"No Easy Day" by Matt Bissonnette ("Mark Owen") and Kevin Maurer

The American way of life changed on September 11, 2001. I am not a wordsmith, so I will not attempt to offer a memorial of the lives lost on that day. Our nation mourned greatly - and still mourns - over the loss of so many of our fellow Americans.
On the 13th anniversary of those terror attacks, I thought it appropriate to write this review of the book "No Easy Day," which is a first-hand account of Operation Neptune Spear (the mission that led to the death of Osama bin Laden). Obviously, the mission itself was carried out in May of 2011 - but this mission was a significant moment in the country's response to the attacks.

Let me say up front: as a Christian, I do not believe it is right, appropriate, or Christ-like to rejoice over someone's death. Osama bin Laden is burning in hell right now, and he will be for eternity. This sobering fact will never ease the pain for those who lost loved ones on 9/11. (The sad reality is, many of the victims of 9/11 are also probably in hell right now). So, I do not cheer the death of bin Laden. It may have been necessary - and beneficial - for our country. However, if God Himself does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked, then I cannot either (Ezekiel 33:11). I mourn also that bin Laden never repented of his sins and trusted in Christ as His Savior. Had he done so decades ago, it is possible that 9/11 never would have happened (although that is not to say some other terrorist wouldn't have attempted something similar). Remember, Christ's command was to "love your enemies" - Matthew 5:44. And also remember that God is not willing that ANY should perish (even the "bin Ladens" of the world) - 2 Peter 3:9. Christ died for bin Laden, too.

I won't attempt to comment much on the ethics of the operation written about in the book - nor the "War on Terror" as a whole. This is a simple book review blog, so I will review the book on its own merits as a work of non-fiction.

The large heading above the title of the book on the front cover says, "The firsthand account of the mission that killed Osama bin Laden." But we don't get to that mission until near the end of the book. The small heading under the title says, "The autobiography of a Navy SEAL." Due to the author's attempts at hiding his identity, the autobiography was pretty weak. More than once, I got the feeling that this book wasn't sure what it wanted to be... Is it an autobiography/memoir? Is it a "set-the-record-straight" bombshell? Is it an intimate peek at the Navy's elite SEAL teams and what it takes to become a SEAL? Ultimately, the book was some of all of these - but not definitively ANY of them.

If you have heard about this book at all, it is probably because of the controversy surrounding it. "Mark Owen" is a pseudonym used by the author. In fact, almost all of the names in the book are fabrications, in order to protect the identities of the operators and personnel involved in the missions and training. But very soon after the book was written, it was leaked that former SEAL Matt Bissonnette was actually the author. The military community - and the US government - overwhelmingly condemned the author for writing this book. They claim it was not properly vetted to ensure that no information contained in it would put any personnel or operations at risk. Others have said that each operator involved in the mission signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement and that Bissonnette violated that agreement (and therefore betrayed his brothers-in-arms). I am not an expert in the legalities of it all, but if this is true one has to wonder what the author's real motives for writing this book were. He pretty much admits that writing this book was one of the first things that he started after the mission was over. I couldn't help but get the feeling that he knew all along that he was going to try to turn a profit on this story - which severely weakens his claim that he wrote the book to "set the record straight" (author's own words).

Don't get me wrong, the book was interesting enough. I finished it quickly. I enjoyed hearing an insider's perspective on the close-knit special forces community. It was thrilling to hear about the split-second decisions that had to be made in the heat of the mission. When I am presented with stories like these, a part of me is intensely thankful that our country has men brave enough and tough enough to carry out these missions. And let's face it - every man wonders at some point in his life if he would have had the "right stuff" to be one of those heroes.

On a more basic critical level, there was a pretty decent amount of vulgar language and talking about crude topics, which is not surprising. The book was never dull - no scene or chapter dragged on to the point of being boring. It was about what I expected it to be, but it did not really blow me away in any sense. In fact, it was rather anti-climactic!

Again, I will leave the finer arguments of the ethics/legality of the US military operations in the middle east for others to debate. I will also leave the theological/moral issues for Christians to be discussed by those more qualified. I am still proud and glad to be an American citizen - and I have much respect for our military.

On this anniversary of 9/11, please take a few moments to pray for those who lost loved ones that day. And pray for our men and women who are still overseas serving our country.

"Dreams and Visions" by Tom Doyle

I had read a little bit about this subject before starting this book. The subtitle of this book is a question: "Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?" And I would have to say, after reading the stories in these pages, that God is surely doing something in the Middle East to bring revival.

Tom Doyle's book is, first of all, written from the heart of a missionary. He has been in these hard-to-reach places, he has talked with most of the people whose stories appear in his book, he has a burden for the Muslim world - in short, he writes this book with love, not just with the bland fact-giving tone of many books with biographical content. And there are many stories to be told, apparently.

Each of the people whose stories are told in the book have reported seeing Jesus in either a dream or vision. They all seem to know who He is immediately upon seeing Him. Sometimes two different people have the same dream, or a Muslim will have a dream where Jesus shows them a building they must find. When they wake up, they find the building and meet the people who live there (Christians, of course, who are able to lead the person to the Lord).

It is impossible to read stories of these Christians in the Middle East without being simultaneously repulsed by the persecution and torture they endure and encouraged by the strength of their faith. In the excellent Appendices in the back of the book, Doyle answers the question easily: "How do you know the dreams and visions are of God?"  He makes two strong statements: Point #1 - No one goes to sleep a Muslim and wakes up a believer in Christ. Without fail, the dreams only point the dreamer to a person who shares the Word of God with them. For some, it only takes a dream or two - others have had many dreams over the span of many months. Some of the dreamers written about in the book have not yet received Christ at the time of the book's printing (and Doyle asks us to pray that they do). It appears that Jesus is not violating the Scripture that says "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

Big point #2 - Look at the fruit of the dreams and visions. These dreams produce seekers of Christ, who become disciples of Christ who are willing to die for their faith (a very likely reality for most of them). Not only that, but when they accept Christ they are so deeply changed by Jesus that they cannot help but share the Gospel with others.

The chapters of the book are divided into sections by country: Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and even Israel and America. I really appreciated how the author gave a brief historical background of the countries and the Muslim groups that have become dominant there. It helps create a clearer picture in my mind of the context of the stories.

Do I believe these dreams and visions are from God? I can honestly say that I hope so. And it certainly appears to be so. I HIGHLY recommend this book.

What is your opinion of this information? Do you believe God would use dreams and visions to reach a group of people that are nearly impossible to reach by conventional methods? PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT OR DROP ME AN EMAIL AND GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS!

Also, don't forget the book giveaway list! I have given out 7 or so, but there are plenty more!

I received this book free from the publishers in exchange for my honest review.

"Strike the Dragon" by Charles Dyer and Mark Tobey

I hate to say this, but usually books are put on the "bargain buy" shelf for a reason. If you pay a buck for a brand new book in a bookstore, then don't expect it to be the best book you've ever read. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised though. This book falls somewhere in between. It was a decent (if unoriginal) concept, but the execution was lacking a little bit.... Let me start with the negatives so we can end on a good note.
There were typos scattered throughout, but I can forgive that. Really, my two biggest issues were these:
1) The authors frequently felt the need to describe in very minute detail things that had absolutely no bearing on the plot of the book. It got a little annoying as the book went on. Explanatory comments were inserted at times when they were not necessary at all.
2) Everyone talked like Christians. The cops, the CIA, the Mossad agents, the Muslim terrorists - all of them phrased things in ways that you only hear at church. Now, if you've read any of my other reviews, you know I appreciate CLEAN dialogue. I have little tolerance for Christian authors using curse words. But I mean, there were hardly any contractions used in the dialogue, no slang, no normal street language. (It's hard to explain, but just read about 25 pages from the middle of the book and you'll see what I'm talking about). And the CIA, Mossad, and Chicago Police apparently love to refer to terrorists as "bad guys" over their communication lines with each other. This made the dialogue unrealistic. In fact, more than once I almost gave up on reading the book at all.
Now for the good points. It was truly a Christian novel. In fact one character trusts Christ at the end of the book! The authors used a few opportunities to work in some apologetics, and I appreciated that (even though some would see that as a negative). The book also had some good action near the beginning and some more near the end (however, I feel the authors missed out on some GREAT opportunities for nail-biting suspense). In all, the story was weaved together fairly well.
I would give the book a 3 out of 5.

"The Twelfth Imam" by Joel Rosenberg

How much do you really know about Shia Eschatology? If you are like me and know pretty much nothing, you will learn a little bit by reading this book. The main character is a CIA operative who has been given the task of gathering information concerning Iran's nuclear development operations. While all of this is going on, the Twelfth Imam (an Islamic Messiah-type figure, also known as the "Mahdi", or the "Promised One") seems to have appeared and is rallying the Muslim world together. There is much more to the story, of course, but this hefty book (480+ pages) will keep you interested until the very end.
This book is a fairly sharp departure (in my opinion) in style and substance from the "Last Jihad" series. In fact, it is very heavy on emotional drama and relationships and very low on action, at least until the last 100 pages of the book (which are the best, by the way). The story starts very slowly, weaving the lives of different characters (across different decades, in different countries) into one unified tale. If you have read "The Last Jihad," you will remember that a plane was blown up by an RPG in like the first five pages of that book. Not so in "The Twelfth Imam"; it's much more mellow.
Impressively, Rosenberg utilizes a lot of real information - including actual article snippets and transcribed conversations that really happened. I'm a big fan of "spy" stories, and this book delivers big on that front. Rosenberg also makes it a point to uplift the name of Jesus Christ, and there are several characters in the book that give their hearts to Christ. Very moving scenes, almost bringing me to tears a few times.
Great book, but "The Last Jihad" still sits at the top of my list for Joel Rosenberg.

"Seeds of Turmoil" by Bryant Wright

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. There are just a few minor reasons I did not give it a 5-star rating. First of all, the first several chapters were fairly redundant. There were good-sized passages of Scripture that were repeated. The author was showing the roots of the Isaac/Ishmael conflict from the eyes of each person involved (Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, etc.); but it was too drawn out. Don't get me wrong - the Biblical information was great. It could have been a little more concise, because I almost lost interest in the first few chapters.

The only other reason for the 4-star rating would be the last two chapters. I never understood where the author was going with the chapter on the "Christian Perspective". He seemed to building up to something, but I couldn't figure out what it was. In the last chapter, the author answers three questions that people frequently ask him. I didn't see why this was necessary - other than the extremely brief invitation to salvation in the last two paragraphs.

The positive elements were many. Wright gave me a much better understanding of the mind-set of the Arabs (and the Iranians, for that matter). He also explained the history of the return of the Jews to Israel and how they got their land back. The prophetic information was good, and the historical information was excellent (not too in-depth or dry; just enough detail to give you a desire to research more). The author used a very casual style of writing and never delivered his thoughts in a way that would seem "academic". In fact, it was more in the style that a pastor would use (no surprise there, since he is a pastor).

There is a helpful glossary in the back of the book, as well as a nifty Study Guide that can be used individually or with groups. All in all, it is a great book!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers through http://www.booksneeze.com/. I was not required to write a positive review, and the opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.