Vision Books

This is one of my favorite books about the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Very few books really delve into the fate of these brave men that risked all by signing this document. It is necessary to understand all that the signers went though in support of the Declaration...some were imprisoned, some had all their lands destroyed, and some even lost family members to stand behind the document. This book should be required reading, so that others can learn the history of these men, and in doing so learn the history of the conflict, and the steps taken to end it. To read this book is to understand what drove the signers to make the desicion they did, and what helped them stay strong in the face of such horrifying possibilities.

If we fail to appreciate the quality of our founding fathers and the sacrifices they made, we will not understand the greatness of their creation. The audio Greatness to Spare follows the roster of the signers of the Declaration of Independence colony by colony, telling of the risks they took when they supported this fledgling nation. Although some of the information is common knowledge to history buffs, there is still much to learn from this audio. The quality of the reader's voice is very good, a pleasant one to listen to. This tape is an excellent addition to a private library or to the colonial historian. And the price is right!

Guts Imagination Vision: Conversations with Innovators Changemakers is as interesting as it is attractive! The stories contained in the book have everything from romance to adventure, tragedy to triumph and misfortune to fabulous fortune! While reading this book I began to see these amazing entrepreneurs as people just like me. I learned from the lessons that they learned and I am inspired to follow in their very big footsteps. I feel like the subjects of this book became my mentors and friends, ready willing and absolutely able to show me the way in the world of free enterprise.

This book contains open conversations from people who have started their own businesses and grown them into successful enterprises. The narrative format allows the reader to come to know each of the entrepreneurs as individuals--an honest account of small business owners.

In The Gift, the GypsyBridge Friends series of children's books builds on its impressive start in The Vine. The concept for the series initially surprised me and I had to sleep on that surprise before I understood all of my reactions. I can't remember ever having to think a lot about a children's book before. Since then, I've come to be very enthusiastic about the concept.

The Gift is a four-part resource. First, it's a story told as a parable about a child, Sally, and her friends, Dick, Jane and Tom. Second, it's a Bible lesson using the parable. Third, it's a play lesson with reusable materials. Fourth, it's a series of teaching suggestions for parents (located behind the materials).

But to say that understates the versatility of this book. Most such books pretty much can be used only as a picture book and then as a reader at a beginner level. The Gift can be used at three levels: a picture book; then as a book where the child has the material read aloud to her or him; and then as a reader that is appropriate for about third grade with over 2000 words in it.

Here's the parable. The four children are neighbors in a seemingly adult-bereft world. God and Jesus are around . . . but not visibly. Like most children, the four find themselves sitting glumly on a park bench one day because they are bored. "What can they do to make things better?" Reciting the rhyme, "Gifts from God," cheers up all but Sally, who just walks off as they others are getting excited. Sally just feels sad. Jane fixes a tea party for her, but that doesn't cheer Sally up. Antics by Spot, the dog, make Sally cry and walk away again. The other children feel sadder because Sally is sad. The next day, they take her a cake . . . but Sally just cries again. And she doesn't feel like playing. "Who could help them?" They go to their Father's house through the front door with Jesus' name on it. Suddenly, Sally realizes she should pray to Jesus and ask his help. "Make me joyful in you again." "She feels peace inside her, and the sadness doesn't seem to matter any more, Jesus will take care of it." The children tell Father about the problem and He says He can and will fix it. They all feel better. A few days later, Jane visits Sally again to find that Sally has found a new pet, a fluffy white cat named Fluffy. Jane is happy now and Sally thanks Father.

The parable's lesson is from Philippians 4:6-7. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." The parable is nicely explained in this context.

The book's activity involves playing Jane's Game. There are outlines of Spot, Fluffy, a teapot and two cups on a page that can be decorated with dry erase markers (you'll need to use your own). In the example images, there are also shapes like those in The Vine so you could also put those shapes on the outlines.

Visually, the book will be very appealing to most children. It uses computer-generated animation methods similar to those in the movie "Toy Story." Since it's about children, they will find the material relevant. Also, there are two girls and two boys so there's a chance to relate to a same-sex character. One of the characters, Tom, appears to be African-American which encourages racial openness.

When I was young, I enjoyed the comic-book versions of the Bible that were distributed in Sunday School. These made the stories come to life for me. Unfortunately, there were no similar materials when I was younger. The GypsyBridge Friends fill in that gap in an imaginative way. Now every day can bring a Sunday School lesson for preschoolers and beginning readers!

After you have been reading this delightful book with your child from a while, I suggest that you pray with your child to ask for God's help. That's a way that you can be a greater gift to your child.

The GypsyBridge Friends series of children's books is off to an impressive start in The Vine. The concept for the series surprised me and I had to sleep on that surprise before I understood all of my reactions. I can't remember ever having to think a lot about a children's book before.

The Vine is really a four-part resource. First, it's a story told as a parable about a child, Dick, and his friends, Sally, Tom and Jane. Second, it's a Bible lesson using the parable. Third, it's a play lesson with reusable materials. Fourth, it's a series of teaching suggestions for parents (located behind the materials).

But to say that understates the versatility of this book. Most such books pretty much can be used only as a picture book and then as a reader at a beginner level. The Vine can be used at three levels: a picture book; then as a book where the child has the material read aloud to her or him; and then as a reader that is appropriate for about third grade with over 2000 words in it.

Here's the parable. The four children are neighbors in a seemingly adult-bereft world. God and Jesus are around . . . but not visibly. God's hand starts the story when a coupon floats down from the sky where Dick sees it. The coupon offers one free vine of life "Guaranteed to bring you Joy. Ask in the name of Jesus." Dick heads down to Dad's store and the person at the Customer Service desk gives him a box with a little booklet and a pot in it containing a vine with two tiny leaves. Dick plants the vine right by his front door and heedlessly throws the instructions away without reading them. He waits for the joy to come. While he's waiting, a mug labeled THOUGHTLESSNESS appears mysteriously. Dick tastes it, drinks more and pours the rest on his vine. When Dick returns home from playing with Tom and his dog, Spot, a big purple vine has taken over the front of his house. He angrily cuts the vine down. Next, he starts playing ball with himself. Spot wants to play, too, but Dick won't let him. A can labeled SELFISHNESS arrives. He drinks from that and pours the rest on his vine. He goes for a walk. Now his house is covered with the purple vine again and a new yellow one on one side. Dick gets even angrier and orders his friends to leave him alone. A glass labeled ANGER appears. Dick drinks and pours the rest on his vine. He goes inside and shuts the door. While he's there the purple and yellow vines return along with a red one. He cannot get out of the house! With clippers he can finally get out a window. He asks, "Why would Jesus do this?" Tom asks Dick if he had read the instructions. Dick finds the instructions and finds out that he should "Plant this vine with the love of Jesus. Water with Prayer. Prune with the word of God." There's a box labeled "Love of Jesus," a jar labeled "Prayer," and a small pair of clippers labeled "Word of God." He follows the instructions and all is well.

The parable's lesson is from John 15:1-2 and 5. "Jesus said, I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a person remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." The parable is nicely explained in this context.

The book's activity is using simple shapes to make an image which can easily be turned into a grape vine climbing a trellis.

Visually, the book will be very appealing to most children. It uses computer-generated animation methods similar to those in the movie "Toy Story." Since it's about children, they will find the material relevant. Also, there are two girls and two boys so there's a chance to relate to a same-sex character. One of the characters, Tom, appears to be African-American which encourages racial openness.

When I was young, I enjoyed the comic-book versions of the Bible that were distributed in Sunday School. These made the stories come to life for me. Unfortunately, there were no similar materials when I was younger. The GypsyBridge Friends fill in that gap in an imaginative way. Now every day can bring a Sunday School lesson for preschoolers and beginning readers!

After you have been reading this delightful book with your child from a while, I suggest that you try to create your own book together drawing from the Bible as your inspiration. That's another way that you can be a branch from the vine of Jesus.

I've used this little paperback so many times over the years, the pages are falling apart. Rev. Miller's ability to laugh at his own foibles and change his own attitudes are inspirational for those of us who know we are never going to be perfect, but who would like to keep on trying

Although many authors make poor readers of their own material, this audiotape is a definite exception to the rule. In these very personal and transparent vignettes, Keith Miller reveals the struggles and subtle temptations that beset the "successful" Christian author and lecturer. His honest appraisal of his own failings prompts a more thorough soul-searching of our own "dragons". Frequently, while listening to him describe his struggles with insecurities, anxiety, escapism, pride, self-doubt and ordinary family challenges, I recognized the similarities in my reactions to circumstances. These are tapes you will want to savor...and then return to somewhere down your spiritual walk, to check on your progress. By participating in the heart-felt prayers at the end of each story, it kept the tone positive and hopeful.

Jordan's work is always a marvel. The thesis of his larger body of work is that a theologian and commentator must pay attention not only to what happens in Scripture, but the minute details of how it is written. He has a breath-taking command of Scripture, particularly the Old Testament and Leviticus in particular. I still hope he will one day give us a full commentary on Leviticus.

Daniel is one of the most notorious books in Scripture to interpret, and Jordan faults the methods most theologians use to read it. His reading sticks very close to the text, and solves most of the problems quickly and without stretching very far. This is a book of upheavals, mostly the assumptions of the readers. His exposition of Daniel 7 is especially subversive. He argues that we see Daniel 7 absolutely backwards. We look at Daniel 7 through the lens of Jesus, or Daniel's future. Daniel would not have read it this way. To understand what Daniel meant, we must look at the text like Daniel would have. Daniel would have looked backwards, at what had been written before, particularly Ezekiel. The result is staggering, but one which makes good sense of the text.

One of my favorite arguments he made was that Israel was judged and brought into the nations because God was advancing His Kingdom in those governments, and that the kingdoms of the world would, until the coming of Christ, serve as the guardians and protectors of God's Kingdom and His people. He shows that Israel fell into sin because it refused to accept this fact. There is also a lot of inter-Biblical studies. Jordan correlates what Daniel was doing with what was happening in Jeremiah, Ezra/Nehemiah. The way he did this enabled me to see more clearly exactly how many of those Old Testament books relate to one another.

The commentary does many things well, and is not challenging to read. He provides translations of the book at the beginning of each chapter, and renders it in a way that it would originally been read out loud, as the book was intended to be read, which was very helpful.

I was not sure I followed his chronology argument completely, and more background may have helped there. That, I think is the largest problem with the commentary (and it's one that a second or third time through will probably fix as well). Jordan is building his method from a ton of ground work that is not readily available outside his Ministry's website. He has written extensive essays, books, monographs, and papers establishing things which he assumes here and that many readers may pause about, wondering why the author seems to move too quickly to a conclusion or assumption that he has amply demonstrated elsewhere (over thousands of pages of work), but which are not easy to get a hold of. I have long hoped that these would be compiled into books and published more widely. Perhaps with this wide release, that will begin to happen.

Jordan really is one of the best Bible commentators in the world today, and he is always a pleasure to read. We are blessed to have him. He takes the Bible seriously as history and as literature, and over-emphasizes neither. His bio on the back of this book states he is currently working on a commentary on Zechariah. Let us hope that commentary emerges soon!

If you are interested in the major foundations for his body of work in general, and for this book too, the reader will want to check out his "Through New Eyes." Athanasius Press has also started a commentary series on the whole BIble that employs the method Jordan developed there. There is one commentary on Ecclesiastes there, and they will be publishing a commentary on James in the near future as well.

Publisher's description:

Called by some as the "very best Bible teacher on the planet" and one of the most studied interpreters of the Bible alive today, Jordan has completed his commentary on the Book of Daniel. Jordan unravels the imagery of God's prophecies revealed in Daniel - events that were dawning in Daniel's lifetime. There are no "historical parentheses" or "gaps", no leaps of thousands of years into the future. (Hardback, 723 pages)

Review from the blog of David P. Field:

"The Jordan is not the boundary; the Jordan runs through the center." (p.518)

Although an aside referring to the borders of the holy land in the Old Testament, I suspect that Jim Jordan rather enjoyed writing that sentence. He knows full well that his way of handling Scripture is regarded by many as bizarre to the point of unbelievable ("If the reader balks at this analysis" (93), "The reader may be dubious" (185), "I am certain that some readers are dubious" (701)) but he is also convinced that his approach is much nearer the mainstream of historic and orthodox Christian interpretation than minimalist GHE proponents could imagine.

So, after several years of knowing it was coming, at last we have James B. Jordan's The Handwriting on the Wall: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 2007)

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The approach of the book is marked by

1. Immersion in and informed reference to the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures. The use of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Ezra-Nehemiah, Esther, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah is astonishing and enriching at every turn. Use of or comment upon other books along the way are unfailingly stimulating and this applies to NT books as well, not least to Revelation which is greatly illumined by this work on Daniel.

2. Confident deployment of redemptive-historical paradigms which have themselves been recognized through close and repeated study of the whole Bible. In particular, theologico-spatial zones, old creation /new creation eras, and prophet /priest /king roles feature heavily and often have real power to unlock or clarify the subject in hand.

3. The closest of close structural analysis of the sort that comes from multiple readings. Chiasms and parallels and other patterning devices are attended to with great care and in such a way as positively informs the interpretation rather than being mere observations along the path.

4. Seriousness about chronology. This is one of the characteristics of Jordan's work overall, since he sees emphasis on "ideas" at the expense of history as revealing and strengthening the gnosticism of much contemporary Christianity. The detailed chronological work lying behind his interpretation of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and his resolution of some of the Daniel "difficulties" is awesome.

5. Interpretative weight given to what still gets called "inter-testamental" history. Inter-testamental history is redemptive history and Jordan emphasizes that God speaks to and about that period in the patterns of Daniel 1-6 and in the prophecies of Daniel 1-7.

6. Attention to numerics: word-counts, significant numbers, and the meaning of numbers. There is work here to compare with Bauckham's work on Revelation.

7. Typology. This is not a "typological" commentary as such because although half of Daniel is narrative, half of it is apocalyptic prophecy. But when you attend to redemptive-historical patterns and to literary structures and sequences and to the importance of history as Jordan does, then, in some sense, all your work will be typological. At the macro-historical this means that Daniel is one of God's major interpretative words for the entire second phase of the first creation. The first creation has a former days and a latter days and then gives way to the new creation. Daniel tells us about the last centuries and decades of the latter days of the old world.

8. Cheerful (and sometimes curmudgeonly) unfashionableness. Early dating, traditional authorship, defense of biblical chronology, unashamed constant reference to Christ (how could it be otherwise?!), impatience with "unbelieving scholarship", utter lack of interest in being respected and consistent resolve to be useful. This may be a difficult example for young scholars (like those in Daniel 1!) to follow but it is thoroughly refreshing.

9. Theological creativity at level "Genius". I thought I knew Jordan's work reasonably well but over and over and over again there are "aha!" moments. In my copy now there are almost more sentences and paragraphs marked than unmarked!

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The proportions of the book are:
Introductory - 116 pages
Daniel 1-6 - 210 pages
Daniel 7-12 - 302 pages
Appendices - 95 pages
This is just right. The introductory chapters cover the "covenant historical", the "revelation historical" and the "immediate historical" contexts of Daniel, as well as studies in "Death and Resurrection in Daniel" and "In the Land of Shinar". These chapters themselves amount to an orientation to the reading of Daniel and are very helpful indeed - and packed with insights.

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The argument of the book is yours, in detail, for the reading.

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The flaws of the book are few and far between. There are minor irritants: (1) quite a few typos - apart from the mix-up with the lettering of the appendices, I've caught 20 or so; (2) slightly quirky vocabulary such as his pleasure in using the correct but rare "invest" and "investiture" for besiege and siege and his use of "voice" for verb-stems; (3) no indices (though a searchable pdf version of the commentary comes with the book).

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The importance of the book cannot be doubted.

Of course, different readers will find different proportions and different parts of the argument more or less persuasive. For myself, I'm going away to think about the whole idea that the Empires of the 6thC BC through to AD70 were the environment, protector, and location, if not locus, of the kingdom of God, with the image, for example, as representing a new tabernacle-temple development. I think I'm with Jordan on this. His radical proposal on Daniel 7 - involving Ezekiel, the High Priest's double visit to the Holy of Holies on the day of atonement, and taking more seriously the fact that it is the saints who receive the kingdom - has much to commend it. I know too little to evaluate Jordan's chronological arguments, I still worry a little about those 62 weeks, and, after just one reading, I'm still lost in chapter 11. I'm going back for a second and third look at these things.

But that itself is a commendation. This is a book which is worth a second and a third look. In many ways The Handwriting on the Wall amounts to Through New Eyes vol 2., taking further, as it does, several of the massive contributions of that work, the best of all biblical theologies. It is an amazing piece of work, the fruit of many years of research and meditation, at once learned and devout, firmly orthodox and stunningly creative and itself a biblical theology in its own right. No careful reader will come away from it anything other than enormously enriched, stimulated, edified, and expanded.

More later perhaps but I'd rather go back and enjoy The Handwriting on the Wall a second time than keep blogging about it after only one reading. What a book!

The ophthalmology department at the University of Iowa is full of talented individuals. One of the ophthalmic photographers in our department is a historical photographer. Visit his website at http://www.harkerphotography.com to learn more about this outstanding artist who is preserving Iowa's history on film.




Harker states:

The images showcased here represent my philosophy as a citizen of Iowa and as a photographer. I am a documentary photographer whose main goal is to record Iowa's historically significant architecture from the 1800's before it disappears forever. My subjects are barns, one-room schools, courthouses, rural churches, banks, and houses from rural areas and small towns.

I work in large format black and white utilizing the scientific technique of Ansel Adams' Zone System to create images of outstanding technical quality. I draw my artistic abilities from my more than thirty year career as a professional photographer.

I intend to leave a lasting legacy in the annals of American Photography through my dedication to the people of Iowa - to visually preserve the early citizens' quality craftsmanship when they built these "cathedrals" of wood and stone.

My images are little time machines carrying forward to future generations of Iowans the dedication of their forbearers. People born a century from now will be able to look back in time to what was once glorious and real.

Thank whatever gods you worship for university presses. They undertake the publication of books, not because they expect them to be profitable, but because the books need to be published. "Harker's Barns" is such a book. It will never make a profit. It would probably have been too expensive for its creators to have self-published. And yet it deserves to be published, not just for what it tells us about barns or a vanishing agrarian society or even about the ways of photography, but for what it tells us about love.

The book consists of seventy-five black and white pictures of barns and other farm buildings. Those who care about black and white photography will admire the edge between peeling paint and dry wood and the texture of sun and wind bleached wood. They will also admire the sense of time hidden in some of the pictures. I am thinking of a photograph of a barn, obviously taken at the smallest possible f/stop, to get the depth of field needed to have the barn etched sharply from front to rear. And yet as a result of the long exposure necessary with this small opening, the weeds in front of the barn, blown about by a passing wind, are ablur.

This is a book about love, make no mistake. It is about the love of the photographer for his subject and what it represents in his mind, and it is about the death of a loved one. And it's about the love that many of the people who helped in the project must have felt for the subject, and perhaps for the vision of the photographer. And of course, it is about the love, perhaps unspoken and unacknowledged, of the farmer for his farm.

The photographer laments the gradual loss of the small family farm and expresses his hope that this book can somehow preserve it. And yet the photographer must know that this is a fatal economic disease from which there is no hope of recovery. The small Iowa farm that the author loves makes little economic sense in a modern society that requires efficiency in everything it consumes. Who of us will pay twice as much for a tomato from a merchant who tells us that such a price will support the farmer who continues to till the land in a way that makes no sense in an industrial society, but does so because that farmer wants to follow his heart rather than his reason?

Normally the text that accompanies a book of photographs is an unnecessary garnish, designed to fill space. But Jim Heynen is a poet, and his words are short and pithy and help us to look at the subject from a slightly different viewpoint. For example, he says "Windows in a round barn follow the light of the seasons, thus giving a sense of agreement with nature."

Even if you don't like black and white photography, even if you don't like farms, the very idea of this book may appeal to you. For it is clearly a work of love, and perhaps the reader can learn to love like the photographer.

If you've read the Harvest, you know you've got to read The Harvest Volume II. As usual, the prophetic insight and revelation that Rick Joyner imparts is nothing short of astounding. This book contains critically important prophetic insight, revelation, and warning that every Christian should be aware of. Rick warns against the mistakes that I as a prophetic psalmist see being made commonly in the churches, and he gives encouragement by giving us glimpses of what God is building, and tells us how we can be a part of it. A must-read book for Christians who really love God.

I like this book because it covers a lot of subjects,and covers them good.Rick writes about the time we`re in and the time we`re heading towards.Visions concerning the end-time-revival(which I personally like very much!)come together with teaching(for example:how to go through the storms of life without going shipwrecked).A very comprehensive book and well worth the reading. Buy it and get stirred up!

This is another great book to ad to your Ra Un nefer amen collection. It gives insight into the many aspects of health and how to heal through homeopathy. The most interesting insight from this book is how Amen links disease to all aspects of life. He starts from the physical, to the mental,emotional, and finally the spiritual. Just read it

Ra Un Nefer Amen is a treasure to all of us. His prior books Metu Neter, Vols 1 and 2, are a must read for those that seek the truth about themselves. In this book, he explains the science of Homeopathy in laymans terms and exposes the miracles this system can help one achieve in bringing their bodies (physiological and spiritual) back in balance. Please read this book if you want to heal those errors on living.

This is the best devotional book I have ever seen and the only one I have begun to use every day. I look forward to spending the time each morning in it. Mr. Boa has braided scripture into the most useful tool I have ever found for building a prayer and devotional time in a way that causes you to grow in worship. I picked it up by accident from a small store. After spending a few mornings with this book I began to question whether it was just my imagination, or was this really an outstanding piece of arrangement. Mr. Boa disappears entirely. What is left is an elegant, simple aid to mature your prayer life. I now consider this an amazing gift from God. God bless Ken Boa.

This is the BEST 3 month guide to" praying thru the scripture" ever found. Ones life is changed forever because the scriptures Boa arranges together are classic studies on God Himself as well as His Heart. Boa is a scholar with a "heart" and he wears it for all to see in this charming but useful book. He also has this book under the titles of "Handbook to Prayer"and" Face to Face 1 and 2"....so if one can't find this title please know that the other titles are the same and have the same format and benefit.

I highly recommend this book. This should be required reading for every high school teacher, so that they understand the depth of their students' lives, and what they can do if given the right environment. Chapters are on Race, Culture and Origin; Family; Learning, and War, Peace and Change on a Small Planet. I especially enjoyed the essays on War and Peace, they are very timely. Great essay on playing Amazing Grace on the violin at Ground Zero just after 9/11. Good reading for adults and for teenagers both so this book will stay on my shelf.

I bought this book for my 14 year old but ended up not being able to put it down myself. Some of the stories in it I will never forget.