Book Review: Couples Who Pray

I have to admit that I was very intrigued with this book, especially in light of the fact that this is a practice that my wife and I try to commit to doing already. The premise of this book is that couples who pray together have better outcomes than those who don’t. The book suggest that if you spend at least 5 minutes a day for 40 days in prayer with your spouse that communication will elevate, you can reach more agreements, respect rises, satisfaction in your love life and that happiness is a way of life.

I have to say that I do not know about better outcomes since life happens, but I can say that they have better marriages. They are able to deal with adversity better than those who don’t. They enjoy richness in life that is only brought about through prayer. I know having been in a marriage from both perspectives, one that did not pray together and one that does, but with the same wife of course that the relationship is much better with prayer.

The book provides some real life examples of people whose marriage was saved from the brink of divorce through prayer and it provides some real life examples of what prayer can do. Prayer is a door to God and this book concentrates on explaining the importance of that door. One thing I would caution folks about is that this book places a big emphasis on prayer and that it can change things. Prayer can change lives, but prayer is a discussion with the couple and God. Any change that comes from prayer, God deserves the honor for that work in the life of the couple. I think the book comes a little short of being clear in that respect, but it is still a good book and resource for couples.

If you are willing to sit down with it as a couple and spend the forty (or more) days with it. I believe the book as the power to be very impactful. It has the ability to put you on the right path to true Godly change in your marriage. I highly recommend this book for any couple who in any state of marriage. I believe that it can have an impact regardless of what season of life you are in. The book also has an online component that helps to supplement the book and keep you striving to achieve the 40 day challenge.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their Book Review Blogger 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.”

Book Review: Wild at Heart (revised and Expanded) Author John Eldredge

I had heard so much about this book that when I was able to get a copy of it to review, I was really excited. The book is unique in that it can be read by a man or a woman and they get different things out of it. At the same time, I encouraged my wife to read this to help understand me a little, but more importantly our son’s.

In essence what Eldredge is trying to do is remind men who they are and also allow women to understand why men are the way they are. He points out the proper design for men and their hearts. The author points out that boys and men have been emasculated and forced to be more feminine in their roles than they were designed for. This has lead to a decrease in man’s passion and has left many men and boys deeply wounded so much so that they cannot heal. This trend has left many men to feel insecure and to have what he calls a “false sense of self.”

What I appreciate is the way that Eldridge uses his own experiences and what the Bible has to say to help create a recovery plan to help men regain their passion and strive to be the man the God intended for them to be. He points out that a Godly man is one who is strong, secure, dependable, selfless and wild.

Eldridge also puts together a great recovery plan for men to go through to help them recapture who they are and provides resources to continue their efforts even after finishing the book. Having read this book it really made feel better about being a man and also provided me some food to think about in terms of who I am, but also some insight into how to deal with my son.

I whole heartily recommend this book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their Book Review Blogger 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.”

Book Review: Mystically Wired by Ken Wilson

When I first got this book from Thomas Nelson through BookSneeze.com, I remember thinking to myself that this has to be interesting especially with something titled mystically. We do not general accept mystical in the realm of Christianity, so I was intrigued as to what the book would say in respects to this.

What I got out of this book is that the author, Ken Wilson, is trying to prove the point that we are “wired” for prayer. That is as beings created in the image of God, our human instinct is for prayer and something that we need as part of our survival. It is a vital part of who we are and a vital part of how to stay connected to the Creator.

If I am to be honest, the first half of the book is a little tedious. It is written to explain the science behind being hardwired for prayer. It was refreshing from the stance that the author was addressing this, which is generally not what Christians do, but I was ready for and looking for tips and ideas for having a better prayer life. I did get this in the second half of the book, which was basically the handbook to improving your prayer life. The author even proves some simple prayers to get you focused on increasing your prayer life.

This book is not a traditional self-help Christian book. It really focuses on the science behind it and is uncommon in the way that it presents ways for you to improve prayer. This is probably difficult for many Christians who have a hard time intermingling the science and the divine together, but Wilson does provide some solid research and understanding behind prayer. This type of approach could also be very upsetting to some Christians and make it difficult for them to want to read.

The good part about this book is that Wilson really tries to walk you through understanding prayer, his journey with prayer and he really tries to make you understand that it is not about just doing it, but why it is an important part of who we are as a created being. He pushes us to prayer as the importance of who we are and the relationship we have with God, not just because we are supposed to do it. The practical suggestions are also very helpful and I look forward to integrating a few of them in my life.

The negative part about it was that the scientific part could be a little difficult to wade through and hard to comprehend. Even as intriguing as the concept of praying having a physical impact on the brain is, it was still hard to get to that point of understanding it with all the information Wilson provides. I even found myself have to read some passages several times in order to get it.

All in all it was a good book, I might not have picked it up in the book store, but it is worth a read if you are interested in prayer, but if you are not interested in the science you might want to skip the first part.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their Book Review Blogger 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.”

Science and God

I read an article once about how Isaac Newton tried to calculate dates of the apocalypse or the end of the world based on his readings of the Bible. What really struck me about this article was how we often seem to think that people in the sciences do not believe in God or in a Creator. Or that somehow science and religion cannot co-exist together for some reason.

Newton is known for his groundbreaking work in physics, astronomy, math and optics. Four areas not necessarily know for their groundbreaking work in the religious world. However, it appears that Newton also studied the Old Testament books carefully especially taking time in the Book of Daniel looking for clues about the end of the world. This seems to be interesting research for one of our greatest scientist.

Based on Newton’s work, he felt that the end would be no earlier than 2060 (I guess that is good news for us ;-)). Not that we know when the end of the earth will come, since it is not for us to determine when, but it is still interesting that Newton took the time out of his studies of physics to read the Bible and to try and understand it more clearly in relation to the end of the world.

It is also interesting that Newton notes in his writings that he is doing this more to protect the works of prophecy. What he meant is that by trying to determine the real time the world would end, it would help to stop the large number of people who were already predicting the end of time, but failed. These people who failed discredit the good prophecy and so his role was to try and maintain the good prophecy.

Regardless what we believe about end times, I think that it is important to recognize those important figures in history and highlight the entire person, good or bad, believer or non-believer. I think that this lends credibility to the faith and shows that even brilliant thinkers understand the importance of God in their lives. But is should also tells us something about today. Most of us would consider this the work of a mad man who was not all with it, trying to read the Bible and predict end of times, but no one would argue that Newton was not one of the foremost intelligent person of his time.

But it also means that we need to take time to learn about people of history. Too often we just accept the tidbits that we are taught in school or that are regurgitated to us by the media or others. In essence, these people, like Newton, were deep and had more to their lives than what we know and sometimes we might find ourselves surprised to find out more about these people who influenced our lives. There just might be more to the story then we are accustomed too.

When we acknowledge this, we are acknowledging the deep tradition that has gone on for thousands of years. The understanding of the importance of God in our lives and His Word given to us as a guide to help us in our journey in this world and to prepare us for the ultimate destination, to be with the Lord and Jesus.

Even the best and brightest did this, so should we.

God bless!