Book Review: For The Love by Jen Hatmaker

This book will lighten your load and give
fresh meaning to the word, grace! 

For The Love~Fighting For Grace In A World Of Impossible Standards by Jen Hatmaker

Best-selling author, Jen Hatmaker is convinced life can be lovely and fun and courageous and kind. She knows how the squeeze of this life can make us competitive and judgmental; how we can lose love for others and then for ourselves. She reveals how to:

Break free of guilt and shame by dismantling the unattainable Pinterest life.
Learn to engage our culture's controversial issues with a           grace-first approach.
Identify the tools you already have to develop real-life, all-in know-my-junk-but-love-me-anyway friendships.
Escape our impossible standards for parenting and marriage by accepting the standard of "mostly good."

In this raucous ride to freedom for modern women, Jen Hatmaker bares the refreshing wisdom, wry humor, no-nonsense faith, liberating insight, and fearless honesty that have made her beloved by women worldwide.

My Personal Review:

For The Love~FIGHTING for GRACE in a World of Impossible Standards by Jen Hatmaker is a wonderfully burden breaking book filled with sound truths about grace. 
For The Love by Jen Hatmaker takes a relaxed and transparent look at the elements of grace and the pressure we put on ourselves to live it out in a "perfect" way every day. This book gently reminds the reader that the focus of grace filled living should center around the love we share and reveal to one another through kindness practiced in our everyday living; It is more about resembling Christ through a relationship with Him rather than trying harder to be better within our own strength. 

Reading the book,  For The Love by Jen Hatmaker is similar to the feeling one gets from a cool breeze on a hot summer day! With each turn of the page, I could feel the air becoming lighter...crisper...easier to breathe. Jen's candor and honest transparency throughout her writing is so refreshing to me that I can hardly put her work down. Instead of  rushing through and trying to read faster, I found myself reading slower, so as to savor every word. Well done!

Jen Hatmaker will bring a smile to your face!

After digesting this most recent work from Jen Hatmaker, the reader will undoubtedly search their own heart for issues that have been hidden and not dealt with due to the fear of being judged by a harsh world. Jen brings to light that releasing these concerns to the Lord will break chains and set you free to demonstrate the goodness of God wherever you are planted. The humor in this book is plentiful. Is she a comedian in addition to her writing career? I literally could not stop laughing during many parts of this book. Her unstoppable ability to bring liberation to a soul bound in guilt, fear, and insecurity is a priceless gift.

I think what I love most about this author's work is the way her "spicy" personality comes across in her masterpieces. She describes "spicy people" as those who "love obnoxious humor, sarcasm, and the tendency to be very, very loud." She goes on to explain that spicy folks have "enormous feelings, which makes us a passionate, emotional bunch. Our permanent default setting is exclamation marks. We don't really 'do gentle.' We don't actually know what that means." 

For The Love brings out this free spirited sense of abandon and translates to the reader in a comedic way. However, don't mistake Jen's fun spirited delivery with a watered down message, because her case for Christ and her consistent message that we need to reach out to a hurting world in truth and love are vehemently clear. Her insistence that God should not be our "American God Narrative", 'filtered through a middle class, white, advantage denominational lens' sets the stage for one of the most profound statements in the entire book, which is: "Theology is either true everywhere or it isn't true anywhere." Powerful, thought provoking, and true! 

For the Love  by Jen Hatmaker is a treat to read! It will be released on August 18, 2015. This book definitely has the potential to set a warm heart on fire...a captive soul free... a confused mind straight...and perhaps even change a grumpy countenance to a bright and happy one.  

Thank you to Thomas Nelson a registered trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc for this complimentary review copy of For The Love by Jen Hatmaker provided through NetGalley. I received this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions within this review are my own.

Be Good To Your Servant

Psalm 119:65(MSG) Be good to your servant, God;  be as good as Your Word.

Good-bye summer....

Well, something happened to the summer!  It's gone and I'm left with a school supply list.  I have no idea where the weeks went, but apparently it is almost time for academics to get back into full swing!  Oh my....that does not seem remotely possible.

I love this scripture.  It is the ultimate succinct prayer.  It clearly requests for the Lord to be good to us; for God to be as good as His word.  There are two things that I treasure about this verse.  First, I cherish that it calls to mind that I am a servant.  I am a servant to the living God.  The labor that I perform here on earth is for Him....to bring Him glory.  Secondly, I hold fast to the fact that God's word never changes and that He always keeps it...His word that is.  So, for Him to be "as good to us as His word" helps me to comprehend that when He says that He will not leave me or forsake me...He means it.  When He says that His love endures forever...it most certainly will.  When He promises a room in His house after this life on earth is done...it will be there.  It is written...and so it shall be.
That is as good as it gets.

Father,
Bless Your servants tonight.  Fill us to overflowing with the love and promises that You have written in Your word for us, because You are as good as Your word says that You are!
In Your Holy Name,
Amen 

Freedom Isn't Really Free

Proverbs 28:2(MSG)

When the country is in chaos, everybody has a plan to fix it-
But it takes a real leader of real understanding to straighten things out.

Taking a brief detour through a Proverb today....in honor of Veterans and all of the men and women who serve our country.  Remembering what was said yesterday at a ceremony to acknowledge those that have sacrificed so much for each of our privileges.  The speaker said, "Freedom isn't really free!"  So true.....

Lord,

I am thankful for those that have given so much so that I could have the freedoms that I have.  Help me to never take that for granted.  Praying today for the leaders of our country to stand firm in You for guidance, understanding, and courage during these times of great challenge.

Amen

Problems Solved In His Presence.....

Psalm 139:7 (NIV)
Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence? 


My summer trip to the mountains is in full swing.  As I enjoy the beautiful  Appalachian mountain air and the crisp cool waters of the surrounding lakes, my mind and heart keep returning to those being affected by the Joplin tornadoes.  I want so badly to have answers for "why" something so devastating would happen....as though that would some how help to make sense of it all.

My mind wanders back to my Algebra class in High School.  I loved Math, but I usually had  sections that I struggled with.  My mother (the accountant) was always standing by and ready to assist me with those long tedious assignments.  She would tell me, "Go through the problems one at a time.  Work through each question, answering those that you know and skip those that you are unsure of.  When you come to the end of your assignment, bring those questions to me that you were not able to complete and I will help you work through them to obtain the answer." 

That's what I will have to do with this tragedy....solve the problems that I know how to solve.  That's what I see the body of Christ doing in the aftermath of this tremendous loss.  They're getting busy on the assignment~working and answering those problems that they know how to solve.  The same can be said for many of my friends back home. Immediately after the tornado touched down people began to do what they could do to help.  Friends on Face Book started using their profile page as a contact point in an effort to connect those that were not able to reach loved ones.  The basic needs of shelter, food, and clothing began streaming in.  Prayer chains were started  (and still are for that matter) for the storm victims and their families.


Groups of people near and far are reaching out and answering the problems that they know how to answer.  What an amazing outpouring of love and a wonderful display of the Holy Spirit!  His presence is in all that is being done for those that have suffered such great loss.

As for the "why" it happened, well....I will have to save that question and bring that to (in this case) my Father when I get to the end of my earthly assignment....cuz, I just don't think I can solve this one on my own.