Deep and Wide: Book Reviews

I had never been in a service like this. I wish I could recall the topic of the sermon.  But time is a thief and has stolen it away. Mom and I were visiting Skyline Church in San Diego, California.  Dr. John Maxwell of INJOY  Ministries was pastor at the time.  This was almost forty years ago (the math is difficult since I’m only twenty-nine).  Sometime during the sermon, people starting going to their knees to pray.  Maybe Pastor Maxwell prompted it, I don’t remember. But I know that Mom and I made our way to the altar and knelt there. Then the pastor’s sermon was over. Soft music played in the background. I heard someone dismiss the congregation, but no one moved. Everyone remained on their knees. This was unusual in a “white” church at that time. Once the dedicated church hour was over, everyone rushed to be first in line at Sir Charles Buffet. I had visited a few charismatic “black” churches back then. They stayed all aftern...

 I enjoyed this book so much; I just had to share it with you! Of Moose and Men by Torry Martin & Doug Peterson One For Me ... One For a Friend Have you ever seen a full-grown moose at your kitchen window?   If you do … don’t offer it a carrot if you want to keep your window frame in place. Ever led a 400-pound reindeer named Rudolph into your house? Also not a great idea, especially if you have a 130-pound dog that’s not excited to see Rudy like a kid on Christmas Eve (spoiler: the dog laughed and called him names and excluded him from reindeer games -- NOT). Have you ever been trapped in an outhouse by a mountain goat that keeps ramming the door with his wicked horns?Lesson: if you wave your jacket frantically in front of an aggressive mountain goat … it will not run AWAY from you. These are snippets of a few of the things actor and author, Torry Martin, actually did and lived to tell about in his new book:  Of Moose and Men Lost and Found...

Mei Mei Holmberg 1997-2015 RIP Have you ever done something you can’t reverse or repair, and find yourself unable to forget or forgive yourself? May 6 th , 2015 I did something that made me feel that way. It was a beautiful day. I played Glassy Mountain golf course with my husband and a friend. It is a fantastic course, but tough and long. By the end ... I was really tired. Then we stopped in for BBQ at a delicious little dive. Now I was really full and really tired. Arriving home, I did what I always did first … I let the dogs out. Only I didn’t let them both in. Mei Mei was a week from turning eighteen years old. She couldn’t see much anymore, her hearing was gone, but she still had a bit of puppy spunk in her. Her appetite was great and her tail wagged constantly. Mei Ling, her daughter, was about to turn fourteen, very spry and always right on my heels. After the puppies did their thing, I walked back into the house through the garage...

A Facebook friend recently shared how he met film director Dallas Jenkins in a parking lot in 2008 and told him he wanted to be in one of his films one day. Then he wrote in his prayer journal "I want to work with Dallas Jenkins and become friends. I like him, God. May I, please?" My friend admits that sounds like a nerdy thing to do … BUT … a few months ago, seven years after he whispered his prayer and wrote it down, he was cast in “The Resurrection of Gavin Stone” ... directed by Dallas Jenkins. Reading his story of answered prayer reminded me of the prayer journals I use to be faithful about keeping.   I went digging around in them (some are written with pen and paper - some are Word docs) and this is one (unedited) from five years ago: Gullible women i.e.: weak in virtue and the knowledge of the truth, and weighed down with emotional and spiritual guilt over their sins - become easy prey for deceitful and false teachers. (From MacArthur’s study Bible NK...