AMBITIOUS is a monthly discipleship book club of strong Christian women who have a heart for their King, a heart for their family, a heart for the Church, a heart for Truth, and a heart for the culture at large.
Because ... You don't know what you don't know.
Because ... You can't give what you don't have.
Because ... What shapes your thinking, shapes your living.
Because ... We are charged to contend for truth.
Because ... So much is riding on it!
BECAUSE WE HAVE SO GREAT A SALVATION!
"If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy limited."
~ Arthur Schopenhauer ~ as quoted in Serious Times by James Emery White
You see, we are convinced by testimony of Scripture and by HIStory that moms are a powerful force in the world. Christian moms should be one of the most powerful forces for advancing Christ's crown and covenant on earth here and now - for the joy and good of everyone. We need to reclaim the full role of the Proverbs 31 woman (1-9). Have you met this gal? She's no pushover, and neither should we be!
"The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him:
'What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.'"
Now, that's a mom with moxy!
Quotable Quote -
“Get books into your houses, when you have not the spring near you, then get water into your cisterns; so when you have not that wholesome preaching that you desire, good books are cisterns that hold the water of life in them to refresh you.... So when you find a chillness upon your souls, and that your former heat begins to abate, ply yourselves with warm clothes, get those good books that may acquaint you with such truths as may warm and affect your hearts.”
- Thomas Watson - (1662)
We want to think Christianly, to be articulate and persuasive, to be passionate and dangerous amidst doctrines of demons that hold so many captive in our biblically ignorant, a-literate, mushy-thinking day.
We heartily desire to be contenders of the faith!
Here is Our 2024-2025 Reading Schedule!
SUMMER READING/SEPTEMBERTalk - The Roots of the Federal Reserve by Laura Sanger, Ph.D.
Category - Pushing Paradigms
By shedding light on what lies in the dark corners of history, this book reveals the spiritual landscape of the roots of the Federal Reserve. We embark on a journey through time where we trace deceptions across cultures and generations.
Our voyage takes us back to the Days of Noah when the Nephilim roamed the earth. (These beings are referred to in the Old Testament as “giants” or “fallen ones.”) By following known history, archeology and symbolism, The Roots of the Federal Reserve will trace the Nephilim bloodline through the lineage of Ham and reveal the Nephilim agenda concealed for ages, operating insidiously, since the Seed war in Genesis 3.
Ultimately, our journey will lead to Jekyll Island, the birthplace of the Federal Reserve and the players who participated in its creation. .
This book excavates the bedrock of slavery that keeps us in bondage to debt, it reveals the domination of the “Titans,” and unmasks the destructive repercussions our monetary system has on the lives of everyday people.
A battle has been raging in the hidden recesses of our nation and the financial gate of our country has been defiled. This book unveils the spiritual forces that have been squeezing abundant life out of America. However, this is not just another sad narrative about our subjugation, rather it’s a call to freedom! Together we can release the full measure of prosperity intended for our nation, reclaim our inheritance that has been stolen, and restore our nation to once again be, “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
NOTE: We will gather on the 2nd Tuesday each month at the Grier home from 7:00PM-9;00PM beginning on Tuesday, September 10th. It needs to be your priority to read the material and to attend our monthly gatherings. The AmbitiousBookClub exists for multiple purposes. Not only do we want to nourish our minds so we are informed and articulate, we want to set an example before our children in our love of learning, but we also want to kindle and nurture relationships with other thinking Christian women in this battle we call the Christian life. Repeated absence hinders relationship building throwing off group dynamics and may result in removal from the group. Further, our Summer and January titles are fixed in place for very specific reasons, but every other month, we will select our next title as a group - and we leave the option to switch out a similar title altogether. It's going to be a GREAT year together! Happy reading!
Winter Retreat Friday, February 7 - Sunday, February 9. Space is limited.
**The Winter Retreat is available those women faithfully participating in the AmbitiousBookClub, first, and then to faithful participants of the DEEP End Monday Bible Study so it will fill up fast.
SEPTEMBER READING/OCTOBERTalk- Deep Discipleship for Dark Days by Paul Dirks
Category - Spiritual Warfare Ready, Set, Apocalypse! Whether rapid societal changes come from the political, natural, technological, or biological spheres, these historical occurrences urge us to live in such a way that we are ready with a faithful response. A constant, general preparedness, and a particular discerning of the times (1 Chr 12:32) are interconnected. This book will at times call for a specific course of action in connection with particular apocalyptic-flavoured events, but for the most part it enjoins the importance of a deep discipleship for these dark days.
NOTE: We will gather on the 2nd Tuesday each month at the Grier home from 7:00PM-9;00PM beginning on Tuesday, September 10th. It needs to be your priority to read the material and to attend our monthly gatherings. The AmbitiousBookClub exists for multiple purposes. Not only do we want to nourish our minds so we are informed and articulate, we want to set an example before our children in our love of learning, but we also want to kindle and nurture relationships with other thinking Christian women in this battle we call the Christian life. Repeated absence hinders relationship building throwing off group dynamics and may result in removal from the group. Further, our Summer and January titles are fixed in place for very specific reasons, but every other month, we will select our next title as a group - and we leave the option to switch out a similar title altogether. It's going to be a GREAT year together! Happy reading! Winter Retreat Friday, February 7 - Sunday, February 9. Space is limited.
**The Winter Retreat is available those women faithfully participating in the AmbitiousBookClub, first, and then to faithful participants of the DEEP End Monday Bible Study so it will fill up fast.
OCTOBER READING/NOVEMBERTalk - The Attributes of God by Arthur W. Pink
Category - Theology Proper/Old Dead Guy/Christian Classic
PDF of entire booklet available from Chapel Library here:
“ACQUAINT NOW THYSELF WITH HIM, AND BE AT PEACE: thereby good shall come unto thee” (Job 22:21). “Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the LORD” (Jer 9:23,24). A spiritual and saving knowledge of God is the greatest need of every human creature. The foundation of all true knowledge of God must be a clear mental apprehension of His perfections as revealed in Holy Scripture. An unknown God can neither be trusted, served, nor worshipped. In this book an effort has been made to set forth some of the principal perfections of the divine character. If the reader is to truly profit from his perusal of the pages that follow, he needs to definitely and earnestly beseech God to bless them to Him, to apply His truth to the conscience and heart, so that his life will be transformed thereby. Something more than a theoretical knowledge of God is needed by us. God is only truly known in the soul as we yield ourselves to Him, submit to His authority, and regulate all the details of our lives by His holy precepts and commandments. “Then shall we know, if we follow on [in the path of obedience] to know the LORD” (Hosea 6:3). “If any man will do His will, he shall know” (John 7:17). “The people that do know their God shall be strong” (Dan 11:32). - A.W. Pink, 1930
NOTE: We will gather on the 2nd Tuesday each month at the Grier home from 7:00PM-9;00PM beginning on Tuesday, September 10th. It needs to be your priority to read the material and to attend our monthly gatherings. The AmbitiousBookClub exists for multiple purposes. Not only do we want to nourish our minds so we are informed and articulate, we want to set an example before our children in our love of learning, but we also want to kindle and nurture relationships with other thinking Christian women in this battle we call the Christian life. Repeated absence hinders relationship building throwing off group dynamics and may result in removal from the group. Further, our Summer and January titles are fixed in place for very specific reasons, but every other month, we will select our next title as a group - and we leave the option to switch out a similar title altogether. It's going to be a GREAT year together! Happy reading!
Winter Retreat Friday, February 7 - Sunday, February 9. Space is limited.
**The Winter Retreat is available those women faithfully participating in the AmbitiousBookClub, first, and then to faithful participants of the DEEP End Monday Bible Study so it will fill up fast.
NOVEMBER READ/DECEMBERTalk - Little Pilgrim's Progress, Book 2 - Christiana by Helen Taylor
Category - Family ReadAloud/Christian Classic
Perceiving the need for a simpler version of a timeless classic, Helen Taylor faithfully adapted John Bunyan’s allegory of the Christian life, The Pilgrim’s Progress, for young readers—hoping to bring its treasury of wisdom nearer to children’s hearts and minds. That version has sold over 800,000 copies! It preserves the original plotlines of Bunyan’s classic while telling the story of Little Christian and Christiana in a way that kids can understand. In this fresh, imaginative new edition, bestselling illustrator Joe Sutphin portrays the characters of Bunyan’s tale as animals living in a woodland realm. Children will delight in the lavish illustrations, reading alongside their parents or interacting on their own with the timeless words and beautiful imagery that they discover on every page. This book will help children see the trials and triumphs of faithfulness with fresh eyes, leading them to declare along with Christian, “I am going to the King!” The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan includes both the stories of Graceless/Christian and his wife and children titled Christiana. This version, of course doesn't have the two main characters as husband and wife, so the Christiana story herein is lacking the beauty of Covenant faithfulness depicted in the original. This may be a great loss, but we shall see. We can vote to read the actual Christiana if you have older children, but we will come to this decision in time. Both are excellent and historic family read alouds.
NOTE: We will gather on the 2nd Tuesday each month at the Grier home from 7:00PM-9;00PM beginning on Tuesday, September 10th. It needs to be your priority to read the material and to attend our monthly gatherings. The AmbitiousBookClub exists for multiple purposes. Not only do we want to nourish our minds so we are informed and articulate, we want to set an example before our children in our love of learning, but we also want to kindle and nurture relationships with other thinking Christian women in this battle we call the Christian life. Repeated absence hinders relationship building throwing off group dynamics and may result in removal from the group. Further, our Summer and January titles are fixed in place for very specific reasons, but every other month, we will select our next title as a group - and we leave the option to switch out a similar title altogether. It's going to be a GREAT year together! Happy reading!
Winter Retreat Friday, February 7 - Sunday, February 9. Space is limited.
**The Winter Retreat is available those women faithfully participating in the AmbitiousBookClub, first, and then to faithful participants of the DEEP End Monday Bible Study so it will fill up fast.
DECEMBER READ/JANUARYTalk -Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher
Category - Church HIStory/Ecclesiology
The New York Times bestselling author of The Benedict Option draws on the wisdom of Christian survivors of Soviet persecution to warn American Christians of approaching dangers.
For years, émigrés from the former Soviet bloc have been telling Rod Dreher they see telltale signs of "soft" totalitarianism cropping up in America--something more Brave New World than Nineteen Eighty-Four. Identity politics are beginning to encroach on every aspect of life. Civil liberties are increasingly seen as a threat to "safety". Progressives marginalize conservative, traditional Christians, and other dissenters. Technology and consumerism hasten the possibility of a corporate surveillance state. And the pandemic, having put millions out of work, leaves our country especially vulnerable to demagogic manipulation.
In Live Not By Lies, Dreher amplifies the alarm sounded by the brave men and women who fought totalitarianism. He explains how the totalitarianism facing us today is based less on overt violence and more on psychological manipulation. He tells the stories of modern-day dissidents--clergy, laity, martyrs, and confessors from the Soviet Union and the captive nations of Europe--who offer practical advice for how to identify and resist totalitarianism in our time. Following the model offered by a prophetic World War II-era pastor who prepared believers in his Eastern European to endure the coming of communism, Live Not By Lies teaches American Christians a method for resistance: • SEE: Acknowledge the reality of the situation. • JUDGE: Assess reality in the light of what we as Christians know to be true. • ACT: Take action to protect truth.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously said that one of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming totalitarianism can't happen in their country. Many American Christians are making that mistake today, sleepwalking through the erosion of our freedoms. Live Not By Lies will wake them and equip them for the long resistance.
NOTE: We will gather on the 2nd Tuesday each month at the Grier home from 7:00PM-9;00PM beginning on Tuesday, September 10th. It needs to be your priority to read the material and to attend our monthly gatherings. The AmbitiousBookClub exists for multiple purposes. Not only do we want to nourish our minds so we are informed and articulate, we want to set an example before our children in our love of learning, but we also want to kindle and nurture relationships with other thinking Christian women in this battle we call the Christian life. Repeated absence hinders relationship building throwing off group dynamics and may result in removal from the group. Further, our Summer and January titles are fixed in place for very specific reasons, but every other month, we will select our next title as a group - and we leave the option to switch out a similar title altogether. It's going to be a GREAT year together! Happy reading!
Winter Retreat Friday, February 7 - Sunday, February 9. Space is limited.
**The Winter Retreat is available those women faithfully participating in the AmbitiousBookClub, first, and then to faithful participants of the DEEP End Monday Bible Study so it will fill up fast.
JANUARY READ/*FEBRUARYTalk- The LifeGiving Home by Sally Clarkson
Category - Woman
How to make home your family’s favorite place to be . . . all year long. Does your home sometimes feel like just a place to eat, sleep, and change clothes on the way to the next activity? Do you long for “home” to mean more than a place where you stash your stuff? Wouldn’t you love it to become a haven of warmth, rest, and joy . . . the one place where you and your family can’t wait to be?
There is good news waiting for you in the pages of The Lifegiving Home. Every day of your family’s life can be as special and important to you as it already is to God. In this unique book designed to help your family enjoy and celebrate every month of the year together, you’ll discover the secrets of a life-giving home from a mother who created one and her daughter who was raised in it: popular authors Sally and Sarah Clarkson. Together they offer a rich treasure of wise advice, spiritual principles, and practical suggestions. You’ll embark on a new path to creating special memories for your children; establishing home-building and God-centered traditions; and cultivating an environment in which your family will flourish. (Don’t miss the companion piece, The Lifegiving Home Experience.)
NOTE: Because our Kingdom-MindedMom's Winter Retreat is Friday, February 7 - Sunday, February 9, we will not be meeting in February to discuss our reading, but will discuss our read at our retreat. This title is our second 'fixed' title for the year - meaning we will be reading this book in January for our February booktalk - it's a perfect book to begin reading in January; why not share this reading experience with a younger woman you are discipling?
FEBRUARY READ/MARCHTalk - On Death and Dying : A Catechism for Christians by Ewan Goligher, MD PhD and Kyle Hackmann, MDiv
Category - Suffering
Throughout the history of the church, catechisms have served as important tools for passing along essential Christian teachings. With their accessible question and answer format, catechisms played a vital role in passing along clear teachings to God's people during periods of theological debate or confusion. As the wider culture in the Western world has not only accepted but praised the practice of euthanasia, many Christians have been confused as to how to respond. In this catechism, a critical care physician and a pastor propose a new catechism consisting of 73 questions related to human value, human autonomy, end-of-life medical care, suffering, and death, all while presenting a positive vision of dying well in our unique time.
Because this is such an important little book for our time, The Gospel Coalition (which I only cautiously direct others to since they are largely now 'woke') has published this title in a very accessible/sharable Q&A format. Please share this with others you know. Christians are wise to prepare in advance how they will respond to death and dying for the glory of God and the good of their neighbor.
NOTE: We will gather on the 2nd Tuesday each month at the Grier home from 7:00PM-9;00PM beginning on Tuesday, September 10th. It needs to be your priority to read the material and to attend our monthly gatherings. The AmbitiousBookClub exists for multiple purposes. Not only do we want to nourish our minds so we are informed and articulate, we want to set an example before our children in our love of learning, but we also want to kindle and nurture relationships with other thinking Christian women in this battle we call the Christian life. Repeated absence hinders relationship building throwing off group dynamics and may result in removal from the group. Further, our Summer and January titles are fixed in place for very specific reasons, but every other month, we will select our next title as a group - and we leave the option to switch out a similar title altogether. It's going to be a GREAT year together! Happy reading!
MARCH READING/APRILTalk - Conspiracy Theory : A Christian Evaluation of a Taboo Subject by Doug Van Dorn
Category - Cultural Apologetics
These days, when you throw “conspiracy theory” at someone, it is for one purpose—to be a thought-stopper and a discussion killer. But having this discussion grows more important by the day. People are engaging in “conspiracy theories” whether some want to admit it or not. Frankly, it is a discussion that needs to happen. This book is not about specific conspiracies, but rather is a serious look at the phrase from a definitional, historical, biblical, and Christian point of view. The main goal is to come to some helpful conclusions on how a Christian can remain sane in a world of conspiracy theories. And, we’ll have some fun along the way.
NOTE: We will gather on the 2nd Tuesday each month at the Grier home from 7:00PM-9;00PM beginning on Tuesday, September 10th. It needs to be your priority to read the material and to attend our monthly gatherings. The AmbitiousBookClub exists for multiple purposes. Not only do we want to nourish our minds so we are informed and articulate, we want to set an example before our children in our love of learning, but we also want to kindle and nurture relationships with other thinking Christian women in this battle we call the Christian life. Repeated absence hinders relationship building throwing off group dynamics and may result in removal from the group. Further, our Summer and January titles are fixed in place for very specific reasons, but every other month, we will select our next title as a group - and we leave the option to switch out a similar title altogether. It's going to be a GREAT year together! Happy reading!
APRIL READ/MAYTalk- Outsourced : Why American Kids Need an Education Revolution by Dr. Lisa Dunne
Category - Christian Education
Plato once said that there are two vital questions every civilization must ask: Who teaches the children, and what are they being taught? In America, both the root and the fruit are equally corrupt: The twelve toxic traits of government education have conspired together with an overarching parental apathy that has dulled and dumbed America down. As a result, the next generation is caught in an undertow of anxiety, depression, purposelessness, and atheism. How do we teach our nation's youth to hope, to dream, and to fully engage with the world around them? The problem and the solution are both closer than you might think. The devastation is real. The harvest is ready. It's time for an education revolution.
NOTE: We will gather on the 2nd Tuesday each month at the Grier home from 7:00PM-9;00PM beginning on Tuesday, September 10th. It needs to be your priority to read the material and to attend our monthly gatherings. The AmbitiousBookClub exists for multiple purposes. Not only do we want to nourish our minds so we are informed and articulate, we want to set an example before our children in our love of learning, but we also want to kindle and nurture relationships with other thinking Christian women in this battle we call the Christian life. Repeated absence hinders relationship building throwing off group dynamics and may result in removal from the group. Further, our Summer and January titles are fixed in place for very specific reasons, but every other month, we will select our next title as a group - and we leave the option to switch out a similar title altogether. It's going to be a GREAT year together! Happy reading!
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