Chris is not a Pastor or even a major church leader, but he is a Christian just like you and me who deals with the same struggles you deal with regarding your walk of faith. Have you ever wondered why you find it so hard to pray? Or keep a constant habit of reading your bible? Have you ever been unsatisfied with the current condition of your God relationship yet every endeavor to better it falls flat on its face? Well, if you can answer yes to any of these questions (if you’ll be honest with yourself, you will answer yes) then you need to read this book.

Crave: Wanting So Much More of God is almost an autobiography of a man who takes a chance that most Christians would not even dare to be totally transparent about his life, his faith, his relationships and his personal habits. This book is so refreshing in that it is encouraging to know that I am not the only one who deals with the same struggles and inconsistencies concerning my faith. This isn’t the type of book that will encourage you with great stories of faith where thousands of lives are changed, but encouraging in the sense that Chris puts into words and tries to process those same questions I know you are struggling with today and will struggle with tomorrow.

If you crave more of God but have discovered that you just can’t live up to being a good old Christian I strongly recommend you get a hold of this book. Tomlinson shares the process he went through in discovering he couldn’t get close to God by trying to pray for hours each day, or by making sure he reads through the bible in three weeks, or by trying to follow all the rules, or by helping others in need. Chris discovers developing a deeper walk with God is all about relationship, to find out what this means you’ll have to read the book.

One of my favorite chapters was one called pager. Chris writes about an internal pager that goes off when he feels the impulse to talk to someone about his faith and the gospel of Jesus Christ; yet Chris constantly tries to ignore the pager and hopes it goes away. As I read this I was thinking, ‘been there and I still do that!’.

There were some great quotes in this book and here are a few that stood out to me:

• I have developed inch deep beliefs about a mile-high God (p110)
• Perhaps rules don’t create intimacy by themselves.Maybe they create space for intimacy (p125)
• This is why I want to be 12 years old again -because to a child everything is big (p158)
• The security of bondage can often seem easier than the anxiety of freedom (p169)
• We must seek to satisfy our longings, the deepest cravings of the soul, by seeking the One who made us with a desire for him (p199)

If you crave God but realize your just not up to the standard, then get this book, be encouraged and join the ongoing conversation.

To get in on the conversation you can visit Chris’s blog at www.cravesomethingmore.org or follow him on twitter here or facebook here.

If you would like to read the first three chapters of his book click below.

If this is you then may I recommend a book for you to read. It is entitled, ‘Primal ‘ A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity’ by Mark Batterson. The author of two great books, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase, Mark Batterson writes an equally challenging read but in a more mature and eloquent way.

Primal is all about digging beneath the hundreds of years of religious Christianity to find the core or primal meaning of what this faith is all about. Mark uses the illustration of the streets of Rome, where underneath are more buildings and streets that today’s Rome is built upon. Mark journeyed down into these underground tunnels and streets where the inspiration of Primal began.

As Mark takes us on an adventure to find the core meaning of the Christian faith you can not help but want to stand shoulder to shoulder with him and spark a new ‘reformation’ that will take the church and its members back to a place of pure Christianity.

Mark Batterson uses science, humor, personal stories, history and great thinkers and innovators of our time to illustrate what Primal Christianity is all about and why the Church needs to be on a quest to seek and find it. This is a book that will get you thinking but will also challenge your beliefs, traditions and focus on life.

If you call yourself a Christian this is a must read. If you are seeking truth and enlightenment you need to read this book to get a clear pure view of the faith called Christianity; and if you are someone who is sick and tried of religion and religious people then pick this book up and feel the liberation of knowing that the God of this universe is not demanding religion but is seeking a pure and primal love that only you can give him and he can give you.

If there is one book to read in 2010 it is Primal. Make it the first book you read of the New Year and I promise you that 2010 will be a year where your view and outlook on life and faith will be changed forever.

You can buy this book from any book retailers. To pre-order click here.

This book grabbed by attention before I even opened it up mainly due to Miller’s previous book, ‘Blue Like Jazz’. Donald Miller is an incredible writer than will take you on a journey you believe you are part of. He is funny, interesting and very transparent.

A Million Miles In Thousand Years is a peak into a man who realizes his life is not as interesting and fulfilled as one would hope for. This is a peak into the life of Donald Miller himself. He takes the reader on a journey through a process he went through in evaluating his own life. Through an opportunity to allow a movie to be made on the basis of his life story, Miller realized his own life story lacked a punch. After his character had been edited so much to make the movie interesting he decided to go on a quest to reinvent his life story so that he could leave a lasting impression on this earth.

In the beginning Miller is delightfully entertaining, making fun at his own expense and enticing us with his quirky character. By the end of the book it is impossible not to find yourself evaluating your own life. Having an urge to reinvent your own life story that is not only interesting and fulfilled, but a life story that will leave a lasting impression. Miller shares stories of people he met while editing his own life like Bob the Lawyer or Jim the organizer. My personal favorite was one about a man called Mike who kidnapped a girls cat so that he could get to speak with her.

This is a book that I would like everyone I know read. What a powerful thing it would be if everyone evaluated their lives like Don Miller did. If everyone realized they were put on this earth for more than just the average life. If you want inspiring today go and get this book. I promise you, once you pick it up you’ll read it until your eyes and brain can not process anymore words. One of the best books I have read this year.

If you would like a free copy of this book click on this link, ‘Free Book’

If you would like to read a sample chapter either click on the image below or click here

Tomorrow I will be posting a review of a book that I wish I could send to everyone I know! The book is called ‘A Million Miles In A Thousand Years’ by Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz).

I will not say too much about the book until tomorrow, but it will inspire you to rewrite your life story and evaluate your life through a new lens.

I have one extra copy to give away. All you have to do to win this book is to tell me who in this life has inspired you more than any other person and why! This can be a person who is dead or alive, someone you have met or not. The only people you cannot use is your parents or Jesus! (They inspire us all!)

So tell me your inspirer and I’ll pick a winner by the end of this week and send you your copy.

Max Lucado has a unique style of writing and is the master of taking a general statement or sentence and turning it into a world of descriptive thought. His illustrations and stories always hit home and his interpretation of people and the bible is always spot on.

In his latest book, “Fearless”, Max Lucado takes you on a discovery to find a life that is fearless in the face of uncertainty, disaster, heartache and personal storms. This book is no different in style to other Max Lucado books and will leave you at the very minimum with a taste of feeling good about life at the end. In each chapter Max Lucado takes you through a different emotion of fear, through biblical accounts and the words of Jesus, Lucado begins to prove why there is no room to be fearful enough though that is the natural thing to do. Some of the fears include the fear of living a life of any significance which he illustrates through a brilliant story about a village called Stiltsville. Others include fears that God is not with us, of what the next season in our lives will bring to us or the fear that the worst will one day happen and our lives will see our nightmares become reality.

Fearless was not exactly what I expected when I first started to read it. It was not until the final three or four chapters that it actually dealt with a lot of the fears it describes on the cover of the book. I would not say this book changed my life nor would I say that I could not put the book down. I enjoyed the book and for many people this book may become a lifesaver. It may be the truth that will calm many personal storms. However, for me it felt too long. I am not sure if was because Max Lucado dealt with many different scenarios and many of them I have no reference of fear to, or if it could have been cut down to half the number of the fourteen chapters and got straight to the point. I would recommend this book; you can never go wrong with a Max Lucado book. However, if you have read many of his other books you may think he is repeating himself in some of the chapters. For example I felt some of the lessons were taken straight out of his book, “In The Eye of The Storm”

If you want a good read, go get this book; if you are fearful of different situations in your life or in the surrounding world you need to read this book. This book is a good conversation starter and also would be useful to use with the attached study guide to discuss with other people.

If you want to read a sample of this book then click on the link below.

Real Church is a transplant view of the western church through the eyes of the author, Larry Crabb. Crabb is open and honest about his current perspective on church. His perspective ia interesting but also a wake up call to those who live and breathe church life. Crabb begins with openly telling the reader he is bored and fed up with church. He is at a place in his life where going to church on a Sunday morning has no affect on his life in general. This is a man who longs for a deep life changing relationship and journey with God who has realized he cannot find that in most American or Western churches. Throughout the book Crabb identifies why he believes people still go to church, what he dislikes about church and then brings his thoughts together to describe to the reader what he wants in a church, how it is needed for his life and what he believes God intended the church to be characterized by.

Real Church is not bedtime reading. It is a collaboration of thoughts brought together by a man who has searched his soul and reading this book requires you to do the same. If you are happy with the status quo, do not read this book, but if you want your very core rocked, read this book. It is very evident that Larry Crabb is a man who has a deep desire to be close to God, he has just realized that the majority of churches cannot help him achieve the passion and longing his soul yearns for.

I did not find this book an easy read. It was not a book that you cannot put done. However, even though it wasn’t an easy read it was a book that has made me think more than any other I have read this year. Some of his terminology would not be understood unless you had been in church for many years, but I suppose this book was written for those who had been in church for many years. There was one particular thought Crabb tried to find answers to that had been almost laughing, agreeing and crying at the same point. This was the thought about addictions in our lives. Crabb explains that all of us are addicts and most of us are not addicted to God but to self. Most churches do not get us hooked on God, but they feed our addiction to self! Crabb says, ‘addicts to self don’t make good disciples of Jesus’ (p90).

This book is both theory and practical based. I would give this book four stars, the only reason I wouldn’t give it five would be because I didn’t think it flowed as well. However, I would recommend this book for any church leader. It will make you think, evaluate and even may bring you to your knees. I would also recommend this book to people who are bored with their church life, who are not getting anything out of church or if you just want to be refreshed by a leader opening his soul up to others in Christ like manner.

This book focuses on business principles Michael Franzese discovered, used and even abused while he was one of the leading Mob Bosses of the 1980′s. These principles include following the wisest person ever to live, King Solomon; learning to use your brain before opening your mouth; mastering the art of a one on one conversation; doing business by the book; learning from your failures and keeping your integrity. Throughout the book Franzese gives illustrations of situations he had to deal with during his time as a mob boss. These situations even though on the extreme scale of the business spectrum provides good (and humorous to the reader) insight to someone in business, in leadership or thinking about starting in a new endeavour.

Throughout the book Franzese is very evident trying to reassure the reader he is no longer part of mob life and has gone ‘straight’. However, it is clear that Franzese was at one time a big time player and he illustrates this by referring to an article ‘Fortune’ magazine published in 1986 called, ‘The fifty biggest mob bosses’ of which Franzese was number 18.

Some may think that life in the mob is very different from life in business but this book gives more than enough evidence that the same principles that worked in the mob will work even better in a legitimate business. The author quotes many times from the father of the proverb, King Solomon and these proverbs give more than insight into how to conduct yourself in the business world. One of these proverbs he used in the chapter called, ‘Use Solomon’s Solution’, to give an example of how one must work hard in business was, ‘Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor’ (p46).

One of my favorite chapters was, ‘Master the art of the sit down’ where a story is told about a business deal with maggot invested chickens. This was a story straight out of the Soprano’s itself. It was funny, interesting yet the principles learned were a treasure to hold on to.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an enjoyable read. Especially those who are interested in gangster movies. On a more serious note, if many businesses today had worked with these principles I am sure many would not find themselves in position they do not want to be in. This is a business book for the self employed right through to the CEO of a multinational company. I would not say this book changed my life, but it is a book I will not forget and one that does inspire me to push forward in my endeavours in the future.

The Principle Of The Path is based on a very simple idea/philosophy. You are where you are today because of the decisions and paths you have taken in the past. That’s it! Simple as that! However, as simple as it sounds many of us make decisions that bring us pleasure today but we forget about where that decision will take us for tomorrow.

Throughout this book Andy Stanley pin points the reasons you have reached this particular point in your life, whether it be a successful place or unsuccessful. He also outlines this principle that if followed and thought through will bring you on a course or a path where you will start to fulfill your dreams and goals that may seem a long way off. The sub title to this book is called, “How to get from where you are to where you are going”. That explains this book in a nutshell.

There were three questions towards the beginning of this book that I believe everyone should ask themselves, these were:

• Are there disconnects in your life?
• Are there discrepancies between what you desire in your heart and what you are doing with your life?
• Is there alignment between your intentions and your direction? (p34)

If you can answer yes to any of these questions, go get this book and soak in what Andy Stanley teaches you.

I have read many of Andy Stanley’s books, this one is a little different from the others I’ve read. This is a book for any person in any place of life. I recently had a big decision I had to make in my life and this book helped me stop going down a path that I would have liked to have investigated, but because of this book I realized this path would not lead me to the place I wanted to go in life.

I thought this book was not only a great read but it was challenging and very insightful. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a dream and wants to get there.

I started to read the book on a three hour flight from Philadelphia to Dallas and I finished the book on that same three hour flight from Philadelphia to Dallas. As soon as I started to read I got sweep away with the story and couldn’t put it down.

The book is about a story of an old wise mysterious man named Jones. This old man appears and disappears with his old ‘beat up’ suit case in a small Gulf Coast town. Jones is a “noticer’, he notices things that most of us do not. Throughout the book Jones appears to talk words of wisdom, words of encouragement and words of motivation into the lives of people just when they need it. He becomes the light switch for people who are going through dark times in their lives. This is all because he gives a little “perspective”.

This was a story that I wanted to be a part of, literally. If there was a way I could have climbed into this book and met the old man Jones I would have done it. The question I had all the way through this book was whether this was a true story or fiction. This bothered me, until I finished and started to think about how this book and the insight given could change my own life. This is when I realized this was one of the best books I have ever read.

For people who are going through struggles, tough decisions or feel they have nothing more to give in this life, this is the book for you. Andy Andrews does not give profound new insight into situations in peoples lives, but he adds a little perspective to how they view situations; this is pure wisdom and incredibly motivating. If you are a person who feels life has given you no breaks, this is the book for you. If you are contemplating getting a divorce, this is the book for you. If you are overwhelmed with life, this book is for you. If you are thinking about marriage this book is for you. If you feel you have nothing left to give this world, this book is for you. If you are a career person, this book is for you. In fact I would recommend this book to everyone. Andy Andrews quotes, “people are either in a crisis, coming out of one, or headed for one”. Therefore, get this book read it, treasure the wisdom that is in it, then start living your life with your new found perspective.

This is a quick read. I am going to read this again, but next time a little slower and let the words soak into my mind. This is a must read.