Wednesday, September 25, 2013

My Review of James Revoir's Priceless Stones: 42 Days of Hebrew Promises for Kingdom Living

Priceless Stones: 42 Days of Hebrew Promises for Kingdom Living by James Revoir is a 42 day devotional which explores the Hebrew root words for scriptures. Each devotion begins with the Hebrew word and its English pronunciation. This is followed by a scripture and then a devotional explaining the root word and how it effects the context and depth of the passage. Each day's devotion concludes with a prayer, declaration and questions. The very back of the book contains a glossary of all the Hebrew words used in the study. There are 145 Hebrew words taught in this book. That's not bad for only 42 days of reading!

I am currently studying Hebrew with my family. The language is so full and rich in meaning. James Revoir did a beautiful job of capturing the importance of the language and how knowing it (even the slightest bit) can greatly expound your understanding of scripture.

My favorite devotions are for Day 34 and 38. In Day 34 Revoir quotes Joshua 1:5 and expounds on the word raphah (spelled in Hebrew רָפָה). meaning "to sink or relax". He explains how this verse is telling us (in Yahweh's own voice) that he won't abandoned post and go enjoy a nap while you are facing a trail. He doesn't drop the ball but is consistently with us without fail.

On Day 38 the author tackled one on my big pet peeves and made me want to shout "Amen!". On page 163 Revoir writes, "Jesus bore all of our sorrows. He did not simply declare them to be gone by the word of His mouth, though He could easily have chosen to do so." Many believers (especially in Oklahoma near the biggest name it claim it denomination) can learn from this observation which is pure fact. You know what? I can learn from it too. We all say we want to reflect God, to follow his example in our corrupted world. Yet me miss this. He could have named and claimed his own healing and ultimately our healing but instead he took the pain. Why? Think about it. It's so much harder to just say your pain or the pain of your friend is gone in Jesus name. It's much harder to carry the burden of their illness and loving them and carrying their pain for them (whether it means making a meal, interceding on their behalf, or changing their bandages). This is what I gleaned from one day's study alone. 

There was one thing that was odd to me. In a book that focused on Hebrew the author still uses the word Jesus which is known to be a poor transliteration that leans more to the Greek than Hebrew rather than his Hebrew name, Yeshua. I do understand why he made this choice, but felt Messiah might have been a better choice. 

In either case, there is still so much food of thought contained in Priceless Stones that it is a very worthy purchase.

You can order yourself a copy from the publisher here for $13.88.  If you prefer reading on a kindle, this book is available in that format for $2.99 on Amazon.  

I received a free copy of this book to review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations. I am part of BookCrash.


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