John J Brugaletta

This book fulfills a widespread need: a reliable guide to understanding Christian topics, whether in print or in conversation. When considering the many denominations and personal opinions in today's Christianity, this book will serve as a friendly guide.

The Crossing Point of Our Lives is just that--an examination of our lives to see how close we are to the turning point toward the cross and all it implies. This is done through two types of poetry: lyric (brief) and narrative (a story and therefore longer). Both types are designed to lead us to meditation on our lives.

One of the Loaves Was Yours almost always finds a way to make its meanings as clear as possible. But that is only one element in its success. These poems also communicate with a healthy dash of images, usually the lifeblood of poetry that pleases. It is not an easy thing to accomplish, but the author has done it. This book also offers a majority of poems that both scan and rhyme, an added handicap for a poet, but one that he seems to delight in. Besides, as Robert Frost once said, writing poetry without rhyme ""is like playing tennis without a net.""

One of the Loaves Was Yours almost always finds a way to make its meanings as clear as possible. But that is only one element in its success. These poems also communicate with a healthy dash of images, usually the lifeblood of poetry that pleases. It is not an easy thing to accomplish, but the author has done it. This book also offers a majority of poems that both scan and rhyme, an added handicap for a poet, but one that he seems to delight in. Besides, as Robert Frost once said, writing poetry without rhyme ""is like playing tennis without a net.""

Commentary by X. J. Kennedy: John Brugaletta is a poet of tremendous versatility. Master of the sonnet and other traditional forms, he is equally skilled in free verse. Readers will be rewarded with startling insights. How often the poems surprise us, arriving at destinations impossible to predict. Brugaletta is even-that rarity nowadays-a devotional poet who strikes up intimate conversations with God. Here is a vital contribution to American poetry, the best of an impressive body of work achieved over three decades.

In Transformed Thinking: Loving God With All Your Mind, Dr. Edward M. Curtis argues that every believer needs to take seriously Paul's exhortation in Romans 12 and avoid assimilating from our world and culture values that are contrary to God's truth revealed in Scripture. At the same time Curtis maintains that human perception and the human mind are wonderful gifts from God that he expects us to use to the full. There are significant truths to be learned from the study of our world and through human experience. It is only as we integrate the knowledge available to us through both general and special revelation that we can transform our thinking by loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and truly glorify his name.