Archive | January 2019

His Healing Touch by Autumn Macarthur

Jan8

Amazing Grace

His Healing Touch by Autumn Macarthur is a delightfully warm Christian romance. It is the second book in the Sweetapple Falls series but can be read as a stand-alone.

The novel’s main themes are love, loss and grief. Loss and grief can consume and strangle the love out of us if we let them. Living in the past, focusing on our losses is not living the life God intended for us. The past is dead. We need to learn to live again. We need a purpose and we need to trust again.

In our hurt and pain, we may lose sight of God. “Hard to keep believing ‘Jesus Loves Me This I Know’ when real life smacked you in the face.” Life hurts but Jesus is bigger than our hurts. He asks us to love and trust Him. Whatever life throws at us, Jesus promises to walk beside us every step of the way.

Great love permeates the novel. There is a wonderful warm community atmosphere as hearts and homes are thrown open. The church is not just a building the church is carried inside believers wherever we go. “Wherever people worshipped God became a church.”

Continue reading →

Together For Christmas by Autumn Macarthur

Jan8

Not Just For Christmas

Together For Christmas by Autumn Macarthur is a delightful set of four of her books. All the stories are delightful with similar themes and revealing the heart of God.

A Model Bride will also touch the reader’s  heart – prompting an examination of one’s personal faith. As the Father’s heart is revealed within the novel, the reader is journeying too – hopefully towards a deeper faith and trust in God. It can be read just for surface value, as the delightful story will leave the reader with a smile on their face and a warm fuzzy feeling in their heart. Or delve deeper, and strengthen your own personal faith in God.

Calm And Bright has themes of second chances, choices, trust and faith in God. It is never too late to choose surrender to God. God can give us all new beginnings because of His grace.

Continue reading →

Heart Healed by Alexa Verde

Jan5

A Helping Hand

Heart Healed by Alexa Verde is a delightful contemporary Christian romance that will warm your heart and leave you smiling. It is the tenth book in The Potter’s House series but can be read as a stand-alone.

The book’s focus is hurts and healing. Life deals us blows that shape and form us. Sometimes the hurts go so deep that we withdraw from everyone, even God. “Once upon a time he’d been close to God.” God is the ultimate healer. He longs for us to return to Him, trusting Him to heal our hurts. “Events proved God still cared about him.”

Life leaves scars that are not always visible. “You’re so much more than this scar.” Our scars do not define us. They reveal where we’ve been but not where we are going.

The novel has the traumatic subject of self-harm. A character believes that cutting takes away the emotional pain. It is a hard read but Alexa Verde is not afraid to write about gritty issues that affect some lives today. We, the reader, need to be sensitive to these issues and if we suspect someone needs help, to give it. If the victim is one of us, we need to find someone we trust and get help. Victims need our love and support to help them heal.

Continue reading →

Ginger And Brad’s House by Marion Ueckermann

Jan5

Broken Houses, Broken Lives

Ginger And Brad’s House by Marion Ueckermann is a most delightful and heart-warming Christian romance that will leave you smiling.

The story is about second chances and new beginnings. “God had turned his bad mistake… into something beautiful.” God can take our messed up lives and transform them if we would just trust Him. “Surrendering himself fully to God.” We need to trust ourselves and others too.

Withdrawing from life is not a good option. Far from protecting us, it isolates us and if we are not careful, it will make us bitter.

We all make mistakes and need forgivenesss. If we withhold it, we will be guilty of hubris and our burden may become heavier. We must forgive because we have been forgiven.

Within the novel there is a gingerbread house building competition. This is a motif for our lives. We need to give God all the pieces of our broken lives and watch Him rebuild and restore.

Continue reading →