Sunshine yesterday and snow today. Two of my favorite forms of weather. Give me anything but plain gray days! I shared yesterday about struggling with contentment while being home and how I'm reading a book called: Each chapter in the book focuses on a different verse from this psalm, and a verse that I've been meditating on is He restores my soul (vs 3). In this chapter, the author talks about something called casting. To be cast means for an sheep to be on it's back, feet in the air, with no way to turn over and get back on her feet. A ewe (a female sheep) can easily become cast when she lays on her back, trying to rest, but finds herself rolling back too far. Her feet leave the ground and enter the air. She lays there and struggles, trying to get her feet back on the ground. Meanwhile, the gases in her stomach cut off her oxygen, if she isn't helped she will slowly die. A shepherd that cares for his sheep is always on the look out for sheep that might find themselves cast and helpless. When he finds one of his sheep in this position, he runs to her and sets her back on her feet. Usually he even has to rub her legs and body and help her readjust to being on her feet. She's wobbly for a bit, but then she returns to her state before being cast. There are times when I feel like the ewe who finds herself helplessly cast. How fitting is it that humans are compared to sheep? I am constantly in need of my Good Shepherd, especially during seasons when I feel like I'm cast. I've been in a season of life lately that feels like that. I'm helpless. I have no way to get up or get back on my feet on my own. That's when my Good Shepherd comes and shows his loving care and kindness by placing me back on my feet, reminding me that He is the one taking care of me in any and all situations. Today's snow feels like a gentle reminder of that. It might not sound like a good reminder, since most people don't like snow, but snow is a precious gift from the Lord to me. I usually pray for it, and today it came. The Lord is restoring my soul and putting me back on my feet. Much like I am dependent on my Good Shepherd, my little buddy, Spice, is dependent on his good humans. And he loves the snow too. Sunshine AND Snow!!
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CONFESSION #25: I LOVE storybook Bibles!!!!! Maybe a little too much... I confess. I love storybook Bibles! I read chapters in them as devotionals, and sometimes I just open them to look at the pictures. I find them inspiring, like the actual Bible, and they're beautiful. The two storybook Bibles above have beautiful illustrations that bring Bible stories to life for children and for adults. Honestly, I find storybook Bibles to be incredibly creative, especially the illustrations. In particular, The Jesus Storybook Bible (the one of the right), shows how every story in the Bible ultimately points to Jesus. On this book review/recommendation Saturday, I highly recommend that you get yourself a Storybook Bible. Who knows? The creative illustrations may inspire you to illustrate other stories from the Bible. As a visual persons, I'm always excited about illustrations of biblical stories! This post is part of a 31 day series called Confessions of a Creative Christian.
CONFESSION #18: I often use my art as an excuse for my busyness. I recently read a book that has rocked the way I think about busyness and rest. You might have heard of it. It's called Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung, and it hits right at the heart of the busy person. I am a busy person. Ask any of my friends or family. If you ask me on any given day how I'm doing, my answer will probably be, "Busy". I live a busy life. Somehow it just happens. But I often use my busyness as an excuse. I use it as an excuse for not spending time with God. I use it as an excuse for not making enough time for people that are priorities in my life. I use it as an excuse for not getting enough rest. How are you tempted to use busyness as an excuse? So for today's Saturday Book Review Day, I decided to talk about Crazy Busy. It's tagline is a "mercifully short book for a really big problem," and it hits the mark. It's a pretty short book, but it hits the idol of busyness straight on the head. This book convicted and encouraged me in my own struggles with busyness. If you struggle with busyness, I encourage you to check it out! This post is part of a 31 day series called Confessions of a Creative Christian.
CONFESSION #11: The books that I read often impact my work as an artist. Even if my art isn't always explicit in its messages and themes, the gospel should always be explicit. I plan on talking more about being covert and overt in creative work as a believer in future posts, but this post is part of my Saturday Book Review Days for this 31 day series. Matt Chandler talks about the explicit gospel in his book by the same title. You can find it here. What I really love about this book is that Chandler explicitly (see what I did there) lays out the gospel. In Greek, the word gospel means "good news." And the word "gospel" in relation to Christianity means the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection on the cross and what that means for humanity. Chandler talks about the gospel in his book, and how it should impact peoples lives. If you're keeping up with this 31 day series, you've already seen a quote from this book. It was a part of the I Am a Sub-Creator post. "You and I are stymied in our own creativity. We can only create as sub-creators, and even then our best work is only sub-creation." I highly recommend The Explicit Gospel. It has impacted and grown my faith, but it has also helped with my perspective on creative endeavors as a Christian. Check it out, and let me know what you think!
This post is part of a 31 day series called Confessions of a Creative Christian. CONFESSION #4: Sometimes I get so caught up in doing things that I forget to do other things. Most of the time I forget to spend time with God. But sometimes I forget to sit down and write things to post. So this blog post is a day late (even though I made the post date the correct day) and a little short, but I hope you check out the book and the blog.
I'm a huge fan of books. I'm also a huge fan of weekends and taking time to rest. Therefore, on Day 4, a Saturday, I just decided to focus on a book that has really given me a lot of wisdom in film theology and it's giving me a rest from writing a deeper level post. As a film student in college, I'm often presented with a dilemma of what my theology on film should be considering oftentimes Hollywood goes against a lot of the Bible's teachings. A few years ago, a friend suggested a blog to me called Cinemagogue. The man that runs it is a believer and he loves films. So he watches films and reviews them and writes about how the gospel intersects with the messages that the film is trying to convey. I really recommend reading his blog. However, this man also wrote a book that has the same title as his blog Cinemagogue. You can check the book out here. This book focuses a lot on film narratives and how they are a reflection of our culture, but also how we should think about films as Christians. I really recommend this book for people that love films and for those that: 1. Want to be discerning with what they're watching. 2. Learn how the gospel impacts how we view films. 3. Are interested in developing a theology on films. I plan to talk more about my own thoughts on films in further blog posts and how God can use them for his glory, despite some iffy content. But this book is a really great start. James Harleman, the author, really presents a lot of great nuggets of wisdom, and his book and blog have really encouraged me to grow in wisdom. (This blog post is part of a 31 day series called Confessions of a Creative Christian) As some of you may know, I love books and I love reading. I'm a HUGE advocate for reading. But this post isn't about why reading is great: It's about rereading. I have a few friends that are fellow book lovers, and I'm always impressed when they talk about how many times they've read a certain book. I know people who read Pride and Prejudice every year. People that read A Christmas Carol every Christmas. People that read the entire Harry Potter series every summer. I am not one of those people. My "philosophy" on books for a long time has been: So many books, so little time. My thoughts were, "If there are so many story worlds to explore, why would I spend time rereading books?" However, my book philosophy has changed over the past few months. It looks more like: so many books, so little time, so be wise about what you read, and try to reread the ones that impacted you the most the first time around. I'm still working on it. But as my book philosophy has changed as well as my reading tastes, I've been thinking about which books I would enjoy rereading again. There are a few definites, but I started thinking about what qualities make a book worth rereading for me. Here is the one qualifier I always came back to: There has to be the benefit of getting more out of the book a second time around, whether its due to the language or the story structure. This is the reason I loved reading Shakespeare while in High School. You may laugh, but no matter how many times I read his plays or watched them live, I always got more out of them. The language was so rich (or rather difficult to understand at times) and I learned more about the plot from a second read. With this qualifier in mind, there are a few series and books that I can see myself rereading. But this qualifier also highlights a great deal of books that I never see myself rereading because they really didn't have a whole lot of depth, which makes me questions whether I should have even read them in the first place. That's a completely different story though. But as I thought about this qualifier, I realized that there's one book that I enjoy rereading immensely. One book that completely fits the mold of a book worthy of a second read. It's a book that I was rereading constantly without realizing it, because I get so much out of it every time I read it. Can you guess what that book is? It's The Bible. Even before I became a Christian my freshman year of college, I loved hearing Bible stories over and over and over again. Noah, Joseph, Ruth, Esther, Daniel, David, Paul, and of course Jesus. So many characters and historical figures. So many stories. So much depth of story. And excellent language. I mean come on, there are so many verses and phrases that are like truffles. They strike a beautiful chord with the soul. It's why people memorize them and quote them and share them. The Bible speaks truth. It contains one overarching story (God's redemption of man) that is supported by a plethora of stories in between. It has so many elements: adventure, romance, drama, war, friendship, redemption, and so much more. The Bible is a book worth reading and rereading, so many times. So there you have it. The Bible: the only book I truly enjoy rereading, a book that I get more out of each time I open it. If you're looking for a good book with a great story and a whole lot of soul ministering truth that you can go back to again and again, check out The Bible. P.S. If there are any books that you love and can recommend for reading and rereading and rereading, let me know! I'm also up for a book recommendation.
Summer is the time of the year in which there seems to be more time to read. Reading on the beach. Reading in the backyard. Reading in the park. Reading by the pool. You name it. People are reading. And I love it!
But you know what else I love? A library. Why? Because libraries these days have so many things to offer, and all you need is a library card. Honestly, it's like having a Gold Card or VIP access. You get instant access to so many things. So if you don't have a library card or if you do and you don't use it as often as you should, here are the top five reasons why everyone should have a library card in their wallet. 1. Access to a Plethora of Books A lot of libraries these days have networks. There's a library network just for my county. And I know for a fact that there's a library network for the whole state of Nebraska. These networks give you access to any and all books. If your library doesn't have it, then the next library over might. And if the next library over doesn't have the book, you can request for your library to buy it. Also, you can check out several books at a time. Is the one book you're reading not as good as you thought? Give it back, and start a new one. No buyer's remorse! 2. Movie Rentals A lot of libraries now offer movie rentals. Some offer them for free and others charge a small fee, but if you want to watch a movie and it's not on Netflix, the library is your next best bet! I've watched multiple television shows (Downton Abbey) and older movies that I can't find even on Amazon thanks to the library. 3. Digital Books A lot of libraries now offer kindle or e-reader rentals as well as digital libraries. The library at my college allows you to download and borrow books through your own digital devices as well as borrow one of their e-readers. This is great for someone that wants to borrow a lot of books but not have to worry about keeping track of them. For some, there is an entire library on the one e-reader that you borrow. 4. Audio Books Many libraries also offer audio books of a plethora of books. This is great for anyone that enjoys listening to books rather than reading them. Audio books are also great for travel. Got a five hour car ride? Why not listen to an audio book? An hour long commute everyday? Redeem the time by listening to an audio book on the way to and from work. In my personal opinion, audio books are undervalued. They're great! And sometimes it's nice just to have someone else read to you. 5. Summer Reading Programs The majority of libraries offer a summer reading program for children and teens. As youth read books, they can earn prizes or rewards for their reading. Some programs operate based off of number of books read and other programs cater more towards number of pages read. Either way, it's a great way to encourage youth to read during the summer months, especially when they're out of school. There you have it. Go out and get yourself a library card. And if you have one, it can always use a little more lovin'. And while you have one, why not get a few more? |
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