Ramblings-n-Writings

Archive for September 7th, 2007

This is for my book reading friends…. If you are looking for some comical but easy reading, may I recommend Lorena McCourtney’s Ivy Malone mysteries. They’re about a little old lady with a “mutant curiosity gene” who finds herself on the hit list of the local small town mafia and also has an odd habit of finding dead bodies. One book reviewer correctly described Ivy Malone as a cross between Jessica Fletcher and Miss Marple. The books are an easy read especially if you are drugged with allergy medicine!

Another series that was recommended to me by our local librarian is the Tips from Tulip series by Mindy Starns Clark. Again, another delightful read.

I recently finished reading a series of books called Lions of Judah by Gilbert Morris. For those of you who have read Gilbert Morris books, you’ll know that he doesn’t skimp on details, and once he starts a series, well, it might be awhile til the series is done. The man amazes me – he’s written over 200 novels all within the last ten years or so. And he never wrote til he was 50 or something like that. And if you do the math, he averages 20 novels a year or some ridiculous number like that. The man must be brilliant.

But back to the subject at hand…I’m not one for reading Biblical fiction – never really struck my fancy I guess. Perhaps I was afraid it would diminish the actual biblical story and its truths. I love historical fiction, however. On a whim, I decided to try reading this series. Wow, was I in for a surprise.

The first book is about the life of Noah. You can’t imagine how much you don’t know about Noah! At least I couldn’t – he built the ark, what more is there? I realize that the book is fiction and much of what is written in the 300 pages is fiction. But it’s not hard to also realize that the story is very realistic because Noah was a real person who went through real trials, real heartache. He had problems with his family, kids, neighbors, wife etc. Basically, in a nutshell, Noah becomes real to the reader, not just a biblical character. Noah had a life, a long life, besides building the ark. He was human.

Book two is about Abraham and Sarah – oh, what I thought I knew about those two! My perception of Sarah before reading this book was not so good. I guess you could say I didn’t particularly like her – somehow I had the wrong impression.

Book three is about Jacob. This is the only book that I didn’t finish reading – it was due at the library and when the library is 25 miles away, you return books when you’re going that direction. I also didn’t find this particular book as interesting – maybe that’s why it didn’t bother me that I didn’t finish it.

Book four is the story of Jacob’s 12 sons, particularly Joseph. Don’t be fooled by that though because the series is called Lions of Judah, one of Jacob’s sons who is in the lineage of Christ.

Book five, the last book that I’ve read, is about Moses and what it must have been like for him to grow up in Egypt and then realize he was Hebrew. Then he was called to be the leader of the Israelites. Well, you know the story….or think you do.

The purpose of the series is to detail the lives of those in the ancestry of Christ. Starting in book one, Noah receives a medallion from his grandfather Seth. The medallion has a lion on one side and a lamb on the other. The medallion is passed down through the generations, sometimes skipping a generation, to the person God chooses. The medallion is a promise that Shiloh will come.

Perhaps the most amazing thing you will come to realize as you read these books (yes, I’m hoping that some of you will read them) is that these characters are all in the ancestry of Christ. He was a perfect man from a line of humans who are no different than us today. Every one of Christ’s ancestors were all sinners saved by grace (well, that’s not exactly biblically accurate but…). They were sinners. Rahab (the subject of book 6) was a harlot – sure we remember that one easily enough. But what about Judah who slept with his widowed daughter-in-law Tamar and got her pregnant? That means there’s an illegitimate child in the line of Christ. How often do we look down our noses at people when they commit a sin and we forget that they’re sinners in need of our love and compassion? How often do we hear messages about these great Bible characters and how we should be more like them? We think “yeah, right. There’s no way I could be like Noah or ….” We need to remember that each of the great Bible characters were human like us, they confronted issues like we do, and no one said that they became the model Christian overnight.

I guess I’m saying all of that to say read the books because they will definitely open your eyes. By the way, the books are biblically accurate – I checked the story lines more than once against the Bible and the story was correct, many, many times quoting verses verbatim (translated out of KJV for a more realistic conversation). If you teach Sunday School or any other type of Bible class, read these books as a supplement to your regular studying for a class. They’ll give you great food for thought.

Well, this is the beginning. I have entered the world of blogging. This comes shortly after entering the world of high speed internet once again. That alone was a major accomplishment out here in the sticks!

What can you expect on my blog? I really don’t know.

I’m a somewhat natural creator at heart. What is somewhat natural? Very few ideas originate on their own in my mind but I can always see ways to improve others’ ideas. I have a knack for editing (fixing other people’s stuff), designing (using elements typically from somewhere else to make something new), and writing (using a language someone else developed). So all that to say that you might find updates on my current projects, book reviews, general reactions, and the typical blog stuff. Yes, the word ‘stuff’ is perhaps one of my favorite words.