TAMMY'S BOOK PARLOR

Wednesday

WOW (Warm Oven Wednesdays) Wonderful Cobbler

A fantastic recipe from Sandra Lee!

Topping

1 1/2	cup Original Bisquick® mix
3/4	cup sugar
3/4	cup evaporated milk (from 12-oz can)
1	teaspoon almond extract

Fruit Mixture

1/2	cup butter or margarine
1/2	cup sugar
1	can (21 oz) more fruit cherry pie filling
1	cup frozen dark sweet cherries, thawed

Serve-With

Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, if desired

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$0.50 off Bisquick® Baking Mix

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About Concordance™

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 11x7-inch (2-quart) glass baking dish or shallow 2-quart casserole with cooking spray. In large bowl, stir topping ingredients until smooth; set aside.
In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in remaining fruit mixture ingredients. Cook about 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until mixture is hot. Spoon fruit mixture into dish. Pour topping evenly over fruit.
Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool about 20 minutes before serving. Serve warm with whipped topping or ice cream.

52 Principles For A Better Life RULES TO LIVE BY

Book Description: In our hectic and pressured lives, most of us long for less stumbling around and more consistency and order. At the same time, we want to be flexible and responsive to the needs of our family, friends, and coworkers. To achieve this sense of order, we rustle through self-help books, retool our schedules and priorities, and explore ideas on reinventing ourselves, our marriages, and our families.

Jerry White says he tried all these options but something else has been more helpful: From his early days at the space program in Mission Control at Cape Canaveral, he developed, pursued, and practiced a set of “rules” that have helped him respond to life without having to figure out every situation anew as it arises. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist as Jerry was. Through these fifty-two practical principles, learn how to live a more organized and successful life.

My Review: 52 Principles For A Better Life Rules TO LIVE BY authored by Dr. Jerry White is a small book just right for encouraging and helping us to become better citizens for heaven. This book is divided into 52 "mini chapters" where the reader is not bogged down with technical words or thoughts but the reader gleans an appreciation for life by reading short-like-mini-devotionals. Sometimes it feels as if one is reading the journal pages of Dr. White.

This wonderful read is taken from the former years of Dr. Jerry White. He was in the "military, at NASA, and with The Navigators, Dr. Jerry White shares insights and wisdom to point you toward a more balanced life. His 52 guiding principles do more than just tell you what you should do--they outline the godly life you can have today."

In chapter 42, Do Some Things Poorly, caught my attention. Do some things poorly?!? Not what most of us are taught....so I read on. Dr. White isn't saying do a "bad" job. He's telling the reader to not put too much emphasis on doing a perfectionist job and missing out on the importance of getting the job done. To help explain I quote from page 144, "Mary likes a clean house, and Mary's a perfectionist. But she once learned a valuable perspective when her aunt was talking about cleaning the house before guests arrive: 'If they come looking for dust,' she said, 'I don't want to disappoint them!" When you set out to work on a project, decide what level of completeness or perfection is needed or demanded." To me that is great advice. Not just in house cleaning but in life. Thoughts to get us motivated to work on the important parts of life.

There's so much GOOD in this book. More than I can write on this page! But I also loved Get Mad At the Right Things, Treat People Well, and Make Love!

This is a great-tastic 5 star read! Not rocket science but wonderful words of wisdom and sage advice for those of us who long to live in moderation.

This is also a wonderful gift book for those on your Christmas list!

*I reviewed this book for NAVPRESS*

CLICK HERE TO BUY!

Tuesday

The Waiting by Suzanne Woods Fisher {BLOG TOUR} with the LITFUSE Publicity Group

Book Description: Jorie King has been waiting for Benjamin Zook to return home to Lancaster County so they can marry. When news arrives that Ben has been killed, Jorie finds comfort in the friendship of his brother Caleb. That friendship ripens into love, and it seems that they are meant to be together. But when the unexpected happens, their worlds are turned upside down once more. Will Jorie trust God to lead her into the arms of a new man? A multifaceted story about complex people living the simple life, The Waiting is the second book in the LANCASTER COUNTY SECRETS series. Readers will find themselves transported into the world of the Amish and deeply invested in these wonderful characters.

My Review: The Waiting is the second book in the Lancaster Secrets Series by Suzanne Woods Fisher. I didn't get to read The Choice the first book in the series so began reading The Waiting with some trepidation wondering if I had missed to much from the first book. As I began reading The Waiting, I knew from the first page that this was a "read within itself." There may be some history from book one but if so, I didn't seem to miss anything by reading the second book first.
Jorie King must have the patience of Job. She's been waiting for her true love, Ben Zook, to return from the Vietnam war. At 24 years old, Jorie isn't old but she should be married with children according to some Amish standards. People's opinions don't seem to bother Jorie. She knows whom she loves and is waiting for his return.
This story isn't just about Jorie but about Ben Zook's family too. I fell in love with the Zook family. I especially felt a kinship with Mary Ann, the mother of the tribe. Mary Ann is Caleb's (Cal) wife. Cal lost his parents and returned home at as a young man to run the farm and raise his young brothers. He then marries Mary Ann and together they have one daughter. So Mary Ann is raising her young daughter and Cal's brothers, Ben and Ephraim. Ben is called to the Vietnam war.
Mary Ann begins to notice extra-ordinary tiredness and bruises on her arms. Cal insists that they go see the doctor. Bad news! Mary Ann has leukemia...with no known cure Mary Ann goes home to live the best she can. This is where the story really begins!
I had to laugh when Mary Ann fainted when Cal was chosen as the preacher. If you've ever been in a pastor's family or married to a pastor then you can understand the added responsibility of presenting God's Word and living up to those unspoken expectations.
But then there's Ben! Jorie is like a sister to Mary Ann. Jorie helps Cal and they begin talking more as Mary Ann's illness takes over and Ben is proclaimed dead by the Army.
This story is like a mountain road in the Pennsylvania Dutch country on a dark and stormy night! Just not sure where the next bend in the road will lead you! This is a great-tastic read! No ordinary Amish tale!
I SO enjoyed reading this 10 star read! If you've read The Choice then don't miss The Waiting! And I'm looking forward to The Search due out in January 2011.

*I reviewed this book for LitFuse Publicity Group*

CLICK HERE FOR BLOG TOUR OF THE WAITING

**Click here to visit Suzanne Fisher's page and to enter Kindle giveaway!**

About the Author: In no particular order, Suzanne Woods Fisher is a wife, mother, writer, lifelong student of the Bible, raiser of puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind, a gardener and a cook...the latter two with sporadic results.

Suzanne has loved to write since she was a young teen. After college, she started to write for magazines and became a contributing editor for Christian Parenting Today magazine. Her family moved to Hong Kong for four years, just as the internet was developing, and she continued to write articles in a 44-story high-rise apartment, sending manuscripts 7,000 miles away with a click of a key.

After returning from Hong Kong, Suzanne decided to give her first novel a try. For four and a half months, she worked on an antediluvian computer in a cramped laundry room. She didn't even tell her husband what she was up to. When the novel was completed, she told her family at dinner one night that she had written a book. "That's why there's no food in this house!" said her slightly insensitive sons.

Undaunted...Suzanne found a small royalty publisher for that book and wrote three more (all earned multiple). With help from an agent, she has five books currently under contract with Revell. On September 1st, Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World, a non-fiction book of stories and examples about the Old Order Amish, will be released by Revell. The Choice, a novel about the Amish, will follow on January 1st.

Writing, for Suzanne, is a way to express a love of God and His word. With every book or article, she hopes readers get a sense of what faith really looks like in the daily grind. She hopes they realize that life can be hard, but God is good, and never to confuse the two.

Monday

Costly Grace: A Contemporary View of Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship by Jon Walker

Book Description: In 1937, on the threshold of Nazi Germany s war on the world, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote what turned out to be one of the most influential books of the century, The Cost of Discipleship. In it, he challenged the flabby faith and compromises of German Christians, famously writing, When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die. Now, seventy-three years after the book was first published, Jon Walker writes Costly Grace: A Contemporary View of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship.
Walker brings to a new generation the timeless message of Bonhoeffer against the background of today's political upheaval and societal change and what it means to those who claim to follow Christ's teachings.
Christianity Today named Bonhoeffer's book one of the ten most influential books of the twentieth century, but although the book still has a loyal readership, it has not been adequately viewed through the eyes of the twenty-first century, until now.
In Costly Grace, Walker, who worked with Rick Warren for several years and recently authored Growing with Purpose (Zondervan, 2009), writes a book that will challenge contemporary teachings and lifestyles.
Grace is a foundational doctrine for Christians, yet it is one of the most misunderstood. Bonhoeffer watched as many used the doctrine of grace as an excuse to do whatever they wanted, and in response, he wrote his classic work on what it truly means to follow Jesus. We cheapen grace, he declared, when we use it to compromise our behavior or to lower the standards of God s Word. In a modern retelling of this Christian classic, Walker explains what Bonhoeffer meant when he taught that grace is free but will cost us everything.

My Review: My husband "found" Dietrich Bonhoeffer about 3 years ago. Ever since then we've read everything that has been written about him. So, when I was offered the chance to read the manuscript of COSTLY GRACE by Jon Walker I jumped at the chance to learn more of Bonhoeffer's life.

In COSTLY GRACE, A Contemporary View of Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Grace Bonhoeffer challenges christians! In the very first sentence of the book "Dietrich Bonhoeffer declared cheap grace the deadly enemy of our church in 1937. 'We are fighting today for costly grace,' he said. We are in that same fight today." With this opening statement I was stricken in my heart to find out what is cheap grace? "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolutions without personal confession, says Bonhoeffer. 'Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate." Oh.the.truth.hurts!

As I read this book I wanted my heart to be cleansed. I don't want cheap grace but costly grace because it costs my Savior everything!

When I got to the middle of the book on page 123 "Is It Ever Appropriate To Tell A Lie?" I was curious to know and was not disappointed to find that Bonhoeffer states, "The issue is not whether a particular lie is more forgivable, the issue is that we all need to be forgiven. A lie is a lie, and a lie is a sin, and that brings us short of God's standards." Bonhoeffer tells us that if we're looking for a way to make lying acceptable we will BUT if "we look to Jesus, we see our sins are forgiven, so stop arguing about the acceptability any form of lie."

As I read this chapter I was reminded of a short story that Corrie ten Boom told of her niece during this terrible regime: She told of how the her niece and her husband taught their children that lying was NEVER acceptable and if you always told the truth God would make a way. The story continues with Corrie telling of how the Nazis would go house to house looking for men and teenage boys to capture. Her niece and husband and their children, two of which were teenage boys, were home when they heard the terrible knocking of the Nazis on their door. Her niece went to open the door but before she did her husband and her two sons hid in a hiding place that was a trap door under the kitchen table with a throw rug on top. As the Nazis stomped in guns pointed at the girls, one of the soldiers yelled at Corrie's young grandniece, "Are there any men hiding here?" Her grandniece was terribly frightened but she would only tell the truth. She replied while nervously giggling, "Yes, they are under the table." The guards looked under the table and saw nothing. Thinking it was a joke all the guards began laughing and left the house. Corrie's nephew and his boys were saved that day by truth!

This is a FANTASTIC 5 star read! Not a fantasy story but the truth of God's Word is revealed! This is one of THE best books I have read that opened my eyes to God's will for us....COSTLY GRACE requires obedience to the ONE who loves us most!

If you don't want cheap grace but costly grace then this is the read for you! Bonhoeffer will pierce your heart with his timely words for such a time as this. Be encouraged in the Lord!

*I reviewed this book for B & B Media Group, Inc*

About the Author: An interview with Jon Walker

Question --- Give us a quick synopsis of 'Growing with Purpose.' Where did you come up with the idea?

Answer --- This book grew out of my frustration at trying to live the Christian life and constantly failing. I'd try to 'be holy as our Heavenly Father is holy' (1 Peter 1:16), and some days I'd feel I was doing pretty well on this Jesus-walk, and the other days I was a complete failure. I set out to determine the 'I' quotient - what else do I have to do - only to discover that I couldn't do a thing except depend upon God to develop holiness in me. His grace is the most powerful tool for change in our lives; we're saved by grace, but we're also transformed by grace. I accepted that God saved me, but I still had an independent streak in me, where I believed I could then work myself into saintliness.

Question --- If I read 'The Purpose Driven Life," why read your book? In what way does it press further into the Purpose Driven Life?

Answer --- In "The Purpose Driven Life," Rick does an incredible job of teaching that God created and shaped us for a purpose. But, as I began to 'grow in purpose,' I found myself stumbling in the little things; it was like, 'What good is it if I tell the whole world they were created in the image of God, but then I don't treat my own children as if they are unique creations of God.' So I had to grow within my purpose, and as God taught me, he kept emphasizing that the same Spirit at work in me is the same Spirit at work in others (James 4:5). It forced me to focus on the truth that the Spirit God placed within us both is constantly at work, washing our windows and sweeping out the cobwebs, changing us for God's glory and his purpose. So my book drives deeper into grace and the role of the Holy Spirit in pursuing our purpose. Rick teaches that in "The Purpose Driven Life;" I'm just too dense to get it at first and I know there are others who have the same 'density propensity' when it comes to their walk with God. Hopefully, my book will help them see how the presence of the Holy Spirit is part of what connects us within God's family.

Question --- You mention that the faith walk can become tedious and stale. How would you recommend preventing this?

Answer --- My friend, Steve Pettit, says that we have a tendency to focus on the how of Christianity, and although well-intentioned, it causes us to lose sight of the "wow!"--that the Holy Spirit lives within us as proof (Paul refers to it as a down-payment) that we are infinitely valuable to God and that he is intimately available in our lives. Wow! If we can remember the 'wow!,' then our walk will remain fresh and exciting. As Eugene Peterson suggests in "The Message," we'll be constantly saying, "What's next, Papa?"

Question --- What are some simple steps anyone can take in order to establish a richer, deeper, more satisfying relationship with Christ?

Answer --- The most important step is that we've got to get to the place where we say 'I can't; only God can.' But this is the step we most often miss: we race past the 'I can't' and then get stuck in a cycle of following steps toward intimacy with Christ without ever growing because our pride is still in the way.

The 'step' that Jesus constantly encouraged was to be dependent on God. We have to get to a place where we really believe we have no other option: 'God, I have no where else to go. I can't even depend on myself. I can't; only you can.' Like the widow at midnight, we have to stay there, refusing to leave step #1 until our 'I can't' becomes a faithful certainty that 'God can.' That's when God will open the door to greater intimacy.

Question --- Was 'Growing with Purpose' difficult to write in any aspects?

Answer --- It was extraordinarily humbling to try to interact with God on what each message should be because my pride kept getting in the way. For instance, I kept wanting to really show off my writing talents, but then God would seem to say, 'Keep this one very simple.' Like the Apostle Paul, I was forced to agree with God that the transformation of a heart - including my own - would not result from the eloquence of my writing, but from the power of the Holy Spirit working through the words.

In addition, I knew that every time I would write on a particular aspect of the Christian walk, I would be tested on that, and it was painful to face those tests and downright humiliating to fail so many of them. But, then, God would pick me up and say, "See, this is why I offer Grace; you are still my beloved."

Question --- Who are some of the writers who have influenced your writing style?

Answer --- Eugene Peterson, Brennan Manning, Henri Nouwen, Walter Wangerin, Max Lucado, King David, The Apostles John and Paul. The music of Rich Mullins, John Lennon, Jars of Clay and Relient K; their creativity inspires my creativity.

Question --- Could you give us a preview of what's next for you?

Answer --- I'm working on a project related to "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonheoffer. He wrote about "cheap grace" in 1937 as he witnessed the winds of war sweep upon Germany and he struggled within a church that had disconnected belief from behavior.

We live in a similar time, when the things we've traditionally seen a stable and secure are crumbling and the church is discovering the current disconnect between belief and behavior. In these hard times, I believe God is calling believers to make an authentic assessment of how their beliefs connect--or remain disconnected--to the decisions and actions they make each day.

Jon's Bio:

Jon Walker has served with Rick Warren, first as a writer/editor at Pastors.com, later as vice president of communications at Purpose Driven Ministries, and then as a pastor at Saddleback Church.

He's also served as editor-in-chief of LifeWay's HomeLife magazine and founding editor of the Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox. His articles have appeared in publications and websites around the world.

Jon's Blog:

http://www.gracecreates.com