tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90912646878639245572024-03-05T06:05:39.734-05:00A year of BibleMy comments, thoughts and/or musings as I follow a random read-the-Bible-in-a-year program. From Jan. 9, 2012 on...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-63963205261462765972014-12-26T17:13:00.002-05:002014-12-26T17:13:38.700-05:002015? Let's do it again!This may be a post that I... well, not so much 'regret' as consider to have been written in folly...
Last year's task got away from me (to watch through the Nicolas Cage filmography in chronological order and record my thoughts) and that last time I tried the year of Bible it was nearly scuttled as well. I completed the reading, but the posting part came up well short, unfortunately.
However, Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-34847196299240788772013-01-07T22:43:00.000-05:002013-01-07T22:43:53.125-05:00That's a wrap!Right, so obviously the blogging aspect of this project fell by the wayside (considering this is my first post since the beginning of November...) but the reading side of it continued.
I actually wrapped up Revelation yesterday (after yet another marathon catch-up session spanning the past week) and officially managed to successfully read through the entirety of The Bible within a year.
In Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-25383868997168223262012-11-01T20:14:00.000-04:002012-11-01T20:14:50.284-04:00Luke 4-5 - powerThe reading - day 298 - Luke 4-5
Yes, this is the first post in two months.
Yes, this post is 17 books later in the canonical order.
Yes, this blog-a-day thing is harder than it sounds (or I'm just much, much worse at it than I thought).
Moving on.
Luke has always been one of my favourite books in the entirety of the Bible, which is maybe why it's the first one since early September to drag meAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-49829485093366643662012-09-05T23:41:00.004-04:002012-09-05T23:42:27.455-04:00Lam 3-5 - so... that's that...The readings - Day241 - Lamentations 3-5
I guess I should have known that grief like Lamentation have a limited run - as it should - but I didn't expect/remember/whatever that it was such a short book. Shows how much I've been paying attention, I suppose.
Anyway, here in the second bit of Lamentations we get another "alternate view" of something we often hear about, but (I think) usually fail Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-89222737321540950202012-09-04T22:23:00.003-04:002012-09-04T22:24:40.905-04:00Lam. 1-2 - sadWow, so here we are. First post since June...
I suppose I should preface this by offering something by way of explanation for the huge absence. Well, it was a combination of a lot of things, including a horrendously unreliable Internet connection at home, various trips, etc, getting in the way of keeping on time with readings and finding time to post and other sundry things.
Most of all, thoughAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-14313909655361775382012-06-22T00:27:00.000-04:002012-06-22T00:27:04.623-04:00Job 40-42 - With a pink ribbon...The readings - Day 164 - Job 40-42
Although Job has spent dozens of chapters moaning and whining and making all manner of wild accusations about God's character, there is the silver lining that shows up at the end.
Job, unlike some other books so far, actually has a fairly satisfying and summarized ending. After God's awesome summary of His own rad-ness, Job actually does as God says, mans up (Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-5657387366459537982012-06-20T00:51:00.002-04:002012-06-20T00:51:48.610-04:00Job 24-39 - God pays a visit...The readings - Days 159-163 - Job 24-39
Job is a pretty great book, but it just got a whole lot better once I hit chapter 38.
You know those scenes in movies/TV shows where somebody (usually an underling of either a major superhero or a major supervillain) is ranting on and on about their superior only to eventually be confronted by their incredible bad-assness and look utterly, miserably Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-18280559069342714292012-06-14T23:16:00.002-04:002012-06-14T23:16:54.243-04:00Job 17-23 - Wherein I admit that I dislike Job, and economics and politics rear their heads...The readings - Day 157 & 158 - Job 17-23
I'm starting to come to a sort of uncomfortable realization about this book, and the character what gives it its name... I don't know that I even like Job.
The character, that is. The book is actually proving to be quite a bit more interesting than I'd given it credit for. It's also a lot more cerebral and theological than I'd thought as well. Maybe Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-3958400818942807202012-06-12T23:50:00.001-04:002012-06-12T23:50:24.481-04:00Job 1-16 - How does this keep happening?The readings - days 152-156 - Job 1-16
I'm not at all sure how this keeps happening, but here we are with another whopping 'catch-up' post.
I'm actually very surprised by Job. I really thought it was just a tiny little book, and now that I actually look at it, it's immense. I'm pretty excited to work my way through it, since it's obviously a much more in-depth piece of work than popular Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-80134211016632857902012-06-07T14:07:00.002-04:002012-06-07T14:08:11.383-04:00Esther - maybe not about Esther? Maybe not such a great morality tale...The readings - Days 150 and 151 - Esther 1-10
Esther is an interesting story. Weighing in at only 10 chapters, it's a pretty easy story to read in one sitting, which is why I thought I'd combine posts to include both halves of it at once.
However, unlike many of the other short, punchy books bearing a specific name throughout the Bible (Ruth, Job, Philemon, etc) it's actually a bit hard to tellAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-25605763945875849632012-06-04T14:23:00.001-04:002012-06-04T14:23:42.797-04:00Neh 8-11 - a short note on short-term housingThe readings - Days 147-148 - Nehemiah 8-11
Short post today.
A lot of people complain about sermons in church, and I suspect that that's been the case for quite some time. Maybe that's why it's so striking to me that the people of the newly-rebuilt Jerusalem call Ezra in to do nothing but read and comment on ("translate" according to the NASB) the books of the law - for days on end.
I also Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-39560587851667425792012-06-03T00:10:00.000-04:002012-06-03T00:10:32.633-04:00Neh 7 - Not (personally) interestedThe readings - day 146 - Nehemiah 7
The thing is, when a census is released in Canada, I'm actually genuinely interested in the data. This time around, I was working on writing something up for my day job that allowed me to pore over the details with a nerdy, yet, useful/productive glee. I find it fascinating to look at the zoomed-out version of day-to-day life in Canada - who lives where, who Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-38219095468576956822012-06-01T22:06:00.000-04:002012-06-01T22:06:37.888-04:00Neh. 1-6 - From a certain point of viewThe readings - Days 144 & 145 - Nehemiah 1-6
This is pretty cool. I knew the basic story/history surrounding Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, but I don't know that I've spent much time actually reading it, as is the case with large swaths of the rest of the OT. I like it.
For starters, despite the fact that the nation of Israel and the People of God could, at this Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-48038932866774907922012-05-30T13:47:00.000-04:002012-05-30T13:47:21.312-04:00Ezra 1-10 - Caught upThe readings - Days 141-143 - Ezra 1-10
So I now have an official answer to give people who try to act like never having read the Bible cover-to-cover is somehow anathema to being Christian. (Yes, I have been told that before, by both crazy Christians and crazy Atheists alike)
It was never meant to be read this way.
I'm not saying that I'm regretting doing it, or that I'm planning on stopping,Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-1178513219561777702012-05-29T23:11:00.001-04:002012-05-29T23:11:59.174-04:002 Chron 1-36 - yup: one whole book...The readings - days 130-140 - 2 Chronicles 1-36
So this post, once again, will be far too short, and more than a little meta.
I thought for sure that I was caught up, or at least very far along to road to being caught up, but Chronicles had other plans, so here we are - first post in ten days and a full book behind me.
Chronicles, part deux, was better than the first, but only slightly. It hadAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-80987587193651700882012-05-19T23:31:00.001-04:002012-05-20T00:42:06.926-04:001 Chronicles 18-29 - I really can't believe how boring Chronicles is...The readings - Days 127-130 - 1 Chronicles 18-29
This is unbelievable. I was really within a day of actually getting caught up, but Chronicles is (so far, anyway) so abjectly uninspiring that it's very, very difficult to muster the motivation to post something, since I'm essentially (as I said before) trying to find something interesting to write about a boring recap of stuff that's already Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-50807998424715039482012-05-15T23:12:00.002-04:002012-05-15T23:12:56.856-04:001 Chronicles 1-17 - yawnThe readings - Days 120-126 - 1 Chronicles 1-17
Step two in the overly long process of catching up from wayyyyy behind...
Welcome to Chronicles.
It's funny - before doing this, and having already read Chronicles (or, at least, most of it), I would have answered the question "what's the single most tedious book in the Bible?" with either Numbers or Leviticus, having never read either of them.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-29832395059346913862012-05-13T22:07:00.001-04:002012-05-13T22:07:35.544-04:002 Kings 2-25 - A desperate attempt to catch upThe readings - days 113-119 - 2 Kings 6-25
So it's come to this...
When I started this blog I wasn't anywhere near convinced that it was going to be a project I could keep up with, and I'm surprised it took me more than 30 per cent of the way through the Bible to really hit a giant lag. In my defense, it was the result of my being on the opposite side of the planet without reliable or Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-301904755667705482012-04-29T22:45:00.001-04:002012-04-29T22:46:13.888-04:002 Kings 1-5 - Bears!The readings - Days 111 and 112 - 2 Kings 1-5
If you had to assign different musical genres the various Biblical characters, I'm pretty sure that heavy metal would be a not-bad fit for Elijah. He commands respect, dresses funny, plays (from the perspective of the crappy kings of the time, at any rate) by his own rules, and has a particular love for pyrotechnics.
This time, he follows up on his Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-54092934070397207802012-04-29T01:35:00.001-04:002012-04-29T01:35:27.564-04:001 Kings 21-22 - sniveling kings and Godly staff meetingsThe readings - Day 110 - 1 Kings 21-22
Remember that time when I referred to Ahab as one of the most unlikable people ever? I was actually doing a bit of foreshadowing, looking forward to this story.
Don't get me wrong, he's never been a peach, but at least in the past he was despicable for being out-and-out malevolent, and acting entirely outside of the established rules for a king of Israel. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-85509629312918134182012-04-27T14:16:00.001-04:002012-04-27T14:16:28.200-04:001 Kings 15-20 - Jumpin' Jehoshaphat!The readings - days 108 and 109 - 1 Kings15-20
Kings continues with a few chapters the various lines of succession in the two kingdoms (Israel and Judah), and descriptions of the various nefarious characters that take over the thrones.
Well... the nefarious characters that take over one of the thrones, anyway. A good general rule of thumb seems to be that Israel sucks, while Judah tends to be Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-81844075663221467842012-04-27T00:10:00.001-04:002012-04-27T00:10:56.633-04:001 Kings 10-14 - Solomon screws upThe readings - Days 106 and 107 - 1 Kings 10-14
So it turns out that seven months of sleep deprivation is about the limit that my brain can handle. That's my story for why these posts have ground to a bit of a halt, and I'm sticking to it. It's also an explanation as to why I can't even type a few words in sequence without having to correct a whole mess'o'typos...
Anyway.
The Queen of Sheba! Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-27441604482386254302012-04-23T22:59:00.002-04:002012-04-23T22:59:56.003-04:001 Kings 6-9 - architecture and prioritiesThe readings - days 104 and 105 - 1 Kings 6-9
If I had a TARDIS, one of the places I would definitely like to visit would be the original Temple in Israel. Chapter six and most of chapter seven are dedicated to describing it in detail, and the level of luxury and beauty described here is incredible. It's a fitting successor to the Tabernacle, and correspondingly more ornate, since this one gets Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-44715676009977614712012-04-22T23:34:00.001-04:002012-04-22T23:34:19.995-04:001 Kings 1-5 - Solomon = good peopleThe readings - Days 102 and 103 - 1 Kings 1-5
Here we are, playing catch up again. Things were going so well, too. It's funny how the books/passages that are more boring (IE the dry philosophical/statistical/historical bits) often actually end up being better fodder for writing/reflection that the faster-paced narrative stuff...
Not that the book(s) of Kings starts off at a particularly Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091264687863924557.post-75720689923898163432012-04-19T23:57:00.001-04:002012-04-19T23:57:57.075-04:002 Sam 22-24 - Census taking and forgetfulness...The readings - Day 101 - 2 Samuel 22-24
And so the pair of Samuels draws to a close, and befitting David, who held by far the pre-eminent place in the books, it ends (almost) with a song/psalm.
I'll admit, I've always found reading songs to be fairly boring. I'm pretty sure that's why I've still never made it all the way through The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien loved him some ballads, etc, and IAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02853683761396766918noreply@blogger.com0