Heidi's Haven

This is an 8-week study of Ezekiel that teaches readers about God's goodness in times of disappointment and doubt. We see a unique picture of revival through Ezekiel's prophecies, and we see how that can be the case for us today as well. We see how the sins of that time are still prevalent in our lives, and how God's promises and lessons in Ezekiel still apply to us today.  Throughout the devotional, we learn how to listen and posture ourselves for revival, and to have the same resilience to share God's message with the world. We learn the things we do that stops revival, and the things we can do to invite it. There are activities, questions, and readings all throughout to help the reader understand and learn. God has already given us the tools we need for revival.  Since I read this for review, I did not to the activities and instead simply read this cover-to-cover, so I did not get much out of this book. However, I do think you might (and other reviews seem to agree) ...

  First of all, this book deals with eating disorder, exercise addition, and mental illness. Though eating disorder is mentioned on the back, I think it would be nice to have a bigger trigger warning about these themes at the beginning. In this book, Melanie finds herself faced with entering rehab to combat her eating disorder. Having always felt a pull to this region and wanting to avoid rehab, Melanie decides to go on a sort of pilgrimage and hike from Michigan to Mount Rainier in Washington. The people she meets along the way help her understand herself. I picked this book up because I am a bit obsessed with thru hiking, however the bulk of the book had very little to do with hiking. This book is more about Melanie's recovery and the people she meets along her journey. My favorite parts of the book were when Mel was in a place I've been, I love to read about places I've visited. I also really enjoyed the focus on chosen family, and how this book did not sugarcoat toxic p...

  In this book, Jennifer Hand shares lots of personal stories of times she was afraid, yet trusted God anyway. She uses personal stories and stories from the Bible to show us how saying "no" to fear is saying "yes" to God, and how our lives can be changed because of it.  The author explains that giving in to fear means saying "no" to God. None of us want that! Instead of letting fear stop us, we need to trust in God to keep moving. Hand refers to these crossroads and choices in our lives as "faith steps" or "fear stops". We can either say yes to God and move forward in faith, or say no and stop in our tracks. Throughout the book, Hand uses the story of the Israelites to show us what happens when we say yes or no to God. Using these examples, she emphasizes that saying no to God can keep us from reaching our "Promised Land", whatever or wherever that may be.  Hand uses many personal stories as examples. While some have clearly ...

  I am sure most of us tend to view the Bible as one big work. However, the Bible is really a collection of many pieces of writing, and each piece should be examined individually and in different ways. We must study and explore the Bible according to the literary style presented in a particular book, chapter, or passage. In this way, we will gain better understanding of the text.  There are eight main literary genres in Scripture: law, Old Testament narrative, prophetic/apocalyptic, poetry/wisdom, gospels and acts, and epistles. Throughout the book, Anyabwile teaches the reader how to examine each of these genres. There are also different types of writing: stories, poetry, and speeches. Again, these must all be examined differently. In addition to literary genre, the reader must also understand cultural and historical contexts. Finally, the author also describes how to examine Jesus' different teachings: narratives, parables, dialogue, and sermons. For all of these, Anyabwile ...

  This book is geared toward women, in any stages of life, to take control of their finances. A mother-daughter team, the authors share two generations of knowledge and covers all of the life stages, from single life, to married life, to widowed life. This is stewardship-focused: everything is God's and we must be responsible stewards of what he's given us. Each chapter features resources for planning and budgeting, as well as tips and journaling questions.  I personally did not feel like this book was very helpful. I wouldn't consider myself super knowledgable about finances, but just about everything in this book is stuff I've heard many times before. I was expecting more, especially as one of the authors is a certified financial planner. The writing felt disorganized and rushed, and very redundant. I did like their tips on how to choose a financial planner, and their information about wills and trusts, but for the most part I don't think I learned anything new fr...

Just like the 5 love languages, we apologize and accept apologies in different ways. I am sure we've all heard an apology we didn't feel was sincere, while the person who apologized feels like they did everything they could. This book explores the different ways we apologize and helps the reader find their own apology language. The goal is to help us strengthen relationships in our lives and opens the door to forgiveness and reconciliation.  These 5 languages are: Expressing Regret, Accepting Responsibility, Making Restitution, Planned Change, and Requesting Forgiveness. In some situations, more than one language must be used, and it's different for each person. This book helps the reader understand their own apology language and the apology languages of others. The authors describe in detail how you can apologize in each language. You will learn how to apologize, how to forgive, and how to ask for forgiveness. They also reassure us that to cause offense is human, it is not...

  This 40-day devotional by Jessica Thompson is based on Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. The law is not against such things." If we are followers of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is living in us, and that should be evident in our daily lives. But what does the fruit of the Spirit mean? How is that evident in our lives? Through this devotional, Thompson walks us through God's attributes shown in Galatians 5:22-23, and explains how learning about God's character helps us see how that fruit can be seen in ourselves. Throughout this devotional, the reader will learn more about God and become more like Him.  This book is organized in sections based on each attribute of God, and then those sections are split into devotionals to be read one per day. Each of these is 3-4 pages, and can easily be read daily, even for the busiest people. I would like to note that I read this all in one g...