Sunday, November 10, 2019

Celebrate Lit blog tour featuring Bill Crowder's book "Before Christmas"

Welcome to my blog's stop on Bill Crowder's Before Christmas book tour!

Read my review of his book below and remember to enter the giveaway contest toward the end of this blog post.

Enjoy!

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My Review:

Before Christmas is a book with a lot of heart.

The author, Bill Crowder, has penned a nonfiction story about the greatest story ever told!

The book is well-written but a bit too heavy on backstory from the author's life and overloaded with factual information that slowed me down as a reader.

The author's storytelling style did not hold my attention. I found myself stopping, pausing and re-reading sections of this book to make sure I understood because some of the information went over my head.

However, this is not to discourage you from reading this book. There is an audience for this book who will be helped and inspired by reading it. Though I do love Jesus Christ and enjoy reading about His birth, life and mission to save humanity, this portrayal of His great mission did not strike a chord with me.

There are many good points about this book: The author writes well. The editing is flawless. The descriptions are very detail-oriented. The factual information, while heavy at points, is theologically sound (as far as I can tell) and the author's heart for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ shines through this book!

I would recommend this book to new believers in God and for those who do not know Jesus Christ.

Readers who already know God and follow Jesus Christ may enjoy learning more about Him in this book but again, it just wasn't my cup of tea. However, that is nothing against the author because he has produced a good final product.

So don't be deterred from reading his book! Give it a chance.

*Celebrate Lit provided me (Alexis A. Goring) with a complimentary copy of this book, Before Christmas, by Bill Crowder. My opinions in this book review are my own.

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About the Book

Book: Before Christmas

Author: Bill Crowder

Genre: RELIGION / Holidays/Christmas & Advent

Release Date: October 2019

Embrace the majesty of the Messiah

Bill Crowder invites you to explore the backstory of the first advent. He brings you on a journey into the very heart of God, to a greater understanding of what it means that “the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).

Walk through Scripture to see and know Jesus in a richer way. Examine His character as God, His relationship with the Father, His appearances in the Old Testament, and more. Understand how these pre-Bethlehem truths lead into the Savior’s birth and the events of that first Christmas—and, most importantly, how it all comes together in God’s great story of redemption and rescue.

You’ll embrace the majesty of the Messiah and celebrate Christ’s birth with renewed joy and wonder.

Click here to get your copy.

About the Author

Bill Crowder, who spent over twenty years in the pastorate, is vice president of ministry content at Our Daily Bread Ministries. He is a contributor to Our Daily Bread and the author of nine books, including My Hope Is in You, Seeing the Heart of Christ, and For This He Came. He and his wife, Marlene, have five children.

More from Bill

During my years as a pastor, I found Christmas and Easter to be challenging.

Certainly I love those seasons (for very different reasons), but finding creative ways to retell these important stories was often difficult. But, at one such season I realized that the story we tell at Christmas is not really the whole story.

By entering the story at Nazareth or Bethlehem, we enter too late. We can’t simply start with the Baby in the manger—we need to go back. Before time began. To the eternal Christ.

Unless we seek to understand Him, we’ll never fully appreciate who He was and why He came. That is the Christmas story. – Bill Crowder