Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Pledge to be ON WATCH for Persecuted Christians

Is this something you could commit to?

My eyes are open.

I see that persecution is real.

I acknowledge the basic human right to religious freedom.

I commit to help open the eyes of others.

I am on watch for persecuted Christians.

Friday, July 30, 2010

I went out to find a friend
but could not find one there...


I went out to be a friend

and friends were everywhere!

avagooddayeveryone!
[unless you've made other arrangements]

Rowland Croucher

Gleason Archer quote on Progressive Revelation

On page 15 of this interesting article on the imprecatory psalms, there is a useful quote from Gleason Archer on Progressive Revelation.
Progressive revelation is ‘not to be thought of as a progress from error to
truth, but rather as a progress from the partial to the obscure to the complete and
clear.’

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Tough stuff

If you look over on the right, you will see some links in my shared items to articles by Denise Day Spencer. Denise has been through an incredibly hard time as she has watched her beloved husband, Michael, aka The Internet Monk succumb to cancer and die, at the age of 53, just before his first book was published.

Her writings on the subject are helpful because of their frankness and honesty.

 These are things most of us will be confronted with one day. It is sensible to think about them now.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Don’t pay for an over-priced book again

This is another of Steve Kryger's great posts.
I used to be able to send the link to this blog, via Gontroppo's Shared Items, but you will notice that that is a heading with no content.
Dunno why.

Don’t pay for an over-priced book again: "

Recently I wrote ‘Don’t buy another (bad) Christian book‘, with some sites to discover book reviews to avoid wasting money on a disaster. I received some helpful feedback that it can be useful to read ‘outside the camp’ – I try to do this as well, but I don’t want to waste money on something that’s just going to make me angry!


Once you’ve worked out which books you’d like to purchase, here’s a simple 4-step process for finding the cheapest store to purchase your book/s from.


Step 1. Visit Booko.”Booko is a site with a very simple goal – to find the cheapest place to buy books & DVDs in Australia.” My friend Dave put me onto it.


Step 2. Type in the name of the book you’re looking for. In this case, I’m looking for ‘You Can Change’ by Tim Chester.



Step 3. (This isn’t really a step, but more of a stage in the proces!) Booko will now list all the places online where you can purchase a book, and list the prices, in Australian dollars, including delivery:



Step 4. Select the store you would like to purchase from. The Book Depository is a favourite (at least among the Bible college students I’ve spoken to!) because the shipping to Australia (from their stores in the US and UK) is free.


I can purchase the book for $11.92 including delivery. At the time of writing, the same book was $12.95 from Koorong (plus $5.95 for shipping), and $14.95 from Moore Books (I’m unsure about shipping costs/availbility). From $1.03 to $3.03 per book (without any of the costs of travel to and from the bookshop), that’s a significant saving.


Copyright 2010 Steven Kryger.


Post from: Communicate Jesus. Follow Communicate Jesus on Twitter.



Don’t pay for an over-priced book again




"

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Reconciling Contemporary Science and The Bible

Is it possible to reconcile contemporary science and the Bible?

It seems to me that many Christians today begin with modern scientific presuppositions and then attempt to squeeze the Bible into those presuppositions. But doing so seems to be giving too much away.

Others begin with the Bible and then try to squeeze science into the Scriptures. I think that they then make the Bible to be saying more than it really is.


James Anderson has written a thoughtful review of a book by one of the former, entitled I Love Jesus and I Accept Evolution .

And he gave me the link to this most interesting summation by continuing Presbyterians [PCA] called  Creation Report .


It is well worth reading, though it may not convince many.

Monday, May 31, 2010

current reading projects

I'm continuing to plow through The Contemporary English Version. Today I completed Deuteronomy, and thus The Pentateuch. It is enjoyable to read through such a simple version quickly, having been taking the slow road in the ESV Study Bible for over a year.

At times the CEV is disappointing, because it sometimes takes a rather peculiar line and often it knocks off the edges of the biblical language, in an effort to make it contemporary and comprehensible.

I am also reading through John Sailhamer's The Meaning of the Pentateuch and am pleased to have reached the half-way mark. It is a great book, though longer than it needs to be and very repetitive. But it is a stimulating book to ponder.

And a few days ago I began Robert Culver's Systematic Theology. This is worth reading, but over 1100 pages. I am aiming to read about 20 per day, so that I can get through it in about 4 months. I haven't been good at keeping up such projects previously, though I am on my 9th read-through of Holy Scripture.