Tag Archives: Daniel

Review: The Daniel Fast by Susan Gregory

As a fellow blogger, I appreciate Ms. Gregory’s approach to writing.  She is the author for The Daniel Fast blog which contains many tips and recipes for conducting a Daniel fast.  The first chapter of the book is devoted towards getting to know who she (the author) is.  She describes her motivation for writing the book, and her relationship with Jesus Christ.

Chapter two introduces the concept of fasting. It highlights pericopes of scripture which describe fasting and lists three types of fasting as follows:

  1. Absolute fast- no food or drink
  2. Normal fast- only water is consumed
  3. Partial fast- where only certain foods and drink are consumed

Fasting is for a purpose.  Not simply as a diet fad, but rather as a way to mold yourself and draw closer to God.  Fasting does nothing to change God.  It is all a discipline to help us get our flesh under control and focus more keenly on the Spirit of God and drawing closer to Jesus.

Chapter three goes into the life of Daniel and the choices he had to make while living in captivity.  He could have chose the easy route but instead decided to stay focused on serving the God he knew to be true!  The next chapter follows with how a Daniel fast will affect change in our spirit, body and soul.  The next is a detailed listing of 5 steps to success!  This concluded the first pat of the book.

The second part of the book includes a food list of recommended foods to purchase while doing the Daniel Fast.  It also contains 115 pages of recipes with the last portion of the book devoted to a meal planner and frequently asked questions.

The recipe and food list take up the majority of the book and what I found to be the most useful portion of the book.  The book is paperback and constructed of typical quality paper.  If you are planning on using the book extensively in the kitchen, I’d recommend either laminating the pages or making a photocopy of the recipe and using that (be sure to shred afterwards to avoid copyright lawsuits)!

Anyway, my review gives it a thumbs up for background info on the Daniel fast and for the recipes.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Babylon’s Falling by William G. Collins

Babylon’s Falling by William G. Collins

This book was a pretty easy read.  It flowed well and the story was engaging.  If you’ve ever read one of the ‘Sons of Encouragement’ books by Francine Rivers, this story has the same feel.  The author does a good job using relevant historical facts found outside the biblical narrative to help flesh out the story of Daniel and the captivity of Judah by Babylon and subsequently by Cyrus and Darius of the Persian Empire.

The story begins at the fall of Jerusalem and the forced dispersion of the Judaeans. The southern kingdom’s king and his royal household are hauled off as slaves.  During the months it took to reach their new home of Babylon with it’s famous hanging gardens Daniyyel (as it’s spelled in the book) learns the language of his captors befriending a captain of the guard in the meantime. He soon proves to be a valuable asset and works his way into a position as an apprentice in a school for seers and advisers to king Nebuchadnezzar

Collins then beautifully illustrates life in Babylon and the eventual progression of Daniyyel’s career to the governor of all of Babylon answerable to the king alone.  The book traces through the first six chapters of the book of Daniel as found in the Old Testament.  He uses creative license well, using much from what is known of the culture of Babylon and later the Persia-Mede Empire.  All of the dreams mentioned in the book of Daniel are retold in Babylon’s Falling as well as the tests and triumphs of the fiery furnace and the den of Lions.

If I had one critique of the book, it would be the editing.  There were a couple instances of grammatical error such as a repeated word which was overlooked by the editing team.  I’m not sure if this was because I received the book before the general populous for the purposes of reviewing Babylon’s Falling, or if it was just a shoddy job of editing.  Either way, the editing leaves some to be desired.  The creativeness of recasting the story of Daniel was flawless however and made for an enjoyable read and I recommend it to those who enjoy this sort of historical fiction.

I received an evaluation copy of the Kindle edition of this book for review purposes by booksneeze.com.