The Tulip Driven Life

By: Thomas F. Booher As we were going through our class on the WCF and catechisms, our professor commented on chapter XV of the confession. He said there were those during the time of the Westminster divines and the writing of the WCF that would preach the positive side of salvation, of faith in Christ, but not the negative, repentance. This chapter in the confession emphasizes the need to continually preach repentance, and not just faith. That was a problem then, and it is a serious problem of our day as well. Below is a brief paper I wrote on the need for ongoing repentance.  Faith and repentance are inseparably connected by the Lord Jesus Christ in Scripture (Mk. 1:15). They are like two sides of the same coin. It would be concerning, then, if ministers of the Word and parishioners pitted faith against repentance. My concern is that this has happened, and I would like to refute this sentiment particularly as it is expressed in the following form: For the believer, f...

By: Thomas F. Booher Teenage angst is one of the main themes that runs throughout Captives, and I think it's the best part of the book. I was just as interested, if not more interested, in how the characters from Glenrock would react and behave in their new environs (and the temptations that come with it) as I was in how Levi, Mason, and the rest would save them. This, in fact, is the first question Jill Williamson asks in her discussion questions at the end of the book, and I am glad she has them there. Being a 23 year old man, recently married, expecting a child in exactly a month, I can still remember what it was like to be single and looking. The desire to be loved, to give love, to make love, that's what's on the brain of the teenage boys and girls in this story, and that's how it is in real life. Also, the sticky temptations, such as Mason and Omar both having affections for their brother's fiancee -- that's real too. One thing I want to poke at, h...

By: Thomas F. Booher I usually do these reviews to point out what I think is both good and bad writing. I do this so the readers and perhaps the authors themselves (if they read and are willing to consider my thoughts) can improve in their writing and storytelling. My belief is that some Christian fiction authors have fallen into certain styles of writing that are not seen as much or at all in non-Christian fiction writing. Thankfully, Jill Williamson avoids most of that in Captives. However, I was so inundated with characters and their names at the beginning of the story that I was having trouble sorting people out, let alone getting to know them and their place in the story. Maybe others can sort many characters out better than I can, but even if they can, I don't know if flooding your reader with characters up front is helpful. The story does jump from many different characters and their perspectives, so in a sense there are multiple protagonists and main characters, but o...

By: Thomas F. Booher Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars. When I review books, I have a scale in my mind, and various criteria that go into it. I keep mental notes, and sometimes write them in the margins on each page. Shortly before the halfway point of this book, I was ready to give up on it. The story moved too fast to grasp it or get a feel for the many characters. Attempting to do so felt like watching a car fly down the highway as you sit from your porch. By the time you locked onto something, the scene or characters shifted. Beyond that, the lame "cursings" uttered by Jordan drove me crazy. Worse, I didn't think Omar's (and some of the other characters') actions and reactions early in the story were true to life, which put me off.   I'll detail those concerns in subsequent posts, but I want to say that the second half of the book was vastly improved. It was almost like Jill Williamson vaped some grass, and a ten at that. The story slowed a bit, ...