A new blog entry. wow.

I simply do not understand where the time goes. Becca and I have been here 3 months now, I've been in seminary for 2, and it feels like we just moved in. I keep meaning to blog regularly but I obviously am not keeping things up to date very well. Seriously, if I haven't updated in a week or so complain and I'll try and at least write something. Here's a poem/song I wrote for my Living in God's Presence class a few weeks back...we had to write a poem based on a psalm. It didn't have to be good. :)

The light in Your eyes,
The smile on Your face,
The laughter I hear in Your voice,
Lord, how could I help
But to shout out Your praise,
To rejoice in the Source of all joy?

You will make known to me the path of life, the path of life,
And in Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures, Lord, forevermore,
For in Your presence is fullness of joy…

Now rejoicing with You,
As You rejoice over me,
Lord, how could I ever have known,
That You are the One,
Who, when Your lost ones are found,
Exults while Your angels look on?

How could I help but smile when I see Your face,
when I see Your face?
How could I help but laugh when I hear Your voice,
when I hear Your voice?
How could I help but dance and lift up my hands,
and lift up my hands?
When You rejoice over me with such joy?

I am really no good at this blogging thing, am I?

I keep intending to blog, but there just aren't enough hours in the day it seems. I have a bunch of "comp time" this week since I'm a non-exempt employee, so I'm not supposed to work more than 40 hours a week and with the College Conference and some church displays I was at i had more like 60 last week, so I have to take time off this week. But there's so much to do! It's nice to be home right now though. I worked a full day yesterday and only like 5 hours today. I had a couple of students come in for tours, talked to a bunch more on the phone, and Herr Bockelman brought in enough Polish Sausage & Suarkraut to feed the entire office in celebration of it being Oktoberfest. Even though it's 90+ and doesn't feel like October at all.

Let's see...the College Conference--this was totally awesome. We had about 200 students from who knows how many campus ministries at this thing, from all over AZ and even a delegation from California. And it wasn't even weird, everyone was worshipping and learning and fellowshipping together even across ministry lines. The workshops were awesome, the worship was awesome, it was just very cool. It was a lot of work, but Becca and I still got to go to some of the workshops. And just having so many people volunteer their time and skills for this was a blessing. But man, if I thought it was a lot of work preparing for a men's weekend or something like that in 5.19, this was just wayyy more complicated. But definately worth it.

Other than that, I need to move my stuff from my cubicle into my new office, that's really exciting to me to be honest. It is hard with Jeff leaving, he was the Director of Enrollment and I kinda feel this overload of information as he was teaching me in many ways how to do my job and his job. Derek is starting as an enrollment counselor next week, and that means I'm going to be training him, but really it's not like I've been there all that long either. But I am shocked at how much I have picked up and how quickly. I really love working at the seminary, it's like the best of all the experiences I've had rolled into one job/ministry. But I really miss Ohio, and I really miss all of you, and the saddest part of being so happy with my work and school experience here is that I don't get to share the joy of that with you all on a daily basis.

In about an hour and a half I need to leave for my interpretation class. For tonight I had to make a chart on Acts 4:1-6:7, I have no idea if it's done correctly or not since it seems more like a timeline to me than a chart, but who knows. Last week we had this observation assignment on the Gospel of John that the syllabus said would take an hour and a half and should be done in one sitting, it ended up taking more like 7 hours, but that was good. I must say, I am glad the assignment for tonight didn't take another 7 hours otherwise I would most definately not be blogging right now.

I guess that's all for now. Anyone who hasn't heard Mike's new songs should email him and ask for the links, he just sent them to me and they are AWESOME.

A couple of new traditions...

Well, I went to the first meeting of our Greek Club at the seminary this morning, we're meeting every wednesday from 7:30-8:45 to work our way through the greek text of Mark (cause it's the simplest greek in the bible) and it was awesome. Brian, you'd love this, I wish we'd started something like this in BG. You should commute out for wednesday mornings, then back each week to BG. Anyways, we only got through like 13 verses, but it was great going through so slowly and just really digging into it together, there was maybe 8 or 10 of us there, so it's not a threatening environment to make mistakes, introduce heretical translations, etc.,..

In other news, starting the friday after this one, all fridays will be renamed Battlestar Galactica Fridays, as my friend John got a copy of the series on DVD and we're going to watch an episode on our lunch break every friday. Fridays a lot more laid back at the seminary, though honestly it's pretty laid back all the time.

Anyways, that's enough for now, because i'm tired.

Interpretation

I've been working on some reading for my classes today (though not as much as I should have been, I must admit the three day weekend has lessened my motivation for working ahead). I must be a super-geek because I am about to highly recommend a couple of textbooks to you all, how can I be excited about textbooks? I don't know but I am. The first is called Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought, which I found utterly fascinating. I don't know what else to say other than that I wish I'd read it years ago. It's so weird that the same things and questions we delve into today have been delved into before, and often other believers have found some decent answers. The church has already faced some serious challenges, and sometimes it's failed in the face of them. I think maybe we can do better if we at least see some of the mistakes that have occured in the past.

The other book is Introduction to Bilblical Interpretation, I know this probably sounds boring but seriously it's not at all so far. A lot of the questions I think we began to examine in our Bible study last spring and summer are addressed to some degree in this book, and I'm still reading it so I'll have more to write on it soon. Some of those questions of 'Why can't (or why doesn't) the Holy Spirit just illuminate every believer so that we understand Scripture in the same way, i.e., the way it was meant to be understood?' or just the general frustration that studying some passages can lead to, when it doesn't seem at all like God's word is clear or that we have all we need to understand it adequately, even though we know He's not trying to trick us or make things harder than they need to be. Anyways, I'm including a couple of quotes from this latter book, and will probably try and do this on occasion with things I'm learning in and out of class, just to share stuff that I find interesting/inspiring/disturbing/whatevering.

“Any type of oral or written communication involves three expressions of meaning:
(1) what the speaker or writer meant by what he or she said;
(2) what the recipient actually understood by the statement; and
(3) in some abstract sense, what meaning is actually encodes in the text or utterance itself.”

"To grasp the text fully—and, more important, to be grasped by it fully—means to enjoy the ‘pleasure of the text,’ to engage it joyfully and adventurously with our mind, emotions, and imagination.”

“When we simply allow our unchallenged feelings and observations to distort or determine what the Bible means, our experiences have become the measure for what a text can mean. We must adopt an approach to interpretation that confronts this danger, for Scripture alone constitutes the standard of truth for Christians, and we must judge our values and experiences based on its precepts, not vice-versa. It follows, then, that any valid approach to interpretation must concern itself with two crucial dimensions:
(1) an appropriate methodology for deciphering what the text is about, and
(2) a means of assessing and accounting for the readers’ present situation as we engage in the interpretive process. We must account for both ancient and modern dimensions.”

I guess I'm certainly interested in this last part as some of you probably know my frustration when I see what is written and can't line it up with what is. Anyways, I ought to get back to studying, but figured I should continue trying to blog on a semi-regular basis.

Just a quick blog...

to say that my classes are awesome! Work is going really well too, but it's nice to have a night where I didn't head right from work to class. Tuesday is the roughest--but hey, Joel's been working 90 hours a week and taking classes for all this time, so I suppose I can survive without complaining too much.

In other news, Becca and I went to IHOP Sunday and saw Ricky Schroeder eating breakfast there, I guess he comes in every friday and sunday. Mr. T apparently eats at the Denny's--I guess they had some sort of falling out after the whole Silver Spoons ordeal, and that's why they now frequent different breakfast places. It's a fascinating place, this city of Scottsdale.

That's about it, but let me leave you with this: "In the Kingdom of the Noun and the Verb, all other parts of speech are but vassals."

New Student Orientation

I was tempted to title this 'New Student Borientation' cause I thought that'd be funny, but it really wasn't that boring, so it'd be inappropriate. Becca and I were at the seminary from 8:45 to 12:30 today along with all the other new students and their spouses. For students who happened to be single, spouses were provided. As well, the staff and faculty were present, so I got to eat lunch (pizza!) with Paul Wegner, and throw my plate away next to Wayne Grudem. Pretty neat. Anyways, we got to meet a lot of really awesome people, I'll now know a couple of people in class, and it felt really great to be able to set down all my stuff I'd collected during the orientation time in my very own cubicle, with my very own nameplate on the wall. I can see why the seminary has been voted the number one Christian work environment the last two years, cause seriously everyone there really loves the Lord, and really loves one another. I can't wait to get started working Monday, and to start classes that evening.

Anyways, it sounds like I passed my Greek exam last week, though I haven't seen the official grade or anything, which means the courses I took during undergrad will replace the first year of Greek courses here. So, Monday night I have Greek Syntax & Exegesis with John DelHousaye; Tuesday night I have Principles for Biblical Interpretation with Fred Chay; and Wednesday night I have Living in God's Presence with Norm Wakefield-a class which Becca is going to take with me as a personal enrichment course.

Anyways, I gotta run for the moment--I'll try and start posting shorter, but more frequent blog entries. My goal is to be posting entries that just contain one letter, 120-150 times each day, but i'm not quite there yet.

Good news...!

Well I finally have some news to share:

As of Monday, August 23, at about 11:30 AM I am the newest full-time employee of Phoenix Seminary! I start next Monday working as a Recruiter contacting potential students and working with area college ministries to help people discern if God is calling them to seminary, and if so if He is calling them to our seminary in particular. The job is an interesting combination of my work at Century & in 519, so I'm really starting to think God can take whatever experiences we have and use them to prepare us for something good He wants to do.

Basically, life is about to change a lot: I'll be at the seminary from 8:30 to 5 every day for work, then til 8 for class Monday and Wednesday, til 10 Tuesdays, and I won't be bored and feeling like a bum since I've been unemployed since May now. However, I have totally loved getting to spend so much quality time with my wife--how many people get to spend a summer together like we just did? It was such a blessing, and was much needed since we're about to see each other a lot less than we did when we worked together.

Let's see, in other news, we celebrated our 4th anniversary last thursday, and I simply cannot believe that we've been married that long. I've said it before, but it feels like we've been married only a few months, and at the same time that we've been married forever (the latter not in the sense of I find marriage interminable, but that I can't imagine what life was like when I wasn't getting to share it with Becca). We had a great day together (we've had a lot of great days together lately though), and Becca got a Seal CD (IV) which I have just become increasingly addicted to [it's on right now, in fact]. I decree that Seal and Sting must combine forces, and form Steal, or Sling, or something along those lines, and use their admirable musical abilities to thwart evil in the world. Or something like that.

I've got my Greek exam in about an hour here, if I pass it (which I had better) I get to skip out of the first year of Greek at seminary. I still will take just as many credits in Greek courses, but I'll get to take more classes focused on individual NT books instead of just the greek grammar courses. I am such a geek, I get excited about this stuff--Brian we need to figure out a way to use our blogs to make witty comments based on our extensive greek knowledge.

Well, I have to go study a little more before my test, I will try and blog a bit more often. Talk to you all soon!

What's up?

Well I actually got to work a little this week, which was kind of weird since I still don't know for sure if I have this job... Today was thoroughly exciting: I staffed a recruiting table for Phoenix Seminary at a Christian Marriage & Family Conference for 6 hours, and talked to (prepare yourself) maybe half a dozen people. Most of the time I spent reading the seminary catalog and a textbook on historical theology, and listening to this maddening, maddening music that was playing through the hotel sound system. For the few hours I was there yesterday afternoon, I was pretty involved in either conversations with Jeff or with the few other people who stopped by the booth; but today I was there on my own and just got to listen to the music which was on a 25 minute loop, repeating itself over, and over, and over. Ahhhhhhh!!!!

It's been kind of neat though, getting to share the story of how God drew me to this particular seminary with people. I am really looking forward to starting classes in a couple of weeks. After reading through the cataloge again today I was struck by the fact that I'd have to get three masters if I took all the classes that I want to take that they offer. I don't think I will do that, though. Even with the 94 credits that comprise my program in M.Div., I want to take every class that's offered, but you just have to focus. This semester I'm taking Principles for Biblical Interpretation, Intermediate Greek, and Living in God's Presence. Maybe I'll even post a syllabus or something so that you can all read along in all of your spare time. :)

Other than that, all I have to share with you right now is a funny anecdote: Becca & I were driving today, and I made some joke about mammon, which was of course hilarious, and she commented on how while it was funny that very few people would get it, as even among Christians a lot of people wouldn't know what the reference was to. Oh, never mind, it's too hard to explain. Wait, no, it's worth it, I'll take the time and explain the whole situation. So, we were driving, and I made this joke, and -- no, it will take to long. Here's the short version of it: Oh, forget it.

Prepare the Monkey-Helmets!

Well, I've had an interesting week of job interviewing, studying for my Greek test, and doing some reading for seminary. I still don't have a definitive answer on the job, but hopefully will find out for sure soon. I can't believe we've been here for two weeks already! It's insane, we miss everyone back home so much. We've got a couple of churches we might go to on Sunday, either the VCF of Scottsdale or another one called Highlands. Hopefully we'll get into a home group soon, and get to know some people down here. It's kinda lonely. Actually, we think even Puppy is lonely, he must miss having all the attention, or at least miss seeing different shoes and getting to eat some of them.

I am actually having a hard time putting down one of my textbooks, it's an overview of theology over the past 2000 years. I just finished the section on the patristic period (up through about 450AD). It was really, really cool. One of the problems I think we have as moderns is that we think the ancients were stupid, so we don't take the effort to read and learn what's already been debated and decided in the church. So many of the heresies which are common today (and some which I think are too common and too tolerated, unfortunately) are really, really old. I'll have some more to write on this, but someone's in line behind me to use the computer, so....

We should have internet access in our apartment starting tuesday, so that'll mean more blogging and other internet communications...

We're here!

So we got into Scottsdale friday night after a white-knuckled drive from Flagstaff.  We seriously drive like maniacs on the mountain roads to get here in time to check into our apartment, because it was better to risk death than to risk having to check in Saturday morning.  :)  But we made it just fine, so I guess it was worth it.  We moved all of our stuff in Saturday morning, and pretty much have been unpacking and getting our bearings here since then.  We dropped off Becca's parents at the airport at like 7:30 this morning--they called and said it took 3.5 hours to get home by air even though it took us like 33 hours to drive!  Wow. 

I don't know what else to write at the moment; the rabbit is surviving the heat ok, so far everything we packed survived the trip.  Trent, we did good with those monitor and tv boxes, btw...maybe we should begin a new company making custom, form-fitting boxes or something.

Well, I'll talk to you all again soon!

Albuquerque!

So we've driven like 3/4 of the way, today through blinding monsoon rains in the desert of all places.  We're staying at my sister's house in Albuquerque, NM.  It's pretty awesome, and so is my little nephew Jackson, and her dogs Schmitty and Stonewall.  Tomorrow we'll get to Scottsdale, and hopefully the next day our stuff will get there.  Oh, also, my cell phone is working again so you can reach me at it, or, you could if i didn't have caller id, but since i do, i'll see that it's you calling, and, well...

I am thoroughly exhausted!  Good night.  Becca and I miss you all so much already, it's crazy.  The Fart Machine just doesn't bring the same laughs when it's just the two of us and Puppy.

Holy crap! A second post on my blog!

So yes, I do have something to write today, not much but just enough to keep my faithful blog audience interested. Really, I'm just stringing you along, and will strictly maintain my one blog entry per six weeks schedule. Well, hopefully I'll do a little better than that once we're settled into Phoenix. I wanted to write and thank all of you: friends, families, loved ones--for your help. Not just with moving and packing and stuff, but with LIFE! Thank you. It is going to be so hard for Becca and I not to see you all constantly. We will try to stay in touch with you all, please try and do the same.

I also feel the necessity to comment on how silly it is that my blog lists the time of the posts of my entries and related comments, but not the date. How useless is that?

Please pray for Gary, Susan, Becca & I to have a safe trip across the country to Phoenix, and that I get this job at the seminary, and that everything else falls into place as well. We're leaving behind so many loved ones, and really everything and everyone we have known for these past 7 or so years. It's terrifying, there's a kind of surrealness about it that is so intense that it makes me use the word surreal even though I'm not entirely sure if I'm spelling it correctly. Becca & I are both feeling really calm about it, maybe it's shock, maybe it's just the peace of Christ which passes all understanding. Let's hope it's the latter.

Again, we will miss all of you, you are in our prayers and in our hearts. You really have become dear to us, and we've shared so much of life together with you that it's scary to think about living life apart from you all now.

Well, that's all for this six weeks. I'll write again mid-September. :)

Lee

testing...

nothing to say yet, maybe someday...