State of the Dead discovery

Job still isn't my favourite book but I am getting more out of it than the last time I read it. In today's reading (Job 14-16) I discovered that the book of Job talks about death as a sleep (Job 14: 10-12). I never realized that before. I still wish that Job had been written more as a story and less as poetic dialogue, petitions, and prayers but I'm doing my best to try to gain something from each reading.

Have to do a better Job

It's only the fourth day of our reading-the-Bible-in-a-year resolution and I've already messed up. Last night I opened my Bible to Genesis 12 and read the four chapters I thought I was supposed to read for January 4 plus an extra one because I got to the part about Hagar and Ishmael and couldn't just stop without reading that chapter, too. I didn't actually go check to make sure it was the right reading for the day, but just started where Jonathan and I had left off the day before and read five chapters, which I assumed was more than the allotted reading for the day. I was feeling pretty good about how well I have kept up with this project so far and mentioned to Jonathan this evening that I'd even done a little extra reading in Genesis last night. "Ali, the reading for yesterday was the first five chapters of Job," he set me straight. "Job? Already? Man, here I thought I was ahead and now I find out that not only am I behind by a day's reading, but I already have to start the book of Job?" I questioned, watching him nod as I finished my mini-rant.

I've read Job once. Several years ago, likely when I was still in high school, I read the book in one sitting when I decided to read through several books of the Bible on a Sabbath afternoon. I wasn't impressed with much of the book after the first two chapters. This time around I'm going to try to keep a more open mind so I can learn from Job's conversations with God and the dialogue between Job and his three friends. Besides Job was included in the Bible so that must mean there's something (probably a lot of things) I can gain from my second time reading through the book.

A new year's resolution / In the Beginning

Ali and I decided to read through the Bible this year, going by historical order. I'm pretty excited about doing this, and hope that it will be a great blessing to us!

Today we started with reading Genesis 1-3. Chapter 1 outlines what took place in the six days of creation. Chapter 2 kind of expands on certain aspects of that, and also describes the countryside surrounding the Garden a bit. Finally, Chapter 3 tells the story of Adam and Eve's fall, and God's curse laid on them, on the earth, and on the Serpent.