Amy Boucher Pye

Category: Nonfiction book reviews

  • Book reviews – Waking Up in Heaven and Kisses from Katie

    I love reading Christian biographies; they remind me that God can do amazing things in and through his people. Here are two books that chronicle two remarkable women, which I came across in my publishing work with Authentic Media (we secured the Commonwealth rights for them). The first is a story of someone who dies and spends time in heaven. When I first heard that yet another heaven book had appeared, I was skeptical. But I started reading Waking Up in Heaven and was gripped, for Crystal’s life has been filled with drama even without the otherworldly journey.

    9781780781136As a young child Crystal suffered repeated sexual abuse, and could never feel clean – she got baptized four times as a teenager in her quest to slough off the old self. She got pregnant at seventeen and had the baby, but at nineteen had an abortion. Married at twenty but divorced after six months when she found out he was a drug addict. But when at last she found a really good guy to marry, and her life seemed sorted, she fell into a deep depression. Why? She didn’t feel worthy of her husband and his love (rooted out of the feelings of shame and self-hatred that she had endured all her life). And that’s when she died for nine minutes and experienced a life-changing transformation in heaven… You’ll have to read it to find out more!

    I should mention another heaven book: Dr. Mary Neal’s To Heaven and Back. She’s an orthopedic surgeon, and her prose is not chatty like Crystal’s, but her scientific medical stance makes for a compelling read.

    9781780780894Another life-changing journey is that of Katie Davis. In her year before going to university, she went on a shortterm mission trip to Uganda. She fell in love with the people and the place, and knew that God was calling her to return there. But how would her family and her boyfriend react? At first she left the comfortable surroundings of her home in America for a year to immerse herself in Uganda; the plan was then to return to her life – her family, her boyfriend, her studies. But as the time drew to a close, she knew she had to stay. And she had to begin a family made up of one parent and otherwise destitute orphans.

    In the years since, Katie has settled in Uganda and is in the process of adopting thirteen girls. A crazy path in the eyes of the world has been her following the call of Jesus. Radical obedience and the sharing and receiving God’s love.

    What stories of God’s transforming love are you reading?

     

    Publishing info: Waking Up in Heaven, Crystal McVea and Alex Tresniowski (Authentic, ISBN 9781780781136) and Kisses from Katie, Katie Davis and Ben Clark (Authentic, ISBN 9781780780894)

  • What’s your word? A book review for the new year

    Are you a list person? Do this; do that; scratch it off your list. Lists can focus the mind, but sometimes we create lists to foster (or manufacture) spiritual growth. Change this; read that; be that person. And yet we aren’t made to respond to such dictates, as if we were robots. Love, rather than guilt, is a better inducer of change.

    9780310318774My One Word is a brilliant seemingly easy approach to spiritual growth, and a way to lose the lists and effect real change. Before God, choose one word for the year. The word will be “the lens through which you examine your heart and mind for an entire year” (p. 24). It will best reflect what you hope God will do in and through you. Say you choose trust. That’s the word you bring to mind when you receive the shattering news that you’ve lost your job. Or when you send off your teenage daughter on an overnight visit with her friend. Or when your grandson needs a medical procedure. Or when you move out of your comfort zone and visit the neighbour you suspect is hurting. Choosing one word becomes the way to change our outlook and behaviour, especially when we pray through it and seek it (or the principles behind it) in Scripture.

    When I first read this book last January, I loved the idea. After praying for a few weeks, a word reverberated through my being: flourish, with a verse to go along with it: Isaiah 55:10–11 (“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it”). But I questioned that I got the word right. It seemed a bit cheeky to choose such a wonderful word. Yet I couldn’t get away from the idea that this was to be my word for the year.

    But I didn’t put into place the many helpful suggestions the authors give about how we can own our word and incorporate it into our daily lives – I didn’t slap it on my computer monitor, for instance, or stick it up on the fridge. After a month or so I forgot about it. And only when I was leafing through my stacks of review books did I realize I’d let this drop. So a few months later, I started to follow through on my earlier good intentions. And as I look back at 2013, I do see flourishing and growth: the joy of friendships. The love of family. Stretching and enriching work. Finally joining a gym and loving group exercise. The close presence of God through it all.

    What might your word be for the coming year? According to the authors, the ten most-chosen words are: trust, patience, love, discipline, focus, faith, surrender, peace, listen, and joy. All rich and wonderful words, but no doubt God will have just the right one for you.

    I invite you to read this encouraging and often moving book and to join me in choosing just one word. May God transform our hearts and minds through the work of his Spirit.

     

    My One Word: Change Your Life with Just One Word. Mike Ashcraft & Rachel Olsen (Zondervan, ISBN 978-0310318774)

  • Interview with Joni Eareckson Tada, and review of Joni and Ken

    A couple of months ago I had the privilege of interviewing Joni Eareckson Tada in connection with her new book, Joni & Ken: An Untold Love Story (Zondervan). I’ve long admired her, and got to meet her and her husband one year when I was working for her publisher. She exudes God’s grace and love in person and online. And in her new book, detailing the story of her and her husband’s thirty-year marriage, she and Ken share so honestly about their challenges, struggles, and joys.

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    For when Ken Tada made his wedding vows, he knew he would especially have to live up to the phrase “in sickness and in health.” After all, he was marrying a quadriplegic. He also knew his life would hold particular challenges and joys, for he was marrying the internationally known author and speaker, Joni Eareckson. But he didn’t reckon on the debilitating sameness of her daily routines, such as her toileting challenges or the need to reposition her several times each night.

    Their book journeys through their 30 years of marriage, warts and all. It chronicles the early days of romance and international travel along with the crushing middle years of depression, excruciating chronic pain, and a growing distance between them. The severe mercy of breast cancer a couple of years ago was the agent to bring them back to a full dependence on Jesus – and to union with each other.

    Not many biographies of people in the public eye are so searching and honest. I can’t recommend this book highly enough, not only for people who hope for a closer marriage, but for anyone wanting to witness how God can change lives – even those who have been following him for years.

    Run, do not walk, to your local Christian bookshop to get a copy of this book; I loved it! It’s real, gritty and honest – and dripping with God’s hope and redeeming love.

    In Joni’s Words

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    Here is Joni sharing her love of books, an interview that appeared in the May 2013 issue of Woman Alive (the book club that I run); reprinted with permission.

    There are lots of surprises in Joni & Ken, not the least of which is Ken’s part of the story. How does a strong, handsome, virile man keep passion alive when he’s married for three decades to a quadriplegic woman? For years, Ken has gotten up every night to “re-position” me in bed (I can only lay in one position for four hours). So how does he manage that with such a good attitude? Or does he have a good attitude?! This book reveals all.

    The Liberty of Obedience by Elisabeth Elliot remains a favorite book of mine. I first read it when I was released from the hospital after the diving accident in which I broke my neck. Suddenly I was expected to trust God in the midst of utterly overwhelming circumstances. This little book gave insight and wisdom as to how I could embrace the Lord in the midst of total quadriplegia. If Elisabeth Elliot could do it amidst the Acua Indians after they killed her husband… then I could, by God’s grace, do the same.

    The saints of old, such as Amy Carmichael and George Muller, inspire me. One of the dangers of the Christian life is that we too often imagine it – we imagine we’re walking closely to the Lord or that we’re being obedient or kind or loving. But trials – such as the kind faced by Amy Carmichael and George Muller – put our love for God and for each other to the test. What we believe about the Christian faith must be lived out in reality and tough trials are the best way of forcing our faith to be real.

    I resonate with Paul and Silas [from the Bible], deep in a dark jail cell at midnight singing praises to God… loudly! These two inspire me to always ask God every morning for “a hymn in my heart” so that I might follow their example. And throughout the day, it’s the melody I keep humming, like “praying without ceasing.”

    Runaway Home is one of the children’s books that I love. It’s a marvelous series about a family who packed up all their belongings in a trailer and set out to find adventure across the United States. Since I have always loved geography and maps, even as a child, I thrilled at all their new discoveries on every page. The book series may be out of print, but, to me, it’s a classic.

    You asked if I could only save one book from your burning house, which would it be and why? After the Bible, my family’s photo album – with my parents long gone to heaven, these old photos are precious memories I would never want to lose!

    Joni Eareckson Tada, founder and CEO of Joni and Friends, is an international advocate for people with disabilities. She’s the author of over 50 books, including her bestsellers Joni, When God Weeps and A Step Further. She and her husband Ken Tada have been married for 30 years.

     

    So tell me, have you read any of Joni’s books, or watched the film of her life? Has her ministry made an impact on you?

  • Review of the best book on unanswered prayer

    God on Mute: Engaging the Silence of Unanswered Prayer

    Pete Greig (Survivor/Kingsway, ISBN 9781842913178)

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    Some years ago, my  faith was seriously rocked when I thought God was telling me to move from one city to another, and then everything fell through with the move. I didn’t know what to believe. Was God out there? Did he care? Was he speaking to me? What was I hearing?

    I would have loved to have been able to read God on Mute back then. Through God’s grace I was able to mature in my faith, but it was a long and lonely road to travel, filled with hurt, questions, doubts. Perhaps Pete’s book will shorten the path of others. I hope so; because of God’s seeming silence, many Christians lose their faith or allow it to be it watered down to an insipid state.

    Pete Greig is a co-founder of the 24-7 Prayer movement, which has touched people around the world. He’s written about this prayer movement in another book, but this one is a profoundly personal yet deeply biblical exploration of unanswered prayer.

    Just weeks after the birth of their second son, Pete’s wife Samie suffered a horrible seizure. After rushing her to the hospital, they learned that she had a tumor in her head the size of an orange. As Pete says, “Why, I wondered darkly, hadn’t my prayers made any notable difference when Samie and I needed God’s help more than ever before?” And, “Here I am, one of the leaders within a prayer movement … and (dare I admit it?) my deepest prayers are impotent…” (p. 38-39)

    Pete searched for answers to the profound question of unanswered prayer, and determined that the book needed to be written that would fit between his wife’s “Reader’s Digest and a cappuccino.” God on Mute is the result of their years of prayers, searching, and reflection.

    It’s been a few years since I read this book, and I’d love to read it again, slowly. First time round I was propelled by the story of Pete’s wife, Samie, as she discovered the brain tumor and her subsequent epilepsy. I was gripped by this human drama, especially as my brother has struggled with epilepsy nearly his whole life.

    A book I will give to others and reread. It’s a treasure trove of wisdom which also poses the questions some are too afraid to raise.

     

    This book has been out a few years; have you read it? What stories do you have of unanswered prayer?

  • Review of Bill Hybels’ book on hearing God

    9780310318224The Power of a Whisper

    Hearing God. Having the Guts to Respond.

    Bill Hybels (Zondervan, 978-0310318224)

    I’ve long been fascinated by the subject of hearing God. In my twenties I edited Leanne Payne’s book on the subject, Listening Prayer. Engaging with her manuscript set me on a path of seeking God’s voice fervently. I felt awe the first time his whisper reverberated in my spirit: “I love you, beloved. You are mine.” But eventually my unbridled excitement that the God of the universe would actually speak to me led me to ignore the practice of testing what I was hearing (even though Leanne Payne counsels against this). For instance, I believed I heard God tell me to move cities to work with a Christian ministry, a place that conveniently was home to the man that I believed God was telling me to marry.

    You can probably guess that none of that happened – the move or the marriage. My hopes and faith splattered when my plans came to naught. I didn’t know what to think or believe.

    And yet I couldn’t give up listening to God. I tried, but I couldn’t cut the lifeline that had been giving me hope and love and affirmation – even though I had messed up in the interpretation. That major crash helped me to mature as I learned to wait before God, asking him to clarify and affirm what I was hearing – through the Bible, through his still, small voice, through trusted friends and family.

    I still gobble up books on this topic, always learning something new about our mysterious relationship with our Creator. When I heard about Bill Hybels’, I was surprised. I thought of him as a high-powered pastor and founder of the massive Willow Creek empire. My husband, also a pastor, has enjoyed his books, but I haven’t read any closely. Yet when I picked up The Power of a Whisper, I didn’t want to put it down. He tells the story of how God’s whispers have changed the course of his life, including creating Willow, learning how to parent, aching for the poor and so on. God has continually shaped him through these sometimes gentle, sometimes persistent communications from above. This book has mellowed my perception of him as an author.

    I thought his book could have been reduced by about a third – it started to feel a bit too long and unwieldy towards the end – but would recommend it as an introduction to hearing God. It’s especially suitable for any type-A guys in your life (I passed along my copy to the vicar with whom I sleep, and he’s loving it).

    Other books on the topic? Leanne Payne’s, as I mention above, as well as Dallas Willard’s Hearing God and Joyce Huggett’s Listening to God.

    What words will God have for you today?

     

    This review originally appeared in the March 2013 Woman Alive Book Club.