The Scribe's Portion

"Joyful Surrender: 7 Disciplines for the Believer's Life" by Elisabeth Elliot This is the lowest rating I have ever given to an Elisabeth Elliot book, and I didn't enjoy it but I will give my honest explanation.  I was excited to dig into this book, as Elliot is my favorite Christian writer and I always jump at the opportunity to review her books. Her wisdom always shines through in her writing and she has an amazing way of putting truth into words that leave you pondering deeply. However, this one fell disappointedly short of her other books. As other reviewers have already pointed out, Elliot rambles quite a lot before stating her point. I don't mind her introductions and usually enjoy reading them, but this one just had too much of that.  I appreciate her anecdotes, and I always take something away, but she included way too much in this book. In some places, entire pages are just personal stories or stories about others. Like I said, I do...

"Confronting Old Testament Controversies:  Pressing Questions About Evolution, Sexuality, History, and Violence"  by Tremper Longman III With the increasing controversies challenging God and Scripture, this book couldn't have come at a better time. Longman's extensive experience in Old Testament studies makes him a very good candidate to answer these questions. He discusses the modern day, societal controversies on the creation vs. evolution debate, the exodus-conquest, divine violence in the OT, and homosexuality.  Although this is not a history or science textbook, Longman does a good apologetics job of defending the Scriptural views on these topics. The information presented is not exhaustive but it's a good place to start if interested in these topics and apologetics. The only fault I found in this book, is that it's a little too academic for the layman but perfect for the Bible student and pastor.  I received a copy of this book f...

"40 Verses to Ignite Your Faith: Surprising Insights from Unexpected Passages" by Laurie Polich Short This short, well-written, little book can be used as a devotional. The author did an amazing job of using Scripture from the entire Bible, not just the NT (as many books tend to neglect the OT). The verses she chose are not ones we see every day on merch, preached about, or discussed and this is the unique beauty of this book.  The author gives a short insight on each verse (about 2 pages) so the chapters are short, making this a perfect devotional. I liked that she spends about 3/4 of the book in the OT, taking several verses from one book at a time. I appreciate, since, the OT is often neglected. She covers many topics, which is amazing since she did that in under 40 verses. At the end of each chapter, there are a few questions for reflection. All in all,  I recommend this book to all, Christians of many years as well as those new to the faith, you ar...