Books, books, books

Christianity Rediscovered by Vincent Donovan- Brittany and I read this one together; she borrowed it from a colleague. It is the true story of a Catholic priest/missionary who worked with the Masai people in Tanzania in the 70s. He had some pretty groundbreaking methods for the time, great insights expressed with wonderful writing.

The Bible Jesus Read by Philip Yancey- In this book Yancey discusses how the Old Testament is applicable to us, how it answers questions that plague us as a human race. He chooses five sections: Job, Deuteronomy, the Psalms, the Prophets and Ecclesiastes –works that are often overlooked due to the fact that they are considered hard to understand, boring or strange; and he unpacks and discusses what God is communicating about his nature through them.

Things I wish I’d Known Before I Got Married by Gary Chapman- Don’t freak out people, I just like to be prepared. This was a recommendation from a friend, when I got it; I skimmed the chapter titles and was prepared to be disappointed, because they mostly sounded fairly commonsense. But, as I actually read the book, I learned a lot and am glad I bought it.  He’s got 12 chapters based on a statement he uses as a chapter title, like I wish I had known…….that I was marrying into a family.

 

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller- So, I had had this book on my kindle for a while, I had heard talk of this Keller guy. But what made me start the book was hearing a friend of mine (someone much smarter than me) call Timothy Keller today’s C.S. Lewis, what!  This book is great, the first section takes arguments and doubts against Christianity that Keller has heard all his ministerial life and gives rebuttals to those. The second part is a positive argument for Christianity. So, yeah, I am on the TK wagon now. 

Anticancer: A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber- I had always meant to read this book someday, but a family member was diagnosed with cancer this month, so I figured now was the best time. Brittany read it over a year ago and hasn’t stopped talking about it since. It is one of the main reasons she (and as a result me too) has made so many changes in diet.  Which is why I expected it to be all about diet, but it isn’t. It is much more personal than I expected it to be; it is Dr. Servan’s journey from being a fairly impersonal doctor, to being diagnosed with cancer and feeling pretty helpless about it. From his research since then, he has written this book on how cancer victims can take control of their lives through positive attitude, good support system, and lifestyle changes- not as a substitute to chemotherapy and radiation, but as a supplement. It is interesting and helpful so far, I haven’t finished it yet.

A review and revision of resolutions

It’s that time of year again-resolution time! I actually wasn’t gonna do them this year, but then I was looking at last year’s blog and realized that yes, actually I will give it another go. So, below are last year’s resolutions in italics, with a review of how I fared, and revisions for 2013:

    1. Spiritual- I want to really work on scripture memorization this year, I should probably name a quantity to keep me accountable....lets say a passage (vague on purpose) a week-Fail, echec, ail-fay, and any other language you would like to say it in. I did good maybe the first month.  So, this year I am revising my goal, making it more attainable and realistic- one passage a month. Start small and hopefully grow from there.

    2. Intellectual- this one is easier, I just discovered i-tunes free weekly podcasts, they have ones on economics, science, history, all kinds of things I will never sit down and read about but can listen to a podcast about! Well, I did indeed listen to podcasts for like two weeks, then I realized how massive itunes was slowing down my already burdened computer, and deleted it. So I didn’t get any smarter this year.  But, in 2013, I will read some already-on-my-kindle history and science books to expand my horizons.
   3. Physical- one word: jogging. No diet resolutions this year, come on people I live with Brittany Bedford!- yep, did it! Not everyday, but fairly consistently all year, it was so cool to jog among the mountains in France! This year it is p90x workout videos in my house, bring on the Micheal Scott-ish workout trainer in 2013!

4. Social- I will not hole up in my room and hide from French-speaking people, I will talk to them and make mistakes but build relationships through it! Ch-ch-check! Though my French is nowhere near perfect, I did indeed accomplish this resolution. This year all I have to do with this resolution is change the word French to my new language and voila!

  ok folks, hold me to it:) Happy New Year, love you!

Cool story

I meant to get this story in writing soon after I heard it at a conference in Kentucky, that was two years ago now. It has been on my mind the last couple of days, so I finally used that wonderful internet contraption and found that message online!  As he shared this story with thousands of strangers, I am taking the liberty of passing it along.

 Dr. Walt Larimore is a very accomplished physician and well known in his field, and his whole message was powerful; but this story is what I remember the most. I generally cry when I tell it, so it is a good thing I am typing now! To get the whole message you can go to http://www.medicalmissions.com/learn/resources/a-person-is-a-personno-matter-how-small

The doctor was working in his early years as a general family practitioner in a small North Carolina town. He and his wife struggled with the miscarriage of their second child. Right after the miscarriage, Larimore cursed God, but then turned to the Word and felt enveloped by invisible arms, that brought peace and comfort and in the end he turned back to Jesus.

  One day sometime after this, seventh grade boy named Danny came to his office with an injured arm, he had been injured while playing football. Instead of just a broken bone, they found bone cancer and they had to amputate his arm in an effort to eradicate the cancer. Though all this time, Danny was more than a conqueror, he trusted in God and was joyful through losing his arm, he was, he said “God is good, and this is not what I would have chosen, but this is what he chose.” 

Later they found that the cancer had spread, and the cancer research center sent Danny home to die. He was Dr. Larimore’s first hospice patient, and he visited Danny several times a week. He was often unconscious due to the medications, and Dr. Larimore took his hand and prayed that his passing would be peaceful. That is when Danny opened his eyes and said “It will be, don’t worry- I know I won’t be much longer, but I know where I am going.”

The doctor asked “where?”

“Heaven”

“How do you know for sure?”

Danny paused and said “Because Azar told me so.”

“Who is Azar?”

 “You don’t know Azar? He is my guardian angel, he comes and sits with me and we talk about heaven. He’s big and he is strong, and he has golden hair, he has a big sword, Azar said it will be him who takes me to heaven, and that is how I know.  You haven’t met him? You are sure?”

“Not that I remember.”

“That’s very interesting.”

 “Why is that very interesting?”

“Well because he says he is your guardian angel too, and your wife’s and Kate’s (Larimore’s first daughter). Azar was with you the night you lost your baby, it was Azar who took your baby to heaven, it was Azar who held your wife as she wept, and it was Azar who held you after you cursed God.”

Dr. Larimore says that nobody knew about that, not even his wife.

And that’s it, the rest of the message is great, follow this link above to hear all of it. But is that not an amazing story? Isn’t God great? I hope you were touched and that you were drawn closer to the heart of God by that account.