The New NIV Bible (2011 edition)

The NIV 2011

To be launched on March 2011, this is the latest addition to the bludgeoning collection of New International Version (NIV) Bibles. It is meant to replaced the much maligned TNIV, which has been much criticized, chief of all being the changing of the original texts to be more 'gender-neutral.'  From what I know, the history of the NIV is roughly as follows:

• 1973 - New Testament released;  
• 1978 - The full NIV text containing both the OT and NT released;
• 1984 - second revision;
• 1996 - NIV readers version; (NIrV for early readers)
• 2002 - Today's New International Version (TNIV)
• 2010 - Latest version to be released in print (Mar 1, 2011)

As a service to my readers, here are a few ways you can read the NIV (c) 2010 version. 

1) ONLINE SOURCES (with Internet connection)

• BibleGateway - Choose "NIV, 2010" (online since Nov 1st, 2010)
• Biblica website - (link)
• Youversion website - (link)

2) OFFLINE RESOURCES (after download and install)

• Kindle - New International Version; (ebook)
• Free download of NIV ("youversion" up to Mar 1st, 2011; only for Apple iPad, iPods, iPhones and Androids)
  downloading is a little tricky. first you'll need to download a YOUVERSION Bible app from the Apple app store on your device. After downloading the app, search for the Bible version WITHIN the app. If you see a green icon, click that one in order to download.
  
• FREE New Testament NIV MP3 downloads (iTunes)
• FREE Old Testament NIV MP3 downloads (iTunes)
• For printed copies, you can buy it at all major bookstores from March 1st, 2011.

3) REFERENCES

• Who translated the NIV (c) 2010 edition? (link)
  Hey, there's a few professors from Regent-College. Woo Hoo!
  
  
• All Things NIV (link)
• News updates on the new NIV (link)

I make more comments once I get hold of a printed copy.

conrade

Book: "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" (Donald Miller)

TITLE: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
AUTHOR: Donald Miller
PUBLISHER: Thomas-Nelson, 2010.

The accolades and positive blurbs on the inside flaps of the book, look like movie trailers enticing any reader to read it. I am not disappointed. Packed with snippets of the author's supposedly 'boring' life, this book is a story of how the author re-writes his life by 'story-ing' it. The book begins with a bleak overview of the downturn in the author's personal life, and ends with a remarkable glimmer of hope. Using many story-writing tips and movie making insights (learned from his friends Ben and Steve), Miller finds himself encouraged, as he 'edits' his life.

I love the way he puts what he learned into practice. As a result, Miller manages to create a living story of his past. The pages are filled with honesty, themselves illuminated with sparkling thoughts about the most mundane things in life. Readers will be encouraged, even charged up to write their own stories. This book is not exactly a memoir. It looks more like Miller teaching himself that life is not a matter of positive or negative moments. It is about going through it with a hope that at the end, real meaning will be discovered, with God shining His torch to light the way. I find myself motivated to write my own story. More significantly, the underlying message is that we can live a meaningful life. We just need to learn to story our lives, with help from others, and God.

If there is any critique I have, it will be the classification of 'Spirituality' that tends to throw the prospective buyer off. It is more a memoir, quite close to what Anne Lamott's writings do.  This is more evident toward the end of Miller's book. The chapters while sequenced in a purposeful manner, contains lots of events, thoughts, and emotions that do not seem to fall appropriately under the stated category.  Thus it makes one suspect if the events, like square pegs have been squeezed into round holes. It does make me curious as to how 'real' the history is.

Overall, this book is certainly a good book for prospective writers to read. It should be one of the key primers for anyone desiring to tell stories, especially good stories.

conrade

---

Here's a link to one of Don Miller video promotionals on the book (Mar 7th, 2011)

What story are you telling? from Rhetorik Creative on Vimeo.

Book Review - "The Purpose of Passion"

TITLE: The Purpose of Passion - Dante's Epic Vision of Romantic Love
AUTHORS: Kurt Bruner & Jim Ware
PUBLISHED: Carol Stream, IL: Saltriver-Tyndale House, 2010.

In a world flooded with superficial proclamations of love, where societies intoxicate themselves with fantasies of self-centered romance, this book is a necessary corrective. Journeying through Dante's famous The Divine Comedy, the authors builds a strong case for the need to recover the true meaning of passion and love. With the pursuit of love and passion as the main goal, Bruner and Ware guides the reader through the three stages of the odyssey of love, namely Hell (Inferno), Purgatory, and Paradise. Spirituality and biblical themes are brilliantly integrated with Dante's metaphor of love's journey. While the world sees romantic love as 'self-satisfaction,' Dante's vision reveals true love as 'self-sacrifice.' The world's vision of love tries to be effective but is largely 'defective.' God's vision of love is pro-active and progressive. This books brings both together in one compelling purpose of passion, through a journey powered by love.

The Three-Stage Journey of Love
Bruner and Ware begins with how true love gets warped. They point out that the Italian word 'amore' suggests 'potentiality' rather than an eventuality. In other words, love is more a journey rather than a destination. This is why true romantic love cultivates and not manipulate. Our destination is God, not love. Love is the process.

The authors use Dante's vision of a beautiful woman Beatrice to lead him through the journey. Beatrice is his spiritual guide, who helps him to realize how repulsive self-love is, and how attractive and liberating true love is. In the first stage, Dante is given a taste of the evils of self-love. He goes through seven circles of false love (Limbo, Self-Indulgence, Gluttons, Misers/Spendthrifts, Wrathful, Heretics, Eternal Violence). All these are perversions of love, which mars the world.

The second stage (purgatory) is essentially purging all of theses false loves, painful but necessary in order to prepare for the third stage. The final stage is the pursuit of true love (paradise), again with Beatrice as his spiritual guide. The central message of the book is this:

"Genuine love is something of which we can never have too much. As long as it is pure, as long as its trajectory remains straight and true, love must eventually lead us aright. If it is clean, wholesome, appropriate, and selfless, then a passion for something or someone other than ourselves inevitably carries about it a certain aura of holiness." (129)

Ditto.

My Comments
I am blown away by this book for its sheer depth of insight and the clear application in real life. Like Beatrice guiding Dante's journey through the ups and downs of love, the authors guide the reader through clear markers making this book not only a delight to read but a pleasure to follow. Each chapter begins with a quote from Dante's epic literature, and ends with a reflection. Each part starts with a brief explanation of Dante's contexts, and concludes with a personal challenge to 'get personal.' I appreciate the clear biblical linkages and the weaving of Dante's medieval message with contemporary applications. With skill and formidable understanding of Dante's theology and philosophy, this book gives the modern reader a great compass to carry with regards to the understanding of true romance and authentic love. There are so many things to learn from, with lessons for the married and the unmarried; loved and the unloved. Push aside those romantic novels out there in the market that focuses more on self-satisfaction and self-gratification. Do not read any other love or romance books until you have read this book. If you find this book hard to read and understand, re-read it. It is worth it.

Ratings: 5 stars of 5.

conrade

Disclosure: To comply with regulations introduced by the Federal Trade Commission, Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes only. I am not required to write a positive review, and the opinions expressed are freely mine.

On Emergency Workers - Real Emergency or Abuse of Privilege?

The sirens scream. The loud hailer roar. The pressing of the horn signals the coming of an emergency team. The ambulance has it. The police patrol car has it. The gigantic fire engine has it. All it takes is the sounding of the emergency call, and the whole world has to literally stop. It is about saving lives. It is about public acknowledgment that these emergency workers have more important tasks to be done.

As a driver, I will obediently slow down, and stop my care at a safe spot. After all, the emergency vehicles can come in any direction, and travel in any open roads. For the sake of the ambulances, the general public and the people requesting for an emergency rescue, the emergency workers have the right of way. Literally always. The law demands it.

1) Blocking Road Arteries

This morning, I heard the sound of a fire-engine and an ambulance at my neighbourhood. This is not surprising as there is a fire station not too far away from where I live. I learned that a neighbour of mine has an emergency. Unfortunately, the only way in and out of my townhouse complex is a narrow one-and-half lane. The fire-engine occupies the left lane. The ambulance sits arrogantly on the right lane, completely blocking off all traffic in and out of the townhouse complex. After all, if there is an emergency, everyone needs to wait. Right? What I observe is even more worrying. 

• The emergency workers do not seem to care about others in the neighbourhood;
• They have their own sense of priority, without considering other people may have their legitimate priorities too.
• Of the 5-6 guys I saw, most of the time, only 2 were actively working while the rest are standing around.

2) Inconsiderate Behaviour?

A few of my neighbours also waited. One honked in frustration as she had a medical appointment. Another backed his car to his own parking lot, probably late for work. Yet, another utility company decided to park somewhere else. I waited in my car, firstly to see how my neighbour is doing, and secondly to see how fast the workers are responding. I watched my clock. 20 minutes. It took 20 minutes to get the sick person onto the stretcher. One of my frustrated elderly neighbours gave up driving, and decided to take the bus. Another neighbour also told me that it is much better to just walk. She seemed to know that there is no point talking with these workers. Emergency workers there behaved in a world of their own.

I thought to myself: "If the whole world is waiting for the emergency workers to do their job, shouldn't you at least be fast and responsive to the sick person? ok, You want to block the road. Consider if you are also blocking other legitimate emergencies?"

Isn't it too much to expect emergency workers to at least work at an emergency pace? If it was my grandmother who is in an emergency, 20 minutes is far too long. Way too long. I told that to one of the workers, and he simply shrugged off my comment about their slow pace. I admit that I am annoyed when they deliberately shut off all access roads. Yet, the bigger worry is not travel inconvenience, but the BEHAVIOUR of these emergency workers. 

3) Real Emergency or Abuse of Power?

There is a fine line between public service and abuse of power. I hope that all emergency workers will realize that. I am not impressed this morning. Even if I can wait 20 minutes in the car to wait for the ambulance, the paramedics, and the fire engines to move, I am not sure if all emergency patients can. What if by blocking everybody else with their vehicles on the basis of their own emergency case, they have unwittingly blocked another emergency in the neighbourhood?

Lest I be mistaken, I am all in support of emergency workers. I think they do society a great service. However, when it comes to inefficiency and a lack of urgency in their roles, that is troubling. Even more disturbing will be any abuse of power in the name of an emergency. I really hope the authorities will be on a constant check against such abuse. Otherwise, the general public in Vancouver, tax payors, and concerned citizens will be the ones who are being abused.

conrade

Review: "Have a Little Faith" (Mitch Albom)

TITLE: Have A Little Faith
AUTHOR: Mitch Albom
PUBLISHED: Thorndike Press, 2009.

Two men. Two stories. One common theme. Albom continues this genre of speaking meaning into living and dying. While the title of the book suggests it being a religious book, it is more of a reflection, or a writing of eulogies for two friends the author know personally. If you have read his previous bestseller, "Tuesdays with Morrie," you will probably be familiar with the style of interview-cum-retelling of the lives of individuals. If there is a difference between Albom's previous book and this, it will be in terms of how one anticipates dying. In Tuesdays with Morrie, Albom spends each Tuesday talking with a Professor dying from ALS. In Have a Little Faith,  Albom talks about two men of faith, who despite coming from different backgrounds, ends up in a similar line of ministry of help. Both have asked Albom to meet with them on a regular basis, and eventually to write their eulogies.

Albom cleverly keeps the pace of the book vivid, by alternating story snippets of the two men. One is a Jewish rabbi (known as Reb) while the other is a Protestant pastor (known as Henry). It is a gentle retelling of how these men practiced faith, after going through the storms of life. There are three things that I learn from the reading of this book.

Book: Sabbath and Jubilee (Richard H Lowery)

TITLE: Sabbath and Jubilee
AUTHOR: Richard H Lowery
PUBLISHED: St Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2000.

This book is part of a series entitled: "Understanding biblical themes." In a nutshell, this book is about the biblical intent of the Jewish Sabbath and Jubilee that occurs all over the Old and New Testament. With conviction and exegetical skill, Lowery weaves in a three-tiered purpose behind the Sabbath and Jubilee. Firstly, the Sabbath and Jubilee is meant to sustain a healthy household or family unit. Secondly, the practice of the Sabbath and Jubilee has positive implications for both the environment as well as the economy. Thirdly, it inculcates in the humankind the need to share, and spread wealth globally.

Update for Regent-College online Resources

Regent-College has updated its online offerings. I offer it here as a service for Regent alums and anybody interested in Regent-College.

1. The ETCETERA (link)
   - a student newsletter issue weekly during regular school terms. Includes the GREENSHEET that gives tips for students on a tight budget.
   
2. CRUX online (link)
   - this issue Fall 2010 is free online.
   
3. Regent-College Miscellaneous (link)
   - contains brochures, and publishing materials
   
4. Regent Pulpit Swap (link)
   
   
5. Alums only (link)
   
   
6. Twitter @ Regent (link)
   
   
7. Facebook @ Regent (link)
   
   
8. Regent-College official website (link)
   
   
9. Regent-College Library (link)
   
   
10. Regent Bookstore (link)
    
    
11. Regent Audio (link)
    
    
12. Regent Radio (link)
    
    ======================
    the following links are submitted by Sharon of Regent-College Alumni Office. Thanks Sharon!
    ======================
    
13. Regent Cosmos (link)
    
    
14. Regent Marketplace (link)
    
    
15. Regent Linkedin contact (link)
    
    
16. Youtube video on Regent (link)
    
    
17. Summer School 2011 (new!) [Thanks Rosie for this!)
    

Note: This link page will grow and get updated as new information is available.

c