Gravel Road Musings

  Almost a year ago, I posted my review of the Bible Recap, the book itself. You can read that  here  if you want to. Now Tara-Leigh Cobble has come out with the study guide and a journal to go with the Bible Recap. There is just something about Bible Study guides and journals that pull me in and so I have both of them beside me right now. I haven't done them, I haven't read the Bible Recap book yet either, but it's on my list of things to do for 2022.  The Study Guide is a fairly thick book and is divided out in a Bible reading plan that matches the Bible Recap reading plan. It is meant to accompany either the book or the podcast though I suppose you could use it as a stand alone perhaps, though I don't think it could feel a bit fragmented. Each section seems to have at least four questions that go along with that day's reading. They seem to be questions that are based off of the reading and not so much thought-provoking questions that make me dig into my own heart...

  A 6-week guided journey to un-hurrying your heart Let me say first off, this is not the book "Growing Slow", this is the study guide that goes with the book. Let me also say, I haven't read the book and did not realize there was a book to go along with this study guide until I opened the study guide to look at and write this review.  I haven't done the study guide because I was in the middle of a different study book when it arrived, but I was intrigued with what I saw. Reading the book is not a requirement for this study guide, but it does provide a framework and some key concepts that help you apply the lessons learned. For my personality, I will probably try to read the book along with the study guide when I do it, but I was happy to see that I won't have to in case I can't get a hold of the book through the library or Net Galley.  Each week's study has six sessions: key Bible verse, My land (where Jennifer shares her struggles with Iowa), Your land H...

A Study of Matthew 5-10 I will say right at the beginning, I have not read the whole book, but it's going to take me awhile to get through it and I wanted to get a review posted before another couple months go by. D. A. Carson takes these chapters from Matthew section by section, sometimes verse by verse and really expounds on them and what he thinks they mean.  He has some really good things to say. I really liked what he had to say on the Beatitudes and how they build on each other. We need to first be poor in spirit before any of the other Beatitudes will even be able to be applied to us. I haven't agreed with everything I have read in this book. As a person of Anabaptist faith, some of our principles don't jive with his, let's put it like that. However, that being said, I was reading yesterday his explanation of Matthew 6:1 and it was so good. It's the verse that says, in the KJV, "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them.....

How to turn your overwhelming thoughts and feelings into your greatest allies. I want to preface this whole book review by saying I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist or a counselor or even that great of a listener, though I'm trying to learn to be a listener, so I am not necessarily a good one to comment on some of the aspects of this book. So just keep that in mind as you read my thoughts. I am a little divided about this book. Some of it seemed strangely weird to me and some of it made sense. And some of those things were the same things. I think I could come across here as being very confused and there would be some truth there as well. The big focus of the book is taking a You-turn when anger or shame or fear or anxiety or any other unhealthy attribute raises its head. There are five parts of this process: focus, befriend, invite Jesus, unburden and integrate. I can definitely see the value of this process. While reading the book, when things would come up that I ...

Discover the Joy of Living "Others First" Wow, this is one of those books that hits you between the eyes. I was challenged and I hope to be changed by reading this book. Another name for this book might be simply put, blessing others.  Becky starts with creating a blessing toolbox that includes first of all remaining in the vine, but then it includes things like "start with your Jerusalem" or start at home with blessing people, be a cheerleader, no blessing is too small, forgive quickly and so on.  She also goes on to talk about the four P's of blessing: Presence, Possessions, Perspective and Prayer.  Each of these has two chapters dedicated to the topic, one is more instructional and one is more story form.  Also for each of these P's there are 50 ideas each for ways we can bless people.  Blessing ideas include: draw a smiley face on your child's sandwich baggie, be a safe place for friend to cry, mow a neighbor's lawn, tape coins to vending m...

By Tremper Longman III and Mark L Strauss Compact, think a small paperback size with 209 pages. So obviously, this is not going to encompass all the words and their meanings that are in the Bible or related to Biblical studies.  Tremper and Mark developed the book primarily to help beginning students in an academic setting. They also hope that it can help others as well, particularly pastors and regular people like me who want to read and benefit from "biblical scholarship". I'm not entirely sure what that means, biblical scholarship, but to mean it means those people who want to know more about the Bible and need a definition of some of the words. The book is in alphabetical order, just like any other dictionary. It contains definitions from "abomination of desolation" to "Zoroastrianism" and a lot of things in between like "immigration model" "Sinai, Mount", and "carbon dating". I didn't read the book, I'm ...

And the Truth that Sets Them Free You've heard the phrase "small but mighty". I think that is what applies to this study guide. While it's about the same size as the book itself, it is thin, maybe a half inch or so, but it is packed with thought-provoking challenging questions and comments. Set up to be worked through with a small group, it can also be worked through by one's self. Each chapter is equal to a chapter in the book. There's first a little intro to the chapter and then the chapter is divided out into five days. Each day there is assigned reading from the book "Lies Women Believe", and then there are questions to answer and Bible verses to look up. For each day there are also subheadings of Realize, Reflect, and Respond. The final section in each chapter is set up to be done with your small group or Bible Study group, but if you are doing the book study on your own, then you would spend another day or two on this section as well. Tha...

An 8-week Bible Study for a Fresh Encounter for Deeper Faith I love these Bible study books and have been collecting them way faster than I have been getting through them.  There's something about a pretty book with Bible reading, thoughts, questions to answer, etc. that makes me happy and, more importantly, gives me a focus for my personal devotions. Becky says this in her intro: "I wrote this Bible study for those of you who want to know, love and trust Jesus more deeply-- and for those of you who have questions about who Jesus really is and are asking, 'Is He really who He says He is?'" There are four sections to each week: Explore, Reflect, Memorize, and Praise.  Explore is a guided study of a passage or passages where Jesus says, "I Am".  There are also references to the Strong's Concordance.  Reflect is a section for personal growth and honesty. Memorize is just that, memorizing Scripture. And Praise is a section devoting to praising an...