What's everybody reading right now?

[Guest dove2]

Only thing I am reading is the Bible and Worthy board. I don't have time for books. I can't remember the last book I read. If I read other books then I don't have time for the Bible.

[seraph]

Currently I am reading the through Gospel of Mark as well as wherever studies take me in the Bible, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung.

First They Killed My Father is a memoir about a girl who survived the atrocities inflicted by the Khmer Rouge (an estimated 2 million {30% of the Cambodian population} died by starvation, torture, or execution during the Khmer Rouge

[Guest caffeineyellow5]

Sorry, I missed two in my list...

Under Fire by Osha Gray Davidson

about gun control

and

Way Out There In The Blue: Reagan, Star Wars, and the End of the Cold War by Frances Fitzgerald

[WISDOM]

Great stuff, everyone. I am adding a few of these to my list. The "14 things Witches hope..." and "The Christian Manifesto" sound great.

WIP:

You will enjoy both! They are excellent books, and quite informative!

[Work in Progress]

Seraph, that sounds very interesting.

Thanks, Wisdom.

River............ummm.........you were kidding, right? You aren't really reading that?

If you are, please tell me you didn't pay money for it??!?!??!

[Catsmeow]

sorry, I mis-wrote the title, I meant to say animal farm, and the book redeeming love was writen by Francine Rivers

I like your tastes....George Orwell....a literary genius IMO....I loved Orwell's "1984" and he also wrote "Animal Farm" after that didn't he?

Geez, it's been so long...takes me back to High School days. Great reading.

[Catsmeow]

Go, River! I love Dr. Phil!!! My hubby and I watch him every night at 7:00pm.

He's too awesome!

[Faith0263]

I'm reading "Slaying the Giants in Your Life" by David Jeremiah. It's an awesome book that I posted several chapters on at another site. Here's a snipet. May you be blessed as you read...and get the book afterwards so you can be even more blessed!

THE EXPENSE OF RESENTMENT

Psychologists tell us that the weed of bitterness is cultivated at great price. When we choose to hold on to our resentment, we relinquish control of our future. We trade the freshness of the new day and all its possibilities for the pain of the past. Quite often we eat away our hearts, one bite at a time, over someone who may be far away and totally unaware of our thoughts, totally forgetful of what happened, and-certainly-totally unaffected by anything we're thinking or doing. Resentment, someone said, is swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die.

We've jeopardized not only our spiritual but our physical health. As a matter of fact, Dick Innes has written about a doctor whose patient was suffering through all kinds of symptoms-stress, ulcers, high blood pressure. "If you don't cut out your resentments," said the doctor to the shocked patient, "I may have to cut out part of your intestinal tract." That got the man's attention He went home and cut way down on his resentment intake, making every arrangement possible to get his relationships and feelings in order. During his next appointment, the doctor was able to tell him that his condition had cleared up; he was now a healthy man.

When we opt to cling to bitterness, it's as if we've placed ourselves under an evil spell. Only the ancient and godly remedy of forgiveness will remove that spell. In our time, the definitive book on that subject is by Lewis Smedes, who gave us the classic Forgive and Forget. Smedes recounts a play that illustrates the power of resentment. This play is the story of a German general and a French journalist. Herman Engel, the captured general, is sentenced to thirty years' imprisonment by the Nuremberg Court after the Second World War. Morrieaux, the journalist, is infuriated. His family was massacred by Engel's troops during the war, and he wants Engel to pay with his life, not with a prison sentence. For 30 long yrs. he performs his own ritual death penalty in the execution chamber of his heart-again and again. He lives for nothing in the world other than the day when he can carry out the punishment in real life.

The old general, Engel, survives his long yrs of imprisonment and emerges, a tried and broken man. He wants only to be left alone and to be forgotten, so he and his wife build a cabin in the woods near Alsace. There they intend to live out their remaining yrs, quietly and inconspicuously. But they don't know that Morrieaux has followed the couple's movements. He's in the nearby village, trying to incite a mob of fanatics to rise up and take vengeance against the old Nazi. Their plan is to come by night, burn the cabin, and shoot Engel and his wife.

But there is one piece of unfinished business. Morrieaux, being a journalist, has always wanted to know more about what actually happened to his family's community. He decides to pay a visit to the Engels on the day before their death, just to ask a few questions.

Morrieaux visits the shaken Engel and begins to question him about every massacre, every atrocity. But he isn't prepared for the feeble old man he encounters, the one who struggles to recall old details. This man isn't a monster at all, merely a broken old man in the winter of life, waiting to die. Morrieaux isn't as angry as he thought, not after this face-to-face encounter. Suddenly he blurts out all the mob's plans for the next day; he offers to lead them out of the woods and save their lives. Engel listens and replies, "I'll go with you-on one condition. I'll go with you if you'll forgive me."

Morrieaux hesitates. This is a difficult quesiton for a man who has built his entire life around the hope of destroying his adversary. He has killed the old German in his heart many times over 3 decades. Amazingly, Morrieaux discovers that he's perfectly capable of rescuing his old enemy; he's more than willing to call off the execution.

But forgive him? That he cannot do.

The Engels don't leave. And the next evening, they die at the hands of a rabid mob.

We're left with this enigma: Why is it easier to forgive with our hands than with our hearts? Why is a man capable fo rescuing another man but incapable of forgiving him? The answer is that bitterness is a cancer. It takes root so deeply that it can't be quickly extracted. Its teeth have sunk too deep. You can begin by nurturing a minor grudge, and if you feed it, the grudge grows into a pwerful resentment. By then it has a life of its own, and you can't help continuing to feed it, to nurture it. Ultimately it's no longer something you own; it's something that owns you. Your entire life is defined and ordered around the principles of hatred.

None of us want to live that way. If we could see it in advance, we'd do almost anything to avoid falling under the demoic spell of resentment. What can we do? How can we resist?

Following are the 5 steps listed in the book to resist resentment. There is a descriptive paragraph after each one with great short stories, but I'll skip them and just hope you'll get the book!

• 1. Think It Through
  
• 2. Write It Down
  
• 3. Work It Out
  
• 4. Talk It Over
  
• 5. Give It Up
  
  
  In closing, I'll leave you with some scriptures scattered throughout the book with a loving end I hope you'll be blessed by.
  
  Ephesians 4:26-27 is simple land profound-and a bit of a surprise:
  
  "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place ot the devil.
  
  Scriptural condemantions of anger
  • In Galatians 5:20, fits of rage are listed as sins of the evil nature.
    
  • Proverbs 29:11 tells us, "A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back.:
    
  • James 1:19-20 adds, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God."
    
  • Psalm 37;8 instructs, "Cease from anger, and forsake warth...it only causes harm."
    

  Let's show that we don't have to molten stuff inside us; we're all out of worldly wrath, but we have PLENTY of LOVING-KINDNESS, TENDERNESS, and FORGIVENESS in stock! Let's go heavy on the grace and the benefit of the doubt. We can find SOME way, some action, to encourage the aggressor. AND in the process of doing all this, I can guarantee you there's NO anger your soul can whip up that won't be dissolved by the POWER OF GODLY GRACE!!

  

[endure4salvation]

I don't read many books, I just read Sagz's posts so that I can prove him wrong on all counts. Nah, just kidding!

I am reading a book about the KJV only position from the 'other side.'

And I am reading through the Bible and am about to start Joshua (Leviticus and the like wasn't too bad...come on people!!! If God went to such great lengths to get us the Bible, we OUGHT to read it!!!)

[Faith0263]

oh well I'm reading Mark again ..I just thought you meant "besides" :t: