Title: The Promised Land: How Doing Your Homework in Your Wilderness Leads to Healthy, Lasting Relationships
Author: Susan Sperling Brock
Publisher: Toplink Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 1978-1948962308
Pages: 270
Genre: Religion and Spirituality
Reviewed by: Liz Konkel
Pacific Book Review
The Promised Land is a Bible Study guide with advice from the personal experiences of author Susan Sperling Brock. With recounts of the fear, pain, and struggles of her childhood and adulthood, she explores the eventual understanding and peace she found in Christ. Starting from what she calls the three D’s ( her parents’ divorce, her father’s death, and moving to Dallas, Texas), Brock explores her personal relationships and how her search for Christ came to reflect in those relationships. Throughout the book, a psychological background is present to aid biblical verses with homework to lead others on their own journeys to live their most peaceful and fulfilled lives.
A key component of this guide is the memoir elements, as Brock’s personal experiences back up her advice and her emotional journey to have a relationship with Christ allows for a chance to get to know her. The struggle she experienced as a child, dealing with fear and loss through the divorce of her parents, the death of her father, and the move to a new home, creates an idea of the background she came from and the person she was in the beginning. She came from a background that didn’t include church, so she places emphasizes on the fact that an individual doesn’t have to grow up in church in order to find Christ. Most of her advice stems from her experience, primarily through her own difficult marriage and divorce. Brock is open about her struggles and in doing so, is able to reach a wide range of readers, connecting with them through her honest and empathetic voice. Her advice is without judgment and is shared with understanding, which will make it easy for those dealing with heartache, divorce, and other serious issues to find strength in this guide and a path to finding Christ.
This bible study is well organized with concise and clear writing. Each chapter contains personal reflection, advice, biblical context and explanation, and ends with homework in the form of questions which allow for a chance to think and reflect on your own life. Brock’s words often provide inspiration to not just find your better self, but to find a life of solace that can come even after a time of pain or struggle. A large focus is put on relationships with others and the working of Christ in those relationships which Brock explores through first learning to identify with Christ. Personal relationships are used as examples throughout, going from her relationship with her family, to the one she had with her ex-husband, to friendships within the church, to her husband.
This path to God is highlighted explaining what holiness means, how to understand sin, and what the Promised Land is. Brock not only explores faith, but answers questions in a way which speaks to the reader as a person. What stands out most about this Bible Study is how it strives to show how Christ has allowed her to find love in herself, and provides the most solace to those dealing with divorce. The Promised Land explores the search for God in a personal journey of faith that the author uses to lead others into a journey of discovery into the faith and promise of The Promised Land.
