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Have you ever been completely read like a book BY a book?  #Bamboozled

Yep! That's exactly what happened to me as I carefully and intentionally read through and digested the pages of Emmy Award nominated actress Yvonne Orji's book, Bamboozled by Jesus. 

At a time when I needed to be reminded of God's promises to me, reminded to dust off my dreams in faith and not allow them to be buried because of fear, reminded of His goodness, grace, love for me and His Sovereignty, the Holy Spirit prompted me to grab a copy of this book and "Add to Cart." 

In true Good, Good Father fashion, the Lord reached down in a low place and met me where I was.  Over the past couple of years, in truth, I have struggled with feeling emotionally drained and at times, spiritually depleted.  I began to think, "Lord, how do I keep pouring out, showing up, and being present for myself and others if I am empty? There is nothing left for me to give."  I found myself stuck in my own mire, but with the mustard-seed faith and little bit of hope I had left, I chose to trust that somehow, some way, God would provide a way of escape for me.  

And while I waited on my answer, I did what I knew how to do: to pray (nothing elaborate, just an earnest plea, "Lord I need You and I need Your help) and to read my Word as I fought an uphill battle.  I was trying to fill my cart as God worked on mending my heart.  One day as I was waiting on the Lord, I heard the Holy Spirit tell me in essence that I was "running on the fumes of my relationship with Him."  In that moment I knew something had to change in me before my circumstances around me changed.  I heard the Lord loud and clear and that kicked me into different gear spiritually. The last thing that I wanted to do was become so comfortable in my mess that I became a spiritual sluggard and be dismissive toward the things that God has placed inside of me to accomplish. 

I desperately needed to be refreshed, and like cold water being splashed on you on a hot summer's day, Joshua 1:9 and (once it arrived in the mail,) Bamboozled by Jesus were the very things that I needed to wake me up from my spiritual slumber. 

Bamboozled by Jesus showed me, me. It served as my mirror in a season where I wasn't particularly checking for my reflection.  Though I'd been #TeamNoNewFriends for a while, I made one in Yvonne. She kept it real, she kept it funny, and transparent. She lovingly challenged me to get up and reminded me to stop swinging aimlessly at life and to strategize with the Holy Spirit; the fight was fixed in my favour to win because of Jesus. All I had to do was listen and move as He moves. 

I'm learning that deferred doesn't mean denied. Sometimes God will allow things to be postponed, until we are properly positioned, healed and whole to receive them.  We need to be prepared for what He has prepared for us and encouraged that what He has for us will not pass us by.  

For all of my bosom friends and kindred spirts, who love the Anne of Green Gables series as much as I do, this book review is for you!

Reading L.M. Montgomery's classic tale of Anne Shirley and all of her adventures and kerfuffles for the first time, was one of my fondest childhood memories.  When my mom introduced me to the 1985 Canadian Television Film, Anne of Green Gables directed by Kevin Sullivan, starring Megan Follows as Anne, Colleen Dewhurst as Marilla Cuthbert, Richard Farnsworth as Matthew Cuthbert, Jonathan Crombie as Gilbert Blythe, and Schulyer Grant as Diana Berry, it was as if my world was opened up to something new.  I was completely immersed into the story, and saw a great deal of myself in L.M. Montgomery's main, beloved character.  She was absolutely masterful at drawing readers into her imaginative world, and creating and developing characters who, in the end were truly kindred spirits underneath their unwily ways. 

L.M. Montgomery was a smart writer. She wrote colorfully, and the words seemed to dance off of the page, directly into the imagination and heart of the reader.   In this book, Anne of Green Gables: The Original Manuscript,  the editor, Carolyn Strom Collins,  an L.M. Montgomery scholar, compiles the author's original notes, revisions, and history of the book's transformation before going to print in June of 1908. For enthusiasts of this series, this is the perfect addition to have in your book collection, because in a very informative, exciting and clever way, readers receive a rare, behind the scenes look at the creative process of the author.   This is the book, that I always dreamed should be written! It's one where you are really able to get into the mind of the author, see what she was thinking, how the characters came to be, why she chose to keep some things and edit out others, and who and what inspired this most beloved story.  There is so much to learn and glean from the content in this book for aspiring writers as well.  This book was an absolute joy to read and I am so happy to have it in my library!

I had been anticipating reading Pastor Michael Todd’s best-selling book, Relationship Goals for a while. Over the past couple of years, I have been watching his sermons on YouTube and they have served me well in this season. When I finally received the book in the mail amid the stay at home order, I could not wait to delve into it. The Lord is always so intentional when He places books on my heart to read, and this one was no exception. By cultural standards, I would be considered a bit behind the curve when it comes to dating, my last relationship was 11 years ago (high school) and I have entertained a few “situationships” sporadically into my adulthood.
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This book was a crash course in how to win in relationships of every kind. In a conversation with my mom I mentioned that “I am very contented in my singleness.”  Over the past five to seven years, the Lord and I have done a lot of work on me, and my relationship with Him has reached depths that I wouldn’t have known to hope for.   At this juncture, I am not looking for a man to be an addition to the good thing that I have going with the Lord. Rather, as a self-proclaimed “Modern Day Esther”, I am patiently waiting for that special someone who is an extension to my life. Someone who has his own purpose and is in active pursuit of it, and is open and willing to support me in mine (as I would in his), all while pursuing the purpose that the Lord has for us together. It is the latter part, for which I am most excited! This book is filled with practical tips from both Pastor Mike and his wife Natalie. I really enjoyed this read and I am grateful for what I learned.
 
The three greatest takeaways from Relationship Goals for me were

1. This should go without saying, however it is worth putting back into our hearing and focus, the ULITMATE Relationship Goal is and always should be, the relationship with have with the Lord.  He created us in His image and likeness for relationship; first with Him, everyone else becomes secondary.  Without having a relationship with God, we will never be truly satisfied. 
   
2. Learning how to be single well  and lastly,
3. Taking inventory of the relationships I have; and dissecting each one, to see if they are serving me well, or if I am nurturing and hold on to relationships that are no longer producing fruit.

 
Relationship Goals is a great book to have in your  collection. It is written in a palatable, practical way that is easy to digest and understand. The biblical references are great for personal study with the word and also really help to drive Pastor Mike Todd’s points home.
 
Pick up your copy today!

I can remember when I first gave my life to the Lord at the age of 9, being so excited to share Jesus with other people. I was zealous in my mission to share Him with the world; through the way I lived my life, through the conversations that I had, through the work that I did and through the things that I created.  I had grown up in a household with my sisters, where Biblical principles were not just taught, but they were the very foundation on which my family stood. It is through the lens of Christianity and faith that we as a family made decisions, and operated. My parents did well to also teach my sisters and me the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 

In the very early stages of my faith journey, Jesus introduced Himself to me as the Friend in Proverbs 18:24, the One "who sticks closer than a brother."  As I matured spiritually, it was really my desire to know the person of Jesus more intimately that I began my quest through scripture, mentorship and prayer to find answers to the questions I had.  Throughout my life, the experiences that I had gone through growing up, and the divine interventions  and encounters that I'd had solidified for me the validity of Who Jesus was and that He is very present and very real. 

It wasn't until high school and college that I began to have more in-depth conversations about faith and the questions that my peers had. I quickly began to understand that not everyone's experience with God and the Church was the same. As I listened to different perspectives, and heard the hurt in their stories, I felt such compassion in those moments, and it lit a fire under me to be more purposeful in coming into agreement with The Great Commission, "to make disciples" (Matthew 28-19-20).  

My desire to work with young adults who have grown a bit weary in their faith journey was the inspiration for adding You Lost Me to my growing book collection.  This book was one of the top recommended for youth, young adult and church leaders.   If I were to rate this book, I'd rate it a 3 out of 5.  There are a lot of great points throughout the book and those points are backed by research conducted by author and majority owner of  Barna Group. I am of the opinion that You Lost Me more stats than solutions. At the end of each chapter I desired more, but not to necessarily read more, rather to find answers.  I felt like I was on a constant search to settle a nagging unsettling.  
I was encouraged at the end of the book, however because that to me was where the real gems lied.  
 

​I believe that the Lord is moving me into a new level of my ministry. I had the book
​ God Space in my Amazon cart for about a year, but never purchased it because I didn’t feel that it was relevant to where I was in my faith journey at the time.  It wasn’t until recently, that I went back through my saved items that I reread the book’s description. As of late, I have been feeling more of prompting learn how to be more effective in my day to day conversations about Christ.
 
My whole platform is about making the person of Jesus and His message more relatable and the implementation of biblical principles more practical for every day life. So, this book at this time became relevant to me because its premise is teaching how to create a space where conversations about God can happen naturally, anywhere! 
Each chapter builds on the next and causes you to examine yourself in areas of evangelism that will challenge you, require you to think more deeply about how you conduct a dialogue and where God fits into those conversations. The principles outlined are easy to implement and stress the need to be a Holy Spirit led listener and teaches the reader how to best pose questions to people that will guide them to want to discover Jesus for themselves.  
 
I would encourage anyone with a deep seeded desire to engage well in conversations about God with the people of the world but who are apprehensive because you don’t know where to begin or how to broach the topic, to read this book. It is a great guide full of wisdom and helpful tips on how to be better equipped to create a God Space where ever you find yourself.
 

A few months ago, my Pastor gifted our church congregation a book entitled, Calling: Understanding Your Purpose, Place and Position. I liked the title, so naturally I put it on a long list of “things to do.” Much like with a majority of the books I have in my growing collection, the Lord appointed the time in which He deemed it appropriate for me to come back to it. The time for me is now.  I am in a season of waiting and inevitably waiting requires the discipline of patience. I never want to rush God when He is working on me, in me or through me.  My greatest desire as a believer is to come to know Him and His ways more intimately so that the calling on my life will be fulfilled and all the more effective to those to whom I am called to be relevant. 
This book illustrates for the reader how to begin to recognize the calling on his or her life and how to go about pursuing it with wisdom, greater understanding, grace and faith.  There is so much that God wants to show us about ourselves and how He wants to use us for His Kingdom purposes! We are a chosen generation. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to miss out on what God has for me because I pushed and prioritized my own agenda instead of pressing into His presence. I want to be equipped to be effective in my purpose and destiny and in Jen Tringale’s book Calling, readers can do just that.  
 
The self-reflective questions at the end of each chapter are especially helpful, because they hold you accountable for what you’ve just read and also challenges you to think more deeply about where you are on your journey.
 
If you are looking for a book that will encourage and teach you how to be effective in a season of waiting and transition, this book is absolutely for you.

​There are some books that you want to read, and then there are those special few that you feel led to read. Hannah Brencher’s book, Come Matter Here fell in the latter category. A week before my trip to Europe, a set of unfortunate circumstances transpired which resulted in a significant change in my affectations and emotions. I knew that I was going to need some new reading material for the long flight that I had and I felt a prompting in my spirit to purchase Come Matter Here: Your invitation to Be Here in a Getting There World. As I had hoped, it arrived just in time for me to stow away in my carry-on luggage! Though I had been following the author on social media for a while, I had no way of knowing what to expect from the book or why the Holy Spirit was leading me in that particular direction, but I soon found out. With the exception of a few life experiences, the season in which Brencher found herself in the book, mirrored where I was in my own life. As I digested each story penned on each page I began my own journey of rediscovery and rebuilding.
I empathized with Hannah: laughed with her, cried with her, and even celebrated the victories she shared in the book. I felt like through each chapter I got to know her a little better and that she understood me. We became fast friends. At the time, I didn’t know how much I needed one. But God did. I’m just glad she was there. This book taught me the importance of being honest with myself and getting real about what hurts. Through the prayers and advice provided I was able to cope better with what I lost without feeling lost. Instead of focusing so much on what my next move is going to be, I am learning to accept the grace for each moment that God provides, rest in the peace that His precious Holy Spirit so freely offers and trust Him to order my steps no matter how big or small they may be. God’s grace is boundless and I am grateful to Hannah for the gentle reminder.
 
If you need to hit the pause button on life, I strongly encourage you to pick up your copy of Come Matter Here. It will be an investment you’ll be glad you made!

I had the distinct privilege to meet the author of this book at the beginning of this year. Lilian was kind enough to sign my copy and wrote in the inscription, "I hope it makes you laugh out loud."  Boy did I ever! This humorous collection of stories was exactly what I needed to get through some tough days at a particular season of my life. The laughter that ensued as one chapter built on the next did my weary heart a great deal of good. 

The book takes you through Lillian's dating life and in a very conversational tone she gives you tips on what to do, what not to do, what to look out for and what to pray for when trying to find "the one."
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10 Dates Later is the best "How to in Reverse" that you'll see on the shelves. 

I would encourage anyone who thinks that there is no hope in the dating world to read 10 Dates Later because, it will give you the strength to laugh off the frustrations and learn to trust God in this area of your life a little more.