Category: Reviews

The proclamation Bible Published by Zondervan is in the NIV translation .  This Bible is said to be “There are many Study Bibles, But none Better” by Timothy Keller.  It was definitely pitched as a Study Bible.   Before each Chapter and section, such  as  the poetic books in the Old Testment.  there were also articles at the beginning of both the Old and New Testament.   Thats pretty much the description is a nut shell.

So as I pondered how to review this, my question was this:  “Do I review it as a study Bible  OR do I review it as a Bible with interesting infer in it?”

Clearly my answer lies in the statement at the top of the Book.

Upon receiving this book/Bible it is beautifully bound and STURDY! something lacking in a lot of Bibles.  You can tell its a High quality book and of course it’s Gods word so I cannot be too rough on it. However, the Study Bible claim, That I can be hard on.  so lets go through this methodically.  If you call yourself a STUDY BIBLE what should the VERY first thing you should have ?

Study notes: There quite literally aren’t ANY…AT ALL!  So that was the very first thing I looked for and was grossly disappointed!   So I asked my friends….A Bible College student, a pastor (my hubby) FB friends, a new but very growing believer and this was in ALL of their top 3. So Yes this is a HUGE disappointment.  As you can see you basically get footnotes which any good Bible has,but a study Bible has more.

One of the other things that my friends said was plenty of cross references which as you can see is not a problem.

Then the third thing that friends said was CHARTS, There again ….NONE, not one single one.

Now in order to FULLY get an accurate view of the whole picture of this Bible I handed it over to my hubby for sermon prep.  he was impressed.  Heres the thing If you are going to say,

“The NIV Proclamation Bible is remarkable for how well it puts the highest quality biblical scholarship at the Bible student’s fingertips in such a clear, penetrating and accessible form. There are many study Bibles on the market right now, but none better.” -Tim Keller

You should probably check with some  guys in the trenches.. My Husband has a Bachelors in Religious Ed. with  a concentration in Pastoral Greek and Hebrew, an M.Div. A ThM and an MA in Linguistics specialty in Biblical Greek, so I take his opinion HIGHLY.  The whole time I reviewed the book and it sat on our kitchen table, if someone came in and looked at it and inquired about it, his words were immediate.” I wouldn’t recommend it.  ”

I too said that same thing through much of this process.  I used this Bible as I researched and wrote about various Characters from the Bible and time and again was disappointed with the lack of information when it came to specific texts and found myself going to other books and other study Bible.  My end conclusion is this, If you’re going to say that there is no better Study Bible it better be BETER, it should have the most information and helps, it should be the book you go to when all else falls short (Instead of the other way around) and if it says its a STUDY Bible then it really should have STUDY HELPS, charts notes on complicated texts instead of a brief overview of the Book which coincidentally could be found in ANY  commentary and be far more in depth and helpful.

were the articles helpful?  Yes but they seemed so few and far between especially when it came to in depth study.

I had High hopes for this Bible but sadly I must give it only  two stars.

(Disclaimer:  I received this book free of Charge from BookLook Bloggers for my personal Non-biased review)

I am excited to be part of the Hope for the Weary Mom Blog Tour with Brooke McGlothlin and Stacey Thacker. You can find out more and join the tour by clicking here!

TRUTH IS…..

it a game played by hundreds (if not thousands) of teens and young adults on Facebook.   The whole premise is that when you see the “truth is…..” Status you click like and the person who posted it will finish the statement with something (usually good) about you!

A few years ago I had no idea what this game was.  So scrolling through FB One evening I saw this status from one of my Youth group kids and I liked it!….BECAUSE I LIVE FOR TRUTH!   What happened in return humbled me so much’.  I was so grateful for her encouraging words….but in the same respect my niavity was erased!

So what does that have to do with this book.  Well it was around the same time that I acquired a free copy of Hope fore the Weary Mom.   It sat on my Kindle for months.  Little did I know that this book was going to be used by God in a fantastic way.    Fast forward to January of 2013.  Brooke and Stacey started a book club going through Hope.   It was a horrible time as I walked this Huge journey. Of realizing that our then 5 year old son was far more than “a little bit quirky”.  I felt all alone as began to realize our path now merged with that of a child on the Autism Spectrum……but my voice wasn’t the only one telling me I was failing….it echoed from every nook and cranny of my world.   I hid in my home, I feared going out in public with him.   I was SPENT!

Continue reading “Hope for The Weary Mom Blog Tour” →

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ex-Muslim is Author Naeem Pazal’s autobiography. In his book Mr. Pazal shares many accounts spanning from his childhood through to where he is in life today. He grew up in Kuwait and like most there was Muslim, but through a series of amazing miracles Naeem and ALL his siblings come to accept Jesus as their personal Savior. Throughout this book you watch not only Naeem and his family become believers in Jesus but you watch him metamorphasize into a mature believer. He is honest in the struggles that brought him to the place of maturity he finds himself today!

I enjoyed this book greatly, though it did take a long time to read (it’s quite wordy) yet still compelling. I learned a great deal about life in Kuwait and struggles facing believers in that area of the world.

I found myself captivated by his testimony and the emotions he was able to capture in reference to the reaction of his still Muslim parents.

There were moments of me struggling through theological points but in the end I really had to give it to God and say, this is his testimony, who am I to say God doesn’t do these things. It’s riveting to hear the battle for his soul and after reading this book and his journey and his ministry I have no doubt that God is going to use Naeeem, his family and this book is a very big way!

(This book was provided for free for review by BookLook bloggers. And in no way Am I being paid for a positive review)

I give Ex-Muslim 4 out of 5 stars

“This Is My Life ” Planner was offered free to review on a FB PAGE I frequent!

 

I loved its layout right from the beginning, but I’m getting ahead of myself

This planner is for purchase at www.avirtuouswoman.org.

just click  “This is My Life”

I used a different printable PDF planner last year and by the end of the year it frustrated me quite a bit. I had to have a page printed for everyday of the week! It got to be quite cumbersome and by the end I ditched the whole thing. I also had to fill in EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! Talk about time consuming…yikes!

Let’s talk options: you can choose between black and white or color.
I chose black and white only because we were out of color ink! No biggie.

There are add -on options as well
Budget planner
Holiday bundle
Kitchen planner

And many other options…you can also purchase it printed and bound for you!

So a couple of REALLY COOL THINGS.

1. Customer service with Melissa is GREAT’. There was a slight issue I picked up on and within 24 hours….FIXED!

2. One of the things I asked her if she had (she didn’t at the time) was a blogging add-on…..did you see the VERY FIRST ITEM ON MY ADD-on list. (AND ITS FREE). Soooooo as soon as I’m finished here guess what I’ll be doing!!!!!

3. If you sign up for blog updates, the kitchen planner is free too!

4. Everything is super affordable! Buy what you like skip what you don’t need! Love this!  AND all purchases are a one time purchase!   You buy the files once and print off year after year!  LOVE THAT!

5. It’s cut my planning time down to a quarter of what it was just a few short months ago. I literally write in what’s coming up this week. Menu plan accordingly (because that pages is right next to your weekly plan!). No flipping back and forth! Most of my tasks are already there for me. So no re-writing EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Just check it off!

6. One of the super neat features of binding it yourself is this….I added notes pages (as many as I wanted between each week). I thought this was a cool way to capture some thoughts about my weeks, which I could then include in scrapbooks/ blogposts/ journals…and so on

7. I dressed up my black and white cover with scrapbook paper and rub ons making it all my own!

There really is so much I love about this planner! So much versatility.
I will definitely purchase from Melissa in the future!

So there were 3 cons but since she met my suggestion about blog add ons I only have 1. I wish there was extra areas provided to write in weekly items in the check off area. This is no big deal really because the space she did give is enough to write in under the chores given.

the second con is nothing big either but a spot to check off for doing your daily bible reading would be cool too but again not a big thing!   I wrote it in in the afore mentioned space!

Here are the rest of my snapshots of my planner!   I’m in full swing using it and love how versatile it is!

Thanks Melissa for being so helpful and granting me the privilege to review your planner!

This product was received for free for reviewing purposes and in no way was paid for a positive review.  I truly love this product!