Play the Man: A Review

Play the Man - Becoming the Man God Created You to Be  by Author Mark Batterson released May 2, 2017. If you have read any of Mark Batterson’s previous books, I am sure you will want to read this one too. A couple of Batterson’s previous books that I especially enjoyed are, The Circle Maker and All In.

Batterson identifies 7 virtues which he says are necessary to truly Play the Man:

1. Tough as nails; the first virtue of manhood: Tough love
2. A gentleman and a scholar; the second virtue of manhood: Childlike wonder
3. Unbroken; the third virtue of manhood: Will power
4. The 3-headed dragon; the fourth virtue of manhood: Raw passion
5. Sockdolager; the fifth virtue of manhood: True grit
6. Born for the storm; the sixth virtue of manhood: Clear vision
7. Call of duty; the seventh virtue of manhood: Moral courage

Mark Batterson uses a lot of amazing stories, facts and figures to illustrate these various virtues. Here are just a few of them.

1^st Story

“In 1992, a grand dragon in the Ku Klux Klan made front-page news. For years, Larry Trapp terrorized Michael Weisser, a Jewish leader in his community, making death threats against him and his synagogue. Then one day Larry suddenly tore his Nazi flags, destroyed his hate literature, and renounced the KKK. Why? Because when Larry Trapp was dying of a diabetes-related kidney disease and unable to care for himself, Michael Weisser took him into his home and cared for him. “He showed me so much love,” said Larry Trapp, “that I could not help but love (him) back.”

2^nd story

When Teddy Roosevelt was President his naturalist friend, William Beebe was visiting. They went out on the White House lawn to look at the stars. “Locating a faint spot of light in the lower left-hand corner of the Pegasus constellation, Roosevelt said, ‘That is the spiral Galaxy of Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of one hundred million galaxies. It is seven hundred and fifty thousand light-years away.  It consists of a hundred billion suns, each larger than our own sun.’” Roosevelt and Beebe marveled at those facts for a moment. Then almost like a little child, the president said, “Now I think we feel small enough, let’s go to bed.”

“A hundred years later, astrophysicists estimate the existence of at least eighty billion galaxies, which should make us feel even smaller!”

It is said that Teddy Roosevelt read an average of 500 books per year while he was president.

3^rd story

Viktor Frankl survived being a prisoner in a Nazi death camp. After his release he wrote, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” Batterson says Frankl was not responsible for being in the death camp, but he was “response-able.”

“There is no situation under the sun in which your ability to respond can be taken away from you. You may not control your circumstances, but you control your reactions to them.”

Well you should read the book for a lot more stories, facts and figures that can help one toward becoming the man God created you to be. By the way Batterson says the lessons he puts forth for men are good for women, too - men just need them more.

S. N. Haskell: A Review

S.N. Haskell-Adventist Pioneer, Evangelist, Missionary, and Editor by Gerald Wheeler is the eleventh in the Pioneer Series.  It is anticipated that before the series is finished, there will be more than 30 volumes in this series.

I found this book extremely fascinating: One of the things I found very interesting is the author gave historical information about the times and how that likely affected Stephen Haskell.

For example:  Stephen got married when he was 17 and, because he was as a result depriving his father with 4 years of work that would be expected from him, he paid his dad $150.00 to compensate for the loss of his service as a son.  The author brings out that that in the early 1800s children were an economic asset and thus for Stephen to marry and need to support his own wife, his family was losing his services. Stephen stated that the $150.00 “was far more than I was worth to him.”

Mary, his first wife was more than 20 years older than Stephen and they were married until Mary died more than 40 years later.  Stephen then later married Hetty who was young enough to be his daughter.  It seems that both marriages were happy. 

Stephen Haskell was one of the Pioneers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He preached, taught and  was an administrator. He also authored several books, made the first official around the world trip of any Adventist leader casing out where it would be good to send missionaries and learning what would work here and there. He visited other mission stations in various countries and one of the things he learned is that one of the most important things to do is to be able to adapt to different cultures.

“When Haskell was in India, he had mentioned to a longtime missionary that his denomination was interested in preparing people for overseas service, possibly including India itself. When Stephen asked what should be the core element of their education, the missionary said, “First adaptation; second, adaptation; third, adaptation; and fourth adaptation. When they get that learned, let them come here, and I will find them work.“

In 1911 Stephen Haskell went to Maine and discovered that a bill was coming up for vote for Prohibition in the state. He spearheaded an endeavor to distribute thousands of copies of a special issue of the Youth’s Instructor on Temperance. His wife Hetty approached the WCTU-The Women’s Christian Temperance Union about helping distribute this newsletter. With their help and others over 50,000 copies were distributed and Prohibition was voted in. It shows what power there is in good printed material.

Please click on the following line to read more about this new book and you can read the first chapter on line and order the book on line too.

http://www.adventistbookcenter.com/s-n-haskell.html

I recommend this book.

A Place for Us Guys: A Review

This book by Charles Burkeen was published in 2007 but I just recently took the time to read it. I should have read it sooner.I probably would have sold more copies while I was working in the bookstore. It is a great read.

Charles Burkeen explores what he considers the differences between, Women, Men and Guys.  Whichever category you fall into this book will  either help you to understand yourself better or to understand others better.

Actually my wife read this book first and kept encouraging me to read it which I finally did.

You can get a really good understanding of the book by reading the first complete chapter at the following link:

 http://products.adventistbookcenter.com/search?w=a%20place%20for%20us%20guys

Once you have read the first chapter I would expect that you will want to read the entire book. So be prepared to go ahead and order a copy .

To sum it all up “ God has made you for a reason, and He’s matched you up with your family and friends for a reason. Keep exploring the purpose of your life and give it all to God. May God  bless you as you continue to grow in your understanding of who you are in His eyes.”

A Thoughtful Hour: A Review

Jerry D. Thomas, author of more than 40 books is the author of this new title.

This book is based on Matthew chapters 6 and 7   which are  2 of the three chapters from Matthew which comprise  The Sermon on the Mount.

The format of this book which is divided into 16 chapters includes  an introduction by Jerry Thomas, A Selection from the book Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing by Ellen G White,  the same material from the  modern language version of Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing  simply titled Blessings  and a  section of questions to consider to help one to think about what they have read so far.

This book is great for individual study or for group study.  Like some of us have found using various versions of the bible helps us to think more clearly on what the meaning is , using the modern language of the text as well as the original text of  Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing  helps  one to grasp the meaning of  what is written.

You can read the first chapter at the following link and order a copy on line also:

http://www.adventistbookcenter.com/a-thoughtful-hour-3-learning-to-be-a-real-christian.html

The Faith of Desmond Doss: A Review

The Hacksaw Ridge Movie produced by Mel Gibson has been a very popular movie. Now you can learn more about the hero of this movie Desmond Doss in a 32-page booklet entitled The Faith of Desmond Doss by John Bradshaw.

For those who might not be acquainted with the story, Desmond Doss was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church who was given conscientious objector status in World War II, having refused to bear arms on religious grounds.

Mr. Doss instead served as a medic, the only way he could adhere to the Sixth Commandment as well as the Fourth Commandment, to honor the Sabbath.

While Mr. Doss was at first ridiculed for refusing to carry a gun when the fighting began, the men who ridiculed him not too long thereafter changed tune and now wanted to be sure that Mr. Doss was assigned to their unit.

In the famous Hacksaw Ridge episode, Desmond saved 75 wounded soldiers while under enemy fire, which is a depiction of what Mr. Doss did for real in the battle of Okinawa in 1945.

After the war, Mr. Doss was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry Truman becoming the first conscientious objector to receive this honor.

How did Mr. Doss have such great faith that he could go into battle without a weapon and face the enemy with this much confidence? There were two things that Desmond took with him into combat: (1) prayer and (2) his pocket Bible-which had been given to him by his wife, Dorothy. He kept these two items with him at all times.

The unusual thing about this persistent non-combat medic was not only his determination to save as many lives as he could, but the fact that he ventured toward enemy lines without a gun. Yet Desmond Doss was not totally defenseless. He was armed with faith. Into every combat, he carried the Word of God which the Bible refers to as the sword of the Spirit. Desmond regularly read his Bible and he knew how to prepare for battle.

In this little booklet is a powerful message telling how anyone can have the same kind of faith that Mr. Doss had. This booklet can be ordered by calling 1-888-664-5573 or 1-800-765-6955.