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Monday, February 8
5:58 PM Arthur Sido asks, "What does a real man look like?" His answer:
What the Bible shows us is incredibly counter-cultural. A man is someone who is humble, meek, loving and yet a leader, strong, a provider for his family. Men who love their brothers and are not afraid to say it and who love their wives and are not embarrassed by it. The church is called to recognize as leaders men not based on who is strongest or the best educated or who makes the most money. In other words, we are not called to follow the example of the world in our leadership.
Read Being a Christian dude. Well done, Arthur.
I'll just add this: Godly manhood always focuses on Christ. It takes the initiative in building friendships. It radiates the fruit of the Spirit. It has firm convictions but is never overly-critical or condescending. It has a joyful, warm, and friendly spirit. It is other-centered. It is willing to risk rejection and censorship even from the Body of Christ.
A godly man is a walking miracle.
5:37 PM Quote of the day (Stephen Young):
When anything other than Jesus gets into the description of what the church is or what the church does, something has gone wrong.
5:21 PM Matt Evans is translating through the Gospel according to Mark. You can track his progress here. This is the ONLY way to keep up with one's language skills!
3:14 PM Brother Lionel continues to think outside the box, big time! Here he ruffles feathers with a post called Who Should Train Pastors??? Seminary in the Role of the Body. As one of my deans once put it, if local churches were doing what they were supposed to be doing, there would be no need for seminaries. Amen!
By the way, as soon as Becky is better I plan on continuing to hold classes at my local church. I've already taught Beginning Greek. I'm thinking I'll teach New Testament Introduction next time around. Or maybe the book of Philippians. Or maybe basic theology. Or maybe ....
2:58 PM Continuing to pray for an "impossible" conversion. With God all things are possible.
2:51 PM Is an ad like this the best way of reaching out to atheists with the Gospel?
I think there's a better way. Try going out of your way to befriend them. If you don't know much about their lives, ask them. After all, that's what friends do. The cumulative weight of all of these encounters builds momentum toward the cross. You will feel awkward at times and wonder if you're compromising the truth of the Gospel. You may be attacked by others for befriending an "enemy" of Christianity. I say, "Take the risk anyway!" Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors. At the very least that means being warm and friendly to them!
Many people reject the Gospel because they've been chewed on once too often. Let's not be guilty of that when we can be guilty of scandalous love!
2:28 PM The faculty just received this invitation via email:
Allow us the pleasure of inviting you to a Korean Luncheon as a token of appreciation and expression of our gratitude. We encourage all of you to come and enjoy the taste of Korean food and fellowship with our Korean Students.
When: February 23, 2010, 11:15 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.
Where: Multipurpose Room, 2nd floor, Ledford Center
Thank you and God Bless.
By His grace,
Korean Students at SEBTS
I'll be there, I'll be there!!!!
2:20 PM In a recent post, Seth Ehorn quotes Don Carson as saying:
What I've learned in 35 odd years of teaching is that students don't learn most of what I teach them. Instead they learn what I'm excited about.
Truer words were never spoken. God help me never to rust out as a teacher!
2:07 PM We're back! Becky did exceptionally well throughout the procedure, even though there was considerable discomfort and pain. Right now she's asleep.
As we were driving home from UNC my mind went back to a drive Becky and I once made through the beautiful Hill Country of Texas. Every so often we would see a road sign with the warning "Hill Ahead," meaning, of course, that one could expect a steep downhill grade ahead. Most of these so-called "hills" were nothing but slight descents. However, we'll never forget seeing the "Hill Ahead" sign, cresting the top of a giant mountain, and then wondering if we would ever arrive at the bottom of the hill, the decent was so steep. We survived the plunge, looked at each other, and said "Now THAT was a hill."
My analogy may be a bit trite, but it seems to me that we have crested the hill of Becky's treatments. We've only got 7 more radiation treatments to go out of 35 (2 of which are, however, of the high density variety like she "enjoyed" today), then only three more chemo treatments. I feel like we are racing down the other side of the mountain -- frightened and exhilarated all at the same time.
So sleep, my darling, sleep. Thanks to the goodness and grace of the Lord Jesus, we're almost to the finish line.
Übrigens, ich lieb' Dich sehr.
6:20 AM Off to UNC Chapel Hill with Becky, rejoicing in the Lord's goodness and trusting in His provision. Wherever we go and whatever we do today, let's confess our need of God, willingly submit to His agenda for our day, and express to Him our desire to walk empowered by His Spirit. Let's also thank Him ahead of time for His awesome, amazing, and enabling grace.
6:13 AM Over at the Baptist Bible College Blog we find a reminder of the importance of having a good roommate in college. At Biola my roommate was a blind Indian from the jungles of Brazil named Rubens Marshall.
I chose him as a roommate because I thought he needed help, but it was I who was blown away by his kindness, helpfulness, and Christian walk. We spent 4 years rooming together in the dorm. He taught me Portuguese and I taught him Hawaiian. We attended church together. We both loved music and played piano duets in the Biola chapel services. He was the best man at my wedding in Dallas.
Today he serves Jesus in his home country of Brazil. Even though he was completely blind from birth he played clarinet in the band and was an excellent classical pianist. He went on to earn a masters degree in Romance Languages and Linguistics from UCLA. I tell you, his zest for life put mine to shame -- royally. The "health and wealth" boys would have been greatly embarrassed by Rubens' incredible faith despite his so-called "handicap." He had a light that could burn through hardened steel and far greater vision than I will ever know. I'll never forget him.
Sunday, February 7
7:09 PM Just prayed for a lost person I know. Every soul is vulnerable to prayer.
7:06 PM Aviation history will be made tomorrow morning at 10:00 am when Boeing's new 747-8 takes off from Everett's Paine Field in Washington State on its first test flight. I'm a bit partial to this airliner since a good friend of mine pilots a 747 between Chicago and Beijing twice monthly. I can recall flying in the first 747 some 40 years ago from Honolulu to Los Angeles. Back then we were treated to plenty of leg room and even a passenger lounge with free refreshments. Profitability issues soon put an end to all that comfort. Boeing claims that the new 747-8 will have 16 percent more cargo capacity and 17 percent lower fuel costs than the 747-400. I can't wait to ride on it.
6:26 PM Greek students, just a friendly reminder that your Greek prof stands ready to help you any way he can this semester, whether by personal appointment or by phone or by email. My contact information is on the syllabus, and my door is always open. I am so excited to see what the Lord Jesus is going to do in our lives this semester as we begin translating His precious Word together. Luther once said that reading the Bible in translation is like kissing your bride through the veil. Well, that may be an exaggeration, but he has a point! So I would encourage all of you to begin now to dedicate yourselves not merely to gaining an understanding of what the Bible says but to obeying it. For if our "walk" backs up our "word," we will have a powerful two-edged sword for evangelism. No matter how much book learning we may acquire, we are never to lose our visibility as lights or our flavor as salt!
6:20 PM Right now I'm praying for this little guy who is a bit under the weather. Mr. Nolan, your Mama B and Papa B love you very much and are asking the Lord Jesus to make you well real soon.
3:54 PM Okay, you knew it was coming:
Sixteen Reasons Not to Watch the Super Bowl.
3:32 PM Did you know that Western Seminary in Portland has a blog? Well, they do. And a fine one at that. Go here to read it.
3:25 PM A religious revival in secular New England? Chris Armstrong thinks it is possible.
3:19 PM What's a box for scarves doing at Bethel Hill Baptist Church?
We're collecting them for the sisters who so faithfully serve alongside our team members whenever we go to Ethiopia. Need I say anything about the importance of co-workers in the Lord's vineyard? This is at least a small token of our appreciation for their labor of love.
The collection is open through June.
2:34 PM What a blessing to watch 4 young people being baptized this morning! The soul of each one had been bathed in prayer. They were loved on in very specific, tangible ways. It was largely the Body of Christ being the Body of Christ that they were drawn to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I thank God for each one of them!
Before the baptism brother Joel reminded us all of the significance of what it means to make a public profession of faith in Christ. As he put it, in many places of the world today this simple act of obedience can lead to imprisonment and even death. Thank you, pastor Joel, for reminding me and all of us that true discipleship is always costly. No, there's nothing salvific about the act of baptism. But done in the name of Christ and for His glory, such actions become Spirit-powered weapons that are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now it is incumbent upon us as a church to hold these precious young people accountable for their pledges, to love and encourage them in the faith, and to see that they never walk the Christian pilgrimage alone.
8:32 AM Quote of the day #2:
While Christian apologetics, the rational defense of our faith, can certainly be utilized in an expressly evangelistic context (as this verse is often cited as a command to that end), our very patterns of daily life as Christians need to present the gospel naturally and organically through basic interaction with others. We need to be unusual and question-provoking - being in the world, but not of it so that others might ask us "why are/aren't you [blank]?"
Read the entire essay called Leading Winsome Lives. You will never view 1 Pet. 3:15 in the same light again!
8:22 AM Quote of the day (Dallas Morning News):
"He has such a depth in his preaching, and yet can put the cookies on the lower shelf so everybody can understand and apply God's word," said Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas.
Mr. Jeffress is referring to my wife's former youth pastor in Dallas and current pastor-teacher at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas. I love that about Charles Swindoll: His teaching is simple without being simplistic. In multos annos, brother Chuck!
8:04 AM Speaking of the weather, the sun has risen from its long slumber, the roads are clear, and our church fellowship is meeting!
8:00 AM I liked Obama's neologism, didn't you? He used "Snowmageddon" when referring to the snowstorm that shut down DC.
Reminds me of another neologism I encountered recently: "Karmageddon." It's like, you know, when everybody has REALLY bad vibes, you know, about the future and, like, when everyone's afraid that the world will, like, EXPLODE. A real bummer, man.
7:48 AM Good news! The Ethiopian Airlines flight recorder has been retrieved from the Mediterranean. The discovery should help investigators determine the cause of the crash.
7:42 AM More thoughts from Paul, Apostle of Weakness:
As members of the same spiritual family, the “body of Christ,” Christians are to live together in a spirit of mutual dependence and unity, serving each other in love (Gal 5:13) and in oneness of soul and purpose (Phil 2:1–2).
It is because of this corporate aspect of the church that Paul time and again speaks out against every form of spiritual individualism, particularly the more refined form that crops up in regard to standards of spirituality in the church.
The Corinthians, for example, had turned Paul’s preaching of freedom into the libertarian axiom, “all is permitted to me” (I Cor 6:12), in order to justify their individualistic application of Christian liberty to the eating of meat offered to idols. Although Paul gives due recognition to Christian liberty on the one hand, he emphatically warns the libertarians against abusing their freedom in Christ by giving the weak an occasion to sin (1 Cor 8:9). If the strong wish to assert their liberty without the restraints of love, they will be sinning against the spiritual head of the church, that is, against Christ himself (1 Cor 8:12). Paul’s teaching is not against the expression of Christian liberty per se, but that Christians must exercise their liberty before God on the basis of what is good for the entire community and not only for themselves.
Similarly, Paul warns the stronger Christians in Rome against the same abuses of liberty, for the liberty wrought by Christ is to be tempered by love, concern, and respect for the “brother and sister for whom Christ died” (Rom 14:15). In all things the strong are to seek after that which is mutually beneficial and edifying (Rom 14:19).
7:15 AM Energion Publications announces its first annual Bible Study Path Award. You can submit your nominee here.
7:12 AM This was too good not to link to:
After the first three weeks of the beginning Greek class, 20 percent of the students are unfortunately conked, casualties of the masculine nouns of the first declension. Others are DOA thanks to the pronoun autos. The find that the autos monster can mean three altogether different things ("him/her/it/them," "-self," or "same"), depending on both its case and its position in a sentence. Students do withdraw from an introductory Greek class before they taste Plato or the Gospels, these bored, annoyed, and exhausted ninteen-year-olds, those very prospects who you once hoped would go on to Thucydides—and perhaps be one of the 600 each year in America who still major in Classics. They slide now across the hall to squeeze into the university's over-enrolled Theory of Walking, Rope Climbing, and Star Trek and the Humanities, which will assuage and assure them that they are, all in all, pretty nice kids, classes that will offer the veneer of self-esteem but will guarantee that they will probably lose what little sense of real accomplishment they had carried within to begin with. You can nearly hear those doctors of therapy, those professors of recuperation at the lecture-hall door: "Come on in, you wounded Greeklings. It's not your fault. They had no business subjecting you to all that rote; we do things a lot differently here. Relax, sit back, breathe deeply, and tell us how you feel."
Read Come On In, You Wounded Greeklings.
7:07 AM Scott Thompson asks, "Why shouldn't church leaders make use of social media?" You can join the discussion here.
Saturday, February 6
8:45 PM Here's a new book I'll be ordering:
We were one of the first families to move to Kailua from Honolulu in 1955. Kailua was a small town back then. Today it is Hawaii's second largest city.
It was my home until I left for college in California. The town is nestled along the shores of one of the most beautiful bays in the world. Kailua is a surfer's paradise with a shore break, reef break, point break, and even island break.
The view of the Pali Mountains from my home was simply spectacular. Featured on the book's cover is the famous Mount Olomana, a hiker's dream.
It was in Kailua that I came to Christ at the age of 8 and was baptized.
It was there that I first fell in love with the Word of God and the local church.
It was there that Becky and I spent our honeymoon. It was a wonderful place to grow up, and my mind often wanders disobediently back to its quiet shores.
7:36 PM Farm chores:
4:25 PM Becky has 8 radiation treatments left. Three of them will involve high intensity radiation through an internal probe. She is scheduled to have her first such treatment this Monday at UNC. It will last 3 hours.
The doctors have been very up front with us. The procedure will be painful. I am praying that the techs will allow me to be with Becky during the treatment.
Becky, as you know, loves Jesus. She cheerfully faces the challenges life brings her. We trust the heart of God completely. We cling in faith to His promises. He will be present with her in that treatment room even if I am not. My prayer is simply:
"Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts," please fill Becky with your presence on Monday and make her more consciously aware of you than her pain!
Will you, dear friend, join me in so praying?
3:58 PM Good afternoon, thoughtful bloggerites! Got time for a brief introspective post?
For me, the computer is an inky and mysterious world. It is in this strange and awesome abyss that I spend many hours each week blogging, writing my books and essays, and reading what others are saying. I am constantly made aware of the small knot of people who read my words and who, for whatever reasons, use my blog as a foil by which to silently grapple with the deeper issues of life. I feel as though I am constantly teetering on the edge of ineffectiveness. It takes only a few dashed expectations before one is tempted to give up reading certain bloggers. This, in fact, happened to me recently. A blogger whom I once delighted in reading suddenly became arrogant, puffed up with success. I simply lost interest and made other sites my chief targets of interest.
I can't help but wonder how many good bloggers have utterly failed because they began to operate on the treadmill of writing from a spiritually dehydrated condition. Is this not the very condition that we face in blogging?
From an examination of my heart, I conclude that much of what I have done in my life has been crudely ambitious. I have constantly desired praise rather than wisdom and admiration rather than equipment for service. I have known what it means to be an empty shell. I have known what it means to wonder what people think of me rather than what they think of my Lord. I realize that people visualize public figures in evangelicalism as indestructible, committed no matter what, determined to serve others. I am driven in pain to conclude that I just as susceptible to hubris as the next man or woman.
Funny, these feelings of inadequacy. Am I alone in having them? And what, if anything, can I do to handle them when they come?
Amy Carmichael, whose biography, as you know, I have been enjoying immensely, has impressed me as a woman filled with godly wisdom. I have a feeling that we have run very similar races in life, that even our service for Christ takes on twisted motives we find it difficult to sort out. We pray that the glory of God alone would be seen in our efforts, yet we are conscious that the approval of others is often of equal importance. I'd like, then, to leave you with what Amy called her "confession of love." I have always been convinced that reading missionary biographies can cut to the quick of our over-complicated lives. Amy's words have done just that for me. I trust that her confession may be as comforting to you as it was to me.
Enjoy!
Confession of Love
My vow: Whatsoever Thou sayest unto me, by Thy grace I will do it.
My constraint: Thy love, O Christ, my Lord.
My confidence: Thou art able to keep that which I have committed unto Thee.
My joy: To do Thy will, O God.
My discipline: That which I would not choose, but which Thy Love appoints.
My prayer: Conform my will to Thine.
My motto: Love to live, live to love.
My portion: The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance.
Teach us, good Lord, to serve Thee as Thou deservest; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labor and not to ask for any reward save of knowing that we do Thy will, O Lord our God.
11:49 AM "It is through many tribulations that we must inherit the kingdom of God." So said Paul in Acts 14. It's a message that many evangelicals are unwilling to accept, according to this study: Theologian: Most Christians Infected with Prosperity Gospel. The study concludes:
"We have to fight this infection in the body of Christ," he emphatically told pastors at the Desiring God conference in Minneapolis.
But the blame for the rampant "disease" shouldn't fall on the TV evangelists, Storms noted.
"I want to lay it (the blame) at our feet," he said.
"It's the pastors and leaders of the church today who fail to explain from the biblical text how hardship and tribulation are actually used by God to expose the superficiality of all the human material props on which we rely," he explained. "We failed ... to show ... how hardship and persecution and slander compel us to rely on the all-sufficiency of everything God is for us in Jesus."
That failure has left most professing Christians unable to grasp "the simple truth" that "infinitely more important and of immeasurably greater value than our physical comfort in this world is our spiritual conformity to Christ," Storms noted.
How very true. I recall reading Larry Crabb's book Finding God and being amazed at the revolution that took place in his thinking about suffering once he personally experienced a "severe mercy." He concluded that God was under no obligation to take his problems away. Rather, his problems were there to help him find God.
I am amazed in my own life how often God wishes to reveal Himself to me in the tragic moments when there is pain and hopelessness. That is one reason why I feel I need to republish my book Paul, Apostle of Weakness, for it contains a truth that I am slowly beginning to fathom: My weaknesses are not simply to be tolerated; they are to be considered my greatest badges of honor, because they identify me with my crucified Savior.
11:22 AM Quote of the day #2 (Bob West):
When we focus on Christ and his word, the highs will far outweigh the lows.
11:01 AM Here's a tweet I just saw :
Went to a killer 60 RPM Spin class this morning.
Huh! You think that's a workout? Well, try spreading a trailer load of manure. In the snow!!
I love farming!
9:39 AM The Old Geezer finally comes clean. Read Who wears the pants in your family?
(By the way, it's nice to see that I'm not the only old geezer out there who blogs.)
9:24 AM Quote of the day (Brian Fulthorp):
We can certainly talk of weakness in relation to the theology of Saint Paul in that when we are weak then we are strong because God is strong in us and through us, but make no mistake: Jesus was not weak (at least not in the modern sense, e.g., he’s so weak) rather, he was meek. But don’t continue to be confused: meekness is not weakness.
Good point.
It seems to me somebody ought to write a book about Paul's theology of "weakness." Ahoy, mate! Somebody already has!
9:12 AM Mr. Obama's favorite theologian? Reinhold Neibuhr. It makes sense. As I note on p. 115 of The Jesus Paradigm, if there is to be today
a new politics of faith based on the cross of Christ, it will have to meet critically the issues raised by Augustine and Neibuhr.
In my opinion, the work of a genuine Christian peacemaker must be to call civil governments to account and help limit the violence when conflict is actually in progress. At the very least there is never any reason to glorify war or to utter blatantly warmongering statements such as were made by candidate John McCain in the 2008 presidential campaign. Kingdom-minded people will reject the mindset of Western imperialism and refuse to support the notion that Christian mission benefits from the spread of empire. They will always place love of enemy at the heart of the Gospel rather than at its periphery. They will affirm allegiance to Christ that transcends national boundaries or roles. Above all, they will live lives of radical discipleship and be willing to suffer in the spirit of the cross and undergo a literal baptism of fire if need be.
Obama's politics are much too bellicose for me. As Laura Flanders noted three days ago in The Nation, military spending will increase dramatically under the current administration. Perhaps the president would do well to read another German theologian of a slightly different stripe, one who wrote,
The command, "you shall not kill," and the Word "love your enemy," are given to us simply to obey. Every form of war service, unless it be Good Samaritan service, and every preparation for war, is forbidden to the Christian.... Simple obedience knows nothing of the fine distinction between good and evil. It lives in the discipleship of Christ and does good work as something self-evident.
This theologian is, of course, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and his book is called No Rusty Swords.
Of course, I could be completely wrong about my beliefs! Moreover, my views certainly do not represent "the Christian position." In fact, there is no distinctly "Christian" position on this matter. Neibuhr and Bonhoeffer disagreed with each other, and so can we. But what we cannot do, what we must not do, is think that our main calling in life is to resolve political disputes. Inevitably we'll disagree about many of these matters. But we cannot allow our polarizing positions to mar our kingdom fellowships or distract us from our main job. The hope of the world is not in politics but in King Jesus. If our allegiance is to the reign of God, then it cannot be to anything else, including government!
8:16 AM This is one of my favorite ashtrays. I like it because it is a good illustration of the sanctimoniousness of so many of our attempts to "put in a good word for Jesus."
Christians fail in evangelism because they are not building relationships, because they're not loving and praying for others. God says, "Love your neighbor." If you must chose between loving a lost soul and expressing your disgust about cigarette smoking, I'd say go with the lost soul! After all, I really can't see Jesus putting out an ashtray like this one, can you? Or maybe you could!
8:12 AM I was listening to a sermon online last night by the pastor of a church that has several satellite campuses throughout the Triangle. "We're one church that meets in several different locations," he noted as he began.
That's a wonderful truth! The church of Jesus Christ is ONE church. This means that "my" home church, Bethel Hill Baptist Church, is not the ONLY church to which I belong. And, in fact, our pastor could legitimately get up on Sunday and say, just as truly as the pastor of the church with satellite campuses could say, "We're one church that meets in several different locations."
Several years ago I discovered a brutal truth about myself. I realized that I rarely delighted in what was happening in other people's churches or in other seminaries. I felt somehow that someone else's success was a threat to my own. That was a rather frightening personal flaw! The competitive spirit was a poison that I had allowed to destroy the joy of working together for the Gospel.
So I have a question for you. Does "church" mean to you only your church? Or your denomination? Or your small group? Or you and your satellite churches? Or are you able to rejoice when you hear of others in concert with the Spirit of God who are committed to the expansion of God's kingdom?
Think about it.
8:03 AM Love this picture of horses running in the snow.
Mine used to romp and play on snow days. Boy do I miss Cody and Traveler!
Friday, February 5
9:58 PM Am listening to Becky speak with her mom and dad in Dallas. Mostly laughter. They have a great relationship. So grateful for mom and dad and their testimony of faithfulness to the Lord. They've been super supportive during our journey with cancer.
9:48 PM Read this in an obituary today:
Donald Wiseman was a great enthusiast and encourager of others....
All too often our lives and calendars make little room for others. Most of us would be tempted to think that encouraging others is something we do over and above our regular work. This obituary of Donald Wiseman highlights what I would like others to remember me for: an enthusiast and encourager of others. That's my goal even though I've got a long ways to go!
9:18 PM Our ministry in Ethiopia is very much a team effort. This is true in Gondar, where we are working with the evangelical churches in the city to reach the rural communities for Christ. What kind of team players are necessary to get the job done? There are several positions on the team, if you will, that need filling. Here are the leaders of the Evangelical Churches Fellowship of Gondar. It was they who invited Becky and me to come and help them send out evangelists two by two into the province.
And here I am teaching the Bible in one of their churches.
Again, each person you see here is a special teammate.
They represent the supporting churches who are responsible for the daily welfare of the evangelists who are serving on the front lines. "A Christian fellowship loves and exists by the intercession of its members for one another," writes Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together. These churches are our intercessors, generating a constant flow of praise or concern for the teams they have sent out. During my stay in Gondar I often have the privilege of addressing these churches, encouraging them to raise up a powerful and passionate people to expand Christ's kingdom. Note the eagerness with which the youth are eager to listen and learn. I love to see people with open Bibles on their laps! Lord willing, in a few short weeks Becky and I will gather with these saints again in northern Ethiopia. We will also meet with our 6 evangelists. What a reunion that will be!
Paul often referred to his "fellow soldiers." He realized that he could never operate without partners. He shared information on the movements of his co-workers, and it is very clear that he did not like to be without partners in his work. So it is with Becky and me. We love our partners in Gondar. They are working hard to spread the Good News. They are ordinary people -- men and women whose lives, like yours and mine, are routine -- making a special place in their hearts for the lost. Praise God for them!
6:31 PM From a friend:
6:23 PM Elizabeth Elliott's A Chance to Die has Amy Carmichael writing the following about mission hospitals (p. 291). It think it's a good reminder of why the spiritual must always be central in what Becky and I do in Ethiopia.
The devil does not care how many hospitals we build, any more than he cares how many schools and colleges we put up, if only he can pull our ideals down, and sidetrack us on to anything of any sort except the living of holy, loving, humble lives, and the bringing of men, women, and children to know our Lord Jesus Christ not only as Savior but as Sovereign Lord.
12:22 PM The snow has now changed over to freezing rain, and we're expecting rain this evening, then more snow tomorrow. No doubt about it, the long-expected severe winter everyone was anticipating has arrived!
12:19 PM How large was the second temple? Click here to find out. (Simply brilliant, Dr. McGrath).
11:32 AM Kudos to the Swiss for granting two innocent Guantanamo detainees asylum. Mr. Obama should be thankful to have such friends in Europe.
11:10 AM Am I a radical?
It all depends on how you define the term.
If by radical you mean a scholar who denies the orthodox tenets of Christianity, I am hardly a radical. But if you mean someone who tries to get to the root of the matter, I would hope I quality for the epithet!
Tom Wright once suggested in The New Testament and the People of God that so-called "radical" criticism has not been radical enough. It has been content to sit on modern hypotheses except, perhaps, for tweaking them now and then. If we are to create new hypotheses or -- is it even possible? -- to return to old ones, everything must be questioned. And to do this it is vital that we return to the primary sources.
It would not be much of a caricature to say that evangelical Christianity has suffered recently from a lack of radicalism. For me, it is not sufficient to believe in the inspiration of Scripture (as I do). The purpose of Jesus' coming was not simply to bring redemption but to show us the beautiful kingdom He is working out. If today there is to be a new wave of seriousness about Jesus, it will have to begin with a new commitment not only to what He says but to living out His radical ideas.
It is a residual weakness of evangelicalism that we tend to highlight one aspect of our faith at the expense of another. There are huge issues at stake here, which I hope to point out in my book Godworld: Enter at Your Own Risk. To put it bluntly, we have been shadow-boxing with the text and using scholarship as a convenient excuse to evade developing a kingdom mindset. I suggest that authentic Christianity has nothing to fear from sound theology, but theology is not to be separated from Christian praxis. This unwarranted division is the fatal flaw the ultimately vitiates all of our cries for people to get "back to the Bible!"
Maybe if we lived the kingdom instead of just talking about it, the world would sit up and listen to what we had to say.
Go ahead, be a radical!
10:21 AM The snow is coming down again and is beginning to stick, we we've canceled our radiation treatment today. I don't want to even think about what the roads in North Carolina look like today. Be warm and safe wherever you are!
10:16 AM Becky writes:
Since my diagnosis 6 months ago, I've been trying to get some things done that have been waiting years for my attention. One of those projects is the framing of Grandmommee's rug. Grandmommee was my grandmother on my father's side. Born in 1891, she weighed only 2 1/2 pounds at birth. The doctor said "Forget about her...let's try to save the mother." Her grandmother took her home, stuck her in the oven to keep her warm...and in the providence of God, she lived 105 years! Another proof that the gift of life is in the hands of our Lord, and He determines how He will use that gift. There is much peace & joy if we will live by this Truth.
Grandmommee was orphaned at age 12. Her father had served in the Confederate Army, so we grandkids got an almost first-person account of the War. After the War, her father became a medical doctor and printed the first medical journal in the State of Texas; it was printed on the bottom floor of their home. Grandmommee's grandfather also served in the Confederate Army as a chaplain. After the War, he was an itinerate preacher in Texas, and also helped to start Texas Wesleyan University. As a young lady, Grandmommee wrote out all his sermon notes; this labor of love gave her a strong foundation in the Scriptures.
Grandmommee began teaching Bible school at age 13; she gathered the children who were playing around the burial places of her parents. She taught them weekly near the cemetery. As an adult woman, she helped to start Child Evangelism Fellowship in Dallas and she had weekly women's prayer & Bible study groups in her home. One time Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer came to her women's group & presented his vision of a non-denominational seminary in Dallas. At that meeting, one woman pledged the funding of all faculty salaries for the first year, and another woman offered the use of a building. So we jokingly say that Dallas Theological Seminary started in Grandmommee's living room!
She continued these weekly women's prayer & Bible study meetings in her home until age 102. She taught the Schofield Bible Course (a 5-year program teaching thru the Bible).
Spiritually, she impressed me a great deal. One of her favorite hymns was "Jesus led me all the way", and I loved to play a special arrangement of the hymn for her. When I was younger, she often reminded me of the counsel Proverbs 3:5-6, and as she reached the centennial mark her favorite verse was 3 John 4: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." As my children have grown up & started their homes, this verse has echoed through my own heart. Another spiritual impression is how she wholly trusted the Lord to hear her prayers. If she & I prayed over a matter, and I brought it up again later, she would say "Now, BeckyLynn, we've already left that with the Lord." How thankful I am to the Lord for the rich spiritual heritage I've been given. May He grant to me the wisdom & energy & focus to pass along a similar heritage to my "children" (blood or adopted).
In the 1940s, Grandmommee made this rug. It is made of small strips of her dresses, and the dresses of her daughter Jane. As I look at it, I'm reminded of the challenge to have a Kingdom focus, as Grandmommee did.
10:08 AM Ted Gossard was kind enough to post not one but two entries on his blog about my book Christian Archy:
Thanks, Ted. I am truly honored!!
9:55 AM This came in an email today:
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the first and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?
Now my students will think that correct spelling is no longer important!!! Ugh!!
9:47 AM Free download: The Authority of Elders in the New Testament by Matthew McDill. Matthew argues:
The thesis of this work, based on exegetical and theological investigations, is that a body of elders has authority to care for a local congregation primarily through leadership and teaching. This thesis may also be explained more explicitly using the semantic distinctions made above. (1) Elders have authority de jure in that they hold a
particular position that carries with it certain rights (which may be better described as responsibilities). (2) Among the responsibilities of elders is leadership, but not government or control, in the sense of authority to make decisions for the church. (3) Elders do not have authority de facto in the sense of power to enforce their will upon the church. (4) The elders of the church should have authority de facto of personal influence based on respect that is earned in accordance with the character, skill, and knowledge prescribed in Scripture for elders (1 Tim 3:1–7 ;Titus 1:5–9), without which their authority de jure is made void. (5) Elders are to lead as a group by consensus, without a lead elder who has more decision making power among the elders.
Matthew, by the way, is an elder at Highland Christian Fellowship in Boone, NC.
9:32 AM It's been a while since I bored my patient readership to death with umpteen pictures of farm and family. So I thought I'd rectify my deleteriousness this morning!
Thursday, February 4
8:45 PM Our thanks to Richard Sugg for setting up our brand new pooter this evening. May God richly bless you for your kindness to us!
4:08 PM Before I forget: The doctor said that Becky is doing great. She has only 8 -- count them! -- radiation treatments to go and then she's DONE! Then get this -- her blood counts are holding steady. Now that is a huge answer to prayer. Finally, the doctor says that her symptoms should abate by the time we leave for Ethiopia next month, so that, Lord willing, Becky should be symptom-free while we are traveling. Thank you, thank you, thank you for praying to the Lord on our behalf. He is at work, and we stand amazed at His great goodness to us!!
Speaking of Becky, I can't resist posting this photo of my dear wife when she lived in Ethiopia. Once a Texan, always a Texan I guess. Ain't she sweet? Ride 'em cowgirl!
3:55 PM Heartfelt thanks to brother Jon Glass of Cresset Baptist Church for allowing Becky and me to speak in two of the chapel services at Cresset Christian School this morning. I thought our message was extremely well received. And what message was that?
Our focus today was on our Bible memory program. This is an idea that God gave Becky several years ago. The program is very simple. We seek to provide Amharic Bibles for Ethiopians who could never afford to buy a Bible in a million years. In fact, even if you had a million dollars you could still not buy a Bible because they are simply not to be had in rural Ethiopia. The program goes like this:
1) You receive a copy of 9 passages of Scripture in Amharic.
2) You memorize perfectly each of these passages.
3) You then recite each of these passages to your church elders.
4) Once you have completed your memory work, your name is added to a list of those who will receive a beautifully designed, hardback Amharic Bible.
Thus far we've distributed I'd guess about 7,000 Bibles, and not one of them was passed out "for free," if you know what I mean. Of course, these Bibles were not free in the sense that somebody had to purchase them. And that's where many of you enter the picture. Each Amharic Bible costs no more than 5 U.S. dollars. Imagine that -- the cost of a Big Mac Meal! Through the generous gifts of God's people this program has been a huge success. And as I type these words several hundred more people are working hard to complete the memory program before our team returns to Burji in July.
Incidentally, there was no literacy in Burji until fairly recent times. In fact, Becky's father, Brad ("Tex") Lapsley, built the first school in Burji back in the early 1960s. Before then nobody could read or write. Today, almost everybody is literate but they still lack the Word of God. What an amazing to honor to watch them receive their Bibles and then sit down and read them.
Now, let's be honest. Most of us have more Bibles than we can shake a stick at. Is that good stewardship of the Lord's resources? I am as guilty as anyone else.
There is no greater joy for Becky and me than to watch children and even older men and women hold their new Bibles for the first time and then turn the pages until they find the passages they worked so hard to memorize. I'm sooo grateful to the Lord for having given Bec this idea. And I can't wait to get back to Burji to pass out more Bibles this summer!
6:34 AM Off to IHOP with my sweetie pie!
6:16 AM Conclusions #18-19 (from Paul, Apostle of Weakness):
#18: Concerning the influence of other writings upon Paul, the apostle's concept of weakness must be finally understood against the broad context of his own message and mission. Paul cannot be said to have borrowed Hellenistic concepts, though Hellenistic influences are discernible in his usage of the root for physical weakness and for powerlessness in general. It is possible to detect some informal and non-literary relationships between the teaching of Paul and the writings of the OT. For example, the association of asthenein with skandalizein is strongly reminiscent of the OT prophetic use of asthenein to denote the fate of the ungodly. However, OT parallels with Pauline thought do not necessarily indicate direct literary dependence. All we can say with certainty is that OT Greek, while not a source for Paul's thought in that it supplied him with exact modes of expression, did provide Paul with a perspective from which to interpret the nature of human weakness. Although the idea of God's power revealed in weakness is not wholly absent in the OT, the concept of "weakness, the showplace of God’s might" as such, is found fully developed only in Paul. Furthermore, the christocentric emphasis that the apostle gives the words distinguishes his point of view from that of the OT. For Paul, weakness is rooted in the death of Christ. This may explain why the apostle quotes the OT in extenso when developing a concept regarding weakness.
#19: Paul teaches that humanity as a creation of God is weak; yet God desires to reveal his own strength through the infirmities of human existence. He therefore chooses the weak in order to confound the strong. This he accomplishes by what the world considers foolish and feeble, namely, the cross of Christ, which is nonsense to them that perish but the power of God to those who are being saved. By his death Christ proved that God's weakness was stronger than human strength. Therefore, Christ has become the example that Christians are to follow. By bearing his cross and dying daily with him, they become participants in the weakness of Christ. This identification with their Lord enables them to glory in their weaknesses, not merely endure them. In addition to this positive truth, there is a negative aspect of weakness that is expressed by a weak faith and a weak conscience. Yet there is a place in the church even for weak believers, who must be accepted by stronger Christians on the basis of their election and Christ's love for them.
6:12 AM Becky just shared with me something she heard on BBN this morning:
"The reason a dog has so many friends is because he wags his tail instead of his tongue."
Love it!
5:55 AM Quote of the day (David Nelson):
It's time for our attention to be gotten. And it's time for us to awaken to the commission of Jesus to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. The accomplishment of that mission, the mission of God, does not rest on lavish buildings in the US (trust me, they really are lavish), nor immense state convention structures, nor grander buildings on seminary campuses. That mission will be fulfilled by sending laborers into the international fields. And if we have any sense about us and, let’s be honest, real devotion to our Lord, we'll put our greatest amount of resources into the places where there is the greatest amount of need. And that typically isn't in our stateside ministries.
Read When Words Aren't Enough.
5:47 AM You simply must watch Danny Akin's convocation message from Tuesday's chapel service. It is titled "Marks of a Healthy Community of Faith." You can find it here. Incidentally, we are welcoming a huge incoming class this spring. Very grateful for each student God sends our way.
5:30 AM This morning I intended to write something profound about education, but I'm brain dead. (Don't worry, I'll recover soon.) Today's gonna be a busy one. We're speaking about Ethiopia twice at Cresset Christian Academy in Durham, then it's off to UNC for (a) blood work, (b) radiation, and (c) meeting with B's doctor. Then it's back to the farm to meet up with one of my students who is helping us set up our new computer. Before all this kicks off, however, I'm kidnapping Becky and taking her to IHOP.
Have a good one wherever you are, and please be safe on the roads.
Wednesday, February 3
8:34 PM Last week I said goodbye to my grader for the past three semesters. Enoch Kwon hails from South Korea and has done a fantastic job helping me with my various writing projects. Enoch will be spending his final semester at the seminary leading the Korean students' fellowship. Enoch, you will be sorely missed!
In the meantime, my new assistant is Andy Bowden, an up-and-coming Greek scholar who will also begin his Th.M. studies with me in the fall. Andy's main job will be to help me collect anything written about Paul and weakness in the past 25 years as I prepare my revision of Paul, Apostle of Weakness. Welcome to the astheneia team, Andy! Andy, by the way, writes an excellent blog called a Bowden Blog. Check it out when you can.
Let me end this post by saying how blessed I feel to serve in a seminary that allows each of its faculty members to have an assistant every semester. My helpers have saved me countless hours of grunt work in the library, for which I am eternally grateful!
8:10 PM If you're a brand new student in my beginning Greek class and have heard the word "morpheme" for the very first time, you may be feeling like this right about now:
I want you to know that I feel your pain. After all, I'm the one inflicting it! As I said in class: I realize that a morphological approach to the Greek verb is more difficult at the beginning of your studies. But if you will just hang in there, I promise you that our approach will pay high dividends. You will not only be able to master Greek paradigms, you will understand how the language works -- and that is worth every drop of sweat invested now. So please do not despair! Simply remember that although the word might be the smallest free form in a language (an item that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content), the morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning. Never, ever, look at the word as the minimal unit of language again!
7:44 PM We had a wonderful faculty meeting this morning, the first of the new semester. I was reminded of why I love serving and teaching here at SEBTS so much. It's really very simple: The Great Commission. That's what we're all about. "Your objective, gentlemen, is to harvest a crop," Jesus said to His disciples. And we are to do it by loving on others until they ask us why.
God isn't asking us to back unbelievers into a corner so that we can mash them with our mental machinery. Yes, we must discuss Christianity. Yes, we must preach the Good News. But not by pulling up our theological dump trucks, yanking the lever, and then pulling a wheelie out of the parking lot. We are to bring men and women to Christ by living out His cross-love.
My friend, once you fall in love with Jesus, you will do everything in your power to introduce others to Him. He's a wonderful, magnificent, all-powerful, humble, and loving Lord. To do that, we've got to get involved in the lives of others. I sense that desire among my students. I sense that desire among all of my colleagues. I know that this is the heart beat of our magnificent administration.
Let's unleash foot soldiers for Jesus. Let's be foot soldiers for Jesus! Amen?
7:31 PM Conclusions #16-17 (from Paul, Apostle of Weakness):
# 16: In the Pauline ethic, a firm conviction of monotheism is of less importance than the love of one's Christian brother or sister. Paul insists that strong Christians should hold their liberty in check in deference to their weaker brethren. Moreover, the duty of the strong is not only to avoid placing stumbling blocks before the weak, but also to remove them.
#17: The translator should recognize that the uses of astheneia, etc. in Paul are not homogeneous, and there is no single English root that translates all of them with equal success or precision.
Today, by the way, I began revising chapter 1 of the book. I'm having more fun than a barrel of worms. I never dreamed that I would be rewriting this book 28 years after I first set pen to paper!
7:17 PM This great quote from A Chance to Die reminded me that soul-winning is the work of God from beginning to end (p. 51).
One day as the two were driving a gig along a country road they came upon a stone breaker. Pulling up the old horse, Charlie, the D.O.M. [Dear Old Man] turned to Amy. "Which blow breaks the stone?" he asked. Then, pointing with his whip he said, "Thee must never say, thee must never even let thyself think, 'I won that soul for Christ.' It is the first blow and the last, and every one in between."
Could it be that there are times when we think that we are the only ones who are indispensable to the salvific work of God? I think so. But salvation is the work of God. If you want to be a redemptive person, you must remember that it is the responsibility of the Redeemer to draw all people to Himself, and that He often uses many different "blows" in the process!
7:12 PM Just cooked pancakes for Becky and me. We both had a huge sweet tooth tonight.
6:23 PM God "so" loved the world – adverb of degree ("God loved the world so much") or manner ("God loved the world in this manner")? See Jeff's fine discussion here. (I tend to agree with the ISV’s rendering – for obvious reasons.)
6:20 PM Quote of the day (Eric Carpenter):
I wonder why we Christians so often get angry at atheists. If we really believe that we are saved only by the grace of God, then why do we get so upset when people who do not know God claim that He doesn't exist? Just because they deny the existence of God, this does not make it true. They have not (yet, we hope) been saved by God's grace. Instead of being so angry, why not love them?
Love them? You've got to be kidding. Why, they're our enemies and the enemies of Christianity. (*Sarcasm.*)
Folks, Eric is right. So I have a suggestion. It's a crazy, kingdom-focused idea. Rather than telling atheists what a friend they have in Jesus, why not tell them what a friend they have in you? Folks, bumper stickers and hateful blog posts aren't gonna win the world for Christ. Remember: The medium is the message! Or at least a big part of it.
Oh, I almost forgot. Eric's thoughtful essay is called God Doesn't Believe in Atheists.
6:06 PM Hey, fellow bloggerites! Check out a brand new e-zone that was launched today. It's called Bible Study Paths and is the work of Henry and Jody Neufeld (Henry is one of my favorite publishers). Everybody who knows my work can see why I would be so excited about a website that encourages personal Bible study. The battle we're in can't be waged with the "weapons of this world." Our sword is not an earthly weapon but the Word of God. Now, if you're like me, you think of Bible study as being a very difficult task. Indeed it is! Whenever we're involved in a faith enterprise we're overextended by design. That's why we need to approach the Bible with great humility and allow it to be its own interpreter as much as we possibly can. I'm up for the challenge. Are you?
By the way, you can check out the good stuff Henry publishes here. (Insider's scoop: Look for more good stuff shortly.)
Monday, February 1
12:53 PM Speaking of non-conformity (or maybe that be should be obscurantism), someone just emailed me with an interesting question: Does anyone else hold to your views about synoptic origins? I had to answer, quite honestly, something to the effect of "Not that I'm aware of. At least not in print." And that's fine with me. As I tell my students, I may be wrong, but I'm not afraid to publish my views for everyone to see (and ignore)!
12:38 PM Guess what? Apparently Robert E. Lee was a nonconformist. General Lee? Yes, the good general himself. He was constantly upsetting the apple cart as an educator. He refused to establish unnecessary regulations at Washington College. His motto was "Make no needless rules." He pushed as hard as any educator in the nation for electives. Let the students have a say in their own education, he argued. When the Lee chapel was built he made attendance non-compulsory, much to the surprise of the student body. Finally, there's this (Lee: The Last Years, p. 156):
Whenever the students and faculty of V.M.I. and Washington College marched in a joint procession, to the sound of a drum, Lee made a point of marching out of step.
Isn't that great? Gives the rest of us non-conformists hope!
12:26 PM Today Becky is sewing not one but two dresses for Ethiopia. The fabrics are gorgeous. It's just like my wife to make the most of her time, to be cheerful always, and to look to the future with joy and anticipation. Which sounds to me a lot like Amy Carmichael. To quote from A Chance to Die again (p. 30):
Being of an acutely sensitive nature, Amy must have felt deeply the loss of her father. The happy, peaceful, predictable routine of her home life was profoundly shaken. If she had been born a hundred years later, she would very likely have been encouraged to be angry, told she had a right to express her anger and her sorrow and her bewilderment and her rage, and generally to disintegrate. These were not the expectations of her friends and family. Nothing could have been further from her expectations of herself. Instead, she threw herself into serving others.
Remember, these words were written by a woman whose husband was martyred and who knew something of the loss she describes here.
I cannot see Elizabeth Elliott holding a pity party for herself, can you? Neither can I see Becky doing that. How I thank God for such women. The Lord must love me very much to have given me a wife whose worth is far above rubies.
10:30 AM Someone once said, "We tithe to ourselves," meaning that much of our offerings goes to improving physical plants, paying salaries, etc. We do indeed tithe to ourselves. Which makes Arthur Sido's latest blog post all the more important: What would our church budget look like if Jesus was on the Budget Committee?
Arthur, I wish I could say that people will listen to you and that churches will reexamine their priorities in terms of their giving. Obviously what you're saying calls for initiative on the part of people, especially church elders (or "deacons" as we often call them in our SBC churches). Our misplaced priority system is wrong. The New Testament calls it wrong. It is anti-Scriptural, anti-Christian, and against the love command of God. This is so practical that I would like to pin-point it with a question: Will the elders/deacons of local churches, many of whom I know read this blog regularly, take this admonition practically and seriously? Otherwise, what good does it do to "rant" (as Arthur admits he is doing)? Elders, am I putting you on the spot? You bet I am!
9:41 AM David Lee reviews Alexander Strauch's Biblical Eldership. It's a fine review of a book that all of us should read at least once in our lifetime.
Here's a quote from the review that I'd like for you to ponder:
The discussion in this section of biblical eldership as servant leadership was particularly humbling. As a young pastor, this is the qualification that I most often disregard in my own personal self-assessment. Far from being a sort of religious despot, the elder exists to serve both his fellow elders and his flock. Strauch wisely points to the Lord Jesus Christ as the paramount example of such servant leadership: “To discover how a plurality of elders works together, look and listen to Jesus Christ” (86). When relating to one another, elders must be able to work together with love and humility, readily regarding others as better than themselves (Phil 2:3-5). Similarly, “elders must not wield the authority given to them in a heavy-handed way” (97), shepherding the church with great gentleness.
Isn't this wonderfully simple? Isn't it beautifully scriptural? Isn't it time we asked the Holy Spirit to implement it in our churches? Oh, the Body of Christ! Oh, to see it operating as the Head intended!
9:22 AM Interested in learning more about the biblical principle of every member ministry? Check out David Roger's excellent piece by that title. Here's a teaser:
On the basis of these passages, I hold that an overriding concern of biblical ecclesiology, and one that should exercise a priority influence over the way we choose to structure our churches and organize our church activities, especially whenever faced with any degree of ambiguity on what Scripture actually commands or prohibits, is that of every member ministry. As a matter of fact, it seems quite clear to me that our level of growth and maturity as a church, and the degree in which we successfully fulfill the Lord’s purpose for us, will be commensurate with the degree in which we help each and every member of the Body of Christ to be actively involved in ministry, exercising the spiritual gifts the Lord has given them. In other words, for general purposes, church structures and activities that better serve to facilitate every member ministry are more biblical than those that do not.
9:10 AM This just arrived via email:
I certainly concur with your "Sacerdotalism or Every Member Ministry?". This is a subject which is dear to my own heart, of which I became convicted many years ago, that it was a destructive problem right across the evangelical church scene, and working to the devil's advantage. Far too often, what is called multiple eldership is still a one man band, functioning with a hand-picked mutual admiration society who would never dream that the pastor might be fallible, and occasionally make a mistake, or, perish the thought, wrong.
Here is a point I wish to make crystal clear. As individuals, the writer correctly points out, each of us is going to make mistakes. This problem can be alleviated to a great degree by receding into the wisdom of the group. Nonconformity to the world must certainly, in my opinion, involve leadership that is both plural AND nonhierarchical.
Once again, may I humbly and respectfully ask those of you who are senior pastors and who thus set yourselves apart from the eldership to reconsider your position in light of 1 Pet. 5:1-4?
8:51 AM So Prince Harry is thrown from his polo pony. I wish I had a dollar for every time I had an "unplanned dismount" from one of my steeds.
8:02 AM The CSMonitor does it again. Read More airport security won't do much to stop terrorists. Leaving the Middle East would. The final paragraph is the best.
7:45 AM Do you spank your children? Or engage in any kind of discipline with them? Amy Carmichael was the disciplinarian at her home for children in India. But with an interesting twist (A Chance to Die, p. 213):
One little girl who lied habitually had her mouth inked and was kept out of school for a day or so. After the second or third time she was taken to Amma's [Amy's] room. "I was shaking. She sent me to the bathroom for the strap, took me on her lap in front of the mirror, and read to me from Isaiah 53 -- 'He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities .... All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.' Then she beat her own arm instead of mine and explained salvation to me."
Once in a while I run across a passage in my reading that is so sublime, so beautifully expressed, so amazing, that it defies commentary and I simply must quote it. This passage is one of those.
7:38 AM Michael Palmer has added two more books to his excellent Greek linguistics bibliography. You can check them out here.
7:34 AM Diglotting offers a review of Richard Young's Intermediate New Testament Greek – A Linguistic and Exegetical Approach. Always glad to promote the author of a Greek textbook!
7:24 AM Conclusions #14-15 (from Paul, Apostle of Weakness):
# 14: Paul is defensive of his own infirmities only because a misunderstanding of weakness leads to error concerning the nature and acquisition of divine strength. Paul is strong, but only because he is "in Christ."
#15: Integrally connected with the understanding of Paul's concept of weakness is the antithetical concept of strength. In some cases this background is brought into focus and the concept of strength is explicitly mentioned, whereas at other times the contrast is only implied. Paul specifically connects weakness with the opposite idea of power in 1 Cor 1:25, 26; 4:10; 15:43; 2 Cor 10:10; 12:5, 9, 10; 13:3, 4, 9; Rom 4:19; 5:6; 8:3; 14:1, 2; 15:1, passages that show the importance of both words in Paul's vocabulary. The emphasis is often upon the fact that the powerful apostle is also the weak and suffering one; Paulus potens is at the same time Paulus infirmus.
You can see that we are leading up to a grand conclusion!
7:18 AM Our latest Spanish essay has been published. Please feel free to share it with all of your Hispanic friends. It's called La Gran Comisión del Matrimonio.
7:12 AM Listening to Becky play "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" on the piano. What a blessing.