Book Review

I really love to read. Anyone who has ever been in my bedroom can tell you, I have a lot of books. Last night I came across a book that I have read many times and then it hit me post a review of the book on your blog. Personally I think this book can be enjoyed by men and women. The book can be read at least under an hour depending on how fast you read (which my cousin Marcy could read it in 10 to 15 minutes, lol).

The book starts with a king having a big party. In this book you have a straying husband and a wife who stands up for herself. There is a beauty pageant. There is also hate, pride, and deception. This book is a book of heroes and villains. It also has a love story and there is evil people that are killed and hanged and the good guys prevail. In the end there is celebration, feasting, and giving gifts, a book for everyone. What is this book? Where can you get this book you ask? Well if you have a Bible then this book I'm talking about is the book of Esther located in the Old Testament. I give it a 5 star rating.

LOL!!! (One of my favorite commercials.)

Well this may sound a little strange, but I wanted to thank God for not letting me catch myself on fire or my house on fire the other night. I was washing dishes and I was drying a cookie sheet, well sometimes cookie sheets still feel damp after you have dried all the water off of it. So I lay them on the burners of the stove and turn a really low fire on to dry them faster. Well I laid down the pan and turned the knob and fire shot out from under the pan. I mean it touched me and everything, but I wasn't burned any where on my body. It happened so fast I don't know if I would even thought about stop, drop, and roll.

Other news happening in my life. I went to the eye doctor in Columbus, Ohio on Monday to have the glaucoma pressure in my eyes checked. The doctor was pleased with the numbers. Also that day I finished reading "The Shack" which I was so glad to finish because that book is really out there. I'm use to reading strange Christian fiction books because I read Ted Dekker books, but that guy was totally different. After I finished that book I started reading "Aristotle Owl and the Beckoning Bottoms" (fiction/fantasy) this book is wrote by a local man here in our area. He is a preacher and he is a school teacher and the book came about because he was teaching writing skills and he came up with the character. Then after he wrote one chapter his class wanted him to write another and he ended up writing a book. I will write a review after I read it all. Also I will say one thing about the book, I've read words I've never heard of before and I've had to look them up to know what the meaning is. So I guess I'm learning.

How to Study the Bible for Yourself

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

I recently finished reading, "How to Study the Bible for Yourself." My mom got this book awhile ago through Crossings Book Club and I hadn't read it, so I started it the other day. To tell the truth, I just decided to read it more for fun. Because I already have my own way that I go about studying the Bible, but I thought that maybe I could get something out of it.

I do like some of the study worksheets that they provide at the end of the book. And LaHaye shares stories of people who became excellent students of the Bible. I probably will do a study of the life of Jesus or a study of Jesus' parables. I also like that he encourages that you should memorize verses from the Bible. I remember one time hearing a preacher say that you didn't need to memorize verses. I don't exactly remember why he said it, I just remember hearing him say you didn't need to do it. Two things that I believe that so-called preacher didn't want those under him to be able to do, first, he didn't want them to spiritually grow and be able to overcome spiritual warfare. Number two, he was probably afraid that they would learn verses that would show them that they should kick him out of the pulpit.

One thing that I didn't agree about is, he gave a list of books that you should use to study the Bible. One reason I didn't like this is sometimes people can't afford them. I was blessed to get two of my study Bibles through my church. I bought a Tim LaHaye Prophecy Study Bible for $10 bucks last year. I received a Bible dictionary from my grandmother's church when I graduated from High School. Christmas 2006, I took the money that my grandfather and my aunt Lori gave me and I bought a 5 volume commentary set. My cousin Marcy installed a Deluxe Bible Collection on my computer and that has different commentaries and it also has the Strong's Concordance. Also one year my aunt Lori gave me a Halley's Bible Handbook (that was one book on LaHaye's list). I got a cheap concordance last year (that was really by accident). But as I said, sometimes people can't get those books. I have heard many times that my grandfather uses a Webster's Dictionary to look up words from the Bible.

I would recommend, that you would get a good Study Bible. If you could get The Deluxe Bible Collection then that would be worth your money. But don't worry, there is this awesome website called E-Sword that you can download onto your computer and then you can download commentaries and books. Two things that I downloaded off E-Sword that I love is the Bishops' Bible 1568 and the Geneva Bible 1587. Most of the Bibles and commentaries are free, but there are some you have to pay for. Here is the link, E-Sword.