You are Loved review

Book Description:

Is there any greater gift than knowing you are loved?
Through quotes and Scriptures, You Are Loved explores the unfathomable love of God and the beauty of human love when it is modeled after the Creator's. Each page will touch the hearts of the recipients with the assurance that they indeed are cherished-during the pleasant times and the difficult times.
Share the sentiment that "The one who is filled with love is filled with God Himself." Or realize the depths of God's love with such verses as 1 John 3:1: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!" (NKJV) The book's clean and classic design lends itself to being a part of the decor as a daily reminder of a loved one's affections.

My Review

This would make a great gift book.  Think Valentine's Day, birthday, etc.  Full of Bible verses and quotes all having to do with love.  "There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved.  It is God's finger on man's shoulder." ~Charles Morgan The page backgrounds are colorful and pretty. 

To be honest, I agreed to review this hoping to be able to pull some short quotes to include as filler in the church bulletin and it will be great for that.  I am not really big on gift books, but this one would be great as a gift for baptisms or graduations also.  Actually, the more I think about it the more occassions I think this would be perfect for.

Lead Serve Love

Lead. Serve. Love.: 100 Three-Word Ways to Live Like Jesus

Publisher's description:

Part inspiration–part application, Lead. Serve. Love. engages and challenges believers to put the gospel into action.

In Lead. Serve. Love., Gregory Lang provides a simple guide for helping the everyday person embark (or continue) their journey to live as Christ lived. There are 100 easy-to-remember, easy-to-follow three-word action sentences followed by a short, thought-provoking description of how to apply and live out the gospel message in today’s world. These practical ideas and supporting scriptures will inspire believers to become true followers of Christ.

My Review:
 First, what a great concept, three words a day to help you become more Christ-like.    A friend of the author refers to it as Three-ology theology.  Some of the sentences are "ask for forgiveness, share good news,  give second chances, and do your share".  The  thoughts behind the sentences are such that anyone reading them would have to honestly admit that they have merit.  Lang however takes it a step further by including Bible verses with each of the 100 sentences backing them up.

Do you share.  We all agree that we should each do our own share.  Lang says that we should do as much as we can in line with our individual blessings and abilities no matter how high or low the task is, even going so far as to propose we do it joyfully.  Good advice for everyone.  But for the Christian, Lang shows how it is more than advice with verses such as Acts 20:34 that tells us to work to take care of our own needs and of those with us, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-9 which tells us not to be lazy and gives examples.

This would be a great daily devotional book for anyone looking to incorporate more of Christ into their daily walk, who want to live it rather than just hear it.  For those who prepare church bulletins, this would be a great resource as well.  If you have kids, include a one liner in their lunches with scripture references.

All in all a great little book to carry with you or begin your day with!  Definitely a thumbs up!

This book was received free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review of it.

God's Wisdom for Mothers review

God's Wisdom for Mothers

Book description from the publisher:

God’s Wisdom for Mothers was created to give timeless wisdom and guidance for Scripture meditation and application with 11 categories (62 subjects) pertaining to motherhood. Topics include God’s Wisdom with Children, God Delights in Mothers Who . . . , God Walks with Mothers Through Heartache, Adversity, Worry, and many, many more. Included are pages at the back for prayer lists and personal study notes.
This book is a spiritual pathway to help every mother become all she can be in the eyes of God and her family.

My Review:

Not a lot to say on this one as it is primarily scripture, and who can argue with that?  The compiler has gathered 5-10 verses for each topic and then organized them in such a way that you can quickly find the perfect spiritual pick me up that you need.  Scriptures are organized into broad themes such as God's Wisdom, The Crown of an Excellent Mother, God's Wisdom with Children, God Teaches a Mother to Walk in His Word by, and 5 more such themes.  Within each theme are sub-themes as seen in the publisher's description.  (God walks with mothers is the primary theme and then He walks with them through heartache, adversity etc)

I have the Kindle version of the book and was glad to see that each Theme and sub-theme listed in the table of contents is clickable, allowing me to go exactly where I need to go depending on what kind of encouragement I need.

I will say that I would have liked for there to be more verses for each subject as some of my go to verses were not included, but there is room in the back of the print version to include your own verses and you can always add  note to a section to include them on the kindle version.

This would probably be a good Mother's Day gift or a gift for new mothers.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”