Jungle Jack's The Wackiest, Wildest, and Weirdest Animals in the World

This is the latest book I have received in the Thomas Nelson book review blogger program. Overall, I thought it was pretty enjoyable. My two year old wasn't very interested but my five year old was. The book covers thirty different animals and tells interesting facts about each one. The pages are laid out nicely with photographs information about their habitat and behavior. My two year enjoyed seeing the baboon's butt and learning that the baby wallaby poos and pees inside of his mother's pouch.

The descriptions are brief enough to keep the interest of a five year old, too long for a two year old, and probably too short for older children. It's not the type of book a person should grab for a research paper.

I found the DVD less impressive. It's a collection of bloopers and not very funny ones. There were a few good scenes with the animals but for such a short DVD far too much time was spent talking about how Jack Hannah has trouble walking and talking at the same time.

Thomas Nelson is a Christian book publisher and there are references to God within the book as creator. There are no references to Jesus. The book generally refers to God as the one who gave the animals certain characteristics. It doesn't address the issue of evolution directly however it does speak of some species of animals being more closely related to other species which suggests some type of macro-evolution. But, I think that most could use the book without much problem. 

Matthew 8:1-13

Here's my translation of Matthew 8:1-13. Please critique.

8And after He had come down from the mountain, many crowds followed Him. ² And look, a leper after coming was reverencing Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You are able to cleanse me." ³ And after stretching out His hand, Jesus touched him, saying, "I am willing, be cleansed." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. ⁴ And Jesus says to him, "See that you speak to no one, rather go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony to them."

⁵ Now after He had entered Capernaum, a centurion approached Him, beseeching Him and saying, ⁶ "Lord, my servant is cast in the house as a paralytic, terribly being tormented." ⁷ And Jesus says to him, "Shall I myself come and heal him?" ⁸ And the centurion answering said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof; rather only speak with a word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹ For even I myself am a person under authority, having under myself soldiers, and I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does." ¹⁰ Now after hearing this, Jesus marveled and said to those following, "Amen I am saying to y o u, not even in Israel have I found so strong a faith! ¹¹ And I am saying to y o u that many will come from east and west and will recline at table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the reign of the heavens, ¹² but the sons of the reign will be thrown out into the outermost darkness; there the weeping and gnashing of teeth will be." ¹³ And Jesus said to the centurion, "Go, and as you believed let it happen for you." And his servant was healed that hour. 

Matthew 7:13-29

Here is my translation of Matthew 7:13-29. Please critique.

¹³ "Enter through the narrow gate; for broad is the gate and spacious is the way that is leading into the destruction, and many are those entering through it. ¹⁴ How narrow is the gate and how constricted is the way that is leading into the life, and few are those who are finding it!

¹⁵ "But beware of the false prophets, who are coming to y o u in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ By their fruits y o u will know them truly. People do not gather clusters of grapes from thorn-plants or figs from thistles, do they? ¹⁷ So, every healthy tree bears good fruits, but a diseased tree bears bad fruits. ¹⁸ A healthy tree is not able to bear bad fruits, nor is a diseased tree able to bear good fruits. ¹⁹ Every tree that is not bearing good fruit is being cut down and being thrown into the fire. ²⁰ So then, by their fruits y o u will know them truly.

²¹ "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the reign of the heavens, rather the one who does the will of My Father in the heavens. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, by Your name we prophesied, and by Your name we cast out demons, and by Your name we did many deeds of power, didn't we?' ²³ And then I will acknowledge to them, 'I never knew y o u; depart from Me, y o u who work lawlessness!'

²⁴ "Therefore, everyone who is hearing these words of Mine and doing them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock; ²⁵ and the rain came down and the rivers came and the winds blew and they struck that house, and it did not fall; because it had been founded upon the rock. ²⁶ And everyone who is hearing these words of Mine and is not doing them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand; ²⁷ and the rain came down and the rivers came and the winds blew and they beat against that house, and it fell, and its fall was great."

²⁸ And it happened, when Jesus completed these words, the crowds were being astonished at His teaching; ²⁹ for He was teaching them with the conviction that he had authority, and not as the scribes. 

Matthew 7:1-12

Here is my translation of Matthew 7:1-12. Please critique.

7"Do not be judging, so that y o u may not be judged; ² for y o u will be judged by the judgment with which y o u judge, and it will be measured to y o u by the measure with which y o u measure. ³ And why are you trying to see the speck in your brother's eye, but you do not consider the beam in your eye? ⁴ Or how will you say to your brother, 'Please let me take out the speck from your eye'; and look, the beam is in your eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First take out the beam from your eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck from your brother's eye. ⁶ Do not give the holy thing to the dogs, and do not throw y o ur pearls before swine lest they trample them with their feet, and after turning they tear y o u in pieces.

⁷ "Ask, and it will be given to y o u! seek, and y o u will find! Knock, and it will be opened to y o u! ⁸ For everyone asking receives, and the one seeking finds, and to the one knocking it will be opened. ⁹ Or who is the man among you who, if his son asks for bread, he will not grant him a stone, will he? ¹⁰ And if he asks for a fish, he will not grant to him a snake, will he? ¹¹ If y o u therefore, being evil, have known to give good gifts to y o ur children, by how much more will your Father who is in the heavens give good things to those who ask Him?

¹² "Therefore, all things that y o u wish that people would do for y o u, in this way also y o u do for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.  

Matthew 6:19-34

Here's my translation of Matthew 6:19-34. Please critique.

¹⁹ "Do not treasure for y o urselves treasures on earth, where moth and eating destroy and where thieves dig through and steal; ²⁰ but treasure for y o urselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor eating destroys and where thieves neither dig through nor steal; ²¹ For where y o ur treasure is, there y o ur heart will also be.

²² "The lamp of the body is the eye; therefore, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; ²³ but if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in you is darkness, how great must the darkness be?

²⁴ "No one is able to serve two lords; for either he will hate the one and he will love the other, or he will cling to the one and he will despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

²⁵ "On account of this I am saying to y o u, do not be anxious about y o ur life, what y o u will eat and what y o u will drink, nor about y o ur body, what you will wear; life is more than food and the body more than clothing, aren't they? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the sky, for they neither sow nor harvest nor gather into barns, and y o ur heavenly Father feeds them; y o u are worth much more than they, aren't y o u? ²⁷ And Who of y o u by being anxious is able add to his journey of days one cubit? ²⁸ And why are y o u anxious about clothing? Learn well the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither labor nor spin; ²⁹ but I am saying to y o u that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these! ³⁰ Now, if God thus clothes the grass of the field, even though it exists today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, by how much more will he not clothe y o u,       y o u little-faiths? ³¹ Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' ³² For the Gentiles seek all these things; for your heavenly Father has known that y o u need all these things. ³³ But seek first the reign of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to y o u.   ³⁴ Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow will be anxious about the things of itself; sufficient for the day is its own wickedness.  

Our twins preach the gospel better than many pastors

The following is conversation between my wife (Laura) and our five year old (Caleb).

Mom: What is your favorite part of the headstone? (She expected him to say the babies or the cross.)

Caleb: The names.

Mom: Why?

Caleb: Because I'm part of that.

Mom: What?

Caleb: My name is in the Book of Life with Isaac and Isaiah's.

The Word of Promise Next Generation New Testament

The Word of Promise Next Generation New Testament is a dramatic audio Bible. It contains three CD's with over 23 hours of MP3 audio files and a behind the scenes DVD. The translation being read is the International Children's Bible. The readers are mostly young stars such as American Idol's Jordan Sparks and famous Christian authors. I'm not familiar with most of the readers.

I didn't notice any glitches in the readings. Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly. I was able to easily load the mp3s onto my cell phone and play them back. I wasn't very familiar with the ICB translation prior to listening to this. It seems to work within a pretty limited vocabulary so it was easy to understand. I thought some of the sound effects during the Gospel readings were quite good. If anything they, could have been turned up notch.

Unfortunately, the readability of the ICB translation seems to sacrifice a lot of accuracy. There's a lot of paraphrasing. The paraphrasing means that they made a lot of exegetical decisions for the listener and I think in many cases they went the wrong way. Passages that are actually talking about teachers being judged by the truth of their teachings are interpreted to be talking about everyone being judged by their works.

 I found the music distracting. It reminded me of something you might hear in the background of some new age motivational tape. They didn't really seem to go along with the passages very well. As I mentioned earlier, I thought that the sound effects in the Gospels were generally good but in other places like the Apocalypse I thought they sounded kind of silly.

The readers were a mixed bag. There were a couple that were good but overall I thought that they were bad choices. A lot of the male readers sounded pretty feminine when they were reading their parts. I though Herod was actually being read by a woman when I first heard it but it was actually a man reading. The person reading the lines of Jesus made Jesus sound like some sort of stoned cult leader just about to fall asleep. I'm pretty sure that when Jesus was preaching to thousands of people he was projecting His voice and not sounding like He was just about to turn to the guy next to him and ask him to pass the joint. If the reader was able to keep up how he sounded when he was playing Jesus as He was casting out demons for the rest of the reading it might not have been so bad. 

I'm hoping that some day I'll come across a dramatized audio Bible that tries to be more faithful to what some of these people would have sounded like. I understand that complete imitation is impossible but it would be nice if they didn't sound like generic seeker-sensitive worship leaders.