Stan Toler's books of encouragement

Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX—Celebrated author of over 70 books, Stan Toler has touched countless hurting people with his timeless stories of hope and encouragement. This summer, a whole new audience of readers will have the opportunity to discover Toler’s best-selling books as David C Cook introduces the updated editions of two of Toler’s most beloved collections—The Buzzards Are Circling, But God’s Not Finished With Me Yet and God Has Never Failed Me, But He’s Sure Scared Me to Death a Few Times (David C Cook, August 2009).

On the landscape of life, buzzards are inevitable—those challenging events and situations that encircle us, eyeing us as prey and swooping down to cause hurt and heartache. A late-night phone call delivering bad news. Losing a job. Struggling with bankruptcy. No matter what form these buzzards take, the pain is universal.

In The Buzzards Are Circling, But God’s Not Finished With Me Yet, Stan Toler takes a lighthearted look at some of life’s more serious subjects. Drawing from his own personal struggles, Toler offers a generous dose of encouragement for the troubled heart, helping readers find hope, joy, and peace, even in the most trying of circumstances. In chapters such as “When the Fountain of Youth Has Rusted” and “I Know I’m Lost, but the Scenery Is Spectacular,” readers will find the strength they need to shoo away any buzzards and face life’s difficulties with the security of knowing that God is in control.

In God Has Never Failed Me, But He’s Sure Scared Me to Death a Few Times, Toler gives a humorous twist to the challenges that place us in faith’s waiting room. Though we know that God’s provision is always on time, we’ve all had close calls waiting for His help. For anyone who has ever felt frazzled, stressed, confused, hurt, angry, undone, or any other emotional response to the difficulties and uncertainties of life, Toler serves up a delightful combination of poignant and hilarious reminders that God is still at work in the world.

Filled with heartwarming stories and humorous anecdotes, this charming collection offers hope and peace for the weary, waiting heart. Toler combines a rich blend of spiritual truths with humorous insights as he reminds God’s children of His unfailing love. Through it all, readers will discover a God who is always faithful, worthy of our trust, and never late with His help.

Repackaged with a fresh look and design, both books will be available for purchase in August.

Author Bio

Stan Toler is senior pastor of Trinity Church of the Nazarene in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and was recently elected as the 39th general superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene. For several years he taught seminars for Dr. John Maxwell’s INJOY Group, a leadership development institute. He also serves as the executive director of the Toler Leadership Center, located on the campus of Mid-America Christian University, and is the co-founder of BGW Forward in Faith. Toler has written over 70 books, including his bestsellers, God Has Never Failed Me, But He’s Sure Scared Me to Death a Few Times; The Buzzards Are Circling, But God’s Not Finished With Me Yet; God’s Never Late, He’s Seldom Early, He’s Always Right on Time; The Secret Blend; Practical Guide to Pastoral Ministry; Total Quality Life; and his popular Minute Motivator series.

The Buzzards Are Circling, But God’s Not Finished With Me YetGod Has Never Failed Me,

But He’s Sure Scared Me to Death a Few Times

by Stan Toler

David C Cook/August 2009

ISBN: 978-1-434765-94-9/224 pages/softcover/$14.99

ISBN: 978-1-434765-95-6/224 pages/softcover/$14.99

Scared: A Novel on the Edge of the World by Tom Davis **updated w/ review 12/27/09**

The new movie Orphan takes a look at a family adopting a little girl from Russia who is not what she seems. While the movie attempts to entertain the masses with horror, around the world, orphans are facing horrendous conditions unlike anything Hollywood could produce. Tom Davis, CEO and President of Children’s HopeChest, is passionately working to alert the public about the real plight of orphans around the world.

Two weeks ago, Orphan, or as the Washington Post referred to it, a "depraved, worthless piece of filth...a high-gloss horror show about a well-meaning couple who bring home a 9-year-old girl to join their family, only to discover, way too late, that she's a homicidal psychopath" was released in theaters. The widespread criticism of Orphan is showing up in both the mainstream media (New York Times, New York Times 2) and also in Christian news sources as well. (See Orphans Deserve Better)

Children’s HopeChest CEO Tom Davis says, “The true horror, as pointed out by the Orphans Deserve Better site, is not the Hollywood over-hyped stereotype of an adoption gone homicidally off the rails. There's ample evidence on both sides of the older orphan adoption discussion, and I think all would agree that this movie doesn't help the 150 million children without families. That's the real horror. If you want a good horror story about orphans, I've got plenty that will turn your stomach and wrench your heart. Imagine, for a moment, the impact that the film's producers could have had by investing the film's budget in cleaning up some of the real horrors facing orphaned kids today.”

Children’s HopeChest was founded in 1994 by helping orphans in Russia. After the fall of communism, nothing was being done to help the millions of children who were institutionalized by the state. Most of the children were kicked out at fifteen or sixteen and they didn’t have the ability to survive. In fact, 70% of the girls ended up in prostitution. The idea of Hopechest is to help these kinds of kids have the chance at the kind of life a family kid would have. “We help to meet the same needs for orphans that you and I would meet for our own children - food and clothing, but also loving relationships, medical care, and perhaps most important, an education. We also specialize in helping kids make the transition out of orphanages and into young adulthood,” states Davis.

The United Nations estimates the world orphan population to be over 143 million children. Poverty, war, disease, and AIDS are the primary enemies of children across the globe, leaving those who are robbed of their parents at-risk for criminal behavior, prostitution, drug abuse, alcoholism, and suicide. Davis offers readers a sweeping narrative that explores these most critical social concerns in his debut novel. Scared: A Novel on the Edge of the World (June 2009/David C Cook) delves into the lives of a photojournalist struggling to redeem his past and an African orphan fighting for survival. Davis’ book is based real situations he has witnessed while working with orphans in Africa.

In Scared, Davis, also the author of Red Letters and Fields of the Fatherless, weaves a beautiful story of redemption that takes place in a world far away from our own. Readers will discover, along with Stuart, that, “Sorrow is a part of life, but our tears can leave us with clearer sight, if we look to God.” True “fiction with a conscience,” Davis’ novel is the first in a planned series of three. Narrated in the first person by both Stuart and Adanna, Scared offers a unique perspective on the tragedies taking place in Africa today and encourages readers to step out and help the “least of these.”

Scared: A Novel on the Edge of the World by Tom Davis

David C Cook/June 2009/ ISBN 978-1-589191-02-0/288 pages/softcover/$14.99

http://www.davidccook.com/ ~ http://www.scaredthebook.com/

Click here to watch the trailer!!!!

My Opinion:

I couldn't put this book down - I finished it in a day! With my heart for missions and wanting to do mission work this book was right up my alley. Tom Davis is a new author for me, but no longer his writing pulls you in until you can't leave the world in the book until you're done reading it! In this case it's Africa, with it's starving, homeless orphans and children as young as 5 being parents for their baby siblings - this book will grip your heart!

As you read "Scared" and you 'live' Adanna's life and the horrible atrocities that happen to her you will find righteous anger rising up in you and you'll begin cheering for Adanna and her siblings to rise above this life and become more. AIDS has attacked Africa more than any other country and it's leaving behind the smallest victims, the ones who can't do it on their own. Families turn against families and children are turned out to the streets or to go to work doing things that are unthinkable so their families can just scrape by. A wonderful and touching book, even if some parts are difficult to read, it's a book I do recommend.

Christianish by Mark Steele

Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX—Modern evangelicalism has lost its balance. A lukewarm spirituality, somewhere between cold faith and hot pursuit, has taken hold and found many believers in the median between the wide path and the narrow road of the spiritual walk. The efforts of many have become more centered on how to cope with their own dysfunctional lives, and less concentrated on what it really means to follow Jesus. It’s something not quite Christian. It’s more like…Christianish.

In his new book, Christianish: What if We’re Not Really Following Jesus at All? (David C Cook, August 2009), author Mark Steele tells the story of his own personal journey from living in the “in-between” to a life that’s centered on Christ. “Somewhere along the road, I stopped being a ‘little Christ’ and instead began filling out the application that I had labeled ‘Christian.’ It was not a definition based on the actual namesake but, rather, on those who frequent the clubhouse. I allowed Jesus to seep into my church world—but not my relational world, my romance world, my business world, my creative world, my habits, my mouth. I had become Christianish.”

Christianish may feel like authentic faith. It may even look like the real deal. Yet it’s often easy to settle for the souvenir t-shirt—the appearance of a transformed heart—instead of taking the actual trip through true life-change. We find ourselves being contented with a personal faith that’s been polluted by culture and diluted by other people’s take on spirituality.

In Christianish, Mark revisits the words and life of Christ to find just what it means to be a Christian. Through stories and insights that are sometimes profound, often hilarious, and always honest, he delivers a compelling look at what authentic faith is all about. While carefully detailing the tell tale symptoms of being Christianish, Mark encourages readers to ditch the “ish” to become true Christ-followers.

“We have trained ourselves to cope well on a Christianish path: a path where we please the right godly people and don’t feel the guilt when our failings are seen by the world at large. But this is not the approach to Jesus that we were created to take. There is only one way for us to discover the right way to travel the right road. The way is not church. The way is not an ideology. The way is not Christian. The way is Jesus.”

Author Bio:

Mark Steele is the president and executive creative of Steelehouse Productions, a group that creates art for business and ministry through the mediums of film, stage, and animation. He is also the author of Flashbang: How I Got Over Myself and Half-Life/Die Already and is a regular contributor to Collide Magazine and Relevant Magazine. Mark and his wife, Kaysie, reside in Oklahoma with their three greatest productions: Morgan, Jackson, and Charlie. Christianish: What if We’re Not Really Following Jesus at All? by Mark SteeleDavid C Cook/August 2009/ISBN 978-1-434766-92-2/320 pages/softcover/$14.99www.davidccook.com

FIRST tour: "Touching Wonder" by John Blase

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is:

John Blase

and the book:

Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas

David C. Cook; New edition (September 1, 2009)

***Special thanks to Audra Jennings of the The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John Blase’s work includes Living the Questions and Living the Letters Bible-study series, the Worldviews reference book (TH1NK), Real Life Stuff for Couples, and The Message Children’s Bible. A former pastor, John currently edits by day and writes by night. He and his wife, Meredith, have three children and make their home in Colorado.


Visit the author's website.




Product Details:

List Price: $12.99
Hardcover: 128 pages
Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (September 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1434764656
ISBN-13: 978-1434764652

AND NOW...an excerpt:

Three

Angelic Visitor


Luke 1.26–38


In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth to a virgin engaged to be married to a man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the virgin’s name, Mary. Upon entering, Gabriel greeted her:


Good morning!

You’re beautiful with God’s beauty,

Beautiful inside and out!

God be with you.


She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus.


He will be great,

be called ‘Son of the Highest.’

The Lord God will give him

the throne of his father David;

He will rule Jacob’s house forever—

no end, ever, to his kingdom.”


Mary said to the angel, “But how? I’ve never slept with a man.”


The angel answered,


The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

the power of the Highest hover over you;

Therefore, the child you bring to birth

will be called Holy, Son of God.


“And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.”


And Mary said,


Yes, I see it all now:

I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve.

Let it be with me

just as you say.


Then the angel left her.


Gabriel


The theologians have rendered us mindless God-slaves, wisps of cloudy wings, doing nothing but the bidding of the Mighty One. Theologians. There is so much they do not know.


I found her just as He said she would be found: sitting on her bedding, barefooted, knees pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped tightly around them, chin resting on her knee-tops. I saw why she had gained the favor of the Mighty One. I liked this daughter-of-Eve-to-bethe-mother-of-God.


“But how? I’ve never slept with a man.”


I expected this. But unlike that old priest’s, hers was not the doubting of a skeptic but rather the wondering of a child.


“But how? I can’t see it.”


“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest hover over you. Mary, you have nothing to fear.” The Mighty One had expressly said, “Herald the news, Gabriel. Don’t report it.” I would have liked to elaborate further, but Mary would have to live out the details of my news in days to come. Truths unlived are not truths.


Then she paused and looked away. I have spoken to many of God’s children, and their eyes are always transfixed on me. They should be. I am Gabriel, the sentinel of God. But Mary’s gaze wandered for a moment. But what I initially took for a distracted mind was rather a devoted heart.


Her eyes returned to me. “Let it be with me.” Ah, the Mighty One had chosen well. Her words were not

resigned, but faith-full. The faith of a child. Of such is the Mighty One’s kingdom.


“Cousin Elizabeth? Really? Old Elizabeth? But how?”


I laughed.


“Nothing, you see, is impossible with God. Mary, you have nothing to fear. I have told you all you need to know for now. You are more ready than you realize, stronger than you know. God is with you. Now I must go.”


But I did not want to go. Faith is rare, at least true faith. Yes, the word is often used, but the reality is hard

to find. Yet here I found it, in an earthen vessel surrounded by an earthen room. I liked Mary.


I left her just as He said I would: barefooted, sitting on her bedding, knees pulled up to her chest, arms

wrapped tightly around them, chin resting on her kneetops. She looked older now. Human eyes would not

recognize this, but mine have seen much.


The Mighty One had revealed glimpses to me, what days ahead would hold for this glorious girl. Her cousin’s leaping womb. Joseph’s broad shoulders. The back of a borrowed burro. Herod’s jealous-red face. The cries of the innocent. The breath of stable animals. The agony of pushing the Mighty One out into this world.


I found myself praying for the favored one. Mary had so much to carry.

©2009 Cook Communications Ministries. Touching Wonder by John Blase. Used with permission. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved.



My opinion:


This book is so timely for Christmas, and it's beautiful cover could actually decorate a coffee or side table or propped up next to a Nativity scene. The book beautifully expounds on the Christmas story and I found myself evisioning Mary and Joseph and the innocent children at the end of Herord's rage. While the Scripture was taken from The Message paraphrase (I much prefer the KJV or NKJV) it was still beautiful to read.


Picturing Mary as she pushed the Lord into the world, Joseph as he watched Mary give birth, the Shepherds, Mary breastfeeding Jesus - it all seems so pituresque - when it wasn't and the author doesn't make it seem so. He doesn't downplay the horrible atrocities committed by Herrod or the pain that Mary would have gone through but it still paints a vivid portrait of a family raising a boy to go about His Father's work.


Beautiful illustrations done by artist Amanda Jolman brings another realistic touch to the quick reading. The illustrations are hauntingly beautiful in that they do stick in the mind and give a beautiful touch to the Nativity story - just what is needed in a time of commercialism and give-me's.

The Transformation Study Bible NLT

I'm always excited to look at a new Bible and see if it can stand up against my tried and true King James Version. I'll admit it I'm a sucker for the thees, thous and the depths of the KJV so when I had the chance to receive The Transformation Study Bible NLT I jumped at the offer. This Bible is beautifully bound in hardcover with matching dust jacket, should you choose to remove the dust jacket the same picture matches the cover.

Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe is the General Editor for this version of the Bible and he is an acclaimed Pastor (although I will admit to never having heard of him). He is the former Pastor of The Moody Bible Church in Chicago, internationally known Bible teacher and has given his life to deeper examination of God's Word. He has a commentary series called "BE" which is what the commentary in this Bible is based upon.

There is an introduction to the New Living Translation of the Bible which talks about such items of interest as translation philosophy and methodology, translation process and team, text behind the NLT, translation issues (changing male oriented terms), footnotes, spelling of proper names and other items. Next up is the Translation Team given by the book of the Bible and who translated that particular book. We're then given an over view of what each book contains like the introduction, outlines, overviews, catalyst notes (Dr. Wiersbe's observations regarding Scripture), be transformed (in the introduction goes over life changing aspects of that book), cross references, full color maps, dictionary-concordance and study notes. All make for a very nice study Bible and there is much included for better understanding of Biblical text - but I would do so cautiously.

Keeping in mind that I did not and could not read this Bible version in it's entirety before completing this review, I will go over two of my major concerns. I am in no way doubting Dr. Wiersbe's insight into the Bible but during some of my reading of the "Catalyst" I was concerned especially when it came to the one regarding 2 Timothy 3:16-17 in which it's said "....Whatever the Bible says about itself, mankind, God, life, death, history, science, and every other subject is true. This does not mean that every statement in the Bible is true, because the Bible records the lies of men and of Satan. But the record is true." To me this is contradictory in nature as well as seeming to call into question the infallible nature that I believe the Bible to be.

Another issue that I had with this version of the Bible is the changing of male oriented terms. One example of this is: Genesis 1:27.

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he them; male and female created him thee." (KJV)

"So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (NLT)

I am not sure I understand the need to change gender terms, maybe it's our culture that wants Christianity their way or maybe because feminism has become so deeply ingrained into our churches that we need to appease ourselves. I know God loves men and women equally and He includes them both in His Word so to have to change the gender terms seem to take away from God's Word, which is forbidden in Scripture. In the Scripture above even the KJV already translates that women are included if not in the first part, in the second. Other changes are brothers to brothers and sisters, there are other changes but I won't list them all here. Again I am not a Bible translator but I don't think one has to be in order to realize that God includes men and women in His Word even if it's not specifically stated.

Overall, this Bible can be a wonderful resource to delve deeper into Biblical understanding alongside an older translation of the Bible (KJV or NKJV, etc). Weigh what you read against much prayer, reading, discussion and more prayer. If you'd like a companion study Bible then this would be useful, especially since it does contain cross references (I like to have these available without having to pull a huge concordance out when studying) to the Scripture being studied. The Transformation Study Bible is available from David C. Cook.