I Can Love Like Jesus

Help your little ones live and love like Jesus did with this adorable picture book. The simple text and beautiful illustrations show children exactly how Jesus loved others and how to emulate Him with small acts of kindness, like sharing, forgiving, and comforting. Invite the Savior into your home and feel His peace each time you read this book together.

My thoughts: This book is a wonderful addition to any child's library! It is a fun reminder of how Jesus taught us to love by example. I love how each set of pages is a picture of modern day children acting out God's love, with a hidden picture of how Jesus did it in the scriptures. This book is a great conversation starter!
I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.

About the author:

Heidi Poelman is the author of A is for Abinadi: An Alphabet Book of Scripture Heroes, A Mother’s Greatest Gift, The Two-Minute Marriage Project: Simple Secrets for Staying in Love, and the upcoming books I Can Love Like Jesus and A Is for Adam: An Alphabet Book of Scripture Heroes. Heidi received her degrees in communication from Brigham Young University (BA) and Wake Forest University (MA). When she’s not writing, cooking, cleaning, or carpooling, Heidi loves playing in the outdoors with her family, going out for date night, and reading bedtime stories. She lives in Utah with her husband and four children.

When Jesus was a Green Eyed Brunette

When Jesus Was a Green-Eyed Brunette weaves heartwarming and miraculous stories of Jesus showing up in ordinary people, revealing that He knows us and is fully present in our everyday circumstances, especially in our difficulties. As best-selling author Max Davis puts it, "When we are born again, Jesus lives inside each of us. He is very much alive today and still does incredible things -- sometimes supernatural things -- through us!"
Davis's own life was dramatically altered when he first came face-to-face with Jesus living inside a green-eyed brunette. That encounter started a forty-plus-year journey where Jesus became his best friend. When we see others as God sees us we will love them as God loves us.
Those hurting and weary from worn-out religion are longing for a fresh touch from the living Jesus. By letting Jesus live through us we become a conduit of His love. Authentic Christianity is not about religion but a relationship with Jesus. Davis challenges us to do more than simply receive His grace -- we need to allow grace to soften, change, and shape us. As you read this book, you will laugh, cry, and come face-to-face with the living Jesus.

My thoughts: Max does a wonderful job of weaving his story of meeting Jesus through a green eyed brunette with the stories of others and scripture verses. I love that there are stories of some heroes of faith one will recognize, like Corrie ten Boom, and then there are the stories of every day heroes who have heard the call to follow God and are doing the best to live out that call in their every day life. This book is engaging and fun to read. Not to mention, it challenges the reader to take a look at how to show others God's love.
I received this book from Worthy in exchange for my honest review.

Crossing the Waters

The gospels are dramatic, wild, and wet―set in a rich maritime culture on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus’ first disciples were ragtag fishermen, and Jesus’ messages and miracles teem with water, fish, fishermen, net-breaking catches, sea crossings, boat-sinking storms, and even a walk on water. Because this world is foreign and distant to us, we’ve missed much about the disciples’ experiences and about following Jesus―until now. Leslie Leyland Fields―a well-known writer, respected biblical exegete, and longtime Alaskan fisherwoman―crosses the waters of time and culture to take us out on the Sea of Galilee, through a rugged season of commercial fishing with her family in Alaska, and through the waters of the New Testament.

You’ll be swept up in a fresh experience of the gospels, traveling with the fishermen disciples from Jesus’ baptism to the final miraculous catch of fish―and also experiencing Leslie’s own efforts to follow Christ out on her own Alaskan sea. In a time when so many are “unfollowing” Jesus and leaving the Church, Crossing the Waters delivers a fresh encounter with Jesus and explores what it means to “come, follow me.”

I thought that this book was an interesting mix, part memoir, part scripture. I enjoyed the correlation Leslie draws between her adventures as a professional fisherwoman who has raised her family in the business and the fishermen-disciples in the scripture. I've always been drawn to the thought of visiting Alaska, so I found it engrossing to read what it is like to be a fishing family. The book is set during the course of one fishing season, which made things interesting. I'm having a hard time putting my thoughts into words on this book!
One of my favorite things about this book is the study guide at the back.
Leslie's style flows well and is to the point. If you are interested in Jesus' call to the disciples to leave their nets, then this is an excellent book for you to pick up.
I received this book from Tyndale in exchange for my honest review.