Author: J.K.

Good Metal Friday

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I hope that’s not sacrileges.

Think today, as we remember and reflect on the Lamb that took our place and suffered the Wrath of God. He, for our sake, was separated from God (hell) so that we would be counted righteous and be adopted sons, never to be snatched away, but spend eternity praising Him, who is on the Throne.

The Father of grace and mercy has poured out His wrath completely,
on His Son for our sake, we are free, brought the Lamb to slaughter for me

There is love! Here is love! This is love! There is love!!

 

 

Book Review: Confessions

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Confessions– St. Augustine

 My Rating – If You Have Time

 Level – Moderate, seems longer than it is.

Summary
Basically his autobiography for the first nine chapters, then a chapter on memory, and wraps up his last three chapters in discussing the first chapters in Genesis. His life story is interesting enough, his mother was a Christian and that influenced him. He went off to school and talks about his shenanigans with his boys.

Later on he joins up with the Manicheans but, after the death of a friend, becomes disillusioned with them. Eventually he hears Ambrose preach and after discussion with friends and reading Romans in a garden, he converts and is baptized.

 My Thoughts
My confession: I didn’t really like this book. It’s considered a seminal work in Christian Literature, but I just never got into it. Maybe because of the translation (Penguin Classic), but I didn’t like the writing. It was one of those, say in 20 words what you could say in five type writing styles.

His time at school was probably the most interesting to me. His pondering as to why he would steal pears when he had his own, probably better ones. It certainly should make most people question these things in general, and resonates with males who engaged in general jackassary as adolescents in particular. The thoughts on memory are interesting in a philosophical way, and his chapters on Genesis are worth reading for his style of exegesis.

Overall, I just wasn’t a fan. I hesitated to rank as I have, instead of lower, at the same time, feeling I should rank it higher, due to its place in history. So, I guess, if you have time, check it out and see for yourself.

Book Review: Atlantis Trilogy

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The Origin Mystery (3 Book Series) by A.G. Riddle 

My Rating –  Must Read for Sci-Fi or historical fictions fans. Put It On The List for everyone else.

Level – Fairly easy and medium length, reads quickly.

Summary
So, this is actually three books, but you knew that, because… ‘Trilogy’: The Atlantis Gene, The Atlantis Plague and The Atlantis World . I’m not really sure how to summarize this. Starts out with some spies, then a bunch of attacks across the world, then you get everything for the rest of the series – global plaques, ancient history, Nazis, aliens, cool Tibetan Monks, long (very long) running timelines and conspiracies. Just go buy it.

My Thoughts
I actually found the first book on the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library on one of the rare cases that it worked. I ended up reading the rest of the series through it as well. I found myself driving home after work thinking about the story and wondering what would happen next, looking forward to getting home and reading for an hour or so before Mrs. MMT and Sprout got home.

The story kind of bounces around different categories, as mentioned above, but I suspect, that overall if you don’t like some nerdy things, you may not like it. If you have any interest at all, the book will be great. I have to admit, towards the end of the third book, it winds down as if he (the author) isn’t sure how to ended, and it was just kind of done. You begin to see the ending coming anyway, so I don’t think it detracts too much, but it does end with a fizzle.

Still, go buy all three in paperback and knock them out at the beach or lake over the summer.

Why I Chose Olive Tree

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I’ve looked into many of the electronic library options for a Christian resource library, the most popular being Logos, but there is also Accordance, Bible Works, Olive Tree and PC Study Bible. I also came across something from Zondervan called Praxis that appears to only have the full version of the Expositor’s Commentary Series. It also looks like its old enough to be run on DOS. I’ve also had some samples of the PC Study Bible. Ultimately, I went with Olive Tree.

It came down to a few reasons. Frist, its app based, this was particularly important because at the time I was looking, I didn’t have a computer with Windows. I had/have a Chromebook, so there isn’t even the possibility of installing software. Of course, I found out that Olive Tree doesn’t have an app for Chromebook. However, it does have it for just about everything else. I have it on my tablet that I use as my Bible for church and Study, my wife has the app on her phone for her Bible Study and I have it on both my home and work computers.

Probably the best feature to me was the ability to sync my notes. I can type my notes on the computer, then pull out the tablet at Chic-fil-a, hop on their Wi-Fi and have all of them there. My wife will also sync my notes to her phone when she has forgotten to read, so there’s that. I’m sure others may have this ability, but I liked Olive Tree’s setup the most.

What sold me the most, and what made me initially download the app was the Tyndale Commentary on the whole Bible (43 Volumes) for only $99. I saw it pop up once and skipped it, then regretted it. When it came up again, I jumped on it. Now I see it comes up about three or four times a year. This is a great deal and they have been very useful. I was also able to download the ESV Study Bible notes for $9. Again, tough to beat. The ESV text is free, along with many others.

Why not the others? Other than the portability issues, it was mainly because I didn’t want to buy any of the packages. The packages are massive and very expensive. If you are a full-time pastor or professor, Logos is probably worth it. If you are looking to enhance your study, it seems a bit much to me. I figure I’d be unlikely to read all of it. If I were to buy one of the systems with packages, it’d likely be PC Study Bible. They are much more affordable than Logos. Continue reading →

Blogging Bavinck 2 – Prolegomena

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Part 1

First and foremost, he continually uses a word so awesomely hilarious sounding, that it makes me wish I hadn’t bought the MMT domain: Dogmatician.

I thought my second write-up would be over a shorter section, but as I read through, that isn’t quite possible. Each of the four volumes is made up of part, which then have their own chapters. For example, book one has five parts and 17 chapter. I had one crazy idea that the chapters, spread out over all four volumes, would work out nicely as weekly post and I’d have over a year’s worth of material.

However, that doesn’t seem to be working out the way I wanted. For now, I’ll briefly review Part 1 of Book 1, which goes through page 114.

Many of the pages have an apologetic or polemic feel, as he argues definitions for dogmatics and critiques others approaches (as well as definitions). Roughly 30 pages are devoted to the order of a theology book. As in, doctrine of X should come first, followed by Doctrine of Y. He goes through a list of major works (Origen, Summa, Institutes, etc.) to show their layout and what was wrong with those.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is also the issue of antiquated terminology and debates (metaphysics). Additionally, he takes the view that everyone is familiar with church, as they have grown up in church and their understanding is shaped by whichever church they were apart of (hence, there is no way to have an unbiased writing). This is a little less true in modern America. Continue reading →

Linky Links

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Russell Moore asks if millennials are selfish.
He actually comes to the defense of millennials:

On the whole, though, I find the Millennial generation’s grasp of gospel Christianity far better than what we’ve seen in a long time. They tend to be better at articulating a Christian vision of life, because they’ve had to do so all their lives, never able to count on a pseudo-Christian culture to do pre-evangelism for them.

Anecdotal, I know, but I find this is accurate. My grandparents (the Greatest Generation), while not dogmaticians, new the Bible backwards and forwards. They thought it was an important thing to know. However, my parents (Boomers) didn’t seem to know much of either the Bible or Theology. Russell makes the point that they grew up in a Christian world. I (Millennial) and others arguable grew up in a post-Christian world.

I see it among people I know. Again, this is anecdotal, there are many who are not involved in church (not sure if this is generational or the fact that many people skip out of church in their 20s). However, those whom are involved, they tend to know much more because they want to know more. Maybe because church is optional for us; whereas it was basically a social requirement for the Boomers.

I tweeted this earlier, but he makes a great point about Millennials (you know, the selfish ones) searching for mentors in the church and coming up lacking. I could write a book about the failure of the church to mentor, so I’ll stop here.

Post on Modesty – points out the failure to make men accountable, among other things.

Finally for today – 6 signs of a call to preach or, for me, five reasons why I will never be a preacher.

 

 

Zondervan Counterpoint Series

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I’ve posted many articles about reading recently and wanted to highlight a series here. I first came across these a few years ago and was instantly intrigued. I thought it was a great way to show differing views with the spectrum of Evangelical Christianity. After reading a few, I’ve put them on my list of must haves for anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of a topic.

The book starts with a topic (Adam, Hell, Women in Ministry, etc.), and then has three to five people make their case for their particular view. The authors are usually scholars who have written many books or commentaries on the subject. However, the generally do well writing to a broad lay audience. After each makes their proposal, the others make short critical responses. The original author then has a chance to briefly respond to the criticisms.

I really can’t imagine a way for Christians to get such an in-depth, but (fairly) short and simply written scholarly discourse. Every Christian who has an interest or struggle in belief in a certain issue should start with the Counterpoint series.

If you are interested in buying, you can find them quickly through my amazon store.

Book Review: Do More, Better

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Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity by Tim Challies

Rating – Add it to your list (for most); probably not worth the time (for people already well organized)

Level – Readable, short, step-by-step approach

Summary – It is really difficult to write a summary that doesn’t just rip off the table of contents. Basically, he explains the system that works for him. This includes a mission statement (he calls this a productivity catechism), then finding things that get in the way of your productivity and finally the tools to tackle the problems.

I want to focus on the tools here, because in the month or so that I’ve read this book, I’ve tried to adopt them all. The first tool is a basic task manager. He recommends Todoist, and I’ve jumped on the bandwagon. It’s very intuitive and I use it multiple times a day. The price of the book may be worth this chapter alone. Second tool is a calendar; he recommends Google, it’s nice enough. I use a calendar for everything at work, but never tried to apply that idea elsewhere.  It’s been most helpful in keeping me aware of when I have time to do things and when I don’t; which, in turn, helps my task management.

The final tool, I still haven’t gotten a hold on. He calls it something to gather your information and recommends Evernote. I really like the web clipper extension, but haven’t found much else that is helpful, yet.

He wraps it up by reminding us that for the system to work, you must live on the system and you must maintain it consistently.

Review – I particularly like the lazy-busy excuse/productivity thieve; it hit close to home. There are many things I’d like to do (though I sometimes put it on God) and I wish I was more productive. After adopting the first two of his recommended tools, I’ve already noticed a difference. It sounds like a cheesy add, but not only am I getting more done, but I have more time. This book could be very helpful to anyone who needs a productivity boost.

On Commentaries

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I’m a big believer in the use of commentaries. I put them second on my list of books to buy, once you have the basics. This is mainly because some parts of the Bible are just strange. Others are thousands of years old and in a geography you may not be familiar with. The books of the Bible were written in different languages than we speak today and was given to an audience with a vastly different understand of the world. Finally, good commentaries can give you the differing views out there on a particular difficult topic, or even historical views that have changed due to some new information.

Which ones should I buy?

The unfortunate (for your wallet) answer is, all of them. Seriously, maybe not everything that exist (dozens of commentaries on each of the 66 books), but I have come to believe that you should get the best one you can find for each book, though some can be grouped together. A friend of mine told me this once and I really didn’t like it. It’s tedious and expensive, but it really is the right answer. Well, actually, it is the best answer for some. Most people aren’t going to go buy something like that New International Commentary full set of 46 volumes that cost about $1,500. If you want that many and are willing to spend, it’s better to go book by book.

Why is this case? Honestly, some volumes of a set are just weaker than others. I’d also argue that some books (of the Bible) are more familiar to you with less technical issues, in which case, you can get by with a cheaper, less in-depth commentary.

There are multiple levels of technicality, depth and type of commentary to buy. First would be a single volume(ish) and this is where I’d recommend starting if you haven’t used commentaries before. The second level is for Bible study or devotion, these will be shorter, less technical and written more to a believer about a text and growing in the Word. Third level is for those prepping to lead a Bible Study or a pastor for a sermon; or someone looking to invest the time for a deeper understanding. Final level is academic. These may be highly technical and not always translate the original languages. They will be most engaged in scholarship and least engaged in personal growth. Most people will never need/use these if they aren’t a pastor, seminary student, professor or big nerd.

Example of a commentary length/depth based on 1 Peter (which is only 5 Chapters) –

New Bible Commentary – 17 pages

Expositor’s Bible Commentary – 80 pages

Tyndale Commentary – 248 pages

Word Biblical Commentary – 416 pages

My Recommendations

Single Volume(ish) – I say ‘ish’ because, while there are good intentions of getting a commentary to one volume, that leaves you with one big-ass book. I personally use and recommend the New Bible Commentary. I also use the abridged version of the The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, which is actually two books, Old and New Testament.

Bible Study/Devotion:

  • Expositor’s Bible Commentary – This is another great into/first step, offering lots of great info from an evangelical perspective and can be had at a great price when you buy use or the old (12 volume) edition.
  • NIV Application – Has its feet in both the study and devotional side, though is quite large at 42 volumes.
  • Sets like the Weiserbe and Boice (I haven’t used either, put Boice is on my list) that are more focused on devotion is something I have in mind here. If you ever buy an entire set from a single author, it must be for devotional purposes, as no one person can be an expert on every book of the bible.

Message preparation:

  • New American Commentary – These are solid scholarly written books, while remaining somewhat brief (41 volumes, so combing some books). Easy to find used volumes for $10-15.
  • Tyndale – Probably the least technical of those I’d recommend. Also, great prices, they printed them in paperback and you can find old copies or used ones at a great price. Olive Tree often has them on sale for $99, which is a hell of a deal.

Academic:

  • Baker Exegetical Commentary
  • New International Commentary
  • New International Greek Commentary
  • Word Biblical Commentary

 

Other Places for Recommendations:

You’ll probably notice that I didn’t go into detail about which commentary for which book. Two reasons for this, my main goal is to give you an idea of what’s out here and secondly, I haven’t read multiple commentaries on every book of the Bible. Instead, I use these guys to help me select which commentaries to get.

Best Commentaries

Challies

John Piper

Ligonier

You can also find all the commentaries I’ve used or recommend at my amazon store.