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Sull'Autore

James Stuart Bell is a Christian publishing veteran and the owner of Whitestone Communications, a literary development agency. He is the editor of many story collections, including the Cup of Comfort, Life Savors, and Extraordinary Answers to Prater series, and the coauthor of numerous books in the mostra altro Idiot's Guide series. He has cover credit on more than one hundred books. He and his wife live in a western suburb of Chicago. mostra meno

Opere di James Stuart Bell

They Walked With God (1993) 42 copie
A Cup of Comfort Book of Bible Promises (2010) — A cura di — 18 copie
Life Savors (2008) 10 copie
Life savors for women (2008) 8 copie
The Healing Touch (2010) 3 copie
Memos to God (1997) 1 copia

Opere correlate

In His Steps (1999) — A cura di, alcune edizioni4,815 copie
The Silver Chalice (1952) — A cura di, alcune edizioni1,365 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Data di nascita
1953-07-24
Sesso
male
Nazionalità
USA
Luogo di residenza
West Chicago, Illinois, USA

Utenti

Recensioni

I downloaded this years ago, when it was free for the Kindle, and read it - one section per day - through 2019. Great to have something like this on my Kindle, offering a brief 'thought' or 'devotional' each morning, based on the various women of the Bible.

Sometimes the commentary was relevant to me; more often not, but usually interesting. Occasionally I was dubious about the motivations or virtues ascribed to various Biblical women, who are barely mentioned in Scripture itself. And at times I found it too 'American' in outlook, with a few references I didn't get, and assumed characteristics which I don't have.

Still, overall it was a pleasant read; worth having if you can find or read it free or at low cost. Particularly interesting if you feel that women are under-represented in the Bible.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-cup-of-comfort-women-of-bible.htm...
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SueinCyprus | Jan 1, 2020 |
There has been a resurgence in evangelicals reading of patristic sources. The work of Thomas Oden, Ronald Heine, Peter Liethart, Hans Boersma and D.H Williams and others have called for a ressourcement which makes use of the Great Tradition. The value of patristic exegesis is a hot topic in the academy, but few works have given the words of the early church for popular consumption. James Stuart Bell and Patrick J.Kelly has just done that with theirt new devotional.

I have noted before the difficulty in reviewing devotionals. Reviewing a devotional after only having it for a couple of weeks, means that at best my thoughts on it are provisional. To know the true value of it, I would need to use the book daily for a time. Awakening Faith is a year long devotional and I haven’t had time to give a full assessment of its value. However I am fairly impressed by it. This is a daily devotional which culls together readings from patristic sources. Readings from sixty-nine different Church Fathers, from the first to the eighth century, challenge Christians to live out their faith in a compelling manner. There are theologically rich reflections and prophetic calls to holy living from everyone from Ambrose and Augustine to Zeno of Verona.

Awakening Faith is beautifully bound with a ribbon book mark. There are 366 readings from the church fathers, with a scriptural reference at the head of each entry. This book looks good and the contents are pure gold. I absolutely love it. However the book is limited in a couple of respects.

First, I wish that it reflected the church calender more. The daily reading format sets it apart from IVP’s Ancient Christian Devotionals (edited by Thomas Oden). Those volumes follow the liturgical cycle and draw together different patristic commentaries on the readings for each Sunday. By contrast Awakening Faith is a daily devotional without an evident seasonal dimension. It is possible to start this devotional on day one reading each day until you finish the book (there are no dates are given for the readings). There are specific readings for Easter and Christmas (and other holy days) but these are scattered throughout the book. This makes me wonder what the internal organization of the readings is. It is not straight forward. It tends to bounce back and forth from various topics.

Another limitation of this devotional is the lack of references. Each reading reflects on a passage and tells you the author. It does not tell from which of their works the reading was taken from or their context. Sometimes this is obvious. For example, Athanasius’ readings on the life of Anthony, came from the Life of Anthony. Prolific authors like Augustine, Basil the Great, or guys named Gregory are harder to track down. I would have appreciated a reference to the actual work at the end of each reading. That way I could delve deeper into particular topics or authors. This may just be my academic bent. I happen to love footnotes in everything I read and am miffed when I don’t see them. I do like that the indexes of this volume give me a bird’s eye view of each author and the scriptural content.

The selection of readings themselves are quite good. Here is a random selection of topics covered:

Basil the Great on the value of the Psalms (reading 10)
Tertullian on Prayer (reading 88)
Augustine on Martyrdom (reading 90)
John Chrysostom on standing firm on the rock of Christ (reading 121)
Ambrose on freedom in Christ through grace (reading 204)
. . .and much more. Bell and Kelly did a great job of selecting devotions for this collection (I just wish I knew where they were all from!). This is a great compendium of Christian thought. I happily recommend this book as either a daily devotional (as it is intended) or a bathroom reader (as I have been using it). There are beautiful passages here which are worth copying into your journal and I plan to use this book for years to come. I give it four stars: ★★★★☆

Thank you to Zondervan and Cross Focused Reviews for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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Jamichuk | 3 altre recensioni | May 22, 2017 |
Jesus Talked to me Today is a book of 41 short stories compiled by James Stuart Bell. These stories are about children who have experiences with Jesus and how they all came about.


This was a very inspirational and uplifting read. I felt myself tear up on multiple stories. Some were obviously better than others but overall this was a wonderful read in the world filled with violence and anger. This was also a very quick read, I could have read this in a day if I would have just sat down with it and read all day.

Since this was written by the individuals telling the story rather than an author, some of the stories were not written overly well. However, none of them were awful or full of mistakes. They were written and told so that you could really feel as though you were watching the story unfold. I felt close to some of these people by the time the story was over.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants something inspirational and happy to read.

*I received this book in exchange for my honest review*
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alyssaross | 1 altra recensione | Nov 8, 2016 |
Jesus Talked To Me Today by James Stuart Bell is an inspirational book full of stories of children's encounters with angels, miracles, and God.

I was captured from the very first page, each chapter is only a few pages long and tells a different child's story. This book brought tears to my eyes and a smile to my face as I read these children's stories. A fast read inspirational and uplifting, has been added to my favorite books.

One of my favorites is 'Giants in the Land' where 3 children were met everyday after school by bullies wanting money from them. Until their family prayed with them about it and asked God to send his angels to protect them. And that is EXACTLY what he did!

A 15 year old boy who has stage 4 cancer - my favorite quote from this chapter
"With His single touch, my terminal disease recoiled. He alone stilled my storm with one command."

I received an ARC (advanced readers copy) of this book from Bethany House in exchange for my honest review. I highly recommend this book, you won't regret reading it.
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Segnalato
kykim | 1 altra recensione | Aug 21, 2016 |

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Statistiche

Opere
69
Opere correlate
3
Utenti
1,905
Popolarità
#13,512
Voto
½ 3.7
Recensioni
21
ISBN
126
Lingue
2

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