Redemption Series

by Karen Kingsbury

and Gary Smalley

Redemption

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I have not read the first two in this series as I was a latecomer and started in with the third and then the fourth, but I am so in love with this series and Karen Kingsbury as an author, that I am definitely going to go get these two as soon as I can! Mmmmm! Fantastic series!

Remember

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Return

by Karen Kingsbury

and Gary Smalley

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This is such an amazing novel! This is the first I have read in this series and I can't say enough about it! The family that this series is drawn around is so genuine and understandable. They are like "everyman's family". They could be my family. It is filled with fallible people who are struggling to make their way in the world, some making poor decisions, some choosing to live apart from God, others finding their way back. Through it all are the people who love them and are constantly lifting them up to God in their prayers. This series title, Redemption, is really key to the underlying themes to this novel. God will always redeem us - no matter what we have done. We have simply to ask him to forgive us and acknowledge that we believe Jesus died on the cross for our sins. It is never too late. It does not mean that our lives will be perfect or easy or painfree, but it does mean that we have that peace and assurance that God is always with us and that one day we will be reunited in heaven. We can return to Him at any time and He will accept us. What joy and what peace is waiting for us. Okay, enough preaching! My heart seems so full right now!

See, you should read this series too!

This is only one of several in this series. Read on!

Rejoice

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Wow! Karen Kingsbury is an amazing writer! Her writing portrays authentic life stories, her characters are real and fallible, and her depiction of a loving God is honest and Biblically accurate. I am always amazed at the way her characters or the story or a simple description can evoke the deepest emotions from somewhere in my soul. This latest book had me dragging my husband to bed, where I was reading late one Saturday morning, to read out loud to him the first two chapters. Usually he takes one look at the cover of the latest Christian fiction I am reading and winces and groans (he was true to form in this one as well) but by the middle of the first chapter he was reading on ahead of me! It is a rare book that I have such a deep desire to share the story or a description with my husband but this was one. The circumstances that the story are wrapped around had such a deeply profound impact on my life and it is books like these that cause my heart to yearn for more great Christian fiction.

Without giving away too much of the story, I do want to share a little about the opening two chapters where a husband is left to watch his two small daughters at a pool party and gets engaged in a sports game on tv and forgets to check on the kids until the older one runs in, holding a life jacket, and crying that she can't find her little sister. Well, if that isn't a big enough clue as to what happens, you'll have to read the story for yourself. Suffice it to say that that image is one of my greatest fears for my own children - not only that their father will get so involved in a show (or more likely a computer game) but that I will choose to languish in bed on a Saturday morning while one of my two young sons gets into something that could be dangerous. It's like a paralyzing fear sometimes - lying in bed straining to listen to the sounds of the boys down stairs playing and when hearing something that alarms me, I seem to freeze. I literally can't get out of bed. The guilt that would fall upon me if something truly did harm them and how I would feel afterwards is simply too painful to imagine. It is horrifying to me and yet there is something in me that prevents me from casting aside my own selfishness to act. What is that? I don't have the answers today, but I know that this book has awakened that self-exploration in me and I really want to appreciate all the little joys that I have with my sons now before they grow too old to depend on me. If that isn't reason enough to go ahead and read this story, there is a lot more to this novel too!

There are heart-rending love stories, personal pain and loss, drug abuse, serious illness, marital discord, but the chord of hope and joy runs through it all. The title of the book says it all - Rejoice - at all times, through all trials that life brings along. God is with you and will never leave you and he has plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Hmmm. What a promise!

GO READ THIS BOOK! You won't regret it!