I am sure many of you have been wondering about the inactivity here at Faith Approved. Well, not to worry…..we are back and hopefully better than ever! First, I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Julianne and I am the new owner here at FA. Courtney of course will be sorely missed, but she entrusted the site to me and I don’t have any intentions of letting her down (and I am certain we can get her back for a guest visit on occasion too!). Courtney and I met over at Kelly McCausey’s Mom Masterminds and I was helping her with some writing for her other site. She asked if I would like to take over the reigns here as she knows how important and how strong my faith in the Lord is. I am looking so forward to taking this site to new levels so please keep visiting! I would also love to hear any comments and suggestions to help take us into the future. This site is as much your site as it is mine, and I want to hear from my readers, so please don’t be shy! I truly hope you can “feel” just how excited I am that the Lord led me to be here. Stay tuned!! Julianne~

Have you ever wanted to try something new but was scared to take that chance?  I know I have been.  Sometimes it is hard to just trust that the Lord will take care of everything.

Alyssa Avant has created a program that helps you gain confidence in taking that leap of faith!  While the program focuses on writing, speaking, and ministry programs, the information it gives can be applied to any type of situation.

Our bloggers really enjoyed reviewing the membership program.  Here is what they had to say:

Kimberly from SheScribes:

Faith Leaps does have a lot of religious emphasis to it but I would think that many of the ideas and suggestions offered in Faith Leaps can apply to anyone. It’s geared a lot towards those interested in ministry.

Faith Leaps will help give you the confidence as well as the tools that you need on a very basic level whether you choose to start a ministry in your local church, begin speaking to local or community groups or begin writing as a way to reach out to others.

God is still giving me nudges. I’m not ignoring Him, but I’ve been trying to put Him off. But this time, it isn’t quite so scary, because there is a wonderful program created by my friend Alyssa Avant to help me through. Faith Leaps is a three month training program designed to help you figure out what and where God might be able to best use your Spiritual Gifts and talents. Alyssa encourages you with her spunky spirit to examine yourself through prayer, online activities, questions, and audio seminar. She will lead you through the scary wilderness upon which you might feel as though you stumbled. God will lead you, and will never leave you. Alyssa uses her experiences and God’s word to walk beside you as you work toward the clearing in which God has designed you to serve.

I got an email the other announcing a new Christian music group.  This group’s name is Tal & Acacia.  They are currently giving away 3 songs free on their website.

About Tal & Acacia:

The duo-sisters Tal & Acacia grew up in Portland, Maine, and first began songwriting and playing guitar in their teen years, while the family spent an insightful year in Russia aiding a humanitarian orphan ministry. Now, in their early twenties, Tal & Acacia aim to create songs that wake listeners and refresh the soul “like a cold splash of water for those who hear it.”

The other day I listed 5 Bibles I had never heard of before and today I want to share with you 5  Bibles for Special Events.

Premium Gift Bible, NLT. From Amazon, “Gift giving is the number one reason for puchasing a Bible. Tyndale’s Gift Bible offers customers fashionable TuTone designs at an attractive price. Features include the words of Christ in red, a dictionary/concordance, introduction to the Bible, presentation page, and plan of salvation. The Gift Bible features the clear and accurate New Living Translation.”

Family Faith & Values Bible.  This Bible is designed to be used as a family.  There is not much about it on Amazon but it sounds great.  I’m all for anything that encourages family Bible study.

The Baby Keepsake Bible. From Amazon: The Baby Keepsake Bible is the perfect gift for those with a new baby to preserve special memories and mementos of their child’s early years. Twenty-four special pages tie Scripture verses to memorable events in a child’s life and encourage parents and grandparents to pass on their faith. Features Include: Twenty four full-color pages that highlight appropriate Scripture verses and special themes like My Firsts, Christmas memories, and Visitors and Gifts,  Presentation page for gift-giving, Space for recording family ancestry, favorite verses, and testimonies of answered prayer, Photo sleeve on the cover to personalize, Featuring the most read, most trusted New International Version Bible

The Bride’s Bible. This Bible sounds awesome for those about to get married.  From Amazon: Make sure God is in the middle of every decision made during this exciting and important time in your life with the NCV Bride’s Bible, a complete Old and New Testament accompanied by stories and writings about marriage.  32 pages of content apply Scriptural truths to the experience of marriage and cover everything from handling wedding decisions wisely to understanding the meaningful connection between husbands and wives and Christ and the church.  Learn from godly women how to grow closer to God through your journey to marriage, prepare spiritually for becoming a wife, and discover God’s extraordinary design for your relationship with your husband.  Let this beautiful Bible full of insight become an heirloom that you pass down for generations to come.

The Catholic Gift Bible.  From Amazon: The Catholic Gift Bible includes the following features: A special introduction to the Catholic spiritual life and to every book of the Bible, Full-color presentation pages for dedication and recording of family history, Sixteen pages of Bible maps, A concordance for finding key verses, Readable two-column design, Durable, leather-like binding—ideal for foil stamping a personalized name for gift giving, A satin ribbon marker.

photo credit: Editor There are a lot more than just 5 versions of the Bible available today.  It truly amazes me all the differences between them.  Even in the same Bible version you have a lot of options.  Such as if you prefer the King James Version of the Bible you can get the Woman’s Study Bible in KJV, Men’s Study Bible in KJV, just a plain Bible in KJV, etc.  There are even magazine style Bibles for teens.  It just astonishes me at all the choices people have.

Oh, you can also get a copy of the Bible for your Amazon Kindle or iPhone!

Here are 5 versions that I have never heard of before:

1. The Message – This is apparently just the New Testament with Psalm and Proverbs.  From what I read about it at Amazon, I’m not too impressed with the translation but I am kinda picky about what Bible I use.
2. Life Application Study Bible NIV – This one sounds promising.  It claims to “shows how God’s Word speaks to every circumstance and situation of life.”  I personally don’t use the NIV version of the Bible but I do have one on my bookshelf to use for studies.
3. The Green Bible -  I have never heard of such a Bible!  Here is the description from Amazon, “The Green Bible will equip and encourage you to see God’s vision for creation and help you engage in the work of healing and sustaining it.  As you read the scriptures anew, The Green Bible will help you see that caring for the earth is not only a calling, but a lifestyle.” Interesting.
4. Good News Bible – This Bible has some great reviews at Amazon as being very easy to read and understand.  From what I have read about this version of the Bible it is written in “common language” or contemporary English.  It also doesn’t seem to be a word for word translated by more of a paraphrase type of translation.
5. The Jerusalem Bible – Here is what Amazon says about this Bible, “When it comes to Bible translations, readability and reliability are what count; and on both counts, the original JERUSALEM BIBLE stands alone. A product of the age of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), THE JERUSALEM BIBLE (published in 1966) was the first truly modern Bible for Catholics.”

Have you used any of these Bibles before?  I would love to hear your opinion on them?

Do you want to teach your children the important of staying pure until marriage?  If so, then Reserved Only is the program for you.  Dr. Mommy, aka Daisy and a good bloggy friend of mine, recently started this membership service that helps teach parents their children how to be true to themselves and these important concepts:

I love to read.  I mean really love to read.  If I’m not on the computer or playing with my kids, I have my nose in a book.  I love all genres of books but I tend to gravitate towards Christian based books the most.  I got an email from Amazon this morning about the current Christian bestselling books this week and some of them look great.

Mackenzie Allen Philips’ youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack’s world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant “The Shack” wrestles with the timeless question, “Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?” The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You’ll want everyone you know to read this book!

Too many marriages end when someone says “I’ve fallen out of love with you” or “I don’t love you anymore.” The Love Dare discusses how these statements reveal a lack of understanding about the fundamental nature of true love.

As featured in the popular new movie Fireproof, from the team that brought us the #1 best selling DVD Facing the Giants, The Love Dare is a 40-day guided devotional experience that will lead your heart back to truly loving your spouse while learning more about the design, nature, and source of true love. Each reading includes Scripture, a statement of principle, the day’s “dare,” and a journaling area and check box to chart progress.

Dare to take The Love Dare, and see your marriage change forever.

Brown University student Roose didn’t think of himself as being particularly religious, yet he conceived the novel idea of enrolling at Liberty University, the school Jerry Falwell built, thereby transferring from a school “a notch or two above Sodom and Gomorrah” to the evangelical equivalent of Notre Dame or Brigham Young. His reasons were logical, though curious. To him, a semester at Liberty was like studying abroad. “Here, right in my time zone, was a culture more foreign to me than any European capital.” He tells his story entertainingly, as a matter of trying to blend in and not draw too much attention to himself. One hardened habit he had to break was cursing; he even bought a Christian self-help book to tame his tongue. Throughout his time at Liberty, he stayed level-headed, nuanced, keenly observant. He meant to find some gray in the black-and-white world of evangelicalism, and he learned a few things. His stint at Liberty hardly changed the world but did alter his way at looking at it. That’s a start. –June Sawyers

In this sweeping narrative that takes us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, Robert Wright unveils an astonishing discovery: there is a hidden pattern that the great monotheistic faiths have followed as they have evolved. Through the prisms of archaeology, theology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright’s findings overturn basic assumptions about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and are sure to cause controversy. He explains why spirituality has a role today, and why science, contrary to conventional wisdom, affirms the validity of the religious quest. And this previously unrecognized evolutionary logic points not toward continued religious extremism, but future harmony.

Nearly a decade in the making, The Evolution of God is a breathtaking re-examination of the past, and a visionary look forward.

Newsweek called renowned minister Timothy Keller “a C. S. Lewis for the twenty-first century” in a feature on his first book, The Reason for God. In that book, he offered a rational explanation of why we should believe in God. Now, in The Prodigal God, he uses one of the best-known Christian parables to reveal an unexpected message of hope and salvation.

Taking his trademark intellectual approach to understanding Christianity, Keller uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable. Within that parable Jesus reveals God’s prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. This book will challenge both the devout and skeptics to see Christianity in a whole new way.

A new story of common wisdom from the bestselling author of The Traveler’s Gift

Orange Beach, Alabama is a simple town filled with simple people.  But like all humans on the planet, the good folks of Orange Beach have their share of problems – marriages teetering on the brink of divorce, young adults giving up on life, business people on the verge of bankruptcy, as well as the many other obstacles that life seems to dish out to the masses.

Fortunately, when things look the darkest – a mysterious man named Jones has a miraculous way of showing up.  An elderly man with white hair, of indiscriminate age and race, wearing blue jeans, a white T-shirt and leather flip flops carrying a battered old suitcase, Jones is a unique soul.  Communicating what he calls “a little perspective,” Jones explains that he has been given a gift of noticing things that others miss.  “Your time on this earth is a gift to be used wisely,” he says.  “Don’t squander your words or your thoughts. Consider even the simplest action you take, for your lives matter beyond
measure…and they matter forever.”

Jones speaks to that part in everyone that is yearning to understand why things happen and what we can do about it.

Like The Traveler’s Gift, The Noticer is a unique narrative is a blend of fiction, allegory, and inspiration.  Gifted storyteller Andy Andrews helps us see how becoming a “noticer” just might change a person’s life forever.

Picking up where Bible expert Bart Ehrman’s New York Times bestseller Misquoting Jesus left off, Jesus, Interrupted addresses the larger issue of what the New Testament actually teaches—and it’s not what most people think. Here Ehrman reveals what scholars have unearthed:

• The authors of the New Testament have diverging views about who Jesus was and how salvation works




• The New Testament contains books that were forged in the names of the apostles by Christian writers who lived decades later




• Jesus, Paul, Matthew, and John all represented fundamentally different religions




• Established Christian doctrines—such as the suffering messiah, the divinity of Jesus, and the trinity—were the inventions of still later theologians

These are not idiosyncratic perspectives of just one modern scholar. As Ehrman skillfully demonstrates, they have been the standard and widespread views of critical scholars across a full spectrum of denominations and traditions. Why is it most people have never heard such things? This is the book that pastors, educators, and anyone interested in the Bible have been waiting for—a clear and compelling account of the central challenges we face when attempting to reconstruct the life and message of Jesus.

It’s 1998 and Richard Stearns’ heart is breaking as he sits in a mud hut and listens to the story of an orphaned child in Rakai, Uganda.  His journey to this place took more than a long flight from the United States to Africa.  It took answering God’s call on his life, a call that hurtled him out of his presidential corner office at Lenox-America’s finest tableware company-to this humble corner of Uganda.

This is a story of how a corporate CEO faced his own struggle to obey God whatever the cost, and his passionate call for Christians to change the world by actively living out their faith.  Using his own journey as an example, Stearns explores the hole that exists in our understanding of the Gospel.

Two thousand years ago, twelve people changed the world.  Stearns believes it can happen again.

I have privilege of sharing a new new book with you: The Face of Faith by Candy Wood Lindley. Candy shares openly and honestly of the struggles and triumphs she faced after being diagnosed with cancer.  To save her life, the doctor had to remove most of her face. But in the process, she found a deeper relationship with God who made her over from the inside out.  Candy candidly shares candidly her journey.  Below is an interview with Candy.

Candy, you have written Face of Faith.  What is it about?

When I was thirty years old, I was hospitalized for the removal of a pea-sized cyst in the nasal cavity.  Instead, I was diagnosed with an inoperable malignant tumor the size of a baseball situated underneath the brain in the center of the head in an inoperable area of the head.  Grade-three bone cancer is not receptive to chemotherapy or radiation.  They told me that I could lose the right side of my face.

I had always thought that I was a Christian, but I had never really surrendered my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  In the hospital room that night I was finally at the end of Candy – emotionally, mentally, and physically. I ask God to totally take over my life.

My circumstances didn’t change, but God began to change my heart to one seeking His will only for my life whatever that might be.

Two weeks later I met with a craniofacial surgeon at the Mayo Clinic.  He was very upfront about my surgery and my prognosis.  No sugar coating.

He explained that he would cut across the top of the head and down the middle of the face enabling him to peel back both sides of the face and remove the greater portion of my face including the forehead bone, the right cheekbone, and the nose.   He could hopefully remove the bulk of the tumor, buying me some time.  He would not replace the bones to the face.  I would wake up severely deformed and blind in the right eye, probably the left.

Miraculously, he instead attempted to remove the tumor in its entirety, and it worked.  Even more miraculously, he took the bones to the face that had been thrown in the trash and reconstructed my face.  I had a new face. And was cancer free.

What goes through someone’s mind when they are told they have an inoperable tumor in the center of the head and could lose the right side of their face? You were thirty years old. That’s pretty overwhelming.

For me, the will to live took over.  That stubborn will to fight no matter what the odds.

There were complications after that first surgery. What did that involve?

Seven months after the first surgery, infection spread throughout the forehead bone and forehead skin.  I was put in isolation.  Five weeks later and four more surgeries, I returned home weighing 79 pounds with a shaved head, sunken in forehead, and two skin graphs on the front and back of the head. Two years later on a routine check up trip to the Mayo Clinic, the tumor recurred.  Same place.  This time the size of a raspberry.  So they did the whole first surgery again.

During those three years of nine surgeries and frequent trips to the Mayo Clinic, did you ever ask God “Why me?” Were you ever angry with God?

I never asked God “Why me?”  I did ask what was going on?  I didn’t understand. I asked why He was allowing so much in my life, but not so much why it was happening to ME.  Yes, I was angry with God often.  Thankfully someone informed me that God could handle my anger.

How do you address the importance that society has put on beauty?

There is nothing wrong with wanting to look the best that you can look.  I personally have always enjoyed experimenting with makeup and getting professional makeovers, especially now that I am facially disfigured.  I want to make the most of what I have.  But at the end of the day for me, the make up comes off and the hairpieces come off.  If my confidence depended on beauty, I could be devastated. And many facially disfigured people are.

In a world obsessed with perfection of the outer appearance and makeovers of every kind, God is more interested in a different kind of makeover – one that lasts – a makeover of the heart.

That’s what happened with me.  He began a makeover of my heart.  And He’s still working on me!!

How did your husband handle the stress of your illness and the new Candy?

Unfortunately ours was not a happy marriage before I was ever sick.  It was an emotionally abusive household.  After twenty-four years of marriage, Lee filed for divorce.

Candy, you have experienced emotional pain and physical pain. Which is more difficult?

Physical pain is difficult– especially chronic pain. It is wearing and can affect a person emotionally as well.  But there are medications for pain.

But the emotional pain of abuse is sometimes more difficult, I think.  You can’t take a pill for it.  It requires a lot of time and counseling.  Only the Lord can heal the broken heart and enable us to forgive.

Where can we find out more about you and this book?

Please visit my web site at faceoffaithbook.com. Thank you for letting me visit with your readers today!

Julie blogs at Mom 2 Ways where she shares her faith, family, and product reviews.

If you have not heard of Thumb People then you and your child are missing out on a great learning and bonding experience.    Thumb People were created in an effort to help teach your children that they are created in a special and unique way – a perfect way, the way God designed.  The entire Thumb People line of products are based on Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”

I was sent 3 products to review, a board book titled, “Thumbuddy, Thumbuddy, I Love You”, the book “You Are Thumbuddy”, and a CD titled “Words of Blessing”.

My daughter loved the board book, “Thumbuddy, Thumbuddy, I Love You”.  She has just started saying “I love you” and took an immediate liking to this book since it focuses on her new favorite saying.  This board book is about expressing a parents love of their child.  It focuses on the importance of developing a foundation of self worth which leads to self respect.  It is a very simple and fun book but teaches such important lessons.

Now my son preferred the book, “You Are Thumbuddy” and is my favorite of the two as well.  This book emphasis how every child is make unique and has something special to offer.  What I really like about the book is that is includes  Bible verses to help get the point across.  One example from the book is this:

It’s fun when we use our talents and skills to bless others.  We can feel good about ourselves when we do out best with the gifts that God gave us.

“All hard work brings a profit…” Proverbs 14:23

The CD, “Words of Blessing”, is so soothing and relaxing.  It is words of encouragement and blessings spoken over soothing music.  While my children did not really enjoy the CD I liked it a lot.  I like to play it in the car and just spend the time thanking God for all he has done in my life.

Even if you don’t plan on purchasing any products from Thumb People, be sure to stop by their website anyways.  You can download a song as free gift that I am sure your children will love.

I was recently sent a set of Bible Trading Cards from Creation By Design to review and I have never seen anything like these before!  These trading cards are not only fun to collect but are such a great teaching tool as well.  Each card covers a section of the Bible and tells you what subject that section covers, a time line or graphic explanation, and a fun fact about that topic.

For example, the back of the card shown above covers day 4 of creation.  It is the 4th card in the Old Testament series, indicates that on the 4th day God created the sun, moon, and stars, shows us how day 4 fits in with the other days in the time line, and educates us with a fun fact about astronomy.  The only thing I would like to see added to cards is the Bible verse or verses that the card pertains to.

The images on the front of the cards really bring the Bible to life!  They are vibrant in color and very eye-catching.  The images are created using a progressive 3D computer generated digital art style that is also used in the video game and animation industries.

These would be great to use as flash cards to to learn the story of the Bible!  My kids are too young to do this right now, but I will saving the cards for when they get older!  I also can’t wait to tell the youth director at my church about these.  I think the teen group will really love them.