The Hunger Games - Book Review

One of the newest media trends right now is the Hunger Games. You've probably heard of it. If not, it's a series of book following a girl named Katniss. It's set in a time period of the future, after the fall of North America. Every year 2 teens, a boy and girl, from every region must fight to the death for the entertainment of the oppressive and blood thirsty government. The rest of the books tells of how Katniss and her allies defy the evil government and help ignite a long awaited revolution. While this is all going on, Katniss must decide who she loves, and who the real enemy is.

Story wise, the books are immensely entertaining, full of good vs. evil, action, gripping emotion and a bit of romance. Katniss is a self-sufficient survivor and has a deep sense of self-sacrificing loyalty to her family. Theologically, on the other hand, the books experience some problems. Throughout the stories Katniss is exposed to the depravity of mankind. The book clearly states that all men are wicked, even the "good" guys can fall prey to power mongering and greed. The books recognize the problem, but sadly, have no solution. The redemption of God's love and mercy are the perfect cure for the pain the characters suffer. They search, but they never find it. At the very end of the books, after Katniss comes back from the brink of insanity because of all the horrors of war and the loss she suffers, she finds comfort and hope in the next generation, where they won't have to face an evil government. She plays a game with herself, counting all the good things people do on a daily basis, and tries to remove her focus from the horror, and move it to the beautiful.

In the end, good prevails over evil, but the cost is high, sickeningly high.

So the ultimate question. Should we be reading these books and watching the upcoming movies? I think different Christians will have different answers. Here are some of my suggestions, if, in this point in your walk, you are vulnerable to attack in the purity department, the veiled romance in the books might cause you to stumble, so use discernment. If you're having tendencies to feel depressed, again, it might not be wise. But if you are perhaps wanting a sobering account of humanity and the cost of war, no matter how righteous, then I think the books are useful and even captivating.

Here are a couple verses from Scripture for you to make your own decision, and this by all means, not an end all list, just the ones that came to mind for me.

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. 1 Corinthians 10:23

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8
 

The Ever-Loving Truth

Can Faith Thrive In A Post-Christian Culture?

I first heard Voddie Baucham speak at a homeschool convention a few years ago. He is a wonderful preacher/teacher and our family decided to buy some of his books. I have benefited from some of his other books over the last year or two but never read "The Ever-Loving Truth." Recently I finished it, and here is what I thought of it.

The book is filled with information on a lot of topics which most people avoid. He breaks his book down into three different parts.

In the first part of the book he talks about Pre-Christian Attitudes in a Post-Christian Culture. In this part he sets the stage on what we are up against and gives some good examples on it. He also talks about how people in America hate to hear about God.

The second part of the book is called "Drawing a Line in the Sand." Basically he talks about what a joy we should have in sharing the gospel, and how we should go about it.

The third, and last, part of the book is called "What Shall We Say?" And he goes into a lot of apologetics on how we should share our faith.

Wonderful book that I really enjoyed reading and learning from. I recommend this book.

Matthew

The Well

I have to say that I was a little disappointed with Mark Hall after reading his newly released book, The Well. After reading one of his other books and listening to the album, "Come To The Well," I was excited about reading this book and soaking up his knowledge of the Bible like I have before, but that isn't what happened.

But I did learn from the book. The whole book is based on the story of the woman at the well. He talks about how we draw from our own wells instead of the Lord's wells. He talks about the holes (wells) of approval, control, religion, talent, and a lot of others. He goes into these and talks about how they get ahead of Jesus.

My complaint with the book was that it was not very deep. He was a little flippant when he re-quoted Bible stories in his own words. He used modern day language which (in my opinion) was not very reverent.

All in all, a good book. I did learn from it but it did not teach me as much as a lot of other books I have read.

Matthew

Crazy Love

While I was at Journey to the Heart, one of the staff said to us, "How many of you have ever thought this was a weird book (by its cover) and wouldn't really read it?" And most of us said "Yes." After the Journey I got some more recommendations for it and decided to read it.

While reading Crazy Love (~ Francis Chan), I kept thinking to myself: "I would like to write about this," and "Wow, I would like to share this passage." But after doing that 20-30 times I thought it would be better for you to read it. The wealth of information and knowledge in this book is amazing and eye-opening! It's about how we, as Christians, should be totally in love and obsessed with our Lord instead of just honoring Him out of duty and thinking He will be satisfied with just a small part of our day and time. Here is a quote from the book:

"I wrote this book because much of our talk doesn't match our lives. We say things like, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,' and 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart.' Then we live and plan like we don't believe God even exists. We try to set our lives up so everything will be fine even if God doesn't come through. But true faith means holding nothing back. It means putting every hope in God's fidelity to His promises."

Throughout the book he offers examples and tells how we can become closer to Christ. It really was an amazing book and I recommend it to all readers!

Matthew

Book Review 4

The Evidence Bible is New King James Version with commentary from Ray Comfort!

Ray Comfort is known for his ministry, Living Waters, that is dedicated in helping and encouraging Christians to evangelize with others and share the faith. Living Waters has many resources such as Bible tracts, Informational CD's, excellent videos and many more resources that help everyone share their faith to others.

The most recent book I purchased from their ministry is the Evidence Bible. It's just a normal bible, with a hardcover case and paper. However there is commentary from Ray Comfort throughout the Bible to help you explain certain parts of the Bible better while evangelizing.

To better explain this, let me give you a small example.

Lets say your evangelizing to someone and they ask you one of these following questions that are hard for most Christians (such as myself) to give an accurate, perfect answer. I will also provide a little argument people may have when asking these questions in ( ) .

1. Where did Cain get his wife? (There must have been aliens or other people if Cain had a wife...)
2. How did God create the whole earth in 6 days???
3. How could all the animals fit on the Ark? (It must not have happened...)
4. Did God really wipe out the whole earth? If so, how could He be so evil?? (If he is such a loving God, how can he kill those people like that?)
5. How many angels were at the tomb? ( 1 or 2? )
6. What gender are angels?

These are only some of the questions provided in the book, each one has an detailed answer to give to them, or even to yourself if you want to know why God wiped out the whole earth.

It also has commentary and explains what you should say if someone asks you questions like: "Have you ever lusted?" It also shares how to witness to someone who belongs to a different denomination but isn't trusting in the Savior or following the commandments.

Also provided is awesome quotes from popular and respected men from the past, such as: Patrick Henry, C. S. Lewis, and many others...

One of my favorite quotes is from Oswald S. Smith, "No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once."

This is an excellent book, not only because it's the Bible, but also because it gives good answers and helpful information to those who want to evangelize but don't know what to say to someone when they ask a tough question.

I am not quite ready to evangelize like Ray Comfort or any of the other members from Living Waters, however, with the help from this book, the Holy Spirit and my relationship with God, I hopefully will begin someday.

Thanks for reading!
God bless,
Josiah

 

Book Review 3

I recently just finished a book called, Tortured for Christ. It was really cool, but it also had it's "touching" moments when the Christians were tortured, beaten, or killed for Christ.
The book was written by Richard Wurmbrand, who is the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs, another great book you should read! Anyway, Wurmbrand was the main character in the book. He described what happened to himself and others around him when Russia was overtaken by a Communism government.

Pictures are also included in this book, of Wurmbrand and his family and friends. It also shows some of the scars Wurmbrands received from his tortures.

The book gave some encouragement, because it gave detailed descriptions of how Wurmbrand felt when being tortured. I knew, after reading this book (and a couple others) that if these Christians can withstand pain from being tortured over and over again; I can withstand the "little" things that come up and are a stumbling block in my faith.

I recommend this book, it's a great read! :-)

Thanks for reading,
God bless!

Josiah

Book Review 2

"'Do you have your own Jesus?' Why do you feel close to God one minute and so far away the next? Why does your faith seem empty? Why is it so easy to compromise with the world? Perhaps it's because we have merely inherited someone else's Jesus, relying on what we've seen and heard from family, friends, or pastors."

I am sure most of us have heard of Mark Hall through the band, Casting Crowns. When I saw he was also a writer and had written several books, I was interested to see what he had to say. What I found was an amazing book with a lot of truth in it.

Not knowing our own Jesus is a stumbling point in our Christian walk, but how can we know Him more? Hall answers this question in the book, "Your Own Jesus," where he writes on how to draw closer to Jesus and know Him more personally rather than inheriting our parent's, friend's, or pastor's faith.

He separates it into six different chapters, each starting with a few lines of one or two parts of his songs from the album, "Every Man." He then delves more into the topic of the song. An example would be that he posts some of the lyrics of "East to West" and then talks about the magnificent grace of God. He is a masterful storyteller and has some great stories riddled throughout the book.

The only questionable content in the book is that he broaches some adult topics as he shares stories and thoughts on how to overcome different parts of your life. Because of this, I would not recommend this book for anyone under 13-14 without your parent's permission.

All in all, a very enjoyable read in which I learned a lot. I highly recommend it.

Matthew

Book Review 1

Recently I got to review a book called Night of the Living Dead Christian.

This book was a fictional story, based on Zombies, Werewolves, and Vampires. I normally don't read books like these, and I hate what these three "figures" do...

However, this was labeled as a Christian book, and I thought I would read it. I tried keeping an open mind, not letting my personal knowledge/feelings interfere with this book in anyway.

So, to start us out, I will explain what I thought of the book.

First of all, I thought it was very immature. The writing was kind of poorly written, and I thought I was reading a children's book. The "adult" in this story was especially immature, and made several remarks/statements that disturbed me because of his age.

Also, the book had zombies, vampire, and werewolves....I don't like these figures at all, however they did play out an "important" part in the book, which I will explain later.

Also, the values of a Christian were mixed up...such like the "adult Christian" using a Message Bible, just to make the bible to read more interesting...the Adult Christian (main character in the book) was also extremely immature in his Christian faith, I myself am immature as well, but this character in the book, played out a role where he was helping a werewolf turn to Christ, but didn't even have any knowledge of how to become a Christian. All the "adult christian" was, "Go to church."

This book is all about how everyone has sins, and those sins resemble the creatures such as vampires, zombies or werewolves. Vampires are lustful and prideful, zombies follow anyone who tells them to do something even if it is wrong, and werewolves are rebellious, angry, and abusive. The author was pretty much stating that everyone who did not die for Christ, is one of these creatures. Which is something I do understand and believe. I was a "monster" as well, before I turned to Christ. This was the only highlight of this book for me.

The werewolf is taught how to receive Christ, by Jesus actually appearing to him in a burning building. Jesus asked him if he wanted to believe in Him, and than proceeded to tear off the werewolf's skin and face, revealing the true "human" he was.

I do understand the author was trying to preach a message to the unsaved people of this World...however I was not told this, and I thought it was for Christians as well. This book lacks good information about how to become a Christian, and it lacks the mature content it needs for older readers.

However, Thank you Tyndale Publishers and Matt Mikalatos for letting me review this book. Although my review may seem negative, I enjoyed reading another person's view point of the Christian faith, and how to enter into the Lord's kingdom.

God bless!!!

Josiah