Think Wink.

For all of you prayer warriors out there who might stumble upon this blog, I have a request for you. I need a day job up in KC where I attend seminary. Right now I drive back and forth between KC and Columbia but the mileage is terrible on my car-although my gas mileage is great at nearly 32mpg. I ask that you would pray for in this regard so that I might better enjoy my classes and have somewhat of a social life outside of the classroom and be able to breath this semester.  Pray for Philippians 4:19 to come true in this instance, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  Thanks so much.

A Major Prayer Request

Calvinism and Prayer

Spurgeon and Arminian Prayer

I am running into a bit of a pickle in my preaching. I have just finished my series on John 1:1-18 in relationship to Christmas. I really enjoyed that passage. There was so much in just John 1:14 and John 1:18 alone that would have taken weeks to get through. But I was able to manage.

My next question is what do I preach on next? I want to preach through an entire book. I have just been picking out passages or verses to preach on this past summer and winter. For example, I preached through Romans 8:28-30 all through June and July. I also preached through Romans 9:1-23 this past fall. Now I want to move into a whole book. I feel that I should do this after some consideration and prayer.

Here are the three places I am leaning. First there is 2 Corinthians. It contains some of my favorite passages such as 2 Corinthians 4:4-6, 16; 5:17-21; 8:9; 10:1-6; almost all of chapter 11; 12:1-10. But then there is Galatians. I wrote my first exegetical on Galatians 3:23-4:8. I also love Galatians, the whole book. There is Paul’s defense of justification by faith apart from the Law, there is fruit of the flesh v. fruit of the Spirit. There is so much there that I want to study. But my third option is Philippians. I love texts there like Philippians 1:6, 21-30; 2:5-13; 3:1-11, 12-16; 4:4, 8, 13, 19. I am main to Philippians or 2 Corinthians because I have given them less study of my own. But I love Galatians also, I have Luther’s commentary on this book that is so great not to mention my own exegetical.

If you wanted to study a book of the Bible out of these three, what would it be? I think I have an idea of what book I will preach from. I am just curious.

What to do?

An Illustration of Faith In My Life

This Time Next Year…

Finals are finally over!!! Oh what a week it was too. One final had 14 essays to study for, the test had four of them and we had to write 2 pages each on two topics. I only studied for 12 essays so that I could answer at least two in any senario. Tonight’s test had a multiple choice section where answers were things like World Angle Wrestling Federation (WAWF) or studen’ts names. Simple but fun.

As I shared a couple of weeks ago, two Mormon missionaries came to my aunt’s door ready to share with me their gospel. I sat down with them and talked to them about what they believe and received a copy of the Book of Mormon to read. Now I have to confess, I did not get to read as much as I wanted to with my studies, sermon writing, and writing the Christmas program for my church–that is very fun by the way. We had agreed to meet up again and to just talk about different things about the Book of Mormon. Tuesday, they came by but I had to study for that final and know 12 of the 14 essays. So I asked them to come by today and they came.

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When I Was Napping…

Redeemed in Isaiah

BW3 and The Seer’s Tower

For almost one year now, I have been attempting to read through Jonathan Edwards’ book The Freedom of the Will. It has taken so long, and I am still not even close to finishing, for a couple of reasons. First, I don’t have the time to focus on it as much as I’d like. I try to read a diversity of books and keep in the mix that of fiction and non-fiction. I also have the responsibility of writing sermons and this is less time to read a book of this nature. Also there is school reading as well.

But the second reason is that it is very hard to read The Freedom of the Will. Edwards packs so much into his work that it takes time to read through and to understand it. There are times I sit down and read a phrase over and over; a sentence over and over; a paragraph over and over; a page over and over. This book often gives me a headache trying to put my head around what he is saying. I am convinced that Edwards knew Jesus so deeply and so initmately that English cannot express what beauty of the Jesus he saw in the Holy Scriptures. He graduated college at an extremely young age. College in Edwards’ day required each student to learn Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. It is the greatest headache I have ever had in my life to try to understand this man’s heart and brain. Oh the joy I have in just anticipating finishing The Freedom of the Will and comprehending all this Puritan had to say about the will.

Gearing up for Christmas

My final in my Prophetic Literature class will be over the book of Daniel. In that class we have read all five of the major prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah/Lamentations, Ezekiel, and now Daniel. As everyone knows, many people either read the first six chapters of Daniel but skip Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2, read the last six chapters and the dream in chapter 2, or read the whole thing. Unfortunately, too many people are either on the poles of Daniel, reading the first half or the second half but never the whole thing. Those who tend to float to the end of the book tend to be “eschatology experts” and follow in the foot steps of Tim Lahae and John Nelson Darby and the Scolefield Reference Bible. They are big-time fans of the Left Behind series, which as a work of fiction I really enjoyed the twelve books that covered the Tribulation period. But upon reflecting on Daniel and the so-called “students of prophecy,” I began to reflect again upon the fictional work, Left Behind, and what it meant.

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If I were a supervillain…

If I were a superhero…

Captain America vs. Captain America???

At Theology for the Masses, there are a few Reformed authors there. One of them goes under the name Puritan Bob. Here is his defense of the doctrine of Orginial Sin according to the Bible. It is very interesting, as well as the comments that are posted at the end of the post. Enjoy.

Original Sin and Infants

Calvin and Original Sin: Part 5

How Many, How Many?

This last week I spent some time checking up on some of the bands I listened to when I was in highschool and at SBU to see if they were still alive and making music. One such group is the band Skillet. Within the last two months they have released their first album since 2003’s “Collide,” which I absolutely loved. They reminded me why I have loved their music since they became a rock band with their megahit album “Alien Youth.” I love their music as it is musically stimulating as well as their lyrics are just sensational. Their two releases off of their new Alum “Comatose” are “Rebirthing” and “The Whispers in the Dark.” They have released their music videos at their website found at Skillet.com. I am excited about getting the opportunity soon to purchase this CD. I highly recommend this CD if you like their previous two albums or you like groups like Kutless. Enjoy.

His Best Contribution Ever

Peace Part 1

Six-Days Later

Many people always ask me as a Calvinist why pray and why evangelize the lost when I believe in the absolute sovereignty of God and that nothing happens apart from his decree.  Those are good questions when one is actually trying to understand the Calvinistic system.  I read to excellent articles by John Piper that answers this question.  They are “Prayer and Predestination” and “The Sovereignty of God and Prayer.”  Check them out and let me know what you think.

Why I am a Calvinist, pt. 2

A Prayer Request

Determinism and Author of Sin

I was reading through Ephesians 3 the other night and I came across Ephesians 3:20-21, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” It is a doxology. Doxologies are very interesting because of what they are in nature.

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Reflections from Hebrews 1-2

Golgotha

Making Sense of a Cruel World.

As it is Christmas time again, I want to get the setting right for the advent season. Click on this link and read this poem by John Piper called “The Innkeeper.” Something you may not know about Piper is that he went to Wheaton to study poetry. He has many poems that he writes and they are beautiful. He has a book of poems about Job that I highly recommend. This is a beautiful work that God has inspired that reminds you of the preciousness of Jesus and the cost to enjoy that preciousness.

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