10 Prayers You Can't Live Without: How To Talk To God About ANYTHING

10 Prayers You Can’t Live Without

Rick Hamlin

ISBN 978-0-8249-3218-3

Religion\Christian Life\Spiritual Growth

B&B Media Group,Inc.

246 pages

$14.99 U.S.

“When you hear a loved one’s voice on the phone, you can usually recognize them in a word or two.  Your voice is just as unique to God, and he is waiting, wanting to listen to you personally, about anything and everything.  Yet sometimes we can’t find the words to pray.”

I’ve never met Rick Hamlin.  Never even heard of him, before I received the book, 10 Prayers You Can’t Live Without:  How To Talk To God About Anything for review.  But from the opening pages, I felt like I was visiting an old friend.  In a winsome, down to earth style Rick shares spiritual truths about that most difficult of spiritual exercises – prayer.  Illustrating the principles with personal anecdote that illuminate the message without taking over the spotlight, Mr. Hamlin writes with an easy familiarity concerning prayer.  Would that we were all as at home with prayer as Rick Hamlin. 

10 Prayers You Can’t Live Without has now become my devotional, because I want to learn how to talk to God better, and I think that this book is going to get me there.

5 stars

Landmarks:  Turning Points On Your Journey Toward God

Bill Delvaux

ISBN 978-1-4336-7922-3

Christian Life\Discipleship\Spiritual Life

B&H Publishing Group

190 pages

$14.99 U.S.

“The well-worn rut most of us live in is safe, comfortable . . . some would call it dead.  By contrast, coming alive requires a willingness to journey into the unknown.  Following Jesus is just such a path . . . there are risks involved, and there is no point A to point B map.  But there are landmarks . . .”

Sometimes the story gets in the way of the message.  Unfortunately, this is my experience with Landmarks:  Turning Points On Your Journey Toward God.  While author Bill Delvaux provides an interesting outline to consider, and a good visual aid ( “landmarks” while one is on a journey ) the principles that are considered in each chapter serve to jog his memory about “the time when I . . .” Upon further reflection, the subtitle might well have been, “Turning Points On MY Journey Toward God.”  I’m not biased against personal anecdote, providing it keeps its proper place; sort of a signal flare that guides the reader into a deeper spiritual truth.  But when the anecdote becomes the main point . . . I tend to lose interest.

I appreciate everything that Bill has gone through, and there are many “landmarks” that he and I have in common.  But, for me . . . the story got in the way of the message.

2 stars