Bri

Thorough and Enlightening

Revisado: 04-03-24

I liked both this book and the one before it on shedding light on Christian history. The author was a thorough as he could be in a survey of history (I thought this was even more true in the first book), and used secular history to give context to Christianity at the time. I learned a lot and enjoyed seeing how the threads of history brought us to the present. For the most part, the author was fairly neutral on matters of dogma, only giving glimpses of his personal opinion every now and again, especially nearer the end. I highly recommend both volumes.

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One of the best books I've read

Revisado: 08-27-23

I love how the author shows us both Christ's AND the Father's love for us. I've never read a book that explained it so well. It really made the message of the Epistle to the Romans come alive for me -that God's love for me is unshakeable. My favorite thing I got from it was understanding God's "strange work" and what comes natural to Him -read it to find out more! The author's reading of it is so perfect, too. I first read it in book form, and then got it on Audible. I think every Christian should read this!

A great book to pair with this is "Transforming Grace" by Jerry Bridges, and then "Respectable Sins" also by Jerry Bridges (just to even things out).

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It's okay, disliked the allegory reading

Revisado: 08-27-23

Unfortunately for this review, the author opened up his book with something that completely bothered me. I'm surprised, unpleasantly, to hear that he is perpetuating the allegorical reading of Song of Songs. It's so sad that those who read it in the distant past were squeamish about the sexual content in the book, and allegorized it to help themselves feel less uncomfortable. Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon, is a love poem written probably during the reign of Solomon, maybe by someone in his court (thus the reference to him in the book -I did a college paper on the book and I agree with the theory that a man like him wouldn't write something like this). It's got some sexual imagery that honors the romantic relationship between a bride and her groom. There's nothing wrong with this, but people in the past were uncomfortable with it, so made it an allegory about the church and Jesus, even though Jesus wouldn't come to earth for hundreds of years later! In the Bible, it usually makes it clear if something is a prophecy (it's actually in a book written by a prophet, or it's documented as being something a prophet said) -so it's not a prophecy about the church and Jesus. And allegories are usually explained or obvious, take Jesus' parables or the writings of Ezekiel. There is nothing in Song of Songs that suggests the author meant for it to be some prophetic allegory. It's a celebration of sensual, romantic love, and it goes into far more detail about that one aspect of marriage that Jesus and Paul never go into so deeply (thankfully).

That's the main problem I have here is just the misuse and abuse of Song of Songs. The Loveliest Place wasn't what I thought it would be. He did kind of go into some things about the church that was interesting. Also, it took a while to get used to his voice. He's got an American southern accent that pops out now and again. I wish he'd just let it loose! But people think if you have a southern accent, you're unrefined, so I understand him trying to hold it back. Overall, his book was okay.

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Such a helpful book

Revisado: 08-13-23

I so appreciate this book and how much it has helped me through a spiritual dry spell and anxiety. I recommend this to every Christian.

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Overall Series Review: Great Story!

Revisado: 07-29-23

This is now officially my favorite dragon series, and definitely one of my favorite fantasy series overall! I absolutely love the story. I listened to the series twice! In an age where many of the heroes of the story are tough guys and the supernatural male love-interests are at least a little sadistic, I really enjoyed the twist of the nice dragon. Rachel Aaron made a nice guy into the kind of person who makes being kind and standing up for what's right look hot :)
Not only that, but the side characters are so enjoyable and the humor is great throughout the whole series. I love the character development and how it's done with multiple characters. There are so many characters in the series, and yet I never really felt overwhelmed with trying to keep track of them all. The voice acting is so well done by Vikas -he gives each character such personality.
Even though there are action and romance scenes, there are no gritty sexual or violent details and there is very little swearing. I really appreciated that, and I think it makes the series more accessible even though its geared towards an adult audience. It's scary opening a new book and not knowing if there will be any nasty surprises. Thank you, Rachel Aaron!

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Very enlightening

Revisado: 09-05-22

I really enjoyed Reeves’ treatment of this topic. I got a lot of insight from it both theologically and personally. It compliments well “Gentle and Lowly” and “Deeper.” I’m going to check for other books in this series.

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Very good

Revisado: 07-18-22

It was such useful information, and Lisa Dion did really well narrating it. I used some of the techniques already with insightful results.

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Difficult to follow

Revisado: 07-13-22

I’m glad this book was short, because I had a hard time following it. I think it was mostly the narration. It was pretty flat, like listening to a lecturer. Also, most of the book focused on Christ’s relationship with his apostles/disciples, and I only heard the real life application at the very end, like it was hurriedly put in there. That might only be because I wasn’t paying attention very well due to the monotone.

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Some good things

Revisado: 05-22-22

There are some good points to mention about the book. It did make me mostly finish the story just to find out who the mystery person was. I liked the idea of using the circus to explore the theme of secrets and rejection.
I thought there was a lot of “telling” rather than “showing.” I felt like I didn’t connect with the characters and not much happened rather than exposition and repetitive descriptions. Everything was explained rather than naturally played out in the storyline. And, with a title with the word “haunting” in it I was hoping for a lot more suspense and even some scary scenes. But the few scenes that might have been scary just fell flat because of the characters’ attitude and all the 3rd person verbiage.

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