Well-Watered Soul Update

What a blessed last two days! I realized this morning that I pretty much took a 2 1/2 month break from the Bible Book Club, and I think that was really healthy for me. The last two days, I have gotten back to it because I will be leading the Romans: Part 2 Precept Upon Precept study starting on November 8, and I wanted to write posts for the Bible Book Club from my Romans: Part 1 study in review.

What a BLESSED time I had yesterday!

I pretty much spent the bulk of the day (after a lovely hour morning walk blessing the OSU campus and listening to my book) in Romans 5 - but also looking back on Romans 1-4 to remember what the "Therefore" in Romans 5:1 is "there for." LOL!  I had my new favorite Pandora station playing (Hymns for Worship - not just hymns but instrumentals and mellow worship song - I cannot handle contemporary Christian radio - sorry) as I meditated on the word PEACE from Romans 5:1.

Peace! What a word.  And what worship through those blessed hours! I cannot explain it. I wish I could, but there is NO DOUBT that God is so real. It makes me sad that James Joyce (currently reading Dubliners) and all those classical authors ( just finished Catch-22) I have read over the last few years did not GET that! UGH. They died in ignorance. SAD SAD SAD to never know their DAD! I wish they could have encountered the REAL JESUS instead of institutional religion. So different. God you are REAL REAL REAL!!!! 

Anyway, I am BACK IN THE BIBLE BOOK CLUB saddle, and I love it!!! Romans is where I need to dwell, and I can dwell there until April 9, 2013 if I need to. LOVE IT!  (I made a decision to skip over the rest of Acts until then - I was stuck there for some reason. God knew I needed the reminder of Romans). 

But the 2 1/2 months were lovely. I really wanted to concentrate on bringing Jesus with me "among the pots and pans" like Brother Lawrence (Practice of the Presence of God).  I brought Him into the remaining books on the 100 Great Books List, and that was good. Hemingway needed the LORD. Man is more than his lusts. So glad I am done with that list, not my favorite one.

I am glad that I will be finishing up my last classical list from Invitation to the Classics. I have 18 more books from that list (many overlap with the other two lists). The thing I love about this list is that it is looking at them from a standpoint of faith. LOVE THAT. The Book of Great Books: A Guide to 100 World Classics was not from this perspective, and I found myself repulsed by some of the selections. The Well-Educated Mind classics list were less so, but I would suggest that she remove some of her selections (at least some of her "suggested poems" by Ginsburg and another female poet whose name escapes me).  Susan Wise-Bauer's book is not necessarily aimed at a faith audience. So, I cannot fault her, even though she is a believer.  But Invitation to the Classics is!

Here is their stated purpose:

. . . to introduce the Western literary masterworks in a clear and simple style that is mature in seriousness and tone and Christian in perspective -- and in doing so, to help reawaken Western people to the vibrant heritage of these classics that are rich in themselves in their two-thousand-year relationship to the Christian faith.

I am so down with that!