays off.
• But God has an important purpose for you being right where you are. He has something important for you and for the host country people. By persevering you will see the wondrous things God has in store. Virtually anything important will have some struggle attached to it. Those struggles will make you stronger and wiser if you don't give up.
• Thoughts-be guided by the positive, the good and the constructive, resisting the tendency to blame and fault others.• Speech-be guided by words of grace and sensitivity, resisting the harsh and judgmental.• Actions-be guided by acts of love, gentleness, and kindness, resisting the sharp and abrasive.
• Mission is at least as much driven by love as by task.
• Ultimately, worship is the soul reaching out to God in praise and adoration.
• We have the opportunity to learn from each other and grow together. We need each other.
• The greatest church growth in Latin America is among the churches where there is high expression in worship.
• As we think about being a sojourner, let's remember that the Lord himself is watching over us in our cross-cultural entries and re-entries.
• "The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forever" (Psalm 121:8).

Book Review: God Will Carry You Through by Max Lucado

This isn’t a book review per se, instead, I am going to share a few thoughts from Max Lucado’s book which really spoke to me.

God Will Carry You Through revolves around the story of Joseph, who through decades of betrayal, abandonment, and false accusation, Joseph never gave up on God or His purpose, and he continually trusted the sovereignty of God as Master-weaver of his life.

Joseph suffered setbacks in his life – being thrown into a pit by his brothers, sold as a slave to the Egyptians and then being put in jail for crimes he did not commit.  But the question is where these really setbacks because sometimes what we may see as setbacks, God sees as opportunities. So we should not be discouraged when things may not go as we plan because God has other plans which will help us prosper.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” Romans 8 v 28.

I love this verse which was written by the Apostle Paul, and in his book, Max Lucado unpacks this verse for us and shows us that from this verse we can see that:

God Works. He is busy behind the scenes of our lives, above the fray and within the fury. He hasn’t checked out or moved on and never will. He is ceaseless and timeless. He never stops working.

God works for the good, not for comfort or pleasure or entertainment but for our ultimate good. Since he is the ultimate good, would we expect anything less?

God works for the good of those who love him. Behold the benefit of loving God. Make His story your story, and your story takes on a happy ending. Guaranteed. Being the author of our Salvation, he writes a salvation theme into our biography.

God works in all things. God works not through a few things or through the good things, best things or easy things, but in ‘all things’ God works.

Your life is a crafted narrative written by a good God who is working toward your supreme good. 

Language: More Interesting Word Drop Facts

A Starfish’s arm is called a radius

Softheartedness is an anagram of ‘sheds tears often’

Conversation is an anagram of ‘voices rant on’

Apostrophe means ‘turning away’ in Greek

Half of a computer byte is called a nibble

The ten words – the, and, I, to, of, a, you, my, in and that all account for a fifth of everything William Shakespeare wrote

The welsh word for carrots is moron

Africa is thought to derive from the Phoenician word for ‘dust’

The word run has 645 meanings in the Oxford English Dictionary

A monkey’s wedding is a period of simultaneous sunshine and rain

Phoenix, Arizona was once called Pumpkinville

Pumpernickel means ‘farting goblin’

Ludicris literally means ‘playing a game’. It is derived form the same root as Ludo.

A group of lapwings is called a desert

The earliest record of a knock knock joke dates from 1934

Knock Knock

Who’s There?

Rufus

Rufus who?

Rufus, the most important part of your house!

Koalas were once known as monkey-bears

The Atlantic Ocean is named after the Atlas Mountain in Morocco

A group of eagles is called a convocation

South America is the only continent with all five vowels in its name

Ecuador is the Spanish word for ‘equator’ – and the county lies directly on the equator

The word ‘therein’ contains nine more words inside it: there, the, he, her, here, herein, ere, rein and in

An armoury is a group of aardvarks

Book Review: Be Not Afraid by Bob Gass

We all have fears and these fears distort our view of life. What are your fears? In this book, Bob Gass talks about financial fears, family fears, fear of sickness and fear of death.

What this book is telling us is that we do not need to be afraid or let fear rule our lives, instead we should give all our fears over to God as He will help us break down the barriers of fear and live the life we were given more freely, and with God by our side and helping us conquer our fears. 

Book Review: Uninvited by Lysa Terkeurst

Living loved when you feel less than, left out and lonely

 Everyone feels lonely, rejected and unloved at some point in their lives, don’t we?

In Uninvited Lysa shares her own personal experiences of rejection and goes into biblical depth, gut honest vulnerability and refreshing wit in order to help the readers of the book to learn how to embrace rejection and turn it into something which is good – because sometimes things do what happen the way we expect because God has something better out there for us. He knows what we need and when we need it. Sometimes rejection if not as a bad thing.

This book was an interesting read but sometimes felt a bit on the negative side, however overall it was a good book which directs us to tend to our wounds instead of letting the pain fester. 

This book did help me and has some very good insights into how to deal with being lonely and feeling lost and unloved.

Language: Word Drop Facts

I love information. I love facts. I am a store of useless information. I was recently reading a book called Word Drops: A Sparkling of Linguistic Curiosities by Paul Anthony Jones and came across some interesting facts that I never knew and I thought would share them on my blog of all other fact enthusiasts. You never know it may help you at your next table quiz!

• Spas are named after the Belgian town of Spa
• Duffel Coats are named after the Belgian town of Duffel
• Netherlands means ‘lower lands’
• Holland means ‘Woodland’
• Turkey in Turkish is Hindi which means Indian – because they thought the bird had come from India).
• Turkey in Portuguese is Peru - was named this because at the same time Turkey’s began appearing was also the time Peru had been conquered by Pizarro who was from Brazil.
• Ever wondered where J.K Rowling got the name of Dumbledore from for her character of Albus Dumbledore – well a Dumbledore is an old name for Bumblebee and Rowling choose that name in allusion to the professor’s love of music as she  imagined him walking around humming to himself ‘like a bumblebee’
• There is no Q in the names of any states of the USA
• Word is the 487^th commonest word in the English Language while Time is the commonest noun
• Four has four letters. It is the only self-describing number in the English Language
• Teddy Bears were named after US President Theodore Roosevelt
• A group of Buffalo is called an obstinacy
• A group of Polar Bears is called an aurora
• A group of Mockingbirds is called an echo
• Individual letters of the alphabet were once called bookstaves
• Eleven percent of the entire English language is just the letter E
• K is the least frequently used letter of the alphabet Spanish and Italian
• Alcove, Cotton, Ghoul, Algebra, Mascara, Zero and Coffee all derive from Arabic 

Book Review: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

I read A Man Called Ove for the book club that I go to. When I first heard about the book I really wanted to read it as I thought it would be a funny book. I thought Ove sounded like an interesting funny character but he was the opposite – yes he is interesting but he is also a grumpy man living in a world of his own and not really able to deal with other people's company.  He is known as the ‘bitter neighbour from hell’ as he is always annoyed at people for doing things he thinks they shouldn’t be doing! But the question I put to you is, is Ove really bitter or is he just sad?

Ove’s wife recently died and since then Ove has been lost and alone, but then a family in the same streets as him decided to adopt him and try and change the ‘cranky old man’.  They always seem to turn up at his door at exactly the wrong time and ask Ove to do things for them, like drive them to the hospital because the husband has fallen off his ladder etc. – things that Ove ends up reluctantly doing as he feels it is what his wife would have wanted.

It is a story of sadness and a story of joy but it does have funny bits in it which does make you laugh. However, the best thing about this book for me is that you do get to love Ove and really want him to be happy and appreciate what is around him.

Another best bit for me is when the street cat becomes Ove’s friend and a funny but lovely relationship begins between the two of them.  Overall, the story is a very lovely heart-warming tale and I would recommend everyone to read it. 

Life: Signature Strengths

We all have signature strengths – the strengths that are most essential to who we are.  So what are they and how do they unfold in a person’s life?

Wisdom and Knowledge

Wisdom and Knowledge are something that we all desire isn’t it? We want to be wise and to be seen as being very knowledgeable even if we aren’t.  But what does someone who has the strength of wisdom and knowledge look like?

Well, they are someone who is curious about life, someone who loves learning new things, who has a sound judgment and a social intelligence and knows who how to read a situation – someone who has the gift of discernment.

Courage

In the Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly Lion was going to see the Wizard in order to get courage, but was he actually lacking in it? What does having courage look like

?

A person full of courage is someone who perseveres through the challenges of life as well as someone of integrity, something which the Lion did.

Humanity

Having humanity as your signature strength shows that you have the capacity for kindness as well as the ability to express mercy – two things that are key to our lives in the world we live in.

Justice

Being concerned with justice is very important and shows the ability to bring about fairness and a sense of leadership. It is what our politicians should be like!!

Temperance

A person whose signature strength is temperance is someone who has the qualities of prudence, humility, and self-control (being able to restrain yourself from doing something you know is not right e.g. eating the whole chocolate bar in one sitting!) 

Transcendence

Transcendence shows that you have an appreciation for beauty, the ability to express gratitude as well as having the ability to hope and the capacity for joy – an excellent signature strength to have.

So what are your signature strengths? Well, we all have the capacity to have each of these strengths, but it the ones that resonate most deeply within you that are your signature strengths. 

So does justice make your heart beat or do you have a love of learning or an appreciation for all things beautiful?

What is your signature strength and how can you use them to bring light to the world?

Book Review: Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Bedford

Even though Time Travelling with a Hamster is a children’s book, I decided to read it because of the title – it just intrigued me.  It tells the story of 12-year-old Al Chaudry who travels to the past in a time machine accompanied by his pet Hamster Alan Shearer!

Al’s father died when Al was young and on his 12^th birthday, Al’s mum gave him a letter which was left to him by his father. This letter tells of a time machine that Al’s dad built in the basement of their house (which is now their old house, as since the death of his dad, Al’s mum has remarried and they are now living in a new house). 

The letter gives Al instructions regarding the Time Machine and has it is from his Dad, Al is determined to follow them, which then leads to an interesting journey for Al. This journey involves Al meeting his dad when he was a young lad, lying to his parents, escaping the house in the middle of the night, getting in fights and trying to face a cat from being set on fire, including more escapades.

Time travelling with a Hamster is a funny book and get you rooting for Al all the way as he confronts all the obstacles standing in his way in order to for to complete the mission he accepted from his dad! It is a heart-warming book and I recommend it to all – both young and old. 

Book Review: 101 Tales of Kruger by Jeff Gordon

Extraordinary stories from ordinary visitors to the Kruger National Park

I recently went to Kruger National Park in South Africa on my holidays and read this book while on my safari. In hindsight, this was possibly not a good idea as I was a wee bit scared by some of the stories I read.

Don’t get me wrong it is a great read and I do recommend it, just not when in the park itself. However, it does make you excited for seeing all the animals in their natural habitat.

This book is a celebration of Kruger and animal life and tells the stories of people’s individual safari’s and their encounters with the wildlife.  And these stories include the ‘Battle of Kruger’ which was made famous on YouTube where lions attack a buffalo and the buffalo gets away – surprisingly unharmed.

Some of the stories are amazing, some are scary (especially when snakes are involved!) but some make you think and make you realise that it is never a good idea to get out of your car when on safari or get locked out of the camp leaving you stuck in the middle of the park during the night when the animals are on the hunt for prey! Some people can be silly - but it is very important to respect the animals and know it is their home you are in.

101 Tales of Kruger is a great read and one that is very hard to put down once you pick it up. If you have never been to Kruger, reading this book will make you want to do, so start saving your pennies! 

Book Review: When a Woman Chooses to Forgive by Cheryl Brodersen

Finding Freedom in Letting Go

Forgiveness is a very tough subject, we all find it hard to forgive others and sometimes we forget we also need to forgive ourselves.  This book takes the subject of forgiveness and helps us women find freedom in letting go and taking forgiveness by the hand.

Cheryl talks us through the different stages of forgiveness such as forgiving others, forgiving ourselves and forgiving the church amongst others. She does this through personal stories of people who have struggled with forgiveness as well as bringing a biblical perspective and Godly perspective to the subject. It is important to forgive as we have been forgiven by God.

It is a great book but hard sometimes to digest – only because the subject is a tough on. It is a book which gets you thinking and looking into your life to see who or what you need to let go of in order to live a life with God without complications.

Book Review: Equal to Rule: Leading the Jesus Way by Trevor Morrow

Why Men and Women are Equal to Serve

Should woman preach? That is a controversial question especially in Northern Ireland where many people think women should not in the pulpit or have authority over men, yet its ok for them to go to foreign countries to be missionaries and put themselves in dangerous positions to serve God and speak His work to both men and women, but it’s not ok for them to preach in our churches here!!

Trevor Morrow has written this book to address this issue as he feels that no matter what camp you are in, we need to fully read and understand the scriptures and realise that we are all equal in the eyes of Jesus and we should be the same within the church. Trevor says we all need to apply the gospel to the lives of women and men in different cultural contexts. 

This book helped me see the question of women in a new light and understand it from a biblical perspective.  It is an enlightening book and is written in a gentle non-argumentative but challenging way and it also helps those in church settings where women are not yet free to exercise their God-given gifts, begin simple steps which will move the situation forward.

What I took from this book is that in the eyes of Jesus we are all equal and we should live that way and always see life from his point of view and not how we think things should be.