55. From Me To You, Love God

55. From Me To You, Love God. Claire Freedman. Illustrated by Emily Boughton. 2025. 26 pages. [Source: Library] [picture book, 3 stars]

First sentence: If God sent you a letter, 

He'd say, "I love you so!

You're very precious to me,

and I want you to know."

God made you,

and He knows your name,

and so it's no surprise,

that the one and only,

uniquely YOU,

is perfect in His eyes!

From Me to You, Love God is a children's book, a picture book, published by Kregel. 

It is written in rhyme. It is definitely of the precious-precious-super-sweet narrative style. 

While God is mentioned on nearly every single spread of this one, the depth and substance as to who God is vague and generalized. Though we do get one 'Heavenly Father.' 

There is no mention of Jesus at all. Not even once. I think a choice was made. Perhaps I'm wrong. What is mentioned about God is certainly happy-happy-cozy-cozy and not at all controversial or offensive. 

There is not a great depth to the spiritual truths in this one. But one does get a sense that God is all-knowing, all-seeing, kind, good, and loving. There is more focus on God watching over YOU the one and only unique, supremely precious perfect YOU than anything else. (You get the impression that the message is God is so lucky, fortunate, blessed that there is a you in his life). The focus is definitely on God's love and loving YOU and loving everyone. But God is definitely a tame, gentle God in this one. 

Does a picture book *need* to present the gospel? Maybe. Maybe not. Does this book in anyway indicate that there is a gospel? No. Not really. The book doesn't really go there at all. For better or worse. I mean a book certainly doesn't have to present our need for the Savior, who the Savior is, how we're saved, what we're saved from, what our salvation means, the hope to which we cling, etc. 

The book begins with the premise *if* God sent you a letter....and then proceeds. The truth is we do have God's revelation. We do have his written word. While it may not be a letter written for us specifically as individuals. We have access to the very words of God. We know WHO he is because he has revealed himself to us. (Read Psalm 19 or 119 among dozens of other places that speak of the Word of God). We do not have to guess about who God is, what God has done, what God has promised, what God has said. Perhaps there was a missed opportunity to point little ones to the Word of God.

One of the book's premises is that little ones can look for EIGHTY letters in the illustrations. A seek and find if you will. The back copy reads, "they will find encouraged" when they spot these illustrated letters in the book because "God is always with them on life's journey." I certainly don't have issues with illustrators providing details for little ones to find. But it does seem odd to me at least that this is the highlight of the back copy. Like that is the most important thing about the book? 

There aren't a tremendous amount of Christian picture books published each year. I'd say there is a small number published each year. I always like to review them when I can because I know the need is there. I've read better. I've read worse. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

54. The Anxious Generation Goes to Church

54. The Anxious Generation Goes to Church: What the Research Says About What Younger Generations Need and Want From Your Church. Thom S. Rainer. 2025. [August] 192. [Source: Review copy] [4 stars, nonfiction, christian nonfiction]

First sentence: I was well on my way to completing the research on a different book when I hit a wall.

The book I thought I was 'getting' was not the book I got. That's on me, mostly. I didn't see or pay enough attention to the subtitle. Perhaps. I have thoughts. I do. I'll try to share them when appropriate. 

So what IS the book about? The book addresses from a statistical, sociological, analytical, research-oriented viewpoint how the two youngest generations--Gen Z and Gen Alpha--could benefit from the structure of the church and the church community. Gen Z refers to those born between 1997 and 2012. Gen Alpha refers to those born between 2013 and the present. 

His inspiration for writing is DIRECTLY connected to his reading a secular book called The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. Much of his book is spent summarizing and analyzing Haidt's book and spinning or tilting it perhaps to see it from a Christian perspective. The concerns are roughly the same, I believe, but Rainer focuses on a possible solution to the 'problem.'

Rainer defines and describes each generation from The Silent Generation on through Gen Alpha. Each generation is defined in GENERALIZED terms--very wide brush strokes, if you will. It starts from a place that these sociological terms and generalizations are essentially true. He does not question these foundational blocks. [I'm not saying that is in and of itself a bad thing. It's just that almost all of the building blocks in this book, the foundation, the walls, the supports, etc., are all sociological and not in any way drawing from Scripture.] All people from a generation are lumped together despite unique, personal, individual differences. A very one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter approach to viewing humanity.

The Anxious Generations--Gen Z and Gen Alpha--are being shaped, rewired essentially by "the big four" : high speed internet, smartphones, social media, and polarization. Rainer spends time explaining the evils of the big four. Though high-speed internet, smartphones, social media, and polarization are so closely connected and intertwined, so knotted and tangled together that I'm not sure it makes sense to separate them from each other. You can probably guess what makes the big four evil without further explanation. Polarization is the only one that might perhaps need a little help. Essentially the polarization of society on every subject--mostly online but in person as well perhaps. (For example, how EVERYTHING is one baby step away from being a political issue.) 

He spends the most time on describing, defining, illustrating, etc., the 'special' problems facing the Anxious Generation. He then begins with a big picture, distant approach to how the church may be able to help. Again, his technique is more on statistics, research, polls, surveys, etc. He spends a chapter introducing readers to a series of atheists--yes, atheists--sharing quotes from them that allegedly show how even atheists admit that church can be stabilizing and morally good for society. How they may reject all religions and religious doctrines, etc, but they like the structures of the community--in theory at least. 

When he speaks of the church most often it is in a distant sociological research way. There's little to no theology in this one. 

The book isn't so much THE ANXIOUS GENERATIONS NEED JESUS AS THEIR LORD AND SAVIOR because they are sinners in need of a Savior, as Gen Z and Gen Alpha need the structure of weekly fellowship, in-person friendships, socialization and camaraderie. They need youth groups, discipleship, mentorship, to be a part of a family. It will benefit their mental health if they attend church. It doesn't really go into spiritual needs and spiritual solutions. 

He encourages the church to actively invite and welcome younger people in the church. That means, most notably, bringing someone to church--literally. Not just inviting casually. But making plans, going with them, sitting with them, sharing a meal, etc. He points out time and time again, that most are not willing to go to a church alone, but if they had someone to go with them, they'd go. He also emphasizes that "the unchurched" of all ages are not hostile to the faith, to church, to Christians, they just are waiting for us to go to them and actively care about them. (I'm not sure *where* he is getting this not hostile thing. I'm not sure which polarized view is right.) 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Week in Review #27

Bible reading

KJV

• Genesis 12-50
• 1 Chronicles 14-29
• 2 Chronicles 1-25
• Isaiah 6-43
• Matthew 5-21

NASB 95

• 1 Chronicles 11-29
• 2 Chronicles 
• Habakkuk
• Zephaniah
• Haggai
• Zechariah
• Malachi 

NASB 2020

• Genesis 1-23
• Ezra
• Nehemiah
• Psalms 1-18
• Matthew 1-7
• Acts 1-7

NKJV

• Jeremiah 9-52
• Lamentations
• Ezekiel 1-12;
• Psalms 74, 79, 82, 83, 137
• 2 Chronicles 36
• 2 Kings 24-25

ESV

Psalms 1-29

Luke 7-24

John 1-5

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

53. I Still Believe

53. I Still Believe. Jeremy Camp. 2013/2020. 160 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, memoir, biography]

First sentence: Pick up your guitar. I didn't want to. I didn't want anything to do with music. It had been two weeks since Melissa had gone to heaven. My wife was only twenty-one, and we had been married just three and a half months when she passed away from ovarian cancer.

I Still Believe is Jeremy Camp's memoir. The edition I read was newly updated in timing with the 2020 movie release for I Still Believe. Both book and movie tell the love story of Jeremy and Melissa. 

The book provides so much more context to Jeremy's life--both before and after. The movie focuses almost exclusively on their love story and nothing but their love story. The book gives a much fuller picture in regards to Jeremy's spiritual journey AND his actual biography. Learning of his family, his childhood, his teen years, and the decade(s) following Melissa's life certainly gives you a more complete picture of who he is. 

The book and movie are both sad. Sad in a bittersweet way. Melissa's life was short--yet every day of her life's story was written by God [before one of them came to be] and written to bring him glory.

I Still Believe isn't necessarily a book [or movie] that you "enjoy." But I think there are spiritual lessons within both. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

6. NASB 95 (New Inductive Study Bible)

6. New American Standard Bible 1995, New Inductive Study Bible. GOD. 1995. 2296 pages. [Source: Bought] [Bible, bible review, 5 stars]

First sentence: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

Start date: May 5, 2025

End date: June 30, 2025

The New American Standard Bible is one of my all-time favorite, favorite translations. Particularly the 1977 and 1995. This is the 1995 update. I have also read the New Inductive Study Bible in the NASB 1977. So I've now read this particular 'study' Bible in two translations.

This Bible is a study Bible if and only if you put in the work to make it so. The Bible includes detailed instructions on how to do inductive Bible study, how to mark up your Bible, how to write in your Bible, how to interpret and understand what you're reading, what you're marking, etc. It does include some maps, charts, illustrations, etc. that you could benefit from regardless of if you are doing the inductive part. Because this is a Bible that's meant to be marked, written in, etc, there's plenty of space to do so. Perhaps not as much as a wide margin or journaling Bible, but more than your regular Bible.

This is a SINGLE COLUMN, black-letter Bible. The font size is decent, perhaps more than decent. It is not large print or giant print. But it isn't tiny print either. This Bible is HEAVY. That's the trade-off for all the extra space for writing. I believe it is also verse by verse (and not paragraphed). There are no headings, sub-headings, etc. There are lines for YOU to fill in the headings. 

This is an older edition of the New Inductive Study Bible. I believe it has been reprinted several times. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Week in Review #26

Bible reading

KJV Cambridge Clarion

• Psalms 107-150
• Hebrews
• James
• 1 Peter
• 2 Peter
• 1 John
• 2 John
• 3 John
• Jude
• Revelation 

KJV Thompson Chain

• Genesis 1-11
• 1 Chronicles 1-13
• Song of Solomon
• Isaiah 1-5
• Matthew 1-4
• Titus (2 times)
• Philemon

ESV

• Mark
• Luke 1-6

NASB 95

• 1 Samuel 21-31
• 2 Samuel
• 1 Kings
• 2 Kings
• 1 Chronicles 1-10
• Psalms 33-43
• Ezekiel 6-48
• Daniel
• Hosea
• Joel
• Amos
• Obadiah
• Jonah
• Micah
• Nahum
• Matthew 21-28
• Acts 9-28

NKJV

• Isaiah 54-66
• 2 Kings 21-23
• 2 Chronicles 33-35
• Nahum
• Zephaniah
• Habakkuk
• Joel
• Jeremiah 1-8

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

52. Every Hour Until Then

52. Every Hour Until Then (Timeless #5) Gabrielle Meyer. 2025. 368 pages. [Source: Library] [speculative fiction, historical fiction, time travel, christian fiction, 5 stars]

First sentence: A cold wind rattled the window frame in my bedroom at 11 Wilton Crescent as the edges of a tree branch scraped across the glass.

Premise/plot: The Timeless series by Gabrielle Meyer are speculative fiction heavy on the romance. Each is a 'timeslip' novel where the heroine is living in two time periods. She lives each day twice: once in each time period. She alternates where she wakes up essentially. Her first name is the same in both timelines. Kathryn, our heroine, is living in 1888 and 1938. In one timeline, JACK THE RIPPER is splashed across the newspapers. IN the other timeline, ADOLF HITLER is. She loves history in both timelines. But she has perhaps a better job in 1938. She is, in fact, hired to put together an exhibit on Jack the Ripper in 1938 for the London Museum. For better or worse, her time in the 'present day' of 1938 is effecting how she is living life in 1888. She knows WHO the victims will be and the details surrounding their death. She knows that the killer will not be brought to justice and is in fact still very much a mystery. She is tempted to see for herself if she can figure out WHO he is by hiding at the scene of his crimes. Especially when she knows one of the future victims. Will she risk it all to save a life?

My thoughts: This might be my favorite of the series. Perhaps. For the record, some of the books in this series I have not cared for at all. This one was extremely different from previous books. It was more MYSTERY and SUSPENSE then romance. That's not to say the love interest in the past lacked charm, he did. It's just that there was no love triangle--like in previous titles in the series where some attempt is made to be angsty in the love department. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible