Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Dangerous Prayers

Dangerous Prayers has been compiled by Susan Hill and published by Thomas Hill Publishing.  This is a book about the Christians in our history especially of the United States and a prayer associated with them.  I got this book because I thought that it would be a book of courageous prayers and how that was associated with danger either to the world or to the person who prayed it but it really isn't.  The book is divided into Christians mostly well known and each person gets 2 or 3 pages to tell their life or lifework and then it is followed by a prayer or song which they prayed or sang during usually a difficult time.  These stories are very interesting backgrounds into the person especially the little known Christians who have written famous prayers or songs.  My favorite prayer is from Harriet Tubman, "I'm going to hold steady on You. You've got to see me through."  It is also the shortest which reminds the reader that it is not what we say in prayer but rather what the Lord tells to us.  I wonder how often the person doing the prayer waits to listen to the Lord but rather only speaks to the Lord.  We must remember that the listening is the important part.

Many of these stories and prayers spoke to me and I am glad that I read this book.  At first I was disappointed in that the book was much different than I expected from reading the short review on the back of the book.  Then I got into what the book was telling me about these Christian's life and their work and it really is interesting.  This would make a nice gift for a new Christian maybe at baptism or joining a church.  I would recommend reading this book though I would only give 4 stars because I think that the book should revise how they are advertising it.
I received this book from BookLook for this review.

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Decoding your Dreams by Jennifer LeClaire

Decoding your Dreams by Jennifer LeClaire is an easy to read book looking at the meanings behind your dreams.  The author looks at dreams as either a message from God, from the enemy, or could be just your thoughts being rehashed. She looks at these dreams as being an important part of your day.  This book is meant to be a first book for the dreamer to begin to interpret their own dreams and so does not go deep into what your dreams mean.  One of the first things to do to decide what God is wanting the dreamer to know is to pray and ask God to help you to know what God is telling you the dreamer.  Then the dreamer should make and keep a dream journal.  Just as soon as you have the dream you are to write down the dream in as much detail as you can remember: colors, numbers, people, your thoughts during the dream, and just anything that you can remember.  At least once per year you should read back though your dreams to see if you get anymore insight into their meanings.  The author then tells what different codes mean to different cultures or different families such as dreams of red may mean love, anger or danger to us but in Asian culture it may mean something associated with luck.  In the U.S. yellow may mean being cowardly but in Greek culture it could mean sadness.  The author states that just as God will speak to the English speaking person in English and not in Spanish that He will also follow cultural norms.  She states that because of these differences to be careful in looking up dream codes on the internet because some of these discrepancies could occur. She also states that God will make the meaning known to the dreamer.  Possibly the dreamer will awaken with the knowledge but sometimes the dreamer must get this information over time.  She does say that the dreamer should understand the dream eventually with prayer because God wants the dreamer to understand.

I picked this book because I was having a reoccurring dream that I wanted to know the meaning of it.  After reading the book and carefully following the author's advice I am no closer to knowing the meaning than I ever was so I must assume that this is a dream that will require time to understand.  I also thought that this book was a little simplistic.  It, I felt could have gone a little deeper even for a beginner book.  I give this book 3 stars.
I received this book from BookLook for this review.