Last month I resumed setting goals for the month. I had suspended this practice, which used to include progress, as my injuries and medical issues piled up in 2024 and continued in early 2025. But I decided to resume setting goals but not taking time to report progress on the prior month’s goals. So here are goals for June.
Begin editing Vol. 5 of the A Walk Through Holy Week Bible study series. Based on how the last couple of volumes went, it’s likely I’ll finish it this month.
Continue with work on computer files. This, for now, will mainly be checking scanned files to see if I’ve properly saved them and then get rid of the duplicate file.
Having done a good job on genealogy research this month, I’d like to continue it in June. This may be mainly organizing computer files, getting rid of duplicate material and superseded files, rather than new research.
Work some more on going through family photos. It would be nice to finish one of our four main families and send those photos off to the next family member who needs to deal with them.
Continue going through my father-in-law’s letter files. They are in approximate chronological order. I’m going through them one a day, from newest working backwards. At this rate it will take me a couple of years to get through them all.
Consolidate a few ideas I’ve had lately for future writing in the Documenting America series.
I have other things I’d like to accomplish, but these seem like enough to set for the month. Especially in consideration of the outdoor work I have to do in the blackberry patch.
A few weeks ago I finished a book, Approaching God by Steve Brown, but am just now finding a hole in my blog post schedule to post a review. This one of those books we picked up used somewhere along the way, which finally popped to the surface of some pile in the house, so I grabbed it and read it.
Brown is well past his career, now a professor emeritus. He had a number of positions before that, including pastor. He comes from the position of Reformed theology, Presbyterian church.
The book is quite good, if a little bit dry and predictable. Of course, what new things can you write about prayer? So of course the book would be somewhat predictable. Our copy was a hardback, 213 pages, set in an easy-to-read font. I think it took mw only 10 to 12 days to get through it.
In terms of whether the book was good, the main measure of that would be did it help me in my prayer life? Did it make me more likely to pray, or less? Did it stimulate my desire to pray, give me ideas on how to do it better? My honest answer is “a little bit.” I can’t say that I had any major breakthroughs, but I do feel more motivated to pray. On that basis, taking time to read the book was worthwhile.
I give it 4-stars. But it is not a keeper. Once Lynda reads it, upon coming to the top of one of her reading piles, out it will go.
My reading has trailed off a bit lately, in part due to health issues and in part due to reading choices not panning out. I laid two books aside at the 1/3rd point when the subject and writing turned out to not hold my interest. I suppose general busyness helped to rob reading time, with some of the busyness due to medical appointments.
Looking for a short read, I grabbed a book my wife had recently read and recommended: Paul Orjala: The Man, The Mission. It’s one of series of annual missions books our church published (or used to), this one from 2009-10. I think I read it back then but did not in the least remember it, so it was a fresh read. The book was of special interest to me because I briefly knew Paul when I attended the same church as he and his family in 1974-75. At that time, Paul was back from the mission field in Haiti and teaching at our seminary in Kansas City. I didn’t get to know him very well. He was already an experienced missionary and professor; I was new to the congregation and denomination. We didn’t hang out in the same circles.
But I got to know him a little. He was a nice man, well thought of by all, and pleasant spoken. The book told about his boyhood in San Diego, call to missions, assignment in Haiti, years teaching, and a later in life assignment in France. In all things, Paul was a faithful and effective servant of Christ. Much of our missions education curriculum. Paul is almost a legend in our church for the effectiveness of everything he touched. That includes considerable musical talent, which I saw him demonstrate in church services.
I’m glad Lynda found this book in the house and brought it to my attention. It was a good, short read about an amazing man and his service for God. I won’t read it again, nor do I think we should keep it, but I’m very glad I read it.
Yes, even while I’m trying to edit the remaining volumes of A Walk Through Holy Week, and planning to then shift to book 3 in The Forest Throne series, and plan out a larger Documenting America series, and have two other books on the back burner waiting for a chance, a new idea/opportunity has come to mind. Actually, even more than one new work-in-progress may be on the near horizon.
The book I’m reading right now is titled Great Essays. As a result, I’ve been itching to write a couple of essays. I have them fairly firmly in mind. One is outlined in my head; the other isn’t that far along. I’m not quite sure of the timing of this. Possibly this week I will at least get the outline on paper.
Meanwhile, AWTHW is screaming at me “No! Don’t do it.”
The other w-i-p will almost certainly happen. It is a new Bible study that I’m planning for our adult Sunday school class (a.k.a. life group, a.k.a. community group). I prepared the outline/proposal for it tonight and am about to send it to my co-teacher for his approval, after which we will submit it to the pastoral staff for approval. If approved, I will start teaching it May 4, meaning I’ll have to begin the writing at least by April 28.
I won’t announce the title and subject matter just yet, not until I have approval and get a little way into the writing.
Why do I do this? Get started on new things before the old ones are done, or at least at a stopping point. My writing is like the water contained in an elevated tank that someone busts a hole in. The water rushes out, seeking a place to pool up. That’s how my writing is. And I suppose it always will be.
The simple cover for the e-book. I will change out this cover after a while.
Volume 3 of my Bible study series, A Walk Through Holy Week, is published as both an e-book and paperback. Titled Coming Troubles, it covers what is known as the Olivet Discourse, when Jesus talked with his disciples. In the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus said that it was going to be torn down. After going to the Mount of Olives, the disciples asked him two questions:
When will these things happen, and what will be the sign they are about to take place? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?
Jesus goes on to give his famous discourse, a mix of prophecy and warning.
In some ways I feared to tread here, as a layman. So many sources are available for the study of end-times prophecy, I wonder if another small volume is needed. Probably not, but it’s part of the Holy Week story, so I decided to include it in my eight-volume series. I’ve already had a sale, which has propelled it into the top 100 of the category Religious Studies – Education.
The remaining five volumes in the series are written. I’m in the process of editing Vol. 4, and hope to have it published either late April or early May. I’m not sure if I’ll continue on editing the other volumes or take a break and work on something else.
An excellent read for anyone curious about Judaism and Christianity.
My wife and I continue to look through our bookshelves to see what books we have on hand that look good to read but that, for whatever reason, we have passed by. In some cases, these are books we’ve had for years. One she read and recommended to me was Betrayedby Stan Telchin. I read it a couple of weeks ago and am just getting around to the review.
It’s the story of a Jewish family, second generation Americans, who have settled into this country and given up the religious practice of Judaism for the cultural aspects. Their oldest daughter goes off to college in New York, falls under the influence of some Christians, and concludes that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. The parents are outraged, as is the girl’s younger sister. The older girl challenged them all to at least look into it and come to their own conclusions.
Stan Telchin
After the initial outrage at their daughter’s betrayal, the book is the story of Stan’s study of the issue. After a search of scripture, both Old and New Testament, he concludes that his daughter is right: Jesus is the Messiah foretold by the prophets.
I won’t make this a long review. Telchin does an excellent job describing the toll all this took on the family, what he studied, what he concluded, and the final family reunification. It is an excellent, relatively short and easy read (less than 170 pages).
I give it 5-stars. But, alas, it will not stay on the bookshelf, as I don’t expect to ever read it again. Off it will go, probably to be given to someone rather than just donated.
Here is a good write-up about the book and the journey it describes at the website “Jewish Testimonies”.
For the second time in just a few months, I ended finished reading three books at about the same time—in this case just a day apart. I finished The Potter’s Wheel one day, What If Jesus Was Serious the next, and The Journals of John Wesley, Vol 2 the day after that.
I bought a full set of the Wesley Journals, the edition edited by Nehemiah Curnock about twenty years ago when I was thinking of writing a small-group study about Wesley. The writing project died, and the journals sat on a shelf in the basement, all eight volumes. Sometime about three or four years ago, I decided it was time to read it, and pulled out and read Vol. 1. As best as I can remember, I kind of enjoyed that volume. Then, early last year, I pulled out Volume 2 and decided to read it for my morning devotions. I quickly found out that this journal, maybe especially this volume, didn’t real work well as a devotional.
I could find only one set of the Curnock edition for sale on Advanced Book Exchange. Mine will be $80 chapter than that one.
The book really consists of a mix of Wesley’s journal and his diary, along with many notes by editor Curnock. I tried to read the diary and journal chronologically. I was able to do that, but found it tedious. The diary had entries pretty much every day, whereas the journal had entries maybe every few days. Keeping track of where I was was tedious. As was reading the diary. There wasn’t much devotional about the diary, which was bland entries on what Wesley did those days. Both would be of great interest to a biographer, but they didn’t make for inspirational reading.
A typical page in the journal, where the reader has to juggle the diary, the journal, and the copious footnotes.
Actually, there wasn’t much devotional about the journal either. During the period of this volume, 1738 to 1742, Wesley was in the early days of the Methodist movement. He visited the Moravian Church in Germany, then got into disputes with them about worship practices and the fine points of salvation doctrine. He started field preaching at the suggestion of George Whitefield, then got into disputes with him over salvation doctrine. He also disputed with some early Methodists, who came to believe something different about salvation. It’s hard to take inspiration from a man who is mainly disputing with everyone.
Toward the end of the volume was a change. The diary ceased (Wesley’s biographers figure Wesley still kept a diary volume, but that a books of it is missing). The journal seemed to expand and deal more with the inspirational moments of the growing Methodist movement and less about disputes. It became much more pleasurable reading. It makes me wonder how the next volume is.
But I’m not sure I’ll find out. I’ve decided I won’t read the rest of them. I have too many things to read to think I’ll ever get to Volumes 3 through 8. Right after I post this, I’m going to put an ad up for selling the set, for a pretty penny of course. But while waiting for them to sell, maybe—just maybe—I’ll read a little of Vol. 3.
But how do I rate this series? For devotional purposes, 1-star. For historical purposes, 5-stars.
Interesting but simple doodles helped Jethani illustrate his points;
Over a year ago, our pastor did a sermon series based on concepts in the book What If Jesus Was Serious by Skye Jethani. The book is based on the Sermon on the Mount. Up until that series, I had never heard of the book or of the author. Pastor Jeni’s sermon series was very good. So when the pastors of our church put together a space where we can borrow some of their books. I checked, this one was available, so I borrowed it. And I’m glad I did.
The book consists of seventy-two chapters, each two pages long, dealing with a small part of the sermon. Jethani’s point is that, if Jesus was serious in what he said, and we really think about what each point means, we will have to change our lives. Each chapter includes a sketch—a doodle—at the start that illustrates the point. A number of these doodles are on the book cover.
The Sermon on the Mount is worth studying over and over. To see it from different eyes, hearing a little different take on it, is good. Jethani brought out points I never thought of, so that’s good. I found only one area I disagreed with him on. In Chapter 21, he said that guardrails (i.e. self-imposed barriers to our behavior) are good, but living at such a higher plane that you don’t need guardrails is better. I’ve read too many accounts of Christians in the limelight have benefitted from having established rigorous guardrails for themselves to agree with Jethani. At the same time, stories of Christians who haven’t established and lived by guardrails have had moral failures. Maybe Jethani is right, and not needing guardrails is superior to living by guardrails, but I’m not convinced.
The main thing I didn’t like about the book was the short chapters. I think I’d have liked 3 or 4 page chapters with a little more examination of the scripture point. On more than a few chapters, I was left a bit confused at Jethani’s point. Some more explanation would have benefitted me.
Oh, and I must say that Pastor Jeni’s sermons were much better than the book. Of course, she had more time to go into each point than the books did. And, no, the sermon series was not seventy-two weeks long.
My rating? If I could put 3.5-stars, I would. But, sticking to whole numbers, I give it 4-stars. Since I read this in a borrowed book, whether or not it’s a keeper isn’t a question. But I won’t be acquiring a copy for my library.
Printed in London in 1897. But other books have the same or similar titles.
In the further interest of decumulationleading toward downsizing, I’ve been looking for books in the house that look like they would be good reads but which I wouldn’t likely read a second time, or want to keep. I found several right in The Dungeon that meet the criteria. One I finished a few days ago is The Potter’s Wheel, a 1897 book by John Watson, D.D.
This book falls into the category of not knowing where I got it. The book I have was printed in 1897 and may be a first edition. It’s also severely water damaged. How did that happen, and where did I get this book? Did I buy it used with this water damage? Was it on one of the four bookshelves that took some water damage when our hot water heater sprung a leak while we were on vacation? Don’t know. I thought I got this book about ten to fifteen years ago from Lynda’s cousin whose father-in-law had been a pastor. But the book doesn’t have his name in it, nor any markings you would expect to see in a pastor’s study book. So where I got it will remain a mystery.
The water damage isn’t real obvious in this photo, but it’s real.
Another mystery is what this book is about. I mean, it’s a book about the Christian religion, but toward what end? As I read it, it was somewhat good as a devotional book but not as a discipleship book. What was Watson’s intent? What did he hope readers would take away from reading this? I found this discussion at a place where a used copy was for sale.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work…Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Well, after reading that, I feel rather stupid at not recognizing the apparent brilliance of this book. At another site where the book is for sale, I found this.
One of Canada’s foremost early philosophers instrumental in the Hegelian movement that dominated Canada until WW1 and one of the most influential academic figures in Queen’s University history, introducing the disciplines of Psychology, Economics and Political Studies to the curriculum.
Now I’m confused. But to add to the confusion I found this description at yet another site.
The Potter’s Wheel is a novel written by John Watson and published in 1897. The story revolves around the life of a potter named David Grant, who lives in a small village in Scotland….
Except that last one is actually a modern novel by a man named Jeremy Benson, and the selling site did a poor job listing the book.
So yes, I’m confused. The book talks about the Christian life, with little hints of how God, as the skillful potter, will mold us from lumps of clay. Except that purpose for writing didn’t come through clearly in my read. And I read this on my noon reading time, in an undistracted way.
So how do I rate this book? Very readable. But loses points for failure to achieve a clear purpose. Overall, only 3-stars. I wish I could rate it higher, because I feel like I’m missing something that I should have gotten. But this is not a keeper. It goes up for sale tonight.
This 1999 book is likely of interest only to the staunchest of Lewis students.
In June we made a trip to Lake Jackson, TX to first watch two of our four grandkids and family pets, then to pick up grandson Ezra to spend a week with us. While there, I went through their shed and found books gathering dust. I brought two back with me: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and the Bright Shadow of Holiness by Gerard Reed. I’ve always intended to read The Hobbit, and have put it in my reading pile. I have other Tolkien items to read first. The other I couldn’t resist, being a Lewis fan. It came to the top of the pile in late October, and I finished its 177 pages in about 15 days.
I’m not sure that I got everything out of this book that I hoped to. It was kind of hard to understand the author’s purpose, and so I didn’t think that helped in my understanding.
This won’t be a long review. I’ll return this to my son-in-law on the next trip to Texas. I don’t plan on reading it again. I give it 3-stars. On to my next Lewis read, which will be an attempt at The Allegory of Love.
