My Journey to a Deeper Faith in the Land Where Jesus Walked
We all encounter times when our spirit feels dry, when doubt looms.
The opportunity to tour Israel came at a good time. For months, my life has been a mindless plodding through necessary routine, as monotonous as an all-night shift on an assembly line. Life gets that way sometimes, when nothing specific is wrong but the world around us seems drained of color. Even my weekly worship experiences and daily quiet times with God have felt as dry and stale as last year's crackers. I'm ashamed to confess the malaise I've felt. I have been given so much. Shouldn't a Christian's life be an abundant one, as exciting as Christmas morning, as joyful as Easter Sunday?
With gripping honesty, Lynn Austin pens her struggles with spiritual dryness in a season of loss and unwanted change. Tracing her travels throughout Israel, Austin seamlessly weaves events and insights from the Word . . . and in doing so finds a renewed passion for prayer and encouragement for her spirit, now full of life and hope.
HeartsandMindsBooks.com wrote:While Christian novelist Lynn Austin's tour of the Holy Land revives her own parched spiritual walk, the impressions she shares and the connections she makes while visiting the land where miracles happened are perceptive and illuminating....While readers will enjoy her comfortable, narrative style, the thoughts she shares, the questions she asks, and the conclusions she draws are both humbling and convicting. Recommend this book to those who may have or will travel to Israel, but also to those who seek to renew their Christian commitment and need a novel way to begin.
Church Libraries wrote:At first, I thought the key selling point of this was that it was written by a well known Christian fiction writer, a lady who is beloved by many of our customers who read her stuff. She has sold more than a million copies of her books and is an eight-time Christy Award winner! So you know she is a thoughtful, talented, wholesome writer. As you can tell from the sub-title, here she encounters God in ways that deeper her faith and discipleship, kicks her out of her spiritual dry spell, and awakens new desires for God's Kingdom -- all by going on a Holy Land tour. This really is the real deal, and she tells of her journey (the literal one, and the metaphorical one) in this very, very nice book. There is gripping honesty and lovely, basic Bible reflections, created while 'on location' throughout Israel.
Austin, known for her wealth of fiction, has authored an outstanding piece of nonfiction. Relaying her pilgrimage to Israel offers four benefits for readers: First, the amount of biblical history she includes is extensive. Second, her vast Bible knowledge adds depth to her accounting of this trip. Third, her interpretation and comparison of the Old Testament and today's world and what that can mean for today's Christians makes this almost a devotional book. Finally, her transparency reveals her own spiritual needs and how this trip met many of them and changed her heart. Pilgrimage is appropriate for any church library collection and is valuable as a resource for a book discussion group, of interest to both men and women.
