Random Comments on the Bible

YouVersion If you have an iPad, iPod, Blackberry or any other manner of smart-device, you have to check out the YouVersion app. It has tons of different versions of Bibles in all sorts of different languages -- I'm going to have to listen to the Arabic one sometime! You can download versions for offline reading and you can listen to audio versions. God bless the people at lifechurch.tv -- and/or their patrons -- because the material they're putting on there (free to their users) must be costing a fair bit of money. Cool features on YouVersion is that you can highlight a verse and tweet it or send it to facebook or email it. I just emailed Colossians 4:5-6 to my pastor.

I Kings 12:6-8 Then King Rehoboam discussed the matter with the older men who had counseled his father, Solomon. “What is your advice?” he asked. “How should I answer these people?” The older counselors replied, “If you are willing to be a servant to these people today and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your loyal subjects.” But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older men and instead asked the opinion of the young men who had grown up with him and were now his advisers. The old men who advised... Solomon. Solomon? The dude who had a worldwide rep of being the wisest man in the known world. That Solomon? And junior goes to his advisers for advice and then? He rejects their advice and asks his buddies whom he grew up with (read between the lines; somehow, I don't think these were buddies he studied the law with) and asks them for advice. Hmm, you gotta wonder if this was the son who Solomon wrote the proverbs for. What's the lesson here? If you have a choic...

I've been blogging for a couple of years now (roccomaiolo.blogspot.com) which, in the e-world we live in, seems like a lifetime. I can't remember which web site (webs or some wiki site) announced its 10 year anniversary! In other worlds, Hollywood for example, if you see a movie listing for 2001, you think, wow, 10 years ago? 2001 doesn't seem that long ago, but I guess, yeah, 10 years is a while. Anyhow, this past summer I tried to read the old testament like a novel -- I didn't quite make it as quickly as I wanted to, but I did get through it in about 3 months. Since January, I've been on one of those Bible-in-a-year reading plans. I've been able to stick with it for the most part. The NT has been better than the OT. For the OT, I find myself falling behind, then listening to the audio version and (not sure if you find this with audio books) minutes later I think, What did I just listen to? So here's the thing: often when I'm reading, esp. the OT, I...