Facing the Giants was a big deal when I was in high school. There were few Christian movies like it at the time and I found myself relating the setting of a Christian school, despite the fact we didn’t have a football team and I knew little about the sport. So I was presently surprised when I found out there was a novelization of the film that was in my church’s library. I remember being unsure of what to expect but was not disappointed. This book gives a lot of extra details and background to the story you see in the film and brings you deeper into the world of the movie and its characters. If you are a fan of this movie, I highly recommend that you check out this book ~ Bethel Grove In the novel based on the film Facing the Giants, you meet Christian school football coach Grant Taylor. Grant is fighting an uphill battle, since he has not had a winning season in the 6 years has coached the Shiloh Eagles football team and the team’s lead scorer transferred to a rival school. Things are not much better at home, as he and his wife Brooke struggle financially and long for children they don’t have. When things take a turn for the worst, Grant turns to the Lord, who leads him to reevaluate the way he follows the Lord and the way he leads his team. His new passion for his spiritual renewal eventually inspires his team and changes everything, eventually leading them to challenge the biggest team they ever faced and a game they would never forgot. The story of the film is inspiring and this novelization, with added details and characters not seen in the film, enhances the powerful truths in this story further. It is divided into several easy-to-digest chapters and clearly changes perspectives between characters in a way that is engaging. This book would also easily appeal to teenagers as well as adults. If you are a fan of Facing the Giants or Christian fiction, this is title I highly recommend. Get your copy today! Interested in purchasing this title? If you purchase it from Amazon using the link below, Abiding Grace Ministries will receive a small commission from the sale at no cost to you. Purchase Facing the Giants (Novel): https://amzn.to/4g34G2Z While I don't always talk about my books or products I am producing on this blog, I am going to make an exception because I have several projects I have completed since the beginning of the year, most of which I haven't talked about at all. So I am briefly going to touch on each one and share links so you can learn more if you are interested. Here we go: Gumroad StoreBefore talking about the specific products I've released, I want to highlight my newest avenue of self-publishing through a website called Gumroad. Instead of being limited to just publishing traditional print books, eBooks, and audiobooks, Gumroad gives me the ability to sell my own digital or even physical products without having to play for an official webstore. Instead, they simply take a small percentage of my sales so I can start where I am. While I have many ideas and projects in the works that I hope to release through this site, my main goals as I have launched this site have been to either sell PDFs versions of books I've already released or exclusive PDF eBooks that will be on a variety of subjects I am passionate about. To see my whole store, click the image below: Are You Ready to Repent (Again)?As the third part in Are You Ready series, Are You Ready to Repent is a short Bible study for teens focusing on the topics of repentance and recommitment. These topics tend to be confusing to teens and can lead them to be convinced that they aren't forgiven and need to keep repenting in order to earn God's favor. This study will give them a biblical grounded view of repentance, how it fits into the message of the gospel, and help them discern if they need to recommit their life to Christ. This book is available in print, eBook, and PDF download. To learn more, click the image below. Are You Ready Leader's GuideThis guide is designed to have all the materials a youth leader would need to teach classes based on all three of the books in the Are You Ready series. For each book, there are download links for editable teaching scripts and instructions for completing follow up meetings with each participant. This book is available as a print book, eBook, and PDF download bundle. To learn more, click the image below. Small Group Leader JournalsIn addition to publishing more traditional books, I have also been doing some experiments with publishing a type of book called "low content". This is a book that the user has to fill in, such as notebooks, planners, and journals. So working in line with much of my other books, I am working on ideas for several low content youth ministry books. The first low content book is a journal designed to help small group leaders improve their small group time. There are two variations of these journals: one for general youth ministry and one for teen girl ministry. To learn more, click on one of the images below. Student Info BookThis low content youth ministry book is simply a method that youth leaders or small group leaders can use to keep track of their student information. To learn more, click the image below. 20 Questions to Ask When You Are Studying the Bible (PDF Download)As my first PDF only eBook, this resource will give you question you can ask that will help you dig deeper into the Bible and hopefully help you see the Scriptures in a new light. To learn more, click the image below. Make sure to stay tuned to this site to learn more about future projects like these.
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This is an intriguing and powerful fiction. I discover that the first time I read this back in high school. At first, I was mostly drawn to it because it was written by C.S. Lewis. I didn’t even know what it was about or that it was fiction, given that Lewis wrote in so many different genres. What started as a reading project for extra credit became a book that taught me powerful lessons about heaven and hell. This book is one that I definitely recommend ~ Bethel In his book The Great Divorce, beloved author C.S. Lewis presents powerful fictional analogies of heaven and hell. When the narrator suddenly finds himself in a joyless “grey town”, he chooses to wait at the bus stop to take the bus out of town. When he gets on the bus and finally arrives at his destination, he discovers that he and other passengers have become ghosts. While they arrived in a beautiful, heavenly country, their ghostly form make it painful to even walk on the grass. The bus passengers are met by people who they had known on earth who try to encourage them to choose heaven. Most of the passengers choose to get back on the bus (and essentially go to hell) by making up all kinds of excuses. The narrator eventually runs into George Macdonald, an author whom he called a mentor, who becomes the guide for the rest of the narrator’s journey. Macdonald helps the narrator to see and understand the excuses others passengers made to not go to heaven, whether or not they realize it before it’s too late. Right at the end, the narrator startles awake, realizing that he was fallen asleep in his study. This book has an interesting cast of characters that, even years after its publication, are relevant to its readers. In a similar fashion to his book The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce uses fiction to help them understand the struggles of the spiritual realm and our spiritual well-being. If you enjoy insightful Christian fiction, this is a book that I highly recommend. Get your copy today! Teen Rating. I personally read this in high school. While I enjoyed the individual characters and the lessons learned from them, I felt that the book’s imagery was difficult to process. I had a hard time telling the difference between heaven and hell within the author’s analogies. I only recommend it to teens that have decent reading comprehension, probably 16 or older. Interested in purchasing this title? If you purchase it from Amazon using the link below, Abiding Grace Ministries will receive a small commission from the sale at no cost to you. Purchase The Great Divorce: https://amzn.to/3DeTG47 To read more reviews of books by C.S. Lewis, click here To learn more about my book Redeeming All Hallows' Eve, click here This is an amazing book. I knew that even before I read it. I’d heard and read many glowing recommendations of this book from people I trusted, so I decided to check it out, even though I had hardly ever gotten into the realm of Christian fiction. In the end, I was not disappointed. And when I was first reading it, I couldn’t put it down. I love the setting, the biblical parallels, the storyline, the twists and turns in the plot, and where the story ended. I would even say that this is the best work of Christian fiction I have ever read. It’s incredible to think that this was Francine Rivers’ first book she wrote as a Christian, because it contains such a powerful portrayal of the heart of the gospel. It’s no wonder this book has sold over a million copies, and has remained a classic of Christian fiction for over 20 years. It makes me excited to get into other books by Francine Rivers in the future. I hope that maybe you will consider doing the same ~ Bethel When we look at many of the love stories that are unfolding in our culture today, it is very easy to become discouraged. Because so many people have given into the deception that love is based on feelings, too many people let go of love too soon, often for extremely selfish reasons. The popularity of movies and books that glamorize these type of relationships has only made matters worse. It’s even to the point that those that believe true love endures are presented as foolish and out of date. It leaves us to ask the question: can we actually find a good example of a love that won’t give up, no matter what? In the first Christian fiction novel by Francine Rivers, Redeeming Love, we are given a powerful example of a love that doesn’t give up, an example of Christ’s enduring for us. Based on the biblical story of the prophet Hosea being asked by God to marry the prostitute Gomer, this book takes familiar elements from that narrative and puts them into the setting of the gold rush in California in the 1850s. In Redeeming Love, mountain man Michael Hosea is compelled by God to marry Angel, the most popular and hard-hearted prostitute in that area. Despite her resistance and bitterness, Michael never gives up on gently loving and pursuing her, and it makes no sense to her. Angel resists for the longest time, refusing to break the walls from her past and open her heart towards Michael, and but over time, her heart does slowly begin to change. When her hardened heart finally begins to soften, she can’t help but feel unworthy and afraid of his affections, so she runs away. Then she is finally forced to confront the darkness of her past. Since she is apart from her husband’s love, her full healing is finally able to come from the One whose love and pursuit of Angel’s heart is even greater than her husband Michael’s, a love that proves that it will never let go, no matter what. This is a powerful work of fiction, one that can change your perspective of the powerful, all-consuming love of the heavenly Father. The fictional setting makes it even more accessible and engaging to the reader. It’s a book that draws you into its world, but also presents powerful truth in a compelling way. If you only ever read one Christian fiction book in your lifetime, this should be the one. I would recommend this book to anyone about 16 or older, male or female, teen or adult. It’s available pretty much everywhere, so get your copy today! From the time I read this book for the first time at the end of my senior year of high school, it has been one of my all-time favorites. C.S. Lewis has always been one of my favorite authors, but this is by far one of his best. Although it is written as a work of fiction, its insights into the battles in the heavenly realms are compelling and powerful. I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 12, as long as they are good readers. If you have any other questions about this book, or other works by C.S. Lewis, just ask ~ Bethel In the world we live in today, spiritual warfare is going on all around us. But it’s not just going on in the world at large; it’s also warring around the soul of each person on this earth. Sometimes, we are aware of when we are under attack by Satan. But most of the time, we are not aware of how the Enemy works in small ways throughout our day-to-day lives. These small victories can often lead to large footholds, and we didn’t really see it coming. This makes us struggle to believe that we have been shown grace through Jesus Christ and makes us doubt in our own salvation. And we get stuck in this exact same cycle over and over again. It makes us ask the question: is there a way to us to understand the tactics of the Enemy so we can stand up against it? In his famous novel, C.S. Lewis explodes to answer this question in a way that’s not only satirical, but also very applicable to our lives. The Screwtape Letters shows fictional letters written by an experienced, world-wise demon Screwtape to his inexperienced demon nephew Wormwood. Since Wormwood is constantly asking his uncle for advice, Screwtape answers with the tactics and strategies they use to tempt or deceive for “Our Father Below”. You follow along as Wormwood continually attempts to tempt a young man who becomes a Christian, but despite the best advice of Screwtape, does not succeed in having victory over his soul or keeping this man away from “The Enemy” (their name for God). All of this is done within the fictional and satirical setting that makes it easier to process, but also presents its powerful message. It’s rather incredible to think that Lewis was able to get into the mindset of the other side, and it seems that even he was rather surprised at how easily it came to him. What resulted was one of the best representations of the spiritual warfare ever written, and can give anyone that takes the time to read it a powerful tool to stand up against the tactics of Satan, so that then you can help others do the same. Being such a beloved classic, you can easier find it in bookstores everywhere, so get your hands on a copy today! Another Great Resource
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Lion's Eyes Reviews is a blog dedicated to reviews of Christian books, most of which are non-fiction, but may also occasionally review movies and musicals. It will also feature the work Bethel does to help launch and promote the works of Christian authors.
The name is derived from one of Bethel's favorite books, Through the Eyes of a Lion by Levi Lusko. Through these reviews, Bethel hope to give Christians the tools they need to look at the world "through the eyes of a lion" so they can find the courage to "run toward the roar". To find the detailed archives of these reviews, you can check them out here: Books In Review Movies in Review Broadway In Review Quick Reviews To understand the rating used in these reviews, click here Categories
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Bethel Grove is a Christian young woman who loves to read and write, eat Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzards, and disciple teen girls as a youth leader. What started as a hobby of writing book reviews and doing deep biblical studies eventually led her down the path of self-publishing and supporting other Christian authors and ministry volunteers. She hopes to someday be a vocational youth minister and well-known author.
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