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Review of Soldier On and Giveaway
By Bethany Kilcrease Ladies, if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to read Christian fiction featuring both an implied steamy sex scene and Luther’s Small Catechism all within the first chapter, then wonder no more! Sisters of Katie Luther blogger Vanessa Rasanen makes her authorial debut with Soldier On, which might be said to fall within the contemporary Christian military genre if such a category exists. Prior to late August 2018, I had never read anything approaching a contemporary Christian novel. Moreover, while I do have some experience in the Christianity department, my experience with military deployment is nonexistent. Wouldn’t reading this book be like a life-long…
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Review on Demystifying the Proverbs 31 Woman
By Bethany Kilcrease Perhaps it’s just me, but I’ve always found the book of Proverbs a little baffling. Sure, I know it’s about Christ. I know that Christ is Wisdom incarnate (1 Cor. 1:30). On this basis I can work through the first nine chapters, in which Lady Wisdom contrasts herself to Dame Folly. Christ (Wisdom) is the way to life. Rejecting Him leads only to Folly and death. In chapter 8, Solomon gives an especially compelling picture of the pre-incarnate Christ calling out to foolish sinners in the persona of Lady Wisdom. But then what do we make of chapters ten through thirty-one? Despite having glanced at various commentaries,…
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For Holy Week
By Bethany Kilcrease If anyone is still looking for some good devotional reading for Holy Week and beyond, let me introduce you to a hidden gem recently written by a Lutheran woman. I have been reading and re-reading Carolyn Brinkley’s Bearing the Cross: Devotions on Albrecht Dürer’s Small Passion (CPH, 2012) for several years now and heartily recommend it to anyone. Deaconess Brinkley uses the artist Albrecht Dürer’s series of woodcut images called the Small Passion (1511) as the basis for thirty-four short devotions. As implied by the title Small Passion, Dürer’s extremely detailed woodcuts portray scenes Christ’s Passion, although Dürer and Brinkley also contextualize the Passion narrative with images…
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Katie’s Bookshelf– Pew Sisters Review & Giveaway!
Life’s busy, really too busy to waste time on bad books, and The Sisters of Katie Luther are here to help! Feel free to eavesdrop on Sandra Ostapowich, Holly Scheer, Bethany Kilcrease, Tabitha Moldenhauer, and Ellie Corrow as they use technology available to regularly e-chat about books we’ve chosen to read and discuss together. These reviews are informal, probably slightly snarky, but always informative, and designed to help you determine what is worth your consideration. Pull up a chair, a cup of tea, or something else, if you prefer, and help yourself to our conclusions, as we explore what is on offer. Our book this time is “Pew Sisters” by…
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Review of The Story Bible: 130 Stories of God’s Love, edited by Edward A. Engelbrecht and Gail E. Pawlitz
By Bethany Kilcrease and Tabitha Moldenhauer The Story Bible came out in 2011, which is when we purchased it for our children, then ages 6 and 4. It’s a big book. As children’s books go, really big and heavy. Not that that’s a negative feature. It’s excellent for pressing leaves for Autumn crafts (I just discovered some very old maple leaves upon opening it today). It contains 130 Bible accounts from the Old and New Testaments, presented in a readable format for children without losing meaning. A guide for parents and teachers is included that offers useful strategies for reading the stories with children in different age ranges. There…
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Gift of the Liturgy for Those with Toddlers
By Bethany Kilcrease Want a greater appreciation for the practicality of liturgical worship? You need a baby and/or toddler — preferably one with a lot of enthusiasm for life who will divert your attention away from the divine service itself. If you don’t have your own toddler, then you can probably borrow one from the harried-looking mother who sits in the back pew (or in the very front in hopes being closer will convince the youngster to pay better attention). I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to loan you one or even two for the next hour or so. And if you ever show up at my church, you…
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CPH’s My First Hymnal
Let me prepare this review of CPH’s My First Hymnal by stating that I am probably the worst possible person to write such a review. I know absolutely nothing about music, can’t carry a tune in a wicker basket, am usually unable to recognize melodies, and am probably – on at least some non-literal level – tone deaf. So, with that out of the way, here’s what I think of My First Hymnal, which I purchased for my infant daughter because obviously a hymnal is an appropriate gift for someone’s 2-month birthday. First, I like how this is laid out sort of like a baby version of LSB or other…
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Review of Our Faith by Ruth Meyer
By Bethany Kilcrease and Tabitha Moldenhauer I love books. And now that I have a daughter, I have an excuse to purchase books from a whole new genre: children’s books. CPH is currently reaping the benefits of my newest interest. One of the books I recently purchased is Ruth Meyer’s Our Faith from A to Z. This book teaches children the Christian faith by going through the alphabet and explaining an aspect of Lutheranism for each letter. For example, A is for Apostles’ Creed, B is for Baptism, C is for Catechism, D is for Doctrine, etc. Each letter has a short didactic poem like “A is for Apostles’ Creed,…
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Dos and Don’ts of Navigating College as a Lutheran
By Bethany Kilcrease So, perhaps you’re a high school senior just packing bags and preparing to head off to college. Or, perhaps you’re a parent about to send off your child. Or, maybe you’re neither and just have some time to kill and happened to stumbled across this awesome website. In any case, I am about to offer you the first item on my off-the-top-of-my-head list of how to survive those tumultuous college years while remaining in the faith. I should note that all the following dos and don’ts are mine alone and don’t necessarily reflect the views of every contributor on this site. I should also note that I…
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Children’s Book Review- God Makes Me His Child in Baptism
By Bethany Kilcrease God Makes Me His Child In Baptism After buying Whisper, Whisper: Learning about Church for my daughter’s first baptismal birthday, I thought it would also be appropriate to round out the gift with something from Concordia Publishing House about baptism. A quick search of the website led me to God Makes Me His Child by Janet Wittenback. Wittenback’s original text was published in 1968. You can see the original cover here (I would have expected something a little more groovy given the year of publication). It was then revised and republished with some now rather dated looking illustrations in 1985. The current 2007 edition has been re-illustrated…
