Agur; The List Maker

Perhaps you’ve prayed what is called the Lord’s Prayer and wondered about the words “Give us this day our daily bread”. This day? Daily bread? It takes me back to the Exodus story and the manna which the people of Israel were to collect each day.  And there’s probably some connection there, and a bit about obedience, but as I read Jay Payleitner’s book The Prayer of Agur: Ancient Wisdom for Discovering Your Sweet Spot in Life (Multnomah, 2020) I gained some new insights.        

The Prayer of Agur is actually found in Proverbs (30:8-9) where Agur asks for only his daily bread. And there are 2 reasons. If he gets too much he might start to think so highly of himself that he forgets about God, and if he has too little, he might resort to stealing and in doing so dishonor the Lord’s name. WOW! Why didn’t I see that before ( I read through the book of Proverbs every month, and have for 20 years.) Payleitner cuts right to the quick and makes it nearly impossible to miss.

He goes through this whole chapter of Proverbs, verse by verse with easy-to-understand, but often profound commentary on the passage. All in all it was a fun read gaining insight into the thoughts of Agur: “the list maker”.  And then thinking about how to use those insights to find my own ‘sweet spot’.

This is a short book that packs a lot of insight into a few pages.  There are questions at the end of each chapter, but I didn’t find them overly helpful. 

I received a copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review based on my perceptions and opinions of the book.

4/5

Anyone but Me, by Ray Comfort

Someone once said that the 2 things we fear most are public speaking and dying. I think we could add a 3^rd fear: sharing the Gospel.  There are probably a lot of reasons for that, but perhaps a main one is that we don’t know how. We don’t know how to present, and we definitely don’t know how to rebut the arguments, and we all know that there will be arguments.

So for those of us who go into panic mode at the thought of sharing our faith with someone—family, friend, or stranger—it’s nice to know that there are resources to help us. Ray Comfort has been in the business of telling people about Jesus for a number of years. He approaches people in the park, has written books, made movies, and has a YouTube channel where he posts regularly. In other words, he knows what he’s talking about.  And to make it a little easier for us, he’s written a book designed to shore up our confidence and help us to do our part to obey the Great Commission: Anyone But Me: 10 Ways to Overcome Your Fear and Be Prepared to Share the Gospel (Baker Books, 2020).

This book has 10 short chapters, and although he uses a lot of scripture throughout, a lot of his guidance seems to be based on a few verses from the book of Ephesians, which talk about the Armor of God.  Comfort tells us we should be loving, obedient, decisive, defiant, focused, prepared, truthful, practiced, faithful and prayerful. 

He often mentions how he uses the 10 Commandments to show people that maybe they are not quite as good and righteous as they may think they are, and he often refers to his YouTube Channel. But his biggest draw seems to be the dog in sunglasses that accompanies him on bike rides through the park

Although I like a lot of what Comfort has to say, I’m not sure that his technique is quite as easy for everyone to use as he seems to think.  Maybe after quite a bit of practice the masses would feel comfortable with approaching someone and immediately start talking about Jesus, but it’s going to take a while.  I would love to have that ability myself, but know I’m not there yet.  Comfort also has the advantage of an established YouTube channel, so he can ask people if he can interview them on camera, and he also invested several thousand dollars in gift cards, so if they say ‘no’ he can also give them a quick meal as an incentive.

This may be just the book that some people need to read to jump start their Kingdom work, but I don’t think that I’m in line to be the next Ray Comfort.

Disclosure: I received this book free from Baker Books through the Baker Books Bloggers program.

The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review.

3/5

Get your mind right

If you asked me why I asked for a review copy of Get Your Mind Right: 10 Keys to Unlock Your Potential and Ignite Your Success by Todd Durkin (Baker Books, 2020), I don’t think I would be able to tell you. I’m mostly retired so I’m not really needing to read a lot about leadership to jumpstart or further a career. The cover wasn’t really anything that I found overly exciting, I’m not familiar with the author, and I’m not a football fan so the fact that a football player wrote the forward wasn’t a compelling reason. But I kept going back to the signup page, and finally said yes.

And I’m glad I did. (Although if I had realized that Durkin was a football player, I may not have bothered.) This is more than just another leadership book, although there are certainly a lot of would-be leaders who could benefit from it. This book is full of helpful advice for people wanting to live a healthy and fulfilling life.  Reminders about slowing down, eating healthy, exercise, contact with God, and the need for healthy relationships come through on every page.  

            Durkin is the owner of a successful business and he tells the story of how that came about to clarify things and to get his point across throughout the book. There were times when things seemed to fall into place, (sometimes despite his best efforts) and other times when getting to where he needed to be was a real struggle. But along the way he learned patience, and to wait on a timing that was better than anything he could have imagined.

            I’ve read other books by athletes and frequently was unimpressed. There was too much bragging about their exploits—on and off the playing field. Or a lot of whining about all the bad breaks they got that kept them from the championship title.  I didn’t find any of that in this book: setbacks were seen as opportunities to learn, and success is another reason to be grateful.

            So go ahead, get this book, read it, study it, and learn to ‘get your mind right’. You’ll be glad you did.

Disclosure: I received this book free from Baker Books through the Baker Books Bloggers program. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review.

5/5