Books and Video Games

I recently took up some new habits. No, not more video games. Less of those. More books! Sadly I still remember the reading blog I tried to start last year along with that a goal to read around 30 books. I think I only read one book in all that time, and I was only finishing something that had been started long ago! OK, maybe two, and "How to Talk to Girls" by Alec Greven does NOT count. I've graduated! And though I've not yet received my $85,000 piece of paper signifying so, I've got oodles of time more than I used to. I can only watch monster and careerbuilder for so long.

Anyway, spurred on by the new year turning, I started doing devotions and having QTs daily since the 30th of December of last year. For me, the new year started then. And even though I've read Genesis countless times, God is still revealing much! I picked up Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin again. It's been a convicting read so far, reading it to understand that the way I see worship is at best a flawed view. And improving it vital to worshiping everywhere! I came across this quote I really liked, which is actually a quote from another book (coming up soon on my reading list!) called Living the Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney.

Reminding ourselves of the gospel is the most important daily habit we can establish. If the gospel is the most vital news in the world, and if salvation by grace is the defining truth of our existence, we should create ways to immerse ourselves in these truths every day. No days off allowed (135).

No days off allowed! I love that part. Underlined it. This should be my quote of the year.

Another thing that pushed me away from reading spiritual books was that at one point someone had told me not to rely on them for spiritual guidance, that the Bible was all I need. I wouldn't say that this is entirely wrong; the Bible is the only word that is God-breathed. But for this I bring another quote from Kauflin himself:

I've met guys who don't read theology books because they don't want their understanding of the Bible to be influenced by anyone else. What they're saying is: "God couldn't possibly use another person to help me understand his Word more clearly." That's ridiculous. I need all the help I can get. So do you (28).

I definitely need all the help I can get. And as long as I'm keeping the Word first, I can always take extra time to gain more insight.

OK it turns out I couldn't connect books to video games. It makes sense since they are opposites in terms of hobbies, for the most part. If I could have a video game cause me to grow as much as this book or the Bible is doing right now, then I'd be playing that. (At the old church when a couple of us at TAFPC were just kids, we'd play this game called Titus, I think. It was this guy who would travel around picking up Bibles in random places, avoiding snakes and cactus along the way. It was pretty fun until the church adults uninstalled it because we were playing it instead of Bible Study. GG.) I'll write about video games some other day.