And the winner is...

It's time to announce the winner of the Stuck in a Good Book Giveaway Hop. Including Twitter entries, we had 16 entries. Using a random number generator and numbering the entrants in the order I received them, the winner is:


Tia


Congratulations! I'll be contacting you for your address.

For those who didn't win, you can always buy a copy of these books from your favorite bookstore or see if they have them at your local library.

Dancing with the Devil by Jeff Harshbarger

Dancing with the Devil: An honest look into the occult from former followers by Jeff Harshbarger ISBN-13: 9781616386955 Trade Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Charisma House Released: September 4, 2012

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
Jeff Harshbarger and his friends know about occult practices. After two unsuccessful suicide attempts and an offer to become a human sacrifice, Jeff left his life of Satanism to pursue a life with God. Dancing With the Devil tells his story along with the stories of nine others who have walked similar paths, including:

• Satanism
• Witchcraft
• Demon possession
• Spiritualism
• Psychic vampirism 

Each author’s account reveals the spiritual truths that enabled him or her to break free. Their stories weave a tapestry that shows the true face of the occult and the path we can take to break Satan’s hold on those caught in its crosshairs.


My Review:
Dancing with the Devil is a collection of testimonies from ten people who were once involved in occult practices (or, in one case, it was the son who was) and who are now Christians. They talked about why they were drawn to the occult, what it did to their lives and how they felt emotionally while involved in the occult, what finally freed them from what had become a life of torment, some information about what people believe in Wicca, witchcraft, Satanism, etc., and how Christians can effectively reach out to those involved in the occult.

I was interested in this book because a teen girl I care about has gotten engaged to a boy who says he's both a Christian and a Wiccan. This book did a good job at explaining the mindset of those who get involved with the occult--including those who think they can be both Christian and involved in the occult. Overall, I felt the people writing these testimonies had a solid understanding of what the Scriptures teach about demons and the occult, so I felt they were giving solid advice. I'd recommend this book to Christians interested in the occult (so you know why it's dangerous) and to those looking for advice on reaching out to those involved in the occult.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Stuck in a Good Book Giveaway Hop

As a part of the Stuck in a Good Book Giveaway Hop, I'm hosting a giveaway for the following book. This book has kindly been provided by and will be shipped to the winner from the publisher, Crossway Books.


The Fruitful Wife: Cultivating a Love that Only God Can Produce by Hayley DiMarco. It's a wonderful book for anyone (not just wives or women) who wants to grow in their walk with God. Read my review.

Book Description:
Are you loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, AND self-controlled? Most of the time? Sometimes? How about when life gets hard or marriage gets tough? Whatever your answer may be, the good news is that you are not alone.

Hayley explores the biblical significance of all nine fruits of the Spirit, explaining how each fruit begins to grow and how each impacts your day-to-day life and marriage. She openly shares stories of her own failures to be spiritually fruitful as well as her relational struggles for control, authority, and respect. Hayley shows how even the rockiest of marriages can blossom and generate the fruit God intends to produce.


This contest is for USA & Canada residents only.


To enter the giveaway:

1) you can twitter me saying "Hi @ChristFocus. Enter me in the giveaway for THE FRUITFUL WIFE by Hayley DiMarco."

OR

2) You can leave a comment to this post asking to be entered. Please also leave some way for me to contact you--or follow this blog so you can see the winner announcement.


This giveaway ends on September 25th, 2012 at midnight. The winner will be randomly selected. I'll announce the winner on September 26th, 2012 on this blog.

If you entered using twitter, I'll send you a @ or DM telling you of your win and asking where to send the book. If you entered using the blog comments, you'll need to leave your e-mail address or check back to see if you won so you can e-mail me your mailing address. If the winner hasn't responded with a mailing address within four days, I reserve the right to pick a new winner.

I hope everyone has fun with this!


The blogs participating in the Stuck in a Good Book Giveaway Hop:

The Fruitful Wife by Hayley DiMarco

The Fruitful Wife: Cultivating a Love that Only God can Produce by Hayley DiMarco ISBN-13: 9781433530708 Trade Paperback: 208 pages Publisher: Crossway Books Released: September 2012

Source: Advanced Reader Copy of the book from the publisher.

Book Description from Publisher's Website:
Are you loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, AND self-controlled? Most of the time? Sometimes? How about when life gets hard or marriage gets tough? Whatever your answer may be, the good news is that you are not alone.

Best-selling author, mother, and wife Hayley DiMarco understands the challenges we all face and answers the question: How can you be the woman God is calling you to be—a woman who bears the fruit of the Spirit in your marriage and in the daily grind of life?

Hayley explores the biblical significance of all nine fruits of the Spirit, explaining how each fruit begins to grow and how each impacts your day-to-day life and marriage. She openly shares stories of her own failures to be spiritually fruitful as well as her relational struggles for control, authority, and respect. Hayley shows how even the rockiest of marriages can blossom and generate the fruit God intends to produce.


My Review:
The Fruitful Wife looks to the Bible to find the answers about how one can grow in the Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control). This book is for everyone, not just wives. While the author primarily used the husband-wife relationship as an illustration, the truths she discussed are helpful for everyone: wives, singles, parents--even men.

I was impressed and challenged by this book. She started by discussing why producing fruit is important (to help nourish other people and to bring glory to God). She took each fruit of the Spirit and discussed what it is, what it isn't, how to grow it in your life, and how this works out in your relationships with others. She also talked honestly and openly about her own struggles with this and what she learned from the Bible about how Fruit is actually produced--and it's not by just trying harder.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this encouraging, insightful, and powerful book to all Christians who want to grow in their walk with God.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt on the publisher's website.


Book Trailer:

frameworks by Eric Larson

frameworks: How to Navigate the New Testament by Eric Larson ISBN-13: 978-0615633121 Paperback: 372 pages Publisher: Frameworks Resources LLC Released: June 23, 2012

Source: Review copy through a publicist.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
frameworks is a Survey of the New Testament that combines entertaining stories, full-color pictures, and simple illustrations (maps, charts) to guide you through the New Testament. Using lots of white space, this book will help you become more familiar with the New Testament through an overview of its books.


My Review:
frameworks is a New Testament survey intended for use by new Christians who want an overview of what the New Testament contains. Overall, it achieves that goal, though it's a bit expensive ($27) for what you're likely to get out of it.

For example, you do get line-maps with arrows pointing where a person traveled, but those travels often backtracked and overlapped. All I could really make out from most of the maps was the general area the traveling occurred in unless it was described in detail in the nearby text. So you get maps, but you don't necessarily get much from the maps.

The tone of the book was casual and geared toward getting laughs. This included re-written or made up New Testament scenes where the people used modern slang and were described in ways that invited a laugh.

The book started with an overview of Jesus' life (a birth-to-death summary) and brief descriptions of who wrote the New Testament books, when they were written, why they were chosen, and why they're in the order they're currently in. The dates used for Jesus' life were those pretty typically given (3.5 years for his ministry, birth in 4 BC, and death in 30 AD). The dates for the writing of the various books of the New Testament were presented on two different, nice charts and ranged from 50 to 95 AD.

Next, each book of the New Testament was described with about 8 pages worth of text. The first page of text was the Intro which intended to give a memorable metaphor for what that New Testament book is like. We're given the history of things like the first magnetic compass, how the word "restaurant" first came about, and so on with a short explanation of how this is a good metaphor for that New Testament book. Unfortunately, I quickly lost track of which "intro metaphor" went with which book since the connections seemed slight at best. By starting with an unrelated history lesson, it was actually more difficult for me to remember the Bible-related information that followed.

The next page of text was for Theme. We're told who wrote the book, when, where, who it was intended for, and the one verse that best summarized the theme of the whole book in the author's opinion. The next page or so of text was about why the book or letter was written--more on who wrote the book, to whom, and why.

The next page was mostly two charts providing an "outline" for that book. One chart was of the main focus (as the author sees it) of each group of chapters. The second chart illustrated how many pages were spent on each main focus. The next page was a list of verses from that book, usually relating to its theme verse.

The next page gave some things to look for when reading that book. The next page had a picture and a list of some "did you know" things about that book. The next page gave a quick recap and how long it takes to read that book at a casual pace. He also suggested three study/discussion questions referring mainly to the information just learned. The last page contained a picture, a Bible verse, an a mini-sermon based on that verse.

Occasionally, there was some wording used that could easily be misunderstood by those not familiar with the New Testament, especially regarding the Jews and the Old Testament law. The author referred to the Old Testament Laws as now being valueless and to Jewish believers as having a "former religion" and needing to "abandon their old religious practices."

Yet the New Testament is all about the coming of the Jewish Messiah who fulfilled the Old Testament Laws and even raised the standard on them (not just don't murder but don't even get angry!). The New Testament speaks against man-made legalism and of the debate about did Gentile need to become Jews before they could claim the Jewish Messiah, but it never says that Jews had to stop being Jews.

The author also stated that the "Jewish religion was born" when the Law was given to Moses, which isn't true. That certainly added a lot of specifics to their existing religion, but their beliefs about God didn't start at that moment. So either I don't share the author's theology on a few points, or I could wish that he had been a little bit more careful in his wording in a few places.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Deeper into the Word: Old Testament by Keri Wyatt Kent

Deeper into the Word: Old Testament by Keri Wyatt Kent ISBN-13: 9780764208430 Trade Paperback: 250 pages Publisher: Bethany House Publishers Released: December 1, 2011

Source: Bought through Books-A-Million.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Translators have done their best to render the words of the Bible into English, but capturing the nuances of the ancient languages can be difficult. In this devotional, Keri gives readers an opportunity to investigate 100 English words used in the Old Testament to discover which Hebrew words can be translated that way and the full nuances behind their meaning.


My Review:
Deeper into the Word: Old Testament digs deeper into the meaning of some Hebrew words used in the Old Testament. I've done a lot of word studies on Hebrew words, and it's possible that's why I wasn't as impressed with this book as I was with Deeper into the Word: New Testament. However, my impression was that this book contained less information that gave insight to the text--insight that would make me think, "oh, now I understand that teaching so much better!"

The book listed 100 common English words found in the Old Testament and listed them alphabetically. Under each English word, the author explained which Hebrews words could be translated as that English word. She explained the nuances of each word and then gave examples of where it's used in Scripture.

Usually the word in question was indicated by putting the Hebrew word beside it: for example, "...fertile field (karmel)..." But other times it wasn't indicated, and it wasn't always obvious which word was being pointed out. And some of the information was in error. For example, on page 147, we're given "God (Shaddai) Almighty (el)" in a quote, but it ought to read "...God (el) Almighty (Shaddai)..."

I was surprised by the amount of modern commentary and human speculation that was included. The entry on Sheol, for example, seemed heavily influenced by sources outside the Bible. The author didn't mention that Sheol is clearly described in the Bible as a place where people can't hope or praise (Isa 38:17, 18) and have no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom (Ecc. 9:10). She did point out that Sheol usually refers to "death" or "the grave," yet she suggested that Sheol was a limbo-like place where people can go even while alive and where people are physically weak. Looking at the verses she referred to in full context, in several different translations, and with a few key Hebrew words studied further, the main verses she used appear to simply point out that God killed some disobedient people by burying them alive (Numbers 16) and that every person, no matter how mighty in life, is equally powerless in death (Isaiah 14). Since I ended up double-checking several entries, I decided the book wasn't much use to me as a reference tool.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

The Power of Knowing God by Kay Arthur

The Power of Knowing God by Kay Arthur ISBN-13: 978-0307729835 Trade Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: Waterbrook Press Released: July 10, 2012

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
You may know about God, but do you truly know what He says about Himself--and what He wants from you?

This eye-opening study will help you gain a true understanding of God's character and His ways. As you discover for yourself who He is, you'll be drawn into a deeper, more personal relationship with the God of the universe--a relationship that will enable you to confidently display His strength in life's most challenging circumstances.


"It makes such a difference when you allow God to speak for Himself, when you listen to His Word directly rather than to the opinions of others. It helps to know what God says so you can measure what man says against the plumbline of His Word."


My Review:
The Power of Knowing God is a no homework, 6-week-long Bible study. It's designed for small groups to do together once a week in a 40 minute period. The Bible study let Scripture speak for itself and was careful to keep the studied verses in context. It examined what God said about Himself in the Bible in both the Old and New Testament.

The study had people read several verses (which were included in the book along with information about the context of the verses), mark/highlight certain words, then answer several questions about what was just read. Insight boxes were included with word study information that helped make a verse or point more understandable.

The questions were helpful in focusing attention on all the points that needed to be looked at. In case you missed a point, the "wrap up" section at the end of each week's lesson summarized what was learned that week.

I enjoyed this study and thought it was well-written and made good points. I'd recommend this Bible study to all Christians. It's a good reminder if you already know it, but it'll really strengthen your walk with God if you didn't know it.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.