CAPTIVE book review

Overview:

CAPTIVE, based on a miraculous true story that drew the attention of the entire nation, is a thrilling drama about the spiritual collision of two broken lives.  When Brian Nichols - on the run as the subject of a city wide manhunt and desperate to make contact with his newborn son - takes recovering meth addict Ashley Smith hostage in her own apartment, she turns for guidance to Rick Warren’s best-selling inspirational book, The Purpose Driven Life.  While reading aloud, Ashley and her would-be killer each face crossroads where despair and death intersect hope.  

The movie stars David Oyelowo, who played Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the recent film, Selma.

Sharing from my heart:
We're all created for a purpose but sometimes we don't find our purpose until later in life or after we've been through some type of struggle.  I know my purpose is to help others adopt, after 8 years of struggling with infertility my husband and I adopted both of our amazing children from South Korea.
If I hadn't lived that heartache and pain I wouldn't have been able to talk to others that are going through fertility issues or sing the praises of how adoption has changed our lives.
  Ashley Smith has a story about life, death, drugs, loss and courage that you won't want to miss.  Without walking that rough patch she wouldn't have been able to talk to Nichols and get through being held captive and share her incredible story with all of us.  This book was AMAZING and was such an inspiring story about redemption and faith!  A must read for everyone, it doesn't matter what you're going through in life.  We all have something that we struggle with and this book encourages you to follow your purpose and find what your purpose is in life.  I'm excited to see the movie that comes out on Sept 18th, 2015 and share a book give away with all of my readers.

I also want to encourage all of you to share your own purpose story at www.captivethemovie.com/followyourpurpose and also on social media with the hashtag #FollowYourPurpose.

SOCIAL • C O R N E R 

OFFICIAL WEBSITE  

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

AUDIO BOOK BYTE  (Audio excerpt from the audiobook format of CAPTIVE (chapter 1), read by the author, Ashley Smith.) 

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You can enter to possibly win your own copy of the book CAPTIVE by filling out the Rafflecopter giveaway below.

Thanks for reading,

 

Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”

Nicole Nordeman-The Unmaking

The Story Behind the Song:

What can I build for God?

I’ve spent my life asking this.

Maybe it’s because I misunderstood what God wanted when I was young, or maybe it’s my own pride and ambition, or maybe somewhere in my heart I still secretly suspect that God measures and rates and reviews my spiritual accomplishments. I don’t even know what “spiritual accomplishments” actually means. Maybe I still want to have “something to show” for all this work I’ve done along the journey. So I want to build something for God. I’d like for it to be tall and impressive and for a whole bunch of people to take notice. Especially God.

Not too long ago, I heard a pastor friend of mine named Andrew Arndt say this, “God longs for resurrection in us…but first we have to go through some measure of unmaking.”

Unmaking? That sounded like the opposite of what I’d been trying to accomplish spiritually for years. I sat with those words for a long time.

Before things in our lives can be resurrected and given new life, certain things must die. Before beauty blooms in spring, roots must do the hard work under the hard frozen soil of winter. Before you renovate and re-build, you tear down the parts of the structure that are weak or damaged or dangerous.

Before we make, we must unmake.

This didn’t resonate with my ongoing “build something big for God” obsession. It didn’t resonate because that’s never been what God wants. It’s what we want. To make God in our own image, so that people might stop and stare and marvel at our awesomeness. I mean God’s awesomeness.

Let me tell you where God wanted to meet me these past several years.

On a pile of rubble.

He wanted to sit with me in the silence and dust, after the wrecking ball, and put his arms around me for a while. He asked for vulnerability. And for honesty. I was embarrassed about the rubble and started to explain right away. He didn’t want to hear my plans for improvement. He had no interest in my blueprints. He wanted to hold hands and dry my tears. To help me understand that the rubble is where we have to start. The unmaking is first. We sat there for a long, long time until I started to get it.

It’s hard still. I’m so performance oriented. As a performer, that stands to reason, I guess. But I’m finding that the more willing I am to be honest about the broken parts of my life that are being unmade, and not necessarily shined up for presentation, the more likely I am to build something that matters. Stacking up these stones again to build what God has really been asking for all along…an altar.

Sharing from my heart:

I love worship music and listen to it every night while I fall asleep and I wake up to it each morning.  It starts my day off with a peaceful heart and mind, I love it.  I'm always searching for new songs that speak to me and feed my spirit, with The Unmaking I've found new songs to add to my collection. I was surprised there were only 6 songs on the whole CD but once I listened to them I realized that was all she needed.  I hope you enjoy this CD as much as I am and I hope if brings peace, comfort and hope to those that need it.  I just returned from my Grandma's funeral in Colorado and the song Not To Us and Love You More have really given me comfort while I'm grieving.

 Slow Down reminded me of my children especially when she says "Don't roll your eyes at me" and it just talks about how fast our children grow up and are gone before we know what happened.  Makenzie is about to get her driver's permit, how did this happen?  My sweet little bundle from South Korea is almost a full grown woman and my little guy is taller and bigger than me.  Take the time to enjoy these days and Slow Down like the song says!

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Thanks for reading,

 

Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”