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 ...

The People, the land, and the future of Israel is a collection of essays on those topics by various people including   Michael Rydelnik, John Feinberg and Walter Kaiser Jr.   The Essays are Divided into several groupings, in sections like Practical Theology, Hebrew Scriptures, New Testament..etc.   All of these men are defending the Biblical view that God is not done with the Jews as a people, that they have a future in   the land of Israel, a future in which as believers in Jesus as the Messiah, and as the Atonement for their sins, they will live in peace in the land under their Messiah's rule(The Millennial Kingdom). At first I liked the idea of having multiple people contributing in one book, but when I read it, or rather as I was reading it,   I changed my mind.   It just wasn't a smooth flow, once you got used to one person's style of writing you ended up with another one.   And then some of the essays were interesting, some weren't so intere...

The NIV Once a Day Bible is a great concept, not only is it chronologically arranged, but it is also divided into 365 daily readings.   Last year our church went through the Bible in a year using a chronological reading plan.   Though it was really neat to be reading it chronologically, it was a bit tiring flipping back and forth to the different texts for each individual day.   Then I started reviewing Bibles that were already chronologically arranged, and that helped a lot.   Some, or all of them, had one year Bible reading plans listed in the back of the Bible; this Bible is neat in that it is already arranged that way so you don't have to flip to the back of the book, you just read until the next 'Day' heading.   It would be nice if they would come out with a hardcover edition as the softcover feels a bit flimsy.  At the end of each day's readings, there are little reflective paragraphs at the end, talking about what you've just read.   Some...

Erwin Lutzer gives a high level overview of the return of Christ and the events that will be associated with this return.   Writing from a premillennial standpoint he examines the events that have yet to take place and helps us think, "how should I live in light of this?"   The chapters are all written in light of our Lord's coming, as is evidenced by their titles, "The King Returns for us", "The King Judges us", "The King Marries His Bride", and so on.   He states that, "Some of the events associated with His glorious return will be shocking, ,especially for those who think of Jesus only in terms of the gospel accounts, when He went about healing the sick, raising the dead, and blessing the poor.    In the event before us, we see not only the love of Jesus but the meticulous justice of Jesus."   And so you also have chapters like, "The King Destroys Nations" and "The King Returns to Conquer".   I like ...

Martyn-Lloyd Jones' enthusiasm about this 11th chapter of Romans is evident in every chapter of this book.    My dad likes to point out that the most interesting messages are given by people who are actually interested in what they are speaking about.   Lloyd-Jones is definitely interested and excited about sharing what he has learned in God's word, and so this commentary(a collection of his sermons on this chapter)is very interesting.   In Romans 11 Paul is continuing his explanation of what is going on with the ethnic people God chose, namely the people of Israel, and whether or not God is done with them as an ethnicity.   The majority of Jews were rejecting the Gospel, while most of the people who were responding to the 'call' were   Gentiles.    Despite his apparently Amillennial views, Lloyd-Jones emphatically rejects the view that the term 'Israel' is speaking of the 'Church' anywhere in this passage.   He explains that it is spe...

How defensible are Old Testament prophecies of Christ?   If someone came up to you and declares that, in the Hebrew manuscripts of the OT, Psalm 22:16 does not read, "they pierced my hands and my feet," rather, when it is accurately translated it reads, "like a lion are my hands and feet." What would your answer be?   And what if they say that Isaiah 53 was not speaking of a Messiah, but rather of Israel as a suffering servant?   Nowadays, too many Christians believe that many, if not all, of the prophecies of the Messiah are only indirect prophecies, not direct prophecies.   And many Christians might say that these prophecies are allegorically fulfilled, or that it is perfectly alright for the Holy Spirit , in His inspiration of the Apostles, to change His own prophecies.   Others say that many prophecies have a 'double fulfillment', that these prophecies were fulfilled historically, in the prophets' life-time, and that they were fulfilled spiritual...