Mary's Voice: Advent Reflections to Contemplate the Coming of Christ by Dr. Amy Orr-Ewing Book Review

In Mary’s Voice, Dr. Amy Orr-Ewing explored Mary’s voice and how important it is to realize that we have to pay attention to her viewpoint of Jesus’s birth. Women are often seen as part of the domestic and emotional labor force. Mary was ordinary, poor, and oppressed woman who God chose to bare Jesus and bring Him into the world. Mary was an unwed teenager who was portrayed as having no voice. Often in Christmas plays, she doesn’t have any speaking lines. Later on, Mary is described in Luke as someone who had a choice and a voice. Throughout this book, she will walk readers through Advent, which means arrival by looking at how Mary had her own voice and how we can eagerly awake Christ’s return. Each day had a verse, a short story and teaching, a prayer, and a teaching and background on a painting/visual reflection. 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite days discussed how God will lift up the humble. Christ is referred to as being gentle in spirit and humble in His heart. We can find true rest in our souls. She explained how Christ wouldn’t break the bruised reed instead He would redeem the lives of the people are broken. She shared how in the Grerco-Roman world would choose to honor themselves and was seen as a negative attribute if you were humble. It changed when Christ chose to humble himself and was crucified for our sins. He was the ultimate example of humility and it can be seen now as a virtue. 

 

 

 

 

I would recommend this awesome book that contained 25 devotionals that is perfect to read during the month of December leading up to Christ’s birth. I liked how this book was all geared towards Mary’s voice and her viewpoint of Christ’s birth. It was interesting to read about Mary and how she did in fact have a voice that is often overlooked. I loved how the devotionals were short story style and how the illustrations were beautiful and thought provoking. Readers will witness the many different character qualities of Christ and how He is faithful to provide for us. 

 

 

 

 

 

"I received this book free from the publisher, Hachette Book Group/Faithwords/ Worthy Publishing for my honest review.”

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy, check it out on Amazon.com:

 

 

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Marys-Voice-Advent-Reflections-Contemplate/dp/1546004521/

 

After Death Movie Review and 2 Tickets Giveaway

 

From Angel Studios (The Chosen, Sound of Freedom) comes After Death! Get your tickets to see this movie in theaters starting 10/27! 

• After Death features interviews with New York Times  

bestselling authors, doctors, scientists, and near-death  

survivors including Don Piper (90 Minutes In Heaven), Dr. Mary Neal (To Heaven and Back), John Burke (Imagine Heaven), Dr. Jeffrey Long (Evidence of the Afterlife), and Dr. Raymond Moody (Life After Life). 

• John Burke was a skeptic before he first read about near-death experiences. Now, after researching near-death experiences for over 30 years and interviewing countless people who have gone beyond the veil and back, John is a pastor and an international speaker. Hear more from him in the film After Death, which comes to theaters on October 27. 

• You can Pay it Forward to After Death to cover the cost of a movie ticket for someone who wouldn't otherwise be able to see it. 

• Logline: Based on the true accounts of New York Times Bestselling authors, survivors give us a peek into life’s biggest question: What happens when we die? 

• Synopsis: After Death is a gripping feature film that explores what happens after we die, based on real near-death experiences, conveyed by scientists, authors, and survivors. From the New York Times bestselling authors who brought you titles like 90 Minutes in Heaven, Imagine Heaven, and To Heaven and Back, emerges a cinematic peek beyond the veil that examines the spiritual and scientific dimensions of mortality, inviting us to wonder: Is there life after death? 

My Review:

 

After Death is an exceptional film about the afterlife and what happens to us after we die. The film also contained helpful studies and scientific research on the topic and touches on spiritual and what does happen when we die. This film contained stories from real life examples explaining how they felt God’s presence at what they believe was the end. I thought it was really wonderful how they enclosed authors from famous pieces that have already written books about their personal experiences. This film combines the stories into a telling masterpiece. One of my favorite’s stories, I haven’t heard of before was about Dale Black and how he survived a deadly plane crash and how he was above looking down upon the crash site. He was witnessing all of the events and could see what was happening to him. It was eye opening and very revealing in watching the film unfold with lots of different experiences. A lot of them was up in the sky above them while they were trying to be saved from doctors. Some felt a bright light and peace and was told they still have a purpose to complete. Others had a dark place experience and felt they were falling into the darkness and they were consumed with fear. Viewers will be forever changed and will feel more at peace in watching what others have experienced. I do believe this film has the potential to get the conversation started between family and friends and non-believers. I also loved how much they believe in this film and how they are offering a cool program to pay it forward to viewers who might not be able to afford a movie ticket. 

 

 

 

 

^• Buy tickets today to see After Death in theaters starting October 27th! 

 

Website/Pay-It-Forward: https://www.angel.com/pay-it-forward/after-death

Buy Tickets: https://www.angel.com/tickets/after-death

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOSmGMHs7ps

Press Release: https://www.angel.com/press/release/angel-studios-announces-october-27-theatrical-release-date-for-after-death

Disclosure:  

Many thanks to Angel Studios for providing a sample of the product for this review.  Opinions are 100% my own. 

Giveaway: 2 tickets to see the film in theaters 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Managing Your Emotions: Daily Wisdom for Remaining Stable in an Unstable World, a 90 Day Devotional by Joyce Meyer Book Review

 

In Managing Your Emotions, Joyce Meyer has written a brand new 90-day devotional to help readers to combat their emotions and not allowing them to run wild. Joyce explained how readers can live beyond their emotions and we can choose ahead of time what our tone for the day will be. This book is geared to help you make good choices.  She used Deuteronomy 30:19 as a reminder on the importance of life and death, blessing and curses, and how we get to choose. Each day contained a verse, a short story and teaching, and a prayer. 

 

 

One of my favorite days discussed how the handle emotions when we are under pressure. She explained how when we want to test something we put pressure on it to see how it works and what it will do. God does the same thing. Often times, He will allow us to encounter situations and challenges that will require us to pass the course before we can move on. She shared an example about being tested in integrity. A cashier could accidently give us back more change and we are being tested to see if we will return it or keep it as a gift. Another test could be waiting for a table at a restaurant and we get to choose to get frustrated and rude or wait patiently. She clarified how in God’s tests we don’t fail. We instead will just keep getting retested until we pass what He is trying to teach us. We can have the right mindset that we will pass this test and focus on what He is trying to teach us. 

 

 

Another favorite was about keeping our love warm. This day discussed how lawlessness will be more present and how the love for others will grow cold and this will happen near the end times. We will also see an increase in wars and rumors of wars, famines, and other calamities. If we aren’t careful, we can become to focus on ourselves and lose the call to action to love others. If we allow our love to become cold, then our negative emotions will run rampant. We are call called to love one another like Christ would. The world needs to experience His love. 

 

 

I would recommend this life changing book on managing your emotions to everyone who is tired of feeling out of control and they are being led by their feelings. She explained in great detail how we can discover the path to meditating on God’s written word and letting it teach us how to live and manage our emotions. I immensely loved how she covered all the different emotions in this book. There was happiness, joy, peace, love, angry, sadness, overwhelmed, and much more. She provided the knowledge and wisdom on what she has learned from God’s word and how she applied it to her own life. The devotionals are short about two pages for each day and this book is a small compact sized book. This allows it to be easily carried around. 

 

 

 

"I received this book free from the publisher, Hachette Book Group/Faithwords for my honest review.”

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy, check it out on Amazon.com:

 

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Your-Emotions-Remaining-Devotional/dp/1546029249/

Healing Rain: Immersing Yourself in Christ’s Love to Find Wholeness of Mind, Body, and Heart by Sue Detweiler Book Review

In Healing Rain, Sue Detweiler wants readers to experience real healing in their hearts, spiritual, and physical. She begins the book by sharing a personal story about how an arsonist almost killed her and her 5-week-old baby, Rachel. They set a house next to theirs on fire and it caught their house also on fire. A few weeks earlier, her house had also been robbed. They were being targeted cause they were planting their very first church in Nashville, Tennessee. She credits her own mother to help save her life. Her mother felt let to pray, fast, and meditate on Isaiah 43. Her husband was able to make it home just in time and the fire dept was able to save them. The baby also didn’t suffer any harm. They were later made aware that witchcraft was involved and whenever her husband was gone. They would receive a phone call and laugher would be on the other end of the call who sounded like a witch. They sought out assistance in dealing with the trauma at a deliverance conference. Her husband was set free from the wounds of sexual intercourse as a teenager and she was freed from being sexual abused, unforgiveness, rejection, and demons of religion. 

 

 

 

In the book, she provides readers with the knowledge of revival and how God wants to revive us. She explained the 7 keys to obtain divine health. She opened up about her personal battle for health and how she was so sick from Hashimoto thyroiditis and inflammation. She was able to receive healing from her pain. She revealed how she takes communion regularly and has witness amazing changes and miracles. 

 

 

 

I would recommend this awesome book on healing and getting wholeness from our past traumas and hurts. I liked how she was transparent in sharing her own personal stories and how she has experienced healing and miracles. One of my favorite things she explored was how stress affects our bodies and how being burned out begins in our mind. I liked how she explained rest and how important this is and we can see wonderful benefits in every area of our lives. I also connected with the chapter on renewing our minds and how we can choose to declare these critical scriptures over our lives. I also loved how she enclosed different examples and personal stories from others who have witnessed miracles and attained their own healing. I liked how she included a healing moment section throughout the book and prayers at the end of the chapters. 

 

 

 

"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy, check it out on Amazon.com:

 

 

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Rain-Immersing-Yourself-Wholeness

Check out the video course to go along with the book:

https://suedetweiler.podia.com/healing-rain-video-course

Eat Smarter Family Cookbook: 100 Delicious Recipes to Transform Your Health, Happiness, and Connection by Shawn Stevenson Book Review

In Eat Smarter Family Cookbook, Shawn Stevenson has written a brand-new cookbook to help readers to live healthier and to transform your entire life. Shawn Stevenson has written two previous books, Eat Smarter and Sleep Smarter and he is the creator of a top podcast, The Model Health Show. He begins the book by explaining his background. At age 20, he was diagnosed with an advanced arthritic condition and this effects his spine. He broke his hip while he was running. He was struggling with obesity and he would enjoy fast food regularly. Doctors told him that his condition was incurable and there was nothing he could do. He explained how his parents didn’t know all about the negative effects of consuming heavily processed foods. Mostly everyone in his family and extend family have a chronic disease such as, obesity, diabetes, asthma, eczema, depression, and much more. A lot of this is caused by the food we are choosing to eat. He decided to not to become a victim and instead he asked himself what he could do differently to feel better. He made a choice to consume the food that were rich in nutrients. He instantly felt his energy levels increase and he was more optimistic. He was able to also get off his pharmaceutical drugs. He lost 20 pounds and he had better skin. 

 

 

 

The book stated how a study found, “that poor diet kills 11 million people around the world every year.” This book will provide you with the tools to change your diet and lifestyle to see a positive transformation. It also discussed tips on how to change your environment and to change your relationships and eat together. One of the helpful suggestions, he shared was about the importance of getting a meal together as a family. Studies showed that people would eat more fruits and vegetables. He strongly encouraged parents to get their children involved in planning meals, eating outside, special meal/dessert, and other creative ways. 

 

 

The book also looked at how our cultural is facing dangerously contagions. These include sugar, pesticide grains, and highly refined vegetable oils. He discussed the topic of sweeteners and how even artificial sweeteners are harming us. In fact, they are tricking our brain and our hormones. He explored the different choices we can make on choosing cooking oils, beef, poultry, fish, grains, sweeteners, beverages, spices, just to name a few. He broke them all down to helpful charts labeled: scary, sufficient, and smarter choice. He enclosed smarter grocery shopping tips and how to save money, smarter cooking tips, and pre-meal and dinner table tips.

 

 

 

The book contained 100 family friendly recipes. The recipes in this book are mostly gluten-free and grain-free. He breaks down each recipe with an emoji identifying how this food could improve an aspect of your health. These included brain, heart, sleep, metabolic, mental, and gut. He went into detail sharing how each fruit, vegetable, nuts, spices, fats, just to name a few and how each work to improve our health. There is also a sample meal plan to make it easier for readers to try. 

 

 

I also liked how he did a wakeup call on looking at soda and orange juice and how much teaspoons of sugar are in the both of these. There are only about 2 teaspoons less in orange juice than soda. Just recently, I was warned about when I had my annual lab work that I could develop prediabetes and I’m currently right on the border of it. I’m curious to try some of the recipes and see how they improve my health. Some of these included that I’m wanting to try are: Boss Burgers, blackened shrimp kebabs, superfood pesto, cinnamon bread pudding with caramel sauce, avocado fries, pesto turkey wrap, and sweet potato protein pancakes. I loved how tasty the recipes look and I’m curious to try them. 

 

 

 

I would recommend this awesome life changing book to everyone and they are wanting to seriously change their health. I thought this book was very well written and researched and it can dramatically change readers lives and health. I connected with his personal story and it was inspiring to read about how he was able to reverse his own health issues and to also change his family lifestyle. I liked how he went into detail about the benefits of consuming the right food and shared numerous studies throughout the book. This book was very eye opening about sugar vs sweeteners, grains, and processed foods. Another shocking benefit that I learned about was about avocados and how it has been discovered a reduction in abdominal fat. Readers can tell the author is very knowledge in the field of health. This book will assist you in cooking and eating better food and gaining the benefits, health wise from doing so. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to the Podcast:

 

https://themodelhealthshow.com/

 

 

 

 

"I received this book free from the author for my honest review and was a member of his book launch group.”

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy, check it out on Amazon.com:

 

 

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Smarter-Family-Cookbook-Connection/dp/0316456462/

 

Blessed in the Mess: How to Experience God's Goodness in the Midst of Life’s Pain by Joyce Meyer Book Review

 

In Blessed in the Mess, Joyce Meyer has written a brand-new book about how to blessed in the middle of all of the chaos and trouble in life we experience. We will all face challenging times throughout our entire lives. Jesus explained in His word that we would all have tribulation but we can rest assure in the fact that He has overcome the world. This book will teach readers how we can still be blessed in the mist of our messes. She looked at the Beatitudes that Jesus taught on and broke them all down to where readers can understand the passages and she tries to help readers to want to rise up and have good moral excellence. 

 

 

 

In the book, she shared with readers how she was sexually abused by her father. He was very controlling and angry all the time. He would ignore his son and would beat her mother. She grew up constantly living in fear of what could happen. Her mother knew of the sexually abuse that her own daughter was enduring and she did nothing to stop it. She later admitted that she couldn’t deal with the scandal on incest. Her father told her he was doing the abuse because he loved her. No one would help her and she learned how to survive it. When she was nine, she was visiting her aunt and uncle and they took her to church. She knew she wanted to be saved and that she was a sinner. She received Christ and was born again. She didn’t have any teachings to help her grow spiritually. She shared how she thought that once she sinned again that she lost her salvation and she would desperately try and become back into good graces. It took her many years until she was freedom from that thinking and she was able to grow deeper into Christ and His teachings. 

 

 

She also revealed how she married at 18 years old after meeting a guy on a blind date. They were married for about 5 years and he would regularly disappear. She would always take him back. He was arrested and con people. She shared how she married him because she was desperate to escape her home life. She ended up having a miscarriage and later had a son. Her husband left her again at that time and went to live with another woman and claimed the kid wasn’t his. She lost 35 pounds instead of gaining weight when she was her carrying her son. This was one of the darkest times, she has ever had to go through. We can be reminded that God promises to give us treasures and hidden riches so that we will know He is the God of Israel. Her son later grew up to become David and CEO of Hand of Hope at Joyce Meyer Ministries. This program goes a lot of good serving others. God was able to redeem and restore. She also shared how she met Dave and started her ministry. 

 

 

 

I would recommend this awesome book by Joyce to readers who are beaten down by life and they feel like there world is just in a plain mess. This resource will assist readers into having hope again and to discover their blessings in the middle of their mess. I loved how she wrote this book at 80 years old and it was very well written! I think this book is one of the best materials from her and it contained astonishing teaching to help readers. I loved how she also included personal stories throughout the book about how they deal with their own messes in their lives. One of the these included, Katie Piper and how she had acid thrown on her face from a hitman hired by a man she had dated. Another one discussed the king and spider and how a spider taught him the importance about never giving up and having patient. All the stories are inspirational and will provide readers with much needed encouragement. One of my favorite topics was steps on how to maintain a good attitude. This is powerful if readers will just remember them whenever life doesn’t go like we planned. I also loved the study of the Beatitudes and what rewards we can expect from God. I think this book would be a wonderful book to read weekly again to study the material presented to let it get reinforced into your daily life. 

 

 

 

"I received this book free from the publisher, Hachette Book Group/Faithwords for my honest review.”

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy, check it out on Amazon.com:

 

 

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Blessed-Mess-Experience-Goodness-Midst/dp/1546037349/