Books, Books & More Books

This will be a short post as I don't have much time available today to write, but did want to take a couple minutes to let you know about some really GOOD books that I've been reading.

First, there was Christianity Is Jewish by Edith Schaeffer. I read this right before Passover and it was SO appropriate! It's been around for awhile, but I'd never heard of it til recently and decided I needed to read it so bought a copy on eBay and made time during my morning devotions to read a chapter a day til I finished it.

Second, there's Restoration, Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus by D. Thomas Lancaster and available from First Fruits of Zion. This book is just SO good! I highlighted lots of passages in this book and will be sharing some of it in an upcoming post here (when I have more time).

Third, a real eye-opener was Where Was Love & Mercy? Christian Anti-Semitism:Overcoming the Curse by Clarence H Wagner and available from Bridges for Peace. Any Christian that believes the Church has only love for Israel and the Jewish people really owes it to the LORD, Who was a Jew Himself, to read this book and find out the truth. You might just get a rude awakening and realize the Church has a lot to answer for at the judgment.

And now I am reading two books during my devotional time. Living On Purpose: Finding God's Best For Your Life by Christine & Tom Sine deals with the hurriedness of our lives as believers and how we can take a step back, find God's purposes for our lives, make a missions statement based on that understanding of His purposes, and live happier, more fulfilling, less stressful lives. Yes! Though I chose to walk a path outside that of mainstream America a long time ago, I do still get stressed and am appreciating what I am reading in this book. The second book I'm reading is The Jesus Habits: Exercising the Spiritual Disciplines of Jesus by Jay Dennis. I've only read the first discipline so far, which was Seclusion and which went hand-in-hand with the intro and first chapter of the Living On Purpose book. I have always enjoyed and needed quiet time alone each day and often felt guilty for it, but after reading this chapter and understanding how much Yeshua/Jesus sought that quiet time alone, I am not going to feel guilty any more!

At my desk I have a good-sized stack of books waiting to be read. I love to read and always have a good Christian fiction book that I am reading. One of the last ones I read was in the Yada Yada Prayer Group series by Neta Jackson and is really good reading! It will make you think, too! Those are the best kind of fiction books. They don't just entertain; they inspire. Now I am reading a book titled Fire By Night by Lynn Austin, who is one of my favorite authors. This story is set during the Civil War. I borrowed it through interlibrary loan and have to have it back by Thursday so will have to do some focused reading in order to finish it in time. I won't even tell you about my list of Christian fiction I want to read! Every time I get a fiction catalog from Christian Books, I find more great books to add to my wanted-to-read list. And I keep track of the books I've read, too. I have a notebook where I write the date I completed a book, it's title, author, series # if part of a series, and give it a rating from one to five stars, with 5 stars being an excellent go-out-and-buy-it book and 1 star being a real dud. Over the years, I've only had a couple of books that rated less than 4 stars. Most of the books I read rate 4 stars and a few rate 5 stars. So if you ever want some great book recommendations, I can provide some. I think one of my all-time favorite author teams is Bodie & Brock Thoene. Their historical fiction just cannot be beat, in my honest opinion, and their latest series, the A.D. Chronicles, really brings the pages of the Gospels alive. Check them out if you are interested in quality historical fiction. Of late, I have really been enjoying Karen Kingsbury's books, too. Her characters are so real and their stories are so compelling that I have a hard time putting her books down.

Well, I see by the clock that I'd better wrap this up for today. I work on 3rd shift so need to sleep during the day, which has been really frustrating me lately. I have so much I want to do while I am at home but keep running out of time every day. I've been working outside our home for the past 6 years now; before that I was a fulltime homemaker whose days were filled with gardening, sewing, cooking, baking, canning & freezing, crafts, writing letters, reading books, caring for small livestock, raising my children, homeschooling, church activities, etc. But then the children grew up and left home for homes of their own. I began working fulltime (after my husband became unable to continue to do so) and the homestead got downsized. But I still long to be home fulltime and doing all the things I was active with before, as well as being an active grandma to my 7 precious grandchildren. But as much as I long for that, I know in my heart that the LORD has a plan and a purpose in my being in the workplace fulltime. It's opened my eyes to so much spiritual need and to the pervasiveness of sin in our society. And I know that He wants me to "bloom where He has planted" me, to be His light and show His love to the people I work with. So once again I submit my will and my desires to His Will and yield to the disciplining of my flesh, praying that my attitude and actions and the words that come out of my mouth will bring Him glory and lift Him up. Catch you later...