Tag Archive for Thomas Nelson Publishers

17 Apr 2011
Book Review 2011 • Thomas Nelson Publishers

“Max on Life” Review

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Max on Life by Max Lucado

About “Max on Life” by Max Lucado

We have questions. Child-like inquiries. And deep, heavy ones.

In more than twenty-five years of writing and ministry, Max Lucado has been the receiving line for thousands of such questions. The questions come in letters, e-mails, even on Dunkin Donuts napkins. In Max on Life he offers thoughtful answers to more than 150 of the most pressing questions on topics ranging from hope to hurt, from home to the hereafter.

Max writes about the role of prayer, the purpose of pain, and the reason for our ultimate hope. He responds to the day-to-day questions-parenting quandaries, financial challenges, difficult relationships-as well as to the profound: Is God really listening?

A special addendum includes Max’s advice on writing and publishing.

Including topical and scriptural indexes and filled with classic Lucado encouragement and insight, Max on Life will quickly become a favorite resource for pastors and ministry leaders as well as new and mature believers.

“Max on Life” was a fun, topical based discussion, as Max Lucado shared letters he has received, with questions about our Heavenly Father and His Word. Broken up into seven sections:

  • Hope
  • Hurt
  • Help
  • Him/Her
  • Home
  • Haves/Have-Nots
  • Hereafter

Max Lucado shares biblical based insights into most often asked questions, in a way that is clearly Max Lucado that we have all come to know and loved, but also questions that may have been nagging us in the back of our mind, and for some, maybe afraid to ask out loud or didn’t think of asking, but has crossed our minds here and there.

What I enjoy, is not only just the “Lucadoism” that we have come to know, but practical and bite sized essays that helps provide quick answers, for many, who may have found themselves faced with questions such as:

  • I spent several years of my life away from God. I became a Christian as a youngster, but when I was a teenager, I quit going to church and reading my bible. I stopped praying to God and obeying Him. During that time, was I saved?
  • I’m a new Christian. Over the years I’ve developed a lot of bad habits. How do I get rid of them now?
  • Does God lead us through feelings? When people say, “I sense God’s guidance,’ What are they describing?

These and many other questions and Max’s insight into them, can be found in, “Max on Life”; Not meant to be an end all to everything, this is an inspiration, encouragement and often discovery of things, we may have never thought of contemplating before.

One can easily pick up Lucado’s geniune warmth and desire to reach out to others who may have questions, that they are otherwise, either uncomfortable asking, never thought of asking, or just simply didn’t know who they could ask and with, “Max on Life” with both a good break down by sections and by topic in the index, many hard hitting questions are approached with the same warmth and thoughtfullness that is Lucado’s approachable signature.

There is honesty, heartfelt discussion, never a sense of being lectured or look down, but rather a sense of encouragement and understanding of our Father and His Word.

A good read for either new Christians, maturing or mature Christians and for those who may have had questions, that as a Christian, you either felt lost or intimidate, I highly recommend, “Max on Life”.

Here’s a book preview of “Max on Life”


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Disclaimer: This post contains my personal opinions and does not reflect the opinion of any organization I am/was associated with or affiliated to.The product I have reviewed was/is based on my honest opinion and was not influenced or edited by anyone and was provided by Thomas Nelson publishers for my honest opinion.

Sunflower Faith | One comment | Tags: , ,
04 Feb 2011
Book Review • Thomas Nelson Publishers

The Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible, NKJV book review

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I really enjoy Max Lucado and was a bit skeptical about a Lucado Study Bible, but as I had the chance to preview the,”Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible, NKJV”, I was taken with not only how beautiful the bible was laid out, but the devotionals that were intersperced throughout this bible, along with study lessons that are provided for each book of the bible and each chapter of that book.

This truly lived up to being a study bible; The paper were not onion thin, nor where they “notebook” quality, but a lightweight quality that just add to the overall look and texture and feel of the study bible.

With beautiful images, font spacing that is easy for any eyes (I estimated it to be about a 11 point) and well laid out, you will definitely enjoy using the,”Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible, NKJV” bible for your everyday study bible use.

The size was the only drawback for me, but I’m also use to a thin-line bible that I could easily carry in a purse and its not to say that you couldn’t bring this bible to church for use. It has a nice hardback cover to it and works well for bible study groups, classes and for use during sermons as well as personal use, and my only complaint is because I like things I can just drop in my purse, it was really more of an aesthetic drawback for me.

However, this is something that I do plan on using for my personal reflection time and if you are looking for a bible to use or even to give as a gift, I do recommend that you look into the, “Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible, NKJV”. This is perfect for the new Christian in your life, as a gift, to replace one’s own bible and or to use in conjunction with another bible if you are seeking a study bible to use for personal time.

Bible ★★★★★★★★★★ 

Disclaimer: This post contains my personal opinions and does not reflect the opinion of any organization I am/was associated with or affiliated to.The product I have reviewed was/is based on my honest opinion and was not influenced or edited by anyone and was provided by Thomas Nelson publishers for my honest opinion.

Sunflower Faith | One comment | Tags: , , ,
03 Nov 2010
Book Review

"Outlive Your Life" Book Review

My Thoughts

Reading, “Outlive Your Life”, I’ve always been impressed with Max Lucado’s very personable style of writing. What is enjoyable about his work, is both the style of writing, very laidback, still biblical and how he really helps the reader’s connect with what our Father tries to reach out to each and everyone of us. His books can be convicting, but often so subtle that you don’t realize until what he shares sinks in.

In “Outlive Your Life”, I discovered a book that works great as a short devotional study or simply an evening encouraging read, that challenges, you the believer, to live beyond your boundaries.

In a world that is both challenging and sometimes discouraging, “Outlive Your Life” calls out to the reader live their life beyond the safety zones of their home as ask the question, “Why wait, if you, yes you, can help make that impact, however tiny it maybe to you, but big for someone else”?

Using Acts 12 as the basis, readers are taken on a life changing challenge that makes it difficult to consider, what appears as a simple book, to put down and walk away…instead it asks you…what can you do yourself?

Max Lucado shares more about why he wrote, “Outlive Your Life” here, but it’s worth reading the book yourself to discover for yourself…”What if….”?

Read “Outlive Your Life” yourself and ask yourself….”What if….”

Publisher’s Note about Book

These are difficult days in our world’s history. 1.75 billion people are desperately poor, natural disasters are gouging entire nations, and economic uncertainty still reigns across the globe. But you and I have been given an opportunity to make a big difference. What if we did?

What if we rocked the world with hope?

Infiltrated all corners with God’s love and life?

We are created by a great God to do great works. He invites us to outlive our lives, not just in heaven, but here on earth. Let’s live our lives in such a way that the world will be glad we did.

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05 Oct 2010
Book Review

The Jesus You Can't Ignore: What You Must Learn from the Bold Confrontations of Christ -Book Review

The Jesus You Can't Ignore

My Thoughts

What would you think if you were told,”Harsh words are not always inappropiate. Unpleasant and unwelcome truths sometimes need to be voiced. False relgions always needs to be answered. Love may cover a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), but the gross hypocrisy of false teachers desperately needs to be uncovered-lest our silence faciliate and perpetuate a damning delusion. The truth is not always “nice.” (John MacArthur, The Jesus You Can’t Ignore, pg. 171)

Probrably for many, react with that is so offensive or not political correct or judgemental or harsh or unloving,but as John MacArthur would share, the Jesus that we sometimes don’t want to face, did that with the Pharisees and at the temple and to those who were sinning and called it what it was, not out of hate, but out of love and desire for them to not continue on.

Proverbs 28:26 (NKJV) cautions us to,”He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.”

No one likes to be told they are or might be doing something wrong. It hurts our pride and it hurts our self-image and we bristle when confronted and react defensively, but in “The Jesus You Can’t Ignore”, we see a Jesus who was loving, but also firm and sometimes, harsh to speak the truth that He knew needed to be spoken and not hidden away.

In, “The Jesus You Can’t Ignore”, MacArthur shares a side of the Saviour that is often swept under the wrong, because it hurts our personal image of Him, more than what He truly was.

MacArthur goes so far to challenge that Jesus doesn’t preach softly but rather practice hard teaching, even for their time.

At one point, this convicting book shares how the Beautitudes was an rebuke to the Pharisee’s whole system and any Pharisee at the time might have felt both publically humiliated and personally attacked.

Sound familiar?

Publically humiliated and personally attacked.

“The Jesus You Can’t Ignore” is a fascinating read that has us rethinking what type of faith are we really praciting and are we practicing one that is based more on pleasing men or one that is pleasing to our Father? (Ref Galatians 1:10)

Well written and easy for the layman to read and backed by relevant scripture, “The Jesus You Can’t Ignore”, brings Him as He is and not as we sometimes try to paint Him as.

MacArthur is daring in writing, “The Jesus You Can’t Ignore”, because it brings to light why He says in Matthew 7:21-27 (NKJV):

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

When you take a step back, Matthew 7:21-27 lays out that many will enter the kingdom of Heaven. A very challenging thought in itself, but a reality that Jesus try to bring forth that not everyone will be able to enter the kingdom of Heaven.

As MacArthur shared on page 150,”Jesus, by contrast, quoted no authority other than the Word of God itself. He gave its interpretation wihtout buttressing His point of view with endless quotations from earlier writers”.

If you are wanting a hard hitting book, that will challenge you, convict you and have you thinking, what is it that Jesus really meant, I encourage you to read, “The Jesus You Can’t Ignore” and discover yourself someone who in His time and culture was considered as shocking as He would be in today’s world.

Publisher’s Note about Book

Best-selling author John MacArthur gives readers a fresh look at how Jesus addressed attacks against the truth.

Meek and mild. Politically correct. A great teacher. These are the popular depictions of Jesus. But they aren’t the complete picture. Maybe because it’s uncomfortable, or maybe because it’s inconvenient, Christians and non-Christians alike are overlooking the fierceness of the Savior, His passionate mission to make the Gospel clear and bring people into the Kingdom of God. A mission that required he sometimes raise his voice and sometimes raise a whip.

In the much-needed message in The Jesus You Can’t Ignore, renowned Bible teacher and best-selling author John MacArthur reintroduces the compelling and often unsettling passion of Jesus’ ministry. MacArthur points to the picture of the real Jesus the world is so eager to gloss over. And he calls readers to emulate Jesus’ commitment to further the kingdom by confronting lies and protecting the truth of God.

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13 Feb 2010
Book Review

Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God"Book Review

Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God

  • Author:Sheila Walsh
  • Published:February 16th 2010 by Thomas Nelson (first published 2010)
  • Details:Hardcover, 224 pages
  • ISBN:1400202434
    • My Thoughts

    From, “Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God“:

    “Although the very idea seems ridiculous to me now, I used to want God to perceive me to have more faith and trust that I really had. If I was hurt or confused by God’s silence, I stuffed those feelings deep inside and presented my “good side” to God. But unspoken pain festers and takes a life of its own; it cripples growth”

    Does that sound familiar to you?

    Maybe you feel or felt that you have to present a “have it together, perfect image”  to our Father, to yourself and/or to other person, least you appear weak or a basketcase or ‘gasp’ not trusting of God?

    In “Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God“, Sheila Walsh bares all as she shares her difficult journey recovering from clinical depression and a brief stay at a psychiatric hospital and the road to recovery afterwards.

    A beautiful, raw and encouraging book, “Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God” shares how no matter what Damascus road one has traveled, we are never alone, for our Heavenly Father loves us through all and seeks to give us strength,encouragement, redemption and an opportunity through our life’s experiences to be a ministry not only to others, but to discover a trust that can only be found in Him.

    Reading, “Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God“, what stood out throughout the reading was when Sheila Walsh shared that,”Now old wounds don’t just go away if we ignore them. Old wounds remember. We can bury them for a while, but at some point they will resurface until we deal with them; when the wound is from childhood, it can have very powerful emotion and logic attached to it, even if it is the distorted logic of a child’s perspective.”

    There are many whom in their lives, seek the, just “burn the bridges”, “out of sight” out of mind, but in “Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God“, Sheila shares how instead of allowing us to grow closer in trust with our Heavenly Father, by doing so, those “burning bridges” can make it dificult to grow closer to Him.
    “Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God” is a very powerful and emotional filled work that just reallys places a comforting hand on one’s shoulder and say, “it can be done and our Heavenly Father has never and will never abandon us” and brings the reader through a journey of how through the darkest moment, our Heavenly Father lifted up Sheila Walsh to her brightest moment in and through His work.

    Sharing the verse, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out (Isaiah 42:3 NIV), no one is too broken or beyond Him. She shares how His greatest work in us is when we just completely let go of control of ourselves, our life, our perception of ourselves and what we want others to perceived us as, and just let HIM, be in control.

    The most powerful statement that Sheila shared in,”Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God“, that is a reminder of just giving it really all to God is when she shares what Dr.Gripka, her doctor shared with her,”Only that “normal”, shiny, controlled-pre-disrupted life would be shallow”.

    The Bible is filled with imperfect, broken, misunderstand, rebellious, type-A, individuals who eventually by just giving up control to our Heavenly Father, really was able to be transformed and refined as our Heavenly Father desires to do in our lives.

    Sheila’s book is such a reminder that we may think we can hide our hearts and soul from people and the life around us, but He knows our hearts better than we know it and there is nothing that He doesn’t already know. There is no hiding, but there is also no abandonment from Him either. He wants to love us, refine us and encourage us.

    Filled with many references to characters who appear in the Bible, both known and even a few obscure one, “Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God” is moving, the trials that we are reminded of ,that many people in the Bible endured, and just the pure honesty and vulnerabilty of the book, is a wonderful reminder that none of us are perfect, live perfect lives, but have a perfect Father to hold on to and to trust.

    “Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God” is an amazing read that will have you going back over, highlighting, crying, laughing, and if you allow your heart to be opened, understand how much our Heavenly Father seeks to convict us, humble us and get us over this world, and open our hearts to Him so He can prepare, refined and use us for His World.

    “This is the way God works. Over and over again he pulls our souls back from certain destruction so we’ll see the light-and live in the light! (Job 33:29 MSG)

    Are you ready to stop pretending to be something you’re not? Are you ready to get over the hurt, the pain, the shame, the fears, whatever it is that ails you in your heart right now and not only draw closer to our Father, but discover the beautiful things He wishes to share in and through you?

    Pick up a copy of ,”Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God“, and find out what could be possible when you let go and just really trust Him enough to do what He needs to do.

    Publisher’s Note about Book

    Delivering a big message with strong biblical insights and heartening personal stories, author and Women of Faith speaker Sheila Walsh shows women the life-changing power of trusting in God.

    Most Christian women live with a deep sense that they can’t seem to get things right, that if only they could be a little better, life would straighten out. Through her own personal hardships, Sheila Walsh has learned that the Christian life is not about getting things right or back to “normal.” She writes, “Christ comes not to get us out of our difficulties but to live in us through them.” She wants to show women that God has a stunningly beautiful moment of redemption for them that leads to a lifetime of peace and joy.

    In this eye-opening message for women, she presents a moving look at her own story as she dives into the lives of Bible characters, drawing out lessons from their trials that women can use immediately to establish a deep, life-altering trust in the Father.

    229 pages long, when you are ready to share with others, “Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God“, also includes a very in depth bible study in the back that is perfect for the 1st time, 2nd time, or tenth time read, or even if you feel led to share this via a small group study.

    So pick up,”Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God“, and discover the joy and beauty of trusting our Heavenly Father.

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    Sunflower Faith | One comment | Tags: , , , ,
    04 Feb 2010
    Book Review

    Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts Book Review

    Nelson's Complete Book of BIble Maps and Charts, 3rd EditionAuthor:            Thomas Nelson
    Published:     January 19th 2010 by Thomas Nelson
    Details:            Paperback, 512 pages
    ISBN:                 1418541710

    My Thoughts

    Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts<, 3rd Edition by Thomas Nelson, is a great addition for the serious student of the bible, small bible groups, homeschooler, or just for the “regular” reader of Scripture and I think a, hands down, must get.
    Broken down into the Old Testament and New Testament, and then by books of the bible,Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts, 3rd Edition  provides more than just maps and charts, but also great insights into the author of the book, time period (date) that is covered, themes and literay structure,at a glance, outline, a quick synopsis of the local culture and practices,and pertinent information relating to the book (i.e. breakdown of the ten plagues).
    Perusing Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts<, 3rd Edition, the book is a wealth of information and yet just 512 pages thick (not really as thick as one may think and easy to carry).
    There is both an alphabetical and biblical index in the back and I was truly astonished and happy that Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts, 3rd Edition is all that it says it is and more.
    This is something that would be a handy resource, with easy to find information and charts for quick look up if you have a daily bible reading plan, need to look up information for bible study or just interested in the relevance of each book of the Bible.
     
    Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts, 3rd Edition  lives up to providing a new way into looking at the Bible and our Father’s message and not only makes the Bible become more alive but there is a true bonus that in addition to what the book has to offer, additional maps and charts that are provided as a free download.
    This is an indispensable resource guide that I highly recommend anyone who is either curious or serious about reading His word, and helps provide the reader with additional material that brings the Biblical world alive.

    For homeschoolers, this is an added treat to use in addition to your current biblical studies with your children, and a great way to introduce children to the Biblical background of the Bible.

    Between the maps, the charts and the tables and the additional information,Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts<, 3rd Edition guarenteers to bring the Bible alive and provide the reader with an excellent and in depth visual overview of the Bible.

    I have to throw in that the price can’t be beat either. Not only is it affordable but the addition of the free maps and charts that can be download really makes this an excellent resource to have on hand.

     

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