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The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson (One of my All-Time Favorite Books)

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The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson

One of my favorite authors is Mark Batterson (link to his Amazon profile page where you can find all of his wonderful books.. you can also find them all on my bookshelves, but that’s another story). As a prayer warrior and as someone who proactively seeks to walk daily with God, his books have been absolutely invaluable to me, so it’s my honor to share book reviews of his extraordinary books with you, my extraordinary reader friends!

This particular book, The Circle Maker (Amazon link) was actually the first Mark Batterson book I ever read. Before I was even halfway through the book, I had already gone to Amazon to by my NEXT Mark Batterson book (as well as the prayer journal available for this one… Amazon link).

This fascinating book is full of inspiration and information (impossible to beat a book like that) and, best of all, it will help you take your prayer life to the next level. In a world where we see people with needs all around us, it has never in our lifetimes been more important to pray meaningful, effective, and life-changing prayers. Obviously, we have our own needs we want to be able to pray for effectively as well!

From the Back Cover of The Circle Maker:

Back Cover of The Circle Maker

From the Back Cover of The Circle Maker

If you aren’t familiar with Mark Batterson’s writing, you will not believe just how humorous and fun his writing is. It’s like sitting down for coffee with the funniest, most energetic, and optimistic friend in your life. This is the type of author you want to read and re-read because (like a favorite old movie) it seems to be EVEN better each time.

I hope you’ll grab a copy of this amazing book and begin your amazing, revived prayer journey right away. With Christmas right around the corner, it would also make an excellent Christmas gift for anyone in your life… the best kind of gift – the one that could benefit your loved one for their entire life.

Find The Circle Maker (Amazon link) on Amazon!

About the Author,  Mark Batterson:

Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. One church with multiple locations, NCC owns and operates Ebenezers Coffeehouse, the Miracle Theatre, and the DC Dream Center. NCC is currently developing a city block into the Capital Turnaround; the 100,000-square-foot space will include an event venue, a child development center, a mixed-use marketplace, and a coworking space. Mark holds a doctor of ministry degree from Regent University and is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books including The Circle Maker, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Wild Goose Chase, Play the Man, Whisper, and recently released Win the Day. Mark and his wife, Lora, have three children and live on Capitol Hill.


The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson

Thoughts from 1917 Time Travel to Teach us Today

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Kleiser Quote

For research and quotes for this very self help blog, I often look at rare, out-of-print books in the public domain. Occasionally one will have a timelessness about it, allowing it to be given new life and a second chance to enlighten and entertain a whole new generation of readers. For book lovers, like myself, this is too exciting to even describe. Books that never die, after all, are the best kind of books and I get a natural high in allowing them to breathe again.

Nine times out of ten, however, they’re simply too out-dated in their terminology, approach, and/or overall message.  However, there’ll often be a passage (sometimes even a whole chapter!) that I’ll use on Self Help Daily.  This allows the author to sort of “Time Travel” into our modern day and find a whole new audience.

Very cool, I think.

Today’s Time-Traveler is one of my VERY favorite authors:  Grenville Kleiser.  Even before I had books as business partners, I collected them for my own personal use.  Mr. Kleiser had his own personal shelf – he still has it….great property, too – a Penthouse shelf.  Thanks to by husband’s ebay skills, I nearly have every word Grenville Kleiser ever wrote.

Also very cool.

In a book published in 1917, INSPIRATION AND IDEALS, Grenville Kleiser wrote an inspirational entry for each day of the year.  Kind of a dated blog in a book.  But he was so much better about being concise and to the point than I could ever hope to be.  I tend to ramble like an 85 year old substitute teacher with purple hair, coffee breath, and sensible shoes.

I was enjoying a reread of this book earlier, picking out quotes for the Quote Collection like they were grapes on a vine.  One of the entries was so perfectly perfect and so brilliantly brilliant that I knew what it had in mind:  It wanted to come back to life in a blog post.

So without further delay…or rambling (See?!  See?!?! Merrily rambling away!), here is the entry as it appeared in 1917.

“To be strong and true;  to be generous in praise and appreciation of others; to impute worthy motives even to enemies; to give without expectation of return; to practice humility, tolerance, and self-restraint; to make the best use of time and opportunity; to keep the mind pure and the judgment charitable; to extend intelligent sympathy to those in distress; to cultivate quietness and non-resistance; to speak little and listen much; to adhere always to a high standard of thought, purpose, and conduct; to grow in grace, goodness, and gratitude;  to seek truth and righteousness; to work, love, pray, and serve daily; to aspire greatly, labor cheerfully, and take God at His word – this is to travel Heavenward.”

Some things really are timeless.

Thomas Nelson KJV Study Bible (eBook Format or Bonded Leather)

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Thomas Nelson King James Study Bible

Ever “discover” something new, then wonder how you ever lived without it? That’s exactly what has happened since I bought the Thomas Nelson KJV Study Bible (Kindle Edition).

Prior to this wonderful study Bible, my Bible reading and Bible study looked like this…

  • I would open up my Holy Bible App and begin my daily Bible reading.
  • I’d often switch to the NKJV periodically (when reading the Old Testament) to see what “heading” a particular passage was given. The KJV doesn’t come with these headings and, even though It’s my preferred version, I have to admit… I dig those headings!
  • Often, I’d come across a man or woman in the Bible and I would then get up and walk to the bookcase to retrieve my “Everyone in the Bible” book.
  • Whenever I’d come across a country and wonder what it is today or come across the name of something in particular that I wanted to know about, I’d make the same trek to the bookcase and retrieve my Pictorial Bible Dictionary or Atlas of the Bible (both of these are HEAVY books, too, mind you!)
  • After the excursion to the bookcase, of course, I’d return to my iPad or iPhone and resume reading – usually with one or two books in tow.

When I read about the Thomas Nelson KJV Study Bible (Kindle Edition), my first thought was… “I could have everything I need in ONE place!” I ordered it immediately and thank myself every single day.

The Thomas Nelson KJV Study Bible is available as an eBook (which is the one I currently have) and as a beautiful Hardcover book (I plan on ordering this one for my Christian Books Collection).

The King James Study Bible, Full-Color Edition is the most complete and comprehensive KJV study Bible available. Comprehensive book introductions, doctrinal articles, study notes, commentaries, personality profiles, word studies, and archaeological insights will help you experience the riches of God’s Word. The full-color design, Holy Land images, classic works of art, charts, and maps further enhance your Bible reading experience. With all these features, plus special subject indexes, Christ’s words in red, and an extensive concordance, no other KJV Bible offers more to students of the Holy Bible.

Thomas Nelson King James Study Bible

I love the Personality Profiles – you can easily find a man or woman you want to learn more about (or to remind yourself exactly who he/she was). When you click on their name, you get a lovely profile of them. Above, as you can see, is a profile for Nehemiah.

I love that pictures are provided for many of the profiles, as well.

Features include:

  • Time-honored KJV Bible text
  • Center-column references with translation notes
  • Beautiful full-color pages and features
  • Hundreds of full-color maps, images, and charts
  • 5,700 authoritative and time-tested study notes
  • Over 100 archaeological notes
  • Over 100 Personality Profiles highlighting important figures in Scripture
  • More than 200 notes on important Christian doctrines
  • Book introductions and outlines
  • Indexes and word-study concordance
  • Monies, Weights, and Measures
  • Prophecies of the Messiah Fulfilled in Christ
  • Miracles of Christ
  • Teachings and Illustrations of Christ
  • Parables of Christ
  • The Jewish Calendar
  • Prayers of the Bible
  • Concordance with World Studies

Thomas Nelson King James Study Bible

You are able to “highlight,” not only verses within the Bible text, but content on the other pages as well. See the image above, when you click on something you want to highlight, you’re given options – you can choose from five different colors, or simply underline the passage.

Thomas Nelson King James Study Bible

I’m nothing if not a girly-girl, so naturally I chose pink.

You can visit Amazon to learn more about the Thomas Nelson KJV Study Bible (Kindle Edition) or the Thomas Nelson KJV Study Bible (Hardcover).  You’re going to absolutely love this study Bible! ~ Joi (“Joy”)

More Christian Book Reviews.

Praying for Your Elephant by Adam Stadtmiller (Review of an Amazing Book!)

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Praying for Your Elephant by Adam Stadtmiller

Praying for Your Elephant

I read A LOT of books… Spiritual books, Old Hollywood Biographies, inspirational books, Agatha Christie mysteries, American History books, Ancient Egypt books, cookbooks….

You get the idea. I’m almost always seen with several books in one hand, a caffeinated beverage in the other, and a cat (or two or three) in my lap.

I always have more than one book going at once – usually 3 or 5 because my interests are all over the place. Having said that, three genres are constant:

  • Agatha Christie (I read and re-read her and have one Hercule Poirot mystery going at all times)
  • Inspirational Book
  • Old Hollywood Bio

Agatha Christie is like playtime for my brain.. I simply love everything about her mysteries. Old Hollywood books are an absolute obsession – if I’m not watching an Old Hollywood movie, I’m lost in at least one biography. As for inspirational and Spiritual books – they feed my soul.

The book you see pictured here, Praying for Your Elephant, is one of the best books of any genre I have ever read. You read that right…. I loved it that much.

Have you ever heard of the phrase “Prayer Warrior?” I have considered myself to be a Prayer Warrior for many years. This simply means that I pray day and night with the fervency and determination of a warrior who is smack in the middle of the battlefield. I pray for my family, friends, people I read about, strangers, crazy drivers who run red lights, individuals I see prayer requests for, etc. With this much praying going on and with this much on the line, I need all the inspiration I can get! Naturally, the Bible provides the bulk of said inspiration, but God uses Christian authors to further inspire and motivate.

Prayer does the salvage work of raising the sunken treasure of our lives. – Praying for Your Elephant Page 57 

This particular author, Adam Stadtmiller, has written an extraordinary book and it has taken my prayers to a whole new level. I’ve always believed in asking God for all needs – from small to large and all sizes in between. However, this book has inspired me to go further. It takes the phrase “small to large” and asks, “Why stop at large? Aim for COLOSSAL!”

Elephant-Size Colossal!

From the Back Cover:

What If Your Biggest Prayers are Too Small?

Get ready to re-ignite, re-imagine, and repurpose your prayer life while experiencing great intimacy with God. This is an invitation to identify your elephants—to name, through specific and strategic prayers, the 100 most important and audacious petitions you can imagine. These are the elephants that—if answered by God—would be game changers in your life and perhaps the world.

By supersizing your prayers and daring to ask for the big things – your elephants – you will come to know God in a way you never have, even if His answers aren’t what you expect. Dive deep into the adventure that is the prayer-filled life!

Praying for Your Elephant starts off with a bang. The author guides you into a 40 Day Prayer Challenge: Forty Days to Praying for Your Elephants. He gives you 10 suggested “categories” to create to organize your prayers and all but dares you to pray big!

My take away from this section was to pray as big as the God we’re talking to. Again, COLOSSAL comes to mind.

The book provides a chart for these categories, or you can simply write them down on paper or (my own personal approach) in a Prayer Journal. Writing prayers down helps you to see, over time, which prayers are answered and which ones may take a little longer. I have also experienced something else in my prayer journal – sometimes your prayer changes as God guides you from one destination to the next.

“There is no way that Christians in a private capacity can do so much to promote the work of God, and advance the kingdom  of Christ, as by prayer.” – Jonathan Edwards

Praying for Your Elephant is available on Amazon and I, quite frankly, could not recommend it enough. I love to tell you about books that have the potential to change your life for the better… to help you open up a whole new world… to touch you in such a way that you feel empowered to do anything you set your mind and heart to!

This is such a book and I really hope you’ll grab your copy as soon as possible. You won’t regret it. ~ Joi (“Joy”)

Find out more by visiting Praying for Your Elephant!

About the Author: Adam Stadtmiller is lead pastor at one of the San Diego’s most historic churches, La Jolla Christian Fellowship. A regular contributor to Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal, he is also the author of Give Your Kids the Keys and Discover Your Kid’s Spiritual Gifts. Adam lives in Carlsbad, California, with his wife and two daughters.

Praying for Your Elephant Quote Graphic


Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God by Mark Batterson (Book Review)

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Whisper by Mark Batterson

Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God

As a book fanatic, I am completely in love with being in the middle of a great book. I carry the book with me everywhere I go – it gets a tour of each room of our house and it knows the flowers in the flower beds by name. It’s convinced coffee is it’s soulmate and wonders if all books spend time in the company of so much chocolate and so many cats.

Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God (pictured above and below, with its soulmate near its favorite location – the flower beds) is the most recent book to get this special treatment.

I even carried it with me once to meet my daughters for lunch. I wanted tWhisper: How to Hear the Voice of Godo have it handy if I beat them there, so I could sneak in a little extra reading.

Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God is by the wonderful best-selling author Mark Batterson. This book is not just a remarkable journey…. it’s one you cannot afford to miss.

“If we don’t listen to everything God has to say, we eventually won’t hear anything He has to say.” Mark Batterson, Whisper

This is not a book about hearing God speak as Moses did from the burning bush – although, if God chose to speak through any size plant to us, he certainly could, whether or not it was ablaze. The truth of the matter is, He doesn’t generally speak to us in this manner.  More times than not, the voice of God comes to us as… you guessed it, Whispers.

“The voice of the Spirit is as gentle as a zephyr.” – Oswald Chambers

{Continued Below…}

The best-selling author of Circle Maker, which helped over 2 million people learn to talk to God, now helps readers learn how to listen to God.

The voice that spoke the cosmos into existence is the same voice that parted the Red sea, and made the sun stand still in the midday sky. One day, this voice will make all things new, but it’s also speaking to you now!

That voice is God’s voice, and what we’ve learned from Scripture is that He often speaks in a whisper. Not to make it difficult to hear Him, but to draw us close.

Many people have a tough time believing God still speaks. Sure, in ancient times and in mysterious ways, God spoke to His people, but is He still speaking now?

Mark Batterson certainly believes so. And he wants to introduce you to the seven love languages of God; each of them unique and entirely divine. Some of them you might suspect but others will surprise you.

By learning to tune in to and decipher each language, you’ll be able to hear His guidance in simple as well as life-altering choices. God is actively speaking through: Scripture, Desires, Doors, Dreams, People, Promptings, and Pain. Batterson gives you the tools you need to unlock each of these languages.

God’s whisper can answer your most burning questions, calm your deepest fears, and fulfill your loftiest dreams.

Discover how simple it is to hear God’s voice in every aspect of your life!

He’s speaking, make sure you know how to listen!

{Continued Below…}

Whisper by Mark Batterson

Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God (with its soulmate)

The truth is God uses a variety of methods to speak to us – sometimes it’s a whisper and sometimes it’s through someone else’s words. Other times, He may use situations, dreams, and/or closed doors.

As this wonderful book points out, God knows us inside/out. After all, he made us! He knows what type of approach will work with each of us. How He chooses to speak to me may differ from how He chooses to speak to you simply because we’re different.

God knows how each of us will interpret or respond to His messages. He has often used visual messages or imagery with me – I lean toward thinking that this means I’m more childlike than most. I imagine God telling His angels, “I’d better paint this one a picture…”

One thing is for certain, if God is trying to speak to you, you do NOT want to miss it and you do NOT want to make Him repeat Himself. As the author says, “God has an outside voice and He is not afraid to use it!”

Mark Batterson is an engaging author who is fascinating to read. He injects wonderful humor into his books, which is part of what makes them so difficult to put down. You don’t know what he’s going to say next.

I couldn’t possibly recommend this book enough. You can find Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God on Amazon, along with other books by Mark Batterson.  This will quickly become one of your favorite book and he will quickly become one of your favorite authors.

~ Joi (“Joy”)

Note: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. The opinions are entirely my own.