My Current Reading

I made a New Year's resolution in 2010 to read more. Yes, that was 2010. I guess I kinda read some, but really, since going to college, I lost interest in reading.

But I've picked it back up. I've started reading a whole lot more than what I'm used to. And it's kinda been awesome. Here's a bit of what I've been reading.

Ashamed of the Gospel--I picked this up at our most recent EDGE Summit in the Glen Eyrie bookstore. I enjoy it for the most part, although it's not what I was expecting. I thought that it would be on a more individual basis, but MacArthur's focus is mainly on churches shying away from preaching the unadulterated Word of God in the hopes of being seeker friendly. I think he makes a lot of oversimplifications to be honest, and makes the same point over and over and over again, but he does make good points that can be applicable to individuals desiring to preach the gospel as well as those of us on staff who aren't necessarily a church, but are in Christian leadership.

Redeeming Love--I went to a staff conference and one of my EDGEmates was talking about this book and how amazing it was and how men need to read it. I thought, "Why not?" So I checked it out from the Tempe Library. I must say, it's a much easier read than John MacArthur's book (though I think that's gonna be the case with fiction vs. non-fiction 98% of the time). Francine Rivers does a great job of writing characters that I care about. My previous attempt at reading a novel was Twilight, and I can't for the life of me understand why I should care about stupid Bella going gaga over this beautiful and extremely rude boy that she comes to learn is a vampire. However, within the first couple pages of "Redeeming Love," I found myself teary-eyed over what I was seeing happen in Sarah/Angel's life. I find it hard to put down at night, even when I'm dog-tired.

Jeremiah--After reading through Acts (and taking an EXTREMELY long time to do that), I decided that I wanted to go through a book in the Old Testament, mostly because I haven't quite yet read through the OT, while I've read through the entire NT at least twice. I can't remember why I chose Jeremiah over something else, but I'm truly digging it. Well, I don't know if I'd say digging. It's really sad. I'm only in chapter 3, but the hurt that I see in God's words, the strong language, the unfaithfulness of Israel and Judah are enough to make a grown man cry (granted, that grown man is me and doesn't take much for me to cry sometimes). Throughout chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3, God is telling of how they've turned from Him time and time again, and would only turn to Him when they were up the creek without a paddle. I want to be able to point a finger at them and say, "I can't believe you would do that. I can't believe you would turn to God only when you need Him and never at any other time. You want Him to be your Savior without Him being your Lord." But it's like they say, whenever you point a finger, you have 3 pointing at yourself. I know that I'm no better than the Israelites. I can run and do my own thing for a while, realize that it's not working, turn to God, rinse, repeat. Reading God's words delivered by Jeremiah, I think I have a better understanding of the fear of the Lord. He knew their hearts weren't towards Him. They wanted forgiveness for being unfaithful, but were all too willing to remain unfaithful. I've truly been convicted and blessed from reading this one so far.

What are you reading? Or watching? Or listening to?