Book Briefing by Chapter

Introduction: Briefing by Chapter (book excerpt)

This chapter briefing is for those of you who are impatient, read books leisurely and surf around to only read specific topics, or speed read in order to make a decision on whether to read a chapter in full or in part, or even for those who begin on the first page and are a committed reader through to the last page.  That just about covers everybody.  This briefing is an overview for you to refer back to if needed, that provides you with a glimpse of what each chapter involves.  I have to say though, that if you are truly wanting to develop your spiritual relationship and live an abundant life, you really need to read this book from cover to cover, because doing so in any other manner will keep you from getting the most out of it and keep you from getting the most out of your life journey and spiritual walk.

To begin, this book is uniquely structured in that the Introduction must be read before any of the other chapters due to the broad range of information and primarily for some essential foundational topics.  The Introduction gives you a sampling of the extensive topics covered throughout the book and for someone who is just beginning this read, it provides a concise idea of what you are heading into.  I wanted to take a quick moment to relay that this book is NOT about religion, it is all about relationships and optimizing your spiritual journey so that you can achieve a truly abundant life on earth.  To continue, Ch1 begins as an extension of the intro’s foundational topics and background information that some will enjoy, while others may promptly scan and move on (but I expect those who do scan it will return to read it more thoroughly once they get to Ch3).  Ch2 is where the rubber hits the road on your reading journey and never really eases up from providing the ripe applicable information you came searching for, continuing through to the end of the book.  Whether you are taking the first step of your spiritual journey, or you are taking a quantum leap as a mature Believer this chapter will help you significantly and ultimately rate as one of your favorites.   Ch3 as I just conveyed is a hard charging continuation and since everyone is unique, I’m looking forward to hearing which of the chapters you felt provided you with the most important, or informative and/or transformational-critical to your spiritual development.  At first glance, it is a comprehensive review of a very special prayer, but after you’ve read it, you’ll probably revisit it more than a couple of times because of the volumes of information that is packed into it.  Ch4 is a guide for prayer and gives many examples of prayers.  The thing is, I felt it important to isolate as much as I could on this topic for the purpose that you have a point to reference, but the best tips on how to pray are sprinkled throughout the entire book and I did not want Ch4 to be redundant and repeat points stated elsewhere in the book.  Ch5 is about the Holy Spirit, but again, so is the entire book.  He is God’s support team and your personal trainer.  Just as Jesus described Him to the disciples before Jesus’s ascension, “But do not venture forth until you have received the POWER from heaven.”  Point being, this is a very important chapter for your journey, but similar to Ch4, I was able to funnel a good amount of information into this chapter to provide a reference point, but the Holy Spirit is discussed from cover to cover.  Ch6 do not be misled by the title, Bits and Pieces.  What it’s referring to is the length of the various topics and allows a break from what I previously coined as hard charging point after point impartation of important information.  Thing is, that was my intent and I accomplished it for a couple of pages, but you’ll quickly notice that the topic matter becomes a rapid fire of useful and helpful topics and increasing in importance as you read through the chapter.  Having said that, there are very important diagrams (associated with Ch2) at the end of this chapter.  Volume II Ch7 is about Jesus, and as you may know the Bible from cover to cover was not only about Jesus, it is Jesus (concealed and revealed from beginning to end; the Alpha and the Omega).  So too is this book about Jesus from cover to cover and the significance and direct correlation between you and your spiritual journey and achieving a truly abundant life.  Just as with many of the other main topics and chapters, I was able to compile a significant portion of information regarding Jesus and thus a very important chapter.  Ch8 is a reiteration and an attempt at surmising this book’s topic matter via a broad range of examples and topics, in how it relates to your spiritual journey, abundant life on earth and aspects of your eternal life in heaven.  Let me put it this way, I’ve already begun writing Volume III for the advanced Believer, because the information is endless.  Upon completing Ch8, you can summarize the two volumes at this point with regards to God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible and how your journey connects to it.  Then at the end of Ch10, I’m going to strongly suggest that you revisit your highlighted notes from the Intro thru Ch8, because those notes will support what you encountered in Ch9/Ch10 and bring the entire comprehensive BIG picture together for you.  So what about Ch9 & Ch10?  You can consider them bonus chapters, because the book takes a big left hand turn, to speak about and relay important-crucial information concerning evil, evil doers, evil ways, satan, his demons and the devil, the reality of this topic, how to identify it in your life and what to do about it to combat and come out a victor.  It’s an intense read and it will blow some of you away, while others will for the first time relate and understand the why’s and how’s you have taken the wrong paths in the past and be able to correct it now.  You’ll see that I could have written an entire book on the subject (and probably will in the future) but the Holy Spirit nudged me to include in this book due to the critical topic matter and how it can impact your abundant life.  It can be a sour pill to have to take, but nonetheless is written so that you have a sweet remedy that applies to a plethora of personal, social and spiritual ills. Enjoy, Bon Appetit!  And may you be fulfilled in every step of your abundant experiential spiritual life journey on earth!