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!