Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado

There are giants everywhere but we are not grasshoppers in our minds.  With all the power of Heaven at our disposal and the sword of the spirit in our hands, we can defeat any enemy that comes against us.

In Max Lucado’s book called Facing Your Giants, he takes the life of David and shares secrets and insights that can help us face the giants in our lives. 

We have all heard the story of David and Goliath. David was the skinny little freckle faced shepherd boy completely out of his element on the battlefield. Goliath was a nine-foot giant that had a little too much pride and confidence in his ability.  But David had something Goliath didn’t have with all his physical abilities, the power of God backing him up.  When David saw Goliath on top of the hill, he didn’t slink back and hide like the rest of the army.  Instead, he called upon his God and ran toward his giant picking up five smooth stones as he ran and slinging his slingshot.  Even with a nonsophisticated weapon, he was able to hit Goliath where he wasn’t protected and kill him.

As Max points out in this book, even later in David’s life when he fell short and lost sight of God, he was always able to come back and face his giants and receive God’s forgiveness.   God is always there waiting to forgive and restore your life but you have to face your problems, not run away from them.

The only part of you that is not protected with the armor of God is your backside.  God intended for us to face our giants head on not running away from them where they have a target to hit.

These days we don’t have nine-foot giants to face and kill. We have debt, worry, sickness, anger, bitterness, failures, and fear.  But if we take David’s advice, we can cast our cares and let God fight our battles. We will always win with him on our side as long as we don’t run.  But we have to stay focused on God and his Word. 

I will leave you with a quote from this book:

            Focus on Giants – You Stumble

            Focus on God – Your Giants Tumble

I hope you will read this book and learn how to follow David’s example and conquer any Goliath you have facing you today! 

You can purchase this book here.

Trial by Fire by Terri Blackstock

Amid all the difficult circumstances that life throws my way, I always find it relaxing at the end of a hard day to stretch out with a good book.  I just completed the fourth book in the Newpointe 911 series by Terri Blackstock called Trial by Fire.

This book centers on Nick Foster who is both a firefighter and the pastor in Newpointe, Louisiana.  When they get the call that his church is on fire, they rush to the scene in hopes of saving the building that means so much to the entire town.  Once they arrive on the scene, Nick sees that the whole building is engulfed but he charges in amidst the flames to make sure no one is trapped.  After sustaining burns to his arms and legs, he frees a young man from the building only to find that the kid has a bullet hole through his head.  He didn’t just die in the fire; this is a murder.

The local paramedic, Issie Mattreaux, is the complete opposite of Nick with a wild lifestyle and a record of poor choices.  After the fire at the church she begins searching for her nephew, Jake, who has went missing.  But what she finds will put her life and those close to her in danger.  When an attempt is made on Issie’s life, she doesn’t know who else to call so she calls Nick.  In an ironic twist, the preacher and the town sinner will have to stick together to stay alive. Can Nick keep her alive long enough to share his faith with her and just maybe find the girl of his dreams beneath Issie’s tough exterior?

This is a great book that will have you hanging onto every word!

You can purchase this book here.

Word of Honor by Terri Blackstock

Word of Honor is the third book in the Newpointe 911 series by Terri Blackstock.  This book focuses on the local attorney Jill Clark and her old flame, Dan Nichols.  When a bomb goes off in the downtown post office killing three people and leaving a five-year-old boy lying comatose in the hospital. 

The man seen leaving the scene of the bombing breaks into Jill’s hotel room and holds her hostage while trying to figure out his next move.  The whole time she is being held hostage, her captor keeps telling her he is innocent but he will not give police the name of anyone else.  To get out of the gunman’s hands, Jill agrees to represent him. However, once outside she backs out of her promise.

With the suspected bomber in jail, things get rocky when there are multiple attempts made on her life and it becomes clear that he may not be the bomber or at least not acted alone. Jill starts digging deeper into the case with Dan’s assistance but finds that to solve it, she must dig deeper into the Bible and find out what a covenant really is.

This is a high action book that I highly recommend!

You can find out more here.