Redeeming Love

I love it when I find a great book because I simply want to tell everyone about it and hope that they strongly take my suggestion and pick it up. Some of these stories once you immerse yourself in them become a part of your body and soul. They live with you long after you read them because you find yourself thinking about the theme in so many different aspects of your day. When Francine Rivers got the notion for the storyline for her novel Redeeming Love it came directly out of the book Hosea in the Bible. It shows the way God loves us in such a profound and simply unconditional love that it is simply breath-taking and life changing. This novel and it's storyline will move you to tears and show you just how much God's love can change your life.

The storyline is very reminiscent of Les Misrables, in which a young girl name Sarah spends her life witnessing not only through words but in actions that she is worthless and unwanted. The only people who see her as anything as those who will exploit her beauty and cause her to build such walls that nothing, even the love of God will not be able to penetrate them. First learning that she was a product of an illicit affair her mother had with a wealthy married man, she over hears a conversation that he had wished she had never been born, that she was a mistake and one that he can never accept in his life. Yet Sarah's mother does all she can to protect and care for her child, but soon, life takes a terrible toll on her and she dies, leaving Sarah behind with a man she knows only as Uncle Rab.

Rab is simply a drunken man who loved her mother in between his lucid moments and now finds that taking care of Sarah is simply too much for anyone to handle. When he learns a wealthy man is looking for a daughter to adopt, he thinks he has found his way out. He sells nine-year-old Sarah to him, a man only known as Duke who will ultimately teach Sarah that he will be the only life she will ever know. He tells her that her name is now Angel.

Michael Hosea is a God-fearing man who believes God will show him who his future wife will be, but he never dreamed that would lead him to Pair-of-Dice, a brothel and find a soiled dove in desperate need of God's love. Michael simply can not believe that this is whom God would bestow His promises to find a wife in being the highest paid prostitute in town, one that only the highest bidder can see, but God offers him the opportunity to convince her that despite what she has been lead to believe her whole life, Michael is the real deal. Now if only those mile high walls she has constructed to protect herself against men can be brought down, Michael might just have a chance, but to Angel the only hope for a different life is if she dies and that is just what she has planned when Michael finds her.

I received Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers compliments of WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions in this review are strictly my own. Once I received this to review, I didn't realize that this book had been written more than twenty years ago and the message contained in the pages is more relevant now to women who need to understand forgiveness, unconditional love and redemption in Christ. I literally read this in one sitting and could not put it down. I was beyond captivated by the eloquent words that Francine Rivers used to retell the biblical story of Hosea in this novel. I found myself in tears so many times, by the demonstration of Michael's love and commitment to Angel despite how many times she tries to push him away. It's like one reviewer shared, "Michael Hosea is the consummate hero; Angel, in one way or another, is every woman who has ever lived without love." You can not read this one and not be changed forever. Hands down a 5 out of 5 stars and will now hold a prominent place in my personal library. I KNOW I will read this one again and again.

For more information about Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers, or where you can pick up a copy of this incredible novel today, please click on the links below:

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

You can find Francine Rivers on Facebook to stay up to date on all her latest novels.

To read more reviews on Redeeming Love, visit the WaterBrook Multnomah website. 

• Paperback: 479 pages
• Publisher: Multnomah Books; Paperback with Study Guide edition (May 9, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590525132
• ISBN-13: 978-1590525135
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches

The Grandfathers - DVD Review

Nate Saint was famous for something most of us would not want to be remembered for. He was murdered by a tribe he was living with in the jungles of the Amazon in Ecuador. Not only was he murdered but four others he was traveling with, leaving his widow, Rachel behind in the tribe.

What happened after that fateful day would change the Amazon tribe forever in events that are told about in the DVD documentary, The Grandfathers.

We meet the Saint family as they uproot their lives and move to the jungles of the Amazon rainforest to meet the tribe of people living there, the Woadani's, that killed their grandfather but to see just how much their lives are forever changed. The saying "same hands, yet different hearts" is the theme throughout as we see just how different it is for both cultures to live within each others worlds and to see God's forgiveness played out in this beautiful film.

I received the DVD, The Grandfathers by EGM Films, compliments of B & B Media Group for my honest review. Both my 17 year old daughter and I watched it, often times in amazement, laughter and tears in the 54 minutes. It changed us both and made us realize how different things really are and yet there is wisdom from our grandparents that needs to be listened to and learned from. It makes us not only the people we are today, but able to learn from their ways and grow. I would easily rate this a 5 out of 5 stars for anyone looking to see what a Missionary life is like from a true perspective.

This is the third film in the series that chronicles the lives of the five missionary men who died from Mart Green and Jim Hanon, with End of The Spear and Beyond the Gates of Splendor being the first two. This film has received the Dove Foundation seal of approval. I can't wait to see the first two.

For more information about this DVD, watch a trailer, and where to purchase a copy, click on the link below:

The Grandfathers DVD by EMG Films