I have reached a bit of a crossroads. Though I'm still awaiting my final grades for my summary MTS papers, I've essentially graduated. I am now looking at Ph.D. programs, with most of my professors encouraging me to consider University programs over Seminary programs. I have also been encouraged to look at who is teaching at a particular institution, rather than just choose on name alone. To that extent, I've ruled my decision down to two American schools, Princeton and Trinity Evangelical Divinity Seminary.
But I find myself cornered by my own anxities. I wonder, do I really have something inside of me, trying to get out, something to be added to the ocean of knowledge already out there (and in some cases, drowning Christians?). I must resolutely answer, yes. I know it's in there. I know that it is.
O Lord, please help me. Help me to be patient; to wait upon You. Help me to trust in Your calling me. Help me to trust in what others see You doing in and through me. I am thankful for being a part of a gracious community of faith that seeks to speak faithfully, through Your very Spirit. I feel like You have shown me/revealed to me so much over these last few years. I believe that what I've learned, is, at least in part, pushing me toward this next part of my journey. But lest you, dear reader, think that this is where I root the meaning of my journey, you are wrong. The meaning of this journey comes from the One who first called me. And in the darknest night of my soul, that is not only what I must remember. More importantly, He is the One who reminds me of His call and calling, in the past, and through the present. O Lord, You are the very meaning in this journey. And for that, I am thankful.
And what about you, dear reader... is there meaning in your journey?
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Thursday, January 03, 2008
New Testament Greek
Today was day #2 of Palmer Theological Seminary's Jan Term intensive of Intro. to NT Greek. It was a good day. I'm the T.A. for Professor Debbie Watson. My job: make copies of quizes, collect and grade quizes, lead the class through new vocabulary, and be available after class to help tutor and go over the day's material.
This is my January. And I like it this way. I enjoy teaching. I enjoy helping others understand and learn. The beauty of learning NT Greek is that it helps us understand a little better the original intent and ideas through the words contained on the pages. One of the benefits is that it will help me learn NT Greek a little better. I want to learn more and more. I want to be able to utilize this tool, to root my theological work within the biblical text, to let Scripture be the foundation of my work.
Today was day #2 of Intro. to NT Greek. It was a good day.
This is my January. And I like it this way. I enjoy teaching. I enjoy helping others understand and learn. The beauty of learning NT Greek is that it helps us understand a little better the original intent and ideas through the words contained on the pages. One of the benefits is that it will help me learn NT Greek a little better. I want to learn more and more. I want to be able to utilize this tool, to root my theological work within the biblical text, to let Scripture be the foundation of my work.
Today was day #2 of Intro. to NT Greek. It was a good day.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Happy New Year!
As the title implies... Happy New Year!
Our new year's plans changed the day before due to some issues that came up for the hosts of the party we had positively RSVP'd. That being said, we definitely had a better time with our kids than had we gone to said party.
My wife and I looked back on last night and felt like we had made some positive family memories for our kids. We took them to Chuck E. Cheese - not my idea of the way to spend part of New Year's Eve, but good with the kids. We invited our single mom neighbor and her three kids to join us - that was a great opportunity to hang out with them more; and her three kids get along with our three! We ate bad pizza, drank too much soda, and played video games to our heart's content. Then we went home, let our oldest child invite her friend (who was with us at Chuck E.'s) to sleep over, put in a video for the kids, put in a DVD for ourselves, and then went down to watch the ball drop with the kiddies. It was fun.
To top it off, my son and I went to a prayer breakfast at church together this morning. What was shocking was that even though he had been up til after midnight, he was up at 6:45 am, got dressed, and came in to wake me up. We had a great time. He was the youngest their, and I think the older men were really encouraged by his presence. What kept me so happy myself was the knowledge that this little guy wanted to be there, and be there with me. It was a longer than expected gathering. But we got to share at our tables, pray for one another, and then pray as a large group for everything from our families, our congregation, the community in which we worship, as well as the U.S. and the nations. We sang some hymns following breakfast, and we closed by saying together the Apostle's Creed and singing the Lord's Prayer.
Needless to say, I got home exhausted. But I was encouraged to go crash not too long after getting home, and instead, wrote an entry in the new journal my wife bought me for Christmas. It was good, and I hope to get back into the passion of regular journaling and reading of Scripture together. It was a good start to a new year.
I hope your "new year" is off to a good start. God's richest blessings in Christ!
Our new year's plans changed the day before due to some issues that came up for the hosts of the party we had positively RSVP'd. That being said, we definitely had a better time with our kids than had we gone to said party.
My wife and I looked back on last night and felt like we had made some positive family memories for our kids. We took them to Chuck E. Cheese - not my idea of the way to spend part of New Year's Eve, but good with the kids. We invited our single mom neighbor and her three kids to join us - that was a great opportunity to hang out with them more; and her three kids get along with our three! We ate bad pizza, drank too much soda, and played video games to our heart's content. Then we went home, let our oldest child invite her friend (who was with us at Chuck E.'s) to sleep over, put in a video for the kids, put in a DVD for ourselves, and then went down to watch the ball drop with the kiddies. It was fun.
To top it off, my son and I went to a prayer breakfast at church together this morning. What was shocking was that even though he had been up til after midnight, he was up at 6:45 am, got dressed, and came in to wake me up. We had a great time. He was the youngest their, and I think the older men were really encouraged by his presence. What kept me so happy myself was the knowledge that this little guy wanted to be there, and be there with me. It was a longer than expected gathering. But we got to share at our tables, pray for one another, and then pray as a large group for everything from our families, our congregation, the community in which we worship, as well as the U.S. and the nations. We sang some hymns following breakfast, and we closed by saying together the Apostle's Creed and singing the Lord's Prayer.
Needless to say, I got home exhausted. But I was encouraged to go crash not too long after getting home, and instead, wrote an entry in the new journal my wife bought me for Christmas. It was good, and I hope to get back into the passion of regular journaling and reading of Scripture together. It was a good start to a new year.
I hope your "new year" is off to a good start. God's richest blessings in Christ!
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
A Very Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
What a great reason for a celebration: God becomes incarnate - Jesus Christ is born - completely God, and completely human. Amazing. Athanasius, in his writings against Arius, noted that 'what God has not assumed, God has not healed'. We Christians often put all the emphasis on Easter as the culminating point of God's mission on earth. We don't realize that the salvation plan began in earnest on that distant night while shepherds watched their flocks. We should ponder this great mystery, that Incarnation. How wonderful God is, to have humbled Himself, and taking the form and very being of a human. Fully God, and yet, fully human. Not a human body but devine mind - NO. Somehow, fully God and fully human - only such a way as this could Jesus take upon Himself the sinfulness of all humanity, then, now, and future.
Have you thought about this on this great day of celebration?
Amidst all of the celebrating, the eating, the ripping open of presents, I hope you will call upon the Lord, and thank Him for the greatest of all gifts, His Son.
One of our Christmas morning traditions is for the kids to gather in my wife's and my bedroom so that we may read together the Jesus' birth narrative as presented in Luke 2:1-20, and thanking God in prayer for the gift of sending His Son. Then we run downstairs to enjoy the gift giviing and receiving. It was pretty cool - a very good morning.
I hope you, too, have had a good day with your family. May the rest of your Christmas be a blessed reminder of the Father's love for you, in the name of the Son, through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. God's great blessings in Christ to you!
Amen, and amen.
What a great reason for a celebration: God becomes incarnate - Jesus Christ is born - completely God, and completely human. Amazing. Athanasius, in his writings against Arius, noted that 'what God has not assumed, God has not healed'. We Christians often put all the emphasis on Easter as the culminating point of God's mission on earth. We don't realize that the salvation plan began in earnest on that distant night while shepherds watched their flocks. We should ponder this great mystery, that Incarnation. How wonderful God is, to have humbled Himself, and taking the form and very being of a human. Fully God, and yet, fully human. Not a human body but devine mind - NO. Somehow, fully God and fully human - only such a way as this could Jesus take upon Himself the sinfulness of all humanity, then, now, and future.
Have you thought about this on this great day of celebration?
Amidst all of the celebrating, the eating, the ripping open of presents, I hope you will call upon the Lord, and thank Him for the greatest of all gifts, His Son.
One of our Christmas morning traditions is for the kids to gather in my wife's and my bedroom so that we may read together the Jesus' birth narrative as presented in Luke 2:1-20, and thanking God in prayer for the gift of sending His Son. Then we run downstairs to enjoy the gift giviing and receiving. It was pretty cool - a very good morning.
I hope you, too, have had a good day with your family. May the rest of your Christmas be a blessed reminder of the Father's love for you, in the name of the Son, through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. God's great blessings in Christ to you!
Amen, and amen.
Friday, December 14, 2007
It is finished!
Or at least this stage of things are... Yesterday afternoon, I turned in my the second of my two mini-theses, thus completing the last of my requirements for finishing my Master's in Theological Studies, with a concentration in Contemporary Theology.
I must say, it was all very anticlimactic. Though, as I was finishing the very last piece of editing that second paper, one of classmates came up to where I was working in the library. She asked if I was finished writing, and when I told her I was, she let out with an "aaaahhhhhhh!" that was both shock and joy for me. She then ran and got another classmate of ours who has a camera phone, so that I could get some pictures of that important moment for my personal posterity. It was kind of her, but I still felt kind of empty after a semester of working on these two major papers.
That was Wednesday. Yesterday, I made the final draft copy, punched holes, set in its binder, and left it for Dr. Adelekan on his office door knob. My first paper I was able to turn in the week before. I gave it to Dr. Brash just after his Thursday morning class finished up.
So, both papers are finished. Both are turned in.
It is finished? Only that particular chapter. I still need to find out what my prof.s thought of these two papers. I still need to get my grades, and find out how my overall cum average comes out.
Now the rest of my life begins, starting with diving into filling out my application to Princeton for a Ph.D in Systematic Theology. At the same time, I'll be preparing for my GRE's. And if that's not enough, I have a few Christmas gifts to buy or create for my beautiful and awesome wife. Not to mention prepare my heart in celebrating this great season Advent, and soon Christmas.
I want to put in "writing" my thanks and praise to God Most High, the Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who brought me through five and a half years of studies, and a great deal of transition in those last couple. The LORD was for me all that I needed HIM to be, plus much more than I could have realized or hoped for. Thank you, O LORD!
I also want to "write" my thanks to my wonderful wife who has been very supportive and incredibly flexible in allowing me to work late a few more evenings and Saturdays in the last few weeks than I had needed to through most of the semester. She has been a true help-mate.
I need to thank Dr. Brash and Dr. Adelekan for their insights and assistance for each of my papers. Each offered encouragement and perspectives that helped me write a better paper than I could have managed on my own. They had done a great job in giving me a sense of what writing a dissertation will be like. They have blessed me through out not only this past semester, but for many others as professors in other subjects and classes. Thank you, both. You really gentlemen and scholars!
If you're interested in reading either or both of my mini-theses, please let me know via a reply. MTS Paper 1 is on a theology of Proclamation of Word and Sacrament in Reformed Theology. MTS Paper 2 is a theological ethics paper on the need for the Church to be the Beloved Community in a way that rejects that more base parts of Culture, while loving the people who inhabit it. Each was a great deal of fun to write, and I learned quite a bit in the process of each.
Gloria Dei!
I must say, it was all very anticlimactic. Though, as I was finishing the very last piece of editing that second paper, one of classmates came up to where I was working in the library. She asked if I was finished writing, and when I told her I was, she let out with an "aaaahhhhhhh!" that was both shock and joy for me. She then ran and got another classmate of ours who has a camera phone, so that I could get some pictures of that important moment for my personal posterity. It was kind of her, but I still felt kind of empty after a semester of working on these two major papers.
That was Wednesday. Yesterday, I made the final draft copy, punched holes, set in its binder, and left it for Dr. Adelekan on his office door knob. My first paper I was able to turn in the week before. I gave it to Dr. Brash just after his Thursday morning class finished up.
So, both papers are finished. Both are turned in.
It is finished? Only that particular chapter. I still need to find out what my prof.s thought of these two papers. I still need to get my grades, and find out how my overall cum average comes out.
Now the rest of my life begins, starting with diving into filling out my application to Princeton for a Ph.D in Systematic Theology. At the same time, I'll be preparing for my GRE's. And if that's not enough, I have a few Christmas gifts to buy or create for my beautiful and awesome wife. Not to mention prepare my heart in celebrating this great season Advent, and soon Christmas.
I want to put in "writing" my thanks and praise to God Most High, the Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who brought me through five and a half years of studies, and a great deal of transition in those last couple. The LORD was for me all that I needed HIM to be, plus much more than I could have realized or hoped for. Thank you, O LORD!
I also want to "write" my thanks to my wonderful wife who has been very supportive and incredibly flexible in allowing me to work late a few more evenings and Saturdays in the last few weeks than I had needed to through most of the semester. She has been a true help-mate.
I need to thank Dr. Brash and Dr. Adelekan for their insights and assistance for each of my papers. Each offered encouragement and perspectives that helped me write a better paper than I could have managed on my own. They had done a great job in giving me a sense of what writing a dissertation will be like. They have blessed me through out not only this past semester, but for many others as professors in other subjects and classes. Thank you, both. You really gentlemen and scholars!
If you're interested in reading either or both of my mini-theses, please let me know via a reply. MTS Paper 1 is on a theology of Proclamation of Word and Sacrament in Reformed Theology. MTS Paper 2 is a theological ethics paper on the need for the Church to be the Beloved Community in a way that rejects that more base parts of Culture, while loving the people who inhabit it. Each was a great deal of fun to write, and I learned quite a bit in the process of each.
Gloria Dei!
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