An inviting and attractively packaged devotional for Christians.
A writer offers a Christian-themed tour through the four seasons.
In her slim and beautifully designed nonfiction debut, Wrobel presents her readers with devotional reflections on the “astonishing ways” God moves through their lives. The author writes these ruminations with the clear understanding that even devout Christians can sometimes find their faith difficult to uphold. “Have you experienced moments of feeling like your soul is as dry as the desert?” she asks. “Where even the most moving of praise and worship songs leaves you feeling apathetic and blasé? Reading scripture is a chore?” Her book’s plainspoken, enthusiastic prose is clearly aimed at helping believers during those and other difficult times. She enhances this effect by mixing in portions of her own life story to illustrate the struggles that someone can have with the daily walk of faith. When writing about her grief following her mother’s death, for instance, she recalls that her prayers were “stilted and weak” until God opened her heart to the simple concept of joy. These anecdotes do quite a bit to personalize a faith narrative that would otherwise be fairly standard in its general outlines. Wrobel’s comments about the faithful finding support even in the midst of trials and sickness will strike many readers of Christian inspirational titles as very familiar, almost clichés. But her invocation of everyday things, such as worrying about the health of relatives or tackling back-to-school shopping for her youngest daughter, helps to ground her observations and flesh them out. The author concludes each of her work’s brief sections with blank spaces where her readers are called to “Selah—Meditate on These Things.” Some of her seasonal references are comforting, as when she notes that the winter snows can be seen as reflections of the purity and holiness of Jesus. And the volume’s central message of hope remains uplifting.
An inviting and attractively packaged devotional for Christians.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-973676-07-2
Page Count: 130
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
