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Life In Christ
A Call To Be In His Presence
Author: Mary Fleeson
Publisher: Lindisfarne Scriptorium
Pages: 134

Over the past 37 years that I have been striving to be serious about my faith, I have used a wide variety of devotional books, booklets and pamphlets. None have had the emotional and spiritual impact as these two books by author Mary Fleeson. Although they would fall into the category of devotional works, they are so much more. Each section of the book contains an original art piece by Mary and these pieces are used as the jumping off point for the topic of that particular section. The art work is done in a style similar to and inspired by the Lindisfarne Gospels and The Book of Kells. 

One of the things that has encouraged and inspired me the most is the Celtic style prayer that closes each section. Having traveled mainly in evangelical circles for over three decades now, I find much of my prayer life is the wish list type of prayer. You know, it is basically God do this for me, God do that for me. Celtic prayer is an entirely different style altogether though. An example from the book reads thus: 
Precious Lord,
Help me to obey you,
Willingly,
Help me to love, 
Unconditionally,
Help me to live,
Kindly,
Help me to help others,
Joyfully,
Help me to praise,
Childishly, 
Help me, 
My Precious Lord.
The prayers are centered on God and who He is, not on my needs and wants. Although praying for our needs is a vital part of a healthy prayer life, it is definitely secondary to praising God for who He is. The art work in these books is amazingly beautiful and is worth having the books for in and of itself, but as I said before these books contain so much more.

There is also a companion album  for the first book, Life Journey featuring musical pieces for each section done by Dave Bainbridge & David Fitzgerald. As with everything these guys do, it, like the book that inspired it is magnificent.

, 5 for each book

Chris MacIntosh aka Grandfather Rock