Free Book by Brian Tome

The title of the book Free Book by Brian Tome has a very accurate title -- It is all about how to gain spiritual freedom in a world full of stronghold and bondage. Tome is very straight-forward throughout the whole book, not sugar-coating anything about it. He uses many scriptural references, which enhance the overall message of the book. He is also very tasteful in the presentation of his own opinions, making known that it is in fact just his opinion. Brian took a sometimes difficult to understand message about spiritual freedom, and broke it down into sections that were understandable for anyone to read, Christian or not.

While the straight-to-the-point, cold-hard-truth style of the book caught me off guard at first, I started to enjoy it the more I read. The book was challenged my way of thought, the actions I take, and the way I want to live my life. It was comforting to know that while I was reading the painful truth, the author could relate with the pain by sharing a personal story about the subject, and how he made it through. This is definitely a book that I would recommend, especially if you feel that you are in bondage and want to know the steps to freedom that God has waiting for you.

I am giving this book five out of five stars. As I thought about what to rate the book, I simply couldn't think of a reason NOT to give it five stars. Hope you enjoy it as well!

Serve to Love, Love to Serve

The days here in Painesville seem to get increasingly boring as we run out of things to do to get fully and completely moved here. There are still a few things we must do, and we could probably get them all done in one day, but it helps if we don't because it keeps us busy.

Josh and I have started reading through Oswald Chamber's "My Utmost for His Highest" Devotional book (we realized when we were unpacking our books that we both have a copy of it). As I was re-reading January 17th's devotional. It was about service, and how when we have a flourishing and intimate relationship with Christ, service should be the overflow of love and devotion. It was pretty convicting. I want to share a bit that I wrote about it from my personal journal:

"[The devotional says that] there is no specific call to service, but it is the overflow pouring from a life of love and devotion. The part that got me though, was the next line -- it says that service is what we bring to the relationship. Woah. This is some heavy duty stuff. My first though was, ' Well, I guess I better get serving! Gotta get that overflow going and moving to make me love God more'. Then I thought about it some more and realized that I had completely missed the point. Service is what we want to do when our relationship with Christ is blooming and flourishing. It shouldn't be a thing we do to try and make us love God more. Because we love God so much is why we want to serve! Because we love him so much that we are willing to go the next step, or even the next mile, to help and please our Lord God".

I know that I don't feel like serving all of the time, and sometimes when I am serving, my heart is not in this kind of place. I am not thinking about why I am doing it. I want to think about how much I love God while I serve. I want to remember that He is the reason for the action, and He is the reason I am even able to serve. I want to have such a strong. loving, devoted relationship to God that I am willing to serve no matter when or where, no matter what type of service it is.

Everything New

These last few days haven't really been too busy, but they have been a bit tiring. Sunday was a great day, it being the first day that we were officially here and Josh led worship for the first time at church, and it was just fun. Afterward, we just came home and took a VERY long nap, then did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day (hey, we spent a long time-- like the two days before that -- unpacking... it was nice to just rest :P).

Monday was more unpacking, and getting starting to venture out and get all the things done that you apparently have to do when you move out of state. Thats what we did today, too. Today, we got our Ohio licenses, which, I would like to tell you, are not very attractive. (Not because of the pictures on them either... :P) To describe them in one word, I would use tacky, but I will also say that they are a light shade of red (Which makes them look pink) with yellow, and weird markings all over them too. And, to top it off, I wanted to keep our MI licenses just for scrapbooking purposes, or something, but they wouldn't let us! Ah well, I guess.