Merry Christmas and I pray that all my readers are blessed today by the holiness and righteousness of our God! Praise and honor go to Jesus!
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Category Archives: General
Review: Jesus Calling Devotional Bible
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
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
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.
LAF
Logos Aletheia Forum is back! Go to www.logosaletheiaforum.com to join in on the rhema (conversation).
Review: Accordance 9.5.1
Accordance 9.5.1, a review.
Accordance is a Bible study program designed for the Macintosh operating system. The specifications for running Accordance 9.5.1 are as follows:
Accordance 9 is fully Intel native and optimized for Mac OS 10.6 and up. It also runs on PowerPC Macs and OS 10.4 and up (users with earlier Mac OS X or OS 7-9 can install the Classic version).
With the advent of Accordance 9.3, OakTree has created an enhanced user interface designed for new users to immediately jump into using Accordance. It is called the Assistant Window.
The Read section allows the user to type in a verse or book of the bible and open a window displaying the passage in the user’s preferred bible. Alternatively, it also allows the user to open a window displaying devotional readings to choose from.
The next section, Find, allows the user to locate word or words in a wide range of selections wether it be the bible, or User add-on modules and texts.
The last section, labeled Learn, includes hyperlinks to Oaktree’s various resources for learning how to use the software including the built in help and the Accordance Forum.
The assistant window is one step in improving Accordance’s usability for the average experienced Mac user who is new to Accordance. Accordance has been notoriously known as non-intuitive for the average user. It relies on keyboard commands and menu options often buried in menues.
The main window is known as a workspace.
This is a screenshot of the main view of Accordance. The focus is on the search features. At the top of the screen you’ll see a search bar with various options to allow you to search words or verses. The search algorithm is extremely fast. In fact it is the fastest search algorithm of any bible software I have tested wether PC or Mac.
Checking the interlinear checkbox immediately opens the English, Greek (Hebrew) the Strong’s number and the parts of speech the word belongs to. This is very handy for conducting word studies or verse studies. Triple clicking a word will open the default lexicon and display details of the underlining Greek (Hebrew) word in a separate workspace.
Although this is a very powerful search program, (for example right click and choose search for… lemma, root, inflected or tag in any appropriately tagged or marked bible such as the Novum Testamentum Graece (Tischendorf)), it is sometimes unclear on how to search through all texts and modules you might have purchased, or user created modules you might have made using Accordance’s built in user module authoring system. To search through everything in your whole entire library, for example, you must go to Amplify>Search>Search all…
The resource pallette as shown on the left provides an interesting way to access your resources. By clicking the appropriate icon you have access to purchased English, Hebrew, Greek and graphical texts and modules. One of my favorite resources and one I personally think should be included 
in the base software package is the timeline module. A screen capture is shown on the right of the timeline module. It is a graphical representation of the history of bible people and kingdoms. Not only that, but it also displays the timelines of contemporary histories of nations such as the Chinese and the Egyptian dynasties. Another way cool feature of the timeline is the ability to add your own events to the timeline. There are also alternative timelines labeled ‘conservative’ and ‘critical’ which will shift the dates based on which-ever timeline you believe to be more correct.
The program is well designed with a very active user community who enjoy sharing tips and hints on the Accordance Forums. If you get stuck with a particular problem, more than likely either Helen, Dr. J or one of the other community users will be able to answer your questions or point you in the right direction. My username there is fireandsalt, which will probably be no surprise to those who know me as I tend to use that username all over the internet on various bible, theology, and techie forums.
All in all I give this the following ratings:
His Good Pleasure
Phil. 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
God works in us through His Holy Spirit. But why is the Holy Spirit working in us? God works in us for two reasons:
- To will
- To do
Firstly to help us have resolve or to bolster our will with His sweet Spirit. How sweet it is to know that God will help strengthen our will and resolve in the power of the Holy Ghost! All we need is His Spirit dwelling inside of us. How is this accomplished? Through accepting His gift for us.
He also provides power of action. Things we could not reasonably be expected to accomplish he can do through us and through influencing those around us (even our enemies). A man is not an island so the saying goes. Well, a man cannot stand alone and obtain his own salvation. We must rely on Jesus for his saving grace. Only through the final sin offering of His death can we obtain life.
So why does God’s Spirit help us to will and to do?
The Holy Spirit helps us to will and to do of His good pleasure.
What does this phrase mean?
- ‘Of His good’ is a translation of a single Greek word, ὑπέρ (huper), which means ‘for the sake of’.
- ‘Pleasure’ which is εὐδοκία (eudokia) in the Greek means ‘kindness, wish or pleasure’.
Put this together and we have ‘for the sake of His wishes’. What the Holy Spirit allows us to do through the bolstering of our will; and providing energy to assist in our acting on His wishes and desires for our lives. This verse is a part of holiness and is a sigh of relief to the weary Christian. We now know of assurance through God’s will that our God will give us the energy and resolve to be more like Him: To be Christ-like if you will or strangely enough to be Christians!
Pray without ceasing
1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing; New American Standard Bible (NASB)
- προσεύχομαι: To pray to God, supplicate, worship
- ἀδιαλείπτως: uninterruptedly, without omission.
We should always strive to pray and worship our God without breaking the stream. To give God honor and praise is to continually think on Him not only in our thoughts, but also in our actions. What Paul was teaching is that everything in our lives should be Holy and pleasing to God.
When we are on the job or at school, we should do our work as if we were doing it for Jesus. When we are at home, we should take care of our homes as if we were going to be entertaining Jesus this night. In everything we do give thanks, and worship/pray without ceasing to give God the glory!
Creating a Study Bible
With a little inspiration from Studies in Scripture, I’ve decided to give a try on creating my own study bible. I started with this red letter KJV in Microsoft doc format. Then I changed the font, font size and margins. I added a 2.5 inch margin to the right, and am currently building light grey text boxes on the right hand margin to hold my notes with a 10 point font, although I may try an 8 point font if I have more commentary to add later.
The next thing I’m doing is generating a symbol code for quickly identifying common themes such as oneness, salvation, etc… I downloaded this font set from Heydon Works, installed it and am currently choosing which symbols I want to use for what items.
What do you do for your study bibles? Do you underline or highlight? Do you use colors?
Let me know in the comment section below! I’d appreciate some ideas!
Twenty Truths To Remember
- Faith is the ability to not panic.
- If you worry, you didn’t pray. If you pray, don’t worry.
- As a child of God, prayer is kind of like calling home every day.
- Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.
- When we get tangled up in our problems, be still. God wants us to be still so He can untangle the knot.
- Do the math. Count your blessings.
- God wants spiritual fruit not religious nuts.
- Silence is often misinterpreted, not ever misquoted.
- Laugh every day, it’s like inner jogging.
- The most important things in your home are the people.
- Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional.
- There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.
- A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.
- He who dies with the most toys is still dead.
- We do not remember days, but moments. Life moves too fast, so enjoy your precious moments.
- Nothing is real to you until you experience it, otherwise it’s just hearsay.
- It’s all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure to flush when you are done.
- Surviving and living your life successfully require courage. The goals and dreams you’re seeking require courage and risk-taking.
- Learn from the turtle, it only makes progress when it sticks out it’s neck.
- Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
Don’t remember where I found this, but I thought it was worth sharing!