What are you reading?

I was thinking about all of the books I currently have in progress.

I just finished God's Favorite Place on Earth by Frank Viola. This was an interesting look at the town of Bethany, and how much of Jesus' life and ministry revolved around it, especially in His final week before the crucifixion.

I'm also currently reading (in fits and starts) Blood Covenant by Michael Franzese. Michael came and spoke out our church several years ago, and the thought of a mobster that quit the mob and survived is just fascinating to me.

In the Christian Living realm, I'm reading Why Trust Jesus?: An Honest Look at Doubts, Plans, Hurts, Desires, Fears, Questions, and Pleasures by Dave Sterrett. I'll be perfectly honest. I wasn't very familiar with him at all, but this book popped up free for a short time in the Kindle version, so I nabbed it. It's an easy read so far (I'm not very far into it yet). It's a straightforward look at who Jesus is, and why that matters. It's a "back to the basics" type book, which I think is good to revisit every now and then.

Finally, in the Christian fiction realm, I'm currently reading Green by Ted Dekker. It's part of his Circle series. I'd previously read the other three books, but picked up the boxed set of all four when I ran across it at Half Price Books one day. It's basically a parable writ large, across four books, that ties into another series (The Paradise Trilogy) that he wrote.

So what has me thinking about what I'm reading? It's realizing what I'm NOT reading, at least not regularly or enough. I have an anthology of 66 books that I carry around frequently. I have a study version of it, multiple translations in electronic version, and accounts on several websites to try and help me study it. Yet I may read a few passages each morning with my devotionals, and a bit more here and there if I'm studying for a lesson. Yet I don't treat my Bible as a work of literature to sit down and read, and that's a shame.

I look forward to grabbing a Dekker book, or an essay by John Piper, or the latest from David Platt. Yet I find it burdensome to sit down with the Word of God and read it. The full arc of human history is spelled out in its pages, from the creation of the world to the fall of man to our final redemption through Christ's death on the cross. It's part narrative, part poetry, part mystery, part thriller, and wholly truth.

I wonder. If God's people spent as much time reading and studying His Word as we do immersing ourselves in all of the other mindless and inane forms of entertainment at our disposal, what would our world look like?

2 Timothy 3:16
Psalm 119:11
2 Timothy 2:15
Deuteronomy 11:18

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)