Thought for Today

December 8, 2018 by • Bible, Christian Living, Issues, Thoughts, Word • Tags: , , , •

To make this text mean something God did not intend is to abuse the text, not use it. To avoid making such mistakes one needs to learn to think exegetically, that is, to begin back then and there, and to do so with every text.

Gordon D. Fee and Douglas K. Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 3rd ed. pg, 25.

Jesus loves Me

November 14, 2018 by • Issues •

I have just started reading through the gospel according to John and so far I have read the first seven chapters four times now from John 1:1 to John 7:53.
It is such a loaded text that tracks the discourses between Jesus and the people and the disciples and the Pharisees. Of course there is the small detour into the land of the Samaritans and the power of the ministry of the word that happened there.
Reading through it the way I have done and trying to take it all in, I have am just amazed at it all, the love of Christ, his purpose, his disdain for error, his desire to please the Father that I found myself singing Jesus loves me this I know in the Yoruba language.
I know something about this text triggered it. I know I have not attempted to sing that song in Yoruba in years and then just a few days of reading this account history is triggered.
The word of God brings life and like Peter said in Chapter 6, we have believed and have come to know you that you are the Holy One of God.

The new Apple devices

October 30, 2018 by • Apple, iPad Pro, Life, Logos Bible Software, Mac Mini, MacBook Air, Preacher •

Apple announced the new devices in the Mac mini, MacBook Air and iPad Pro product groups and to a large extent, they appear to me as items that will set the marker for the next push in the advancement of these productivity equipment.
The new Mac mini solves a nagging performance issue for owners of the older Mac minis that are already struggling with the performance especially in the environment where equipment like the iMac Pro, Mac Pro and the MacBook Pros and fully spec-ed out iMacs play. The power loaded into this new equipment will definitely improve the time used on tasks performed on these machines.
The MacBook Airs are in a similar place with the Mac minis. They are slightly lighter, way faster but more expensive. For the ultra-light weight category, this is a new opportunity for the macOS in that environment.
The one that really excited me was the iPad Pro upgrade. It is an improvement of the older iPad Pros. The changes to the charging system shows that Apple maybe standardizing its ports and one would expect that in the future, the iPhones and other iPads will acquire the USB-C ports. The Pencil charging is an interesting one. At this point it looks like it will be difficult to use the old pencil with it in the area of direct charging. It may work with the pairing mechanism but time will prove that. The power displayed during Adobe presentation shows that the group of processors in the iOS devices released this year are very potent and definitely exceed the capacity of some desktop class processors, especially with Apple comparing the performance of this new iPad Pro with game consoles!
I believe heavy users and creative professionals will get some tangible value out of these new equipment.
For the apps that are rarely featured during this type of event, like Logos Bible Software, I believe they will gain tangible performance improvements as well and will even work to get more from the new hardware.
The opportunity to do more in less time is possible with these new devices and with the extra seconds and minutes gained from processes running faster and activities completing faster, the expository study, hermeneutics and the production of the study and documents, the man of God can have some extra time to interact with family, Church and students, of course someone has to foot the bill first as a gift of love.

Gresham and Today

September 30, 2018 by • Uncategorized • Tags: , , , •

I have been reading the book by J. Machen Gresham named Christianity and Liberalism in the last few days.
It is a reread for me with the intention of taking in the content of the material at a slower pace than when I first read it.
I was much surprised the first time I read it as it seemed the content was written in that year I read it. I marked it up a bit because of a lot of the marked-up statements resonated with me.
One of his opening comments is “In the sphere of religion, as in other spheres, the things about which men are agreed are apt to be the things that are least worth holding; the fundamental things are the things about which men will fight.”

This comment sets the stage for what is to come. His main argument in the book is that the claims for liberalism as a form or improvement on historical Christianity is wrong as it does not improve but rather is a different religion.

I have just resumed rereading it in the light of the news around the world as well as in the view of the apparent redirection of the culture obtainable around me as it affects the liberalism that is so pervasive and more than ever, Gresham sounds like a prophet.
He sounds like prophet because the issues discussed as evidence of historical Christianity versus Liberalism of the current age is so spot on for something written in 1922. He writes like someone observing the news reports and commenting on it except for the small issue that he is not.
What I find very interesting is how he understood the weighty matters of the claims of liberalism and contrasted them with the truth of Christianity.
He split his discourse into sections which are Doctrine, God and Man, The Bible, Christ, Salvation, and The Church.
In each section, he explains the misconceptions of liberalism as it affects that section then describes the Christian understanding of the issues discussed.
This is far from a review but a short reminder of the way God speaks to us through his word and ordinary means and people like J. Machen Gresham.

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