One of the Seven Commandments of Animalism in George Orwell’s allegorical Animal Farm. It wasn’t long before the entire system of thought distilled into much fewer maxims that excused the pigs, as they tended more towards humanness. “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”, later retorted the pigs.
Perhaps one could project the latter retort into the world of books by saying ‘All books are equal, but some are more equal than others’. In other words, all books are simply not equal! Continue reading “A book like no other”
“When you’ve enjoyed reading something, recommend it to your friends.”
That’s a quote I picked up from a bookmark handed out to promote reading at a local library some months ago. That piece of advice is just what I hope to heed now and in subsequent book reviews.
A quick confession though; I picked up Big God, looking for a quick win to kick-start my reading for the year. I’ve not always been an avid reader, but in the last couple of years, I have gradually prodded myself into a habit of reading as a spiritual discipline.
So as I thought of what I could possibly read to get me started for the year, this book readily came to mind. Written with the ordinary person in mind, evident in its accessible language, tone and length (6 chapters in 141 pages, excluding Introduction and Conclusion), Big God is not lacking at all in pastoral insight; no surprises there, as it was written by a pastor! Continue reading “Big God – Orlando Saer”
“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” – Bill Shankly.
Well, for some, football is that big a deal; for others, there are certainly more important things than the adventures of football or even any other sport.
Our last post touched briefly on some reasons why we bother about the Bible; today, we’ll follow that up with a similar thought.
To assert that, for a Christian, reading the Bible is a matter of life and death, is not far-fetched at all, well at least, not in comparison with a game. For according to The Bible – we live by faith, and that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by The Word of God. It is the means by which we feed our faith. Continue reading “Rethinking the important”
Consider the absurdity of a group of friends who got together for a pickup game of football. One of them suddenly realised and announced that they had left the football behind, only for another to reply, with a wave of hand “forget the football, let’s get on with the game!”
Well, for some people, the question isn’t so much ‘how do I read the Bible?’ but why should I bother reading it at all? Perhaps the underlying thought behind that question is the perplexity of how a book from ages ago, originally written to people in different contexts, speaks to us now in the 21st Century. That thought poses a bigger question, and will be discussed in another post. For now, we’ll focus on the more fundamental question of the motivation for deferring to the Bible. Continue reading “Why bother?”
It’s such a blessing to be witnessing a new year, full of opportunities and perhaps challenges, in uncharted territory. Hopefully, we have come in with a blueprint for some good productivity.
Today on the blog, we’ll be signposting some Bible reading plans. With the countless options out there, I imagine we could do with some helpful pointers.
Pastor John Piper, in this short podcast, makes a case for the discipline of using a daily Bible reading plan, sharing his personal experience and plan for 2018.
