Lead me not into temptation....

Lead me not into temptation....I can find it easily enough on my own.
what is temptation for you? For me...it's a bookstore. My local borders store is closing (tears) and it's now 40-50% off everything in the store. With an additional 10% off for borders rewards members (of course I'm one!)
So....my husbands request for me to not buy anymore bibles....well....it didn't happen. I can't help it.

Hello My name is kelly and I'm an addict.

It was 50% off!! How do you pass that up?

So I got the NIV version of the Women of Faith Study Bible. It's pretty. It's the only girlie bible I have aside from my pink first communion bible that is a NCV (new crazy version)and I don't like it at all!

This bible has nice little quotes from various women authors throughout the years. It's just kinda pretty it doesn't look like this picture because my bible is purple leather. Odd for me...I'm not a purple kind of girl.

I also discovered a really cool app for my iPhone too. The YouVersion of the bible. It has tons of different reading plans for the bible and many different translations you can choose from to read. You can post your favorite versus directly to your facebook or twitter accounts....Best Part??? It's FREE!! It was quite handy to be able to read the bible while I was waiting at the doctors office today!

So technically...I've really fallen off the no more bibles wagon...I now have a new womens bible and a new bible app on my phone.

Recognition is the key to recovery right?

El Deuterino

I have been working a lot the past several days and I'm exhausted. I have been reading my bible and working on the Deut.
There's something about Deuteronomy....it's the name. I just can't get over it. Everytime I hear it or try to say it or try to abbreviate it I think of the Big Lebowski. Absolutely horrible I know but I can't help it.
Here's the link to the part I think of specifically.


Anyway. I've had a very hectic several days of work and so what I have read of El Deuterino I haven't mentally digested and I fear I will be re-reading it very soon.

I'm sorry for the scattered postings but I am still reading maybe slightly behind the set schedule but I'm not worried about it. I know I will catch up when I get to a really compelling part. That's the way it goes. Some days I read a lot and really focus well and don't want to stop but then there are other days when I am so tired I don't want to pick up my head let alone my bible. That's when I wish I had an audio version...then I could lay in bed and listen to the deut-ness.
Well happy reading to you and I'd love to know what you think of Deuteronomy.

Entering the Deut.

I'm now into Deuteronomy. That word is daunting to me. I'm not sure why. I have no idea what to expect of this book. I've never read any of it.

I recently purchase a little flip chart type insertion for my bible. It's called the Bible Overview by Rose Publishings. It has neat little tidbits and overviews for each book of the bible. This is important and handy for someone like me who much of this is new and somewhat foreign. It is hard to keep everyone and everything straight.

Here is what is says about Deut.
Book - Deuteronomy
Who is the author - Moses
What is they type of writings - Sermons by Moses
Where was it written - Plains of Moab
When was it written - c. 1401bc - 1400bc
Why was it written - To remind the people what God expects from them
Outline -
- Sermon 1: Journey Review (1-4)
- Sermon 2: Laws (5-28)
- Sermon 3: Covenant (29-30)
- Final Farewells (31-34)
Key Verse
Hear, O Isreal:The Lord our God, The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your strength. Deut.6:4,5

I have mentioned before that I have book addictions. When I see my mom and sisters I understand that I come by it honestly. We are all the same. We all have tons of books and many of which we have and enjoy for their beauty as well as their content. I have decided that one day when I win the lottery my home will feature a beautiful library.

In surfing for a picture for the bible overview I have a stumbled onto another book to add to my amazon wish list. Rose publishers have some really interesting books and this is one of them.

I'm thinking I could get away with purchasing this book because it technically isn't a bible. (Which my husband has nicely banned me from buying any more of.)

On a side note also related to bibles...The past weekend when spending time with my husbands family I was reminded by his aunt that she had given us a bible for our wedding present. I had an immediate sinking feeling as I didn't know where it was. I must painfully admit that at the time of our wedding I had no interest in the bible, nor had I ever before. So, honestly and selfishly I did not treasure the gift as I should have. During that weekend my mind began to race. Surely, I would still have the bible somewhere in my house. Was it on my bookshelves and I didn't realize it? Was it in a box with other wedding gifts? The location and mental searching continued the entire weekend. I must admit the mental searching and immediate guilt was thought consuming. When I got home I told my husband about the bible and that we absolutely had to find it. I had my search mentally narrowed to 2 different locations and began immediately. It was within minutes that I found the bible. Sigh of relief! I immediately floated upstairs to my husband and showed him the bible. Sent a message to his aunt that I found it. It now resides on my bedside table as it should. Here's a picture of it. I am thinking along with my library in my fantasy house I will also have a bookshelf next to my bed as I keep alot of special books there. Is it normal for people to keep their favorite or more treasured books next to their bed?

I've got to get back to Deuteronomy and I must say that since I have read that Moses will not be able to go to the promise land but can only see it from a mountain top I feel bad for him. He did God's work, put up with those whining Isrealites for over 40 years and wasn't able to even enjoy the promise land for one day.

Little progress

This weekend I made little progress on my completion of Numbers and how I wish I would complete Numbers. I have to admit that it is not my favorite. The Isrealites are frusterating to say the least.
This weekend was spent with my husbands family. Well just the women of his family. His Aunts, girl cousins, mother and sisters. We had a girls weekend at his Grandfathers Lake house. His grandfather passed away a year ago this week and as I have mentioned before he was influencial in my decision to read the bible. I was happy to go to his house and spend the weekend with such wonderful company. My husbands family is quite well versed in the bible and so I was thrilled to be able to have a little bible discussion during the weekend. Even though I didn't get much progress on my assigned readings I did make progress in other ways. I found 3 old bible's at the house. One of the bibles was a gift from Grandpa to Grandma. It was well worn with lots of writing in it and notes tucked inside. These are the types of treasures that I love. I love bibles that feel alive when you touch them. The one's that feel like a part of that person is tied in with the binding. I was in awe at this bible. I loved that he had written in it to her. He wrote God loves you and so do I. It was adorable. I can only imagine what this meant to her.
I'm not sure if others love and appreciate books as much as I do. I love books, old books, books with character and now that I have discovered bibles and their character I love them the most!
This is like stumbling across a piece of history that is so personal and fragile that you are almost afraid to turn the pages but you are so excited to see what verse they loved and underlined on the next page.

I spent an hour or two writing down some of my husbands grandmothers favorite verses and quotes from her bible. I wrote them into my bible and can't wait to share them with my husband.

During my weekend I looked at the bibles of his aunts and cousins. They are well worn with versus underlined, notes from their children and church bulletins stuck inside. These are personal and treasured items. They are priceless. As our weekend was priceless to me. I did discover they had and loved a bible that I hadn't seen before. It is the Life Application Bible. This has very interesting summaries, book information and references that help to understand different parts. On our shopping day I nearly purchased a Life Application Bible of my own but I resisted. I could hear my husband saying..."Honey, I know this sounds horrible but you probably should stop buying so many bibles and be sure that you will be able to read the one's you have." It stems back to my book addiction. That's what I'm blaming it on anyway.
Well anyway I resisted buying the bible. Partially because of my sweet husbands reasonable words and partially because they didn't have the New American Standard Version of the Life Application Bible which is really what I wanted. I don't have any bibles of the New American Standard and thought it would be a nice addition to my collection.
Well maybe someday I will get a Life Application Bible....who knows. Until then I will keep plugging away on my two favorite bibles The Archaeological Bible and The Chronological Study Bible.

meeting the unexpected.

I met the most amazing and inspirational man this week. He is 92 years old and a bible scholar. A friend approached me and said I have someone you simply must meet. She introduced me to him and he was precious! Absolutely precious! There are few things more adorable than a sharp, intelligent and personable elderly man. I introduced myself and said I was reading and studying the bible for the first time this year. He said "We all have holy spirit in us. Jesus had THE Holy Spirit completely but we all have some. We just need to recognize it." We proceeded to talk for another 30 minutes. I could have talked to him for hours and I think (hope) he would have talked to me for hours too. He said he has always had "kids" come talk to him about it. He said he was non-demoninational. He said he always had a hard time with churches putting their spin on religion and the bible. Believing what they want out of it. I eagerly agreed. This is exactly what I thought too! He said it was always hard for him to find a bible study group that just wanted to study the bible and not study the views of their churches. Again, I'm sitting there eagerly agreeing! I probably seemed like a babbling idiot because here was this man 92 years old, immensely knowledgable about the bible and I've missed out on his wonderful bible study groups he used to have. He told me about these sessions lasting until 1am at times with people that are now "religiously pedigreed" as he calls PhD's
See this man is adorable!
He told me that before he had the nondemoninational study group he went to several church based bible studies and he was even kicked out of two churches. It just makes me laugh. I can appreciate a religious rebel.

I only wish I had met him during his prime. I'm sure he was quite the force to be reckoned with. He still just quoted off versus like nothing. We talked for a while longer and I could have talked to him for days I think.
It is amazing to me that since my quest to read the bible, I have met so many wonderful people and met so many sides to people I have never known before. I have lots of people that come up to me and ask how my reading is going and what I think of certain things. We all want a little fellowship but are too afraid of judgement or being told our interpretations of the bible are incorrect, or the church believes this or that. I wish I could find a non-demoninational bible study group that encourages the communication, understanding and appreciation of the many different interpretations of different parts of the bible.
That would be great!!

Numbers through chapter 21

I am truly amazed at the Isrealites. My frustration with them grows with each chapter. They have these truly amazing acts occurring before their eyes and the next day they complain that Moses is killing everyone.
Everyone warned me that I would tire of the laws of Leviticus and it would test my perseverance but Numbers is testing it far more. I find myself rolling my eyes (it's uncontrollable for me) with each new complaint from the Isrealites.
Numbers 19 discusses in more detail clean and unclean. I love these laws of cleanliness. I appreciate them. However, dead bodies making people unclean. Well, I can see this. If one dies from a plague or disease it aids in sanitation to encourage a little quarantine for those that touched the body. I appreciate the washing however 3 days after touching the body seems like a while to wait.

I prefer to wash that night when I get home from work after some of the dead bodies I touch. While I have never realized I was "unclean" for the next 7 days I will admit it probably takes me about 7 days to stop thinking about it. In nursing a prehospital work dead bodies are a guarantee. I've seen alot of them. They occasionally bother me. Some more than others. The very few scary movies I have seen have stuck with me. So, it takes me about 7 days or so for the random flashes from the latest dead body to stop popping in my head. Does this happen to every nurse or paramedic? I don't know but it happens to me. I can't guarantee that it's 7 days....I said about. The bad one's stay there a lot longer.

Numbers highlights and scrolls

Continuing our journey through Numbers today. I have been sick for several days and today I'm starting to have more energy to resume my study of the bible. I have been reading my assigned readings daily but have not been able to research, cross reference and ponder the readings as usual. So I've been going back and reviewing, researching, and reading my multitude of resources about my transitions from Leviticus to Numbers. While this is not a dedicated summary of my readings for the past few days it is a list of things I've learned or key items/versus that I enjoy.
I have been referencing my wonderful Archaeological Bible (which if you don't already own this bible...hop to Amazon and order it...I'll wait)
I will also be referencing the "People of the Covenant. An Indroduction to the Old Testament" which I have borrowed from our hospital chaplain. (Also highly recommended)

Highlights and things I've learned

1. Numbers....doesn't mean Numbers like counting numbers or we are counting people...Numbers is hebrew for "in the desert"

2. God has an amazing amount of patience with the disobedient and whiny Isrealites.

3. It is believed that the numbering system was different then based on the numbers provided and all those math minded people trying to figure it out. There may have been translation or terminology variations with regard to the actual number of people in the desert.

4. OK...This is really cool....
"In 1979 archaeologists unearthed a burial site at Ketef Hinnom just south of Jerusalem, near the Biblical boundary between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Excavated from within a burial repository were two small, rolled plaques of thin, pliable silver, each about the size of a credit card. When unrolled, they revealed delicately etched inscriptions that included a shortened version of the priestly benediction recorded in Numbers 6:24-26. One section has been translated as follows:
The Lord bless and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you and give you peace.


Archaeological and Paleographic evidence dates these plaques to the late seventeenth century BC, thereby making them the earliest written citations of Scripture." The Archaeological Bible.

5. It is interesting that despite the frequent disobedience God still remains with these people in the desert, guiding them, speaking to Moses frequently and creating the laws for their culture.

Verses I love:

Numbers 6:24-26 "The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord life you up His countenance upon you, And give you peace."
Numbers 10:9 "When you go to war in your land against the enemy who opresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God."