Take the Reins: A Father Teaches His Son About Life, Commitment and Spirituality

by John L. Moore

Take the Reins collects a father's lessons to his son about "life, commitment, and spirituality." Author John L. Moore (best known for his fiction, including The Breaking of Ezra Riley) is a rancher who lives north of Miles City, Montana. Take the Reins consists of short meditations on experiences that he and his son Jess have shared on the ranch, where bad luck, drought, disease, and other dangers constantly shatter any illusions that this world is a safe place to live. The book's basic lesson is that only God offers security. Admirably, Moore manages to convey this lesson without denigrating the physical world. The book has more than its share of excitement and suspense--runaway horses, hunting trips, long hours lost on the plains--and it is equally adept at poignant understatement. (Describing his care for a sick calf, Moore writes that "We carried the calf to the bathroom and lowered the cold body into the warm water. The smell of afterbirth came alive in the heat.") Take the Reins is a fine book whose lessons regarding paternal love have a quiet, universal appeal.

203 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1990

About the author

I was born to woman in 1952 and born into the Kingdom in June of 1973 after years of looking for God in drugs, eastern religions, the occult and martial arts. In 1975 I was Baptized in the Holy Spirit in a profound and powerful way. In 1985 I was healed of a life-threatening liver disease. Since 1982, Debra and I have been involved in home church ministry and training people to hear from God and speak what they hear. We have been blessed to be influenced by some wonderful men and women of God, most of them can be found on our "Links" page.

We are the parents of two wonderful children and their wonderful spouses: Jess, and his wife, Kami; and Andrea, her husband, Rob Ferguson. They've given us five beautiful grandchildren: Creed, Selah Ann, Ryann, David, and Autumn.

My statement of beliefs can be summed up like this: Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Baptism in the Spirit empowers the Believer. Inner Healing and Deliverance is part of every believer's need for sanctification. Hearing from God and moving in the Gifts of the Spirit are vital. God is restoring David's Tabernacle and the Five-Fold Ministries of Ephesians 4:11. Those offices are about functions, not titles. Prophetic ministry is more about forth-telling the heart of God than it is fore-telling the future. If you don't know his heart He won't tell you the future. We could all read the Bible and pray more. Jesus is coming back. I don't know when. I do know He is coming back on a horse, so I don't think He minds if we raise good horses. Until He returns, we are dedicated to doing the work of the Kingdom everywhere, and especially in the marketplace. Happiness is realizing He must increase but we must decrease. Decreasing does not mean a loss of personal identity, instead it is the discovery of one's real identity. Young people can move as powerfully in the Spirit as adults, in fact, in many cases, they do it much better because their mind doesn't get in the way.

That's about it.

Reviews

[Mary Sewell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, goes into very good details on ranch life and honest advice to his son on the joys and perils of this life.