Archive for month: January, 2019

Valentine’s day is almost here! Here at CLC Ministries, we love to celebrate with books. If you have a special reader in your life, how about slipping a book in with that bouquet! What better way to celebrate than to gift knowledge? 

Here’s a list of books for your special someone this Valentine’s Day.

For the poetry lover in your life…

Mountain Breezes, a collection of poems by Amy Carmichael, is a great place to start. With 66 poems gathered from 29 of her books, many now out of print, and arranged under 7 topical headings: Worship, Petition, Surrender, Ministry, Wartime, Encouragement, and Youth, it is truly a treasure for poetry lovers!

HIS FAITHFULNESS
by Amy Carmichael 

O wind of God, blow through the trees;
O birds of God, come sing your song;
For now I know the joy that frees,
The joy that makes the weakest strong.

The vapors march in shining crowds,
High in the trackless roads of air;
I look, and lo, unto the clouds,
His faithfulness is even there!
Pass foolish fears; the fresh winds blow;
O birds of God, come sing with me.
My God is faithful, this I know;
My Father, I have all in Thee.

If you want to dive more into the word this Valentine’s day, we recommend Song of Songs by Watchman Nee.

The Song of Solomon is one of the most excellent love poems ever written. Over the centuries, its beautiful language and dreamy imagery have hooked readers from page 1. 

“Why is this tender love poem included in the Scripture?” and “how should we interpret it?” are often questions we ask.

This is a real mystery to many of us, but Watchman Nee believes it is possible to discover within the poem all the principles needed to develop a deeper spiritual life. In this devotional commentary, he explores the love relationship between the individual believer and the Lord. His insights are for all who long to intensify their love for God and by so doing find overwhelming joy and complete satisfaction.

For anyone interested in redemption stories and exploring other cultures, we recommend The Torn Veil.

It tells the story of how a Muslim girl, imprisoned by her religion, her strict upbringing, her womanhood and her severe disability, is set free by God.

This classic true-life story of Gulshan Esther, who on becoming a Christian was miraculously healed, was first published in 1984 and has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide.

For the lovers of a romantic story, we recommend Our Nearest Kinsman by Roy Hession.

Is there more than romance to the story of Ruth? Roy Hession insists “Yes!” Most of us have missed the subtle details that are key to understanding the significance of this heart-moving book. We need a new vision of the blood of Christ and the grace of God to make the same daring claim on our Nearest Kinsman as Ruth made on hers.

Come and learn about the restoration, revival and renewal promised in Ruth, until at last you have the boldness to lie at the feet of your Kinsman with full confidence.

For stirring short stories that capture and are an encouragement to many, we recommend Amazing Love by Corrie Ten Boom.

Following her miraculous release from a Nazi concentration camp, Corrie ten Boom refused to give into the weakness of anger, claiming, “Forgiveness requires more strength than hatred.” Sharing incredible stories of encounters with people from all walks of life, Corrie illustrates how a childlike faith in the wisdom and love of God pushes us to forgive the seemingly impossible.

Ah, the new year.

Regardless of whether or not last year was our best or worst year yet, we just can’t help but hope and plan that this next one will be better. Right at the beginning, we make all kinds of goals and promises to ourselves.

Things like:

• Eat more healthy food!
• Exercise more often!
• Budget better!
• Reorganize the whole house in 30 days!
• Read more books!
• Have more patience!
• Increase joy!
• Gain more peace!

Sound familiar?

And yet, by this time, we’re probably already discouraged. We already missed a good week of gym time. We were supposed to have read a whole book by now and we just can’t get into the story. And
forget about healthy meals. We’re so tired from all the cooking and cleaning during the holidays, pizza sounds so much easier. So we consider giving up and we’re only two weeks in!

But look closer… what do you notice about each of these statements? They’re all written in a positive spin. And we think that makes it harder to stick to it and create goals – the goals you need
to accomplish your resolutions.

Think about it. If your plan is to eat healthier and that’s all you say, you might just set a number of calories or meals that need to be “healthy.” But most likely, that number was arbitrary, and its
attainability was probably not taken into consideration. What if you turned it around though? What makes for healthy eating for you? Maybe it’s eating out less? Ordering less pizza? Cooking more
meals from scratch? What if you started by just eliminating one thing? Instead of just telling yourself that to eat more healthily, tell yourself to just throw out one night of mac and cheese and make a healthy alternative.

Well, that you can do! Small actions create a chain reaction! And you can use the same trick for reading more, reorganizing the house, or budgeting better.

But we’re not just about resolutions here. We’re about life-change. So what about the spiritual aspects? What if you tried the same trick for your spiritual life?

If we’re trying to increase joy, we may not know exactly what that looks like, but we do know what DOESN’T bring us joy. What if, to increase something, you had to throw something else out?

With that in mind, what is the Lord calling you to throw out this year? Is there something you’ve been keeping around in a trash bag that you never got around to taking it out? You keep telling yourself: “I’ll get to it soon…” But soon doesn’t work. We both know that. And not only that, but that bag takes up room.  So, what are you waiting for?!

If you had to throw one thing out this year…what would that be?

Here are some book recommendations to help you with that