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"Battle for the Island Kingdom" by Don Hollway. A Personal Review

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  A fascinating book. A whirlwind story of regime change upon regime change, from Vikings to Anglo-Saxons to Vikings to Normans. Back and forth, up and down the tale unfolds, washing up on the English beach, then swishing back to the European Continent and back to England again. The interplay, interacting, conflict and control-seeking kept me turning pages, excited about each new chapter. Fascinating book! And the tale does three things for readers. First, it reminds us that this is normal history and what normal world events look like. Here, inside the 21st Century, we have been coddled for the last 70 to 80 years, and have quickly forgotten that most of world history is littered with blood, dead bodies, and burnt out hamlets. And as most of the world returns to "normal" in the years ahead, we're already starting to see more of the same. Next, this volume shows how related we are to our ancestry and ancestral actions. As Americans living in the "make it up as you go

"Long Is the Way" by Alton Hardy (and Billy Ivey). A Review

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  It just showed up in our church mailbox a few weeks back. It looked interesting enough, but I put it into the stack of books I was reading, with a “I’ll get to it when I can” thought. That day came today. I picked up this 202-page softback this morning and couldn’t put it down. “Long Is the Way” is the story of Pastor Alton Hardy of Urban Hope Community Church in Birmingham Alabama. From infancy to stepping into the work of Urban Hope CC, Hardy – with the help of Bill Ivey of Small Stories Studio – draws the readers into his life, with all of the fatherlessness, darkness, racism, hope, failure, rescue and rebuilding. I just couldn’t put the book down!   Hardy’s tale begins in the heart of Jim Crow and the heat of Sardis Alabama. Dealing with life in a very large sharecropper family, the author grew up in poverty like most have never experienced, in conditions we’ve only heard about from the “Old Timers”. His story moves along the lines of domestic abuse, black magic, fatherlessne

"Let Them Praise the Name of the LORD" - 17 March 2024

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  (From Psalm 148) Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! From the highest to the lowest, from the nearest to the furthest, may all come and worship you, submitting to you, praying to you, cherishing you as their greatest good and deepest joy. Therefore, we pray for you to give our missionaries assets and guide their achievements to this end. And we pray that you would reclaim and rescue those who are outside of Christ (…). Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away . We pray for the earth that its vast resources will be replenished and maintained. Bring us rains and showers in ways and quantities that are most fitting. Settle the shaking, shifting

"Resolve: The Church That Endures Onward" Luke H. Davis. A Review

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  In a season of bad press, fallen leaders, naysayers, and kooks, how does one convey the positive side of the church’s story? Recently Luke H. Davis, teacher of ethics and Church history at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis, has given readers a new and final installment in his “Risen Hope” series that brings his account of the church’s story up to the present. In this 176-page softback, “Resolve: The Church That Endures Onward,” Davis takes on more contemporary Christian men and women to show how they dealt with evil and difficulties in their allegiance to the Lord Jesus. The book is written for teenagers but will be valuable for older adults as well.   The author covers a wide array of people from multiple continents and Christian traditions, to give a solid sampling of fidelity and endurance. He covers Sammy Morris, J.C. Ryle, Francis Grimke, C.S. Lewis, Benjamin Kwashi, and many more to give readers a quick tour from the early 19 th century to the late 20 th . Sprinkl

"O LORD, You Made Heaven and Earth..." - 10 March 2024

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  O LORD, you made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them ; you keep truth forever and execute justice for the oppressed. You give food to the hungry and freedom to the prisoners; you open the eyes of the blind and raise those who are bowed down; you watch over the strangers and relieve the fatherless and widow (Psalm 146).  It is to you we come! O LORD, you made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them , we pray for your whole Church on earth, including Solid Rock Christian Center, Alethia Temple, Christ Legacy Church, and Community Lighthouse Church . Fill her with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where she is corrupt, purify her; where she is in error, direct her; where in anything she is amiss, reform her. Where she is right, strengthen her; where she is in need, provide for her; where she is divided, reunite her; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. The LORD shall reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD! O LORD,

Suspicion

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  [From my letter to my congregation sent out today, 6 March 2024] I find it interesting that Christian people were suspicious of Paul. In fact, there were individuals suspicious of Paul in the church at Corinth: “ I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh ” (2 Corinthians 10:2). To recognize that suspiciousness was in the earlier church, and even more, it was a suspiciousness of Paul, causes me to pause when I find suspiciousness rising up in my own heart. “Maybe,” I think to myself, “I should be suspicious of my own suspiciousness.” Yes, I do talk to myself a bunch.   And so, I was quite fascinated this morning as I was reading “Spurgeon’s Lectures to His Students”. These are lectures he gave to young men who were studying to become Baptist and Independent ministers in the late 1800s. In Lecture 21, “The Blind Eye and the Deaf Ear,” he is encouraging

"Blessed Be the LORD! For He Has Heard..." (Psalm 28) - 3 March 2024

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  O Lord, we lift up our voices with the Psalmist (Psalm 28) and in the name of your Son, Jesus our Lord: To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary. / O Lord God we pray for and with those who are bearing heavy strains from work or joblessness; from disease and disorder; from cracked up and crumbling marriages; from rocky and wrecked families; from darkness and depression; from agitation and anxiousness (…). Hear their plea and hear us as we join with them. Like the blind man who came to Jesus, the woman with an issue of blood who snuck up on Jesus, and the Canaanite woman who pleaded with Jesus on behalf of her daughter; may they hear you say “ Great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire ” and be refreshed and restored! Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers