Quick Devotional from Matthew 5:6 (Observation from the Greek)

This is from my daily Greek exercise of sight reading a few weeks ago, courtesy of Vincent S Artale Jr.

Our text is from the Greek translation of Matthew 5:6  Here is my translation:

“μακάριοι οἱ πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες τὴν δικαιοσύνην
Blessed are those who are hungry and those who are thirsty for righteousness

ὅτι αὐτοὶ χορτασθήσονται ”
Because they shall be satisfied

Here are some observations:

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Review of Books on China’s History (Read in 2019)

A weekend reading review…because sometimes Pastors need a break from heavy reading also.

I am fascinated with history and the history of Asia, including that of China.  Besides the books below readers might want to also check out my reviews of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom, Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China by XI Lian, Midnight in Peking by Paul French, Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China by Timothy Brook, God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan, and  Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom.

 

Gordon Kerr. A Short History of China.  Harpenden, UK: Pocket Essentials, September 1^st, 2013. 160 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

Do you want to learn about China in a concise summary fashion?  This book would be for you.  This title is a part of the “Short History” Series published by Pocket Essentials and I thought the 160 page was a reasonable length for a survey, especially considering that there are thousands of years of Chinese history.  I felt it fulfilled the criteria of what I was looking for, of a general introduction to the various Chinese dynasties, which I needed to know and understand as a historical foundation so I can read other books on the history of China in a better informed matter.

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Answering Atheists with Dr. Jason Lisle (Pure Talk Interview)

I just found Pure Talk, a show of Pure Flix has interviewed Christian apologist and astrophysicist Jason Lisle recently.  The host Billy Hallowell asks Dr. Lisle some questions.  It is under 20 minutes long.  Check it out below:

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Review: Sophie and the Heidelberg Cat

In continuing with our blog’s “wee-kids Wednesdays” here’s a review of a Christian Children’s book.  I’m grateful for the publisher allowing me an electronically copy to read and review before its published next week!

Andrew Wilson. Sophie and the Heidelberg Cat.  Wheaton, IL: Crossway, September 3rd 2019.  36 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

Want to read a good children’s book for young ones to understand sin and the need for God’s grace?  This is an excellent book for that!  The author told this story in a way that kids would relate in terms of the kinds of sins that would happen between siblings and at home and certainly my daughters felt they could identify with the main character Sophie.  Yet the story also point towards God’s grace to be forgiven for sin!  That’s quite an accomplishment for 36 pages for a children’s book on such a serious topic.  I recommend this as I have a hard time finding good Gospel books for kids that is serious about sin and serious about Grace.

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Dinosaurs First Grade Homeschool Lesson 1: What is a Dinosaur?

 

Lesson 1: What is a Dinosaur?

 

Purpose: To explore and know more about God’s creation of dinosaur.

 

Book(s) read:

Stephanie Turnbull’s Dinosaurs.

 

Other tools:

Paper

Pencil

Crayons

Pictures of dinosaurs

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn general knowledge about what is a dinosaur.
2. Learn the vocabulary concerning dinosaurs.
3. Illustrate what is learned in this lesson about dinosaurs.
4. Learn a spiritual lesson concerning God’s creation of dinosaurs.

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Prerequisite for Worship: Psalm 15

Prerequisite for Worship

Psalm 15

 

O Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? 2 He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart. 3 He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend; 4 In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, But who honors those who fear the Lord; He swears to his own hurt and does not change; 5 He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

 

Establish the Need: How often do you think about worshipping God and do you think carefully about your approach towards God?

 

Purpose: In this Psalm we shall see three imperative we need to follow so that we live a life that really matters.

 

We need to ask life’s most important question (v.1)

We need to hear the answer to life’s most important question (v.2-5b)

We need to trust in God’s assurance (v.5c)

 

 

Introductory matters

Hebrew verse 1 of Psalm 15 indicates that this is written by David.

Psalm 14 is a contrast with Psalm 15.

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Bible contradiction? How old was Benjamin when his clan migrated to Egypt?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: How old was Benjamin when his clan migrated to Egypt?

Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:

He was an infant.

“ We said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and a little child of his old age. Now his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’” (Genesis 44:20)

“But we said to my lord, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.” (Genesis 44:22)

He was a grown man with ten sons.

“Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, Jacob and his sons, who went to Egypt: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.” (Genesis 46:8)

“The sons of Benjamin: Bela and Becher and Ashbel, Gera and Naaman, Ehi and Rosh, Muppim and Huppim and Ard.” (Genesis 46:21)

 

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

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My Reviews of the Entire Faithful Learning Booklet Series

I know I love learning about the Bible, theology, apologetics and philosophy.  But the last few years I discover I love learning in many other academic sphere because of my beliefs of the Christian worldview, knowing that this is the world that God has created and allowed man to flourish with insights and understanding.

A great introduction to a Christian worldview of various academic sphere is The Faithful Learning series published by P&R Publishing (one of my favorite publishers).  They bring Christian scholars from their respective field and have them write about their discipline and they write it in a way that’s friendly to the general reader and yet also insightful of its relationship to the Christian faith!  One of the things I learned from reading Cornelius Van Til both directly and indirectly is the fact that this is God’s creation and a right interpretation of God’s creation involves His revelation of His Word and both are compatible and needed.

While looking up to find more of this series I discovered I actually finished the booklets in this series.  So here below are links to my review of the seven titles in this series.  I highly recommend them.

 

Jay D. Green. An Invitation to Academic Studies.  Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, July 14^th, 2014. 36 pp.

Purchase: Westminster | Amazon

The introduction to the series.  The author has a point in balancing between worldview foundation and actual knowledge and skill of the academic disciplines.  Link to my review here.

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This Sunday at Church: Make Sure You’re not Competing With Others

This Sunday at Church I want to encourage you to do the following:  Make Sure You’re not Competing With Others.

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Quick Devotional from Matthew 5:5 (Observation from the Greek)

This is from my daily Greek exercise of sight reading a few weeks ago, courtesy of Vincent S Artale Jr.

Our text is from the Greek translation of Matthew 5:5  Here is my translation:

“μακάριοι οἱ πραεῖς,
Blessed are the gentle

ὅτι αὐτοὶ κληρονομήσουσιν τὴν γῆν. ”
because they will inherit the earth

Here are some observations:

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Audio Series: We can know the words of the Old Testament

Textual Criticism is the art and science of studying ancient manuscripts to find out what the text says from what the author first wrote a book, be it the Bible or other ancient writings.

For Christians textual Criticism is an important field both to know what God’s Word says and also as an apologetic.

There’s a lot of materials out there on the New Testament Textual Criticism, both in terms of books and internet resources.

There’s less for the Old Testament.

So below I have links to a three part audio series on MP3 on why we can know the words of the Old Testament are from the human authors (that is, it wasn’t changed).  Check it out!

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Presuppositional Apologetics Round Up: Third week of August 2019

Here are Presuppositional apologetics’ links gathered between August 15-21st, 2019.

1.) Cave to the Cross Show: Mitch Stokes Interview – How To Be An Atheist – Part 1

2.) Bible contradiction? Which tribe was Hyram from?

3.) Confronting Atheistic Worldviews

4.) Are UFOs, Aliens and Flying Saucers Real? Plus New Proof concerning God

5.) Pushing The Antithesis – Part 5 – Alternative Worldviews

6.) Life Has No Meaning? 9 in 10 Young People in the UK Believe That

7.) Evolution, Mathematics, and God

8.) Looking for Lay-Level Videos on the Origins of the NT Canon? Here’s My New @Ligonier Series

9.) Saturday Homeschooling Update: Apologetics, Gardening, and Books

10.) Gated gardens

 

Missed the last round up?  Check out the re-blogged post from a friend or here.

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Christian Kindergarten and First Grade Home School Lessons

I’m glad for the internet and living in this time where there’s so much information online and on my computer.  For some of my homeschooling with my kids I’ve designed a few lessons of my own through other books and other resources.

Next Wednesday we will pick up again our homeschool lessons here on this blog.  It will be another series added to what we have here.

Since kids are slowly going back to school I thought I share the links to the table of contents of various homeschool lesson series I have posted on this blog thus far.  They are for Kindergarten and first grade.

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Our Depravity and God’s Deliverance: Psalm 14

Our Depravity and God’s Deliverance

Psalm 14

 

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. 2 The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. 4 Do all the workers of wickedness not know, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call upon the Lord? 5 There they are in great dread, For God is with the righteous generation. 6 You would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted, But the Lord is his refuge. 7 Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores His captive people, Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad.

 

Establish the Need: Two big problem of our age today is that people don’t see themselves as that sinful while also not believing God will deliver His people.

 

Purpose: In this Psalm we see two truths we have during seasons of our live where we have a lot of questions for God.

• You need to know how God sees the depravity of unbelief (v.1-3)
• You need to know how God promise deliverance for believers (v.4-7)

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Bible contradiction? Which tribe was Hyram from?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Which tribe was Hyram from?

Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:

The tribe of Naphtali

“Now King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. 14 He was a widow’s son from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill for doing any work in bronze. So he came to King Solomon and performed all his work.” (1 Kings 7:13-14)

 

The tribe of Dan

“Now I am sending Huram-abi, a skilled man, endowed with understanding, 14 the son of a Danite woman and a Tyrian father, who knows how to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone and wood, and in purple, violet, linen and crimson fabrics, and who knows how to make all kinds of engravings and to execute any design which may be assigned to him, to work with your skilled men and with [e]those of my lord David your father..” (2 Chronicles 2:13-14)

 

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

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