First Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

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The Temptation of Jesus Lectionary:  22 Reading 1 -  Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17 Reading 2 -  Romans 5:12-19 Verse - Matthew 4:4b Gospel -  Matthew 4:1-11 One does not live on bread alone. Every year, we begin our Lenten journey in the same place: the desert.   The Gospel for this Sunday places Jesus in the wilderness, fasting and praying, confronted by temptation. In that stark setting we find the pattern of our own Lenten journey: a movement away from distraction toward the heart of God, a testing that reveals what truly sustains us, and a call to conversion that reshapes our lives.  Throughout our lives, we are frequently confronted with tests … and these tests generally reveal something about ourselves: In school, we demonstrate that we have mastered an academic subject with a test  in sports, we demonstrate our level of a particular skill with a contest  In life, we demonstrate the integri...
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Review: The Transforming Word Series, Volume 3: The Prophets: From Isaiah to Malachi

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The Transforming Word Series, Volume 3: The Prophets: From Isaiah to Malachi The Transforming Word Series, Volume 3: The Prophets: From Isaiah to Malachi by Mark W. Hamilton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book 3 of a five (5) volume set that tries to provide some context and commentary to the Bible (OT) with this book focused on the Prophets; a collection of writings with a penchant for highly symbolic language that can be tricky for the modern audience to interpret. The series is well organized, with each book starting with an overview of the topic and what to expect. I highly recommend the entire series, although the work has a bias toward the Christian Restoration tradition (where I am very comfortable).

This book includes an introduction of who and what were the Prophets along with a brief summary of how they were redacted and used. Each chapter is written by a different author and point of view that covers a specific prophet and includes Contexts, Commentary, Superscription, Theological Reflections, For Further Study and Works Cited. In the middle each author breaks down the writing into topical blocks for exegesis with a generous number of call outs for better understanding of concepts that might not be familiar today. Isaiah and Jeremiah are by far the bulk of the book, taking up almost half. Once you get into the minor prophets, the context and commentary (or generally summary) is probably as important as the detailed interpretation of the actual text, which is very short.

1. Reading the Prophets
2. Old Testament Prophecy
3. The Bible & Literature
4. Isaiah
5. Jeremiah
6. Lamentations
7. Ezekiel
8. Daniel
9. Hosea
10. Joel
11. Amos
12. Obadiah
13. Jonah
14. Micah
15. Nahum
16. Habakkuk
17. Zephaniah
18. Haggai
19. Zechariah
20. Malachi

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TheProphets #TheTransformingWordSeries #NetGalley.

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