Years and Finals

Today is my 10th birthday! (Or, for Brian, my 120th month anniversary). 10 years ago today my ears were opened to the gospel and I put my faith in Jesus Christ. It all happened at a church drama called "Heaven's Gates & Hell's Flames" which was performed at Trinity Assembly of God in Zion, Illinois on April 25th of 1995. (7:00pm, in case you were wondering). I am actualy looking at the little yellow ticket right now - it's starting to get a little tattered from being in my wallet all this time but it's still readable and in surprisingly good condition. I am grateful to my friend Jason for inviting me to the drama and being so patient in responding to my myriad objections to the gospel, for my sister April who went along with me. Most of all I am grateful to God who on that night rescued me from the kindgdom of darkness and transferred me to the kingdom of His beloved Son. Thank you, Lord, for saving me even though I was hostile to you and a stranger to your promises - You are good and merciful beyond comprehension.

This time of year will always be a time of reflecting for me, looking back on where I've been, looking forward to where I'm going. I can't believe it's been 10 years - I was sure that I would have everything figured out by now. More and more I realize I know less and less. But I am confident that God is God and that His promises are true, even if I'm slow to understand at times.

This time of year will also probably always remind me of some of the hard lessons we learned about a year ago. There were some painful experiences we went through, and I wish I could say it never crosses my mind anymore and that all the difficulties and pain had all been transformed into wisdom and understanding. That's partly true, but I guess it's another case of 'already/not yet.' Maybe next year. I can say that there has been some wisdom and some sensitivity and some greater depenendence on the Lord that has resulted, and even if it never makes perfect sense at least I can trust in God to continue leading and teaching and working inside of us to renew us in His image. Lord, don't let me stand in your way!

This week I am finishing up my finals for all my classes, and I plan to post some excerpts from some of the papers on here later this week. For my Acts to Revelation survey course I wrote a theme paper on sickness and the gift of healing and I would very much enjoy getting some other feedback on it. I've also completed my translations of Ephesians & Colossians so maybe some day, 15 or so years from now, I'll have finished translating the NT. I'm actually translating from the Greek into Interpretative Dance, so I'll have to wait until I get more space so I can post the videos. :)

Hello...

Well, I completed my first week of classes. They are all exceptionally interesting, I'll probably be posting some stuff from them on here from time to time.

Mondays 3.00-5.00
BI 586 - Jewish Literature at the Time of Jesus: An Introduction and Comparision with the New Testament

Tuesdays 6.00-8.00
NT 504 - Improving Greek Reading Skills

Wednesdays 6.00-10.00
BI 504 - Acts to Revelation

Also on Tuesdays we have a Greek Bible study on the gospel of John from 5.00-6.00. I can already tell it's going to be a very interesting semester all in all, and it's cool because I feel like all the classes mesh well and will reinforce one another. For Greek class we're translating Ephesians in class and Colossians for our individual project. It's nice to have a whole semester to spend on each of these books. For one of my papers in the Acts to Revelation survey class I'm thinking about writing on the definition and nature of the church, something that has been on my mind for some time now as many of you might know. I'd really like to investigate that topic in a more focused way.

Also, I'm not going to make fun of 4 Maccabees anymore--I used to ascribe all sorts of silly verses to it just cause it seemed so far removed from the canon, but now actually having read it I've found that it's got some pretty good stuff in it. Not Scripture, but certainly worthwhile reading on the level of Foxe's Book of Martyrs. More useful, actually, as it presents stuff that pertains to late 2nd Temple Judaism and even shows that there was an idea of one man's righteous suffering could be an atoning sacrifice for others. Plus it's just an edifying account of godly men and women who refused to disobey or dishonor God even in the face of torture and death. Not something to make fun of.

Here's a parting quote for you all to reflect on:
"I'm going to have to replace you as best friend with the new Battlestar Galactica because it's just that good." --Brian Dellisanti

Now that I've lulled you all into a false sense of security....

...I can continue my blogging without your intense scrutiny of my work. Behold, many months will likely pass before you again read my blog, for until this time you've checked and checked and rechecked and there's never anything new. But one day, perhaps a day such as June 23rd 2005, you will check my blog, and find thousands upon thousands of new entries. Entries which were entered while you were not checking frequently. That will be a wonderful day indeed....

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.