Surrender All - Book Review

Joni Lamb is executive producer and host and co-host of the top two daily talk shows, Celebration and JONI, on the world's second largest-faith based network, Daystar Television. Her book is Surrender All.

Surrender All is a Christian inspirational book sharing how to have peace and purpose in your life. Each chapter shares a different area of your life that needs to be surrendered to God, including marriage, children, career, health, friendship, daily life, loss and even failure.

Through testimonies of her own life, and others, she shares exciting stories of personal surrender that lead to peace. Many of the stories of surrender end with a "happy" ending, but even those stories that end sadly still end with the peace of being where God wants the individual to be.

One gentleman, Bishop Joseph Walker, lost his wife to cancer. He didn't get the outcome he prayed for. But he chose to believe that everything happens with purpose - on purpose - to bring for the the will of God in your life. Bishop Walker said "No matter what happens, you have to know that God is actively moving behind the scenes. God will be glorified, you will be edified, and Satan will be horrified." I love the idea of horrifying the devil, don't you?

Joni shares "No one else can understand the depth of your pain, your frustration, your hurt, your anger. No one knows your story....You can't change what has happened to you, but you can choose how you respond. Seek to be a champion, not a victim. Surrender to God and stand back."

This book is for the Christian hoping to take their relationship with God to the next level. It's filled with inspiration and miracles testimonies of faith that will encourage and inspire believers to surrender their own lives to God.

Joni ends the book just as I hoped she would. She tells the story of ultimate surrender, how Jesus surrendered his life on the cross for us. If Jesus is willing to surrender his life for us, shouldn't we be willing to do the same?

Video Clip in Joni Lamb's own words:

Thankful Thursday - 7/9

5 Things I'm thankful for this week:

1. I'm enjoying the summer with my girls! Between the pool, play dates and season passes to a theme park, we are having a great summer STAY-cation.

2. Free books. Reviewing books is becoming a great way to get free books this summer. I'll be reviewing one tomorrow, and received another in the mail this week.

3. A new roof. Roofers are busily replacing our roof, which had started leaking. They are doing a great job and I'm thankful to have it repaired.

4. A cook-out with friends. My girls' best friends are sisters. So we had the parents over for dinner Sunday night. It was a lovely evening, and I'm so glad to have my girls have such wonderful friends.

5. A Movie Date with my sister. We watched Pilgram's Progress together, and she brought me a funny book about Germaphobes. I could have written it. (Why didn't I? Note to self: Think outside the box.)

What are you thankful for this week?

Image is Everything

Image is everything. That's what magazines tell us. The definition of image used here is "the general or public perception of a company, public figure, etc., especially as achieved by careful calculation ." That means it doesn't really matter what you do, it's just the perception that matters.

Sadly many people live there life just this way. On the outside they appear to be "good." But behind closed doors they are something all together different. Whether it's greed, pride, gossip, addictions to drugs, alcohol, or p0rn0graphy, these things are quietly going on while the outside perception is that all is well.

With this perception, there comes no reason to change for the individual - after all "Image is everything!" Amazingly the root word of imagine is image. Imagine means to think, believe or fancy. So our outward image is really just imagined reality, a mirage. Reality becomes nothing, when image is everything.

However, there is another image that is everything. The Bible tells us that we were created in God's image. God created us to be like him. We were created in His form, appearance and semblance. We are to strive for righteousness to be like God.

It is said that 1% of unchurched people look at the Bible, while 99% look at the Christian. Strive to be more like God. Then your outward image won't be your everything. Your creation in the image of God will be the only thing that matters. You reality will be found in Christ.

Genesis 1:27 -- So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Matthew 5:16 -- In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Colossians 2:17 -- These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.