Writing the Bible

While I was driving to a doctor appointment a couple weeks ago, I heard on the radio about this guy who had decided to write the entire bible.... At first I thought that that was an insanely crazy idea... (they said he went through around five hundred pencils, I think!) but then it got me thinking. When I write things down, they tend to stick better in my mind -- Read it, Write it, Remember it. So I decided to give it a try. I started small, though, because I don't have 50o pencils right now (although we do have a huge bag full of them from when Josh and I both worked for the census). I decided to start with 2 Peter, and it has been very thought provoking and helpful, if I am not trying to watch TV while I am doing it.

Yesterday, I wrote about how Christ is our example, and how he did not complain or whine while he endured the suffering that he endured for all of us. He committed not a single sin, but was put through more than I can ever imagine being put through, physically, emotionally and mentally. And still, through it all, he cried out to God, who he knew was there with him. I think about all the times that I feel uncomfortable or when I am sick, and this kind of helped put Jesus in perspective a bit more for me.

How can I whine and complain about [labor&deliverypains, for a start] when Jesus endured so much more than that, and for ME? I am not worthy of such love, yet he shows it to me every single day. What a great God we serve, what a wonderful Father we have!

Review of the Precious Moments Storybook Bible

The Precious Moments Storybook Bible is a bible created for young children. It is broken into four different sections: Favorite Bible Classics, Words of Praise and Wisdom, More Stories of the Faith, and Songs & Prayers. The book is filled with many pictures.

When reading children's bible, or storybook bibles such as this, my main focus is not on the pictures or how easy it is to understand, but the accuracy of the scripture used; it can be difficult to make a children's bible understandable for the child and also scripturally accurate. I believe that while this bible leaves out some detail that small children might not understand, it does a pretty decent job in maintaining scriptural accuracy. I believe that it is the parents' job to fill in the missing pieces of each story so that the children do not think of these as ONLY stories, but as accurate accounts of real past events. I do, however, think that while precious moments characters are cute and cuddly, they give children even more of a false belief that these stories are nothing more than just stories.

I believe that this book is a good starting point in teaching your children about the Bible and the characters of the Bible, and I would recommend it to others only if they are willing to take the stories a step further, and to emphasize that they are in fact real stories that happened a long time ago.

Blind Hope by Kim Meeder and Laurie Sacher

Blind Hope is a book about love, faith, and trust in the things unseen. It tells the story of an unwanted, mangy dog and the woman who rescues her. In the journey to help the dog regain its strength, Laurie begins to learn valuable life lessons from the dog; she realizes that it is not her helping the dog, but the dog helping her.

I believe that this book is a wonderful story, especially in the fact that it is a true story. While the story is a great one, the writing of the book is not as appealing. The authors tend to be so anxious to get their story across that they end up taking away from the simply amazing story of what Laurie learned from her new friend, and how she learned it. The excruciatingly detailed accounts of the landscape or the soup that they were eating took away from the real, deep, inspiring point of the book. This made it difficult to keep my attention and to follow along with the important parts of the story.

I believe that this book has potential to be a great book, but based on the trouble it had keeping my full attention, I don't think I would recommend this book to a friend -- at least not without a warning first.

Everything Christmas by David Bordon and Tom Winters

Everything Christmas is an enlightening, sometimes humorous book full of Christmas cheer. Inside the covers of this book, you will find fun facts about this holiday season, the history of Christmas traditions from all over the world, tasty recipes for the holidays, great gift ideas, and much more.

The book is broken down into 24 days, which can be used as an Advent calendar, but you might find yourself reading two or three days ahead because it is very informative and fun to read.

I enjoyed learning the history behind certain traditions of the Christmas season, as well as learning about how Christmas is celebrated in other countries around the world.I also like how the authors include the Christ Child in the back of the book, as well as Scripture throughout the book to enhance the true meaning of the Christmas season. If you are feeling super adventurous, this book even gives you the opportunity to learn how to say "Merry Christmas" in over 15 languages!

I would recommend this book to all of those who love the Christmas season and want to learn more about why we celebrate the way that we do. It is a fun read, and has many suggestions on starting your own family traditions!

A Year With God by RP Nettelhorst

A Year With God is a devotional book that has daily devotions based on passages from the Old Testament. Arranged by topic, each devotion gives a passage to read as well as some insight about what that passage means and how we can apply it to our lives today. The author's intent was to create a devotional that not only helps you understand the Old Testament in context, but also to help you apply it to your life.

This daily devotional has been quite interesting to me so far, helping me to understand more of the Old Testament and why God did what He did. The author uses many different versions of scripture, keeping the readings interesting as well as challenging. The author's insight is also very helpful. It is not full of his opinions, but is good at breaking down the text in a way that everyone can understand, and then adding one or two sentences on how to apply it to our daily life. His interpretations leave room for independent study on the topic or passage that he wrote about that day.

If you are looking for a daily devotional book to challenge you and to bring insight to God's words of the Old Testament, I would recommend this book to you.

Start! The Bible for New Believers, NKJV

This Bible is a Bible geared toward new believers and includes features such as key disciplines of a Christian life, core beliefs of Christians and messages focuses on aspects of salvation. The Bible also contains an Essentials section, which includes important things that all Christians should know about Jesus and God. This Bible is a New King James Version.
Overall, I would say that this Bible is a very practical tool for any new believer: The study tools seem to be very helpful for a somebody learning about the Christian life, and it also helps them to know how to put their new faith into action. The Bible itself does not seem very durable, with it being a paperback Bible, and it might not last very long if the owner of the Bible travels with it. I also think that it would be helpful if the font were larger, making it easier to read. I do like how each book of the Bible has an introduction page, and it is fairly easy to find because of the bright red arrow on it. Overall, I would recommend this Bible to new believers. I also think that it has some interesting stuff for more mature believers as well.

Review of Heaven is For Real, by Todd Burpo

This book is the story of a family's journey through life, and the faith that they had to make it through the hard times. It also captures 11 year old Colton Burpo's trip to heaven, where he met Jesus. Told by his dad, but using Colton's simple words to describe the things he saw, this book was a very interesting read to get you thinking about a world we can not yet encounter.

I enjoyed this book, and it kept my interest -- I finished it in just under two days! This book made me think about heaven, Jesus, and my beliefs more, and it also helped to paint a picture of what heaven just might be like. It is also encouraging to hear of a small child so excited about Jesus, and wanting everyone to know Him, so that they get a chance to go to heaven and meet Him as well. I enjoyed the fact that this family is just your simple, everyday family who wanted to share the story of what God did in their lives. It helps the reader relate to them on more than one level.

I would recommend this book to friends because it is a light, easy read and it may help you to understand, or at least start to think more about just what God has waiting for us when we die.