Discipleship | A People for His Name

The Matchless Greatness of the Bible from an Information Science Perspective

October 16, 2011

In his fascinating book, In the Beginning was Information, Werner Gitt “describes a new way of understanding creation and the Bible.” He powerfully argues for the matchless greatness of the Bible from an information science perspective:

— The Bible contains the most important information conceivable. It is divine in essence, and indicates the way to our Father’s house.

— The relevance value of the information of the Bible for every person is r = 1, the highest possible value. It comprises the best advice for this life, and is the only compass that guides us to heaven.

— The information of the Bible is always up-to-date (t = 1). Whereas most scientific publications become outdated after ten years, the Bible can never become outdated.

— We can readily access the information of the Bible (a = 1). It can be obtained all over the world, and the contents are easy to understand.

— The information of the Bible is comprehensive and complete (e = 1).

— No false information is contained in the Bible; it is the only Book of Truth (John 17:17).

— We find the highest semantic density of information in the Bible, as well as the best pragmatic information (commandments, rules of living, and our relationship with God and other people). It comprises the highest possible apobetics, namely an invitation to enter heaven!

— 161; bold text is in italics in the original; (r = relevance; t = timeliness; a = accessibility; e = existence)

Praise God for His goodness in giving us His Word! Let us all read our Bibles with a continuous awe of its matchless greatness.

In Apologetics, Bible reading, Christian Books, Quotes

Answered Prayer – New Laptop!

October 14, 2011

The Lord recently blessed me with the first new laptop that I have ever had. My Samsung R540-JA08 has already been a tremendous help to me in many ways!

I look forward greatly to how this tool will help me to minister much more effectively in the years ahead, D.V.

Praise God for answering prayer!

In Computers, Prayer

"Using Guitar for Ministry" – first class

October 13, 2011

Tonight, I taught my first Using Guitar for Ministry class at a local Spanish church. Because I had been told by the pastor that many Spanish-speaking people like to use the solfeggio system (do –re –mi –fa –so –la –ti – do) in their music in place of notes, I have been working on incorporating that system in my teaching.

While I was getting ready for the class this afternoon, I rediscovered an excellent way to use the solfeggio system for playing guitar that I had first discovered several years ago. The great advantage of using it is how easy it makes transposing from one key to another.

The next step in learning how to use this system effectively is to teach myself how to read notes from both clefs not with the letter names but with the solfeggio syllable for each note. With consistent practice, I hope I will get to where I can read sheet music so well that I can transpose easily without having to think at all about intervals, etc.

In Music

900 Chapters in the LXX Finished!

October 12, 2011

I have now finished reading 900 chapters in the Septuagint and have only 29 chapters left to go to finish reading through the LXX this year—praise God!


Section	Greek	English
OT	900/929	532*/929
NT	20/260	260/260
Bible	920/1189	792/1189

*Includes listening to 126 chapters of the OT from the Bible on MP3

In Bible reading

Excellent Children's Book about Jesus

October 11, 2011

Over the years, I have read a number of children’s books about the Bible. One of the best short books that I have read is Jesus by Dan Larsen, published by Barbour in its series, The Young Reader’s Christian Library (ISBN 1-55748-100-8).

This book has 13 chapters that total 201 pages and a 10-page dictionary for young readers. Every other page is illustrated and has a brief caption at the bottom of the page.

I remember finding the book so captivating on one occasion that I read the entire book through in one sitting. The book vividly and powerfully presents Jesus to the reader in an engaging style suitable for both children and adults.

I have found this work to be an excellent book for young believers and have also used it as an evangelistic tool.

In Christian Books

"The Lower Crossed Syndrome"

October 8, 2011

This condition is the culprit behind most lower back problems, where herniated disks and sciatica most often occur. The hip flexors, spinal erectors, TFL, piriformis, and QLs are tight and overdeveloped, while the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and abdominal muscles are weak. (The hamstrings and adductors are also usually tight.) In this syndrome, the abdomen may protrude, the lower back arches, and one or both feet turn out. This posture places a great amount of stress on the disks in the lower back. As the abs get relatively weak, the QLs and hip flexors tighten and further stress the lower portion of the spine—until a simple twist or forward bend “pulls your back out”!

—Perfect Posture, 16

In Health

Modified Solfeggio Format for Guitar – "Passion Chorale"

October 7, 2011

Using a solfeggio format for guitar makes learning the pitches of the melody of a song easier. I have come up with a modified solfeggio format for playing guitar melodies on one string.

Letting the string played open be “Do,” the rest of the solfeggio notes are played on the following frets:

Re – 2
Mi – 4
Fa – 5
So – 7
La – 9
Ti – 11
DO – 12 (All caps indicates one octave above the starting pitch, “Do”)

This modified solfeggio format works great for learning both the melody of a song and how to play and sing it at the same time!

Here is Passion Chorale in my modified solfeggio format.

In Guitar Music

Better Vision through Progressive Relaxation

October 5, 2011

For several years now, I have been working on learning progressively how to relax muscles throughout my body. I have especially targeted all my eye muscles, both intrinsic and extrinsic.

In the last year or so, I have seen noticeable improvement in my nearsightedness. While it is still far from perfect much of the time, I have been having an increasing number of brief periods when my vision is almost as good without my glasses as it is with them. A few times, it has been even better than what it is with my glasses on.

For quite a few months now, I have consistently been doing without my glasses for long periods of time on Sundays and on Wednesday nights. Even though my vision has not been normal during many of those times, I am encouraged that it has been increasingly getting better for longer periods of time on these days.

Even with all my efforts to relax my eye muscles on various occasions, I am amazed at how much tension I still find in my eye muscles on a regular basis. As God allows, I hope to learn to be able to relieve all tension in my eyes readily.

My expectation is that when I am able to do so, my vision will be consistently near normal. Lord willing, I hope that one day soon it will be so and that He will see fit to answer my many prayers for my eyes to be healed fully.

In Health

Mnemonic Aids for Learning Hebrew Vocabulary

October 3, 2011

This semester, I have been tutoring a student who is taking first-semester Hebrew. Today, he needed to learn ten function words and nine words for numbers (for his quiz tomorrow).

When he told me that he had not studied these words much at all so far, I told him that I thought he was in trouble. As we began to work on the words, however, mnemonic aids came to me that made the task much easier for him.

Here are the ten sentences/phrases that we came up with to help him learn these words. These provide the Hebrew vocabulary words in a part-transliteration, part-pronunciation scheme that I use.

Numbers)

Ri Aleph-Shon – “first”; Sheni – “second”

Echad – 1 [Masculine]; Achath – 1 [Feminine]; ShƏnayim – 2 [Masculine]; ShƏttayim – 2 [Feminine]

Meah – 100; Ma Aleph-Thayim – 200; Eleph – 1000

In the race, Ri Aleph-Shon finished first, and Sheni was second.

Number 1, Echad, married Achath.

Number 2, ShƏnayim married ShƏttayim.

A meah is 1/10 of an eleph.

A meah is ½ of ma aleph-thayim.

Function Words)

Lifney – “before”; AchƏrey – “after”; Min – “from”; Nyad – “as far as”

El – “toward”; Nyal – “on”; Nyim – “with”; ¯Eth – “with”; Koh – “thus”; Beyn – “between”

Before Lifney and after AchƏrey; from Min as far as Nyad

Toward El on Nyal; Nyim with Eth Maqqeph

Thus Koh is between Beyn

In Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Languages

1000+ Sheet Music PDFs for a $2 Donation!

October 2, 2011

I received an e-mail request the other day from a website asking me to donate $2 to help keep the site going. Because I had downloaded a fair amount of free sheet music PDFs from the site in the past, I decided to help out.

When I made my donation, I was thrilled to learn that they were giving to everyone who donates a free zip file of more than 1000 PDFs of public domain sheet music. Looking through the music that I received, it is clear to me that I will be able to make great use of this free additional music.

Praise God for this unexpected blessing!

In Music, Testimony

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