I got a little hungry......

So within the past 2 weeks I've read about 4 books.  I was getting really bored at work and Facebook can only entertain you for so long.  I tried reading my Bible but sitting in silence, air conditioning, and randomly reading....well, lets just say I couldn't keep my eyes open.  

I searched for a book that I owned that I could read and found Freshman: The College Students Guide to Developing Wisdom by Mark Matlock.  I got it for free from NAVS.  It wasn't too bad, but wasn't incredibly gripping or relevant through all parts.  It was however a good guide for developing wisdom as an incoming freshman---what it was made for.  The last two chapters were what I found as the most important: a chapter on relationships and a chapter on mentors.  It was great that the book pointed out that college is not/should not be were you come to find the 'one', and if you do find someone godly qualities should be valued.  The other chapter emphasized the importance of finding someone to pour into your life.  I plan to give this book to my brother who just graduated high school.....let's hope he's still in the mood to read!!!

I moved on to And the Word Came With Power by Joanne Shetler.  I had read it once before the summer after my freshman year of college during Project Impact, but we had to read it in one day and I didn't remember much of it.  Though I do remember that it was amazing, and it still is!!  Its about a woman who surrenders her dreams of a normal life in a country home working as a nurse for an adventure with God.  She realizes she's supposed to be a missionary but fears that the people she speaks to (who will have probably never heard the gospel before) would only hear what she has to say.....which doesn't seem good enough.  She goes off with more schooling, becomes a nurse and falls in love with the need for translating the Word.  She 'signs up' and ends up in the Philippines as a full-time missionary, learning the language and translating God's word into a new language.  The people she lives with worship spirits for everything.  If someone is sick, they 'obviously' angered a spirit and must sacrifice an animal; if crops don't turn out well, they 'obviously' angered a spirit and again must sacrifice.  Half the time after they would sacrifice the spirits still wouldn't be pleased and would require more.  The people were truly enslaved.  They would come close to running out of food because they had to make so many sacrifices.  When Joanne showed up she didn't tolerate the animal sacrifices.  There was only one girl in the village who wouldn't give in and she lost her whole family.  Awesome events happen that are completely God and as the scriptures become translated into their language and the people read, their lives become transformed and they start living out the Church without much effort. 

This book gave me a deeper yearning to pray for people's passion for the Word of God.

I ran out of books, I had read all my new ones, and didn't want to read my old ones again.  I asked Chelsea if I could borrow some and the first I chose to read was The God Chasers: My Soul Follows Hard After Thee by Tommy Tenney.  It was amazing and I'll probably have to dedicate a whole other post to that book.  It talked a lot about revival: what it is, how we view it and how we should view it.  Basically revival is God's presence among us, it's repenting so He can come closer, it's hungering after God so much that your hearts yearns for more than that which satisfies.  He talked about how the presence of God is so heavy in a place that once someone enters, they immediately drop to their knees in repentance.  Then this is how numbers are added to the Church, God's presence--prayed for and brought on by His faithful and hungry followers will come and cause those who do not yet believe to cry out in repentance.  

Now I'm reading Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith by Michael Yaconelli.  It's very interesting and though I'm not on board with all of his thoughts and ideas, a lot of them are radical and can be life changing once application takes place.  It's interesting because he talks about how we train kids to behave by the worlds standards.  We kind of act like the Pharisees or disciples coming up with rules and laws while Jesus is breaking them down and freeing us from those snares.  I'm not done reading it yet but we'll see if it all comes together in the end, or if its mostly a strain of connected thoughts. 

Sometimes I wish I read faster, there's quite a few books that I'd like to read.  But then I would have to process faster---my brain might go crazy.