"Lifted By Angels" by Joel J. Miller

Psalm 91:11
"For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."

I received a free copy of this book from Booksneeze.com in return for this unbiased review.  I received no other remuneration for this review.

"Lifted By Angels, The Presence And Power of Our Heavenly Guides And Guardians" was written by Joel J. Miller and published by Thomas Nelson Publishers.  Miller is a writer and editor; he has written several books including "The Revolutionary Paul Revere."  This book promises concise and scriptural accounts of angelic encounters.  While the author delivers this promise at times, some information is taken from Apocryphal writings.  The Apocrypha, meaning hidden, is a collection of fourteen books included in the Douay Bible.  These books are not included in the sixty-six books of the canonized Protestant Bible.  The early Church fathers applied stringent tests to candidate books, and by faith Christians accept these canonized books as holy scripture.  Some Apocryphal books, such as the Maccabees are valuable for historical reference, but are not considered scripture by the Protestant Church.  That being said, it is a slippery slope to begin to accept information that is not scriptural.  The book of Revelation ends with this admonition, "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book" (Rev. 22:18,19).

I would not recommend the reading of this book by anyone who is not well-informed of scriptural truth regarding angels, and only then as a critical thinking exercise.  A glaring oversight in this book is also information found in 2 Corinthians 11:14, "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."  The author speaks of angelic fellowship and detecting their presence, this is infinitely dangerous as Satan is a grand deceiver.  We are not to worship or pray to angels.  They are God's ministers.  We may pray to Him and ask Him to send His angels to surround and protect us, but too much focus on angels is unbalanced. Psalm 91:11 sums up this truth, "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."   
Rev. Patti Harrison

  

"The Searchers" by Joseph Loconte

"So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them."

Luke 24:15

I received Joseph Loconte's book "The Searchers" from Booksneeze.com in return for this unbiased review. I received no other remuneration for this review and the opinions expressed herein are completed my own.

In this well-written treatise, Joseph Loconte, an Asssociate Professor at King's College in New York City, elucidates the dilemma of faith.  Loconte writes with a historian's pen and a poet's heart as he travels the road to Emmaus alongside the two disillusioned followers and the stranger revealed to be Christ.  It seems that it is a quite human reaction to seek to return to the familiar-- to go home, as it were, when our lives seemingly crumble.  This is where faith meets our own realities, and the place that we find that Christ will not let us slip out of His hand.  Every person's faith walk is a journey beginning at varying places, but end in the realization that Christ is Who He says He is and that He came to bring us life.  Each of us will know the truth eventually, it is God's will that this realization will be in relationship with Him.  Loconte quotes C.S. Lewis regarding this human desire, "Apparently, then, our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off. . . is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation" (Loconte 2012, 145).  The Searchers speaks to this longing and is a valuable read for believers and non-believers alike.
Rev. Patti Harrison