Christianity Books

A fun and easy read for me. Helped me see nonduality in a new way and answered some questions I had. Highly recommended.

The hole drilled right through the middle of this book displayed on the shelf at a book store caught my eye, and I was introduced to the wonderful world of Chuck Hillig.

Page after page, the hole is the centerpiece through which 'nothing' and 'all things' can be seen. In his usual playful style sprinkled with his delightful sense of humor, Hillig guides the readers on a journey through the hole and into the whole.

I have since read "Enlightenment for Beginners," "The Way It Is", as well as "Seeds for the Soul," all of which I have thoroughly enjoyed. You will definitely want to read his books more than once, and they will continue to enlighten you for years to come.

He talks mostly about the Void, what is beatifully descriped in the mystical literature (where I reccomend reading more about it).

Is it Truly Necessary or Important to our every day life (what is the most important right now) to emphasize the Void like this, wich is part of the dualistic nature of the Existence. Everything and Nothing, Light and Darkness, Feminine and Masculine and so on.

I want to read those good spiritual books, wich has a positive impact on my life. Not books what will distract you too much, makes you unbalanced and has more negative than positive impact on your life and personality.

I have to say, that Chuck's books have been one of the worst spiritual books I have bumbed into. That's my personal opinion. I don't like he's pushing writing style.

I truly feel like I made a mistake when I ordered this, Enlightment for Beginners and Seeds for the Soul last Christmas. Becouse of the positive comments, these seemed good books. For me they had mostly only negative impact and I don't want to reccomend any of them to anyone. Enlightment for the beginners was the best, Seeds for the Soul worst and this goes into the middle, out of these 3 books.

Stay with well writed books, wich has positive impact on your life, like for example Stanislav Grof's and Christopher Bache's books or Echart Tolle's "The Power of Now" type books, that's my message.

Listen yourself carefully, before you decide to buy any book, don't just rush and buy them becouse they seem like great books. I learned my lesson and I will for now on consider more carefully what books I will buy and what leave behind.

There are many far more better spiritual books than these out there, truly well writed books, I reccomend using your money on them. Chuck's books aren't anything necessary to buy.

Love and Laugh to everybody's life.

Chuck has done "it" again in this easy to read, motivational account of recognizing our natural state...the space of silent awareness within ( the hole) which opens outward to embrace the universe...the whole!
Mark McCloskey
Pure Silence

Are you are looking for enlightenment, peace, realization, total freedom, absolute truth?

or

Do you just think you are looking for enlightenment, peace, realization, total freedom, absolute truth?

or

Do you think that maybe you should be a little more interested in, and committed to, looking for enlightenment, peace, realization, total freedom, absolute truth

or

Are you on fire with the spirit, hotly pursued by the hounds of heaven, and desperate to do whatever it takes even at the risk of your entire life to find enlightenment, peace, realization, total freedom, absolute truth?


Well ... take a breath ... and another ...

Now buy chuck's book.

Get comfortable.
Forget your remembered past.
Forget your imagined future.
Forget all your self concepts,

and

... ENJOY !!!!!


Once again the universe tries to eff the ineffable to itself,
this time in a fun, playful yet clear and accurate book.

Apart from echoing the perrenial philosophy, Chuck also shows the genesis of all religious wars (inner and outer).

From good heart through skilled technique Chuck playfully invites you to realize that there is nothing else you need.

You are perfection ... here ... now ... all ways !

P.S.
If for any reason you can not buy the book ... please at least take the (w)hole.

My four year old boy and I read this for homeschooling. I do not think he is really understanding the devotions. They say it is for 4 year olds but I think it will be a few years before he will be able to comprehend the contents.

We love this book. I bought it for us to read our 6 year old son for family devotion time. While he enjoys it, and we truly benefit from it, I wish we had discovered it when he was 4 yrs. old because it provides a very good basic foundation for learning verses. The Awana verses he is learning now are more advanced, but he still enjoys the stories that go along with the verses in this book. If you have a 4 year old, it is not too soon to start which we strongly recommend.

I wanted to comment on the quality of this book - the layout, illustrations, format and paper stock are top quality, and this is a book you will want to use for several years. Top drawer. See also Susan and Richie Hunt "Big Truths for Little Kids" which can take up where this book leaves off. I'm glad we found them.

This is a great book! My 4-year-old is memorizing a scripture each day, and with reviewing them nightly, he is retaining them very well. The devotionals are helpful for the children to understand God's will through scripture. They are very optimistic in regards to how others will react when we pursue God's will, but that's okay with me. My son has even rebuked his younger brother with one of the verses! I love that he can see the purpose in context.

I am so glad a friend recommended this book! My 3 1/2 year old daughter loves the stories and is learning the Bible verses too. This is actually the only children's book I have seen that talks about the Holy Spirit and His role in recalling Scripture to mind, prompting us to make right choices, etc. This was a great purchase and I definately feel it is playing a key role in my discipleship of my daughter by making her conscious (as much as she can be at this age) of issues of the heart. The one caveat might be to start with this book early; an older child might find the siblings in most of the stories a little too good to be true. They are portrayed as very sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and almost always immediately sorry when they do something wrong. Overall, I highly recomment it.

Wow this has been great for my 6 and 4 year olds. This is much different from the usual Bible stories for kids that teach events, but this teaches character. The stories and themes build on one another and the book includes recommendations on how to review previous verses. My kids have learned many verses without trying too hard. They engage in the stories and actually pray for Missy and Bill, the kids that illustrate the principles. If you want to empower your children to be like Jesus then this is the book for you.

This book did indeed look good -- so good that I bought it, along with "I'm OK - You're Not" by the same author.

I've now finished most of it... up to the last chapter -- which I don't think I'm going to bother reading.

It's an excellent literary idea -- write from the view of God "using" the human author to write it... engaging and creative concept.

Now, I'm ALL about irreverent humor, however, I got the uncomfortable feeling that the author was trying too hard to be hip, or shocking, or to somehow sneak past the defenses of "seekers" or even atheists, as if they wouldn't notice, to land a punch.

Sure, there were plenty of times I guffawed.

At times, I rolled my eyes.

At other times, I groaned.

And, there were times I cringed.

Such as having "God" make an Austin Powers joke about how He mimicked Austin Powers for a while, and the angels tried to sing praise songs using the word "shagalicious".

Such as God saying, "you can do any Me-damned thing you want."

Such as God saying (in talking about the crucifixion):

"It was a Friday. I really didn't have all that much to do but hang around anyway.
For three days.
I was just killing time.
Oh, don't I just slay you?
Cuz I sure do me."

{Never mind that He didn't "hang around" for three days - He was only on the cross on Friday.)

There ARE times when it's both humorous and insightful -- but those particular passages strike me as somewhat degrading.

What REALLY got me cringing was the response to this question:

"Even if I do believe in Christ, do I really have to go to church every Sunday? Yuck."

Here's part of the "answer" from "God":

"No - of course you don't have to go to church. No one has to do much of anything. But the reason so many people keep choosing to go to church is as simple a it gets: They know that they can't have a relationship with me if they don't ever come over to my house. It's just that simple. Church is my home, you know; that really is where I hang out. You get hints and intimations of me in your everyday life, for sure - but at church you get a huge honkin' helping of me. Maximum exposure. Major bang for your buck.

I go where people pray, see? And a lot of people do a lot of praying at church.

I'm in the wood at church. I'm in the carpet. I'm in the pews. I'm in the air there. Care Bear.

Got to go where the action is, right?...

You know what church does? It turns people from pessimists to optimists. Because at church, everyone you see -- from the greeter at the door to the person up front leading the whole thing -- is your partner. Your friend.

People go to church because they, like everyone else in the world, are naturally drawn to go wherever they can find the most love."


Hmmm...

"His house" (I thought we were His Temple in the New Covenant)? IN the carpet? Pessimists to optimists (I've seen the opposite happen all too often)? "Person leading the whole thing" (isn't that supposed to be the Holy Spirit)? Where we "find the most love" (I found a whole lotta fear)? I guess this author's' not yet come to the place where he realizes that the system of institutional Christianity is not the organic Church-Family that Jesus established. It was never about religion, but about relationship - with Him and with each other.

~BRB~

Ok - something odd just happened to me. God just got me. Only I didn't know it was God 'til just a second ago. As I said in the beginning of this post, I hadn't read the last chapter, or the end notes by the author.

But, as I wrote that last statement, I suddenly got an URGE to read the last chapter, just to "be fair" y'know. So, I just read the rest.

Oh, dear God... the entire last chapter is about how the Christian life is about God eradicating fear out of us... oh, wow. As I read it, the truth of it filled me. (There are a couple of minor disagreements -- like, I do not believe that God designed us to feel fear, but that it's our reality in the absence of His love.)

And then -- I read the author's afterword -- and it was like sitting here, listening to him bare his heart. He shared how God got his attention, when he, a confirmed God-ridiculer, was at work... and God started filling him with Himself, and the guy ran off to a broom closet, saw himaself as he is, hit his knees, and just KNEW Jesus was true. And that was that.

And, now, I must repent... now I see the rest of the book through new eyes, his eyes. It's like his Jesus-following self is talking to his former Jesus-ridiculing self, in a way that a Jesus-riduling person could relate...

And, except for the traditional view of "going to church" rather than BEING the Church, I like it, because of how it's summed up. And because of the effect it's obviously had on some of the folks who've reviewed it (even folks who aren't believers). It seems to have gotten them thinking... and so, bravo John Shore, for following Him in this way. And, of course, I'm hoping that God gives you a busted-out-of-the-building-and-the-manmade-system view of Church, but that's really His business, no?

OK, this is the oddest book review I've ever written ... but perhaps one of the most impacting ones for me, personally.

Make of it what you will...

Shalom, Dena

"The unanswered questions aren't nearly as dangerous as the unquestioned answers."


P.S. Three other excellent books that engage the heart are:

The Shack (Special Hardcover Edition)

He Loves Me! Learning to Live In the Father's Affection

So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore

John Shore has knocked the walls down between here and There. A soliloquy by, ahem, GOD? It's crazy, it's totally pretentious, it's dangerous. It's wonderful! With his quirky humor and an uncommon sensitivity to both human need and theological sacred cows, Shore has bent the rules of spiritual writing until they . . . no, they don't break, they vibrate-like a tuning fork. In the hands of the One Who made the rules. Get a copy, and prepare to enjoy a rollicking good time-and, almost without realizing it, a Feast.

Thank GOD for this book! I laughed until I cried. This book was so fun to read. Pure genious. You have very carefully understood GOD'S word and helped to drive home some very important points in a memorable way. It is a book that I will read again.

I enjoyed this book. It was refreshing to read a book with a spiritual message that was not "preachy" but down-to-earth. Often times, when I am done reading a book with a christian message, I feel like a child that has just been given a lecture. This was nothing like that. It was thought provoking and intelligent. It was also funny. It was nice to know there are fellow christians out there that remember that God gave us a sense of humor and it is nothing to be ashamed of. I recommend this book for both believers and non-believers of any age, but I especially think that generation X needed something like this.

This wonderful little book gives you God's perspective on all those questions that believers, non-believers, and pre-believers ask. This is the book you want to give that non-believing friend, not so much in an effort to convert them, but to at least help them understand why it is you believe. Not for the easily offended, but written with just the right amount of humor and tact. If you can only read one book this summer, this is it.

The clarity and insight of the Summa is unrivaled in philosophical theology. St. Thomas is dedicated to finding the truth and attaining happiness. He pursues the truth with formal logic and applies Aristotle, Scriptures, Church Fathers et alia to reach solid conclusions which make perfect sense. Like Euclid, Aquinas requires some postulates, i.e. the existence of God and God's revelation of Himself. Positing these, he builds a solid invulnerable theology which must convince any intelligent reader.

This is the definitive work of Catholic theology and is still studied in all the divinity schools. I had the two-volume set included in the Great Books of the Western World. It isn't the sort of work one goes to for a little light reading, obviously, but as an exercise in applied classical logic as well as theology, it is one of the most important ever written.

Thomas is important to both mystical and non-mystical traditions within Christianity, and for me the most interesting aspects of the work are where he attempts to deduce the various aspects and attributes of God. This was a popular exercise in the area of natural philosophy, and even mathematicians with a religious bent, such as Newton and Leibnitz, had a go at it, Newton referring to God in his Principia (his mathematical theory of universal gravitation) as "...an infinite and elastic spirit." And of course Leibnitz is famous for the ontological argument for God's existence.

In addition, Thomas was also concerned with everyday life and ethics and morality, with a person's natural and supernatural life, countering heretical thinking, and the nature of beauty. He influenced early Renaissance artists such as Fra Angelica, who followed Thomas's three canons of beauty: immaterial purity of form, luminous clarity of color, and harmonious beauty of proportions, and Angelica's paintings are really meditations upon these three principles, in some ways not so different from the way Perugino's paintings (Leonardo's teacher) were sometimes meditations on spatial geometry.

Finally, you may know the story that when Thomas was in school, he was very quiet in class and so his fellow students thought him dull. But at the conclusion of one class when the teacher gave the final exam, he was the only one with the right answer. Sort of reminds me of those stories about Einstein. :-) All of which just goes to show you that you can't judge a book by its cover--nor the Summa Theologica, too, I might add.

I purchased this Five-volume set after taking a couple of philosophy courses, which I feel like I should recommend to anyone starting to dive into this hefty text. If you don't feel like taking a class, perhaps some of the secondary texts written by philosophers about Aquinas will help in reading this fantastic set of info.
Aquinas forms his arguments in a way that is almost flawless. I am not Catholic, yet I find this to be an explanation of Catholic doctrine that makes me almost want to convert. For anyone from the atheist to the devout catholic, this text is a window into one of the greateast natural and revealed theologians to ever document his thoughts. Footnotes are aplenty to send you on your way to other documents, especially Augistine, so be prepared for an obsession.

Mike Yandell

Probably the best sys theo work ever. Oh, that more fellow Protestants would pour over this text!

These volumes have withstood the test of time in the worlds of religion and philosophy. Reading the words of one of the greatest minds in history is both entertaining and educational. This set is a must have for anyone who likes to study philosophy. For a beginner, it may be beneficial to get one of the many Aquinas readers or help texts, but it doesn't take very long to catch on and soon you will find yourself just reading at your own pace, making your own ideas about what Aquinas is all about.

Well organized and full of information for both the newbie and also a more experienced blogger who wants to deepen their effectiveness (or experiment more). I work with synagogues, and found the approach of blogging for "ministry" can be useful and much more broadly defined than for churches alone. Very easy to read, full of practical examples.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with this book. I knew going into this book that I was in for a lot of great information and disciplines in creating and maintaining a blog. I did not expect how creatively it was written. I think we have certain expectations for "how-to" books and this one surpassed my expectations.

If you have started a blog or are just thinking about it, grab this book. There is a lot of focus on churches creating and using blogs, but not to the extent that it leaves the individual out. The writers took time to teach us a little history as well as give us clear detailed info on the how, why and where of the blog world. Chapter 9 & 10 focus on starting a blog and then building a blog well. I love chapter 11 titled "Build A Really Bad Blog". It's kind of the how-to in reverse.

One of the coolest things in the book was hearing from bloggers around the country about their take on blogging and how it has affected their lives or the lives of the businesses/churches they are involved with. I enjoyed hearing the real world ideas.

This book really starts from the beginning by asking 3 questions...
-Is it a tool or a toy?
-What problem are you trying to solve?
-What is the return on ministry?

The writers go on to explain that "Blogs are tools, not toys. Blogs help solve real problems. Blogs deliver a true return on ministry."

I also appreciate the hopeful message from start to finish. As churches and Christ-followers, we have an amazing opportunity to share our story with others. The blog world is open and ready for the taking. This book consistently draws you back to intent. The writers want you to be excited about who God is in your life and they want that to burst out on your blog.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone thinking of or already in the blogging world. It's very easy to read. It is not extremely technical. And when it does get technical, they have done a great job of explaining themselves so no one gets left behind. It has real life stories and history. It is a quick read.

I learned a lot that I didn't know about blogging from this book. It would have saved me a lot of problems if I had had something like this when I started blogging a year ago.

If you are looking for some help in defining and establishing a blog for yourself or your ministry you will find this book helpful. It gives some great insight in to establishing a good blog for the right reasons.

This book is awesome. it will make you think about the various was you can reach people. It will make you take a look at yourself and motivate you to reach others in ways you havent thought of before.

This was a very enjoyable book - so much so that I ordered five additional copies to give away. I like Sunday Adelaja's philosophy and ideas of how we need to 'do church' differently. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

How important for people, young and old, to know the power and strength that lies within. How to tap into it is clearly the testimony of Pastor Sunday. Where ever the Lord has you to go, know that he has an expected end for you, to prosper and to be established. I got the encouragement and assurances I needed BIG TIME!!!

I started trying to find a church when I was 13. I walked to all the churches within distance. Nobody even greeted me, a boy without parents! Traveling around America in the military, I went to every church I could and still did not find a man teaching the same message I found in the Bible.

I visited Ukraine and a business contact there invited me to church (see how it works... a business person invites a foreigner to worship, strengthening her sector of society, winning it over for Christ in Christ's ideals).

Listening to Sunday, I was in shock. For the very first time in my life, I heard a man feeding me the same gospel of the Bible. The service was only three and a half hours. I wanted to stay longer.

Sunday fasts and prays one week each month. Seeking like this produces a great WEALTH of God's word. In this book, Sunday shares, really, the Lord's perspective of our church. Reading this book will instantly change your focus, motivate you, inspire you... It is like I have a friend encouraging me to go out and pursue the fire in my heart. Awesome!

Pastor Sunday has a passion and precision that has impacted a previously desperate nation. His vision to equip laypeople for ministry in their vocations is a great model of fulfillment of Eph 4:12. This is a true "how to be salt and light in a dark world" book. The truth of this book is already influencing the churches I've shared (50 copies!) with.

Thank you very much for obeying God to write Churchshift. We are ready to
do what we believed for years ,but religious spirits told us it was too
"independent" and shut us down completely with church machinery....

This book is a deliverance tool for those who knew there was much more
than what currently obtains in the body of Christ.

I am truly amazed at the grace of humility on your life and I look
forward to a change in the nations of the earth as this book speaks by
the Holy Spirit to thousands who had been buried in caves...I am getting
copies for my numerous friends.

Well bound leather book with quality feeling pages makes this an easy book to pick up and use. I would recommend this small daily devotional to everyone. Easy to use, carry with you and to read.

I ordered Daily Light from Amazon and was thrilled to get the 5 copies I orders, especially since the book has gone out of print. I received excellent service.

Daily Light is a book that I have read for over thirty years. There is a daily reading, morning and evening, of various scriptures that are all on the same theme. It was compiled by the Bagster family of London, England. There were twelve children and it was Jonathan, their tenth child, who was mainfily responsible for the idea and for the method by which Daily Light was compiled. The family prayed over, discussed and agreed on each scripture and sometimes it was weeks before it was felt that they came to an agreement. Not one word has been altered from its conception (1794). Hundreds and thousands of Christians have read the same page with its message of comfort and help through the years since it was first published. It brings hope and encouragement each morning and evening to anyone who takes the few minutes to read it and let it sink in. "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)

Daily Light is a compot of Scriptures arranged around daily topics. It has been a favorite for generations but in 1998 Anne Graham Lotz revived it, published it in the New King James translation and offered it in a leather bound edition. Though very popular it is unfortunately no longer available. Our hope is that J. Countryman will republish it soon.

This book is a treasure of God's Word. Our family of 6 each have their own copy and we give it as gifts to those who are seeking the Lord.

Awesome book. The best explanation of God's grace and the New Covenant under Jesus Chris that I have read. A must for every believer's reading list. Buy several copies to give out.

This book was full of stuff I think a lot of Christians already know or have heard but Prince has a way of making it simple and easy to "get". I found myself saying Ohhh, Ok! several times. I really appreciate all the biblical references and I found myself rereading parts of my bible(with renewed interest and joy) that I haven't read in a very long time. Some parts are a slight bit repetitive but I think it's good how he comes at the same point from different angles......great book!

This book is a must read for both the new and old Christian believer. This is a gift that keeps giving. Food for the soul and spirit. I have recommended and given this book as a gift. No doubt about it. Although the gospel is over 2,000 years old, in this book, when reading,you feel as though you are at Jesus feet hearing his gospel for the first time.

Some people may have never heard of Joseph Prince. I stumbled on him one day on t.v. I have been watching every since. When I saw his book on here I had to have it. It is so good. It really breaks down the word and give the real definition of many words from the original greek so give better understnding of the scriptures. His teaching on grace makes sense. Jesus has already taken our sins and we are no longer under the law. We need to be righteous conscious not sin conscious. No more condemnation just grace and freedom.

If you want to fall in love with Jesus and banish "religion" from your life, this book is for you. It is filled with the truth about what Jesus did for us and how it is not at all what "we" are to do to please God. Jesus did it all. A MUST READ for every believer.

As this book states, it is the sayings of Jesus FROM the Diary of St. Faustina - but it is NOT the diary.

The diary itself is the story, as a diary would be, of St. Faustina's life and her interactions with Jesus and His messages throughout her life.

The sayings alone, without knowing the content of what was happening at the time of each saying, can easily make it seem like something totally different then when you combine the whole picture of what had and was happening when Jesus spoke each quote to Faustina.
(it is the same as only getting one side of the conversation, very disjointed and out of contest).

That said, if one knows the whole story and has read Faustina's diary, then this is a nice book just to be able to have the actual sayings of Jesus to St. Faustina in one compact and easily to review book.

The complete Diary:


Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska - in Burgundy Leather: Divine Mercy in My Soul

Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska (Mass market version): Divine Mercy in My Soul

Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska (Polish Version)


Very well written, easy and fast paced story of St. Faustina's life:
Faustina: Apostle of Divine Mercy


Another book that sorts out parts of the Diary:
Revelations of Divine Mercy: Daily Readings from the Diary of Blessed Faustina Kowalska

The many excellent reviews that have been written about St. Faustina's Diary are correct! I have been reading this for Lent and it is a fascinating book that can be read over and over much like the Bible. Someone once told me this book is really deep; please don't think this book is too deep for you, it's not.

Page after page reaffirms God's great mercy. Reading the words that Jesus actually spoke to St. Faustina is so moving. You will want to meditate upon them. I find it is a great book to take with me to Eucharistic Adoration.

So, if you only have a couple of Catholic books in your home, this should be one of them.

This is a must read for everyone. It assures us of the Divine Mercy of Jesus, especially good if you are going through a difficult time in your life.

I found this book to be a wonderful aid to my spiritual life. At one point in the book Jesus tells Sister Faustina to write in her diary because it will be helpful to souls who would read it later.
I am one of those souls. At times I felt as if Christ was speaking to me through her. This book helped me so much to understand more fully how vast is the love of God. So vast that none of us will ever be able to understand it. Much larger than the worst sins that any of us can ever commit.
This book made me more aware of my own sin on another level than what I was previously aware of. This book has taught me new forms of prayer that have helped draw me closer to Christ.
This book has taught me more about how to love God. It has greatly enriched my interior life. My relationship with God has now moved up to a higher level.
It has also helped me to understand more about the living presence of God in the Eucharist.
I am not Catholic, I am an Episcopalian, (but I am rather Catholic at heart). And although I have always believed in the living presence of Christ in the bread and wine, it has now moved to a higher level of understanding and reverence. I anxiously look forward to every oportunity I have to join with the living Christ in the Eucharistic feast.
The book is a bit long and does repeat a bit, but it is beautiful and well worth the time to read.
My copy is underlined, and marked with sticky notes and folded over pages of places that I have returned to again and again to meditate on.
I have nothing but praise for this book and recommend it to everyone of any religion.

This book is a gem. It covers daily spiritual thoughts. You have something deep and worthwhile every day to read and reflect on, if you read just a little each day. Or you can read the whole book in one sitting, then re-read each day what moves you the most.

This is a great book! My only downfall is that I keep giving away my copies. I was attracted to this book because of the cover first of all. I Love Coffee! I was also looking for a short morning devotional. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to wake up their soul and start living their life for God. This would make a great gift for a new believer.

I did this book with a group of ladies and it was awesome. Each chapter touched deep into my life. The ladies in our group come from all walks of life and it touched each of them as well. A great book!

I am reading this book a second time, this time with a group. It never fails to wake me up, help to look deeper at things I do and why I do them.

It saddens me to see the author attacked here as a hypocrite, b/c if we get honest how many of is aren't hypocrites? Can we all say we take our own advice 100% of the time? Ye who are without sin, throw the first stone. Go and sin no more.

The author steps out of her comfort zone and gets gut-wrenchingly honest in this book. No, she isn't perfect. I don't recall her claiming to be. Read this book if you are a real woman with real sin and real redemption. You'll find it's real good.

As one of the immensely popular "Women of Faith" conference speakers, actress/author Johnson doesn't need my plug--but she gets it! Her writing is vunerable, deep, and funny. I especially liked her musings about savoring our sexuality (a topic often overlooked or avoided by the Church) and embracing our beauty. Each chapter also includes fun coffee trivia. (Side note: I led a Bible study on this book at my church, and it was a big hit with the younger women. We all loved her video presentations that were included with the study guide and students' books. They made us think, laugh, and cry, within the space of five minutes! Her "mom" segment is priceles--I can't believe she doesn't have kids of her own!) Be sure and have a journal and highlighter nearby when you read Fresh-Brewed Life, because you'll want to remember a lot of what this author says. The book is comforting and stimulating at the same time--just like a good cup of joe. :)

This book literally jumped off the shelf at me! I LOVE coffee, so I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but the whole coffee theme/book cover is what snagged me. The next thing I knew, I was at the checkout stand. That night I began reading this amazing little book and the next day, returned to purchase an armload of more copies to send my best friends. My copy now has underlined passages and margin notes all over it! I can't even begin to describe how it has spoken to me and influenced me at this point in my life. These are messages I needed to hear. Nicole sure knows how to cut to the chase and speak right to the heart. It's been an extremely refreshing experience reading this book . . . which gives "wake up and smell the coffee" a whole new meaning!