Draw Near by Hadassah Treu Blog Tour Book Review

About the Book

Book: DRAW NEAR: How Painful Experiences Become the Birthplace of Blessings

Author: Hadassah Treu

Genre: Christian Non-Fiction

Release date: March 15, 2024

Can something so painful, even tragic, actually be God’s way of blessing?

As believers, we generally expect good things to happen in our lives. We expect a blessing upon blessing because we love God and He loves us and we form an expectation of prosperity (relational, emotional, and physical). And when the tragedy strikes and we enter a season of unwanted changes and suffering, we are shocked, angry, disappointed, and confused. We start doubting God’s love and His good intentions and plans. We begin questioning His ways and methods. We don’t understand. It is difficult to reconcile the pain we feel with what we know about God. This encouraging book aims to help you not only identify and accept specific losses but to realize that painful experiences could be the birthplace of blessings. We lose something, but there is more to gain.

What is God using your pain for?

Click here to get your copy!

My Review

Treu gives us a fresh look at pain and suffering, how God works in them and how they are opportunities to grow close to God. The sufferings humble us and prepare us for ministry. Suffering is the path of self-knowledge, True says, and God knowledge.

Treu writes from her own experiences and is very honest about her own pain and disillusionment, including barrenness and the sudden death of her husband. She includes illustrations from Bible characters. She explores a number of issues including sadness, anxiety, rejection, loneliness, grief, failure, betrayal, and more. Each chapter contains review points with truths to declare, reflection questions, verses upon which to meditate, and a powerful prayer.

This is a powerful book containing great teaching and practical ideas. I highly recommend it.

My rating: 5/5 stars.

 

About the Author

Hadassah Treu is an international award-winning Christian author, blogger, poet, and speaker, and contributor to several faith-based platforms like Koinonia and Devotable, and a dozen devotionals and poetry anthologies in English and Bulgarian. She is a COMPEL Provers 31 Blog writer and Freelancing Community Group leader. Her writing is featured on (In)Courage, The Upper Room, Proverbs 31 Ministries, Her View From Home, Living by Design Ministries, Thoughts About God, Today’s Christian Living and other popular sites.

More from Hadassah

Why me? Why this? Why now? How am I going to heal from this pain? Where are you, Lord?

These are the questions I often asked when I stayed awake in the night, with tears burning down my cheeks. I needed a new perspective, a deeper understanding, and the assurance of God’s love and good plans in my painful experiences. I longed for comfort and hope, and help to fix my eyes on the divine transformation going on in my heart.

Do you face the same struggles?

We all do. We all need a biblical perspective and a new look at suffering to help us reconcile our painful experiences with what we know about God. Suffering remains a mystery and there is no simple theological answer to it. But what is our role? What are we supposed to think and do when we go through undeserved and unexpected pain and trauma?

The first and most important is to learn to see our dark moments as new chances and opportunities to draw near to God. We can choose to take off the glasses of loss and replace them with the lenses of God’s love, biblical truths, and thankfulness. Then our outlook will change and we will see more of the bigger picture. We can choose to live with open minds, believing God’s Word, with hands raised in prayer. We can commit to putting every effort into finding the balance between the reality we live in and the reality in which we live with God. It is in this balance of our reality and God’s reality that we find peace instead of fear, rest instead of anxiety, and wholeness instead of destruction.

Our painful experiences are glorious opportunities to draw near to God, to bond with Him, and to enjoy intimacy and fellowship with Him amidst the pain. This is the most important thing we can do in our lives because everything else results from bonding and connection. A loving connection with God births maturity, growth, transformation, and eternal blessings. Besides that, suffering is a privilege and a possibility to take part in our Lord’s sufferings and to know the power of His resurrection.

When we choose to listen and draw near to God in our pains, something miraculous will happen. God’s Spirit will birth blessings and precious gifts out of the pain.

Are you ready to unpack them?

Blog Stops

Inspired by Fiction, October 3

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, October 4

Fiction Book Lover, October 5 (Author Interview)

Mary Hake, October 5

Texas Book-aholic, October 6

A Reader’s Brain, October 7 (Author Interview)

Life on Chickadee Lane, October 8

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, October 9

Locks, Hooks and Books, October 10

Back Porch Reads, October 11 (Author Interview)

Becca Hope: Book Obsessed, October 11

Cover Lover Book Review, October 12

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, October 13

Stories By Gina, October 14 (Author Interview)

She Lives To Read, October 15

Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, October 16 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

 

To celebrate her tour, Hadassah is giving away the grand prize of a $30 Amazon card and copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf5457

I received a complimentary egalley of this book through Celebrate Lit. My comments are an independent and honest review. The rest of the copy of this post was provided by Celebrate Lit.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)

When the Mountain Crumbled by Angela K Couch Blog Tour Book Review

About the Book

Book: When the Mountain Crumbled (A Day to Remember Book 4)

Author: Angela K Couch

Genre: Historical Christian Fiction

Release date: September, 2024

Though Mountains Crumble, Hope Is Not Buried

Enjoy a series of 6 exciting novels featuring historic disasters that transformed landscapes and multiple lives. Whether by nature or by man, these disasters changed history and were a day to be remembered.

Discipline and rules are the foundation on which Samantha Ingles has built her life—the life of a spinster schoolteacher in a small mining town in the Canadian Rockies. All that crumbles from her grasp when part of a mountain crashes down on their community.

Constable David Harty has little patience for the strict schoolmarm but has no choice but to leave his three young nieces in her care while he tries to discover the fate of his brother. Already, the girls have lost their mother and brothers to the landslide and require comfort and love while they await the fate of their father, possibly buried in the coal mine.

With the mountain looming over their heads threatening more lives, and the town scrambling to save who they can from the rubble, can hearts find healing—both for their own sakes and the children in their care?

Click here to get your copy!

My Review

This is another good novel in the historical series drawing attention to little known disasters in the past. This novel brings a human element to the reality of the deadliest landslide in North American recorded history. While the main emphasis of the plot is a romance, there are several other issues highlighted in the book. One is keeping relationships healthy. It is certainly too late after a deadly disaster to try and repair a relationship. Another issue explored is reconciling belief in God with the results of tragedy.

The character development of Samantha is itself an issue explored. When young and at a boarding school, she lost her parents. She was overwhelmed with grief but was told by the adult in charge that she needed to get control of her emotions. That experience impacted her entire life. It was good to see how getting to know Nathan was instrumental in breaking through the emotional and spiritual walls she had set around herself.

And the final lesson from this novel is that what starts out as a tragedy will end up for good. I have liked the novels in this series and this latest is another good one.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

 

About the Author

To keep from freezing in the great white north, Angela K Couch cuddles under quilts with her laptop. Winning short story contests, being a semi-finalist in ACFW’s Genesis Contest, and a finalist in the 2016 International Digital Awards also helped warm her up. As a passionate believer in Christ, her faith permeates the stories she tells. Her martial arts training, experience with horses, and appreciation for good romance sneak in as well. When not writing, she stays fit (and toasty warm) by chasing after five munchkins.

 

More from Angela

Around 4:10 am on April 29^th, 1903, approximately 110 million metric tonnes of limestone broke from the side of Turtle Mountain and crashed down into the Crowsnest Valley, burying ranches, camps, an active coal mine, and a part of the town of Frank. What has come to be known as “Frank Slide” was the deadliest landslide in North American recorded history, claiming the lives of more than seventy people.

I first visited Frank Slide as a child, as it is located only an hour’s drive from my home. All I remember from that experience was the heaps of rocks and boulders, and the story of the mine-horse named Charlie. When driving through the Crowsnest Pass as an adult, I began to appreciate the terror of that night and the horrible loss of life. Not until expanding my research while writing this story, did the miracles of Frank shine through everything horrible that happened. That became the focus of my story, When the Mountain Crumbled.

I find our own lives follow a similar pattern. Tragedy, hardship, sickness and disappointment… but do we see the miracles?

Blog Stops

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, October 2

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, October 2

Life on Chickadee Lane, October 3

Betti Mace, October 4

Lighthouse Academy Blog, October 5 (Guest Review from Marilyn)

Devoted To Hope, October 6

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, October 6

Texas Book-aholic, October 7

Locks, Hooks and Books, October 8

Tell Tale Book Reviews, October 9

Bizwings Book Blog, October 9

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, October 10

Holly’s Book Corner, October 11

Blossoms and Blessings, October 11

An Author’s Take, October 12

Cover Lover Book Review, October 13

Mary Hake, October 13

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, October 14

Pause for Tales, October 15

Connie’s History Classroom, October 15

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Angela is giving away the grand prize of a $25 Amazon card and a print copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf5456

I received a complimentary egalley of this book through Celebrate Lit. My comments are an independent and honest review. The rest of the copy of this post was provided by Celebrate Lit.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)