Who Do You Think You Are? Book Review by Rosanne Burck

Author: Dr. Kristin Beasley with Jodi Carlson

Just be yourself! Be true to who you are! Be the real you!

Voices come at us from every angle with this message. But, as a female and a Christian, who am I, really? And who has had input into my definition of who I am? Women of all ages around the world are confused about this. We know this as we see young women in the U.S. attempting to emulate the sex-drenched images of our culture while attempting to “act like men” in the workplace. Women in the Middle East and other parts of the world are silenced and shrouded in attempts to deny their very existence as females. Women everywhere are in desperate need of God’s truth.

Dr. Kristin Beasley, in her newly released book, “Who Do You Think You Are?”, presents liberating answers about who God created each woman to be. As Dr. Norman Wakefield, Professor Emeritus of Phoenix Seminary states on the book’s back cover, “This book is grounded in biblical truth and wisdom that touches the heart.”

I found this book of 10 chapters to be very enjoyable, but thought-provoking, reading. In Part One, Dr. Beasley begins with an assessment of the many distorted views of womanhood in society, culture and religions to show us how many women are living with a wrong or incomplete view of their value. Part Two presents truth about women’s significance in a way I have never seen presented before – how each Person of the Triune God “answers one of your three core needs as a woman.” Part Three is application – what to do with the truth discovered in Part Two so women can take hold of their God-given uniqueness and serve Him.

The back of the book contains reflection questions that can be used for personal study or with small groups. Pick up this book today for yourself, your ministry team, your daughters and the other women in your life. You will not be disappointed!

You can buy it directly from Greater Reach Ministries to support their vision to reach out across the world to lift up women and touch them with a message of hope that inspires and equips them to be all that God made them to be.

Book Review by Tim Wright….

Have you ever sat in Church thinking hmmm . . . . the worship music is different today. Where have the hymns gone? Something about the preaching style has changed? What happened to a particular program? . . . . Are we watching a lot more videos and stuff than we used to? Have all the changes ever caught up with you until you wondered ‘who stole the church I used to go to?’ If you have, you are like many of the characters in Gordon McDonald’s book Who Stole My Church. In fact, maybe the only difference between you and them, is that the characters in his book actually verbalize the question you have been thinking. In his book Who Stole My Church, Gordon McDonald, drawing on decades of pastoral experience, weaves a fictional tale of a New England Church facing the tension between years of tradition and an attempt to ‘do Church’ in a contemporary, relevant way.

As a someone who has been involved in Church leadership, the emotions of the characters struck a chord and at times reminded me of past experiences. I sympathized with the roller coaster ride they experienced. How should a Church respond to the tension between traditional and contemporary? Whether you are young or old, traditional or contemporary, someone pushing for change, or someone watching their Church being stolen, at least one of McDonald’s characters will resonate with you. Some may challenge you. And others may pull at your heart strings. More than once, as I read a passage to my wife, I fought back emotion and even tears.

One of the great things about the book is that McDonald’s tackles what looks like an organizational problem through the lives of the people involved. The struggles are primarily played out through individuals whose lives are changed from the inside out. For those more into the more objective side of organizational change, the author weaves in a serious discussion of Generative v. Toxic groups within organizations, as well as a short analysis of how an organization makes the slide from being truly revolutionary to merely a tribute to the past.

On a historical note, the author reminds us that the struggle over worship music styles is not a new issue. The Church has struggled with this issue for literally hundreds of years. What we think of as musical classics today, were once the basis for Church infighting. In the early 1700′s, Isaac Watts became bored with the worship music of his day and began writing a new type of worship music. His new style of music, i.e. hymns and the question of whether they were appropriate for Church worship caused many a church to split.

By the end of the book, I had felt the pain and the joy of the characters. I had been challenged and something inside me had been aroused. I wanted to be apart of a Church like the one his characters are struggling to create. I felt a unity with the young and old, with the traditional and the contemporary, with a group of believers who want Christ to be their focus and for everything else to be secondary. I trust that you too will be challenged in the same way by Who Stole My Church.

Study the happiest and most successful women and you realize that they ignore balance, and strive for fullness instead. They deliberately tilt their world toward those few moments that genuinely fill them up.

As someone who has heard Marcus Buckingham speak and read his previous books, I looked forward to the release of his new book, Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently even though I have a Y chromosome. I was also excited about the book, because I am surround by women in my life (my wife, my daughters, co-workers) and I desire each one of them to be genuinely successful.

Buckingham is a self described ‘strength strategist’ and most of his readers would probably describe him as primarily a business/organizational writer. But Find Your Strongest Life challenges women in their individual lives to start life strong and grow even stronger in life. He introduces revolutionary concepts like intentionally imbalancing your life, strong moments, and the practice of catching and cradling these strong moments. At the same time, he debunks myths surrounding the benefits of ‘balance’ and ‘juggling’ life. His chapter subheadings, including ‘Strive for Imbalance’ and ‘Always Sweat the Small Stuff,’ prepare the reader to expect a break from the norm.

Buckingham takes his readers into the lives of two women, Charlie and Anna, to put real flesh and bones on his thesis. Although, Charlie and Anna have very similar backgrounds and skill sets, each ends up with a very different level of satisfaction in her life. Buckingham posits that it is the practice of catching and cradling life’s strong moments that accounts for this difference.

I found the book enjoyable, readable, and challenging. Although at times, I found myself thinking that a specific section or thought would be much more applicable to the women in my life. Well, of course, Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently is targeted toward women.

Although many authors of personal development books spend up to 90% of their book explaining their advice and only 10% pushing the reader to change, within the first 100 pages, Buckingham is challenging his readers. And this push continues for the next 80 pages as he uses sections like ‘What’s Stopping You’ to help the reader internalize his thesis and determine what it looks like in her own life. Part Three concludes with a look at specific areas of a woman’s life and steps can be taken in those areas to create a stronger life.

I know that I am going to need at least 2 more copies for my co-workers. And maybe another if I can convince my teenage daughters to start discovering their strongest life before they leave middle school and high school.

The Hour That Changes the World by Dick Eastman

Our world is changing everyday and I see needs around me that I am not sure what to do. I have been asking the Lord “How should I be praying?” This has caused me to reread my three favorite books on prayer. The first one is The Hour That Changes the World (click on the book to be taken to a link for a free online copy of the book) by Dick Eastman. I like how this author shows you how to plan a personal prayer time. He uses scripture to divide an hour into 12 parts. He explains the concepts very well, which gives you the freedom to use them to fit your schedule. Whether you have a few minutes to pray or are longing for a day of prayer this book will show you how to develop those prayer times.

Each chapter expands on one of the 12 “Scripturally based aspects” of prayer. The author suggests that prayer time always begins and ends with Praise. Other aspects of prayer that he discusses are; “Waiting”, “Confession”, “Scripture Praying”, “Watching”, “Intercession”, “Petition”, “Thanksgiving”, “Singing”, “Meditation”, and “Listening”. By using the author’s method of personal prayer I have been able to understand prayer but more importantly pray more effectively.

Praying God’s Word by Beth Moore

The second book on prayer that I have enjoyed is Praying God’s Word by Beth Moore. I have used this book during my time of confession and interceding for others. The author has scriptural prayers at the end of each chapter that has helped me to understand how to scripturally pray. She gives you other scripture to consider and space to write your prayers. “In praying Scripture, I not only find myself in intimate communication with God, but my mind is being retrained, or renewed (Rom. 12:20, to think His thoughts about my situation rather than mine.”

Praying the Names of God by Ann Spangler

The third book on prayer that I use is, Praying the Names of God by Ann Spangler. “To know God’s name is to enjoy a kind of privileged access to him”. The author has divided the book into 26 weeks of study and devotionals. When I pray for myself or others I am able to use the names of God. I can certainly pray without using these names but it brings comfort to me when I pray to “The Lord who heals (Yahweh Rophe)” for a friend or myself. This book is a great study and goes well with the other two books that I use.

“Oh, the pure delight of a single hour

That before Thy throne I spend,

When I kneel in prayer

And with Thee, Oh, God,

I commune as friend with Friend.”