Reading, Writing & Pondering

  I'm pretty sure all of us need an extra dash of hope and encouragement now and again in this world today. Joel Osteen offers hope to Believers in his new book, Believe: Hope Has Your Name on It .  Believe is a compact book with a lot of hope and encouraging words packed inside it. In just a few short chapters, Osteen encourages readers to step out in faith and believe for whatever they need to believe for. He shares from several Bible stories: Queen Esther, Peter in the boat with Jesus, Elisha helping his people not to starve and several more stories that show God's power and how He helps us when we need Him to. He also shares from his life and the lives of other Christians, like his mom and his brother, as well as a young person healed of cancer. These hopeful stories show that God truly is working in the world today just as He did during Bible times. As someone going through some challenges right now, I truly did appreciate this hopeful book. I know these stories, as a se...

Are you struggling to feel hopeful? Feeling like God doesn't hear you?  Remarkable Hope by Shauna Letellier is a new book is full of Bible stories where people lost all hope--but God came in towards the end of the story and everything changed. In Remarkable Hope , Letellier reminds readers of the stories of John the Baptist, the demon-possessed man, Jarius whose daughter was dying, Martha and Mary as Lazarus was dying, Peter walking on the water and more. In each of these stories, Letellier retells the Bible story so the reader feels like they are right there with them--feeling the hurt and disappointment of a story that isn't going like they wanted it to. Then God changes things in an instant, but not exactly when it was expected. I enjoyed reading Remarkable Hope . The Bible stories were brought to life so well that I felt like I was living them along with the characters in the stories. She also shares stories of more modern day people that are encouraging. One of those...