Musings of a Snickerdoodle

I did not know much about Samuel Rutherford before reading this 'bite-sized'   biography by Richard Hannula.   I associated his name with the song "The Sands of Time are Sinking" and thought that he was the author.   The content of the song made me desire to know more about Mr. Rutherford. It turns out that the song was written by Anne Ross Cousin, but it was inspired by Mr. Rutherford's writings and sayings, so my curiosity stayed.   Samuel Rutherford was a Scottish pastor who lived in the 1600s who underwent persecution along with other Christians under the reigns of Charles the I and II.    He was married twice(his first wife died) and had nine children altogether, only one survived him.   One of the things I admired about God's working in him was his deep love for his congregation, even when banished from them he was concerned with their welfare, and kept up a correspondence with them to keep encouraging them in their lives as Christians.   ...

When I first looked at Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary I was quite impressed.   It is very nicely bound, and quite "fancy".   It has several maps, modern pictures of the places being described, pictures of various archaeological finds and many other illustrations.   Much of the information it gives seems quite good. For instance, in their definition of Agape love, they explain that the term "unconditional love" is not the right definition, Agape love is:   "primarily a love of the will rather than the emotions.   The New Testament never speaks of God loving unbelieving human beings with emotional love…He loves with His will…".  I loved a lot of their entries on particular people in the Bible, in a nice condensed summary of who they were and the events in their lives, I also really like the descriptions of various Biblical places, where they were located, what happened there...etc. But, sadly, the negatives outweigh the positives so that I ...