When it comes into books out of Africa, for certain group of people's mindset, there have certain reservation and comments they'd always like to give before even looking into it; even for Christian community.

Maybe certain prejudice has been formed from the few bad apples in the basket; but one must take on any material with an open mind and always counter check it back with the source - non other than the Good Book, the bible.

Wasn't there a written word that spoke of it?

Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test all things. Hold fast to what is good. - 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21

So today, I finally found time to review what I have been combing through these easy-to-read booklets after going through the recent Ignite night rally and of course, tested through all the scriptures Rev John has been explaining and preaching before deciding to get these 3 books.

Honestly, I love to read; but as age catches up and there are just more and more things to juggle, reading has pretty much gotten to the back of my list and sometimes, I still slip and slide even opening the bible for an extensive read.

@chloephuan93 and @aikido.hung of course has witness the decaying of my mental state whenever I rushed too much and lack of good input daily; so it was a perfect time to realign myself with some really easy read materials to kick-start my brain again (as per Dr. Caroline Leaf said. I'll talk more about what I discover from her sharing later)

So what was my take away out of these few booket in the series?

Opening the Portals of Prayer

I must say this series is a very specialised book especially for believers; but it also touches on how when things go really well all things fall apart concept in the spiritual realm. So for those who sometimes tend to say, "Why??? Why God??? Why now when everything is working so well??" this little booklet would have given the clues to it.

Another eye opening part especially for those who are very dedicated to intense prayer life is the explanation of disturbances or distractions that comes by that will just love to throw you off your focus; especially when it speaks about the Armour of God, just like when you go for battle, a lost of a gear or even a split second off focus could jeopardize a lot.

My personal take from this is when Dr. John was mentioning this:

The Bible calls them the armour of God. It is not our armour; it is God's armour. When we use it, we allow God to fight on our behalf.

Now a lot of religious practices always emphasize on you to do all the work, which can be rather pressured (for performance); but in the Christianity concept, we get engage in our prayer life without the stress of pressure, allowing us to focus much more knowing that we are not alone in any battlefield.

The nice part is that many religious book out there would pretty much touch this topic in the sense that you may not be good enough; but the author emphasise that while it is essential to practice a discipline prayer life, there are still room for improvements.

After identifying the cause in the spiritual realm, it is also to understand how to strategies your thoughts and "know your chess moves".

One more note on this booklet: For those who believe in light and darkness, yin and yang, good and evil; the force and the dark force; yes; darkness is real. Very real; and churches out there who are still slumbering and preoccupied with number of attendance KPI should really look deep into this topic.

The Abrahamic Strategies

Would be your next book to touch upon, and how you understand the meaning and importance of prayer altars; in both side of light and darkness.

And you know some places when you say that you would go to this place and you can either feel peace / something weird or even eerie despite of the place may not have regular frequency of people, the booklet gave a simple yet straightforward explanation to it.

Love Covers A Multitude of Sins

... can say is one of my favourite of all 3, simply because perhaps my family have been going through a lot the past years and this little booklet not only explains on situation when people disappoint us especially with something that truly damaging, see it in God's point of view and how we can overcome that judgmental thought and see with compassionate eyes.

Just today I have heard of a very young talented woman who ended her life, and she can be very wrongly perceived or not even being compassionately viewed in a strict Asian society, especially by the elderly; but this booklet helped many to understand the struggles of fallen individuals who took on their lives themselves with their limited and erroneous mindset, and how to compassionately and persevere to reach out to them with no prejudice eyes.

I personally have struggling love ones and yes when they reacted not as I have expected I did feel betrayed and was unable to tackle what is in their mind; but this tiny little compact book gave me many encouragement not to give up as no human is regarded as beyond help as long as they are still alive.

Overall, there are actually 9 booklets in the whole series, some are even more spiritual including family and nation building; and although I only got hold on 3 of them I felt that it was good enough to kick-start of a renewal mindset on how my spiritual walk should step out henceforth.

If you ever get a chance to get hold on this series, especially for a believer, do have am open heart to read it and know that every page was written with love and edification and correction.

I hope you find this review curious enough to compel you to purposefully spot this series out, as much as I have been very blessed reading them.

Until then



Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://littlenewthings.mywofs.com/ishare/index.php/2018/10/10/review-gems-out-of-africa-booklet-series/