Today's Sermon

So my local church does not normally do topical sermons,  we tend towards straight exegetical sermons and do that from the pastor picking a book to start with and cover the entire book. Having just now completed the book of Leviticus, we are now in the book of  1st Peter. Today is chapter 1 verses 3-9. 

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,

 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

 6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,

7 so that the proof of your faith, being more-precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls

The great irony here is that even though we are covering this merely as we go through a book of a bible, this is still very much a message of Thanksgiving. This is also an encouragement of the trials we, as Christans, will face. The trials we face are often an indication of our own salvation. I find that point of great encouragement right now as I struggle with both medical issues as well as emotional trials due to an unsaved and unrepentant stepson.

Book of Common Prayer

I'm not a Member of the Church of England, nor am I an Episcopal. That being said, the Book of Common Prayer is something I believe all Christians could benefit from.

Some of this Morning's Psalms from that book included Psalm 69 verse 6

6 May those who wait for You not be ashamed through me, O Lord God of hosts;

May those who seek You not be dishonored through me, O God of Israel,

Boy this is one verse I think everyone who is a believer should have on their heart. None of us are perfect, and until the Lord calls us home, all of us will have sins that could negatively impact others. 

More about Bible software.

So while I have mentioned Logos 6, since that version has just been released, I think ti might be a good time to just discuss Bible software in general. I am a Mac guy, self admitted, so one might think I have less options, but honestly Bible software is one of those products where Windows and Mac are pretty much equal.

I have learned that Bible Software is very much like Cameras, it isn't which one is truly better it is which one that you will use. That being said I will tok a little about my Journey to Logos.  My using Bible Software goes back to late 80's and early 90's and started with Quickverse and Wordsearch, my Father had one, and I had the other. That was back when everything was nearly one window and everything was always full screen. I liked them both but the thing about so many of these products is unless you held onto the disks, if you got a new computer you were looking for a new product. For the longest time (till the early 2000's) I had my product , it was a a piece called Theophilos, I loved it, but by my early 30's I was looking for a means to get both commentaries and the Bible together at the same time. That led to my first introduction to Logos. Which I really enjoyed, it's biggest draw is the layout functionality for any user, and the huge library of add ons you can get for additional libraries.

IN 2007 though I left Logos, through the choice to move from Windows OS to MacOS. After a little bit of searching, I found the closest equivalent (though not exactly the same) which was Accordance. I bought Accordance, and transferred my Logos license to my father. I like Accordance well enough, but then I heard that Logos was porting their application to the Mac. So I got on the beta program and moved back.

I've also used the sword project and several others, but I've always come back to Logos. The main thing for me has been the superior User Interface (UI) that Logos provides me. The fact that the Logos mobile version is outstanding is a huge bonus too.

I haven't tweaked Logos 6 much yet, but I love the continued improvements to the Home Page. By default it had my readings for the Day, as well as Devotionals I had set up in earlier versions of Logos. It also now has a Verse of the Day, and tips. Moral of the story though is I have tried a whole lot of Bible software products and have finally found the version that I will be sticking with until Bible software Becomes unnecessary or the company goes out of business.

Testing the Logitech K811 Keyboard.

So while I am talking about the Word of God on this blog, I must confess I'm more than a little bit of a nerd. Ok A lot of a Nerd. My B.S. is in Computer Science, and I'm a sucker for new technology. I'm a mostly Mac person as well.

So anyway, I picked up a Logitech K811 keyboard some time ago. I picked it up primarily because it is a Bluetooth keyboard meaning no wires, and the fact that it is backlit. I'm dealing with collateral damage to my eye sue to undiagnosed Diabetes, and while I have it managed now through diet and exercise, and the work of the Holy Spirit, it means a backlit keyboard is a veritable Godsend.

So I wanted to speak a little on the product. It is a standard chicklet type of keys. It has a very small footprint as well. For point of comparisons the Keyboard is only slightly larger, as in just a few mm, than the Apple wireless keyboard. The keys are black, and with white lettering and a white LED backlight. The backlighting is very nice indeed, if I turn out the lights , I can see the keys but they are not obnoxiously so.  It has multiple levels of backlighting, that can be controlled via the F8 and F9 keys. Even the brightest light is not too bright, but still bright enough to outdo any glare by a monitor.

There is however a huge extra bonus for this keyboard, namely the ability to manage multiple devices. Essentially you can have up to 3 different devices using this keyboard. I can easily switch between my Macbook Pro, iPad, and Apple TV, and switch back.

I should note that this keyboard layout is purely an Apple layout. In fact it mimics the layout of the Macbook Pro keyboard.

Key response is great, truth be told I haven't seen any ghosting, meaning you could even play games with it , I've tested even a First Person shooter, and it works good. This also comes with a rechargeable battery, and a micro USB to USB cable to recharge it. This works quite well, and holds a charge for quite a while.

So if you have an Apple computer and want a great backlit keyboard, this is a great choice.

On to Jonah

So I know it looks like I skipped Amos, but Yesterday was Joel + Amos, and today is Obadiah + The first 4 chapters of Jonah.

Obadiah is very to the point, though it would stand to reason any Book of the bible that consists of 21 verses almost has to be. God, through his prophet, Promises judgement upon the Edomites, and a restoration of Israel.

So on to Jonah. I have a confession to make, I feel a very close kinship to Jonah, because I do believe that were the Lord to put me in the same scenario I might behave quite similarly. I'm not necessarily talking about the specifics of being in the belly of a Giant fish, or for that matter being so angry that I ask God for death, but more about having such a hard time getting over my own sinful desire for Judgement on the wicked as opposed to seeing true repentance.

Jonah 4:2 sums up the problem with Jonah Nicely, and honestly I think all of us are like this by default.

2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.

This verse is kind of a whine. Nineveh was truly wicked before the prophecy and no doubt Jonah was hoping that God would have just wiped the map clean of the city. How often do we want the evil to be punished, not mercy in the face of true repentance.

That being said, this Book is not some clarion call for Christians to campaign against the Death Penalty or any other just penalty for a crime, because only God himself can grant the kind of mercy that forgives even the earthly penalty.

A picture of Logos 6

So this shows something I really like about Logos. The default Layout allows you to quickly fire off a search. In my case here I was thinking about Micah 6:8.

So I searched for "He has shown you", thus showing that most of my Bible memorization was some variant of the KJV (or NKJV) and off we went. Obviously based on the returns of the search we see that it didn't search for the exact phrase. You can get a lot more refined by putting the search string in quotes, but I will admit that sometimes shows some unexpected results as well.  In this case, since one of the Bibles that my package gets included the Apocrypha I got Tobit 13:4.  IN any case, I was looking for Micah 6:8 , which popped up in the list. The 1995 edition of the NASB is my default Bible so it picked it first in the grid. The other two windows  are the NASB95 version of Micah 6 (including verse 8) and the Text Comparison Tool, which nicely layout out the various version I have selected for use in that tool.

Logos 6

OK, so this post isn't really about the word, but about how I read/study the word. The newest version of Logos has been released. I will also discuss that event on here over time, as it has become my preferred study tool on my Mac. More to come.

Going through Joel

So I'm working through the "Bible in a year" concept, and I admit I'm woefully behind. So I'm in the book of Joel starting today, and it has me reading the entire book. The time of this minor prophet is a bit uncertain, there is some thought that he was there during the time of King Jorma, because there was a great famine in that timeframe, but ultimately there is not any indication in the book itself of the timeframe, so it;s best to leave it this way. As a companion to reading the Book, I'm also looking at John Calvin's commentaries on the minor prophets which includes Joel. I was really struck by the first two chapters.

Joel 1 is pretty grim stuff for the people of Judah, and the first part of Chapter 2 is no better. A bitter famine. Where first Joel speaks of the luxuries of a good land being destroyed and then the necessities.   Joel 2 uses the imagery of an active occultation as well, and judgement, but as always the Lord , even in declaring judgement, offers a potential reprieve

12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,

“Return to Me with all your heart,

And with fasting, weeping and mourning;

13 And rend your heart and not your garments.”

Now return to the Lord your God,

For He is gracious and compassionate,

Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness

And relenting of evil.

14 Who knows whether He will not turn and relent

And leave a blessing behind Him,

Even a grain offering and a drink offering

For the Lord your God?

15 Blow a trumpet in Zion,

Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly,

16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation,

Assemble the elders,

Gather the children and the nursing infants.

Let the bridegroom come out of his room

And the bride out of her bridal chamber.

17 Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers,

Weep between the porch and the altar,

And let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord,

And do not make Your inheritance a reproach,

A byword among the nations.

Why should they among the peoples say,

‘Where is their God?’ ”

A call for repentance!! What an awesome God we have that even in our rebellion and faithlessness that He still gives us a means for reconciliation. 

After a call for repentance in the early part of Chapter 2, God then Lays out the promise of Deliverance, and bleeding including sending his holy spirit to bless all , not just the people of Judah. It is this part in particular that has me thinking of what the Lord did on Pentecost. For the passage says:

28 “^aIt will come about after this

That I will pour out My Spirit on all ^cmankind;

And your sons and daughters will prophesy,

Your old men will dream dreams,

Your young men will see visions.

29 “Even on the male and female servants

I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

Finally Chapter 2 ends with a declaration of Judgement and a promise of Deliverance for those who call on the name of the Lord. 

Chapter 3 moves on to Judgement of all the Nations, and then Blessing of Judah. The prophet Joel started off with dire warnings, but ultimately ends with a great and wonderful ending. 

So this morning at Church the sermon was on Leviticus 26. The joys of going to a "reformed" church, the Pastor often covers passages you wouldn't expect in a modern church. The title of the sermon was "Promises and Punishment", because Leviticus 26 is a nice summary of the entire book.  The sermon was good, but reminded me of another passage, which cut me to the quick.

2nd Chronicles 7:14

¹⁴ if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

I know it may seem a bit far afield to get from that portion of Leviticus to 2nd Chronicles, but truth be told it really isn't. It cut me to the quick because I see how little I often Humble myself and pray, and sadly I'm thinking that that isn't just a struggle I have. And if there are more like me, who are Christian, but all too often are not humbling ourselves and praying for the healing of our land, then are we not at least in part cause for this time in which we live?