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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Book Review: Everything by Mary DeMuth

I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson as a part of their BookSneeze program.  Also, I attempted to write this review while trying to watch my children at the local public library, so if you find it lacking and full of errors, you know why.

I'd been seeing a lot about Everything by Mary DeMuth around the time of its release, and so was glad to be able to select it to review.  First, ignore the cover.  The cutesy font used for the title in a heart gives the impression that it is kind of a "girly" book without much depth.  Had I known nothing about the book and only seen the cover, I would have been less than impressed.  However, the content goes so much deeper and is worthwhile to those who are looking for guidance in deepening their faith.

I was especially impressed by DeMuth's scholarship with certain Biblical texts, explaining how they are often ripped out of context and giving the context for them (i.e. Jeremiah 29:11).  She also explains how we tend to follow a popular version of a Christianity that tells us God won't give us more than we can handle or that requires little commitment, or that it is all about our comfort and happiness when that is actually not representative of what Jesus asks of us.  

Some of the great lessons DeMuth teaches in Everything:

  • Let God convict people, not you
  • Be yourself
  • Give up control
  • Allow the Spirit to work in us
Everything is a book that you will want to read slowly and think about, as well as spend time doing the discussion questions included at the end of each chapter.  It's not a book to rush through, but one to savor.  

4 comments:

Mary DeMuth said...

Thanks for reviewing the book, Kelly. I so appreciate it.

Kelly J Youngblood said...

You're welcome! I wish I had taken my own advice and read it slowly, because reading it in order to review made me read it faster. Now that I have that done, I can hopefully go back and read it again more slowly.

Anonymous said...

sounds interesting! will have to add it to my (now very overwhelming) to-read list.

Mary DeMuth said...

May you mine everything you need to mine from it this next time through. :)