We Hope For Better Things (Book Review)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          Erin Bartels has written a lovely book that spans the space of what would appear to be about one hundred fifty years in the life of a family intertwined with the underground railroad during the Civil War era in the States. We Hope For Better Things, in my honest review here, reminds me a bit of Lee Harper's To Kill a Mockingbird, but without making anyone feel uncomfortable in reading this book. Bartels takes a look at how things like faith, hope, and love, can transcend times and places to bring people together.

Simple Discipleship (Book Review)

By Benjamin H. Liles

         Dana Allin's look at what discipleship is and how we do it through the Church that Christ put into place is made thoroughly clear in his book Simple Discipleship. While he takes us down a walk of what it means to be discipled to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37, Berean Study), he makes the point this is at the core of being discipled. Allin breaks it down for ministers of the faith, of which I am not, to rightly and effectively make disciples of Christ Jesus.

Why God Resides in the Temple (Ezekiel 43)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          Tonight, as it's still Christmas in America I feel as though God desires me to do something a bit different in studying Ezekiel. But before I do I want to show and share why God desires a temple among us, His people, not just with Israel (the apple of His eye), with all people of the earth. He doesn't want to simply dwell with us, not just to some or even with others but you, He wants to be with us--to be ever near us. Here it is in this simplest form on this issue: "He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ" (Ephesians 1:9, Berean Study).

What the Birth of Christ Truly Means

By Benjamin H. Liles

I know there are tons of verses about the birth of Christ; Isaiah has the most of them, I think. But there's this one I just found, "The Lord says, 'The time is coming when I will choose as king a righteous descendant of David. That king will rule wisely and do what is right and just throughout the land'" (Jeremiah 23:5).

Clothed in Christ (Ezekiel 42)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          I was reading and looking into Ezekiel 42 and this one thing caught my eye: "The north chambers and the south chambers, which are opposite the separating courtyard, are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the Lord shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall lay the most holy offerings—the grain offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering—for the place is holy. When the priests enter them, they shall not go out of the holy chamber into the outer court; but there they shall leave their garments in which they minister, for they are holy. They shall put on other garments; then they may approach that which is for the people" (Ezekiel 42:13-14, New King James).

A Bound Heart (Book Review)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          Lately, I feel as if I have stumbled on some truly great fictional books. From Laura Frantz's The Lacemaker to Lynn Blackburn's In Too Deep. Yet Laura Frantz's latest book A Bound Heart is simply a classic in my overall opinion. What makes the story all the more riveting is the fact she uses an ancestor of hers who did was exiled from Scotland for his part in the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion, settling in Virginia, and teaching George Washington surveying between the years 1748-1750: George Hume.

Staying Just (Ezekiel 41)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          There is one glaring thing that stands out to me in Ezekiel 41 and here it is: the idea of being humble and just. Why do I say that? Throughout Ezekiel 41 he is showing us through the vision God gives him that we must align ourselves to God's word as well as being holy, with holiness meaning being humble and just. I know holiness has it's own meaning, "dedicated or consecrated to God or a religious purpose; sacred." The idea here is that for us we ought to allow God the right to both humble us and to justify us.

True You (Book Review)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          Michelle DeRusha has a new book coming out on Amazon here soon published by Baker Books titled True You. I have done my best in reading it to give it as much a thorough reading and fair review. For me it comes down to saying I believe she's getting at the fact we need to move past ourselves and allow God the right to mold us into the people He desires us to be. I can't put words in her mouth as much as I can even change the word of God.

New Jerusalem and Temple (Ezekiel 40)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          We're getting closer and closer to the end of Ezekiel and what it is God desires from us as His people. Throughout this book we have seen and understood God and His holiness. His take on sin is that it has no place with Him for His holiness cannot bear the presence of filth and mire. And that's the key to this part as well. As we see here a new Jerusalem and a new Temple coming from Heaven (Ezekiel 40:2-5).

The New You (Book Review)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          Recently I received a couple of new books to review this month and one of them is titled The New You by Nelson Searcy and Jennifer Dykes Henson. For me, even though I'm doing all I can to be better in both a healthy sense as well as living a healthier life, overall, I find this book to be more of a reward than simply something worth reviewing. Yes, reviewing books can be profitable. On one hand you're looking for errors: grammar, typos, and so on. At the same time you ask yourself, "What is it I'm looking for in this book I'm reading?"

Destruction of Unholy Alliance (Ezekiel 39)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          After various small nations and tribes mentioned within Ezekiel 38 being within a central mass of land I'm sitting here and wondering to myself, "Is it possible Gog is a title of a leader, a ruler over 'Magog--Rosh, Meshech, Tubal, Gomer and Togarmah?'" Considering I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and His Father is the God of the known universe I'm leaning towards the fact of the way He phrased it to Ezekiel: "Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog" (Ezekiel 38:2, New King James).

Books

Nations Against Israel (Ezekiel 38)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          As we get nearer the end of the study of Ezekiel and the prophecies we see God getting more active on Israel's behalf. It goes back to where in Ezekiel 27 we read, about a prophecy God levels on Tyre, "Those from Persia, Lydia, and Libya were in your army as men of war; they hung shield and helmet in you; they gave splendor to you...Tarshish was your merchant because of your many luxury goods. They gave you silver, iron, tin, and lead for your goods. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your traders. They bartered human lives and vessels of bronze for your merchandise. Those from the house of  Togarmah traded for your wares with horses, steeds, and mules. The men of Dedan were your traders; many isles were the market of your hand. They brought you ivory tusks and ebony as payment" (Ezekiel 27:10, 12-15, New King James).

Israel the Nation Born: Re-born by God (Ezekiel 37)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          When I say what I do here it's from reports I've heard from before I was born. In 1948 two nations were responsible for the people of Jacob to have a homeland named for them: Israel became a nation! It's not that they were never a nation to begin with, for God says so.

God's Blessing and Renewal (Ezekiel 36)

By Benjamin H. Liles

          It's an interesting thing to me as I look at Ezekiel 36. I had just read where God said to the enemy of our souls, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" (Job 1:8, New King James). What does this have to do with the nation of Israel in Ezekiel 36? More likely the statement God makes to Satan is that Jesus is perfect and blameless, as He says of Job.

Understanding the Signs and the Times

By Benjamin H. Liles

          The possibility of prophecy actually, and quite literally, being fulfilled at this moment are truly ripe. Here's the thing, my wife and I believe in the Jewish Messiah, and we both descend from gentile families. Now, don't misunderstand me here because where I'm going with this isn't just about how gentile believers in the Jewish Messiah as well as those within the Jewish populace who also believe in Messiah coming is that this man is fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.