This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of NAVTEQ. All opinions are 100% mine.

This Friday will find my oldest-daughter and I driving into the nearest local indoor swimming pool and testing out its waters to determine whether or not she’s sensitive to high levels of chlorine. If she’s okay with them, it’s swimming lessons in the fall, if not…well, it’ll be the backyard pool for her.  The only thing is, I’ve never been to the local pool. It’s also in a town that I’ve rarely driven in myself, that I’ve only been to twice in the past four years.

It’s enough to get any mom thinking about those nifty in-car navigational systems, and how they add confidence to the entire, “I’m driving around looking for a place I’ve never been to before.” process.  If you DO have a GPS system, check out www.updateyourmap.com, where you can easily find GPS map updates for both handheld and in-car mobile-positioning devices.

Our vehicle is definitely too old to have a built-in GPS, and we haven’t invested in one, but I can’t help but think about how much time you could save when navigating unfamiliar terrain while on vacation.  If we ever do get one, I’ll know where to get easy updates to make sure my navigational data is accurate – I’ll be over to www.updateyourmap.com.

AAAH!  Our spelling lessons for today have been curtailed!  Yesterday we discovered that after a week-off of homeschooling (sicky times and trip to the city), our All About Spelling index card box was missing!  We pressed on…without it.  But today when we prepared to do our spelling…the All About Spelling Level One book was missing!  NOOOOOOOOOOO!

How, oh how can we spell without you?  I was certain I took you back to the spelling bin when we were done yesterday!  SOB!  Is the distance between the living room and the office so great that I could have somehow misplaced you so badly that now I cannot find you!

Sniff.

Prayers are appreciated for the safe recovery of All About Spelling Level One!  It must be here somewhere!

Our new family website, Bogart Family Resources, has been up and running for, oh a good half-year now, but still it isn’t being indexed by Google for “Bogart Family Resources” anywhere on the first 4 pages of Google’s search results!

Our facebook page shows up, our CurrClick titles, blog reviews about us, even my writer’s profiles on other pages, mentions I make here, but not our own page!  Hmm, I guess that’s why people hire seo company‘s!  Hopefully patience will get us somewhere in the meanwhile though .

Earlier in my pregnancy I was pleased as punch to have SO much energy.  Ah, I remembered needing naps every day in my previous pregnancies, but this pregnancy was so full of energy, I was all zippity-do-dah.

Ahem.  That was until a few weeks ago.  Yes indeed, I need daily naps.  Or I am totally exhausted and mighty cranky by day’s end.  Well, sometimes I’m cranky anyways!  Sad, but true.  Thankfully I haven’t been feeling too nauseous, but I still have some aversions (I did drink a cup of coffee a couple of days ago successfully though.)

I’m around 12 weeks as of yesterday, and I’m surprised that this pregnancy is going so quickly.  Of course, the last trimester will be another matter – the last month particularly!

By anyone’s estimation, Winston Churchill is one of history’s most charismatic and memorable characters.  His larger-than-life figure piqued my interest as a young student in junior-high school, so it was with great interest that I noted a volume dedicated to exploring his life through a Christian lens in Thomas Nelson’s Christian Encounters series of short biographies.

Having been publicly educated (and not having read extensively on Churchill’s life, I hoped that he might have held a faith that I was unaware of.  This doesn’t seem to be the case.  Though John Perry does try to make a case for the man’s spiritual beliefs, these quite clearly do not fall in line with depending upon the person of Jesus Christ as savior.  Rather, by his own admission, he rejected Christianity, and held a belief system that can be more accurately classified as agnostic – believing in some greater “universal” power at work but refusing to truly worship it, or become specific.

Though Perry quotes extensively from Churchill’s own letters we never see evidence of a walk with Christ.  In his public speeches God is given due place, but we find this in any Christian countries when politicians speak – regardless of their own personal faith.   Clearly Churchill’s God is not truly the Judeo-Christian God, creator of the universe, but rather a creation of Churchill’s own – one who plays by Churchill’s rules and expectations, and not by His own.  We can only judge Churchill to be a Christian if we adopt a very, very liberal point of view that accepts anyone who even vaguely believes in a higher power as Christian, and that we cannot do if we wish to hold to the biblical gospel.

Still, this biography is a brisk and fascinating romp through the life of this man who was clearly used of God during a very dark time in the history of both Europe and the world.  If you’d like to learn more about Churchill and his spiritual beliefs, Winston Churchill is a great place to start – just don’t expect to find a brother-in-Christ within its pages.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM OR AMAZON.COM!

A History of Christianity is a six-disc BBC documentary hosted by historian Diarmaid MacCulloch (author of a series of extensive, scholarly works on the history of the faith.  I’ve had the opportunity to review the first disc in the series – The First Christianity.  MacCulloch takes viewers to modern-day sites and churches as he follows the path of Christianity from Jerusalem to the East.

With most of us being fairly unfamiliar with Eastern forms of Christianity, MacCulloch’s exploration of the roots of various Orthodox faiths is certainly fascinating and informative.  However, if you’re looking primarily for a documentation of the spiritual life of the church, or of theology, you won’t find it here, though some major doctrinal watersheds are explored.

Personally, the lack of division between the actions and beliefs of common believers from what could very well be political machinations (as opposed to faith-based decisions) makes me slightly uncomfortable, and always has.  Admittedly, this is difficult to hash out in the history of the Christian church, as only God can truly judge the heart and the motives of man.  Perhaps wading into this fray is a place that even angels fear to tread!

Interestingly, though MacCulloch isn’t promoting Christianity as a faith, there is a fair amount of the gospel presented – sadly it is also mixed in with some ‘works-based’ beliefs such as asceticism as a way of ‘earning’ one’s way into heaven.

MacCulloch is clearly fascinated by the institution and traditions of the church (which often have a tendency towards extra-biblical injunctions), and as such the first disc in the series is geared heavily in this direction.  Like most BBC productions, Christianity is presented in a secular (though respectful) point of view, and is placed on par with other “world religions”.

Starting in Jerusalem, traveling through the Middle East, and even to China, there is a good deal of great footage of historical sites (many of which you just don’t tend to see in most documentaries profiling the early church – they tend to go towards Rome.)  Christianity’s early interactions with Islam (some of which proved to be surprisingly peaceful) are also explored.

This first informative episode runs 60 minutes in length, and subsequent discs offer historical overviews of Christianity in Rome, Orthodoxy, the Reformation, Protestantism, and an episode entitled “God in Dock” (don’t ask me what this is about!)  From what I’ve seen of this first disc, A History of Christianity is more respectful of our faith than many secular documentaries that I’ve seen – taking what Christians say at face value without denigrating it, or speaking against it.  MacCulloch does a good job of keeping the first disc fairly ‘neutral’, if you can say that there is such a thing.

I’m certainly interested in watching the rest of the series, and my husband has found this first installment absolutely fascinating!

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM!

The second title in the Extreme Devotions series – More Than Conquerors – takes readers south of the border to Mexico where gang violence is rife, and remote rural villages where Mayan superstition blends with the Catholic religion to create a hotbed of hostility.  Pastor Hector Rodriguez lives and ministers on the outskirts of Tijuana where he was raised while his mother Virgina lives in San Juan Chamula, reaching out to those of Mayan descent through informal literacy classes.  Young Bible college graduate Marty (formerly of San Diego) finds himself staying with the Rodriguez family as he seeks God’s will and future direction for his call to ministry.

Soon, all of these lives will be disrupted by both violence in Tijauana and San Juan Chamula.  Throughout all this turbulence however, God’s children will cling to Him and seek always to do only His will.

With the majority of the major players being Christians, this title reads a bit less multi-faceted and gritty, than did its predecessor – No Greater Love. Though the characters do struggle somewhat with their faith, and through the process of accepting God’s plans for their lives, everything somehow seems to run a little too smoothly, a little too idealistically.  I can’t put my finger on exactly why this is, and it’s not something I often notice when I’m reading Christian fiction, but somehow these Christians seem a bit too perfect.

Still, it was very interesting to read of the sweet, and pure romance that develops for Marty, and of the ministry dangers that those in Mexico face.  Sometimes it’s tempting to think that persecution doesn’t strike so close to home, and I’m thankful that Kathi Macias is willing to write, and therefore inform readers about this topic.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM OR AMAZON.COM!