A Crooked and Perverse Generation...

Proverbs 30:11-14 "11 There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. 12 There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. 13 There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. 14 There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men."


In verse 11 we see described a generation that breaks God's 5th Commandment of honoring one's mother and father. These are a people who show no reverence to their parents, no love to them, and give no honor or obedience to them.

- Is this the generation you live in?

In verse 12 we see a people who are full of self-righteousness who think they are pure and honorable in their own eyes who live in unrepentant habitual sin.

- Is this the generation you live in?

In verse 13 we see described those who are full of vanity, pride, and insolence who look at others with scorn and contempt while thumbing their noses up in the air.

- Is this the generation you live in?

In verse 14 we see a people who are greedy, cruel, and oppressive.

- Is this the generation you live in?


If you believe these verses describe the generation you are living in, how must a Christian then conduct themselves? The answer is found in Philippians 2:15, "...be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world." In a crooked and perverse generation we are to shine as lights in the world and stand for the truth as revealed to us in God's word.

Pentel Arts 8 Colour Automatic Pencil

For several months I have been on the hunt for a good highlighter to use for marking scripture verses in my Bible. I have always been extremely leery of using highlighters in Bibles due to the bleed through commonly experienced with using them. There are several online "Christian" retailers who market bible highlighters; however, most of the ones I looked at seemed to have mixed reviews. After a month or so of looking around I found the Pentel Arts 8 Colour Automatic Pencil online at Amazon.  

I have been using this Pentel pencil extensively since purchasing it and I have grown to like it a lot. At first I was skeptical about using coloring pencils in the same manner I would use a highlighter, but have since become a fan. The pencil is well built and feels pretty sturdy in the hand. It comes with eight different colors that are housed in the pencil much like bullets in a revolver with a cylinder that contains one color per chamber. When you want to use a specific color you rotate the black clip over the chamber with the color you desire and press the yellow button at the top which drops it down for use. The colors included are dark blue, light blue, brown, red, pink, orange, yellow, and green. So far my least favorite colors are the light blue and pink due to the color showing up rather light on the verse I want to highlight. All of the others work great though the green and yellow are a bit difficult to tell apart if used on back to back scripture passages.

Left to Right: Yellow, Green, Blue, Red

The biggest pro to using this pencil as a Bible highlighter is there is literally zero bleed through - really! I have used every color this thing offers and have not detected the faintest amount of bleed through on the other side of the page. The biggest con to using this pencil is it isn't cheap. On Amazon the pencil itself ran me $14.37, which is on the expensive side. The pencil also requires refills of the color pencils, which costs just under $12.00. I am not sure how long the initial pencil lead will last me, but I'll take a guess and say this isn't the cheapest option out there as far as colored pencils go. However, cost aside I am very pleased with this Pentel pencil and have even purchased one as a gift for my mother-in-law. If you happen to be looking for the perfect highlighter/pencil to use for your Bible I encourage you to check out the Pentel Arts 8 Colour Automatic Pencil (PH158BP). It's worth it!

Quote of the Week - Nathanael Vincent

The quote below is from Nathanael Vincent's book "Attending Upon God Without Distraction."

"If we would attend upon God, we must come out from the world. Conformity to the world and walking after the course of it must cease. The most desirable good things of it must be condemned in comparison with God and the better and enduring substance. We shall never look and aim so as to obtain the things that are unseen and eternal unless the eye is shut against the things that are seen and temporal."

Nathanael Vincent (1638-1697)

Book Review: "What is a Reformed Church?" by Malcolm Watts

On Friday evening I finished up Malcolm Watts' book "What is a Reformed Church?" This book was published in 2011 by Reformation Heritage Books and is about 155 pages in length. The topics discussed in this book include the distinctives of a reformed church, the emphasis of reformed doctrine, a right view of worship, the government of the church, reformed church discipline, reformed evangelism, and maintaining the reformed faith.

This is an excellent little primer on what a reformed church is. Over the past year or two I have found myself move in a more reformed direction and I found this book to be very helpful in explaining the typical what and why questions that are asked about reformed churches. For me the most helpful topic in this book was "a right view of worship." This is a subject that I have been grappling with a lot this past year. Mr. Watts did a great job expounding upon this topic and presented a scripture saturated case for what a right view of worship is.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. This book definitely is among one of the best I have read this year!

Attending Upon God Without Distraction

1 Corinthians 7:35 ...that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

Paul's desire for the believers in Corinth was that they engage in their religious duties and serve God without being distracted, drawn away, or interrupted by the cares of the world.

Thomas Watson in his book "Ten Commandments" writes:

Distraction hinders devotion. The mind is tossed with vain thoughts, and diverted from the business in hand. It is hard to make a distracted heart fix. How often in hearing the Word, the thoughts dance up and down; and, when the eye is upon the minister, the mind is upon other things. Distracted hearing is far from sanctifying the Sabbath. It is very sinful to give way to vain thoughts at this time; because, when we are hearing the Word, we are in God's special presence. To do any treasonable action in the king's presence—is great impudence. "Yes, in my house have I found their wickedness." Jer 23:11. So the Lord may say, "In my house, while they are hearing my Word, I have found wickedness; they have wanton eyes, and their soul is set on vanity!" 

To approach God in worship with a distracted mind should be a cause for great concern to the believer. A distracted mind is offensive to God and reveals a heart problem that needs to be fixed. Paul's desire for the believers in Corinth as found in 1 Corinthians 7:35 needs to be our great desire for today -- that we may attend upon the Lord without distraction!

I am currently reading a wonderful little book by Nathanael Vincent (1638-1697) titled "Attending Upon God Without Distraction." This is a gem of a book and provides insight into both the cause and the treatment for the disease of distraction. If looking for a book on this subject there is no better treatise on the subject than what Nathanael Vincent offers.

 

Reasons for Using the King James Version (KJV) Bible

A couple weeks ago I purchased the new Westminster Reference Bible from the Trinitarian Bible Society (TBS) and along with it I added a couple informational pamphlets about the King James Version (KJV). If you are familiar with TBS then you know that they actively promote and strive to circulate accurate and trustworthy translations of the word of God.

One of the informational pamphlets I would like to highlight was produced in response to the question of whether or not Christians should still read the KJV when there are so many modern translation versions available nowadays. This is an important question especially in light of the ridiculous number of new translations that have become available over the past twenty years.

Produced by TBS

The pamphlet shown above explains five plain reasons for keeping to the KJV over the modern translation versions. For this post I will not dive in and expound upon the five reasons, but will only provide a brief description of the five points. If interested in reading the arguments in their entirety I encourage you to visit the TBS website here and you can request a copy be sent to you free of charge.

Reasons for Using the KJV over the modern translations available today:

1. The KJV is based on a better "text." 
2. The KJV is a more accurate translation.
3. The KJV is in more appropriate English.
4. The KJV bears a stronger testimony.
5. The KJV serves as the standard English translation. 

While the reasons above personally resonate with me, I am not necessarily a hardcore KJV-onlyist. My journey as a Christian has led me from initially using the NIV, to preferring the ESV, to finally reaching a position where I only use the KJV in my personal studies and when leading family devotions.

Finding a trustworthy and reliable Bible translation should be seriously considered by every Bible believing Christian out there. The "market" for Bibles has become flooded with new translations and one needs to really exercise discernment and look critically at whether the version one is considering is accurate and trustworthy. While the word of God is without error the same can not be said for the various modern translations that are available out there!

Quote of the Week - John Calvin

Writing of the Christian life, John Calvin remarked:

"We are not our own, we belong to the Lord. We are not our own. Let our reasons and our wills then never predominate in our thinking and in our acting....Let us then forget ourselves as much as is possible."

John Calvin (1509 - 1564)

Book Review: American Reformed Biographies - Robert Lewis Dabney

The other night I finished the biography on Robert Lewis (R.L.) Dabney written by Sean Michael Lucas as part of the American Reformed Biographies series. After having this book on my "wish list" for quite some time I went ahead and purchased it at Reformation Heritage Books for $10, which was a great deal considering this book is offered on other book sites for $24.99. The book is printed by P & R Publishing Company in hardcover and is 295 pages in length.

The book is divided into eight chapters that trace the life of R.L. Dabney. Some of the notable themes/subjects covered includes Dabney's missionary work in Louisa County, Virginia, his time as a pastor at Tinkling Springs Presbyterian Church in Fishersville, his time as a professor at Union Seminary, his time as a chaplain and chief of staff to Stonewall Jackson during the Civil War, his fight to preserve Old School Presbyterianism in the South, his controversial views on race and union with the North, and his time in Texas living in "exile."

The book is written in an easy to read manner that keeps the reader engaged and interested in the material presented. The author presents a fair picture of Dabney and discusses things about him that were admirable, while also not shying away from offering criticism of Dabney when warranted. This book definitely made me interested in reading more about R.L. Dabney and I wouldn't mind picking up Dabney's five volume set that is published by Sprinkle Publications.

Here are some of the endorsements found on the back of the book:

 "The nineteenth-century Southern Church boasted intellectually and morally impressive men who exercised considerable influence over political and social life. Among them, none overmatched Robert Lewis Dabney as a theologian, teacher, and social critic. Sean Lucas has provided a long-needed critical study of this great if problematic man, thereby illuminating our time as well as his"
- Eugene D. Genovese, past president, The Historical Society

"A model biography - Accurate, interesting, sympathetic, and critical. Dr. Lucas has mastered his material, and the result is a portrait of Dabney that will live on. Not only do we come to know the great Virginian better in this book, but we also are given a wonderfully nuanced treatment of the political, intellectual, and ecclesiastical climate of the nineteenth-century South."
- David B. Calhoun, Professor of Church History, Covenant Theological Seminary

"Lucas's brisk, delightfully clear writing masks the great difficulty of his achievement. He gets closer to the ideal of objectiveity than Dabney's contemporaries - let alone Lucas's own contemporaries - could probably imagine. This book is a tremendous feat of Scholarly labor and intellectual discipline."
- David l. Chappell, author of A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion an dthe Death of Jim Crow

"An important resource. Lucas draws on the many sources for knowledge of Dabney's life and thought, places him squarely in his historical setting, and appropriately blaances and relates the biographical and theological parts of his task. he also points out, and wrestles ably with, some of the knotty questions that Dabney's story and his legacy still pose for his present-day admirers and critics."
- Jack P. Maddex Jr., Professor of History, University of Oregon

If you are interested in learning about one of the great leaders of the Southern Presbyterian church I recommend checking this book out. It provides a historical account not only on the life of one of the South's greatest theologians, but it also provides great insight into the relationship of the northern and southern Presbyterian churches during the Civil War era.

Quote of the Week - R.L. Dabney

I am currently reading a biography on R.L. Dabney and appreciated the quote below attributed to a sermon Dabney gave in 1849.

"Go to him. Say, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. Does he answer you not a word? Cry after him. Does he seem to neglect you? Fall at his feet and worship him and cry, Lord help me."

"I am a dog, but it was for dogs, that the crumbs of pardoning mercy are made. Therefore I ask as a dog."

Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898)

Quote of the Week - John Calvin

John Calvin's application of the third commandment in the Institutes of the Christian Religion:

"We ought to be so disposed in mind and speech that we neither think nor say anything concerning God and his mysteries, without reverence and much soberness; that in estimating his works we conceive nothing but what is honorable to him."

John Calvin (1509 - 1564)