His Treasure Gems of Love from Your King by Sheri Rose Shepherd – Some Mixed Emotions

When the opportunity to read and review Sheri Rose Shepherd’s newest book, His Treasure Gems of Love from Your King, was presented I was excited at the prospect of reading her work.  I’ve heard some of her conference messages and found Sheri to be a very compelling speaker.

Based on her writing, I would say that Sheri has a love for the Lord and heart for women.  She desires that the women will grasp the love that God has for them and the blessings that come to a woman who loves the Lord, increasingly trusts and obeys Him.

I found many of the Treasures to be very encouraging, convicting and healing as they touched tender spots where I have emotional wounds that need the Lord’s healing.

Sheri’s love and passion for the Lord comes through in her writing.

I also want to share how I struggled with this book.  My struggle is with the style or genre of this book as if God is speaking to the reader.  I would have felt more comfortable if instead the writer was praying to God.  It’s easy to not accurately represent God, because we see Him through our own unique perspective that is colored by our life and experiences.  I also felt like the sovereignty and holiness of God was somewhat lacking.  The focus seemed to be on the person to whom God was talking and less focused on God.  As portrayed, God seemed to be gently trying to persuade the beloved child or daughter and was seldom revealed as God, the absolute Authority to Whom we will give an account.  I would have also appreciated if scripture references had been given that would line up to the words God was speaking.

I would like to thank Tyndale House Publishers for providing a complimentary copy of this book.

Sherlock Holmes and the Needle’s Eye – Disappointing

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When I saw the book “Sherlock Holmes and the Needle’s Eye” by Len Bailey offered by BookSneeze I thought it would be a good read.  I love the Bible, and like mysteries and Sherlock Holmes novels.

The book brings back the famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson investigating 10 Bible mysteries as they travel, via a time machine called the Needle’s Eye, to Biblical times as they watch events unfold firsthand.  The mysteries include:

Why did Ahithophel hang himself?
In John 8, what did Christ write on the ground?
Why did Jesus delay in coming to Lazarus?
Why were Christ’s birth and death considered to be at the right time?
Why were the Israelites instructed to march about Jericho one time for the first six days, but seven times on the last day?

Since I had recently studied David’s life, I was interested to read the first mystery, why did Ahitophel hang himself.  The author did a good job in bringing out the background and details of this story and presenting a case why Ahitophel hanged himself.

However, my interest in the booked quickly waned as I continued to read.  I found the book to be quite tedious and boring; the chapters seemed to go on and on.  One problem was that the mysteries being investigated weren’t clearly stated at the beginning of the chapter.  The book jumped around a lot and it was hard to track.  Some of Sherlock Holmes’ conclusions and answers to the mysteries were not clearly presented.

While the book is not entirely without merit, I would not recommend it.  If I hadn’t agreed to read and review this book, I wouldn’t have finished it.

I thank BookSneeze for the opportunity to read and review this book.