Side by Side - by Edward Welch.

Having read some of Ed's previous books, I was looking forward to reading this one. Side by Side is an excellent book to learn how to walk with fellow believers and use our gifts to serve one another in love.  Ed's experience in handling these situations comes through clearly in this book.

The book is divided into two main parts: being needy and being needed. The first part guides you in sharing your burdens; the second part guides you in bearing the burdens of others. We benefit from the thinking that the author has done from counseling for over 30 years.

God has given us each other. The church is the display of his glory and manifest wisdom on earth.  We walk together. We live life together. This is how we are to be about the biblical mandate of living the "one-another" life.

Part 1, begins in the right place, with us. It talks about why our life is hard and the circumstances that bear on us. Then he goes straight to the heart - "in the heart we find the very essence of who we are". Moves from emotions of the heart to the idols of the heart.  Chapter three is excellent on thinking about suffering and our response to it.  Its not an in-depth analysis on the subject but focuses on reminding the essentials for the context of this book. He then models scripture and shows why and how we need to cry out for help - first to God and then other people.

Part 2 has tons of nuggets along the way. Like I said before Ed surely seems to have thought through this and done this before. We get to glean and learn from his experience. He has some good examples of how to talk to others. Chapter 9 is all about asking the right questions to get to know others. One thing that I have benefited from (and have been sorely lacking personally) is to see the good in others.  Part 2 starts with the basic "moving toward one another" and incrementally grows toward the serious topic of "talking about sin". Two main topics suggested in our walk with others are suffering and sin, suffering being the easier part and sin being the one that needs to be handled with much wisdom, love and care.

This books reads with simple constructs and makes it easy to think as you read along. Some of the content is not new in its "data" value but the "wisdom" is in the way its addressed and applied to this context. I've had many "aha", "why didn't I think of that" and other moments. For a while, I thought every elder should read this book but now I think every Christian should read this book! I'm grateful for this book and its author.

One to One Bible Reading - by David Helm

This book is concise and to the point. The goal of this book is to give you fair motivation and the tools that you need to do "vine work".  There is no talk about programs and structures in this book. Its plain and simple one-to-one bible reading discipleship.

The person across the table? Non Christians (Evangelism), New Christians (Discipleship) and established Christians (Growing Leaders).
Two Methods of Bible reading - Swedish (simple) and COMA (a bit more involved). Both are excellent methods and David gives some examples of how to use them.

This book is a super fast read. I would encourage you to pace yourself and let the material sink in, especially in the first part of the book.  The second part of the book is your reference for the rest of your life on one-to-one bible reading. This one is going into the reference section of my library.

Read this book. Think carefully through the simple reasons why we need to be doing one-to-one bible reading. Go forth. Do it!

How to read a person like a book
- by Gerard I. Nierenberg (Author), Henry H. Calero (Author), Gabriel Grayson (Author)

If you are interested in adding another facet to your skills on the art of negotiation, this book will help you in doing exactly that.

Human Kinetics has been around for a while and has a lot of  study and research to back its claims.  The authors have used that research and knowledge in their business and consulting relationships to "read" the person(s) at the other end of the negotiating table. This book is a result, tried and true gestures and attitudes that help you read a person.

This book is not just for business negotiators. I find it very valuable to use even when I talk to persons one or one, in a social gathering, etc. It makes my life a bit easier if I can "read" a person and see if they are really interested in what I have to say, Vice versa, if they "seem" to be genuine in their speech, etc.

This book goes through various gestures and how those relate to certain attitudes. Facial gestures, hand gestures, feet gestures and how you carry your self as a whole.

I've thoroughly enjoyed this book, now I have to make sure to try and memorize/remember what the myriad of gestures mean!

There has been a quiet frustration in my bones for the past few years. Seemed like I was fighting for time, fighting to do what I liked, enjoyed, cherished to do. I seem to have an avid desire to read books. And I have realized that when am not doing what I love that frustration grows and gnaws at me.

At the start of this year I resolved to systematically read a book a week. I was skeptical knowing what I know about me but thankfully I have gotten to a stage where I am doing exactly that (or very close to that).

It got me thinking, I need to capitalize on this new found surge and give it more structure and legs so I can maintain this and sustain it. I need to keep on top of it so I dont fall of the proverbial wagon. A burning sensation in my wallet drove me to research if there was a way to get the latest books at discounted price.

Long story short, yes there is! .. and that's one of the reasons why I resurrected my super old blog. Oddly enough this was the intent of my blog all along but I started saving my notes somewhere along the way in different cloud based services.

I revert now and will be posting reviews of the books that I read here, on amazon and elsewhere.