When Skeptics Ask - PRABE 10

For my last reading session, I read "When Skeptics Ask"by Norman L. Geisler.

This is an Apologetics book, meaning that it poses arguments for Christ in ways that people without faith can understand.  I love these books and think that they are fascinating!   One fact that I always hear is that The Bible has so many more transcripts of it made with much less time passing than other famous pieces of work, like some written by Julius Caesar, that no one questions the authenticity of.

I enjoy this book and plan to keep on reading it.  It's always amazing to hear  how much more evidence there is for Christ than for against.  So far, I have read the chapters with proof for Jesus, for the authenticity of the Bible, and for God existing and being in control of World.  I appreciate that this book doesn't just give evidence for these things, but also provides commentary on other common world viewpoints and how they are alike and different.

Final Reflection-
You've probably noticed that I transitioned from reading a variety of sources to just reading The Bible and religious commentaries in the last few weeks.  I attribute this to my lack of time for my own personal devotions due to my Master's work.    I've always felt the need to read The Bible all the way through, and until that happens, I'll find it hard to read much else for pleasure.  With that said, I do still read quite a few news articles and still enjoy more anecdotal, quick reads.  While I consider myself a reader for educational and newsworthy items, I just struggle to sit down long enough to read a whole book of fiction.   It's just not in my nature!  I'd rather read for information than for entertainment, or rather, I like to read for information and entertainment at the same time.  With all that said, I've appreciated this assignment because it has forced me to sit down and read a few books that I hadn't touched, but that were on my bookshelves.  I did enjoy my reading time and perhaps when things slow down a little more, I'll pick up some of these books again.

The Bible - Prabe 9

For PRABE 9, I continued with The Bible.  This time, I started in Isaiah and continued with Micah and Habbakuk.  

Again, since I'm reading it chronologically, I wonder what I'm gaining and what I'm missing from doing so.  It's neat because I do see which places repeat themselves immediatley, because they're back to back in my reading.  I'm approximately 60% through The Bible now, and already looking to start again in the "right" order!

The Bible - Prabe 8 (backdated)!

This is actually a post from a very long time ago, but I wanted to split weeks 7 and 8.  I read more of the Bible this week!

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but some of my reading has also been in Romans and Acts, even though that's not where I am in my Chronological reading.  We host a weekly Bible study, so we take a chapter and study it in-depth weekly.  It's fun, because my husband knows a lot about the book of Acts and is very passionate about it.

I also enjoy reading these books alongside other people because it's very interesting to hear other perspectives on the text!  This is "deep" stuff, so there's a lot to be discussed.

The Bible - Prabe 7

I had gotten behind on my PRABE assignments, therefore, I embarked upon reading the Bible for 3 hours yesterday.

I am reading the Bible Chronologically, using the order provided by the YouVersion Bible app.   I am also using the app to track my progress.   It seems like I have been reading forever (it has been months, off and on!) and I am only 56% of the way through!   The 3 hours yesterday only bumped me up by 2%.

Through reading the Bible, I have really been consciously using the method of "self questioning" in order to determine whether or not I've been absorbing the information.   If I realize that I've been reading without fully understanding the text, I make sure to go back and re-read it more carefully.  I literally ask myself, internally, "do you know what's happening?"

The books I've been reading chronologically, recently, include 2 Kings, Chronicles, Jonah, and now Isaiah.

The Message

Sunday, November 17th - 8:30pm - 10pm

This week, I decided to go back to reading The Bible.  However, in order to mix it up a little bit, I decided to read "The Message" version.

I have mixed feelings about "The Message" translation.  I do find that it is easier to breeze through sections of the Bible.  However, when I directly compare it to other versions, some of the translations seem questionable.  I find myself reading "The Message" as more of an overview.  The most startling passage that I have come across in "The Message" was in Numbers 4 - where a material typically referred to as leather (or goatskin or badger skin) is referred to as dolphin skin.   I do realize that all the versions of the Bible have to have a certain amount of passages different than all other translations, but this passage certainly seemed to be different than the rest.   I'll probably switch back to the New Living Translation for most my Biblical readings from now on.

The $100,000 Teacher: A Solution to America's Declining Public School System

Sunday, November 10th- 8:00-9:30  

This week, I read yet another book that I got at the "bag sale".  I picked it up thinking "Well, cool, if this teaches me to make $100,000 a year, I'm all for it!!".  

The book aims to prove that teachers should make as much as any other "smart people" profession, such as being a lawyer or a doctor.  With this, I agree. Teaching does take a lot of energy as well as skill.   One of its major points is that in other countries, teachers are much more highly regarded

However, the book annoyed me.  It seemed to be very complainy about the life of a teacher.  From reading this book, one would think that a teacher is an abused slave worker in a third world country (no joke!).    Maybe I'm still unjaded because I'm not "officially" a teacher yet.  However, I've had enough long-term sub jobs to pretty much know what day to day life is like.  I don't feel that the author shared the joy of being a teacher or highlighted any of  the good parts.   It was quite depressing!  Oh well.   I suppose this is yet another book that I likely won't get all the way through, but I'm glad I gave it a try!

The $100,000 Teacher on Amazon.com

The Holy Book and Worship Leader Magazine

The Holy Bible - New Living Translation
Worship Leader Magazine
Reading in progress!

Well, these last couple weeks have been a doozy.  Therefore, I admittedly haven't fully finished my 90 minutes of pleasure reading.  However, I knew that if I finished right now, it wouldn't be pleasure reading- but instead, forced "have to get this done" reading, which completely ruins the point.  So, I hereby vow to finish my 90 minutes for last week during Monday and Tuesday of this week!  I'd rather do the assignment correctly, then rush and do it.

That said, I was pondering how different Bible reading experiences can be from each other, depending upon what part of the Bible I'm reading.   In small group every week, we read Acts.  However, in my quest to read the Bible in a year, I'm still in the Old Testament.  Then, I think to the Psalms - which I took a whole class on - and how different they are from the rest of the Bible and also from each other.

Also, I was pondering the different translations.  My favorite is the New Living Translation.  I feel that this translation makes older text more clear, but does not "dumb down" a lot of the Bible.  I enjoy reading The Message because of it's ease of reading, however, I feel like I miss out sometimes when I read it.

Also, I plan to read a borrowed copy of "Worship Leader Magazine".  Although I'm technically on background vocals and piano currently, I have led service before and sometimes lead one or two songs per team rotation.  I'm excited to see what this magazine can show me!

I plan to update this post once I finish this week's session.

Session complete!  I enjoyed the variety of the articles in Worship Leader Magazine, ranging from information about old hymns to more contemporary styles of music and music technology!

Week 3:

365 Ways to Change the World: How to Make a Difference - One Day at a Time

Monday, Oct 21st: 1:00-2:30pm

This week, I picked up a book that had been sitting on my shelf for a couple years.  365 Ways to Change the World... provides ideas for being a "mover and a shaker" when it comes to helping the world in which we live.  I particularly liked this book because it doesn't just give ideas, it really flushes them out.  Each idea has a page long description, providing both interesting facts and resources to get started.

The ideas are broken up into various categories and are really diverse from each other.  One idea that I found quite interesting was about the negative effects of the shrimp industry and how many other fish would be saved if we stopped eating shrimp.  Another idea, which I might incorporate into our Bible Study, is to visit churches of other religions in order to increase your perspective of other world religions.  The book gave the advice of calling ahead to these church organizations in order to see if they had open service and what the expectations are of guests.

I can't wait to read more of this book and attempt to incorporate more of these ideas into my daily life.

365 Ways To Change the World: How to Make a Difference-- One Day at a Time on Amazon.com

Casanova's Parrot And Other Tales of the Famous And Their Pets

Week 2 - Casanova's Parrot And Other Tales of the Famous And Their Pets by Mark Bryant

Wednesday, October 6th   11:00am-12:00pm

News Article Readings - 9:00pm-9:30pm, and throughout the week

So, it appears that I have a thing for animal books.  I could've told you that before.  Next week I'll try to read something a little different!

Casanova's Parrot is a collection of stories about famous people and their pets.  I originally purchased this book for my music classroom, as the front cover made it appear that it would be mostly about famous composers.  However, the book is actually divided into sections of people such as authors, actors and actresses, and artists. My husband and I have enjoyed reading parts of it throughout the last couple weeks.

This book is very anecdotal in nature, which I like because I feel like I can pick it up at any time.  One really learns a lot about the nature of a person by stories of how he or she treated animals.  The types of animals in the book are fascinating as well.  Let's just say that the rich and famous don't just stick with cats and dogs!   Some interesting things I learned were that Mozart's bird learned how to sing part of one of his concertos and that Ibsen had a pet scorpion, which he kept under a glass.

For the rest of my reading time, I tried to become up to date on the current events of our government.  Possibly not as "fun" of a read, but one that I found necessary.

Here's to a non-pet book next week!

Casanova's Parrot and Other Tales of the Famous And Their Pets on Amazon.com

Cat's Eyewitness - Rita Marie Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown

In order to fulfill the requirements of a course that I am taking, Content Area Literacy, I am embarking on a journey of once again reading for "fun".  It's a wonderful break from usual Master's work!  This blog has been created in order to document my readings each week.


Week 1 - Cat's Eyewitness by Rita Marie Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown
Wednesday, October 9th   12:15-1:00pm, 2:30-3:30pm

For my first book selection, I chose a pet-friendly murder mystery.  Rita Marie Brown writes all of her mysteries alongside her best kitty friend, Sneaky Pie.  I picked up the book at at local "fill a bag" book sale with hopes that I'd somehow gain the ambition to read it.

The setting of this particular book, part of the Mrs. Murphy series, is in and around a monastery. Not only are the humans involved in the events that took place surrounding a murder, but several kitties and a Corgi friend are helping to solve the mystery.  I appreciate that the author has placed animal conversation in differing text than human conversation.

Admittedly, I'm not very far into the book.  The murder has just taken place.  However, I don't anticipate continuing this one.  I'm disappointed in the readability of it, particularly the amount of "fluff" and the abundance of characters whom I don't anticipate being major parts of the story.  After my initial reading, I read some Amazon reviews of this particular book which stated that its quality was atypical of the author.

While at the bag book sale, I also picked up a collection of 3 more Mrs. Murphy's books.  Perhaps I'll give another one a shot!  I really want to like this series :).

Until next time...

-Patty



Cat's Eyewitness on Amazon.com