Sunday, February 25, 2018

Set Free to Choose Right by Josh McDowell

Book description:

Popular Author, Speaker, and Founder of the Josh McDowell Ministry Speaks Out on the Popular, Culturally Relevant Topic of Right vs. Wrong

Directed to parents and gatekeepers of today’s youth, renowned speaker and author Josh McDowell focuses on the how-to’s of teaching teens and pre-teens to make right moral choices. 

Set Free to Choose Right will help you come to understand:
why today’s kids feel they have the right to determine what is “right” or “wrong” for themselves
how culture reinforces that there are no universal truths and. . .
where this misconception historically originated
how to motivate kids to make good choices
it is God’s character and nature that makes right, right and wrong, wrong

Engaging stories and helpful illustration are provided to model how a person (of any age) can distinguish between right and wrong and make the right choice—every time.

My review:

  Any book by Josh McDowell can be guaranteed to be worth reading, as is proven by this one. There are a lot of books out there about pornography and other moral issues, but this one is different from those. McDowell did something that makes this book more interesting and easy to read than other books of this type. For this book, he created some fictional characters. Jayden is a 14 year old boy in a Christian home. Throughout the book, his parents catch him looking at porn in a few different ways, and they are also shown reacting in different ways. The topic of sending sexual photos to others is also covered in the book, along with other moral issues teens - and adults - will face, but pornography is covered in more detail.

  Although I have no kids of my own, I do have nieces and nephews, so this book was of interest to me. It is very well written, and McDowell does a great job of addressing these issues and showing parents how to deal with them with their kids. I love how he showed the fictional parents' different ways of talking to their son about his pornography viewing. And he shows there is a right way and a wrong way to react, and what to say and not to say.

 The uses and problems of smart phones, tablets, and other electronic devices is addressed, and McDowell also gives some statistics on kids and porn viewing, which is rather scary.

 The internet is a wonderful thing, and our lives are made easier by smart phones, tablets, etc. However, there is a lot of bad out there and these devices make it easier to access porn and other bad things. This book is a great resource for parents as they attempt to raise their kids in this porn and immorality deluged world we live in.



About the author:


As a young man, Josh McDowell considered himself an agnostic. He truly believed that Christianity was worthless. However, when challenged to intellectually examine the claims of Christianity, Josh discovered compelling, overwhelming evidence for the reliability of the Christian faith. After trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, Josh’s life changed dramatically as he experienced the power of God’s love.

After his conversion, his plans for law school turned instead to plans to tell a doubting world about the truth of Jesus Christ. After studying at Kellogg College, Josh completed his college degree at Wheaton College and then attended Talbot Theological Seminary, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Master of Divinity degree.

In 1961, Josh joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ International. Not long after, he started the Josh McDowell Ministry to reach young people worldwide with the truth and love of Jesus.

Well known as an articulate speaker, Josh has addressed more than 10 million young people, giving over 24,000 talks in 118 countries.

As he traveled to other countries, Josh quickly realized that where people were sick, homeless, and hungry, words were not enough. In 1991, Josh founded Operation Carelift to meet the physical and spiritual needs he discovered in orphanages, hospitals, schools, and prisons in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Since that time, Operation Carelift has delivered humanitarian aid (food, clothing, and medical supplies) worth more than $46,000,000. That is the equivalent of 278 forty-ton containers. Nearly one million children have received school supplies, food items, hygiene items, and toys from the volunteers that traveled twice a year to share God’s love with them.

Josh has received two significant honors from the Russian people because of these efforts. He was elected as an honorary fellow of the Medical Society (The Medical Union of Pediatrics) of Russia on January 24, 1995—in recognition of his work among the children of Russia. Also, Josh is the only foreigner to become a member of the prestigious Russian Club of Scientists. Operation Carelift, which has grown into in one of the largest humanitarian aid organizations based in the United States, is now a part of Global Aid Network (GAiN USA).

In the United States, Josh and his team have created many cutting-edge live events to help young people stand strong and firm in their faith in the face of a rapidly-changing culture. These have often developed into full-blown campaigns, such as:

Six Hours with Josh
Why Wait?
Counter the Culture
Right From Wrong
True Foundations

Since 1960, Josh has written or co-authored 120 books including:

More Than a Carpenter -- 15 million copies in 85 languages.
New Evidence That Demands a Verdict -- named one the twentieth century’s top 40 books and one of the thirteen most influential books of the last 50 years on Christian thought by World Magazine.

In addition to many other awards, Josh has been nominated 36 times for the Gold Medallion Award and has received that award on four occasions.

In spite of all the honors and awards he has received, Josh will tell anyone that his greatest joys and pleasures come from his family. He and his wife Dottie have been married 40 years. They have four children and five grandchildren.


Set Free to Choose Right is available from Shiloh Run, an imprint of Barbour Books.

Thanks to Barbour for the review copy.

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