Musings of a Snickerdoodle

I first heard of William K. Harrison Jr. on the radio some time ago.  He was being used as an example of someone who made sure he read the word of God every day, even when things got really busy; and things were really busy in his life, as it was noted that this man was a general in World War II.   Not a lot of information was given, but that piqued my interest. But I was sort of afraid he'd be some sort of nominal Christian guy who just read his Bible for just for the sake of 'morality', rather than being the real deal. I tried to find more information about him, and discovered some articles that he had written One was " Professional Excellence for the Christian Officer " And the other one is "May A Christian Serve in the Military ".   I'll give an excerpt from that one here:   From the section in that article,   " The Real Cause of War". "From a Biblical standpoint the answer is simple. The world is dea...

When I heard that there was a new biography coming out about Charles Spurgeon's wife, Susannah, I was quite interested, eager for it to come out.  I've read a short biography of Susannah before, but this one, Susie: The life and legacy of Susannah Spurgeon by Ray Rhodes Jr. Is a larger and  I thought it would be  neat to know more about her.   The cover is beautiful looking, is hardcover (which to me is quite a plus), and it feels like very good quality. I read it out loud with my sister, thinking that we would enjoy it together…not so.  It dragged, and the timeline just seemed all over the place.  I was very disappointed with this biography. I am very sorry to have to sound harsh, but this is probably the worst written biography I've ever read. I don't think I've ever read one written like this before.  It just seemed like a book that recycles some facts over, and over, and over and over again.  Past events are repeatedly (not just onc...

I've read a biography of Jonathan Edwards before, and I've read a small part of his writings, but still have felt as though I don't know Edwards and his works very well.  When I saw that this book, The Essential Jonathan Edwards:  An Introduction to the Life and Teaching of America's Greatest Theologian, by Owen Strachan and Douglas A. Sweeney, was available to request for review, I thought that this would be a good way to introduce myself more fully to Edwards. The book is divided into five parts.   Part one gives a high level biography of Edwards with quotations from his works interspersed throughout.   The other sections are more topical,   with chapters dealing with Edwards' thoughts on "Beauty" (having chapters such as The Beauty of God, The Beauty of Creation etc.),   the other sections are "The Good Life", "True Christianity" and "Heaven and Hell".   All of these parts contain summaries of Edwards writings...

The only thing I knew about Oswald Chambers was that he wrote the devotional, My Utmost For His Highest, which I looked through some years ago (I don't remember if I read it all the way through) and liked some of the concepts that I found in it.  When I saw this biography of his wife I thought that it would be a good way to know more about the couple. It   really informed me quite a bit and gave me a better picture of these two people, or a rather it gave me the only picture I've had so far as I didn't know really anything at all about them. Gertrude Annie Hobbes, known as "Biddy" (Oswald's nickname for her), was not expecting the life that God had planned for her. She had trained for and had become excellent at taking shorthand notes and was a good typist as well.  Her goal was to be the first female secretary to the prime minister of England. God had other plans.  She and Oswald Chambers initially 'fell' in love on a ten day voyage to America.  ...

Alvin York: A New Biography of the Hero of the Argonne by Douglas V. Mastriano is a very interesting account of the life of this man, of what happened on the battlefield in World War 1 that elevated York, a former pacifist, to fame.  Alvin York was born into what became a large family, the third of eleven children (the family lived in a one room cabin on a farm by the way!).  His two older brothers where married and had farms of their own when his father died and so York became the head of the family.  After this, despite having been born into a Christian family, York went downhill morally and became a heavy drinker and a gambler, and of course, associated with bad people.  He acknowledged that his sins started small and then these things became controllers of his life.  Change came when York became a Christian and actively put away and resisted his old habits, he truly became a "new creation", a new person.  When war broke out between the United...