Category Archives: General

Logos Aletheia Forums

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Logos Aletheia Forums are the forum I designed and built after the collapse of the Bible Talk forums started by Craig Hostetler and Brad Dunning.  It has been redesigned (again) from what it was, but I encourage everyone to go and make an account and let’s discuss bible!

The forum’s address has changed to http://laf.pentecostalblogger.com.  It used to have it’s own url, but due to financial concerns, I have decided to let that url go back into the great internet pool in the sky!

Anyway, for all those interested in discussing bible topics, archaeology, or anything related to the Christian faith, stop on by and lets chat!

New things coming

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I’ve been very busy at church, work and starting up college, but I don’t want to neglect my readers (as few as that might be)!  So, be looking forward to some changes with the blog in the near future.

One of the things I’m going to change soon is the nature of my articles.  I am going to make the emphasis more scholarly and less leisure-like reading.  For a very good daily devotional which is Apostolic Oneness in doctrine, try Bro. and Sis Parker’s Morning Manna.  I get it delivered to my e-mail daily and is a joy and a blessing to me.

I hope you all are having a blessed new year!

Ryan

Tonga

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Tonight we had a missionary to Tonga in our services.  Sis. Reece shared her burden for the Kingdom of Tonga and Vanuatu both of which are islands in the South Pacific.

Here is an interesting fact about Tonga:

According to the constitution of Tonga, The Sabbath Day shall be kept holy in Tonga and no person shall practise his trade or profession or conduct any commercial undertaking on the Sabbath Day except according to law; and any agreement made or witnessed on that day shall be null and void and of no legal effect. (Substituted by Act 3 of 1971.)

Here are some statistics collected by the U.S. Department of State on Tonga:

Geography
Area: 747 sq. km. (288 sq. mi.).
Cities: Capital–Nuku’alofa (pop. 34,000).
Terrain: 171 islands, mainly raised coral but some volcanic; 48 inhabited.
Climate: Tropical, modified by trade winds. Warm season (December to May), cool season (May to December).

People
Nationality: Noun and adjective–Tongan(s).
Population (2011 est.): 105,916.
Age structure (2011 est.): 37% below 15; 6% over 64.
Annual population growth rate (2011): 0.24%.
Ethnic groups: Tongan 98%, other Polynesian, European.
Religions: Christian.
Languages: Tongan, English.
Education: Literacy (2007)–99.2%.
Health: Infant mortality rate (2011)–13.65/1,000. Life expectancy at birth (2011 est.)–75.16 years (female 76.58 years; male 73.79 years).
Work force (2006): 35,670. Agriculture–65%.
Unemployment (2006): 1.1%.

Interesting sites include Ha’amonga.  Known as the Stonehenge of the South Pacific, the mysterious Ha’amonga was erected in 1200AD. It consists of two upright coral stones about 5m high, topped by a horizontal connecting stone 6m long. Each stone weighs some 40 tonnes. The monument is now part of a 23ha protected reserve.

The United Pentecostal Church has two missionaries to the island nation of Tonga, Sis. Reece and missionary couple Bro. and Sis. Blunt.  Please help by praying for the nation of Tonga, or become an AIM supporter.

Review: Jesus Calling Devotional Bible

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This is a review of Jesus Calling Devotional Bible, Enjoying Peace in His Presence in the New King James Version by Sarah Young.

Sarah Young is a missionary with her husband Steve to a Japanese congregation in Perth Australia.  She was born and raised in Nashville, TN.  She holds multiple degrees in counseling and psychology.  She is a church planter with Mission to the World, a Presbyterian evangelistic initiative.

First, let me say that I really enjoy the New King James Version of the bible.  It is a solid reworking of the KJV or Authorized Version of the bible and has one of the best available Greek New Testaments to back it up.  Of the plethora of available new translations on the market, I would still prefer the KJV, but I would get the NKJV if forced to use a modern translation for whatever purpose.  It reads well, is faithful to the majority type set, and is a literal translation rather than a Dynamic Equivalence translation which I’ve never really been a fan of.

I was given the electronic version to read, using my Kindle App on my iphone, but according to the publisher (Thomas Nelson) the following features are available in the print version:

  • 260 scenarios with devotions by Sarah Young
  • Hundreds of inspiring scriptures highlighted throughout the text
  • New King James Version® (NKJV) in paragraph format
  • Index to devotions
  • Two-color text
  • Presentation page
  • Ribbon marker
 The devotions are fairly unique.  The way they are set up is as prayers or conversations people are having with God, telling Jesus of their pain or needs.  Then Mrs. Young answers them with scriptures as if speaking for God from His Word.  It is fairly unique, and a pretty nice style to read and relate to in the devotions.  As with any study or devotional bible, or really with any NKJV, there are paragraph headings which summarize a portion of the Scripture you are about to read, marked in bold font on the electronic version I am reading.  This gives you an easy way to figure out what is going on in the selected pericope you are studying.  Here is a selection of the devotion format:

Lord, I need You in a big way today. I’m exhausted from stress and the sleeplessness of worry. Completely worn out. I have no energy for facing another day, especially if today will be anything like the ones before it. My coworkers are coming down hard on me for not keeping up the pace. My family seems constantly disappointed—like I’m not living up to their expectations. Even my friends are keeping their distance right now. No matter where I turn, I just don’t seem to be able to be enough, do enough, give enough to make everybody happy. To be honest, I can’t really blame anybody if they are unhappy with me. I’m disappointed in myself! I feel so weak and out of control that I can’t help but think You must be disappointed with me too.  I need Your touch, Lord. Your perspective. Your encouragement and comfort. Please strengthen me for what lies ahead.

—Tracy

His Faithfulness ACCEPT EACH DAY EXACTLY AS IT COMES TO YOU. By that, I mean not only the circumstances of your day but also the condition of your body. Your assignment is to trust Me absolutely, resting in My sovereignty and faithfulness. On some days, your circumstances and your physical condition feel out of balance: The demands on you seem far greater than your strength. Days like that present a choice between two alternatives—giving up or relying on Me. Even if you wrongly choose the first alternative, I will not reject you. You can turn to Me at any point, and I will help you crawl out of the mire of discouragement. I will infuse My strength into you moment by moment, giving you all that you need for this day. Trust Me, by relying on My empowering Presence. See also Psalm 42:5; 2 Corinthians 13:4; Jeremiah 31:25 (From Jesus Calling by Sarah Young) FOR MORE ON THIS TOPIC, SEE PAGE 1023.

Thomas Nelson, Inc.. Jesus Calling Devotional Bible (Kindle Locations 1803-1827). Thomas Nelson, Inc.

As you can see from the selected devotional from Genesis chapter two, it offers encouragement and hope, which is typical of most devotionals I’ve come across.  All in all, it is not a bad devotional for encouragement through God’s Word.

I have received this Kindle Edition of Jesus Calling Devotional Bible for free in return for my review of said devotional from Thomas Nelson via www.booksneeze.com.  I was not required to write either a positive or negative review, and this review reflects my opinion of the book.

e-Sword on a Mac update

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Just thought I’d throw together this quick post letting everyone know that I’ve updated (upgraded) my Mac OSX to Lion (10.7) and e-Sword still runs, so I’m assuming my instructions for installing e-Sword on a Mac are valid for Lion as well as Snow Leopard.  The only reason I upgraded to Snow Leopard was to try our Biblereader from Olivetree on Lion.  I was not disappointed.  Olivetree has tossed together a very fine App. Kudos guys and gals at Olivetree!

Review: eSword 10.0.5

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A review of the bible software program e-Sword version 10.0.5.

e-Sword is an excellent freeware bible study application designed for Windows PCs.  The specifications required to run this program are listed as follows:

 

  • Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
  • Pentium based PC (or equivalent)
  • 800 x 600 resolution or greater

The screenshots I’ll be using throughout this review will be of my e-Sword install on my Mac using WINE.  See my tutorial on installing e-Sword on a Mac for instructions on how to get this bible study software up and running on a Macbook using Snow Leopard.

The image on the left is the bible navigation pane which is displayed on the left when you open up e-Sword in the default layout.  This allows for quick and easy access of any book of the bible with 2 to 3 clicks.  Of course you could just type in the reference by typing your verse reference in the box shown in the image on the right. You can also browse for a reference by clicking the bible icon shown to the right of the text box shown in the picture.  This will open a pop-up box allowing you to browse to the specific verse you’d like to view.  This is fine, but I wish that it would open multiple verse reference at once.  Accordance allows for this simply by typing all references you want in the verse search window and then clicking the search button.  This is very valuable if your reading a bible study and it gives multiple bible references you wish to read at once rather than going sequentially.  In fairness to e-Sword, I have not run into many bible study programs that can accomplish this besides e-Sword.  By clicking on the binocular icon, you are able to enter into an advanced search dialog box.  This allows you to apply more filters and refine your search.  The problem is that it still will not allow for a multiple verse search to be entered.

The actual layout of the program I found to be very intuitive.  The main program window is split into 4 separate sections. They are editors, dictionaries, commentaries and bibles.  In previous versions of the program, you could access other reference works called topical files by going to the editor window, selecting the topic file in the drop down list located on the bottom of the window and then browsing the table of contents in yet another drop down box on the top of the editor window.  Well, you can still do this, but now in version 10 Rick (the maker of the software) has added the Reference window which is available by going to the Tools>Reference Library menu option.

I personally find this a lot better and enjoy using the reference module window.  Now the topic files are available in a refx format which is a read only format unlike the topic editor (topx) format which was user editable.

The user community is very active!  Bible Support is the unofficial / semi-official forum for finding thousands of extra modules which you can download and install into your base e-Sword package as well as help on just about everything you can think of relating to e-Sword.  The site also has created a nice 10.x user’s manual for e-Sword which was well done and valuable for the newbie to e-Sword.  I have also uploaded it here for easy download, but you must understand that it is not to be sold or made available in any form that would require paying money for it’s use.  Officially supported modules are available through the built-in download feature of the program.  This reminds me a lot of the Sword Project’s module installation feature which has been available in their software for years and years.

Version 10 has several new features, including sermonaudio.com integration that allows you to listen to various sermons and bible studies sorted by bible reference, the aforementioned reference modules, and continuing support for STEP modules.