Just 12 days before the return of the last season of Lost and the internet is already buzzing with excitement. What will happen to our favorite survivors of flight 815? Who will end up with who? Who will shoot who? Did the bomb go off? Are they back in the present time? What about Jacob? So many questions and hopefully in May we will all be a bit wiser in the Lost scheme of things.  I have not been a lost junky from the start (started watching season 4) but have since made up for it (check out the lost category of my blog to see episode summaries, predictions and more). So when I heard that Thomas Nelson was giving away free copies* of “The Gospel According To Lost” I signed up to review it. I have read several books by Chris Seay (the author) and enjoyed them and since I already loved Lost this book was right up my ally.

The first thing I have to say is that I LOVED the paintings in the book. They are truly amazing. (Check out more work by the artist http://transpireproject.wordpress.com/). Each chapter is dedicated to a character and tells a bit about their story and how it fits into the gospel. For me I always saw the show laced with spiritual thoughts and background so some of the conclusions were already made in my mind but there were some that made me ponder.

This is a great book if you are just starting in lost, been on the journey, curious about what it means, or just about anything else. Chris Seay did an awesome job of staying true to the message of Christ and what that looks like in modern story form.

Mark Batterson’s new book ‘Primal’ is a quick easy read and mark excels at using stories from his travels to enhance his points. After reading his description of the roman catacombs I felt like I had taken the trip with him. Batterson wonders what Christianity would look like if we all truly loved God with compassion, wonder, curiosity, and power. As you read chapter after chapter, you will begin to see small and not-so-small ways that your life should be transformed by living the Great Commandment by loving God with every aspect of your life.

Description

In Primal Mark Batterson takes us back to the life Jesus intended for His followers to live. Jesus is asked what it takes to be a follower of God, and He answers with this primal phrase, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is primal Christianity.

Recently I got a copy of ‘The Liturgical Year’ by Joan Chittister from Thomas Nelson. I had a couple of other books in ‘The Ancient Practices Series’ so I wanted to give this a read.  While I liked this book it read more like a instruction book as to a book that you want to just pick up and read. I had a harder time getting through this book, but in pushing through there were great take-aways from this book.

Joan Chittister who is a nun, a member of the Benedictine sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania. She is also a lecturer and has authored many award winning books.

I main take-away I had from this book came early in the book in chapter 3.

Now we recognize that if Jesus’ life is to have eternal impact in the Christian community and beyond, it will depend on our being part of the mystery ourselves. We must pray our way into it. We  must think our way into it. We must live our way into it.”

For me reading the book was worth it for this on takeaway, but if you are into the history and traditions of the church then this is a must read, if you are not then you could pass on this book. I would recommend it though to anyone wanting to go deeper than they find sitting in church on a Sunday morning.