​“To ask for the guidance of God is to make a choice, and this takes faith.  It must be faith of a far higher kind than the breezy ‘if I like what I see I’ll take it.'  It is faith that has strength to wait for the rewards God holds, strength to believe they are worth waiting for, worth the price asked. 
Our prayers for guidance (or for anything else) really begin here:  I trust him.  This requires abandonment.  We are no longer saying 'If I trust him, he’ll give me such and such,'
​but 'I trust him.  Let him give me or withhold from me what he chooses.'”
~Excerpt from “Introduction”

Now that Christmas is over, we often forget about the significance of Christ’s coming and the amazing truth that He became Immanuel—God with us.  So as the glory and awe of the season wears off, I have a book that will rekindle the fire and re-ignite your awe and wonder at the coming of Christ.

“What had happened to The [American] Dream?  …  As it finally became apparent that there were not going to be any scapegoats, that our best thinkers could not come up with nay conclusive answers, many Americans gave up asking what had happened.  And yet, this book has an answer.  To many, the answer will be incredible, even preposterous, although two hundred years ago, the majority of Americans would have accepted it readily enough.  And a hundred and fifty years before that, for the first settlers who found their way to these shores, it would have been the only answer.”
~Excerpts from Chapter 1, “The Search”

​The author of Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, Dr. Paul Brand, continues his tour of the human body’s intricate workings and it’s application to Christ’s spiritual Body.  Along with his collaborator and editor, author Philip Yancey, this sequel was published by Zondervan in 1984 and reprinted in 2008.   

“What moves cells to work together?  What ushers in the higher specialized functions of movement, sight, and consciousness through the coordination of a hundred trillion cells?  The secret to membership lies locked away inside each cell nucleus chemically coiled in a strand of DNA.  …  The Designer of DNA went on to challenge the human race to a new and higher purpose:  membership in his own Body.” 
~Excerpts from Chapter 5, “Unity”​

​This is the subject matter of Dr. Paul Brand’s Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.  Co-published with author Philip Yancey in 1980, this book takes the Apostle Paul’s correlation between the physical body and Christ’s Body and goes deeper, looking down to the cellular level.   

“Biblical belief is more than just an intellectual acceptance or a heartfelt acknowledgement; it is a commitment to follow.  Following by definition requires more than mental assent, it calls for movement.  …  There is no forgiveness without repentance. There is no salvation without surrender. 
​There is no life without death.  There is no believing without committing.” 
~Excerpts from Chapter 2, “A Decision or a Commitment?”
​

When did you believe that Jesus was the only way of salvation?  Did you choose to believe to receive all the free handouts?  Or did you commit to follow Christ?  These are the types of questions that Kyle Idleman asks his readers in this inspirational, convicting, and soul-probing book published by Zondervan in 2011.  

Written by Andrew Murray in the 1800s and reprinted in 2007 by Moody Classics, this short expository on the parable of the Vine and Branches found in John 15 is a must read for 21st century believers today.  Full of rich imagery and straightforward reading, The True Vine provokes deeper thought into the meaning and application of abiding in Christ.