The Devil in Pew Number Seven

The Devil in Pew Number Seven
by Rebecca Nichols Alonzo

My first "borrowed" Nook book!

I felt a little pressured to read this book in a hurry because my understanding of "borrowing" electronic books is that they disappear after a set amount of time.  Perhaps I needn't have worried as this one seems to still hanging out on my Nook, although it's number is "0."

Somehow this book wasn't quite what I expected it to be and yet I don't know why I expected anything different.  A pious young man and his wife and children are invited to evangelize in Sellerstown, NC where they are then encouraged to stay and share their ministry through a church in need of a new minster.  They become beloved to their new community by all but their nearest neighbor who begins a campaign of terror to try to drive them out. 

Tactics to scare the Nichols out of town include bombing and dynamiting very near their home and shooting at the house, into the children's bedrooms under the cover of darkness.  FBI and ATF people are called in but are unable to stop the attacks. The Nichols family stays on as Mr. Nichols is willing to give his life for Jesus and not be run out of a town that supports him.

Not surprisingly, disaster does come to the Nichols family, although not from the source I expected. But the effect of the event is magnified even more by the years of mental torture the family had been under, making it even harder to bear and recover.

More than anything the message of this story is forgiveness.  The unwavering theme throughout was the ability of this family to forgive the horrible actions against them, and continue to pray for the man who perpetrated them.  The final chapter of the book became "preachy" to some extent, but still was necessary to explain why the author, Nichols daughter Rebecca, forgives as she does and continues to believe in a loving God. 

I found it hard to keep reading of the terror this family with it's young children were going through when they were so unwilling to leave.  I kept thinking of the story of the man sitting on the roof of his house during  flood.  A man came by in a canoe to rescue him, another in a motorboat, and a third in a helicopter.  To each he said, "No thank you, God will save me!"  He eventually was swept away in the flood and drowned. When he got to heaven and asked God why he didn't save him, God answered, "I sent you a canoe, a motorboat and a helicopter.  What more did you want?"  Likewise, could this family not have devised a way to minister to this community and done something more to ensure their own safety?

A very sad story, to be sure.

90 Minutes in Heaven

90 Minutes in Heaven
by Don Piper with Cecil Murphy

I thought I'd follow up "Heaven is for Real" with this book, sort of as a compare and contrast project for myself. However, this book gave me a bit of a different focus than I was expecting. If I could re-title this book, I'd call it "90 Minutes in Heaven and 2 Years in Hell."

Don Piper is a pastor in a Baptist church and after an out of town conference he is involved in a fatal accident. Pronounced dead at the scene by several people he returns to life 90 minutes later after an on scene prayer vigil by another pastor.

Mr. Piper's description of visiting heaven for those 90 minutes is pretty flat and one dimensional. He spends a few pages telling of his experience but I found it less revealing than other experiences I have read about. The remainder of the book details his excruciating pain and road to recovery. He questions God over and over why he had to return to earth and gives us a lot of insight into the terrible condition he was in, how no one expected him to live or recover, and what a hellish patient he was for the months and months of his recovery. The final portion of the book deals with how God has used him and his experience to witness to others.

I had no problem getting through the book, it was an interesting read, but really not what I was expecting. And now I will tell you right up front that I am going to be petty with this review.

One thing that particularly sticks out for me is Mr. Piper's whining about how he let his twin sons down, how he wasn't there for them to take them camping or fishing or to teach them team sports. He never recovered full use of his body and many activities became impossible for him. I grew weary of these laments for several reasons. One is that many young boys never have those experiences with their fathers. Was he really lamenting about his sons or himself? He was a pastor, and as such, I think he could have called on many fathers in the congregation to step up for him and offer those experiences to his sons. Who wouldn't happily taken them camping or fishing? He could have never recovered from the accident and not been there for them at all, in any form. What he was able to give his sons was a loving father who was there to cheer them on through all their activities whether he was able to participate or not. This whining was really annoying to me. Especially since one of his stories in the book was about a man blinded in an accident who was encouraged to focus on what he could still do, and not what he had lost.

Many near death experiences I have read about recently leave the survivor with extreme peace and calm. I realize that Mr. Piper had incredible pain to endure and lives in constant pain to this day and that could be a factor, but I didn't get his sense of peace and calm from knowing heaven.

As with "Heaven is for Real" I don't doubt any of his story and I do feel that Mr. Piper has been fulfilling his mission on earth through his experience and witnessing. Unfortunately, I am just not as impressed with his book as I thought I would be.

I give it three shots of four.

Heaven is for Real

Heaven is for Real
by Todd Burpo

This is a very quick read telling the story of an (almost) four year old boy's journey to Heaven and what he experienced there. It's told through his father's eyes as the details of his experience are revealed bit by bit in a childlike way. Of course it's a childlike way, it's the experience of a child.

To me the story was at once hopeful, exciting and disturbing. While I ask myself, how can I doubt the experience of one so young and innocent, and to know that Heaven does exist, it also causes me to question my own beliefs of the afterlife and what I should expect when the time comes.

If you have an interest in this type of story, I urge you to read this book. It only takes a day or two and you can decide for yourself what is real.

I give this book three of five shots. It's not a bad read, but in some odd way I was expecting something a little more earth shattering. I'd love to hear what others have thought.

Same Kind of Different as Me

Same Kind of Different as Me
By Ron Hall and Denver Moore

*This is my previous review from Visual Bookshelf

This book is wonderful. I picked it up shortly after it was published when I was working at B&N. I noticed it in the biography section and was drawn to it from the first time I saw it. Interestingly, when I finished the book this evening I noticed the back cover listed the genre as religion/spirituality, not the "simple" biography I expected to read.

The authors of the book are two men from very different American cultures. They tell the stories of their lives, chapter by chapter in their own voices, and how their relationship came to be, including Ron Hall's wife's major role in the tale. Indeed the story revolves around her faith, not only in God, but in people no matter who they are or where they come from. The story is full of Christian faith, yet is not preachy. It's presented simply as part of who these people are.

I would recommend this book to everyone whether you have God in your life or not, whether you are Christian or of another faith. The story is incredibly powerful and shares a message for all people whether they share the authors' perspective of God or not. Prepare to be amazed at what you can find when you ignore the obvious and look to the being within.

The Shack

Originally posted on MySpace May 23, 2008

Current mood:enlightened

4am in the morning and still awake. It's so peaceful. I can hear a few little bird chirps which seem odd since it's still so dark out. Bailey left me long ago to sleep in the bedroom where she knows I belong at this hour. She's probably having puppy dreams and snoring. Since Mark is out of town she's most likely crept up onto the bed. She knows I'll let her get away with it....

I've been reading a book called "The Shack" by William P Young. It's a story about God's love, written from the perspective of Mackenzie, a man who has lost a child in the most horrible way. After four years of bearing the Great Sadness, Mackenzie receives a note from God to meet him at the shack where his daughter was killed. (I know - not just anybody gets a note from God!) When he meets God "face to face" he becomes involved in a relationship with three people: "God" who is a black woman who calls herself Papa, "Jesus" (self explanatory) and "Sarayu" a sort of translucent, airy, light filled being who is the Holy Ghost. These three characters who are all God, yet appear as three separate beings, interacting and sharing wonderful relationships with each other begin to show Mackenzie what God's love really is.

My faith is something fluid. It grows and changes with my experience(s) and what I believe I understand. I am open to new fresh ideas because everything I have seen as reference and truth about God has actually been provided or interpreted by man. I believe in a totally loving and forgiving God. That doesn't mean I should be a horrible person because in the long run it won't matter, forgiveness will still be mine, but that I should live in God's love and with him at the center I am living in his example.

In many ways this book reflects what I have felt about God and clarifies many things that I couldn't grasp. How can I be this religion or that religion if one is right and one is not? I have believed that many roads lead to heaven (God) but then I am told that only through Jesus can I get there. Can a loving/forgiving God really turn away anyone of a religion that isn't Christian? That can't be right my heart tells me. One of the most striking ideas in this book (paraphrasing here) is, by many roads, God will find his children. Wow.

A believer of God and/or Jesus or not, I think this book is a good read for anyone. It's been sort of a slow read for me, but I really think that is because some of the ideas are so profound that I have to allow myself time to absorb them. I am sure I will be reading this book again.

The Unusual Suspect

"The Unusual Suspect" 

by Stephen Baldwin

Hardcover, 281 pages

 Pages read: 102
 

Yes, this book is by Steve Baldwin of the famous Baldwin brothers. It is his account of finding God, Christ and creation of his Christian ministry. The title is of course, a take off of the title of one of his more famous movies.
 

I hate to start books and not finish them. This sometimes causes me to quit reading for months, because if I don't finish what I am reading I can't start another book and therefore come to a reading stalemate. In the case of this book, since starting it I've read two other books and cannot seem to force myself to pick it back up again and finish it.
 

I've heard good reviews on this book and I do commend Mr. Baldwin for his enthusiasm and giving his life to God, but I found reading about it tedious. The book is too full of Stephen Baldwin who is too full of himself. He constantly reminds the reader that we should be so amazed that someone like "little Stevie B" has found God and a purpose in life. 

I'm happy for you Mr. Baldwin, but perhaps this book wasn't one of your better ventures.