Pressing On

I know, I know you've been wondering, "What happened to her 90 day bible reading?  Did she flake out or what?" Well no, I did not flake out although it did take me over ninety days.  I slowed right down once I hit the New Testament since I felt like I'd read it so much I'd already been there done that. Not that that is a good excuse, but finally I got my act together and carried on.  It actually proved just as fruitful as reading through the Old Testament. So, what did I get out of reading the entire bible in (close to) 90 days? * I got a wonderful sense of the big picture of scriptural history and geography - which I thought I had before, but really didn't. For example I totally get the Israel and Judah, I get the kings, I get the exile, it's the difference between a Bob Ross painting coming together in 27 minutes and a paint-by-number over years that still looks like a bunch of different patches of colour. * I learned to really feel the flavour o...

That is:  36 of 90 days of the 90 Day Bible Reading Challenge.  I've made through Nehemiah and I'm only 8 days behind!  Making a mathematical projection, that would mean I might finish in 114 days rather than 90, which is fine with me. I'm amazed at how much I have learned just by speeding up my pace of reading.  I've read the bible through and I do lots of bible study, but just reading through without stopping to read all the extra goodies at the bottom of the pages really does allow the big picture to come into focus. Without giving it all away, because you should really try this for yourself, one of the big pictures so far to me is the fickleness of man.  I've lost count of how many times Israel has recommitted themselves to God and how many times they have reneged.  That means I've also lost count of how many times God has taken them back and re-established a relationship with them. He has kept His promises over thousands of years so far in the ...

Of course that's what most of us secretly think - that we are good enough to go heaven.  I mean we're certainly not as bad as that guy over there...  but that's not really where I'm going with this. The other day we were enjoying a picnic in the park and discovered this lovely cupboard full of books! Oh how I love books :)  It was one of those book-bins where you drop off books you don't want and pick up a book you do want. Well, there are almost always books I want in a book bin (as my groaning bookshelves will attest) but there was one there that I found to be a must-have. I know a bit about Buddhism, I investigated it a bit years ago when I was wandering across the spiritual landscape.  I recently read a very interesting non-fiction book on a woman's search for the teachings of a certain monk:  "Ten Thousand Miles without a Cloud", which led her through the history and geography of Chinese Buddhism; but I hadn't quite seen something so er...