Book Review - Walking on Water

Walking on Water

Reflections on Faith and Art

Madeleine L’Engle

1980, 240 pages

ISBN 978-0-87788-918-2

This book sits at the top of my list of all time favorite writing books. Even though I owe  Stephen King’s On Writing a re-read, he is now firmly on line two. I connect with her writing in ways that influence my life. It was true when I was a child, it is still true today. In three areas I found new inspiration from these pages.  

She was asked to write a book on writing as a Christian. This is a powerful examination of what being a Christian artist and producing Christian art means. We like to think theses questions belong to our generation. Madeleine states strongly - all art is inspired by God and your Christian beliefs will show through your work. 

She answers the question of why one writes. You write because you must. You become better at writing when you let go of yourself and listen and obey the work. 

One of her thesis is Christian art should be life affirming. For me, the life affirmation I found in these pages was powerful. After a spell of depression, her beautiful words of God, art, writing, and the meaning of life in the everyday world, as well as the world on the other side (of reason, silence, time and space) lifted me to an engaging level. 

Her advice is 1) be obedient to God’s call and to the work you hear, 2) listen and learn from the work and 3) to write every day. 

As a writer you are a co-creator with God and your reader, such an empowering thought. 

This book is for you if you are looking for answers to what is Christian fiction, am I a Christian writer, should I be a writer, or what is my calling. Or maybe you just want to be reminded to embrace life with child like faith so you too, can walk on water. 

Walking on Water

Review of Beautiful Battle - Mary DeMuth

Somewhere between facing cancer and embracing God’s call on my life, I found myself unprepared for the spiritual warfare I faced. Looking for more training on how to use the weapons, I’ve been eagerly looking forward to Mary DeMuth’s new book, Beautiful Battle. It didn’t disappointed me. Nor would it disappoint any reader, who chose it from the back cover information. 

We have a gaping God hole which we spend our entire lives trying to fill. Satan offers us many counterfeit fillers. For Mary, “spiritual warfare begins -- leaving our own methods of filling our gaping holes at the well and allowing Jesus to fill every thirsty, needy place with His Living Water (p. 17.)” 

“Spiritual warfare is about setting things in proper order in our hearts and mind through the power of the Holy Spirit. (p. 64)”  Her personal stories and spiritual insights take us from the foundations of the battle to our victory in Christ, with action steps to create order in our hearts and minds. 

Her observations and premises rang true against my own experiences. 

In Mary’s transparent and engaging style, she draws you into this challenging topic empowering you with courage and skill to face the darkness. I plan on keeping my copy next to my desk. 

    Mary's website

Buy her book on Amazon

Beautiful Battle 

Mary DeMuth

ISBN 098-0-7369-4380-2

Harvest House Publishers

2012  pages 234

My review of The Muir House, by Mary DeMuth

The Muir House, Mary DeMuth, Zondervan, pages 322

Mary DeMuth’s latest book, The Muir House, continues her legacy of delivering strong, contemporary drama. The story enfolds as Hale Landon’s marriage proposal creates a unique intersection of where Willa Muir faces an invitation to return to an unsettled past,  a burning present (literally) and the potential of a wonderful future and home. Before Willa can confidently step into Hale’s proposal, she must face the unresolved secrets of her past. She hopes to find keys to unlock her heart in her childhood home, The Muir House in Rockwell, Texas.

Muir House was a Funeral Home when Willa was growing up. Her bedroom was next door to the embalming room, a circumstance which by itself should justify years of therapy. With her father dead and her mother in a nursing facility, the family caretaker, Genie Skye, is turning the house into a bed and breakfast. Mrs. Skye has asked Willa, who is an interior decorator, to return to Rockwell and assist with repurposing the house.   

Back in Rockwell and Muir House, everywhere Willa turns she finds clues to all the questions she has; clues which both entice and terrorize her. All of her questions dissolve into this challenge: will she be strong enough to follow the clues and accept the answers? 

Hale Landers faces his own dilemma when Willa doesn’t immediately accept his marriage proposal. His offer to provide Willa a loving home, forces Willa to seek what home and family means to her. While Willa journeys to Rockwell, he finds his own mission in New Orleans while he waits and wonders what the future holds.    

Regional fiction is not something we are used to in North Texas. It adds a layer of reality,  which can be disturbing if the subject matter is difficult. It is so much easier to think, thank goodness that kind of thing doesn’t happen here. Regional fiction should be a delight to read. I appreciate this was located near my home turf. I hope we see more fiction located in North Texas.    

The haunting power of Mary DeMuth’s fiction, for me, comes in the layering of the tale to be more than Willa’s story.  Her tentacles of faith and relationships reach past Willa’s circumstances and encircle my heart, bringing me to walk beside Willa asking my own questions. We all have remembered places where we heard and saw words and things adults did and said. We understood the words, but it was their unspoken intentions that still haunts us.

  

If you are looking for a happy, feel good story, this is not the book for you. But, if you are ready to read a story of a woman’s search for meaning and security, you’ve found a home.  

While I did receive a free copy of the book from Zondervan and the author in exchanged for a review, I had already pre-ordered the book in eager anticipation of another DeMuth book.  

Review of Out of the Overflow

Out of the Overflow, Stories of God’s Love from His Heart to Yours, is a collection of over 100 contributed stories from the attendees at the 2010 CLASS Seminar Christian Writer’s Conference showing how God’s love has overflowed from their into the hearts of others. This book is categorized as Religion/Inspirational. The ISBN-13 is 978-1-60615-104-4 and is listed at $15.99 onChristian books.com or $18.99 at Winepress.

Disclosure: My first published poem, When I Sing to Jesus, page 127, is included in this collection.

This book was compiled at the annual CLASSeminars Christian Writers Conference At the Ghost Ranch in Northern New Mexico. Attendees met daily in small critique groups to edit and polish their submissions.

The stories are as unique in style, format and circumstances as their authors. Yet, through out them is a consistent message of how God’s love meets needs causing living water to flow out of their lives into the lives of others.

These heart level written words touched and often inspired me. I found delight in how often the stories resonated with me even when the life circumstances were so different from mine.

This book would be a welcomed encourager for anyone looking for hope. A portion of the proceeds for this book will be contributed to the Dan Penwell Scholarship Fund of CLASSeminars.

The link to the book at Winepress.

A Review of The Good and Beautiful God

Lyndie Blevins

The Good and Beautiful God - Falling In Love With The God Jesus Knows

James Bryan Smith

ISBN: 978-0-8308-3531-7 IVP - Books InterVarsity Press Publisher

Published Date: 2009 Review Date: 3 December 2009

A review of The Good and Beautiful God

James Bryan Smith has combined his years of personally seeking spiritual transformation in his life with his studying under some of the scholars of spiritual formation to write this very readable, practical training guide for discovering the God that Jesus reveals to us. The book is organized in chapters focusing on false concepts we hold about God and the true concepts Jesus reveals. Following each chapter are ‘soul training’ exercises to help imbed the teaching of Jesus into our lives., so we can see and understand the world Jesus’ sees.

We frequently discuss change in our lives. As Christians we like to discuss it’s cousin - transformation. They are at the heart of our self-help culture. Jim says many Christians “lead a life of quiet desperation, longing for change and yet uncertain that it will never happen. “ I understand that statement. I have seen the truth of this in Paul’s writings and felt his eagerness for us to share in this new life in Christ. Often, I have felt like I was at the first screen of a internet mapping program. I could enter both my current and desired state, but I didn’t have the map and the step by step instructions of how to get from point A to point B. Jim’s book provides those instructions. He outlines and develops four things that are key to spiritual formation: changing the stories in our mind, engaging in new practices, reflecting and talking with others on the same path, and being the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Jim challenges the reader to understand the most important things to us are: what we think of God and how we love God. We achieve our deepest desires and become our true selves in light of God’s grace through faith working in love. We are storied creatures, but we need the right stories running our lives. Our stories have their roots in the kingdom of this world. What we need is the mind of Christ. Knowing that my life has often been driven by the tapes that run in my head, I found these principles for change very helpful.

Jim walks through scriptures and and the insights of others to reveal the God of Jesus who is good and beautiful, loving and trustworthy, self-sacrificial and forgiving, powerful and caring, and out for our good. While he clearly shows that our God has a love that is unconditional, he deals honestly with our holy God’s wrathful response to sin and evil. Another concept I found convicting was that it wasn’t my sin that moves me away from God, but my refusal to accept His grace.

The book is designed to be worked in a community over a period of several weeks, where working together will magnified the impact of the new knowledge. There is a very detailed small group discussion guideline for each chapter at the end of the book.

I heard Jim Smith speak in November and was enticed to learn more. As such, I read the book by myself and fairly quickly, totally ignoring his advice. This is an example of one of those false concepts that Jim describes in the book that applies in such a concrete way in my life, The need to outrun God. I could only laugh at myself when I realized this is what I had done with the book.

This is not a book that will go back on the shelf, but one I will be using and sharing. If you are looking for the directions on how to get from where you are to having the mind of Christ, this book is for you.