About this Blog Seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
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By Philologus, on 10th March 2013 Ever found it a struggle to remember the order of the Minor Prophets in the Bible? I’m sure we all have at times. I’m not even sure they remembered to include Habakkuk in my Bible, I can never seem to find it!
Forget no longer because we’ve created this simple Bible mnemonic to help you remember!
Humourous Jokes About Orange Jelly Might Not Help Zookeepers Hurling Zebra Milk.
All you have to do is remember some funny orange jelly not helping a zookeeper to throw zebra milk.
What other mnemonics do you use to remember the books of the Bible?
Oh, by the way… what do you call someone with jelly in one ear and custard in the other?
A trifle deaf.
By Philologus, on 4th March 2013 
Pope Benedict XVI stepped down as the 265th Pope at the end of last month, the first to resign for 600 years. The cardinals have gathered in Rome and the elaborate process of electing the next Pope will begin very shortly.
There are 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world, and the Pope is regarded as having divine authority, so it’s a pretty important position in the eyes of the Catholics! The conclave will be held in the Sistine chapel and they will want to push things through so there is a new Pope in place by the start of the Easter week.
Catholics have a long held tradition that Simon Peter was the first Pope, but does that idea carry any weight when we look at the Bible? We look at this question and others in our latest Bible Study on Was Peter the First Pope?
By Philologus, on 11th January 2013  Anyone with even a small amount of Bible knowledge realises that God is looking for us to ‘repent’. However we might wonder what ‘repentance’ actually is.
What does one do when one ‘repents’? Rather than simply defining the word, a Biblical example will help to demonstrate the meaning of repentance and more importantly how God responds when someone repents.
King in Trouble
2 Samuel Chapters 11 and 12 record a very sad period in the life of a king of Israel. The man was King David. Whilst his army was away at battle he committed adultery with the wife of one of his army generals. Then, when he learnt that she was pregnant, David arranged for her husband to be murdered. Summarising the two chapters which speak of this event we see the following:
| 2 Samuel |
Event |
| 11:1-4 |
David commits adultery with a woman called Bathsheba |
| 11:5 |
Bathsheba told David she was pregnant − with his child |
| 11:6-13 |
David tries to get Bathsheba’s husband Uriah to sleep with his wife so that the child would appear to be his |
| 11:14-25 |
David arranged to have Uriah murdered |
| 11:26-27 |
David married Bathsheba |
| 12:1-4 |
About 9 months later God sends the prophet Nathan to confront David about what he had done in committing adultery and murdering Uriah. He did this by telling David a story – much like the parables we find in the New Testament |
| 12:5-6 |
David correctly identifies what should be done to the man who has done what the prophet Nathan talks about |
| 12:7-12 |
The prophet Nathan then explains to David that he was the person in the wrong in the story that he had just told David. He then went on to tell David that he would be punished for what he had done |
| 12:13 |
David repents − he actually said ‘I have sinned’ |
Repentance Defined
So we see that repentance means acknowledging that we are sinners. The example given is to teach us that in general terms we are sinners. It does not mean that we should confess to being adulterers or murderers, unless of course we are! The encouraging thing to notice is that when David repented, God forgave him. The Scripture explains it like this:
David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. (2 Samuel 12:13).
But the matter didn’t end there for David wrote a number of Psalms about this whole incident, Psalm 32 being one of them. In the Psalm he speaks of the turmoil in his mind before he confessed his sin. He said:
“When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long” (Psalm 32:3).
He was in such distress that David decided to repent before Nathan came to see him. For the Psalm continues:
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin (Psalm 32:5).
The outcome of that repentance is seen in the words of Nathan: “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die”. That gracious act of forgiveness is what David was referring to when he said: “You forgave the iniquity of my sin”.
What about Us?
What we have been looking at is not simply a Bible story. The New Testament says David’s experience can be ours. For in Romans chapter 4 the apostle Paul quotes Psalm 32:1-2 to describe the wonderful position of those who have been forgiven by God. Paul takes the personal experience of David “the man” (in Psalm 32:1) and shows it has a general application to all who would repent saying “those” (in Romans 4:7).
David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin” (Romans 4:6–8).
We noticed that God waited almost a year before sending Nathan to speak with David. Why did He wait so long? After all if God had intervened immediately Uriah would not have been murdered by David. In the way that He waited for David to repent we see how God works. The New Testament explains it like this:
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
So the question we need to ask ourselves is how far are we along the road to repentance? How much longer will God have to wait for us?
Scripture has this wonderful promise for all of us:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
By Philologus, on 22nd December 2012 How many of the twenty-six books of the Bible did you find in our Hidden Books Puzzle? Here are the answers highlighted in bold for you…
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Dear Sir/Madam,
The Bible is a remarkable book. Within this letter there are 26 books of the Bible hidden. Can you find them all? Have a go at it using a pen or pencil to highlight the ones you find.
The Bible was written by God, using many authors from all sorts of backgrounds, having many different jobs. God tells us the story of his nation Israel and His son, Jesus Christ, making sure it has been preserved for us through the ages for us to read today.
The Bible outlines the right way to lead our lives, as well as containing many historical accounts. Moses led Israel through the Red Sea, at the battle of Jericho trumpeters marched round the walls for seven days, Judea saw great wars and captivity, Abishag gained David as a husband, the Pharisees would act superior to everyone else, perhaps almsgiving for example, but Jesus kept giving them a most stern rebuke. Jesus also performed many miracles, after receiving the Holy Spirit upon his baptismal achievement, with his first miracle being turning the water into wine for the groom at the wedding, maybe it was a nice Spanish Rioja? Mesopotamia was an important region in Biblical history, with Ur and Babylon in that area, as was Sudan I elsewhere read.
When studying the Bible it is helpful to look out for any Bible echo. Search for them whenever you read as you will see some fascinating things, particularly when reading the letters to the various churches, or ecclesias. Testing what you hear against the Bible is also very important to show if it is true, for example if someone suggests Jesus was born in Suez rather than Bethlehem, you would use the Bible to check its accuracy. The same applies if you think Paul ate locusts, David played a banjo eloquently for Saul, Barnabas went on missionary work to Dijon, a horse carried Jesus into Jerusalem or Lazarus died of swine flu, keep going back to the Bible as you can learn a lot from answers to your questions. There is no need to put being academic ahead of everything else though as Jesus said it is most important to love one another, in a humble spirit. Jesus gave his life for us and when we are in a spiritual rut, his love will give us the comfort we need.
Sincerely, the Rev. E. Lation
By Philologus, on 10th December 2012 Dear Sir/Madam,
The Bible is a remarkable book. Within this letter there are 26 books of the Bible hidden. Can you find them all? Have a go at it using a pen or pencil to highlight the ones you find.
The Bible was written by God, using many authors from all sorts of backgrounds, having many different jobs. God tells us the story of his nation Israel and His son, Jesus Christ, making sure it has been preserved for us through the ages for us to read today.
The Bible outlines the right way to lead our lives, as well as containing many historical accounts. Moses led Israel through the Red Sea, at the battle of Jericho trumpeters marched round the walls for seven days, Judea saw great wars and captivity, Abishag gained David as a husband, the Pharisees would act superior to everyone else, perhaps almsgiving for example, but Jesus kept giving them a most stern rebuke. Jesus also performed many miracles, after receiving the Holy Spirit upon his baptismal achievement, with his first miracle being turning the water into wine for the groom at the wedding, maybe it was a nice Spanish Rioja? Mesopotamia was an important region in Biblical history, with Ur and Babylon in that area, as was Sudan I elsewhere read.
When studying the Bible it is helpful to look out for any Bible echo. Search for them whenever you read as you will see some fascinating things, particularly when reading the letters to the various churches, or ecclesias. Testing what you hear against the Bible is also very important to show if it is true, for example if someone suggests Jesus was born in Suez rather than Bethlehem, you would use the Bible to check its accuracy. The same applies if you think Paul ate locusts, David played a banjo eloquently for Saul, Barnabas went on missionary work to Dijon, a horse carried Jesus into Jerusalem or Lazarus died of swine flu, keep going back to the Bible as you can learn a lot from answers to your questions. There is no need to put being academic ahead of everything else though as Jesus said it is most important to love one another, in a humble spirit. Jesus gave his life for us and when we are in a spiritual rut, his love will give us the comfort we need.
Sincerely, the Rev. E. Lation, FindingGod.co.uk
[Download Printable PDF version here]
…and answers are here. Don’t look before you’ve tried the puzzle though!
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