I have been looking forward to this book since I first heard about it. Although truthfully, I wish it was a book that Lysa didn’t have to write and that I didn’t need its message. Many of her last several books have come out of a place of struggle and pain from trials she has endured. To see that those trials have continued is difficult for those of us who follow her. However, many of these last several books have been messages I needed to hear at the time I needed to hear them. As I have continued to process some of my trials, many of them have come back to boundaries that should have been drawn or goodbyes that were incomplete. This book has helped me comprehend some of the hard things that have happened in different relationships in my life through a biblical lens. I know that this book can help others do the same. That’s why it was an honor to be on the launch team for this book ~ Bethel The topic of boundaries is largely underappreciated or misunderstood in our world today. This is because many of us struggle to understand that we only have the capacity to handle so much emotionally, and that if we don’t set boundaries, people can and will exhaust our emotional resources until we have nothing left for ourselves. Unfortunately, this seems to be an even greatest struggle for some Christians, who have bought into the lie that setting boundaries is unbiblical. This often leads to “boundaries bullying” where someone wants to insist that they have unlimited access to you, even quoting misinterpreted Scriptures to prove their point. This puts us in a difficult position of having to choose between maintaining that relationship and our emotional well-being. It makes us ask the question: is there a way for us to love others without losing the best of ourselves? In her new book Good Boundaries and Goodbyes, bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst helps her readers develop a biblically-grounded view of setting boundaries and walking away from unhealthy relationships. Through her own story of struggles in her marriage and some friendships, she walks alongside her audience in the process of learning how to love others without losing themselves. After many years of counseling and intense theological study, Lysa learned that boundaries are a biblical idea, going back to the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve first sinned, and that we have to know ourselves well enough to know our own emotional capacity so we can set boundaries to prevent someone from taking away our emotional capacity. She gives five key factors to remember when setting boundaries as well as insights into Scriptures that are misinterpreted to call boundaries into question. She also gives tools to help you determine when a relationship has become destructive enough that it’s time to walk away and advice on how to make peace when it’s time to say goodbye, whether the separation is for a time or is permanent. There is also practical advice at the end of most of the chapter from Lysa’s counselor Jim Cress with more tools on your journey to understanding boundaries. This book is very honest and practical as it speaks from Lysa’s hard-earned wisdom on a difficult topic. The biblical ideas and tools here are essential concepts for Christian women who desire to maintain both relational and emotional health. This is a book I highly recommend. * I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review Singles Friendly Rating. This book is one that Christian single women should read before they get married. After reading this, I am convinced that understanding boundaries before you get married is essential to having a healthy marriage. But all the concepts are applicable even if you aren’t married. To read a review of a book about finding hope in difficult seasons, click here
To read reviews of more books by Lysa TerKeurst, click here
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This is an intriguing and powerful fiction. I discover that the first time I read this back in high school. At first, I was mostly drawn to it because it was written by C.S. Lewis. I didn’t even know what it was about or that it was fiction, given that Lewis wrote in so many different genres. What started as a reading project for extra credit became a book that taught me powerful lessons about heaven and hell. This book is one that I definitely recommend ~ Bethel In his book The Great Divorce, beloved author C.S. Lewis presents powerful fictional analogies of heaven and hell. When the narrator suddenly finds himself in a joyless “grey town”, he chooses to wait at the bus stop to take the bus out of town. When he gets on the bus and finally arrives at his destination, he discovers that he and other passengers have become ghosts. While they arrived in a beautiful, heavenly country, their ghostly form make it painful to even walk on the grass. The bus passengers are met by people who they had known on earth who try to encourage them to choose heaven. Most of the passengers choose to get back on the bus (and essentially go to hell) by making up all kinds of excuses. The narrator eventually runs into George Macdonald, an author whom he called a mentor, who becomes the guide for the rest of the narrator’s journey. Macdonald helps the narrator to see and understand the excuses others passengers made to not go to heaven, whether or not they realize it before it’s too late. Right at the end, the narrator startles awake, realizing that he was fallen asleep in his study. This book has an interesting cast of characters that, even years after its publication, are relevant to its readers. In a similar fashion to his book The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce uses fiction to help them understand the struggles of the spiritual realm and our spiritual well-being. If you enjoy insightful Christian fiction, this is a book that I highly recommend. Get your copy today! Teen Rating. I personally read this in high school. While I enjoyed the individual characters and the lessons learned from them, I felt that the book’s imagery was difficult to process. I had a hard time telling the difference between heaven and hell within the author’s analogies. I only recommend it to teens that have decent reading comprehension, probably 16 or older. To read more reviews of books by C.S. Lewis, click here To learn more about my book Redeeming All Hallows' Eve, click here I have already read a handful of Mark Batterson’s books, so I heard about this one, I was excited. I even got onto the launch team for this book. Unfortunately, I was preoccupied during the launch campaign and forgot to pay attention to the release date. Eventually, the book completely left my mind, even as I had a copy sitting on my shelf. Then late this spring, I noticed a campaign his publisher was running to give anyone who had purchased the book a free autographed sticker to make their book an autographed copy. To my surprise, not only did I get the autographed sticker, but a few months later, I won a drawing to receive 8 more of his books for free! After this experience, I knew it was time I made time to read and review this book. In the end, I found that this book is definitely another win for Mark Batterson, especially for any of his readers that want to “win the day.” ~ Bethel Many of us have dreams we want to pursue, but we don’t know where to start. We struggle with figuring out how to get where we want to be because we are stuck doing the same thing we have always done. We set goals only to see them fail. Even most New Year’s Resolutions fail before the end of the first month. As a result, so many of us are unable to live our lives to the fullest, since we are stuck in an endless cycle of dreams or goals that seem elusive to achieve. We often feel like failures, which leaves us feeling even more stuck than when we started. It makes us ask the question: is there a way to accomplish more so we can see our goals to their completion? In his book, Win the Day, Mark Batterson helps you build or break the habits that are holding you back and achieve your God-sized goals, starting with asking a simple question: can you do it for a day? Seeing how many people fail at the goals there desire to achieve, Batterson shares seven creatively-titled habits to help us “win the day”. By “flipping the script”, we will change our perceptions of our life’s story that may be holding us back. Through “kissing the wave”, we learn to see the difficult parts of our past as the way to move forward. When we “eat the frog”, we choose to do the hard things and trust God to do what only He can do. If we “fly the kite”, we do little things as diligently as the big things. Choosing to “cut the rope” will allow you to avoid playing it safe and take calculated risks that can lead to the biggest rewards. “Winding the clock” is choosing to make the most of every minute and every moment. And “seeding the cloud” is taking actions today that will produce your desired outcomes in the future. All of these principles are shared in the context of powerful and sometimes humorous illustrations, either from history or from the author’s personal life. This book is powerful and relevant to practically any person who would read it. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. Get your copy today! To check out more reviews of book by Mark Batterson, click here
To check a review of Levi Lusko's book I Declare War, click here When I heard that Levi Lusko was releasing a new book, I was so excited. I would consider him to be one of my favorite authors, so I was excited to purchase the book. However, it wasn’t until the book arrived at my doorstep that I realized how vast this book is. The other titles he released were more the less average length for Christian non-fiction and sold in paperback, while this title was only available in hardcover and was over 400 pages. When I finally sat down to read the book, I was in awe of how so many aspects of the space program and man’s attempts to go to the moon could connect back to Jesus’ death on the cross and our struggles to overcome our battles with our sinful nature. This is a book I can’t recommend enough ~ Bethel So many of us struggle with the age-old battle of person versus self. There are so many places in our hearts and minds that seem as impossible to redeem as outer space itself. We long to be happy and feel fulfilled, but it seems elusive when these dark corners of our inner selves rear their ugly head. Many of us are unsure if we will ever find happiness or if our inner self can ever be conquered. It makes us ask the question: how are we supposed to conquer our inner space? In his book The Last Supper on the Moon, Levi Lusko helps his readers discover how to conquer their inner space using surprising but insightful parallels between outer space and the moon landing in 1969. Starting with the story of astronaut Buzz Aldrin taking Holy Communion on the moon, Lusko creatively weaves a powerful connection between the mission to the moon, Christ’s death on the cross, and how Christ’s death impacts our ability to overcome our most personal struggles. Through a book of over 400 pages, Lusko takes his time driving deep into the details surrounding the moon landing, including the challenge from President Kennedy to get the moon before the end of the decade and the previous Apollo missions that enabled Apollo 11 to make its historic lunar landing. But beyond just sharing NASA history, he also takes time to examine the seven statements that Jesus made while he was on the cross as well as the letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation and some of the Psalms. Tying all of it together with some powerful biblical truths and some personal illustrations from his life and family, this book provides inspiration from an unexpected source. While the trip to get to the “moon and back” is lengthier than it is for most books of this type, it is certainly a trip worth taking. If you allow yourself to take these truths to heart, you will never look at the moon the same way again. I also used the audiobook book while reading the print book of this title and have to say that I really enjoyed it. There are a few aspects of the audiobook that make it unique. First, they inserted actual audio recordings from different space missions as well as a few of President Kennedy’s speeches. Second, Levi Lusko’s wife Jennie reads some parts of the book, such as the “Conquer Your Inner Space” sections as well as the letters to the churches in Revelation. Lastly, there are a few places in which Lusko himself adds additional stories or context that is not seen in the print book. Although there were sections of the audiobook that didn’t match with the print book, all of the unique aspects made for a great listening experience. If you like audiobooks, this one I highly recommend. Audiobook Rating. The only thing I had an issue with was the inconsistency between the print book and the audiobook. While the supplementary parts were great, some sections almost sounded like it was recorded before the final edit was complete (Some words were omitted, some words were added, and some words were different). If you are just listening, this won’t be an issue, but since I was listening while reading, it was rather distracting in some sections. Other than this, I enjoyed the audiobook very much and would still recommend it. I was not familiar with this author when I first heard about this book, but once I heard what it was about, I knew I had to read it. I enjoyed this book as it reminded me of things that I have learned through my own trials and suffering, especially when it talked about bearing fruit during our most difficult circumstances. While most people do not think this way, I am learning what it means to be thankful, not despite the trials, but because of them. I was so grateful for the chance to be a part of the book’s launch team and look forward to reading more by this author in the future ~ Bethel We all go through difficult circumstances and suffering. This fact was magnified and brought to the forefront by the 2020 pandemic. No matter the size or difficulty of the circumstance, suffering, pain, fear, worry, and uncertainty are all part of life, whether we like it or not. When it hits us unexpectedly, we often don’t know what to do and begin to feel overwhelmed. Some let the fear and worry consume their time and thoughts. Over let their pain harden them through anger and hatred. Others will isolate from others. None of these responses are healthy and tend to push us further away from a solution. For Christians, while we know that we have hope in Jesus, we often struggle to trust Him completely, especially when life is a mess. It makes us ask the question: how do we make it through our struggles when life is hard? In his book You’re Gonna Make It, Daniel Fusco walks through what it looks like to unlock resilience and hold onto hope in the middle of suffering, worry, stress, and difficult circumstances. Using Scriptures like the book of Job, Isaiah 40:31, and some of the Psalms, Fusco reminds his readers that the Lord can become the source of our hope and strength during our greatest times of uncertainty and suffering if we look “upward, inward, and outward.” In fact, hope is found in the person who embodies hope and that person is Jesus Christ. If we choose to trust him through our troubles, we will find our resilience and bear fruit through them. This book has the same hope and grit that the author encourages his audience to find. Compelling and powerful, this is a book that any Christian would find encouragement from reading, especially in a post-pandemic world. * I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review To read more about how I learned to unlock resilience through difficult circumstances, click here.
To read my review about another great book on this subject, Through the Eyes of a Lion, click here. |
Lion's Eyes Reviews is a blog dedicated to reviews of Christian books, most of which are non-fiction, but may also occasionally review movies and musicals. It will also feature the work Bethel does to help launch and promote the works of Christian authors.
The name is derived from one of Bethel's favorite books, Through the Eyes of a Lion by Levi Lusko. Through these reviews, Bethel hope to give Christians the tools they need to look at the world "through the eyes of a lion" so they can find the courage to "run toward the roar". To find the detailed archives of these reviews, you can check them out here: Books In Review Movies in Review Broadway In Review Quick Reviews To understand the rating used in these reviews, click here Categories
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Bethel Grove is a Christian young woman who loves to read and write, eat Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzards, and disciple teen girls as a youth leader. What started as a hobby of writing book reviews and doing deep biblical studies eventually led her down the path of self-publishing and helping other Christian authors launch their books. She hopes to someday be a vocational youth minister and well-known author.
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