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The Winds Of Homecoming by Christopher Goodchild

Nov9

All Shall Be Well

The Winds Of Homecoming by Christopher Goodchild is a powerful book of fifty devotions based on the poems of Rainer Maria Rilke.

Christopher Goodchild has autism, undiagnosed until 2007, all his life he has been walking through loss and loneliness. He writes his devotions in the second person of ‘you’ as if he is talking to himself. This draws the reader in as we ‘feel’ as if the author is talking personally to us.

Each devotion has great power to speak to the heart and soul. We are all just pilgrims walking through life and “we’re all just walking each other home.”

We all go through hardships. “All your struggles in life can with God’s grace be transformed into something quite extraordinary life affirming and meaningful.” God is “found in the broken places.”  He will take the broken pieces of our lives and make something beautiful.

Scriptures are our anchor in life. We need to know them so that when the storms hit, and they will, we can press into God’s Word.

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The Believer’s Journal For Everyday Faith by Kerry Evelyn

Nov5

Beautiful And Essential

The Believer’s Journal For Everyday Faith by Kerry Evelyn is a simply beautiful journal designed to help you grow closer to God as you evaluate your faith over a twelve month period.

The book can be started at any time but I shall begin mine on January 1st 2022.

Kerry Evelyn shares her faith journey with her doubts, her struggles and her faithfulness as she has trusted God’s timing and leading over the years.

The book is broken into twelve monthly sections, and then subdivided into four weekly chunks, and then divided into seven daily sections each with eight questions for us to evaluate our successes, failures, prayers, challenges and more.

We are urged to pray and listen to God, writing down what He says to us. We need to spend time with God, getting to know Him. We want to give the first  few minutes of the day and the last minutes of the day to God.

Throughout the journal we are encouraged to reflect on the past and project into the future. We are urged to see “the world through a lens of God’s love.”

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Who Am I? by Deryn van der Tang

Oct18

A Powerful Devotional

Who Am I? What Has God Got To Do With It? Why Does It Matter? Meditations On Psalm 139 by Deryn van der Tang is a powerful devotional that will draw you closer to the heart of God.

There are twenty devotionals that work through the verses in the psalm. The author sets the scene with her words, quotes the verse and gives her thoughts. There are then questions to enable us to internally examine ourselves and a prayer to finish.

All the devotionals are easy to relate to as Deryn van der Tang has a very personable style. We see God as our loving Father who longs for us to draw closer to Him. We need to fix our eyes, hearts and minds on Jesus. He is our compass through life.

Loving and forgiving our enemies is vital for our well-being, Deryn van der Tang quotes from two of my heroes – Corrie ten Boom and Martin Luther King jr.

Deryn van der Tang has also illustrated psalm 139 and this can be found on her website www.crossingmybridges.com.

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Holy Bible With Apocrypha

Oct14

A Welcome Addition

Holy Bible With Apocrypha, Anglicized deluxe leatherette edition in ESV (English Standard Version) is an absolutely beautiful Bible that would be a welcome addition to anyone’s collection of Bibles.

I had not heard of the Apocrypha but it is explained in the introduction. It is a group of books that do not exist in their entirety in Hebrew or Aramaic. The reader is introduced to new names as well as the familiar of Esther (the extra content is in italics), the wisdom of Solomon, a letter from Jeremiah and Psalm 151 penned by David after he defeated Goliath. Martin Luther included some of the books in his Bible of 1534.

Scholars of both the Protestant and Catholic faith came together in 2016 to discuss the inclusion of the extra books.

The Apocrypha sits between the Old and New Testaments. It makes fascinating reading as the heart of God is revealed to the reader.

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