50. Messiah Meditations by Carol Weaver

I wondered why I had not read as many books in December as I usually do because our ministry usually takes a December break, and I am usually not one to be a busy Christmas person. Then I realized that I read through the devotional book that I wrote last year, and I should count that as a book even though I wrote it! LOL!

I am a certified Messiah nerd. It all started when I ordered the John Rutter version of Messiah (in the picture above) several years ago. I had never actually listened to the WHOLE Messiah. So, I did it for Christmas. When I was crying in a pile on the floor when I got to the Hallelujah Chorus, I knew that I was nerd certified.

I started the Bible Book Club in 2008, and I added the words to Messiah at the end of YEAR TWO (2009) because it is such a great review of the Old Testament! 

Then christianaudio.com had a free audiobook called Messiah:Comfort for God's People by Calvin Stapert available in December 2010, but I could not get into it, and I put it down. It seemed too technical. (I have since learned that it was more the narrator's very haughty voice that turned me off than the book itself.) 

In Christmas 2011, I went through the musical score and followed along with it as I listened to Messiah (picture above).

Despite my dislike of the narration, I listened to Stapert's book during Christmas of 2012, taking copious notes:

Have I convinced you that I am a total nerd?

I continued to post just the words at the Bible Book Club blog. Then, I ordered Stapert's book on my Kindle, and I LOVED it! Reading it was so much more valuable! (The book is great, and the narrator is not.) 

Then, last June/July I decided to write a devotional book and include the backgrounds from my Bible Book Club posts to explain the Scripture in Messiah along with my personal reflections and application of what I was learning. 

Writing this devotional was amazing! My husband had changed jobs, and his company put us up in a hotel while we looked for homes in another town (never moved though) so I worked all day on it and was saturated in it! I finished on July 11, 2013. In December, I transferred it all to a word processor too. 

This year, I actually read it as an Advent devotional, and it was great! The whole book is posted on my blog, but I think I might even have a physical devotional book printed someday. :)