Done.
Well I’m finally finished. Thirty-five pages of writing, four finals, and one project all have been crossed off the list. I wrapped up my first semester of seminary this morning. I was telling one of my roomies this afternoon, that I’m amazed by how much information I’ve covered over the last five months. And the spectrum of topics that I’ve read and have been lectured about is amazing as well. I’m pretty happy with this first semester, but I’m also glad its over. Though I’m pretty amazed by how empty I feel right now. It’s crazy how much you can pack into your life. Then the next morning you turn it a paper, and find that you don’t know what to do with yourself now. I guess now you just take a deep breath and try to be still.
Apologetics 101
I’m sitting in AP 101 right now. I can’t say that I’m too trilled about this class, as evident by the fact that I’m blogging rather than listening to the lecture. I’m going to post some more thoughts about this later on, but in the meantime I would encourage everyone to check out a sermon by John Piper called “Why I Trust the Scriptures?” I think its a very unique, simple technique for calling people to trust the scriptures.
Your Calling…
I’ve been thinking a lot about my “call” the last six months. Just to recap: I went from thinking I wanted to be a youth pastor at a church in Portland, attending Western Seminary in Portland and never ever EVER returning to Texas unless it was to Austin, TX. Shortly thereafter, I got a kick in the pants from God. Repented. And started exploring where God was calling me. I ended up in Dallas, TX at Westminster Seminary (which I hadn’t visited until the day I crossed the Oklahoma-Texas border with all my bags packed). I’ve been thinking about how when God calls people they will do radical stuff for the kingdom. Just survey the OT and you’ll see radical acts of faith by ordinary people, and you’ll notice that those acts are usually initiated by God calling them to those acts.
I’m taking a class that’s asking me to read “Called to the Ministry” by Edmund P. Clowney. I’m only a couple of pages into it, but I wanted to share with you some quotes I’ve highlighted.
- “When the Lord calls he will be answered” and “it is clear that the answer must come from the Lord himself”.
- “There is no call to the ministry that is not first a call to Christ…Your calling to sonship is your calling in Christ.”
- “True identity can never come from relations with men, for every relation is a role to be played…There is but one relation that can give identity to man, the relation to his Creator and Savior.”
- “You learn to know yourself only as you learn to know Christ. Self-knowledge cannot be an end in itself. Paul never cries with Socrates, ‘Know thyself!’ Rather he says, ‘That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death; if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead’. (Phil 3:10,11). ‘For to me to live is Christ’ (Phil. 1:21) is the text of Paul’s life.”
Books
I have spent over $500 on books in the last 48 hours. I’m guessing that I will be receiving around 20 books over the next couple of days, and I’m not done buying all my crap for school yet.
Consider this: Last year I read maybe 2 books total, and at least 10 of these books are for this semester alone.
Passing Greek
We received a passionate challenge from our Greek professor this morning. I love that Prof. Elliott Greene has a sincere passion for, what he calls, “the ancient practice of loving God with our minds”. It’s refreshing to be studying under a professor, who has the chief goal of producing students who love and follow Christ. He has no interest in producing “lecturers of Christian writings”.
“How dare we come to class and go about passing Greek, and yet fail in following Christ?”
I like this guy already.
First Class
Well I’ve made it to my first class at Westminster. I think Goebel & myself were the last people to walk in the room. I’m pretty underprepared for this class. I have nothing to write stuff down on.
Greek to You
Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., I will start my very first class at Westminister. For the entire month of August, I will be solely focused on Greek. I’ve already taken a stab at Greek once before, and it didn’t end very well. I’m hoping this time around it will be different.
