Album Review: Sing the Bible Family Christmas

Album Title: Sing the Bible Family Christmas

Group/Artist: Slugs and Bugs (Randall Goodgame)

Release Date: 2017

Stream on Spotify; Stream on YouTube

Sing the Bible Family Christmas is musically influenced by the jazzy-jazz of Charlie Brown Christmas. But these just aren't any Christmas songs--jazz or no jazz. 

These are Scripture verses set to music, good music at that. 

In the Beginning, the lead track, for example is from the first chapter of the Gospel of John, John 1:1-14.

The second song, When The Fullness of Time Had Come is from Galatians 4:4-7. 

Unto Us A Child Is Born, Isaiah 9:6. 

Mary's Song comes from Luke 1:46-49. Joseph's Dream 

Joseph's Dream comes from Matthew 1:18-25. (In my opinion this one sounds very VeggieTales!!!)

O Little Town has an instrumental O Little Town playing in the background while a child reads Luke 2:8-12.

Glory To God in the Highest comes from Luke 2:14; Luke 2:10

Mary and Jesus is instrumental

Zechariah's Prophesy is from Luke 1:68-70.

Sing O Heavens is from Isaiah 44:23; it leads into a lively Go Tell It On the Mountain

Silent Night is  an instrumental "Silent Night" while a child reads Luke 2:15-20.

I Heard the Bells is just I Heard the Bells. Not a Scripture. 

I love, love, love all the Scriptures!!! I love the musical influences. None of the songs felt dinky. It was just enjoyable. I've listened to it several times already since discovering it last week. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

64. The Barrister and the Letter of Marque

The Barrister and the Letter of Marque. Todd M. Johnson. 2021. 412 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: Early evening shadows blanketed the study lit only by desk candles and a sputtering fire in the hearth. 

William Snopes, our protagonist, is a barrister. He reluctantly--oh-so-relunctantly--takes on a new case involving possible piracy. Captain Harold Tuttle, the defendant, swears he had a letter of marque giving him and his vessel, the Padget, royal permission to seize cargo from French ships. (It's more complicated than that.) But the letter has disappeared. As has his first mate. And it seems that soldiers were waiting for them to dock...and waiting to charge them with piracy. His cousin, Lady Madeleine Jameson, is urging Snopes to take the case....

The Barrister and the Letter of Marque is set in the Regency period. It is historical mystery with a bit of romance.

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I found this one super disappointing. The main reason I personally had trouble with this one was suspending disbelief. Johnson used real life historical figures as his villains. I suppose I could forgive him using Beau Brummell. But his use of Princess Charlotte was just all kinds of wrong. I think it was  character assassination. What did she ever do to you, Todd Johnson???? But Princess Charlotte died in November 1817. And our story opens in February 1818. So we're to believe a corpse is actively committing crimes???? Now, there was another Princess Charlotte living at this time, a daughter of George III and not George IV. But William Snopes has a private audience with George IV (the Regent) and refers to Princess Charlotte as his DAUGHTER. I just don't understand WHY Johnson had to use real historical figures--and a member of the royal family--AS VILLAINS in the first place???????

The suspense was also off. William Snopes and his colleagues were literally the last to know what was going on. This led to this reader (aka ME) yelling at him throughout the book. 

The romance was weak. Since the suspense AND romance were both equally weak and the historical element was sending off alarms of inaccuracy, there wasn't much left for me to enjoy. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

On Overfamiliarity with Scripture

I recently read Fix Your Eyes: How Our Study of God Shapes Our Worship of Him by Amy Gannett. She mentions briefly a realization that she had concerning reasons--perhaps excuses--as to why more Christians do not read the Bible. 

I honestly can't remember if her initial idea came from ministry circles or Bible college, but her initial idea was that it was INTIMIDATION that was keeping people from the Word of God. But she realized later that it wasn't intimidation--people being intimidated and overwhelmed with Scripture--that made them unwilling or "unable" to engage in any meaningful way. It was, instead, overfamiliarity with Scripture. 

It was a striking moment for me in the book. One I sadly didn't bookmark or highlight. But it stayed with me for days. Is there such a thing as overfamiliarity with Scripture? If there is, what is the cure? What is at the root of this "problem"? How does one move forward? 

What is at the root of overfamiliarity or so-called overfamiliarity? This is the question that has haunted me for a couple of days now. I think it's a blend of pride, self-righteousness, and arrogance. Before I go much further, I'll confess that I at times in my life have approached Scripture with a smug  I-already-know-this-backwards-and-forwards smugness that can only come with so-called overfamiliarity. 

It is exceedingly proud to assume that you know it all, that you have learned everything you need to know from the Word, that the Bible has nothing left to teach you. Some people may need the Bible. But not you. You've been there, done that. Yawn. How could it possibly hold your interest! 

It is also foolishly arrogant to hold such a dismissive, disrespectful view of Scripture. Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." I could share dozens of verses that likewise prove believers NEED Scripture. But that isn't this post. (Though maybe it should be???)

The truth is every time in the Word offers something new, something fresh, something needed...for you today...where you are, right now in this moment. 

So what is the cure and how does one move forward??? 

I have one spiritual piece of advice. Pray. Yes, pray. I know, I know, I know. Chances are if you hold the Bible essentially in contempt because of overfamiliarity, prayer may be likewise low on your priority list. But pray. Pray for fresh eyes. Pray for open eyes, open ears, open heart, open mind. Pray to have a hunger and thirst for the Word. Pray for the Lord to change the desires and inclinations of your heart. Pray for forgiveness. Pray for healing. Pour out your heart before the Lord. If you are having trouble "engaging" with the Word, talk to the WORD. Pray for a teachable, humble Spirit. Pray for the Spirit to guide you, lead you, teach you, minister to you as you spend time in the Word. 

I have a couple practical tips as well. The first is to have several translations on hand. Don't be afraid to read from multiple translations. You don't have to be faithful to one and only one translation to grow deep roots. Have a blend of new translations and old translations. Have a blend of translation approaches and philosophies. Sometimes the very act of switching from one to the other, will shake you awake. Second, if it takes buying a new Bible to excite you to get back in the Word, buy a new Bible each time you read through the Word. Third, this might be the most unsettling....consider reading the Bible with an immersive, heavy-commitment approach. Use the Bible in 90 Days plan. Use the Power 60 reading plan. Use the Shred 30 Day plan. REALLY jump into the deep end. Go all out and go extreme. Sometimes that shock to the system--spiritually speaking--will show you HOW much you need the Word of God, and what an extraordinary thing the Word is. Plus, it gives you the habit, the discipline, of reading every day in the Bible. (It only takes about three to five weeks for a new habit to settle in and established.) By the end, the habit will be there. And you'll have a TASTE of the Word. It's HARD to give that up. Once your appetite for the Word of God has grown, you'll feel starved and unsatisfied. You will miss that time. You will crave it even. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Album Review: The Long Night Is Passed

Album Title: The Long Night Is Past: The Christmas Story of Us

Group/Artist: Grace Music

Release Date: 2018

Stream on Spotify; Stream on YouTube

I see the world in darkness lay and the people toil away... Thus begins "The Lord Almighty Reigns, Pt. 1 a  prelude to the album experience...and this is an album to be experienced. (The best kind of album, in my opinion.)

It is no secret (to those that know me) that I love, love, love, LOVE crazy love Christmas music. And what I love most are Christmas songs that are Christ-centered, gospel-focused, and look beyond the manger. In other words, all the best Christmas albums have some foreshadowing. 

There are twelve songs on the album:

• The Lord Almighty Reigns, Pt. 1
• Long Expected Jesus
• Hope of the World
• The Long, Long Night
• Prepare the Way
• Lay Down Straight
• Lamb of God
• This is the Christ
• O Spread the Tidings Round
• I Heard the Bells
• Tempus Adest Floridium/ The Story of Us
• The Lord Almighty Reigns, Pt. 2/ Joy to the World

Of the twelve songs, I only dislike one the song Lay Down Straight. It is a strong dislike. It seems an odd choice of words. The song is about how WE are the reason Jesus died, WE are the ones nailing him to the cross. But the idea that anyone at all is having to tell Jesus to lay down straight so that the nails can be hammered in...well...it is just odd. 

But the other eleven are all kinds of wonderful. And I mean ALL kinds of wonderful. I could gush about this album almost endlessly. 

Hope of the World

Gather round I will sing another story, I will tell another tale, of the deep transcendent glory of the love that never fails and when the final note is sung you'll know the comforter is coming and the comforter has come. 

There was Mary, a girl set apart, to hold the hope of the world in her womb and in her heart and though she feared the coming storm she knew the promise was enough that the comforter is coming and the comforter has come. 

The hope of the world. The hope of the world is born. A Savior has come. A Savior has come to us. The hope of the world. 

There were shepherds living in the fields huddled in the darkness, when a light from God appeared and said do not be afraid go and see what God has done. For a Savior now is given. And the comforter has come. 

The hope of the world. The hope of the world is born. A Savior has come. A Savior has come to us. 

The hope of the world. The hope of the world is born. The Savior has come. Oh. The Savior has come to us. 

I could not find lyrics on the internet anywhere for Hope of the World. This Hope of the World. I typed them while listening to the song. I did not try to punctuate or put them into proper lines. But this is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite songs on the album.

Another favorite that I've listened to on repeat is O Spread the Tidings Round.

1 O spread the tidings 'round
Wherever man is found,
Wherever human hearts and human woes abound;
Let every Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound:
The Comforter has come!

Refrain:
The Comforter has come, the Comforter has come!
The Holy Ghost from heaven, the Father's promise given;
O spread the tidings 'round wherever man is found:
The Comforter has come!

2 The long, long night is past, the morning breaks at last,
And hushed the dreadful wail and fury of the blast,
As o'er the golden hills the day advances fast!

The Comforter has come! [Refrain]

3 Lo, the great King of kings with healing in His wings,
To every captive soul a full deliverance brings;
And through the vacant cells the song of triumph rings;
The Comforter has come! [Refrain]

4 O boundless Love divine! how shall this tongue of mine
To wondering mortals tell the matchless grace divine:
That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine!

The Comforter has come! [Refrain] 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

63. Fix Your Eyes

Fix Your Eyes: How Our Study of God Shapes Our Worship of Him. Amy Gannett. 240 pages. [October] [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: “You are a theologian,” he spoke calmly into the silent classroom. Something about the thin, round glasses hanging on the end of the professor’s nose and the bow tie neatly tucked beneath his white collar made him feel all the more believable, and made my eyes widen in surprise. “You already are a theologian,” he continued to insist, “. . . but are you a good one?”

I loved, loved, loved the premise of this one. Our worship is shaped by our view of God--our beliefs about God. To worship truly--genuinely, heart-soul-mind-body--we need to know God truly. And to know God truly, we must seek Him as He is. We must read the book He authored. Not just know in a head-knowledge sense. But KNOW in a loving, saving, trusting relationship. What we believe about God matters precisely because it relates to how we worship and glorify God. To clarify, this book isn't about a checklist of right beliefs, a practical guide to getting everything right giving you permission to be smug. No, this book is about the whole of Christian experience--heart, mind, body, soul. We are to love God with everything we are and everything we have. He is to be the center of our focus. HIM. Not his gifts. Not his blessings. Not his works. But HIM. Our seeking is to be a life-long seeking. Our knowledge should lead to MORE thanksgiving, MORE praise, MORE delight and adoration, MORE worship. 

She writes, "The whole of the Christian life is worship of God. To be a Christian is to put a stake in the ground in terms of our highest affections, letting the God of the Bible lay claim on our hearts and lives in such a way that everything we are and everything we do wraps around our worship of him. Worship is what happens when what we love shapes us—when we submit our character, choices, wills, and ways to God out of love and reverence for him. Worship is love for God that seeks to obey, honor, praise, and adore him; it is setting the eyes of our hearts on him in love and responsively lifting our faces toward him in awe and affection."

The book is an overview of the basics, a brief overview of theology as a whole. 

• Introduction: The Necessary Marriage of Theology and Worship
• Chapter 1: Theology Proper: Worshiping the God Who Is
• Chapter 2: The Trinity: Worshiping God Triune
• Chapter 3: Christology: Worshiping God Incarnate
• Chapter 4: Pneumatalogy: Worshiping God the Spirit
• Chapter 5: Soteriology: Worshiping the God Who Saves
• Chapter 6: Bibliology: Worshiping the God of the Word
• Chapter 7: Ecclesiology: Worshiping the God of His Body
• Chapter 8: Eschatology: Worshiping the Coming King

I found it a thought-provoking read. 

I'll leave you with this as food for thought:

Imagine with me a woman is single and craves all the benefits of having a husband. Living alone, she is reminded every time she changes a high-perched light bulb or carries groceries up three flights of steps to her apartment that the ample help her married friends enjoy is absent in her life. She files her taxes in April and wishes for the tax break a spouse would afford her. She budgets her income each month with a distant desire for someone else to add to the monthly bank account as well. And so she does something that seems altogether reasonable: she marries. She meets and marries a man who will provide to her all the things she longs for. He will help around the house, he will supplement the income, he will walk the dog when it’s raining and start her car when it’s cold. He’ll take three of six grocery bags up the apartment complex stairs and his very status in her life will save her a few dollars the next time April rolls around. It’s everything she wanted—except him. She doesn’t want him or love him. There is nothing about who he is in his person that is desirable to her. His work is what interested her. His person she could take or leave. Here’s the question in front of us in this chapter: Is that marriage? Is that a holy union? But sometimes the way we talk about the gospel is just as disjointed as our hypothetical woman’s faux marriage. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Album Review: Waiting Songs

Album Title: Waiting Songs:

Group/Artist: Rain for Roots

Release Date: 2015

Stream on Spotify; Stream on YouTube

Official Website Store

There are ten songs on this children's Christmas album by Rain for Roots. You can stream the album on their official website in a widget (scroll to the very, very bottom of the page.) Or you can stream on YouTube or Spotify. 

From their about us, "Rain for Roots is a collective group of musicians and songwriters who write singable Scripture songs for kids and grown ups alike.  While the albums have featured other collaborators and guest musicians since 2012, Rain for Roots primarily includes four members, Sandra McCracken, Flo Paris Oakes, Katy Hutson Bowser and Alice Smith."

The ten songs are: 

• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
• Come Light Our Hearts
• Isaiah 11
• Every Valley (It's Hard to Wait)
• The Weight of the World
• Mary Consoles Eve
• Zechariah
• Magnificat
• Great Rejoicing
• Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

The album is a blend of traditional songs and original songs, with the majority being original compositions. One of the compositions is very silly and a bit addictive! (I speak of Zechariah...the one who couldn't speak...for the majority of this silly yet Scriptural story).

There were two or three songs where it was close to love at first...listen. A few that I knew I would want to listen to again, again--as the case may be. But most of the songs had to grow on me. As I listened to the album for a second, third, even fourth time, I began to appreciate the album as a whole. I was not familiar with most of these artists before listening to this album. Again, there was some growing time where I had to get used to the sound, the style, the arrangements, the instruments. 

I would describe the album as mellow, relaxing, original...and most importantly perhaps what I should have said first...Scriptural. 

The most thought-provoking to me was Mary Consoles Eve. 

Come Light Our Hearts 

For you, O Lord, our souls in stillness wait 

For you, O Lord, our souls in stillness wait 

Truly our hope is in You 

Truly our hope is in You 

O Lord of life, our only hope 

Your radiance shines On all who look -- to You in the dark 

Emmanuel come, come light our hearts 

For you, O Lord, our souls in stillness wait 

For you, O Lord, our souls in stillness wait 

Truly our hope is in You 

Truly our hope is in You 

O Joy above all other loves 

In you we find more than enough 

We come as we are, O heal and restore 

Come light our hearts

Mary Consoles Eve

Eve, my sister 

The one who took the fall 

Eve, my sister Mother of us all 

Lift up your head 

Don’t hide your blushing face 

The promised One 

Is finally on His way 

Almost, not yet, already 

Almost, not yet, already 

Eve, it’s Mary 

Now I’m a mother too 

The child I carry 

A promise coming true 

This baby comes to save us from our sin 

A servant King, His kingdom without end 

Almost, not yet, already 

Almost, not yet, already 

He comes to make his blessings flow 

As far and wide as the curse is found 

He comes to make His blessings flow 

Almost, not yet, already, 

Almost, not yet, already...soon 

Eve, my sister 

The one who took the fall 

Eve, my sister Mother of us all 

The promised One 

Is finally on His way

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

September Reflections

Bible Reading

• In September, I read Psalm 119 thirty days in a row.
• In September, I read Malachi thirty days in a row.
• In September, I continued to read the HCSB using a very modified Professor Horner plan.
• In September, I finished the 1611 KJV. 
• In September, I began reading the 1537 Thomas Matthew Bible. I've read Genesis through Ezekiel! Not bad for one month's work!!!
• In September, I continued reading the Power 60 reading plan in the BSB on the YouVersion app. I am a dozen plus days ahead of the plan. I've read Genesis through John 5.
• In September, I continued the ESV M'Cheyne reading plan using the ESV app. (I did in August too, but somehow didn't list it????)
• In September, I read some in the KJV. This is a paragraph bible with NO verse numbers. I love and adore it so, so, so much. It's from a smaller publishing house, but the quality is outstanding.
• In September, (well the last week of September) I began using the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer. 

Books Reviewed at Operation Actually Read Bible

54. Enjoying the Bible. Matthew Mullins. 2021. 224 pages. [Source: Review copy]
55. Holier Than Thou: How God's Holiness Helps Us Trust Him. Jackie Hill Perry. 2021. 192 pages. [Source: Review copy]
56. The Moonlight School.Suzanne Woods Fisher. 2021. [February] 320 pages. [Source: Review copy]
57. Rediscovering Holinessby J.I. Packer. 2021. 384 pages. [Source: Review copy]
58. When Twilight Breaks. Sarah Sundin. 2021. [February] 365 pages. [Source: Review copy]
59. The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Michael Kelley. 2021. 448 pages. [Source: Review copy]
60. The Librarian's Journey: Four Historical Romances. Patty Smith Hall, Cynthia Hickey, Marilyn Turk, Kathleen Y'Barbo. 2021. [October] 352 pages. [Source: Review copy]
61. The Weight of Memoryby Shawn Smucker. [July] 304 pages. [Source: Review copy]
62. The Heritage of Anglican Theologyby J.I. Packer. 2021. 384 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Bibles Reviewed at Operation Actually Read Bible

7.Annotated King James Bible 1611 (In Early Modern English) Historical Series. 4512 pages. [Source: Bought]

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible