It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
***Special thanks to
Cathy Hickling of
Whitaker House for sending me a review copy.***
Bishop Henry Fernandez and his wife Carol are founders and senior pastors of The Faith Center Ministries, Ft. Lauderdale, an 8,000-member multi-cultural church whose mission is “reaching the world for Jesus.” An author, speaker, and entrepreneur, Bishop Fernandez is also founder of the University of Ft. Lauderdale. He hosts the television program Lifestyles of Faith which airs worldwide on the Word and TBN TV Networks, and is a frequent guest host on TBN’s Praise the Lord show. Despite being told they were medically unable to have children, God blessed Henry and Carol with their first son after 16 years of marriage and praying for a baby, then a second son, 16 months later.
Visit the author’s website.
Bishop Henry Fernandez addresses America’s economic crisis, breakdown of the family unit, and general moral malaise, consequences, he writes, of a shift away from faith in God to the pursuit of material gain and worldly pursuits. Bishop Fernandez believes it’s not too late to turn things around with God’s help and hard work. He offers biblically-based, practical solutions for restoring one’s faith in God, then building on a foundation of renewed faith, proceeds to teach readers steps for restoring family relations and rejuvenating their personal finances.
Product Details:
List Price: $14.99
- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Whitaker House (March 1, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1603742808
- ISBN-13: 978-1603742801
AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:
I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt, and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath—these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely—these are my native air.
—Dr. E. Stanley Jones
In Whom Do You Trust?
“In God We Trust.” That is a powerful declaration, isn’t it? Although we seldom notice it, that solemn and weighty phrase graces every unit of American currency, from the lowly penny to the $100 bill. It’s not merely a slogan or a nice sentiment that we intone on holidays or in times of national crisis. There is meaning and intent behind those words. “In God We Trust” is based on the conviction, held by generations of Americans since the nation’s founding, that a country and its citizens are only as strong as their faith in, and faithfulness to, almighty God.
That, of course, is God’s opinion on the matter, as well. Throughout the annals of history, He has promised to bless those nations and people who put their trust in Him, corporately and individually, and who behave in ways that honor Him and His character. By contrast, He has clearly warned that those who do not reverence and put their trust in Him can expect to suffer physically, financially, emotionally, and politically—in every way imaginable!
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance. (Psalm 33:12)
A Look to the Past
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- The lion’s share of technological advances that occurred during the twentieth century—from automobiles to electric lights to television and radio to the computer and space travel—had their start in America.
- During this same time, America’s industrial machine was second to none, pumping out volumes of manufactured goods for markets all over the world.
- For most of that time, America was also blessed with remarkable agricultural production, an abundance that has been used to feed not only our own sizeable and ever-growing population but also many other nations of the world.
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- Our educational institutions were world renowned, raising generations of young people who were trained not only with life skills to succeed in business, industry, and elsewhere, but also with the precepts of righteousness and morality that are the foundation of any successful society.
Committed to a solid faith in God, to strong families, and to earnest stewardship of all that God had blessed them with, this broad range of individuals built strong communities “from sea to shining sea” so that, for generations to come, our country could declare that America was “one nation under God.”
The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible: “In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.”
—George Washington Carver
A Change of Heart
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- The nation’s job picture is bleak. As of August 2011, unemployment was 9.1 percent, with nearly fourteen million Americans out of work. How different from the nation in which previous generations raised their families and planned for the future.
- Over the last thirty years, more and more Americans have gone into debt for nonessential luxury items. As of January 2010, Americans held more than 609 billion credit cards—or two cards for every American. In June 2011, U.S. consumer credit card debt reached $793 billion, with an average credit card debt per household of $15,799.1 What a difference from the practice of thrift that previous generations of Americans have displayed.
- With so many Americans in so much debt, it’s little surprise that in 2010, filings for personal bankruptcy exploded to more than 1.5 million people.2
- On the housing front, where home ownership was once a carefully considered decision for previous generations, over the last several years, it has become an entitlement. Untold millions of Americans have gone into debt for homes whose mortgages far exceeded their incomes. As of July 2011, the national foreclosure rate had come down significantly since the financial crisis, down to 1 in every 111 homes. In my own state of Florida, however, the rate was even worse, with 14 percent of all homes actively in foreclosure.3
- As the economy has faltered and families have lost their homes, homelessness has become a national epidemic. According to a 2007 study by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, approximately 3.5 million individuals in America are now homeless—1.35 million of them children.4
- Just as the economy in crisis has impacted individuals, families, and communities, it has also devastated businesses and financial institutions. Long-established, respected banks, investment companies, and lending institutions—many considered “too big to fail”—have collapsed, while others survived only through the direct intervention of a government that is being increasingly stressed in its ability to provide the answers.
Family and Morality: A Changing Landscape
Destroy the family, and you destroy the country.
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Families, whatever the faults and foibles of their members, were stronger and more stable. Marriage was considered to be a scared institution. There were stricter standards that governed relationships between the sexes, children were more respectful of their elders, and the values that defined behavior in society tended to keep people on the straight and narrow.
That seems to be far from the case today:
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- In many sectors of our society, marriage has become an option rather than a sacred trust. A study by the National Marriage Project found that cohabitation—couples living together outside the bond of marriage—has become so accepted in our society that an increasing number of Americans view it as a perfectly functional alternative to marriage. Their study quoted U.S. Census figures, which claimed that in 1997, there were more than four million unmarried couples sharing a household, up from less than a half million in 1960.5 A study conducted by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan found that nearly two in five children will spend at least some time living with a parent and an unmarried partner.6
- With such a casual approach to lifelong relationships, it is no wonder that the institution of marriage seems to be in absolute crisis throughout America. A recent study by the Barna Group found that one out of three Americans who has been married has also been divorced. As George Barna noted in the study, “There no longer seems to be much of a stigma attached to divorce; it is now seen as an unavoidable rite of passage.”7
- Along with a drastic increase in divorce has come a wholesale redefinition of what marriage means in America. Several states have ruled that marriage can no longer be defined as only between a man and a woman. In some states, unions between two men or two women have been declared legally acceptable. One wonders if there will be any end to the redefinition of God’s most foundational building block for humanity.
- Over the last thirty-five-plus years, children have become increasingly vulnerable and, in many cases, an inconvenience to people’s freewheeling lifestyles. The fact that, since 1973, over forty million precious babies have met their deaths through abortion represents a serious blight on our nation.
What Has Happened to Our Faith?
Nevertheless, whatever the president meant by his statements, the undeniable truth of the matter is that America was established upon Christian precepts, and it seems that, as a nation and a people, we have drifted away from those foundations. As a consequence, we are now paying a price that only repentance and turning back to God will cure.
More than two hundred years ago, another president made a very different declaration. At his first inauguration, George Washington reminded his fellow citizens:
No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.…We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.
Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. (Proverbs 14:34)
The Foundation for Success
Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. (Deuteronomy 28:1–13)
Unfortunately, God’s people often ended up doing the exact opposite, and they paid a painful price. Their disobedience—their lack of trust in God’s mercy and goodness, and their insistence on looking to their own faulty wisdom and planning rather than to God’s perfect blueprint for their lives—led them, throughout their long history, to be in bondage to other nations. Throughout all of their ordeals, God continued to call His people back to His perfect path, where blessings and abundance awaited them.
That story may sound familiar. It is much like the situations and circumstances that we face today. We say a little prayer, hoping for God’s blessing, and then we forge ahead with our own plans and agendas rather than waiting for His perfect timing. Although we are well aware of God’s counsel, too many of us end up following the opposite course of action. Of course, gentleman that He is, God allows us to go our own way, patiently waiting for us to come to the end of ourselves, where we finally say, “Father, I was wrong; You were right. Take control.”
That is what God is waiting for: a decision by each one of us to turn from our own ways—with all the heartache and turmoil attached to them—and return to His perfect way. He promises in His Word that He will wait until we are ready to receive His mercy, when we have come to the end of ourselves and our own resources, our own ideas and strategies, so that we can rest instead rest in His care, receive His salvation, and feast at His table of plenty.
For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” But you would not,…Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him. (Isaiah 30:15, 18)
Returning to the God of Our Salvation
Jobs that once seemed plentiful and secure are rare and disappearing. Financial resources that seemed so abundant a few years ago now are scarce or nonexistent. The peace, order, and beauty of many of our neighborhoods and communities are being replaced by violence, abuse, corruption, decay, crime, and chaos. Many of our homes, once sanctuaries of peace against the slings and arrows of the cold workaday world, have become disordered, abusive, and discordant. The laughter and happiness of many of our children, once secure and well-adjusted, have been replaced, in many cases, by rebellion, anger, pride, and disobedience. Many loving couples, once committed to each other “till death us do part,” have been replaced by “partners,” devoted more to self and the pursuit of pleasure than to the welfare of the other, with discord and divorce as the fruit of their unions.
Is there hope for a nation and a people who once declared unashamedly “In God We Trust” but who are now mired in sin and selfish living, and who are drifting and confused? The answer is an emphatic and unequivocal “Yes!” God has a promise for each individual—and every collective people—who will turn to Him in humility and absolute trust. Just as He told His people, Israel, He still says to you and me, “Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength” (Isaiah 30:15 nlt).
To many of us, that may sound like a tall order, an impossible feat to accomplish. When everything within us is screaming, in our need and anxiety, Don’t just stand there and trust God! Do something; anything!, to choose to be still and trust God seems almost ridiculous. But believe me, God is right there to help you, to enable you to stand and wait for Him through the power of His Holy Spirit. He is not far away but near to each of us in our need.
Anything less than God will let you down.
—E. Stanley Jones
Are You That Individual?
The turnaround for a nation and a people on the brink begins with one person saying “Yes!” to God. Are you just such an individual? In the following chapters, I will show how you can find a doorway to the kind of faith that can move mountains in your life—mountains and obstacles you may have long thought would block God’s blessings forever. I will also show you God’s counsel on building strong families that can weather any storm life throws at them. Finally, I will show you God’s perfect counsel on sound finances—something all of us need in these days of uncertainty.
Be assured, God’s provision—and all His best for you—is not dependent upon the economy, the whims of the stock market, how much money you have in the bank, or if you have a job tomorrow. God’s provision for you and your family is dependent upon one thing alone: God’s faithfulness to His Word. He is the Creator of everything—all the wealth of the world is at His command—and He has promised to supply all your needs according to all the riches of His glorious and unending kingdom. (See Philippians 4:19.)
All you have to do is believe and receive.
MY REVIEW:
I really loved Faith, Family, & Finances.
The sub title for the book Strong Foundations for a Better Life is exactly what you’ll find in this book. Faith, Family, & Finances is divided into 3 sections of the same names. In each section, you will learn God’s plan for each.
I think the author did an excellent job of informing where we in this country are at in the Christian faith. And how to get back to a deep faith in God.
In the Family section, there are some scary statistics, but he lays out what we need to do to get back to the family model God designed. You will learn how to reclaim your family for God.
The Finances section isn’t a budget section with money tips. This section will teach you what God says about our finances. There are no formulas for getting your finances under control. Rather, there is information on God’s provision for our finances. Using Bible verses, the author helps you learn God’s plan for your finances and how you can experience that provision in your life.
I highly recommend Faith, Family & Finances.
*Disclosure of Material Connection: I received ONE ADVANCED READER COPY of the book mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. 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.”
Cathy Hickling says
Hi Linda,
I’m so glad you enjoyed Faith, Family, & Finances by Henry Fernandez. What a great review, not only because of your high recommendation, but also for your insights in general. Letting your readers know the section on finances is NOT about money tips really helps bring home the point that Bishop Fernandez is offering spiritual solutions.
Thanks and God bless!
Cathy