Rest
by Keri Wyatt Kent

We live in a world that’s pretty much none stop. It used to be that people would get a break when they went somewhere, leaving the phone behind. Now not only do most people take cell phones with them, they can hook up to the Internet with them. Where does rest fit in? When do people take the time to recharge their batteries and get refreshed so that they can tackle the world again? This is the basis for this book.

The author starts by looking at what Jesus said about the Sabbath. He brought out the true spiritual meaning of the Sabbath as He taught the people. What she is trying to with the rest of the book is show how the concept of the Sabbath is a "mind-set." The whole week should revolve around it, either preparing for it or remembering it. She also brings out that everyone should take some "mini-Sabbaths" during the day.

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Pure Gold
by Pam Davis

The concept for this book is an interesting one. The author compares God’s grace and gold. The author takes every aspect of gold, from it’s qualities, prospecting, etc, and shows how this compares with Christians and their desire and search for God’s grace.

Each chapter ends with three things:

1. "Nuggets:" the author takes a term involved with the concept of gold and uses it to form an acronym relating to grace.

2. A Prayer of Grace: the author includes a prayer based on the concept she’s included in that chapter.

3. Questions for reflection: she ends each chapter with questions meant to make the readers really think about the concepts she’s covered in the chapter. The author ends the book with small Bible studies for each chapter.

We will be updating our book review section for the rest of the year and preparing to bring you more interviews and podcast features from your favorite Christian authors in 2010.

Have a Merry Christmas and Joyous New Year!

A Tangible Reminder
by Mary Byers

Last year I read Me, Myself, & Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables by Phil Vischer, creator of the Veggie Tales video series. I was interested because my children grew up on Veggie Tales. But I was also interested because somewhere along the way I noticed Phil Vischer was no longer with Big Idea, the company he founded. I knew there must be a story there, so I picked up the book.

Though millions of children can sing the Veggie Tales theme song, Big Idea no longer exists. After expanding too quickly, the company was forced into bankruptcy. Vischer writes about the experience in his book, which is part memoir and part business tutorial. And it’s a touching example of how one man encountered grit and allowed it to be turned into grace.

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THE CHRISTMAS GLASS
by Marci Alborghetti

Anna’s mother gave Anna the box of Christmas glass for a wedding present. It was a box that her own mother had been given as a wedding present years earlier. But now, with the Nazi’s invading, and Jews in danger, Anna feels that the Christmas glass would be safer with her sister, Filomena, who lived in the southern tip of Italy, and was hoping to move to America. So, Anna ships the box of Christmas glass off to her cousin.

Years have passed. Now Filomena is old, and living in an assisted living apartment. But her family is pushing her into moving to “the dying place”, the part of the nursing home for those who need more long-term help. But Filomena is objecting. Unless her family agrees to come together one last Christmas…and bring the pieces of the Christmas glass together, which she had divided up between her daughters and friends of the family.

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CHRISTMAS MIRACLES 
by Cecil Murphey & Marley Gibson

CHRISTMAS MIRACLES is a collection of many short stories, all of them true, that the authors consider miracles, and all of which happen around Christmas time. In this book, the authors show how miracles can happen to real people during the Christmas season, people who have overcome desperate situations through a miraculous twist of fate.

For instance …a young boy sits down to read a book and discovers that his learning disability has vanished. .. a woman stranded in a blizzard is rescued by a mysterious stranger she believes is an angel … a couple traveling during the holidays have their tire changed by strangers they believe are angels.

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COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
by Virelle Kidder

My mother had remarkable zeal for Christmas. Weeks in advance, she would come home from teaching school and bake late into the night. I helped clean the house and decorate the tree while my older brother Roger wired the house with Christmas lights, transforming our humble red house into a place of magical beauty. Following the church candlelight service, a crowd of happy people crunched through the snow to our house for cocoa and cookies.

We were, like many, quite alone in the years after my father left. Our Christmas open house was my mother’s supreme effort to make us feel complete. It almost worked.

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Life Beautiful
by Margaret McSweeney

During a quiet moment after Thanksgiving, I started reading my parents’ stack of love letters that I recently found in a storage box. As a Christmas gift to you, I would like to share my father’s words to my mother written to her during Christmas 1949. This incredible "hug from heaven" has been a tangible affirmation that Pearl Girls has true meaning and great worth for women throughout the world. I pray that God will continue to bless this ministry and outreach. May we all realize that the grit in our lives can be transformed into grace through the love of God.

This is what I found written on a tiny folded card inscribed with "Christmas Greetings" on the front:

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Too Precious to Wear
by Sarah Sundin

One Christmas when my mother was a girl, she received a string of pearls from her father. Since her parents were divorced-an unusual situation in the 1950s-she treasured the pearls as a sign of her father’s love. When he passed away her senior year in high school, the pearls took on even greater significance.

When I was growing up, my mother talked often about the pearls, but my sister and I never saw them. Mom kept them safe in their silk-lined velvet box tucked in her jewelry box. For dressy occasions, she wore other nice jewelry, but never the pearls.

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