Hiding Out with a Book

As I have been out of commission regarding internet connection and capabilities, I have been reading more than I normally do.  (Carrie, I know you can hardly comprehend that there would be MORE reading than usual but alas, there has been more.)  I love reading and how it allows to you to visualize for yourself the way stories, timelines, characters, scenes play out.  I think movies have made us somewhat lazy and stolen much of our individual imagination, especially as children.  Reading opens up a whole new world and allows you to move at your own pace, mulling over the nuances that the author infers and the word choices which turn "a flower garden" into "a space tucked away behind a potter's cottage carpeted with jewel tones of jade, amythest and crimson buoyed with fragrances of lilacs, roses, and freesias alerting winter that spring is here." 

It can also elaborate on "bad circumstances" as being one characterized by phrases like "eight acrid and overflowing toilets", "lice-bitten skin", "bedding was soiled and rancid", "someone's elbow dug into my back, another women's feet were two inches from my face"... and that is about all I need to hear to get the intensity of the bad circumstances.  

In a previous post about one of my favorite books, Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, a friend of mine made a comment on here about her favorite book, The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.  It brought back memories of my mom telling me how she used to just love that book and how she encouraged me to read it from the time I was in elementary school.  I always put her off telling her I didn't want to read about a watchmaker's daughter.  Over the years, she has asked from time to time if I had ever read that book.  Until last week, I had always answered "no."  

Oh, how I wish I had NOT waited until now to read that beautiful book....

The trials and "bad circumstances" Corrie and her sister, Betsie, had to endure during the German occupation of Holland in the 1940's have lived on in the pages of this autobiography to serve as a poignant perspective in the face of suffering.  The courage they demonstrated and the awful, disturbing things they had to endure over a period of several years are both at levels almost incomprehensible to many, especially to me.  

I live a sheltered life.  

They did not.  

I complain.  

They did not.  

I take things for granted.  

They did not.

I forget about Jesus.

They did not.

They lived harmony.

I do not.

They had bravery.

I do not.

They lived with thankfulness in all circumstances.

I do not.

They trusted God at all times, in all things, for all reasons great and small.

I do not.

 

I am altering my post about far and away my favorite book being Redeeming Love.  This book, The Hiding Place, is every bit as compelling and impactful.  The testimony of God's provision is awe-inspiring.  He is in every detail of every life and our very present Help in time of trouble.  

If you have this book on your shelf and not taken the time to read it... do it.  If you have not taken the time to go out and purchase this book... do it.  If you have never heard of this book and need to find additional references and recommendations... do it.  If you need to see if it is on an audiobook... do it.

I will not request my daughter read this book.  I will insist upon it and hopefully we can read it together as I know I will be looking forward to the time I can re-read this book... over and over again.  

A Ruthless Trust

RUTHLESS TRUST by Brennan Manning


Are you in a point in your life where things are pretty comfortable? No major crises… no health issues… economy is tough but seems like you’re gonna make it ok… kids have settled into second semester of school. It’s comfortable. You’re comfortable.

This book will disturb you and your comfort. It will not let you sit back, relax and enjoy it. It will not tickle your ears and it will not paint pretty pictures. This is not a package held together by a perfectly tied grosgrain ribbon.

At Christmastime, it might look like one of those packages that’s been wrapped by your 4-year-old - paper not fully covering the gift inside, excessive tape everywhere, edges that just don't match up. There is a string tying it together but you know that the thing that bonds the package to the gift inside is love. It’s your favorite present, isn’t it?


That's what this book is.


Lest Manning think I am insulting him in any way, I most definitely am not. I find myself a bit of a mess after reading this text, kind of like that present wrapped by my sweet little niece, Scarlett Paige, at Christmas. In opening myself up to the honesty found on each page, I sense the “order” I have worked so hard to attain where every emotion has a place and each customary act or tradition has a time and place, is coming apart. It is scary but it is freeing. In allowing myself to become this mess, there is a beauty in which the Lord can create. It's a timeless wonder how God allows shards of truth turn us into slivers of our human selves and then recreates a different kind of beauty, though not as "perfect", as scars will surely tell the story, but stronger, more dependable, more useful as well becoming more pliable in the Hands that truly mold us.

The author’s words, "impoverished imagination" fight to keep us “alive and well" albeit sedated to the awe-inspiring, Almighty, Omnipotent, Incorruptible God. I have a box for Him. I bet you do, too. To be fair, the box is very, very big so He can do all the things in which I want Him to do, but the box, of course, fits within the constraints of my own impoverished imagination. I am totally fine with having Him join me in the place that I have carved out for Him. Plus, it would seem that this is where He would feel most comfortable, of course, in my opinion. I think it begs the following questions....

What if He is not comfortable or complacent enough to just stay in our box? What do we do with Him when He spills over the top, busts out the seams and oozes out the bottom? What do you do with the part of Him that doesn't fit in that box? Well, this brings up all kinds of “uncomfortableness”, now doesn’t it? How do you deal when God doesn’t answer your request the way you’ve asked? How do you deal with waiting … and then waiting some more for Him to move? How do you deal with the necessary choices – most of them no good? The unexplained scenarios? The unexpected occurrences? The unanswered questions? The most agonizing of all - unheard cries for help? When you are bumped out of your comfort zone, what secret part of you is exposed? What do you do when He has exposed you for who you really are, not who you proclaim to be?

These inconsistencies become stones along our journey … stones with the weight of hypocrisy, fear, ingratitude, unbelief, pride… They are not insignificant and neither are they moving. These rocks in our pathway are to be dealt with. Sure, we can initially avoid the stones by walking around, stepping over, or standing on top of, or even moving them to the side of the path. Be assured, the stones put in your path are not there by accident. They were purposefully chosen for you and they are yours to deal with. Some of these rocks look like pride masked in poor self-image, a steady focus on our relationship with God rather than God Himself, "moralism and its step-child, legalism", our sense of entitlement that infers we get to describe who God is rather than His Son, Jesus, to name a few. Friends, these are not small pebbles that annoy us as we walk. These are major road blocks that keep up from getting where we need to go. These are stones on which we should admit our ignorance and arrogance and apathy and build an alter right in the middle of the path.

Once we've purged our soul of maladies that threaten to envelope us individually as well as corporately, we must replace that void with something else. This is where Ruthless Trust comes in. "Trust does not demand explanations but turns to the One who promised, 'I will not leave you as orphans' (John 14:18)" (95). Do you demand explanations of how, when, where and why before you are willing to trust?

This trust requires sacrifice of the most debilitating kind, humanly speaking. In God’s eyes, this trust is the most healing. It means death to self and complete betrayal of who I am in favor of who He created me to be. The honesty it takes to expose the discrepancy between the two “ME’s” is a necessity. Manning states, "Raw honesty with Jesus about our doubts and anxieties, our lust and laziness, our shabby prayer life and stale religiosity, our mixed motives and divided hearts is the risk we take in the certainty of being acceptable and accepted. It is the full and mature expression of invincible trust." (103). There are no orphans of God. He will not leave you there undone but will consecrate you to Him in a bond that cannot be broken.

He requires ruthless trust. "Ruthless" means without pity. This trust is not martyrdom. This trust is "not an abstraction but a concrete visible, and formidable reality. It gives definition to our lives, reveals what is life-giving within us, shapes the decisions we make and the words that we speak, prods our consciousness, nurtures our spirit, impacts our interaction with others, sustains our will-to-meaning in life, and gives flesh and bone to our way of being in the world." (166)

This book wreaked some havoc into my soul as I read his honesty word by word. It speaks of one man's struggle to admit the very thing he is trying to protect isn't himself but the imposter of himself He has spent years trying to create. The Christian calling and subsequent walk isn't encapsulated to one part of you. It metastasizes into every area of your life. The irony is that we try and fight the very Cure for our own souls by spiritual posturing and pleading for worldly approval.

We are ruthless anyways…

....ruthlessly trust in the One

ruthlessly beaten, pierced, hung and glorified for you.

The Best Fiction

I am a big reader and let it be on record that I think I have identified the best work of fiction that I have read in as long as I can remember...

Redeeming Love

By Francine Rivers

Ladies (and gents), this book is one for the ages!  I know I am dramatic but I have read this book twice and I can't wait to read it once again.  It is one of the most powerful books I have read in that it will bring out emotions that no other fiction book has brought out in me... awe, sympathy, compassion, anticipation, disappointment, optimism, trust, and gratefulness.  It is amazing and one I would recommend to either male of female but it is a HOME RUN with every female that I know has read it. 

It is the fictional story depicting the book of Hosea that takes place in California's gold country around 1850.  It is a story of redemption and selfless love of God that changes lives in the most powerful ways.  I can't say enough about it.  A must read for anyone who likes to read fiction, spiritual books, historical books, love stories, or just interested in seeing how in the world God can take a prostitute and all the baggage that comes with that and changing her from the inside out through the love of a good Man. 

I don't want you to think it is your typical romance because it is far more than that... it is the story of a wandering soul.  A soul like mine that wanders from place to place looking for something that can only be filled by One thing.  A soul that knows deep down that it can never be more than it really is... a dysfunctional and dirty blemish amidst a myriad of pitiful, self-seeking, love starved stains on the garment of Christ.  And yet, there He is... wearing our sin and then washing it away.  A soul maybe like yours who knows there is more but doesn't want to find it there.  A soul that looks under every rock, behind every door, around every corner, in every person, at the bottoms of every bottle, and at the top of every heap always searching for that Thing that will fulfill.  

You will keep looking until you find Him.  

And when you do, He will fill you to the depths that you never knew you had and your cup will be running over.  It's joy, it's safety, it's faithfulness, it's beauty, it's love... nothing can compare.  In this book, we see her learn this life changing truth through the depths of despair to the heights of joy and everywhere in between.

You won't be able to put it down ... and He's not gonna let you leave without teaching you something powerful about Him.     

A Pressing Fear...

The more I read, I feel more convicted that I have feasted on spiritually good upbringing, good heredity and milk toast theology. The problem is that I question if this has been enough for me. Have I rested on my laurels being the "good girl" and never delved into when I stand before Him and my actions, thoughts, desires, evidence of belief, are on display what He will say to me and about me? Have I tried to strike a bargain with God, promising to keep a bunch of rules? I fear I'm a spiritual slug.

As I am reading C.S. Lewis "MERE CHRISTIANITY", I have been profoundly impacted by the truths that are so often glossed over. A few thoughts that I have run across:

Final Curtain Call:

"Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little use of a good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those whom we regard as fiends. That is why Christians are told not to judge. We see only the results which a man's choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. ..... All sorts of nice things which we thought our own, but which were really due to good digestion, will fall off some of use; all sorts of nasty things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall then, for the first time, see everyone as he really was. There will be surprises."

PRIDE

"According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind... it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began...For Pride is a spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense....The first step is to realise that one is proud.... At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. It you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed."

One more...

ONE BODY, MANY PARTS: Satan's Skew

"Things which are parts of a single organism may be very different from one another: things which are not, may be very alike. Six pennies are quite separate and very alike: my nose and my lungs are very different but they are only alive at all because they are parts of my body and share a common life.... If you forget that (someone) belongs to the same organism as yourself you will become an Individualist. If you forget that he is a different organ from you, you will want to suppress differences and make people all alike, you will become a Totalitarian. A Christian must not be either..."

"(We have a tendency to point out to each other) - which of these errors is the worse. That is the devil getting at us. He always sends errors into the world in pairs - pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is worse. You see why, of course? He relies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled."

I am so glad that I have taken the time to read this book as I see it becoming a foundational book from which to draw deeper into the knowledge and love of Christ. I highly recommend it if you have not read it. I have almost the whole book underlined and highlighted. :)

You might find that you, too, could be a spiritual slug, moving about so slowly in your spiritual growth and depending on your good upbringing and good "heredity" that we do not work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We take on everyone else's faith and don't ever go beyond what is specifically fed to us by a trusted pastor, a parent, a good friend who attends church or mate that reads the Sunday School lesson before church.

This should not be.

There will be surprises. Of this, I am sure.

Oh Lord, please come quickly.

Mercy and Grace

I am reading Henry Blackaby's book CHOSEN TO BE GOD'S PROPHET: LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF SAMUEL from his Biblical legacy series. I highly recommend it and though I am not even halfway through yet, it is just excellent. Perhaps it is just hitting me on some issues that I have been struggling with lately. I have marked up lots of passages so far but wanted to share one in particular.

"Many book have been written about grace, but preceding grace is mercy. God's nature, revealed to Moses, was - 'My name is mercy'." This is described in Exodus 34:6-7.
"Before God can give you what you do not deserve, He will have to withhold from your what you really deserve. God must first cancel your sin. When you cry out to God for mercy and plead with Him to extend His mercy to you, you do so because you have sinned grievously against a Holy God."

We all deserve everything but mercy. We do not have a full enough concept of our sin and how it disgraces the Lord God in front of the multitudes of saints. We think that what we do, we do in private. No so, says the Lord. That is really scary to think that all our sins will be exposed and we will have nowhere to run except to beg for the mercy of God. This is where we find our hiding place and safety. There can be no better place than in the arms of the Creator of the universe.

Crying out for mercy is the only hope we have. When is the last time you found yourself crying out for anything other than additional comforts for your life? When was the last time I did that? There is so much more that we need besides comfort and thankfully he is more concerned with our character rather than our comforts.

Father, we do cry out for an outpouring of your mercy and an overflowing of your grace. We are nothing without You.

Books, Books and More Books (Update)

In March, I put out a list of books that I would like to read for this year. The list was ambitious, I know, but I love reading and think it is so important to keep my mind sharp and open to new vocabulary, concepts and thought processes which help shape my own ways of thinking.

I have made a dent in my list and actually veered away from my list in some cases to include other books not listed. Some of them have been very quick reads and others have been more difficult to digest in a short period of time for me.

Mid year winners:

Top Read: (tie)
Choosing Forgiveness - Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Biblical Womanhood in the Home - Nancy Leigh DeMoss (editor)

Both of these books were excellent reads and ones that inspired me to makes changes in my life.
Based on my last post, Choosing Forgiveness really appealed to where I am spiritually and have been going through personally. Very convicting book and one that is full of godly truth and wisdom that is not brutal but fair and honest. I highly recommend this book for anyone who has a pulse and interacts with anyone at anytime. Yes, that would be you.

Biblical Womanhood in the Home, edited by Miss DeMoss, is a short read but packed with very practical and insightful principles for women no matter what state you are in: young or older, single or married, with or without kids. I also highly recommend this book as well for women who are looking to strengthen their sphere of influence in their home for godly purposes.

Quickest Read:
Quiet Strength - Tony Dungy

I read this book in one night. It is not the shortest read (think mapquest - not the shortest route but the quickest), but one that I appreciated because I love sports, football and I really respect the Indianapolis Colts organization. I enjoyed reading about Coach Dungy's unlikely path to Head Coach of the Super Bowl champion Colts and the way that God utilized him all along the way in the lives of other people. I respect him tremendously after reading his story and believe that he is an example of perseverance under pressure. Great for the sports nut.

Heaviest Read:
God is the Gospel - John Piper

I completed this book in a bible study early in the year and it was one that made me think. I know there are some that really love Piper and others that don't enjoy reading him at all. I enjoy him but I always "gird up" when I begin a new book of his because I know he will change my way of thinking and approach things differently than I tend to come at things. I enjoy the challenge of rethinking topics that have been ingrained in me from the time I was a child and tackling them from a different perspective. It is one book that I will be reading again and using for reference often.

I have now read 12 books and am in the middle of 3 more. I am certain that, if the Lord allows, I will read my 20 books, but now my list has grown to 38 books for the year. I am also quite certain that there is NO WAY I can read all 38 books by the end of this year. This is not including my Bible reading. I am going to make a valiant effort.

I will open the floor again. Are there any books that you have read that you would like to recommend? Doesn't matter the topic - can be frivolous, easy reads or those that you think you will read over and over again for years to come.

Blooming into Biblical Womanhood

I have been making hay on my books lately! In fact, I have read 5 more books, a Karen Kingsberry/Gary Smalley series, that aren't even on my list and they were GOOOOOOD! I have already lent them out and she too confirms that they are, indeed, GOOOOOOD! See, I wouldn't lie to you. Well worth the deviation off the list, in my opinion.

I am not totally rabbit trailing off the book list because I did get back into the book Biblical Womanhood in the Home, edited by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. I just read the chapter called "Pruned to Bloom" by P. Bunny Wilson. (Yes, it is Bunny. I wonder what the P. is to make her go by Bunny?) It is (still) an excellent book and the wisdom is so timely. I have been praying and really questioning God about certain things that are going on and this book really hit the nail on the head for me. The Lord really answered specifically about the questions I had been posing to Him all day (and for quite some time) and He did it in this very chapter I read last night. I had been praying for some clarity and some understanding and there He was in black and white. He knew exactly the way the words needed to read in order to slice through the convolutions of my mind and the little cracked pieces of my heart to help me make sense of things. It comforted me and put me at ease for the rest of the evening. It still made sense to me in the morning and allowed me to rest in the knowledge that He Is and that is all I need to know.

Thank you, Lord, that You care enough to send the very best -

like Hallmark --

But WAY better!!

As the Pages Turn...

Every year, I make a list of books I would like to read during the year. I have to admit, "my eyes are usually bigger than my stomach" so to speak and my list is way longer than I have the time to actually accomplish the reading of these great books. I have started my readings for the year and have high hopes for making a good dent in them. I actually have finished a few. You might already have a list but here is mine for 2008.

1. Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart (John Ensor)
2. I Saw the Lord (Anne Graham Lotz)
3. Biblical Womanhood in the Home (Nancy Leigh DeMoss)
4. Boiling Point: Understanding Men and Anger (Stephen Arterburn/David Stoop)
5. Praying the Names of God (Ann Spangler)
6. God Knows My Size (Harvey Yoder)
7. Satisfy My Thirsty Soul (Linda Dillow)
8. Mere Christianity (C.S.Lewis)
9. The Great Divorce (C.S.Lewis)
10. Safely Home (Randy Alcorn)
11. Basic Economics (Thomas Sowell)
12. The Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan)
13. Disciplines of a Godly Woman (Barbara Hughes)
14. Disciplines of a Godly Family (Kent and Barbara Hughes)
15. The Mission of Motherhood (Sally Clarkson)
16. Church History in Plain Language (Bruce Shelley)
17. Esther and Ruth: Reformed Expository Commentary (Iain M. Duguid)
18. Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother (Carolyn Mahaney)
19. Heaven (Randy Alcorn)
20. Doctrines of Grace (Boice/Ryken)
21. Systematic Theology (Wayne Grudem)
22. Redeeming Love (Francine Rivers)

Oh my goodness! So many books and this is just the first 20 that I want to read! I find myself surrounded by piles of books that: a) I want to read, b) I have started, c) I use for reference frequently, and/or d) I have finished and want to read again as soon as I can. I just love to read. Some of these on the list already are books I have read and just want to read again because it has been awhile or I remember reading something in that book that pertains to some things that I am going through now or they are just plain dadgum good! I have several more on my list but I want to see if anybody else has some good books to read that they have either heard some really great things about or have read themselves and can vouch for the quality and substance of the read. I'm up for anything.

So... tell us. What have YOU been reading lately??

God's Story

I mentioned in my last post that I had been working, travelling and sick. I guess I should have added "reading" to that list of things I have been doing because I finished reading another book. I read God's Story: Finding Meaning for Your Life through Knowing God by Anne Graham Lotz and it was excellent. The best thing about it was that I got something totally different out of it than what I thought I would get. Love that when God reveals something of His character in a way that is so unexpected. Another reason I liked this book is because it has a 100-page study guide and lots of teaching outlines with it for personal and group study. For those of you who are not big readers (in that you don't like to read books without pictures) it is a longer book - approximately 400 actual pages to read but the good news is that when you pick it up it looks much longer than that. The last 125 pages are all extra study notes and the like. See, you only have to read 275 of those pages! Yahoo for you! Like before, I will list the chapters for you to peruse:

I AM Your Creator

1. I Fill Your Emptiness

2. I Mend Your Brokenness

I AM Your Father

3. I Forgive Your Sinfulness

4. I uproot Your Bitterness

5. I Redeem Your Wastedness

I AM Your Savior

6. I Share Your Loneliness

7. I Overcome Your Helplessness

8. I Calm Your Fearfulness

9. I Understand Your Weakness

I AM Your Redeemer

10. I Reject Your Religiousness

11. I Banish Your Hopelessness

There are too many passages to quote that I just love so I can't pick just one. All I can say is that, I learned about things of the Lord on each page and how He has orchestrated meaning for our lives today all the way back into Eden. This book confirmed, yet again, that the Lord will use whatever means necessary to demonstrate His glory and elicit praise from His children.

On a personal note, I find the Lord revealing Himself to me in the strangest places right now. Should it be strange to have the Lord reveal characteristics of Himself to me wherever He chooses? Is He not there in the most unfortunate of places, the most comfortable of silences, the most intimate of moments, and the most unusual of situations? Surely He is. He is there to comfort or compel you, challenge or champion you, and cast vision or captivate your attention. Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, He is there waiting to reveal Himself to you. And, unfortunately for me, He is usually not shouting. Don't you wish He would just shout it outloud sometime? He is probably not going to get my attention with a trip wire. Most of the time, you just have to be prepared and ready to hear His still quiet voice. When do we get prepared and ready to hear Him? It is not in the moment before He chooses to speak. It is in the hundreds of thousands of moments prior to that. This preparedness is an ongoing process. It is dynamic in that there is ebb and flow and always moving and changing. It is not a place that you arrive at and park. There is no parking in preparation. When He decides to speak, and if you are His child, He will speak to you, you will miss the message without proper preparation of knowing His character, His promises, and His desires for your life all found in His inerrant Word. After all, it is God's Story. He wants you to read it, take notes about it, study it, understand it, apply it, live it, breathe it, share it. It's the best selling autobiography ever written. Be part of something bigger than you could ever be by yourself. Be part of God's Story.

This book is a great read and I highly recommend it.

From the Library of...

One of the things that I truly love doing is reading. I love it. Love the cover, love the contents, love the pictures, Love everything. Love it! (In honor of the Oscars this evening, I am channelling a movie. Bueller? Bueller? Who wants points, people?) To me, there is nothing much like getting lost in a good book. Hot tea in one of my favorite cups, flannel pants, fuzzy socks, view of the outside.... (sigh)... happiness on the horizon. My discipline goes out the window when I am reading. I lose sleep. I almost miss appointments. I choose not to clean my house. It is almost a bad habit. Is that possible? From time to time on the blog, I want to share about books that have really spoken to me or say something that I think some of you would really like.

I have not quite finished this book yet, but I will be finishing it this evening. It is a great book by Elyse Fitzpatrick called Idols of the Heart: Learning to Long for God Alone. (P&R Publishing, (c) 2001) Even if the last chapter is completely out of character for this author and is totally off the mark (and I can't imagine that it would be anything less than stellar as the rest has been), I would still recommend it because the first 11 chapters are well worth reading. I first heard of this book at a "Reviving Your Heart" conference with Nancy Leigh DeMoss in Memphis last year. She highly recommended this book for all women no matter what stage in life you are at: college, career, single, married, with kids, without kids. The book is written...

"for those of you who desire to live a godly life and yet find yourself in a recurrently disappointing struggle against habitual sin. This book is written for you who find yourself constantly tripping over the same bad habit, the same embarrassing weakness and the same sinful slavery that you hoped to be free of years ago. In this book you'll learn that idolatry lies at the heart of ever besetting sin that we struggle with." (p.15)

Are you a people pleaser? Do you struggle with your thought life and the war that Satan has waged on your mind for months or even years? Do you desire holiness? That sounds like an easy one BUT... do you desire holiness more than you desire comfort, approval, friends, a spouse or children, a better job or living with your own "small sins" that are "no big deal"? You, my friend, could be struggling with idolatry. After reading this book, I had no other choice but to face the fact that I was struggling mightily with idolatry in my own life. I am going to be honest, that was an eye-opener for me. I know in my life, like you do in your life, what my personal areas of weakness are. I did not count idolatry as one of them. This book is very insightful and if you will allow it, very revealing about where we honestly stand before a holy and righteous God. It is appropriate for individual study as well as small group Bible study as it has study questions at the end of each chapter and plenty of notes to promote additional study if one so chose to do so.

I want to list the chapters of this great read to give you a taste of what could be to come for your own personal library.

Introduction: Observing the World's gods
1. Rachel's gods and You
2. Undivided Adoration
3. Of First Importance
4. The Heart Changer
5. Better Than Life
6. Knowing Your Heart
7. Thinking About Your God
8. Longing for God
9. Willing to Obey
10. Resisting Your Idols
11. Crushing Your False gods
12. Delighting in God

See, doesn't that sound like good stuff? Not sold yet? Let me give just a little excerpt of wisdom in this book. (It's hard to choose what passage to put in here because I have so much of the book underlined or highlighted!)

"Man looks to idols to calm his fears and produce desired benefits - to bring him happiness. To identify your idols, begin to look at the thoughts and imaginations that bring you happiness...

Instead of fashioning idols out of wood and stone, we fashion them in our imagination - worshipping that which we believe will bring us happiness. We don't carve a good spouse out of a piece of pine, but we worship the thought of the joy that one would bring us. We don't chisel out a facsimile of the successful man or woman, but we believe that's where our joy can be found. We believe that our happiness is bound up in having our expectation fulfilled. These beliefs function as gods just as surely as if we had carved them from wood or overlaid them with silver." (p. 114, 116)

I am excited about getting her other books because this one was so good. Heavy on truth and not stuffed with fluff. Thank you, Elyse, for being so forthright and honest about an area that had gone unnoticed by me but not unnoticed by the Lord. It is in these books of reflection and revelation that it becomes clear that although the truth can be hard to hear, my life and my walk are better for it. May the Lord receive all the glory due Him through your impact on your readers.