Jesus on Every Page by David Murray

Jesus on Every Page by David Murray is a book about not only seeing the stories of Jesus in the New Testament as the reader often does but also seeing the stories of Jesus as the Hebrews of the Old Testament days did—in the Old Testament.  Mr. Murray takes the reader through all of the Old Testament Books of the Bible and shows us how the Old Testament is not just a historical accounting of God’s people living until Jesus came but their knowledge and expectation of the Messiah’s coming and their salvation through grace.  He states that the Old Testament people were also saved by the grace of Jesus Christ by their own belief in the coming Messiah.  They were not surprised by Jesus appearance that rather that it was expected.  He further states that this revelation is presented to us as early as the 3^rd chapter of Genesis.  He says that the model for the coming Kingdom was presented in Genesis when Adam was created to be the 1^st Prophet, priest and King and received God’s Word and worshiped in the Garden Temple.  He failed but Jesus fulfilled as Adam didn’t and Jesus made His people once again Prophet, priests and kings again by His perfect sacrifice for all of mankind’s sin.

He further states that the Bible isn’t written to be about moral/ethic it is rather about God.  It is not an advice column it is our insight into God’s plan and God’s love for us.  It is about what God thinks and wills for His creation.   The Old Testament was the word and work of God for Israel, the Church in the wilderness.  Israel’s national security rested on God’s anointed king and David won because God fought for him.  This was God’s doing—David’s doing was his great faith in God and the knowledge of grace through the coming Messiah.  David knew of this because God told him and he wrote it down in the Psalms.  David knew that the king of whom he sang was not David but rather the coming King and Messiah.   David sinned many sins and they were not his undoing but rather David had great faith and that was why he had great successes in his kingdom.

This book is a good book for the reader to understand the Old Testament.  I have always been a person who believed that one cannot learn, understand or even completely understand the New Testament stories without knowledge of the Old Testament.  I am even a person who enjoys reading the Old as well as the New Testaments but I learned much from the writings of Mr. Murray.  He writes interesting details of insight into how the Old Testament people knew and were waiting for the coming Messiah but occasionally I think he is looking for the information that he wants to find and so he does.  That being said I am glad that I read it and learned much from the experience.  I would recommend this book for readers looking for an easy to understand scripture lesson on the Old Testament.

 I received this book from Booksneeze for this review.

What Once Was Lost by Kim Vogel Sawyer

What Once Was Lost by Kim Vogel Sawyer tells the story of Christina Willems who was raised by loving parents who worked in the mission of the poor around them.  They ran the local poor farm.  When Christina’s father died he left her with no money but had trained her to run the poor farm after he was gone and she had done an excellent job though the man in charge did not believe that a woman could do the job and did not send the same amount of support for the mission than had been available for the running of the farm when her parents were alive.  She was managing just to make it until one night blind little Tommy awakened her after smelling smoke in the air.  The managed to get everyone out of the burning building but then she was faced with not only rebuilding the structure but immediately needed to find temporary shelter for her charges.  It proved to be especially difficult to find a place for little Tommy until she finally practically forced but way of guilt to get the mill owner to take him.  She had told everyone that it would only take a short time to get the poor farm repaired but then the manager of the mission group started dragging his feet to release the money needed for repairs and suspicious things keep happening at the building site—such as someone cut up all the donated lumber one day.  It takes a deep searching of her faith and the community to find a solution to this problem and learn to work together.  The church learns to put their faith to the test and open their arms to those previously not regular attendees.   Christina learns to pray not for her own plans for the poor farm but rather that God’s will be done for the mission.

I liked this story of a small Kansas community in the early history of our country.  It tells of how hard it was and still is to live a life of faith even when unfair things keep happening that are beyond your control.  When the story of those lying around you have a story which sounds more likely than the truth which sounds so unbelievable to takes strong people to stand up and say I believe you when the police do not.  It also brings out that even when you are doing everything that you can for your mission that it is still not your mission but it is God’s mission and you must do what it is that God wants you to do for His plan not for your plans—they may and probably are different.  I can recommend this good reading material for older children and adults especially women.

This book was provided by Waterbrook Press for this review.

Snow on the Tulips by Liz Tolsma

Snow on the Tulips by Liz Tolsma is a novel about a true story taking place in the Netherlands during World War II.  This story tells of the Kooistra family during the closing days of the war.  The Dutch police were working closely with the Gestapo trying to round up and kill any Jews or Dutch Resistant’s who were still fighting against the Germans.  The Germans were also regularly rounding up any men or boys still hiding in the homes to fight on the front lines in the rapidly losing battles of 1945.   Cornelia was living at home taking care of her little brother, Johan, who was 20 and in hiding from the Gestapo.  Cornelia’s husband, Hans, had died 4 years ago on their wedding night the first day of the war fighting with the poorly armed Dutch army against the Germans and she bitterly mourned his passing every day.  Her sister Anki lived nearby with her husband.  All are Christian but Anki’s husband, Piet, was the most staunchly literal in his beliefs but was openly able to live in the home because of his job working on the farm to provide for the army’s food.   Cornelia has her hands full trying to keep Johan in the house because he so wants to join the Resistance and fight for their freedom from the Germans.  In the opening chapter Gerrit, a Dutch Resister is on the wrong side of a firing squad and Johan hears him moaning from his wounds and brings him into the home to be healed by Cornelia and Anki, who happens to be a nurse.  Anki is forced to lie to Piet in order to protect the family and Gerrit because she knows that Piet would not lie for any purpose.  This brings the Kooistra family into the beginnings of working in the Resistance for Netherland’s freedom.

I know I read a lot of books and like a lot of what I read but I really love this book.  It is a page turner that is difficult to put down.  Some really good books force the reader to read several chapters in order to introduce the characters and get the reader into the book but this book grabs the reader in the very first chapter.  This book tells the story of the waning days of the liberation of the Netherlands by the Allied forces lead by the Canadians.  It tells of the terror of the Dutch citizens living under German rule during the war.    The story brings out how difficult it is just to live a Christian life while there is a war going on in the country in which you live and the difficult decisions that daily life forces you to make.  Is it ok to lie in order to protect your family?  Is it ok to steal in order to feed your family?  Who is my family, my brother or sister?  So many blessings that we take for granted today were difficult decisions during the German occupation of the Dutch in the 1940s.  This book can be read by older children (at least Middle School age) and should be read by all adults.

I received this book from Booksneeze for this review. 

Burning Sky by Lori Benton

Burning Sky by Lori Benton is the newest novel by this author.  It is a novel of the American frontier immediately following the Revolutionary War.  Willa Burning Sky, who had been abducted by the Mohawks, the Longhouse People at the tender age of 14, was returning to the Long Knives home of her childhood using only the memory of her father's words in her head.  Willa though kidnapped by the Longhouse People had grown to love them and was grieving the loss of her 2 daughters to the dreaded small pox disease of the white invaders known as the Long Knives.  Upon returning to her home she found that she would have to fight the government for her own farm because her parents before their disappearance were accused of being Tory sympathizers.  She is fighting the love of her Indian brother, Joseph Tames His Horse of which she has no blood relation and the white man, Neil, of whom she rescued during her return to the farm.  This is the story of Willa working through her grief while at the same time fighting for her right to stay on her family farm.
I loved this story.  While it is a love story it is mostly a life story.  It does not glorify the white or the red man's ways but rather looks at both and sees the bad and the good of both of them  It also points out that many of the racist views of both races come from fear and jealousies of our past as well as the new ones that keep cropping up as we all live our daily lives.  This book shows the courage that it takes to be the first of a group to be Christian and learn to love the peole of God no matter their color or thnicity.  This is a book which needs to be read by all but most especially all women to learn to appreciate the freedoms which we now take for granted and should not but rather to appreciate the fight that our foremothers had to fight in order just to live. 
I recieved this book from Waterbrook Press for this review.

Rosemary Cottage by Colleen Coble

Rosemary Cottage by Colleen Coble is a Christian mystery novel which moves quickly.  This book tells the story of Amy Lange who is a nurse midwife who returns to the vacation spot of her family to mourn the death of her much beloved brother, Ben. No one believes that this surfing death is anything but an accident.  Amy meets and grows to love one of her neighbors, Curtis who is raising the daughter of his sister, Gina, who recently died around the same time as Ben.  This seems too big of a coincident to the two of them as Gina and Ben are the parents of Raine the baby that Curtis is raising.  It seems odd that 2 such good swimmers should die within 2 weeks of each other of simple accidents.  This is the story of Curtis and Amy convincing the local police to further look into these deaths and how they all work together to solve the murders of these young parents.

Rosemary Cottage by Colleen Coble is a Hope Beach novel and is evidently the 2^nd in the series but it easily can stand alone as an easy to read novel.  The characters are introduced and the reader is not left wondering how the characters interact.  I loved this book and read it easily in one day; I just could not put it down for long.  It is a Christian novel but that just is a part of the makeup of the characters.  I would recommend this for reading for as young as middle school age children.

I received this book from Booksneeze  for this review.

I've Got Your Back by James C. Galvin

I’ve Got Your Back by James C. Galvin is advertised as a leadership parable of Biblical principles for leading and following well.  This book tells the story of 4 young adults in their 20’s who are trying to survive in the workforce under the influence of exceedingly bad bosses.  They find themselves with the opportunity to learn under the leadership of Jack Hendrickson who is a retired Army Special Forces Sergeant and missionary.  He teaches them Bible principles about leadership by first learning how to be an excellent follower under the bad bosses that they already have.  To begin, this makes their professional lives much worse but later when their boss finds that they are seriously trying to help them life starts getting better.  Each week Jack provides them with a new step and assignment for the week in the process toward good leadership.

This is an easy to read and more importantly interesting to read how to book on leadership.  It is difficult to make a self improvement book interesting to read.  Mr. Galvin has used the same technique that Jesus did—tell a story to teach a lesson.  Mr. Gavin puts the parable into a realistic story of modern times.  Many times people in the workforce know that they are laboring under a poor boss but do not know what to do about it.  This is the book that will help the reader to improve their work situation whether they intend to move into leadership or merely improve the situation under the management currently in charge.  I would recommend this book.

This book was provided by Handlebar Publishing for this review.

Splitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh

Slitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh is a new novel by this author.  Harriet grew up in a good home.  She was always well fed by her loving family.  Her father was a preacher and her mother was always available whenever she needed her.  When Harriet entered her teen years she started to move into a wild party life including indiscriminate sex, alcohol and bars.  One day her brother and 2 female members of her father’s church “rescued” her from a party and cleaned her up and forgave her.  The church was not however all forgiving.  Because of Harriet the church had a split and her father was encouraged to retire.  Harriet (Harri to her friends) has since spent her life trying to keep the church just as it was before her mother and father moved into the mission field.  The new pastor is trying to move the church’s mission into one which is needed for more of the people who live around the area, families with children and young people.  This story is of how the people of this church learned to work together with the younger citizens of the area and make a church family for all the people in which the various ages work together for the good of all.  The members of the church change and not all of them agree with the changes and some do move to other churches but by in large the members find that the intergeneration church improves both the lives of the younger as well as those older members of the church.

I liked how this book integrated the generations and though expecting the elder members to change also used the elder generation to teach the younger the valuable lessons that needed to be learned by the younger as they approach this new life as Christians.  The way it has always been is not always the best way any longer but much can be learned from our elders.  They are not set in their ways for no reason after all.

I received this book from Multnomah for this review.