Christmas comes early....

We went to a wedding in Colorado & happened to get some early Christmas presents from my wife's family. I was thrilled to received 2 books off my AMAZON wish list. The Ritual of the Temple in the Time of Christ by Leen & Kathleen Ritmeyer is a wonderfully illustrated book with many pictures and illustrations. The range of topics includes:

• The Temple Platform
• The Temple
• The Priestly Functions
• Sabbath in the Temple
• Calendar of Jewish Feasts
• Purifications and Vows
• The Hope of Rebuilding the Temple

I'm going to enjoy sharing the excellent illustrations with my children as we talk about the temple during our family devotions.

The other book I received is Making a Meal of It: Rethinking the Theology of the Lord's Supper. In this book, Ben Witherington helps us to explore and better understand the scrament of holy communion. This will be one of the books I'll work through when I take time off for Christmas.

The Bible Experience from Zondervan

When I was reading on Ben Witherington's blog this morning, he had a recommendation for The Bible Experience from Zondervan. I'm not much into audio books, but in this case I think I'd make an exception. I listened to a few of the clips from this dramatized bible and it is quite moving. This would probably be something better for my commute than listening to talk radio. Many of us are always striving to get more Bible reading time into our day. This could be helpful in that regard. This would certainly be a unique Christmas gift. You can buy the old testament, new testament or the entire bible. You also have the option of getting it in cd audio or mp3 format. You can buy each book of the bible in mp3 format for around $4.00 on the Zondervan site as well as in the apple store on itunes. Happy listening!

Advent Sale at Desiring God

The folks over at Desiring God are having an advent sale and will be featuring a different book each week. This week's book is Battling Unbelief by John Piper for $4.99.