The Scribe's Portion

"Faith For Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon" by David Kinnaman & Mark Matlock David Kinnaman of Barna Group and Mark Matlock team up to bring us this important book on the importance of raising the new generation upon deeply rooted faith. This book focuses on the 10% of youth who, in contrast to the majority of their generation, have not left the church and are grounded in their faith. As a late-twenty-something myself, this book is somewhat relevant to me. Many things discussed here, I saw during my HS and college years. Faith for Exiles uncovers 5 foundational ways through which youth need to be raised in, in order to produce resilient Christians. The authors refer to the current age as Digital Babylon since we rely heavily on technology for everything. The youth, especially who were born into and grew up surrounded by the technology, do not know life before it. This can have devasting consequences on their Christian...

"One More River to Cross" by Jane Kirkpatrick One More River to Cross is based on the true story of a group of travelers heading west in the 1840s. It was a large group with 17 children. Forced to split up in 3 groups after encountering a brutal winter, each group must find a way to survive and fend for themselves.  I had never heard of the Stephens- Murphy- Townsend expedition nor the Donner Party so it piqued my interest. However, I was let down by this book. There are way too many characters and although I appreciate the character table of contents, it's still confusing. Several characters have the same first names and it's not enjoyable to have to keep track of each one. Some dialogues are a bit boring and long. I was immediately turned off so that after a couple chapters I abandoned it altogether.  The plot sounded interesting but the novel itself just couldn't draw me in, which was a let down because I have enjoyed Jane's older novels in...

"Forged Through Fire: A Reconstructive Surgeon's Story of Survival, Faith, and Healing" by Mark D. McDonogh, MD I've read several memoirs about injury, pain, suffering, and healing but wow Forged Through Fire by Dr. Mark D. McDonough is very emotionally engaging.  Surviving a house fire at 16 which claimed the lives of his mother and younger brother and suffering burns in 65% of his body, Dr. Mark recounts his healing, both physically and internally. Dr. Mark has lived through many painful experiences, besides surviving the fire and undergoing numerous reconstructive surgeries, he was also diagnosed with a rare muscular disease as a child, he survived a car wreck, alcohol addiction, a stroke, and deaths of both parents and 3 brothers.  Through it all, he clung to his faith and found redemption, healing, and happiness. He used his experience to motivate him to pursue a career as a physical therapist, physician, and reconstructive surgeon. This...

"The Girl Behind the Red Rope" by Ted & Rachelle Dekker This is the first Ted Dekker novel that I read completely. I tried getting into his books before but found it difficult as I am not a fan of Christian suspense/thriller or fantasy fiction. I've read Rachelle's Seer series and enjoyed them all. But I must say this one was actually good. I appreciate the message about living in fear. It's a super relevant message for today as we all struggle with fear in our lives. I love how the Dekkers weave Scriptural messages into their books in a genre that I don't particularly like but will read from time to time. I like the plotline and personification of fear through mystical creatures called the Fury. I wasn't a huge fan of Grace, the main character or any particular character, save Eli. No one else caught my attention so that was a little disappointing. But all in all, this was a good, length novel conveying an important and very relevant messa...