{"id":2861,"date":"2012-09-18T08:00:05","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T08:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/?p=2861"},"modified":"2016-01-06T14:12:05","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T14:12:05","slug":"stumbling-blocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/reviews\/stumbling-blocks\/","title":{"rendered":"Stumbling Blocks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The further I read into this book, I see the simplicity and strength of the message that both Gavin and Anne portray. Lets be honest, we can all come into contact with these \u2018Stumbling Blocks\u2019 in our lives. The authors bring these obstacles to life using anecdotes and help you to relive their memories with them. They help you to get over, under, around and through every Stumbling Block we can face as Christians. Each chapter goes into detail on these obstacles and the questions at the end of them, really made me think about my life and my walk with God.<\/p>\n<p>The authors particularly focus one chapter on the lack of men in church. At CVM this is a big issue that we are tackling because as the quote they use, by David Murrow, in this chapter says \u201cChristianity\u2019s primary delivery system, the local church, is perfectly designed to reach women and older folks. That\u2019s why our pews are filled with them. But this church system offers little to stir the masculine heart, so men find it dull and irrelevant. The more masculine the man the more likely he is to dislike church.\u201d He leaves a challenge to us men. \u201cI want my son to be a better man than me. I want my daughter to marry a better man than me. But I wanna be a tough act to follow!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This book has affirmed what I have seen in my life, that through perseverance and putting God first we can overcome these Stumbling Blocks. As we see in the story of David and Goliath, he was a lowly shepherd boy going against a 9 foot tall monster of a man, who scared everyone even King Saul. With a stone, slingshot and God David overcame the huge obstacle in his way, against all odds. We can\u2019t see the benefits of the obstacles when we are going through them but as Gavin and Anne show in this book the benefits are so great afterwards. They use a cracking quote from Moli\u00e8re in the conclusion which confirms this. It says \u201cThe greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jack Undrell (Intern 2)<\/p>\n<p>This book is available to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/product\/0857212001\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738&amp;creativeASIN=0857212001&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=c0a2d-21\" target=\"_blank\">buy here<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/reviews\/stumbling-blocks\/\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png?w=750\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The further I read into this book, I see the simplicity and strength of the message that both Gavin and Anne portray. Lets be honest, we can all come into contact with these \u2018Stumbling Blocks\u2019 in our lives. The authors bring these obstacles to life using anecdotes and help you to relive their memories with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[405],"tags":[404,26,403,87,402,110,156,401],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PoLK-K9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2574,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/the-welford\/what-matters-most-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":2861,"position":0},"title":"What Matters Most Now?","date":"1 June 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Yet again the debate of a literal Adam and Eve vs evolution has reared its ugly head. Tomorrow I will be working through this debate with a group of young adults and the wisdom that I will be dispensing, the answer to this age old debate? Well my answer is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Welford&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7355,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/demolition-squad\/jesus-among-secular-gods\/","url_meta":{"origin":2861,"position":1},"title":"Jesus Among Secular Gods: Book Review","date":"26 January 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale follow on from their success with Why Suffering? with their new book, Jesus Among Secular Gods. Read our full review here.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Demolition Squad&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Jesus Among Secular Gods - by Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Jesus_Among_Secular_Gods.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7482,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/busting-the-therapy-myth\/","url_meta":{"origin":2861,"position":2},"title":"Busting the Therapy Myth","date":"6 April 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I remember when I had first decided to explore the possibility of attending my own personal therapy, even before I had made any enquiries, I had a number of fears\/concerns\/questions (call them what you will) about what I was going to face when I walked in to the therapy room\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/therapy.png?fit=565%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9917,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/if-i-was-a-butterfly\/","url_meta":{"origin":2861,"position":3},"title":"If I was a butterfly","date":"13 September 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I love photography and over the years have taken many photographs, capturing all the usual suspects, family and friends, special occasions, wedding baptisms and so on. But recently I was taken up by what I thought was a lovely butterfly. After photographing it and looking up its ID I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;50 Plus&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/erik-karits-6PhHEnNe4_o-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C819&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6787,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/6787\/","url_meta":{"origin":2861,"position":4},"title":"Seeking The Light","date":"26 January 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"To celebrate my wife\u2019s \u2018significant\u2019 birthday I decided to book us a short break in Iceland (not the one endorsed by Peter Andre). This was a desolate stony expanse of God\u2019s world, haunted by howling winds, bubbling geysers and fiery eruptions - I sure know how to treat a lady!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/aurora-borealis-unsplash.jpg?fit=565%2C364&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8885,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/50plus\/good-cop-bad-cop\/","url_meta":{"origin":2861,"position":5},"title":"Good Cop, Bad Cop.","date":"4 June 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2018You play good cop and I will play bad cop, hopefully we can drag a confession out of this guy.\u2019 There are probably many, many scenario\u2019s, in many films where the \u2018good guy - bad guy\u2019 scene has been played out. It fits a basic construct, cowboys and indians, cops\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;50 Plus&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/linkedin-sales-navigator-W3Jl3jREpDY-unsplash.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2861"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6614,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2861\/revisions\/6614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}