Feeling Dry

I've been doing a pretty good job of updating the family blog, but I realize that I've been kind of slack here. What's the problem? I'm feeling a bit dry.

I'm starting to feel a bit burnt-out with Setting Captives Free. I think it's just a matter of the time taking its toll. I seem to go through this near the last third of each semester, so I think it's just a cyclical thing. However, it's not a lot of fun. I want so much to revel in what Christ is doing in people's lives. To do any less is really to cheapen God's grace.

School is going well. We're off this week because my professor is in San Diego for a couple of conferences. We're off next week for Thanksgiving. It was hard, but I did manage to get through my Greek translation today. Normally I do this on Sunday or Monday and then review every day up until class, but I just couldn't get it going. Amanda called me one of the most disciplined students she knows, but stuff like this is hard for me.

Meanwhile, I've got my one page paper on Ruth only half-written. I need to get done with that so I can move on.

I think that it would be good for me just to relax a bit tonight. I haven't done much of that lately.

Not Too Devastated

My alma mater finally lost today. Illinois gave them all they could handle and they lost 28-21. I had just started to hope in them, so this wasn't too crushing. It certainly wasn't as bad as the championship game last year.

I'm beginning to think that Eomer should be my avatar along with the quote, "...do not trust to hope. It has forsaken these lands."

A Blast from the Past

We had a little conversation at work the other day regarding calculators. To the right you can see a photo of my baby. I didn't always use one of these. No, I cut my teeth on a Radio Shack scientific calculator that actually folded into a convenient pocket size. In fact, the doctor who first diagnoses autism in Rain Man used one as he was trying to stump Ray with tough math problems. Then I graduated to a Casio (I think FX-80) that I got from someone. I sold that and then acquired the FX-81 from my girlfriend in college. Finally, I upgraded to the HP.

The HP was not easy to use at first. The Reverse Polish notation was kind of tricky; however, as the linked article states once you get used to it you don't want to go back. I had a hard time ever using my friend's TI-85 after I got used to my calcuator.

I pulled it out of its case today, which was no small feat because the zipper is not in good shape. I think it may be corroding a bit here in my damp basement. At least I had the good sense not to have batteries in it since I had to scrape away a lot of corrosion the first time I used it post-college. I did my normal 1 1 + calculation and played with a few exponents. Then I put it away.

I realize that I likely won't ever have a use for this again. Maybe I can leave it to Noah or Lily. Then again, they might get beat up for having such a relic. Their professors may remember though.

Reformation Day Thoughts

For those of you who don't know (and I didn't until this time last year), today is Reformation Day. I suspect many of you thought that it was merely Halloween, which is a pagan holiday that many Christians refuse to have anything to do with. It is that too, but it also marks the 490th anniversary of Martin Luther tacking 95 theses on the door at the cathedral in Wittenberg. As someone who rejects the Catholic Church's interpretation of the gospel, I am glad for this day.

However, this post has helped to temper my glee a little bit. It serves as a good reminder that we need to call out the bad in any organization, but that we should theoretically be on the same side. We all want to live in a way that glorifies God, right? I mean, theoretically that's the idea. The Jehovah's Witnesses would say that they want to do that, but they disagree with my theology as I do theirs. It is good that there are distinctives because we do believe different things. However, should we really revel in them?

I think I'm going to look at this day as the day when someone was willing to challenge the self-appointed supremacy of the Catholic Church. I think it was a great day for truth. However, I don't think that we should be quite ready to make Luther into a saint. Nor should we throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to tradition. Is it better to have a church with authority or individuals who can all go their own way? I really like the perspective that this post gives.

I attend a Calvinistic, dispensational seminary. I'm not sure if I'm dispensational or covenantal, but I do know that I am Calvinistic. However, I also realize that this may have to do with the teaching I've received. I like to say that my authority is in the Bible, but it may be just as much in John Piper as it is in the Bible.

A classmate of mine presents this problem well. He used to read a variety of commentaries on a verse and wonder about how to resolve the conflicting views. Now that he knows Greek pretty well he can decide who has good and bad exegetical practices. However, not everyone agrees on how to interpret the Greek. So that leaves you with decisions to make about which lexicon or exegetical commentary you're going to trust.

So where does that leave us? We have textual variants of the manuscripts. We have competing translations of various verses. We have competing interpretations in systematic theology. It's enough to push your faith to the brink of destruction.

It leaves me in a position where I know that we can be sure about some things and we need to be gracious about others. I do know that we cannot waver when it comes to salvation by faith alone though.

The Mina Project

Our church had another sermon on money this past Sunday. I knew pretty much what the whole sermon was going to be because I had heard it before. I knew that we would hear the phrase "God owns it all". I thought about how we spend our money and I figured that I would get through a Sunday with very little conviction about the sermon.

Then at the end a surprising thing happened. Our church normally gives away about $35,000 during the Christmas season. Instead of doing it the usual way the church decided to give everyone 18 and over an envelope with an amount of cash between $10 and $500. The challenge is to use the money to help someone in the community. We can't spend it on ourselves and we can't give it back to the church. We do have to tell the church what we're doing with it, however.

This suddenly made the message a LOT more challenging. I'm pretty good at funding others and other organizations. I've flirted with the idea of being a missionary. However, this is where the rubber meets the road. What can I do with this money to the glory of God? How can I show the love of Jesus and make Him seem infinitely valuable through the use of this money?

Incidentally, Amanda and I each got $20. I'm glad it wasn't $500. I think God realizes that I need to start small with this. I'd welcome any ideas anyone has.