Who am I?

Quite some years ago now I lost my ability to work. As time has progressed my illness or handicap has done the same - to the point where I am very limited in what I am able do. I am not mentioning this for sympathy. I just want to let you know that my lifestyle has very much become one of being immobile. However, God, from the very moment of my birth, had a plan for me that I did not see. This plan included giving me a love of His word, a hunger for studying, and a passion for books. Now that I have become so limited I am thankful for this love. I cannot imagine my life if all I had to do is lay in bed and watch TV, since I do have to spend the vast majority of my time in bed. As God has planned it, to my way of thinking, I have the perfect love and interests. I can do these from my bed. For many years my wife endured my sometimes silent (most of the time vocal) suffering and whining for a laptop computer. I wanted to be online and do my studies without the consequent pain I received from sitting at my other system. My time had gotten so limited on the other puter that I had given up trying to share my love of books with people. Last year I was blessed to receive from my wife one of the best gifts I have ever gotten - this laptop computer I am using. Yes, God allows both the good and the bad to come into our lives. It is what he helps us do with what we have left that matters - not how bad we hurt. I admit I often lose track of that truth but I do try to keep it in mind.

I hope that gives you a glimpse into what motivates or makes up the me that I am. I pray that I can be of help to those who may be in a boat similar to mine but, also, to those who desire to Love God through the study of His word.

The authors are whispering...

I do not plan on going in any specific order as far as the books I list. Some years ago I did this and that list is available if you would like it. [Leave me a comment and request it.] It deals with the older Bible commentaries and some other books that I have found very useful over the many years of study of the Bible that I have been fortunate and blessed enough to be able to pursue.

I wondered many years ago why God had given me such a love and fascination with His word and with books in general. As long as I can remember I have been an avid reader and have always had a library of some sort. My wife considers this a curse more than a blessing since my space is becoming more and more limited and I have now added three four or five shelf shelves in the bedroom on my side of the bed. I cannot just roll out of the sack in the mornings - I have to crawl to the bottom of the bed and get up or else I will break my foot on a shelf. Truthfully, books are everywhere in my house. Inconvenience not withstanding I love having the books there. I sometimes wonder if that is why I do not sleep at night a lot of the time. The authors are whispering in my dreams from the otherwise silent pages on the shelves.

Anyway the reason I mention this is because I have often been amazed at how God prepares us for our lives from the beginning to the end. He knows those which are His and He gives us what we need from birth on through death. Sometimes, though, we may not see His design and may often think that there is no way some of the things that befall us can be from God.

Just an aside here -- in my own life, especially lately -- I do wonder at Gods direction. Things that have been going on have weighted me down to the point of tears and depression. I shout to God in woe begging Him to give me peace and at least a glimpse of the point behind the pain. But I have not been blessed with that knowledge yet and it is often hard to have faith that God is in control. Sometimes it is true we take the reigns from Him. This is nothing but dangerous. But when we get back to where we belong spiritually and still things have not changed - we often doubt. It is at those times when I find the need to pray and beg God to help me turn over my life and the things that happen in and around it to Him and to leave them there. I have learned that it is not for want of His care or His control that I have doubts. It is because of my doubts that I do not trust Him to take control. Yes, even in the bad things that I have had in abundance this year I still have to believe that God is there (here) and that He is in control of what is going on for whatever reason He may have. I have lived long enough and hard enough to realize that there are some things we are just not going to know in this life, try as we may. It is in the acceptance of God’s sovereign will that we can and do find peace. At least, that is, until we once again lose sight of the fact that we are more important than the birds in the air and the lilies in the field. The good and the bad are together gifts of God - our perception notwithstanding.

Truth - It's in There

We live in a time where truth has eroded (see Doug Groothius, Truth Decay) to the point that one has hardly any frame of reference from which to begin when talking to others about the precious Gospel of Christ. Terms have been emptied of meaning and the idea of any such thing as absolute truth is anathema to many a modern scholar in the ivory halls of “higher” education. ( I used to get a lot of that sort of education i.e. I smoked a lot of dope before I read the latest comic book).

This is not just something I have come up with to try to conform the world into my image of what it should be. It is an idea, no, it is a command found in the Word of God.

I, of course, am assuming that the Bible is truth and that you believe that it is truth as well. I will not take the time to defend that position here but will be glad to try answer anyone who has difficulty with this concept.

[Please, though, do not write me with something like “How can you believe the Bible? It is full of contradictions!” Also, don’t try to amaze me by quoting the latest National Geographic or Discovery Channel ideology on the “real Christ” of the latest Jesus Quest. <> I will do no more than refer you to some books (of course) and web sites that are balanced and informative on those issues. It is important that you have more than a television education. It is very tempting to vent here about the plethora of so called scholarly shows on the “real” “truth” about Jesus and the Bible. You will find that their idea of the real truth is that THERE IS NONE and that their speculations and lopsided view of the facts are the only ones that exist. Okay - Enough said.]

Bookish Quotes

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
--- Arnold Lobel

To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.
--- Robertson Davies

Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.
--- Paul Valery

Consumption of Books - A beginning

I have made several attempts to get a blog going on one of my deepest passions in life – the collecting / reading / touching / smelling – in short, consumption of books. I hope this new attempt is more readable and more encouraging as to which books I review that it would really benefit the reader to purchase. I love books. I spend a lot of time saying how fantastic a book is with superlatives but sound like a broken record after awhile. So I am going to strive to give you a good idea of what the books reviewed have to offer by way of sharing some of the content you will find in the volume discussed.

Whew! My life has been in much turmoil this last year and there seems to me to be know end in sight for the new one that is upon us. [Side Note: Pray for me and my family seriously and as often as you think of us.] I have to not let the situations I have faced affect the work that I try to do to advance the learning of the Word of God and how to serve him as Kingdom children. No, this not a new cult – or even an old one. Kingdom Children - it is just a reference to what I believe we are as born again individuals. We have both the Kingdom of God within us and we represent that Kingdom in all that we do outside us by our way of life. We sometimes – or oftentimes – need to adjust that representation to truly show outwardly the Kingdom of which we are members.

It is a sad fact that to many of us go to church on Sunday and let that be the only nourishment that we get all week. Only a few moments taken to show us how we should serve God in this world which we are passing through. It is not just a suggestion of mine that you read and study the Bible – It is a command of God clearly pointed out by the writers of both the Old and New Testaments. Not only are we to be found in study ‘workmen that need not be ashamed’ but we also need to ‘be ready to give an answer to every man for the faith that lies within us.’ I wonder how many of us can do that.