7. Tacos for Two

Tacos for Two. Betsy St. Amant. 2021. [October] 336 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: If Rory Perez could find a way to wad all the cilantro in the entire world into a ball and hurl it into outer space, it still wouldn't be far enough removed for her preference.

If You've Got Mail is your all-time favorite, favorite movie AND you live for Taco Tuesday, then Betsy St. Amant's newest book, Tacos for Two, was written just for you. (Probably). 

ColorMeTurquoise and StrongerMan99 are falling hard and fast for one another. These two have been chatting via Direct Messages on a dating app, "Love at First Chat." They've never met, but, they share a few things in common. One of which is they both love the movie You've Got Mail. 

Rory Perez and Jude Strong are thrown together a little too often for her liking. Rory inherited a food truck, a taco truck, from her aunt. It isn't that she doesn't love tacos, she does, but she doesn't love cooking. (She doesn't even like cooking, not even a little bit). Jude Strong HATES his family business--a law firm. His big dream is to own his own food truck--and tacos, well, tacos would be his first choice. To him, owning his own food truck would mean some freedom and independence... These two food trucks are about to be in direct competition with each other. And, well, conflicts are bound to happen. Can this small Texas town be big enough for two thriving taco trucks?

This romance is 1000% predictable. That isn't necessarily problematic. Again, if you love the movie If You've Got Mail (or one of the earlier films from which it derives--In the Good Old Summertime OR Shop Around The Corner), I think that predictability wouldn't be a deal breaker. This book does seem more derivative than many other Christian romances. 

I didn't have trouble suspending my disbelief for most of the book. However, when it came to Rory's party planning/designing, well, she lost me a bit. I had a hard time imagining a sophisticated, elegant, beautiful party where the guests are wearing formal wear when tacos and nachos are on the menu and the decorations include balloons. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

2022 Bible Reading #4

Bible reading week of 22 - 28 January 2022

I finished the LSB translation. I was using it for my Daily Offices. My review of that Bible is here. 

• Psalm 107-150
• Proverbs 22-31
• Isaiah 44-66
• Jeremiah
• Lamentations
• Ezekiel
• Daniel
• Hosea
• Amos
• Obadiah
• Jonah
• Micah
• Nahum
• Zephaniah
• Haggai
• Zechariah
• Malachi
• Mark
• Luke

My new translation I'll be using for the Daily Offices is the NIV 84. I started it yesterday (Friday).

• Genesis 1-5
• Hebrews 1-5
• Psalms 132-138
• Proverbs 28

The Bible I am using for my morning tea devotional time is the Berean Study Bible. I am using the Five Day Bible Reading Plan. 

• 1 Samuel
• 2 Samuel 1-14
• 1 Chronicles 1-20
• Psalm 23, 32, 38, 39, 51, 52, 54 56, 57, 59, 60,  89, 96, 106, 120, 122, 124, 132, 142
• Acts 5-28

The Bible I am using for my afternoon tea devotional time is the Wycliffe Modern Spelling Bible on YouVersion. I started the Bible in 90 Day Plan in late November. 

• Amos
• Obadiah
• Jonah
• Micah
• Nahum
• Habakkuk
• Zephaniah
• Haggai
• Zechariah
• Malachi
• Matthew
• Mark 1-9

I have TWO ongoing year-long 30 Day MacArthur plans going.

• In January, I will be reading Isaiah 1-5 thirty times. ESV, BSB, NASB 95, ESV, BSB, NASB 95, NIV 2011
• In January I will be reading James thirty times. ESV, BSB, NASB 95, ESV, BSB, NASB 95, NIV 2011

My miscellaneous Bibles:

Great Bible 1539 

• Numbers
• Deuteronomy 1-9

NASB 1977

• Exodus 32-40

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

1. Legacy Standard Bible

Legacy Standard Bible (Handy Size Edition) Steadfast Bibles (Publisher) 2021. 1665 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

The Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) was released last year. I read some in the New Testament when it was first released. But I was holding out for the whole Bible--both testaments. I got my copy in December 2021, and I began it a few days after Christmas. (December 28, 2021 was my start date.)

I read this one as part of the Daily Offices for the Book of Common Prayer. To clarify, I do the Daily Offices my own way. Traditionally, there are two lessons--one from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament--at each lesson. Each "lesson" consisting of one chapter. That is not how I do it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the traditional method. By almost all standards, covering FOUR chapters a day plus the psalms readings, would be significant, substantive, meaty. But I'm a glutton. I am. I "overeat" if you will on the Scriptures. Taking literally, the "taste and see" and "delight yourself" of scripture, I read multiple chapters per lesson. And I add in (most days) a midday office. (Though I'm considering making that one optional.)

This Bible is "handy" indeed. It is very lightweight. It is not at all bulky. The print is also a little too small for my liking. I found that I could read without strain earlier in the morning. Sometimes at night--by the time my eyes were tired--the print was just frustrating. 

Interior of the now out of stock Handy Size Edition

I do LOVE the quality of this one. The paper was great. The line-matching worked for me. Together there was very little ghosting. It is BLACK LETTER. It is single column. I do think that having all those blank pages to take notes will make some readers very happy indeed! 

Psalm 23

Yahweh is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

He restores my soul;

He guides me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil, for You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You have anointed my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

Surely goodness and lovingkindness will pursue me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

6. Walking As He Walked

Walking As He Walked. Joel R. Beeke. 2002/2007. 133 pages. [Source: Bought]

Walking As He Walked is a collection of four sermons preached by Joel R. Beeke all inspired by 1 John 2:6. In the book he argues that walking like Christ walked is not an optional "extra" for Christians; being a Christian by definition means walking like Christ walked. His point is not to expect perfection and instant victory. No, his point is that believers should want--should desire--to grow in Christlikeness, to aspire to a closer walk, a holier walk. We should strive to run the race, in other words. So what does it mean to walk like Christ? Here is how Beeke describes it:

Walking as Christ walked means making Jesus’ priorities my own by faith (John 6:38). It means delighting in and keeping God’s law as Jesus did (Ps. 40:8). It means having compassion for others, repaying evil with good, and acting in love (John 13:15; 1 Pet. 2:23; Luke 23:34). It means despising the same pleasures and vanities of this world that He despised, speaking and living the same truths that He spoke and lived, and being led by the same Spirit that led Him (Rom. 8:14).

The first chapter is on cross-bearing (Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26). The second is on office-bearing (prophet, priest, king). The third is on tears (John 11:35, Luke 19:41, Hebrews 5:7). The fourth is on endurance. Each chapter focuses first on Jesus: how he lived, how he "walked" before moving onto what it means for us, how it applies to how we live our lives, how we walk in this world. 

I would have to say that I found his sermons thought-provoking. For example, 

When we have an encounter with Jesus Christ, our lives are changed once and for all. Every time we hear the gospel, our path crosses the path of a crucified Jesus, who is now exalted and walks among us in the garments of the gospel. Each encounter will be either for our salvation or our damnation. It will soften or harden us—never leaving us exactly the same.

and

Too often we Christians expect too little of Jesus and too much of each other.

and

If you think that God does not care about your sorrows and that Jesus is insensitive to your suffering, your concept of God needs correction. Perhaps dullness, blindness, or unbelief makes you feel this way. We are told that “Jesus wept.” The message of those two words is that God cares for us.

and

If you will not think of Him or of yourself, then consider the tears of Jesus. He wept for those who would not weep for themselves, who did not think that they had anything to weep about. He mourned for those who were going down the broad road that leads to destruction; He wept for the perishing! Jesus wept because God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He wept for hell-worthy, perishing sinners. The fault for your unbelief is yours; there is no one else in the entire world you can blame it on. But note this: though Jesus wept because of your willful unbelief, He did not excuse you from punishment.

and

What do we weep over? If we each had two bottles, and into one we put all the tears we shed for ourselves in the past ten years and, into the other, all the tears we have shed over lost souls, which bottle would be fuller? Do most of our tears spring from selfish, earthly concerns, or do they spring from concerns for the eternal souls of those around us? Have we shed any tears we could claim before the Lord, as David did: “Put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” (Ps. 56:8).

And I loved how full of quotes this one was!

Samuel Rutherford; he learned so much in the school of Christ that when he saw another affliction coming, he’d say, “Here comes my Jesus!”

And as Martin Luther used to say, “Letting God be God is half of all true religion.”

Dear friends, as we listen to the claims of the devil, we must say with Luther, “We tremble, for so much of what the devil says is true. The devil has enough strength in his tail to knock my conversion out of me.”

Daniel Smart, a nineteenth century Baptist preacher, once remarked, “The sweetest tears a believer sheds are always in relation to the precious blood of Jesus Christ.”

“Sin,” as John Owen put it, “is always at our elbow.”

Bunyan once said that if sin knocks on your door and you open the door, you have not sinned as long as you shut the door as soon as you recognize sin for what it is. We fall into sin when we welcome sin into the home of our minds and dwell upon it.

Luther was so encouraged by the Psalms when he was going through his own trials that he said, “I can scarcely see how you can be a Christian without David being one of your best friends.”

Luther quipped: “Some of my best friends are dead ones.”

I loved this one. I just loved, loved, loved it. This would be a great introduction to Joel Beeke. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

5. A Dozen Things God Did With Your Sin

A Dozen Things God Did With Your Sin (And Three Things He'll Never Do). Sam Storms. 2022. [January] Crossway. 225 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: Sometimes profound truths are tucked away in obscure and neglected places.

A Dozen Things God Did with Your Sin is a great little book for believers of all ages and stages. It is beneficial if you're a brand new believer. It is beneficial if you have been a believer for decades. It's been said many times that believers need to preach the gospel to themselves daily. Though that certainly isn't the only purpose of A Dozen Things God Did With Your Sin, it's one of the consequences. For of reminding us what God has done with our sin, it points us again and again and again to Jesus Christ. 

So the premise of this one is straightforward enough. It shares TWELVE things God has done with our sins. Those twelve can be seen in the table of contents:

He Laid Your Sin upon His Son

He Has Forgiven You of Your Sins

He Has Cleansed You of Your Sin

He Has Covered Your Sin

He Has Cast All Your Sin Behind His Back

He Has Removed Your Sin as Far as the East is from the West

He Has Passed Over Your Sin

He Has Trampled Your Sin Underfoot

He Has Cast Your Sin Into the Sea

He Has Blotted Out Your Sin

He Has Turned His Face Away From Your Sin

He Has Forgotten Your Sin and Refuses to Remember It

Each chapter has scriptural supports and a bit of expository teaching. (Perhaps not as much as you'd find in a commentary or from the pulpit of a good expositor. But more than you'd find in 99% of devotional books.) 

The book also includes three things He doesn't and never will do with our sins. (Those are not mentioned in the table of contents.) 

The book also includes a chapter on the gospel. (Though readers will have been exposed at least twelve times previously to the heart of the gospel). And a LOVELY concluding chapter on the "uttermost" and "always" of Hebrews 7:25. 

The book is great for teaching believers about assurance, reconciliation, and the gospel itself. Why does it matter? Because our theology informs--or should inform--HOW we live out our lives day by day, hour by hour. Our spiritual health is vital, and these truths are medicine for the soul. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

2022 Bible Reading #3

Bible Reading Week of 15-21 January

The Bible I am using for my Daily Offices (from the Book of Common Prayer) is the Legacy Standard Bible.

• 1 Chronicles 10-29
• 2 Chronicles
• Ezra
• Nehemiah
• Esther
• Job
• Psalm 75-106
• Proverbs 15-21
• Ecclesiastes
• Isaiah 1-43
• Matthew
• John 6-21
• 1 John 
• 2 John
• 3 John
• Revelation

The Bible I am using for my morning tea devotional time is the Berean Study Bible. I am using the Five Day Bible Reading Plan. 

• Deuteronomy
• Joshua
• Judges
• Ruth
• Psalm 5, 6, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 36, 37, 115,  116, 143, 146
• Luke 5-24
• Acts 1-4

The Bible I am using for my afternoon tea devotional time is the Wycliffe Modern Spelling Bible on YouVersion. I started the Bible in 90 Day Plan in late November. 

• Jeremiah 34-52
• Lamentations
• Ezekiel
• Daniel
• Hosea
• Joel

I have TWO ongoing year-long 30 Day MacArthur plans going.

• In January, I will be reading Isaiah 1-5 thirty times. ESV, RSV, KJV, NASB 95, ESV, NASB 95, NASB 95, KJV,
• In January I will be reading James thirty times. ESV,RSV, KJV, NASB 95, ESV, NASB 95, NASB 95, KJV

My miscellaneous Bibles:

Great Bible 1539 

• Exodus 11-40
• Leviticus

NASB 1977

• Exodus 25-31

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

4. The Healing of Natalie Curtis

The Healing of Natalie Curtis. Jane Kirkpatrick. 2021. [September] 368 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: She followed the blind boy up through the crevice, up through the warm rocks the colors of weeping rainbows, up to a life beyond any she had known.

Jane Kirkpatrick's newest novel is based on a true story. Her heroine, Natalie Curtis, was a real person (1875-1921). The novel focuses on Curtis' work as an ethnomusicologist. When she went west with her brother, she wasn't particularly looking for a monumental life-change; she was in need of a change, and desperately needed a change. But still. She couldn't have predicted the direction her life would take. Curtis found meaning--if meaning is the right word--in visiting Native American tribes across the country and recording their music, transcribing and describing their songs and traditions. At the time, it was illegal--in many places for Native Americans to sing and dance and speak their own language. The push was to get the tribes--all tribes--"civilized" and speaking English. The quicker all tribes could assimilate, the better. (Not that they'd ever be seen as "equal" mind you.) She saw that the loss of this American folk music--this ethnic music--would be devastating and crushing. Within a generation or two, all would be irrevocably lost. She traveled the country, lived on and visited many reservations, recorded the music, took notes on the traditions, wanted to share the vastness, the richness of these cultures. She needed patrons to help support her financially and she needed support politically. It was controversial to say the least--going against "the code" of what was legal at the time. 

Her biography is interesting. I think the book seeks to capture her work. But at times it felt a bit draggy. (Not all the time, mind you.) It's just that these 368 pages felt more like 450 pages. 

It is based on a true story. The focus is always on her and her work. It never becomes a fluff piece trying to make it into a more traditional "Christian romance" title. 

But is it Christian fiction??? I would say it could easily pass as NOT. For better or worse. Curtis was not a missionary. It was never her goal, her mission, to proclaim the gospel, to spread Christianity, to instruct or teach the Christian faith. There is nothing remotely evangelical or "Christian" in the novel. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible