The Return

Review: Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better Brant Hansen W Publishing Group 2015   What! Is that a real word? Unoffendable?   It is now if it wasn’t before.   And one that needs to hang around.   Hansen has found a single change that could make all of life better.   In chapter after chapter he makes his case for being unoffendable.   Sometimes it looks like humility, and then it could look like forgiveness.   Other forms it could take are obedience and love.    We know all those words so what is Hansen’s point?   His point is that anger in whatever form has to go.   All the time.   Every time.   No exceptions.   He looks at all the “but, what about…” angles and doesn’t miss very many of them.   Each time the answer is be unoffendable and it isn’t his idea.   It is Biblical.   Don’t believe that?  Read this book.   “It’s not fair!” is even off ...

Review: The Room Jonas Karlsson, Translated from the Swedish by Neil Smith Hogarth 2015 Oh, my!   I didn’t see that coming.   I should have, but got caught up in the final scene.   Who is Bjorn?   That’s pretty much what the reader is left to decide.   That, and who all the others are as well.   Bjorn and his relationship with his office coworkers is the setting.   Watch them interact with Bjorn and Bjorn with them.   You have met all the characters, and probably have been several of them yourself.   See how they meet the challenges set before them by Karlsson.   It just keeps getting better, in my opinion.   I sat back and marveled that so much could be packed into a mere 180 pages.     The Room is the most thought provoking read I have encountered in a very long time.   Why? Because the author leaves so much room for the reader to interact with his story.   Several of the endorsements liken...

HCSB Study Bible: Personal Size Holman Bible Publishers 2014 The publisher states that this Bible contains comprehensive study notes, full-color maps and reconstructions, and word studies in Greek and Hebrew.   They have not overstated their presence.   The study notes are indeed plentiful, useful and insightful.   The word studies give pronunciation, uses, and focus passage with a short discussion relevant to the term examined.   There are also timelines which I find helpful to keep events and kings sorted out, as are the charts found throughout the entire text that summarize or categorize different areas.   Essays, book introductions and other available features make this an excellent study Bible.   The translation philosophy is given in the introductory sections.   The Biblical text reads easily and plainly.   I recommend this translation and the study aids found here as an excellent study Bible.  Wish I'd had one back when I ...