I recently finished Mark Batterson’s book – In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. We are having him speak at Central for our prayer conference in February so I wanted to read his book before then. The book is based on a seemingly obscure story in the Bible about a guy named Benaiah chasing down a lion (1 Chronicles 11:22-25 and 2 Samuel 23:20-23).

I really enjoyed it. There were two themes in it that I thought he developed well. The first and most dominant theme was the idea that Christianity should involve taking risks. Too often we think of it solely as not doing bad things. Batterson makes the point that doing the right things is more important than not doing the wrong things. Here are a few quotes from the book that are along the lines of following God by taking the risks that He has for us:

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One of my traditions each year has been to switch Bible versions that I’m reading through. This allows it to stay fresh and keeps me from getting locked into one version. For 2010 I read through the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version) and for 2011 I’m going to read through the TNIV (Today’s New International Version). I’d recommend you consider adopting this habit as well.

In addition, I’m going to start another yearly habit of switching up my Bible reading plans. For 2010 I did the Route 66 plan with all of Central. After much consideration and research I have found a new one for 2011. I am very excited to go through the Chronological reading plan. It is the Bible in a year, but not in the order it appears. They put it into the order they think fits best as it happened chronologically.

In case you are totally confused right now, here is a preview of what the first 5 days look like:

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Here are a few of my favorite thoughts on Dallas Willard’s Divine Conspiracy for chapter 8. Only two chapters left after this and then I will have blogged through this whole behemoth of a book!

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