AngelaBenson.com

Violence. Cutting off heads. Ripping babies from the stomachs of pregnant women. Sounds like a horror show, right? Wrong. It’s the Bible! This week has been 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Kings. These are some violent, fighting-filled books. Sometimes I forget about that. In the past, I’ve breezed through some of these books, captivated by the non-stop action. But this week, I saw and felt the violence. War is horrible, then and now.

Onward. The thought for this week is best captured in a scripture covered in an earlier week, Deut 9:4-6 (NIV):

After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

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Well, I’m more of TV person actually. I’m a Law and Order junkie (all versions, but the original is dearest to my heart) and I’m still recovering from the recently announced cancellation of The West Wing.

I think my preference for TV is a generational thing. A television is on in my house, almost all the time, and many times more than one is on. To make it even worse, sometimes they’re not even on the same channel. Yes, I have issues. Anyway, television doesn’t distract me; it’s very easy to tune out. Radio (listening to music, in general) is much different; it commands my attention. Since I’m a compulsive multi-tasker, I can’t do much listening to music.

But I do like music and I need to update my gospel collection. I’m serious when I say update. My collection consists of the likes of the Winans (they’re old now, but they used to be young ), Bee Bee and CeCe, Keith Green and Amy Grant. Okay, I do have some Kirk Franklin, a Mary, Mary and a recent Donnie McClurkin. I bought Kanye but something tells me that’s not gospel.

Anyway, I need some help so I’m asking for recommendations. Tell me what you like and I’ll try it. I have a subscription to Rhapsody so I can easily try new artists before I buy.

Please help!

I certainly hope you all are enjoying this challenge as much as I am. I find myself more excited each day. I usually read at 11pm at night, because I needed a set time to get started with the challenge. But I find myself watching the clock and hoping the time will speed past. Well, this week I just gave up and read early because I couldn’t wait. Then I had to force myself not to read ahead of the day’s scheduled reading. Well, that plan is not working either ‘cos I’m a bit ahead. I’ve also reverted back to the New Living Translation that I normally read, rather than the NIV 90 Day Bible. The print in my Bible is a bit larger than that in the 90 Day Bible so I find it much easier to read. Think it, but don’t say it: Angela’s getting old(er).

Now on to this week’s reading. As usual, there’s so much to talk about. Joshua, Judges, Ruth and 1 Samuel have some of the most fascinating people in the Bible. I’m going to refrain from picking one to talk about and go with the general theme of what happens when we forget the past.

After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the LORD or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. -Judges 2:10 (NLT)

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I just found out that The Amen Sisters hit #10 on the Essence list of Best-selling Hardcover Fiction Books for February 2006. The Top 10 Books are posted on Essence.com while only the Top 5 are published in the magazine.

This is the first time one of my books has made this list so I’m feeling especially blessed. What a wonderful way to end the week! My heartfelt thanks to each of the readers who purchased The Amen Sisters and gave it the numbers to make the list. Have a great weekend!

The mailing list contest ended on January 15, 2006, and the winners have been chosen. Drum roll, please.

Winner: Crystal Adams. Crystal will receive a gift basket that includes autographed book club edition copies (hardcover) of all three of my Christian titles–Awakening Mercy, Abiding Hope, and The Amen Sisters–and one of the Ndebele dolls that I purchased when I was in South Africa last summer.

Two runners-up will receive $25 gift certificates to the online bookstore of their choice.

First Runner-Up: Gloria Bean

Second Runner-Up: Elayne Jefferson

My hearty congratulations to the winners and my heart-felt thanks to all the contest participants. I plan to host at least one contest each month so there’s still hope for those of you who didn’t win this time. Keep visiting this site and don’t give up.

YAY! Another week completed! I hope you all are getting as much out of the readings as I am. Though I have to confess something to you. I hate to admit this but my eyes started to roll back in my head at the prospect of reading Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy in a single week. You know, all that stuff about offerings and tribal counts had me a bit apprehensive. But I was pleasantly surprised with how engaged I was. Two themes seemed to blare out at me: ministry and relationship.

Let’s talk a bit about ministry first. What immediately got me was the work of the priests. Talk about a full-time job! Now those guys really couldn’t do anything else. All those rules. I can’t even imagine. Reading those passages made me appreciate the simplicity of life we now have with God because of Christ. And, poor Moses! I found myself wanting to smack down the Israelites a time or two myself, until it occurred to me that I’m probably more like the Israelites than I am like Moses. Talk about an “ouch” moment. Anyway, my hat is off to ministers who serve over congregations, large and small. No doubt the hardest part of ministry is dealing with the people God put under your leadership.

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I love to read! I admit it. And I love talking to people about books. I don’t get to do it much, because as an author, I feel uneasy giving public commentary on the work of others. And I won’t do it here on this blog. What I will do follow in the steps of LaShaunda Hoffman and tell you what I’m reading, every now and then. I’ll just list the books with no commentary. Of course, you’re free to comment.

Because I read so widely, I’m going to restrict my list to Christian fiction titles by authors who describe their work as Christian fiction. My first reads for 2006 are/were:

All Things Hidden, Judy Candis
Shades of Gray, Jacqueline Thomas
Made of Honor, Marilynn Griffith
Sammy on Vacation, Robin Hardy

Let’s celebrate! We made it through our first week of the Read the Bible in 90 Days Challenge. How was your week? I have to say that mine was challenging and wonderful. I’m doing my reading at night and so far I’ve only fallen asleep once, and then I was only two pages short of the day’s goals.

There is a lot to talk about from the week’s reading, but I’ll just focus on one person: Joseph. I’m encouraged anew every time I read his story. Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery and then go back and tell his father that he’s dead. Now, when you think about it, Joseph didn’t have the best people skills in the world. He was his dad’s favorite; he knew it and all his brothers knew it. He was also a little bit of a tattler, going back and reporting to his dad on his brothers’ work. I also think he went into a bit of overkill in telling his brothers about the dreams he was having in which they were bowing down to him. That really didn’t go over well. Of course, all of this is no reason for his brothers to do what they did, but Joseph was a bit of an irritant to them. I can think of a few irritants in my life. How about you?

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Thanks to all who’ve joined my Feedblitz mailing list. The drawing for the prizes will be held on January 15th so there’s still time to join. Many of you have joined from my yahoogroups list while some of you are new. For you yahoogroups people, will you let me know which you like best — yahoogroups or Feedblitz. There is a major difference in the two. Yahoogroups gives you the option of reading all the messages on the Web or getting them in a daily digest in your mailbox. Feedblitz is limited to a daily digest. Believe it or not, I’m thinking about keeping both lists. What do you think?

One more thing. If you have an anonymous subscription with Feedblitz, you need to change it to your email address by the date of the drawing. Of course, you can change it back to anonymous after the drawing.