Here Comes Sim: A Review

Sim Fryson with Susan Phelps Harvey wrote the story of Sim Fryson’s life. It's a truly a remarkable story.

I like these quotes that are in the beginning of the book. The first one by Muhammad Ali who was a friend of Sim and the second one by Sim.

IF YOUR DREAMS DON’T SCARE YOU, THEY AREN’T BIG ENOUGH.

DREAM BIG FOR TODAY IN CASE THERE IS A TOMORROW.

In the 1940s Sim Fryson Sr., the father of the hero of this book moved from Reform, Alabama to Charleston, West Virginia along with his wife Gertrude, with only 20 cents to their names when they arrived in Charleston. Sadly Gertrude died of a brain tumor not too long after they arrived.

Several years later he married Dorothy.

The senior Fryson was an impressive figure himself—a tall distinguished, wholesome—looking man. He had tremendous charm and beautiful manners. He carried himself with dignity, and was well spoken even though his formal education had ended with the third grade and he had mostly taught himself how to read and write.

Sim Sr. drove an old beat-up truck for his business. He had made a sign that said, “Here Comes Sim” and attached it to the front bumper. On the back of truck he fastened another sign that said “There goes Sim.”  Many years later when Sim Jr. owned a Mercedes-Benz car dealership it, pleased him in honor of his dad to put similar signs on the front and back  each of the fifty-thousand dollar car he sold.

Sim Sr. later worked for the Charleston Transit Company. Because he was Black, he was not allowed to drive the buses on the roads, but he was in charge of cleaning them and moving them around the lot at night. He was the first black man to ever drive a bus in Charleston, although he never drove one on the streets.

Sim Jr played baseball in Little League as soon as he was old enough.  When he was twelve, he joined Pony League which was the next age level in baseball. He loved baseball and other sports. He remained active in sports through high school and college. When he graduated from high school he joined the Air Force. When he went to college he needed to earn money so became a used car salesman. He did well and enjoyed it. Later he worked for a dealer selling new cars and eventually bought his own dealership. He did well with selling his cars and leading his sales teams to success.

His mother had joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Sim started attending the Adventist church. However, he had a hard time making the decision to join because how could he close his dealership on Saturdays, which was generally the best day for sales. One day a visiting preacher spoke and the Holy Spirt touched his heart and he decided that now was the time to make the decision.

He joined the church and changed his dealership to be open just 5 days a week- Monday through Friday, closing before sundown on Friday and God blessed him with continuing to be a leader in the car business.

If you like success stories like I do you should read this book. For more information on this book  click here.

10 Choices Successful Couples Make: A Review

The title of this book, written by Dr. Ron Welch reminds me of my wife Marthanne, and our wedding vows that we wrote for our April 4, 1982 wedding:

Since we believe that God has brought us together and feel assured that He has led in our decision to become husband and wife, we choose to make God first in our home. We choose to make our marriage a lifelong partnership not to be hindered by adversity or prosperity. We choose to promote each other’s happiness and to seek to bring out the best in each other. We choose to cultivate mutual love and respect, to trust each other, keeping a special circle of confidence around us. We choose to make ours a Christ-centered home with Marthanne supporting and encouraging Paul as he leads our home in the ways of the Lord, just as Christ leads the church. Paul will strive to combine gentle, tender and affectionate love with his leadership. Marthanne will seek to apply wisdom and tact to help keep our home running smoothly. We choose to keep a proper perspective, remembering that, as of today, we are a team in spite of differences that may arise between us and that God has made us both individuals and He has now made us one. We choose to hold hands through thick and thin and say daily, “I love you”. We choose to take time for each other so that we may be able to share that oneness which God intended that husbands and wives should have. We choose to love and cherish each other all the days of our lives. We choose to make our home a little heaven to go to heaven in. Since we realize that it is only through God’s strength that any of these choices can be carried out, we choose to seek that strength day by day for power to do these things.

Here are two other specific choices that Marthanne and I made that we have found helpful for us.

1-We chose to pay our credit card bills in full each month.

2-We chose not to have television in our home.

Now back to the book which claims that making these 10 Choices Successful Couples Make is The Secret to Love That Lasts a Lifetime.

Here are some of the choices that the author discusses:

 I Choose to Love You. The author contends that we do not fall into love, rather that we jump into love by our choice.

I Choose to Believe.  When you expect with confidence that things will go well, they more often do.

I Choose to Communicate Well. When was the last time someone really listened to you? When was the last time that you really listened to your spouse?

I Choose to Forgive.  It is important to choose to forgive in both the larger and smaller things.

I Choose to Be Unselfish.  Choosing to be unselfish means choosing sacrifice, compromise and commitment. These are not easy choices.

I Choose to Love You Forever.  This is a choice that needs to be made every day.

This book is for anyone who would like to improve their marriage- or even to read before they are married.  It provides lots of encouragement to make right choices every day.

I would encourage you to purchase this book at your favorite book store or order online. Click here for ordering online and also for more information about this great book.

The First Love: A Review

One of my favorite authors is Beverly Lewis and I especially enjoy her fiction books about Amish people.

Beverly Lewis, born in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, is the New York Times bestselling author of more than one hundred books. Her books have been published in twelve languages worldwide. A keen interest in her mother’s Plain heritage has inspired Beverly to write many Amish-related novels, beginning with The Shunning, which has sold more than one million copies and is an Original Hallmark Channel movie.

The First Love is one of her most recent titles and was published in 2018. It is the story of Maggie Esh who in the summer of 1951 is in need of some hope. Sweet-spirited and uncommonly pretty despite struggling with illness, she is used to being treated kindly by the young men of her Old Order Amish church district.

Maggie wishes she were more like other courting-age girls so she could live a normal, healthy life. When tent revival meetings come to the area, the words of the preacher cause her to consider what she knows about faith. Can she learn to trust God even when hope seems a distant dream?

It is a very interestingly written story how she starts to pray for healing and also to read over and over again promises from the Bible that she had not been aware of before. Such as “My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness…For when I am weak, then am I strong.”

Maggie’s first love was Jimmy but then she thought he probably was just feeling sorry for her because of her physical challenge. Jimmy brings her an advertisement for some natural supplements which he hopes might help Maggie’s Rheumatoid arthritis which seemed to run in the family. When her dad got her a bottle of these supplements, she began to faithfully take them but then she had a real set-back, but she decided she would keep trusting God anyway.

Eventually Jimmy and Maggie communicate enough that Maggie realized that Jimmy truly loved her whether she was well or not and so they began courting and got married. After they were married Jimmy and Maggie’s dad had a special prayer for her and she was healed.

A very heartwarming story with lots of human- interest incidents among family and friends.

Check for this book at your favorite book store or go on line and order here.

We are Charleston-Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emmanuel: A Review

June 17, 2015, 9:05 p.m.

Mother Emanuel AME Church A Young white man opens fire at a prayer meeting, killing nine people.

What happened in Charleston that night was an assault on humanity, and what has happened since has implications that echo far beyond South Carolina. The fatal shooting at Mother Emmanuel AME Church opened up a deep wound that still permeates Southern institutions and remains part of American society. We Are Charleston not only recounts the events of that terrible day but also offers a history lesson that reveals a deeper look at the sufferings and triumphs of the people who formed Mother Emmanuel and the wider denominational movement

In many ways the church’s story is America’s story. Emanuel is the oldest AME church in the Deep South, fighting for freedom and civil rights but also fighting for grace and understanding---fighting to transcend bigotry, fraud, hatred, racism, poverty and misery.

We Are Charleston searches the storied history of the AME Church as way of  explaining the price and power of forgiveness, a way of revealing God’s mercy in the midst of tremendous pain

At the bond hearing for the killer family members and friends expressed Christian forgiveness.;

“We have no room for hate so we have to forgive.”

“I want everyone to know, … I forgive you.”

“You hurt a lot of people, but I forgive you.”

“May God have mercy on you.”

Emotional, careful and rich, We Are Charleston makes sense of the senseless, the Charleston, South Carolina, massacre of June 2015. From one abominable event the book shapes a testament, an investigation, and a history.

We Are Charleston sets the crime within the flow of race, church life, and Southern history, and offers moving portraits of the victims. It does the near impossible, which is to redeem tragedy on behalf of hope.

As I have heard it said many times; “What we are not up on we are don on.” This book very definitely helped me to understand more of the history that has developed such sad result of the racism manifested especially in the United States.

I recommend this book for any who are ready to understand a little more.  I believe that this book can help all who read it to grow in their relationships with others.

Check with your book store to purchase a copy of this book or order on line from Amazon.com or click on this link here.

Character Carved in Stone: A Review

Overlooking the Hudson River on the campus of the United States Military Academy at West Point are twelve granite benches. Each one is inscribed with a word representing a key leadership virtue:

Compassion                       Integrity

Courage                               Loyalty

Dedication                          Perseverance

Determination                  Responsibility

Dignity                                  Service

Discipline                             Trust

These benches remind cadets of the qualities that lead to victory and success, not just on the battlefield but in all of life as well.

With his signature enthusiasm and insight, Pat Williams shares the incredible stories of West Point graduates who have exemplified these traits, from the Civil War to the War on Terror. He shows you how to develop these twelve essential virtues in your life—whether you are in the corporate world, the academic world, the military, the church, or another sphere—so that you can experience lasting success.

I very much enjoyed the stories which the author Pat Williams has used to illustrate these leadership characteristics that can help anyone be more successful in their sphere of service

You can purchase this  new 2019 title at bookstores or order on line by clicking here.

My Favorite Angel Stories: A Review

This is one of my favorite books by Joe Wheeler in his My Favorite … series.  Stories about angels are so faith building. Joe has picked the best of the best and been very careful to pick stories that he believes are the very best, that they are truly angel stories and not “just coincidence stories.”

Some of these stories have an angel come visibly  to the aid of a person, usually as a person, some stories a person gets a message like an angel talking to them that they need to go to a certain place and when they get there they are able to fulfill a need.

All of these stories show how God truly does care for His children on this earth.

Be sure and click here  where you can read the first chapter in this incredible book. I can assure you that I believe you will want to order a copy of this book so you can read them all.

Steps to Christ-Recovery Edition: A Review

In 1935, Dr. Bob, an Alcoholic physician together with Bill W, a recovering alcoholic were on a business trip together. They began what became known as the “12 Step Program” that led to their freedom from the addiction of Alcoholism.

Their burden for others suffering from alcoholism led them to share the philosophy of the 12 Step Program through Alcoholics Anonymous and personal work that enabled many to find freedom from Alcohol. Before his death in 1959, Dr Bob is credited with guiding 5,000 other alcoholics to Sobriety.

The Steps for the 12 Step Program are highlighted at the beginning of each chapter in this Contemporary version of Steps to Christ. The message of Steps to Christ reinforces the steps involved in the 12 Step Program and brings a very spiritual approach to this recovery program.

I would like to share in this review some of my favorite quotes from this book:

Nature and the Bible both tell us of God’s love. Our Father in heaven gives us life, wisdom, and joy.

Only through Christ can we find harmony with God and be made holy.

God’s promise is “You will seek me, and you will find me because you will seek me with all your heart.”

God offers His peace to you as a gift. “It will cost you nothing.”

We must not trust in our own strength or believe that our good deeds will save us. But our lives will show whether we have the grace of God in our hearts.

Our sense of need drives us to the Savior and to the Word of God. The more we see of His beautiful character, the more we shall become like Him.

Let us keep our eyes on Christ, and He will hold us. We are safe when we are looking to Jesus.

Love for Jesus will lead us to work as He worked for the blessing and uplifting of all people. His love will lead us to be kind and loving.

Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend.

Our heavenly Father waits to give us His full blessing. In prayer we feel His boundless love. What a wonder it is that we pray so little. God is ready and willing to hear the sincere prayer of even the most humble child, but still we seem almost afraid to tell Him what we need.

We can be thankful that in heaven all the things that we do not understand now will be explained and made clear.

The Lord wants all His sons and daughters to be happy and to have peace.

For more information about this book and to order click here.

Dad in My Heart: A Review

Joe Wheeler is the compiler and editor of this collection of stories which contains stories about fathers, beloved teachers, mentors, pastors and other father figures. Wheeler is the compiler/editor of the popular Christmas in My Heart books. He relishes his role in finding, preserving, and sharing classic, Judeo-Christian stories with today’s families.

Joe says: It is my earnest hope that this collection of stories, along with the other books in this series will enable you and your family to begin building a large collection of wonderful old stories. Stories that convey strong Judeo-Christian values; stories that are virtually impossible to put down once you start reading them.  Stories that, when their values are internalized, will result in the kind of character we want our children to grow up with. And to those of us who are a little older, these stories will remind us of what life, the Christian walk and our daily ministry to those around us are all about.

There are 23 wonderful stories in this book. All of them are good. One of my very favorites is the story entitled: A Lesson in Forgiveness. This is the true story of the Ripley brothers Will and his younger brother Dan. They were very different in temperament yet they were really close buddies. Will went off to be a soldier in the Union army in the Civil war. Dan was left at home with his other best friend Jack, his dog. One day when Dan was gone from the farm on an errand, Jack killed several sheep and Dan’s father felt it was necessary to have Jack done away with and buried before Dan arrived back home. Dan was so upset upon finding out what his father did to his friend Jack he decided to run away from home and go find his brother Will in the army.

When Dan got very tired, he lay down by the road and went to sleep.

A tall man came walking up the road and found Dan. It was President Abraham Lincoln who was trying to think through a problem. There were 24 young men, deserters from the army that President Lincoln wanted to pardon rather than having them executed for desertion. You must read the story to find out about the deal Dan and the president made to both forgive!

I really recommend this book. You can order it from Amazon.com and other on line venues.

The Four Gospels-Matthew, Mark, Luke, and john: A Review

There are 89 chapters in these 4 gospels so about a year ago I decided that I would make a plan to read an average of three chapters a day and thus read the 4 gospels one time each month. One, however, has to adjust when doing something on the calendar like this because in February, you have to make up a few extra chapters since it is a shorter month and, in the months with 31 days you have an extra day to finish up the task. Or better yet you can read some additional Scripture on that last day.

So I have been reading a different translation each month. So far I have read:

The Message

New Living Translation

A Physicians Paraphrase

Christian Standard Bible

New American Standard Bible

New International Version

The Jerusalem Bible

Contemporary English Version

The Clear Word

James Moffatt Bible

New English Bible

The Living Bible

The Easy English Clear Word

I like reading various translations. It helps to keep my interest up and also the different translations or paraphrases help one to think about the meaning a little more than reading the same one all the time.

My most recent one to read the Gospels through is the Easy English Clear Word.

I am going to share a few of the verses that I especially like.

Selected verses from the Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5,

Happy are those who feel their spiritual need. Heaven belongs to them.

Happy are those who, when they are sad, believe what God says and trust Him. He will comfort them.

Happy are those who are humble. One day the whole world will belong to them.

Happy are those who want to do what is right. God will reward them.

Happy are those who are kind and forgive others. God will be kind and forgive them.

Happy are those whose hearts are pure. One day they will see God.

Happy are those who make peace. They are God’s children.

Also Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me if you’re tired or worried, and I will give you rest. Accept My teachings, for I am gentle and kind. You’ll find the rest you’re looking for. My rules are simple and easy to follow.”

I have also been reading the book of Proverbs through each month. It has a lot of valuable advice.

For more information on the Clear Word and the Easy English Clear Word click here.