BOOK REVIEW : Anything By Jennie Allen

Posted on by Mary

Anything:The prayer that unlocked my God and my soul by Jennie Allen.  Jennie and her husband Zac  are in full-time ministry that as a pastor’s family and Jennie Blogs as well.. She has written this book about their journey about saying ANYTHING to God and how when they prayed anything that it was a true test of their willingness to trust God because when you pray anything you have no idea where God is going to take you.

The book is broken up into three sections. Part one is everything keeping us from anything and it talks about all the things that we should abandon when we are trying to give God anything. So we should abandon unbelief.  We should abandon pretending, abandon shame, abandon approval, abandon entertainment, abandon fear, and abandoning this whole life. It really comes down to If he’s going to use our entire life for anything he needs to have all of it.

Part 2 is about praying anything and it talks about waking up,  new eyes, and real change, big God , praying anything , a thousand little problems, got brushes and dominoes, no turning back and spreading insanity lots of yeses.  This talks about how we don’t know where God is going to ask us for or do anything; whether  we can give anything over or we can give our homes, we can give our children, we can give God our cars,our ministries, ourselves and being willing to say yes to whatever he has for us. It’s a very scary process but as Jennie points out,  in the end it is one of the most rewarding and exciting processes.

And section 3 Living Anything. Seeing God:our purpose here, Blast Off: Overcoming doubts, Out of control:God in the Chaos War on: fighting brave, backward: where freedom hides, better dreams: poured out, and wind:everything different. It takes a lot to give God Anything. and when it rains it pours…it can be downright craziness. God may ask for a whole lot of Anything all at once and that can be very overwhelming. God blesses those who pay attention and so we want to make sure that we understand that even though God blesses those who are willing to give anything that also can be really difficult as we are promised that things aren’t always going to be good or easy, bad things are going to happen, that we’re going to be tested and the trials are going to come and we need to be willing to step out in faith and give him anything anyway.

One of the my favorite chapters in this book is chapter 15 and it talks about doubts and so many times when we step out in faith and we give God anything and one of our biggest struggles can be doubting whether or not God wants us to do something. I struggle with this a lot. We can either let those doubts rule and give in and say I’m not going to do that but if we’re really really giving God anything we’re willing to step out and if it’s not from God, God will close the door but we need to be willing to take that step and trust God with anything….and everything.

I must confess I really enjoyed this book though I don’t know if it necessarily struck me where I am at this moment. I think that it’s a perfect picture of where today’s churches are. I see a lot of what Jennie’s talking about in our church and in churches across the Christian spectrum. I believe that she’s in touch with the nerve of those who have inherited their faith. (I don’t believe that you can go to heaven on your inherited faith that you must accept Jesus as your personal savior ) but when you do that in the young age when you’re raised in a family that trained you to trust and to believe in Jesus especially her first chapter that talks about A plastic God that she hits the nail on the head with how we we feel like God is sitting on our mantle and we do things to please him but he isn’t real to us and so I think she strikes a chord within the church today. I gave anything to God at a young age (16) and so I can see as she was explaining throughout her book about anything, those processes that I too went through as a young girl giving anything to God and anything took me halfway around the world. anything took me to Bible college . Anything married a pastor, anything gave me children, anything gave me a child with special needs, anything gave me something I didn’t want something I didn’t expect. Anything means to extend grace and to love far deeper than I ever expected! What anything taught me in Romans 8:28 and 29 is all things work together for good for those who love and serve the Lord isn’t just what my “good” is but what God’s good is. God’s good is that I grow and I become more and more like Christ and that’s really really hard to fathom, In the entire book which I I pretty much enjoyed there wasn’t anything that I disagreed with. I believe that Jennie is right on. There was one negative : it was slightly confusing because in the forward of the book Jennie says to do the study that comes with the book with friends OR ON YOUR OWN however when you get to the study in the back of the book it says do not do the study on your own. It is very explicit in saying that you should not do the study alone that you should do it with a group of friends for accountability purposes. I’m fine with either one of those however if if you want me to do it with somebody probably shouldn’t say it’s okay to do it alone in the forward of the book. So that’s my only gripe about the entire book, it’s really not much though. I do give it a five out of five stars.

HERE ARE A FEW FAVORITE QUOTES FROM THE BOOK

One of my favorite quotes comes from chapter 10 Big God

“ if God is really real and we are going to live with him forever shouldn’t he be the only thing.”

Another favorite quote comes from chapter 9 New Eyes and it says

“until there is total surrender there is no vision”

And another quote comes from “scrapbooks” and it says

“God gives us enough faith for whatever the stories of our lives will hold even in the worst of days”

and this this struck a chord because this last year was one of those worst of days matter fact it held six months worth of worst of days and it’s so refreshing now that we are coming out of those dark dark times that we have these promises and it’s so true and God gives us that faith . Another quote from that same chapter is

“God builds our lives whether we give him permission or not”

so if you give him permission and you’re willing and you’re watching and waiting you’re going to expect that. However if you don’t give God permission God still grows your life. It can be excruciatingly painful, worse then if you were expecting it.

This book was provided free of charge for review from BookLook Bloggers.

I Am Thankful For………

Posted on by Mary

Thankfulness Challenge

Here we are again….another Thursday, and another Thankfulness Challenge. This week is a little different though. As I have been writing ALL. WEEK. LONG. It has been quite fun, very peaceful and hard all wrapped into one! I have always written, ever since I was a teenager, but never this intensely! I have more journals than anything else and you can confirm that with my hubby. Its actually a point of frustration…..because I often don’t finish them. Truth be told, it frustrates me too but I have been working on filling up journals that I have started at various points, but a fresh new notebook just makes my heart skip a beat….maybe what I really need is notebooks anonymous….

Well I do have a lot to be thankful for as usual so let’s get started, shall we.

1. I know this is going to sound super cheesy BUUT, I DON’T CARE! I am so grateful for the man God gave me as a husband. He truly studies and knows just what my heart needs. He knew I needed this week and then he MADE me keep it. I tried to get out of it several times, but, yeah, he wasn’t going to let that happen and I am stronger for it.

2.I am most definitely grateful for a Christian place to park our camper and the godly teaching that I get with it twice a day. It’s safe, and affordable and within a few hours of home, and about an hour or so from other family. There is so much to do here and yet it is so quiet and peaceful….alhough it can be VERY wet at times!! (It’s pretty much rained for the last 3 days)

3.A warm breeze that reminds me it is still summer….people it was 48 degrees here this morning It was COLD. I joked with my husband that if it wasnt still August I would have turned the heat on!

4.That tomorrow I will see my four little munchkins and my hubby. I have missed them so much…..

5.That I get to come back on MONDAY with my whole family and that we will have two weeks of rest and relaxation before school starts….I’m anticipating an amazing 2 weeks!

How about you? What are you thankful for?

Eve

Posted on by Mary

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Dear Eve,

I read all about you today! I can’t imagine how amazing the garden of Eden looked. Was it hot or was it cool? We have rainforests that some people compare the garden of Eden with, boy do I wish I could send you there to see what you think. And all thos animals, tell me what does a Lion’s mane feel like? Are monkeys just as mischievous as they are now? And what does your favorite fruit in the garden taste like? Is it sweet, tangy, or sour? And my biggest question of all, what’s it like to talk to God and have him answer back…immediately…. in an audible voice?All you have to do is call His name and He’s there, talking to you, HOW EXCITING!What does his voice sound like? Is it deep and gruff or is it soft and sweet, like a soft breeze through leaves of a tree? What do you talk about with God? What does he tell you? It must be amazing when He tells you He loves you, He’s your Creator after all. Did you know you and Adam are the only two to ever see what PERFECT looks like. Things aren’t perfect here at all. There are things called volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, tidal waves AND SNOW…and a lot of snow all at once with heavy winds is called a blizzard…it’s HORRIBLE. Everything but blizzards can destroy whole cities, islands and countries. People run around cities killing each other based on their differences of religions, colors of skin and just because they want to. There are women who have their babies killed while they are still in their bodies, because they look at them as inconveniences or a mistake when God put them there for a purpose. Then those moms years down the road have such great shame and sorrow for their unborn child who never got the chance at life, who never got to see a frog or feel wet grass between their toes or to be tickled…and giggle and giggle and giggle. Eve I know that you felt great shame too. I know that your perfect world was turned upside down when you too made a wrong decision. When you chose to heed the words of the serpent over the words of your Creator God. You are the only woman who has ever seen both sides….the side of perfection and the side of imperfection. From a place of peace, rest, and a complete relationship with God to a place where you experienced true toil, pain in childbirth, true heartache, suffering and an intense sense of lonliness and seperation as you and God and your husband were no longer unified as you once were. You went from complete peace to hardship….and you in effect lost two sons. Cain killed Abel out of jealousy and anger and then Cain was exiled from you. Oh Eve how did you make it through those hard times? What did you learn? Did you grow deeper in your relationship with God? Did you feel as though there was no possible way God could ever love you again because of that mistake you made? If so what got you through? Somedays I feel as though I am not good enough, that I have failed too many times and that God could NEVER use a failure such as me. How can I encourage those who feel as you did and as I do now? I cant wait to talk to you soon, for it’s far sooner than any of us realize!

Your friend Mary

 

Monster Van

Posted on by Mary

Wordless_Wednesdayimage

This van was in a parade we took the kids to last week.  It’s a Chevy  Venture Mini Van….with a Hydraulic lift to show off the CRAZY motor inside.  Now if you know us!  That is what we drive….JUST NOT THAT CRAZY! It seriously is a Monster Van!

Introverted Mommy

Posted on by Mary

Introverted Mommy

Embracing Being an Introvert in the Land of Mommyhood isn’t Easy…NO NO NO! If you told me back when I was a teenager that I was an introvert I would have said “Say what” Ok so that wasn’t a saying per se BUT I would not have understood what that meant.

Fast forward to College and a lot of people told me I was an extrovert. I liked hanging out in large groups. We would play fun games such as “wWhose Line is it Anyway” (yes BIBLE college version) and Mafia (AHEM) yes you read that right….we spent many hours playing that game, matter of fact we still play that game with our youth group. We played other games too. I have always enjoyed games… of all sorts. Card games, board games, acting games, and games such as Sardines, Mission Impossible and Capture the Flag Basketball and some others. I even know how to play poker, black jack and a few other “questionable” games. It’s a good thing God didn’t say thou Shalt not play Cards because folks I’m here to tell you I have seen good kids play poker with UNO cards. It’s a sin to gamble NOT play a game…Ok so lets get back to the task at hand. In high school I was told I was great at public speaking and got a personal invitation from the coach to be a part of the team…think debate not dead bodies. That love of public speaking grew as I went to Bible College and took Chic-aletics ..The female (nicknamed) version of homiletics (preaching). The teacher didn’t know that the students had secretly been calling it that for years until my friend Amy and I stood talking in the lunch line and she overheard us…she was shocked and then giggled and said I LOVE IT! we just thought “WHEW” I knew then Mrs U. was a kindred Spirit.

What I didn’t realize was, that is actually an introvert quality. Liking large groups over small or one to one groups which coincidentally I find torturous!! It wasn’t until a few years ago that I began to understand who I really was.

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