For my 21st book in my Book a Week challenge, I read a great little book about how God wants us to be actively involved in helping Him deliver daily miracles in the lives of people we come in contact with.

Written by Bruce Wilkinson, You Were Born for This brings a practical teaching to a topic generally reserved for mystic rhetoric that makes miracles seem out of reach in our everyday lives.  It’s quickly apparent as you read the book that Wilkinson is an excellent teacher, and he does a great job mixing teaching points with real-life examples of how the lessons he’s teaching have played out in his life.  One of the best examples of how the author makes our role in delivering miracles to others seems very doable is his encouragement to start using a “God Pocket.”  Yeah, it’s a weird name, but those odd labels are part of how he gets his teaching across (“bumps,” “nudges,” and “cues” are just some of the steps you’ll read about).

The “God Pocket” helps to give legs to our desire to see God meet the financial needs in others’ lives, and keeps us from simply having the “want to.”  Practical ideas like the “God Pocket” (Wilkinson’s name for money kept in our wallet or purse that is designated for being used in a money miracle for people we are sent to by God) enable us to actually do what we want to do.

Without a doubt, this book was one that I’m glad I read and will more than likely read again and again.  It has motivated me to live with my eyes open, looking for people God wants to send me to.  I have no doubt you will have the same reaction, too.

THANKS FOR RATING MY REVIEW AND HELPING ME GET MORE BOOKS TO READ!!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review as a part of their Blogging for Books program. Ranking my review helps me get more books to read!

The Fight of Our Lives, by William Bennett, was a departure from my typical book fare.  As the first political book I’ve read this year, I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I was glad to find that it was more than just a “slam Obama” book.  Granted, plenty of light gets shined on what the current administration has done to soften the public outcry against Islam, but according to Bennet and co-author, Seth Leibsohn, there is plenty of blame to go around among previous administrations, as well.

The authors did a great job of documenting their work, although quite a number of their quotes and illustrations were repeated throughout the book.  I felt that they were gracious in their treatment of the Islamic religion, and at the same time were very willing to speak the truth about what they had learned in their research about the true motives behind the religion of the enemy we are at war with.  Some of the events the book sheds light on were 9/11 and the Fort Hood massacre, and they took painstaking efforts to show how these tragedies were the natural outcome of the nature of radical Islam.  Sadly, the also show the way our government has buried a lot of the evidence that shows it.

As an example, Bennett and Leibsohn document that the official government report about the Fort Hood massacre never even mentions Nidal Hasan by name, and only mentions Islam once, even though Hasan had given a PowerPoint presentation that included many, as he called them, “Punishment Verses” from the Quran.  How a man like that who was totally supportive of the religion of our enemy was able to rise in the ranks of our own military is just one of the alarms the authors are sounding in the book.

This is a book well worth your time.  It will open your eyes to perhaps more than you want to see, and it is done in a way that doesn’t place it on the shelf with quack conspiracy theorists.  Credible, documented, and easy to follow, this is a book you’ll enjoy as much as you’ll need.

12 stones.

There was nothing notable about them except for where they came from and what they represented.  But because of those two distinct characteristics, they became more than just a pile of 12 stones. The nation of Israel had seen some pretty amazing things on their journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in Canaan.  Water from a rock, enemies washed away by the wall of water that had spared them, quail literally walking into their campground and jumping on the Coleman grills.  Edible dew?  Umm, yeah.  God provided that, too.  And now, on the verge of entering the land God had promised them, twelve unassuming rocks found themselves forever changed.

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.” (Joshua 4:1-3)

Not just 12 stones from anywhere, but 12 stones from the very center of the miracle that brought them into the promise.  And they didn’t represent just anything.  They represented the faithfulness of God, the power of God, and the worthiness of God.  On that day, 12 stones became a memorial, a conversation starter, a teaching point.

In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. (Joshua 4:6-7)

I don’t know how long the conversation continued, but apparently, at some point, the kids quit asking and the parents quit telling.  Judges 2:10 tells of an entire generation that grew up not knowing the Lord or what He had done for Israel.  It seems that it wasn’t too far removed from the one that piled the stones, and my guess is that this uninformed generation threw memorials away like we throw away keepsakes in the attic of houses we purchase.  It’s not even that we’re trying to be disrespectful.  We just don’t know where those keepsakes came from and what they represent.  Can you picture it?  A couple of kids going down to the Jordan to fish with their fathers and finding a curious pile of rocks along the bank.  They eye one, studying it, running their fingers along the edge.  It’s smooth, the rough edges worn away from years in the middle of the Jordan, and a smile creeps onto the faces of the boys as they realize these stones would be perfect for making a huge splash in the river.

I’d imagine that if one of the men who had carried that stone would have stumbled onto that scene, he’d have been pretty upset about how that memorial had been treated so casually, carelessly.  And yet, he would have had only himself to blame.

What turns a memorial into a misunderstood piece of junk?  The failure of one generation to pass on to the next what makes the stones significant.

Isn’t that what has turned Memorial Day into a long week-end filled with pools, backyard BBQs, and really long auto races?  There’s certainly nothing wrong with any of those things (unless I’m the one doing the grilling), but who are we to lament the loss of our nation’s patriotism when we’ve done nothing to pass on the significance – the story – of those we honor today.

Show me a nation, a church, an organization, or a family without a story, and I’ll show you people skipping memorial stones in a river.  Show them what they’ve really got in their hands and they may very well respond differently.  Perhaps, in this post-religious culture we find ourselves in, it’s time to help those around us rediscover the stories of a God Who delivers, protects, and is worthy of our devotion.  Maybe, just maybe, we can tell them where the stones came from and what they mean.  We might find that they’ll turn from skipping stones to rebuilding a memorial.  Need proof?  Read 2 Chronicles 34 to see what a godless generation did when they rediscovered God’s story that had been silent for years.

Stories are important because they pass along the significance of what God has done, and they fill us with hope for what he will do.

They also turn a pile of rocks into an altar of stones.