Book Review: The Early Readers Bible (New Testament)

The Early Readers Bible: New Testament. V. Gilbert Beers. Illustrated by Terri Steiger. Zonderkidz. 256 pages. [Source: Bought]

The Early Reader's Bible was written specifically for beginning readers who are starting to read on their own. The book has two lists in the back. One list is a basic word list composed of words from standard word lists in public (and private) schools. One list is a new word list composed of words introduced in this bible story book. "No more than five new words are used in any story, and usually a smaller number is used." (At the top corner of every story, new words are introduced.)

The stories from the New Testament edition of the Early Reader's Bible:

1. Jesus Came to Love Us
2. Angels Sing to Shepherds
3. The Wise Men Give Their Best
4. Jesus' Happy Family
5. Jesus Pleases God
6. God's House
7. What Should I Do In God's House
8. A Friend Who Was Sick
9. Doing God's Work
10. Look What Jesus Can Do
11. Can A Man Do This?
12. A Boy Shares His Lunch
13. Walking on Water
14. God Talks About His Son
15. A Man Who Did Not Say Thank You
16. The Good Shepherd
17. Jesus and the Children
18. A Man Who Wanted to See
19. Finding a Friend
20. Jesus on a Donkey
21. Supper with Jesus
22. The Love of Jesus
23. Jesus is Alive Again
24. Telling Others About Jesus
25. A Man Hears About Jesus
26. Brighter than the Sun
27. Singing in Jail
28. Paul is a Brave Helper
29. Helping a Friend

From Doing God's Work pp. 69-73

Matthew had good work.
He had all the money he wanted.
And people did what he told them to do.
But Matthew was not happy.
He knew that he did not please God in his work.
One day Jesus came to see Matthew.
"Matthew," Jesus said, "come with me and work for me."
Matthew looked at Jesus.
Jesus would not pay him for his work.
He would not make much money.
People would not do what he said.
He would have to do what Jesus said.
"What should I do?" Matthew asked.
Then Matthew knew.
He would please God if he went with Jesus.
And he would be happy.
So Matthew went with Jesus.
He helped Jesus do God's work.
Then Matthew was very happy.

Each story concludes with "something to ask" and "something to do" features.

The stories are very simple. The focus is more on making stories easy to read and using limited vocabulary than on 100% biblical accuracy. The focus isn't on explaining doctrine or theology…at all. The stories don't do the greatest at explaining the big picture of WHY Jesus came. A key three letter word is missing from the New Testament. That word is SIN. It is easy to read, easy to sound out. And it is one of the most essential doctrines of the whole Bible--both Old and New Testament. Why did Jesus come? To save us, to save us from our sin. Our sin separated us from God. At the cross, Jesus paid for our sins. He took our sins upon himself. He took our punishment. Because of Jesus I don't have to pay for my sins. I am made right with God through faith in Christ. (Also missing are baptism. Not even Jesus' own baptism by John is mentioned. Also the Holy Spirit and pentecost.)

The stories keep it very simple:

• "This baby has come to love us, and he has come to help us love God" (9). 
• "Jesus liked to go to God's house. He liked to talk to God there. He liked to be with God's people." (45)
• "They knew that Jesus did good things for God. They knew that God helped Jesus do these things" (77)
• "Jesus said many good things." (94) 
• "God said that Jesus is his Son. Now they knew that Jesus was God's Son." (113)
• "Jesus said that we are like sheep. We are far away from God. But Jesus came to find us. He loves us. And he helps us find the way to God's home in heaven." (129)
• "In Jerusalem Jesus told people about God. He told them how to please God. He told them that he would die for them. God had sent Jesus to do these things. This was the work Jesus did for God." (161)
• "When Jesus died on the cross, he showed how much he loved them. And he showed how much he loves you and me. How much does Jesus love us? He loves us so much that he died so we can come to God." (177)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Week in Review: September 1-6

ESV

• Genesis 
• Exodus
• Matthew 1-15

NASB

• Psalms 1-42

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Fall Reading Plans

What are your Bible reading goals for the fall? for the rest of the year?

I'll be reading the ESV Women's Devotional Bible. My plan is to loosely follow the Bible in 90 Days reading schedule. I don't follow it strictly because I make adjustments to the daily readings. (If you look at it closely, you'll see sometimes they break up chapters over two days. Why?!) I also plan on reading the New Testament alongside the Old Testament. I may even be able to fit the New Testament in twice. I should be finishing up by the end of November. If all goes well!

The ESV Women's Devotional Bible is the newest Bible published by Crossway. I am looking forward to reading in this one! I hope I love it just as much as I've loved the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible and the ESV Grow! Bible.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Worth Quoting #13 Agatha Christie

From An Autobiography by Agatha Christie:

"All of you, every one of you--will pass through a time when you will face despair. If you never face despair, you will never have faced, or become a Christian, or known a Christian life. To be a Christian you must face and accept the life that Christ faced and lived; you must enjoy things as he enjoyed things; be as happy as he was at the marriage at Canaan, know the peace and happiness that it means to be in harmony with God and God's will. But you must also know, as he did, what it means to be alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, to feel that all your friends have forsaken you, that those you love and trust have turned away from you, and that God himself has forsaken you. Hold on then to the belief that that is not the end. If you love, you will suffer, and if you do not love, you do not know the meaning of a Christian life." (166-7)

*To be fair, Christie is recalling something that a teacher said once during a lesson--a math lesson. But it's definitely worth quoting!!! She adds, "It is odd that those few words, more than any sermon I have ever heard, remained with me, and years later they were to come back to me and give me hope at a time when despair had me in its grip."

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Light in the Wilderness

A Light in the Wilderness. Jane Kirkpatrick. 2014. Revell. 320 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Historical fiction. Based on true events. I mention these things first because I think it's important to have perspective. I tend to distinguish between historical fiction and historical romance. Historical fiction--in my mind--may or may not have a romance element--but the focus tends to be different than a romance novel. The focus of A Light in the Wilderness is NEVER will the heroine fall in love and get married, or, will the heroine live happily ever after. There's nothing lighthearted about A Light in the Wilderness.

Letitia is a freed slave. She was granted her freedom in her master's will. She values her freedom dearly. She doesn't take it for granted. She knows all too well what it means to be owned, to be someone's property. Life isn't easy for Letitia. It isn't easy for her on page one. It isn't easy for her on page three hundred. The novel, for the most part, is set in the 1840s and 50s. There are many, many people who don't respect Letitia's "freed" status and try to take advantage of her.

The novel opens in Missouri. Letitia's former owners is heading west to Oregon. Letitia could go with them all. But part of her still feels owned when she's around them. She feels disrespected. In many ways, they still order her about and treat her unfairly. So she decides to choose a new life. She temporarily takes laundry work at a hotel. She also starts working for David Carson. She'll keep house for him in exchange for room and board for her and her dairy cow, Charity. Over several years, David decides that he wants to marry Letitia. He knows that they can't legally be married. But they could have a common marriage, of sorts. Especially if they keep it secret from their neighbors and head out west to Oregon. Does Letitia fall madly in love with him? Not really. But she considers his offer. She thinks about what life will be when he's gone out west. She thinks about how hard it would be to try to make a life for herself in Missouri. She decides that maybe she'll be happier with him, that maybe they'll have a good life together in Oregon. That doesn't mean she doesn't have doubts and concerns. What would happen to her if he died? What would happen to the children they have together? Would they be provided for if he died? Could they legally inherit his property or estate?

Half the novel focuses on their trip west--on life on the Oregon Trail. Readers meet others on the trail. Primarily readers get to know Nancy Hawkins and her large family. (Nancy's husband is a doctor). Letitia and Nancy become best friends. The two will eventually be neighbors. The second half focuses on life in the Oregon territory. It covers many years. Some years happy, some years not. Letitia makes new friends including Betsy and her grandson. (Kalapuya Indians)

Letitia always finds life a challenge. It is a serious book well worth reading. I would definitely recommend Jane Kirkpatrick's A Light in the Wilderness.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Who Are You To Judge?

Who Are You To Judge? Learning To Distinguish Between Truths, Half-Truths, and Lies. Erwin W. Lutzer. 2002. Moody Press. 256 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Who Are You to Judge is the most recent book I've read on the subject of discernment.

Here is how the book opens,

The church is to be in the world as a ship is in the ocean; but when the ocean seeps into the ship, the ship is in trouble. I fear that the evangelical ship is taking on water. The world is seeping into the church so rapidly that we might well wonder how long the vessel can stay afloat. The church, which is called to influence the world, finds herself influenced by the world. If we as Christ's representatives can scarcely stay afloat, how can we expect to rescue a society that is sinking around us? We have bought into the world's values; into its entertainment; its morals, its attitudes. We have also bought into its tolerances, its insistence that we should never challenge the private beliefs of individuals, whether outside the church or within it. In the face of cultural pressures, we have found ourselves confused, hesitant to act, unable to give a loving but convincing witness to the world. (13)

and

Officially, we believe that without trusting Jesus as Savior people are lost; unofficially, we act as if what people believe and the way they behave really does not matter. No wonder our light has become a flicker and our salt has lost its savor. (16)

It hooked me from the beginning. It made me think. (Just like the Casting Crowns song "Love You With The Truth" makes me think. And those lyrics work well with this book, by the way. Truth matters. Love is called for, always called for, but, so is truth.)

Lutzer urges his readers to be discerning, to judge wisely. The first two chapters, "Why Are We Afraid to Judge" and "Judge Not, That You Be Not Judged" introduce the subject of judgment or discernment. They serve well as a general introduction. These chapters share some essentials that I believe every Christian needs to know and consider carefully. The nine chapters that follow focus on specifics: "When You Judge Doctrine," "When You Judge False Prophets," "When You Judge Miracles," "When You Judge Entertainment," "When You Judge Appearances," "When You Judge Neopaganism," "When You Judge Ghosts, Angels, and Shrines," "When You Judge Conduct," and "When You Judge Character." The book covers plenty.

Some chapters remain relevant and almost timeless. Other chapters feel a bit more dated, highlighting the fact that it was written twelve years ago. Did I agree with every single sentence, every single paragraph, every single chapter, probably not. Did I agree with most things generally speaking, probably.  In other words, I agreed more than I disagreed.

I liked this one. I liked that it requires you to think, to choose, to decide. I liked that it values truth above all else. I liked the place it gives Scripture. I liked that it emphasizes that what we think matters, that how we live matters. The book is practical in many ways. For example, in the chapter on entertainment, he suggests three tests: the content test, the control test, and the clock test. This book challenges you to change, encourages you to want to change. That doesn't make it easy, by the way.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Spurgeon #35

The Majestic Voice
Charles Spurgeon
1856
“The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.”—Psalm 29:4.

From the days of Noah even until now, God has raised up his prophets, by whose lips he hath spoken. It was not Jeremiah who uttered that lament which we read, but it was Jehovah, the God in Jeremiah, speaking through the natural organs of his voice. It was not Isaiah who foresaw the future, and foretold the doom of nations, it was God in Isaiah thus speaking. And so with every prophet of the Lord now living, and every minister whom God hath raised up to speak: when we speak with power and efficacy, and unction, it is not we that speak, but it is the Spirit of our Father who dwelleth in us. God speaks through men; and now also, we know that God speaks through his own written Word of Inspiration.

When we turn to the page of Scripture, we must not look upon these words as being in any degree the words of men, but as being the words of God. And though they be silent, yet do they speak; and though they cause no noise, yet, verily, “their sound hath gone forth throughout all the world, and their noise unto the ends of the earth.” And yet, again, God even now speaks himself by the use of means; he does not make man speak, he does not make the Bible speak merely of itself, but he speaks through the Bible, and through the man, and there be times when the Spirit of God speaks in the heart of man without the use of means. I believe there be many secret impulses, many solemn thoughts, many mysterious directions given to us without a single word having been uttered, but by the simple motions of God’s Spirit in the heart.

When God speaks, either from the pulpit or from his Word, I hold it to be my duty to keep silence.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible