A strongly worded and empathetic call for Christians to accept “the counsel of God” in all things.
A debut Christian manual exhorts believers to put their total trust in God.
Smith’s passionately written book features a series of hard-won spiritual lessons and insights revolving for the most part around what the author sees as the material world’s inherent tendency to distract and deceive. Christians, she urges, must always strive to utilize a different kind of seeing—they should navigate through the temptations and degradations of the world using not the gauge of normal life, but an all-encompassing trust in God’s guidance. “When we are focused on Him, we are free to walk and exercise the equipping that we receive from Him,” Smith writes. “Keeping our thoughts focused on Him is faith in action because we are placing our trust in Him and not walking by what we see.” As God’s children, she insists, believers should be motivated and led by the Holy Spirit in their spiritual journeys through a fallen realm beset with “a host of hassles.” The author frankly acknowledges the complex modern world and its demands, but her emphasis throughout her book is on imploring her fellow Christians to rely on God to overcome those difficulties. One of the main strengths of Smith’s faith narrative is its sympathy; she returns often to the fallible experiences of her readers in which they may feel sorely tried, as though they were standing alone in a godless society. In countering these emotions, she uses personal convictions and well-chosen Scriptural quotations to remind her readers that “God works from within” and that therefore, the inner dimension is the place to start in renewing the strength of their faith. She advocates focusing on the “still small voice” that can steer readers even when they feel most forsaken. Many of these encouragements are standard fare for Christian guides of this type, but they’re no less powerful for their familiarity when they’re presented this energetically.
A strongly worded and empathetic call for Christians to accept “the counsel of God” in all things.Pub Date: June 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5127-8921-8
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2017
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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