Read and Share: The Ultimate DVD Bible - Volume 2

We have been through a lot of children's Bibles in this family...A LOT!  Mainly because we have visited so many different churches through the years, and it seems we tend to make our donations to them in the form of leaving children's Bibles at each one of them...so we've seen more than our share.  But this one has a different twist...it comes with DVD's that illustrate each of the Bible stories.  The videos are each several minutes long, and they word-for-word match the stories in the book, which is nice for helping your child learn to read.  Even my elementary-age kids liked watching the videos one day...the stories move so quickly from one to the next that it really kept their attention.  My only criticism is that because it came after Volume 1, it's a little random...some OT stories are in Volume 1 and some in Volume 2.  For example, Volume 2 begins with the story of Joseph, because all of the stories from earlier in Genesis are in Volume 1.  If you like a sequential approach, that might bug you.  But, overall, it offers something unique from other children's Bibles, and if your kids are like mine, the DVD will add another great way for them to soak in the treasure of God's Word.  Incidentally, where do you think the Bible is right now?  Why, it's at church, of course!  But only because we used it Sunday in the preschooler children's church for Bible story time...another great way to use this Bible!

Love at Last Sight

If you find yourself snowbound, my latest good read is Love at Last Sight.  In a culture where "love" is all about what makes me feel good, this practical guide on how to really love people is a welcome change.  This book is filled with short chapters, practical action steps, and simple common sense (that is not so common), making it a must-have for anyone seeking to invest in their relationships.  The book gives you four weeks of emphasis: Being All There, Acting Intentionally, Risking Awkwardness, and Letting Go. The only thing missing for me was that I wanted it to take me a little deeper into the scriptural wisdom on this topic.  But I think this book's strength is not in its depth, but that it spells it out so simply that anyone could relate and apply what it says to make real changes in their relationships.

Voices of the Faithful

Well, the New Year has started...time for making resolutions that usually last a week or two...or not.  So if your resolution has anything to do with spending some time reading, here is a worthwhile pick.  Voices of the Faithful is a different kind of devotional book, in that it is a compilation of various writers, all international missionaries, meant to spur you on in your own walk of faith.  The author listed in big print on the cover is Beth Moore, and she does add so much with her introductions to the topic for each month's collections, including God's Character, God's Word, Persecution and Compassion.  However, she is quick to draw the focus to the authors of each daily entry, as her "friends who put their lives on the line for God".  Their stories are inspiring and so interesting to read, as they take me out of my narrow focus on my tiny little corner of the world.  What a great way to start the day and the new year!

Live Well, Live Wisely

I love Christmas...it truly is my favorite time of year.  The singular focus of God coming near in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ...well, I would do better to wonder over that gift all year long! 
But, almost as good, to me, is this week.  The afterglow of Christmas...usually involving a little time off and some time with family, and no return to the hectic pace of life just yet.  It's a time of reflection.  I'm not really one to make "New Years' Resolutions", but I do love the idea of a fresh start, a new beginning.  God knows I need one quite often.  There are many processes that God has begun in my heart to transform me into who He wants me to be.  His Word is my guide in that process, and this passage is another reminder for me from James 3 (The Message).

^"1-2Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.
 ^3-5A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!
 ^5-6It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
 ^7-10This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!
 ^10-12My friends, this can't go on. A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they? You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?
 ^13-16Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here's what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn't wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn't wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn't wisdom. It's the furthest thing from wisdom—it's animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you're trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others' throats.
 ^17-18Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor."

Panera is here!!!

If I have talked to you anytime recently, you probably don't even need to read this, because I have been talking non-stop about this...I am soooo excited that our Panera is open now!  And it's not just because they have great food.  They are SHARING their great food with us at Light and Life!  Yes, it's true...after months of checking the website daily for the status of our request, we were approved for their Operation Dough-Nation, where we receive their daily leftovers every Saturday night.  YEAH!!!
So, this past Saturday was our first pick-up, and Makenzie went along with me after our (AWESOME) dinner theatre production at church, "It's a Wonderful Life".  We arrived and told them the reason we were there, and then they offered us a drink and something to eat while we waited!  I love this place!  So while Makenzie gobbled up her cinnamon roll, I watched as they began to load up the leftover bagels.  I'm thinking to myself...that's a lot of bagels.  Then they started boxing up all the pastries, and I'm thinking to myself...that's a lot of pastries.  Then they just got garbage bags for all the loaves of bread, and I'm beginning to worry if I have enough room for it all!  As they come out front to load up all the special holiday breads and cookies, I'm loading up the car and realizing that I have left no room for my daughter in our SUV, and I'm trying to decide what must stay and what must go...You'll be glad to know that Makenzie did make it into the car (by sitting in Jonathan's carseat).
What a feast we had Sunday morning!!!   And even after Sunday afternoon's dessert buffet, we still had quite a bit left over to take to Sojourner Truth Ministries to feed the homeless this week.  So YEAH!!!  Panera is here!!!!

Coming soon...the book I'm working on now...Love at Last Sight...and I'm loving it!!!

The American Patriot's Almanac

Daily Reading on America is the subtitle of this book, and that's exactly what you get...365 stories from history.  Now for those of you who only studied history because you had to in order to make it through school, this may not be the book for you...but then it may be!  I read through these stories that I had probably heard...with familiar names like Abigail Adams, Frederick Douglass, and Nathan Hale...but I had forgotten how inspiring their stories are, or maybe I never even appreciated them when I was younger. 
Each month also has an extra section of information including such topics as the flag, historical documents, quotes, songs and movies, and a great section on the influence that faith has had on our country. 
If you are weary of seeing our history rewritten to support a secular, Godless worldview, or if you simply enjoy rediscovering the stories that have built our great nation, then you will really enjoy this book.  I plan to read it with my children in order to help them develop an appreciation for history and the freedom and privilege that we enjoy as Americans.

The Gospel According to Jesus

Had some great reading to take to the beach recently...The Grace of God I just reviewed, and The Gospel According to Jesus by Chris Seay.  This book took a little bit longer to get through as it was less storytelling and more thoughtful examination.  This pastor/writer often takes on the project of finding truth in less obvious places, as in his previous works "The Gospel According to Lost" and "The Gospel According to Tony Soprano", so it would seem that finding Jesus' Gospel would be a great deal easier.  The idea for this work actually came from another project he worked on, "The Voice",  a new Bible translation.  When the writers came to translating the word "righteousness", they found that the Church had a misunderstanding of the word, having to do more with piety and morality than with how they defined it: "God's restorative justice".  It took me a while to wrap my brain around that definition, and thoughtful reflection is not a strength for me, but it was a struggle worth having.  There is dialogue at the end of each chapter with people like Mark Batterson, Dan Kimball and Gabe Lyons, which help flesh out some of the ideas. "God restores us so that we might become agents of restoration", says Alan Hirsch.  It's all about living out the Gospel...not just playing Church, but being the Church.  While I think the primary audience for this book will be those who consider themselves avid students of the Bible, more casual readers may get lost.  If you are like me and can become frustrated with prolonged theological discussion, then this book will be a challenge.  But in the end, I enjoyed the challenge, and I think my understanding of the Gospel according to Jesus has been enriched as a result.