Closed Door

I once heard somebody say that God had closed a door on an opportunity they had hoped for. But I’ve always wondered if, when we want to do something that we know is right and good, God places that desire deep in our hearts because He wants it for us and it honors Him. Maybe there are times when we think a door has been closed and, instead of misinterpreting the circumstances, God wants us to kick it down. Or perhaps just sit outside of it long enough until somebody tells us we can come in.
- Bob Goff

Whirlpool Galaxy

This top picture (taken by NASA’s Voyager Telescope) is the Whirlpool galaxy, located about 31 million light years away. This galaxy alone display’s God’s granduer, encompasing over 300 billion stars, what a beauty, it is considered the gem of the universe.

The picture next to it is also taken by the Voyager, and it is actually the core of the Whirlpool galaxy. Look like something to you? Can we really look at this an say this was an accident? God displays his love for us throughout the whole universe. What an AWEsome God we serve!

Real Men Don't Text - A New Approach To Dating

Let me introduce myself: I’m a 20 something year old single male who can totally resonate with Ruthie’s experiences in this book (one of the authors of this book). Having failed time and time again with finding the right girl for myself I have decided to try this new approach to dating and so far it’s been awesome.

Not everything in this book is new and original advice, but all of it is sound advice. I love relationship/ dating books because after choosing Christ as savior what other decision is as important as finding the right mate, or something discussed in this book, being the right mate.
I mentioned that not all the material in this book is original but nonetheless they still do provide new and intriguing advice as well as give a fresh look on old advice you might have heard or read elsewhere.

When I first got the book I was unaware that the book is meant for a female audience, however, I found that it really doesn’t matter; the advice goes beyond gender roles. Furthermore this book could be that much more helpful to males for it teaches how to behave with girls and gives males an edge by knowing/ understanding what girls might expect from us.

Overall, having read many relationship advice books I can’t really think of what the Dean’s have left out or missed. Applying their advice I have more confidence in myself, I put more trust in God, I feel less pressured and less time constricted to jump into relationships. I now have better friendships rather than wrecked relationships and feel like I am making wiser decisions over all. I encourage all to read it, and maybe not everything will be applicable to you, some parts weren’t to me, but I am sure you will come away wiser and come away blessed.
Thank you to Tyndale for blessing me with a copy in return for this review.

With His Stripes We Are Healed

Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. “With His stripes we are healed.”

- Desire of Ages

Gratitude

In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others.

 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Christians In The World

It’s not the ship in the water but the water in the ship that sinks it. So it’s not the Christian in the world but the world in the Christian that constitutes the danger.

 – J. Wilbur Chapman

What We Often Forget

If you attempt to talk with a dying man about sports or business, he is no longer interested. He now sees other things as more important. People who are dying recognize what we often forget, that we are standing on the brink of another world. 

– William Law

Our Main Business

Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord. 

– J. I. Packer

Isaiah 41:10

Deuteronomy 31:6

NIV Integrated Study Bible - A New Chronological Approach For Exploring Scripture

Let me start out by cutting to the chase, this is a phenomenal bible. Even if you already own 20+ different bibles (like I do), chances are this bible will be like none other you’ve owned or read.

Every year I enjoy reading the bible cover-to-cover, and this year I wanted to try a new approach, reading the bible in chronological order. I began using a plan that told me what to read and when. The plan I was using wasn’t bad but I had to continuously flip pages from one book to the next within each days reading. Then one day I found out about the release of this bible, I couldn’t get it into my hands fast enough. When it finally arrived, it totally exceeded my expectations.

Why am I so happy with it, and how did it exceed expectations?

For starters I did not have a bible that was actually written in chronological order, I had plans within my bibles that told me where to flip to next if I wanted to read chronologically, but I haven’t owned a bible written in this fashion before. For example: Genesis is the first book, but Job (not Exodus) follows Genesis; Psalms that were written by Moses are inserted in their proper places within the Pentateuch, and of course all chapters are labeled so the reader is never confused about what they are reading and from what part of the bible.

Simple convenience may not be enough for someone to be convinced they need this bible if all they wanted to do is to read in chronological order, but that’s not all there is to it. Although this bible does a fabulous job in its order and layout it goes even one step further by inserting parallel verses which are related. It’s hard to convey this feature without giving examples. The first example is what you might expect: the parallel listing of the Gospel stories. Another completely random example is Genesis 25 and 1 Chronicles 1:32-33; in the Genesis passage it lists the decedents of Keturah and parallel to it is 1 Chron 1:32:33 which also lists Keturah’s decedents. This is a fabulous way to compare the verses in the bible and seeing the cohesion between the books and authors. These parallels are all throughout the bible.

One other feature I really love is the sectional chronology charts. These charts tell you the date of events in the bible, what worldly events correspond to the biblical, and what kingdoms existed when. Finally, there is a timeline on every page that always reminds the reader where they are in history.

I absolutely love this bible and all the features within it. I can’t think of a thing I’d do differently if I were the author. I want to thank Zondervan for providing me with this incredible bible for my honest review, and I very highly recommend everyone to try “a new approach for exploring scripture” using this bible.

A Simple and Clean NIV Bible

This is a neat little bible that I thought had a good concept. It’s not a study bible, in fact there is no commentary at all,  no introduction to books or any sort of extra input apart from the insertion of some of today’s most well known worship songs. I was hoping that the songs would be found near the verses at inspired them but unfortunately they were dispersed at random throughout the bible.

As one who loves worship music, owning over 500 CD’s and 1000’s of MP3s I thought this bible would be a perfect match for me. But the reality is that although it’s a neat concept, having the lyrics within the pages of the bible and a short reflection on the song by the song writers, it didn’t really help in integrating the bible with worship any more than what I had already come to know.

It was nice to learn a little bit more about the songs that I so frequently sing, but it isn’t necessary to buy this bible just for that. It’s a great idea of having the cords for the top 20 worship songs in the back, but again it’s not necessary to buy this bible just for that. At the very end of the bible there are also 5 interesting pages going over what is worship, the history of worship music, celebrating worship music, and going beyond the music.

Overall it’s your ordinary NIV bible, simple and clean with a small exception of the songs. I look foreword to using this bible during my church worship, but I have to say if you already own an NIV bible then maybe don’t get this bible because you won’t likely miss out on much but rather get a another translation altogether and experience something new.

Thank you to Zondervan for providing me with a copy of this bible for my honest review of it.