Faith Bible Blog

Information and Reflections for the FBC Family

July 4, 2006
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Posts: 303

Good Words

Provers 16:20-22
20 Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.   21 The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction.  22 Understanding is a fountain of life to those who have it, but folly brings punishment to fools.


Recently, a friend of mine pointed me towards two blogs done by the same person, both worth investigating…

1)  Bringing Up Daniels ~ which deals mainly with parenting children

"Bringing up Daniels in Babylon is one way of protesting against the lie of this age which says that the best we can do is give a kid time-out and hope that he won’t be a criminal someday. Bologna and Garbage! Desperate times call for desperate goals like "I want my sons and daughters to be Daniels." Why should we aim at dirt and hit it every time? I’ve aimed the arrow of my children strait at the character of God and I intend to go down fighting their sin natures all the way until that day I give them over to the sanctification process designed by God which we call marriage, or the mission field, or the blows of life that come from the merciful hand of God. This is where people start saying, "You can’t control their hearts, God does the work….etc." I believe I stand on fairly good authority to direct you to the heart of God on this matter of raising children…and that it is likened to aiming arrows at a target with purpose and tenacity. "What can be done? Kids will be kids, this is a stage their going through." Are all ways of saying "I give up!" Maybe you don’t know there is more to child rearing than what you hear on Oprah or some so-called Christian radio programs. God wants to show you, but you can’t find your information from people who are opposed to what He has revealed to us in His Word. And those of you who have known what the Bible teaches about parenting but have let yourself get lazy……join me in the repentance club. (We meet with God at random times throughout the day.)"

2)  Sister Got Slapped ~ a place of spiritual challenge for women

"I have been blessed to be surrounded by women who love to learn, who love to grow, and want to be like Christ. Many of these women have challenged me in areas of my spiritual short-comings. I am often hearing requests for Bible studies from those who love accountability and want spiritual stimulation from others.   This, combined with a need for a place to post our Summer Bible Study notes on the book of Ruth, is why I have created "Sister Got Slapped." Every godly woman knows that she must, from time to time, slap her friends, and be slapped by her true friends. The one necessary component in building each other up, in this business of slapping, is the Word of God."

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June 27, 2006
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Posts: 303

Is Church a Game?


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A friend recently emailed me the link to this fictitious game, ‘MegaChurch.’  It is a comical lampoon of simulation games, using the church as a basis.  The ad is quite comical, being done up in Amazon.com style — make sure to read the Product Description!

Now, to clarify…this is a spoof.  Church is NOT a game.  It is created, grown by and for the living God.  And He who made us for His glory, also created us with the ability to laugh at hyperbole and the ridiculous.  So enjoy the ad and remember…church is not a game!  Smiley

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June 20, 2006
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Posts: 303

The Life of Arthur Pink


Arthur Pink was an unusual man and little has been written about him.  To my knowledge, only two biographies exist on A.W. Pink — The Life of Arthur W. Pink by Iain Murray, and Arthur W. Pink: Born to Write by Richard Belcher.  In light of the dearth of material available online, here are the class notes from the ‘Quotables’ class that’s in progress right now.  Oh, and if you’d like to read his works, here’s a link to the Arthur Pink Archives, which has virtually all of his writings in digital form.

——–Forgive the rough form & formatting of the notes.  They have not really been prepared for publication to the web or of any sort.——–{mosimage}


Arthur Walkington Pink (1886-1952)

Interesting
Facts

»    Born to Christian Parents
»    Converted from the occult.
»    Preached to crowds of people across America, England & Australia.
»    Eventually lost influence due to preaching sovereignty & responsibility
»    His books didn’t ever sell well.
»    He chose to leave every church he pastored or attended.
»    He maintained a monthly magazine for over thirty years, writing almost all of the content.
»    Magazine subscriptions never went much over 1,000 and often were below.
»    He lived the last 16 years of his life in virtual isolation on an island off Scotland.

An unusual man…

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June 6, 2006
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Posts: 303

The Flow of Ephesians

As I’ve been studying Ephesians this week, I’ve been using my recently upgraded bible sofware, Logos 3.0.  (Thanks FBC!)  As I was looking at the grammatical layout of Ephesians 4:1-6, I stumbled across a tool that showed a graphical representation of verbal moods used across any portion of Scripture that I input.  Below you can see the ‘verb river’ for Ephesians 1-6.

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What stands out to me is the heavy weighting of the imperative mood beginning partway through chapter 4 and continuing through the end.  If you think of a command or exhortation, then you’re thinking of something that’d be in the imperative mood.  Notice above how all the exhortation is built up into the latter half of Ephesians.  You probably notice this as you read, but it’s kind of neat to see it graphically represented.

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