Summer Book Review #6: Protecting Your Family

I'm done with our small group Bible Study book!

I am leading a group of 7 moms in this study (our group started out with 10 but a couple had to stop for a season) about keeping our families (and teens!) safe from spiritual bondage/strongholds.

This was a more indepth study we've done.  To date, our group has completed 3 study books and the group as a whole is almost done with this one.  We will begin our 3rd year together in September.

This book is excellent!!  The chapters are long but there isn't a lot of reading.  There are more personal reflection questions based on various Scriptures.

The book begins by defining how Satan attacks families and then it gets into laying a foundation for strong Christian families.  Some of this information was redundant from past studies but we all didn't mind the reminders. We also had more Scriptures in this study than in previous books.

 Basically, the book focuses on the fact that Satan attacks families and that God places MUCH importance on families.  We learned what the Bible has to say about dangers our families face, what we can do to strengthen our families and the most important thing---what God wants us to do in our families to bring strength, healing, and grace.  We learned that the Sword of the Spirit (the very Words of God) need to be in our lives so that we can "bind" Satan and "pull down the devil's strongholds".  This book relies solely on Scriptures to address the topic of spiritual strongholds. We also learned the difference between spiritual oppression and demon possession.  There was one part of the study where none of us quite fully agreed with the author. He stated that spiritual strongholds are because of sin in our lives. However, after much research and my own testimony and those of other leaders in our church and in our group, we concluded that sometimes it is the sins of others that affect our spiritual lives.  That was very important to us that we made that clear to all the members of the group.

This book is excellent for groups who have Christians with children, particularly parents of teenagers.  The first few chapters are good reviews about our role as parents, and the role of the family in God's eyes.  It gets right into the Word and gives thought-provoking questions.

Based on a scale of 1- 10 with 10 being the highest, I rate this study book a 9.

It would also make a great personal study if you don't belong, or don't lead, a small group!