A women’s speaker and author, Baumbich’s work is warmly enthusiastic and humorously inspirational. In Don’t Miss Your Life: An Uncommon Guide to Living With Freedom, Laughter, and Grace, she puts her signature message on paper: slow down, enjoy blessings, and don’t take things too seriously.
The Sandfords, father and son authors, focus on mind renewal in Life Transformed: How to Renew Your Mind, Overcome Old Habits, and Become the Person God Designed You to Be. The authors alternate writing chapters, drawing on their years of prayer ministry experience and using biblical examples of mental strongholds and past hurts that can be overcome.
Wilson offers an eclectic selection of Christian musings on the cosmos in Notes From the Tilt-a-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World. The carnival ride, with its complex motion of circles within circles, is his metaphor for the universe. Not only has God placed everything from galaxies to subatomic particles in rotational and orbital motion, but all matter is in a cycle through time: Though people die, mountains crumble and stars burn out, their atoms remain and are recycled into new matter endlessly.
Meyer and Bedford join together for a compelling tale of life’s consequences and the power of redemption in their latest work, Any Minute.
Known for bringing characters to life in her mystery thrillers, Collins achieves that feat again in Exposure. The story uses two convergent plots and two distinct settings, heightening suspense with every page.
Wright is one of the most incisive and erudite minds of modern Christianity, yet is not without his detractors. He has been caught in the cross hairs for his views of justification, the doctrine that explains that believers have been “made right” with God. Wright’s critics think that he has fundamentally and deeply misunderstood Pauline teaching.
As an investigative reporter for The Dallas Observer, Lyons began to feel embittered while viewing countless gruesome crime scenes in her work. With a growing desire to find out if there was any hope in life, she entered the doors of The Body of Christ Assembly, a tiny church meeting in a rundown old house in the worst part of town. She chronicles this journey in Holy Roller: Finding Redemption and the Holy Ghost in a Forgotten Texas Church.
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| Book Reviews CR June 2009 |
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| Written by Staff |
| Monday, 08 June 2009 03:54 PM America/New_York |
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Don’t Miss Your Life! Charlene Ann Baumbich Howard Books softcover, 272 pages, $14.99 978-1-416-56299-3
Baumbich encourages readers to build a “memory portfolio” to catalog celebrations and tragedies—both big and small—to avoid going through life on autopilot, then wondering what happened. Ripe with practical application and biblical insight, the book shares the author’s personal stories to help the reader unpack her own. The chapters are succinct, making the book ideal for daily reading. Baumbich’s writing style is more closely akin to speaking—her words are lively on the page—and while her use of italics, upper case letters and exclamatory punctuation seems excessive, her enthusiasm is infectious. Women aged 50 and older may find a kindred spirit. —Cara Davis Life Transformed John Loren Sandford and R. Loren Sandford Charisma House (Strang Book Group) softcover, 224 pages, $14.99 978-1-599-79600-0
The problem of the carnality of the human mind is quickly addressed, focusing on the first such instance traced back to Adam and Eve. The Sandfords dissect worldly influences on otherwise biblical thought processes, covering such subjects as family interaction, self-control and assimilation into a church body. When a person sanctifies his thought life, the authors write, remnants of those dead patterns of thinking can still reappear, but only hold power if the believer gives into them. Many believers have victory over their old habits but still need confidence that they have overcome. Life Transformed is a well-researched resource that should appeal to Christian readers across the board, but especially those struggling to overcome spiritually defeating thought patterns. —DeWayne Hamby Notes From the Tilt-a-Whirl N.D. Wilson Thomas Nelson softcover, 224 pages, $14.99 978-0-849-92007-3
Despite this fragile view of existence, Wilson takes a lighthearted and humorous approach. Amid his ramblings, a recurring theme is that atheism is not possible in this universe because its intricacy must have come from somewhere. While life may not always be a carnival ride, the existence of God should offer comfort. The book, by Wilson’s own admission, meanders haphazardly and sometimes inexplicably to make its points. Ultimately this is by design, as reading Tilt-a-Whirl mimics the experience of riding one. —John D. Leatherman Any Minute Joyce Meyer and Deborah Bedford FaithWords hardcover, 304 pages, $21.99 978-0-446-58253-7
Scarred from childhood by a mother who didn’t want her, career woman Sarah Harper is on a mission, determined—at any cost—to take all that life has to offer in an effort to prove her own worth to a world that seemingly has turned its back on her. Sarah’s blind determination leads to a decision with consequences that demand a sacrifice she is unprepared to make. It is only through the childlike faith of her son, Mitchell, and a tragic car accident bringing divine intervention from an angel that Sarah finds truth and a chance to save herself and her family. The book explores the mysteries of time as it portrays the reality of daily life situations, ultimately with the message that life could change at any minute. —Vickie B. Mathews
Exposure Brandilyn Collins Zondervan softcover, 272 pages, $14.99 978-0-310-27643-2
Kaycee Raye of Wilmore, Ky., is a columnist whose writing helps people deal with their insecurities and phobias—though her bravery dissipates when she begins to see her own worst nightmares coming true. Kaycee’s burning sense that she is being watched becomes real when she finds evidence in her home. Meanwhile, in the alternate setting of Atlantic City, a bank robbery and a murder baffle the community, but one woman’s intuition tells her far more than she ever wanted to know. The alternating plot lines and compelling characters in Exposure will capture the reader’s attention, but the twist of events at the end is most rewarding. Collins even provides an epilogue for those who need answers to the lingering questions raised by this captivating story. —Bonnie Bruner Justification N.T. Wright IVP Academic (InterVarsity Press) hardcover, 279 pages, $25 978-0-830-83863-9
Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision is an “initial response” to Wright’s critics, in which he carefully exegetes Paul’s epistles, stating that justification concerns the work of Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, the Abrahamic Covenant, the divine law court metaphor and eschatology. Justification, he argues, is ultimately about more than the individual being declared right with God; it also concerns the entire creation and making the whole world right. Wright is a versatile author, able to reach both academic and popular audiences. Justification, though, will mainly appeal to academic readers and serious students of theology. But, after reading Wright’s response to critics, the average reader may still be left wondering whom to trust. —C. Brian Smith Holy Roller Julie Lyons WaterBrook Press hardcover, 272 pages, $18.99 978-1-400-07495-2
More than just about the redemption of addicts and prostitutes, her search for hope led back to her own life and relationship with Christ. In the humble Pentecostal church amid a community of people genuinely on fire for God, Lyons came to terms with her private inner battles and strongholds, witnessed the miraculous and the divine, and found there is much more hope than she ever expected. Holy Roller is a story of inspiration and encouragement for any who have lost faith in the power of the Holy Spirit today. —Heidi L. Ippolito |
