New book

Well, not really new. It came out in 2017, so new in the sense that we're starting to excerpt from it. As I said a couple of weeks ago, I read it earlier this year, but wasn't sure what to make of some of it, so I started rereading it. It's been a bit slow in the reread because of the time of year. I've been doing quite a bit of garden and yard work. Because I use a reel mower and am mowing the neighbor's yard as well, it takes me about 2.5 hours, plus another 1.5 hours to trim. That doesn't sound like much, but that's 4 hours away from reading. And, I've added in a chapter of the Hebrew Bible and a chapter of the Greek New Testament each day, too. And, of course, there's the garden and then we tend to go for longer walks in the summer. So, as you can see, it all adds up.

OK, enough on the apologies! Here's the first excerpt:

We propose that the Bible is given to us not to provide a list of rules for behavior but to reveal God’s plans and purposes to us, which in turn will allow us to participate with him in those plans and purposes. We believe that God’s plans and purposes are good and that by our participation we will contribute to the manifestation of that goodness in some way. When we get to the conquest, it is easy to become confused about how God's plans and purposes represented there are good and how they should affect our thinking about his goodness and ours.— The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest, 15–16