Deus Misereatur

The Daybreakers by Louis L'Amour My rating: 5 of 5 stars My oldest son loaned me a copy of "The Daybreakers," after we watched the 1979 movie "The Sacketts" with Sam Elliott, Tom Sellek, Jeff Osterhage, and Glenn Ford, which is based on the book. "The Daybrakers", first published in 1960 and reissued in 2000, is vintage L'Amour storytelling that follows two of the Sackett boys, Tyrel and Orrin, out of the Tennessee mountains to Mora, New Mexico. It accompanies them down cattle trails, through shoot-outs, into gold-mining, and on to lawyering and Law Enforcement. The novel recounts a deep and painful friendship spawned in the dust of a cattle trail that partially dies in the dust of a town street. It teases out the growing love between the two boys and their sweethearts, and love gone bad. The tale also exhibits loss of blood, family and friendship ties as thick as blood, and bad blood. "The Daybreakers" is inviting and enjoyable, entic...

Domestic Abuse: Recognize, Respond, Rescue by Darby A. Strickland My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wow! Just plain wow! Darby Strickland, a Christian Counselor who teaches Counseling Abusive Marriages,through CCEF's School of Biblical Counseling, has penned a potent and profitable manuscript, and packaged it in this 52 page mini-book. The subject is serious, the content constructive, and the tone is tutorial. Strickland begins with an opening scene where "Clint" and "Ashley" are sitting in her office beginning counseling...actually, she's the sixth counselor they've seen. The author is caught completely off guard by the tactics "Clint" uses to cover up his own oppressive conduct and actions. It took several sessions before she realized what was happening and the danger "Ashley" was in. I almost fell out of my chair as I was reading this scene, because it followed a pattern I too had experienced a few short years ago. Then I sat up and st...

A very short booklet meditating on Hebrews 13.5-6, "Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Armand P. Tiffe, Pastor Emeritus of Cornerstone Community Church in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, takes the reader through the encouraging exercise of dwelling and meditating on God's own promise in these verses. The author wants the reader to remember "this great promise, especially during the difficult times of life" (11). "The Most Encouraging Promise of the Bible" is ideal for your church's pamphlet rack. It can be used in counseling homework. But most of all, it needs to be read by Christian men, women, girls and boys who are in deep trouble, walking through the valley of the shadow of deep darkness, who find themselves in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I highly...

Help! I Feel Ashamed by Sue Nicewander My rating: 4 of 5 stars I picked up this tiny, 62 page booklet, at a conference I attended recently on abuse and how to help the abused. Sue Nicewander, a certified biblical counselor and executive director of Biblical Counseling Ministries (BCM) in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, tackles the potent feelings of shame in a very readable format, following "Shannon" and "Gwen" as they face their distinct senses of shame. Nicewander does a good job distinguishing between sin-shame and provoked-shame. Sin-shame is the legitimate kind of shame we should rightly feel for going against God's Word. Provoked-shame is the shame foisted on a person through the another's actions, attitudes or abusiveness. Sometimes the two get intertwined together, and takes some thought to tease them out and address them appropriately. But the remedy for both is found in Christ, who he is, what he has done and is doing for us. One further d...

O Lord God, who is more willing to hear than we are to pray, and is willing to give far more than we either desire or deserve: we pray for your Church and your World because you have made us priests through your well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our great High Priest. We pray for this congregation (gathered and scattered): for your Church throughout the world, for Quail Springs Baptist Church, Rancho Village Baptist; Revolution Church, and Ridgecrest Baptist: with your servant and our brother Augustine, we ask you to give what you command and command what you will. Stir us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, for it is you who works in us to both will and do for your good pleasure (Philippians 2.12-13). For all those who are struggling with pain, broken-bodies, grieved hearts, and fractured minds we pray….restore to them the joy of your salvation; refurbish their frail bodies; re-knit the fragmented hearts and minds; and turn all away from despair and depression ...