Just Like Jesus Devotional

Max Lucado's "Just Like Jesus Devotional" is a 30-day devotional designed to deepen your faith, and encourage you to live your life with the heart of Jesus. The daily devotions in this book are a little bit longer than most other devotionals, but they are definitely worth the extra time.

As with most devotionals, each day's reading begins with a short Bible verse that remains the theme for that day's devotion. After the verse, Lucado builds on the verse by relating it to our daily lives - helping to make it easy to understand, and show how it applies to our modern lives.

What makes this devotional stand out to me was the section that follows the explanation of the verses. Lucado challenges us through a series of four sections, named "thinking", "hearing", "reflecting" and "thinking". Through these sections, Max Lucado offers personal questions for you to ponder about your spiritual life, and faith. He also offers lengthier Scripture references that tie in to the questions he poses. What I enjoyed was how each section builds on the one before it, really allowing you to soak in the message, and apply it to your own life.

Overall I would give this book a 5/5 - Lucado hit a home run with this devotional, and I think that this 30 day challenge would benefit any believer!

FTC DISCLOSURE: I received this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review. 

Trusting God

"Trusting God" by Sharon Jaynes, Gwen Smith, and Mary Southerland is a "Girlfriends in God Faith Adventure" that uses personal stories and experiences to help us relate to how we can build our trust in our Creator. This book is meant to be read as a devotional, with chapters being divided by weeks, and each chapter having one short reading for each day of that week, for twelve weeks.

What I liked about this devotional is that it is similar to talking with your own girlfriends about personal experiences. We get to share in experiences, both good and difficult, just as we would with our friends in real life. This book offers a lot of great wisdom when it comes to building the trust in our relationship with God, and I thought it was very well written.

Each day's devotional offers a Bible verse, called "Today's Truth" which is the basis on which the personal story is based. Then, each devotional ends with a short prayer that is also tied into the general theme of that day's reading. At the end of the week, there is a short section named, "Now It's Your Turn" which allows you a place for reflection and to answer short questions about your personal relationship with God, as well as a space to maintain a journal based on the devotions from that week.

I would give this book a 5/5 - great for the busy mom or the corporate businesswoman. Versatile, funny, engaging, and inspiring.

FTC DISCLOSURE: I received this book for free from Multnomah Publishers in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review.

Desperate

"Desperate - Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe" by Sarah Mae & Sally Clarkson is the perfect book for moms of any kind. Whether you have a house full of young children, or are smack dab in the middle of the teenage drama-filled years, this book is for you. Through personal reflection, insight, and experience, Sarah and Sally share their adventures in motherhood, as well as some wonderful tips for surviving the chaos that is motherhood.

Sometimes, we as moms, feel lost - after all, being a mother sometimes feels more like managing a series of daily disasters more than actually being a parent! Cleaning up messes, tending to fussy children, and trying to keep order in what feels like complete chaos can keep us from feeling like we are being the mom the we should/could/want to be. This book offers hope and advice for getting out of that rut and enjoying/thriving as a mom.

This book was a great read and I would really recommend it to every single mom - there is at least five things in this book that every mother could benefit from reading. I will definitely been holding on to this book for years to come.

FTC DISCLOSURE: I received this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze Blogger program, in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review as part of this program. 

"Live Second" - Doug Bender

Doug Bender's "Live Second: 365 Ways to Make Jesus First" is an awesome daily devotional that stretches over one year of profound and inspirational readings. What I absolutely love about this devotional is that each day's reading is short and easy to read, no matter how busy your day may be. Each day's devotion offers a Bible verse that sums up the overall message for the day, and includes a short explanation or message that expands on the idea of the verse. Each day also offers a suggested prayer that is also related to the overall message of the day.

I also thought it was neat that every days poses the questions, "How will you live more Second today?" and "How will you share what you have learned?" These simple questions are a daily reminder of the underlying purpose of this book - putting God first, and learning to live "Second". Once a week, the devotional also offers some discussion questions, whether you ponder them individually or work through this book in a small group setting. Either way these discussion questions give you a chance to really evaluate the passages and apply it to your own life.

I thought this book was great - a profound message of living "Second", and learning to live a life defined by putting Christ in the #1 spot in your life. I would highly recommend this for anyone - would be great for high school ages and up, in my opinion. Great tool - loved it!

FTC DISCLOSURE: I received this book for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review. I did not receive any financial compensation for this review.

The Radical Question/ A Radical Idea

David Platt's "The Radical Question/A Radical Idea" is what I would consider a follow-up to his best seller "Radical". This book is essentially two books in one, but both share the same theme of true commitment to spreading the gospel of Jesus, even when it means sacrificing and taking risk.

"The Radical Question" discusses the difficulty of complete devotion to Christ in spite of a society that puts so much emphasis on personal success. This book uses personal stories and situations to make us think about how we can use whatever God has given us to help those around us, and further His kingdom.

"A Radical Idea" discusses the need for Christian communities not only come together within the church, but in the community to extend God's word in the world. Bringing others to God should be one of the main focuses of our lives, and this commitment needs to come first for us.

Overall I thought these two books were very well written and make some really good points. Interesting, and I would recommend it.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from bloggingforbooks.org in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review and did not receive financial compensation for this review.

Uncle Jesus

"Uncle Jesus" is a colorful children's book that tells the story of Jesus through memories that his young nephew has of his time with Uncle Jesus. The entire story is told through these memories, as a young Shem recalls his fondest memories of his uncle in conversation with his Grandma Mary.

The storyline of the book is cute and allows the younger reader to see Jesus as a real person who they can relate to through Shem. I would recommend this book for ages 6 and up. Some of the vocabulary choices are more appropriate for older children, as my four year old had some trouble understanding.

Overall I would give this book a 4/5. The illustrations are colorful and the story itself is an original idea to help kids relate to Jesus.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from BookCrash.com in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review and received no financial compensation for my review.

The Purpose Driven Life

I was so excited to receive "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren. This particular edition is the expanded edition, which updates the original version with interactive tools to help you get the most out of the book - for example, each day's reading includes a QR code that you can scan if you have a smartphone, and it links you to further lectures and information that correlate with the message of the day.

"The Purpose Driven Life" is a devotional style book, with one chapter to read every day. The book aims to help us understand our God given purpose in this life. Many people strive to be successful in their careers, finances, family life, and even in their spiritual life, but it is easy to overlook the fact that God has created each and every one of us for a specific God given purpose, as well. Rick Warren does a great job in putting this into perspective, and posing questions to help us find God's purpose for our lives.

What I liked about this book was that each day of the reading made me feel like I really was learning, and growing in my understanding of what God wants for my life - how I can better serve his kingdom. Rick Warren uses Bible verses to explain what God created us for, and how we can achieve his purpose. The chapters were only a few pages per day, so it was easy to pick up before bed and read that day's message.

I think this book was absolutely wonderful, and a perfect reminder that there is so much more we need to accomplish in our lives than getting that promotion, or making more money. I would highly recommend this book to any adult - it's really a very thought provoking book. I enjoyed it.

FTC DISCLOSURE: I received this book for free from BookSneeze.com's blogging for books program in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review.