An idiosyncratic but engaging religious self-help guide.
Washington (Tools for Effective Prayer, 2016), the senior pastor of the Abundant Life Community Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, offers advice on how to live one’s best life in this motivational Christian work.
God wants people to be victorious in their lives, says the author, but how many people truly feel that way? In this book, he argues that the problem may be that they’re not correctly applying the regimen that God outlined in the Bible: “you must totally know, understand, and effectively execute the wisdom and divine strategy for victory that is recorded in Scripture,” he says. According to Washington, the portion of the Bible that best illustrates how God leads his followers to victory is the Book of Nehemiah. In it, Nehemiah, the Jewish cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes, rebuilds the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, following the word of God. Using this story as a template, Washington outlines the three-step process to following God’s plan for victory: “Starting the Journey,” “Preparing and Getting Ready,” and “Executing the Divine Strategy.” Along the way, he discusses the necessity of coming to terms with one’s sins, the importance of prayer, and how to deal with guilt, shame, anger, and other negative emotions. Washington writes in a buoyant, easily digestible prose style that draws as much on the vocabulary of the modern self-help culture as it is does on the language of the Bible: “as you start living in abundance, a great fight is sure to come your way….Accept and embrace this, just like the example set by Nehemiah and the Jews.” As in his previous work on prayer, the author displays his love of acronyms (“Frequent Actions Causing Troublesome Situations—FACTS”) and his willingness to tackle subjects at length (the book is more than 500 pages long). Readers looking for motivation with a basis in Christianity may find assurance here, although others may see it as an attempt to repackage old ideas in a trendier wrapper.
An idiosyncratic but engaging religious self-help guide.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5127-8658-3
Page Count: 520
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2018
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
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