I will make the critical comment that there was a dramatic event close to the front of the story which seems as if it should have had more impact on the characters. I can’t decide if this is the result of poor plot or character construction, or brutal editing. Either way, it seemed as if the whole incident could have been written out and the story would have stood without it.

In whole, I thought the book was well-paced, leaving the reader opportune stopping points while maintaining that cliff-hanger quality. Though it took a lighter tone than Kendig’s first novel, Dead Reckoning, it was still meaty enough for me to say that it isn’t chick-lit lite; I think men would enjoy it as well. Plenty of explosions, C-130s, machine guns, and general machismo seem to be a balanced compliment to the romantic feminine perspective.

The books ahead in the series will be based on the members of the Nightshade team and Kendig has done a great job of introducing them to us in glimpses that pique our interest. I look forward to the familiarity of long-lost friends as the series progresses and each book leaves the members of the team behind while building them into a family of supporting cast members.

Puritan Prayers - Anonymous. (Kindle Book)

I think this is one of the most beautiful expressions of prayer that I have ever read. In fact, I know it is. I would even go so far as to say it’s one of the most beautifully written books in general that I’ve ever had the privilege to open (so to speak). I really don’t enjoy reading other people’s private thoughts or prayers in devotionals and the like, but maybe the lyric use of the English language was what hooked me. Or maybe it was that this Christian brother spoke my language of faith, and desire, and struggle across the centuries, crying out to God in my soul’s own voice. This is one to soak in, to be baptized in through and through. Consider his words, then please, buy the book!  “Grant that in every fall I may sink lower on my knees, and that when I rise it may be to loftier heights of devotion. May my every cross be sanctified, every loss be gain, every denial a spiritual advantage, every dark day a light of the Holy Spirit, every night of trial a song.”

Preparing Your Son for the Other Woman – Sheri Rose Shepherd

One of the bugs that Kindle needs to take a hard look at is how poorly books are being transcribed from print to digital. Truly it’s abhorrent in this case. The lack of correct punctuation and the mistranslations (“fixture wife” for example instead of the correct “future wife”) were a constant distraction, and for my $10 I expected more. However, from the perspective of content, I thought this book was insightful and helpful. It’s an easy read, not overly heavy-handed, and presents some ideas that will be practical for preparing my son for adulthood.  The author presents some new “projects” for the days ahead in my prayer life and in my walking-along-the-way with my son. I think that one of the weaknesses in the church in our generation is the failure to live intentionally and our tendency to compartmentalize our faith. That lack of translation is failing our children and this book is one very approachable solution to the problem.  Buy it in its print version!

 I can’t begin to plumb the depths of his wisdom but maybe if I just insert some quotes here, his own words will be compelling enough for you to make the $.99 investment for yourself.  I intend to capitalize on my investment and just start over. I know after a few times through, God’s sympathies will help me absorb the richness of His servant’s words.

“The Word of God is ever according to my spiritual character, and makes clear my individuality as apart from God, and my responsibility to Him.” “Would we really hear His Word, or are we not rather in this immediate tribulation waiting for God to persuade us that our own way is right after all?”

“God does not leave us to the vague and ungraspable intuitions of some great man’s mind, or to the vain imaginings of our own, for guidance.”

“How sick over and over we are with the vain sentimentalism about the Servants of God. No, wonder He lifts them up at times and shakes them, and flings the parasites off them.” “When men write biographic studies of the saints, they drop out the uncouth, the unlovely, and out of their devotion state the elements that idealize the servant. The Bible states in terms that reveal the uncouthness, the blunderings, the sins of the servants of God…”

“Sympathy among ourselves is often a very questionable guidance, because a man may sympathize out of his self-sentiment, which is really nothing more than selfishness disguised.” “There is a distressing snare besetting certain types of saints, and this snare is a morbid desire for sympathy, which simply makes them, so to speak, sponges to mop up sympathy.”

“My freedom is Thy grand control.”

“God is not an outward gush of sentiment and a vague abstraction of impersonal good nature. God is a living, intense reality, and we must love Him, walk with Him as friend with friend …”

My only criticism for a book that meets its mark as quick, easy, entertainment is that, even for a book of this nature, it’s too predictable. I knew who “did it” as soon as the characters were introduced, and though it was still fun to prove myself right, it does steal some of the joy of discovery at the end.  There are a couple of twists in the story line that did help keep things interesting; I wondered throughout whose story the next book would tell and that was not revealed until nearly the climax of the book. I could too easily give it away here so I’ll leave it at that. There is another surprise before you turn the last page, so don’t give up too early.

The next book in the series comes out in a few months, so if you want to wait until they’ve all been released just hang tight. I suspect number three is the end of the line so you could read straight through in an easy week if you had them all on hand. And they’re not so grippingly compelling that I would urge you to run out and buy them immediately. Keep them on your list, though, for some easy reading.

Shiloh Blake is a college student on an underwater archaeological dig in India when her crew is struck by a terrorist group. That as the story line was one of the things I struggled with throughout. I wanted more on the international back drop of terrorism in India and the current situation with the nuclear arms race as it pertains to the country. Not understanding that left big holes in the line of suspense leaving me feeling flat at the point the author intended as the climax of the story.   I just didn’t understand what was going on until I was right in the moment, so I missed that white-knuckle experience. It also made the chase scenes throughout the book seem somewhat abrupt, random, and gratuitous (though sometimes breathtaking).

However, the character developement throughout the book is excellent, with even bit part actors fleshed out well but without revealing too much about their motives. Of course there is a romance at the front of the story (once other distractions are dealt with) between Shiloh and her knight-in-shining-armor, Reece Jaxon. In fact it’s a sizzling (yes…I wrote sizzling) electrically charged romance for those of you who pine for that, and one of the things I enjoyed about it was that there was no fickle fidelity here despite the events that transpired around this couple, and by their own hands. Once the fire caught…it burned!

OK, enough of the mushy stuff. At one point in the novel I thought to myself that Shiloh Blake is what every woman secretly wants to be. I had to concede that thought to sound judgement though, and admit that it might just be me. Who couldn’t love a  thinking woman who is thoroughly capable of defending herself, eluding danger, and still demonstrating tenderness and vulnerability. She and Reece both are dragging as much baggage as a bellhop in Hollywood, and admittedly that does make Shiloh desperately independent, but attractively so. I just liked her. She was not a simpering femme fatale who needed a big strong man to come along and save her, even though that’s what she got. It made the romantic pairing more interesting – she, being an equal without feminizing her man.

In short (or long now actually) Dead Reckoning is one to add to your pile and Kendig is an author to watch. As she hones her craft, some of the abruptness and holes will smooth out and get patched over, and then…look out!

Rubart works from an idea proposed in Psalm 139 – that before one of them came to be, all our days were recorded in God’s book.  He asks the question, “What if the book is real?” What would that mean, not only to a man losing his past, but to another seeking his future? Through the characters on both sides of the story, we are engaged in these questions. What is so precious in our lives that we would believe the unbelievable in order to preserve it? What questions about our tomorrows are desperate for disclosure? What heights and what depths would we plumb to find peace in those motivations? If you held the answers to those longings, to what lengths would you go to protect them?

Rubart, sympathetic to his audience, has an answer to each of those questions through the characters of the story. However, he leaves the reader with the opportunity to search their heart for personal application, and to find peace in the Lord’s provision. What we see through Cameron is reconciliation to a God who holds the past and the future, and an ultimate surrender to His plan. As Cameron begins to open the hand clutched around the need to remember his past and see his future, we come to understand along with him that the outcome of our lives is fully in God’s hands, and yet determined by our will. Defeat is the only victory.  

What a great find in this little book, and I see that Rubart has another due out later this year, which I will definitely pick up on its release. If you’re interested in more, check out the book trailer here:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5G_3udORFQ&feature=player_embedded

Now, on to the review…

From personal experience, Terri Blackstock writes a moving tribute to moms everywhere who are facing the tragedy of a child’s addition. True to form, however, Blackstock ramps it up a bit and adds a murder and disappearance to the mix and keeps you turning the pages to the end. Her last couple  of books have been a little thin and a lot preachy, but this book presented an honest and transparent character in the mother who is literally at the breaking point. She’s barely managing her business, has run up a boat load of debt, is trying to control an unruly 14-year-old, all while  attempting to prove that her strung out daughter is innocent of murder even though she ran from the murder scene and has disappeared. And you thought you had your hands full.

There are no pat answers here, but the ending is one you both hope for and can easily predict. In faith circles you often hear people talk about hitting bottom, but unfortunately that looks different to everyone. Some of us have to fall a lot farther before we get there and the wreckage we leave behind as we travel that road is sometimes irreparable. However, I see a happy ending here because the last page leads one to believe there is more to this story, and I’m happy to report that a sequel follows.

Thanks for reading my blog this past year and for your sweet words of support and encouragement. Check out the VBVM website…go to Articles…and the other fantastic contributors. Lots of wisdom there – not to mention major smarticles – next to my silliness. You’ll be blessed for having spent the time.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Eatin’ a piece o’ cake and watchin’ The Biggest Loser.” I said through a mouthful.

If I had hung up on him then I still would have heard him laughing from Missouri.

 I love The Biggest Loser. It’s an amazing show. It’s about people who have reached the end of the road and have turned around to look back the way they came. What they find isn’t pretty. Some of the folks there are still in denial. Last week one man said, “Wow! I didn’t know how out of shape I was.” Hello! You weigh 467 pounds!! But isn’t that just like us? Haven’t you, on occasion, looked up with surprise and wondered just how in the world you got “here”, wherever your particular “here” might be?

 There are many routes we could take in tying The Biggest Loser to the Christian life, especially the Christian life of one who has been recently redeemed…like me. I too stood at the end of a long road and realized that I was very, very tired. When Someone offered to carry me for a while, I just took the offer. It wasn’t until later that I thought to myself, “Wow. I didn’t know what a mess I was”, even though everyone around me had known it for a while.

 That’s not what I want to talk about today, though. Today I want to talk about the trainers. I have a hard time picturing God as anything but severe and demanding (though I certainly tread on His grace often enough) and some would say that’s a wrong image of God. Most would immediately jump to God’s defense and name Him as a God of grace and mercy. However, either perspective without the other lacks balance, as I will hopefully prove through Bob and Jillian.

 Ours is a high calling and one we should always be working to be worthy of. But (and if you watched The Biggest Loser this week you will remember and understand this well) don’t you sometimes find yourself on your back like a bug, wallowing in self-pity and just rolling around there making excuses? That’s when we need Trainer God to walk up, put his foot square in the middle of our problem and make us name it! Bob did this with a man this week – walked up to him rolling around on the ground, put his foot on his stomach and made him say how much he weighed (over 500 pounds!!). Talk about confession. Reminds me of a Godly encounter Jacob the trickster had. (Genesis 32:27-28)

 Really hoping you watch the show at this point because I want you to call to mind Jillian’s face, teeth bared, spit flying, screaming at you to “get up” (and there really aren’t enough exclamation points for that so you’ll have to work with me).  Did you break out in a sweat born of sheer terror just thinking of her up in your face like that? Uh huh! Now, though, think of her expression at weigh-in when someone she’s trained has lost an unbelievable amount of weight. She puffs all up like a momma-hen and you know that the teeth-baring, spit-flying demands have been born of a fierce jealousy for their health! She wants the best for them and she will stop at nothing to see that they get it. Did you catch that? She will stop at nothing to see that THEY get it. She can’t do it for them, but she can come along side them and scare the hell right out of them until they get it for themselves…and I mean that sincerely as I think of God’s purposes in our training. He’s already saved us for eternity, but what are we doing about now? Are we just rolling around in the dirt moaning about how hard it is?

 Here’s where balance comes in. If we only picture God as the grandpa-of-grace, we won’t get anywhere in working out our salvation with fear and trembling. What we’ll get is a pat on the back as He hands us a spoon.  Who do we think we should fear and be trembling before?? (Think in terms of Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell! Matthew 10:28) Grace, as we often think of it, can be a terrible “enabler”. Grace is great; don’t get me wrong. We’ve all staked our eternities on it! We desperately and often need to rely on it, but without balance grace is like walking the treadmill with a donut in one hand and an Oreo in the other while our trainer nods and smiles indulgently. I’ve never heard a contestant on ‘The Loser’ thank the indulgence that got them there, but I have watched in tears as they thank their trainer with unbridled joy and eternal gratitude for their unrelenting demands for more, better, higher, faster, stronger.

 Maybe you don’t like the image of God with His teeth bared, all up in your face demanding that you G E T   U P!! But I think you’re fooling yourself. I think He hates the state that we find ourselves in sometimes, and I think that it makes Him downright mad that we let ourselves get there. He too, is jealous for our well-being. And I think that when he sees hell in us, spit flies, teeth gnash, hair is pulled, hands are thrown in the air and we find ourselves pushing a truck up hill for a mile until He scares it straight out of us. Working it out.  (If you don’t believe me, check out Luke 9:41, or for that matter the entire Old Testament.)

  This week on the show the contestants were given an unusual choice to make: take 4 weeks of immunity and work out with unknown trainers, or forego immunity and work out with Bob and Jillian. Huh! I’d take the immunity and work out with the unknown. Who cares who’s kicking your butt!? Your face is going to be in the dirt passed out or puking anyway!! But I’m glad that in my Christian life, I get both the immunity and a trainer I know…a trainer who will not let me quit even if I’m reduced to crawling across the finish line because He cares too much. Maybe you like to think of Him there with you speaking tender words of encouragement, but I need to hear Him screaming at me, “DON’T YOU QUIT! DON’T YOU DARE QUIT ON ME!”  He is both Grace and Almighty God. His demands are great. His expectations are high. His love is fierce. He has left it all at the gym for us, setting the example. When we finish the race, His will be the first face we see. We will need to keep our eyes trained on him during that last leg more than ever, and there He will be, laughing and shouting with fist-pumping joy, waving us home.

 (By the way, if you can pardon the bleeping swear-words, and you need a real motivator for your Christian walk today…take a look at this and “Shut up, focus, and do the work!”  A fair translation of God’s words to Moses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hhzEBSGvtU&feature=related. I’ve added it to my favorites. )