Life Application Study Bible Devotional

 

This devotional resource is great for those exploring faith, new believers, or those seeking a better understanding or deeper relationship with God.  This devotional explores the life of Jesus by delving into the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  The author highlights some of the catalytic moments in Jesus life, providing commentary, context, and thought provoking concepts giving the reader ideas to “chew” on throughout their day.  The devotional is broken down into four sections:  reading of the word, setting the scene, getting personal, and talking to God.  As you can see, it is very engaging and interactive giving the reader a clear format to follow making the devotional time simple but yet very powerful.

I found the devotional to be very inspiring, most of the stories highlighted in the devotional were stories that I am familiar with, however, the authors took each story, parable and revealed thought provoking ideas for me to ponder and apply to my life.  If you are follower of Christ, we all desire to be like Him.  Oftentimes, we failed to pursue His example because we are unsure of what “being” like Christ entails.  This devotional lays out exactly what Christ –likeness entails, giving the reader and blueprint to follow.  This is a great devotional I highly recommend it!

Note: I received this book free from the publisher through the Tyndale Blog Network book review bloggers program. Other than that, neither the publisher, author nor anyone connected to them offered any influence on the content of my review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own

The Grace of God by Andy Stanley Book Review

Andy Stanley does a masterful job of revealing the Grace of God in the old and new testaments.  I have counseled many people who have struggled with understanding the God of the Old Testament in contrast with the God of the New Testament.  Any amateur bible reader can quickly discover the differences in what appears to be a harsh, mean, impatient God of the old testament to the loving, kind, patient God of the new testament.  While I have seen this disparity, I have been very careful not to attempt to understand the God of the universe with my limited mental capacity.  This is where I think many people attempt to bring God on their level, attempting to understand him better.

Andy shows the Grace (unmerited favor) of God in the Old Testament, even though to our natural mind it appears that God is being unfair, to harsh, unloving.  Andy takes Old Testament biblical stories and provides commentary and context that reveals the “big picture” of God’s love.  God’s heart was and is to redeem his people to himself.  Just as any earthly father disciplines his son or daughter, at the time it may seem harsh, unfair, overprotective, etc.  As a dad, we are doing it because we have our child best interest at hand.  Andy does a great job of painting the picture of Grace.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who has been shaken in the their faith.  Often times, circumstances happen and we don’t quite understand why God would allow such horrible circumstances to happen.  This book will give you a perspective to help you understand God better.  Bad things happen because we live in a broken world, contaminated by sin, as Andy so eloquently states.

Note: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com  book review bloggers program. Other than that, neither the publisher, author nor anyone connected to them offered any influence on the content of my review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own.