The the rest of the afternoon was spent discussing the same mentioned book from the last post. By the end of the day we had so many "wow, did he really say that?" moments that we finally got tired of it and went off in our own directions. I will probably return to it some time today; perhaps because I am a glutton for frustration or simply because I feel the need to more fully understand this teaching so that I will know how to speak to or about it.
Speaking of reading, I have actually been pleased that my reading ability has improved. About a year ago, my reading and attention span for it was rather limited. Lyme does that to you-makes it difficult to concentrate and to remember.
I have never had the greatest retention or complete word recall (like members of my family) but reading has been an essential part of my life...so it feels good to sit and read unlike a year ago, where it was mostly just words on paper.
And since I am talking about reading, the past several months, I have been working through a stack of books on Russian history, mostly about the Bolshevik revolution and the early years of communism. An affective way to study any subject but most particularly history is to read stacks of books on a particular time frame, by various authors and use biographies as much as possible...and I think this will continue to be my focus into 2015. I've learned a good deal but honestly, I am still ignorant when it comes to the topic. Russia is a huge land mass with a very diverse history of peoples. As Americans we often have difficulty with European history because we do not understand that aspect of having a "sovereign", likewise why so many people have issues in or with the Church, because they do not understand the sovereignty of God.
A really great book on that topic is A.W. Pink's, The Sovereignty of God. If you make a New Year reading list, I highly recommend this short book (with short readable chapter) that can be found online free. I plan to re-reading it in the coming days. The past year was difficult on many fronts and the least of those was the trials of daily caring for my father-in-law. Much went on in the background of our lives that was not recorded here. I don't make New Years resolutions but I do often spend this week between the Christmas wrapping paper and the New Years celebration to kind of reorient. So being refreshed by a good book with familiar and encouraging content seems a good start for a new year.