Saving Truth: Finding Meaning and Clarity in a Post-Truth World by Abdu Murray

Note the decorative green electrical tape on my Mac's charger wire?  That is there to repair the destruction wreaked by my little green monster.  Beware the beak!!!

The following review is part of a book launch of which I am a Team Member.  I will also be posting my review on commercial sites as well.  Thanks to RZIM  for providing me with a free copy.  The following is my honest review:

Saving Truth: Finding Meaning and Clarity in a Post-Truth World by Abdu Murray

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


My husband and I lead a college Sunday School class and our church did a series on how to share the gospel with unbelievers. The format of our Sunday School is to discuss the day's sermons and share thoughts and insights. The method our pastors took is called the "3 circle" message. Explain the fall of man, Christ's sacrifice and man's redemption through His sacrifice.

It is a basic message and I asked the students what they thought of it. The students in our particular class were mainly engineering students and, needless to say, pretty cerebral. One young man who was Vietnamese and a new convert to Christianity remarked that the basic circle, while accurately describing the Gospel, really did not answer the hard questions that he was getting pummeled with at school.

This started a series of discussions where we practiced asking and answering the type of questions that non-believers ask Christians.

That is where Saving Truth comes in. Do you have questions about God and how His Truth fits in today's society? Are you the one with questions or the one being asked these questions? Either way, this book is a good guide.

Saving Truth does not shy away from the current cultural tide of today. It tackles the issues of truth (is it relative, unknowable or non-existent?); sexual identity; is science and faith compatible?; religious pluralism and the dignity of human life.

One of the greatest deceptions that is being exalted by certain activist groups today is that they are on the side of the "victim". They are the saviors of people of certain life styles-transgenderism, LGBQT, women with an unwanted pregnancy, who are being "persecuted" by narrow "fundamentalist" religious groups. Murray carefully explains and supports that in fact the opposite is true.

Abdu Murray, with clear and acute insight, describes our society with both wisdom and compassion. I could spend pages describing the different truths he supports, but I suggest you read the book.


Here is a link if you'd like to preview the first chapter.



View all my reviews

One of the Few: A Marine Fighter Pilot's Reconnaissance of the Christian Worldview by Jason B. Ladd

I opened an e mail one day that stated the following:

Sharon,
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING BOOK MAY BE SUITABLE FOR LICENTIOUS BOOK-PURCHASING FREELANCE MUSICIANS. 

Please let me know if you would be interested in receiving a copy and providing a review on Amazon and Goodreads.

How could I refuse a request like that?  Besides, being a Military Brat, not to mention living in Texas, a state that probably produces more Marines than all the other states combined, these sort of stories always hold a place in my heart. (My husband has just informed me that California produces the most marines, then Virginia; Texas is third but I don't believe it.)

Because I know that burgeoning authors are trying to sell their product, I went ahead and bought Jason's book for $2.99 on Kindle.

The following review is entirely my own opinion and I wish Jason professional success.

The downside of reading a Kindle is that I do not know how to turn back to specific pages to get my quotes or incidents correct; therefore this is going to be a generalized overview of the book with the intention of giving the reader as informed a review as possible.



One of the Few is a non fiction account of Ladd's  spiritual journey from growing up nonreligious, developing questions as to whether there is an afterlife and finally embracing Christianity.

Jason grew up in a Military family, met his wife in high school while stationed in Japan and became a Marine.  He eventually got accepted into flight school and became a Marine fighter pilot.

That right there is the stuff adventure stories are made of.  Anyone in the material world is thinking: "Hoo yah! Captain America in the flesh!"

Ladd was deployed to Iraq and there are plenty of good stories here that rival anything Marvel's comics come up with, the more so because it's true.  

However, Ladd wasn't satisfied with adventure and valor.  There was something else he yearned for and felt was missing in his life.  Risking life and limb brought the subject of death up more than once and Ladd began to wonder just what happened when a person died.

"'What do you think happens when we die?' Karry asked.

'I don't know.  Nothing?  Blackness?'"(From the book)

Why are any of us alive?  I remember once I called a fighter pilot a "flight jock" to his face as a joke.  His expression told me that he didn't think that term was appropriate or funny.  Probably because he was a family man (I taught his son piano) and a church goer.  I feel certain that Jason Ladd wouldn't appreciate the term either. (And I've never called anyone that again.)

Because "flight jock" has connotations that someone is "macho" and "permiscuous" and not a deep thinker.  Jason Ladd's book shows that he is none of the first two traits and all of the last trait.

Each chapter begins with a quote from a secular thinker as well as a Christian thinker.  The comparisons are challenging and interesting.  Here are a few quotations:

"I've begun worshiping the sun for a number of reasons.  First of all, unlike some other gods I could mention, I can see the sun."  George Carlin

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see by it, but because by it I see everything else."  C.S. Lewis

"We are survival machines-robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes."  Richard Dawkins

"It is the very act of self-sacrfice that demonstrates that there is something more noble than mere survival."  Ravi Zacharias

Ladd describes the training he receives to become a Marine and eventually a fighter pilot.  He sees many parallels between his earthly experiences with spiritual truths.  He lists a number but I will only list a couple:  

After challenging his Sergeant to a pugil stick match, he makes the comparison that we cannot pound people who oppose our world view but must "display a life of love and service to everyone you wish to reach."

He goes on to describe getting bloody boots because he focused only on his toes and not on his heels.  He makes the analogy that "some worldviews focus only on the possibilities ahead and fail to address the damage they may leave behind."  And when, during training, one is walking through the woods half asleep we sometimes need to "be jolted awake in order to ask important questions."

A lot of what Jason Ladd discovers I had already arrived at so some of his conclusions were not new to me, like discovering that our present social climate does not respect the Christian world view.  This can be a challenge when you are used to being respected every time you walk into a building wearing that flight suit.  Ladd proves, however, that authentic faith overrides any concern over society's opinion.

Ladd has obviously read the Bible in depth, judging from his  references to it and one chapter is devoted to the need to read the Bible over and over again.  He compares it to flight training:  "Study tactics, fly by the book, and repeat.  Read, fly, repeat.  Read the Bible, live by the Book, and repeat.  Read, live, repeat."

"...(Man's) origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms..."  Bertrand Russell

"A human being is a collection of atoms in the same way that Shakespeare's plays are collections of words, or Beethoven's symphonies are collections of notes."  Dinesh D'Souza

If you are interested in Military culture and how one man came to faith in Christ inside of that culture;  if you like to read modern war stories and how a fighter pilot comes to reconcile his worldly mission with his spiritual one, this is an excellent book and one I highly recommend reading.

 
Jason B. Ladd is an award-winning author, US Marine, and Iraq War veteran. Ladd served on active duty with the Marines for fourteen years and has flown as an instructor pilot in both the F/A-18 and the F-16 fighter jets. He is the founder of Boone Shepherd, LLC and creator of IndieListers.com, the largest live online database of book promotions results built by authors. He and his wife, Karry, are the parents of five children.

His book One of the Few was awarded as Finalist in the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.  (From Amazon)

The following are links for further information on Jason and his books:

www.OneoftheFewBook.com

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016X0HL84/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26253930-one-of-the-few

The Centurians, A Practical View of Chistianity, and Lucky Jim

A gift from my baby sister for my birthday.

I am on another book fast.  Not from reading, of course.  That will happen when I'm dead.  But from buying books.  I must read one hundred books that I already own before I can buy another single book.  Josh said to me, "I guess this means your book reviews are going to be reduced to 'book good' or 'book bad'."

He's right. Which is why I decided I don't have to review all one hundred books, just read them.  Be that as it may, I am going to review three books in one pop on today's post.

The Centurions by Jean Larteguy

 

The Centurions by Jean Larteguy was first written in 1960 and it starts with the battle of Dien Bien Phu.  Larteguy describes in rich, colorful detail the agonizing experiences of the French prisoners of war.  He dives into the psychology of both the French and Vietnamese cultures and through his characters attempts to explain the motives of each side.  His expressive use of dialogue between the Vietnamese commander and his prisoners are especially poignant in view of the fact that this commander had been educated by the French.  It was this desire to belong to the French community but to be excluded because of his race that ultimately led him and other Vietnamese to seek dignity and equality through communism.

The book carries us through the soldiers' imprisonment, ultimate release, and continues into the battle in Algiers.  Larteguy provides the same explanation as to why the Muslims wanted liberation from French rule as the Vietnamese: a conviction that they would never be accepted as equals by the French.  Particularly sad are the Algerian soldiers who fought side by side with the French in Vietnam who now fight against those same men, even using brutal acts of terrorism to extricate their country from a people whose culture and values they consider incompatible with their own. 

While this book is worthwhile to read for its information rich storytelling, I must say I got tired of all the mindless sleeping around.  It leads me to wonder if the French only believe true love can be attained by first marrying one woman and then cheating on her with another woman.  

I can't help comparing this book on war to those written by Americans.  American war stories focus on how many lives of their compatriots they saved.  This book's thrust (no pun intended) is centered around how many women the soldiers have slept with.

Jean Larteguy (1920-2011) was a French journalist and soldier.  His stories are drawn from his personal knowledge and experience as a war correspondent for Indochina, Korea, Algeria and Vietnam.

A Practical View of Christianity by William Wilberforce

 

A Practical View of Christianity is William Wilberforce's treatise on what exactly makes a person a Christian and contrasting it with what many people claim to be Christianity.

His main attack is against Cultural Christianity and he spares no words describing the duplicity and hypocrisy of his day by church-going people who show no respect for the authority of God as revealed through His written Word.

His arguments are highly relevant for today since there exists a profound Biblical illiteracy among too many Christians who seem to be ignorant as to how to conduct their lives in a manner that honors God. 

While I determinedly plowed through this book with its original manuscript, I highly recommend reading a version with updated language.  Wilberforce is extremely wordy and he takes a long time expressing his ideas, as brilliant as they are.

 William Wilberforce (1759-1833)

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Finally, a little fun.  Kingsley Amis has to be one of the funniest writers I've ever read.  he writes about nothing at all.  There's no plot to speak of, just parodies of characters who run England's highest educational institutions such as Oxford.

Poor Jim Dixon is a first year professor who is trying very hard to please his supervisor, Professor Welch who uses Jim as his personal servant, having him, in addition to writing his own lectures, doing the professor's work and research as well.  Jim is afraid not to because he has no guarantee he will be hired for the next year.  He does all sorts of things he'd rather not, like spend a weekend at Welch's house for a silly musical gathering.  

There he meets Welch's son, Bertrand, an extremely arrogant, unpleasant person who nevertheless has an extremely pleasing girlfriend who Jim attaches himself to.

And then there's Margaret, another professor who is kinda, sorta, Jim's girlfriend, except when she's not, who thrives on romantic tension and expertly blackmails Jim emotionally so that he never can keep off edge.

The storyline weaves in and out of several characters and their back-stories like a mouse running through a maze.  What makes this story so successful is Amis' genius at wordplay and sharp comedic thrusts.

Here's an example of Amis' masterful manipulation of words and concepts:

Dixon grinned to himself at 'Uncle Julius'.  How marvelous it was that there should be somebody called that and somebody else to call him that, and that he himself should be present to hear one call the other that. 

The effortless artistry with which Kingsly Amis allows his story to flow along an oily river of silly people saying absurd things in a delightfully witty way makes up for any lack of "profound plot".

 Kingsley Amis (1922-1995)

I have now completed thirteen books.  Only eighty-seven to go.

 

A Rabbi Looks at the Last Days by Jonathan Bernis

       It amazes me that many Christian authors who are focused on the last days do not seem to be aware of what is happening in the Jewish community around the world.

  Just as the Bible predicted, the Jewish people are being restored to their land and to their Messiah. 

   Although Jewish people who accept Yeshua HaMashiach are often ostracized by their families, friends and business associates, Jews all over the world are turning to him and becoming Messianic Jews in numbers not seen since the first century.

    This is how Mr. Bernis opens his book, A Rabbi Looks at the Last Days.  Bernis first describes his own Jewish upbringing and how he came to know the Lord (a girl he used to do heavy drugs with in college became a Christian and was instrumental in leading him to faith.)

      Bernis then goes on to give a brief history of  the Jews and how we can know that the last days prophesied in Revelation are near.

     In his chapter “Why Satan Hates the Jews", he gives a history of their persecution from the Roman destruction of the Temple, the thousands that were massacred during the Crusades, all the countries that expelled them, the Spanish Inquisition, the ghettos of 1826, Russian pogroms, and let’s not forget Hitler. 

     The infamous Adolf Eichmann (1902-1962), sometimes referred to as “the architect of  the Holocaust” and who was hanged for his crimes in 1962, once said, “Throughout history men have dreamed of destroying the children of Abraham.”

     True but the question remains:  Why? (pg. 31)

  Bernis then goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden and explains God’s purpose for the Jews and His plan of salvation for all of mankind through the Jewish nation.  This is why Satan wants to destroy the Jews.  Because he hates God and wants to destroy as many of His creation as he can.

    The second reason we can know that Jesus’ return is imminent is that the scattered Jews are returning to Israel from the four corners of the earth.  He discusses Israel becoming a nation and Jews from all over the world returning there.  He points to Biblical prophecy from the Old Testament that is being fulfilled today.

      The third reason is because many thousands of Jews are turning to Yeshua (chapter 4 "Something is Happening among the Jewish People" pg. 57)   Bernis describes his trips to the former Soviet Union where hundreds of Jews came to Bernis’ preaching venues and surrendered their lives to Christ. 

      In a country beaten down by atheistic values Bernis describes the hunger for the Gospel there.  He found the Jews there very receptive to hearing about Yeshua (as opposed to the U.S. where there is great resistance to belief in Christ and fear of losing one’s “Jewish identity”).

   He also has some interesting comments on the times of the Gentiles nearing fulfillment which ushers in the time for the Jews to receive salvation.

      The second part calls upon Christians and their responsibility to share the gospel among Jewish people.  

      Bernis points out that many well-meaning Christians won't share the Gospel with Jews because they don't want to offend them or even believe there's no need since being God's chosen people saves them.

    Bernis gives a helpful chapter in which he discusses what sort of semantics a Christian should use when sharing the Gospel with a Jewish person.  So much of Christianity has been so "Europeanized" that Jesus Christ is practically unrecognizable to Jews (he said he thought Jesus’ parents were Mr. and Mrs. Christ. Christ is the Greek word for "Messiah").

    He finishes with an interesting chapter on the Tabernacle feasts and especially the Passover and how they foreshadow the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the Passover lamb “who died once and for all for all our sins, yesterday, today and forever”.

       All in all, I found this an interesting book and a good one for Christians to read to learn about the end times and witnessing to God’s special people from a Messianic Rabbi’s perspective.

I received this book for free from Baker Publishing.

Kindle: $8.79

Other links:

The Jewish Voice

The False Prophet by Ellis Skofield

The Harbinger by Johnathon Cahn

Called to Controversy: The Unlikely Story of Moishe Rosen

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville translated by C.W.R.D. Moseley

 I found this book in a school library. It had been donated.  The school was private and didn’t mind donating the book to me.  It’s a pity this book is obsolete because it is not only interesting but offers an invaluable insight to the workings of the medieval mind.

    Sir John Mandeville wrote this book around 1356 AD.  He claims that the book is a collection of his journaling while he traveled from Europe to the Holy Land and beyond across the Middle East, India and eventually ending up in China.

     While some scoffers think his travels went no further than the nearest library, one cannot deny that his book is filled with a fast flowing narrative providing plenty of rich detail of every place he visited.  Reading Mandeville’s writing is like experiencing a viewfinder flashing its pictures quickly past your eyes. 

       A dry account it isn’t.  Suffused with the value of relics and Holy Places only a medieval Catholic could endow, one learns not only of all the places in Israel and Palestine that were important to a Christian of the Middle Ages but all the relics and miracles that give each place its value.

      Mandeville leaves the Middle East and moves on to Persia, India and China.  One can verify his veracity as far as historical leaders go.  We know that the Kahns did rule most of Asia and Russia at the time but one has to wonder about the fantastical places where he purports to meet humans who have bodies and abilities that sound as though they come straight from Greek and Roman mythology.

        Whether Sir John actually traveled as he claims or the book is a product of a vivid imagination, his writing is fluid and eloquent and it is worth noting that the likes of Christopher Columbus and Leonardo da Vinci as well as many others possessed copies of his book and relied on it for hard geographical information.

       And as the back cover says,

 Sir John’s book demands that, as well as enjoying it, we take it seriously as an indispensable aid to our underwstanding of the world picture of the late middle Ages and the Renaissance.

For more information:

http://www.romanization.com/books/mandeville/

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/tosjm10.txt

http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/biography/TheTravelsofSirJohnMandeville/toc.html

http://jonathantierney.blogspot.com/2010/06/travels-of-sir-john-mandeville.html

       

Once an Arafat Man by Tass Saada with Dean Merrill

I reviewed a number of books about the American military.  Here's a story about a man from the "other side".

Tass Saada was an angry youth. A displaced Palestinian living in Qatar, he wondered when the Arab countries were going to make good on their promise. The promise that if the Palestinian families left Palestine, they would soon be able to return. After they defeated their enemies, Israel, that is. Well, the defeat never happened.

Tired of waiting Tass ran away from home to Palestine where he trained to become a member of Arafat's Fatah. By the age of seventeen he was carrying a high-powered Simonov rifle, was an elite PLO sniper and chauffeur for Arafat.

Once an Arafat Man is the incredible true story of how a young man filled with hate came to know the One who only had love for him.

After a couple of years, his father tricked him into returning to Qatar and confiscated his passport. He could only receive it back if he went abroad to get an education. Tass chose America. Even though he hated Americans because of their alliance with Israel, his defiant attitude made him go somewhere his father didn't want him to go.

He decided to marry an American girl for the sole purpose of obtaining a green card then leave her and America for good after he received his college degree.

When his American fiancee brought him to a priest for premarital counseling the priest asked point blank, “How do you know he's not just marrying you for a green card?”

The girl huffed, “I know him. He would never do that do me!”

In fact that was his plan. But things didn't go as planned. When his family found out that he married an American they disowned him. “How could you do this?” They shouted. “You are engaged to a girl here already! You have brought shame on her. You have brought shame on us!”

Even though it was not Tass' plan, it was God's plan. By staying in America he became a successful business man obsessed with success. The success did not ease the hatred or emptiness in him. Finally, a businessman whom he had become good friends with shared how he had become a Christian. What happened to Tass is what is reportedly happening to many Muslims world wide. He started having dreams about Jesus Christ.
 When he finally prayed to receive Jesus in to his life he came off of his knees a new man.

He began reading the Bible and was surprised to discover that it had more to say about the Arab people than the Koran.

I had run into some fascinating information about my people, the Palestinians. Our ancestor, I knew, was Ishmael-the firstborn son of Abram. Ishmael's mother was Hagar...

I had heard of at least some Christians who called Ishmael everything from a bastard to a brat, and had even nastier things to say about his mother. But that is not what I read in the actual Bible.

When tensions arose during Hagar's pregnancy, so much so that that she fled into the desert, she was not left to fend for herself. No less than “the angel of the Lord” came to her aid.

The angel instructed her to go back home and then promised:

“I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.”

I leaned back in my chair and thought of all the people who trace back to this woman-not just us Palestinians, but all the Arabs. What a massive population we had become, just as the divine messenger had predicted.!”

“As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers.

When I read those words, I (realized) we Arabs were not cursed by God after all! The one God, the only true and living God, is the God of the Ishamelites, too.

I was feeling prouder of my heritage all the time, thanks to what I saw here in the Old Testament. The Christian book (actually the Jewish-Christian book ) was building up my self-esteem as an Arab! (Chapter 11 pg 115-117)

Now instead of being obsessed with success and material wealth. Tass' heart broke for his people who were so filled with hate, living in a darkness they could not free themselves of. He and his wife eventually settled in the Gaza strip where they started up schools and house churches for the poverty and war stricken Muslim families that live there.

I think I had always been brought up, as a Christian, to see Ishmael's birth as an act of disobedience to God. Perhaps it was, but I also remember God telling Abraham that Ishmael and his descendants would be blessed, (Genesis 17:20). It's time to remember that long before there was a Muhammed, there was a people blessed by God. A people that Islam has taken hostage. Let's pray for these people to understand who their true Creator is and His plan for their salvation.

I bought this book

Kindle store: $9.99

Other links:

Hope for Ishmael web site

Watch Tass Saada on youtube

Once an Arafat Man facebook club

Other book reviews on war:

Seal of God

Father of Money: Buying Peace in Baghdad

Two books on Navy Seals

Hope in Hungman: a Story of the Korean War

inSignificant: Why You Matter in the Surprising Way God is Changing the World by Chris Travis

     Don’t think all black people are like this, the police officer said.  He squeezed me in a rough bear hug.  I could feel his bulletproof vest underneath his starched uniform shirt.  It was like being hugged by a tree.  He said these words to me, I think, because he was a black man, the principal of my school was black, and almost all the students and teachers were black.  He said this to me because I was the only white person around, and I was the only one with a swollen eye.  (pg.13)

     Chris Travis was the much loved and respected pastor of a church.  He and his wife decided to move to New York City where she could pursue a career in acting.  He decided that he was going to make a difference in children’s lives.  He chose to become a school teacher in the worst performing school in the city, deep in the heart of Harlem.

      I used to get nervous about preaching in a church... I used to actually feel anxious before standing in front of well-mannered church people who never throw things, never push you, never threaten to rape your wife.  I didn’t know what it was like to stand up in front of a crowd that openly hated me, gnashed their teeth at me, and said the foulest things you can think of to me.  I didn’t know how it would feel to see an entire class lunge out of their seats, energized by the simple, sadistic joy of watching one kid punch another.  And guess who stood between that classroom of students and the two who were fighting in the hallway.  (pg.13)

       Chris worked two years at this school.  The third year it was closed down.  In the two years he was there he learned a lot.  A lot about what God’s purpose is in our lives.  How He uses everything, including- or especially, the toughest times of trial to make our lives count.  To show us that we’re significant. 

        In the nine chapters of the book Chris discusses discovering what God wants for us, what  loving others really means, what it means to be a servant of God where ever you happen to be in life.  He shows how when we allow God to change our heart, and depend on Him in all circumstances He gives us spiritual gifts to use and impact others.  He concludes that whatever we do, it is not insignificant.

      Interlaced through out his message, Chris shares his experiences as a first year rookie teacher who went from crying on the subway home every night to an experienced no nonsense classroom manager the second year.  Applying the principles he writes about in these chapters, he became an expert teacher who got his kids to perform academically and improve.  He connects the principles he discusses in each chapter to how he applied these principles to his own daily life and how they worked.

     The end of the book has discussion questions for each chapter so a church group could use the book as a Bible study.

    What I found valuable about this book was that I, too, taught at a high minority, high poverty school for nine years.  My school wasn’t as bad as his but I daily fought high stress and depression and the sense that I wasn’t making any difference to anybody.  This book had me thinking that when we look at our lives from an eternal perspective, we are doing things that are making a difference.  I may never have won a “teacher of the year” award, but the love I showed my students and the work I did with them to make each and every one of them successful musicians did matter.

     After reading this book, I can appreciate how God used my teaching years as a time of testing and trial to “complete a good work in me.”  I am not the same self-absorbed, clueless person I was when I first began teaching.

    We may never know in this life time the difference we made in people’s lives, but God knows.  He knows and He sees-even if no one else does. 

    The only thing I would have liked to have read about were specific techniques the author used to manage his class.  He only tells us he was awful the first year and was effective the second year.  He doesn’t go into detail about what he did to become effective.  As an educator I would have found that information useful.

    All in all, this book will be an encouragement to all of us who wonder if we or what we do really matters.  Chris Travis shows that when we find our place inside God’s will, it all matters.

Chris Travis is the bestselling author or Unnamed and the pastor of Everyday Christian Church in Manhattan.  Before that he taught math at eh most dangerous middle school in the New York City public school system, Chris is a former atheist who met Jesus in the pages of Scripture and never looked back.  He lives with his wife in New York City.

I received a complimentary copy of this book by Bethany House Publishers.

     Other Links:

Chris Travis' blog

Bless you book reviews by Shannon

http://rachelledawson.com/2012/08/28/book-review-insignificant-vs-when-helping-hurts/

Patheos review on inSignificant

     

Confronting Jezebel: Discerning and Defeating the Spirit of Control by Steve Sampson

Morgan le Fay by John William Waterhouse

(I'm currently  reading La Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Mallory and Morgan is a real Jezebel although as you'll read, Jezebels can be either sex)

We’ve heard the name Jezebel- at least those of us who have studied the Chronicles and 1^st and 2^nd Kings of the Old Testament. Jezebel was King Ahab’s wife. She was the daughter of a pagan king and she brought the worship of Baal and Asherah into Jerusalem where it remained a firm fixture until the Babylonian exile.

What sort of person was Jezebel? Aside from the devastation she wrecked on Israel she was a power monger who used manipulation and intimidation to control others. She emasculated men, surrounding herself with eunuchs and worked through Ahab, who was weak, and, not only did whatever his wife wanted him to, enjoyed letting her take the reins and rule the country.

Mr. Sampson’s book Confronting Jezebel helps us to recognize the Jezebels in our lives, families, workplaces and churches today. Chapter by chapter he breaks down the common traits of a Jezebel personality and how they operate in personal relationships, at the workplace and especially in church. Of all places, churches seem to be the most vulnerable to Jezebel spirits.

Without rewriting the book I want to list a few of the character traits Jezebels exhibit in order to help others recognize these traits in people with whom they have personal or professional relationships or if they recognize these traits in themselves.

First of all, Jezebels can be either gender. They are not limited to females.

Jezebels were often victims of controlling people in their childhood which in turn made them control terrorists. They are extremely insecure. All of their existence is concentrated on putting themselves in positions of control.

In personal relationships they will dominate their partner. Women do this through manipulation and withholding sex. Men do it through intimidation: verbal and sometimes physical abuse. If you try to stand up to them, they will do everything in their power to make your life hell.

Jezebels are master manipulators. They know how to charm people and make lots of friends. In the church they can finagle their ways into positions of authority, and then use it to control the pastor or even get the pastor ousted. They have an almost magical ability to turn half a congregation against a pastor.

Sometimes the Jezebel is the pastor. He can surround himself with a crowd of “yes men” who believe he can do no wrong. This pastor will then rule the congregation through fear and intimidation, often driving the church into bankruptcy with extravagant living. When he destroys one church he moves on to the next. His ability to mesmerize entire churches allows him to do the same thing over and over again.

In the workplace this person will seem like the one who gets everything done, working long hours and arranging things so they look like the one who came up with every great idea, whether they did or not. They are able to scare fellow workers into not exposing them. They are relentless back stabbers and will often even try to get their bosses fired; their thirst for control is so insatiable.

Sampson’s book enables the reader to discern if a Jezebel is in their life and how to confront and defeat this spirit.

This is a good book for all of us to read because no one has gone through life without being assaulted by one of these control freaks. It’s good to read a book where you recognize the symptoms and then learn of the cure. It can save a lot of misery down the road or, if you find you’re already married or working with a Jezebel you can develop weapons to fight against them.

I received this book for free from Bethany Publishing in exchange for my honest opinion.

or buy on Kindle for 9.96

Other posts on this book:
Cheryl Cope

The False Prophet by Ellis H. Skolfield

This is the second book review in a continuing series about end time prophecy.  For the first review go here.

William Blake (1757-1827)

The Great Red Dragon and The Beast from the Sea c. 1805

(Revelation 13)

Ellis H. Skofield has written a book about the end times that differs from any book or position I’ve read before. He exhaustively explores the prophesies written in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, connects them to the prophecies in New Testament scripture, primarily Revelation but also Jesus’ Olivet Discourse in Matthew and passages in Paul’s epistles.

Skofield uses certain time frames to discern who the Beast, the anti-Christ, the false prophet, and the Abomination of Desolation is. His logic and arithmetic are thought-provoking as well as staggering.

Much of what he has to say is too complicated and detailed to try to reproduce here but I will try to give some of the more startling calculations. By equating Daniel’s days with years Skofield arrives at the precise years that:

The Dome of the Rock is built on the site of the Jerusalem Temple (The Abomination of Desolation)
 

The year Israel became a nation

Who the leopard-bear-lion rulers are

 and

Who the Two-horned beast is to name just a few.

I find it interesting to see that Skofield asserts that the two witnesses described in Revelation are the Jews and then the Christian church. I can see where this makes sense in that for the first millennia, in a world steeped in paganism that had lost sight of their creator, the Jews were the ONLY group of people who knew the one, true God. They were the only people that held the gateway to the truth.

Then the Messiah came and His followers have been witnessing to God’s truth ever since and His gospel is spreading all over the world. So in one sense I can see how Jews and Christians can be seen as the two witnesses giving testimony to the one true God of mankind. I’m not saying I’m convinced, I’m just saying that on one level, what Skofield is saying is true. Whether these are the two witnesses being referred to in Revelation, I don’t know.

I should mention the Skofield is a Jewish Christian. That means to Jews he’s an apostate but to Christians a complete Jew who has progressed beyond “types and shadows”- which were the function of Jewish traditions and rituals- to what they were leading up to, namely the ultimate redeeming sacrifice of the Perfect Lamb of God that truly redeems us as a sacrificed animal never can or could.

Skofield asserts that the Jewish people are being purposely separated by God so they won’t assimilate. This is because He has an ultimate, wonderful plan for them in the final days of the world. It’s pretty exciting and joyful to think about.

Reading The False Prophet made me realize that everything that has been happening in world history has not been a random turn of events but rather leading up to a point: the Roman empire, rise of Islam (which, according to Skofield, figures prominently in the end times), the Roman Catholic church, Reformation, rise of Secular Humanism, Zionism and global economy and terror. Reading how Skofield matches these events with specific prophecies in the Bible causes goose bumps to rise.

The False Prophet would be considered a historicist approach to end time prophecy.  Whether one is a futurist, dispensationalist, preterist or any of the other myriad “ists” that interpret the end time prophecies a certain way, I strongly recommend reading Scofield’s book. It is heavy food for thought.

For more information:

The Beast of the Sea Tapestry of the Apocalypse

c. 1000 A.D.

A free download of this book can be found here  

http://www.ellisskolfield.com/

Other Links:
http://www.tribulation.com/thirteen.htm
http://endtimepilgrim.org/harlot.htm
http://www.lamblion.com/articles/articles_revelation12.php
http://www.raptureme.com/resource/ac46.html

Paulette Harper delivers tenacious, life-

changing material. Completely Whole gives a very

practical, every day approach to becoming all Christ has

purposed you to be. The book touches on each area of life,

and gives the reader a sense of urgency to tap into one’s

purpose now! By comparing various Biblical characters

and scenarios, Completely Whole walks you through

your past and present, and thrusts you into your Christ-

purposed future. At the same time, Harper lets you know

that the fight isn’t over, but it’s all about how you receive,

process, and handle specific situations. (From the introduction.)

Ms. Harper has written an inspiring and encouraging book for those who think they have blown it, are suffering, who are strangers to God and need to come to the One who can make them whole.  Completely whole.

    In her book, Completely Whole, Ms. Harper covers a number of topics that are relevant to today’s seeker.  She begins her book by looking at life as a whole.  Why do things happen to us?  Are our expectations for a good life realistic?  What do we do when the fairy tale is replaced with painful reality?  Ms. Harper gives many biblical examples of people in the Bible from prophets to kings, their real life afflictions, and how God used them to make them the whole person he purposed them to be. 

     She shows how many of our trials are due to our abandoning God and falling into self-dug pits.  What do we do then?  How can we dare approach a God from whom we turned away?  She uses scripture to prove that no matter how far we’ve run, God is waiting for us to turn around and run back to Him.  She then gives strategies in how not to look back to where we were and how to fight Satan’s attempts to defeat us by reminding of our past.

    Her book includes steps to redemption and salvation and how God’s forgiveness makes us whole.

     Chapter six is a beautiful chapter on God’s love for us and how it compares to the worldly love we are always looking for and turning to instead of our Heavenly Father’s incomparable eternal love.

    She discusses the power of God’s word, its power and the power of our own words. Other chapters explore our faith and its integral part in our relationship with God.

     She concludes with finding God’s purpose for creating us and letting God provide direction to our life’s path that will allow us to be the complete person he has planned for us to be.

      I thoroughly enjoyed this book.   It is beautifully written and  I recommend it as a devotional for anyone who wants to grow, heal and be made completely whole in God.

I received a free copy of this book by the author.

Ms. Harper is a life coach and public speaker.  For more information:


Paulette Harper
That Was Then This is Now Video Trailer

More books by Paulette Harper:

Unashamed to Bear His Name: Embracing the Stigma of Being a Christian by R.T. Kendall

    Tradition has it that St. Francis bore the stigmata of Christ on his body.  Stigmata refers to the marks on Jesus’ hands, feet and side of His crucifixion.  This became a sign of special favor or holiness in the Catholic Church.  In actuality, stigmata has a very different meaning.  The original meaning means stigma and it is why Christ’s crucifixion marks were called, “stigmata.”  Stigma is to carry shame.  The cross was a shame.  It was the most inhumane, humiliating, shameful death reserved for the worst of criminals.  Jesus took this shame, this stigma, upon Himself to save a sin sick world from eternal death. 

   In Unashamed to Bear His Name: Embracing the Stigma of Being a Christian, the author, R.T. Kendall, restores the original meaning back to its proper place.  The fact of the matter is, in today’s society being a Christian does carry a stigma.  The media has done a great job stigmatizing Christianity with shows that make Christians out to be idiots at best, judgemental busybodies in the middle, and raving lunatical zealots, “murdering in the name of God” at the other end of the spectrum.

   But I won’t blame the media for producing that attitude in the average person.  Every person is responsible for thinking for themselves (and what they give an audience to).  Be that as it may, in modern thinking, there is a general negative attitude, a stigma, to being a Christian.  The book has fifteen chapters and each chapter discusses a different stigma Christians bear.  He shows how the Old Testament, the Gospel, bearing Christ’s name are all offensive to our post modern culture that specializes in deconstructing everything to the point that their only solid conclusion is that it’s impossible to know anything.  Well they believe it’s possible to know one thing:  Christianity is false, Christians are naïve or delusional, and many are bad people trying to hurt the rest of the world with their narrow-minded thinking.

     Other chapters talk of the stigma of No Vindication (having your name cleared from a false accusation); the stigma of the Holy Spirit-here Kendall points to certain Christians that balk at visible signs of the Holy Spirit working in people’s lives if it gets outside their personal  walls that delineate Spiritual manifestation. His final chapter is about living outside the camp.  In Judaic law unclean people such as lepers or people who had committed certain crimes or in any way were unclean had to live outside the camp of Israel (when they were still a nomadic nation) He shows how many Christian denominations began “outside the camp”:  The Wesley brother’s were kicked out of the Episcopal church, thus beginning the Methodist church.  Martin Luther was kicked out of the Catholic Church which eventually led to the Lutheran denomination and so on.

      Kendall includes his own testimony by telling us about his strict, legalistic upbringing in a certain denomination and the stigma he had to endure from family and friends when he left that church because of his personal convictions.  He became pastor of Westminister Chapel in London for many years where he had to break traditionalist thinking and carrying the “stigma” of reaching people in old fashioned street preaching and changing the demographics of this venerable church. 

    

     Christians of all denominations will be edified by Kendall’s admonishments and encouragements when he reveals how bearing Christ’s stigma is not a cause for feeling defeated but for rejoicing in sharing the sufferings of our Savior and will feel renewed strength to pick up their own cross and follow Him.

I received this book for free from Baker Publishers.