Top Posts Of 2011

There are only a few more days in 2011. That is hard to believe.

But it’s been a productive year here at JeffRandleman.com.

It started off with a bang, and I wrote my first of the post of the year sitting in a Starbucks with my wife, waiting for labor to escalate.  But as it turns out, it would be another week before Abigail, our fifth child, arrived.

It was turbulent.  I lost both my dad and my step-dad on the same day, the Sunday after Father’s Day, and Heather lost her mother a few weeks later.

It was wide spread.  I took trips to Arizona, Texas, Colorado and Minnesota this year.

Blog

  • I’ve written 181 posts this year.
  • I’ve seen my statistics grow incrementally almost all year long, resulting in ten times the amount of traffic I saw at this time last year.
  • I don’t even know where to begin looking at how the comments and discussion have grown d expanded.
  • And, I was hacked. You may have already known this, but I adhere to a young earth Creationist view. And one of my posts, containing a picture of the Hubble Deep Space Field, usually generates some scathing comments from the atheistic community, most of which I delete. Someone hacked that post and masked it to delete all of my written content. I’ve corrected the page, but the issue is still there, and I’m working with some people way smarter than me to get it completely resolved.But I take it to mean that my bog is getting some great exposure to people who need to hear some Good News.  And that excites me!

2012 Bible Reading Plans

I am a firm believer in exposing my life to God’s Word on a daily basis. I believe that the benefits gained far exceed the cost of time and effort put into this discipline. When God has the opportunity to speak into our lives daily through his Word, we start to think more like Christ, act more like Christ, and see and treat others more like Christ would treat them.

Spending time in God’s Word daily is live-giving.

It’s spiritually healthy.

It’s incredible.

It’s essential.

Bible Reading Plan

This is a topic I’m not silent about. This is something I encourage the teens in our youth ministry about every week. I talk about it at home. I talk about it with friends and family. I believe it’s crucial.

In the past, I’ve written about the importance of daily Bible reading. I’ve compiled a list of tips to help you become more consistent in your Bible reading. I’ve shared some of my methods on getting the most out of your Bible reading. I’ve passed on information about how to keep your Bible reading from getting boring.  I’ve spent the entire year memorizing the Sermon on the Mount.

I’ve shared several great tools for this right here on JeffRandleman.com

And I have another one I’d like to share.

Sitting Is Killing You!

Many of you may have already seen this infographic. I first stumbled across it a few months ago, which started me thinking. Last week, I found it again, on Michael Hyatt’s blog. This was originally posted on visual.ly. But it’s incredible information.

Empty Chair

 

As a result of this, and some additional research, I’ve decided to replace my current desk in my office with a standing desk. I’ll post a few photos of it once I get everything in place, which I expect to see happen in the next three weeks or so.

Until then, read this. But be warned; it may challenge the way you think!

Top Posts For November 2011

Hard to believe winter is here!

We actually had a pretty good snowfall on Monday night, my 40th birthday. It didn’t last, but the kids loved it for a few minutes. They went out and played in it as it fell around 10:00 pm. Crazy!

But with winter comes a blog series I’m pretty excited about. It’s called The Gifts Of The Holidays, and in this series, I’m examining several key characteristics of both Thanksgiving and Christmas, along with some of the Randleman family holiday traditions.

I still have several books that I have for give-aways. I’ve been trying to post these over the past few weeks, but time seems to keep running out on me. I hope to make at least a couple of these available this month. Stay tuned.

 Wordle.net Word Cloud for November 2011

In case you missed them, here are my top seven posts for November:

  1. Hubble Deep Space Field
  2. Book Review: Charlie And Trike In The Grand Canyon Adventure by Ken Ham And Karen Hansel
  3. Video Review: Book Book Cases For iPhone 4 and iPad 2
  4. The Principle Of The Path by Andy Stanley – Extended Review Part 4
  5. The Maniac And The Messiah
  6. E.M. Bounds On Prayer… One More Time
  7. Tips For Becoming More Consistent In Your Bible Reading

No surprise, my post containing an image of the Hubble Deep Space Field easily generated five times the traffic as any other post.

Two of my top seven posts were book reviews, and one was a video review. Two of the top posts were from 2008 or 2009.

I’m going to cheat. I usually tell you what my favorite post of the month was. This time, it’s a series, with four parts so far. It’s The Gifts Of The Holidays. Which one was yours?

If you are a blogger, leave a comment with your top post for the month. If you don’t blog, leave a comment with a favorite post or blog that you read this month.

Power Poses

I stumbled across this video earlier today.  It has some interesting information.  I’m not certain just how much I agree with it, but I’m willing to put it to the test. 

After watching this video, what are your impressions?  You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Two Different Photography Shoots

I recently had some personal photos taken, planning to use several of them for my blog. They turned out so well, I can’t seem to pick the ones I like the best. I think I’ve narrowed it down to 20 or so…

All of these were taken by Jenni Lee Photography. I highly recommend her.

The first five were shot in June 2011. We jumped a fence into a hayfield near my sister’s home, hoping to us that as an excuse if we got in trouble: “My sister lives right there…” Turns out it was her field.

The remaining shots were taken in October 2001, in downtown Mountain View, MO. It’s a nice little town, with several back alleys and great locations for portraits.

Which shot (or shots) do you like the best? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Jeff Randleman

Praise Him For Our Freedom – Guest Post At New Leaf Press

This week, I had the opportunity to write a guest post for New Leaf Publishing Group‘s blog. You can read my post here.

NLPG Banner

NLPG started a new series this month, titled Praise Him. I was asked by Jennifer White, marketing director and social media strategist for NLPG, to write a guest post for the series. Little did I know that my post would be the first part of the series! You can imagine just how excited I was to learn that!

Go ahead and check it out.  And don’t forget to enter to win a copy of Marilyn Boyer’s book For You They Signed!

New Leaf is one of the publishers I review books for. They have two other imprints, Master Books and Attic Books, beside the main division. Master Books does a significant amount of publishing for Answers in Genesis; and I have dozens of books from them on my shelves.

I appreciate what New Leaf does in the Christian publishing industry. If you get a chance, head on over to their website and check out their list of titles. You’ll be sure to find a few that you’ll want to read!

If you took the time to read my guest post at NLPG Blogs, what did you think?  You can leave your thoughts in the comments below.