Musings of a Snickerdoodle

Hosanna in Excelsis by David and Barbara Leeman is a nicely bound book of Christmas carols with individual short histories of their composition and  contemplations of the message of the carols themselves.  There are many familiar carols, O Holy Night, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Away In A Manger…etc.  And some new ones.  The summarized biographies of the authors and composers were quite interesting too.  Sometimes the information was quite tantalizing, leaving you wanting to know more about the author, and for others it was more disappointing to hear the background, though in some cases discouraging.  "O Holy Night" has been a favorite carol of my family, but the background behind it was anything but inspiring ," Written by a man with little belief in the Christmas story, put to music by a nonbelieving Jewish musician, and translated by a liberal theologian….".   We of course, still really like the song, I suppose it just goes to show that you can h...

  Jesus, Divorce and Remarriage  by  Gordon Wenham  is a nice very summarized look at this controversial topic.  A concise, examination at what God's Word teaches us about how we Christians are to look on divorce, remarriage, and of course, marriage itself. It doesn't really deal with modern Christian views on divorce, as the goal of this little book is to focus on what Jesus taught about divorce and remarriage and what the popular views were at that time.   Now, though  informative background information regarding the contemporary views of the people Jesus is talking to is interesting, the most interesting parts to me were where the Biblical texts are focused on.  Jesus' teachings in particular (In Matthew 5, 19, and in the other Gospels).Wenham makes you really look at what Jesus is saying, getting past the clutter of our preconceived notions of what He must, in our view, be saying.  We see that Jesus goes after terms like "murder" and...

I n the kingdom of Christ, insubmission to the plain letter of Scripture, a wish to look into the secret purposes of God, and 'to be wise above what is written,' has, at all times in some measure, and at this time in particular, distracted the church, and tainted the simplicity of divine truth. So much of corrupted nature is there  in us, men will even here be thinking for themselves, and call their views deep, enlarged. These biblical freethinkers take the word of God for their rule, but then it is in a different sense - in any sense, they do not much care what, so it be but different from that in which any simple mind would understand it…..Such critics have made intellect seem the enemy of truth, which God could never mean it should be. He foresaw, indeed, that it would become so. He knew how powerful an instrument in Satan's hand would be the reasoning, questioning pride of man, when induced to array itself against the reception of the word.  When He determined to reveal...

FAITH , like a simple, unsuspecting child, Serenely resting on its mother's arm Reposing every care upon her arm, Sleeps on his bosom, and expects no harm: Receives with joy the promises he makes, Nor questions of his purpose or his power; She does not doubting ask, "Can this be so?" The Lord has said it, and there needs no more. However deep be the mysterious word, However dark, she disbelieves it not; Where Reason would examine, Faith obeys, And "It is written," answers every doubt. Faith, with a keen and realizing glance, Revels in things yet distant and unseen, A nd tastes a joy as exquisite, as true, As if no veil of darkness hung between. It is no cold, reversionary bliss,-- No distant hope the trusting bosom proves; F aith has already wing'd the soul to heaven, In search of Him whom seeing not she loves. If clouds and darkness rest upon the soul, Darkness is welcome, since it is His will; In nature's saddest moments Faith can say, "Though he ...

"If any man in the world needs the special presence of God with them and His blessing in order to succeed, certainly ministers do.  For what is the design and end of their ministry? Is it not to open the eyes of sinners to turn them from darkness to light?  And from the power of sin and Satan to God and Christ? And who is sufficient for these things? In a work of this nature, what can ministers, of themselves, do? Verily, they may preach even to paleness and faintness, until the bellows are burnt, until their lungs and vitals are consumed, and their hearers will never be the better; not one sinner will be converted until God is graciously pleased, by the efficacious working of His Spirit, to add His blessing to their labors and make his word, in the mouth of the preacher, sharper than any two-edged sword in the heart of the hearer.  All will be vain, to no saving purpose, until God is pleased to give the increase. And in order to do this, God looks for their prayers, to c...

The title of this book, Dangerous Virtues: How to Follow Jesus When Evil Masquerades as Good by John Koessler, caught my attention when I was looking at Moody Publishers books offered to reviewers.  I looked at the description and realized that this was a book that might be a pretty interesting read.  I wasn't disappointed. Koessler makes the case that the 'seven deadly sins' have become the seven dangerous virtues of our day. Rather than moral ambiguity being the main problem of our day; our age actually has a standard of "morals" that they hold to quite firmly (though their justification of them is probably ambiguous).  The problem is that those 'morals' don't meet God's standard of morality and in some, or most cases, our age's morals are actually evils in disguise or, as the author puts it: "dangerous virtues". Things that used to be obvious sins are now praised and held up as high moral standards of our day.   Koessler talks abo...

  "To sin is to love yourself at the expense of your neighbor.  More than that, it is to love yourself at the expense of God. Sin-shaped love expresses itself primarily in the form of narcissism.  It is self-absorbed love. This affection is hate masquerading as love, compelling us to engage in self-destructive behavior. Sin promises freedom and delivers slavery.  It speaks the language of friendship while treating us like enemies.  Sin is a cruel master who promises good wages only to reward our loyalty with hard service, disappointment and death.  For some reason, we return again and again to this false lover and expect a different result. The answer to sinful lust is love - God's love, which comes to us from the outside, like the righteousness of Christ.  Adopting the language that Martin Luther used to speak of Christ's righteousness, we might call it 'alien love' because it does not originate with us. It is a love that begins with God and can come ...

  I haven't been writing as much lately as I haven't found any new books I want to read and review (yet), I seem to be growing pickier and pickier, at least when it comes to 'Christian' books. And I haven't yet found any more history books that I want to read and review. But in the meantime, I've been working on a lot of family history/genealogy research stuff for fun.   One of the resources that I use for that is MyHeritage, I utilize their free family tree building software. They came out with a special technology that really, really impressed me.   It impressed me so much that I wanted to share it here.   They have released a Photo Enhancer, which brings the faces of people in your old photos into sharp focus using a 'deep learning' technology….which, somehow, seems to be able to figure out what blurry faces looked like in real life…if that makes any sense…   Anyway, I tried it out when they first came out with it, and was kind of impressed, ...

 "True spiritual illumination comes from Scripture,  which is 'profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for every good work' (2 Tim. 3: 16-17).  As the man of God is equipped for every good work, we see that Scripture is not only indispensable, but also sufficient.  No other supposed sources of truth need be consulted to receive the spiritual illumination necessary for salvation. "  Victor Kuligin The Language of Salvation: Discovering the Riches of What it Means to be Saved Find more quotes on my quotes blog: http://snickerdoodlesquotes.blogspot.com/

A heart for others and their actual needs should be what stirs us 'to the heart' - we are to look on others, not for how they can encourage us, but how we may encourage the. The potential of lives forever changed should drive us, fulfill us, as it did our Lord - many did not respond as this group (later in Jesus' ministry), but it did not change His 'fulfilling sustenance' (doing the will of God and not allowing predictable norms to dictate the possibilities we look for) Our focus is to be looking for God's working (readiness for harvest) realizing He may have been "working on" someone long before we met them. - Don Lambert  excerpts from his studies on John 6 You may listen to the sermon here:  http://dbc.sermon.net/main/main/21629112 Find more quotes on my quotes blog: http://snickerdoodlesquotes.blogspot.com/

What is it to wait on the Lord? June 7, 2017 By:  Rick Lambert (When I was going through some of the most difficult trials I have ever experienced) Is it a blessing or is it berating? I'm talking about the trial of waiting; That heavy weight of God's neglect that is ever-stating, And the purposeless days that are so devastating. The endurance it demands is perplexing, And the energy it consumes is distressing. The long days and lonely nights that keep me guessing As I search and ponder what happened to God's blessing. Each day, joy crumbles and is replaced with mourning, And peace disappears into forlorning. But such an event must become the loud warning That my heart is being deceived into scorning. Is waiting really as bad as I am thinking? Perhaps it is a wonderful tool to stop me from shrinking As it stares in silence at me without blinking. Surely it cannot be present for my sinking. Waiting actually seems painless in the scheme of its framing, And maybe with God's...

Let me add in conclusion, that the passage which I have chosen for my text (Rev 1:3), in which a blessing is promised to all who read or hear this prophecy, has long appeared to me, to be utterly inconsistent with the popular historical or polemical interpretations.  If such interpretations, or even the principles upon which they proceed, be true, the Apocalypse can be read and understood by the scholar and the man of learning only: by him who has penetrated into the secrets of history, and traced the rise and progress and downfall of dynasties and doctrines; but to the poor, the unlettered, and to those who read the words of the prophecy alone, to those, who from their inability perhaps to read, are forced to content themselves with hearing it read by others; to such it is impossible, on the principles of the historical commentators, the Apocalypse can be any thing but an enigma and a riddle.  How can they keep those things that are written in this prophecy, to whom the thing...

The smiles of an encouraging, if not a believing world, have long followed the writers and preachers of evangelical truth, making smooth and pleasant their allotted tasks.  We believe that it will cease to be so:  the envoys and ambassadors of the Most High will be dismissed with ignominy on the approach of war, where in a time of apparent peace, they have been feted and applauded…… Shall any be found wanting?  Shall voices that in more halcyon days were heard on the Lord's side, grow now so confused and indistinct, that it cannot be known what is piped or harped?  Shall trumpets that were used to echo through the camp of Israel their notes of victory or warning, give now so uncertain a sound that none shall know whether to prepare themselves for battle,  for fight, or for submission?  It may be so. Men sometimes seem to want in things spiritual the wisdom and courage that not uncommonly characterizes the children of this world in their generation.  Wh...

Blaze of Light is an account of Green Beret Medic Medal of Honor recipient Gary Beikirch. He earned his Medal of Honor in Vietnam. I've honestly been dreading having to write this review because…well, I didn't like the book. And I feel horrible about saying that I don't like a book about a Medal of Honor recipient! It's not that it isn't interesting, it is. But it's depressing. The book is written well in that , while following Mr. Beikirch through his  life you see, even feel along with him, his depression, lack of purpose in life.  Joining the Green Beret's gave him more of something to aim at.  That was actually the most interesting part of the book to me, it was fascinating to hear about the amazingly tough training they went through to become  Green Berets, and even tougher training to become a Green Beret Medic.  His time in Vietnam was intriguing as well.  Especially his actions that earned him the Medal of Honor, and they truly are...

"…our society is strongly individualistic and 'me-centered.'  We have a tendency to 'look out for number one' and often have less regard for others.  Whereas in many of our organizations and structures individuality is encouraged, there is little place for it in the body of Christ.  Can you imagine an arm proclaiming its independence from the rest of the body?  Not only would the arm become gangrenous and rot away, but the body would be damaged by its absence.  While the world tends to teach us to be self-focused, as believers we must endeavor to be others-focused.  This is expressed in Jesus's command to deny ourselves....... Many believers today envision the Christian faith as more of a picnic or a walk in the park than a bloody sacrifice of the self, but the former is not the biblical portrait."  Ten Things I Wish Jesus Never Said  by Victor Kuligin See more quotes on my quote collection blog:  https://snickerdoodlesquotes.blogspot.com/

I was quite excited when I saw that a new English translation of the Septuagint was coming out. I'm always interested in new Septuagint resources.  The Septuagint is an old, Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. Some (or all?) of the manuscripts of the Septuagint that we have today are much older than the Hebrew manuscripts on which most of our English Old Testaments are based so it can be pretty useful in textual criticism and Bible study as well (Some quotations that the Apostles made, from the Septuagint, are significantly different than our current Hebrew Old Testament text).   If an English speaking person says they're quoting from "the Bible", we don't associate "the Bible" as only referring to one particular translation (unless you're KJV only). When we talk about the "Septuagint", it's sort of like saying   "the Greek translation of the Old Testament", it's just a shorter way of saying it.   Th...

"We should have it so happen that, when our life's story is written, whoever reads it will not think of us as 'self-made men', but as the handiwork of God, in whom His grace is magnified.  Not in us may men see the clay but the Potter's hand." - Charles Spurgeon -  From the book: Living By Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon  by Thomas Nettles See more quotes on my quote collection blog:  https://snickerdoodlesquotes.blogspot.com/