As you all know, I get the awesome opportunity to review books for a few different publishing companies. Recently I was sent the book “A Guy’s Guide To Life – How to become a man in 224 pages or less”.

A Guy’s Guide to Life: How to Become a Man in 224 Pages or Less is a teenage guy’s handbook to becoming a man with a healthy mind, body, and soul.

Society has created a harsh image what a man should be. The author, Jason Boyett, calls it a stereotype. Our society demands that men never be sensitive, never to cry, and to always be rough and tough. The realization is that that is not what God created. God created us in his image, if you want to know how to be a real man then follow the example set in the Word of God.

This book is really aimed for young men (aka teenagers) and I would encourage any and all young men to get a copy of this book. This book is a guidebook that asks and answers the questions that others a reluctant to discuss. This book addresses the myths of manhood with a straightforward approach that teenage guys will appreciate and absorb. Author Jason Boyett understands what many fail to realize—that somewhere between the awkwardness and braggadocio, the goofiness and the developing body, there is a real person struggling to make his mark on the world.

I personally enjoyed this book because I grew up as a momma’s boy. I am not the rough and tough guy that the world expects a man to be. I am that sensitive guy. I am that guy that would hide when I needed to cry because I didn’t want anyone to see me cry. I wish I had a book like this 15 years ago.

If you have a teenage son or know of one who really needs a good book about becoming a real man I encourage you to pick up this book. It’s available on Amazon.com by clicking here. (Starting at just $8.01 NEW)

Disclosure of Material Connection: Thomas Nelson Publishing provided a copy of this Bible for my review. They have asked me to post a review about the book with my honest opinion whether positive or negative. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Over the last two or three months I have had the opportunity to review a “newer” Bible out on the “Christian market” called “The Voice”.

The Voice Bible is unique in the fact that it is written as a screen play which makes it easy to understand who is speaking when. (Something that can sometimes be difficult in the KJV Bible). This is also an awesome resource if you are a children/youth minister and want to reenact a story from the Word.

Now, would I suggest anyone to make “The Voice” their main scripture source? No. I personally am a KJV nut. Sorry, it’s just the way I am however I do have a LARGE selection of different translations of the Word of God including the Message (2nd fav) and the Amplified (3rd fav). Really, The Voice will be resource for me when preparing lessons and studying scripture.

One really awesome thing about The Voice translation is the people who translated it. The translaters included traditional academic scholars, pastors, writers, musicians, poets, and other artists. The collaborator list includes heavyweights such as Brian McLaren, Sean Palmer, Todd Littleton and Leonard Sweet.

So, the translation is well written but how true is the translation to the original scripture? This is the most important part of this review.

Check this out
1 Timothy 4:12 (King James Version)
Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

1 Timothy 4:12 (The Voice Version)
Don’t let anyone belittle you because you are young. Instead, show the faithful, young and old, an example of how to live: set the standard for how to talk, act, love, and be faithful and pure.

Acts 2:38-39 (King James Version)
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call.

Acts 2:38-39 (The Voice Version)
Reconsider your lives; change your direction. Participate in the ceremonial washing in the name of Jesus, the Liberating King. Then your sins will be forgiven, and the gift of the Holy Spirit will be yours. For this promise of the Spirit is for you, for your children, for all people – even those considered outsiders and outcasts – the Lord our God invites everyone to come to Him.

As you can see in the examples above it’s literally just a different way of saying the same thing. I cross-referenced a good portion of the “The Voice” and found nothing that was out of context. I personally believe that the translation team did an awesome job of translating the hard Greek and Hebrew into modern day English.

If you would like, you can download the Book of John by clicking here so that you can review it for yourself.

Once again, this is a great translation and I think it has the potential to not only be a great resource for those in the children/youth ministry but could also be the translation needed for many people who really want to read the Word but get confused or bored reading the KJV.

This translation should be available at your local christian bookstore or can be purchased on Amazon.com by clicking here!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Thomas Nelson Publishing provided a copy of this Bible for my review. They have asked me to post a review about the book with my honest opinion whether positive or negative. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

I have the awesome opportunity and honor of telling you about a new book that was just released last week and is a book that if read with an open heart will not just change your life but will also change the lives of those you come in contact with.

The book is called “Lead Vertically” and is written by Pastor Craig Johnson. Pastor Craig is the Senior Director of Family Ministries at Lakewood Church in Houston which is one of the largest and fasting growing churches in America.

In Lead Vertically, Pastor Craig shares with us his thoughts on how to build an awesome leadership team that is not only successful but is fulfilled. Through powerful scripture references, personal experiences, and life stories submitted by his own staff; Pastor Craig show leaders the importance of building a team that is reaching not only the ministries (or companies) goals but also the staff’s dreams. Letting them know that the best days are yet to come and that they need to keeping looking up because they never know when God is going to drop something awesome in their lap.

Pastor Craig has so many insightful quotes and statements in this book. Here are just a few a few of my favorite:

“ Vertical leaders help others soar where eagles fly, not where the chickens grovel.”

“You can’t receive the harvest until you accept the seed.”

“A vertical leader is inclusive and builds up whoever is willing to follow.”

“To lead another life, one must be willing to give up a part of his or her own.”

“Leadership is about knowing how you are without being defensive about who you are not.”

I encourage you all to go out and get a copy of this book. It’s available just about everywhere online and I am sure in the stores as well. Don’t just buy one though … buy some for your staff. Sow into them … it will be worth it BIG TIME.

As you all know, I said I would be giving away a copy of Lead Vertically today. To enter into the contest all you have to do is subscribe to my newsletter by clicking here. Once you are fully subscribed you will be entered into the contest.

All current subscribers of my mailing list will automatically be entered into the drawing. Drawing will conclude at 10pm CST on May 4th, 2010. I will announce the winner of the book tomorrow evening (May 5th, 2010).

I have had the wonderful opportunity of reading the book “Living Life In The Zone” by Kyle Rote Jr and Dr. Joe Pettigrew. The book is written as a 40 day spiritual game plan for men and discusses many topics including:

• How to know when you are “Living Life In The Zone”?
• Finding the zone in your relationship with your wife.
• Finding the zone in your relationship with your children.
• Finding the zone in your relationship with your friends.
• Finding the zone in your relationships at work.
• Finding the zone as you look to the future.

This book first caught my eye because it was specifically written for me. I like books that are aimed at not only making me a better person but also aimed for men specifically. I want to be a true man of God in every area of my life and this book brought forth several points that has pushed and prodded me to be even better.

This book would be a great book for married men and men with children as a good portion of the book deals with those situations. As a single guy, I think that the two sections of the book that talked about relationships with friends and climbing the ladder of success really spoke to me most.

I myself want to be everyone’s friend. This is sometimes an issue. The book explained clearly how this can be issue and who I should truly be close friends to based of scriptures from the Word of God. It really made me think about past friendships/relationships and current friendships/relationships and is prodding me to make some serious changes in that area.

The other section of the book that really spoke to me was “Climbing the ladder of success”. This chapter really mainly focused on keeping us level headed but it also talked about judging ourselves. The book shares the scripture 2 Corinthians 10:12 which tells us very bluntly to not compare ourselves to others. As men, we do this a lot. In reality, I have done it all my life but God is clearly saying “STOP”. We should be living our life not based on where others are in their life but based off where God wants us in ours.

While a majority of this book is written for married men I would still encourage single men to pick it up as a good read. It’s not a hard book to read and it relates a lot of the points to prominent figures in history including Reggie White, Michael Vick, David Green, etc.

Each chapter/day is between 5-10 pages so it doesn’t take much time to read. I encourage you to pick up the book and take 10-15 minutes out of your day each day to read a chapter and see what changes the book makes in your life.

Lies We Tell Ourselves ( by Greg Laurie) is awesome book that really cuts you deep but helps you to heal and become a better man or woman. When I first picked up the book, I though it was going to be about food. The cover shows a picture of a delicious piece of ice cream cake dripping with fudge, almonds and a couple cherries but after getting into the book I realized that this book is more than just a book about food. It’s about the lies we tell ourselves when we are tempted. No just tempted with food but also with sexual addictions, alcoholism, drugs, cursing, gluttony, etc.

Greg Laurie, the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California explains that we, even as Christians lie and are tempted to do things that we know are not right (imagine that … Gasp). We make up excuses in our mind make it alright but in reality it’s not and that’s just one of the tricks of the enemy.

This book really opened my eyes up a lot to temptation and how we are tempted. Pastor Greg really explains not only the tactics of the enemy but also how to overcome the enemy by the example of Jesus Christ.

The book is awesome in the fact that it’s a simple read but yet it goes into a lot of detail. Pastor Greg goes through the three noted temptations of Jesus in detail and explains the significance of each temptation. One personal thing I found out is that while the Bible only goes into detail about those three (3) temptations of Jesus, we can assume He was tempted more than that based on Luke 4:13 (msg) which reads “That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.” This to me says, the devil was defeated but wasn’t giving up. He was just going to stay in the bushes and wait for another opportunity. This blew my mind away.

Bottomline – temptation will always be there waiting … it’s what you do when you are faced with it that matters.

Like I said, this book is a very simple read. Someone who normally doesn’t read can finish this book in an hour or less and be blessed beyond measure. Pastor Greg has a great way of getting the point across and helping you learn and grow from what He has said.

I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Even Pastors … it’s a small 120 page book that will change the way you see things forever!

Pub. Date: October 2006
Publisher: Gospel Light Publications
Format: Paperback, 128pp
ISBN-13: 9780830742752
ISBN: 0830742751

Order your copy of “Lies We Tell Ourselves” by clicking here!