That Good Part

I love lists. There is something about seeing tidy rows of tasks that makes my world seem a little more orderly, and that makes me happy. What makes me even happier is to see those tasks with a line through them that indicates progress. And progress, like change, is good.  A few years ago, I had to start making lists of books I want to read, and books I have finished reading, because I do a fairly significant amount of reading. If you don't, and you fear this post is all about how you should, put your fears aside and keep reading. I'm not into telling people to do things they really don't like. Unless it's telling them to stop doing totally wrong things. In that case, stop it. But as far as how many books you get through in a year, don't sweat it.  I read for ministry, I read for pleasure, I read to study the word of God, I read to grow in my faith, I read to hone my various crafts and I read because I like to learn things. I read in a lot of different genres, s...

I listened to a podcast recently where the two hosts were debating the pros and cons of re-reading books. While both had started out being staunch non re-readers, one had recently revised their opinion on it while the other remained unconvinced. I am firmly ensconced in the re-reading camp, sometimes returning to a book shortly after reading it for the first time, sometimes months or years later. Some I re-read with regularity, and the one I read daily is the Bible. This summer, I had read and journaled my way through the book Acts, for an overview of what our women’s ministry would study over the next year. Then I started the gospel of Luke, reading it while I began to dig deeper into Acts to prepare for what I would teach. Since Luke wrote both books, I wanted to get familiar with his voice, and set the stage for the story that would unfold after the crucifixion. It’s not like I don’t know the setting, but I like the cohesiveness of context, the narrative flowing from o...

You can tell it’s fall when the weather changes…to really hot in Southern California. While the middle section of the country is starting to get out their sweaters and their closed toes shoes, we are raiding the home improvement stores for one more fan or trying to find a parking spot at the beach. For SoCal natives, we love when school starts because we now have the beaches all to ourselves during one of the hottest times of the year. Mostly locals, most of the time. Fall is when two of my favorite things happen-the return of football and the return of women’s Bible study. For me, baseball season ends the day training camp begins, and summer reading gives way to commentaries, language helps and comparison texts. And crocheting. I read a disturbing article this week by a teacher who educates children in a high poverty area. In it she says “In higher-income communities, there are an estimated 13 books for every 1 child; in lower-income communities, the ratio hovers at   1 b...

Today marks the end of one of several projects I’ve been working on this summer. Earlier in the month I finished one book project and today is the release of Emily P. Freeman’s book Simply Tuesday , a book project of a different sort. A few months back I was invited to apply for a spot on the launch team for the book, and much to the surprise of this inconsistent blogger, I was chosen. What’s a launch team? The cynical answer is that you are chosen to work for free marketing a book through word of mouth and social media. The book lover answer is that you are chosen to get an advance copy of a book by an author you already enjoy reading, and tell your closest 1,000 social media friends how much you like it. At least, they hope you like it. You receive emails from a team leader with tasks and inspiration for ways you can get the message out about the book, and you join a Facebook group to connect with others on your launch team.  I discovered I’m even an introvert on social ...

I have a number of friends, whom I have made fun of before, that define themselves as non-readers. Then they ask me for a book, read it, love it and want another one. My assesment is that when they think of doing something fun, or that they would classify as a hobby or entertainment, reading isn't the first thing that come to mind. They are, however, all women who love God, love His Word, and love learning who He intends them to be and how to please Him. This story is for all my reading and (ahem) non-reading friends. By the way-my witty daughter sent me this story. One morning a husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake they are visiting, his wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and pulls out a book to read. Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says, "Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?" "Reading a book,"she ...

My husband recently went through Warren Wiersbe's book "On Being a Servant of God" with the other pastors at our church. I always like when the guys are going through a book, because he shares not only his insight with me but the general insights of the group, and I get a ton from that. I've read this book before, he's read this book before, and every time we look at it God does a fresh work in us for the current season and situations in our life. In Wiersbes book he addresses some myths about reading, and one of them is that "reading books will of itself guarantee growth and success". He goes on to say that reading is only the key that opens the door to the vault, and it is in assimilating what your read, relating it to what you already know and of course, practicing it that makes reading anything profitable. This was never proven to be true more than when I worked in a Christian bookstore. It was exciting to hook people up with good material and he...

Among the great books I’ve read by a contemporary author is just about anything by Warren Wiersbe. From his “Be” series commentaries to his compilations of Christian biographies, I dig this guy. His commentaries are full of application for the New Testament believer, while giving plenty of insight and context to literal interpretation of the scriptures. As a biographer, he never fails to make even the super-est of super saints human, real and inspirational. Among my favorite Wiersbe books are the ones that he has written regarding Christian service. “Ten Power Principles” is a great one, and of particular note is “On Being a Servant of God”. Written for the ministry worker, it holds application for anyone who walks with God, since each of us have a “good work” we were created for. In this book is a fine chapter on reading. In another of his books, he exhorts us to not just be buyers of books but readers of books. He is clearly a guy who enjoys reading for the sake of doing it, a...

My old profile on Know & Believe shed some light on why I was doing a book review blog. When I created That Good Part, I lost the profile and couldn’t figure out how to get it back. Okay, being a technophobe I didn’t really try, and I couldn’t remember everything it said so I let it go. In a nutshell, it said that I preview books for the Women’s Ministry at Calvary Chapel Vista and do the recommendations at our annual Women’s Retreat, as well as serving our churches current version of a book store. This makes me the logical choice to ask the question, “Hey, what’s a good book?” On the way to discovering good books, I read an awful lot of bad books. Not necessarily heretical, blasphemous books, although I’ve hit my share of those. Usually they are just lame books, in the sense of the definition found on dictionary.com; Lame: weak; inadequate; unsatisfactory; clumsy. In one way, these are worse than heretical books. Heretical books are like pouring milk on your cereal and havi...