Friday, February 24, 2012

From My Book Shelf

I love books.

I have ever since I started reading at six. Much of my childhood was spent reading or listening to a book on tape. I grew up with the classics like Little House on the Prairie and Tom Sawyer.

Now that I have graduated from highschool and am an "adult"...I still don't feel like one even though I turn nineteen next week, I still try to keep reading.

Lately I have been reading these books.

A Passion for the Impossible: The Life of Lilias Trotter
by Miriam Huffman Rockness
Source: amazon.com via Jess on Pinterest

I picked this one up while at my church library. I love missionary biographies and I had never heard of Lilias Trotter before. I read on the back cover, "Lilias was an artist, proclaimed by art critic John Ruskin to be potentially one of the best artists of the nineteenth century. But Trotter left the art world behind to pioneer a mission work in Muslim North Africa".

"Wow", I thought..."I think I can relate to her...here she is giving up all she has to serve Jesus. I want to do that".

So I checked it out.

As I read the book I fell in love with Lilias. She was from a well to do family during the Victorian period. Living in England she wanted for nothing and could have pursued a career in art. But she loved her Lord more than earthly praise. She never married and gave up a career that could have made her famous. Instead she lived among Muslims in North Africa. Spending time and loving the people of Algeria she strove to serve the Lord whole heartedly and share His love with Muslims. Her life wasn't easy. She often worked harder than her health warranted but she endured and died in Algeria surrounded by the people she loved.

As I read the book many of her words stuck out to me.....here are some of the quotes I saved. (I almost wish I didn't have to return it!)

"Trained faith is a triumphant gladness in having nothing but God - no rest - no foothold - nothing but Himself - A triumphant gladness in swinging out into that abyss, rejoicing in a very fresh emergency that is going to prove Him true - the Lord along - that is trained faith"

"When God delays in fulfilling our little thoughts, it is to have Himself to work out His great ones"

"..it was a joy to think that God needed me: Now it is a deeper joy to feel and see that He does not need me - that He has it all in hand!"


Daughters of Islam: Building Bridges with Muslim Women
By Miriam Adeney

Source: amazon.com via Jess on Pinterest

I grabbed this book at the same time I grabbed, "A Passion for the Impossible". I hardly ever get an opportunity to interact with Muslims but I thought " I never know if God would have me serve in a Muslim country or bring Muslims into my path." So I picked it up. (I really am a big "buyer" when it comes to libraries..lately I have been picking up more books than I can read...not a fun problem)

I enjoyed this book immensely. Before I read this book I didn't really know much about Muslims other than the general knowledge that I had picked up from school, church and other reading. As I read the book I gained greater insight into the Muslim world and more importantly the world of a Muslim woman.

The author takes introduces you to many Muslim women who have fallen in love with Jesus and trusted in Him as their personal savior.  I read of how they grew to love Jesus not as a prophet who didn't even die on a cross but as God who loved us enough to lower himself and dirty himself with our sins and problems. As I saw Islam and Christianity contrasted I fell in love with Jesus all over again. Islam teaches that God is beautiful, great, powerful, loving....all the things that the Bible teaches about God. But Islam is missing something. It is missing a personal relationship with God. The God of the Bible is all those things, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness etc. but God wants to have a personal relationship with his people. "But God demonstrates His own love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
Islam is missing that. God is impersonal to them, they have to say many prayers and be perfect..and maybe God will hear them. The God of the Bible isn't like that. He truly is a father. "As a father has compassion on his children so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him."

 I still don't know much about Islam. Reading one book doesn't make me a scholar on the subject but this book gave me an appetite to pray that God would bring Muslim women into my lives..and the next time I see a book at the library about Islam I think I might just pick it up.

I have other books that I have finished just recently and a larger stack of books to read...I plan on keeping you updated on them as fast as I can devour them.

The other books that I have read recently are....

'Silent Night' by Sue Thomas

'The Navigator' by Robert Foster Jr.

and here are a couple that are on my list to read.

"Borderland: A Journey through the History of Ukraine" by Anna Reid

"The Greatest Russian Stories of Crime and Suspense"

I will let you know how they turn out.

What have you been reading lately? I always love to add to my stack of  "need to read"

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