Saturday 24 January 2009

It's going to be a good year


Today was a brilliant day and I'm so excited about the things ahead. We had a Leadership Day at church where our Pastor spoke to the leaders about the things that are ahead, our goals and the coming year, so I'm feeling very inspired. :0)

I've been reading Joseph Prince's book, Destined to Reign, recently and let me tell you, it is amazing! I had started to read it before but I decided to start from the beginning and really take it in chapter by chapter, taking notes and studying the Bible alongside it, and it is brilliant. This book has the potential to totally change your mindset about the gospel of grace and bring real understanding into why we believe what we believe - backing everything up with the Bible so that you can talk to others about it too! Prince's teaching totally changed our church so well worth a read!

I'm really seeing the effects of investing into my own life already so looking forward to doing some more reading in the near future. In fact, after today, my book list has grown 10 fold!

And I finished Sense and Sensibility! I absolutely loved it! It's nice to be able to read that kind of book on the train and then come home and read a study kind of book - strikes a good balance! Jane Austen's writing was beautiful and I can't wait to make a start on what's probably her most famous effort - Pride & Prejudice! I'm also curious about the other one I bought, Persuasion, because I haven't heard as much about it so not sure what to expect at all!

Anyway, Sense and Sensibility was beautiful, and I could see all the characters alive and well in our modern day society. In fact, I was thinking, Jane Austen - as classically acclaimed as she is - was just her days equivalent of Sophie Kinsella or Mariane Keys. Think about it, she was just writing romance laced with gossip and scandal which is essentially chick lit right? So just because it is set 200 years ago, it doesn't mean we don't see this kind of classical writing today, we do. The plot is always the same - just fast forward a few hundred years!

Speaking of Sophie Kinsella, I was excited to read that a movie has been made about our favourite Shopaholic, Becky Bloomwood. However, I was disappointed to find out they have made her into an American! No offence to my friends across the pond, but isn't the charm of Becky that she hails from a small British town, working in the City of London and shopping to her heart's content in the designer shops on Bond Street that she really can't afford?! And does making her an American render useless the whole plot of the book Shopaholic Abroad - where she moves to New York and tries to grow accustomed to US shopping! And I'm sorry but Isla Fisher?! How can you take an Australian and make her play an American who clearly should be British?! And she has ginger hair!! (My interpretation of Becky was that she is brunette and quite plain looking!)

So I'm not sure I'll be inclined to go and see that one.... Seven Pounds, on the other hand, is definitely on my list to see!

Goals:
  • Go to see Seven Pounds (remember the tissues!)
  • Read Pride and Prejudiced
  • Keep going with Joseph Prince
  • Seriously think about what I would like achieve this year in regards to Church, and how I can help to move the Church forward in relation to what was discussed today.

4 comments:

  1. Saw seven pounds was really good.
    Can't believe you loved Jane Austin so much there's loads of better classics.
    Jane Austins = todays' equivalent of trashy novels - well duh!!

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  2. It wasn't meant to be a literary revelation, merely an observation. And as for Jane Austen, it's not to say I won't love other classics too - I've just never read them. But I do love Jane Austen for the humour, cheerfulness, romance and era that it was written in.

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  3. Hi Em!
    Dan and I watch Joseph Prince on television nearly everyday. We love his teachings. I have his book Destined to Reign. I read it once and now am reading it for the second time. :o)

    I am looking forward to seeing the Shopaholic movie. I too thought of our dear character Becky as a brunette. Hmmm...

    Take care sweetie. Hope you have a fabulous Friday and weekend!

    Lots of love
    xxxx

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  4. Sedbergh,becoming renouned for being the book town of England,offers several book shops,my favourite being Westwood books where there is the danger of treating it more like a library as I browse through various titles and then fail to buy anything.However,they have a great range of classics and I love reading Jane Austin and the Brontes.You encourage me to select another and enjoy time out reading again.

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