Christian Book Notes

We have been trying to figure out a way to set apart the book giveaways from the actual reviews themselves and this is what we came up with.  In two weeks, we will begin to host book giveaways on a regular basis–every Wednesday.  Only we will be calling it “Winsday.”  Each “Winsday” we will announce a new giveaway that will last until the following Monday at noon Eastern Standard Time.  Directions to enter each giveaway may differ so you will have to pay attention to how you can enter.

Unfortunately, we will not have our first “Winsday” giveaway until November 11, but, stay tuned as there is a pretty huge giveaway in the works between now and then.  Until then, from our family here at Christian Book Notes to yours, we pray that you have a wonderful and Christ-honoring Thanksgiving.

Jennifer Bogart of Quiverfull Family is our most recent winner.  Congratulations, Jennifer, I pray your children enjoy these two wonderful picture books. 

Stay tuned for an exciting announcement regarding future giveaways at Christian Book Notes.

The two winners for the Dave Ramsey giveaway are:

• Norm Hollabaugh–The Total Money Makeover
• Jon Walls–Financial Peace Revisted

The winners were selected using random.org.  Thank you for all who entered and stay tuned for more giveaways each Winsday!

Congratulations to our winners of the Paul Washer Giveaway. Jacob A. Davis won a copy of The Truth About Man. Michael Pittman, who writes at Transplant Ministries and is on Twitter @LawGrace, won a copy of The One True God. Stephen Newell, of the Silent Holocron and on Twitter at @Stephen_Newell, won the grand prize of both books. Stay tuned every Wednesday for a new give away. God bless.

Congratulations to our winners, Kelly Banning and David Smithey. They were selected from among the comments and Tweets for the autographed copy of Building your Financial Fortress. A Special thanks to the author, Kevin Cross, who signed and sent these books to Christian Book Notes. Please stay tuned as we have more giveaways queued up and ready to go here. The best way to stay up to date is to subscribe to our RSS Feed or our e-mail.  God bless.

With a click of the left mouse button at Random.org, my oldest son “selected” number 41.  Number 41 on my list was on Dr. Dennis Phelps who is Director, Church-Minister & Alumni Relations and is the J.D. Grey Professor of Preaching at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

I would like to thank everyone for entering. Stay tuned as we have more opportunities to win books as well as some good books coming up for review in the near future.

My daughter Sarah came home yesterday afternoon.  She is doing well though the next year is going to be a rough year with pending surgeries to fix the cleft palate and the special feedings not to mention our three older boys as well!

I cannot express in words how encouraging reading the prayers left in the comment field have meant to me and my family.  There were many nights I would read over them as a way to point myself back to Christ.   Knowing that there were people who do not even know me are out there praying was a neat experience.  I am sure that must be how missionaries feel.

At any rate, with my daughter coming home, we have drawn and contacted our winners.  While I wish I could give something to everyone, I am not able to do so.  So, here are our winners in the order of the prize packages.

Set 1: The Grand Prize–David Crawford
Set 2: Barrs/Baucham prize–Jody Gates (Jody is a homemaker, mom, and pastor’s wife who blogs about how to make Christ the center of your life at JodyLynne.blogspot.com.
Set 3: Devotional prize–Chadwick Banning
Set 4: Calvinism prize–Joshua Holowell
Set 5: ESV Study Bible–John Parker

I again thank everyone for their prayers and for signing up for my reviews. Keep looking for more contests and give aways. We have quite a few in store. God bless and thank you again.

I apologize for not having updated here at the website.  I have been writing pretty much every night about the day’s events on my Facebook page.  I am happy to announce that she has improved dramatically each and every day.  She has surprised doctors and nurses and mommies and daddies!  She was set to go home sometime over the weekend but is now scheduled for either a Monday or Tuesday release.

I want to first thank everyone for their prayers.  I struggled with whether or not this would work, but to be honest with everyone, I found it to be very encouraging for my soul as did my wife.  I wish I could give everyone something but, alas, I am only a seminary student and children’s minister!  In light of the length of time this has taken already, I plan to cut off the contest on Monday morning.  Stay tuned as I will be contacting the winners Monday morning.  As soon as I hear back from them, I will announce them.

Again, I thank you for your prayers.  I cannot emphasize how much they have meant to me and my family.  May God bless each and every one of you.  If you have not entered, you can do so here.

Anderson, Debby. Let’s Explore God’s World. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2009. 32 pp. $10.99. Purchase at Westminster Books for $8.24.

Introduction

Debby Anderson is a kindergarten teacher who is a proud mother of four children and an even prouder grandparent of three. She and her husband have both served American Missionary Fellowship. She has written and illustrated more than 25 books including the ECPA Gold Medallion nominee God Knows My Name.

Synopsis

Let’s Explore God’s World is colorful, fun little book showing children the beauty of God’s creation. However, this children’s book comes with more than just stories about the world. Debby seeks to teach the children that we must take care of God’s world. In so doing, she offers some tips on how to do just that.

These tips are all “R” words that will help us to be more responsible. They are words like “reduce,” “reuse,” “respect,” “renew,” and “rejoice.” After each little section of writing, Debby has scripture references. These may refer to the pictures or words on the page.

The pictures are very colorful and easily capture the child’s imagination and attention. This was evident to me as I read this book to my three sons ages 5 and younger. The older would point out pictures to the younger and the younger would point at everything on the page.

Critique

I hesitate to critique a children’s book, but, in this case, I feel that Debby missed a wonderful opportunity to really apply biblical terminology to a problem that has truthfully existed since the Fall of man. The two inside covers have Genesis 1:26 from the Message: Be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth. This quote sets up the theme of the book wonderfully and Debby does an excellent job of driving home what it means to be responsible for the Earth.

My problem is that this book seems to be an attempt at the trendy “be green” mantra of today. She also writes a note to the “Grown-up Readers” in which she says, “In the beginning, God gave us the responsibility of caring for His brand-new world. As our generation passes on this responsibility to the next, there is a sense of urgency…” Yes, we have the responsibility to care for God’s world and yes, it does appear to be getting worse, but I think there was a better word to use in teaching the children why we should care for God’s world. That word is “stewardship.”

Stewardship is a word that is lost on most children today and one I fear may be lost completely in the near future. Stewardship helps us to see why we need to take care of anything–God has given us everything and we are commanded to take care of it all. Stewardship helps us to put into context the fact that nothing is truly ours. Stewardship gives us a biblical ground for taking care of God’s world.

I believe Debby missed a golden opportunity to introduce biblical stewardship to her young readers as well as their parents who undoubtedly will be reading this book to their children.

Recommendation

Even with the stewardship/responsibility “issue,” this book is still an excellent resource for parents to teach their children about caring for God’s creation. If, however, you do purchase this book, please explain to your children the doctrine of biblical stewardship.  Stewardship is not just about money. It is about all of God’s creation.

In honor of my first daughter’s (fourth child) arrival, I am going to give away a total of 19 books in four sets.  However, this is going to be a different kind of give away because of the sensitive nature of the arrival of Sarah Joy Delaney.  Please read the entire article.

The Books

Set 1:  The Grand Prize

• Feelings and Faith by Brian S. Borgman
• Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church by Donald S. Whitney
• The Immigration Crisis by James K. Hoffmeier
• The Bookends of the Christian Life by Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington
• The Red Letters by Timothy J. Beals
• The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism by G.K. Beale
• Ancient Word, Changing Worlds by Stephen J. Nichols and Eric T. Brandt
• The Case for Life by Scott Klusendorf

Set 2: Barrs/Baucham prize

• Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham
• What He Must Be to Marry My Daughter by Voddie Baucham
• Learning Evangelism from Jesus by Jerram Barrs
• Through His Eyes by Jerram Barrs

Set 3: Devotional prize

• Jesus, Keep me Near the Cross edited by Nancy Guthrie
• More Precious than Gold by Sam Storms
• A Shelter in the Time of Storm by Paul David Tripp

Set 4: Calvinism prize

• Calvinism:  A Southern Baptist Dialogue edited by E. Ray Clendenen and Brad J. Waggoner
• The Doctrines of Grace by James Montgomery Boice and Philip Graham Ryken
• Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace? by James Montgomery Boice

Set 5: ESV Study Bible

The Occasion

Sarah Joy Delaney was born at 12:46 am on 22 July 2009.  She weighed 6.6 lbs and measured 20.5 inches.  Everything seemed perfect until she tried to nurse.  We then noticed that she was not interested in nursing and was struggling for breath.  It turns out the Lord permitted her to have a cleft palate, a recessed chin, and a displaced tongue which ends up obstructing the airway.  This is commonly referred to as Pierre Robin Sequence or Complex though we are waiting on an official diagnosis at the time of my writing this. We are awaiting some genetic test results as well.

Admittedly, my wife and I were a bit taken aback but we knew that it was all in the Lord’s hands.  We have since talked with numerous specialists and nurses and doctors and have discovered that she should end up living a normal life after some surgical procedures to fix everything in her mouth.

Through it all, the Lord has granted my wife and I much favor, grace, mercy, and peace.  My wife was released from the hospital less than 9 hours after delivering Sarah–at the doctor’s offering.  We have experienced Phil. 4:6 peace throughout it all.  We have been able to share the gospel with countless nurses, doctors, people, and family members.  Through it all, God is showing His faithfulness.

Sarah is currently at the Kosair hospital NIC-U and is doing extraordinarily well.  Truth be told, she was one of the healthiest babies in the NIC-U.  We praise God for His loving-kindness.

Two Ways to Win

1. Please sign up for my RSS Feed and/or Email Feed.  This accomplishes two goals.  First, it keeps you, the reader up to date on what is being reviewed at Christian Book Notes and what is being given away here as well.  Second, the more subscribers I have, the more the publishers will give books away through Christian Book Notes.  Truly, it ends up being a win-win for you!  When you subscribe, please take the time to email me at tdelaney017@yahoo.com and let me know.  If you are already a subscriber, please email and let me know that and you will be entered as well.  Emailing me will assure that we get your entry–otherwise, we have a hard time tracking who has signed up.  (One entry per feed subscription per email address).
2. The second way to be entered for a chance at one of the five sets of books is to leave a prayer in the comment field for Sarah, or Krista, or anyone else in my family, or the doctors.  I want to take every opportunity I can to seek the Lord on behalf of my daughter and wife.  It also serves as a great encouragement to my family.  (One entry per email address).

Here are some suggestions for prayer:

• Wisdom for the doctors
• strength for Krista and Terry (me)
• that Sarah will not have any infection when the procedures are performed
• that the procedures will go well–her tongue will be sewn to her lip this coming Tuesday
• that the gospel will be shared
• that God will receive all the glory

The contest will end when Sarah comes home from the hospital.  This may be one week or two weeks.  It could be a month.  If the Lord should allow her to stay longer than a month, I will add books to the give away as I review more.