Andrew Smith's Blog

My name is Andrew. Come and have a look inside my life and watch me share what is on my heart.

The Power of the Cross: Putting It to Work in Your Life by Tony Evans Book Review







In The Power of the Cross, Tony Evans explored how the cross is the centerpiece of everything in a person’s life and how we need to understand how much God loves us. It’s important to have a relationship with Christ and not just a religion. Tony Evans reminded readers that we have to carry our own cross like Luke 14:27 instructs us to do. The book begins by looking at who Christ is and His true identity. He also shared how powerful the blood and sacrifice Jesus dying on the cross for our countless sins was. Next, he explored the power of the cross and how we was able to be delivered from the gates of Hell and how we can live in victory. Tony Evans also revealed how we can have stability no matter what is going on around us. This chapter was so eye opening when you take into consideration that this was written in 2015 way before the world has begun to crumble even more. 



I would recommend this life changing book to anyone who is wondering about Jesus and His power and they are desperately seeking a deeper relationship with Him. This book would be especially helpful to a new believer. In reading this book, I was reminded that I’m a part of Jesus’ covenant and I learned about the passage found in Hebrews 12. This one discussed how God will shake the Earth and Heaven with His voice and when does this, He is speaking. This showed me the importance of listening to His voice and doing His will for my life and making sure I’m drawing closer to Him through whatever may be happening. This taught me that I must make sure my foundation is secure in Christ. This is a very timely reading and it will benefit readers in learning about the power of the cross and who our identity is in Christ.



"I received this book free from the publisher through the Moody Publishers book review bloggers program." 



If you would like to purchase a copy of The Power of the Cross check it out below: 



The Longing in Me: How Everything You Crave Leads to the Heart of God by Sheila Walsh Book Review





In the Longing in Me, Sheila Walsh explored the different craving we encounter and how everything we are desperately searching for is really a deeper relationship with God. She looked at the story of King David and what we can learn from his story. In this book, Sheila Walsh also revealed new details about her life that she hasn’t shared before. She opened up more about her first marriage that ended in a divorce. She revealed how God helped her through that situation. She also shared about her deep longing to be chosen. When she was in high school, she shared about how she had a major crush on this guy. She dreamed he would ask her to the school dance like a nice Cinderella story. She walked by his locker for many days and hoped that he would bump into her, and he would nicely pick up her books for her. It would be love at first sight and they would have the perfect dance. She overhead another talking about how he would be attending the dance and she accidently said, “That’s so great”. He did attend the dance and he walked over to ask her to dance and she was so excited. But next, he stated, “I’m so sorry. I can’t do this.” She realized that they were messing with her and she was heartbroken. She opened up about how he felt afterwards and how she struggled with longing to find a relationship with a man. She also revealed how she searched to fill the father void in her life. Her father had a brain injury and his personality changed and what happened in her life because of this. 



I would recommend this life changing book to anyone who struggles with longing for the wrong things in life. I have read some of Sheila Walsh’s other book. This is by far the best and most transparent book about her life. I also appreciated how she wrote this after her first husband passed away and she kept quiet about her first marriage struggle until now. I immensely connected with Sheila’s story and King David’s story. I loved how Sheila Walsh showed how our cravings are all really just longings to be closer to God. I will also admit I struggle with longing to be in control, chosen, protected, and much more. This book helped me realize that it’s only found in Christ. People will hurt us and always let us down even if they don’t really mean to. We have to find our hope and protection in God’s everlasting love. His love will always be enough!




"I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program."




If you would like to purchase a copy of The Longing in Me, check it out on Amazon.com: