Thirty Days in the Land with Jesus
A Holy Land Devotional*
by Charles H. Dyer
Moody Press

Summary

Charles H. Dyer invites us to take a guided tour of the life, ministry and homeland of Jesus Christ. His passion for making scripture come alive by contextualizing the events in the life of Christ gives the reader a new-found appreciation for the gospel writers and a strengthened faith as their faith in Jesus is strengthened and they learn over and over that every word of the Bible can be trusted.

Review

I’ve never been to Israel, but this book is so beautiful, alive, and meaningful, that I almost feel as though I have. Dyer is an excellent author who’s style is personal, captivating and exciting. He writes as a tour-guide would speak, pointing out details that many would overlook to show the historical, geographical and personal significance that each location holds. He helps us to see the accuracy and trustworthiness of scripture, and encourages us to put our lives into the hands of the Jesus we read about in the Bible.

In the introduction to the book Dyer encourages the reader to read the book “slowly, deliberately, thoughtfully” and I’m very glad I took his advice because it would be impossible to process the weight and meaning of all that he presents in one sitting. It’s not that the amount of information is overwhelming, or it is told in a dry way, but that there are so many “wow!” moments along the way. There were days that brought such powerful new insights to familiar scriptures that I ended up setting the book onto my lap and pondering the significance of what I just learned. Dyer brings to the reader knowledge which only a master student of the scriptures with first hand knowledge of the Israel would be able to give. I know and love Jesus more as a result of reading this little book.

Criticism

That said, it took me until day eight to fully appreciate this book, for two reasons. First, there were some days that the photograph seemed disconnected from the content of the chapter. For example, on day 4 Dyer spends paragraphs describing the geography of Nazareth and then shows a picture of a tree. Yes, he mentions a tree on the next page, but it’s not photo I was hoping to see – also, why isn’t the picture on the next page?

My second issue was that I couldn’t figure out who the intended audience of this book should be. The devotional portion of each day seemed light compared to the heavy content I just learned in the chapter. I have the feeling that a new Christian will appreciate the simple devotional portions but won’t have a full appreciation of the content, while a more mature Christian will eat up the geographical insights but be disappointed by the devotional applications.

Despite the disconnected content, I do recommend this book as a valuable resource and plan to pass it around to those who want to know more about trusting the Bible and the life of Jesus.

* I received a free copy of this book through the Moody Publishers Blogger Review Program