Book Review : Title - simplify. - ten practices to unclutter your soul by Bill Hybels

“but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:42

Here is a book which helps me get started to 'decumulate' what I have accumulated over the years. I discovered that what took me half a lifetime to accumulate, it probably may take the same amount of time or more to unclutter. Therefore it is good time to get started.

As I read this book, I found that our lives can be so complicated, overwhelming and exhausted. It is likely we are part of the contributing factor to these challenges. Therefore, taking time to simplify as the book title suggests is one of the wisest thing we can make changes to our already congested life. Think of it as doing a life spring cleaning - the air is certainly much clearer, healthy, refreshing and enjoyable.

Pastor Bill Hybels identifies ten areas to simplify, beginning with working on our energy reserves, then our calendars, our finances, our work life, our relationships that need forgiveness, our fears, our community, our calling, our seasons of life and finally our legacy.

As I browse through each of these areas, I felt that spirit of procrastination to simplify and work on these areas because it does take hard work. But with God's help, I can slowly but surely unclutter.

Last chapter is a must read where Pastor Hybels concludes, "We get one shot at this life. Choose a purposeful, God-first life, and you will reap rewards for today and for eternity. Choose a life where the God-shaped void in your soul is filled to overflowing, and you will leave a legacy for those who follow you. Invest your one and only life with all the clarity and focus you can give it. This is simplified living. This is the life that satisfies."

You may want to pick up other titles by Bill Hybels such as:
1. Just Walk Across The Room
2. Becoming A Contagious Christian (co-author with Mark Mittelberg)
3. Courageous Leadership
4. Too Busy Not To Pray
5. The God You’re Looking For

Book Review : Title - Love & Respect -The Love She Most Desires, The Respect He Desperately Needs by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs

“However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
Ephesians 5:33 ESV

Excerpts from the Introduction of the book:

This book is about how the wife can fulfil her need to be loved by giving her husband what he needs – respect. Here is the story of one couple who discovered the Love and Respect message just in time: ‘My husband and I attended your Love and Respect marriage conference. The truths God has revealed to you are both simple and profound… They started a healing process and revolutionized our marriage. If only we had been given this information thirty years ago, what heart and pain it would have saved us.’

What can happen when a husband and wife take a different approach to their marriage relationship? Do you want some peace? Do you want to feel close to your spouse? Do you want to feel understood? Do you want to experience marriage the way God intended? Then try some Love and Respect!

This book is for everyone: people in marital crisis … spouses headed for divorce … husbands and wives in a second marriage … people wanting to stay happily married … spouses married to unbelievers … divorcees trying to heal … lonely wives … browbeaten husbands … spouses in affairs … victims of affairs … engaged couples … pastors or counselors looking for material that can save marriages.

Ironically, the deepest need of the wife – to feel loved – is undermined by her disrespect. As one wife wrote:
“I wanted to let you know, I GOT IT! God granted me the power of this revelation of respecting my husband. … This revelation … has changed everything in my marriage – my approach, my response, my relationship to God and my husband. It was the missing piece.”

Book Review : Title - Encounters with Jesus - Unexpected Answers to Life’s Biggest Questions by Timothy Keller

“Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” 1 John 2:6

‘What is my purpose in life? Who am I meant to be? How can I live a successful life? Why is there so much wrong with our world today? Am I part of the problem? What can I do to help change that?’ These are the big, seemingly unanswerable questions that everyone asks in life. In this book, Ps Timothy Keller explores life’s biggest questions by showing what happened to those who met Jesus personally. (from book cover)

This book is an in-depth look at ten encounters with Jesus as recorded in the gospels. We will have greater appreciation of those encounters and move us to greater depth in our Bible reading, Bible study discussion and applications of the Word in our lives.

Ps Keller has a way with using appropriate stories and illustrations to bring home the main point. How a mother desires a relationship with her son besides instructing the son to live a good life, tell the truth, always work hard and care for the poor. That is what God desires for us too but not so when we are simply doing the right things and not letting God be God to us. (see page 36-37)

In another chapter on the Wedding Party where mother Mary makes her request to Jesus to help on the wine that ran out, he uses the story of A Tale of Two Cities to illustrate the idea of Christ's substitutionary sacrifice for us. The story caught my attention on the depth of God's love for everyone. (see page 78-79)

I recommend this book for your next read.

Other titles by Timothy Keller are:
1. Counterfeit Gods - Empty Promises of Money, Sex, Power, & the Only Hope that Matters
2. Every Good Endeavour - Connecting Your Work to God's Work
3. Making Sense of God - An Invitation to the Skeptical (new title by Timothy Keller)
4. King's Cross - The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus
5. Prayer: - Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God
6. The Meaning of Marriage-Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God
7. The Prodigal God - Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
8. Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

Book Review : Title - Living in the Light - Money, Sex and Power : Making the most of three dangerous opportunities by John Piper

Here is a life re-orientational book where Pastor John puts in more meat to the sermons he delivered when he was invited to speak in England.

In life we struggle with issues like sex, money and power, pastor John unpacks from the Word the pleasure destroying dangers of sex, the wealth destroying dangers of money and the self destroying dangers of power and reorientates us to God's mercies and God's glory through Jesus Christ.

With God's glory as our goal, the struggles turn into opportunities to serve God, seek God's help and to glorify God.

Book Review : Title - The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel

An excellent book of finding answers to hard questions for our faith in Christ.  Strobel takes these questions to several leading experts to somewhat to the bench to answer, namely Peter John Kreeft, William Lane Craig, Walter L. Bradley, Norman L. Geisler, Ravi Zacharias, J. P. Moreland,  John D. Woodbridge, Lynn Anderson.

Wow! Meeting eight authors and hearing their answers all in one book. It is a rare treasure with an overarching goal to help all to decide at the end of the day: to believe in God or to reject Him totally.

Notable quotes:
Page 337
Page 343

The book concluded with an amazing story of a man whose life was given a second chance after coming to faith in Jesus in the prison cell.

Lee Strobel ended his manuscript of the book and decided to mail a copy to a preacher-turned-skeptic Charles Templeton who brought up the challenge of faith.