A biographical study of the life of Saint Patrick, this book is part of Thomas Nelson's Christian Encounters series. Author Jonathan Rogers has certainly done his homework with this book.

While legends and myths about Ireland's patron saint abound, very little of what we "know" is true. Combining historical records and research with the Patrick's own writings, Rogers creates a picture for the reader not of an unreachable saint with whom today's Christian has nothing in common, but of a man with personal strengths and weaknesses who lived in a difficult time, called to "buck the system" of religious authority and do something new in his service to God.

For St. Patrick, "the renegade bishop," the voice of God issuing forth from his spirit was more real than the expectations and demands of culture, religion, or tradition. He was a man willing to "lose the culture war" in order to win souls for Christ, a lesson we could all apply in our efforts to evangelize the lost today.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in evangelism, the history of the church, or just intrigued about a man whose life we celebrate every March 17th.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Brian Tome has an excellent point to make: God wants us to be free; more than He wants us to be good, or well-behaved, or "Christian." Tome makes a number of excellent points in his second book, engagingly titled Free Book*, published by Thomas Nelson.

While reading, I frequently scrambled for a pencil to underline Tome's most potent ideas. And yet I also found myself irritated by "shock value" comments and the intrusion of personal opinions that seemed tainted with anger, or disdain.

That's not to say the book lacks value. In fact, it does something fairly rare in most Christian non-fiction: It makes you think, hard. 
Tome's question, "How would you complete the following sentence: 'God's main thing is that He wants me to be ________?" continues to echo through my mind. How do we answer that question, and what's the basis for our answer?

Tome's explanation of spiritual strongholds, and the process of tearing them down, is one of the clearest I've ever read. By defining the stages of dismantling strongholds into four steps, "the Blahs, the Break, the Blues, and the Blessing," Tome provides guidelines for readers that are easy to understand, easy to apply, and relevant to daily life. 

How many of us have recognized strongholds, yet been unable to completely raze them all the way out of our lives because we've stopped before the process was complete? Free Book* lays out clear instructions for removing those strongholds, roots and all, and stepping into further freedom with the help of the Holy Spirit.

If you're grounded in your faith and your knowledge of the Word of God, this is a great book to evaluate the degree of Christ-centered freedom you have, and to identify the hidden places of bondage that hinder you. You might be religious, but are you free?

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”