After All The Lost Years by Colleen Scheid

Oct25

Reclamation

All The Lost Years by Colleen Scheid is a powerful contemporary Christian novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. It is part of the Pleasant Hill series but can be read as a stand-alone.

Within the book we learn about the power of God’s love to redeem and restore. No one is ever too far from Him. If we journey down the wrong path, there is always the choice to turn round and return to Him. The leading character senses that she has moved far from God. “She couldn’t even feel Him in church.” Even if we don’t ‘feel’ God. He is always beside us.

There is a desire to return. “A yearning for that Jesus who healed broken people… She already went to church, read her Bible, and prayed. What else could she do?” When we want more of God, we need to come to Him with open arms, ready to receive. “This driven quality, this feeling like you aren’t good enough unless you bust your butt… That’s not what God thinks about you.” God wants us to come as we are, and He will restore us.

We don’t just meet God in church on Sundays. He is everywhere. “Nature was Lauren’s connection to God.” God meets us where we are.

Within the novel people need rescuing from their situations. We learn that “Only God has the power to rescue people.” We must “Not be afraid of a messy past. Look for what God’s doing now.” God takes our messes and turns them into masterpieces. “God’s love is bigger than my mess.”

Continue reading →

Return To The Shack by William Paul Young

Oct25

Love Promises

Return To The Shack by William Paul Young is the much-awaited sequel to The Shack, and what a powerful and rich read it is.

I absolutely loved The Shack. I love Return To The Shack even more. They are two of THE BEST books that show us the heart of the Father.

This book has many themes but ultimately, it is a book about love. It is the love of our father God for all of His children. No one is ever out of reach of His love – It is just a question of, do we know how much we are loved? – And, we can trust God’s love. “I am choosing to trust Love, regardless of everything I don’t understand.”

We learn that God’s love covers all. “Nothing… can ever separate us. Not you, not your choices, not your emotions, not your imaginations, and especially not sin.” God’s love is a gift freely given. We need to open our hands and our hearts to receive it.

We all need God. “Papa God, I need you, I really need you.” There are times when life is just too hard without Him. “I don’t want to love this man – so somehow help me find your heart for him.” When we cannot love in our strength, we need to ask God for help to love in His strength.

We need to be ‘real’ with God and with others. “Fear makes us hide the truth of our faith battles behind our triumphant smiles on a Sunday morning.” If people don’t know what we are facing, how can they help us?

When God places someone on your heart, don’t ask questions, just pray. “I woke up… and felt a burden for you and started praying.” Prayer changes lives.

Continue reading →

The Last Christmas by Liz Fenwick

Oct25

Waiting. Always.

The Last Christmas by Liz Fenwick is a very charming dual timeline novel that I absolutely adored.

Readers of the author’s The Secret Shore will remember lead character Meredith Tremayne who features in this book as the ninety-eight-year-old grandmother. She is returning to Cornwall for one last Christmas.

The novel is set in 2012 and 1946, both in December. In 1946 Meredith married Jake, the love of her life. In 2012 Meredith is returning to scatter Jake’s ashes after he had died eight years earlier. Her dearest wish is that her ashes would be scattered with his.

Meredith was a cartographer during World War II, and was crucial to the war effort. However, “when the war ended, they basically told us to hang up our coats and go back to the kitchen.” With war, came choices, after the war, Meredith still pursued her work with the blessing of new husband, Jake.

The pair settled in Massachusetts. It is only in 2012 that Meredith returns ‘home’ to Cornwall with her granddaughter Grace. “My grandmother had been important in the war effort, but no-one in the family ever said anything about it.” Here, in Cornwall, Grace really gets to ‘know’ her grandmother, who in turn, really ‘sees’ Grace.

Grace is dyslexic and has been dubbed ‘stupid’ by her own mother. It is in visiting her grandmother’s family home that Grace really discovers her passion and her gifting. She finally finds her place in life.

War changes people. “Everyone of us who lived through that time carried things which… could sink us. We had to find a way of living with what we had witnessed or experienced.” There were horrors that they could not ‘unsee’. They had to learn to live with them. After the war, “I needed to make every moment count.”

Continue reading →

The Brunswick by Callie Murray

Oct24

Saves The World Entire

The Brunswick by Callie Murray is a fabulous debut novel set in the American South in 1939. It is a Christian historical novel, and although a work of fiction, has its roots based on real people and real events.

This is a story in two halves which alternate. There is The Brunswick in Norcross, America which used to be a hotel until the Wall Street crash of 1929, but is now a run as a store by a World War I veteran’s daughter. He had originally built The Brunswick but now is confined to his room with depression. The other venue is Austria where Jewish children are persecuted and need a safe harbour.

Within America there are anti-German feelings and we see characters marginalised because of their roots, despite the fact that their parents came to America many years earlier.

The World War I veteran is haunted by his past. He has withdrawn from life, even to the point of ignoring his daughter. His prejudice runs deep. “Who knew what he experienced when he was fighting abroad? – but he must hate an entire race, past and future?” Fears of how he will react to Jewish children in his hotel are very real. “Worry is a waste of time we have left.” We should worry about nothing and pray about everything, handing our worries up to Jesus.

We witness the cruelty and persecution by the Nazis, of the innocents. We see those who are brave. “I am comfortable because others were brave.” We wonder, what does brave look like? “Sometimes bravery looks like love… and love, you have.”

Continue reading →