Hope for Prodigals

Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son's Journey to God. A Broken Mother's Search for Hope. by Christopher Yuan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thank you to Waterbrook Multnomah for my free copy of "Out of a Far Country".

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but found it to be interesting, informative, sad, and hopeful.

The book is actually two stories in one. The mother's journey to Christ, healed marriage and unconditional love, and the son's journey from rebellion into a relationship with Christ, and healing and reconciliation with his own family.

I honestly don't know if I as a mother could have exhibited the grace that Christopher's mother exhibited towards him. His lifestyle of same sex relationships, drugs, and journey to self destruction would be enough to kill any hope one might have for reconciliation and wholeness. Chris was blind to the risks involved in his choices--it is actually surprising that he's still alive today. It is amazing to see how God uses our brokenness to bring us back to Him. Thank goodness He does.

One thing that was missing for me. Christopher has a brother Steven. Although Steven is mentioned early in the book,we don't get to hear what happened with Steven once his parents and brother became Christians.

I also liked Christopher's reasoning of Holy Sexuality. How many of us don't use sex, whether heterosexual or homosexual, as a replacement for living a holy life for God. Or, take away sex, just any covetousness, or idol, to fill our emptiness other than God.

To learn about Christopher Yuan's ministry, you can visit his website christopheryuan.com.

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My Favorite of Lisa See's Books!

Dreams of Joy: A Novel by Lisa See

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads, you are spoiling me for anything other than reading! I had no intentions of whiling away the day by reading a book, but I received my recent win, "Dreams of Joy" on Thursday, started reading Saturday morning and couldn't stop. I have read Lisa See's other books ("Snowflower and the Secret Fan", "Peony in Love", "Shanghi Girls") so was very pleased to score this win. "Dreams of Joy" is a continuation of the "Shanghi Girls" story--in some ways I wish I had re-read "Shanghi Girls" before I started "Dreams of Joy", just so that I could refresh the characters in my head.

"Dreams" is the story of Joy, Pearl's daughter. (This is hard, I don't want to spoil the story by sharing too much.) Basically, Joy finds out some family secrets and leaves her home (America) and goes to China, where she buys into the communist philosophy. Along the way she loses her naivety, falls in love, meets her father, learns that she is a strong person, as well as to appreciate her family. Basically she grows up.

Meanwhile her mom (Pearl) follows her to China and learns some things about her ownself, her relationship with her sister, as well as her daughter.

Really liked this book. As in See's other books, you will learn about Chinese culture and history. In this book, there are several characters with bound feet. With the onset of communism, women were discouraged from this practice. In fact, those who had bound feet were encouraged to unbind them, which turns out to be a painstaking process with less than ideal results. Although the feet will unfurl, they cannot be "normal" since the bones were broken in the binding process when they were young. In the afterward the author mentions the photos of Joseph Rupp and his bound feet project. It was interesting to read the stories of these women, who just accepted this rite of passage as necessary to getting a husband, as well as to see their photos. You can visit the website here: http://www.josephrupp.com/bfindex2.html

Highly recommend this book!

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The Daughter's Walk: A Novel by Jane Kirkpatrick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was excited to receive this book for free from Waterbrook Multnomah. I like this author and have enjoyed a number of her books.

The Daughter's Walk is based on the true story of Helga Estby and her 18 year old daughter Clara, who, in 1896 accepted a wager from the fashion industry to walk from Spokane Washington to New York City within seven months. If successful, they would win $10,000 and save the family farm.

I always like books about spunky women, and these two certainly were. Their lives, and the lives of their family, were forever changed by their decision. They had adventure, but their decision to walk brought them some personal tragedy, and, sadly, they missed the deadline by two weeks. Once they returned to the farm, Clara made the decision to leave her home, and did not return for over 20 years.

Kirkpatrick weaves truth and fiction in the tale as she conjectures what Clara might have done, and what choices she made. This is where it got frustrating for me - not in the story itself, I thought it was good, but I wish I knew what was truth and what was fiction. I want to know the true story of Clara and her choices! I tried to look up some information online, but there wasn't much there - it is a mystery as to the real reason why Clara left and even to some extents what she did.

To view the book trailer, and see some pics of Clara and her mom, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoxjLeTTw...

If you haven't read any of Kirkpatrick's books yet, you should give her a try! Two of my favorites are A Gathering of Finches and A Sweetness to the Soul.

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The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels by Janet Martin Soskice

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of the things I liked best about this book is how the sisters did not allow themselves to be constrained by the societal limits imposed on women in the 1800's. Although women were not often educated in that time, their father did not ascribe to that theory, and taught them languages at an early age. Their father died when they were in their 20s, and, against popular opinion they traveled to Egypt on their own. This was just the beginning of their many travels. Along the way they learned about ancient manuscripts stored at St. Catherine's monastery and set on their way to find them. Agnes taught herself Syriac, the language she would need to translate the manuscript they were after and they set out on a secret expedition to find it. As a result they made one of the most important biblical finds of their day - Codex Sinaiticus Syriacus (four gospels written in Syriacus, a form of the language Jesus would have spoken). The following, describes it well:

It took them nine days to travel across the Sinai desert, with one day for rest on the Sabbath. They had seven camels carrying tents along with provisions for 40 days, including cages of chickens, turkeys and doves. When they arrived at the monastery they quickly gained the confidence of the monks, thanks as much to their fluent Greek as their letters of introduction from Cambridge friends. They soon uncovered a stash of Syriac manuscripts and were quick to identify the palimpsest. They had been persuaded to bring along a camera and assiduously photographed every page, easing apart the stuck pages with the steam from their kettle. But when they got back to Cambridge they discovered that their photos were not good enough to elucidate the hidden text. They returned a few months later with academics from Cambridge and spent a month painstakingly tracing every letter. Rivalry soon soured relationships with the other academics, but it was Agnes who eventually published the definitive edition of what became known as the Codex Sinaiticus Syriacus, and it was she who eventually furnished an English translation

These ladies were in their 50s when they made this discovery. I love that they did not let their gender, their age, prejudice against their self-taught learning, public opinion keep them "at home", where no doubt many thought they belonged. Indeed, they traveled and collected and translated manuscripts for the rest of their adult lives.

In addition to learning their story, you'll learn a lot about biblical thought of the day, and the history of the written Bible. All in all an interesting and enjoyable read.

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An Honestly Good Read

To Be Perfectly Honest: One Man's Year of Almost Living Truthfully Could Change Your Life. No Lie. by Phil Callaway

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked this book. I felt that the author infused humor into the stories, but then in the last pages of each chapter he examined the focus of the chapter with seriousness and thoughtfulness. It's obvious he loves the Lord, and equally obvious that he struggles. Isn't that just so true of all of us? I felt the author was very real and sometimes vulnerable in his emotions and life. That kind of transparency makes me want to work harder at the challenges in my own life.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah

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Escape into Another World!

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I started reading Distant Hours last night (Friday) and just finished it (Saturday at noon). Like Thirteenth Tale I was loathe to put it down until I was finished. Other than making breakfast I have done nothing but read, and am, in fact, still in my jammies!

I was hooked by the second paragraph:

"It is moonless when the Mud Man comes. The night has slipped on a pair of fine leather gloves, shaken a black sheet across the land: a ruse, a disguise, a sleeping spell, so that all beneath it slumbers sweet."

I loved the descriptive language the author use, like "wrestle my attention forwards", or speaking of the library books "My fingers positively itched to drift at length along their spines, to arrive at one whose lure I could not pass,to pluck it down, to inch it open, then to close my eyes and and inhale the soul-sparking scent of old and literate dust." (I can so relate!)

It's been a while since I've had book take me so far out of the present and totally immersed in the world created in the book. This is the power of a good story and I wish there were more of them out there.

Chapters switch between time frame and character voices. If this is challenging for you, it may not be the book for you. However, I loved how each character had a place in the story and how it was all tied together at the end. To learn more, you'll have to read it yourself.

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Love Wins

Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I must be honest. I have been more fascinated by the controversy surrounding "Love Wins" than the book itself. It is arousing such passion in so many people, and the debate is not always kind.

You'll have noticed I only gave a 3 star rating--nothing to do with the controversy, merely the fact that the book didn't resonate with me.

There is a part of me that thinks a better title would be: Love Won. If Jesus had not died for you and me on the cross, then what's the point? We cannot possibly love anyone with a Christlike (self-surrendering, self-sacrificial) love without the cross paving the way, family pictures notwithstanding. . .

Love Wins also talks about people being accepted by Christ (ie: into Heaven) even if they don't know His name. I have to confess, there's a part of me that finds this attractive. But then again, God knows our names, He even has a secret name for each of us (Revelation 2:17), and He has our names written on His hands (Isaiah 49:16). The Amplified Version of Isaiah says

"Behold, I have indelibly printed (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of my hands".

God tells us our ways are not His ways, and our thoughts not His thoughts, so thankfully we can let Him take care of that bit. When He knows me so intimately though, I should be falling all over myself to make sure other people do know His name!

I have heard the teaching on 'Heaven on Earth' in a Ray VanderLaan series, so this was not new to me. I feel like I have an unfair advantage over readers who didn't have this teaching. You can't capture the richness of Heaven on earth (chaos to shalom) in a chapter (consider that Ray taught it over the course of six or seven sections). Ray taught us that where-ever God's will is done, there is Shalom. Shalom means everything is as God intended it to be. Then he (Ray) asks us, "are you willing to address the evil in your heart and life? Will you allow God to use you to bring Shalom?" I feel like those questions, that passion, didn't come through in Love Wins. The same would be true for chapter six, 'There are Rocks Everywhere'. I've heard the Exodus 17 story taught by two separate biblical scholars, and the richness of the water coming out of the rock was not captured (in one of the teachings it was portrayed as the first Easter, and I wish I had the words to describe it all, but I don't).

The books about God I love are the ones that make me aware of His power and how that can change me into being that shalom-bearer. In no particular order, my favorites are:

Fresh Wind Fresh Fire

The Christian's Secret To a Happy Life
Hinds Feet in High Places
Radical and Radical Together
The Hole in the Gospel

As mention previously, I have been fascinated by the controversy and spent some time reading multiple reviewers. My favorite, both for it's graciousness and it's thoroughness is Dr. Ben Witherington's blog. The link will bring you to chapter 8, which sums up his thoughts on the book and on Rob Bell (he believes he writes from a poet's perspective), but you can read his posts on each chapter if you want to take the time.

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