Customer Reviews

Going Places With God: A Devotional Journey Through the Lands of the Bible

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Daily devotionals come and go. The market seems to be flooded with them. So, rarely does a devotional book come along that catches my eye.

But Wayne Stiles' Going Places with God is not just another "daily devo." It's not a quick Scripture passage ripped out of context followed by a poem and a prayer. It's not some flowery writer's page full of rambling reflections. Nor is it an editor's repackaging of a dead saint's memoirs.

Going Placing with God: A Devotional Journey through the Lands of the Bible is like a spiritual adventure . . . a biblical quest that takes daily steps into the world of the Bible. Wayne Stiles has walked the land, saw beyond the tourist traps, cut through the competing traditions, and produced an informative, thought-provoking, deep, unique, and exciting devotional. The daily readings in this devotional will be more than just an opportunity to put a checkmark on your daily devo duties. You'll feel like you've learned something . . . like you've been somewhere.

The pages are filled with maps and photographs to help orient you to the land and to visualize the locations you explore through the devotions. A Scripture index and site/subject index make it easy to use in personal study or in leading devotionals.

I honestly wish I could have had this book with me during my trip to Israel last year. There are places I visited where the biblical and spiritual significance escaped me in the chaos of the packed schedule. Every tour guide, every traveler, every pilgrim to the Land of Promise should attach Going Places with God to their itineraries.

I do have one complaint, however. I wish Going Places with God came with a round trip ticket to the Holy Land! Oh well. No book is perfect. Maybe he'll include that in a second edition . . .

This devotional book is spectacular.
Believe it or not, I spent a week holding off on this review because I wanted precisely the appropriate word for that opening sentence. I gave up - "spectacular" will have to do.
Wayne has accomplished in his work what few teaching pastors do and what virtually no devotional books do: the merging, to great benefit, of times, histories, locations, backgrounds, scripture references, and personal insights that result in that rarest of blessings, that palpable communion with the Holy Spirit that usually only occurs when a believer is reading their Bible and the Spirit moves to reveal something new to the reader. There are only a few teachers who, for me, can trigger my spirit's communion with the Holy Spirit simply through their teaching (interestingly enough, Wayne Stiles is one of those few - I could never get enough of Wayne's teaching); what a tremendous blessing to us all that Wayne's willingness and availability to be used by the Spirit has been conferred to his writing.
This book is spectacular. I read it through when I first received it and am now reading it day-by day-by-page to my great benefit. I love being transported in time and space to the settings in the Bible and Wayne has done a very good job of taking us there.
Bravo, Wayne!

The problem with studying the geography of Israel is that it can quickly become divorced from the life-changing truths of Scripture. After all, how do hills and valleys help you grow closer to God? Wayne Stiles has the answer to that in his new book. I am often asked what is the perfect follow-up to a trip to Israel. My typical answer ("read a Bible atlas") just got better: read and meditate on the truths of this devotional guide. What makes this book so good is that it takes "boring" details of Scripture and shows how they are profitable for life and godliness.

Here's an example: Stiles shows how the geography of Joseph's brothers tending their sheep brought Joseph to slavery in Egypt and ultimately Israel's deliverance from famine. Unless you understand the geography, you won't fully appreciate God's sovereignty. The author draws from that just how we should relate to our sometimes bewildering circumstances. In another story, Israel has to travel all the way around Edom, and Stiles explains that in God's plan, sometimes the long way is the best way.

I love too the way that Stiles draws beautiful word pictures. With him as guide, I picture myself one day walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee and another day watching the sunrise from the Mount of Olives. A pastor for fourteen years, Stiles is a truly gifted communicator with a knowledge of where people are hurting today. One devotional will encourage you to increase your trust in the all-powerful God, and another devotional will challenge you to take heed lest you fall. Familiar lessons some, but brought to life from places in the Bible that you would never otherwise look.

I love the geographical nuggets contained in this book, but the reason that I am recommending it to all of my friends and former students is this: Going Places With God will challenge you to live a radical, Christ-centered life. The book came out a week ago: I encourage you to buy it, read it, and buy a couple for friends.

I will begin this book review by saying that I normally hate devotional books. Either they are so cheesy I can not stand it or they say such intellectually ignorant things that I get too distracted from the point of the text. But Wayne Stiles has written a devotional book that I have found helpful. The theme of his book is the geography of the Bible, so each entry is based upon some geographical theme. While there are a few that I think are a stretch, overall they are well done and either challenging or encouraging. For example, he discusses the move of Jesus from Nazareth to Capernaum. He believes the reason for this move was to put Jesus on the International Highway so that he would have greater influence. The application then is that we need to think strategically in our lives and think about the big picture of what God is doing. Each entry also contains a prayer and a quote from someone in church history. Interspersed throughout the book are wonderful pictures from Israel and several maps to help the reader orient themselves. I highly recommend this book for an intellectually responsible but still encouraging devotional.

I am generally not a fan of a 1 page/day devotional book, but this book was different. It has a rare mix of devotion, history, geography, photography, prayer, and practicality. If you have never been to Israel I would recommend this as a start to wet your appetite for learning bible geography. If you have been to Israel I would recommend this as a great refresher and reminder of many of the things you may have seen and experienced. Each day considers an historical event from the scriptures taking note of the historical and geographical context. This is then followed with application bringing it into the present day and an appropriate prayer. Each page is closed with a quote from church history. There are also helpful notes as to which maps/pictures to look at in regard to that day's reading. The book is filled with fantastic pictures and maps of Israel. The only drawback I see is that none of the pictures/maps are in colour. They are all black and white. The book finishes with an engaging testimony of the author's journeys to Israel and into the field of bible geography. I would recommend this book to anyone and hope that it would be merely the tip of the iceberg in one's study of bible geography.

I had the wonderful privilege of going to Israel in 1998. It was the most unexpected and life changing blessing. Wayne's book takes me back to that incredible time and place. The devotionals are personal, well-written and require deep and thoughtful introspection from the reader. The photographs are superb. The whole book is an inspired work of art.

Throughout different studies I've done of the Old and New Testament, the people and the land of Jesus seem so distant. It's often difficult to place myself there and feel a connection. In this devotional, God has provided this sense of connection that I have often missed. I have gained a better sense of Jesus' homeland, where he went and had my complacency challenged(Day 4). I ended Day 7 on my knees, confessing my "road to Shur" and thanking God for his sovereignty and mercy. I'm grateful to know that,like Jacob, I'm not alone in the pain of surrendering my will to God (Day 17). This book has been a blessing in my spiritual growth. Thanks, Wayne.

My parents were fortunate enough to travel to Israel recently. They stayed with a Jewish couple in Jerusalem's Old City, seeking to really experience the birthplace of their faith. My mom called me in tears one afternoon. She said that her belief was changing in response to the reality of what she saw in the places she visited. All of a sudden, her abstract faith, though very real, became more concrete in the stones of the Wailing Wall, the sparkling waters of the Sea of Galilee, and in the lowing of cattle in a stable in Bethlehem.

Wayne Stiles bridges the gap between an abstract understanding of faith and the concrete reality of history and geography in Going Places with God. He walks the reader through the land of Israel using vibrant word pictures so realistic that one can almost smell the warm, dusty air. And he ties each biblically significant site to a relevant spiritual truth.

If you want to truly experience the land where Jesus walked and grow deeper in your relationship with Him, this devotional is for you. I drank in every word. And each one helped to strengthen my faith.

It's challenging to capture the impact this book has had on my appreciation for the Scriptures and the geography of the Holy Land! Wayne Stiles' purposeful choice of words is like honey dripping from a wooden spoon! Each insight has depth and the applications are timely and thought-provoking! The Word of God is engaged with reverence and used in context. He incorporates maps and site photos, which is helpful for those of us who live far away from the Holy Land, or just need a reminder about geography!

Thank you Wayne for writing such a masterful devotional! In my opinion, it is second to none!

I have been to Israel, so each lesson in this book brought to mind some vivid mental images- all the way from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to the springs of Dan, the desert hills of the Judean Wilderness, to the Temple Mount. But despite my familiarity with the subject matter, I found many fresh and unexpected lessons both from a geographical and a spiritual point of view.

It takes something more than just a good writer to make a devotional books more than just a feel-good experience. I found myself intrigued, educated, comforted, and more importantly, challenged to reach higher, trust more, complain less, and love God with my whole heart.