Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend

   All of us need to have personal boundaries. None of us should be left with a sense of no limits.
When  a person is allowed to touch  you in a way that he or she shouldn't, a boundary has been broken or was never set in place. Everyone has the right to say no. When it comes to your skin, for example, no one but you and those who you allow to touch you has the right to do so.
   A boundary is how far you let a person go, A boundary is a limit.
   In this book Dr. Cloud and Dr. Townsend help you see and set up boundaries. Boundaries also limit our actions. You have to know when to say yes and when to say no and take control of your life. Boundaries help in this process.
    Boundaries are not just physical. They are also emotional and  spiritual. The complete person.
    The problem is that we are afraid of hurting someone if we say no. That should be the most distant thing from our mind. We must see ourselves as being important and also an individual. It is our right to be on one hand free and on the other hand to have limits to our action. Just as we are an individual so is the other person.
     I recommend this book for everyone.

Tender Warrior by Stu Weber

         Strong men should also have a tender side to them. It rounds out their manliness. Being tender doesn’t take away from but adds  to a complete man. 

            In sixteen chapters Weber maps out the need for completeness. He dissects the areas into personal, family, friends  and occupation. He ends each chapter with discussion starters for small groups or individuals who are using this book  He titles these A Man Faces Himself and A Man Meets With His Friends.

 Weber shares  his life with the reader. It has been said that a good example is better than any lecture. In this area he does fine. He also uses Biblical illustrations of  how men acted in the period they lived. He attempts to show you are an example to others.

It is a highly interesting book. I found myself stopping from time to time in the reading to think through what I have just read.  And when I came to the discussion helps at the end of each chapter I spent some time going over them. This is something I don’t normally do. But he has such a style of writing that makes you want to respond.

 It has been subtitled Every Man’s Purpose- Every Woman’s Dream- Every Child’s Hope.

   I recommend this for all men and maybe their girlfriends. It is also useful for a small group study. Take your time. Don’t rush it.

Empty Promises by Pete Wilson

     We all seek our value somewhere. In fact, we were created to have value. We can get our value from others or from things or from God. When we seek value from other things and not from God, our creator, we fall into idolatry. And when we fall into idolatry we are pursuing empty promises. Wilson contends.

            It is so easy to get seduced by these empty promises. We were all created to have a need for worth and acceptance. We tend to fall into traps which Wilson points out.

            We can start to become like that which we seek after. If we seek after things like money, fame, and position we lose our purpose that God has created us for. It is so easy to allow subtle little idols to creep in to our daily existence. This book gives us things to think about.

            Empty Promises is written for the Christian. It holds your attention while at the same time making you consider your response. to God. We need to worship something. That which we dwell on tends to become our object of worship, Wilson points out .

The book  is filled with bullet point lists. It comes across as a lecture in places. It can be sectioned into two parts. The first half presents the proposition that we are making idols to take the place of our creator. The second half points out the solution using biblical snapshots to illustrate the answer.       

            Wilson does a fair job of presentation. I feel this book should be read by  the person who needs to be reminded just what he is worshipping. It helps set his mind on the proper object of worship.    

Tyndale Biography

 
    The book is "Tyndale: The Man Who Gave God an English Voice" by David Teems.

     If you can have only one book on Tyndale in your library, this may be the one. The author , David Teems, shows some love for the period that Tyndale lived in. He also shows a deep interest in the Reformation and how it came to England.
    Tyndale was a contemporary of Martin Luther (Not the civil rights guy) and  Henry VIII also with Thomas More and Shakespeare.
    It was Tyndale who brought the Scriptures into England and translated the Scripture into that mother tongue. He had to do it in secret because the Roman church was so strong in those days; they controled the scripture. No one was allowed to touch it except for the priests.
    It was Tyndale who gave us the flowing pace of the scripture passages we know and love and memorize today.. And he did it from the Greek. He didn"t have any other translations to build upon. Yes, Wycliffe had a translation. But that was from the Latin text and in middle English. Tyndale gives us a modern English translation.
     Today we can look back at the translation we have. All this is welcome to Tyndale.
     The attempts Sir Thomas More, the lap dog of HenryVIII, used to discredit Tytndale are mentioned here also.
      It wasn"t easy bringing out a English translation in those days. Tydale can even be credited with bringing the reformation to England. Germany had Luther. Geneva had Calvin. But England had Tyndale.
      I recommend this book highly for an easy to read and flowing story.

The Grace of God by Andy Stanley

   
  
    This book by Andy Stanley is an easy to read non-technical treatise of one of God's attributes.
    Grace has been defined by theologians as  God's dealing with a person according to his need. Stanley would agree with that and add that there is nothing that must be done to merit it.In this book he traces grace from creation through the early church.
    In 217 pages with  notes he uses a comfortable reading style taking small stories in Scripture to illustrate how generous God is with his grace. He points ouit it was God's attribute of grace that allowed Adam and Eve to live after the disobedience. He shows how unearned it is by showing time and again the people God gave grace to even when their actions were not worthy.
    And that is the point.

    I found this book to be a thought provoking book. Stanley handles the subject in a way that made me think about God. It is not a stodgy theological discussion nor a primer. I would recommend this for everyone who needs an easy to understand explanation. It will help them explain it to others.

  Booksneeze has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.