Book 16: Fifth Seal (A.D. Chronicles #5) by Brock and Bodie Thoene
My rating: ****
"Here he comes! Such shoulders. He'll carry his father's beams, I warrant. A strong one he'll be. Push! No wonder you had such a hard time. There you go, Mary! Look at those big hands. Must be a boy with such hands. They're wide-open. See? He's reaching out to the world. Once more - yes, that's it! Now push. Harder. One more time! And...there! Yes! A son, Mary! A baby boy!"
You know what blows my mind? Jesus' birth. I hadn't really ever thought about the details surrounding the entire ordeal until reading these books. He was born like any other baby. Jesus. Immanuel. God with us was BORN. The even crazier thing would've been being a Jew living during this time. Crazy in the sense that all of this was not even close to what they were expecting and hoping for. I mean, they lived daily at the whims of a crazy man, King Herod, who was the self-proclaimed "King of the Jews." He was so crazy that he didn't think twice about having anyone killed who threatened his throne - even his own 2 sons who he had strangled to death. It was against the law to speak against Herod - punishable by death and most like crucifixion at that. The Jews were anxiously awaiting the Messiah - the One who would come and overthrow Roman rule and drive Herod from his tyrannical reign (much like Judah Maccabee when he drove Antiachus Epiphanes out, cleansed the temple, and reestablished traditional Jewish worship). They were waiting for a triumphant king to ride in and save them, but what they got was a baby born in a stable to a nobody couple. God always has other (better) plans. But even though He came as a baby, Jesus did indeed come to change everything and put the world back right.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Was he strong enough to rear the promised Son of David? to be the sort of father who could teach a prince to be the king of Israel?
Book 15: Fourth Dawn (A.D. Chronicles #4) by Brock and Bodie Thoene
My rating: ****
In a LOST-esque turn of events, the 4th book in this series takes a step backward in time. The previous book left off with Jesus restoring sight to blind Manaen and Alexander and Zahav uniting in marriage. Now we're taken 33ish years back in time to before Jesus was born. To before John the Baptist was born. To before Mary and Joseph were even Nazareth's hottest item.
This story centered primarily around Mary and Joseph. They are betrothed and head-over-heels in love with one another when Mary receives an angelic visitor one lonely night in the cow barn. He tells her she is favored by the Most High, and she will carry the Son of David, the Son of God - the Messiah. Strangely (at least to me) she doesn't question this but instead wonders why God would deem her as worthy to carry the promised Messiah. Meanwhile, her father and husband-to-be don't seem very enthusiastic about this news. They think she has concocted a story instead of coming clean about being with another man. Joseph plans to break things off quietly while Mary is away with her mother visiting her aunt (JB's mom). Through the event of her aunt being pregnant, Joseph and Mary's father realize she wasn't making up a story and that she really is carrying the Promised One of Israel. The book ends with them having just gotten married in the midst of rising turmoil in Jerusalem. Herod feels his throne is more threatened with each passing day and has people arrested and killed (mainly crucified) left and right to appease his fear.
I loved reading about the relationship between Mary and Joseph. Once again, these are characters that have always been somewhat cardboard-y in my mind just because there isn't much about them in the Bible. But they were chosen to carry and raise Jesus - our Savior. I don't have first-hand experience in raising a child, but knowing what my friends are going through I know it's not always a picnic. But to then think about raising the Messiah?! I can't think of anything more humbling. But Jesus is God incarnate - Immanuel. A man of constant sorrow who is not unfamiliar with what it's like to be human. The humility of God to clothe Himself in human flesh and be born to sinful human parents is quite possibly the epitome of humility.
My rating: ****
In a LOST-esque turn of events, the 4th book in this series takes a step backward in time. The previous book left off with Jesus restoring sight to blind Manaen and Alexander and Zahav uniting in marriage. Now we're taken 33ish years back in time to before Jesus was born. To before John the Baptist was born. To before Mary and Joseph were even Nazareth's hottest item.
This story centered primarily around Mary and Joseph. They are betrothed and head-over-heels in love with one another when Mary receives an angelic visitor one lonely night in the cow barn. He tells her she is favored by the Most High, and she will carry the Son of David, the Son of God - the Messiah. Strangely (at least to me) she doesn't question this but instead wonders why God would deem her as worthy to carry the promised Messiah. Meanwhile, her father and husband-to-be don't seem very enthusiastic about this news. They think she has concocted a story instead of coming clean about being with another man. Joseph plans to break things off quietly while Mary is away with her mother visiting her aunt (JB's mom). Through the event of her aunt being pregnant, Joseph and Mary's father realize she wasn't making up a story and that she really is carrying the Promised One of Israel. The book ends with them having just gotten married in the midst of rising turmoil in Jerusalem. Herod feels his throne is more threatened with each passing day and has people arrested and killed (mainly crucified) left and right to appease his fear.
I loved reading about the relationship between Mary and Joseph. Once again, these are characters that have always been somewhat cardboard-y in my mind just because there isn't much about them in the Bible. But they were chosen to carry and raise Jesus - our Savior. I don't have first-hand experience in raising a child, but knowing what my friends are going through I know it's not always a picnic. But to then think about raising the Messiah?! I can't think of anything more humbling. But Jesus is God incarnate - Immanuel. A man of constant sorrow who is not unfamiliar with what it's like to be human. The humility of God to clothe Himself in human flesh and be born to sinful human parents is quite possibly the epitome of humility.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The Lord of All, incarnate, came down to fight the battle for the kingdom of men's hearts
Book 14: Third Watch (A.D. Chronicles #3) by Brock and Bodie Thoene
My rating: ****1/2
"This is the story of the battle between The Truth and the Father of Lies. Each fought mightily for the souls of mankind. Those who witnessed the conflict firsthand could not comprehend how ancient this war was, nor what the outcome meant for generations yet to be born."
That essentially sums up this book. Jesus's "fame" is spreading, and the Enemy is trying harder and harder to prevent the Truth from triumphing over his lies. There are some new characters introduced in this book as well as some old revisited. Zahav was destined from birth to remain single and never bear children - a fate that tears her heart in pieces. Alexander has recently lost his wife and daily battles with a demon-possessed son. I knew from the beginning of the book these 2 would end up together...and I was right. :-)
I love how the Thoene's describe Jesus. There's a gentleness and compassion that leaps off of the pages. An approachableness. He welcomes and loves people and doesn't miss opportunities to share Truth - to show and tell that He is the Truth that people are searching for. He is the piece that will fill the holes in their hearts. And that isn't merely fiction.
My rating: ****1/2
"This is the story of the battle between The Truth and the Father of Lies. Each fought mightily for the souls of mankind. Those who witnessed the conflict firsthand could not comprehend how ancient this war was, nor what the outcome meant for generations yet to be born."
That essentially sums up this book. Jesus's "fame" is spreading, and the Enemy is trying harder and harder to prevent the Truth from triumphing over his lies. There are some new characters introduced in this book as well as some old revisited. Zahav was destined from birth to remain single and never bear children - a fate that tears her heart in pieces. Alexander has recently lost his wife and daily battles with a demon-possessed son. I knew from the beginning of the book these 2 would end up together...and I was right. :-)
I love how the Thoene's describe Jesus. There's a gentleness and compassion that leaps off of the pages. An approachableness. He welcomes and loves people and doesn't miss opportunities to share Truth - to show and tell that He is the Truth that people are searching for. He is the piece that will fill the holes in their hearts. And that isn't merely fiction.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Them as seek to silence Yeshua may as well throw stones at the sun to keep it from rising.
Book 13: Second Touch (A.D. Chronicles #2) by Brock and Bodie Thoene
My rating: ****
Leprosy sounds like a terrible disease. To be stricken with a disease that slowly (well...or quickly sometimes) eats away at your body with nothing to stop it would be debilitating. If it were me - I'd have to motivation to live.
During the first century lepers were outcasts. They were shunned from society. No one had anything to do with them - no one talked to them or treated them like normal people, let alone touched them seeing as the disease was communicable. Lily and Cantor were 2 such lepers. Living in the Valley of Mak'ob, they were surrounded by others like them. The community of lepers lived outside of the city - left to themselves to suffer and die together. They had all heard about Yeshua and wondered if He would come to them. But of course not. There was no way He would come to them. If He touched them He would be unclean. But that's the beauty of Jesus and the redemption He came to offer. He didn't hang out with the religious people. He spent His time among the sinners, offering life and hope. And He went to the lepers and touched them, giving healing in His touch.
This series is fascinating. Even though the characters aren't always the same in every book I'm finding myself getting caught up in their story. I've always wondered what it would've been like to be alive when Jesus was on the earth. To see Him do the things written about in the Bible. Through the words of these books I can catch a small (albeit fictionalized) glimpse.
Surely He took up our infirmities
And carried our sorrows.
My rating: ****
Leprosy sounds like a terrible disease. To be stricken with a disease that slowly (well...or quickly sometimes) eats away at your body with nothing to stop it would be debilitating. If it were me - I'd have to motivation to live.
During the first century lepers were outcasts. They were shunned from society. No one had anything to do with them - no one talked to them or treated them like normal people, let alone touched them seeing as the disease was communicable. Lily and Cantor were 2 such lepers. Living in the Valley of Mak'ob, they were surrounded by others like them. The community of lepers lived outside of the city - left to themselves to suffer and die together. They had all heard about Yeshua and wondered if He would come to them. But of course not. There was no way He would come to them. If He touched them He would be unclean. But that's the beauty of Jesus and the redemption He came to offer. He didn't hang out with the religious people. He spent His time among the sinners, offering life and hope. And He went to the lepers and touched them, giving healing in His touch.
This series is fascinating. Even though the characters aren't always the same in every book I'm finding myself getting caught up in their story. I've always wondered what it would've been like to be alive when Jesus was on the earth. To see Him do the things written about in the Bible. Through the words of these books I can catch a small (albeit fictionalized) glimpse.
Surely He took up our infirmities
And carried our sorrows.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Nothing is impossible with God
Book 12: First Light (A.D. Chronicles #1) by Brock and Bodie Thoene
My rating: ****
So. Another series. This one's 12 books long. Ai yi yi. But I have to say, I'm pretty excited about this one. It's my first Thoene experience, and I've heard they're good authors - which I can now confirm.
(I apologize in advance for the scatterbrained-ness of my thoughts - I'm really tired, but I wanted to blog about this one still. It's been a long 3 weeks...)
At any rate, this particular series is a fictional retelling of the life and ministry of Jesus. First Light begins at the start of Yeshua's ministry. Jerusalem is in turmoil. People are rioting. Herod Antipas is trying to keep the peace and quiet the Jews. Caiaphas wants to silence this Jesus who people are claiming is the Messiah. The really cool thing about this book so far is that it gives flesh and blood to familiar Bible characters/stories. I know for myself that I often forget that the people in the Bible were real people with real lives. The unfortunate thing is that the Bible doesn't really give us much detail about people's lives (which is fine because that's not the point of it), and the Thoene's are great historians who can also tell a story.
My favorite character in the book was Peni-El. If you remember the man Jesus healed who was blind from birth in John 9, this is him. Although he's actually a boy in the books. At any rate, Peniel's parents have basically disowned him, blaming him for his older brother's death. They hate that he's blind and often call him a "cracked pot" and consider him not worth anything. Every day he sits outside of the temple and begs, which also provides him with opportunities to hear the "gossip" from people talking who pay no attention to the blind beggar boy. Peniel has been waiting for the Messiah for his entire life, and he hears wind that a man named Yeshua is going around teaching and healing. Could He be the Messiah? Peniel wonders. At the end of the book, Peniel finally meets Yeshua, and He heals him. Just the thought of what it would be like to have your physical eyes be opened for the first time like that...and how Jesus repeated over and over that it was so God could receive glory. Pretty awesome.
So now - ready for book 2. Hopefully I can make it. It was a rush to get this one done this week. :-)
My rating: ****
So. Another series. This one's 12 books long. Ai yi yi. But I have to say, I'm pretty excited about this one. It's my first Thoene experience, and I've heard they're good authors - which I can now confirm.
(I apologize in advance for the scatterbrained-ness of my thoughts - I'm really tired, but I wanted to blog about this one still. It's been a long 3 weeks...)
At any rate, this particular series is a fictional retelling of the life and ministry of Jesus. First Light begins at the start of Yeshua's ministry. Jerusalem is in turmoil. People are rioting. Herod Antipas is trying to keep the peace and quiet the Jews. Caiaphas wants to silence this Jesus who people are claiming is the Messiah. The really cool thing about this book so far is that it gives flesh and blood to familiar Bible characters/stories. I know for myself that I often forget that the people in the Bible were real people with real lives. The unfortunate thing is that the Bible doesn't really give us much detail about people's lives (which is fine because that's not the point of it), and the Thoene's are great historians who can also tell a story.
My favorite character in the book was Peni-El. If you remember the man Jesus healed who was blind from birth in John 9, this is him. Although he's actually a boy in the books. At any rate, Peniel's parents have basically disowned him, blaming him for his older brother's death. They hate that he's blind and often call him a "cracked pot" and consider him not worth anything. Every day he sits outside of the temple and begs, which also provides him with opportunities to hear the "gossip" from people talking who pay no attention to the blind beggar boy. Peniel has been waiting for the Messiah for his entire life, and he hears wind that a man named Yeshua is going around teaching and healing. Could He be the Messiah? Peniel wonders. At the end of the book, Peniel finally meets Yeshua, and He heals him. Just the thought of what it would be like to have your physical eyes be opened for the first time like that...and how Jesus repeated over and over that it was so God could receive glory. Pretty awesome.
So now - ready for book 2. Hopefully I can make it. It was a rush to get this one done this week. :-)
Sunday, March 14, 2010
That was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow of the real Narnia...
Book 11: The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
My rating: *****
OK, now that I'm done reading the entire series I'll make some comments about it as a whole.
I have to say, I was a little skeptical going into this because they weren't really catching me as much as some other fiction series's I've read before. Plus, I didn't grow up reading them, and I really think there's something to be said for having grown up reading this series. However, I'd give the series 4 stars overall, with The Last Battle being my favoritest book of them all. I decided to read these books just for the enjoyment of reading them without trying to see all the alleged allegory and whatnot. I read somewhere a few months ago that Lewis didn't really intend for these books to be allegorical, although I think the church has really staked a claim in this series - which I can understand. Obviously, since C.S. Lewis was a Christian that's going to come out in his writings, which is abundantly clear in the entirety of The Chronicles of Narnia. But there's some dark stuff, too. Which brings me to a small comparison with another series of books (which also happens to be my favorite)...
Harry Potter.
Let's all do a collective "gasp." OK. Now that that's out of the way... :-) Yes, I'm an avid Harry Potter fan, and as I was reading I couldn't help but compare Lewis's style of writing to Rowling's. I realize they're 2 different people, but in most of the Potter-bashing books written by Christians, they do a lot of comparisons with Narnia as well as LOTR. So I'm just throwing my 2 cents in. While I appreciated Lewis's imagery in the books, I had a hard time relating to the characters - and that's something that's important to me in a book. I think that's why they didn't grab me as much as the Harry Potter series - because there isn't a whole lot of character development. And Narnia doesn't necessarily follow one set of characters the whole time. I mean, you have the first book about Digory and Polly and the creation of Narnia, and then they don't show up again until The Last Battle. Then the Pevensies are introduced in book 2, and they kind of disappear (except for Edmund and Lucy) for nearly all the rest of the books. So...that just bothered me a little bit. And also - Lewis's writing was more along the lines of just telling what the characters were doing (i.e. "Lucy did this. Edmund did that." etc) rather than allowing the story to unfold. Does that make sense? Again, I feel as if Rowling does a better job with her storytelling and allowing the characters to act without making the story...choppy by always just saying what the characters are doing.
I want to say one last thing in regards to this comparison. A lot of Christians bash Harry Potter - well, ones that are more conservative anyway - because of the magic. But do you know what The Chronicles of Narnia have in them? Magic. And not just good magic - as in the good characters using magic. There's also dark magic, and that particular phrase is used to describe the magic a la the White Witch at some point in one of the books. So anyway, that's my vent about that. Don't knock something until you've read it. :-)
So now I'm starting another series - The A.D. Chronicles by Brock and Bodie Thoene. My bestie loves these authors, and after all the books I've recommended for her that she hasn't necessarily...enjoyed, I figured I'll read something of hers. Just to be fair. :-) I'm also reading The Stand by Stephen King because I've wanted to read it for a long time, and there's no way I'll finish it in a week. So it's kind of an on-the-side book. At any rate, I feel proud to have finished Narnia. Maybe now I won't get funny looks from people like I did when I would say I'd never read them....
My rating: *****
OK, now that I'm done reading the entire series I'll make some comments about it as a whole.
I have to say, I was a little skeptical going into this because they weren't really catching me as much as some other fiction series's I've read before. Plus, I didn't grow up reading them, and I really think there's something to be said for having grown up reading this series. However, I'd give the series 4 stars overall, with The Last Battle being my favoritest book of them all. I decided to read these books just for the enjoyment of reading them without trying to see all the alleged allegory and whatnot. I read somewhere a few months ago that Lewis didn't really intend for these books to be allegorical, although I think the church has really staked a claim in this series - which I can understand. Obviously, since C.S. Lewis was a Christian that's going to come out in his writings, which is abundantly clear in the entirety of The Chronicles of Narnia. But there's some dark stuff, too. Which brings me to a small comparison with another series of books (which also happens to be my favorite)...
Harry Potter.
Let's all do a collective "gasp." OK. Now that that's out of the way... :-) Yes, I'm an avid Harry Potter fan, and as I was reading I couldn't help but compare Lewis's style of writing to Rowling's. I realize they're 2 different people, but in most of the Potter-bashing books written by Christians, they do a lot of comparisons with Narnia as well as LOTR. So I'm just throwing my 2 cents in. While I appreciated Lewis's imagery in the books, I had a hard time relating to the characters - and that's something that's important to me in a book. I think that's why they didn't grab me as much as the Harry Potter series - because there isn't a whole lot of character development. And Narnia doesn't necessarily follow one set of characters the whole time. I mean, you have the first book about Digory and Polly and the creation of Narnia, and then they don't show up again until The Last Battle. Then the Pevensies are introduced in book 2, and they kind of disappear (except for Edmund and Lucy) for nearly all the rest of the books. So...that just bothered me a little bit. And also - Lewis's writing was more along the lines of just telling what the characters were doing (i.e. "Lucy did this. Edmund did that." etc) rather than allowing the story to unfold. Does that make sense? Again, I feel as if Rowling does a better job with her storytelling and allowing the characters to act without making the story...choppy by always just saying what the characters are doing.
I want to say one last thing in regards to this comparison. A lot of Christians bash Harry Potter - well, ones that are more conservative anyway - because of the magic. But do you know what The Chronicles of Narnia have in them? Magic. And not just good magic - as in the good characters using magic. There's also dark magic, and that particular phrase is used to describe the magic a la the White Witch at some point in one of the books. So anyway, that's my vent about that. Don't knock something until you've read it. :-)
So now I'm starting another series - The A.D. Chronicles by Brock and Bodie Thoene. My bestie loves these authors, and after all the books I've recommended for her that she hasn't necessarily...enjoyed, I figured I'll read something of hers. Just to be fair. :-) I'm also reading The Stand by Stephen King because I've wanted to read it for a long time, and there's no way I'll finish it in a week. So it's kind of an on-the-side book. At any rate, I feel proud to have finished Narnia. Maybe now I won't get funny looks from people like I did when I would say I'd never read them....
Saturday, March 6, 2010
It's a mental hospital...for the criminally insane
Book 10: Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
My rating: ****1/2
I don't even know where to begin with this one. I just saw the movie with a friend from work, and I decided a long time ago that I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie. So I chose it for this week's read. Ironically enough it's also the March read for a group I'm a part of on goodreads.com - The Next Best Book Club. Anyway. :-) This book was just a page turner - a good psychological thriller. It was nice to read something like that for a change. Not that I'm not enjoying The Chronicles of Narnia, but I wouldn't call them page turners...
Teddy Daniels is a U.S. Marshall. And a widower. His wife Dolores died 2 years prior due to a fire in their apartment that was caused by a man named Andrew Laeddis. The book opens with Teddy on a ferry to Shutter Island to check out some strange happenings at Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane. A patient by the name of Rachel Solando has escaped from her cell, and Teddy and his partner Chuck have been commissioned to find her. While searching for Rachel, Teddy becomes suspicious that there are secret government operations going on at the hospital where doctors are using patients (violent offenders that nobody cares about anyway) as lab rats for their hallucinogens, lobotomies, etc. He also discovers that Andrew Laeddis is a patient at Ashecliffe, but there don't seem to be any records of his existence. So Teddy's job quickly becomes more complicated as he needs to find Rachel, expose Ashecliffe, and rid the world of Laeddis. But.....
...everything isn't always as it seems. Is it?
I was beginning to question my own sanity as Teddy's began to erode. Well, not really. But the mind is powerful, and the brain is a complex and mysterious thing. How far is it possible to go to deny reality? Can you erase tragic events by simply creating a new persona and living a fictitious life? Those are questions Teddy has to deal with, and the conclusion is nothing short of shocking.
My rating: ****1/2
I don't even know where to begin with this one. I just saw the movie with a friend from work, and I decided a long time ago that I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie. So I chose it for this week's read. Ironically enough it's also the March read for a group I'm a part of on goodreads.com - The Next Best Book Club. Anyway. :-) This book was just a page turner - a good psychological thriller. It was nice to read something like that for a change. Not that I'm not enjoying The Chronicles of Narnia, but I wouldn't call them page turners...
Teddy Daniels is a U.S. Marshall. And a widower. His wife Dolores died 2 years prior due to a fire in their apartment that was caused by a man named Andrew Laeddis. The book opens with Teddy on a ferry to Shutter Island to check out some strange happenings at Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane. A patient by the name of Rachel Solando has escaped from her cell, and Teddy and his partner Chuck have been commissioned to find her. While searching for Rachel, Teddy becomes suspicious that there are secret government operations going on at the hospital where doctors are using patients (violent offenders that nobody cares about anyway) as lab rats for their hallucinogens, lobotomies, etc. He also discovers that Andrew Laeddis is a patient at Ashecliffe, but there don't seem to be any records of his existence. So Teddy's job quickly becomes more complicated as he needs to find Rachel, expose Ashecliffe, and rid the world of Laeddis. But.....
...everything isn't always as it seems. Is it?
I was beginning to question my own sanity as Teddy's began to erode. Well, not really. But the mind is powerful, and the brain is a complex and mysterious thing. How far is it possible to go to deny reality? Can you erase tragic events by simply creating a new persona and living a fictitious life? Those are questions Teddy has to deal with, and the conclusion is nothing short of shocking.
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