Thursday, January 17, 2013

Book Review - Fresh Brewed Life



The Fresh-Brewed Life by Nicole Johnson is a wake-up call to many areas of your life...longings, beauty, anger, sexuality and relationships.   The author talks about coffee to illustrate her points.   Fresh brewed coffee is warm and inviting.  When you are in a coffee shop and smell that rich aroma you might want to sit awhile.   Coffee wakes you up...it stimulates you.   Johnson is trying to wake us up to a richer, stimulating, fresh-brewed life in God.

The best part of this book for me was the encouragement to journal.  Journaling is something that I have done on and off again.  Johnson said that “journaling gives us the opportunity to learn by paying attention...by writing what’s happening and what we are feeling and thinking about what’s happening, we can look at the pieces and study them more closely.”  I agree that journaling helps me to focus my thoughts.   I would write my prayers to God, tell HIm about my day and ask questions.   I would write down what I “heard” even if I did not understand what it meant.  I found that my conversations with God in my journal would be relevant to me in the future.    I had put down my pen because I became too busy.   The Fresh-Brewed Life  was a wake-up call to begin again.  It feels good to journal.  It is like me writing to my future self.

The chapter on anger was also very good.  I felt the author really let us get close to her in this chapter. The ongoing presence of anger indicates a problem.  We have to ask ourselves the right questions to determine the source of our anger.

Below are some notes and quotes I wrote in my own journal while reading this book.

“Be kind to yourself.  Shaming yourself will not bring about change.”

“God wakes up the soul.  Be honest to have an honest relationship with God.”

“We were made by him, and our souls are not ultimately satisfied by less than him.”

“Our Christian faith is not about trying to kill legitimate longings; it’s about surrendering those longings to Christ.”

This book helped me get back to journaling which is why I am glad I read Fresh-Brewed Life.   We have to go beyond the surface and let God stir up our sleepy souls for something better for His glory.


The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book or advanced reading copy through BookSneeze®.


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