Tag Archives: Reading

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Book Review – Don’t Miss The Boat by Paul Taylor

Don't Miss The Boat by Paul TaylorPerhaps the most fiercely contested event from early Genesis is Noah’s Flood. Even more than the creation account, the Flood described in Genesis 6-9 has been rejected by mainstream thought. But understanding Noah’s Flood is critical to understanding the world we live in today.

The biggest problem lies in the fact that there is very little material that available that helps people to understand what happened during and because of Noah’s Flood.

Until now.

Paul Taylor has written a very helpful book, called Don’t Miss The Boat, that describes in a very easy to understand fashion the events surrounding and the effects caused by a global flood.

Without getting into too many technical details, Taylor examines such topics as how the flood started, what happened during the flood, where the waters came from, the design of the ark, the following ice age, and much more. One of the most interesting chapters dealt with his estimation of why people stopped believing in the flood.

At times, Don’t Miss The Boat seems overly simplistic, especially if one is well read on the subject already. However, if the topic is a new one, the material is presented in a way that is simple for anyone to grasp and see the significance of Noah’s Flood.

This is a great volume to recommend to someone who doesn’t know much about the Flood or early Genesis history.

I enjoyed reading Don’t Miss The Boat, and spent only a short amount of time in reading and digesting the information presented. If you are interested in finding out more about this portion of the earth’s history, I recommend that you pick up a copy and read it. I think you’ll find it very fascinating.

What are your biggest questions surrounding the story of Noah’s Flood? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

I highly recommend that you read Don’t Miss The Boat, by Paul Taylor. You can purchase it at Amazon.com in print or for Kindle, or directly from Master Books.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from New Leaf Press/Master Books as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Also, some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.“

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Book Review & Giveaway! – Torn Blood by David J. Bain

Affiliate Link: Torn Blood by David J. BainMost of the time, I’m a hit or miss fan of fiction that is controversial or apocalyptic in nature. But Torn Blood was a book I simply could not put down.

The plot is a labyrinth of mystery, and details unfold in their own time, and aren’t easily predictable.

Only days before reporting for duty at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Addison Deverell arrives in Israel on a mission: to identify the source of the conflict between Arabs and Jews. Going into Palestinian territory for answers he can’t find in Israel, Addison struggles to uncover the truth. And he faces danger from those he seeks to understand and finds himself a pawn in a plot to eradicate the Jews from the earth. In the midst of all of this, Addison, along with his mother, discover a hidden identity, and their true destiny.

For the most part, the story was gripping and held my attention completely. However, toward the end of the novel, Bain seems to get in a hurry, and wraps up a lot of loose threads too quickly. Other than that, I found the book to be highly interesting and well worth my time to read it.

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Book Review – Red Like Blood by Joe Coffey and Bob Bevington

Red Like BloodWhen I saw the subtitle to Red Like Blood, by Joe Coffey and Bob Bevington, I really wanted to read the book. Confrontations With Grace… Intriguing. It captured my attention.

Unfortunately, it’s the only thing about the book that help my attention.

I found the book to be unengaging and uninspiring. In fact, it was crass, even to the point of offensive a few times. I wasn’t impressed.

I’m not knocking their story. Bob’s story is centered around a failed marriage, largely his own fault, an affair, and a new marriage. And how God worked in his life to restore him to grace, and to rebuild relationships with his first wife and kids is nothing short of amazing. Joe’s willingness to work with him to explore the depth of God’s grace is incredible.

It’s a great story. But the book isn’t written in a way that captures the reader and draws him into the story.

In my opinion, these authors tried too hard to make the book sound like something by Donald Miller. I enjoy a lot of Miller’s stuff, but Red Like Blood felt like a copy of that style. And a few choices of wording and language were inappropriate. I understand that this is a book on grace. But the apostle Paul made it clear that grace isn’t to be taken advantage of.

All in all, stories of grace are encouraging to read. But I didn’t find this one to be encouraging at all. If you have the opportunity to read it, you may gain something from it. But I wouldn’t recommend that you spend the money to purchase a copy. Look for something better. You’ll be glad you did.

How has God expressed his grace visibly in your life? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Cross Focused Media as part of their Cross Focused Reviews blogger review 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: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.“

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Book Review – Chronicles Of Dinosauria by Dave Woetzel

Chronicles of DinosauriaOne of the most often claimed statements heard from the evolutionist worldview is that man and dinosaurs did not co-exist.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

And Dave Woetzel has done an incredible job of presenting the evidence that this is the case. Simply put, land dinosaurs were created on day six of the creation week, along with every other land animal… and man. Aquatic dinosaurs would have been created the day before with the rest of the sea creatures.

In Chronicles Of Dinosauria, Woetzel gives breathtaking details of the history, the mythology and more of dinosaurs throughout the centuries since God created the earth and everything on it.

Here is the video trailer for the book.

Woetzel starts off by establishing the facts of the existence of dinosaurs, presented in the creation story and how they would have fit into the flood event of early Genesis. From there, he examines the fossil evidence of dinosaurs and how that fits into the story of humanity. Following that, he presents several chapters examining the historical, the artistic and the cryptozoological evidence, finally concluding with the biblical evidence.

There are several amazing elements to the Chronicles Of Dinosauria. There are several human artifacts found in the lower fossil record, such as the bell found in a lump of “300 million year old” coal, bearing similarities to both Babylonian and Hindu religious characters. How did it become encased in that coal? The obvious answer is that the coal isn’t as old as it is assumed to be in an evolutionary worldview. It must be much younger.

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Book Review – God In My Everything by Ken Shigematsu

God In My EverythingSometimes, the best way to grow in your spiritual disciplines is to take an idea or two from those who have gone before. The early Church Fathers, the aesthetics, and others had a solid grasp on the spiritual disciplines that we seem to have lost in the struggle to survive our modern, busy, chaotic, day to day existence.

Fortunately, much of what our spiritual ancestors have written still survives. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of time (or won’t take it) to wade through all of this material to glean some nuggets of value out of it all to help our daily lives.

But Ken Shigematsu did.

After a trip to Ireland, where he toured some ancient monasteries, he began to study the life and writings of St. Benedict, and the Benedictine order that he started, and has found practical application for those ancient practices in our hectic, twenty-first century lives.

Here is the video trailer that describes the concept of God In My Everything.

In God In My Everything, Shigematsu has built a spiritual trellis, just like the ones that flowers grow on in our yards, and uses it as an illustration of how it allows certain spiritual disciplines to grow in our lives.

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How To Take Notes While Reading The Bible

Since I decided to be more intentional about how get the most out of reading a book, it seemed like a no-brainer to apply that to the most important reading I do, my reading of the Bible.

I’ve developed several different habits surrounding this discipline in my life, from my method of reading, to hand-copying portions of Scripture. I’ve discussed how to gain more from reading the bible, called the Golden Nugget approach. And even wrote a post on how to be more consistent in your Bible reading from my own experiences.

Man Reading

But how do you incorporate what you’ve read into your life? How do you retain what you read?

I’ve discovered that one way this works for me is to take notes, just like I do when I read a regular book. Only I do it a bit different.

First of all, you need to realize this:

It is OK to write in your Bible.

In my first youth ministry, I received a tongue-lashing from a parent because I told her daughter that it was OK to write in her Bible. This mother went ballistic, and berated me for several minutes, telling me is was NOT OK to write in the Bible. She wanted her daughter to keep her Bible in pristine condition.

But an unworn and unused Bible is a sign of a life unaffected by God. I would much rather replace my Bible frequently because I fill up the margins and wear it out than have a museum-ready copy on my shelf.

Here are a few things I do when I read the Bible to help me retain what I read.

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How To Take Notes While Reading A Book

It seems like I’ve seen several different websites post articles about how to read a book in the last few weeks. Many of them had some helpful suggestions; others didn’t make much sense to me. So I thought it might be nice to think through just how I read a book.

In the process of examining my method, I decided that others might benefit from my discoveries, and as a result, this article was written.

Man Reading

Some of the material I read had some interesting suggestions. One site instructed me to read the book through very quickly, scanning more than reading, looking for significant ideas. The next step was to follow that up with an in-depth read of the book. To finish, a third time through the book was necessary, reading only the sections I highlighted, underlined, or otherwise took notes about.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to read every book three times. That is simply not practical for my life. I understand the point that article was making, that this would help me to grasp a much larger portion of the material being read. But it just doesn’t seem workable for me.

Another blog suggested that I simply read the book, making no notes or highlights at all, allowing the material to sink into my mind on its own. This might work when I read fiction, but I won’t learn anything at all using this process. So that isn’t a practical way to read, either.

Here’s a brief look at how I read a book, the notes and symbols I use, and how it works for me. If this helps you, great. But just because I’ve found it to be useful, doesn’t mean that you will benefit from it just the same as I do.