Buy Your Competitors

We received this fax at the seminary today:

(Click to enlarge)

 Yeah. No thanks. Who are we going to buy anyway? The Presbyterians?

A New Discussion: Church Revitalization

I mentioned to a friend on Tuesday that I was waiting for someone step up and really begin a significant conversation about church revitalization. It may have happened this morning.

Kevin Smith, associate professor of Church History here at Southern, preached a powerful message earlier today in chapel about ministering in difficult contexts. In a Christian culture where church planting and guaranteed salaries for pastors are becoming more and more prevalent, are young ministers willing to sacrifice security and comfort in order to revitalize dying churches full of difficult people?

I have often wondered if I am called to such a field. I am beginning to think maybe I am... I pray that I will be willing if the call comes.

Please watch this and pray that pastors will hear the call and begin a significant church revitalization movement in America.

(If you are viewing this post in a feedreader or on Facebook, you will need to click though to the original post to view the video.)

Joe Theismann: Hebrew Motivator

Today was my first day of elementary Hebrew. I was a little nervous. It would be an understatement to say that my Hebrew professor's reputation precedes him.

He told us, "I'm coming after you. I'm Lawrence Taylor. You're Joe Theismann. I'm coming after that leg."

And everyone in the class groaned as this image came to mind:

We needed no further motivation.

Taking Notes with a Sharpie

So, there was this guy in my class today who was taking notes with a miniature red sharpie. I was pretty sure that I was on the Mount of Transfiguration by the end of class.

Who takes notes with a sharpie anyway? I should have asked him if he needed a pencil. I think I had an extra one. I guess it's my own fault. But I opted for tripping. Maybe subconsciously I wanted to hallucinate. Yeah. I was most likely repressing it.

All I know is that I am listening to Coldplay now. I never do that. I must be altered.

Dr. Hamilton

This semester Dr. Jim Hamilton has opened up Scripture in a whole new way to me.

Check out his website.

And as a bonus, check out this picture. It looks like he is ready to rough up some liberals.

This Week in Chapel

The Chapel services here at SBTS this week were particularly strong. I would highly recommend both of them.

Firstly, Dr. James Hamilton gives a stern warning concerning sexual sin in the life of the believer drawing from the transgression of David in 2 Samuel 11.

Secondly, Pastor David Prince discusses the importance of looking at the believer's role in the Christian community properly using 1 Peter 2 as his primary text.

As we say in Kentucky, both men cleared a spot and pitched a fit.

A.T. Robertson and Charles Simeon

Seventy-five years ago today A.T. Robertson died, but not before leaving his imprint on the history of New Testament scholarship. Robertson was arguably The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's most prolific professor. His classes are legend here at Southern and his influence was wide-spread. His Shorter Grammar was the favorite of Pope John XXIII and congregations across the United States eagerly awaited his arrival to hear him preach. The tragedy of Robertson's life was his inability to engage his own family; his daughter was an agnostic and his son never expressed interest in Spiritual things. It is a stern warning concerning the family life of the proclaimers of God's Word.

Also on this day, 250 years ago, Charles Simeon was born. Simeon is a hero of mine as he was the model of perseverance. He served in the same church for fifty-four years many of which were marked by an extreme dislike for him by his congregation. When asked why he did not move on from the hostile situation Simeon would point to the fact that God simply did not provide any other options. Simeon's persistence and faithfulness to God's Word and to the calling God gave him is an incredible testimony. I identify with Simeon as his early years proved him a prideful man; God clearly had a plan to uproot the sin by giving him such a difficult post.

I would encourage you to seek biographical information on each of these men as their lives can teach us so much about the faithfulness of God.

Verses for Evangelism

In my Personal Evangelism course here at Southern we are required to memorize 40 key verses for evangelism. I have found the list to be quite helpful, so I thought I would pass it on.

Scripture is so important in evangelism; since we claim it to be the ultimate authority in our lives, using it in our witness only makes sense. I would encourage you to adopt this list or a similar list to memorize as together we seek to be obedient proclaimers of the Gospel of Christ.

God
Psalms 19:1
Revelation 4:11
Matthew 22:37-38
Leviticus 19:2

Rebellion
Isaiah 59:2
Isaiah 53:6
Romans 3:23
Romans 6:23
Hebrews 9:27
Matthew 10:28

Atonement
John 3:16
Luke 19:10
Romans 5:8
1 Peter 2:24
Isaiah 53:5
1 Peter 3:18
2 Corinthians 5:21
John 3:36

Conversion
John 3:3
John 1:12
Acts 16:31
Romans 10:9
Romans 10:13
Matthew 11:28
John 14:6
Acts 4:12
Luke 13:3
Isaiah 55:7
1 John 1:9
Isaiah 1:18
2 Corinthians 6:2
Revelation 3:20
Ephesians 2:8-9

Eternal Life
John 10:10
John 6:37
1 John 5:12-13
Romans 8:16
John 5:24
2 Corinthians 5:17
2 Timothy 1:12

After One Month of Seminary...

... I now know for certain that I know nothing.

"Being a Just Man..."

So, yesterday in my Greek Exegesis class we were discussing participles which express cause.

Look at these two verses.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

-Matthew 1:18,19

I will spare you all the details of the discussion, but the portion I will highlight is in the second sentence where Matthew states "being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame." "Being" and "unwilling" are the participles.

The discussion was surrounding Matthew's usage of the term "just" or another possible rendering, "righteous." The professor said that Matthew was eluding to the fact that Joseph's "being just" or "being righteous" was imported from beyond Joseph himself.

One of my fellow students raised his hand and asked how a conclusion like that could be drawn; was it not simply possible for Joseph to be a "good guy?"

My professor replied by stating that it would not have been unrighteous or unjust for Joseph to divorce Mary publicly, which at the worst would have left Mary to be stoned and at the best would have meant she could never marry. This would not have made Joseph a "bad guy." According to the law it was the just thing to do. So this means that Matthew indicates something different when he writes about Joseph "being a just man."

Joseph's righteousness consisted of more elements than just following the law; it included grace and forgiveness focused at an individual.

Something to think about...

SBTS, N.T. Wright, and Justification

Yesterday, five men at SBTS discussed the dangers of the position held by Bishop N.T. Wright concerning the Doctrine of Justification. If you have caught any wind of the ongoing debate I would encourage you to watch this video as it clarifies exactly what the debate consists of and warns against a mishandling of the Scriptural definition of Justification.

Also, note the pun recycling that goes on with Bishop Wright's surname.

Stop Signs for the Lord's Sake

Rebekah and I live on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. There is an all-way stop thirty feet from our apartment building. A very small percentage of cars heed these stop signs; some don't even bother tapping the brake.

The apostle Peter tells us why we should stop at stop signs.

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

-1 Peter 2:13-17

Human institution, in this case the U.S. government, has implemented stop signs which, by law, drivers are required to stop at. Therefore, subject yourself to this authority for the Lord's sake.

It doesn't matter if no one is around. It doesn't matter if police officers do it too. It doesn't matter if you are in a hurry. It doesn't matter if it's not killing anyone. There is absolutely no good reason for not stopping at a stop sign, and to be honest, there is an excellent biblical reason for stopping at a stop sign which I articulated earlier.

If you still want to ignore the words breathed out by the Spirit of Christ through the apostle Peter, please take the Icthus off of your car.

Educational Stewardship

The more I understand the cost of my education, the more I am inclined to be a good steward of it.

Seminary Books

Rebekah and I just bought some of our books for the semester.

Here are the numbers:

Total: 23 books
Total cost: $536.17
Cost per book: $23.31 (sweet deal, the campus bookstore hooks us up)
Total pages: 8906
Pages per book: 387
Largest book: 1059 pages
Smallest book: 79 pages
Estimated library growth: 7%
Books left to buy this semester: 9

Now to reading them...

DL Moody?

When I visited Southern Baptist Theological Seminary over my Christmas vacation I took this picture:

Initially I thought it was pretty sweet to see DL Moody's graduation picture from Southern. I didn't know that DL Moody went to Southern. Well, this one did.

However, I was thinking about this picture today and I sensed that this picture was far too recent to be the actual DL Moody. I wikipediaed Moody and found that he died in 1899. This is the Southern graduating class of 1958. So who is this guy? Is he related to DL Moody? I found a family tree going through DL Moody's grandkids, but part of it was cut off and I could not tell if that was the case. Am I missing something here?

Does anyone know who this DL Moody is?