Tag Archives: Books

Review: Help for the Hungry Soul

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Kristen Wetherell’s book, Help for the Hungry Soul: Eight Encouragements to Grow Your Appetite for God’s Word, is not about how to read or study the Bible. She goes further back than that to our appetite for God’s Word. We’re made to hunger for God. Satan tempted Adam and Eve to hunger for the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. Our spiritual appetites have been skewed ever since.

People often sense longing for something real, something beyond this life, but don’t know, or turn away, from where to find it. Even those of who know and love God’s Word can start filling our souls with other things, lessening our appetite for the Bible.

“The stirring up of our souls is something only God can do” (p. 18, Kindle version), but Kristen hopes this book will whet appetites to engage with God’s Word.

Kristen discusses different kinds of spiritual hunger, hindrances to Bible reading, the need to ask God to help us hunger for His Word and then position ourselves for Him to do so. She encourages us to remember to seek Jesus in our reading. She reminds us what a privilege it is to have the Bible: just five hundred years ago, it was not available on a wide scale to everyday people. She also reminds us that the church is vital in our taking in God’s Word. She tells us “There is no one ‘right’ way to meet with the Lord in Scripture” (p. 83), so we can try different methods and plans. But we need to “feed and not just read” what it says, taking time to meditate on it. She inspires us to trust the process when we don’t feel different or see “results” after reading. “When you engage with God’s Word, more is happening than you can see” (p. 87).

There are exercises at the end of most of the chapters to help apply what was said as well as testimonies from others concerning the aspect of the individual chapters.

Overall, I thought this was a very helpful, encouraging book. Probably my favorite chapter was the one about trusting God is nourishing us through His Word even when we don’t feel we’ve “gotten anything” out of it.

There was one place where I disagreed with the author, when she said, “Your main spiritual meal is to be enjoyed at church” (p. 72). She wrote that “quiet time” or “devotions” as we think of them today started with the Pietist Movement in the seventeenth century, when German Protestants encouraged people to read the Bible for themselves after years of being told they shouldn’t by the Catholic church. But there are examples in Scripture of people meditating on God’s Word alone (the psalmist on his bed at night; Daniel studying Jeremiah, and others). I agree that we heap a lot of false guilt on ourselves over devotions. Gathering with others to feast on the Word is as important as feeding on it alone, but I don’t see in Scripture that it is more important.

Here are some of the quotes that especially stood out to me:

Right there is the blessing of true Godward hunger: the more of God we come to know, the more of God we want to know. This doesn’t mean perfection, for all our yearnings in this life will be incomplete until we see Jesus; but it does mean we have endless potential to grow, as we seek more of God and receive the fullness of joy that only he can give (Ps. 16: 11)” (pp. 25-26).

Will we allow these discouragements to drive us to his word or away from it? (p. 28).

Do we recognize our helplessness, that even our very desires need to be changed by the Spirit’s transforming grace? Or do we approach Scripture pridefully, thinking we’ve “got this,” attempting to impress God, others, and even ourselves by our obedience? (p. 39).

For too many years, this was the way I approached Scripture, because I didn’t understand my neediness. I thought that by opening my Bible I was seeking something good and right to do, rather than primarily seeking someone to love (p. 39).

There is no magic bullet here, only a constant dependence on God’s supernatural help as we put ourselves in the position to receive from him (p. 53).

Obedience is evidence of true faith in Jesus. It demonstrates that we trust him enough to do what he says. It demonstrates that we love him and actually want to know him. It demonstrates that we acknowledge that, without him, we would be lost (p. 101).

God’s words are purposeful, nourishing, and invaluable. They are worth trusting, for God’s words come from God’s heart. We cling to them because God is the only trustworthy, unchanging rock upon which we can stand. And so we keep coming to God’s word, and we keep clinging to the promises we find there (p. 101).

The beautiful thing about the story of the Bible is its realism. Scripture does not provide an escape from reality, but enters right into it. If you feel like every day is a struggle, you’re right; it is. If you feel like your desires are messed up (even those related to the Bible) and that you can’t get your act together, you’re right; they are, and you can’t (p. 110).

Every hardship—whether obvious and acute suffering, or the daily, lingering futility we all feel—is readying us for Jesus. Every groan anticipates glory. Every hunger pang points us to heaven (p. 111).

What would you lose by turning away from Scripture? What would you gain by staying in the word? . . . What might others gain by your endurance in the word? (p. 116).

I don’t recommend starting with a BHAG (a “big hairy audacious goal”) but rather with a realistic goal. . . Small adjustments can bring meaningful change (p. 119).

I think this book is an excellent resource both for those just beginning to establish a habit of regularly reading God’s Word as well as those of us who have been reading for a while but need to be reminded of these truths. Thanks to Michele for alerting me to this book.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Review: Martin Chuzzlewit

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There are two Martin Chuzzlewits in Charles Dickens’ eponymous novel, originally titled The Life and Adventure of Martin Chuzzlewit.

The older Martin feels bitter because his relatives fight over his money. He tries to steer clear of them all, except his grandson with the same name. He has hired a young woman named Mary with no family as his caregiver and companion. He pays her well but promises that he will not put her in his will. He reasons that with no expectations after he is gone, she’ll be motivated to keep him alive.

Problems arise when young Martin, the grandson, falls in love with Mary. Grandfather and grandson have a falling out, resulting in young Martin leaving home and being disinherited.

Martin goes to apprentice with a distant relative, an architect named Seth Pecksmith. Mr. Pecksmith’s other apprentice is a good-natured but naive young man named Tom Pinch.

Old Martin asks Pecksmith to kick young Martin out, so he does, to curry old Martin’s favor. Young Martin decides to go to America to see if he can make a success of himself there.

The main theme of the novel is selfishness in various forms, displayed by two main villains as well as several minor characters. A few of the good characters, by contrast, are kind, considerate, and willing to help others. One character transforms from bad to good. One remains good but learns wisdom through painful circumstances. One who appears good at first is revealed to be bad. And one who is moderately bad becomes evil.

As always, Dickens weaves several minor plots and characters throughout the story, some more interesting than others.

Mr. Pecksmith has two daughters, Mercy and Charity, who do not live up to their names.

Anthony Chuzzlewit, the brother of the older Martin, has a son named Jonas. Jonas is surly and wishes his father would go ahead and die so he can get his inheritance. Anthony takes care of an elderly clerk named Mr. Chuffey.

Mark Tapley works at the local inn and likes to be “jolly,” a word he uses often. Oddly, he wants “credit” for being jolly in circumstances where happiness might be hard to come by. He decides to go to America with young Martin.

Sarah Gamp works at various jobs: midwife, caregiver, and one who helps prepare dead people for their funerals. She drinks alcohol often and takes advantage of the hospitality of those she serves.

John Westlock was a student of Pecksmith’s who does not like him and can’t fathom why his friend, Tom Pinch, likes him so well.

Montague Tigg is a swindler.

Mr. Nadgett is said to be one of the first private detectives in literature.

And those are just the English characters, not to mention the American ones.

Dickens wrote this novel not long after his own visit to America, where he was unimpressed. The American section is heavy with satire. He writes in the preface, “As I had never, in writing fiction, had any disposition to soften what is ridiculous or wrong at home, so I then hoped that the good-humored people of the United States would not be generally disposed to quarrel with me for carrying the same usage abroad. I am happy to believe that my confidence in that great nation was not misplaced.” This book was written in the 1840s, when slavery was still rampant in America. Dickens points out the irony of people bragging about their freedom while keeping so much of the population as slaves. Plus many of the American characters ask Martin what he thinks of their country and then get offended if he mentions its problems. They think they know more about England than he does. The newspapers threaten to ruin anyone who doesn’t do things their way. I wonder think Dickens may have had direct experience with this. He says in his preface:

Even the Press, being human, may be sometimes mistaken or misinformed, and I rather think that I have in one or two rare instances observed its information to be not strictly accurate with reference to myself. Indeed, I have, now and again, been more surprised by printed news that I have read of myself, than by any printed news that I have ever read in my present state of existence.

His portrayal of America won him no friends here and garnered much criticism. Dickens visited America again in 1868 and commented on the many positive changes he saw at that time. He gave a speech saying so and declaring that he would have an addendum added to all future publications of this book saying so as well.

I have to say that this isn’t one of my favorites of Dickens (those would be David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities). It took a very long time to get into it. But I knew the bad guys would get their comeuppance and everything would be brought together in the end. By the last part of the book, I was eager to listen to it as much as I could, and I loved how it ended.

The audiobook I listened to was read by Derek Jacobi, who did a marvelous job except when the older Martin and Sarah Gamp got excited–then he was a little hard to understand.

The audiobook also contained an introduction by a William Boyd, which I didn’t listen to until after finishing the book to avoid spoilers. He commented that this book did not sell well, and he felt it was because it was primarily comedic, with the serious and moral bits taking away from the fun parts. I heartily disagree. Most, if not all, of Dickens’ books contain some comedic elements even when dealing with some of the darkest elements of human nature. But I wouldn’t say the main thrust of this book is comedy.

Boyd also commented that young Martin is supposed to be the main character but only appears in about a fifth of the book. By contrast, in Dickens’ other books with a name in the title, like David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, we see much more of the main character throughout the book. He may have a point there, that readers expected Chuzzlewit to be more like those stories.

He also felt that the selfishness theme equaled lust for money. Not necessarily. Many of the selfish characters were after more money or someone else’s money. But Sarah Gamp, for instance, was selfish in other ways. Young Martin himself, even after being cut off from his inheritance, doesn’t seem concerned about money except that he wants to be able to marry and support Mary. His selfishness appears in the way he treats Mark Tapley as a servant.

Both Boyd and Wikipedia say this is a “picaresque” novel which centers on a lovable, appealing rogue.  I didn’t really see young Martin that way. He’s not a likeable character at first but has a transforming character arc, so he’s more appealing at the end.

For me, part of my dislike arose from the first chapter detailing Chuzzlewit lineage. It’s tongue in cheek and not meant to be dry, but we don’t really care enough about the Chuzzlewits enough yet to be interested in their family history. Then the story focuses on the Pecksmiths for a long time before the older Chuzzlewit makes an appearance. Mr. Pecksmith was hard to figure out at first, because he’s highly regarded in the town and seems moral and almost too polite. Yet there’s something off about him from the beginning. I don’t usually look up information on a classic before reading it because I want the story to unfold as it would have originally. But I did look up Pecksmith, and then understood where Dickens was going with him.

But, as I said, by the latter half of the novel, I started to enjoy it a great deal. Tom Pinch, especially, is a favorite character.

Have you read Martin Chuzzlewit? What did you think?

Review: Be Hopeful (1 Peter): How to Make the Best of Times Out of Your Worst of Times

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Be Hopeful: Commentary on 1 Peter by Warren Wiersbe

The book of 1 Peter was written to the “elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” by Jesus’ disciple, Peter. Warren Wiersbe shares his commentary on 1 Peter in Be Hopeful (1 Peter): How to Make the Best of Times Out of Your Worst of Times.

The folks Peter wrote to were suffering. “At least fifteen times in this letter, Peter referred to suffering, and he used eight different Greek words to do so” (p. 22, Kindle version).

Some of these Christians were suffering because they were living godly lives and doing what was good and right (1 Peter 2: 19–23; 3: 14–18; 4: 1–4, 15–19). Others were suffering reproach for the name of Christ (1 Peter 4: 14) and being railed at by unsaved people (1 Peter 3: 9–10). Peter wrote to encourage them to be good witnesses to their persecutors, and to remember that their suffering would lead to glory (1 Peter 1: 6–7; 4: 13–14; 5: 10). But Peter had another purpose in mind. He knew that a “fiery trial” was about to begin—official persecution from the Roman Empire (1 Peter 4: 12) (p. 22).

Peter wanted to encourage these believers in their faith. “We have noted that the theme of suffering runs throughout the letter, but so also does the theme of glory (see 1 Peter 1: 7–8, 11, 21; 2: 12; 4: 11–16; 5: 1, 4, 10–11)” (p. 24).

Wiersbe notes that the word “grace” appears in every chapter of 1 Peter.

Grace is God’s generous favor to undeserving sinners and needy saints. When we depend on God’s grace, we can endure suffering and turn trials into triumphs. It is grace alone that saves us (Eph. 2: 8–10). God’s grace can give us strength in times of trial (2 Cor. 12: 1–10). Grace enables us to serve God in spite of difficulties (1 Cor. 15: 9–10). Whatever begins with God’s grace will always lead to glory (Ps. 84: 11; 1 Peter 5: 10) (p. 24).

Peter reminds his readers that they were “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3), and they have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (verse 4). The “the tested genuineness” of their faith was “more precious than gold” and would “result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (verse 7).

He reminds them of their call to holiness and of the example of Christ in His suffering and submission.

He tells them not to be “be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (4:12-13). “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” (4:19).

Along the way, Peter has instructions to servants, husbands, wives, and shepherds—shepherds of God’s flock, His people. He reminds the flock that they need to be submissive to authority and each other.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:5-7).

And, in one of my favorite verses in the book, Peter says, “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (5:10).

More of Wiersbe’s comments:

Trials produce what he called “heaviness.” The word means “to experience grief or pain.” It is used to describe our Lord in Gethsemane (Matt. 26: 37) and the sorrow of saints at the death of loved ones (1 Thess. 4: 13). To deny that our trials are painful is to make them even worse. Christians must accept the fact that there are difficult experiences in life and not put on a brave front just to appear “more spiritual” (p. 34).

When God permits His children to go through the furnace, He keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat (p. 34, emphasis mine).

How can we grow in faith during times of testing and suffering? The same way we grow in faith when things seem to be going well: by feeding on the Word of God (Rom. 10: 17). Our fellowship with Christ through His Word not only strengthens our faith, but it also deepens our love. It is a basic principle of Christian living that we spend much time in the Word when God is testing us and Satan is tempting us (p. 36).

We do not study the Bible just to get to know the Bible. We study the Bible that we might get to know God better. Too many earnest Bible students are content with outlines and explanations, and do not really get to know God. It is good to know the Word of God, but this should help us better know the God of the Word (p. 48).

What does it mean to “sanctify Christ as Lord” in our hearts? It means to turn everything over to Him, and to live only to please Him and glorify Him. It means to fear displeasing Him rather than fear what men might do to us. How wonderfully this approach simplifies our lives! It is Matthew 6: 33 and Romans 12: 1–2 combined into a daily attitude of faith that obeys God’s Word in spite of consequences. It means being satisfied with nothing less than the will of God in our lives (John 4: 31–34) (p. 97).

Christ is with us in the furnace of persecution (Isa. 41: 10; 43: 2). When the three Hebrew children were cast into the fiery furnace, they discovered they were not alone (Dan. 3: 23–25). The Lord was with Paul in all of his trials (Acts 23: 11; 27: 21–25; 2 Tim. 4: 9–18), and He promises to be with us “to the end of the age” (Matt. 28: 20 NASB). In fact, when sinners persecute us, they are really persecuting Jesus Christ (Acts 9: 4) (p. 132).

In my current trek through the Bible, going back and forth between OT and NT books, I would normally be in Thessalonians next. But our pastor is going through 1 Peter on Sunday mornings, so I thought it might be beneficial to study through that book during this time. It has been!

Wiersbe’s ” Be” books are about the same length. So a book like Isaiah, which has 66 chapters, would be discussed in much less detail. 1 Peter only has five chapters, so each chapter of Wiersbe’s only covered a few verses. Most of the epistles are so packed, it’s good to slow down through them.

All of God’s Word is good, important, needful, and helpful all the time, but I think 1 Peter will be especially applicable to us in the postchristian era of our country and in the days ahead.

Review: Hope Between the Pages

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Hope Between the Pages by Pepper Basham

Hope Between the Pages is a split-time novel by Pepper Basham.

In 1915, Sadie Blackwell is the resident library servant in charge of the books in the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. A book-lover herself, Sadie enjoyed keeping the library tidy, leaving books guests might like on a library table, and reshelving the books once guests were done with them.

Just a year after George Vanderbilt’s passing, Sadie continued in the position her mother held before her.

As a servant, Sadie was supposed to be “invisible,” vacating the room when guests came in. But one day, she couldn’t get to the door in time and hid. She overheard a British father and son, the Camdens, talking with Mrs. Vanderbilt about books. The son, Oliver, appeared to love books as much as Sadie did. Based on his remarks, she later pulled some books she thought he might like. He responded with a note for the “Library Fairy” whose selections matched his tastes so well.

Not content with a thank you note, Oliver wanted to meet this Library Fairy. She found it difficult to remain invisible from such a pursuit.

In present day Asheville, Clara Blackwell owns a bookstore in Biltmore village, inherited from her father, who recently died. Though she loves her work, the bookstore is faltering a bit since the new big chain bookstore opened nearby. And her uncle Julian, her father’s half-brother, is making a nuisance of himself, trying to encourage Clara to sell. On top of all that, Clara is informed by her lawyer that he does not have a deed for the bookstore on file. If she can’t find the deed, Clara may lose the bookstore anyway.

In searching for the deed, Clara finds a box of her grandmother’s with a couple of notes addressed to a “Library Fairy.” The notes led to a series of discoveries about Sadies’s life previously unknown to the family.

Both women’s journeys take them beyond their predictable environments to step out on faith.

The Biltmore House library is my favorite room in one of my favorite places. I’ve wished many times that I could go beyond the cordoned-off path on one side of the library and walk into the room. I wouldn’t disturb any of the books, but I’d like to scan the titles up close, sit in one of the chairs, and soak up the ambience. However, I imagine if all of us who wanted to did that, we’d probably wear out the furniture and carpet. So you can imagine my delight to find so much of the book connected to Biltmore’s library!

The scenes in the rest of the house and the imagined conversations with Mrs. Vanderbilt were fun as well.

And with a librarian and bookstore owner as main characters, the book contained many literary references.

But beyond the bookishness of the stories, I loved the characters and their arcs. Besides the theme of stepping out of faith, being willing to leave the familiar behind, another undercurrent was being seen beyond the surface to what we really are underneath.

A few of my favorite quotes:

Few people are as they appear at first, and it behooves the heart of a Christian to see with gracious eyes our fellow humans, whether of high-bred means or low. After all, I’d been a servant, or the daughter of a servant, my entire life, and certainly hoped, if given the chance, people would see me for more than a quiet worker with nothing of interest to say. I had plenty to say—too much, really, for my occupation (p. 42).

God was there. And here. And all the places in between. Couldn’t I trust Him with the horizon as I trusted this ship to carry me . . ? (p. 147).

I’d lived a quiet life as long as I could remember, so solitude didn’t frighten me. In fact, I slipped it on like a pair of well-loved shoes (p. 164).

Maybe the definition of romance wasn’t some generic ideal dispersed among the romance-reading masses. Perhaps, in real life, romance corresponded to the intimate and individual needs of the two hearts. Unique. A handcrafted, heavenly match (p. 219).

Keep to your Bible and to your fairy tales, sweet girl. One is for your soul and the other is for your daydreams. Both will help you through this, and in both you’ll find your story (pp. 245-246).

My father always told me to never outgrow my belief in faith and fairy tales, but fear has a way of darkening one’s vision, and so I’d lost of the beauty God displayed through magical stories. Not so much the glass slippers or the poisoned apples, but the deeper truths. The light overcoming darkness. The rewards of perseverance. The beauty that can come through trials of thorns or battles or even sleeping death. I’d forgotten that imagination gives me so much more than the ability to fall into the world of a book. It motivates my dreams, inspires remarkable love, and helps me see beyond this world to a greater one (pp. 249-250).

I’d never considered how some of our greatest losses lead us to choices that God uses for bigger things than we could have ever imagined. Sometimes brokenness and heartache force us into self-seclusion and fear, and sometimes they can propel us into something amazing, if we let them (pp. 251-252).

I think many people would love this book even if they weren’t so much interested in the Biltmore House and classic literature.

This book is one in a Doors to the Past series. Each is written by a different author and involves a historic American landmark. I think each may be a split-time novel as well. This is the only book I’ve read in the series.

This is also the first book of Pepper’s that I have read, but it won’t be the last, especially knowing she lives in and writes about the Blue Ridge Mountains area of North Carolina.

Review: A Boy’s War

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A Boy's War by David Michell

David Michell was the tender age of six when he was sent to the Chefoo School, a Protestant boarding school for missionary children in what is now known as Yantai. He and his parents had no idea they would not see each other for six years because the Japanese captured the school during WWII.

David tells his story in A Boy’s War. His parents moved from Australia to be missionaries to China with China Inland Mission, originally founded by Hudson Taylor, in 1930. David was born in China and lived with his parents and older sister until they were later joined by a younger sister. When it came time for school:

In the China of those years the only way for most children of missionaries to get a good education in English was to go away to boarding school. Chefoo offered this opportunity. At Chefoo children of missionaries and a few sons and daughters of business people lived and studied together at the preparatory school, the Boys’ School, and the Girls’ School, getting a truly Christian education for body, mind, and spirit. So good was that education, in fact, that others, non-CIMers, wanted to take advantage of it, too (Location 59, Kindle version.

Some of the school’s famous graduates were Henry Luce of Time Magazine and Thornton Wilder.

On a side note, when I first read in missionary biographies of parents sending their children away to school so young, I was horrified. But home schooling materials were not as available then as now. Plus the British boarding school system had been in place for ages. Parents wanted their older children to have the credentials for college. And in some cases, the environment was such that children were more vulnerable to some of the horrific practices of the parents’ mission field, so parents felt they were safer away at school. These days, many mission boards work with parents to teach their children at home, especially in the younger years.

David tells of his trip to school (“two thousand miles and a six-week journey away,” Location 145) and early days of adjustments. Though he missed his parents and younger sister and had some homesickness and struggles, for the most part he settled in fairly easily.

Many of the teachers had been Chefoo students themselves. Outside the classroom, “housekeepers” helped the children write letters home, mended their clothes, and generally helped where needed. I was touched to see that many of these women were widows who now “mothered” these children.

As early as 1940, the school’s headmaster conferred with the British Embassy about what they should do in the face of the conflict between Japan and China. They decided to keep the school open. However, many children could not travel home at Christmas break due to the dangers, so a larger number than usual were at the school over the holidays. The staff provided a memorable Christmas for them.

They were used to seeing Japanese soldiers in the area, but the military didn’t bother anyone at the school. That changed after Japan attacked the US at Pearl Harbor the following year. Now British and Americans were the enemies. Immediately, Japanese soldiers arrested the headmaster for a month and took over the campus.

Classes and activities were allowed to continue under the watchful eye of the Japanese, but supplies ran low and freedoms were curtailed.

In November, 1942, the whole campus was sent on foot to an abandoned Presbyterian mission at Temple Hill, where conditions were even more crowded and supplies were even fewer.

Then in September 1943, the school was sent on a longer journey to the Weihsien interment camp, where they remained until the end of the war. There they joined some 1,500 other people from all walks of life and several nationalities held by the Japanese.

One of the detainees was Olympic medalist Eric Liddell. He had become a missionary to China after his Olympic feats. He had sent his pregnant wife and two children home, planning to join them later. But the Japanese took over before he could. One chapter of the book is a mini-biography of Liddell. He took an active part in teaching the children, who all called him Uncle Eric. He drew pictures of chemistry equipment they didn’t have so older students could be prepared for their Oxford exams. He arranged races and athletic activities and was generally thought of as a man “whose humble life combined with muscular Christianity with radiant godliness” (Location 1516). Sadly, he died of a brain tumor while at Weihsien.

Another detainee was Herbert Taylor, oldest son of Hudson Taylor, in his eighties, having been a missionary in China for over sixty years.

Though their years in camp were fraught with hardships, the children managed to have adventures as well.

David describes the joy of seeing six American soldiers parachute nearby and the Japanese surrendered.

Then came the scramble to get everyone home and taken care of.

Though David exulted in freedom, he found some aspects hard to adjust to.

In the last chapter of the book, David described going back to Weihsien with a few of his friends from there and their sons on the fortieth anniversary of their rescue. 

I had read this book some decades ago but had forgotten much of it. Reading a frictional account of the Chefoo school’s captivity in When We Were Young and Brave by Hazel Gaynor made me want to revisit this book. I am so glad I did. Hazel’s book may have more emotion, but it’s imagined emotion. David’s book is more factual. While he doesn’t downplay the hardships, he doesn’t go into great detail about them, either. I appreciated what he had to say here:

A situation like Weihsien is fertile soil for producing people of exceptional character. In our eyes, for instance, our teachers were heroes in the way they absorbed the hardships and fears themselves and tried to make life as normal as possible for us.

In fact, I think at times all of us in camp considered ourselves as heroes. We were surviving, some would say even thriving, in the midst of war. By dint of hard work, ingenuity, faith, prayer and perseverance we had transformed a compound that was a hopeless mess into a habitable and in some rare corners, almost an attractive living place (Location 1333).

Someone in the camp, Hugh Hubbard, wrote this of Eric Liddell after his death, but I think it was true of them all:

Weihsien—the test—whether a man’s happiness depends on what he has or what he is; on outer circumstances or inner heart; on life’s experiences—good or bad—or on what he makes out of the materials those experiences provide (Location 1504).

You can read a couple of testimonies of David Michell here and here.

I’m thankful to have reread this book, and for God’s sustaining grace of His people through the hardest of times.

Review: Be Decisive (Jeremiah)

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Be Decisive commentary on Jeremiah

Pastor and Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe shared his thoughts and insights on the book of Jeremiah in Be Decisive (Jeremiah): Taking a Stand for the Truth.

Jeremiah had a tough job. God’s people had worshiped idols for decades. They hadn’t obeyed His laws. They had also gone to other nations for help instead of God, in spite of the fact that He had provided for them and delivered them time and again. He sent prophets at various times to point them back to Him. But they refused.

The time came that God had to deal with them more severely. He was sending punishment in the form of the Babylonians, who would conquer their nation, destroy their temple, and take most of the population back to Babylon.

God would not annihilate them completely. He would preserve a remnant. He would keep His promises to maintain David’s lineage and bring forth the promised Messiah. “The purpose of chastening is that we might seek the Lord, confess our sins, and draw near to Him (Heb. 12: 3–13)” (p. 140). But for now, they were to go to Babylon, make their homes there, and settle in for seventy years.

God called Jeremiah to give this message to His people. They didn’t listen any better than they had before.

The false prophets preached what the people wanted to hear, but Jeremiah preached what the people needed to hear (p. 134).

The civil and religious leaders of Judah preferred the pleasant messages of the false prophets to the strong words of God’s true servant, because the human heart wants to rest, not repent. It wants peace, but it wants it without having to deal with the basic cause of unrest—unbelief (p. 211).

Further, Jeremiah’s instruction to actually submit to Babylon sounded like treason.

Jeremiah is sometimes called the “weeping prophet.” Though he had to point out the people’s sins in order to try to bring them to repentance, and though he knew they deserved what was coming, he still had compassion on them.

At least sixty-six times the word heart is found in the book of Jeremiah, for he is preeminently the prophet of the heart (p. 16).

We call Jeremiah “the weeping prophet,” and he was (9: 1), but he was also a courageous man who faced many dangers and trials and remained true to the Lord (p. 22).

Like many of us, Jeremiah balked at first at God’s calling.

Jeremiah hesitated as he looked at the work before him and the wickedness around him, and when he looked at the weakness within himself, Jeremiah was certain that he wasn’t the man for the job.

When it comes to serving the Lord, there’s a sense in which nobody is adequate. “And who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 2: 16) asked the great apostle Paul as he pondered the responsibilities of ministry. Paul then answered his own question: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God” (3: 5).

When God calls us, however, He isn’t making a mistake, and for us to hesitate or refuse to obey is to act on the basis of unbelief and not faith (p. 20).

At the end of Jeremiah’s ministry, it may not have looked like he accomplished much.

By today’s human standards of ministry, Jeremiah was a dismal failure. He preached to the same people for over forty years, and yet few of them believed him or obeyed his message. He had few friends who stood with him and encouraged him. The nation he tried to save from ruin abandoned their God and plunged headlong into disaster (p. 213).

Jeremiah may have thought he had failed, but God saw him as a faithful servant, and that’s all that really counts (p. 213).

Jeremiah is one of Scripture’s greatest examples of faithfulness and decisive action in the face of physical danger and national decay (p. 20).

Some other quotes that stood out to me:

Any theology that minimizes God’s holiness and tolerates people’s deliberate sinfulness is a false theology (p. 52).

That on which I center my attention and affection and for which I am willing to sacrifice is my god, and if it isn’t Jesus Christ, then it’s an idol. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5: 21) (p. 60).

The remedy for idolatry is for us to get caught up in the majesty and grandeur of God, the true God, the living God, the everlasting King. An idol is a substitute, and you would never want a substitute once you have experienced the love and power of the Lord God Almighty (p. 60).

That, however, is what faith is all about: obeying God in spite of what we see, how we feel, and what may happen. It’s well been said that faith is not believing in spite of evidence but obeying in spite of consequence” (p. 153).

Lamentations, the book that follows Jeremiah in the Old Testament, is thought by some to also be authored by Jeremiah. Whether it is or not, I thought it would be included with this commentary, because its author laments the devastation that has come to Jerusalem after the Babylonian invasion. I looked at the table of contents of Wiersbe’s “Be” books on the minor prophets and later historical books, thinking his commentary on Lamentations might have been included with other books. But I couldn’t find it anywhere

The middle of the Lamentations contains some of the most hopeful verses. In the midst of sorrow over deserved chastening, the prophet said:

But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.

For the Lord will not
    cast off forever,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not afflict from his heart
    or grieve the children of men.

Let us test and examine our ways,
    and return to the Lord!
Let us lift up our hearts and hands
    to God in heaven.

Lamentations 3:21-27, 31-33, 40-41

Most of the prophets did that: issued warnings, pointed out sins, yes, but also shared God’s love, compassion, and willingness to forgive.

I benefited from reading Jeremiah again, and Dr. Wiersbe’s insights were a great help.

Review: Shadowed Loyalty

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Shadowed Loyalty by Roseanna M. White is set during the Roaring Twenties. Sabina Mancari is the daughter of Chicago’s mob boss, but she never thought much about what he did. She’s engaged to Lorenzo Capecce, the son of her father’s lieutenant.

Lorenzo, known as Enzo,was one of the few in their families who took his faith seriously. Everyone thought he’d become a priest. But he chose law. He told Manny, Sabina’s father, that he didn’t want to go into the family business, and Manny agreed.

Lorenzo had seemed distant to Sabina for the last couple of years. So when another man, Roman, showed her some attention, she readily fell for him—until he led her into a gunfight and threatened her father with her life if she didn’t surrender. As it turned out, Roman was with the Prohibition Bureau and had just been using Sabina to get to her father.

Sabina called Lorenzo to help her father, putting him in a difficult position. Manny had agreed not to involve Enzo in their cases, but Sabina didn’t know that. Enzo couldn’t refuse her, so he took on Manny’s case, to the detriment of his own reputation.

Then Sabina and Enzo had to work out the situation between them. Did he still love her? Could he forgive her indiscretions with Roman? Did she still want to be engaged to him?

I’ve only read a couple of books from this era, and I don’t think any of them had to do with the mob. It was an interesting consideration—as Sabina’s conscience awakens, she becomes conflicted about what her father did. Yet she loved him as her papa, and didn’t know how to reconcile her feelings.

Unfortunately, this is the first book of Roseanna’s that I was a bit disappointed in. Usually her stories and characters grab me right off the bat, but that wasn’t the case this time. The writing was such that I thought this must be one of her earlier books, but it was published in 2022.

Some of the theology was a little wonky.

With this book dealing with a mob family, obviously they’d be involved in some gritty pastimes. I accepted that as part of the story. I didn’t mind that a couple of prostitutes were characters—prostitutes figure in a couple of Bible stories, as well. But there was one scene that went a little too far for my tastes, though nothing explicit was shown.

So, I have mixed feelings about this one. It’s still a good story overall, but I’d recommend discernment.

Review: When We Were Young and Brave

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When We Were Young and Brave

The day after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded the Chefoo school for missionary children in what is now known as Yantai in northern China. They allowed the school to operate and keep to its schedule, though they rationed food and policed activities. Almost a year later, the Japanese took over the school buildings completely and sent the staff and students to an abandoned missionary outpost known as Temple Hill, keeping them under Japanese guard. In September 1943, the staff and student were transported to an interment camp known as Weihsien with 1,500 other people from various walks of life. They remained Weihsien until it was liberated by Americans in 1945.

Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, had founded the Chefoo school in 1881 for the children of CIM missionaries. A few children of other Europeans also attended the school.

I had read of the Chefoo school and its capture in various missionary biographies and in David Michell’s memoir of his time as a Chefoo student in A Boy’s War. So I was interested to learn that Hazel Gaynor wrote a fictional account of the school’s interment in When We Were Young and Brave.

Gaynor’s characters are fictional. She focuses mainly on a ten-year-old girl named Nancy, nicknamed Plum, and and two of her friends as well as one teacher, Elspeth Kent and her friend. The chapters switch back and forth between the point of view of Nancy and Elspeth, so we get both the adult’s and child’s view of events. One of Nancy’s friends, Joan, aka Mouse, gets one chapter late in the book.

The story begins with the everyday workings of the school with the Japanese occupying the surrounding area. The Chefoo school was fairly self-sufficient, so they didn’t fear the Japanese, though they disliked the tension of having them nearby.

Everything changed, however, when Japan declared war on Great Britain. Now everyone at Chefoo school was the enemy.

Thankfully, many students were away for Christmas break at the time of the Japanese occupation. Those at the school over the holidays were unable to be with their parents due to lack of safety to travel.

As the years wore on, the strain became harder to bear with lack of proper food and the increasing fear of the Japanese guards.

The school staff tried to keep everyone’s spirits up by maintaining classes and Girl Guides (similar to Girl Scouts in the USA). But they all faced various hardships.

The book opens and closes with the adult Nancy, thirty years after liberation, reflecting on her experiences.

The book is well-written. The characters are relatable and well-developed. As a reader, I felt the weight of what they were going through.

A few quotes stood out to me:

Our war wasn’t one of battles and bombs. Ours was a war of everyday struggles, of hope versus despair, of courage against fear, strength over frailty (p. 198).

In the most peculiar circumstances imaginable, their interment had insured that they were capable beyond their years (p. 243).

War and interment are part of their lives now, part of their story, part of who they are. . . . I actually think life is meant to have its share of difficultly and struggle. That’s when we find out who we really are, what we’re really made of, not when everything’s going along all jolly and straightforward and terribly nice. We come alive in the dramatic bits, don’t we; in moments that make us gasp and cry (p. 285).

But a few factors marred my enjoyment of the book.

First, Gaynor often refers to the children as “privileged.” Since most of them were missionary children, this was not a posh, expensive boarding school for the higher classes. There was probably some sense in which the children were more privileged than some of the Chinese nationals, who had been fighting Japan for a while already. But it wasn’t necessary to infuse the same sensibilities as one would have for a standard elite British boarding school.

Secondly, the school was established as a Christian school. According to David Michell, the school still provided “a truly Christian education for body, mind, and spirit” when he was there. But there is little mention of Christianity in Gaynor’s book. When Elspeth only took two books with her when they left Chefoo, she chose her Girl Guide Handbook and the Buddhist scriptures a Chinese servant had given her, not a Bible. She mentions struggling all her life to believe in God and says a budding sunflower gave her “more strength and hope that any prayer ever had” (p. 118). The teachers’ encouragement is the British stiff upper lip, “Keep calm and carry on” variety rather than anything of a spiritual nature.

Then, Elspeth feels that the children’s parents put their mission above their children by sending them away to school. That was not usually the case. Though teaching at home predates institutional learning, home schooling was not the industry then that it is now. Parents might have been able to teach their children at home on the mission field for their early years, but likely would not have had the material to do so as they got older. Plus, the children would not have had the credentials to go to college. Thankfully, these days, many mission boards work with parents to teach their children at home.

Additionally, some of the missionaries worked in remote areas with very few other Christians. Isobel Kuhn wrote that the tribe they worked with didn’t worship idols: they worshiped demons. When her son got old enough that she couldn’t keep him at her side all day, she feared what he would be exposed to as he interacted with people on the village. For many parents, sending their children away to school was for their protection.

Gaynor wrote that she drew from some of the internees’ own accounts at Weihsien Paintings and the Chefoo School Archives in London as well as other books. But all her characters were invented (except Olympic runner Eric Liddell, who was a missionary to China, and was interred at the camp. He died there of a brain tumor). Her characters and their interactions largely came from imagining what her own children might do in this situation, what she would have felt like as a parent at the time, and her grandmother’s war-time experiences. So I struggled a bit with not knowing was was real in the book and what came from the author’s imagination.

At some point, I set aside what I knew of the school and just read the book for what it was: a fictionalized account of people enduring and overcoming great, sustained hardships. I enjoyed it much more after that. But it spurred me to get David Michell’s book to reacquaint myself with the real story.

Review: A Month of Summer

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In Lisa Wingate’s novel, A Month of Summer, Rebecca Macklin lives in LA, has a legal practice with her husband, and runs her 9-year-old gymnast daughter to practices and meets.

Then Rebecca receives a devastating phone call. She has not seen her father in over thirty years. She was supposed to spend a month of every summer with him and his new family as part of the custody arrangement of her parents’ divorce when she was twelve. But she refused to go. Her father honored her wishes.

Her stepmother has written over the last couple of years that Rebecca’s father developed dementia and urged her to make peace before it was too late. But Rebecca ignored her. Why bother making contact with him now?

But a phone call from Dallas puts Rebecca in a tough spot. Her step-mother has had a stroke. Her developmentally disabled step-brother was roaming town alone, having gotten on a bus without being able to figure out how to find his way home. Her father was totally confused. The police found Rebecca’s name on a contact list. If she didn’t come to take care of her father and step-brother, Social Services was going to get involved.

Reluctantly, Rebecca makes plans to go. But on the day she leaves, she sees her husband at an outdoor cafe holding hands with one of his clients. Is this why he has been working late? Without time to confront him, she boards her flight, with all the problems of her life weighing her down.

But when she arrives in Dallas, things are worse than she imagined. A housekeeper who was supposed to keep things in order has disappeared. Dirty dishes and molded food are everywhere as is dirty laundry. Wet laundry has mildewed in the washer. And money is missing from her father’s accounts.

The point of view shifts back and forth from Rebecca and her step-mother, Hanna Beth. Hanna Beth is cognizant, but can’t express herself or control her movements. When she learns that Rebecca has come, now of all times, she wonders what will happen. Will Rebecca ship her father and step-brother off to institutions before Hanna Beth can recover enough to go back home?

As each woman painfully peels back layers of the last several years, they learn things aren’t always as they appear.

I saw one reviewer call this a light and easy read. I didn’t think so, myself. It was a good read, but felt very heavy sometimes, except for the knowledge (or at least the hope) that things would work out somehow in the end.

There’s a delightful cast of side characters in the book: a sweet older woman Rebecca meets on the flight who she runs into again later, a talkative older man in Hanna Beth’s nursing center, a stern German physical therapist, a sweet aide with two boys, a nurse from Ghana. I loved one teasing line from the nurse who was trying to get the older man back to his room: “Old rooster, he loud on the fence, quiet in the stew.”

This book is the first in Lisa’s Blue Sky Hill series about a neighborhood in Dallas. I had read the second book in the series, The Summer Kitchen, as well as the fourth, Dandelion Summer. But there were so many years between each read, I could not remember if any of these characters showed up in the later books. I probably would have caught more of the connections if I had read them in order and closer together, but each book does hold up well as a stand-alone.

Review: Read This First

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Gary Millar wrote Read This First: A Simple Guide to Getting the Most from the Bible to “help people who would like to read the Bible but don’t really know where to start or how to go about it” (p. 2, Kindle version). Whether one is a new Christian or has never really gotten into regular reading, Millar hopes you will “read this first and go back to the Bible with the skills and confidence to truly enjoy it (p. 3).

First, Gary deals with the question, “Why bother with the Bible?” and lists reasons people don’t.

But he says, “I’ve written this book to help you meet a person—a living, loving, being like no other—through the pages of a book like no other. . . He made us, he loves us, he knows us inside out, and he speaks to us. And he does that through the Bible. That’s why reading the Bible matters so much—because when we read it, we meet the one and only God ” ( p. 10).

Millar assures that “the Bible was written to be understood by ordinary people like us. It doesn’t need insider knowledge or a special code to make sense of it. It’s not written for experts and professionals. It’s written for people like you and me (pp. 17-18).

Millar then gives tips on how to read, to pick up what he calls the “vibe” of a given passage, to understand different genres within the Bible, to discern meaning, and to apply what we’ve learned.

Every chapter ends with a couple of examples of Scripture to work through using the skills detailed in that chapter.

The appendix, titled “What Is the Bible?” gives a little background such as the difference between the two testaments, how we got the chapter and verse references that weren’t in the original manuscripts, and more.

Gary writes in a warm and simple style, so this book would be accessible to almost anyone.

This would be an excellent resource for someone new to reading the Bible or to anyone who feels they need a refresher course in how to do so.