More Like the Tax Collector
- In what ways am I like each of the characters or objects in teh parable?
- What does Jesus want me to know, think, or do in response to this parable?
Labels: Gospel, Hamilton Luke
Labels: Gospel, Hamilton Luke
Call me a nerd if you like, but I like to take notes during the sermon. I keep a notebook that I take with me, and I write down my thoughts as I listen to the sermon. I find that it keeps me focused on what the pastor is saying.
Labels: Perspectives
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
Labels: Old Testament, OT Prophesy, Poetry
Labels: Advent, Book Review, Warner Good
For the past few years, I have shared my reading stats. Maybe it makes me a little nerdy - but I'm not. I'm very nerdy, and I like statistics. So here we go for 2024.
I read a total of 67 books in 2024. This compares to 56 books in 2021, 35 in 2022 and 52 in 2023. This is higher than any of the previous years that I have tracked. I'm not sure why. I seemed to have read more at the end of the year:
The graph above is from my Story Graph account - an account I started in 2024 for its statistical tracking.Here are how the stats worked out:
Question 1: What was the format of the book? Hard copy? Kindle? Audiobook? Audiobook is the winner, at 80%. I read a lot as I drive to work, using audiobooks, so this is not surprising. I started reading from my Kindle more at the end of the year, using a 5% of the book per day goal. Amazingly enough, when you read a book, you eventually finish it. :-)
Question 2: Had I read the book before? Again this year, to make sure I didn't get in a rut of only re-reading books, I set a goal of at least 30% new books. 52% were new books to me. This is down from last year, but I'm OK with that.
Question 3: What was the genre of the books I read? The winner this year was romance, at 36%. followed by fantasy at 25%. Last year's "winner" was mystery. Another one of my goals for 2024 was to read at least 4 "spiritual development" books. I read 6; that category came in at 9% .
Question 4: When were the books published? 39% of the books I read were published between 2020 and 2024; close behind that was 30% of the books from 2010-2019.
Question 5: I gave each book a star rating of 1-5. I gave each star rating a definition (which is too much stuff to share in this post) - fiction and non-fiction had different rating definitions. My average rating was 4.0. My lowest rating was 1.5, and the highest was 5.
This is my Goodreads profile if you are interested in seeing what I've read. This page is my Blog Library. I list faith books here (or other books I've blogged about) with links to the posts.
Labels: Reading
Part 3 of Three Wise Women
The journey of the three wise men (and Miranda) continued, across deserts and mountains, through forests of giant cedars and beside muddy rivers. They arrived in Jerusalem, and while the three men met with King Herod, Miranda wandered around the palace, hearing whispers and rumors about Herod. When the three men returned to her, all four were in agreement – they were not going to trust this “king.”Labels: Epiphany
Part 2 of Three Wise Women
The three wise men had planned everything. They had packed all of the food and equipment they would need. They had brought other men to help on the journey, they had spare camels for when the ones carrying the loads got too tired to continue. They had their star charts and their telescopes. The one thing they had not planned on was clouds.Labels: Epiphany