Musings of a Book Addict (review)

Publisher:  CreateSpacePages:  256

 Source:  Review copy from publisher in exchange for review.

 Genre:  Religion

The whole week after 9/11 we walked around in shock.  We rode the roller coaster of emotions.  Anger was an extremely hard one to deal with.  Through this book, a collection of sermons from different pastors from different denominations we discover that it is okay to be angry.  It is not okay to sin in our anger.  The pastors struggled just as we did with what to say and how to react.  Yet , on that first Sunday after the attacks they gave us a reason to push forward.  They let us know ad feel like we were not the only ones feeling this way.  They let us know it was okay to feel the emotions we were feeling.  This is an inspiring book that reminds us that we find our strength in God.  This is an uplifting book that needs to be red by everyone.

Posted by Sandra Stiles at 2:26 PM 

Review from Toronto, Ontario Canada..

With the death of Osama bin Laden on May 1, the events of 9-11 are once again at the forefront of our minds. A recent book, First Sunday edited by Donald Robert Elton and Aura Aguda Elton, consists of spiritual responses to these attacks by 21 clergy, including our own Dr. Stirling. While the sermons deal with how we respond to 9-11, they also apply to handling life

in general. As Reverend M. Craig Barnes (National Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C.) writes, “God can always be found in the places of suffering. He is there not simply to comfort, but to lead us to resurrected life.”

Reverend Timothy C. Ahrens (The First Congregational Church United Church of Christ, Columbus Ohio) related an interesting and humourous parable entitled, “Play the Ball Where the Monkey Drops it!” Reverend Andrew Stirling,

reading, “The story of the healing of the man at Bethesda, realized that what the world needs
more than anything at this very moment is healing, and that the encounter between the man at the pool at Bethesda and Jesus of Nazareth has lessons for us and the whole world about the nature and the power of God’s healing.”

Read all these sermons and be inspired.

Emily Kozak 

Review by Christian Book blogger - CarlybirdK

http://carlybirdshome.blogspot.com/2011/09/first-sunday-by-donald-robert-elton-and.html

About the book:


First Sunday: Spiritual Responses to the 9-11 Attacks by Dr. Donald Robert Elton and Aura Agudo Elton marks the 10-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks with a collections of sermons and commentaries delivered by pastors across the nation in the days immediately following the event.

According to Elton and his wife and co-author Aura, millions of Americans found hope and
inspiration in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the words of their local pastors and spiritual
leaders. With that in mind, the Eltons compiled a selection of sermons and spiritual thoughts from
church leaders across the country delivered in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. Still reeling
from the shock and sorrow of what had just occurred, the pastors wrote passionate sermons
meditating on peace, justice, God's law and more. The lessons are intended to transport readers
back to the indelible feelings that swept the nation after the most significant terrorist action on
American soil.

"The book is a historical record that allows the reader to time travel back to those emotional days
and to regain the perspective many have lost in the years since the attack," Elton says. "It offers an
alternative perspective on the attacks and terror and the nature of evil in the world and how we have
to respond to evil in the world."

Intended to inspire readers and honor the victims of the attacks, the book is offered as a 10-year
commemoration of the event that transformed so many American lives.


My review of First Sunday:


Ordinarily I do not like to post book reviews on September 11, but when I heard about First Sunday, I thought it was the perfect book to feature on this tenth anniversary of that terrible day.  Before I begin my review, I would just like to share where I was when I heard the news.  I was living in Tucson at the time and I was getting ready for work.  Back in those days, I liked to watch the Weather Channel while I was getting ready.  I heard the forecaster say that they couldn’t do the travel forecast because the airports are closed due to the terrorist attacks.  I spun around, stunned by what I heard, and changed the channel to the news.  It was at that moment the first tower was collapsing.  Needless to say, I was shocked and confused.  I drove to work in a fog, listening to the radio when the second tower collapsed.  The rest of the day was spent at work, watching television and crying.  When I drove home that night Tucson was a ghost town.  Everything was shut down and it seemed like I was the only one on the road.  I have never felt so alone.  I went home, hung the Stars and Stripes outside my house and went to church - like so many others.  I sought comfort from my Savior.

First Sunday is a collection of sermons written by pastors from all corners of the United States.  This is the first book of its kind that I have seen and while it brought back a lot of the feelings I had on that day, it also brought a great deal of comfort.  Donald and Aura have done a thorough job in compiling these words of hope and I applaud them for their efforts.  I like how they also included the church, city and exact date the actual sermon was delivered.  I especially like the fact that they also included President Bush’s words at the National Day of Prayer. 

I have collected over the last ten years just a few books about September 11, 2001 and I am so glad to have First Sunday added to my collection.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to find comfort as this country continues to heal from the attacks of that horrible day.  I know this is one book I will turn to again and again as I continue to pray for the country that I love so much.  Many thanks to Donald and Aura for their hard work on this project.

To learn more about First Sunday, click here.



This book was provided for review by Donald and Aura Elton.

Voices of Faith

Decades or centuries from now, when people look back on the history of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States of America, the facts will not be difficult to find. Future historians will have no shortage of video, audio, and expert analysis of what led to the events, how they occurred, and how we as a nation responded to the attacks whether by use of the military abroad or by the cancellation of civil liberties here at home.

While most who were old enough to watch and understand in 2001 will never forget how we felt when we saw the unthinkable play out, those not yet born will have a difficult time understanding the emotional and sometimes physical impact of the attacks on us as individuals. They may not realize that the attack, in addition to being an attack against our political and economic system, were also an attack on our religion. By this I’m not just talking about the attack on believers but the attack was, in many cases, an attack on belief itself.

How could a just and loving God allow so much death and injury of innocents at the hands of a rival faith. How could God’s will be served by such events? Is religion the enemy of evil in the world or is religion the root of evil in the world? How did believers respond to the September 11 attacks. How would God have us respond? What is God’s purpose in allowing the attacks to take place?

Our book, First Sunday - Spiritual Responses to the 9-11 Attacks (ISBN-13: 978-1460902882, ISBN-10: 1460902882) was our attempt to help answer these questions from the perspective of America’s spiritual leaders - pastors of community places of worship across the country. We collected sermons given following the terror attacks mostly delivered the first Sunday after the Tuesday attacks. These, we believe, were God inspired messages prepared on very short notice by pastors who were in most cases also affected by the attacks just as were their congregations. Many struggled with what they could say and how they could respond not only to the shock and anger felt by their church membership but in many cases felt by themselves as humans not immune from emotional responses. Recall that in these early days there were more questions than answers. We didn’t know for sure from whom the attacks had come or how many people had been killed or injured and importantly we didn’t know if the attacks were even over or were more attacks on the way.

Each pastor took different approaches in creating their sermons though by design we chose for inclusion those sermons that had positive inspirational messages that would apply not only to the obvious questions about the terror attacks but would offer in many cases more general guidance about God’s guidance about evil in the world and our free will, free of God’s interference, whether we, as humans, choose to do good, or evil.

Most readers are moved by many of the sermons and feel that a part of their memory now long dormant is awakened by hearing the pastors describe their reaction and analysis of those early hours and days following the September 11 terror attacks.

It is our hope that readers will turn to these sermons from time to time when things don’t go as planned and when terrible events cause us to question our faith.

Dr. Donald R. Elton & Mrs. Aura Agudo Elton
Columbia, SC

http://www.FirstSundayBook.com

Review from Lexington Chronicle

http://lexingtonchronicle.com/clients/lexingtonchronicle/08182011PageB3.pdf