Book shoutout: Unstoppable The Incredible Power of Faith in Action by Nick Vujicic

Unstoppable: The Incredible Power of Faith in Action
by Nick Vujicic

I have not read this book as it has not yet been released at this moment but I am lending a blog space to the publisher, WaterBrook Multnomah to promote this up and coming book.

About this book 
(from the description in the publisher's page http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/workid.php?work=218361):

Being unstoppable is about believing and achieving. It’s about having faith in yourself, your talents and your purpose and, most of all, in God’s great love and His divine plan for your life.

Millions around the world recognize the smiling face and inspirational message of Nick Vujicic.  Despite being born without arms or legs, Nick’s challenges have not kept him from enjoying great adventures, a fulfilling and meaningful career, and loving relationships.  Nick has overcome trials and hardships by focusing on the promises that he was created for a unique and specific purpose, that his life has value and is a gift to others, and that no matter the despair and hard times in life, God is always present. Nick credits his success in life to the power that is unleashed when faith takes action.

But how does that happen?  In Unstoppable Nick addresses adversity and difficult circumstances that many people face today, including: 

·         Personal crises
·         Relationship issues
·         Career and job challenges
·         Health and disability concerns
·         Self-destructive thoughts, emotions, and addictions
·         Bullying, persecution, cruelty, and intolerance
·         Balance in body, mind, heart, and spirit 
·         Service to others

Through stories from his own life and the experiences of many others, Nick explains how anyone wanting a “ridiculously good life” can respond to these issues and more to become unstoppable. What’s standing in your way?  Are you ready to become unstoppable?

Watch a video trailer of the book:

Read or download the first chapter of Unstoppable here:
http://scr.bi/NxKSFT

 Unstoppable by Nick Vujicic (Chapter 1 Excerpt)

Book review: Has God Spoken? Proof of the Bible’s Divine Inspiration by Hank Hanegraaff

Open publication - Free publishing - More apologetics

Hank has indeed written a commendable volume called “Has God spoken?". In this book, Hank uses manuscript evidence, archeology, predictive prophecy, and much more to memorably demonstrate that the Bible is divine rather than merely human in origin.

Hank indeed is a man of acronyms! There are acronyms within the acronyms; so much so that I will cherry-pick those I find useful.

To begin with, the Bible is not a single book, but a collection of 66 books (39 in OT, 27 in NT; note: "3*9" = 27), written by 40 different authors of various backgrounds ranging from kings, prophets, cupbearer, fisherman, etc over a span of 1500 years, in 3 different continents in 3 languages. With such diversity, we would expect the Bible to be a disjointed, chaotic account of stories packaged together in a book. Yet, this is not what we find despite most of the authors have not met each other due to the span of 1500 years. What is find is a coherent, cohesive message of a loving God in a rescue mission to redeemed fallen humanity through the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. In fact, Jesus is the central theme of the Bible.

In this book, Hank gave various examples of manuscripts, as well as various archeological findings as part of the external evidences supporting the reliability of the Scripture.

Of course, in that book, Hank expounded heavily on the preterist view of eschatology that he holds on to. I don't share his view on this. However, just because I do not agree to his preterism view, does not mean that this book is not useful to me. Quite the contrary! In fact, I find a wealth of knowledge for future references. From this book, I learned of the Comma Johanneum -  an insertion in 1 John 5:7-8. This was first inserted in the margins of several Latin manuscripts although none of the early church fathers used it for their defense on Trinitarianism against the Sabellians and Arians. It was then inserted into the Textus Receptus compiled by Erasmus of Rotterdam under intense pressure so as not to be seen to be opposing to the Trinitarianism doctrine (although Erasmus initially did not want to).
 
This book has also helped opened my mind to many other archeological evidences besides the Dead Sea Scrolls - something which I had not known before. As mentioned, there are so many acronyms in this book, some of which I do find to be rather cumbersome and redundant. However, my most favorited acronym in this book is the ABCDEFG of OT prophetic fulfillment in Jesus Christ:

A: Ancestry
B: Birthplace
C: Crucifixion
D: Date
E: Extraordinary miracles
F: Fulfill
G: Gentiles

(see also: http://christianity.about.com/od/biblefactsandlists/a/Prophecies-Jesus.htm for a list)

In short, this is a good readable book - a reference material in fact. Highly recommended.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this e-book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”