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February 2012 Blog Archives

Wednesday, February 29

9:12 PM Good evening, bloggers and bloggerettes! Whew, what a week it’s been so far. Becky and I just got back home from The Hill where we heard the most fantastic missions presentation. Becky wore her mask this evening as we are trying to ward off all them nasty germs that proliferate in the air all around us. When someone asked her how she was doing, she replied “I’m walking and not fainting.” I guess that’s a pretty accurate assessment. We’ll do the blood work on Friday again, but my guess is that her white count has continued to fall — hence the need to watch out for neutropenia.

Classes this week were wonderful. To say that I have good time teaching would be a classic understatement. A special treat was having Maurice Robinson in class today to wax elephant on the Majority Text. Here he is giving the class his opening quip: “I’m the Rodney Dangerfield of New Testament textual critics. I get no respect.”

I beg to differ. He’s got a lot of us here admiring him for standing like a David against the Goliath of critical text proponents. Today we were also blessed to have in our NT class a missionary speaker. If you’re wondering “What does the New Testament have to do with missions?” you obviously do not know SEBTS very well. Note, by the way, that all the really bright and dashing NT professors here have grey hair and white beards.

In more campus news, this morning I encountered a bit of divine serendipity. An email arrived in my inbox with the following subject line: “I learned Greek on my own using your beginner’s textbook.” The writer goes on to say:

It was easy to use and understand and I went through it pretty quickly (in less than a year, considering I work full time and was just married). Now I am beginning to read the New Testament, and sometimes the LXX, in Greek, still using the Lexicon for words I do not understand yet. But it feels great to know it.

I take heart from the fact that God can teach any of us New Testament Greek if we will only apply ourselves. I also thank God that the power is not in the textbook or the teacher but in the Holy Spirit. Incidentally, his email concludes with this anecdote:

Yesterday I wrecked my car trying to practice Hebrew while sitting in traffic on my way to work, so please tell your students never to try that!

Sound advice indeed.

Oh, before I forgot: Becky spoke with Nigusse in India this morning. All is well, despite an internet outage throughout India. The men are working hard and are very tired, but what do you expect from our young whipper snappers these days? They got nothing on us old fogies when it comes to missionary stamina!

Well, that’s all the news that’s fit to print, so until the morrow: “Gute Nacht and schlafen Sie wohl!”

Monday, February 27

8:18 PM Other than a few technical glitches B’s chemo went very well today. We could not ask for better health care than what we are receiving at UNC. Our nurses are always the best. The infusion room was jam packed today, but we were treated as though we were the only patients there today. Our thanks to everyone who ministered to us today. You are the greatest. Thanks also to everyone who sent us an encouraging email today. (You know who you are.) To you we say “God bless you.” It’s now after 8:00 pm and we are both tired but happy. It’s been a long but good day. We know in our hearts that God’s love will never give less than the best. And we are content.

8:40 AM How’s Becky doing? She rested well last night. We’re still on schedule for her afternoon chemotherapy. Right now she’s preparing breakfast for a few friends from Wake Forest: omelets and fresh fruit, with homemade bread. Please pray that her treatment this afternoon does not tire her out too much.

8:35 AM Just got a phone call from Nigusse and Joel. They sounded great. They are safely ensconced in their Delhi hotel. Both seemed rested and raring to go. Grateful for journey mercies thus far.

7:36 AM I have often spoken out against the professionalization of ministry. “There simply were no professionals in the New Testament church,” I’ve said. Well, today I must eat my words. For one of the most famous of all New Testament ministers was indeed a professional. “Luke, the beloved physician,” Paul calls him (Col. 4:14). So there you have it: A professional minister in the New Testament. This remarkable man teaches us at least two lessons:

1) We are to put our “profession” at the feet of Jesus, completely at His disposal. Yes, Luke was a medical doctor. But that was only his job. His business was the Gospel, and I have to emphasize that he took that business very seriously (he is responsible for 2 New Testament books). The principle is simple: we are to use our vocations to advance the Gospel.

2) We must practice our professions selflessly. I think Luke’s attitude toward his own profession is exemplary in this regard. He was willing to forego professional ease and advancement to do what He felt God was calling Him to do. He seemed to be utterly committed to a Great Commission lifestyle. When Paul needed a traveling companion, Luke was there, ready and willing to accompany him.

The application for today seems obvious. Like you and me, the first Christians were ordinary people with ordinary jobs. And yet they made an astonishing impact on their world. They evangelized, planted churches, and gave to the poor (often out of their own poverty). I think today of those everyday Christians who come with us to Ethiopia every year. They bring with them their secular skills and use them for the kingdom. They sacrifice income and holidays for the sake of the Gospel. They refuse to be bolted down in one place and one set of relationships. And I am talking about both men and women. These days I cannot help but notice that God seems to be raising up more and more of them.

Dr. Luke has unassumingly shown us the way.

7:22 AM You can take the little girl out of Ethiopia.

But you can never take Ethiopia out of the little girl.

This whole crazy adventure began in 2004 when Becky asked me to go with her to the land of her childhood. “It will help you to understand me better,” she said.

Indeed it has.  

Praise be to God.

7:15 AM They’ve landed!

Sunday, February 26

8:22 PM Began re-readingThe Great Escape tonight. Classic breakout story of WW II. An excellent work. Ode to man’s ingenuity and doggedness in the face of insurmountable odds. I always liked the movie but found its historical inaccuracies inexcusable. The book is much, much better.

8:22 PM Missions quote of the day:

“God is a God of missions. He wills missions. He commands missions. He demands missions. He made missions possible through His Son. He made missions actual in sending the Holy Spirit.” — George W. Peters

6:14 PM So proud of my Ed.D. student Thomas Hugdins who just published an essay in Eleutheria. It’s calledAn Application of Discourse Analysis Methodology in the Exegesis of John 17. (He likes brief titles.)

6:10 PM Our India team (of 2) is now over Canada. You can follow their progress at Flightaware.com. Just plug in American Airlines flight 292 from O’Hare to Delhi.

2:58 PM This morning we laid hands on our missionary Nigusse before sending him off to India.

Pastor Jason led the church in a wonderful prayer of commitment and commissioning.

Then Becky and I drove Nigu and Joel to RDU.

As I type they are flying over southeastern Indiana on their way to Chicago’s O’Hare airport, whence they will fly to Delhi tonight. The following is a letter from Joel with their itinerary. Please keep them in your daily prayers.

Good evening brother Dave, the following is rough sketch of our schedule while in India.

Arrive Tuesday afternoon in Bagdogra and visit a local church plant then preach in the evening – family fellowship with the locals.
Wed. morning – Joel teach to the college students
Wed. afternoon – Nigussie teach to the college students.
Wed. evening – meeting with a local church plant in Bagdogra.
Thursday and Friday – travel three hours to southern part of West Bengal visiting 10- churches/church leaders per day in surrounding areas
Thursday and Friday evening – meet with church – family fellowship
Saturday and Sunday – Leaving Southern part of state – ministering among Bengali
Sunday evening return to Bagdogra
Monday morning – teach to college students
Monday afternoon – meet with Pastor Mammen and Moncy to plan for July trip
Tuesday – begin trip home
Wed. – arrive in RDU

Please pray that Nigussie and I will wisely minister and encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as, see how the team can serve in July.

Joel B.

7:30 AM I have no plans to see George Clooney’s movie The Descendants, filmed in my native state of Hawaii. But from what I’ve read it sounds like an interesting flick.

Just thinking about the Islands makes me nostalgic. I can almost smell the plumerias and see the Pali mountains. Hawaii is perhaps the ultimate paradox. Yes, I said paradox and not paradise. Any honest kanaka (local boy) will admit its imperfections. Hence a film that erases all the clichés we know about the “Paradise of the Pacific” can’t be all bad. It features (so I’ve read) an American marriage in crisis and a tragic loss of life. The sun and sea of Hawaii are no less beautiful because of the human tragedies that are  played out daily on its shores. My upbringing there was predictably adventuresome. I was the ultimate I-don’t-get-it-kid. Why did my parents have to divorce? Why was I deprived of a father? Why this, why that? On the other hand, never did a day go by that I didn’t consciously thank God for the beauty that surrounded me.

Hawaii is a palpably wonderful place to live. As a born and bred Hawaiian, I will always feel a close connection to the aina. Happy memories include surfing Pipeline and Pupukea, sailing between Lahaina and Oahu, watching the sun rise over the Mokulua Islands, and even enjoying watching the steam rising from the sidewalk after a rain. And who can forget aloha shirts or mariachi sandals or puka shell necklaces or the salt water splashing through your hair. (Yes, I did have hair at one time.) Still, Hawaii — the true Hawaii — is as much about Angst as it is about gorgeous vistas. Clooney plays a smart alec who is learning not to be an idiot in a Hawaii that has lost its paradisiacal veneer. If your life has been anything like mine, it is the stuff of melodrama and (at times) tragedy. Even as an adult I still the carry the baggage of an ambiguous childhood, from my struggle with self-esteem to my pidgin accent (which you never lose, only suppress). In short, I lived a life that ran the gamut of experiences and emotions, not all doom and gloom by any means, but hardly an idyllic experience despite its Eden-like setting. Hawaii has its good, its bad, and even its ugly. And having Jesus in my life enabled me to appreciate the first, accept the second, and endure the third.

Saturday, February 25

8:56 PM Update:

1) Thanks to all the young ladies who came to Bradford Hall today on a short term “mission trip.” 

They worked on preparing laminated book marks with Bible verses for our team going to Ethiopia in July. “God is not so unjust as to forget how you ministered to the saints.” God bless all of you!

2) And here’s a shout out to George, Laura, and Jackson Woody. Greatly enjoyed your visit for dinner tonight. Laura, those venison meat balls were out of this world. Grateful for your love and your partnership in the Gospel at Bethel Hill. We love you back!

3) Remember: Tomorrow is the Day of Prayer for brother Youcef in Iran. God can still work miracles today. I do not know why they don’t happen more often. But I do know they can happen. And I think they do so when we pray with intensity and boldness.

4) Right now I’m helping Nigusse pack for his trip to India. He leaves tomorrow. We plan on a brief commissioning service for him at The Hill before Sunday School. Nigusse, we already miss you!

11:20 AM Just spent two and a half hours in Bible study with “the guys.” Time well spent. No doubt about it: Our churches need to get back to the Scriptures if there is to be widespread evangelism in our day.

6:51 AM Last night, as Becky, Nigusse, and I were comparing our calendars, it occurred to me that I will turn 60 this year. Statisticians tell me I’ve spent 20 years sleeping and 3 years eating. O joy. What I can’t figure out is how I got to be 60 when I was 40 only yesterday. At any rate, were you to ask me if I’ve learned anything in 6 decades of living, I might offer the following list:

1) A greater appreciation of God’s love. John 3:16 has never lost its profoundness to me. What’s more, God’s own love has been implanted in my heart (Rom. 5:5), which means that I now have the privilege of sharing His attitude toward the lost. That’s an awesome thought.

2) A deeper sense of my personal unworthiness. Jesus’ last words were to go into all the world and make disciples. For many years of my adult life I assumed He was talking about other people, certainly not me. Well, I was wrong. I regret the “lost” years of my life. Perhaps that’s why I give myself so passionately to global evangelism today.

3) A deeper sense of being merely a pilgrim on this earth. I am a resident alien, Christ’s ambassador in a foreign and often hostile land. This world holds little attraction for me any more. The heavenly Father has taken me into His family and has given me a new set of priorities. My job now is to call unreconciled sinners to the Savior. It’s a work from which I can never retire, regardless of my age.

4) A deeper sense of the needs of others, both spiritual and physical. I am learning to look beyond myself by showing love and care for the brethren. I’ve discovered that there is nothing more attractive to non-Christians than Christian love in action. It is a quality worth pursuing, don’t you think?

5) A deeper dependence upon the Holy Spirit. At one time I could make it on my own. Today it is inconceivable that I could go through a single hour without the support of God the Holy Spirit.

6) A deeper need for fellowship with other believers. It is fatally easy for a young person to act like a Maverick in the Body of Christ. It is only gradually that I have learned to cherish genuine Christian fellowship — loving one another, meeting together regularly to study, supporting one another as we go through our various trials, seeing what I can do in service to my neighbors and my world. It is all part of the wonderful koinonia that the Spirit creates among Christians (Phil. 2:1).

7) A deeper need to express what I’m thinking. I suppose that’s why I began blogging many years ago. A blog enables me both to clarify and verbalize my feelings and also to discipline my thought life. As I get older, I’m going to need a lot of help and encouragement from others. A “web family” can be very helpful at this juncture.

I could go on and on. (You see, I’ve also become more verbose the older I’ve gotten.) I find that growing older has its benefits and its costs. No doubt God is preparing me for bigger challenges ahead. Thankfully, I have the Holy Spirit within me to enable me to keep a joyful spirit and to keep on thanking God … and trusting Him … and serving Him … and ministering to others in His name … and living for Him. That’s a pretty good deal, if you ask me.

Friday, February 24

7:57 PM Becky had her blood work done today. It shows her white counts beginning to drop more quickly than we had anticipated. They’re still in the “safe” range, however, so we’ll go ahead with her chemo on Monday. Next week will be critical in terms of neutropenia. Please pray for her.

6:06 PM Ever heard of the Do Something Awards? The idea is to reward our young people for doing more than sitting around on their duffs and being royally entertained (and spoiled) by their parents and other so-called adults. The nation’s best youthful “world changers” are honored.

My friend Kevin Brown does something like this at their church in North Wilkesboro. Read his essayRethinking Youth Ministry and you’ll understand why. He’s also published a fine book calledRite of Passage for the Home and Church. Both are highly recommended.

2:43 PM Odds and ends …

1) Follow up to my post about Quarles’ book,Sermon on the Mount: on p. 4 he says that the Didache was “probably written some time between AD 60 and 80.” Is that so? I always thought it was dated to the early first century. Kurt Niederwimmer, in his Hermeneia commentary on the Didache, opts for a date between AD 110-120. Unfortunately, Quarles cites no evidence for his dating. Is this speculation on his part?

2) Becky says thatGod has a message for us in the snow.

3) Bethel University announces an opening inReligion.

4) Mike Bird calls our attention to anew book honoring Martin Hengel. He says it is “a bit expensive.” At 99 Euros (130 USD) it is not expensive; it is luxurious. I might ask our library to order it, however. Hengel, who was Emeritus Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism at the University of Tübingen, died in 2009.

5) Did the Holy Spirit raise Jesus from the dead? Good discussionhere.

6) My colleague Alvin Reid hits the nail on the head concerning thename change in the SBC.

2:08 PM Yesterday I read Charles Quarles’ new book,Sermon on the Mount, published by B & H. The “Series Preface” quotes Phil. 1:27 from the HCSB: “working side by side for the faith that comes from the gospel.” How odd, I thought. The verb Paul uses here issunathleo. I suppose one could render it “work side by side,” but the more common meaning is something like “wrestle together, strive together, struggle together.” BDAG has “contend/struggle along with” (p. 964) and suggests it is a military image. Note these translations:

• NLT: “fighting together”

• ESV: “striving side by side”

• NASB: “striving together”

• NET: “contending side by side”

• Lexham English Bible: “contending side by side”

• Reina-Valera 1960: “combatiendo unánimes”

• Louis Segond: “combatant d’une même âme”

It seems clear that the metaphor is of an athletic contest, or perhaps a gladiatorial one (so P. T. O’Brien in his Philippians commentary, p. 150). The HCSB rendering misses this idea completely. One would think the Greek term they were translating was sunergeo.

Oddly enough, in Phil. 4:3 (the only other place in the NT where sunathleo is used) the HCSB renders it “have contended … at my side” (cf. NASB: “have shared my struggle,” NIV: “have contended at my side”). I do like the HCSB, but in Phil. 1:27 it seems to miss the mark. I find myself looking at the Greek here and wondering why the translators seemingly overlooked Paul’s metaphor. At a bare minimum we should consider using something like “struggling side by side” rather than the bland “working side by side.”

A student once asked me, “Are there too many English Bibles?” The answer is probably yes. But newer translations are not going away any time soon. Bible publishing is simply too lucrative a business. The imperative thing to do is to check out as many translations as you can, then compare them to the original if at all possible. There are many excellent online resources for just that purpose.

10:49 AM When people ask Becky how she’s doing, her usual answer is “I’m fine.” She explains in her latest essay. It’s calledLife + Christ = Fine.

10:20 AM We’re enjoying a balmy day in which the high will be 75. Becky said to me this morning, “Honey, it feels just like Hawaii.” Indeed it does. Then she pointed out to me that our daffodils have already begun sprouting up. And it’s only February. Wonderful. Beautiful. Graceful. Our Creator is just like that. Can you see the flowers just calling for our praise to Him?

8:12 AM Thinking about becoming a foreign missionary? Then you must read this blog post by Alan Knox:Being one of them – not just pretending to be or trying to be. It’s the story of a professional missionary who left the organization (and its platform) to get a job and settle down in Milan, Italy, as a tentmaking missionary. It’s really a lesson for all of us. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: Being self-supporting produces a radically changed life. Missions becomes the natural outworking of what God works within. There is nothing “professional” about it. The respectability barrier, the clerical barrier, and the professional barrier must all go down if we are to become credible in the eyes of a non-Christian world. This was the spirit of those “laypeople” who first brought the Gospel to Antioch. We need more like them today.

8:04 AM I am very glad to commend this wonderful treatise on justification by Donald Verseput, formerly of Bethel College:Faith and Works: Squaring the Circle (.pdf). Don writes:

We can combine Paul’s and James’ teaching in a formal way as follows:

Justification is by faith alone for those who are seeking it by works, and by faith with works for those who are seeking it without them.

As this statement stands, it does little more than join the two leaders’ teaching together.

However, it does suggest a more illuminating synthesis. This is:

For a person to be justified, he or she must combine two attitudes: an utter dependence on Christ for salvation, and an earnest desire to do good works.

In other words, for someone to be justified, he or she must both be ‘poor in spirit’ and ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness’ as Jesus taught in the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1−12). Poverty of spirit precludes any thought of salvation by means of works, hungering and thirsting for righteousness any thought of salvation without them.

Isn’t that great? By the way, Don and I were in Basel together working on our doctorates in the early 80s. He passed away from cancer at the age of 51 in 2004.

7:45 AM Andy Bowden’s discussion ofhealing in James 5 got me thinking. (Andy’s post is essentially a summary of a Th.M. thesis he wrote under my supervision. I’m so glad to see him sharing the results of his research with a larger audience.) In fact, the whole concept of suffering has been a preoccupation of sorts with me lately. Sounds morbid, doesn’t it? Of course, my theologian mind reminds me that if I try to write for everyone experiencing pain and suffering, I tread on unfamiliar ground. I have not experienced what you have experienced, and so I can never say “I understand perfectly what you’re going through.” In each of our private wildernesses, we must find the High Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Our hearts are never satisfied until they find their satisfaction in Him. Not even a spouse can meet that need. Paul Tillich once put it this way:

Man and woman remain alone even in the most intimate union. They cannot penetrate each other’s innermost circle.

One thing I’ve discovered as Becky and I have traveled the cancer road together is how fragile all of life’s relationships are. Evil, sin, depression, and sickness can ruin good things. I work with students whose lives have been deeply impacted by evil. One question I often get asked is, “What is God’s role in all of this?” I can only speak from my own experience. Pain is God’s way of getting our attention. It’s His way of helping us to reconsider our priorities in life. It’s His glue to bring certain relationships closer, and His winnowing fork to separate the wheat from the chaff relationship-wise. Whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing when compared with the fantastic future God has for us. “None of us lives, and none of us dies, for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Whether therefore we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” We are His. His love is always present, always active, always protecting. He does not always “fix” things in our lives precisely because He loves us.

Others have run the cancer race before us. Some finished well. Their heroism lay in their acceptance – their wholehearted acquiescence of things others would have avoided at all costs. They could accept and endure because they belonged to the Lord. Cancer is a precious blessing. It’s a huge gift, one to be surrounded by Truth even when the Truth is initially painful. And that Truth is this: The best is yet to come. So I rest in the Truth. I pray that He would do His powerful work of grace in me. And I cry out, “Thy kingdom come.”

Thursday, February 23

9:26 PM Bishop Will Willimon wants to raise up anew generation of leaders in the church. Personally, I’m not all that eager to raise up a new generation of leaders. I want to raise up a new generation of butlers and scullery maids. A generation of nobodies who are content to be obedient to the simple teachings of Jesus. A generation of Christ-followers who die to family, fame, fortune, success, patriotism, and the American Dream. A generation of Dietrich Bonhoeffers who realize that “when Jesus calls a man, He bids him come and die.” I want to raise up a generation of men and women who give without counting the cost, who deny themselves, who willingly take the cross as the path of union with Christ, in whom there is no trace of triumphalism, who put their lives at Christ’s disposal with unconditional surrender, who place Christian allegiance over their national allegiance, who act as though they were part of an upside-down kingdom, who die to all claims of the self-indulgent life, who refuse to lionize success or repudiate pain, who “share in suffering as good soldiers of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:3), who stand high and lift their drooping heads because the Son of God inhabits their lives in the power of His resurrection. We cannot all be seminary grads or professional ministers. But we can all be engaged in fulltime Christian ministry. We can all bring others to faith in the Savior. We can all be devoted to prayer. I am concerned not so much with raising up a generation of leaders but with training a generation of men and women who are consumed with a passion to understand Christ better and make Him known. This does not invalidate the educational enterprise. It gives it purpose.

9:20 PM Good to be home again. I love Wake Forest, but I love the farm even more. Becky’s been having some issues (leg swelling and rashes) but is doing better today. I offered to pick up a pizza on the drive home and she agreed. It’s great to have a relationship that is trusting and intuitive. Becky and I have it. It’s a huge blessing, one to be cherished.

Brief update:

1) Below is a very special picture. It shows what I brought home from the seminary for my bride — a key lime pie, a card, and a sack of coffee.

Students gave them to me to give to her. I have no words to express my appreciation.

2) In my NT Gospels class on Wednesday Kevin Brown brought a wonderful word. I tell you, that man is a lean mean talking machine.

What did he talk about? What didn’t he talk about? He covered marriage, family, child raising, home schooling, church tradition, baptism, deacons, elders, missions, Michael Jordan, and more. His lecture lasted for 2 hours and 15 minutes but he held everybody spellbound, myself included. Thank you, Kevin, for bringing us back to the roots of our faith and for reminding us that Jesus really can and does change lives.

3) Like this picture?

I am wearing my Rick Warren power shirt. No, I’m not about to badmouth brother Rick. Not a man with such a huge heart for missions. I was listening to one of his tapes this week in which he reminded us that the Great Commission tells us to make disciples of ALL the nations. He and Saddleback take that command seriously. You know how many nations there are in the world today? 196. All are members of UN except Serbia, Vatican City, and Taiwan. In 2010 Saddleback went to nation 196. They have sent over 14,000 members to the nations. From one church. Thanks be to God for a church like that. May God give us at Bethel Hill such a passion for the nations.

4) Finally, you’ve read the news. It’s now official: 34-year old Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani will beexecuted for his faith. Paul, in his final words to the Ephesian elders, said, “You know how I have lived with you in all seasons.” Paul’s life was transparent. It was lived with utter integrity. That’s what gave power and authority to his message. Brother Youcef is such a man today. He is showing the rest of us how to live – and die – for Christ. You can’t pretend to be a man or woman of God. One day a test will come that will prove our genuineness. That day for Youcef has come. May God bless him and make him to be faithful no matter what happens. The modern world may not understand Christian endurance, but they notice it with awe.

So what to do? Some are tweeting for Youcef. I say Amen to that. Others are trying to take political action. One blogger I read even commanded Iran to release him. Now! Yeah right, as if Ahmadinejad is listening to bloggers in the U.S. To be sure, we can and should seek his release and for justice to be served. But prayer, not activism, is the only thing we can rely on. How do I know? “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him” (Acts 12:5). Peter’s case was hopeless, yet he got out of prison because prayer was made for him. But note: It was not just any prayer. It was earnest prayer. The Greek wordentenos makes this plain. Peter’s friends really cared about him. They strained to pray for him. If we are to see Youcef released from prison, it will not happen without fervent prayer.

Might I be so bold as to ask that all of us make this Sunday, February 26, a “Day of Prayer” for Youcef Nadarkhani in our homes and churches? Our great God can still work a miracle. Amen? Amen.

Peace out,

Dave

Monday, February 20

7:30 PM Quote of the day (see commentshere):

Even in missions work there is territorialism.

7:15 PM I promised you some pictures of our visit to North Wilkesboro. Well, here they are. We were hosted by the ever-gracious Pam Brown and her wonderful family.

Below: Two Ethiopia team veterans. Both are members of the Brown clan. You’re never too old or too young to serve Jesus. As their daddy likes to say: There is no “teenage Holy Spirit” and “Holy Spirit.” There’s just the Holy Spirit.

Here Becky gives her testimony to our friends at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church.

Then Nigusse brought a powerful word from the life of Joseph.

In other news, our visit to UNC today was uneventful. Becky’s two treatments went well. She and I dozed while Nigu studied Greek. Poor guy — having to take Greek from the orneriest professor alive. That aside, how are we doing? TIRED.

Thanks for praying and for sending us your emails. We read several of them in the hospital. Great blessing. Huge encouragement.

9:14 AM Here’s an important word:Neutropenia. Becky’s already been hospitalized because of it. That and fatigue are the two leading possible side-effects of her chemo treatments. Gotta watch for both of them in the days ahead.

9:08 AM “Missionary zeal does not grow out of intellectual beliefs, nor out of theological arguments, but out of love.”  — Roland Allen.

9:04 AM Allan Bevere, author of the excellent booksThe Politics of Witness andThe Character of Our Discontent, discusses the difference between“rhetoric” and “demagoguery.”

8:12 AM Interested in international church planting? Just posted my thoughts:Can We Please Do Church Planting Cooperatively?

7:44 AM Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

7:20 AM “Don’t think for a moment that it is more honorable to go to seminary and become a pastor than it is to serve God faithfully as a nurse or salesperson.”

FromWill You Join the Cause of Global Missions? (p. 2).  

7:16 AM Looking ahead:

1) This Wednesday Kevin Brown will be speaking in my NT 1 class. Kevin is a very unique guy: He pastors the church he was raised in (how many people do you know who are doing that?), and he has no formal biblical education yet can handle the Scriptures as well as anyone I know. The class starts at 12:30. Other guest lecturers this semester include my esteemed colleagues Maurice Robinson (speaking on the Majority Text and the Gospels), Keith Harper (speaking on salaries, “hirelings,” and the pastorate), David Beck (speaking on characters in John’s Gospel), Joseph Solc (speaking on evangelism in the Gospels), Dan Heimbach (speaking on divorce and remarriage according to Jesus), and our resident English language scholar Michael Travers (speaking on the Gospels as literature).

Are are welcome to join us.

2) Today at 1:00 pm Becky resumes chemo therapy at UNC. The drug she will be taking shows little promise for her type of cancer; we agreed to the therapy as a matter of good stewardship of the medicine available to us.

3) “Revival” continues at Bethel Hill tonight through Wednesday at 7:00 pm. Kevin Brown is speaking.

6:58 AM It was 50 years ago today that astronaut John Glenn was shot into space. He has always been one of America’s greatest heroes. And just who is his hero? His praise isreserved for his wife:

I saw Annie’s perseverance and strength through the years and it just made me admire her and love her even more.

Mr. Glenn, I know EXACTLY what you mean.

6:45 AM Latest update: Last week Becky’s oncologist sent us an official report containing these words:

I believe her disease to be terminal and her life expectancy to be 6-12 months.

So glad the last word is never man’s.

Sunday, February 19

6:30 PM “The Lord protects them” (Psalm 41:2). Amen and amen! Becky and I just returned from Western North Carolina and had to drive through snow and sleet to get home. I kept praying, “Lord, please allow me to get Becky home safely.” We counted 10 wrecks beside the road on the way. But He answered our prayers! The drive was exhausting so I’ll post pictures of the church service after Becky and I get back from the hospital tomorrow.

Stay safe and talk to you then.

Dave

Saturday, February 18

11:40 AM Tomorrow Nigusse will bring the message at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, then tomorrow evening their pastorKevin Brown will begin a 4-day “revival” at Bethel Hill. This morning we Skyped with the Alaba church leaders. Here’s a brief video clip of brother Simon who heads up the men’s prayer groups throughout all the churches of Alaba.

 

I cannot tell you how blessed we are to know that the believers there — as individuals, in small groups, in their congregations — are praying for us and especially for Becky. Let us also pray for them as they face a severe drought and much, much more. We are one church, and there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. What a privilege to share our joys and burdens with each other.

7:14 AM This month Becky and I have the pleasure and joy of sending Nigusse to India. He will be there with Joel Bradsher (a recent SEBTS grad), and together they will scope out the land in view of a trip Joel will lead there this summer. They met on the upstairs porch last night to discuss their itinerary and ministry plans.

They will be working hand in glove with Moncy Mammon (another recent SEBTS grad) and his parents, whose ministry is based in Bagdogra in Bengal. It’s wonderful, isn’t it, to see Americans and Indians working together and supporting one another in the common task? Love should be the rule among God’s people, but Satan has deceived many into thinking that only they are building the kingdom. This is why we find so much jealousy and division even in the best churches. All the more reason to be grateful for partnerships in the Gospel like the one I’m seeing developing. 

7:04 AM Hold on to your hats! Becky has finished the first in a series of vignettes describing our life and work in Ethiopia. It’s calledDesta and Beki. You will be blessed in reading it. So grab a cup of coffee and get ready to be transported to a faraway place where God is very much at work.

Friday, February 17

2:15 PM James McGrathquotes the following on his blog:

“One of my husband’s former professor’s used to tell her students that education is the only thing we’re generally happy getting less of for our money. We’re happy when the professor cancels class. We’re happy with less homework, less requirements, less writing, less reading, less seat time, less, less, less. There are exceptions to this, those who realize that they are paying for the privilege of higher education, a privilege that women, minorities, and lower-classes have fought for throughout history. But the overwhelming message in our society right now is, the quicker, the better, which is interpreted as the lesser, the better. My students don’t seem to see education as an opportunity, but instead as a chore, and by extension, my required class a just one more obstacle standing in their way to degree completion.”

I get the gist of what this unnamed professor is saying. My own experience, however, has been a bit different. Speaking “generally” (as he did), I’d say that my students enjoy coming to class. Not only that, a good number of them have become so excited about their studies that they have gone on for graduate and post-graduate studies at such places as Duke, Aberdeen, Saint Andrews, and the University of Munich. An education in ancient Greek involves discipline and a great deal of structure in learning basic language skills, because those skills give students the tools to explore subjects that would otherwise be well beyond their reach. I’m amazed at the eagerness I see in my students when they realize that Greek is a logical and precise language and that even its “exceptions” follow normal linguistic rules.

I want to remind my fellow teachers to bring joy into the classroom. Our attitude sets the tone for everything we do as teachers. I want to help my students find the joy of education. It doesn’t help when I am complaining about their perceived laziness or disinterest. If your classroom is not a happy, joyful place of discovery, I sincerely doubt that it’s primarily the students’ fault. As a former first chair trumpet player, I lovedthese words by Phil Smith, principal trumpeter of the New York Philharmonic:

When I came here I was a greenhorn. Zubin [Mehta] was on the podium exuding such joy. I remember him looking at me and grinning from ear to ear. He gave me the confidence to play the best that I could.

Let that be a lesson to all of us who claim to be teachers. Joy is infectious. And so is pessimism.

1:25 PM Amazon has just listed an anthology of essays on the Bible calledUnderstanding Scripture: An Overview of the Bible’s Origin, Reliability, and Meaning. For what it’s worth, my chapter is entitled “Greek, and How It Works.”

1:20 PM Over at Homesteading by Faith we are reminded about theimportance of Christian hospitality. Lots of good advice here. I am amazed at how easily and quickly Becky opens the doors of Bradford Hall to others, on a regular basis. Hospitality for her is not an activity; it is a way of life. Abraham welcomed three strangers (angels!), Rahab let the spies stay with her, the Samaritan woman was eager to have Jesus stay in her community, Peter stayed with a tanner named Simon in Joppa – the list goes on and on. This weekend, Becky, Nigusse, and I will be staying with the Browns in North Wilkesboro. When I am in Dallas I have enjoyed the hospitality of complete strangers. As the story of Mary and Martha reminds us, when we do have guests we need to take time to be with them, not just host and feed them. It’s a great paradox, isn’t it, that we who are merely pilgrims and strangers on earth have places we call “homes.” May we all rediscover Paul’s simple command to “love hospitality” (Rom. 12:13) as we open our homes – and our hearts – to others.

10:54 AM This has been quite a week. Care for some highlights?

1) For starters, we just finished Skyping with Martha, Demissie, Tilahun and other friends and loved ones in Alaba. Do you remember that I asked you to pray for Martha? Well, her malaria and typhoid are now gone. Praise the Lord for answered prayer. He is soooooo good to us!

2) And here is “our” grandson Nathan. Doesn’t he look beautiful? He is ourmiracle baby.

3) As you know, Becky had several bone scans on Monday at UNC. The report showed three spots suspicious for metastasis. Together with Becky’s oncologist we made the decision to add a new chemo drug to her Avastin treatments. The drug is called Gemzar. We’ll start the new regiment on Monday. Here we are waiting to meet with Becky’s doctor.

As you can imagine, we spend a lot of time in waiting rooms and doctors’ offices. But it’s not wasted time. Here B and Nigu work on “Kidz Kards” for Ethiopia while waiting for a bone scan.

These cards are Scripture passages in the Amharic and Oromo languages. We’ll distribute them in July, once we have had a chance to laminate them.

4) On Wednesday one of my colleagues spoke to us about Jesus and education. Ken Coley did a fantastic job. He is a model teacher for me in so many ways. Thank you, Ken! Check out his education website sometime. It’s called The Helmsman.

5) You ladies out there will love this. Despite her illness, despite being tired much of time, Becky still insists on preparing meals for Nigu and me when we go to campus. And talk about meals! Here’s this week’s menu:

Ain’t that awesome?

6) Oh, if you’re wondering how the update on our “Greek Portal” is coming, wonder no more. This week my assistant Matthew Meyers (who blogs atAlien In This Land) finalized the site, and we are now in the process of uploading it to the internet. It may take us a few days to get this project accomplished, so please be patient with us. I think you’ll enjoy the final product.

7) To top things off culinary-wise this week, yesterday Nigusse and I were invited by one of my Greek students, Sejun Kim, to have barbeque with him at a Korean restaurant in Raleigh. (Some students will do anything for a good grade.)

Here’s Nigu enjoying kimchi. Like his dear old dad, Nigusse has the spiritual gift of eating.

8) Finally, today Becky has been organizing clothing for the Ethiopian evangelists and their families. Our thanks to everyone who collected or sent us clothes. We will deliver these love gifts when the team sets sail in July.

So, that thar’s the news from Lake Woe-Be-Gone! 

7:52 AM In his essayFor This Child I Prayed, SEBTS academic dean Ken Keathley reminds us of the importance of prayer. Drawing from the prayer of Hanna, he says it is:

A definite prayer (give me a son)
A sacrificial prayer (I will lend him back)
A persevering prayer (she continued praying)
A heartfelt prayer (spoke in her heart)
An unreserved prayer (poured out my soul)
A transforming prayer (her face was no longer sad)

Ken is so right. Prayer – definite, sacrificial, persevering, heartfelt, unreserved, and transforming prayer – must undergird everything we do as Christians. In recent days I have prayed for Becky privately and publicly, silently and with loud groans, standing up and lying down, with eyes closed and with eyes wide open while driving. Sometimes I just say, “Help!”

Husbands, do you pray for your wife on a regular basis? Do you pray for her spiritual needs as well as her physical and emotional needs? Let’s be men (and women) of prayer.

7:40 AM Before I forget: Our new house keeper began yesterday. She spent 5 hours cleaning house from stem to stern. It looks great. She will come every Thursday. So glad we could do this for Becky. It was my Valentine’s Day gift to her 🙂  

Thursday, February 16

9:01 PM So Jeremy Lin hits the winning shot in a game against Toronto on Tuesday night and then gives credit to his fellow players: “It’s not because of me, it’s because we’re coming together as a team,” Linsaid.

If you see a turtle on a fence, you can be sure that somebody put him there. One of the most subtle tactics the enemy tries is to make us ineffective by discouraging us and making us think we are alone. When you recognize this, you must immediately repent of such thinking, accept God’s grace as freely given in Christ, and then thank Him you are playing on a winning team. Paul wrote “We are more than conquerors,” not “I am more than a conqueror.” We fight – and win – together. We are a team.

8:48 PM Thank you for visiting my blog today. So glad for your support and love. There is a sense in which Becky and I must face this trial alone. In Gethsemane, Jesus had to be alone in prayer, for only He could pray the prayer that He prayed. But at the same time He needed the encouragement and support of His closest followers nearby. Likewise, as brothers and sisters in Christ we need each other.

I have a lot of weaknesses, but ingratitude isn’t one of them. Thank you again for your prayers on our behalf. May God bless you for your kindness.

Tuesday, February 14

6:17 AM In his excellent book40 Questions about Elders and Deacons, my colleague Ben Merkle suggests three reasons who so few churches have a plurality of elders: lack of qualified leaders, lack of biblical knowledge, and fear of change (see pp. 188-91). Ben writes, “Fear is a motivating factor in the eyes of many people, and fear of change often is what holds back a church from adopting and implementing plural elders.” What do you think? Can fear keep us from obeying the Scriptures?

6:12 AM Becky’s been reflecting on her latest cancer prognosis. ReadGoing for the Deeper Joy.

Monday, February 13

5:45 PM Been a very long day. We left the house at 7:30 and just now walked through the door. They cancelled Becky’s Avastin treatment today. Seems the doctor who read her bone scan wanted her to have two more tests done in order to check her spine and head. So today was one scan after the other. Poor Becky, she was so tired. She hardly got any sleep last night because her legs were hurting so much. Right now she’s resting while I’m about to cook supper. Nigusse was by our side the entire day giving us moral support. We met with Becky’s gynecological oncologist and decided to add another round of chemotherapy to Becky’s Avastin. As you know, we’ve had a difficult history with chemo drugs (including leucopenia and hospitalizations). We start the new treatments next Monday.

Please continue to pray for Becky.

6:28 AM “I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness” (Psalm 26:3). Grateful for an unchanging God.

6:12 AM Today Becky will have her bone scan to determine the cause of her bone pain. I’m praying that it’s due to inflammation and not to her cancer. Her appointment is scheduled from 9:00 to noon. They will inject her with a radioactive material that travels through her bones and organs. I believe the actual scan will last for only 30 minutes or so. Please pray that Becky will not be too uncomfortable as she lies still for the exam. At 1:00 she gets her next Avastin treatment in the infusion center. The Avastin is supposed to inhibit blood vessels from carrying nutrients to her cancer cells. I’m concerned about the potential side effects of the Avastin, which include GI perforation and severe bleeding.

I hate this cancer. But I love the patient and the community of faith that is upholding us.

6:06 AM Last night I continued readingthis short story in Greek about a boy growing up in Greece. The chapter called “Dekate” tells the story of a farmer who has to pay a tithe to his tyrannical landlord. This tale is an absolute pleasure to read. The plot line is worthy of Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s definitely a short story I’d recommend to anybody who can read ancient Greek  —  and who is rethinking the New Testament tithe!

Sunday, February 12

5:25 PM Matt Lewis offers a wonderfuldefense of blogging. Sure makes sense to me. “Embrace the blogosphere,” he writes. Amen and amen!

5:18 PM We took a mission trip to Roxboro today. Last night we took a mission trip to Raleigh. Tomorrow we’re taking a mission trip to Chapel Hill. Missions is simply being the hands and feet and heart of Jesus wherever you are and wherever you go. Here’s Becky speaking at Ca-Vel. Don’t you just love her Ethiopian garb?

And here’s Nigusse giving his personal testimony after becoming an official part of the Bethel Hill community today.

Needless to say, he was warmly welcomed. As elder Jason said, this was a historic day in the life of The Hill: The first time a foreign national has joined our congregation.

Nigusse, all I can say is that you had better get used to being loved on. A lot.

8:12 AM The internet is so frustrating. Just when I thought I could sit down and get some writing done on my next book, I come across another essay that begs to be cited. This time it comes from the pen of Arthur Sido, who is responding to something I said yesterday on my blog. Arthur’s post is calledOld Glory and the Old Rugged Cross Don’t Mix. The question, once again, is simply this: What kind of message are we sending when we fly old glory in our churches? Two quick thoughts and then I’ll get back to writing:

1) I’ve done a good bit of traveling in this world and have never seen the national flag flown in the churches of any other country I’ve ever visited. Do they know something we don’t?

2) Instead of getting rid of old glory, another option would to fly the flags of every nation your church has ministered in personally. At Bethel Hill, this would include India, Ethiopia, Brazil, and a few other countries — not nearly enough, but a good start. Of course, if you could display only the American flag, I suppose that would be an enormous embarrassment — as well it should!

7:52 AM Ben Witherington has now chimed in onmen and women in ministry. Not that it’s very important, but I once expressed myself on the subject with these words:

Becky and I are glad to be a team (though a frail and imperfect one) in the work to which the Lord has appointed us. Together we seek to serve both in the practical ministry of meeting the physical and material needs of people as well as in the ministry of the Word. Together we are involved in church planting. Together we host visitors in our home on a fairly regular basis. The key word is together. We are “co-workers” for Christ – and that without any diminution of our masculinity or femininity.

My essay is calledA Great Commission Marriage. 

7:45 AM Quote of the day:

… just as a good house has a solid yet hidden foundation, so also those of us who get the opportunity to teach Scripture should make sure we have a solid foundation of knowledge regarding life, culture, and history in the Biblical era.

Amen to that. ReadResources for studying and teaching: 3 helpful books on Bible backgrounds by SEBTS doctoral student Paul Himes.

7:32 AM Today the Gospel Train rumbles into Ca-Vel Baptist Church in Roxboro, NC. Dear group of people there. We are inviting some of them to go with us to Utopia this July. Once again, it is a joy to watch the Lord Jesus put our teams together. He’s had a lot of practice doing this!

7:22 AM As I said, the food at the Abyssinia is superb. The only thing that can top it are the people. The proprietor hails from Harar, the famous walled city in eastern Ethiopia.

Our server is a dear friend and prayer partner who moved here from Gondar, a city in the north that we have visited many times.

 

Becky raved about the kai wat (beef stew), while Nigusse gobbled up the tibs (goat) in less time than it takes to say “I love goat meat.”

Our friends served us coffee, I mean, real Ethiopian coffee. What a treat that was.

The funniest part of the evening was me trying to speak Amharic with our server. Every time I said something she would look at Nigusse with a puzzled look on her face, as if to say, “What in the world is that man saying?” Well, at least I tried.

Check out the Abyssinia sometime. I double dare you. You won’t be disappointed. When you do, be sure to say hello to everyone for us. 

Saturday, February 11

4:24 PM Want to practice your Greek? Here’s a greatshort story about a boy growing up in Greece. You can read it online for free.

4:20 PM About to take Becky and Nigusse out for dinner tonight in Raleigh. TheAbyssinia has great Ethiopian food. Try it sometime if you’re ever near NC State.

3:52 PM Wednesday past I exegeted in our NT class all of the Great Commission texts in Greek, then showed my Ethiopia slides. My emphasis was a very simple one: The gathering of the church exists for the going. Many of us are adept at sharing the Gospel locally, but all of us have a stake in global missions. Tomorrow, as we gather in our churches, let’s remember a very important New Testament truth: Jesus did not command the world to go to church. He commanded the church to go to the world.

So…are we going?

1:15 PM In his latest blog post, Roger Olson is being radical again, radical in the sense of getting to the root of the matter, in this instance the matter offlying the American flag in our churches. His peroration?

It seems to me that it would be a very good test of idolatry (or lack of it) to remove the flag and see what happens. It seems to me that anyone who gets angry and insists the sanctuary must include the flag might be flirting with idolatry. Not necessarily conscious, willful idolatry, like bowing down to an idol or something, but idolatry in the sense of elevating a human symbol to absolute status alongside the symbols of the cross and the bread and wine and the Bible (as a symbol of God’s Word).

Again, it’s easy to see this as radical and spectacular, but it’s only because we live in a church subculture that has lost touch with the Scriptures. Christianity that “flies the flag” is the Christianity I grew up with. Christianity in which King Jesus alone is worshipped as Lord is the Christianity I am falling in love with.

12:57 PM “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18).

12:20 PM Will you please join us in interceding today for our sister Martha in Alaba who is suffering from both typhoid and malaria?

11:06 AM Update on Becky: Like one billiard ball striking another, cancer triggers a long chain of events. This morning Becky and I made two important decisions: (1) we will plant a much smaller garden this year, and (2) we will hire a house keeper. Eventually, other changes will occur. The Ethiopians have a wonderful saying: “Kus b’kus.” Step by step. Our own strength is failing us. Praise God. We feel less and less the need to survive on our own.

11:00 AM The goal for your church and for mine is to turn spectators into an army. It can be done. Empowerment is available to all God’s people (Acts 1:8).

10:15 AM Last night’s Valentine’s Day dinner for Ethiopia was a blast. Here’s Miss Mary, who has made two trips to Utopia with us.

Becky gave a preview of our up-coming July trip.

Lots of sweet friends there, including Miss Montague, whose husband was shot down over Ploesti during WW II and spent the rest of the war in a German POW camp.

It’s so important for the Body to meet informally like this from time to time, with all ages represented. As brother Chris Jacobs put it to me, “This way when we need to pray for so-and-so, we can put a name with a face.” We also played some pretty zany games, which had Nigusse in stitches. And over $900.00 was raised for the July team. Thank you, Lord! Frankly, I could have a fellowship time like this every week. I imagine the early church knew what they were doing when they enjoyed a weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper (as a full meal)! Special thanks to Miss Cindy, Miss Kim, and all the others who organized this wonderful time of fellowship. “Together for the Gospel” is more than a motto at Bethel Hill!

7:12 AM Contemplating going in a new direction in your church? (A more biblical one, I assume.) Remember Robert Gallagher’s famous words:

Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

I want to belong to a church that is moving forward in obedience to the Scriptures, don’t you? As the French theologian Jacques Ellul once said, “Christians should be troublemakers, creators of uncertainty, agents of a dimension incompatible with society.”

Yep. It’s just that simple. And it’s called change.

Jesus was crucified because of it. You might be too.

I guess in that sense, some things never change.

7:02 AM So grateful for Henry Neufeld and hisphilosophy of book publishing.

Friday, February 10

11:44 AM It’s been quite a morning. Right now Becky is on the phone speaking about the goodness of God with a close friend of ours, Nigusse is upstairs praying aloud in Amharic, and I’m — well, I’m sitting here blogging. Becky and I just spent an hour at one of our favorite places on the farm, the fire pit in the back 40.

We talked and talked and hugged and hugged. No sooner did we return to the house when we got a Skype call from Oshe in Burji. And who should he have with him but our good friend and co-worker in the Gospel brother Marcos.

The connection was poor but Marcos brought us a wonderful word of encouragement. Remember, Burji is Becky’s “home,” and her heart has never left. You will never meet more humble servants of the Lord than our friends in Burji, Ethiopia. Missions is meaningful only to the degree that it is rooted in love, authentic relationships, and mutual interdependence. Marcos, you are a valued and precious co-laborer in the Gospel. We love you very much!

So grateful for Skype, and for friends.

10:24 AM Read my colleague Steve McKinion’s latest blog post (A Biography of Cancer) and be encouraged. So glad to hear that Harrison is making progress in his battle with leukemia. Let’s continue to keep that precious 10-year old in our prayers. As Steve writes:

Please pray:

• that Harrison will not develop a fever
• that Harrison’s blood will rebound over the next two weeks so they can tear it down again
• that Ginger and I will be able to rest to remain well
• that Lachlan and Blakely will cope well with our new family life

9:40 AM Quote of the day:

Peter wirft Piper vor, die Bibel mit einer patriarchalischen Brille zu lesen. Was für eine Brille hat Peter eigentlich auf? Das Eis, dass zunächst einen festen Halt zu bieten scheint, könnte sich irgendwann als zu dünn erweisen….Das Bild mit der Brille ist wirklich gut: Je länger man sie trägt, desto mehr vergisst man, dass man sie auf hat.

Read John Piper und die Re-Maskulinisierung. The author is absolutely correct: John Piper is not the only one who reads the Scriptures through color-tinted glasses. We all do. All the more important that we are aware of our presuppositions.

8:50 AM We just received a very kind email from a “Jim” and “Mary.” They are complete strangers. I noted that their email signature read, in part, “jimary.” How precious. When you’ve been married for a while I guess it’s hard to tell where “Jim” ends and “Mary” begins. Thanks, everyone, for these sweet emails. They mean a whole lot to me. This morning I am feeling pretty low emotionally, so a special thanks. Your words are tremendously encouraging.

8:14 AM This week Becky sent a letter to our Ethiopian friends and family alerting them to her condition. Should you care to read it, it’s calledOpen Letter to My Ethiopian Family. Allow me to offer a brief quote that is both an update and a prayer request:

On Monday, we will meet with our chemo cancer doctor. There are very few chemo drugs available for my type of cancer, and none of them work well. We have already tried all the drugs. There are no more drugs that have been proven to be effective. We can either try these same drugs again, or we can try drugs that have been proven for other types of cancer (but are not proven for my type), or we can try experimental drugs (that are not proven for any type of cancer). So Monday’s meeting will be important.

Love,

Dave

7:15 AM Becky had a good day yesterday. Thankfully her bone pain has subsided. She’s been doing a lot of writing, not so much web essays but brief vignettes of life in Ethiopia as well as the autobiography she’s been working on for some time now. I think we’ve both recovered from the shock of Tuesday’s meeting with her radiologist. I had been expecting him to say, “Let’s go ahead with more Cyber Knife and try and knock out at least the larger tumors in your lungs.” Instead, he said no more radiation. His explanation of why further radiation was not possible was a perfectly reasonable one, but it threw me into blinding confusion nevertheless. Or should I say blinding clarity. The truth is that Becky should have died last year according to the doctors’ prognostications. God has been immeasurable good to us in allowing her these extra months. We have shared our journey with you in the fervent hope that a passion to know and follow God will be stirred within you, perhaps a deeper passion than you’ve ever known before. I can’t wait for you to read the vignettes she is writing about our work in Ethiopia and the many people God has touched through us and others. These stories declare in no uncertain terms that God is alive and well in that great nation despite the desperate loneliness and severe opposition. Focusing on the glory of God in Ethiopia has helped to restore our joy. The spotlight is falling on Jesus, as it always must. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ calls us to a new identity and a higher set of values than the world offers, values such as enduring persecution, living for others, turning the other cheek, going the second mile, and forgiving our enemies. These values are being lived out by many of our brothers and sisters in Ethiopia, people of whom the world is not worthy (Heb. 11:38). “Be of good cheer,” says the Lord. “Why?” we cry out. “Because I have overcome the world.” And the evidence of this is everywhere. These are mere glimpses of the glory that God has in store for each and every one of us who follow Jesus in obedience and love. We have tasted His goodness. And we are content until we go home.

Thursday, February 9

7:48 PM Odds and ends …

1) Henry Neufeld, a Methodist layman, reflects onthe cult of the speaker. I appreciated this thought of his:

Recently we had a youth Sunday. We have one of those a year. Why is it just once a year? The young man who brought the message did an excellent job. I could stand to hear him more often.

This is the same issue that I, as a Baptist, addressed in my essay calledWhy I Love WMU Sunday. There I wrote:

Mutual participation was a hallmark of the early church (1 Cor. 14). It characterizes our Women’s and Men’s and Youth Sundays. And rightly so. Nothing is more foreign to the New Testament pattern of church meetings than to have the leaders do all the work. We need the strength, the encouragement, the teaching, the stimuli of every-member ministry.

Lay ministry is essential to the ministry of the church. Just as importantly, it is vital for our own growth in maturity and faith. Untangling this issue is going to be critical in the days ahead, regardless of what your denomination is.

2) Arthur Sido assessesthe problem with voting. I keep meaning to link to Arthur’s site more often. I wish I had seen this essay when I was asked “Will you vote?” in class yesterday. I would have referred everybody to it.

3) Now in stock at Amazon:Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions?

4) The debate over “masculine” Christianity continues. Matt Anslow chimes in here. His point #8 reads as follows:

As Scot McKnight has said, there is a word for “masculine” in Greek; andreia. You would get the idea from Piper’s sermon, and indeed his wider androcentric theology, that this word is common in the New Testament since he seems to squeeze everything through it. Interesting that in fact, and I can’t stress this enough, that the word andreia does not appear in the New Testament at all. Not even once.

I get the idea, but a related word is indeed found in the New Testament (as McKnight himself admits in his original response, though this is not mentioned by Matt). This is the verb andrizomai, which occurs in 1 Cor. 16:13. Here’s a sampling of translations: “act like men” (ESV, so also NASB), “be men” (Young’s Literal Translation), “live like men” (J. B. Phillips), “give it all you’ve got” (The Message), “be courageous” (NIV), “show courage” (NET), “soyez des hommes” (Louis Segond), and “seid männlich” (Luther). The NLT renders the verb “Be courageous” but adds this note: “Greek Be men.” The ISV (which I worked on) renders it (without any note) “Keep on being courageous,” an attempt to bring out the verbal aspect. Notice that we did not see in the term any reference to “masculinity” in this context.

I’m curious as to what people on both sides of the issue do with this interesting verb. 

5) Here’s agreat lectureship Down Under I’d love to attend. Why, oh why, does Australia have to be so far away? There are lots of people Becky and I would love to visit there. Anyone interested in me coming to give a workshop on surfing? Pleeeease?

6:45 PM Facing cancer for the first time? Read Five Things to Do When You Hear the “C” Word.

Wednesday, February 8

5:46 AM Last night I took Becky out for dinner. Not for the food. We just needed to be together. Then we sat together in our library enjoying the fireplace and just sort of gelling. Becky has been reading Watchman Nee’s The Normal Christian Life, while I finished Stephen Sear’s Landscape Turned Red, a book about the Battle of Antietam. The day after the battle, Union General George McClellan had at hand twice the number of troops that General Lee had. All of them were available to renew the offensive against the Confederates had he chosen to use them. McClellan, however, so fearful of losing that he would not risk winning, did nothing.

I know of only one way to live, and that is with the reckless abandon of one who knows he’s on the winning side. I think the world is desperately in need of radical dissidents, those little voices that can point us to something greater than ourselves. There is a brilliant truth I have come to see, largely because of the trials that Becky and I have been through together these past two years: You always have something to give to others, despite whatever pockets of incurable pain you are experiencing. “Wherever you are, be all there” was the way the great and good Jim Elliott put it, who lived as well as he died. People are drawn toward folks who do not have it all together yet who are defiantly moving forward. “Believers” are a dime a dozen in our churches. But how rare are radical pursuers of God (dare we even utter His Name?). It’s called the power of grace.

When we moved here 14 years ago from California I discovered that the Special Olympics were being held that year in Raleigh. One day I was watching the event on TV. It was a foot race, and the contestants were Down Syndrome children. As they neared the finish line, all of a sudden one of them stumbled and fell. Do you know what happened next? The other children stopped and put their friend back on his feet so that they could all finish the race together. When I saw that I said to myself, “That’s the church! That’s the church!”

Whether you are running or stumbling today, let’s pursue the race in such a way that we all finish —  together.

Tuesday, February 7

5:10 PM Good evening, friends. Today was an important day. Becky and I spent it at the UNC Cancer Hospital. We had asked God for a clear CT scan and He gave us one. I am devastated by the results. Becky’s stubborn lung tumors are still growing. Her radiation oncologist tells us that Cyber Knife is no longer an option. Not now, not in the future. In short, there is no “cure” for Becky’s cancer. Surgery is out — her lung tumors are too widespread. High level radiation is out — her lung tumors are too numerous. Chemo has proven ineffective. For the first time, lymph nodes in her chest have been affected. In addition, Becky has been experiencing a great deal of bone pain, mostly in her right arm. Has her cancer metastasized to her bones? We’ll find out on Monday. Becky is scheduled for a bone scan from 9:00 to noon. Then at 1:00 we’ll be back in the infusion room for another Avastin treatment.

Only God knows where we go from here. I do know one thing, however. Cancer will not keep Becky down. She will keep on serving God and others selflessly. Yes, I’m anxious about the future. At the same time I’m so thankful for everyone who prayed for us today. I’m grateful for friends and family members and even complete strangers who cared enough to email us. Please continue to pray for us daily. Pray that God will be merciful to my Becky. Pray for healing. And please pray that I will be what I need to be. Becky needs a strong and tender husband right now.

Monday, February 6

4:18 PM The doggies just took me for a long walk to check the mail and feed the animals.

Pity the poor field mouse who doesn’t hear Sheba coming.

The goats and the dogs have, well, a “standoffish” relationship.

Tinnish Koi wants to know, “Can’t we just be friends, Dayda?” Dayda’s thinking about it.

“Thank you, daddy, for our hay!”

12:04 PM Recent discussions of the Pauline authorship of Hebrews may be foundhere andhere. If you’re interested in my take, send me an email atdblack@sebts.edu and I will email you a .pdf of my published essay.

11:52 AM It was awesome driving to the grocery store just now and listening to Chuck Swindoll on BBN. He’s started a new series on the church called “Body Building.”

That’s a huge topic, and definition of terms means everything. So Chuck gave us his own definition of the church. It went something like this: “The church is an ever-growing family of born again believers over whom Christ rules as Head.” I think that is an excellent definition. However, by way of impudent expansion, I would like to modify it a bit to read: “The church is an ever-growing family of born-again, obedient followers of Jesus Christ over whom He and He alone reigns as Lord.” I feel it’s necessary to add a word about obedience since the Great Commission requires it (Matt. 28:19). Jesus Christ alone has “all authority” in the church (Matt. 28:18). He alone has the authority to settle the affairs of His church, to dispose of the gifts of the Holy Spirit as He thinks good and proper, to institute ordinances to be obeyed until He returns, and to commission His followers to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Christ is Lord of all (Acts 10:36). It is therefore our duty to observe what He has commanded us without reservation or discussion. And obedience to Christ is not genuine unless it is universal, that is, unless we “go into all the world and proclaim the Good News to every creature” (Mark 16:15 — yes, I DO quote this verse as original). It all begins with faith, but it ends in faith-produced obedience. I believe we are living on the verge of a great awakening of God’s people to the task of global missions. How can it be otherwise if we are truly obedient followers of the LORD Jesus?

9:48 AM Our quote of the day comes from quarterback Eli Manning, who was quick to give credit where credit was due:

It’s been a wild season. We had a great, tough bunch of guys who never quit, and had faith in each other. I’m proud of these guys sticking together.

As Mama Leigh reminded us in our meeting yesterday, there is no “I” in TEAMWORK.

9:08 AM This has been quite a week. We had the Superbowl on Sunday, and we had the Superbowl of New Testament debates last Wednesday. (You can read Wallace’s summaryhere and his response to Köstenbergerhere.) Has anything changed? Going into the Superbowl you were either a Patriots fan or a Giants fan. Did you change your allegiance as a result of the outcome of the game? I doubt it. Going into last Wednesday’s debate you were probably either on Ehrman’s side or on Wallace’s. Did anybody change their mind as a result of the debate? Perhaps. But I’ve scoured the blogs and have come up dry. I must say that debating Ehrman isn’t the easiest thing to do. But even for this boy from Kailua Beach in Hawaii, it seems like we’re missing the boat here. God seems to prefer to use foolish things to confound the wise. I will never forget debating the doctrine of inspiration with a fellow doctoral student in a Basel coffee shop back in the early 80s. The guy was brilliant. I tried two or three times to get him to avow biblical inspiration before giving up. It was only when I began to talk about my own intellectual struggles that he began to open up to me. It was hard for him to stay cynical when I was willing to be so honest with him. Eventually I had the nerve to bring up the topic of salvation with my interlocutor and soon discovered that he longed for a personal relationship with God. I felt that the Lord Jesus had steered the conversation in a direction it needed to go. I’m wondering if perhaps we sometimes have the cart before the horse. For modern-day skeptics the problem might well be more spiritual than intellectual. Needless to say, I’m in no position to give anyone advice on how to debate Bart Ehrman, least of all Dan Wallace. But what’s to prevent us from talking about Jesus over a cup of coffee with those we engage intellectually? Speaking personally, the temptation I face is to compromise the cost of discipleship and, in the process, to cheapen the very Gospel I claim to be defending. If I remove the cross from the discussion, I face the very real danger of promoting a purely intellectualized form of Christianity. The more I read the text of the New Testament, the more uncomfortable I feel in doing that.

The story is told of a skyscraper that had just been opened. A major crack on the 72nd story was found. The engineers were called to investigate the matter. They took the elevator to the third subbasement, where they found the problem. Problems sometimes seem like they are on the 72nd story when in reality the problem is much deeper than that. That’s true in your life and in mine, and perhaps in the lives of those with whom we discuss the Bible.

7:57 AM Good morning, thoughtful bloggers!

This Wednesday in our New Testament class we’ll be discussing my bookChristian Archy, whose premise is simply that all of our proud substitutions for Christianity are but false Christianities. Whenever we put our petty gods above Christ, we reject Christ’s archy (rule). These include all of our “good” archys that rely on our own moral competence to “fix” our problems or “advance” the kingdom of God. Any Christian movement or ideology that takes the place of the cross has absolutely no biblical or theological foundation for its existence.

This is one reason I am reticent to identify myself with the “homeschool” movement or the “agrarian” movement or the “church growth” movement or other similar movements. Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated a beautiful spiritual truth when he wrote, “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” Many modern evangelical “causes” or “movements” are, frankly, in love with their causes and movements. We are tempted to enshrine our programs in golden calves and “Christian” bureaucracies. Indeed, once you start a 501(c)3 you feel obligated to do all you can to perpetuate your organization. You fight for the limited resources that are out there while forgetting that God is bigger than our petty organizations. Bonhoeffer was right. When we love our “dream” or “vision” more than the reality, we end up destroying both.

I want to make a modest suggestion: Our goal should not be to establish our majestic mega-church models but to embrace a “movement-less” kingdom that grows by simply caring for those around us sacrificially. I take great courage from the fact that I meet students who are beginning to study the earliest believers in the book of Acts, people whom Paul could describe as “the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world” (1 Cor. 4:13). In my opinion, we need more little people in our churches today, people who are taking steps to grow a more humble kingdom. The Jesus Revolution is a celebration of Christ’s archy. It stands in awe of no man’s “system” or “movement” or “program.” We are nothing but a ragtag bunch of Jesus-followers who are quite content to be ragtags. Or at least we ought to be!

Your fellow nobody,

Dave

Sunday, February 5

8:58 PM Tonight I’ve been reading Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch. Online. Here’s the link. How rich!

When was the last time you sat down and read Greek, just for the enjoyment of it?

6:30 PM “It is always in season for old men to learn.” Aeschylus. 

5:56 PM My thanks to Jacob Cerone for his very thorough review of Ben Baxter’s
“In the Original Text It Says.”

3:10 PM Two things stood out to me as we gathered this morning at Bethany Baptist Church. First, no one in the congregation paid any attention to the clock. Nigusse spoke for 20 minutes, Becky showed our pictures for another 35 minutes, and then I wrapped things up. Maybe people were cringing inside, but if they were they didn’t show it. The second thing that amazed me was that no one said anything about the Superbowl. I have no idea how that happened. For those of us who grow instantaneously nauseated at the fascination our culture has with sports, this can only be considered a miracle. After all, this is SUPERBOWL SUNDAY.

Several people said they were interested in going with us this summer to Ethiopia. I warned them: Don’t come with us unless you are ready to have your life changed forever. You will fall in love with the Ethiopians so much that your heart will literally ache when you are not with them. No wonder Jesus taught us that love is the only prerequisite for doing missions (Matt. 9:36). The best thing we can do, folks, with all of our blessings is to give them away. Christianity is meaningful only inasmuch as it is grounded in generosity. When the church turns inward, she ceases to be alive.

Friends, we are called upon to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside. All of us. When you see your fellow Christians getting this, there is no greater joy. Thank you, pastor Brian and Bethany Baptist Church, for opening your hearts wide to missions today. The whisper of the cross could be heard this morning in your midst. What an awesome sound.

 

8:02 AM Good morning, fellow extremists for the Gospel! Today the Gospel Train rolls into southern Person County, NC. Bethany Baptist Church has been a long time partner with us in the Ethiopia work. Will the Lord lead anyone to come with us this summer? Stay tuned….

In the meantime, will you please keep us in your prayers? This Tuesday Becky will have her next CT scan. Then we will meet with her lead oncologist to decide where we go from here. When it comes to cancer, everyone knows how important the benefit-to-risk ratio is. Doctors are taught to “do no harm.” Therefore, once the risk of treatment begins to outstrip the benefits, difficult decisions need to be made. I prefer to think that we are still in the treatment stage. But if we do go with more Cyber Knife, good lung tissue will be killed along with her tumors. I simply don’t have the smarts to figure this thing out. But no matter what happens, our calling is to live in the confidence that God is always in control. Life itself is a lethal disease. Paul called it “the law of sin at work in my members.” From the moment we are born we begin to die. Believing that God can turn anything into good is what makes life bearable. As I pray for Becky I know one thing: I want to learn how to enjoy God for who He is rather than use Him to get what I want. I long to see Him use our cancer journey to change me into the mature Christian I long to be. I admit that no one, not even God, can do that overnight. I must give God time to operate. I must repent when necessary (as brother Craigreminded us today). Old foundations take time to crumble away. My worst problem is not pain but sin. Life requires a terrifying dependence upon God. Becky and I can endure hardship and disappointment because we love Him. We know that God is good. We know that He will supply everything we need to travel the rest of the journey, together. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” We will overcome.

Thankful for your love and prayers,

Dave

Saturday, February 4

8:35 PM Kevin Brown’s son Andrew is now his brother in Christ. You can read the remarkable storyhere. It made my day. Welcome to the family, brother Andrew. Mr. and Mrs. Black love you.

8:22 PM Newsflash! Barnes & Noble is selling my bookWill You Join the Cause of Global Missions? for a mere $2.57. Gohere to learn more. Why, at that price, even I can afford to buy a copy or two.

8:12 PM Hello friends.

How cocksure I was back in my thirties and forties. How ineffably proud I was of all of my academic accomplishments. I could usually bang out a base hit when a hit was needed. I would have sacrificed anything except my personal honor to enhance my career. How constantly was I deceived.

It is natural for people who have lived a long time to rethink life’s priorities. I have not the slightest doubt that today the only valuable thing in life is worthwhile labor for the sake of the Gospel. Christianity is something to be lived and not just talked about. Thus I was deeply moved when I read this morning about the deaths ofJohn and Wanda Casias, who had a burden to reach Mexico for Christ. They gave their lives for the sheep. Which, by the way, is the same thing all of us are called upon to be willing to do as followers of King Jesus in the midst of a very scary world. Their work is done. They are now in the Father’s arms in the living room of heaven. Their goal in life was to serve Christ, to make Him known by treating others in the same way He treated them, living life as He lived it. Instead of trying to build a city here, they looked forward to the one that God was constructing for them in a far better place. There they now reside, permanently. You and I will join them, perhaps sooner than we think. Let us praise God for their lives.

I encourage you to be a true believer, not in the power of American politics, but in Jesus Christ and the revolution He has inaugurated in the world. Live for Him. Love for Him. Die for Him if necessary. He is worthy.

Peace,

Dave

6:40 PM Lots to appreciate today:

1) Grateful for our Bible study in Philippians this morning. We covered 1:12-26.

2) Thankful for the “fig-nut-squash bread” Becky prepared for us. Deeeelicious! Thank you, honey.

3) Encouraged by students willing to discuss the Gospels. Remarkable how the Story changes everything.

4) Right now Becky is cooking up a storm. Liver and onions. Great topping to a great day.

Blessings!

Dave

6:57 AM Just snapped this:

“God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening” (Psalm 19:1-2, The Message).

6:46 AM A few thoughts, if I may, about “masculine” Christianity:

“We were gentle among you,” writes Paul, the word “gentle” expressing the kindheartedness of his appeal. He longs to have these Christians transformed into the likeness of Christ and, like a nursing mother, wishes to give them the pure milk of the Word of God.

In all charity, and with no desire to reflect unkindly upon any Christian, I would point out that there are few pastors in the church today who possess such a depth of affection, such a breadth of compassion and pity, such sacrificial love. Nothing under the sun can be as dry and tedious as “church work” without charity. No wonder we grow weary in well-doing. Without genuine compassion for people we are shorn Sampsons on a treadmill. How many of our church meetings can be accounted for without the love of the Holy Spirit!

Christian friend, make room in your heart for others. Do so with a mother’s love. Ph.D. may mean Phenomenal Dud without filial affection for the saints we serve. What mother does not love her children? Would that all Christians knew such devotion today!

Read (if you dare)With a Mother’s Love.

6:36 AM Congratulations to SEBTS student Jacob Cerone who just had hispaper accepted for the upcoming regional ETS conference on campus. I will never forget reading my first ETS paper. It was at Westminster Seminary in California, and Dr. Harry Sturz was in the audience. Yikes was I scared! 

6:30 AM Up for a stern warning this morning?  

Before I issue it, some background. I have nothing against public speaking. I am asked to speak all the time. I enjoy listening to other speakers (provided they are well-prepared and not just repeating the same old same old). I have been responsible for organizing two major conferences on campus that featured such speakers as Dan Wallace, Darrell Bock, Moises Silva, Grant Osborne, Keith Elliott, and Scot McKnight. I am speaking, in fact, at a conference today at SEBTS. So what is my warning?

Beware the cult of the speaker!

Our culture, methinks, places far too much stock in the opinions of so-called “experts.” The only opinion that matters is God’s. Two weeks ago in chapel our president Danny Akin put it this way: “I don’t care what you say. I don’t even care what I say. The only thing that matters is the Word of God.” No truer words were ever spoken.

If you are a public speaker, never forget the words of the greatest man who ever lived (sans Jesus): “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The purpose of John the Baptist’s ministry was to point others to Christ and away from himself. He did not form his own little following. (Others formed the “John the Baptist Society,” but long after John was dead.) He didn’t set up his own 501(c)3. Just as the light of the morning star fades in the light of the rising sun, John was content to become nothing so that Christ might become everything.

In other words, John abased himself. This is not self-abasement for the sake of self-abasement. It is abasing oneself in comparison with Christ. The more others exalt us, the more we need to be very, very careful to humble ourselves. One way to do this is by stating publicly from time to time exactly what our president said: “It don’t really matter, folks, what I think. You check out the Scriptures for yourselves, and then go wherever the evidence points you.” In fact, maybe we should say this every time we get up to speak.

According to the author of Hebrews, Jesus has inherited a Name that is far greater than the angels’ (or ours). According to Colossians 1:18, Jesus is to have first place in the church. Are you willing to decrease in order to honor Christ? Am I?

Beware the cult of the speaker!

Friday, February 3

4:48 PM Good news! My colleague Maurice (Majority Text) Robinson has agreed to give a guest lecture in my New Testament class on Wednesday, February 29. I want my students to be exposed to the Byzantine Priority theory, and who better than Maurice to present it?

By the way, I disagree with his viewpoint. Adamantly. All the more reason to expose my students to it.

4:40 PM So glad to read that the two kidnapped American tourists in Egypt have been released and are in “good health.” Let me ask you, though: Who in their right mind would travel to such a dangerous place? Reminds me of a crazy couple who took the bus (yes, public transportation) from Jerusalem to Cairo in 1985, rode the train to Luxor, and traveled by camel to the pyramids of Sakhara. (Cue theme from “Lawrence of Arabia.”)

Crazy, crazy, crazy!

3:54 PM No more beautiful day could have been imagined for Southern Virginia than today, which required one to work outdoors — in my case, cutting down the ubiquitous cedars that seem to be popping up all over the farm. I think I’m ready for my breakout sessions at the 20/20 Conference tomorrow, but we’ll see. Right now I’m getting some writing done before taking Becky out to our favorite seafood hole in the wall in Henderson. Hope yall are having a great day in Jesus. If not, don’t blame me!

Thursday, February 2

8:56 PM Rod Decker has a nice tribute to Frederick William Danker. I did not know Fred well. When he began his work on the third English edition of the Bauer lexicon he called me and asked if I would help with the translation, since I knew German. “I don’t have the patience,” was my reply. I use his lexicon all the time. One can only imagine the industry and effort that went into producing it. Every student of the New Testament owes Dr. Danker profound thanks. 

8:40 PM Good to see the Parson at it again. Welcome back, Mark.

8:28 PM Just finished grading my New Testament students’ summaries ofWhy Four Gospels? Never have I read better papers. My thanks to each and every one of you. I love you.

5:40 PM This has got to be the quote of the century (see commentshere):

I always say to someone bent on using a knowledge of the original languages, “I am more concerned if he obeys the English.”

That pride Jesus warned us about, the leaven of the Pharisees, is so infectious today that I would sooner teach students who are obedient than those who leave seminary with heads filled with useless knowledge. If a knowledge of Greek does not lead to greater obedience, if it is not marked by a passionate love for the lost, if it is not born of a commitment to the Great Commission, then it is the same old pride that does little more than flaunt our own superiority by making others feel just how “ignorant” they are.

5:34 PM Somebody hit me with the stupid stick. I spoke too soon when I said that Win had correctly named all the faces. “Gerald Ford” it most certainly is not. So what to do? Well, Win will still get his prize since the mistake was mine. But can anybody correctly identify the sixth portrait below? (Hint: Think Germany.)

11:02 AM As you know, in class yesterday we discussed the Synoptic Problem. Before I kicked things off, however, I asked my students to fill in the following blank:

“I used to think ________________. I was wrong.”

Have you ever been wrong? Of course you have! Have you ever changed your mind? Who hasn’t? For what it’s worth, here a partial listing of ways in which I have changed my mind. I use to think that:

• Paul could not have authored Hebrews.

• Mark was our earliest Gospel.

• The Byzantine text type was inferior.

• New Testament scholars were objective (there is no such thing as exegesis without presuppositions).

• America was a Christian nation.

• God was a Republican.

• Growing old with grace was easy.

• Tithing was required for Christians.

• Being a global missionary was optional.

I could go on and on. How about you? How would you fill in that blank?

10:50 AM Are you a tactful person? In his book Family Communication (p. 159), Sven Wahlroos has an excellent definition of tact. He says that

…tactfulness is an approach to another human being which involves being sincere and open in communication while at the same time showing respect for the other person’s feelings and taking care not to hurt him unnecessarily.

Isn’t that great? I have found tact to be vitally important in life, especially in dealing with students. Tact does wonders when it comes to dealing with a censorious or defensive spirit. Is tact easy? Are you kidding! Is it necessary? You bet it is! Friends, when we’re dealing with other people, let’s exercise tact. Be committed to honesty and to mutual respect. Surely God is pleased when we show tact.

10:02 AM Odds and ends …

1) Andy Bowden, who is on his way to Munich, Germany for his doctoral program, recommends the bookThe Germans. I concur. I read this fine tome when I first went to (West) Germany in 1978 as a summer missionary with Greater Europe Mission. It was a real eye-opener for me. Incidentally, Andy, since you will be living in Bayern I think you could use a lesson in speaking the local dialect:

 

2) Carleton College announces an opening inReligion.

3) SEBTS doctoral student Paul Himes reviews Scot McKnight’sThe Jesus Gospel.

4) William Birch speaks the truth in his essaycalledLife is Worship.

5) Our “Name the Face” contest winner is Win from Meadows Place in the great state of Texas. The answers (as he listed them):

Jimmy Carter
Yul Brenner
Golda Meir
Harry Reasoner
Telly Savalas
Gerald Ford
Don Knots (Fantastic sketch)
Henry Kissinger

Thanks to all who played. We’ll have another contest soon.

Wednesday, February 1

8:52 PM I actually agree with Arthur Sido’s stinging reassessment ofwhat constitutes idolatry. A snippet:

Even something as simple as eliminating bulletins can cause apoplexy among some.

Just think. The money saved by not printing bulletins or by foregoing Sunday School quarterlies (and using the Bible instead) could be sent to missions. I’m so thankful to belong to a congregation that is beginning to rethink our priorities in light of what is of ultimate importance. If your love affair with God needs some rekindling, I strongly encourage you to read Arthur’s entire essay.

8:38 PM Nigusse took this picture.

He is quite a photographer, wouldn’t you agree?

7:48 PM Speaking of teaching, Allan Beverelinks to this post by a New Testament colleague of his:A Professor’s Letter to Students. The professor writes:

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t see my role as torturer in chief who only finds satisfaction by ruining the GPA of students. I am also not one of those professors who doesn’t give out A’s. I do, when they have been earned. I admit that I set a high bar in the class and I set it high intentionally. I suspect that if the bar is too close to grasp then the student won’t try. Set it high enough and the students who exert themselves not only will reach the bar, but will have a better grasp of the information that I am trying to deliver. In reality, I want my students to do well and succeed. But I also want them to learn at the same time. I spend a lot of time and effort to make sure that my lectures are well prepared. I expect/hope that my students will also put in the effort necessary to learn.

I don’t know this professor, and even if I did I wouldn’t comment on his teaching. I know for myself that it easy to put the onus on students for my own failures in the classroom. I can claim that I spend a lot of time preparing lectures. I can claim that I am well prepared whenever I enter the classroom. I can claim I am setting attainable goals for my students. But it is very difficult to know for sure whether I have succeeded or not.

“Earning an A” means different things to different people. There are too many factors and imponderables to know whether or not my grading system is fair. (For example, who says lecturing is the best method of communicating with our students? Isn’t teaching more a give-and-take, a sharing of life together, a mentoring process?) All we teachers can do is to try our very best with the lights God has given us AND at the same time be humble enough to listen to our students (and colleagues) and adapt our methods and requirements if necessary.

Above all, nothing can replace love. Students know why we are in the classroom. They sense if we value them and their opinions. They know this by our deportment in and out of class, and not by what we require in our syllabi. The longer I teach, the more I realize just how much I can improve. Teaching is like reading the book of Romans. On the one hand, you go away feeling wretched and ashamed because you realize just how short you fall of God’s expectations for you. On the other hand, you go away encouraged because Paul has shown you the way to make progress in holiness. If I take small steps and don’t bite off more than I can chew, I can become a better classroom teacher.

At least that’s my goal.

7:42 PM Care to meet our New Testament faculty? From left to right are Scott Kellum, Ben Merkle, Andreas Köstenberger, Dave Lanier, and David Beck. (Maurice Robinson is on sabbatical.)

Special thanks to our dean Ken Keathley (pictured in the background) for hosting us for lunch today. What a pleasure to work with such a great faculty.

7:12 PM Good evening, bloggers and bloggerettes!

When I lived in California I knew a man who had suffered from cancer. I prayed for him frequently. Eventually his cancer went into remission. He prayed that God would allow his cancer to return if it would bring him closer to God. In his final year of his life he found God in a closer way than he had ever known before. And then he died – of cancer.

Some problems never disappear, like Paul’s thorn in the flesh. (Or was it a “stake”?) They never go away because they weren’t meant to. When we pursue the health that God provides more than we seek after God Himself, we often get neither. Problems have the power to drive us to our knees, begging God for mercy and comfort. “You are not alone,” they whisper. Thorns allow us to survive in a world of disappointment.

God has given us a thorn in the form of metastatic uterine cancer. Unless God intervenes, Becky will undergo hospital treatments for her lung tumors the rest of her days. My purpose is to walk the prickly pathway with her and do everything in my power to release her for service to the God whom she loves and serves so selflessly. I admit that my own selfish desires often masquerade as commitment to Becky’s health. My prayer has become, “O God, I need Becky desperately. But I would find you to be sufficient in the midst of my pain and loss. I would thank you for shattering the security of my world so that I might begin to look for the eternal city made without hands. Wean me from earth, O Lord.”

Our days are numbered. They are all in God’s hands. In the meantime, He pulls back the curtain and gives us glimpses of heaven. A suffering woman who consistently seeks the welfare of others more than her own? That is a work of God. I find myself time and again wanting to shake everyone I meet by the shoulders and cry out, “How I love that woman!”

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   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

                

Ethiopia Report (Part 6): Going on from Here

 Becky Lynn Black 

We have just completed our third trip to Ethiopia in a 14-month time period. In the past 14 months, 4 ½ months were spent in Ethiopia! We had no idea that our Lord meant for us to have such an intense relationship with these Ethiopian believers, but He has blessed in ways that we never dreamed possible. And it has been so satisfying to watch Him use us (and you) to encourage and empower these precious believers, our family in the Lord. Thank you for your prayers and your giving that has made this possible.

So where do we go from here? Folk are asking when we are going back. Frankly, the Lord hasn’t shown us yet. This summer is a possibility, or maybe in the Fall/Winter.  We’re praying about it, and waiting for His directions.

This, however, does not mean that we are idle in our work. As we’ve searched His Face and His Word for direction, we’ve been led to the following focus points:

1. The Bible memory program has been very well received, and they are eager to continue this in both Alaba and Burji (see Report #2). So we have opened the program up to include senior adults as well as children and young adults. We have given them until mid-September (the end of the Ethiopian calendar year) to complete memorizing. The leaders in Burji have said that about 3000 want to memorize. If this is a true figure, and the cost of each Bible continues to be $4/Bible, then by September we will need $12,000 just for the Burji people! Is our Lord able to give us these resources? Absolutely! This is His work, and He provides for His work. So we will continue this ministry of Bible distribution to those who memorize the nine passages of Scripture.

2. The distribution of eyeglasses has really been beneficial. I cannot tell you how excited people are to be able to read well again! (See Report #2.) So we have trained the church leaders in testing, and we will be sending them an assortment of glasses for their distribution. Right now, we have an abundance of the stronger glasses, but if our Lord puts it on your heart to send reading glasses, they can be obtained for $1/pair at Dollar Tree. The strengths most needed are from 1.00 to 2.75. If possible, please try to get the larger, more sturdy frames.

3. Bethel Hill Baptist Church, a rural church near Roxboro, NC, has given funds to complete the Meeting Hall in Soyama (see Report #3). Their check for $10,260 is the largest gift these elders have ever had to manage, so we will be working carefully with them in the stewardship of the gift. (The annual budget for all 26 churches in the Burji District is only $3,000!) Things move slowly in Africa; it is the nature of the continent. But we are hoping to have the building completed by the end of the year, so that maybe some members of BHBC can go with us to dedicate the building to the Lord.

4. We will continue to help those who are receiving medical assistance from us. There are two blind boys from Burji who are currently being diagnosed. And Zemete is in need of returning to the Fistula Hospital in Addis. Also, there is a young boy needing a hip replacement for a congenital malformation. And we would like to set up a fund to help the persecuted believers in the rural Alaba region who need medical help.

5. Finally, our heart is very much burdened about the need for church buildings for the rural congregations in Alaba (see Reports 5a and 5a). A simple building is completely out of the financial reach of these believers, yet is very do-able for us, especially if we band together. To erect a rectangular mud building (with mud floor, tin roof, and wooden windows and doors) would cost $2,250; this is a small fraction of what most churches in America have in their Building Fund. If we add 50 benches, that’s an additional $250. If we add a small house for tutoring Muslim children next to the church, that’s an additional $600. And if we add 100 Bibles, that’s an additional $400. So for a total of $3,500 one of these rural congregations would be completely equipped for growth in their community. It is from these communities that believers’ children are being murdered, their crops and animals stolen, their homes burned. They are completely impoverished because of the persecution. The town church is helping by restoring as best they can those materials lost.  And they provide shelter and send evangelists. But the building of churches is completely beyond their capability. Once a building is erected, it sends a message to all people in the area that Christianity has arrived and it is a valid religious option; the persecution will subside and many, many more Muslims, those “waiting in the wings,” will come to our Saviour. In the African culture, a building says to non-believers “Our God is strong.”  (This is why the Middle Eastern countries are funding the building of mosques all over Ethiopia; they are sending a cultural message loud and clear. Isn’t it time we declared the greatness of the true and living God, our Saviour Jesus Christ?)

Will you help us? As you can see, our work continues to be with those that are abandoned and neglected. These brothers and sisters are part of our family. They are a part of the Body. We need them and they need us. And together we prepare for the harvest of souls that our Lord is sending.

How can you help?  First of all, pray. Pray specifically for Halango, Zemete, the blind boys, and the church leaders.  Print our reports and come regularly before the Throne for these people. There are a total of 7 reports, one for each day of the week. Remember the Word: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit” is the Lord’s work done in the hearts of man.

Secondly, send us eyeglasses or funds. No, we do not give a tax-deductible receipt.  (This is the Lord’s work, not the government’s.) Nor do we deduct anything from your gift for our “administrative” costs. Nor do we apply your gift to our personal expenses when we go to Ethiopia. But we will send you a thank you note, and we will ask our Lord to bless you for your kindness to us. And He is not unjust…He will remember your work and labor of love.

100- of your gifts go directly to the Lord’s church in Ethiopia, specifically to those items we’ve listed above. As our Lord sends us things, we will forward the eyeglasses and funds, and we will follow their usage for accountability. These people are very dear to us; the leaders love and respect us; we trust them and we trust the direction of our Lord. And we look to Him to provide what is needed to accomplish His assignment. 

Is He calling you to join us?  If so, welcome! Together we can accomplish the work He’s given us, for the glory of His Name. To Him goes all the praise forever and ever.  Amen!

Ethiopia Report (Part 1)

Ethiopia Report (Part 2)

Ethiopia Report (Part 3)

Ethiopia Report (Part 4)

Ethiopia Report (Part 5a)

Ethiopia Report (Part 5b)

February 17, 2006

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February 2018 Blog Archives   

Wednesday, February 28   

6:45 PM Goodbye February and hello March, aka National Celery Month, National Sleep Awareness Month, National Kidney Month, National Noodle Month, National Umbrella Month, National Peanut Month, and, of course, National Trisomy Awareness Month. (I have no idea what trisomy is.) It’s also a month of travel for me — Houston this weekend, DC next weekend, and Raleigh for the Tobacco Road Marathon the following weekend. Right now I hate being so busy. Yesterday I started to sniffle — badly. There’s lots of folks on campus with colds these days. Today my doc somehow managed to squeeze me into her busy schedule. A Z Pac and nasal spray for yours truly. Yes, I could use about two weeks of rest but that’s not gonna happen and, okay, it’s my own fault. So I venture out. Again and again and again. I give myself the same pep talk every time. You really do love your life, Dave. Funny thing is, I mean that. I really do love my life. I love my classes because I get to teach the best students who ever graced a seminary campus. I love my running because in my old age I’ve turned out to be a crazy passionate guy involved in a crazy passionate sport filled with fun characters. I love my life because I write blog posts and journal articles and lectures and books that everyone knows will make the world a better place. (That’s a joke, folks.) I love the stamina and determination it takes to live the life of Dave Black. I love goals that stare you in the face and push you to become the person God meant for you to be. Life is all about perspective. And attitude. And always about seeking the best for yourself and for others. When I struggle with direction in my life, or with fatigue, or with fear of the unknown, or when the pain of loss rises up out of the ashes of my heart and screams “So I’m supposed to lean into this?”, then I simply reclaim Truth. I’m grateful for the extremes of life — and for all the moments in between. So many people expect perfect and always want more, more, more. We all need to slow down and appreciate each day we get. We all have our hurdles. It’s up to us how we get past them. Right now I’m going to cook me a super healthy supper, read some Scripture, scratch my doggy’s tummy, and then finish watching the movie I started last night on Amazon Prime. My body might be tired, but my spirit is jacked up. Even my body, thank the Lord, is not TIRED tired, if you know what I mean. Like the kind of tired you feel when you have — um — Ebola (or something like that). Tomorrow I’m sleeping in. I’ve found that I’m at my worst mentally when I have been physically worn down. So it’s time to chillax a bit and I’m sure I’ll start feeling normal again in no time. I’ve got so much good stuff to blog about. Even if nobody reads what I write I finding blogging so cathartic. Yesterday’s chapel message really hit home and I really do need to talk about it with yall. Then there’s my growing anxiety over the ultra I’ve signed up for in April. I’m still laughing over that one. I used to enter 5Ks and jog behind the strollers. Now I’m training for a 31-mile race. I dropped out of my first Greek class in college. Now I get to teach the language. I used to eat Fruit Loops and Lucky Charms and now I eat broccoli and carrots. I used to think that the grass was greener on the other side, but now I’m content with who I am and where I’m at. The life I have is exactly the one meant for me, and if I live it with gratitude and dependence on the Giver of all good gifts, it can be the greatest life of all. Life never goes exactly as you planned. So what? “God knows,” as Becky would say. The best things in life are scary. But so worth it.

This week’s been a crash course in gratitude, perseverance, and patience. I may not be the brightest light in the box or the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I am tenacious and stubborn. The satisfaction of knowing that, by the sheer grace of God, you pushed yourself way, way, way farther than you ever thought possible is way more valuable than any external reward. 

Monday, February 26   

6:55 AM I clearly remember the day that changed my life forever. My daughter Karen was making a huge lunge forward in her racing by competing in the prestigious Marine Corps Half Marathon in Fredericksburg, VA. The date was May 17, 2015, just a year and a half after my wife Becky died from cancer. I was just shy of my 63rd birthday. When Karen told me how far she would have to run that day — 13.1 miles — I was dumbfounded. How can anyone run that far? I can’t even walk a mile! I drove up to the race to cheer her on. She nailed it, finishing in just under two and a half hours. Before I knew it, she was saying to me, “Dad, it would be so much fun to run a 5K together!” “What’s a 5K?” I asked. I’m not kidding. I had no earthly idea what a 5K race was. That was just over 3 years ago. Since then I’ve finished dozens of 5Ks and 10Ks, two 10-milers, two triathlons, eleven half marathons, and seven full marathons, plus I’ve registered for my first ultramarathon in April.

What happened?

Running never appealed to me growing up. I am a Hawaiian, born and bred. Not a native Hawaiian, mind you, but a kama’aina haole, a “local boy” you might say. My dad was born in Honolulu in 1918 and, after marrying my mother in Ohio just after the war (1945), he brought her to live with him in his home state. Although I too was born in Honolulu, us kids grew up just over the Ko’olau mountain range in a town called Kailua (famous today as former President Obama’s winter white house). There I attended school — Kainalu Elementary, Kailua Intermediate, and Kailua High. When I wasn’t surfing, that is. I must have been 7 or 8 when I bought my first surfboard. It was a 10-foot long Hobie whose nose had been snapped off. Those ugly shards of exposed fiberglass didn’t slow me down in the least. I knew I’d be fine as long as I remembered not to hang ten on this particular board. It cost me all of 5 bucks. Kailua is noted mostly for its splendid shore break, but there were also point breaks, a reef break, and an awesome break at the Mokulu’a Islands. Kailua was a place where every kid surfed. So much so, that our high school’s nickname was the Kailua Surfriders. (Go Blue and White!) When I wasn’t playing in the ocean, I was playing basketball or volleyball.

I did no running while growing up, except when I was trying to get away from the mokes on Kill Haole Day (the last day of school every year). So when Karen ask me to run a 5K with her, I had no idea what she was talking about. “It’s only 3.1 miles,” she said. It still sounded like a crazy idea to me. That’s what public transportation or a car is for, I thought to myself. Especially since you end up where you started anyway. Over time, I came to realize the motivation behind Karen’s suggestion. After Becky died, if there was one thing my kids kept telling me over and over again, it was that I needed to “keep active.” So I began walking a mile every day, then two miles, then three. Occasionally I would break into a slow jog for part of that distance, but I couldn’t run for very long. I kept running out of breath. I’ll never forget when I ran my first mile without stopping to take a walk break. It was a month after Karen had completed her half marathon. I was vacationing in Hawaii (I had started going home to surf twice a year after Becky’s death) and set out to conquer my worst fears on a sunny morning in Kailua. I knew that the distance from my beach cottage on Ulupa St. to Kainalu School (which I attended from kindergarten to sixth grade) was about a mile. Although I arrived at my former elementary school huffing and puffing, I had done so without doing any walking. When I came to a standstill, I was completely out of breath. But none of that mattered. I had run a mile! I had become an adult onset runner!The sad truth was that I didn’t know the first thing about running. When I texted Karen a picture of me after the run, she said “Congrats, Dad!” and then added, “And be sure to ditch those Wal-Mart sneakers and get some real running shoes.”

I spent the rest of my Hawaiian vacation surfing during the day but running every morning and evening. It took me two months of training before I was ready for my first 5K, but I knew I was getting closer and closer to my goal. The date was July 11, and the race was called the Barefoot for Kelly 5K Run. Kelly suffers from Transverse Myelitis, a debilitating condition that’s left her paralyzed.

The event was sponsored by her home church to assist with providing her a handicap-accessible bathroom so that she could regain some of her independence. A portion of the proceeds was also slated to help fund the research of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. The race was located at the Dorothea Dix campus in downtown Raleigh. I came in dead last in my age group (6th out of 6) with a time of 36:51. An 80-year old beat me by 4 minutes. No matter. I was elated. As Dick Beardsley has said many times, when you cross that finish line for the first time, no matter how fast or how slow, it will change your life forever. My goal that day was a simple one. I wanted to complete the race under my own power without requiring mouth to mouth resuscitation when I was done. And I had done it — barely. I knew from my very first race that running would be a humbling experience. But I also knew that it offered an enormous sense of pride. I can do this! That day I knew that even though I wasn’t the fastest runner in the pack, running would embrace me anyway. When I finally got back to my farm in Virginia, I was tired, sweaty, and inordinately happy. So I immediately began planning for my next race.

To be continued …. 

Sunday, February 25   

3:36 PM Hey, here’s something to think about from 1 Thess. 2:17- (our passage for this week in Greek 4). The word usually translated as “crown” is a metaphor drawn from the Greek athletic contests.

It “alludes to the wreath which was awarded to the victor in an athletic contest: victory in such a contest afforded the victor and all associated with him ample grounds for … (‘boasting’)” (Bruce, p. 56).

Paul “looks forward to the occasion of final review and reward, when he will present his converts to the Lord who commissioned him, as evidence of the manner in which he has discharged his commission.”

Have you ever thought of the people you influenced for Christ as a “wreath of victory” in whom you could rejoice? It’s astonishing to me that Paul actually considered people as his reward. He’s so utterly identified with his converts that he calls them his glory. I can well imagine Rudy Ulrich sitting in heaven wearing the wreath of Dave Black, whom he led to the Savior in 1960. We are the body of Christ. God uses us to reach others with His love. The good news is that He uses us in spite of ourselves. Truth is, there are some people who will never hear about Jesus unless I tell them. All that we touch, everything we bump up against in our lives, is to be offered to Him for the work of salvation. God calls us, pleads with us, to be involved. Our world is starved to see Christ’s love modeled somewhere. All we need is a willingness for whatever. Paul was always moving “with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead” (phil. 3:14). But he did that with open hands — a total stripping from all this world has to offer. The Thessalonian believers were living proof that Paul had done just that. May God show us every thread of self that still needs stripping away.

2:25 PM One of my book publishers has posted a very helpful note on how languages work, especially when it comes to lexical analysis and verbal aspect. ReadNotes on Terms and Language Teaching.

9:20 AM I love this quote by F. F. Bruce in his commentary on 1-2 Thessalonians. It’s his summary of 1 Thess. 5:14-22 (pp. 126-127):

The Christian community is to be a little welfare state, a society practicing mutual aid among its members in spiritual and material respects alike. Within its fellowship those who need help should be given the help they need. A special responsibility in this regard rests on the leaders of the community, but it is a ministry in which all can have some share. The timid must be encouraged, the weak must be strengthened, those who stray must be led back to the right path, and all must be treated with patience — especially those who make the greatest demands on the patience of their fellow Christians.

Notes:

1) The church is, essentially, a “community” — a Jesus community if you will.

2) The idea of separating spiritual from social hardly occurred to these earliest Christians. They made the outworking of the love of God in their midst a top priority.

3) Early believers knew nothing of a clergy-laity distinction. Each member of the body had a part to play in the service of God. As Brunner puts it in his magisterial work The Misunderstanding of the Church (p. 50):

One thing is supremely important: that all minister, and that nowhere is to be perceived a separation, or even merely a distinction, between those who do and those who do not minister, between the active and passive members of the body, between those who give and those who receive. There exists in the Ecclesia a universal duty and right of service, a universal readiness to serve, and at the same time the greatest possible differentiation of functions.

4) Finally, we can never be too patient with one another. It’s not easy to grow in long-suffering, but patience makes us all more Christ-like.

8:30 AM I was up early again today, sitting on the front porch with Sheba and enjoying the 70-degree temps. Nature, I think, is confused. Buds adorn every hardwood, and yesterday on my drive home from Richmond I actually saw a Redbud in full bloom. I fully expect another snow storm before winter bids us a fond adieu, but for now I’m enjoying the respite from the cold. Once again, this morning I read the book of 1 Thessalonians and when I came to 5:14 I had to pause. When Paul says “Admonish the idlers,” he says this not to the church leaders (whom he’s just described in vv. 12-13) but to the “brothers and sisters.” Paul clearly understood the body of Christ to be a pluralistic entity. All of the members have both rights and privileges. Paul’s body motif cuts deeply into the hierarchal structures so prevalent in his day, as well as its symbols (e.g., Roman dress). In 1 Corinthians, Paul assumes that in the gathered community all will be allowed to speak, subject only to practical guidelines. Likewise, here in 1 Thessalonians, much of what Paul writes is nothing less than a plea for mutual edification and constructive treatment. There’s no reason to think that the Jesus community in Thessalonica differed from the one in Corinth on this score.

I have to wonder if we’re really paying attention when so little of our theology and praxis shifts and changes as we better understand God’s teaching on this subject. Let’s be honest: rethinking one’s ecclesiology can be terrifying. There are consequence for Bible study. But the Spirit sometimes uses terror when He breathes into us the very changes He wants. I think this is also true as we Jesus followers engage the broader culture. Jacque Ellul once wrote (Violence, p. 160):

” … if a statesman, the president of the republic, openly declares himself a Christian, then — on the basis of his own faith — the total demands of the Christian faith can be set before him. It ought to be possible to tell [him] that his faith forbids the machiavellianism, the cynicism, the contemptuousness, the political realism that inspires all his decisions…. The important thing is to make him see that he has to draw the consequences of his faith….”

Now that is powerful! But Ellul’s words do not apply only to heads of state. Eugene Peterson says it perfectly:

We take our everyday, ordinary life — our sleeping, eating, going-to-work life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for us is the best thing we can do for him. When we fix our attention on God, we’ll be changed from the inside out. We’ll readily recognize what he wants from us and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around us, always dragging us down to the level of immaturity, God brings out the best in us, develops well-formed maturity.

If we’re going to call politicians to “well-formed maturity,” don’t we need to evince some of that quality ourselves? As we witness derision and hubris, men and women of state walking around with their nose in the air, we can easily get tired of engaging in the swimming-upstream work of the kingdom. Yet only Christ can deal with the root of the sin that started it all, and that work has to begin in our own lives. That’s the work of the Gospel, isn’t it? Not others’ immaturity first, but our own. Psychologists often refer to a thing called projection: someone calls others “losers” because deep down inside they believe they are too. Maybe we evangelicals are so put off with power politics because we have forgotten in our own circles that true leadership never flows from platform or celebrity or position or prestige or stardom. In Christ’s kingdom, the nobodies are loved and respected. The first are last, and the last first. Brothers and sisters admonish each other. All of our efforts are misguided unless we get this “kingdom-reversal” thing right.

It’s a scary thing to confront our own evils and not just the evils of others. But, as Ellul said, we are to draw the consequences of our faith. So I say, let’s be done abdicating our souls for a seat at the table. “The kingdom is where we belong,” wrote Frederick Buechner. “It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are all homesick for it.”  

Saturday, February 24   

5:45 PM I’m back on the farm after a superlative day. Ran one of my best 5K races ever. Not that it was my fastest 5K. It wasn’t. But you know, it’s possible to achieve a big hairy audacious goal without breaking any records. Looking back on today’s race, I only have good feelings about it. One, I achieved the goals I had set for this race: run at least an 11/min. mile pace and at least 5.5. mph (I ended up running a 10:43 min./mile pace and 5.6 mph). Woohoo!

Two, I had so much fun participating in the “Keep Virginia Beautiful” campaign. And three, I got to meet a lot of nice people. I left the farm at about 7:30. When I arrived in Richmond I was directed to a parking deck that cost me only 5 bucks. I was relieved to find a parking space in Richmond, where parking is a blood sport. It was clearly in downtown, as you can see.

A 10 minute walk later and I arrived at the race venue: the historic Tredegar Iron Works.

There were gobs of people running the race today. Many of us were also there to pick up trash for two hours.

Here’s the post-pickup group photo. Can you find Waldo?

At 11:45 it was time to line up for the race. Of course, the fastest (or at least the youngest) lined up in front.

I staked out my territory about a third of the way from the front and awaited the announcer’s “Go!”

Then we were off. There were a lot of people running today. Throughout the race I was lapping them pretty regularly.

I was maintaining my pace without ever feeling tired. About the halfway point, the crowd thinned out considerably.

I was encouraged that I was able to keep up a good pace. Soon we crossed the bridge over the James.

I was running the entire time without taking any walk breaks, just as I planned to.

Then “it” happened. Out of nowhere, a stairway appeared. I kid you not. A set of stairs that we were supposed to climb.

For crying out loud! Tell me it’s not so! Am I on an obstacle course or what? Nobody told me there would be stairs! The mass of runners was reduced to a slow shuffle as we made our way up — and then down — those stairs.

We all stared at those stairs with unbelief. (I will not apologize for that pun.) Seriously, do the race organizers know this happened? Of course, we all survived and went through to the other side, where we encountered — get this! —  two-way traffic!

Soon, however, everyone was happy again. We we were crossing the James back into Richmond and the sun was even shining!

I was bound and determined to finish strong. I lathered my way past several runners. Then I scrambled past a few others.

Then, for the second time today, the unthinkable happened. I got passed by

… a dog!

Man alive, they were flying! I watched indignantly as this four-footed beast ambled past me as though I was a lamppost. At least he didn’t stop and do his business. And I always thought dogs loved me. Traitor. My resolve began to melt away. This was the height of indignity. A new low. Soon thereafter, I had an anticlimactic end of the event, except for having a cheesy picture taken with a couple of ersatz dinosaurs.

Even though I felt cheated out of a better time, I did love this race. It was so worth it. Even being passed by a dog was worth it. After I crossed the finish line, I hung around to watch the other runners finish their race. Running offers you so many inspiring moments. I watched overweight people finish. I watched disabled people finish. I watched more dogs finish with their masters. (Ha-ha, I beat you!) I watched people who really struggled to finish. (You guys rocked!) Friend, never let the fear of struggling through a race hold you back. We all have to start somewhere. Whenever I felt tired out there on the course it was so good to look up and see other runners being strong and supportive. I want to thank everyone who ran beside me today. You are the greatest.

Next time, though, could you please leave your pooches at home?

6:58 AM Yo folks,

It promises to get up to about 70 degrees today so I’m planning on spending a good deal of my time today outdoors. I’m feeling 100 percent (all praise to Jesus) so I’ve decided to participate in theShiver in the River 5K in Richmond today. It’s a pretty neat event. It’s held at the historic Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond adjacent to the James River. The first two hours are called “Community Cleanup” when we collect trash along the banks of the James and adjacent neighborhoods. This is the perfect time of the year to do this because the low vegetation leaves trash and recyclables clearly visible. Then at noon we get to enjoy the beauty of the James River with a 5K that includes views of downtown and crosses the brand new Potterfield Memorial Bridge. Finally there’s the “James River Jump” — which is exactly what it sounds like: a jump into the chilly James River. (I’ll pass on this part of the event.)

So what to yak about before I need to leave for Richmond? I am super excited to announce that my book Seven Marks of a New Testament Church will be translated into Farsi.

It’s already available in English, Spanish, and Mandarin, so, hey, what’s one more language? I have so much to say about this but so little time, so let me just share with you one page from the book.

As you can see, whenever I talk about every-member ministry and a “fellowship of leadership” I am in heaven. It all started in seminary when I began to rethink the wineskins, and a huge part of my pilgrimage was due to the writings of a certain Brethren scholar named Elton Trueblood. Who’s he? Only one of the most powerful intellects of the twentieth century, right up there with Jacque Ellul and Vernard Eller. Whew, what a book this is!

I reread it in one sitting on my front porch last night and I just have to share with you a couple of pull quotes. Hope you don’t mind.

… a church, in its very nature, is not really something to which men and women can go. Rather, it is something they may be in. The difference is fundamental and far-reaching. We can go to a railroad station or to a motion picture theater or to a ball game; but a church is something that demands a wholly different human relationship, the relationship of belonging.

Oh that’s good! Here’s another one.

The key words are “one another.” There are no mere observers or auditors; all are involved. Each is in the ministry; each needs the advice of others; and each has something to say to others. The picture of mutual admonition seems strange to modern man, but the strangeness is only a measure of our essential decline from something of amazing power.

Then there’s this:

It must be admitted that we are now a great distance — not only in practice but even in theory — from the fellowship of universal witness. Millions are merely back-seat Christians, willing to be observers of a performance which the professionals put on, ready to criticize or to applaud, but not willing even to consider the possibility of real participation.

Yeah, and if the church down the road can put on a better show, I’m outta here! Finally:

If we were to take the idea of a militant company seriously, the church building would be primarily designed as a drill hall for the Christian task force. It would be a place where Christian ambassadors in common life would come together to be trained, to strengthen one another, and to find solitude when it is needed.

Or, as I’ve often said, the gathering exists for the going. The bottom line? Every one of us has a voice. Every one of us has a necessary part to play in what God is doing in this world.

Genius. That’s what the Bible is. It nails it every time. I mean, this is a layup. Folks, we could get this right if we really wanted to. Our current concept of church focuses on performance and encourages busy-ness and constant activity on the part of our leaders. But the heart of the equipping pastor is to release others into ministry — a ministry that is just as “fulltime” as theirs is. Evangelicalism has become shallow. We are happy but not deep. We’ve become soft and flabby despite all the work that is yet to be done.

As part of my equipping ministry I spend time walking my students through such critical passages as Eph. 4:11-12 and Matt. 28:19-. Christianity is superficial because it is so often founded on books about the Bible rather than on the Bible itself. But our Lord speaks plainly. His is no hot tub religion (to cite the title of one of James Packer’s books). Perhaps a good place to change this would be to send people overseas to work alongside national leaders and be their servants. At home, leaders can begin to do the hard work of equipping servants. The truth is that significant ministry in the church and the world can only come by sacrifice.

Off to the races (and cleanup)!

Dave

Friday, February 23   

9:46 AM I hope you saw our announcement about ourlinguistics conference, slated for April, 2019. I’ve always found it interesting to watch how different minds tackle the same problem. Someday, praise God, we’ll no longer have the need to study languages – any language. The one thing all of us teachers of Greek have in common is a love for the language and an irrepressible joy when we see our students “get it.” But none of us would claim that we have the last word when it comes to grammar or even pedagogy. In the midst of all this, I’m still mulling over the matter of verbal aspect. What in the world shall we call the three (or two) aspects? This morning I want to share a few comments in the hopes of nudging the conversation forward.

First, as I reread Joshua Covert’ssummary of recent approaches to the problem – and the wide variety of terms used to describe the aspects – I’m more convinced than ever that this is a real problem for Greek scholars and students alike, and it’s frankly beautiful to watch the discussion proceed. For our students’ sake (at the very least), we need to work towards some kind of agreement or standardization, don’t you think?

Secondly, I think the elephant in the room has yet to be discussed. It seems to me that a major part of the problem, if not the biggest challenge we face, is the fact that Greek teachers and linguists are often talking past each other. Each of us approaches the problem from a different set of perspectives. For the Greek teacher, for example, pedagogy is paramount. Moreover, most of us have little or no formal training in the science of linguistics. This doesn’t mean that we aren’t interested in what linguists are saying. We are. It’s just that we don’t always feel that we necessarily have to follow their explanations or terminology. Perhaps a classic example of this is what we encountered in our Greek 4 class on Tuesday night. Both of our commentaries (by Fee and Weima) expressed puzzlement over the fact that Paul used the adverb pantote (“always”) with an aorist infinitive. How in the world can something that’s “punctiliar” (both commentators used that word) be continual? This will not do. Ever since Frank Stagg published his essay “The Abused Aorist” in JBL (followed up later by Charles Smith’s “Errant Aorist Interpreters” in GTJ), teachers have been cautioning their Greek students not to view the aorist as referring to a “punctiliar” action. Yet still today one hears statements, in both sermon and commentary, such as “The aorist here shows that Paul had in mind a once-for-all-action.” Much of this confusion stems (I believe) from A. T. Robertson’s use of “punctiliar” to describe the aorist tense. Of course, Robertson never meant us to understand a “once-for-all action,” yet the term “punctiliar” was easily misunderstood to mean that very thing. After all, something that is “punctiliar” has one single “Punkt” or “point,” doesn’t it? My point here (no pun meant) is simply this: While Greek scholars are obliged to learn as much as they can from linguists (and I, a non-linguist, have even published two books on the subject), they are not obligated to follow linguistic science blindly.

Thirdly, I’m not sure we New Testament teachers are as far apart as the evidence may seem to point. I prefer “aoristic” instead of “punctiliar” because of the way the latter term has been abused by preachers and commentators. “Aoristic” works because its very meaning is “undefined.” In other words, by choosing aoristic aspect, an author is intentionally refraining from trying to describe how an action occurred. The action is a-oristos – “unlimited” or “undefined” in terms of its kind of action. This is precisely the point that was made by both Stagg and Smith in their journal articles.

Finally, let me say why I still prefer my terms. Think about how easy we make it for our students when we say that the imperfect tense has “imperfective” aspect, and that the perfect tense has “perfective” aspect, and that the aorist tense has “aoristic aspect.” Now don’t get me wrong. I’m willing to change my nomenclature if I can be convinced to do so. Indeed, Robert Picirilli, in a JETS essay, makes a suggestion I am almost happy with. Addressing the “issue of terminology,” he writes:

I think we must recognize that it is too late in the game, as A. T. Robertson said long ago, to change the names of the tenses or the word “tense” itself. It is hard enough to teach Greek students that “tense” does not meantime and “present” does not mean present; but we have learned to handle that. If aspect theory is to win wide recognition and usage, as I think it should, I believe we must develop a terminology that does not overlap with those names and is both appropriate in meaning and relatively easy for students to learn and use. I tentatively suggest, then, that “progressive” works better than “imperfective” and that “wholistic” works better than “perfective.” I have no suggestion as a replacement for “stative.” From this point on, then, I may speak of aspect or perspective, and of progressive perspective or imperfective aspect (for the present and imperfect tenses), of wholistic perspective or perfective aspect (for the aorist tense), and stative perspective or aspect (for the perfect and pluperfect tenses).

“Wholistic” may well work better than “aoristic,” and I’m open to using that language, though I still feel it’s too confusing, from a pedagogical standpoint, to use “stative” for “perfective.” Anyways, I hope you’re enjoying this discussion as much as I am. I’ve held conferences at SEBTS to discussthe synoptic problem,textual criticism, theauthorship of Hebrews, theending of Mark, and thestory of the adulteress, and I’m hoping that our gathering in 2019 will shed more light than heat on the topic of verbal aspect. As with so many other matters, “Let the discussion continue!”

8:55 AM Here are somegreat marathons for first time runners. 

7:40 AM Morning all! I’m feeling much better this morning after taking Airborne and getting a really good night’s sleep. There’s a 5K in Richmond tomorrow that I’m praying about. Might not run it though, just volunteer. We’ll see how I’m feeling today. Speaking of races, my son and daughter in Birmingham sent me this video of us finishing the half marathon with our hands raised over our heads like we had just won the race.

Such happy memories. Last night I was reading Hal Higdon’s book Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide, and on p. 44 he lists the top 11 reasons why people sign up for marathons. I found the list interesting and thought you might too.

1) Have been running shorter distances; moving up

2) For motivation: “If I can do this, I can do anything”

3) Inspired by others who ran marathons

4) To get in shape for health reasons

5) To lose weight

6) To cope with divorce or other traumatic lifestyle change

7) For the love of running

8) In memory of someone

9) Bucket list: something I always wanted to do

10) For mental health

11) To challenge myself

It’s surprising that “raising money for charity” isn’t on the list because that’s one of the main reasons I ran my first marathon last May. By God’s grace I was able to raise $7,000.00 for the hospital in Chapel Hill where Becky was treated. I think races also give us a chance to satisfy our God-given desire for wild adventure. If nothing else, races bring people together, even if it’s only through sweat and a sense of shared desperation to finish.

Right now, however, I’m focused on 1 Thessalonians. I want to complete my colon analysis of 2:17- this morning and then work on the paper I’m reading at the ETS Southwest Region meeting in Houston a week from today. The theme is “New in the Old and Old in the New,” with a plenary paper given by Greg Beale of Westminster Seminary. Here’s theschedule. My paper will cover the opening paragraph of Hebrews, where God’s speaking to the forefathers through the prophets is contrasted with His speaking directly to us through One who’s status is Son. This topic is as accidental as my discovery of linguistics back in the early 80s. Had I never dabbled in discourse analysis I would have never even thought of writing an essay for the Westminster Theological Journal on Heb. 1:1-4. As it turned out, that essay was the first of several forays into text-linguistics. At the same time, I also stumbled across the idea of challenging the modern (really, Old Testament) conception of pastors as some kind of Protestant priests. I became possessed by the idea that pastors are not called primarily todo the work of serving others but to prepare God’s people for serving others. I have become convinced that liberating the so-called laity is not merely an afterthought in the New Testament but one of its central themes. It’s much like runners do when we are helping less experienced runners get ready for a race. We watch for underdeveloped powers in these novice runners, draw them out of their self-limitations, and then help them to bring potentiality into reality. That this is a self-validating task should be obvious but it isn’t in many of our churches. Today is a time for radical transformation of the whole people (laos) of God into a ministering army. But only the Lord Himself can accomplish this. It is He who makes ministers. They can be developed by training but never created by it. Lord, do it today. Do it in my church and in my classrooms. First, do it in my own heart.

Thanks for reading,

Dave

Thursday, February 22   

8:35 PM If you were thinking about doing the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati this May, I’m afraid it’s too late to register. The Pig Pen is packed!

The full marathon has sold out, though there is a waiting list. Other races, including the half marathon, are nearing capacity. One of the best parts of racing is the comradery and the chance to spend time with other awesome runners. Runners are a very forgiving group of people. Even with our gross toenails and snot shooting from our nostrils like rockets, runners enjoy each other’s company. I have gotten so much encouragement, advice, and good vibes from my fellow runners and it’s meant the world to me. It’ll be good to get back to Cincy. Sure, the elevation climb from mile 5 to mile 8 is intimidating, but it isn’t all that bad. After that there are a lot of downhills. And the crowd support is nonstop from start to finish. Most important of all, there are aid stations every mile and so water is never an issue. It’s a tough race for sure but one I’ll never forget.

7:10 PM With only 16 days to go before a 10K race in Washington, DC (which I’m running with my daughter’s husband), I’ve started to sneeze and sniffle. Today was supposed to be a training day, but instead I’ve found myself confined to the house except for a few walks on the farm with Sheba. Thankfully, it’s not a full-blown head cold yet and maybe I still have time to nip it in the bud. I’m hoping this means that I still get in a couple of runs next week. As usual, I’m being impatient with myself. But the Lord apparently has other plans for me right now. Anyway, I just finished reading Cory Reese’s book Nowhere Near First and just have to share with you what he writes in chapter 23, which is called “The Tale of the Three Unwise Men.” After telling a story about going out too fast in a race, he offers his readers some tips about racing, whether you’re a beginner running your first 5K or someone who’s running their tenth 100-miler. I pass them on to you but I’m really listing them here for my own edification. Now if I can only heed what he says!

Here are his 9 tips:

1)Pace yourself. Cory says you have to train yourself to move at an uncomfortably slow pace at the beginning of a race so that you have enough juice to finish. He likens this to spreading peanut butter on a piece of bread. Go too fast and you’ll run out before reaching the end of the slice of bread. Go too slow and you’ll have a big clump of peanut butter at the end. “If you’re running a perfect race, your energy and effort should be spread evenly throughout the entire race.”

2)Be aware of where you are at in the race. A 5K race isn’t run the same way as an ultra marathon. Pace yourself and never let yourself become impatient.

3)Bank energy, not time. I think this was the tip I enjoyed the most. Again, you can’t go out too fast or you’ll end up doing the death shuffle at the end.

4)Be smart at aid stations. He means, when you arrive at an aid station, decide ahead of time what you’ll need and grab it quickly and purposefully. “Beware the chair,” he says. Amen to that. Sitting down during a long race rarely if ever makes anything better. I know. I’ve tried it.

5)Treat each training run and each race as an experiment. Learn from your mistakes and make needed changes for the next time around. There’s always something to learn from every run and every race. Even experienced racers are always trying to figure out new things.

6)Our bodies are incredible pieces of machinery.But we need to take care of them. (Read: Dave, it’s okay to rest when you have the sniffles.) He especially says we need to take care of our feet. Treating foot issues before they rear their ugly head is the key.

7)Give your pacers and crew explicit instructions before you race. Obviously this tip doesn’t apply to a short race like a 5K. His point is that if you have people pacing for you, make sure you discuss with them beforehand what kind of motivation works best for you. Should they go ahead of you or behind you? Do you want to avoid conversations or to engage in them while running? Make sure they understand that dropping out is not an option for you unless there’s a risk of injury.

8)Stay focused on nutrition and hydration. Again, this is something I’ve had to learn the hard way. It’s so easy to forget about drinking during a race. Then there’s the temptation of trying a new Goo at an aid station. You need to figure out what works for you and stick with that plan.

9)You (yes, YOU!), are capable of doing so much more than you know. “Go out and do something awesome,” he writes. “Take a step beyond that line of what is comfortable.” Yep. That’s exactly right. Nothing like running a long distance race to see what you’re made of. We’ll never experience the depth of living without taking risks. I just hope and pray that when I jump over that proverbial cliff, I’ll soar rather than fall flat.

I will say that I really enjoyed this book. Most of what I read I already knew. Still, it’s always an encouragement when a running moron like me is challenged to become a better runner. Maybe I should just stop complaining about not feeling good and appreciate that I’m able to run at all. I love what running has become in my life. I love the joy at watching what I can make this old body do. Thank you, Lord!

5:45 PM I’ve often told my students, “A great preacher is simple without being simplistic.” No one exemplified this truth more than Billy Graham. Watch his message, “Who Is Jesus?”

 

12:40 PM Hey there! This morning I was reading an interesting study documentingwhy so many teenagers are inactive.

“By the time individuals reach adolescence, most are already not engaging in enough physical activity and spend too much time sitting in front of video screens of one kind or another to meet national recommendations,” Gordon-Larsen said.

It only makes sense. Children love playing outdoors. But by the time we reach junior high school, facts become more important than activity. Now we have supervised physical activity called PE. Play is replaced by calisthenics. When I was in intermediate school, the ocean was my playground. Surfing was non-rational. Fitness, for me, was fun. Which is why I thought my PE classes were such a waste of time.

Today, all kinds of adults are rediscovering the playfulness of their childhood. Running, hiking, mountain climbing, surfing, swimming, cycling, tennis, skiing, rowing — all are gaining adherents who never look back. I’m one of them. Today I’m as physically active as I was when I was a child. The reason is simple: I found something I love doing. Unlike PE, which was pure drudgery, running is fun. The main thing is to keep experimenting until you find an activity you love. Maybe it will be a form of activity that never occurred to you before. The ancient Romans referred to the homo ludens — “the human who plays.” The happiest adults are those who are still children. They become a seamless union of mind, spirit, and body.

My philosophy of running? Don’t do it unless you absolutely can’t help it!

8:18 AM Odds and ends ….

1) 24 days to my next marathon. I can’t even guesstimate how I’m going to do. I guess I’ll find out. I’m trying to get my mind focused on the big race. I want to do 10 miles either today or tomorrow but that will depend on how quickly I recover from spending 3 days performing brain surgery (well, that’s how teaching feels like sometimes).

2) Got a huge dose of inspiration today from reading a blog post called8 Wake Up Calls You Need to Receive. The passing of Billy Graham reminded me that we never know when life will change and your loved one will be gone forever. If Becky were still here, I’d go over to her and give her a big hug and tell her much I love her. Friend, don’t miss a chance to tell someone you love how wonderful they are and how beautiful they are inside and out. Another point the article makes is that we don’t need to be afraid to fail. Even if I never finish the ultra marathon I’m running in April, I will forever be grateful (and astonished!) that I tried. “Swallow your pride; it’s not fattening,” someone has said. I couldn’t agree more.

3) It occurred to me that I’m turning 66 this year. What’s different? Not much. I feel like I’m 40, have felt like this for years. 66 is merely a number. I am at peace with myself. I know I will never qualify for Boston. I know I’ve reached the peak of my writing powers. Of course, I wish I could run in Boston and I wish I could writer better, but what matters even more to me is that I’m running the race of life with all my might. The person who wins the race and the person who finishes dead last are making the same effort. My goal is never happiness. Happiness is at best the by-product of striving to achieve all that God wants us to achieve in this life. There’s no time for dilly-dallying, folks. Whatever is necessary, do it now. So you’re getting old. So what? “There are no specific sensations of old age,” wrote E. M. Glasser in the British Medical Journal. “If you are well, you are just yourself, as you have always been.” I am, as far as I can tell, the same person who surfed the Pipeline when he was 16 and the same person who dated a tall Texan when he was 24 and the same person who wept at her funeral and the same person who enjoys teaching today as much as he did when he entered the classroom 42 years ago. If I cannot stay young, I can at least stay fresh. And that is my thought this day about aging.

4) The goal of our linguistics conference (see yesterday’s blog) is to jumpstart a conversation. What began with a few publications (my 1988 book on linguistics included) has become something that clatters, consumes, and confuses. So let the discussion continue. I see that the conference has already generated some online discussion. Honestly, I’m not surprised. We all desire a better understanding of what this “new perspective” is all about. In one post I read, somebody wondered out loud whether the conference papers would be published. I can assure you: that is exactly the intent of Dr. Merkle and myself. In fact, we discussed this yesterday before our faculty meeting and will begin very shortly contacting a potential publisher for the book. Fast forward a few years and, Lord willing, Greek teachers will have a book they can use in their Greek classes. Incidentally, I’m overwhelmed by God’s goodness, which seems to know no bounds. He is worthy of our adoration every single second of every single day. I’m hoping the conference will be a feast, a time to celebrate how the Creator made languages to work, an unmistakable shout out to the Lord of all.

5) Finally, here’s a Graham quote from Jonathan Merritt’sessay at the New York Times:

Evangelists cannot be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people, right and left. I haven’t been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future.

Then there’s this:

I came close to identifying the American way of life with the kingdom of God. Then I realized that God has called me to a higher kingdom than America. I have tried to be faithful to my calling as a minister of the Gospel.

Merritt concludes his essay with these words:

America’s preacher has left us, but we need him now more than ever.

Have a blessed day,

Dave

Wednesday, February 21   

8:54 PM I ran 4 miles yesterday in the fog at our local park in Wake Forest. I really wanted to run again this morning but my schedule was chockablock full. This is what the park looked like yesterday.

Afterwards I showered, got dressed, and went to the office to meet a student for lunch.

Briggs is one of the best American-style restaurants in town, and their sandwiches are out of this world. Like you, I have certain favorite places I like to eat. Briggs is my go-to place when I want a quiet conversation without television sets blaring.

So what else to report? This week we experienced a milestone in my Greek 2 classes. We began translating verses from the Greek New Testament instead of my made-up sentences. We sight-read in class and the students nailed verse after verse. I am so proud of them.

What else shall I mention? The registration page for our linguistics conference on campus went live this week. The link is foundhere.

The conference kicks off in April 2019. Friday’s speakers include Porter, Levinsohn, Hudgins, Buth, Halcomb, and Plummer.

Saturday features Campbell, Pennington, Aubrey, Runge, and Ellis.

You can sign up any time.  

Finally, Billy Graham is now in heaven. What a great soul. Everything for him was wrapped up in the Gospel. Sin, he said, is our problem, and when that problem is solved, everything else comes with it. It takes no talent to locate God’s men and women. Their hearts are perfect toward Him. This doesn’t mean they’re sinless. But their hearts are set on pleasing God. There’s nothing between their soul and the Savior. Here are two quotes by Billy Graham I just absolutely love.

I don’t think I could have ever married anybody that would have been more helpful to my work and ministry than she has been.

I want to hear one person say something nice about me, when I face him. I want him to say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

Billy Graham bore the loss of his precious Ruthie with grace and nobleness. He aged well. His was not a Pollyanna life. But he met every trial with Christ. Everyone knew here was no ordinary man. Wherever he went, he left a trail of blessing. His “business” was to glorify God, and glorify Him he did. That’s what we’re here for as Christians. In body and in spirit, in sickness or health, by what we do and what we don’t do, by life or by death, our business is to glorify God, whatever it takes. When Graham spoke in Honolulu in 1965, I sang in the choir. I was 13 years old. “I love the music that you have out here,” he said. “The spirit of aloha seems to be in your music. It seems to be in your expression, in your smile. I’ve never been to a state or a place where everyone seems to have a certain amount of happiness.” Happy or not, Hawaiians were going to hear the Gospel preached to them. Graham called for his audience to submit in uncompromising, unquestioning obedience every day of their lives.

Like the apostle Paul, Billy Graham had something to forget — “things behind.” He had things to reach toward — “things before.” There was something to press toward — “the mark.” And there was something to work for — “the prize” — and he worked for it (Phil. 3:13). He was kept going by Jesus. He labored in the strength of Another. This strength is not just for preachers. He will keep us going as well. “My sinful self my only shame; my glory all the cross.” I’m sure Billy Graham sung that many times. He gloried in Christ’s cross. He had died with Him there. And today he saw Christ face to face. Even in his death, Billy Graham is drawing people to the Savior. He knew that along with privilege goes responsibility. Where much is given, much is required. The Christian looks unto Jesus for salvation and for every need. All other “looking up” is vain. When our loved ones die, God is still on His throne. Indeed, the passing of Billy Graham is but a prelude to an endless story that will unfold throughout eternity. Thanks be to God.

Giver of peace, we work daily at the job of practicing what Paul said to the Philippians: “I’ve learned in whatever state I’m in to be content” (Phil. 4:11). When Your saints die, that attitude helps us to accept what cannot be changed. O God the Spirit, fill our minds at this moment with the memory of a life well lived, of a man whose witness and service for You we recall with gratitude and humility. Lord, even if we’re old clay, we can still be reworked. What we pray is that we may remain faithful as long as we last. Loving Savior, for the genuine encouragement You offer us by the faithful servants of the past, we thank You. Now help us to run our race with perseverance, so that one day we too may join the community of saints. Amen.

Monday, February 19   

7:34 AM Vituperation. Noun meaning abusive language, a sustained and bitter condemnation. Synonyms include invective, disparagement, vilification, scolding, condemnation, opprobrium, obloquy, castigation, attack, censure, vitriol, venom. From Latin vituperatio, from the past participle of vituperare, “disparage.” Examples include:

Four years later, in a contest marked by grotesque vituperation, Jefferson beat Adams.

Accordingly, Puerto Ricans experienced many of the same denigrating conditions familiar to African-Americans: housing segregation, inferior schools, job discrimination, media vituperation and everyday violence.

A more negative and ungodly human trait can scarcely be imagined. I once worked for a man in California who used abusive language constantly. It was a well-paying job so I overlooked his fault until one day he turned his opprobrium on me. The next day he had my resignation on his desk. (I’m ashamed it took me so long.) We humans tend to vilify others when we disagree with them. We revel in other people’s humiliation. Some of us vilify others by talking behind their backs. Others are happy to use abusive language in public. Nazi propaganda even published children’s books that vilified Jews. Last year Facebook and Twitterspent much of their time cataloguing Russia-backed ad spending on their sites to vilify certain presidential candidates in the 2016 election. Someone has said, “To bake a vilification cake, just add ignorance and stir.” All wrong recoils upon the vilifier. He or she finds ugliness attractive. Edgar Allan Poe once wrote, “To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.” If I were to call someone “very insecure,” “lightweight,” “totally unhinged,” “dishonest,” “totally biased,” “a total loser,” or “sick” in public, odds are that I’d only be describing myself.

People seem to vilify others more in politics than other fields of endeavor. John Ehrlichman, a key player in the Watergate scandal, once famously said:

The Nixon Campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar Left, and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black. But by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.

Ehrlichman was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy and sent to prison.

The reason I’m bringing this up? In our passage for the week, 1 Thess. 2:13-16, Paul is said by some scholars to be using vituperation/invective. One commentator, for example, refers to Paul’s “attack on the Jewish people.” He says that Paul and other New Testament writers used “vituperation directed at the Jewish people as a tool in the struggle,” never dreaming “of the consequences of their statements on subsequent generations.” Well, I’m not buying it. As Willi Marxsen has shown, an anti-Semitic interpretation of 1 Thess. 2:13-16 can be held only when these verses are disconnected from their context (Einleitung in das Neue Testament, pp. 48ff.). I’ve already blogged about the punctuation at the end of verse 14. The difference is between restrictive and non-restrictive clauses. So if you punctuate the text as is commonly done (“… the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus…”), I think you’re missing Paul’s point big time. A more accurate rendering, in my view, would be:

You suffered the same persecutions from the people of your own country as they did from those Jews who killed the Lord Jesus (ISV).

It’s clear that Paul’s words are directed at only those Jews who were hostile towards the Gospel and, indeed, his words aren’t aimed at Jewish opponents alone, insofar as the readers’ own countrymen (who were Gentiles) were attempting to thwart Paul’s evangelistic efforts. In class Tuesday night we’ll talk about this subject. We have to. A large part of exegesis comes down to observing carefully the details of a passage. It requires us to disabuse ourselves of our attachment to modern marks of punctuation (which for the most part are merely the contributions of editors). It all boils down to a close reading of the text, a willingness to consider the context, and an ability to read commentaries discerningly and even suspiciously.

Is vituperation a characteristic of the world’s most loving and selfless apostle? I think not. Such a character flaw is only descriptive of small people. Very small people.

Sunday, February 18   

6:45 PM So what am I doing tonight? I can tell you what I’m not doing. Reading a certain man’s Twitter account filled with misspellings and profanity. Let’s see. I watched a fabulous interview with Gov. John Kasich about gun laws. I perused several websites on textual criticism. And most important of all, I’ve been listening to the fabulous music of Gabrieli, including my all-time favorite composition of Andrea called Aria della Battaglia.

How beautiful these wind instruments! Great intonation, and I speak as a (former) trumpet player. This music is paradise. Chills all over. All I hear is the beauty of each individual’s musicianship collectively playing together in an unforgettable moment in time. Would that our nation could do the same.

3:54 PM When I woke up this morning I knew it was going to be a perfect day for training. After enjoying a hearty breakfast and making sure the animals were fed and watered, I drove an hour to one of my favorite spots on Planet Earth, historic Farmville, VA. As you can see, Southside Virginia was as beautiful as ever.

First up on my agenda was to attend a Jesus community in Farmville that I’ve come to know and love ever since I first started training in that town for my 2015 climb in the Alps. The message today focused on Paul’s arduous trip to Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey (Acts 20-21).

More on that later. Eventually I arrived at the start of my workout.

I knew I would either be doing a 10K run or a 13.1 mile bike ride. I decided to do the half marathon distance in honor of the race I did with my kiddos exactly a week ago in Birmingham. (Wow! Was that only a week ago? Tempest fidgets, as the Romans would say!) The trail was practically deserted for a Sunday afternoon.

The Olympics you think? I did eventually bump into an older couple out for a walk and they graciously agreed to snap my photo for prosperity.

As you can witness, it took me an hour and 14 minutes to cycle 13.1 miles at an average speed of 10.6 mph — which sounds fast until you realize that elite marathoners run 26.2 miles at a speed of 12 mph. Egads.

Then I pigged out on a wonderful Reuben’s Sandwich at the local hole in the wall. Pure deliciousness!

As for today’s sermon, the verse that stuck out to me during the message was Acts 20:13.

Here we read that Paul’s companions sailed from Troas to Assos while Paul decided to hoof it. Paul’s motives for wanting to walk to Assos while the others sailed are unknown, but my guess is that he was glad to have a couple of days of solitude. Incidentally — and I found this factlet most interesting! — the distance between Troas and Assos is 20 miles, which we all know is the exact distance marathoners run before tapering in preparation for race day — which obviously means that Paul was a marathoner. Little wonder I enjoy the sport so much! Anyhoo, I’m so grateful to God for granting us such a gorgeous day after a fairly rainy week. I love where I live. I love training on deserted trails. I love the solitude, miles from the maddening crowds. No traffic. No shopping centers. Just wide open spaces. The bottom line is that cycling perfectly complements your running routine and weight training program. Without the stress of impact, you can train your cardiovascular system and bring it up to speed.

Time to dust off that old bike of yours?

7:56 AM If you’re into running (even a 5K), you need to check out Strava’sRunning Pace Calculator. So I’ve got 8 hours to complete a 50K race (31 miles). If I run/walk at a 4 mph pace (= 15 min./mile), I can finish in 7:46:02 — which is a relief, because I suspect that I’ll be doing a lot of walking, especially on the hills. 

Love these gadgets! 

7:34 AM Phillip Long continues his two-part discussion of the warning passage in Hebrews 6here. He argues that the passage “… is a rhetorical strategy, to describe the worst case imaginable, then show how the reader has not gone quite that far yet.” That’s a possible interpretation for sure. But then he uses an analogy that, I think, overstates his case:

For example, I might tell my students, “you will fail Greek if you do not study for the exam!” to encourage them to study, although I know that none of them will fail the exam because I have fully equipped them for success. Some might struggle more than others, but I have given them the necessary tools to pass the exam.

Here’s where I agree and disagree with this analogy. I’m sure all of us Greek teachers do our very best to equip our students to pass their exams. But does that guarantee they will all pass? How can we know that “none of them will fail the exam” for certain? We simply can’t. There are no guarantees, despite our best efforts. I might put it this way: Learning doesn’t always occur even when good teaching takes place. I’m sure my high school Algebra 2 teacher was a fantastic instructor, but I failed the class anyway. Each of us, I’m sure, would eagerly love to have a handle on this passage. But the debate is a shifting debate. This shouldn’t surprise us. This is how scholarship works. Scholars put forth their arguments (with their analogies) and receive counterarguments in return. I’ve read both of Phillip’s essays and have benefited and been enriched by them. This invites all of us, myself included, to approach this passage humbly and charitably.

7:15 AM A few quotes from Cory Reese’sNowhere Near First: Ultramarathon Adventures from the Back of the Pack.

• As many runners can attest, a 5K is merely a planted seed which later blooms into a desire to run a half marathon, and then a marathon.

• Almost all races have one thing in common: a finish line. Runners begin at the starting line, and each step they take brings them closer to the finish line. Looking into the future or doing math about your pace can be incredibly demoralizing and discouraging during an ultramarathon.

• We are capable of so much more than we know. An ultramarathon is an opportunity to share the trail with people who are willing to push past their limits and do something amazing.

• The heart and soul of running is about pushing hard, being determined, and fighting through adversities.

Even if you’re not a runner, I think you would enjoy this book.

6:58 AM Love unselfishly and sacrificially. Even if you get nothing in return. That’s genuine love. That’s Christ’s love.

Love is very patient,
Love is very kind,
Love is never envious
Or vaunted up with pride.

Nor is she conceited,
And never is she rude,
Never does she think of self,
Or ever get annoyed.

She never is resentful,
Is never glad with sin,
But always glad to side with truth,
When ‘er the truth should win.

She bears up under everything,
Believes the best in all,
There is no limit to her hope,
And never will she fall.

(For more New Testament poetry, gohere.)

Saturday, February 17   

7:18 PM Back to our discussion of 1 Thess. 2:13-16 for a minute. Verse 13 is a real hoot in the Greek.

I confess to being a complete fanatic when it comes to rhetorical devices in the Greek New Testament. A complete weirdo, in fact. Take a look at verse 13. Here Paul writes, in effect, “when you received the word of hearing from us of God.” I told you it was a hoot. I once wrote an essay calledLiterary Artistry in the Epistle to the Hebrews. There I noted several instances of what’s called hyperbaton. Hyperbaton involves the separation of words that naturally belong together. Here are a few examples from Hebrews:

That’s just crazy cool. Here in 1 Thess. 2:13 we’re stuck with a conundrum. Does “of God” belong with “word” or with “hearing”? And why does Paul separate “of God” from its noun phrase? Some scholars think that the words “of God” are redundant if they refer to “word.” Isn’t every word preached by the apostle Paul the word “of God”? Or is “of God” being set apart for the sake of emphasis? (I tend to think so.)

I am no expert in rhetorical criticism, but boy the difference a simple rhetorical device can make!

6:28 PM Two quick thoughts about the Florida shooting:

1) In a world where a fatally wounded Devil is still active, I’m not sure there can be any easy answers. As Jacque Ellul often pointed out in his various writings, Christian participation in the political process depends on a myriad of factors and is a continuum from political engagement on the one hand to countercultural disengagement on the other. These are the two poles I personally struggle with since they allow for a broad range of roles for the church. Either way, the church should never be seen as disinterested in social justice issues, even as it doggedly refuses to define “success” as political power. 

2) “Thoughts and prayers” are certainly not enough when a community is suffering. But the opposite danger is also true. To view prayer as a cop-out is simply unbiblical. As Paul often reminded his readers, prayeris action. As the very least, we can pray for the families of the dead, for those who were wounded, and for those who are suffering from PTSD. We can pray for wisdom for our government officials as we are commanded to do in the New Testament. We can pray for wisdom as our nation begins yet another gun debate. (One of the greatest acts of vulnerability and courage is to listen with the exact same amount of passion with which we want to be heard.) But pray we must. Nothing opens a window into our personal walk with Jesus quite like the role that prayer plays in our lives. So when we say that thoughts and prayers are not enough, that our nation must act, let’s not think that action is a substitute for prayer, because it’s not.

I just watched the powerful video of survivor Emma Gonzalez. Those teens are on a mission. It reminded me of the passion I had in high school when my surfing buddies and I spoke out against the paving of Paradise. “Save Our Surf” (SOS) can’t compare, of course, to what just happened in Florida. Are we listening? I’m reminded of the words of Alvin Tofler:

The secret message communicated to most young people today by the society around them is that they are not needed, that the society will run itself quite nicely until they — at some distant point in the future — will take over the reigns. Yet the fact is that the society is not running itself nicely…. [The] rest of us need all the energy, brains, imagination and talent that young people can bring to bear down on our difficulties.

I, for one, am listening to you, students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. I am praying for you and for our nation. I feel your pain and sorrow. May God grant you healing, and may He grant us all wisdom, for He is indeed concerned about justice, shalom, and social-cultural transformation.

12:12 PM One of my favorite things about the sport of running is not running. This morning I woke up at 5:00 am tired and, besides, the weather was just plain too lousy for me to drive all the way to Chapel Hill for a 30-minute run in the cold and rain. I don’t mind missing this race. My money was already paid up front, and for a great cause too. Rest days are just as important as workout days. They allow your body to grow stronger. By resting, you give yourself permission to recover from the stress and impact of the training cycle. Running is all about listening to your body. No training or running program needs to be followed slavishly. So today I’m allowing my body to rejuvenate and grow stronger. I’m kicking my feet up and just chillaxing.

My new motto is: Work hard … but don’t forget to rest. 

8:58 AM This week in Greek 4 we’re going through 1 Thess. 2:13-16. What a fascinating passage!

What I find incredibly interesting about this paragraph is the way Paul switches from aorist tense participles to present tense participles.

I’ve seen this pattern elsewhere, except in reverse order. Here the switch is extremely important exegetically.

One of the continuing hotbeds of discussion in Pauline studies is whether or not this passage can be used to suggest that Paul was in some way anti-Semitic. I’ve striven hard to consider the evidence with evenhanded fairness, but I really don’t think there’s any way this text shows that Paul had an animus against his Jewish brethren. This debate is one of the most volatile in the church today and will merit in-depth discussion on Tuesday. I love the emphasis in 1 Thessalonians on apologetics and evangelism. I like the way students are being exposed to Paul’s philosophy of ministry. I especially love exploring with them the implications of the text for teaching and praxis. Any course in exegesis that fails to do this is doomed to irrelevance.

8:06 AM FromThe Authorship of Hebrews: The Case for Paul:

Today, I’m intrigued to note how often exegetical arguments are based upon subjective internal evidence. Arguably, this is not the best way to approach exegetical conundrums when there is an abundance of external evidence to be considered. I would prefer that our students be exposed to all of the evidence, even data that are contrary to the consensus opinio. I fear that much of the trouble goes back to the way we do theological training. Thus one will rarely (if ever) hear that “there is strong (although not probative) internal evidence and solid external evidence for the Paulinity of the epistle [to the Hebrews].” Now, I can see some force in arguments to the contrary, but to ignore the primary data is beyond comprehension.

Friday, February 16   

7:20 PM I still can’t believe I’m running my first ultra marathon in only 7 weeks. If I succeed, it will be like knocking off the peak of Everest. I used to read about ultra runners, about how they would use marathons as training runs for their ultras, and now I’m doing that very thing. I just hope and pray I can get to the starting line injury-free. My first ultra. Life sure is a crazy journey and we keep learning along the way. Perhaps the greatest wisdom of all is realizing just how much wisdom you lack. Maybe the thing that’s surprised me the most is how welcoming the running community is. Back in the 60s, running used to be a “member’s only” club. Now a runner is someone who runs — no matter how fast, how long, how far. We run because we love it. It’s about the journey, not the end.

Run gently out there,

Dave

6:10 PM FromLinguistics for Students of New Testament Greek:

An organized whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That’s why discourse analysis is so important in New Testament studies!

1:20 PM What a great morning it’s been! Got my 5K in. Watched Nate spread fertilizer. (You know the saying: “I love work. I can watch it all day.”)

Visited with my Person County grandkids.

They are so sweet!

Last but not least, what do yall think of this church sign I saw on my drive today?

Don’t you love it? Reminds me of a great book Joe Hellerman wrote calledWhen the Church Was a Family. One of the things we’re trying to do in our NT 1 class is to study carefully the biblical nature of the church. My own thinking about the church has benefited immeasurably by books like Joe’s. The church is a family where everyone has a role to play. But when we insist on a clergy-laity division, we exclude 90 or 95 percent of all followers of Jesus. By the way, I think I’ve come up with the perfect replacement for “churches.” I want to start calling them Jesus communities. I know this must appear like a frivolous suggestion. But the way we talk about the church — the speech patterns we use — reflect and reinforce our concepts about the church, be they biblical or unbiblical. If, for example, we banned “layperson” from our vocabulary, this might force us to rethink how “ministry” should take place in our Jesus communities. Each member of the family of God is involved in “the work of the ministry” in some way or another. These small steps toward renewal don’t mean that we have to reject the institutional church. But they might just help us to be honest and open to rethinking the wineskins. “The Family of God.” Should this not be a mark of evangelicalism’s “unity in truth”? Hope so!

7:55 AM Odds and ends ….

1) Anthony Zurcher of the BBC is correct: One side wants to talk about nothing but mental health. The other side wants to talk about nothing but gun control. And Washington will do nothing. Again. ReadOne Shooting, two Americas. I’m well-armed, as is everyone who operates a farm. But I see no reason whatsoever to allow a 19-year old to purchase a semiautomatic rifle when he can’t even buy a can of beer. I’m horrified at the deaf ears of our leaders. To those who say that semi-automatic assault rifles should be made illegal nationwide, I say more power to you. By the way, this is simply my personal opinion. It’s not a “Christian” position. And I know there is no absolute political answer to the problem. I’m just baffled when godly and sincere people are even against background checks. Our leaders can and should do better.

2) MacDonald’s is taking cheeseburgers out of Happy Meals? What is this world coming to? I guess we’ll have to call it an Unhappy Meal from now on.

Fact of the matter is: Eating an occasional cheeseburger won’t affect your health in the least. Good health depends on your overall lifestyle and eating habits. And this is where we fail as a society. We can all do better. One step at a time. One meal at a time.

3) For you Bible geeks out there, I just posted a new Power Point calledThe Great Commission. It’s a quasi-argument against the view that “nations” in the Gospel Commission of Jesus is referring to “people groups.” (For the Power Point to work properly, be sure to download and open it before viewing.) I’ve also posted acollection of sermon outlines of 1 Thess. 1:6-10. There’s always something new at our Greek Portal!

4) The bestrunning apps. Yes, Map My Run is included.

5) Paul Himes asks,Can Christians eat sushi? I sure hope so!

Thursday, February 15   

9:46 PM Oh. Almost forgot. Nate and Jess came over today to load up some hay. Which meant that I got to see my boys. Here I am helping Graham.

Nolan, of course, insisted on moving the bales himself.

Bradford discovered that bales couldjust as easily be pushed as carried.

Meanwhile, Peyton thought the goats should get the leftovers. How cute!

And Chesley? He was the supervisor.

Love them boys!

9:14 PM There are so many good, God things going on right now I hardly know where to start. First off, my daughter Matthea has been blogging again. If you’ve ever experienced major loss and deep, inconsolable grief, you definitely HAVE to read the essay she posted today. It’s calledDoes God love me?  A few years ago, Jon and Matthea lost their full term baby named Kai. Just writing that sentence brings tears to my eyes. I was at the hospital and held baby Kai in my arms. This was about a year after Becky had passed away. Together, Jon and Matthea and I discovered something through our pain: That it’s virtually impossible to handle grief through human strength alone. Now, years later, we are able to look back on our experiences and see that the struggle in our souls was only resolved by what Matthea calls submission to truth, especially the truth that nothing, NOTHING, can separate us from the love of God. I thank God every night that He answered our prayers for spiritual healing, for giving us the assurance that He is in control even though He also assigns to us the ability to use our freedom to make good choices about how we handle grief and to remain faithful to Him even when the world all around us is screaming at us to forsake Him. Matthea’s essay is a stark reminder that while God covets our love, He will never coerce us into a relationship. It’s something we must choose. And we have. We have chosen to see our good God for who He is, even though we will never comprehend His sovereignty. I have made peace with the past. So have Jon and Matthea. So must you, my friend. If God is there to welcome our precious loved ones into heaven, He’s also there to give us reason and courage to keep going and to continue believing.

One way people handle their grief and loss is by leveraging it for something good. This Saturday I’m registered to run in the Carolina Fever Fight Cancer 5K in Chapel Hill, on the same campus where Becky was treated for 4 long years. I’ve done this event twice already. I love this race. It’s a way I can pay back the fine people at UNC for their tender care and aggressive treatment of Becky’s endometrial cancer, which is the most common form of cancer that attacks a woman’s reproductive organs. This year alone, over 63,000 new cases of endometrial cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S., and over 11,000 women will die from that disease. Becky was a woman of incomparable courage. She had a spirit of prayer far beyond the ordinary for our times. She challenged so many (me included) to serve a world that often languishes under misery. I will run this race for her and for every woman who suffers or will suffer from this terrible disease. Becky loved the people at UNC. So do I. It will be fun being back there again.

As for my “streak” running, today I got in a 5K at the Tobacco Heritage Trail in South Boston. I know that streak running has its pros and cons. But right now this is where I’m at. It doesn’t mean that I’ll stop cross training. Why, today I lifted at the Y for a good 45 minutes. Nor does it mean I’ll go all out every day. The run streak, by the way, seems to have arisen from, basically, boredom. Marathoning is now old hat for many runners. For others who have gone on to run in ultra races, even super-long-distance races can lose their fizzle. For them, running every day gives them a good challenge to put their mind to. It’s sort of like reading your Greek New Testament every day. It’s actually quite fun to see whether you can keep up that pace. My goal is to mix up my running styles so that I don’t grow bored of running. There are 8 basic types of running. They’re called:

• Base run

• Progression run

• Long run

• Fartlek (no emails, please)

• Intervals

• Tempo run

• Hill repeats

• Recovery run

Today I did a tempo run where you perform at the fastest pace you can sustain for a certain period of time. At one point I was able to get up to 9 mph for a quarter of a mile — a first for me. I did this several times, interspersing walking in between. Tomorrow I think I’ll try a base run, which you do at your natural pace and which is not meant to be overly challenging. Then Saturday is race day. I really want to place in my age group but there aren’t any group awards this time around. That won’t stop me, of course, from running hard (I tend to overdo things in 5K races). Not gonna lie, I’m becoming quite competitive in my old age!

Finally (for now), here’s alink to Tuesday’s powerful and prophetic chapel message by Thabiti Anyabwile.

He asks, “Why isn’t there more preaching about justice in our churches?” I agree completely. Passages such as Rom. 13:1-7 and 13:8-14 make it clear that political ethics can’t be separated from the ethics of love and justice. True ethics demands charismatic responsibility. Thabiti considers it a very dangerous thing when we flatten the word “justice” to refer only to justification and imputation. He suspects that not one in a 100 pastors gets this right. “Preachers preach doctrine where the Bible is preaching duty.” Duty and doctrine can’t substitute one for the other, he says. Both are important. “It’s like giving birth to twins and saying to the doctor, ‘I only want to leave with one.'” Beginning at 48:08 he turns to the “current evangelical attachment to our president.” Don’t miss this part, folks. Principle, he says, has been abandoned for political power and pragmatism. I have rarely heard words so powerful. Thabiti approached his topic with wisdom, pastoral sensitivity, and love. His message is one all of us could profit from.

Well, gotta go and spend some time with Sheba. She is aging before my very eyes and some day I won’t have her bark welcoming me home. “Live each day as if it were your last.” What, my friend, are you doing, if anything, to make your life what you want it to become? Make each day count. I’ll try to as well.

Blessings!

Dave

7:55 AM Last night I was so tired I couldn’t blog about everything I wanted to. So I’m going to make up for it this morning before heading off to the Y. We’ll call this post “potpourri.”

1) The spirit of volunteerism was out in full force during Sunday’s race. I loved seeing so many church groups literally passing out cups of cold water in Jesus’ name. This sign stood in front of one of these church buildings.

Inspiring! By the way, I’ve been collecting my humble thoughts about running in a little book I’ve started writing. I think I’m going to call it From Side Line to Finish Line: How the Sport of Running Changed My Life Forever. 

2) While in BH I had the joy of visiting Matthea’s new booth at one of the local malls. She sells jewelry and natural soap made by women escaping poverty and human trafficking. Please check outFreegrance and support this fantastic ministry if you can.

P.S. Matthea has a wonderful blog called Nevertheless. Her latest post is calledUnloved.

3) Here is Jon and Matthea’s Sheltie named Galana. She’s my Sheba’s daughter. Ain’t she sweet?

4) Karis Lynn is almost walking. Unbelievable.

Reminds me of this quote by Mitch Alborn:

Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them — a mother’s approval, a father’s nod — are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand. Their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.

5) The owner of the Ethiopian restaurant in BH loved Becky’s book.

So grateful she could finish writing it before she passed away. It continues to minister to so many! Blessed be His name.

6) One thing I’ve learned about running is that there’s no one-to-one correlation between your finish time and the joy you experience out on the course. As you can see, I came in dead last in my age group (65-69) and am right proud of it.

I think I probably could have finished the race with a time of around 2:45, but nothing was going to keep me from running with my kids. The main differences between the three of us and the top finishers are related to genetics and priorities. Otherwise, our accomplishments were identical!

7) It may sound trite to say it, but no race can be successful without an army of volunteers and a whole host of uniformed officers keeping the streets safe for us runners. Every chance I got I tried to say a hearty “Thank you” to every volunteer I saw and to give a high five to the people standing between me and the traffic. No one who has ever run a race is ungrateful to these men and women.

8) Speaking of races, yesterday I purchased my plane tickets for my trip to Cincy in May for the Flying Pig Extravaganza.

This will mark the anniversary of my first marathon. Right now, as you read this post, there are millions of Americans who want to run a marathon but they’re only dreaming. They aren’t doing it. When I stood at the start of last year’s race, I realized that I was trying something that 99 percent of the population has never tried. You don’t dream your way into the marathon club. You earn it. Once they place that medal around your neck, it becomes a symbol of your willingness to not only dream big to act on your dream. Some people compete in marathons. Others complete marathons. But the sport is big enough to embrace us all.

9) Yesterday I started streaking. No, not that kind of streaking. I’m going to try and run every day until my marathon on March 18. I need to get more miles on these legs of mine before I attempt another long-distance race. Plus, there’s my first ultra marathon to prepare for on April 8. Since I’m such a sucker for books about running, I decided to get this volume with what I thought was a super duper title. Hopefully I can pick up some good ideas about running my first 50K race.

10) This could go on forever! One more pic and I’m done! I just want to give a shout out to God for the amazing work He did in getting my Greek grammar into Spanish and now Mandarin.

To think that my beginning textbook is now available in the world’s three most-widely spoken languages — well, it blows my mind. My prayer is that God would somehow use these books to demystify Greek and show readers how mere mortals like me can learn to master a foreign language.

Waddling on,

Dave

Wednesday, February 14   

6:48 PM Hey everybody, and Happy Valentine’s Day to you. As you know, last Sunday was RACE DAY! It was my 11th half marathon and Jon and Matthea’s first.

Here’s a brief recap:

I arrived in Birmingham on Thursday. Since I was going to be in Alabama for the race on Sunday, I wanted to spend as much time with the Glasses as possible. We even found an Ethiopian restaurant in town and had a marvelous meal together.

On Friday, Jon and I did a 5K run through a local subdivision adjacent to a gorgeous park.

The day was sunny and even a little on the warm side.

All that was about to change, however. The weekend turned out to be cloudy and rainy, but nothing could dampen our spirits. We were running a HALF MARATHON!!! We made our way to the expo in downtown Birmingham. The drive there only took half an hour. There we got our race numbers and Jon and Matthea got new stickers for their cars.

Time to replace their 10K stickers with ones that read 13.1!

The expo was on the smallish side but exciting nonetheless. On Sunday morning we woke up incredibly early because we wanted plenty of time to eat a good breakfast and find parking at the venue. The food at the Waffle House was just what the doctor ordered.

When we arrived in downtown Birmingham, we had about an hour to wait before the race began. I don’t know about Matthea and Jon, but I was a bit nervous. I’m always nervous before a race. You never know how those last 3 or 4 miles will go. Eventually we found our way to the back of the pack and waited for the race to begin.

Step by step we slowly shuffled forward, a sense of excitement filling our hearts, and suddenly we were off.

We were feeling good. Our running pace was a manageable one, and we often took walk breaks to keep our legs fresh.

I didn’t think the hills were all that bad. We seemed to chug up those hills just fine. As we neared the 12-mile marker the excitement began to build. We decided to run the last 100 yards or so and join hands as we finished the race. I can tell you, we put whatever power we had left in our legs to cross that finish line. There we hugged and celebrated the end of the race. “You did it!” I said to Jon and Matthea. “You really did it!” We got our medals and then I asked someone to snap our picture.

We broke no records on Sunday. In fact, we finished at the very back of the pack. Did that matter? Not in the least. We had set out to slay the Mercedes Half Marathon dragon and we had done it — together.

After the race we went inside to the post-race party. Jon and Matthea were radiant with joy, as well they should have been. The half marathon is the most popular race in America save for the 5K. I can certainly see why. Just look at the smiles on Jon and Matthea’s faces.

We ate barbeque and chips and then drove back home to shower and nap, still glowing in our runners’ “high.” As I rested that afternoon, it occurred to me why we ran that day. It wasn’t to escape from reality. It wasn’t to win a prize. It wasn’t even for the gorgeous medal. We ran because we love the sport. Running has become a part of our lives. For me, the best part of the race was watching the determination on Jon and Matthea’s faces as they approached the finish line. By this time, many people were walking, but not Jon and Matthea. They were going to fly across that finish line even it killed them.

“Go, go, go!” a spectator yelled. “You’re almost there!” The race may have been slow and agonizing, but they kept moving forward. As is often said, running a race is a parable about life. You just keep on taking step after step after step as your legs weep quietly. Even when you begin walking, you never stop. Jon and Matthea had both gone farther than they had ever gone in training. They ran into uncharted territory like a bulldog chasing a rabbit. They stuck to their race plan, and it worked. They crossed the finish line with their heads held high and with praise in their hearts to the God who gave them the strength to run that day. The race was a gauntlet testing their bodies, their minds, and even their souls. And that’s the lesson from participating in a long-distance race. You learn that life is lived in exactly the same way. One step at a time. In the end, the experience was more than any of us could have ever hoped for it to be.

Such a happy race and such a happy day in Birmingham! Jon and Matthea, I am so very very proud of you!

Thursday, February 8   

7:56 AM The high in Birmingham on race day will be 67, with a 57 percent chance of rain. Yes, runners race in the rain. Raining or not, most people can run a half marathon in about 2 hours. My PR is 2:27 (Petersburg, VA). I usually finish in a little less than 3 hours. But there’s 3 of us running and we’ll probably want to stick together. I hope when we cross the finish line that our form will be a little bit better than this. 

Whatever our finish time, it will be an incredible experience. This afternoon Jon and I will be driving the course. There are some “hills” I’m told along the route. If these “hills” are anything thing like the ones I experienced in the Cincy marathon last May, we had better hire a Sherpa. I hope we can get to the race venue early on Sunday morning. If you’ve never been to a big race before, it will be an awesome experience. There’s so much to take in. You can feel the anticipation the moment you arrive. As you make your way to the starting line and the horn sounds, you can’t help but let out out a primordial scream of excitement. You’re actually running a half marathon! I still have to talk with Jon and Matthea about our pace. 13.1 miles is no joke. When I first started running half marathons, I went out of the starting block like it was the Kentucky Derby. I would hitch up with a pace team that I knew was going to run faster than I was capable of sustaining over the entire distance of the race. These days I start out much slower, usually at the back of the pack so that I’m not jostled about too much. If I can turn it up a notch as the race proceeds, I’ll do it. If not, I’m happy to settle into my usual (slow) pace. The main thing to remember is not to try anything new on race day — a rule I am sorely tempted to break since I just picked up my new running shoes in Raleigh on Tuesday. Don’t worry. I’m leaving them at home. A half marathon is no place to break in new shoes. Or to try something new for breakfast. Or to try a new brand of socks. As for hydration and fueling, I usually just depend on the water stations to have everything I need. I like to run light, though I will often carry a candy bar with me just in case. My policy is to eat something nutritious about mile 8. I don’t plan to run between now and race day. My goal right now is to hang up the running shoes for a couple of days and be well rested for the race.

I want to thank my family for their support of my running. In fact, they put up with every weird thing that I do. Thank you so much for being there for me. You guys rock! I especially want to thank my daughter who, 3 years ago, told me I needed to start running. See what you started, girl? Running, like love, is very simply yet very mysterious. When I finally discovered that I would run for the rest of my life, everything changed. This weekend I’ll only be adding to the mosaic of my life as a runner. And every month, every weekend, every day that I run, I’m closer to heaven. I am unapologetically an advocate of running. And to think that I can run this weekend with two of my kids? The very thought makes me giddy.

For everyone looking to discover themselves, this sport is for you. More and more people are jumping on this band wagon. Maybe it’s time you did too?

Wednesday, February 7   

7:14 PM I’m sill ALIVE! Was another lovely but hectic stay on campus. Taught my four classes and otherwise tried to get some significant writing done. On Monday I took our visiting scholar, John Meade, out for Mexican food. He teaches Old Testament at Phoenix Seminary and is here working on a book on the Hexapla.

We debated whether California or Arizona has better Mexican cuisine and ended up agreeing it’s pretty much a wash. What a great guy and what an honor to have him on campus for the semester. Also, hat’s off to my Greek students for doing so well on their quiz over chapter 15 this week. I sent them home with their first exam — a review of the entire indicative mood. Congrats, y’all, for arriving at this important juncture in your studies. I’m so proud of you!

This weekend, as you know, I’ll be traveling to Birmingham to race on Sunday. My kids tell me we’ll be eating Ethiopian food one night while I’m there. You heard me right. BH has more than one Ethiopian restaurant if you can believe it. Jon and Matthea are awesome, but I’m really going there to spoil my five grandkids. By the way, I have to say I feel like I’m back at the University of Hawaii in 1973 taking my two required American history courses while living through the Watergate hearings (live and direct from DC). I can’t help but sense that another showdown at the OK Corral is right around the bend, pardner. Worried? Nope. Concerned? Yep. When the Ephesians turned to God from idols, the makers of the images started a riot. Today, the shrine makers to Diana are so little troubled by our “Christianity” that they stage no protest. “Go along to get along.” Have we made a pact with the “Christianity” of this godless generation and agreed not to arouse its antagonism? Maybe we need more Ephesians and Philippians-like awakenings even if they land Paul and Silas in jail. As we saw in our 1 Thessalonians study this week, when Paul led a person to Christ, the devil lost a customer. Friends, it’s not our main business, as Christians, to denounce this or that political party or administration official, although that certainly has its place (and I’m sorely tempted to do more of it in these pages). The fact is, we are all politicians more or less, in a mad scramble for the top seats of power and prestige in this world of ours. Jesus says, “Want the highest seats? Then be prepared for a demotion.” It is a humiliating time in our history when American evangelicals should be red-faced with shame for our glory-seeking.

The only real truth is in Christ and the only way to be different is to be a real Christian. Run-of-the-mill church membership just won’t cut it. A true follower of Jesus is neither conformed to this world nor merely non-conformed to this world, but istransformed by the renewing of his or her mind to prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. True Christianity is the real revolution going on in the world today, my friends. The only allegiance followers of Jesus have is to, well, Jesus. This isn’t to say we can’t be involved in political debates or translate our values into politics. But I’m not to be worried about any of this. As a follower of Christ, I’m commissioned to manifest the reign of God in every area of life. Our call as Christians is to be in the present what the entire world will look like in the future, when the reign of God comes to complete fruition. In the meantime, this means translating the word of God into living epistles known and read by all. No Bible translation is quite as effective as the flesh and blood edition. May we all be true translations in letter and in spirit. Faithfulness is our motivation, faithfulness in even such mundane details as taking care of farm animals and making sure they have food and water. (My forthcoming book Godworld will explore this theme in greater detail.) I take animal care seriously because I’m a follower of King Jesus, if that makes any sense. He is Lord of all creation.

Well, its time to run and do my household chores. I’m a bit behind, as usual.

Stay centered in the King!

Dave

Monday, February 5   

5:55 AM Guess what? In April I’m going to try something brand spanking new. I’m “ultra” excited about it, too. Get the hint? Yessiree. I took the plunge and signed up for my first ever 50K run. It’s called the Mountains-to-Sea Trail 12M and 50K Challenge and will be held on Sunday, April 8. The course follows a single track through the woods around Falls Lake in North Raleigh. Now, if this were a 50K road race on concrete, you could count me out. But a hiking trail? What’s to worry about — except logs, roots, low-hanging branches, quick turns, and water. The course has a VERY generous time limit of 8 hours. A marathon is 42.2 kilometers, and my average marathon time (based on the 7 marathons I’ve done) is about 6:00 hours. According to some smart doohickey I found online called Strava, I can actually calculate my potential finish time for a 50K race by inputting my average pace. If I run a 14-minute mile pace, I can expect to finish the race in about 7:15 hours. That’s a 4.3 mph pace. If, on the other hand, I have to slow down to a 15-minute mile pace, my finish time should be around 7:46 at a 4 mph pace. Being the geek that I am, I decided to go online and check out last year’s finishers’ stats. A guy named Shan came in first place with a time of 4:16:21. (Awesome, dude!) The last place finisher’s time was 8:35:02. (Good for you for hanging in there to the end!) Every runner in last year’s event was under the age of 60 except for someone named David, who finished with a time of 6:58:15. (Nice, going, David!) The top female finisher had a time of 5:04:43. My goals for this race? Have fun. Don’t get hurt. Finish. In that order. It would also be nice if I can stay injury free between now and then. I’m not going into this event with my eyes closed, or at least I don’t think I am. I know it’s going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But actually, it’s just the logical “next step” when someone becomes a runner. You go from a 5K to a 10K to a 10-Miler to a half then a full and eventually you ask yourself, “So what’s next?” For me the answer is an ultra. The great thing about this event is that it’s close to home and the course is fairly flat (no big mountains to climb). I know I’m being a bit hard on myself, but that’s how I’ve always been. The toughest challenge for me will be to remain strong mentally and to give the race the respect it deserves by taking it slow and easy. Knowing me, I’ll probably miss a turn somewhere on the course and get a DQ. (Ugh.) If so, I hope from that failure will come the strength and wisdom to do better the next time. I define real success as the willingness to fail. I could have DNF’d my first half or my first full. You just have no idea how well you’ll do going into a long distance race. Real success is looking at yourself honestly and knowing that there are never any certainties in life. I’ve come to realize that, by the grace of God, I’m having the time of my life right now. The worst day I’ve ever had as a runner is better than the best day I had as a couch potato. So if you’re still enjoying the sport, why not go for bigger challenges? Just makes sense to me. So … why did I sign up for this race? Ultimately, to see if I can do it.

Again, this will be my first “ultra” but don’t let that word fool you. As far as ultra races are concerned, this is like a 5K in comparison to all the other ultras you can run, the ultimate one probably being the Hardrock Endurance Run in Colorado. It’s “only” 100 miles long. Yes, I said miles, not kilometers. (Think: 161K. Ouch.) Not only that, the average elevation is 11,000 feet. I’ll post a picture of the Hardrock Run here because that’s the closest I’ll ever come to participating in the crazy thing. Looks beautiful, eh?

As for training, I’ll need to get in at least one really long run before the ultra in April. This is already on my calendar: the Tobacco Road Marathon in Raleigh on March 18. In the meantime, I’ll try and get in at least few miles on the actual course since it’s not far from Wake Forest.

Am I nervous? You bet I am. Can I travel 50K in less than 8 hours on a hiking trail? We’ll find out, I guess. It’s like everything else in life, folks. You set a goal and then commit not to quit. An ambivalent attitude will practically guarantee a DNF.

Hmm. I kinda love it that boredom hasn’t become an issue in my life.

Sunday, February 4   

5:05 PM Here are a few of my Cliff Notes from Charles Wanamaker’s discussion of 1 Thess. 1:6-10 in his Commentary on 1-2 Thessalonians.

• 1:6 continues Paul’s praise of the Thessalonians begun in 1:2.

• Behind all of this praise “is a subtle piece of parenesis inculcating perseverance in all circumstances through imitation of Paul and the Lord Jesus” (p. 80).

• The theme of imitation is a common one in Paul’s letters. “This creates the impression that Paul understood his own life as a form of mediation between Christ and his converts” (p. 80).

• The aorist participle dexamenoi connects the Thessalonians’ reception of the Gospel in the midst of distress with their imitation of Paul and the Lord.

• This distress is not mere mental anguish. It resulted from external opposition/persecution (cf. 3:3).

• Imitation is not limited to receiving the word in the midst of opposition, however. These believers also imitated Paul and the Lord by displaying joy in the midst of their troubles. “Their joy was, according to Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit” (p. 82).

• Verse 7 is pivotal. Because the Thessalonians had received the Gospel in spite of opposition, they had inspired other groups of believers to do the same.

• Here tupon “is singular because Paul alludes to the experience of the community as a whole” (p. 82).

• In rhetorical terms, verse 7 is yet another attempt by Paul to praise the Thessalonian believers.

• Paul’s unusual expression “the word of the Lord” derives from the Old Testament (e.g., Gen. 15:1; Isa. 1:10; Jer. 2:4).

• The verb exechein (found only here in the New Testament) “provides the image of something, like sound, going forth in all directions” (p. 83). This includes the Roman provinces of Macedonia and Achaia (which are united under a single preposition).

• “In every place” is undoubtedly hyperbole.

• The result (hoste plus the infinitive) of the Thessalonians’ fame and faithfulness is that it became unnecessary for Paul and his companions to recount what had taken place. Again, Paul is praising the Thessalonians (though indirectly).

• Verses 9-10 must be taken together.

• Some believe that v. 10 is a pre-Pauline formula, possibly even a hymn. Even if that were true, however, “Paul presupposes that the Thessalonians would recognize their own experience in what he was writing” (p. 85).

• The word “idols” “embraces the totality of [the Thessalonians’] religious (and social) experience” (p. 86).

• The New Testament hapax legomenon anamenein finds its parallel in Paul’s more usual term apekdechesthai (cf. Rom. 8:19; 1 Cor. 1:7; Phil. 3:20).

• Some argue that the plural form of “heaven” (“heavens”) argues for a pre-Pauline source here. Such a conclusion is hardly necessary (p. 87).

• Jesus’ resurrection is mentioned in v. 10 “to substantiate the point made above about the connection between the resurrection and the parousia in early Christian thought” (p. 87).

• The present tense of the verb rhuesthai should not be pressed. A present participle can be oriented toward the future (p. 88).

• The passage closes with an emphasis on God’s “wrath” — a term having “socio-psychological significance. It undoubtedly gave Christians a sense of ultimate power over non-Christians” (p. 88).

Wanamaker, who has taught in South Africa, has produced a solid work on 1-2 Thessalonians. I never come to class without having first consulted it.

9:30 AM Sheba and I sat on the front porch for about an hour waiting for the snow to arrive. She busied herself with marking her territory on the grass while I read and recited 1 Thess. 1:6-10, our passage for the week.

The text raises all sorts of questions in my mind:

• Why does Paul use the pronoun humeis in v. 6?

• Why is “imitators” (mimetai) fronted?

• Is the kai epexegetical here? (I doubt it, but you never know.)

• Does the aorist participle dexamenon indicate antecedent or contemporaneous action?

• In v. 7, the plural humas and the singular topon seem to clash. What’s going on here?

• Does the present tense participle pisteuousin emphasize imperfective aspect or not? (Is the idea “those who are believing” or simply “believers”?)

• What’s the metaphor behind exechetai in v. 8?

• Are the words in square brackets — en te — original or not?

• Why does Paul use a hoste plus the infinitive construction at the end of v. 8?

• In v. 9, is autoi being used intensively?

• Why the compounded form of aggello (=apaggello)?

• The order “you turned to God from idols” sounds backwards.

• Why is the theo zonti and alethino construction anarthrous?

• Does the present tense of the infinitive anamenein in v. 10 have any significance? If so, how should we bring that out in translation?

• Why is “heaven” plural in Greek in v. 10?

• Why is the participle rhuomenon in the present tense?

• Why are so many of the adjectives in this passage post-positioned?

Questions, questions, questions! This is called “listening to the text.” Our awareness is totally on the surface structure of the text at this stage. We notice what is said as well as how it is said. Then we go on to stage 2: we notice what is not being said or what is being said below the surface structure. It is when we can clearly articulate in our own words what a text is saying that we have arrived at the goal of exegesis.

Fellow student of the word: Asking good questions is so important. Read, recite, study, learn, solve exegetical problems, make decisions — all these depend on asking the right questions. Framing questions of the text is not only a crucial first step in the exegetical process. It’s something we need to do repeatedly. The questions we ask shape all of our conclusions. This is a large topic but one I hope to develop with my Greek students this semester.

7:15 AM Well hello there. The snow is heading our way again.

It’s already in Lynchburg, where I ran yesterday. Looks like I’ll have to postpone the 10 mile training run I had hoped to do this afternoon. The Birmingham Half Marathon is a only week from today. Do you know how far 13.1 miles is? It’s a long way. There’s no way I’d be doing this unless I had prepped myself on shorter courses — 5Ks, 10Ks, 10-Milers, etc. The half is no marathon, for sure. As someone has said, “The reason why the half is so popular is that you can run a half marathon and walk the next day.” Most of us who run for fun can train ourselves to run a half without too much difficulty. A half is also the perfect challenge for someone who’s been running for a year and wants to step it up a bit. I know this graphic is a bit dated, but it clearly shows the rise in popularity of the half marathon in the past few years.

My first half was in 2013. I’ve now done a total of 10. It’s a great experience with the added benefit of health. This year my daughter and son are running the race with me next weekend. They live in BH so it only makes sense. They’ve been training consistently for the race. The nice thing about training for a half is that you get to do long runs that aren’t “too long.” In March, my daughter’s husband who lives in DC will be running the Four Courts Four Miler in Arlington, VA, with me. That should be a hoot. I love running in groups. And to run with family is even better. The other nice thing in running a half is that there’s very little pressure to finish with a fast time. Usually you’re given a very generous time limit of at least three and a half hours. Which means that the half marathon allows you to feel great about yourself without pushing yourself into aerobic distress. This may account for the fact that the average pace for the half marathon is slower than the average pace for the full marathon. Most of us who run the half are simply trying to complete the distance and have lots of fun while doing it. Many people who participate in half marathons follow Galloway’s walk/run method. You’ll see a lot of walk-runners in a half, including me (I’ve run the complete 13.1 mile distance only once). Running a half is a bucket list sort of thing for many people. For me, it only got me hooked on long-distance running. In fact, I’m hoping to do my first ultra this year — nothing too major, perhaps a 50K race somewhere close to home. First, we’ll see how I do in the marathons I’ve got scheduled for Raleigh in March, Arlington (TX) in April, and Cincinnati in May. One of my sons might be running the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon with me. How cool is that?

Running is a great sport. It’s so satisfying and affirming. It gives you an opportunity to test how much grit you have and is literally a breath of fresh air when your work begins to suffocate you. But it can also be challenging. One of the things I’m trying to work really hard on this year is my form while running, especially my upper body position. Running form is very serious business. I’ve been discovering that proper arm action helps me to maintain my form, cadence, and posture when I’m beginning to feel fatigued (usually around the 9 mile mark during a half marathon). Coach Matt Rush from The Running Factory has a great video explaining correct arm motion while running.

The main areas to watch for are:

• Be sure to swing your arms and legs in sync.

• Keep your arms and hands relaxed. (I’m terrible at this. I often clench my fists when running. My bad. Run with loose hands!)

• Hold your elbows at a 90-degree angle.

• Swing your arms from your shoulders, not your elbows.

• Your arms should pass your body about hip height (no higher and no lower).

• Your arms should not swing across your body.

The point is: To be a good runner you have to worry about more than your leg motion. A proper arm swing balances out the momentum caused by your legs. A good arm swing balanced by a solid contact with the ground near center of mass should correct a weak core.

I know there’s a spiritual lesson in there somewhere but I’m too lazy to look.

Run hard!

Dave

Saturday, February 3  

7:02 PM Dolores Keane, Frances Black, and Sharon Shannon perform Solid Ground. Ireland’s treasures. Awesome.

12:58 PM Just back from the Arctic 5K. I’m a real fan of this race. Many think it’s a tough course and I’d have to concur. It doesn’t help when you arrive onsite barely in time to get your bib number. As you can see below, I was the last person to cross the starting line. You all know that trail running is way out of my comfort zone. Especially the uphill portion. Eventually I ended up walking a good deal of it, though even then I was able to pass a number of people if only because I have longer legs than they do. Don’t worry: they made up for it on the downhill portion! Anyway, despite the rigor of the course, I ABSOLUTELY loved it. The real challenge was on the downhill portion. I kept wanting to speed up even though leaves covered much of the course and I knew I was prone to slipping and sliding. I think my center of gravity is just way too high to be able to go any faster than 5 mph on the downhill  leg. I kept asking myself, “When will this race ever end?” Then sure enough, I crossed the finish line with arms raised high. The awesome news is that aside from a few minor aches and pains, my body feels fantastic. I stiffened up a bit on the long drive home but right now I feel fully recovered. I came in 77th out of a total of 109 runners. The winner’s time was an unbelievable 23:09. The last place finisher’s was 1:26:47. I managed to squeak out a 45:02. Throughout the run I never forgot why I was there. To do my very best. It was as simple and as complicated as that. That’s my goal in every race I run. I’m not competing against anybody except myself. A race always tests your body, mind, spirit, and endurance. That’s a test I always hope to pass. I was very impressed with the organization of this race, from the registration to the course support to the after-race party (pizza, bananas, cookies, and lots more) to the awards ceremony. LU is to be commended. My day was crazy. So awesomely crazy. I’ve never had more fun on a run. Can’t wait to run Birmingham next weekend!

5:45 AM Good (early) morning! I was up at 5:00 am today, eager and anxious for today’s trail run. It will be good to get back to Camp Hydaway, the venue for today’s event. The trails have some pretty funny names: Split Decision, Great Escape, Idiot’s Run, Killer Bees, Dirty Ridge, and (my favorite) Psycho Path. I love running in cold weather and harsh trail conditions because it makes me a better runner. The key is having the right gear. First of all, you put on about 1,000 layers. Then you have to make sure you keep your noggin warm. And gloves? Don’t leave home without ’em. Something happens to you psychologically when you run in severe conditions. You start out the race thinking you’re absolutely bonkers, but after 5 minutes or so you usually want to keep on going. By the time you reach the finish line you are on cloud 9. As long as there’s no lightening or ice, I’ll run. Right now Nature is being seriously bipolar. We get snow and then we have a heat wave. Today, the temp at race time in Lynchburg will be a mere 21 degrees. But you warm up quickly during the race. The trail is either going up or down, giving your body a chance to vary muscle usage. I’ve read a ton about how to do a trail run, but nothing can beat just getting out there and doing it. For me, a difficult trail run is symbolic of hard work, determination, and just plain gratitude to God for the ability to get out there and be active.

So it’s off for an hour and a half drive to suffer, er, do something I love doing. Thanks for following these ramblings about my journey and how it keeps evolving. May today you be able to find the blessings all around you.

Dave

Friday, February 2  

6:58 PM Breaking News! An animal saw its shadow today, so I guess we’re all stuck with six more weeks of winter. What is it about Groundhog Day that makes the news? I think it’s because, if you’re like me, we feel stuck in Winter and can’t wait for it to be over with. Everywhere we look we see signs of death — dried brown thickets, shriveled rose bushes, naked tree branches. Our weary eyes gaze steadily ahead, as if Spring can’t arrive early enough. Everything in life can become a sort of wintry interlude. Even marriage is a death of sorts — a launching out into deep and uncharted waters, with no escape clauses. Of course, in marriage there’s also sunlight and flowers to go along with the gusts of wind and peals of thunder. It’s often only after our marriages go through times of testing — through a Winter if you will — that we experience the wondrous beauty of the married state. Everything in life seems to go through this same dying-and-living-again cycle. The flower dies to produce fruit. The fruit dies to produce seed. The seed dies and then — Springtime! Existence is a constant death-and-life cycle. Death is the mercy of God, though we struggle with that truth. “Can these bones live again?” “Can You please give me living water?” “Who will roll the stone away?” We add our own questions: Will I ever get over my grief? Why did You take my baby away from me? Will I ever overcome my loneliness? After Becky died, many people came to visit me. But no one person could be with me all of the time. I had entered the Winter of my soul. And yet today I can look back and see that God was doing a quiet work in my heart. My assignment was simply to keep on walking, one step at a time, left, right, left, right. This is what a cruciform life is all about. Only heaven will take away all of our tears and pain, but the possibility of heaven on earth, of Spring smack dab in the middle of Winter, remains, as the Risen Christ walks with us. Of course, the roads remain rugged, the precipices steep. But that’s only because God requires of us perseverance, and it’s in that perseverance that He plants the seed of His strength. Because of Becky’s death, I’ve not only felt pain as never before, but I’ve also discovered the pain that God suffered for me. “Unfolding every hour;/The bud may have a bitter taste,/But sweet will be the flower” wrote William Cowper, an 18th century poet who suffered from severe mental illness. My plea, as we face the Winters of our own lives, is that we give the Divine Creator-Gardner a hearing, that we start with theology and not our circumstances, that we give the Word a first hearing, and a second and a third if need be. If we do this, our ability to endure the Winters of our lives will arise out of our life with Christ Jesus. We can’t do this ourselves. He can, and He will enable us.

1:14 PM I love family!

7:45 AM Hey folks. Are there any comparisons between running a marathon and learning how to read New Testament Greek? Much, in every way.

1) Don’t start anything without first examining your motives. It all begins with desire. I took Greek in college because it was required for graduation. I had no idea that I would fall in love with the language. I sort of stumbled into my career, if you will. Some of you may be like me. You were shocked when you took Greek, only to discover that you really love what you’re doing. So make sure you’re motivated or you’ll never get past square one.

2) You need to plan and prepare. Because sooner or later it will happen. A 5K becomes routine. So does a 10K and even a half. You begin to think the unthinkable. A marathon? Am I really up to it? You can’t simply go from a 5K to a marathon. A marathon is, by definition, a race that requires a training program. So it is with Greek. Are you ready to tackle a really difficult subject like Greek? Can you devote sufficient time each week for study? Have you carefully chosen your “trainer” and your “training program” — that is, a teacher and a textbook? Not all textbooks are created equal. Teachers can be helpful but they can also get in the way. You can’t be half-hearted with your planning and preparation.

3) You won’t get anywhere without self-discipline. Nearly all of us find that running requires more effort than we ever thought possible. With Greek, it’s easy to burn out after a couple of chapters. Some days you feel like you just can’t go on. On those days the real test is not in your mind but in your soul. All you can do on those days is just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Both running and learning Greek will teach you something about yourself. Some days you’re convinced that the world should make allowances for you. You want everything to be easy. You want all the traffic lights to be green. You want to be in the fastest line at the grocery store. But life doesn’t always work that way. Being a runner often means going to the very edges of your ability and strength. Greek students find that small victories make all the difference in the world. You master one chapter and then the next one. You know that somewhere out there is a finish line. As you keep your eyes on the goal, somehow you’re able to keep those arms pumping and legs churning.

4) Remember that you’re not alone. The running community is just that — a community of fellow runners of all sizes, shapes, and abilities who are more than willing to help you get to the finish line. In my Greek classes, students are encouraged to ask for personal tutoring if they feel they need it. Some students enjoy studying with a study partner. Having someone to share the load with you builds confidence. My story as a runner is largely a story about the people I’ve met along the way, people who have shared their joys with me, laughed with me, and tutored me. This is not just true of me but of everyone who runs. Even if you are studying Greek on your own, you can always reach out to the author of your textbook by email. Most Greek teachers I know would be more than happy to respond.

5) Finally, be aware of the risks. Simply having the desire to run a marathon doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be successful. Simply wanting to take Greek doesn’t mean that you will finish the class or master the textbook. We are often “interrupted” by life. I remember when I was teaching Greek every Monday night in my local church. Becky was one of my best students. She was acing all the quizzes and exams. She had always wanted to take Greek with me and now was her chance. Then chemo kicked in and she became too weak to continue her studies. One thing I admired so much about Becky was that she never looked back at what might have been. When I first enrolled in Greek at Biola, I lasted exactly three weeks before dropping. Then I discovered that Moody Bible Institute had a Greek course that was taught on my level, and the rest, as they say, is history. If you’ve had a false start, that’s okay. Take a break, then get back in line. If you see me running a marathon, you’ll probably smile. Don’t be surprised at the sight of my plodding style and persistence. And don’t expect me to ever stop smiling.

I love what I do. I love my running life. I love my life as a Greek student. As slow and silly as I may look, I’m having the time of my life. Day by day, moment by moment, I’m adding to the mosaic of who I am and who I want to be. Every day I am closer to becoming the person my Creator wants me to be.

May God bless your journey!

Thursday, February 1  

8:18 PM Tonight on Fresh Air, Terry Gross interviewed Garrett Graff, author ofThe Threat Matrix: Inside Robert Mueller’s FBI and the War on Global Terror. You can listen to her interviewhere.

The interview was an eye-opener. I had no idea that Mueller took over the reigns of the FBI just before the events of 9-11. Nor did I realize that he had led a platoon in Vietnam as a Marine officer and received the Purple Heart. I just ordered the book from Amazon. It should get here on Saturday.

I’ll tell you one thing: I wouldn’t want to mess with a man named Robert S. Mueller III.

6:28 PM What I’m reading ….

• S. Kim, “Paul’s Entry … and the Thessalonians’ Faith (1 Thessalonians 1–3).”

• Johannes Munck, “1 Thess. 1:9–10 and the Missionary Preaching of Paul: Textual Exegesis and Hermeneutic Reflexions.”

• J. Ware, “The Thessalonians as a Missionary Congregation: 1 Thessalonians 1,5–8.”

These are for next Tuesday’s Greek 4 class as we cover 1 Thess. 1:6-10. Each essay speaks to how Paul and his missionary friends had influenced the Thessalonians. The paragraph has three colons and so makes three points:

• Imitation is the best form of compliment.

• Students often outshine their teachers.

• Jesus is coming soon, so we’d better serve Him while we can.

The Second Coming is a doctrine we can stake our life on. One day we’ll be face to face with Jesus. Between now and then, Jesus has entrusted us with an assignment. For three and a half years, He showed people what God looked like. Now it’s our turn to do that. He asks us to serve for Him, love for Him, and speak for Him. The Thessalonians seemed to have excelled in doing all three. Now, as then, you and I are Jesus’ heart and hands. Everything we do ought to mirror His character. If we’re successful at this, people will recognize God in us and will want to know Him. If they fail to recognize Him, it’s because we’ve failed to do our job.

“You imitated us and the Lord,” writes Paul. Jesus has many imitators today, some good, others not so good. A celestial circus? Perhaps. The good news is that God can take every one of us common sinners and convey His message to the world through us. But we’ve got to be willing to turn from our idols. Go ahead and think for a moment about those people who’ve had the greatest impact of your life. What do you think of when you think of them? Imitation is serious business with God. Find someone who truly loves you for who you are, someone you can look up to, someone who imitates Christ (imperfectly, of course), and your life will never be the same. In a sense, Paul was in the business of making somebodies out of nobodies. In his eyes, there were no ordinary people, just people — people like the Thessalonian believers who couldn’t wait to share their newfound faith with their neighbors and friends. This is the challenge we each must face individually.

P.S. Korean bulgogi for supper. Sheba says, “It was great!”

10:42 AM On Monday one of our students from Korea and I enjoyed a wonderful meal together at the Seoul Garden Restaurant in Raleigh. Joseph is in my beginning Greek class.

Then on Tuesday, I discovered a Korean market in Cary and was finally able to purchase some much-sought-after items for my kitchen, including fresh Kimchi.

Korean food and I are old friends, stemming from all those trips I made to Korea when I lived in Southern California. Their idea of a meal is that it should be something to be enjoyed, something that will fuel the body, and something that is nourishing. To be honest, I could eat Korean food every day of the week. My ultimate goal is to learn how to cook it fresh. For the most part, I’m enjoying a healthy relationship with food these days. I feel thinner, look thinner, and can say that I’ve embraced the whole concept of healthy eating. I still love my puffed Cheetos and sodas, but you won’t find me indulging myself in those cravings more than once or twice a month. I can’t ever imagine going back to my fast food days. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s a fact that you get fit in the gym but lose weight in the kitchen. I eat to live instead of live to eat now. I don’t use my scales because I know that healthy eating and exercise will balance themselves out. My body is a temple and I want to fuel it right. I’m no doctor, but I mean, how hard is it to eat healthy? I advocate for this slippery slope and hope to encourage people to take up running as a great way to get into shape. But exercise will do nothing for us if we’re eating junk food all the time. That being said, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I have all of this figured out. When I overeat or eat something that’s really unhealthy, I can feel guilty about it. It’s just a reminder that I need to keep on educating myself about diet and exercise. It’s sort of like learning to read New Testament Greek: you just take it one chapter at a time, one lesson at a time, and try not to fall behind too much.

We all have unhealthy tendencies at times. What are you doing to overcome them?

8:48 AM Morning, blog. I just registered for the 7th annualArctic 5K Trail Race this Saturday morning in Lynchburg, VA. The course is a single track trail intermixed with some forest roads.

I ran this 5K last year and I can tell you: it is brutal. Total elevation gain exceeds 450 feet.

Coming down isn’t any easier, either, because you have to watch out for limbs and roots. Last year I placed 79 out of 127 runners. The next oldest racer was 56 years old. Most of the participants are college students attending nearby Liberty University. I have to admit that I’ve kinda lost interest in 5ks. Some people think they’re too easy. I think they’re too challenging. The temptation for me is to push myself too hard, whereas in any race longer than a 10K, I feel I can just be my (slow) self and take my time. My time last year was 42:51. The winner finished in 22:52, and the last place finisher’s time was 1:06:46. This only confirms my semi-official status as a racer: a mid- to back-of-the-pack runner. Last year when I finished I was just glad I survived without stumbling over a root. It was a good race, a fun time, and I told myself I would definitely do it again if I felt up to it. At any rate, I think it will be a good prep run for next weekend’s half in Alabama. Trail runs are cruel because they make you run, and run hard, the whole way. 3.1 miles is a long ways to race on a narrow track. And the result is what it is. You have no idea how well you’ll do until you begin racing. As long I run inside of my comfort zone, I think I’ll be okay.

So … on to my first race of February. And to think — a month ago today I was running the Allen Marathon in Texas. Wow. Life, moving at warp speed. 

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