restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

                

Back Home Again

 David Alan Black  

“Home, home on the range….” Yep, pardners. I am BACK! How can I possibly describe my trip? It was magnificent in every way. It was filled with blessing upon blessing. The Lord opened door after door for ministry. Praise His name! I want to say THANK YOU to those who prayed for us while we were gone. God heard your prayers! I also want to thank our many friends and co-workers in Ethiopia who labored side-by-side with us. You are simply marvelous! More than ever I’ve become convinced of doing missions local church to local church, bypassing bloated bureaucracies (sorry about the alliteration, but once a Baptist always a Baptist LOL). And more than ever I’ve become gravely concerned about the spiritual condition of the Western church in light of the enormous needs in other parts of the world. I fervently love my brothers and sisters in America, but at the same time I’m deeply grieved over our fascination with material prosperity and personal pleasure. Going to Ethiopia is a reality check. Many of the believers there have next to nothing yet I have never seen such simple faith, humility, and love. To be sure, not all Ethiopians are kingdom Christians. They are just as susceptible as we are to half-hearted Christianity. The Scriptures that speak of the cross — discipline, sacrifice, suffering — seem unbelievably impossible to many of us today. Authentic Christianity has become distorted by a works-less faith. I thank God for the many faithful servants of the Most High God I have met both at home and in Africa who have rejected this false notion. It the coming days Becky and I will be sharing with you some of the great things that God is doing through them. It is all the Lord’s doing and nothing for which we can take any credit. Day after day we witnessed His power expressed through countless acts of selfless service.

Looking back now over the past 10 years I praise God for allowing Becky and me to reprioritize our values and lifestyle. I thank Him for the many churches in America that are committed to the Lord Jesus and His Great Commission. At the same time I am saddened that the bountiful provisions of our culture have left us blinded to the situation in the sin-blighted Majority World. Frankly, I return to America deeply concerned, asking myself how we can possibly spend $35,000 on Lifeway Sunday School materials (as one church I know does) when the same amount of money could build simple churches in 5 villages in rural Ethiopia. I recently heard of one American congregation with a “living Christmas tree” whose scaffolding alone cost the church more than $25,000. “I am not to judge these churches,” I tell myself. But the inequity stuns me. How much longer will the evangelical church in America remain disconnected from the rest of the world? Unless you travel outside of North America you cannot possibly appreciate the needs that exist in places like Africa and Asia — two continents I visit frequently. I look at the United States with our Christian theme parks and our Christian magazines and our Christian retreat centers and our Christian TV stations and our Christian “Praisercize” and our Christian rock concerts and our gymnasiums and our air-conditioned sanctuaries and I have to ask myself — what is all of this for? Why aren’t we sacrificing for the Gospel in the inner cities in our country and in the lost regions of the world?

I believe it is the deceitfulness of sin that keeps us from forsaking our Western cultural values that so directly contradict the lifestyle that our Lord Jesus commands. We modern Christians have divorced faith and works. Our concept of missions has been reduced to fundraising. But missions is not the money we give but the life we live. Missions, for me, has become simply an extension of my life. I believe this will be the case with every Christian who truly believes in the Great Commission. Jesus asks us to make missions the central passion of our lives. This means that everything we do as Christians — gathering, singing, fellowshipping, teaching, admonishing — must be done with one thing in mind: expanding the kingdom of God by reaching lost men and women wherever they live. Since when has selfless love become optional for the Christian? We need to repent of the self-centered Christianity that characterizes the modern American church today. A couple of years ago I sat in a new church sanctuary in North America. It was one of the most inefficient and oversized buildings I have ever been in. We need to ask ourselves some hard questions in light of the pressing needs in the Majority World. How can we possibly justify such extravagance in view of the Scriptural teaching about wealth and equality (2 Cor. 8-9)?

Our churches have become little more than bless me clubs. We even spoil our youth when we should be exposing them to service opportunities both in America and internationally. Youth leaders have fallen victim to a bigger and better mentality. Our youth do not need more emotional rallies. They are called to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ in the midst of a fallen world. The church in America is becoming more and more dependent on shortcuts, gimmicks, seminars, strategies, demographics, experts, and man-centered solutions to our problems. Whatever happened to the simple teachings of Jesus and the apostles? The Great Commission does not require us to attend classes on evangelism. It requires us to wait patiently on the Lord, whose Spirit will certainly equip and empower us to be effective witnesses wherever we are. How easy it is for us to make decisions and plans without prayer and waiting for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We must stop trusting in our missionary methods. Even the greatest manmade methods are but shallow reflections of the great principles of God’s Word. Tragically, we have fallen in love with the latest fads and church growth strategies.

I, for one, have had quite enough of it. I am ready to become a kingdom Christian. I am ready to work with every Bible-believing, cross-carrying Jesus follower in Ethiopia and anywhere else in the world where God sends me.

Care to join me?

P.S. Becky arrives tomorrow afternoon. God has given her much strength during this trip. Everywhere we went the believers were thrilled to hear her testimony. Again, thank you for your prayers on our behalf. Glory be to God! 

April 4, 2010

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Bound by Conscience

 David Alan Black 

We live in a generation that has forsaken the fountain of Living Water and has hewed out broken cisterns that hold no water at all (Jer. 2:13). We are commanded, “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19), but we gladly exchange the simple, vibrant meeting of the New Testament church for our hierarchies, liturgies, formulae, rituals, time limits, and multiple man-made rules.

We criticize the Pope in Rome for usurping the Headship of Christ (who is God’s only true Vicar) then set up our own priests with distinctive garbs and special privileges, as if they alone could enter the Holy Place and approach the altar. This is the age of the Protestant Professional, and at the top of the pyramid is the Protestant Pope. Never mind that each Christian has an anointing from the Holy One and has no need that any man should teach him (1 John 2:27); or that every believer is a priest unto God (Rev. 1:6); or that every believer is gifted and free to participate in the service of the gathered saints (1 Cor. 14:26); or that the proper goal of pastor-teachers is to ensure that the saints are equipped to do the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:11-12).

I know many people whose choice of a church is based solely upon the pastor of that church. These people belong to the cult that worships the pastor and his preaching. The church of the apostles made Christ’s headship evident by insuring that no individual man was recognized as head of a local church. Who was the pastor of the church at Corinth? The church at Philippi? The church at Ephesus? Read the letters to these churches and you will see that there was no human head organizing and running and administering in any of these local churches. In the New Testament we see a plurality of co-equal elders functioning humbly as under-shepherds of the Great Shepherd. Christ alone is the Pastor of the flock (1 Pet. 5:4)!

If calling a mere man Pope (“Father”) violates Jesus teachings (Matt. 23:8-10), how much more does the use of Senior Pastor deny the supreme headship of Christ and the priesthood of all believers? There is as much officialdom in New Testament Christianity as there is water in Death Valley. If we are to follow godly leaders (and we are), we are to follow them only to the degree that what they say and do comports with the Word of God (Heb. 13:7), recognizing the Bible alone as our sufficient and authoritative Constitution (2 Tim. 3:15-17).

When Luther was summoned before the Diet of Worms to face the wrath of the Roman Church-State because he had challenged its impudent claim to be the sole repository of revelation on earth, he uttered these famous words:

Since your majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns or teeth. Unless I am convinced by Scripture and by plain reason (I do not believe in the authority of either popes or councils by themselves, for it is plain that they have often erred and contradicted each other) in those Scriptures that I have presented, for my conscience is captive to the Word of God, I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen.

Luther set forth the biblical principle that the only reliable guide to truth is Scripture, and that it is the right of all men to read and interpret the Scriptures for themselves. When ministers nowadays call upon Christians and the church to close their Bibles (and their minds) for the sake of “unity” and “peace,” they forget that the early Christians bore scars precisely because their consciences were held captive to the Word of God.

History abundantly illustrates the abuse of priestly leaders holding a monopoly of religious knowledge and using that to exploit and oppress the people. In the ancient Middle East, priestly duties were closely guarded secrets that allowed the priests to maintain their power. The God of the Old Testament, however, delivered His message to all of the people, because informed lay people would be able to monitor the priests’ actions (see Lev. 1:1, 2; 4:1, 2; etc.). People familiar with God’s instructions would not be intimidated by threats of excommunication if they did not do as the priests said. They could check to make sure that the priests performed their duties according to God’s Word. The same accountability is seen in the New Testament (1 Tim. 5:20).

Those who today defend church hierarchy and tyrannical authority and heap scorn upon “schismatics” follow in the steps of Rome, not Luther and the Reformers. While team-mindedness is vitally important to the health of the church, and reasonable concessions are always to be made, sometimes we have to stand alone and differ with our neighbors in order to have a clear conscience toward them. Like Micaiah of old (1 Kings 22:13-14), we must be more interested in the truth than in making the vote of the prophets unanimous.

April 26, 2005

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. If you would like to know more about becoming a follower of King Jesus, please feel free to write Dave.

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Aphorisms on Education

 David Alan Black  

My seminary apologetics professor (you would not know his name – he flourished then withered like a leaf) had a wonderful approach to the classroom. He believed that the main goal of education was to encourage students to question and even doubt what they had always taken for granted. He deplored what I have since referred to as “evangelical group think,” an unwillingness to challenge views that are accepted by all. He encouraged us to fundamentally disagree with the stupidities of our day, to tamper with every sacred cow, and to eschew conventional mediocrity. We did our best to accommodate him. I learned from him not so much what as how to think – even though his “rules of logic” still escape me.

I expect no less from my own students. I feel that it is not as important to learn large numbers of things in school (apart from the fundamentals) as it is to feel passionately that one has a right to disagree, if there is a biblical basis for one’s disagreement. The professor – assisting where he can, admitting ignorance where he cannot – is to be an example for his students in this regard. If I were 22 again I should set to work to master above all else the biblical languages, because it is the languages that are of utmost importance in breaking down the linguistic and conceptual barriers between us and the ancient text. Though I am now a Methuselah, I am still cautious about those whose main purpose in teaching is to bring their students closer to the personal opinions of famous and outstanding Christians than to the biblical text itself. Of course, someone who is writing a book called What I Have Learned from the Anabaptists might justly be accused of hypocrisy!

Through the years I have come up with a few adages on education. Perhaps students may find them helpful.

1. Be willing to question everything. There is nothing wrong with a healthy inquisitiveness.

2. Do not be afraid to say, “The Bible says….” It is our ultimate authority in everything.

3. Emulate humble teachers. Prideful professors are not worth your time.

4. Read, read, then read some more, but never put books before people.

5. Assimilate thoroughly the different positions on a matter before making up your own mind.

6. Beware of the subtle influence of Gnosticism – the pride of knowledge. It is rampant in our day.

7. The failure to take oneself with a grain of salt is a major weakness.

8. Manual labor is a healthy antidote to intellectual laxness.

9. Do not contemplate beginning a doctoral program unless you have first written a master’s thesis.

10. Do not write anything without first praying for guidance.

11. The best way to learn to write is to write considerably.

12. Intellectual independence and creative intelligence go hand in hand.

13. Remember that God knows exactly the field of service that will benefit most from your unique abilities. Don’t try to be a 5-talent person in a 2-talent body or vice versa.

14. There are no fail-safe formulas in life, including these aphorisms.

There you have it. I have no doubt I will think of others later.

February 9, 2008

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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The Federal Marriage Amendment: What’s the Point?

Matthew R. Gamel

There are many conservatives and Christians alike who have greatly praised George W. Bush’s endorsement of a federal marriage amendment. I am indeed content that Mr. Bush has endorsed the passage of such an amendment but am rather worried and confused concerning the following statement that was made by him. He said: “The amendment should fully protect marriage, while leaving the state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage.” My question to Mr. Bush is this: what exactly do you wish to protect? Is it the institution of marriage, or is it simply the word marriage? There is indeed a great, yea monumental, distinction and gap between the concept of the rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities that are contained therein and the mere existence or usage of a word.

The statement made by our president leaves room for much ambiguity. Would the president find it acceptable if we were to honor homosexual civil unions but cease to place the word “marriage” upon such unions? Suppose we were to redefine the concept of marriage and call it, for the sake of exaggeration, a “Fred.” Would the president find it acceptable for a homosexual couple to “Fred” one another and to obtain a “Freding” license from the government?  It seems to me that the importance of the institution of marriage has been undermined for the sake of politically correct rhetoric and for playing semantic and syntactical games with the word “marriage.” What engenders so much confusion is the fact that our president made the preceding statement directly after he said:

Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society. Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all. Today I call upon the Congress to promptly pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of man and woman as husband and wife.

Is the president simply stating that the word “marriage” has cultural significance or that the institution of marriage has cultural significance? What strikes me is the fact that, on first glance (I could be wrong), it appears that the president is carefully maneuvering over the actual issue at stake here. It is good that Mr. Bush desires to protect marriage, but we must be extremely careful here, for the stakes are high. Friends, it is not the word “marriage” that bears any cultural significance. It is the institution of marriage that bears cultural significance.

With the issue of semantics and syntax addressed, I would like to consider some of the more fundamental problems that have facilitated such an attack on the institution of marriage. Perhaps it would be a mere understatement for me to point out that our nation is no longer influenced by our founding documents as it is by current and trendy pop-culture and ideology. To paraphrase Robert Bork, one is more apt to predict the outcome of a case simply by knowing the names of the judges rather than the applicable legal doctrines. Bork’s assessment of the situation is, I believe, absolutely correct inasmuch as predicting the outcome of a case is a spectator sport that depends solely upon which “special interest” groups have more power and who is hearing the case. Appellate Court and Supreme Court justices only care about legality, so long as it does not contradict their own philosophical ideologies. Otherwise, their own amalgamation of opinions is deemed superior to what law itself would suggest; and when such occurs, one ceases to be legal scholar and implicitly becomes a domestic enemy of law, a tyrant ruling without regard to or for law. The Constitution has become a political scapegoat for its abusers; these individuals simply take it out of its textual or historical context, asserting that it is a “living document” and subject to revision time after time. Such is not law. Nay, such techniques are characteristics of tyrants who pervert law and implicitly claim that a given document is ambiguous to the point of being arbitrary so that there is “room” within a given legal framework (or lack thereof) for modification.

Before I proceed to inquire about the legal issues involved with a federal marriage amendment, I would like to make three brief comments. First, many folks, including many of our appellate court judges, have expressed their concerns regarding the so-called legislation of morality. I believe this is merely a diversion and a delay tactic to move folks away from the fundamental philosophical and epistemological issues at stake. The statement “morality is legislated” is necessarily a tautology. Robert Bork made the following comment:

Economic inequality being beyond reach, the attack turns to “lifestyle” inequalities, to a demand that we cease judging people and their actions according to the traditional moral scale. Traditionalists denounce this approach as moral relativism, but it is not that at all. Cultural socialists have their own moralities, often enforced with a fierceness unknown to upholders of the old moralities. The fanaticism is manifest in what we call “political correctness.” “Nonjudgmentalism” is the first step toward a harsh judgmentalism in the service of a different morality.

Thus, philosophically speaking, epistemology always influences law. I am grateful that our Founders deeply rooted law within the Bible and not merely on some decision of man, which history has shown to lead to corruption, exploitation, and murder.

Second, I wish to address the claim that will most undoubtedly be thrown at me by objectors, namely, to suggest that Biblical moral law has a place in the public square in no way implies religious theocracy. To make such a statement is to misunderstand what theocracy is and to confuse the fact that our Founders intended this to be a representative republic. There is a stark difference between a republic and a theocracy. In fact, our Founders formed this nation partly to escape religious persecution from a theocracy. Perhaps Patrick Henry can aid us as we seek to understand such a difference. He wrote:

It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom to worship here.

It is, by its very nature, Christian charity that allows for such asylum to be afforded to those who may not be Christians and hence the purpose of religious liberties and freedom. The notion of a theocracy was anathema to our Founders.

Finally, the very root of this problem stems from the total corruption of men, in the sense that just about anything and everything is tolerated within the public square—everything, of course, except for Christianity. In fact, it was homosexual lobbyists who pressured the American Psychological Association to remove the notion of homosexuality from its list of psychological disorders in the early seventies. There is currently a movement to remove pedophilia from such a list. Whence will such chaos cease? The question concerning morality never depends upon “consent” as some would have you believe. Samuel Adams was correct when he wrote:

[N]either the wisest Constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend of the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue.

Thus, we must point out that our Constitution fails to work and fails to secure liberty because the governed fail to exercise self-government. This is a fundamental presumption of American government. This is why so many seek to abandon a government whose only purpose is to secure God given rights and, in its place, institute a government that is the architect of civil rights; yet the folly of such government is that it may arbitrarily usurp rights and liberties.

This is clearly evident by the cultural left, who only desire a form of government that secures promiscuous sexual rights and a right to sodomy. All other legitimate freedoms and privileges such as the right to bear arms, the right to own property, the right to be free from government intrusion of any kind, and the right to educate ones children as one sees fit are slowly dissolving away. Now, those who refuse to bow to the altar of humanism, atheism, human reason, and the gods of promiscuous sex and radical environmentalism are ridiculed and labeled as “radical.” Humanistic and atheistic governments despise such liberties because the mere existence of them poses a serious threat to the very proliferation of such governments and does not allow for tyranny.

Now let us apply this to the current state of marriage. I am most certainly in favor of preserving this sacred, God ordained institution. Yet, suppose for instance that our Constitution was amended to include such protection. And, while I am being optimistic, let us also suppose that this protection protects the institution as well as the word “marriage.” I would then submit to you that such Constitutional protection is useless because we cannot even get the judiciary to acknowledge the First, Second, or Tenth Amendments. Why does anybody think that the judiciary will acknowledge an amendment that is contrary to the false legal presumptions that reside there? Mr. Bush believes that this is a states rights issue but state sovereignty is something that has long since died. In fact, it was the blatant disregard for state sovereignty that led to the Constitutional “right” to sodomy to begin with. The Tenth Amendment does not even exist in the minds of our so-called legal “scholars” except when it suits their fancy to advance their own wicked unconstitutional agendas. Why do we suppose that we can attack the symptom of the problem, without first attacking the root of the problem?

Folks, the reason we need to amend our Constitution originates from the fact that the judiciary won’t acknowledge our Constitution. We are merely attacking the symptom without attempting to remedy the disease itself. Moreover, this problem is becoming terminal; with the legalization of homosexual sodomy, the next logical step is to redefine marriage. This latter task has nearly been accomplished. Now, all that remains is to see how many more perverted, wicked acts we can legalize in the process, and how many more God given rights we can usurp. What measures are there to protect our children from pedophilia or from becoming property of the “state” at conception? None. Only the arbitrary will of un-elected tyrants. Many will object by reason of consent but I disagree; perhaps one should observe the mere existence of homosexual pedophilia groups such as the North American Man-Boy Lover Association. One may say to me that nobody takes NAMBLA seriously but, then again, there was a time when nobody took the homosexual lobby seriously.

No, I believe that more serious measures are needed. Yes, it would be a good idea to amend the Constitution. However, before we become happy and gay (pun intended), perhaps we should consider the arduous task of drafting the numerous articles of impeachment required to eliminate the real problem.

March 16, 2004

Matt Gamel is graduate student at Texas A&M and eventually desires to go to seminary to study to be a Biblical scholar. He may be reached for comment here.

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2005: White Flag Or Battle Flag?

 David Alan Black 

I voted for George W. Bush in 2000. I opted for Bush because he was the “conservative” choice. It was with delight that I heard candidate Bush speak of a “humbler” foreign policy and of reducing U.S. forces overseas. I also anticipated that the new administration would embrace conservative objectives such as smaller government, tax cuts, a balanced budget, and protection of individual rights.

Then came 9/11. Since then, the “Bush Doctrine” of preemption has proven disastrous. Has the president learned his lesson? How can the man who proclaims himself a humble sinner remain so cocky in his behavior? And what does the future hold? Where will our “anything goes” conservatives lead us in 2005?

The administration’s agenda for changing the politics and culture of the Middle East shows no sign of abating. Because of a complacent Congress, an unobstructed path to more warring seems inevitable.

With regard to Iran, the ad bellum questions are scarcely being raised, and I know of few conservatives who are willing to admit that the absence of WMD and of compelling evidence of a link with al Qaeda meant there was no just cause for the current war with Iraq.

It is worth remembering that this is not the first time we have forsaken the moral high ground. During World War II we deliberately targeted non-combatants at Dresden, at Nagasaki, at Hiroshima. In effect, we adopted the principle of our enemies – the end justifies the means – but the evils committed by our enemies did not exonerate us from God’s moral law.

I fear evangelicals have yielded to that temptation again. I look in vain for those who will stand up and unambiguously renounce preemptive war, or who will critically examine traditional doctrines of military policy such as the just war theory, or who will take seriously the New Testament’s demand for nonconformity.

Despite Abu Ghraib, despite the civilian casualties, despite the Somalia-like debacle in Iraq, conservatives do little more than reiterate the arguments in favor of our invasion and occupation policies. Their faith in the Bush administration remains unshaken despite the most serious questions about noncombatant deaths and broader questions about how the war is being conducted (jus in bello). Yet is it not the duty of Christian conservatives to do everything in their power to clarify the moral and ethical issues at stake in a time of war?

But God is not mocked. Man always gets what’s coming to him. There is always justice with the Almighty, though it might take another world to settle accounts.

Never have evangelicals needed “lips touched by fire” (Isa. 6:7) as today. When we should be shouting from the housetops we hold our peace. It is significant that the parable of the minas was given “because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear” (Luke 19:11). The imminence of Christ’s return is always balanced in Scripture with sober counsel to “occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13). We are to be good stewards and buy up the opportunities.

We are now entering the fourth year of Pax Americana, our dreamy-eyed dalliance with imperial hubris. For those of us who are defenders of the original hermeneutic of the U.S. Constitution, I would like to offer a few simple New Year’s exhortations:

• Stay informed.
• Study and ponder national and international affairs.
• Be a real patriot.
• Beware of those who preach peace but foster a pro-war mentality.
• Be willing to do God’s work in God’s way.
• Blend the serpent’s wisdom with the harmlessness of a dove.
• Keep no account of slights and catty remarks.
• Eschew the praise of men.
• Refuse to be an uncritical thinker.
• Reject any infringement on the original intent, no matter how respectable the source.
• Beware of the religious aloofness that is the hallmark of Pharisaism.
• Share your material blessings with others.
• Help send forth missionaries, never forgetting that you are one.

By God’s grace, Dave Black Online will seek to exemplify these attitudes throughout the coming year. I feel I am simply articulating what many people believe in their hearts, ideas they rarely find in the mainstream media. My goal is to help people think as individuals, express their convictions, and serve as role models for those mired down in conventional wisdom.

You are the people whom the “experts” ignore but who are hungry for the truth. You reject the cultural phenomenon of Rush Limbaugh, the abysmal failure of both Democratic and Republican Parties, and the Bush administration’s claim that it represents true conservatism. You desire a return to the old paths, known to Thomas Jefferson as “self-evident” truths. You are not ready to fly the White Flag.

To you I say: Welcome to 2005, and may the grace of God make you strong in the Lord Jesus Christ!

December 28, 2004

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. He is the author of Why I Stopped Listening to Rush and numerous other books.

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April 2014 Blog Archives

Wednesday, April 30

5:08 PM Travel update: Just accepted a gracious invitation to speak August 30-31 at the annual Bible Conference atMiddle Creek Christian Retreat Center, just outside of Gettysburg, PA. This is a ministry of my dear friends Ken and Kathy Coley. Please pray that I don’t get too distracted (they are only 10 minutes from the battlefield). Then in early September I will be speaking at a major apologetics conference in Southern California. Details shortly, but I’m already waxing down my surfboard. Later in the month of September I will return to Asia for two weeks of teaching. Not sure that I’m up to all this traveling. I just want to let my life be broken and smashed in order for His light to break out.

4:42 PM My colleague Nathan Finn asksShould Professors Allow Students to Use Laptops in the Classroom? To me it’s a no-brainer. My answer is a firm yes. Although I think the classroom ought to foster a sense of community, I also feel strongly that it should develop independent thinking and the ability to make sound moral choices. Students simply cannot make these choices unless they are given the freedom to do so. This is one reason why I’ve never required attendance in my classes. It is also why I don’t penalize students for being tardy. It’s also why I allow students to miss class and to make up quizzes and tests if they have a good reason for doing so. I could on and on. I try to treat my students like the adults they are. Or are becoming. I have one basic rule in the classroom. It applies as much to the issue of laptops as to anything else. Let me explain:

In 1998, when I came to Southeastern Seminary, then under Paige Patterson, I had no great desire to leave the West Coast. But since several eastern institutions had been courting me I decided to write Dr. Patterson and send him my resume. In November of 1997 Becky and I flew out to Wake Forest for an interview with Dr. Patterson. We were made to feel right at home in the spacious Lion House and were feted night and day by various members of the faculty. There were many interviews, of course. In the one with the president I was able to ask any question I wanted to.

I recall asking, “How many office hours do you require for your faculty each week, Sir?” You see, I had been accustomed to being assigned by the Talbot administration a certain number of weekly office hours. I will never forget Dr. Patterson’s answer. He smiled at me and said, “Dave, around here we have only one rule: We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Act accordingly.” I thought to myself, This is a place I’d like to work.

And that’s my simple rule for classroom conduct. I tell my students they are free. Free to do what is right. (Of course, the Christian is never free to do what is wrong.) I tell them, in essence, “You are adults. I’d like you to attend class regularly (and I will try my very best to make class a place you will want to come to). I’d like you to be on time (and I will try very hard not to keep you past closing time). I’d like you to use your laptops responsibly (knowing full well you will be tempted at times to use it in a less-than-responsible way). But I’m not going to hover over you, look over your shoulder, or be your conscience. You are personally responsible for your actions in this class, and one day you will have to answer to a much higher Authority than me. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so act accordingly. I will try my best to do the same. With God’s help, let’s all work together to make this class a success.”

Is this rule foolproof? Is anything in life foolproof? But I’d like to think that it has worked out pretty well in my classes. A good teacher earns the respect of his or her students, and never demands it. One good way to do this is by placing our trust in them and allowing them to make choices in such gray areas as the use of an iPhone or an iPad during class time. Of course, if I see a pattern of abuse, I am free to lovingly confront the student after class and in private. Yes, I am always a little afraid that the horse might run away from them. But there are far more subtle temptations in this area than the mere temptation to check one’s email during class. Teachers can maintain their intellectual integrity without robbing their students of the right to make moral choices.

P. S. I have not commented on the obvious need for students to be allowed to use their computers and other handheld devices for in-class note-taking, to do fact-finding, to read their Bible (in any number of languages), etc.  It goes without saying that these behaviors should not only be tolerated but encouraged.

4:23 PM And the winner is:

It’s All Greek to Me: Confessions of an Unlikely Academic

The contestwasn’t even close.

9:26 AM In case you live near Randolph, NY, here’s my speaking schedule for the weekend:

• Friday, pastors’ luncheon, 12:00 noon.

• Saturday evening, 6:00 pm.

• Sunday morning, 8:45 am and 11:00 am (two different messages).

The venue is Faith Bible Chapel.

8:55 AM Henry Neufeld writesRemembering Becky Lynn Black.

8:40 AM Last weekend at the PA conference I had the privilege of meeting a pastor from Charlottesville. He has now graced us with hispost-conference reflections, and they are well worth reading. Thank you, brother Jeff, and very nice indeed to have met you.

8:13 AM Where to begin?

This Friday marks exactly 6 months since Becky’s homegoing. Since I will be in New York, unable to blog (I am a dinosaur), now is the time for reflection. What has God taught me during these past 6 months? Here’s the lowdown:

1) Predictability. I can predict with an excellent degree of accuracy that I will experience nothing but unpredictability in my life these days. Expect the unexpected. Be ready to be up and then down, in season and out of season. My emotions are a roller coaster. And that’s okay.

2) Trust. God is aware of my pain and He moves among it. He is aware of my numbness and monitors every second of it. He is aware of my scars and is seeking to bring about healing. People sometimes ask me, “Do you ever ask Him to take away your pain?” How can I? How can I ask the One who daily delights to grant me the gift of pain to take it away? This terrifying, excruciating sorrow means one thing and one thing only: I loved her. And so I cherish the pain even as I writhe under it.

3) Memory. It’s another precious gift of God. I was once a woman’s husband. I was once loved by her. Her absence means a significant loss of who I am. There’s a vacancy as large as a galaxy in my heart that no one else can fill. Going to certain places brings back the memories, the loss and the sadness. Sights, sounds, smells even are triggers. Some trigger pleasant emotions. Others do not. But the memories never dim.

4) Fear. Fear that I’m going crazy because of all the crazy feelings I’m crazily feeling. Fear to share my fear with others lest they think I’m going crazy. Fear to be honest any more, fear that people are getting tired of hearing me speak about my grief. Fear that those who love me will desert me. All these intense feelings of fear cling to me, like a Portuguese Man-O-War’s tentacles. The fear is unnerving and brings a sense of insecurity. How long will it last? Will it be days or weeks or months — or years?

5) Touch. Oh, the blessing of touch. I normally do not need you to say anything. I need you to hold my hand, to watch my heart break again and again. I need you to let me tell you how unbearable this is and that if I did not have your shoulder to cry on I don’t think I would make it.

6) Sadness. But why should that be? I know where Becky is. I know what she is doing and who she is with. But my sadness is a gift. It’s a yearning for the one I lost. It’s passive resignation — what else can I do but bear it? “My bed is soaked from my crying” (Psalm 6:2). If that is the price for having known and loved Becky, so be it.

7) Grief. This is the tough one. Really tough. I can never control it. It distorts my sense of time. I find it distracting and disorienting. And here’s the most surprising thing of all: it has only gotten worse with time. They say the first stage of grief lasts from 18 to 24 months, and it hasn’t even been 6. So what to do? Some make the choice to ignore or suppress their grief. But that won’t lessen the pain. I have chosen to express it. Grief can’t really be shared. It’s mine. I must own it. I need its slowness. There are no “shoulds” and shouldn’ts” as far as I’m concerned. It’s natural and normal.

8) Death. The one thing people don’t seem to understand about me is that I am dying. We knew what death was when we watched Becky wither into a fragile stretch of skin and bones. We could see it. My life is like that death from cancer. It’s a hurricane blowing through my life. With each new day the wind grows stronger, the sky blacker. My life, a small stalk of corn, digs into the soil and fights against the wind until my weakened leaves are sent flying to the four corners. The stalk is still there however, and the plant remains alive, to bear fruit, maybe, hopefully, eventually. Even when the dawn comes, life will still be cold and gray. But eventually the storm will subside, and it will be safe to stand up straight and tall again.

A final thought. To walk with loss is to walk the way of the cross. This is not some heroic action we perform. All of us will face unimaginable grief and loss some day if we haven’t already. Then it will be time, with Jesus, to “learn obedience though the things that He suffered.” When Samuel Rutherford experienced his own cruel cross of suffering, he wrote:

Believe me, brother, I give it to you under mine own hand-writ, that whoso looketh to the white side of Christ’s cross, and can take it up handsomely with faith and courage, shall find it such a burden as sails are to a ship or wings to a bird.

Millions of Christians (I am one of them) have found it so. Praise be to God.

Tuesday, April 29

8:18 PM Dwight Pentecost isnow with the Lord. My favorite work of his:The Words and Works of Jesus Christ. My love and admiration for Dr. P. knows no bounds. He was the pastor of Grace Bible Church when Becky and I were married there in 1976. The man had a pastor’s heart and a scholar’s mind. Here we are in his apartment in married student housing on the DTS campus in September of 2012, the last time I saw him.

He was still teaching two classes every semester. We just sat there and discussed the Lord. His front door was always open, and students took advantage of his availability and counsel. Bravo for a life well-lived, my friend!

6:53 PM The vote is on! Gohere and help a friend out.

12:23 PM I just ordered a used copy of Harry Sturz’sThe Byzantine Text Type and New Testament Textual Criticism from Amazon. I loaned my copy to someone (I have forgotten who) and have never gotten it back. If you are that soul, would you please let me know? My copy was signed by Harry when he gave it to me and has a special place, let’s say, in my heart.

8:02 AM So I was asked, “What will be the theme of your next conference?” Oh, that’s an easy one. “The Correct Way to Measure the Height of a Wave.” This question has been debated since the Garden of Eden. It is the most daunting question of the ages. Californians exaggerate. “Hey dude, it’s breaking 10-12 at Huntington today!” (To which I reply, after racing to the beach with my board, “Did you mean inches?”) We Hawaiians, on the other hand, direct descendents of the mighty Polynesians, cut the wave face in half. Fair and rational. Humble too. Let the wave wars begin!

(Confession: I did use the California method on occasion, but only when trying to impress the girls at my college.)

Below: The mighty Greg Noll at the Pipeline.

I’d do anything to own a pair of those jailhouse trunks. 

7:40 AM I appreciated Henry Neufeld’spost-event appraisal of the PA conference. He concludes:

How the external evidence stacks up depends on a number of technical questions, including the weight one gives to Latin witnesses in the western tradition, what credence can be given to Codex Bezae,  and how much one favors Alexandrian witnesses over others. Without further study, which I’m unlikely to do given that this is not my field, I’m not prepared to judge that. I will say that with support from two families of manuscripts, originality should not be dismissed automatically.

I really enjoy being around Henry. He knows his Greek and Hebrew, and yet he wears his considerable learning lightly. He is also a man of prayer and realizes that God’s army always moves forward on its knees.

P.S. Henry promises a vote today or tomorrow about the title for my academic journey book. Stay tuned ….

Monday, April 28

7:54 PM The worst part? About grieving? It’s unpredictability. It hits you when you least expect it. Like when we were singing in church yesterday. The pain came back and washed over me like a set of huge waves at Sunset Beach. We were singing a praise chorus that Becky and I knew well. It spoke of going Home, and during that stanza a feeble Becky and I would stand there and put our arms around each other and lay our head against the other’s and the tears would well up. Today I felt great. Tonight I feel like a piece of driftwood I once picked up at Kailua Beach — waterlogged, too heavy to lift even. As I said, it’s unpredictable. Some days you might get two phone calls and the same number of emails from people who are dear to you. At other times, the people you thought would always be by your side forget to call or write, for weeks at a time. Perhaps they’re dealing with grief of their own. Somehow — maybe because of pure selfishness — I feel I need my grief to be validated by others. I am walking through an unknown wilderness, and sometimes I just need someone to walk it with me. Honestly, it’s cruel how grief sneaks up on you. As I type this, the house is quiet around me at the end of another long day. I know deep down that all I need is Him. But today’s a day I’m just not getting it. It’s God who will carry me through, but why do I feel like I’m coming up for breath for the third time after wiping out at Makaha? Tonight I’m re-reading a book I once wrote: Paul, Apostle of Weakness. The theme is simple. He is strong. And it’s an awfully good thing that He is. Because I am not.

So tonight, as the rain falls gently outside, there are real tears and there is real hope. I rest in what the Psalmist said: “He brought me into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me” (Psalm 18:19).

7:04 PM Henry shared his testimony at the fellowship yesterday.

Which makes me think:

I love publishers who really love Jesus.

I love publishing companies that are more than all about the bottom line.

I love local church elders who are not super-possessive about “their” pulpit.

I love you. I love you for loving Becky. I love you for loving me.

6:48 PM Who needs traffic lights in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia? (Note: Keep your eye on the people trying to cross the street.)

P.S. This is light traffic too!

9:33 AM This just in: “From the Beach to the Bush.” We’re getting closer!

8:47 AM Mowing is done. Love my new ride mower!

6:17 AM “Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on the wrong level all day.” Oswald Chambers.

6:12 AM Almost forgot: Thomas Hudgins alsolive blogged the conference and his is some of the best writing around. 

6:02 AM Enjoying a meal at Ashee Ethiopian restaurant in Cary last night. Left to right: Daughter Rachael, son Nigusse, publisher Henry Neufeld.

As I posted on Henry’s Facebook page this morning:

This was our first time at Ashee and I gave it two thumbs up. We all got to talking about the title for my next book with Energion. I’ve been calling it “My Academic Journey,” but nobody seems to like that title, least of all me. So help us out folks — what’s a good name? The book traces my academic pilgrimage from Hawaii to SEBTS. Ideas so far …. From Wave to Weakness (weakness referring to the topic of my first book, Paul, Apostle of Weakness)? Basel Beach Bum. This Ain’t Your Normal Homer’s Odyssey. Confessions of a Recovering Greek Scholar. Help!

So please do help us out.

Sunday, April 27

7:45 AM Today I’m taking a much-needed break from scholarship. I’m going to spend the next few days getting the farm into shape for the haying season. My new ride mower (that was dead-on-arrival) was replaced yesterday, and I am hoping against hope that this new machine will start. The yard grass is already reaching Eden-like proportions, and I’d rather not bush-hog it if I can avoid it.

Let me just say a word about this weekend’s Pericope of the Adulteress Conference on campus. A number of factors made it, in my opinion, a fabulous success. First, there was the high quality of scholarship represented by the five speakers.

That level of expertise provided the rest of us with an enormous opportunity that is often absent when these matters are being discussed or debated. Second, the lecturers all spoke with the greatest clarity —  and charity. The buzz in the room was definitely a positive one! This is partly because the speakers all knew each other fairly well; some have collaborated on writing projects for years. Constant association with one’s colleagues cannot help but build a sense of genuine collegiality. It is partly because the speakers respected each other, and it showed. Third, it has been shown that the majority of people base their academic positions on exposure to various points of view. Hermeneutics is not so much a crisis; it is more a process. This may well be the most critical aspect of the conference: it both broadened and deepened the conversation in significant ways. Fourth, it is abundantly plain that the vast majority of people who attended left with a deep sense of satisfaction and even joy at having witnessed such cordiality and amiability. Each of our speakers is a warm, committed, unembarrassed Christian, representing different Christian traditions to be sure, but nonetheless “Christian” both in their approach to the text of the New Testament as Scripture and in their deportment.

Without a doubt, the most interesting speaker this weekend was our own Maurice Robinson, whose status among the textual critics present has achieved, it appears, almost that of Michael the Archangel.

Maurice’s perspective draws from a lifetime of experience in encountering actual manuscripts rather than from the many books on the subject. Some may find him too detailed, but this is a good fault for a textual critic! For far too many Christians, textual criticism is a meaningless ivory tower pursuit or else simply the prolegomenon to something far more important. Maurice showed us that nothing could be further from the truth. He has spent a career showing average evangelical Christians how important and relevant textual criticism is to our understanding of sacred Scripture.

I was delighted in the extreme to see many students and “lay persons” in attendance. (The Johannine scholars seem to have stayed away in droves.)

Just as politics is too important to leave to the politicians, so textual criticism is too important to leave to the experts. They may know more than you do, but you are the ones who will have to decide, week in and week out, whether or not you  teach or preach this disputed word or that debated passage. No, we cannot leave textual criticism to the scholars. Each church member has a job to do. And that job includes personal involvement, to some degree at least, in deciding between textual variants. I dread to think of the opportunities I constantly miss through my failure to dig deeper into the text on this level. Years ago one passage brought this home to me, and it will always stand as an example of the relevance of textual criticism for the church. In some manuscripts of Matt. 5:22 we have a Jesus who condemns all anger, while in other manuscripts we see Him forbidding only causeless (eike) anger. What a difference a little Greek adverb can make! To put it another way, our views about the legitimacy of anger for the Christian are dependent to a very great degree on our understanding of textual criticism. We have to engage in it!

This is now the third time I’ve helped to organize a conference of this kind on campus, and I must confess to you that all along I’ve had an ulterior motive. We Christians live a good deal of our lives in splendid isolation, rarely interacting with people from differing perspectives or backgrounds. It is sort of a self-imposed monasticism. And it is dangerous. My hope for all of our conferences is that they will become bridge builders. Christians are so varied, and their starting points are so diverse, that it is always good for us to listen to each other. I’m not suggesting for a moment that it is necessary to surrender our long-cherished views or personal convictions in order to engage in dialogue. What I am saying is that none of us has a complete handle on the truth, and so we need modesty. The world is filled with harsh, pushy people who are always trying to sell us something. We are repelled by them, and rightly so. Christianity calls for much more moderation than that. At the same time, Christianity also calls for us to speak with confidence whenever we proclaim the word of God. If that is the case, it follows that we should acquire at least of modicum of facility in the art and science of New Testament textual criticism. No, we may not always know precisely what the original reading is in a place of variation. But at least we can tell our people that we have done our own homework and have made an honest effort to understand the problem for ourselves. Christianity is inescapably intellectual. Engaging in exegesis is not an optional matter for those who “like” that kind of thing. It is an integral part of what it means to be a Christian.

Evangelical textual criticism is not the kingdom (God forbid!). But it is a tool in God’s kingdom that tries to serve and please the King. New Testament interpretation does not end with textual criticism but it begins with it. No wonder the audience over the weekend seemed so delighted and pleased to have been treated to a clear and enjoyable presentation of the major hypotheses surrounding the PA. I hope the time will come when every serious Christian will join the conversation. An excellent entrée into the discipline is Harold Greenlee’sIntroduction to New Testament Criticism. My ownNew Testament Textual Criticism: A Concise Guide, attempts to introduce the subject in a simple and clear manner. In all this, it is important to remember that we are not trying to undermine anyone’s confidence in his or her translation of the Bible. We are simply trying to bring home to others the awesome responsibility that interpreting the Bible is. New Testament textual criticism is not an end in itself. The hope is that as we study the text of the New Testament we will go on until we find the pearl of great price as part of our search.

My sincere thanks to all of the wonderful speakers (J. D. Punch, Jennifer Knust, Tommy Wasserman, Chris Keith, Maurice Robinson); to president Danny Akin of SEBTS for his enthusiastic support; and especially to my personal assistant, Mr. Jacob Cerone, whose tireless attention to a myriad of details — sprinkled with a massive amount oflive blogging — reminds me daily of why I appreciate him so much.

P.S. For what it’s worth, my own view is that the PA is original. The inclusion of John 7:53-8:11 is well attested externally; it is early (the Old Latin pushes the reading back into the second century); and the passage is sui generis with the rest of John’s Gospel in terms of vocabulary and style. I’m not much of a fan of internal evidence, but I would accept either the “Liturgical Omission” or the “Ecclesiastical Repression” hypothesis as an adequate explanation for the omission of the PA in some early manuscripts. So, in conclusion, I would most certainly preach/teach this passage as Scripture but let’s be honest — there is no unique “evangelical” stance one can take. The issue is a matter upon which good people (including biblical inerrantists) will continue to disagree.

P.P.S. I agree with Dr. Robinson that the elephant in the room was the (often unexpressed) predilection for the Alexandrian text type among modern textual scholars. My friend Keith Elliott once called this the “hypnotic affect of Aleph and B.” (I honestly do not know if he continues to use that language to describe this phenomenon.) I believe it is time to lay this misconstrued concept to rest. The NA 28 is no more to be considered an authoritative text than the TR was 150 years ago. At the same time, I think Maurice’s case for Byzantine Priority is very weak. I’d love to believe it, but the evidence is just not there. I tend to lean more toward Harry Sturz’ view (The Byzantine Text Type and New Testament Textual Criticism) that the Byzantine text, because it is unedited in the Westcott and Hort sense, remains a reliable witness to the text of the New Testament but not the only one. Which is why I’ve been speaking to Henry Neufeld of Energion Publications (who is now visiting with me on the farm) about the possibility of him re-issuing Harry’s now out-of-print book.

So there you have it.

Keep thinking, reading, discussing, and living the Gospel!

Dave

Friday, April 25

5:45 AM There are so many things I love about scholarship and being an evangelical author. There’s the day you publish your first work of scholarship. It’s usually your master’s thesis or a portion of it. In my case, my Talbot thesis was titled “The Address of the Ephesian Epistle” and the main ideas were published as an article in the Grace Theological Journal way back before most of you were born. In it I defended the originality of the words “in Ephesus” in Eph. 1:1.

Now, I don’t normally see many M.Div. students writing masters theses any more, and I think it’s a crying shame. Just trust me when I tell you that it’s one of the best moves you can pull in seminary. That little essay formed the bedrock for my subsequent studies in New Testament Textual Criticism, including my books Rethinking New Testament Textual Criticism, Perspectives on the Ending of Mark, New Testament Textual Criticism: A Concise Guide, and my Festschrift honoring a good friend and a leading American textual scholar, Harold Greenlee: Scribes and Scripture. Each of these books is still in print today. And the craziness continued. Even though I am not an expert in textual criticism, I went on to publish essays on the subject in Novum Testamentum, New Testament Studies, and Filologia Neotestamentaria. Unfortunately, just writing essays on textual variants doesn’t mean you can convince someone of the correctness of your views. I’m not going to lie when I say that I’m just a tad disappointed that subsequent editions of the UBS Greek New Testament haven’t changed much in terms of the readings they prefer, despite the many challenges to the status quo over the years. That’s why I’ve been so keen on holding conferences on campus that allow students to hear from leading scholars on a variety of debated subjects in the field of New Testament Textual Criticism.

The icing on the cake is tonight’s conference on the so-called Pericope Adulterae, the passage in John 7:53-8:11 where the case of a certain adulteress is debated (and just where was the adulterer?!). Our esteemed lecturers are published authors on this passage, and that includes our own Maurice Robinson. Other speakers are Jennifer Knust, Chris Keith, Tommy Wasserman, and J. D. Punch. Please pray for this conference. Please ask God to give all of us clarity as we discuss the evidence for and against this passage. Teachability — it seems like such a small thing but it’s everything. I’ve been at this business for more than 37 years and I know that I still have a long ways to go. By the way, I haven’t recovered from jet lag yet, and I haven’t gotten a full night’s sleep in weeks. And I’m the host!

This could be interesting….

Below: FromThe Address of the Ephesian Epistle in 1980 to introducing J. D. Punch in 2014. You almost have to laugh.

Thursday, April 24

4:54 PM Beautiful day on campus today. I never cease to marvel at how fabulous our facilities are.

In chapel today we prayed especially for pastors and church staff. Prayerlessness only highlights our self-sufficiency, so it is always good to gather as the people of God and pray for one another.

And here’s Michael Rudolph (center).

He passed his orals with flying colors today and will be walking (the plank!) in May. Heartiest congratulations, Mike! Don’t ask me what his dissertation is about — it’s way over my head. Thanks also to Dr. Ben Merkle for being my co-persecutor today.

P.S. I’ll be interviewed briefly on KWVE (Pastor’s Perspective) today at 6:00 pm EST. The topic: Whether to measure the height of a wave from the front (California) or from the back (Hawaii). I wish. We’ll actually be talking about the PA conference beginning tomorrow on campus.

7:22 AM Random reflections on a gorgeous Thursday morn:

1) A week from today I leave for the great state of New York to hold a Bible conference at Faith Bible Chapel near Buffalo. Next Friday the church is holding a pastors’ luncheon. They’re calling it “Lunch with Dave Black: Insights on Preaching from the New Testament After 37 Years of Teaching Greek.” Man, even I would attend a luncheon if it had a title like that.

2) Today one of my Ph.D. students has his final oral exam. I know. I know. I love these guys and use any excuse to talk about them.

3) Last night I watched a commentary on America’s secret war in Yemen. It is really just an intensified microcosm of the history of our sad planet. Every time you kill an enemy and there is “collateral damage,” you create 50 more.

4) I’ll be interviewed sometime on KWVE about the PA conference that starts tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted.

5) Finally, loved this quote by Thomas Guthrie: “If the world is ever conquered for Christ, it will be by everyone doing their own work, holding their own post, and saying to Jesus, ‘Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?’.”

6:53 AM Don Stewart is planning a “meeting of the boards” for later this year in sunny Southern California. Good luck, pal.

Wednesday, April 23

7:40 PM “Much of our praying is just asking God to bless some folks that are ill, and to keep us plugging along. But prayer is not merely prattle; it is warfare.” Alan Redpath.

3:38 PM “Loneliness is the first thing which God’s eye nam’d not good.” John Milton. Remember, though: Loneliness can be a gift from God. It’s an opportunity to listen to the Word, get your bearings, and draw near to God.

6:37 AM Just got my exercise for the day. Learning to enjoy my own, very unique corner of the world.

True satisfaction always comes when you realize that you are a unique creation of God with unique desires and “issues.” So stop thinking you need to compare yourself to anyone else. Just enjoy being you.

5:15 AM Hope never to seethis:  

4:30 AM Up again at 4:00 am, still jet-lagged but slowly recovering. This morning I am hungry. Hungry to know Jesus. Eager to finish well. I want to experience the power that the early believers in Acts had. I admire their courage to be honest. And the first verse to hit me this morning? 2 Tim. 2:2. Why? Because I’m already in the mentoring phase of my career. It’s time to think about tapping my students on the shoulder and asking them to receive the torch. I truly believe that the ultimate measure of my success as a teacher is going to be the way I pass that torch and to whom I pass it. My teaching overseas is a good example of what I’m talking about. Originally, when traveling overseas, I would be asked to teach pastors in courses like hermeneutics. I never found this very satisfying. Why couldn’t local leaders teach hermeneutics to their own pastors, without a translator? And so I’ve often been drawn to 2 Tim. 2:2, where we see a mentoring movement that’s at least four-deep: Paul mentoring Timothy, Timothy mentoring others, and they mentoring still others. This plan, thank God, is working well in Asia and Eastern Europe in places where I serve. By the time I return to Odessa in November, the plan is to assemble the Greek teachers from all the seminaries in Ukraine for a weeklong course in Greek pedagogy. How cool is that? This is instruction where it probably counts the most. You see, not many years ago I was like these guys — a young upstart, eager to grow into leadership. Young leaders don’t have as much experience as I have and they don’t know as much as I do (in certain areas). But you know what? I trust them. I trust them, whether they are my Th.M. students or my Ph.D. students or my trainees in other countries. I well recall one of my own mentors telling me many years ago, “There can be no success without successors.” It’s not that I don’t enjoy my work. I still love it. I enjoy my work immensely. But this is all the more reason to get involved in downward mentoring in view of that day when I will pass the torch. I am encouraged by the built-in year of mentorship we have in our Ph.D. program here at SEBTS. My students are fast outpacing me in areas like Greek pedagogy and the use of social media, and I am very grateful to see it. Some call this “facilitative leadership” — and it works. My real job as a teacher is to help my students reach their full potential as future scholars and missionaries — “to empower God’s people for works of service,” as Paul puts it in Eph. 4:12. I give my students a fairly long tether and let them work on their own if they wish. When William Carey’s superiors told him to sit down and shut up, what did he do? He ignored them and became one of the world’s greatest missionaries. I love mentoring students. I love writing short emails to them, simply affirming them in their calling. Most of us wildly underestimate the power of a personal phone call or visit. I remember being dumbfounded when Dr. Harry Sturz called upon me personally in my college dorm room at Biola. I remember him thanking me for being such a hard-working student in summer Greek and wishing me well in my future Greek studies. That meant a lot to me. We all need teachers like that, but they seem to be a dying breed. There is no more powerful pedagogical tool than the personal touch. I’m an optimist, folks. My attitude toward my students is no less than the spirit of Carey, who declared to his followers when he left for India, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God!” The greatest leaders in my life inspired me to go places I would never have attempted to go on my own and to attempt to do things I would never have thought possible. Suddenly, 37 years of teaching makes sense to me. It all fits together. “There can be no success without successors.” And that is a lesson I am re-learning each and every day. The greatest people in the world are not those who have mastered many things but are those who have empowered others to master those same things. Or, in the words of Winston Churchill, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

What will you give today?

Tuesday, April 22

4:56 PM “Make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.” John Wesley.

11:46 AM As you know, I will be joining my colleague Maurice Robinson in hosting the Pericope Adulterae Conference on campus this Friday night and Saturday morning. Gohere for more information. I know of at least two individuals who will be live-blogging the event, and we have also set up a Twitter hashtag, #paconf.

Be there or be square!

9:42 AM Today is a day for extravagance. You want extravagance? Eat a papaya. Here’s mine.

Go outside today and smell a freshly cut lawn. Smile at your restaurant server. Laugh out loud. Read a good book. Or how’s this? Talk to God. Don’t need to say much. You can even mumble. He understands you. And don’t forget eating ice cream or sending birthday cards or surprising a daughter with a bouquet of roses or taking a bubble bath or giving your dog a cookie or belching out loud.

As for me? Today I am extravagantly planning a party. May 10 is the day. It’s not exactly 6 months since Becky went Home, but I’ll be in New York on the second so the 10th will have to do. Family will be here. Lots of family — kids and grandkids galore. Special “others” will also be invited, people who meant the world to Becky during her final months on this planet. I’m asking Him for a special day. A day when we can be extravagant with our love. A day when each of us says some variable of “I remember you” expressed in a hundred different ways and in who knows how many accents.

And there is one more extravagance. As you know, behind all great people there is a woman. There is a woman who stood behind Becky for 60 years. Her name is Betty Lapsley, and yes, she is Becky’s mother. Betty will be flying in from Dallas just to be with us. And guess what? The next day, Sunday, is none other than Mother’s Day, which also “happens” to be Betty’s birthday. Now that is more than coincidence! Betty’s love for Becky was displayed in very ordinary, everyday ways. It will be good to see her again. After all, whenever I look at mom, I see so much of my wife.

As the years go by, families seem to go their separate ways. But each of us in the Black family remains linked to others by our common heritage of love for Becky Lynn Lapsley Black, complemented by all of the memories and good times and joys and sorrows we shared at a place called Bradford Hall. Our address is 2691 White House Road. That’s our map address. But our real home is more than a building or a street number. We are a family. And that is an extravagance.

8:27 AM Votehere.

8:20 AM I am very pleased to report that Noah Kelley has been admitted to the Doctor of Philosophy program in Biblical Studies (concentration: New Testament) starting this fall at SEBTS. I will have the joy of being his major professor. Noah has a wonderful family and edits a great blog calledEarthen Vessel.

Greek students will find these two essays very helpful:

• Transformational Generative Grammar and Biblical Studies

• Hebrews 6:4-6 Greek Exegesis Paper

Heartiest congratulations and all best wishes to you as you begin your doctoral studies, Noah.

Monday, April 21

8:38 PM Potpourri before hitting the sack:

1) People should give the Bible the same attention they gave their nose upon discovering a huge zit the evening of a big date.

2) “If you really want some mail, read a letter from Paul.” Author Unknown.

3) The twenty-first century will belong to China. Are we prepared to pray for that nation as never before?

4) To some people, “the whole world” in Mark 16:15 means the people of their own race who live on the right side of town. Others would expand it to include the United States. I surmise that God’s vision of the world is bigger than ours, way bigger.

8:27 AM ReadBlogging as Public Therapy. Excellent thoughts, Allan.

8:13 AM Today I am pondering (as I suppose I am always pondering) the meaning of loss. Or better, diminishment. For that is what a death represents. Things or persons you are familiar with simply vanish. One of the first diminishments to hit me after Becky’s homegoing was my ability to focus and really concentrate on a task. Take my writing as an example. The key to writing is simply sitting down and doing it. The fact that I can’t focus on my writing for more than a half hour is, well, aggravating, irritating, and humiliating. It is perfectly plain to anyone who knows me how frustrating this is to me. What to do? The obvious. First, you pray and commit the matter to the Lord. Second, you get busy and do the things you can do. So today will be filled with little projects that are do-able. My list includes sending my Ethiopian daughter a Money Gram to pay for her rent, contacting the bank about a money wire transfer to India, renewing the vehicle registration for one of my cars, paying medical bills, getting the lawn mower key, buying new ink cartridges for our printer, depositing checks at the bank, etc.  And meanwhile the pain of Becky’s death goes on its merry old way, week after week. I strain to hear some prophetic announcement from atop the Mount. (Actually, a small whisper will do.) Of course, the thought that God has abandoned me, that He is silent, is nonsense. Here’s what I must do. I must realize that all of my diminishments are really blessings, to be received and accepted and, if the Lord be willing, transformed and multiplied like those fish and loaves the boy offered Jesus, or the widow’s mite. And so diminishments, because they are actually blessings in disguise, remind us that we have not been left to ourselves, that no matter how painful the loss we must see ourselves in the light of God’s truth, the same God who used Christ’s diminishments (His incarnation and death) to accomplish our salvation. It follows that if we are to truly enjoy this Easter Monday, we must continue to share in Christ’s death, which means the willingness to offer up to Him not only ourselves but all of our little losses, all of those little aggravations and frustrations in our lives, so that by His grace we may be brought a little closer to Him and be made a little more like His Son.

The Risen Christ still calls us to serve Him, and the conditions are the same after the resurrection as they were before: “Take up your cross daily and follow Me.”

Sunday, April 20

8:33 PM Got a bad case of hay fever tonight. Yep. Can’t wait to get up our first hay cutting of the year. Fertilizing the pastures has sure made a big difference. Green, green, green!

The animals are jumping for joy. They’ve been dreamily waiting all winter to be munching again on delicious orchard grass and fescue. The dogs, too, like to play rough house with each other in the grass — that is, until they run across someone else’s skubala, and then they just have to roll in the stuff. Awful, but instinctual I reckon.

Oh, the joys of farming.

Tomorrow I was hoping to mow the yards with my new ride mower, but the good people at Lowe’s forgot to deliver the owner’s manual, as well as the keys, when they unloaded the mower prior to my trip. If I wait much longer to mow I might have to cut the grass at 8 inches!

5:28 PM If you enjoy Sherlock Holmes as much as I do, I’m sure you’ll want to know that on this day in 1841 the first ever detective story was published. The author? Edgar Allen Poe. Which means I need to pay a visit to Amazon this evening and orderThe Murders in the Rue Morgue. The basic idea, as I understand it, is all about problem solving — which is what a lot of New Testament research involves. Think the synoptic problem or textual criticism or even authorship issues. Hey, who needs Luminosity when you can read a good detective novel?

5:21 PM Have any of you used voice recognition software that you were impressed with? I’m thinking especially of “Dragon Naturally Speaking.” The reviews I’ve read blow really hot or really cold. Your recommendations? (This may well help us with transcribing the DVDs.)

5:10 PM Check outWhat’s New? at our New Testament Greek Portal. Especially if you like Greek instruction via YouTube!

9:10 AM Listen to the Pope’s Easter messagehere and review your Italian at the same time. Transcription into Englishhere. I am not a Catholic, but I join the pope in praying for peace. However, the world will not see peace until they see the face of Jesus in us and hear the Gospel not only from our lips but in our lives. The biblical requirement is that we should voluntarily go out of our way to accept assignments that involve discomfort and suffering. Why then do we refuse to accept suffering as a part of the Christian life? Even Christian parents will oppose radical Christian service when their own children are willing to give up all for Christ. There is no place in Jesus’ band for those unwilling to accept inconvenience and uncertainty. This has always been the price of following Jesus. Pray for peace? Yes. Tell people there can be peace without the cross? No way. Accepting death to my ego is the only way to manifest the Gospel and the life of Christ.

8:34 AM I have an important request. MyGreek DVDs are going to be overdubbed into Mandarin. But first, I am looking for someone who will transcribe the DVDs for me so that the translator can work from a printed text. Please email me if you might be interested in doing this for me. A knowledge of at least a modicum of Greek is required since so much of what I say on the DVDs involves Greek words. Gohere for a sample YouTube. Please send me your current CV as well as a description of your Greek proficiency. A stipend will be paid for this service. Home scholars (high school and above) are welcome to apply. Application deadline is April 30.

7:04 AM West, Texas. Until a year ago, most of us had never heard of this town near Waco, pop. 2,800. I think it’s significant that one word keeps cropping up as the media attempts to describe West and the disaster that suddenly struck it, and that word is “community.”

Displaced residents didn’t live in shelters set up by the government — they stayed with friends and family. The first responders were volunteer fire fighters — from West. On the night after the disaster, the town held a vigil to honor the dead. All marks of community.

How’s your church doing in this department? It is hard work to build community. It takes prayer and obedience and love and patience. For all the hang-wringing today over church growth fads and worship styles and leadership principles, why is it that we ignore the essential question: Is my church a genuine community? We now erect sanctuaries with glass fronts and baby grand pianos in the foyer and restaurants catering to the public, but people on the street look in and see little to make them exclaim, “Look how they love one another!” I believe we are in the midst of a great awakening in the slumbering church of Christ. God is infusing new strength and vigor into an aging body. Jesus stretches our view of “family” beyond mere kinship. Biological family is too small to encompass what He is doing in this world. We are meant to be “fam” — a community known for love for God and neighbor, authentic relationships, and interdependence.

A town in Texas has shown us the way.

6:43 AM Thoughts on my first Easter Sunday without Becky:

Because Jesus lives, I am not alone in my sadness. Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He’s not trying to rush through my sadness, so why should I?

Because Jesus lives, God is always near me. There is never a single minute when He is not walking right beside me. Even when I don’t feel His presence, I am never, never alone.

Because Jesus lives, one day I will meet Becky in the air when she will be reunited with her body, and together we will shout Hallelujah.

Because Jesus lives, death loses. Which means that I don’t need to fear death and its consequences. It also means that whenever death haunts me, stalks me, whenever I am preoccupied with death and the pain it produces, I don’t need to hold back and bottle up. God gives me the freedom to express my feelings — and overcome them.

Because Jesus lives, I know that I too will receive a new body. During the past five months grief has affected every part of my being — emotionally, physically, socially, and spiritually. On days like today my body aches from the inside out. My feelings are raw. Touch me and I bleed. But one day Christ will make me a new person, body, soul, and spirit. Waiting for this day is a bit unnerving. But come it will.

Because Jesus lives, I can believe that ALL of God’s promises are true. He will see me through. Nothing can separate me from the love of God. Heaven is real. (Becky is there!) God still has work for me to do. Etc.

Because Jesus lives, my loss is not just mine; it is ours, His and mine. He was there when I was ambushed by grief. He was there when I let go of Becky’s cold hand. Why, I believe He even cried with me at that moment. He, the One who some day will “wipe every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 21:4), wept with me. Amazing grace indeed.

Because Jesus lives, I have a story to tell. When Jesus left for heaven, the apostles were careful to set down a record of His life and deeds. There’s was a collection of a thousand brilliant one-liners. One of the roles I now have after the loss of Becky is that of family historian. It is my job to convey to others who this person who died really was. And it’s not just facts. It’s who Becky was as a person. It’s about encapsulating the important moments of her life, commemorating who she was, and testifying about her faithfulness to all who will listen. If you knew Becky, give voice to your memories. Just tell others what you saw and knew about her. And do this not just for the sake of others but for your own. Treasure the life she lived so well.

Because Jesus lives, maybe, just maybe I can go through a day without crying, or look at her picture without pain, or be patient with myself whenever I experience a “grief spasm,” or replace despair with hope.

So there you have it. I knew today would not be easy. I know it will get better with time. I’ll find a new routine. But right now it’s all so strange and not a little bit disorienting. Yesterday I splurged and bought me a papaya from Food Lion. Becky would buy papayas for me only on very special occasions. I just wish you could share it with me. It’s going to be good.

Saturday, April 19

6:02 PM Paul Himes has just published aquick book note about Becky’s autobiography. I agree with his conclusion:

Thus, although it is a quick read, it is not an “easy” read, nor is it meant to be. Ultimately this is a book that demonstrates the reality of Christian life, both struggles and joys, while challenging the reader to simply trust in Christ throughout it all.

7:22 AM Just a quick note to let you know I’m alive and well and very glad to be back on the farm, where these two little newborns were waiting to greet me.

As a standby passenger it’s always iffy as to whether I will get home as planned. Yesterday I somehow managed to get the very last seat in the very last row in economy class, right next to everyone’s favorite meeting spot, the potty. When I arrived home yesterday my neck and back were in considerable pain and I was glad to lie still and flat and wait for my pain medication to work. I was a mere 19 years of age when I made my first plane ride by myself from Honolulu to Los Angeles. Today I have only to close my eyes and see me as I was before, a strong youngster with blue eyes and thick brown hair, always full of energy and enthusiasm, irrepressibly cheerful and continually active. The Dave Black I saw in the mirror this morning has not changed in spirit, but he will never again be able to travel comfortably on long haul international flights. To my astonishment, I cried almost all the way home from the airport. I tried to make my grand entry as dignified as possible, but I felt defeated and depressed, the result of too much ministering and too little rest. My governing rule nowadays, in case you didn’t know, is to live for today and close my mind to the worries of yesterday and tomorrow, but I am clearly still in process when it comes to applying this rule. I am almost too old for the rigors and exertions of the travel game — almost! Age has become a heavy burden that sometimes makes me morose and solitary. To make matters worse, this was my first trip abroad for ministry where I was not welcomed home by Becky afterwards. I well recall how carefully I would enter the house at night, tip-toeing through the bedroom where I knew Becky was already asleep. I would shower and brush my teeth, and then slowly crawl under the covers. Inevitably a hand would reach out, find mine, and give it a little squeeze. “Honey,” she would say, “welcome home.” We would give each other a kiss and then just lie there, holding hands as a silent Hallelujah Chorus to the One who allowed me to return safely from yet another trip. I could not have asked for more in a wife. Even in my darkest hours she was there to comfort and console. Who wouldn’t have missed a wife like that?

Speaking of Becky, did you know that the second of May is fast approaching? I never thought I’d feel so sensitive about what most people think is just another day on the calendar. But it turns out it is the day that marks 6 months since Becky’s death, a day that completely changed me, a day I’m still learning how to cope with. Which is why I suppose there’s a big lump in my throat this morning, knowing that on May 2 I’ll take another small step toward closure. Another arrow will point away from the uncertainty and exhaustion and sheer overwhelmingness of Becky’s homegoing and at the same time point forward toward new adventures and new experiences and untrodden paths. Honestly, that I’ve made it this far I credit to one Person and one Person only, a man who truly knows me and understands me, the one who has walked with me through this desert and has provided just enough manna for each day — no less and no more. Last night as I sat on my bed weeping, I offered Him yet another piece of my broken heart, bleeding and hurting more than I thought was possible. Odd, but as the anniversary of Becky’s death draws closer, I feel a pain as raw and visceral and intense as when she slipped from my arms into the arms of her Beloved. I’m shaking as I type this. What in the world shall I do on the second of May? And He keeps saying to me, “Dave, commemorate! Celebrate! Do it every chance you get! Use every excuse you have to face your loss head-on, to say goodbye for the millionth time. Remember, Dave, I am a God who wants His children to remember their past, who does not want them to forget the good times and the bad times, the successes, the mistakes, even the wonderful, crazy, exhilarating thing we call marriage.”

A formal goodbye, like a funeral service, causes us to ask questions that need to be asked. How will this death impact my life? Whom can I trust? What are my true values in life? It is another opportunity to say our mahalos and alohas, to accept the stark reality of her death, to take another tiny step in adjusting to life without her presence. It’s a chance to say formally, celebratorily, “Thank you, Becky. Thank you for the wonderful years we shared together. Thank you for standing by me on bright and cloudy days. Thank you for the memories we shared. Thank you for enriching me as a person and as a Christian. I love you, Becky. I miss you. You are never forgotten. I’m letting you go, but you will never leave me.” Should others be able to commemorate this special day with me, they too will have a chance to convey what Becky meant to them, to give voice to their own memories.

Of course, being the amazing klutz that I am, I have no idea how to go about planning anything like this. I have no idea how to be the strong father figure to my children when my own heart is scattered into tiny little pieces around my feet. And so here I am this morning, exhausted and sore, feeling like I’ve just run 11 consecutive marathons, emotionally bruised and battered, praying with all my heart that I still have the courage to face life square on. But the good news is that I don’t have to have it all figured out. I am enough because He is enough. For many of us, Becky’s death created a hole with sharp, jagged edges. The good news is that Father Time has already done his work. The edges are a bit duller, the absence a bit more familiar, the quicksand a little less miry, the numbness a tiny bit diminished. I’m so grateful for all of you. We’re connected not only through the words on this page. We’re reconnected on a much deeper level. We’re tuned into the same frequency and my, what a difference that makes. No one but Jesus could understand what I’m feeling. But some of you come a pretty close second. I’m glad I know you. After all, none of us is meant to go through anything like this alone.

Grace and peace,

Dave

Wednesday, April 9

2:20 AM I’m packed and ready. By the grace of God and through your prayers, several men will begin their studies of Greek. I can’t wait to get started. Pray for me that I will see every circumstance through God’s eyes. This is much bigger than me, so huge and momentous and downright crazy. But it’s the work to which He has called me.

If I live to be a hundred years old, I’ll never understand the grace of God.

Adios, amigos. Mahalo and aloha. Dave

Tuesday, April 8

5:06 PM Parting is such sweet sorrow. It’s always a bittersweet time when I leave the farm. I know; I’m not supposed to be sentimental. But leaving Bradford Hall is like leaving Becky behind. Folks, you’ll never know how much I miss my life partner. When Becky died, I had no idea how my heart, soul, spirit, mind, and body would crave her personal touch. My mind starves for her simulating conversation. My soul starves for her companionship. My body craves her touch. I miss her laugh, the sound of her voice on the phone with one of our daughters, her singing in the kitchen, the patter of her footsteps on the porch stairs, the little pats that said “I love you,” the kisses and hugs and prayers. Not one hour ago I saw a picture of her and began sobbing. Usually I have it all together, but not then. I felt as out of control as a rodeo rider who has just been bucked off his horse. I don’t have words to describe how much I miss her human touch, her physical closeness, her wit and wisdom. My kids and grandkids have been a great source of encouragement and comfort to me, but they can never replace her. My mind is like a video stuck on continuous replay. I ask myself, “How long will it last?” Grieving is just plain hard work, folks. It’s unfamiliar territory. I want to be more than a widower who remembers. I want to laugh with her and kiss her cheek and take her out for Chinese food.

The only one who can truly sustain me is Jesus. It’s not a sick joke when the Bible says that He does more for us than we could ever ask or imagine. I cling to Him. It is He who will enable me to gradually transition from a grieving widower to someone who embraces the possibility of looking forward to being in a relationship again. One thing, though, is certain. He understands. He knows my pain. He is acquainted with grief. He is sad when I am sad and happy when I am happy and lonely when I am lonely and excited when I am excited. There is never a moment when He does not share my grief. “When anxiety was great within me, Your consolation brought great joy to my soul” (Psalm 94:19). Yes, her death will always be a mystery to me. But the Bible has the answer. “Be still and know that I am God.” It doesn’t say, “Be still and know why.”

Please accept my heartfelt apologies for ranting on like this. In case you haven’t noticed, blogging is a coping mechanism for me. It doesn’t make the pain go away. It just makes it a bit more tolerable.

So I will be fine.

At least until the next crying spell.

3:05 PM As I leave tomorrow for the foreign field, I am grateful for all those who are praying for my trip. All over the world there are quiet men and women and boys and girls working behind the scenes to make missions happen. They are promised their reward.

2:24 PM Information can never be substituted for action.

2:20 PM Packing. I hate packing. That’s why I travel light, as Jesus commanded us to.

Monday, April 7

1:12 PM Do you see a lost world as Jesus sees it? How can we be His body if we’re not thinking as He thinks and loving as He loves?

10:40 AM I am scheduled to make my fourth teaching trip to Ukraine this November. Today I received this prayer request from the Odessa seminary president:

Please pray for peace in Ukraine. Pray that our political leaders will have the wisdom to save the country from war. If war starts, Odessa would be in the midst of the conflict.

Let’s remember, folks: there is one church. These are our brothers and sisters. Each of us is assigned a different place in the harvest field, but we are all God’s co-workers. Right now our job is to interceded on behalf of the nation of Ukraine. I’m calling on believers everywhere to join me in this duty and joy.

Below: My hermeneutics class at the Odessa seminary in April 2013. I love these guys so much it hurts.

10:33 AM Elizabeth Achtemeier:

Barth’s dedication to the sole authority and power of the Word of God was illustrated for us… while we were in Basel. Barth was engaged in a dispute over the stained glass windows in the Basel Münster. The windows had been removed during World War II for fear they would be destroyed by bombs, and Barth was resisting the attempt to restore them to the church. His contention was that the church did not need portrayals of the gospel story given by stained glass windows. The gospel came to the church only through the Word proclaimed. …the incident was typical of Barth’s sole dedication to the Word.

What? A church without stained glass windows? What? A Christmas program without a living Christmas tree or a manger scene or Christmas greens? How very Barthian!

P.S. Who in the world is this good-looking couple in Basel?

9:42 AM The latest addition to our home page is called Reformation, Revival, or Restoration? I’ll be sharing these thoughts with church leaders this weekend in Asia. My thoughts aren’t inspired, of course, and can’t come close to the authority of the Bible. What I am simply trying to do is to ask the Scriptures themselves what a New Testament church ought to look like. Unfortunately, it seems that in many corners of the modern church there exists an aversion to asking such basic questions. The traditions of Paul have been replaced by our own traditions. So I suggest we get back to the Bible and try our best to retrieve our ecclesiology from the first Christians, to the extant that this is possible today. I see no reason why we shouldn’t call into question our current practices especially since we all believe we have in the Bible a source authority.

Still more to come. Stay tuned.

9:16 AM Quote of the day (James Hamilton):

“I don’t think John wrote this passage,” he explained to the congregation. “I’m certain he didn’t put it here, and therefore I’m not going to preach it.”

And you? Will you treach John 7:53-8:11? You say, “Dave, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Good! This means you will love our forthcoming conference on this passage. The dates are April 25-26. The place? Southeastern’s beautiful campus. The conference details may be foundhere.

It’s certainly something to think about.

8:52 AM Ladies and gentlemen, believe it or not, my first blog post of the day has nothing to do with Becky. I am intrigued — but not too surprised — to see theMIT Technology Review suggest that an increase in internet use leads to a decline in religious affiliation.

Now, I am reading this to mean that religious affiliation is on the wane (i.e., church attendance) though not necessarily interest in spiritual things, which is not at all a bad thing if people are simply going through the motions of religion. We now have at our fingertips an information explosion that has begun to wean people from over-dependence on authority figures. The internet also exposes its users to multiple worldviews and religions. Taboo topics can now be safely discussed “at a distance” and in relative privacy. If your pastor says “such and such” is true, you can check out the veracity of what he is saying in an instant. And because of the power of search tools, we can go directly to what we are looking for. I am thrilled that some are even using the internet for evangelism and discipleship (some call this “diskypleship”). The internet can be an incredibly useful for teaching. Many of us blog about spiritual topics. Websites like Bible Gateway and Biblos offer users thousands of online helps for serious Bible study.

The fact is that we live in a technology-saturated world. Let’s be sure to leverage this technology for good and for the Gospel. In his essayThe Use of Technology and the Equipping of Leaders, my colleague Alvin Reid writes: “I like many others have decided to use this technology for the gospel and for training leaders.” For Alvin, this means:

• Technology allows us to expand our capacity without exhausting our energy…translation, I can speak to youth pastors in 20 states without leaving my office 

• Technology allows us to expand our tribe without extinguishing our budget…translation, I can grow my influence through such social media outlets such as twitter and instagram

• Technology allow us to respond to current events, which in turn helps resource the gatekeepers of student ministry to respond to current events, at an exponentially quicker rate…example, Miley Cyrus can twerk with a dwarf or a typhoon can level villages in the Phillipines and we can respond immediately through blog, webinar, etc. 

• Technology allows us to grow our tribe and affords us the opportunity to be introduced to other’s tribes…translation, the beauty of being retweeted, liked, favorited, and the list goes on

• Technology allows us the opportunity to continue and grow lasting relationships after the event is over…example, a student or pastor can ask a question, share a memory, or simply give a shout out through a multiplicity of outlets where we at SLU can respond immediately; also hashtags afford us the ability to follow threads and encourage (it means a lot to a student if you they hashtag a pic from their #slulead or #slulead101 experience and we like it) 

I’m increasingly convinced that the only way to tackle the internet revolution head on is to use its power for the work of the Lord. Multitudes of people around the world have become disenchanted with their “religion,” whatever it may be. On top of this, the use of social media is at an all-time high. Life is very short. It’s also very full of good things, things so full of wonder and potential for great good. Blessings on all of you as you look hard at these gifts and seek to leverage them for the Lord Jesus.

Dave

Sunday, April 6

7:38 PM “Come apart or you’ll fall apart.” Learning this slowly.

7:24 PM This came today from a pastor:

Your writing on cessation is very good and encouraging… I’ve shared with our men and it has helped.

A good resource isCraig Keener’s review of Strange Fire. Agree with Craig or not, you will appreciate his conciliatory tone.

7:12 PM There is no place in the church for those who aren’t willing to accept inconvenience and uncertainty for the Lord’s sake.

6:53 PM Those who stay behind and pray are serving Christ just as effectively as any frontline warrior.

3:30 PM Seated here are the three volunteer missionaries our church body commissioned for their trips beginning this Thursday to Asia.

I am so grateful to God for the loving care and concern I receive from my home church every time I travel. To my right are Dr. Rick Godwin and his son who, along with their mother, will be doing medical work in the Philippines for 2 weeks. Rick once did the same thing with us in Ethiopia. And so we leave, buoyed up by the prayers of God’s people, carried along by the Lord and relying on Him alone for mercy and grace in our time of need.

Then it was lunch with the Bradshers.

The kids have stolen my heart. Have you noticed?

9:21 AM Looking forward to lunch today with Joel, Kim, and the Fabulous Five!

8:40 AM I just filled another 4 orders for our Greek DVD series. If you are interested in learning Greek on your own, here’s a YouTube you might find helpful. My thanks to Robert for putting it together.

 

8:22 AM So I’m sitting here trying to type up my book Seven Marks of a New Testament Church and I keep getting interrupted. It’s her again. The pleasant memory of her life. She was one of the humblest people I’ve ever known. And one of the most committed missionaries I’ve ever seen. Becky and missions. They went hand in hand. It was not always this way. Ditto for me. But the Author of life had other plans for us. He took two weak and weary Christians and called them into something much bigger than they could ever have been without Him. I just thank God that each of us, regardless of who we are or where we’ve come from or what we’ve done, stands equal before God. If you find yourself wandering today, splintered by the concerns of this world, you need to start — I mean really start — taking Christ seriously. You need to get that Solid Rock underneath you, quick. It wasn’t that Becky and I didn’t love Jesus before. But we loved the church more. We loved home schooling more. We loved gardening and reenacting and horses and writing and our businesses more. Then God lit a fire beneath us. Even today, if I sniff ever so gently, I can still smell the smoke.

Friend, take a deep breath. Something’s burning in your life right now. It’s Christ’s call to love. Servanthood is the normal Christian life. It’s not reserved for super-saints or clergy. It’s for Greek profs and housewives and troubled teenagers and the imprisoned. Let the flame burn, friend. Let it spread from house to house and through your church until the whole world is engulfed by the wildfire. In 2005, I took this picture of Becky.

Her life had already been consumed by this flame. She lived and loved and sacrificed and suffered and gave up everything for the sake of the Grand Fire-Maker. And you know what? He accepted her just as she was, without qualification. He used her to hug on the poor and forsaken. Oh, it cost her. It cost her plenty. The price tag read “Calvary.” And He can use you just as He used Becky, big ears, freckles, cancer and all.

Do you believe this?

Well, do you? 

6:02 AM Up early this morning in a strangely contemplative mood. I am (and have always been) a goal setter. Wherever I am, I push quickly against anything that might slow me down or keep me from pursuing my goals. Yet God has impressed on my heart recently the need to slow down, to fully abandon my goals for His. In His will alone, wrote Dante, is our peace. In His will alone. What does that mean for Dave Black? It means sacrifice. “If a man will let himself be lost for My sake, that man is safe” (Luke 9:24). It means to give myself to God for His world. It means to bear His name to the nations rather than remaining comfortably at home. It means to relinquish something of importance for the sake of the Gospel. It means to measure life by loss and not by gain. On Thursday I leave to serve a church that is far away from here. I love these people. In the midst of all the pain of Becky’s loss, God is still so good to me to allow me to serve others. I’m often overwhelmed by the idea that He would use me. This is the life I’m learning to live all over again since Becky died. Life is not intended to be a gloomy and morbid sort of thing but a glad offering of love. Affliction is an opportunity for service. It’s like thinning out our pine tree stands so that the trees that remain might have more of the sun and more potential for growth. How I have grown since God allowed Becky’s death! I am learning to trust and love Him better. I am learning that His love for me is unconditional, despite all of my failures. I am learning to say “Yes” to the new life and the goals He has in store for me. I am not my own. My old life is gone. My old, hard shell of self-protection and self-sufficiency has given away to utter weakness and dependence on Him. I am learning that the greatest joy always comes forth from the greatest sorrow. This morning at church, broken vessels will be re-commissioned for service abroad. Passports are in hand. Visas are stamped. Bags are packed. There is a golden harvest ahead.

“All I care for is to know Christ, to experience the power of His resurrection and to share in His sufferings, in growing conformity to His death” (Phil. 3:10). That’s my goal. I must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars. I must have Thee.

Saturday, April 5

9:02 AM Finally, George Bush and I havesomething in common: art!

8:28 AM H. H. Drake Williams III reviews myPaul, Apostle of Weakness.

7:46 AM Social media is wonderful. Yesterday I learned on Face Book that one of my granddaughters took a huge step forward:

My baby just went poopy in the potty for the first time. I knew you all would want to know.

Yes, I did want to know — and heartiest congratulations to mother and daughter! Then this came across the internet yesterday:

Pam and I are going to be grandparents!

The admission comes, of course, from my good friend Kevin Brown. You can read all about ithere. Way to go Kev, but you’ve got a long way to go to catch up to me!

But the web is not all fun and games. Yesterday I spoke about an inter-family squabble over the question of the sign gifts. Did these gifts cease in the first century or not? I remain deeply troubled by what I’ve been reading and hearing. Clearly, this question does make a difference in the life of the church, yours and mine. I’d like to make a further observation here. A mark of constructive theological dialogue is the ability to agree about what our differences really are and how to express those differences. I don’t think the differences we sometimes talk about (not wearing ties to church or the absence of hymn singing) are our deepest concerns. I do not think the absence of a church choir or whether your pastor wears a coat are major concerns that most Christians think deeply about. I think what people care about — what they instinctively long for — is to sense the Spirit’s presence in their midst as He forms and shapes and unifies and, yes, corrects His church. They long to be unified around the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They desire the Holy Spirit to guide them into truth, not just books about the Bible (including Vines). They want to be an army arrayed for battle, ready to bear witness. But unless we have the power of the Holy Spirit, we shall achieve nothing at all. This is precisely Luke’s emphasis when he writes in Acts 1:8: “It is only when the Holy Spirit comes upon you that you will receive power to be My witnesses.” We do the witnessing, but it is God who gives us the power and who produces conviction in the hearers. I fully sympathize who those who think that the Charismatic Movement has led to extremes. In some cases it has. But I’m not sure that this is the main danger we face as a church today. In fact, I have never been in a Calvary Chapel congregation and witnessed tongue-speaking. Instead, I am usually treated to a careful, God-honoring, verse-by-verse exposition of a biblical book. The pastors I’ve met are by-and-large self-taught, as were the earliest followers of Jesus. Few are seminary grads, but I can assure you that they are not anti-intellectual. I fear that sometimes seminaries produce ministers who are afraid of the Holy Spirit. They are afraid that if the Spirit were set free in their congregations, chaos would ensue. That danger is real, of course, but it is not the main problem. I long to see a church in which the Spirit once again becomes an invading force, inundating our parched lives, burning away the dross and sin (including the prideful claim that we are not charismatics!), where the Spirit is trusted and not confined to pulpit exegesis. The Lord who is Spirit must laugh at our intramural debates. He will not be confined by our paltry thinking. He is in the business of transforming us as individuals into the likeness of Jesus Christ and of preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Power for selfless living. Power to love the lost. Power for witnessing. Is that not needed today more than ever? How can we claim to be “together for the Gospel” without the perfect love which the Spirit gives to all His people, regardless of their views on cessationism?

So let the discussion continue. Maybe representatives from both sides should hold a cordial conversation at a neutral site such as Biola. (No one is allowed to promote their books!) And when that is over, let them serve together in a soup kitchen in South Central, sharing the love of Jesus with everyone who walks through the doors. I think we need to move beyond words. I think we have to work hard to find some common ground upon which we can show the world that we are one despite our diversity.

On my trip to Asia next week I am going to re-read a wonderful little book calledAre Miraculous Gifts for Today? The editor is Wayne Grudem, and the four contributors are Dick Gaffin, Bob Saucy, Sam Storms, and Douglass Oss. At the end of the book, Grudem gets to the core of the matter when he writes:

I think that we [five men] would have to work hard at letting the congregation know that, though we differed on certain doctrinal matters, we greatly appreciated each other’s gifts and ministries.

He then concludes with these powerful words:

… knowing these other four men as I do, I really do think it would work. I think we could live and minister and pray together. I think we would offer pastoral care to one another and to each other’s families. I think that we would frequently know times of incredible depth of intercession together for the work of the church. In fact, if this were to happen, I think that it might even be the most exciting and enjoyable time of ministry that any of us had ever known. And I think that the Lord himself would take delight in it and would enjoy fellowshipping with us and blessing us, and would tell us.

All all the people said?

When we as a church are willing to come to that humbling place of recognizing in practical detail the lordship of Christ over our lives, then I truly believe that He will pour out His Spirit upon us again afresh and anew. But we have to seek it. We have to to ask for it. We have to come together and work and serve together in unity. Once we put ourselves unreservedly at His disposal, and ask Him to unify us despite of differences, He will do so. If, perchance, the Spirit would grant that kind of unity to the churches in Southern California, and to our churches nationwide, let us thank Him for it. And keep on thanking Him … and loving one another … and serving together in the cause of the Gospel … and witnessing for Him in the power of His Spirit. Maybe, just maybe, we will turn the world upside down.

Friday, April 4

2:15 PM Kim and the kids came over today. What fun.

Between trapezes. That’s how I feel these days. Sure helps to make the leap knowing you’ve got such a great support team.

11:22 AM How to win Muslims for Christ?

• You can most effectively share Christ with Muslims when you are genuinely friends with them.

• You must learn to listen to Muslims.

• You must look to the Holy Spirit to do in the heart of your Muslim friends what you cannot do.

I could not agree more! ReadThree Tips As You Share Christ With Your Muslim Friend.

11:14 AM My, my. The persecution has already begun (starting with this dastardly email from a “friend”):

About noon the following day as Dave, Nigusse, and  Jacob were on their journey and approaching the farm, and, when they arrived, Dave went up on the roof to pray. Thoughts of blogging had run through his mind the whole journey and he wanted to post something. While the meal was being prepared, Dave fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large webpage being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of features—searchability, linkability, even videos, etc. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Dave. Redesign, write, and post.”

“No way, Lord!” Dave replied. “I have never blogged anything without Front Page.”

The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

This happened three times, and immediately the webpage was taken back to heaven.

10:23 AM When God takes us into His family He gives us a work to do from which we can never retire.

10:12 AM The Vienna Philharmonic does it again. Watch this spectacular performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and be totally blown away. (Speakers all the way up!)

 

9:42 AM Good stuff here:Tips for Success in a Foreign Land.

9:38 AM Newsflash! I’m thinking about redesigning Dave Black Online and actually going “modern.” (Yep. Front Page is a dinosaur, I know.) If you’re a web designer and have any suggestions for a new platform, let me know (and send me a link to your web site). I am also open to a completely new look to the site. Readers, please send me links to current websites that you really like (including your own) and that I might use as exemplars of a clean, attractive, simple, and uncluttered home page. Finally, if you have used a web professional to design your site, I am open to referrals. Thanks!

Dave, the one-and-only-ultimate-unblogger.

8:05 AM Since publishing The Jesus Paradigm and Christian Archy, I have gotten all kinds of invitations to talk about what I believe are the essentials of a New Testament church. Often I am asked for my opinion on a particular hot-potato issue of ecclesiology today, and that is the gift of tongues. “Would you tell us your views on the Continuationist-Cessasionist debate?” I have declined all offers. The reason is simple. When controversial issues arise in the church, it is all too easy to allow the debate to dissolve into an either-or discussion when often it should be both-and. Tongues is just one among many issues on which equally devout and equally biblical Christians of all denominational stripes disagree and likely will continue to disagree about until Jesus returns. The solution is to continue to discuss the matter with one another without denigrating those on the other side or pressing our views dogmatically. Not to put too fine an edge on it, the early church succeeded where we don’t largely because they got this right. These people were enthusiasts for Jesus Christ, not for their pet doctrines. The mark of their gatherings was transparent love, for without love of the brethren there can be no effective evangelism. If non-believers do not see in our Christian circles a more accepting and caring fellowship than they can find in the world, they are not going to be too impressed with all of our “God talk.” Today, we tend to polarize instead. We push people to one side or the other. This is why I was delighted to see the calm and clear way in whichCalvary Chapel recently responded to its critics vis-à-vis the Charismatic Movement. This desire to reach out and dialogue is very powerful. Of course, there is no excuse for sloppy thinking on this matter of the sign gifts. I have my own personal convictions about the subject, which I am happy to share with my students — but only after I have lectured for 4 hours on “The History and Theology of the Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement” and only after we have exegeted together, from the Greek text, the book of Acts and all of 1 Cor. 12-14. We would be wise to study these texts for ourselves, or we may well prove to be the blind leading the blind. Christian leaders of our younger churches especially need to discern not just between what is essential to the Christian faith and what is not, but also between what is honorable to Christ and what is dishonoring. Uncritical emotionalism is as stupid as uncritical conservatism, and just as dangerous. Contemporary Christians are often called upon to walk a tight rope, neither forsaking the study of theology nor embracing a modern form of Gnosticism. Perhaps the greatest danger we face is that of confusing tradition for Scripture. That simply will not do, regardless of your convictions about the sign gifts. A Christianity that has lost its unity over essentials has lost its salt and is useless for the world. And this is why I have declined, and will continue to decline, to debate the question of cessationism in public.

In other news, I’ve been prepping the fields for this summer’s hay harvest, both by fertilizing the pastures …

… and by removing debris from the fields caused by the recent ice storm.

What better way to enjoy the springtime weather than by working outdoors? I was also blessed to meet Brian and Sonia Davis who are planting a church in Philly’s tough inner city this summer, and Karen has decided to join them. We had dinner together here at farm and then chatted around the fire.

What an amazing thing that God should make His appeal to others through us. What an astounding thing that He should entrust the ministry of reconciliation to our earthly vessels. Once you have been gripped by the lostness of those who do not know your Lord Jesus Christ, you will need no other motivation to become involved in global evangelization with everything at your disposal. The early Christians found that there was no joy like it. Have you? Oh, here’s their website:Risen Christ Fellowship. Check it out!

In the meantime, be peacemakers.

Dave

Thursday, April 3

7:15 AM Odds and ends:

1) William Mounce offers some excellent advice on Bible translationhere. An excerpt:

Even though I understand and support dynamic translation, I still think that the macro structure of a verse established by dependent and independent constructions is an important indicator of meaning and should be observed, if possible.

To see how we might apply this philosophy to one passage in the New Testament (Heb. 12:1-2), see myToo Much Lettuce?

2) I recently had a brief conversation with a colleague who teaches New Testament at a sister seminary. Students are constantly asking him why he is always going on mission trips. “I read the New Testament,” is his reply. Love it!

3) Danny Akin reflects on histen years at Southeastern.

4) How toleverage the movie Noah for the Gospel.

5) I have been in many parts of the world and have trained students in New Testament Greek in many different countries. Two things are abundantly plain. The kind of criticism leveled by some today against the traditional method of teaching Greek is irrelevant. Most students are seeking a basic modicum of grammar and vocabulary to enable them to work in the text of the New Testament with the use of the lexicons and commentaries. They are also not impressed by hierarchical figures like pastors and professors telling them what doesn’t work. There is nothing faddish about traditional pedagogy. It is not the latest bandwagon to climb on. It does have its weaknesses, for sure. If you feel it can be replaced by other approaches, have at it. But I for one am not convinced. I espouse the traditional approach because it accomplishes what it promises and no more. I have seen its fruitfulness in countless students who have gone on to teach Greek to others.

I am delighted at the diversity one finds in Greek pedagogy today. Whichever method you prefer, please use it to equip God’s people for works of service. And there is no greater need for this equipping today than among the nations. To that end I would appreciate your prayers as I leave next week to begin another course in New Testament Greek in a faraway land.

Wednesday, April 2

8:12 AM Looking for a good movie to watch? Why not try “Seabiscuit”? I reviewed it here. This was one of my takeaways from the movie:

Success can be barriers to more learning. Seabiscuit’s owner may have been satisfied with his horse’s level of proficiency, but his trainer wasn’t. While an owner of this type has a lot to be proud of within his limited sphere, he will have to swallow his pride in order to improve his product. After all, if you’re winning, it hurts to admit that your horse might need some adjustments to improve his ability. But there’s always room for improvement, especially when the motivation is a match race with the nation’s most talented horse.

This is where I am in my life right now. A student asked me the other day, “What are your goals for the next few years?” To be honest, I’m not sure that I have any. 37 years ago, when I was fresh out of the starting gate, I was full of eagerness. Goals I had, aplenty. Today the tendency is to kick back and relax. But a teacher can never become smug. There’s always room for improvement, both in and out of the classroom. One change I made last year was showing up early for class. Just hanging out with the students gives them a chance to talk with you (if they want to) without having to make the long trek to your office. I’m also being more intentional about visiting my colleagues’ offices to chat and pray with them. I’m sure there are many other “adjustments” I need to make. But let’s never become complacent. Growth is not something just for upstarts. It’s for all of us. Even us “long-shots” like Seabiscuit.

7:55 AM I see that Golden Gate Seminary is finallyselling off its property in Marin County and moving to Southern California, which has a much larger population base and is a much more affordable place to live. Very smart move, in my opinion, and I speak as one who loved teaching on the main campus in Strawberry Point. I must have flown up there several dozens of times to lecture and loved flying into SFO and driving over the Golden Gate. I know of no other seminary better poised to reach the Pacific Rim nations with the Gospel than GGBTS. In multos annos!

7:45 AM Was at a church in Dallas a couple of weeks that had no Wi-Fi during their services. None. They have a website, of course, plus Twitter and Face Book, and they encourage online giving. But no Wi-Fi. I was glad to hear Paige Patterson in chapel yesterday invite the audience to “scroll down” to the passage he was preaching from. Yes, devices can be distracting, especially if you are a boring speaker. Starbucks has free Wi-Fi at all of its U.S. locations. I think local churches should be just as generous. Here’s a goodChurch Tech Today article about some technical approaches.

Tuesday, April 1

1:50 PM Wow, wow, wow! What a great chapel service we had today! Here are just a few tweets I read during the service:

Grateful today for Danny Akin and Paige Patterson. My life has ever been changed by these men.

What better way to celebrate the Akins than commissioning another batch of missionaries this morning.

Looking forward to the best chapel ever at SEBTS.

Here’s the thing. None of us would be here today had it not been for Paige Patterson. That is most certainly true of yours truly. In 1998 he invited Becky and me to visit the seminary and then opened a slot in New Testament just for us to come. I’ve said it before, but I am the most blessed man on planet earth. I am so grateful for Paige and Dorothy Patterson. No one prayed harder for Becky during her illness than they did. I am so grateful for Danny and Charlotte Akin. They have stood by me through thick and thin and enabled me to be Becky’s main caregiver at the end. God is doing a miracle today in world missions. At Southeastern, He is raising up hundreds of evangelists and church planters, educators and pastor-teachers. I sincerely believe that the task of world evangelization has never been more possible than at this point in history. “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack for His supply,” said Hudson Taylor. Praise be to God. It is He who has raised up Southeastern for such a time as this. And to think that I get to play a small role in that work. Amazing Grace!

7:54 AM I just reserved a guest cottage in Kailua for the second week of July. That’s just before I speak at several churches in West Oahu. I want to go into the weekend well rested, and what better way to do that than by visiting the place where I grew up. In fact, the cottage is only two blocks away from “my” beach and only one block from the house I first lived in when we moved to Kailua in 1955. It’s funny — this need to reconnect with the past. To you, that might not mean very much. It might conjure up images of surfing or soaking up the sun on the most pristine 3-mile stretch of beach in the world. For me, it is so much different and more. I feel the need to filter Becky’s loss through the places we loved. We were there. We lived and loved together. I shared in her joy and she in mine. I felt the grip of her arms around my neck, the soft caress of her body, the smiles, the laughter, the good times. And there were many good times. I shared all of them with her and could not begin to describe to you the joy that made life so unbearably sweet.

Yesterday, after I addressed the Board of Visitors, many of them came up to me and told me they had been keeping up with me on the blog. So I’d just like to mention how encouraged I’ve been by all of you. I know that some people feel uncomfortable being around grieving people. They want you to get back to “normal” as quickly as possible, even if you are not ready for it. Thankfully, that has not been my experience. You all have given me permission to be Dave Black. Because Dave Black doesn’t want to do a grief bypass. He wants to put down on paper his thoughts and feelings. He wants to describe what he has learned from his grief. He wants to enter fully into his sorrow. He wants to face grief head-on, deal with it, learn from it, let it do its perfect work. I’m learning that God is always present. He works the night shift. He is aware of my emptiness and seeks to fill it. He sees my open wounds and is prepared to heal them deeper than I can ever imagine. He is acquainted with grief. But His promises are true, and I believe He still has work for me to do. I have a new life ahead of me.

I think going back to Kailua is exactly what I need. Because sometimes it’s good to remember. Sometimes you just need to stand on the beach and cry your eyes out, knowing that He won’t love you any less if you do. Knowing that whatever He has in store for a widower like me, He’ll be right there.

7:23 AM Read Not original therefore not inspired? The story of the woman taken in adultery. Of course, there are still those who believe that the passage is both original and inspired. The matter will be fully discussed later this month on campus. See ourPericope Adulterae Conference page.

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   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

                

Christians without Borders

 David Alan Black  

The relationship between church and state continues to be a subject of great interest and importance to me, particularly the dangers of statism and its inevitable by-product, nation-worship. For example, I think the flying of the American flag in our churches is a bad idea. In my opinion, it sends all the wrong messages. For one thing, it confuses the kingdom of God with the kingdom of man. We wonder, “Where does America stop and Christianity begin?” For another thing, Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. It transcends tribe and nationality. And it is God’s primary agent of activity in the world. Because of this, the nation-state is always seeking to usurp Christ’s kingdom authority. Allegiance to the nation replaces (or at least actively competes with) allegiance to Christ.

Of course, we might sooner expect a change in our solar system as to expect that Americans would remove the U.S. flag from their sanctuaries. Once again, the church has bowed to the culture. We seem to think that America has a national religion. This is the myth of a Christian nation – a myth so ablyexposed by Gregory Boyd in his book by the same title. What is this myth? It is the unquestioned identification of America with the cause of God’s truth and righteousness. This attitude has long been sacralized in the United States and is an established feature of our national psyche. But is it correct?

Christians are to pledge allegiance to one God only. “You cannot serve two masters,” said Jesus, yet Americans continue to shift their allegiance to the nation as the fulfiller of ecclesiastical functions. Thankfully, there are some today who are questioning such assumptions. They seek to practice discipleship without borders, refusing to be entrapped by cultural Christianity. We might call them “Christians without borders,” to use a word-play based on the renowned medical group Doctors without Borders. These Jesus-followers are involved in mission and service worldwide. Wherever they go they represent, not their country of origin, but the new Christian community in which national walls have been broken down by the work of Christ. They are set on taking the Good News to the entire world regardless of the ethnicity of those to whom they bear witness. Missions, for them, presupposes a deep sense of universal grace.

In the face of growing nationalism on the one hand and ecclesiastical nearsightedness on the other, is it asking too much of American evangelicals to forego mixing politics and religion? If a church should feel it absolutely impossible to remove the U.S. flag from its place of meeting, an alternative might be to fly the flags of other nations alongside it, especially the flags of those nations in which the congregation has been involved in missionary outreach and service. What a testimony that would be to a watching world that Christ’s kingdom is not a national clique but a transnational community!

The story is told of a father who was eager to read his newspaper but was being pestered by his small son. In order to distract the boy he took from a magazine a page on which was printed a map of the world. Then he cut out each country of the world from the map and gave the pieces to the boy to put back together again. Expecting that this would take considerable time, the father settled back in his chair. A few moments later, however, he noticed that the little boy had completed the project.  When asked how he had assembled the map so quickly, the boy replied, “It was simple. On the other side of the page was the picture of a man. I just put the man together, and then the world fit together.”

There is reason for thinking that if Christians could look, not at their own country, but at a man – the God-Man whose kingdom unites people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation – there would be no need for displays of national patriotism in their churches. By its very nature, the church is different from any other society on earth. And the cross, not the flag, is the point of intersection between the church and the world. The cross of Jesus Christ is the secret of being in the world without being of it. It is the source of freedom for us to be given to the world as broken bread and poured-out wine. It is our banner, our emblem, our flag of allegiance. Let us fly it high!

January 10, 2009

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

                

A Word on the New Perspective on Paul

 David Alan Black  

I was asked this week, by a prospective student, if we had a “policy” about the New Perspective on Paul on campus. The answer is no. Wright’s works are studied and discussed to be sure, both in and out of class. For myself, it seems to me that the Scriptures are astonishingly coherent and clear about forensic justification. I also think, as Udo Schnelle points out inthis interview, that Lutheranism has sometimes been caricatured. An even bigger gap, as I see it, is the failure of students of Paul to come to grips with Paul’s historical milieu — a point that Wright often makes. Kingdom ministry embraces sanctification, good works, and healing. It also has a strong communal element to it. All well and good. But wherever the Gospel is preached, and wherever the church is truly carrying out the work of the kingdom, there is an inner logic that places “repentance from dead works and faith toward God” (Heb. 6:1) at the forefront. In a word, personal, individual repentance and commitment to the King is required of all of us, Jew or Greek. In Christianity we have a new Law for a new people by a new Moses. And it is all by faith, from beginning to end (Rom. 1:17).

Paul’s use of skubala (also noted by Schnelle in his interview) is a most evocative image. In Phil 3:7-9 Paul writes:

As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault. But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for Christ’s sake …. For His sake I have thrown all that away and consider it all as mere skubala (garbage, rubbish, dung, unspeakable filth) so that I may gain Christ and be completely united with Him, no longer having a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law, but the righteousness that comes by faith in Christ (and indeed, by His faithfulness on my behalf) — the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith.

As Jesus put it, you cannot enter the Kingdom of the Righteous One without a righteousness even greater than that of the scribes and the Pharisees. Neither Jesus nor Paul had a quarrel with the Law and the Prophets. In fact, they validated them. But they were totally against the barrier of externalism that the scribes and the Pharisees had erected — “scribal righteousness” it has been called. The Great Commission calls for personal faith in Christ (Mark 16:15), but a faith that eventually issues in a kingdom lifestyle and obedience to everything Christ requires of us (Matt. 28:19). To follow Jesus demands a completely different way of living; it requires values and ambitions that are radically new and radically kingdom-oriented. And the good news is that this obedience, this kingdom way of living, is as much enabled as it is required. As Paul writes in Rom. 8:3-4 (verses I wish every Christian would commit to memory):

For what the Law could not do, weakened as it was by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to do away with sin. God did this so that the righteous requirements of the Law might be fulfilled in us who live according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.

Yes, God’s righteousness is imputed to us — thanks be to God! — but it is also to be imparted; and we are to desire the whole thing, complete righteousness, not just a part of it.

May 12, 2011

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

                

 Adventures in Abyssinia

 David Alan Black

Dearest friends,

The words “Adventures in Abyssinia” are taken from the title of the diary kept by Becky Lynn’s father during her family’s service as missionaries in Ethiopia from 1954 to 1964. Needless to say, Becky Lynn and I are excited to be returning to the land of her childhood. As we go, we are challenged by these words from the very first missionary prayer letter penned by Bradford and Betty Lapsley:                     

It is essential that the training of native leaders keep pace with the growth of the church itself, else the Christians will be untaught in the Word, fail to grow themselves, and ultimately become spiritually stagnant…. It is to this teaching ministry that we feel God has called us.

Yet teaching is not all we will be doing. For over 28 years Becky Lynn has dreamed of serving God as a medical missionary in her native land. Now, by the grace of God, that dream is to be fulfilled.

We are grateful to the Lord for making this journey possible. We are also grateful to those in Ethiopia who helped us plan our trip. Without their efforts our “Abyssinian Adventure” would have been a “Mission Impossible.” Please pray for us daily. We will do our best to represent our Lord’s love and grace as we minister among the Ethiopians.

Love to all,

Dave and Becky Lynn

October 11, 2004

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. His latest book is Why I Stopped Listening to Rush: Confessions of a Recovering Neocon.

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April 2011 Blog Archives

Saturday, April 30

7:52 PM Odds and ends …

1) Somebody please hit me with the stupid stick. I told you that I had co-edited a book review with my student Paul Himes. Well, it was with another student. Do yall give grace for senior moments?

2) I’m starting a teaching series atRock Spring Baptist Church tomorrow morning. Services will also be held Sunday to Wednesday evening (7:00 pm). If you live near Louisburg, NC, and want to pay us a visit, come on!

3) Musings on the movieSoul Surfer. I think Becky and I are going to pass on this one.

4) What? Interpreting Romans 13in light of its context? Unthinkable!

5) Here’san entry in the “Oddest Essay Titles” category. Let’s see, chaplains passing wind….?

7:14 PM A brief You Tube video of today’s festivities:

 

7:04 PM Just woke up from a short nap. During my nap I dreamt I saw hundreds of acres of hay fields, with squares bales every 15 feet or so. The bales seemed to go on forever. I thought to myself, How in the world am I going to get up all of these bales before it rains on Tuesday? And then I woke up.

And now, back to reality. Today’s Work Day for Missions was a smashing success. Here’s why:

If we look a little bedraggled, we should. We worked from 8:00 to 5:00 with breaks only for snacks and lunch. Because of the labor of these fine people, Becky and I will be donating $1,480 to the Ethiopia Fund at Bethel Hill Baptist Church tomorrow.  Never have I worked with nicer people or for a better cause. My thanks to everyone who participated, young and old alike. You’ll never how much you mean to Becky and me. I hope we can do it again real soon. (That is, after my feet stop hurting.)

A few pix in case you’re interested:

1) The wood chipper got a workout today. It ran practically non-stop and worked almost flawlessly. A shout out to Bo’s Hydraulics of South Boston, VA, for giving us a nice discount on its rental price.

2) The Bethel Hill youth were well represented today. Here Lendon shows off his big brown eyes.

3) Several of my Greek students were able to help us today, including Moncy (who hails from Calcutta, India) and Tyler. Some students will do anything for a good grade. (Just kidding, you guys. You know I appreciate you.)

4) Our pastor’s son. A chip off the old block, you might say.

5) Becky and Karen supplied us with morning and afternoon refreshments as well as a fantastic lunch. Thank you, ladies, for working so hard in serving us.

6) Here’s my Sunday School teacher. Chris is one Christ-loving dude, and a man who’s not afraid to get dirty for the sake of the kingdom. Love you, brother!

We finished only about half of what we needed to do today. The wood chipper is due back at 7:30 Monday morning, so I’ll be getting up early tomorrow morning to try and get our money’s worth out of the rental. Care to join me? See you at 6:00 am sharp! (Just kidding, Ed!)

Again, our heartfelt appreciation to everyone who came today. You are fabulous Ethiopian missionaries. Great is your reward in heaven!

Friday, April 29

7:44 PM Don’t readthis unless you are a bookstore lover. (Note: My favorite bookstores in the world are located in London’s famous Piccadilly Circus. Even the Archives Book Store in Pasadena can’t beat them.)

7:36 PM I totally agree withJessica Hall that Hitchcock’s most suspenseful scene comes in Rear Window when Thorwald discovers he’s being watched. Cinematography at its very best! 

7:22 PM Good read: Theologie betrifft jeden. 

Theologie betrifft jeden. Niemand kommt ohne Theologie aus. In gewissem Sinne ist jeder Mensch Theologe. Und gerade hier liegt das Problem. Es geht nicht darum, ob wir Laien- oder Berufstheologen sind. Problematisch ist es nur, ein unkundiger oder gedankenloser Theologe zu sein. Darum muss sich eigentlich jeder mit Theologie befassen.

Well said!

7:12 PM Newsflash! The latest issue of the Criswell Theological Review is out. Gohere for the table of contents. And don’t forget to read therein a book review published by one of my doctoral students, Paul Himes. It’s his first published review ever. Congratulations to you, Paul!

(Confession: I “co-authored” the review with Paul, but he did all the work. Initial reviews by students must be accompanied by the name of their major professor. Paul’s work sure does bring back memories. While working on my own doctorate many years ago I tried to publish as many book reviews as possible in as many journals as possible. This included a new journal called the Criswell Theological Review, which at the time was being edited by an up-and-coming young scholar named David Dockery, with whom I went on to co-edit two books for Zondervan and Broadman & Holman. Who can tell what the future holds for young scholars like Paul. Glad to support them in any way I can.)

6:55 PM If you enjoy studying the book of Philippians as much as I do, you will want to check outthese helpful study notes.

6:45 PM Here’s how you canhelp the disaster relief in the Southern States hit by the recent tornados.

6:34 PM Brief farm update …

1) Just back from South Boston where I rented this 6-inch wood chipper. We bought another one (which was unloaded today and which I still have to assemble). Both will get a good workout tomorrow, Lord willing.

2) As you can see, Nate began cutting hay today. Just a couple of our smaller fields. The poor guy. No one suffers more from hay fever than he. Yet, I think, no one enjoys farming more than he.

3) One of our very best friends, Karen, is here visiting us. Karen and her husband Don have 9 children and, as you can see, are expecting their 10th in June. We dragged Karen away for the weekend, insisting she needed some rest. Don and the remainder of the clan will join us here on Sunday. They are a super wonderful family and dear Christian friends.

Right now Becky and Karen are on the front porch talking girl talk. The last thing I heard Becky say to Karen was, “Well, what should I do with my hair? Keep it short or let it grow?” My answer would be definitive:

Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow!

12:23 PM Heather Joy (whose blog is called Grow Up!) reviewsLife, In Spite of Me —  the inspiring story of one woman’s journey through depression. A sampling:

Kirsten Jane Anderson tells her story how she lay down on cold, icy train tracks just days after the New Year and tried to end her life. Thirty-three freight-train cars ran over her legs at fifty-five miles per hour before it came to a screeching halt. Expecting her life to be over, she looked down and saw her legs laying several feet away from her body – and she realized her worst nightmare had come true. She was alive… her suicide attempt was a failure.

I’d also like to recommend my wife’s essayCoping with Trauma. My thanks to all of these ladies for their transparency and encouragement.

11:58 AM Quote of the day (J. Gresham Machen):

From the beginning, Christianity was certainly a way of life; the salvation that it offered was a salvation from sin, and salvation from sin appeared not merely in a blessed hope but also in an immediate moral change. The early Christians, to the astonishment of their neighbors, lived a strange new kind of life—a life of honesty, of purity and of unselfishness. And from the Christian community all other types of life were excluded in the strictest way. From the beginning Christianity was certainly a life.

11:20 AM Kevin Brown muses aboutmediocrity. When you get to be my age you realize there is very little you can change about yourself. Habits seem firmly entrenched. The temptation to give up, slow down, flake out is very real. Do I give in? All the time, sad to say. Jesus, however, is unambiguous about this subject in His Sermon on the Hillside. What do you really value? What are you seeking after? What is your primary ambition in life? You cannot serve God and this world at the same time. He warns us about giving priority to things (like clothing) that simply wear out with time. He tells us to put our treasure where it cannot be stolen. In terms of commitment, disciples of Jesus should stand out in sharp contrast to this world.

Kevin is right. We need to do better. But worrying about all this is useless. Anxiety, as our Lord said, can’t add one day to our life or a few inches to our height. Worry means that we do not trust God for our failures, our mediocrity, our sloth and complacency. In a world marred by sin, mediocrity is inevitable for everybody, even Type A personalities. What we can do is to take baby steps forward. We can ask God to show us where we lag behind, and then ask Him to nudge us ahead a little bit. It can perhaps mean asking God: How can I be a better husband, a better parent, a better student, a better teacher, a better worker this year than I was last year? It might mean notching it up one bar even in areas in which you might excel. I never teach a class when I do not ask myself, “What one thing can I do this time around that will improve this class?” Here on the farm I’ve been learning how to do basic maintenance jobs without asking (or hiring) others to do it for me. Talk about raising the bar! (Klutz is my middle name.) Short as life is, I believe I can yet make progress in almost every arena of my existence.

As Kevin reminds us, Jesus is our model. He practiced what He preached. He told us to be about the Father’s business, then He showed us how to do that: By walking daily in the Spirit and by trusting the Father. So, brother Kevin, I can empathize with you. Your words remind me that I am not about the Father’s business as I should be. Yet worry is unnecessary. Nobody works harder than a bird, but birds neither worry nor hoard. They trust. And it is not without significance that God allows us to see these little creatures every day of our lives. They show us the way forward.

8:34 AM This week in Baby Greek we introduced a couple of terms that are often referred to as interjections, including the word ouai, which has often been rendered as “Woe!” This word is used frequently in Matthew 24 with reference to Jesus’ opponents. It is an onomatopoeic word, and takes us to the very heart of Jesus. He pronounces “woes” on His enemies, not because He hates them, but because He loves them. Just read verses 37-39, which are among the most poignant words in Scripture. Yes, Jesus loves them, and He will even send them prophets, wise men, and teachers (v. 34). Jesus reaches out to all, even those who hate Him.

Some have asked Becky and me if our mission team will go to Alaba this November. This is the Alaba where the church is suffering, where being a Christian often involves persecution and not infrequently death. But the mission must be undertaken, or the heart of Jesus would burst. Just as He loved the viper’s brood, just as He loved those play actors, just as He loved the very people who would commit the monstrous act of putting Him to death, so He loves those who would be His enemies today. The word ouai is not simply a term of judgment. It is a wailing lament of one who mourns and even weeps over the lost of this world.

So the question I ask is, Do you have this heart? Do I?

8:22 AM In one of my classes recently my students went on a rabbit trail. (I give them a long tether.) Questions were raised about a program used by certain missionaries, and whether it was scriptural. I am so grateful for the cordial and loving manner in which the issue was discussed. There is nothing wrong with questioning our man-made evangelistic strategies. That’s why we need to ask a test question of everything we do: Is this really helping to build up the kingdom? God has given all of us the ministry of reconciliation, but we are assigned different places in the harvest. Love should rule among the workers, but all too often we’re divided around pet doctrines and human personalities. Unless basic Christian doctrine is compromised, we should support each other as much as we can as each of us tries to do our part. Because there is only harvest and one Lord of the harvest, we need to work together and support each other.

Someone once approached Dwight L. Moody and told him, “I don’t like your method of evangelism.” Moody asked him, “Well, what is your method of evangelism?” The man replied, “I don’t have one.” Moody responded, “I like mine better.”

As we begin to fully understand the principles of the kingdom together, we will learn to work with others who don’t look exactly like us, think exactly like us, and act exactly like us. Let us pray for greater unity and cooperation. Perhaps God will grant it!

Thursday, April 28

9:32 PM You’ll never guess what B and I watched tonight. An episode of Hawaii-5-O. Lousy story line but great acting. And the scenery — well, what can you say about Hawaii other than that it truly is the Paradise of the Pacific. The first few episodes were filmed while I was still in high school (and while Obama was still in elementary school), and the fashions were very 60s. Did we really look like that? And poor McGarrett, having to wear a coat and tie in all that humidity. I never saw a cop dressed that way while growing up. (We called that “dressing mainland.”) And the man had no sweat glands. I challenge you to find one scene in which he perspired. But who cares? The series is worth watching if only for its theme song (which is the greatest theme song of all time and the unofficial theme song of the University of Hawaii).

 

7:18 PM New Testament students have yet another good reason to consider St. Andrews for doctoral studies:Scott Hafemann. Kudos to you, Scott, and a big thank you toNijay for the link!

7:02 PM I am practically in tears as I write this. A student of mine just emailed me to say that he and 4 others from his church in Fayetteville, NC (almost to South Carolina!) will be coming to our Virginia farm for Missions Work Day. Another student of mine, a pastor, said his church wanted to help but they already had another outreach planned for Saturday, so they decided to take up an offering instead (it amounted to just over $1,000). For my wife and me, it is our continuing prayer every day for God to save the people of Alaba, Ethiopia. I am convinced that the time is right, despite the severe persecution of the church. The whole thing boils down to this: All the suffering and the pain are forgotten when one soul comes to faith in Christ. What a glorious promise. What a change from the yokes fashioned by the world around us. Jesus saves! If soldiers can die for their country, isn’t true servanthood the least we can offer to our Savior?

Below: The site of the Zobechame church meeting hall. Construction has now begun, thanks to the generous donations of God’s people in North America.

Here is the two room school house we have already built on the property. Here the children from the surrounding Muslim neighborhood are exposed to the love of the living Lord Jesus.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

6:20 PM Odds and ends …

1) Just back from eating out. We were both too tired to cook. Went to the local Chinese place. Good food, good prices.

2) Becky is now cooking up the Sloppy Joes for Saturday’s work day. You should come, if only for the food.

3) The whole farm is bursting forth with color.

4) These fields are “ripe unto harvest.” I think Nate may start cutting tomorrow. Just think — our first hay crop of the season. Always the most enjoyable one.

12:06 PM “The best teachers have an intuitive understanding of the learning process.” That one really got me thinking. For me, understanding the learning process has not been very intuitive; I’ve had to enroll in the school of hard knocks. For example, here’s one lesson I’ve had to learn the hard way: Whenever we simply ask our students to fill in their notebooks while we lecture, education tends to be curtailed and genuine learning retarded. This is because of what I call the First Law of Paid-agogy.

I started mulling over this law after I began lecturing at Biola University back in the mid-70s. My pattern of lecturing was the one my teachers at Biola had used. As a student I used to call it the “You Sit Still and I Instill” method. That is to say, I was under the impression that my job as a teacher — what I was getting paid to do (hence the title First Law of Paid-agogy) — was to disseminate information. The more information, the better. As the years went by, however, I couldn’t help saying to myself, “I wonder just how many of these facts my students will remember after they’ve graduated?” Then I had a brain trickle. “Why not allow the students to get all the hard facts by reading the textbook before become coming to class? If I did that, could I perhaps spend class time focusing on more relevant (and intrinsically important) material?” The more I pondered these questions, the more it seemed obvious to me that “less is more” works in the classroom as much as it does in any other venue of life. To be sure, I still felt it was my duty to see that my students learned the hard facts of the discipline they were studying — New Testament Introduction, for example. My only question was, “Why spend valuable class time lecturing over this material when the students can get it in one fourth the time by reading it in a textbook, especially a well-written one?” (Wink, wink.)

The First Law of Paid-agogy tries to do too much and it fails almost every time. It’s hard for me to imagine a greater waste of class time than having my students fill in their notebooks with information. There is no nurturing of the mind. It is a key reason why so many students who attend large lectures actually spend their time in class on Face Book or in tweeting when they “should” be taking notes. Students know a boring lecturer when they see one, I like to say.

(I might add: There is no such thing as a boring teacher. If he or she is boring, he or she is not a teacher.)

There is an obvious parallel between one’s method of teaching and one’s method of testing. In my large lectures on the New Testament, for instance, I focus on macro-issues, and then I have students write essay exams discussing these issues. Essay exams kill two birds with one stone: They require students to express themselves actively and verbally, and they require an issue to be discussed in detail. On the other hand, multiple choice exams that test to the lectured-upon minutiae fail to do anything but force students to memorize a myriad of facts they will forget the minute the exam is over. (This, by the way, is called the Second Law of Paid-agogy.)

Now, if we should decide to major on the majors in class as well as on our exams, this has implications for class attendance. The key to attendance is not a class roll. It is making the lecture sufficiently interesting and intrinsically useful that students will want to attend class. At first I didn’t understand this — and then it clicked. Give the students the freedom to attend class or not! Make attendance voluntary! You say, “That’s crazy!” I say it works, both for the student and for the administration, because it puts a premium on good classroom teaching.

And that’s really what we should be talking about anyway.

9:10 AM Last faculty meeting of the year yesterday. Enrollment this year is way up. Another record year anticipated for the fall. God has been inordinately good to us.

In preparation for our summer faculty workshop we were asked to readWhat the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain, who directs the Center for Teaching Excellence at New York University. I read it in one sitting last night. A few take-aways:

• The best teachers “reach” their students intellectually and leave then wanting more.

• The best teachers are active and accomplished scholars.

• The best teachers have an intuitive understanding of the learning process.

• The best teachers reflect a strong trust in students.

• The best teachers treat their students with simple decency.

• The best teachers give students a safe space in which to construct ideas.

• The best teachers avoid extrinsic motivators and foster intrinsic ones.

• The best teachers avoid using grades to persuade students to study.

• The best teachers help students keep the larger questions of the course at the forefront.

• The best teachers expect the highest levels of development from their students.

• The best teachers create a strong desire in their students to read in the discipline.

• The best teachers set high standards and convey a strong trust in all their students.

• The best teachers realize that learning takes place not when students perform well on examinations but when they evaluate how they think and behave well beyond the classroom.

• The best teachers ask their students for a commitment to the class and to learning.

• The best teachers use class time to help students think about information and ideas the way scholars in the discipline do.

• The best teachers have the ability to communicate orally in ways that stimulate thought.

• The best teachers display not power but an investment in their students.

• The best teachers ask students to assess themselves.

• The best teachers know they always have something new to learn.

I am grateful for this book. Already it is helping me to think through my own philosophy of teaching. We teachers are little servants of a Great Master. We need to reflect well on Him in all we do, inside and outside of the classroom. There are abiding principles that can be learned and lived by any teacher. The key is to act on them.

Later I’ll offer some thoughts about my own approach to the classroom based on 34 years of experience.

Wednesday, April 27

7:40 PM Interesting threadhere about the use of Greek interlinears. (Thank you, Brent, for pointing it out to me.)

7:20 PM My new motto: Deo optimo maximo.

Jim Elliott put it this way: “Wherever you are, be all there, and live to the hilt whatever you are convinced is the will of God for your life.” I fall so short, but that’s my goal. Would you pray for and with me that I might attain it?

7:14 PM Conference announcement: My colleague in Old Testament, Heath Thomas, will be giving a lecture at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, NC, on Saturday, May 21, from 9:00 to noon. His topic will be the book of Lamentations. For more information, gohere. And for my interview of Heath about his latest book, clickhere.

6:40 PM Odds ends …

1) Allan Bevere saysNothing is Mere Doctrine. He writes on a topic I have often struggled with.

2) How teaching is best learned –by teaching. Christian education is likeness education (Luke 6:40).

3) Looking for a good deal on a Greek New Testament? Gohere.

4) Look who’s been spendingtoo much time on the internet. Am I guilty too? I hope not. One thing is certain: If I ever find myself being less productive in writing books, then I’ll know I’ve been spending too much time on the web.

5) Chuck Colson asksWould Jesus Get a Tattoo? Not sure I agree with his answer (the matter seems to be a gray area) but his essay is worth reading.

6) Did you remember to honor your secretarytoday? I did. Our quad could not make it without the able assistance of Miss Phyllis.

7) It’s official: I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Oh, andso was the president. Will the idiotic conspiracy now die a well-deserved death? Not on your life. The Birthers could care less about truth.)

6:31 PM T. C. Robinson pays tribute to theKing James Version. I cut my eye teeth on the Old Schofield Reference Bible, King James Version. But it wasn’t until I began reading another translation that I can say that I truly “fell in love” with the Bible. That new translation was calledThe Good News for Modern Man New Testament, which was first published in 1966 when I was 14 years old. I simply could not put it down. As an artist I found the line drawings visually attractive, and as a young believer I found the glossary extremely helpful.

It was the version God used to help me move away from being a shallow Christian who couldn’t turn the next corner in life let alone turn the world upside down for Jesus.

I’m convinced God uses different Bibles for different purposes in different lives. To all who follow Christ, there is no need to despair of a shortage of good English translations to help us grow and mature in our faith. As far as I’m concerned, any legitimate Bible version that can help us get connected to Jesus, the Head, as well as help us to submit to the kind of dead-to-self life that He can use for His glory, is a good translation.

Tuesday, April 26

6:18 AM Am very excited this morning to be returning to campus after a week off. As I do so I’m reminded of something Ray Ortlund, former pastor of Lake Avenue Churchin Pasadena, once told a group of fellow pastors. He said that once in a while they should lean over their pulpits and tell their congregations how much they love them. He said people in the pews need to hear these words from their pastors. He said, you may feel awkward in doing so, but do it anyway!

Have I, as a professor, ever told my students “I love you”? Yes, but not often enough. Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. “Church spirit” is never built by putting others down. Love is the chief mark of authenticity, whether you are a teacher, a pastor, a lawyer, a farmer, or whatever. We don’t have to work it up; He sends it down. Seminary education demands a lifestyle of relationships. Anyone can create an organization, but only God can create a true community, a genuine Body, a throbbing, vital organism. Oh, may Southeastern Seminary be known, not for its academic prowess, but for its success in expressing tenderly the implanted love of God in outward and visible expressions of all kinds. Only then will passion for the nations be both “caught” and “taught” throughout the entire student body.

So students, I say to you today:

I love you.

Monday, April 25

9:06 PM Sweet visit with the Blacks this evening. That Nolan is a growin’! Becky snapped some pix:

8:54 PM Greatly honored and humbled that Elgin Hushbeck should have taken the time to review Why Four Gospels?

6:15 PM I have now finished reading Clifford Dowdey’s magnificent biography of Robert E. Lee. Many people do not realize that at war’s end Lee became a professional educator. And an excellent one at that. As the president of Washington College in Lexington, VA, Lee placed his students on their own responsibility, much as he had with the soldiers under him. “To Lee,” writes Dowdey,

education for the future depended as much on character as learning, and to him character was built upon the habits of self-control. He did not believe that intelligent self-government in men would be promoted by forcing students under compulsion, supported by penalties, to perform class assignments and conform to rules of personal behavior.

Dowdey goes on:

He believed that by giving young men the opportunity to think and act for themselves, they would form the habit of making the proper choices…. With this attitude, he refused to encompass students with regulations and petty rules, nor would he have them watched over — “espionage,” as it was called at the college — as if they were unable to govern themselves.

When students abused this privileged, they were called into the president’s office. Notes Dowdey:

It was not his custom to reproach the boys. He advised them. One of his former students, who was himself never called to Lee’s office, wrote, “I have heard the boys who were say his admonitions were as tender as a mother’s and his warnings and instructions always fatherly and wise.”

The bottom line?

The men were proud of acting on their honor, and they obeyed Lee, one said, “not because they feared but loved him….”

I could not agree more with this approach to education, at least in seminary and graduate school. The honor system that Lee established is still in effect at what is now called Washington and Lee University. It has stood the test of time, because it is based on sound pedagogy.

Below: Lee as a civilian just before his death in 1870.

5:14 PM The library at UNC Chapel Hill has a fabulous website that follows the Civil War day by day. If you are at all interested in American history I recommend that you take a look at the site. It mostly contains short stories and personal reminiscences. Since this is the 150th anniversary of the war, I would also urge you and your family to consider attending one of the major reenactments that are being planned over the next four years. Of course, this year will feature the famous battle that took place along a meandering creek in northern Virginia. The official website is calledManassasBullRun.Com. The dates are July 21-24. Although I abhor war, I think it’s important for all Americans to become familiar with this era of our history. The battle claimed the lives of 878 soldiers and wounded another 2,489. Here General Jackson earned his immortal nickname “Stonewall,” and here both sides realized that the war would be long and bloody. I have reenacted this battle in the past, as well as many other major battles (Sharpsburg/Antietam, Shiloh, etc.), and I can tell you from personal experience that the 1860s truly come alive when you catch a glimpse of what it must have been like to live through those dark days. The First Battle of Manassas was trulyAn End to Innocence.

Below: Ruins of the famous stone bridge, taken after the battle.

1:42 PM Did you know that every 45 seconds someone dies from malaria? And did know there’s an organization dedicated to ending malaria in Africa by the year 2015? I heard about it while listening to the Diane Rehm show on NPR this morning. As someone who can no longer donate blood to the Red Cross because of malaria I was keenly interested both in the organization (Malaria No More) and the church that sponsored the radio ad: The United Methodist Church.

By the way, today is World Malaria Day. I say that with some empathy. I believe the Lord allowed me to contract this disease so that I could more easily identify with malaria sufferers where we work in Ethiopia.

And no, I see no contradiction between social work and the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, presence without proclamation is a grave mistake, and all too many “Christian” charitable organizations do just that. That said, the social implications of the Gospel are inescapable. The Gospel is the root, good works are the fruit. If there is life in the tree there will always be fruit on its branches. A Gospel that lacks concern for people’s needs is no Gospel at all. If I believed otherwise Becky and I would never have established our health center in Southern Ethiopia three years ago. It is obvious to me that evangelism and social compassion go hand in hand. The social Gospel can, of course, never replace the personal Gospel; but I think we conservative evangelicals err perhaps too far on the side of mere decision-making. Let the cup of cold water be given, but let it always be given in Jesus’ name and with a view toward evangelism!

10:38 AM Quote of the day:

I appreciate the zeal of Jim Wallis and others for the poor, I just would desire that they would stop placing their faith in the worst possible vehicle for alleviating poverty (i.e. the confiscation of property from one class of people and transfering that property to another class of people by a secular state via coercion and under threat of imprisonment). The Federal government can never tax enough, spend enough, borrow enough to end poverty and in fact all of the spending/taxing/borrowing for the last four decades has actually made poverty worse and indebted the nation.

ReadWhen you fast … be sure to spread the news about it!

9:54 AM Why was Dwight Eisenhower chosen to lead the allied army that would storm the shores of France on D-Day? According to Stephen Ambrose, it was his ability to work well with others. Writes Ambrose (D-Day, p. 66):

The key word was “team.” Eisenhower’s emphasis on teamwork, his never-flagging insistence on working together, was the single most important reason for his selection.

The early church, too, worked as a team, and it was unified around one thing: the Gospel. One cannot fail to notice this priority: there was one Lord, one faith, one baptism. There can be little doubt that when Paul talked about unity it is because Jesus had already affirmed its importance among His followers (John 17). The early church had one over-powering passion. They were consumed with a love for Christ, a love that spilled over into a love for others. Philippians speaks of struggling together for the faith of the Gospel, of putting aside our selfish interests and placing the needs of others before our own. It is an amazing thing that Paul should have believed that his churches could be unified. But indeed he did! And what a privilege that is for us today.

I know of nothing that will unify the Body of Christ quite like a common concern for the lost — those who are out of touch with the God we know so personally.

Sunday, April 24

8:05 PM What, not another essay by Eric Carpenter on theLord’s Supper!

It would not be needed if we were following New Testament patterns. In earlier times the event was a gigantic celebration. The Christians in New Testament days put first things first by focusing on the Savior. With us, first things often come last. And the “Lord’s Supper” is thereby transformed from a joyful celebratory meal into a dull, dreary duty. At Bethel Hill this morning we ate together as a church and then — lo and behold! — we found the bread and the cup being passed around as we ate and talked and shared.

It certainly taught me a lesson. It reminded me that our gatherings never need be dull, unimaginative, or repetitive. It was not difficult to think back to Acts 2 and to be reminded that the Breaking of Bread was a priority to the early Christians. Their koinonia was vibrant, full of love, warmth, and vitality. This is the sort of Christian fellowship I desire, and it can be a reality.

To our church elders I say thank you. Thank you for helping the Body to express in a tangible way the Gospel. If I am not greatly mistaken, the Lord’s Supper, unlike the Jewish Passover, was observed much more often in the early church than it is today, probably every week on the day of the resurrection. And since every Sunday is Resurrection Day, I suppose the implications for future observances is obvious.

2:06 PM “Whatever else the resurrection does, it leads to the Great Commission.” These words, or ones very similar to them, were part of Jason’s excellent message this morning during our annual Easter Sunrise Service at the Dawson’s home on the lake.

Jason was referring, of course, to verse 21, in which Jesus is recorded to have said, “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” What a marvelous truth! It got me to thinking. The resurrection of Christ is the springboard for missions. Without it there would have been no Great Commission. With it, how can we remain silent?

Those of us who have put our faith in Christ undergo great changes in our lives. Perhaps the greatest of these is the act of committing ourselves to live for others rather than ourselves. When Jesus rose from the dead, He gave us a brand new purpose in life, and we who follow Him are now to be His voice and His hands and His feet in this world. Jesus changes everything. And it was Easter Sunday that launched the church on its mission. Emil Brunner put it succinctly when he wrote (in his book 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 active and passive members of the body, between those who give and those who receive.

The modern missionary movement has the whole world as its target, and it has each and every one of us in its workforce. We go forth, as did our Master, not as high-pressure salespeople but as ambassadors of the living God. The shared enterprise of missions brings with it unspeakable joy and fellowship. And this “mission” we are talking about goes back to the fountainhead called the resurrection. It thus goes back to Jesus.

We should be foolish and disobedient to celebrate Easter without accepting this command of going. That is to say, ministry is based upon the reality of a living Christ among His people. It should hardly surprise us, then, that every Great Commission text is found in a resurrection narrative. The disciples of Jesus were all expected to be equally committed to the Teacher’s cause, and equally concerned to take the Good News to the ends of the earth.

This is no less true of us today, regardless of the particular role we might play in that great cause.

Saturday, April 23

7:34 PM Reading Matthew with Tom Wright. A great Easter Message!

 

10:04 AM I have begun reading Stephen Ambrose’s classic bookD-Day. The work is surprisingly disappointing. I wish the author had done better fact-checking. Three examples:

1) On page 33 he writes: “They [the racial Germans] were classified as Abteilung 3 dur Deutschen Volkslists (Section 3 of the German Racial Lists).” Of course, the German definite article is never spelled “dur.” (The correct form here is “der.”) Also, the word “Volkslists” should be “Volksliste.”

2) On page 35 the author refers to “members of the Nazi Youth.” The correct name for this organization is Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend).

3) On page 36 Ambrose refers to “Gen. Guenter Blumenstedt (chief of staff, Oberbefehlshaber West — OB West, the German ground headquarters of the Western Front.” Any student of WW II history will immediately recognize the error here. The general’s name wasBlumentritt, not Blumenstedt.

Little foxes sure do spoil the vine, at least for this reader!

8:11 AM Over at The Christian Century, Robert Cornwall reviews a book with an interesting title:Part-Time Pastor, Full-time Church. Bob writes:

Pastoral leadership is just one side of the coin, as these congregations will have to take on responsibilities that are often reserved for clergy—such as visiting the homebound and the hospitalized. Con­gregations will have to take a close look at their structures to make sure that they are flexible enough for them to work effectively with the pastor. Finally, congregations must decide what they value most in a pastor: good preaching and worship leadership, ability to advise and counsel members, effectiveness in supervising other staff members, or other qualities.

“Congregations will have to take on responsibilities that are often reserved for clergy” — I could not have said it better. Bob, by the way, is the author of the Areopagus titleUltimate Allegiance: The Subversive Nature of the Lord’s Prayer, which is reviewedhere.

8:04 AM I love my faculty colleagues. They are great men and women, excellent teachers, and accomplished scholars in their fields. When asked about our academics here at SEBTS, I often send people to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which lists 375 schools that offer the Ph.D. according to their “faculty scholarly productivity.” You might be pleased (or shocked!) to know that Southeastern ranks number 5 in the category of theological studies, just after Chicago, Notre Dame, Princeton, and Westminster. You canlook at the list yourself. Keep in mind that we are not a research institution but a seminary that trains men and women to become Great Commission Christians. Truly God has assembled here a wonderful faculty. As God blesses, I hope to see our faculty publish many more books in the years to come, to the glory of God alone.

7:55 AM Greek students, be sure to check out theRoberts Memorial Greek Web Page. What will you find here? The question is, What won’t you find here? While you’re at it, make sure you look at Roberts’introductory grammar of New Testament Greek. A most useful resource if you ask me. 

7:50 AM Interesting essay:The Authorship and Publication of the Gospel of Mark.

7:42 AM “Many hands make light work.” We’re hoping many of you will be here for our Missions Work Day. It’s coming up a week from today. Brings your chain saws and gloves. And please RSVP if you plan to attend:dblack@sebts.edu.

7:36 AM Would C. S. Lewis have approved of tenure? Read about ithere.

7:23 AM Agro-fan Rick Saenz is no longerchampioning his cause. I say, Amen and amen! Rick writes:

To those who are attracted to a strong prophetic stance but uneasy about its temptation to indignation, anger, pride, self-righteousness, contempt, condescension—it doesn’t have to be that way. The thing you feel called to denounce should be matched by a godly counterpart you have embraced. Forgo the denunciation, and redouble your embrace! The good thing you exemplify will itself serve as a rebuke to the corresponding wickedness, without any additional help from you. And the fact that you have visibly managed to live out your ideal will say infinitely more to your listener more than any words you offer extolling a way of life that is merely speculative for both of you.

Rick argues that we can be prophetic and irenic at the same time. He also says that the best admonitions are based on example, not words. For someone who loves the agrarian lifestyle, I couldn’t agree more. Thank you, Rick!

Friday, April 22

3:34 PM Odds and ends …

1) More anti-Christian violence inEthiopia.

2) Brush Ashford reviewsCounterfeit Gospels.

3) Blessings on fellow blogger Brian Fulthorp and family as theymove from the Grand Canyon.

4) Good article on the complexities of foreign adoptionshere. (I note that Ethiopia has cut its adoption rate by 90 percent.)

5) Life isfragile, says Andy Bowden.

11:54 AM Quote of the day (Becky Black):

But in all of this, we must remember the Jesus was never a victim.  He was never at the mercy of those who destroyed Him.  Rather, He willingly placed Himself at their command, and He kept Himself under their command until the end had been accomplished.  At any second, He could have used His power & authority to withdraw Himself and flip the circumstances.  The angels stood in the heavens, awaiting His command to rescue Him.  But no command came.

Instead,He yielded Himself to the Father’s will.

11:24 AM The proliferation of Bible translations in English continues.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. I once had a student walk up to me and ask, “Why should I bother learning Greek in light of all the English Bibles available to me today?” My answer was simple. “It is preciouslybecause there are so many English translations that it is incumbent on you to learn Greek. How else will you be able to check their accuracy?”

I await Wright’s new translation with eager anticipation.

11:08 AM The team of 18 or so missionaries we are sending to Ethiopia in November will be an amazing group. They’ll all be veterans, eager to renew the cross-cultural connection with their sister churches in Alaba and Burji. Mistakes there will be, and Christ will cover them all with His mercy and grace. With the help of the Holy Spirit, our team members will work hard on removing their cultural blinders. I’ve made my share of embarrassing faux pas through the years. In the Middle East I once tried to shake the hand of my female tour guide when we were introduced. I quickly learned that this was unacceptable in that culture. Each country I’ve visited has its own courtesies and sensitivities. We’ve got to work hard to understand the tone of the societies we work in. In Ethiopia this problem is compounded by the fact that there are some 85 major sub-cultures, each with their own language and customs. When you cross cultural lines, the rules change. You just learn to start from scratch.

One thing Becky and I stress in our orientation meetings is the need for the missionary to reach out and enter the new culture. We believe that the greater the bonding, the more effective our work will be. Our men are asked to be willing to hold hands with other men in public, and our women are asked to dress modestly (blue jeans are culturally unacceptable down country in Ethiopia). We want to build a truly reciprocal relationship. The external level of social custom is one of the ways we can show them respect. You may look askance at eating coffee beans in your coffee here in America, but in the Guji tribe this is taken for granted. Now, I will always be different from the Gujis. For one thing, I am white! But I can show them I have genuine love for them, a desire to be with them, a willingness to serve them, and an acknowledgment that they have much to teach me. The barriers of foreigners can never be removed completely, but they can be minimized. But we must take the first step. According to 1 Corinthians 9, Paul tried to identify himself with the people whom he was seeking to help. Missiologists call this the “incarnational” principle. Without this effort to bond, all else is empty words.

Below: Eating coffee on my second visit to the warlike Guji tribe. This was a real test for me. I think I almost died, but drink it I did. The rest was smooth sailing.

Here’s Miss Katy (who blogshere). She was 15 years old when this photo was taken. Despite her white complexion, she fit right in wherever she went in Ethiopia. Along with her dad and younger sister, Katy is planning on returning to Alaba this fall.

8:58 AM Certainly, “Good Friday” is aptly named. Bad news is good news, in the light of Scripture. The Christian does not rejoice over the chaos and confusion of life, the distress of nations, the suffering caused by a tornado or a tsunami. We do not gloat over the collapse of the world system. But we are asked to lift up our heads, because any way you look at it, God can bring life out of death and good from evil. I have lived in this old wreck of a world for 58 years and I live in the ruin of it today. Where would I be had not Good Friday occurred? All I lost in Adam’s fall I gained in the redemption made possible through Calvary.

The Gospel is a gory, bloody story. It is repulsive to the “educated” and “refined” thinkers of our day. There is nothing lovely about crucifixion. But on that cross God provided a meeting place and a Mediator in His Son. “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Dear blog reader, have you claimed the cleansing blood for yourself? Provision has been made for you at Calvary, and when we accept that provision we stand in the righteousness of God.

7:42 AM Looks like Jesus is coming back on May 21. After all, the billboards can be trusted, right?

This bunk is adequately refutedhere. I might add a few thoughts of my own:

1) Most Christians believe that Jesus could come at any moment. But we do not know the day or the hour.

2) It is neither proper to scoff at His promise of coming nor to get all worked up over it.

3) Luke 19:13 says, “Keep busy until I come.” Whenever Christ’s return is mentioned in Scripture, it seems that it is accompanied with sober counsel to be good stewards in the meantime.

4) Perhaps those who are most eager for Christ’s return are the ones who need most of all to combine a sense of immediacy with faithful service until the Lord returns.

So: Are we busy about the kingdom?

7:25 AM Reading Aussie John’sblog post this morning reminded me of something Aristotle wrote 2,500 years ago:

Young men have strong passions. They would rather do noble deeds than useful ones. They think they know everything and are always quite sure about it; this, in fact, is why they overdo everything.

Then he added:

Old men have lived many years. The result is that they are sure about nothing and under-do everything. They “think” but they never “know.”

The generations need each other. We older men have much to learn from you younger men. Just try not to overdo it 🙂

7:18 AM Last Monday we ran into a Swiss family while visiting Grandfather’s Mountain. What a delight to be able to speak German again. Wissen Sie, es fehlt mir im Sprechen an Übung. That is yet another advantage to studying abroad. You never realize the differences between Americans and the Swiss until you live and work closely together. And, unless you come to appreciate those differences, they can grate and irritate. I recall how my gregarious wife would walk down the street happily greeting everyone she passed. Needless to say, this is not a Swiss custom, at least not in Basel. When one is not cheerfully greeted in return, it is easy to conclude that the Swiss are rude and unfriendly. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. It’s simply a matter of culture and custom. 

7:08 AM Charles Lamb once said, “If Alexander the Great or Charlemagne or Napoleon were to come into the room, we would all stand up out of respect. If Jesus Christ walked in, we would fall on our faces in adoration.”

That is a very big difference, and we should always keep it in mind.

Thursday, April 21

7:42 PM The young ladies have arrived. After picking out their beds in the upstairs bedrooms they joined Becky and me for supper.

Right now they’re getting down to business.

My job? Cook the meals, clean the dishes, and otherwise stay out of the way. (Right now I hear one of the girls reading Scripture. Awesome!)

4:48 PM More odds and ends …

1) North Park University announces an opening in Youth Ministry.

2) The idealGreek grammar?

3) Peer pressure onPalm Sunday.

4) Greek students at Mount Pleasant!Alan Knox has some Greek Interactive Flash Cards for you.

5) One benefit of the semester break: I’m getting some extra reading done. Last night I began I Was Hitler’s Doctor. I have no idea idea where I got this book from. I found it during an archeological dig in my library. Needless to say the book is, well, interesting.

4:20 PM Got time for a brief word about blogging?

Recently I had an interesting email conversation with a blogging friend in Australia. We agreed that the blogging ranks have become a bit glutted these days. Both of us have pared down the number of sites we visit each day. I still enjoy blogging, but I’m not nearly as keen about writing about renewal as I am enthusiastic about doing it. I suppose it was a benign accident that my interest in ecclesiology and the explosion in blogging occurred about the same time. I am convinced that missional living is not merely a marginalia of New Testament Christianity but one of its central and most important themes. For the present, I will continue to offer my blog posts as a humble attempt to move the heart of God’s people with the grandeur of His plan for the nations. It is a day for a radical commitment to visible equality between the wealthy church in the West and the less fortunate church in the Majority World. Such is the plain teaching of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 8. Equipping for missions will also encourage every believer to cultivate the relationships around them and to use their discretionary time for kingdom purposes. Therefore, I believe it should be the primary task of bibliobloggers as well as the concern of every follower of Jesus that the saints be equipped for their ministries both in the church and in the world. No longer can we favor the professional minister and slight the non-professional one. Such an attitude only hinders the mutual service by which the Body of Christ is edified and the world evangelized. Michael Green once called Paul’s use of the public hall of Tyrannus “a most impressive piece of Christian opportunism” (Evangelism in the Early Church, p. 205). Could not our blogs function in the same way today? I am convinced that this is possible. This will bring the Christian blogging community together in a greater way. We need to learn how to agree to disagree on lesser issues and get on with the basic living out of the Christian life, mobilizing people for missions for the sake of world evangelism. I am sure that God is already using many of you who are reading this blog more than you realize. I hope that you will make a fresh commitment to becoming a missions mobilizer, all in order to glorify God.

8:28 AM Odds and ends …

1) Yesterday we mailed two moreGreek DVD sets. Interest continues in the series literally all over the world.

2) Tonight Becky is hosting 5 young ladies from our church for a sewing party. A side benefit will be good fellowship and spiritual mentoring.

3) The history ofMaundy Thursday.

4) N. T. Wright has produced anew translation of the New Testament. Looks like he beat me to the punch. Or did he?

5) Two members of my Mount Pleasant Greek class have blogged about their experiencehere andhere.

6) Have you seenthis crazy tornado You Tube yet?

8:10 AM Hello blogworld. You will have noticed that I am a keen fan of tent-making missions, not only because I have tried to practice this in my own life but also because I consider every follower of the Lord Jesus to be in fulltime Christian service. This, of course, means bearing witness. What I find so interesting about those early 18th century missionary societies — which arose outside of the established churches as “parachurch” organizations — was their practice of soliciting untrained and un-ordained believers from all walks of life and sending them forth to the distant fields of the world. Thomas Haweis, preaching at the inauguration of the London Missionary Society in 1795, said:

A plain man — with a good natural understanding — well read in the Bible, — full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, — though he comes from the forge or the shop, would, I own, in my view, as a missionary to the heathen, be infinitely preferable to all the learning of the schools; and would possess, in the skill and labour of his hands, advantages which barren science would never compensate.

This was a radical departure, of course, from the church’s insistence that missionaries had to be episcopally ordained. Thus, in 1796, a party of 30 missionaries, with their wives and children, were sent out by the London Missionary Society to the Pacific Islands. Four of them were Dissenting pastors. The others included carpenters, weavers, tailors, bricklayers, a shopkeeper, a blacksmith, and a gardener. They were sent out, as Andrew Walls notes in his The Missionary Movement in Christian History (p. 166), “to live as church and family.”

To live as church and family.

Is this not precisely what the earliest believers in the book of Acts did? For them, evangelism was never the task of the ordained ministry. Nor was evangelism an option only for those who felt “called” to do missionary work. They had no missionary societies. They were a bunch of nobodies who were commissioned by the Lord Himself to share their faith with others. It was much the same way with the Anabaptists in sixteenth century Europe. One cannot fail to notice the priorities of these persecuted Christians in this whole matter of evangelistic activity. They succeeded because they went against the grain of thinking among the Reformers.

Is it too late to see a widespread explosion of lay witness in our day? I hope not. The missionaries who were sent forth by the London Missionary Society had very different ideas about church life. We need more like them.

Wednesday, April 20

7:58 PM Click here to watch a brief You Tube of today’s events.

7:43 PM Becky took lots of pix of our work day in Bethel Hill. Here are a few. As you can see in this first photo, the damage on the hill was evident everywhere you looked. This house is just down the street from the church. The tornado moved it off its foundation, and unfortunately the house had to be condemned.

Fallen trees led to considerable roof damage throughout the area. Disaster relief teams from all over the State were here in force to provide at least temporary protection from the elements until these roofs can be rebuilt.

If I do say so myself, disaster relief is one thing we Southern Baptists do exceptionally well. In charge of our own work crew was the indomitable Leigh Humphries, shown here along with her husband Marshall-the-Chain-Saw-Superman.

We have begun calling our fearless leader “Mama Leigh,” a spin on “Mama B” (who is none other than my wife). Mama Leigh, you done real good today! Here brother Marshall attacks a tree with a vengeance. My own puny chain-saw wore out after an hour or so.

Marshall did leave a few projects for us lesser mortals, however. Here brother Ed does some fire wood sawing.

Note: none of this wood will be wasted. Each year the church delivers, free of charge, logs to several needy families in the neighborhood who heat their homes exclusively with wood.

Here Becky administers first aid (ice) to a young lady from a church in eastern North Carolina. Their youth group traveled all the way to Bethel Hill to help. Phenomenal! Thank you!

Pastor Jason is never too proud to lend a helping hand, no matter what the job might be.

In the meantime, brother Dudley shows that he must be a roofing specialist. He did a splendid job of replacing several of the roof tiles on this house near the church.

And here’s a shout out and a huge “thank you” to Louisiana Pacific Lumber Company for underwriting a great Golden Corral lunch to all of our workers, served up by the ladies of the church.

They fed a ton of people.

Never was food more appreciated!

Here Mama Mary serves up some of her delicious coconut cream cake.

The local newspaper featured a story about one of our church families, the Jacobs. Their daughter was napping in her bedroom as the tornado arrived in Bethel Hill. Just seconds before a huge tree toppled over, right into her bedroom, her mother and father felt led to wake her up and move her to a safer area of the house. I wish you could read the entire story, but it’s not available online. Needless to say, mom and dad gave God all the glory for the miracle.

I want to express my love and appreciation to all my co-workers today and especially to my brothers and sisters at Bethel Hill Baptist Church who have chosen to live Christianly before a watching world. If genuine love for others does not mark us, nobody is likely to listen to anything we have to say. The earliest Christians had a love for the lost — those neighbors of theirs who were far away from the God they knew and loved. I dare say, Bethel Hill Baptist shows something of the intensity of that same concern. Good works are a priority in evangelism. Strongholds of unbelief do not fall to anything less than genuine Christian living. This non-verbal communication is very important. A church that really cares is the sort of church that both wins and keeps converts.

8:31 AM Odds and ends …

1) Nice note from a DBO reader: “I am sending this thank you note for your efforts in writing books such asLearn to Read New Testament Greek.”

2) I haven’t forgotten about my promise to post some vocabulary aids for “my” students at Mount Pleasant. Here’s one to get you started: Richard Sugg, Printable Flash Cards.

3) Honored to be writing the Foreword to Kevin Brown’s Rite of Passage. It begins this way:

I am often asked for advice from pastors and seminarians about how to implement New Testament truth into the life of a local church. I usually refer them to members of their own generation. There are a handful of younger adults who seem to understand the church, our culture, and how to apply biblical truth to both. I expect writers like Eric Carpenter, Alan Knox, Arthur Sido, and Kevin Brown to be people who will help the Christian community find its way forward. These men are precious gifts from God, and their contributions to the church are greatly appreciated by their blog readers. They are engaged, informed, and ready and able to offer well-reasoned and biblical responses to the issues churches face today.

By the way, if you haven’t read their blogs yet, you should. Much better than the fluff that passes as “biblioblogging” today.

4) A bit of serendipity: Haven’t had a sinus headache in days.

5) Shout out to my doctoral studentThomas Hudgins. Welcome back to North Carolina!

6) Time to grab the chain saw and go to Bethel Hill to help out with the post-tornado damage. Clickhere to read the latest update on the situation in the Tarheel State.

8:22 AM Quote of the day (see commentshere):

I am not sure these personalities aren’t overshawding the Gospel when we put them on posters, stages, and apparently elite clubs. As I have said, it appears to me that many are replacing their Bibles for their favorite personality/ies. I think there is great value in learning from wise, well studied teachers, but I also think there is a danger in only listening to a few we have already decided are right.

Tuesday, April 19

7:46 PM My home church, Bethel Hill Baptist Church, was spared any major damage after Saturday’s devastating tornado raged through the area, but several homes in the Bethel Hill area were affected (see map).

Bethel Hillians were out with their chain saws yesterday serving their neighbors. I’ve always enjoyed and greatly appreciated the commitment of BHBC to serve its own community as well as the world. Our testimony must begin at home. We can’t champion global missions if our witness is compromised in our own backyard. If we’re going to promote in missions a commodity we had better make sure we have it in stock on our own shelves. If the Gospel will not work among our closest friends it will not work among our most distant enemies. Luke puts it this way: “Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name among all nations — beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). What a wonderful Great Commission text!

Friends, if it is easier for us to send a check overseas than to send the Gospel across the street, we had better have a heart examination.

7:34 PM Guess what I’m cooking for dinner tonight? Yep. Chinese stir fry. With my secret ingredient no less. Life is good.

7:07 PM Zondervan’s Koinonia Blog features Bill Mounce every Monday. Thelatest post discusses the following expression from Gal. 2:20:

Χριστῷ συνεσταυραύρωμαι

Did anyone else notice the misspelled Greek word?  (I’m thinking especially of a certain blogger whose blog has a very catchy title.)

6:54 PM Perhaps it shouldn’t, but it amazes me how often I hear today of Christian teachers and preachers indulging in etymologizing. I dare say we should know better by now. After all, it’s been years since Don Carson published his Exegetical Fallacies and since I published my own Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek, which detail such fallacies as etymologizing, illegitimate totality transfer, and others. What, for example, are we to make of the chapel speaker I heard recently who got “pollution” from the Greek word for “plentiful” in Jesus’ saying “The harvest is plentiful” (Matt. 9:38)? I very much doubt whether the lexicons would support any such notion. It happens that just recently I was reading a book on Christian leadership that contained one of the funniest examples of etymologizing I think I have ever run across. The author had taken a trip to Hawaii and noticed how he and his wife were constantly greeted with the word “aloha.” The author noted:

“Aloha,” we discovered, means so much more than “hello.” “Alo” means presence and “ha” means breath. Literally, aloha means the presence of the divine breath. To say “aloha” is to quite literally ask, “How may I be the presence of the divine to you?” It’s a wonderful prayer, rooted in the creation story of God breathing life into man, and an awesome representation of what I must do for the next generation — breathe life into them (Jeff Myers, Handoff, pp. 76-77).

Just think! All those years I spent growing up in Hawaii I thought “aloha” simply meant “welcome” or “goodbye.”

Just today Andrew Rozalowskyreminded us that linguistics has an important role to play in New Testament Greek studies. Top rank linguists do not exclude the possibility of legitimate etymology a priori. They look at all the evidence, however. Our understanding of biblical truth is not built up by dogmatic assertions but by patient explanation of what is actually possible. It goes without saying that the kind of eisegesis we encounter these days from our pulpiteers and authors is something a New Testament linguist would consider quite unscientific. In any case, no one should preach or teach New Testament truth without having agonized over it first, without having started by checking one’s hermeneutics against the principles of sound lexicography.

Sadly, the root of this cavalier attitude toward linguistics by many modern-day writers and speakers may well lie in seminary and college.

3:12 PM End of a busy four days. Special thanks to our good friends Pam and Kevin Brown for welcoming us into their beautiful home with open arms this weekend. Kevin, a shepherd at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, had invited me to speak in their morning service on Sunday and also to kick off their New Testament Greek class on Sunday and Monday. My sermon was from Joshua 3 and asked the question, “Have you crossed the Jordan yet?” As for the Greek class, we had 18 enrolled. It was like drinking from a fire hose as I introduced chapters 1-4 in just two days. Needless to say, next week the class will have a thorough review before proceeding to chapter 5. A special blessing was an outing with the Brown family to Grandfather’s Mountain, a mile above sea level. Becky and I actually stood atop the second highest mountain in North America east of the Mississippi. The bears and other wildlife were also phenomenal. On the drive home we forsook the freeway and took the back roads, including a section of the gorgeous Blue Ridge Parkway. While we were gone, eastern portions of North Carolina/Southern Virginia suffered through a storm of enormous proportions. Our farm and neighborhood were spared, but there was a great deal of damage done elsewhere and many lost their lives. What a reminder that there is no “safe place” on earth. Meanwhile the week rolls along. I’m getting ready to edit for Energion a manuscript called Rite of Passage (the author is none other thanthe Kevin Brown). But right now it’s time for a much-needed rest.

Pix (naturally):

Saturday, April 16

12:45 PM Eric Carpenter, writing about the church, wonders what it would be like if we couldstart with a blank slate. For years I have pondered this question, and it has been exceedingly rewarding. The New Testament is a book of first principles. There principles are so radical to us today because we have departed so radically from the patterns of ministry found in the New Testament. We’ve got far to go if we would return to first principles, and to the Servant Jesus to whom they point.

There are few aspects of Christianity today that require a more radical reappraisal than our ecclesiology. Many of the questions are being explored, in a significant way, on Eric’s fine blog. For example, we tend to think of ministry as something exercised by the proper authorities, whereas the New Testament views ministry as belonging to the entire church. If you look squarely at the New Testament you will also see that there is no place for status and its accompanying titles. (We Baptists love to point the finger at an Anglican bishop reveling in the title “My Lord” while conveniently overlooking our own use of such titles as “Reverend” and “Senior Pastor.”) In the New Testament, we find that ministers were not normally paid for what they did. This would seem to be true of elders as well (see Acts 20). And practically nothing is said in the New Testament about parachuting our leaders in from outside the church. Leadership in the New Testament was home-grown, and leaders were trained on the job, not farmed out to seminaries.

I know of nothing today that would prevent us from returning to these New Testament practices other than our own tired adherence to tradition. If it seems that the New Testament patterns are radical, this is so only because we have been disobedient for so long. I have a suspicion that the place to start is learning how to ask the right questions. Needless to say, I am greatly encouraged when I see young men like Eric embarking on such a journey.

Of course, it is one thing to recognize what the New Testament teaches. It is quite another to actually do it. The cup must be emptied and washed before it is filled again. And only the Spirit of God is capable of doing that. The Holy Spirit imparted power for church living in New Testament times. And He will do the same for us if we but ask.

7:33 AM Recently I was asked why I’ve written so many books on Greek. The answer is, “I don’t know.” I certainly never set out to write books on this language. Writing about Greek doesn’t mean that one has mastered the subject. It doesn’t even mean that one is a successful classroom teacher. The Greek books I’ve written have all been written by a learner for learners.

I well recall when B & H Academic asked to write a beginning grammar for them. My response was a polite but firm, “No.” That’s all we need — another beginning Greek grammar, I said to myself. But when they asked me to pray about it I agreed to do so. A week later I consented, and within 4 months the book was written. I had a similar experience with my intermediate grammar It’s Still Greek to Me. When asked by Baker Books to write it I again demurred, knowing full well that my friend Dan Wallace was at the time writing such a grammar for Zondervan. When Dan’s work was eventually published, my editor at Baker called me and asked me what I thought of it. With tongue slightly in cheek I replied, “It’s the best third year grammar I’ve ever seen.” “Well,” he said, “will you write for us a genuine intermediate grammar? “Yes,” I replied, “as long as I can keep it under 250 pages.”

Greek is a broad subject. No single textbook can claim to “get it right” in every respect. I know mine can’t. For better or for worse my books have been written for the average student — Harvard has yet to approach me about using any of my grammars in their classes! They are also written, to a great degree, from a linguistic perspective. However, let it not be supposed that I have done anything other scratch the surface. It is hoped that through reading my books the next generation of Greek students will produce their own texts that will far exceed mine both in quality and depth. That said, being a Greek student is one of the most rewarding and joyous avocations possible; and my only prayer is that my few books on the subject might make it even more so.

7:25 AM While we’re on the subject of education, here’s some good news fromTexas Wesleyan University. 

This morning I attended the Board of Trustees meeting at Texas Wesleyan University.  I am grateful that, under the leadership of new President Fred Slabach, TWU is engaged in strengthening its connection with the church. There is a creative openness to learning and intellectual exploring that is exciting. From my perspective, there is openness to church relations, to the Christian faith, and comparative religion that is refreshing!

Note the words “openness to church relations.” This is yet another reminder that the seminary is to serve the church.

By the way, Becky’s cousin, Ben Hale, teaches communications at TWU. We see Ben every time we visit Dallas and I always enjoy talking shop with him. And here’s more trivia: Ben’s father, Clarence B. Hale, was a professor of Greek at Wheaton College and the author of a beginning grammar of New Testament Greek called Let’s Study Greek. Small world!

7:17 AM Quote of the day:

This move is a reminder that the seminaries do not exist simply as centers of academic theological inquiry, but rather they exist to provide pastoral leaders for the Church. From the point of view of the Church, that is their core mission. Some seminary professors and administrators have in recent decades pursued recognition and prestige in the eyes of the secular academy to the detriment of this core mission, with disastrous results for the church.

ReadChurch changes seminary funding. I quite agree. To paraphrase a saying of Jesus: “The seminary exists for the church, and not the church for the seminary.”

Friday, April 15

4:40 PM Speaking of Alaba, please keep next Monday in your prayers. The elders of the Muslim community have asked to meet with the elders of the church in order to discuss an out-of-court settlement of the case. (The “case” in view here resulted from the damage done to the church’s vehicle and the stabbing and stoning of several of the church’s evangelists.) Please pray for the Lord’s grace to be evident during the meeting and for the court case to be withdrawn and peace to be restored between these two communities.

4:32 PM Special announcement:

Work Day for Missions!

The date is Saturday, April 30, and the place is Rosewood Farm. We’ll work from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Becky will provide a free lunch for everyone who comes.

Why are we doing this? Becky and I want to do some basic maintenance at our farm/retreat center here in Southside Virginia. Rather than hiring out this work we will donate $10 from our own personal funds for every hour you work. There’ll be plenty of food and fellowship, but we do need to know if you’re coming. You can send us an RSVP atdblack@sebts.edu. This work will be outdoors. So bring your work gloves, chain saws, shovels, etc. Ladies can help Becky with the food preparation.

The need is genuine. We have already purchased land for a new church building in Alaba, Ethiopia. However, severe inflation has made it almost impossible for us to begin the work of construction. The government is threatening to take the land back if work does not begin soon. (There is no private ownership of land in Ethiopia.) This Christian congregation is situated in a Muslim neighborhood next to a brand new hospital. I can hardly think of a more strategic location for the Gospel. Our goal is to raise $40,000 for this work. This is not just any old project; it’s a front line project. Andrew Murray once said, “The church exists only for the kingdom of God.” Missions is not the responsibility of missionary societies and missionaries; it is the responsibility of the church, yours and mine. It is extraordinary just how vivid and personal the book of Acts becomes when you’re reliving those days in the first century when persecution was real and sacrifice for the Gospel was accepted as a normal part of the Christian life. Let’s join our brothers and sisters in Alaba to make this project a reality!

In the meantime, I want to express my deep gratitude to all of you who have given so generously in the past to the work of the Lord Jesus in Ethiopia. You know who you are. Most of you are complete strangers to us. Becky and I have never met you in person, nor are we likely to do so this side of heaven. But you are no less dear to us for that reason. Over the years, thousands upon thousands of American believers have given sacrificially to meet the genuine needs of their brothers and sisters in faraway places. And it is now our turn to take up the mantel. Knowing that one day we will stand before Christ, can we do any less?

10:20 AM Building your theological library? Here’s somegood advice from Marcus Mayer. I especially enjoyed “Don’t forget older works.” 

10:12 AM Speaking of Greek, you might want to go over to Near Emmaus and join in this great discussion:Why are the Original Languages important? Then, if you have the time, take a look at Andy Bowden’sWhat my trip taught me about learning German. As one who dropped out of my first year Greek class after only three weeks, I can appreciate the sentiment of the first post; and as one who had to speak German fluently for my doctoral studies, I can identify with the struggle reflected in the second post.

Oh, if you’re not too tired at this point(!), check out my essayHow to Master a Foreign Language.

9:44 AM The latest addition to our home page is called Greek, Discipleship, and Making Injera.

Thursday, April 14

3:30 PM This and that …

1) B and I spent the morning at doctors’ appointments in Chapel Hill. Right now she’s gone to look at a donkey and some goats for our pasture and I’m fixing to work outdoors. The day is too beautiful to pass up.

2) Received this kind email today from someone who has been praying for Becky:

Even though I don’t know you personally, we as God’s children are all brothers and sisters in Christ and I just felt led of the Lord to let you know I care.  What a great hope we have in Jesus Christ! The best is yet to be! What a sight it will be when we close our eyes here at last and open them to behold our great savior for all eternity! Mind blowing!

3) Tomorrow night a softball tournament will be held in Roxboro, NC, to raise funds for Ethiopia. Becky will be throwing the first pitch. You can count on pictures here.

4) Congratulations to Don Carson whose Festschrift is being published this month to honor his 65th birthday. You can read Mike Bird’s announcementhere.

5) A big Thursday shout out to my Ed.D. student Thomas Hudgins, whose latest essay (The Failure of Seminary) is outstanding.

6) ReadGooder grammar teached here.

7) Finally, an observant reader sent this along:

… did you know you posted about the “Japan Quack Map” rather than the Japan Quake Map? 🙂 Initially I thought it had something to do with phony Japanese politicians or something, lol. Still, a fascinating link and thanks for posting it.

Wednesday, April 13

7:18 PM One of our M.Div. students has been accepted into the Princeton Th.M. program. Go Mike! So proud of you young man.

6:40 PM Quote of the day (Doug Bandow):

The last president who accepted the limits of the presidential war power may have been Dwight Eisenhower, one of the few chief executives with command military experience:  “When it comes to the matter of war, there is only one place that I would go, and that is to the Congress of the United States.”  A few months later he explained that “I am not going to order any troops into anything that can be interpreted as war, until Congress directs it.”

Eisenhower was channeling George Washington, who wrote South Carolina Gov. William Moultrie:  “The Constitution vests the power of declaring war with Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject, and authorized such a measure.”

Presidents Eisenhower and Washington are much better role models than Presidents Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

And now Barack Obama.

6:35 PM Odds and ends …

1) Check out theJapan Quack Map.

2) Henry Neufeld doesn’t like the wordliteral.

3) Murdoch University announces an opening inNew Testament.

4) Arthur Sido couldn’t disagree more with the premise thatChristians are to go to war.

5) Andy Bowden reviews a book I co-edited with Allan Bevere,Ultimate Allegiance.

6) Katy Brown isstepping on toes again.

6:25 PM Hello folks. It was a great couple of days on campus. The highlight was our commissioning service.

These students will go out and minister to the needs they see, whether by word or deed, as they have opportunity. They will use the gifts and skills they have been given by God and have honed during their stay here. But there is still plenty of work to do on the mission field without trying to compete against each other. We Southern Baptists can and must cooperate willingly with evangelicals in the Majority World to get the job done. Most importantly, we must confess and admit that we have lost the sparkle for missions. As Jim Elliff pointed out in his chapel message, less than 3 one hundreds of one percent of Southern Baptists are fulltime missionaries. You read that correctly. Less than .003 – of us. “The problem is not a harvest problem but a helper problem,” said Elliff. Perhaps you and I are part of that equation. As they say in Texas, “If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, all you’ll ever get is all you’ve ever got.” We need to change this mentality. I’m not calling for a return for some idyllic period of church history. I just think it’s important that we return to a seriousness and determination to do God’s work according to the patterns set forth in His Word. Frankly, I don’t believe the evangelical church in America is ready for this. Our churches, as they operate today, lack the fidelity to Scripture that is needed to face the challenge of the Great Commission. We’re going to need massive breakthroughs in our understanding – and application – of the New Testament to our churches. The era we are entering is one of enormous social and political upheaval. Every day I meet students who are being jarred into rethinking their priorities. Bursting with vitality, they are full of new ideas and new approaches, and some of these ideas thankfully find their roots in Scripture. The upside to all of this renewed interest in the church is that more and more of them are questioning the traditions of their elders; the downside is that this questioning often leads to the creation of what might be called “church planting fads” and a new group of elites arrayed in their blue jeans and sporting their goatees, men who are just as committed to church growth fads as their parents were.

Have no doubt, merely replacing one set of human traditions with another set of human traditions won’t cut it. I would go through a gauntlet for my students if I thought there was some hope on the other side of the classroom, that there was a prospect for a return to a church that thinks less about its image or growth or success or size or economic prowess and thinks more about how to put an end to its waste, extravagance, and status-worship. I can think of no better example of our lack of focus to take on the challenge of global missions than the way we have outsourced ministry to professionals. So many of us think it’s the job of fulltime paid missionaries to reach the nations for Christ. We are addicted to hiring others to do the job for us – whether they are pastors or missionaries. We forget there was a time when mere nobodies founded the church at Antioch, a church that eventually became the mother church of all foreign missions. We forget, too, because it was so long ago, that the Anabaptist laypeople of the sixteenth century considered themselves to be fulltime missionaries for Christ, planting new churches wherever they went (or were scattered by persecution) in Europe.

Meanwhile, the opportunity for global missions expands. Today there are 1.7 billion people who have never heard the Gospel. The minute we take our eyes off this need we are back to square one – what to do with the Great Commission of our Lord? There is a lot about sending professional missionaries overseas that makes sense. But like all good things, for everything there is a season. The younger generation of evangelicals is beginning to get it. I would argue that it’s high time we unshackled their prowess and dedication. We should never look down on those Christians, whether at home or abroad, who are not “fulltime Christian workers” and yet who are serving the Lord through their professions and careers. The entire concept of “fulltime Christian worker” is wrong-headed. I am also troubled that resources that could be sent overseas to support national evangelists and church planters is being spent instead on expats who know little or nothing about the cultures they are attempting to reach. If every American could come with me to Ethiopia and see how vibrant and dedicated the Body of Christ is there, and how eager Ethiopian Christians are to reach their own unreached people groups, we would rally around these brothers and sisters. Here we are, living off the surpluses of our wealth, when hundreds of Ethiopian evangelists are ready to penetrate the hard soils of their nation for a mere fraction of what it costs us to send American missionaries to Ethiopia. My wife and I have seen the evangelists we have sponsored in Gondar (northern Ethiopia, which is very hard soil) already plant 3 churches in 3 different towns, all for only $3,600 annually. Mind you, this is to support 6 fulltime frontline national evangelists for an entire year. I am convinced that many churches in the U.S. are reaching a tipping point as they watch more and more of the Lord’s resources being wasted on expat salaries. When Becky and I visited one of these churches near Gondar a couple of years ago, I marveled at the congregation that had been formed there just a few months previously. It was fully indigenized. We were whisked into their meeting place (a rented room) where we saw about 45 believers gathered for mutual edification. There in the midst was a witch doctor who had originally called out a swarm of bees to attack our Ethiopian evangelists when they first entered the town. Now he was seated among his new brothers and sisters in Christ, worshiping his newly found Savior. I walked away shaking my head and thinking: What have Becky and I done to deserve knowing such wonderful people? People who gladly risk all they have to follow Jesus in obedience and love. Evangelists who risk beatings and imprisonments in order to share the love of Jesus with their own people. What have I done to deserve this honor? I don’t know the answer, but I do know this: They deserve support equal to their dedication.

And that brings us back to the Great Commission. The hallmark of Jesus’ command that we “go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” is that it is the duty of each and every one us. We have to – for our own sake and the world’s – stop outsourcing the task. Global evangelization must become the core interest in our homes, our marriages, our churches, our seminaries, and our denominations. The Chinese have a proverb that says, “In the face of a strong wind, some build walls and some build windmills.” The era we are heading into will be an era in which the Majority World will take the lead in evangelism and church planting in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. We in America must decide what we will do. Either we will build more walls of selfishness and ease between us and the rest of the world, or we will build windmills and use them to invest in the vast untapped manpower both of our own work “lay” force and that of foreign nationals.  The choice is ours.

Monday, April 11

10:22 AM Becky and I look forward to hosting a table tonight at our banquet for the seminary Board of Trustees and Board of Visitors. Then tomorrow Tom Elliff (the new head of the IMB) will be in chapel where we will commission many missionaries. As you can imagine, this is my favorite chapel service of the year. A great seminary will have the perfect balance between mind and heart, discipline and freedom, tradition and innovation, evangelism and social compassion. If you come across such a seminary, let me know. But at SEBTS at least we take these things seriously and are always trying to improve. May God bless these families as they go out to some really tough places in this world. And may their dedication be a reminder to all of us that every Christian is a missionary. No, Jesus never said it would be easy. It’s far from easy! But missionary life is a life of an abundance of riches. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

9:56 AM My students and colleagues have been busy blogging of late:

1) Matthew Myers writesGod Will Not Be Fooled.

2) Graham Michael pensDie, Be Forgotten, and Preach the Gospel.

3) Alan Knox has some thoughts aboutCommunity Development.

4) Alvin Reid thinks insanity is fine.

5) Ken Keathley asksIs the Gospel Worth $6,090,032?

6) Danny Akin explainsThe Importance of Structuring the Text.

9:34 AM A billboard in South Africa reads: “German engineering, Swiss innovation, American nothing.”Andy Bowden and I have been swapping impressions of what studying in Germany or Switzerland might look like. For me, Basel was the kind of institution I wanted to be in: ancient, renowned, and a place where one could tap into a vast theological library. I am convinced that doctoral programs in the U.S. should be challenging, rigorous, and — most importantly — mentor-led rather than course/seminar/colloquium driven. The reason I say this is very simple: Christian education is essentially likeness education. We become like our mentors, for good or for ill. American Ph.D. programs tend to be heavy on coursework and light on mentoring. In particular, I think it’s essential that a budding New Testament scholar be tutored and apprenticed by an accomplished one. This means that I normally do not recommend prospective doctoral students to study under an unpublished scholar (the expression is, perhaps, an oxymoron). That is, of course, if your goal as a student is to become a lifelong student of the Word. In that case, the least important book you will ever write will be your doctoral dissertation.

Be that as it may, students intuit whether their doctoral programs are meaningful or just another hoop to jump through on the way to employment by some college, seminary, or university.

9:22 AM Eric Carpenter’s latest post (Family Permanence and Intimacy) struck a major chord with me. It represents on ongoing faithful subterranean current, no less invisible than faithful. Imagine a church — or a seminary for that matter — where we took Jesus’ words about honorific titles literally and seriously. When we see ourselves as mere servants of Christ, when we realize that Jesus is our brother and God is our common Father, when we remember that the kingdom is flat (unlike so many of our manmade boxes into which we force people), we will be free to break with our culture, and cultural differences will become insignificant. Brotherhood is primary; gifts and callings are secondary. God calls us to exercise the variegated gifts He gives us, but our primary identity in the Body of Christ is not based on status and function but on essence and ontology: we truly are brothers and sisters.

At the Wheaton conference I noted a phenomenon among the Hispanic attendees, namely their use of hermanos and hermanas as self-designations. In the Majority World relationships are very important — even for Christians. One does not have to be fluent in Spanish to realize how beautiful this custom is. Yes, as believers we have our superficial differences in customs, experience, temperament, gifting, and outlook. But the love of Christ brings us together in the fullest sense and unites us in one family with one goal: to glorify God together in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Fellow Christians, let us pray for the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and show us our own wrong attitudes. This is critical to the success of the missionary enterprise. Satan will continue to do all he can to destroy our unity and fruitfulness through pride and division. Why give him the opportunity? Above all, let us never forget that God has chosen the nobodies of this world to do His work (1 Cor. 1:27-29). The weak, the lowly, the foolish — that’s us, folks! Can we truly thank God for the privilege of being “nothings”? If not, then we’re ready to learn humility.

Sunday, April 10

7:08 PM Over at Near Emmaus, Daniel James Levy asks whetherPaul might have been the author of the Christ hymn of Phil. 2:6-11, and my answer is “probably yes.” In any case, if you’d like a .pdf copy of my Criswell Theological Review essay “The Authorship of Philippians 2:6-11: Some Literary-Critical Observations,” just send me an email.

3:33 PM One of the things I love about the Raleigh/Durham airport (RDU) is its used bookstore. Last week I purchased a couple of books I had been looking for, and one of them I would like to recommend to you, especially since this year we are commemorating the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War in America. The book, written by Clifford Dowdey, is called simply Lee, and it differs from the many other biographies of Lee that I have in that it is neither an unthinking hagiography of Lee nor a scathing attack on his character. Lee may not have been guilty of many of the “big sins” we associate with “bad people” (murder or adultery) but he battled daily with sins of attitude, like we all do. He grew severely impatient at times with his wife because she was perpetually late and slovenly and because, in his eyes, her household management left much to be desired. There is no need to downplay such sins of attitude. At the same time, Lee possessed many Christ-like attitudes, and these attitudes affected every aspect of his life and work. Above all, what I appreciate about Lee was his humility before God. When he ran into trouble the first thing he asked was, “Have I let God down? Have I withheld from Him total submission?” Who among us can answer these questions with any sense of self-confidence! Lee was always able to work in a team, but when something under his supervision went wrong he refused to blame-shift.

An older generation of Southern biographers were often guilty of making gods out of such men as Stonewall Jackson and R. E. Lee. If we are going to profit from reading biographies about the great men and women of the past, we will need to have insight, which is nothing more than the ability to assess one’s own and others’ strengths and weaknesses in a healthy sort of way. Insight is a part of biblical wisdom, which of course only God can grant us; but it is an essential part of the Christian’s equipment. 

1:58 PM Today in the gathering brother Joel taught about the memorial significance of the Lord’s Supper and suggested that perhaps — just perhaps — our church should observe the Supper on a weekly basis. It’s my opinion that a strong case can be made from the Scriptures for a weekly observance, and indeed a return to such a practice would, in my mind, restore the Supper to the heart, rather than the periphery, of our weekly gatherings. I recall once reading a book by Robert Webber (of Wheaton College) documenting the exodus of evangelicals from traditional evangelical denominations, partly because they had become attracted to the weekly Eucharist practiced by many of the more mainline denominations. His book,Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail, directly addressed one of the greatest problems I see in many of our churches, namely our anthropocentrism (read pulpit-centeredness). As I’ve remarked before on this blog, some point the finger at us for having a faulty view of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Bible). In other words, we seem to have elevated a 30 minute monologue to a place of importance and preeminence it never had in the New Testament, at least not so far as I can tell. Apparently the early church met weekly to observe the Lord’s Supper (at that time it was part of a full fellowship meal) — see Acts 20:7, 1 Cor. 11:20, and Acts 2:42. Should Bethel Hill Baptist Church be any less regular than the early church in this regard?

I, for one, would love to see us refocus our meetings on the Lord Jesus, our absent but soon-to-return Savior. I, for one, would love to see us become less man-centered, even less pulpit-centered in the sense that we have elevated a sermon above the Sermo that was in the beginning with the Father. (One version of the Vulgate renders John 1:1 as In principio erat Sermo instead of In principio erat Verbum. I like that.) I personally advise against giving into the thinking that says “If we partake of the Lord’s Supper weekly it will become mundane and lose its significance.” Hogwash. Would anyone say that about weekly prayers or even our weekly “messages” from God’s Word? You say, “There is no possible way we could fit all of this within a one-hour meeting.” You are right. But then again, the early church seemed to be in no hurry to get over with their services so that they could all go home and watch a game on TV. They seemed to luxuriate in the fellowship their meetings provided.

Churches that have a weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper stand in the tradition of the apostles. No church ever suffers for doing this. Indeed, it may just bring a special blessing from the One whom we remember.

7:48 AM I am very excited. A week from today I begin teaching a new Greek class. In a local church no less. Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in North Wilkesboro, NC, has invited me to kick off their Greek class. Sunday morning I will introduce chapter 1 of our beginning grammar (why study Greek?, the alphabet, etc.). Then, on Sunday evening, I will introduce the Greek verb system (chapters 2-3) and on Monday evening the Greek noun system (chapter 4). From that point on, the class will use ourGreek DVD series to teach themselves the language, meeting weekly for several months. Can you see, now, why I am so excited?

I think I can safely predict one thing about the class. It will take more time and effort than most any other activity in your life. Learning Greek requires mountains of perseverance; discouragement is an occupational hazard. And the first test begins on day one — counting the cost. Perseverance implies more than “I’m willing to grin and bear it until I get the job done.” It also implies the willingness and the capacity to discipline yourself to accomplish something worthwhile. When you exhibit such perseverance it will become evident to others in your congregation that learning Greek is costing you something, and this is very important for others to see. It’s the equivalent of a hundred sermons on “The Need for Perseverance in the Christian Life.”

We Greek teachers sometimes have developed the habit of making things difficult for our students. Greek is actually a very easy language to learn — as long as you are properly motivated and led. You’ll need to rely on the help of the Holy Spirit as never before. Undisciplined people usually experience great frustration and unhappiness taking Greek; if they can’t change they end up dropping out like flies. The most useful attitude to develop is perhaps humility. It takes humility to recognize our need for faith, patience, and endurance. But all these qualities — and many more indeed — are available to each one of us through the presence of Christ in our lives.

To each of my students at MPBC, may I say how much I look forward to serving you in the days and months ahead. I will be available to answer any of your questions by phone or email. “How can I help you?” is a question I often ask in class. Please take me up on it if you stumble along the way.

7:21 AM Here’s a bit of trivia you might not have known about me: I once considered becoming a missiologist. In fact, in 1978 I met with the great German missiologistPeter Beyerhaus (pictured)  in Tübingen where we discussed the possibility of me doing a Ph.D. under him in the area of missions. My dissertation topic was going to be on the history of Christian missions in the Hawaiian archipelago, a fitting topic for someone who washatched and raised in the Islands. Dr. Beyerhaus very kindly informed me that he was willing to work with me should I decide to enter Tübingen as a doctoral student. (As you know, I eventually chose New Testament as my major field of study and ended up in Basel instead.)

Another piece of trivia: Today I am becoming the missiologist that I have always wanted to be. Not in any professional sense, of course. I have neither the time nor the patience to pursue another doctorate, nor do I feel it’s necessary to be credentialed to serve Christ as an educated “layperson.” If a cobbler could become a missions catalyst, why not a student of ancient Greek? And if I should occasionally give up the comforts of the U.S. for the hardships of Alaba or Burji, this is nothing to boast about: it is the way of the missionary to be willing to do whatever, wherever.

A point that Andrew Walls makes in his The Missionary Movement in Christian History is that missions studies should not exist for themselves. It is impossible, he argues, to separate missiology from the other academic disciplines. The biggest obstacle is institutional: we have compartmentalized and professionalized “missions studies” instead of seeking to cross-fertilize our thinking about missions with the other theological disciplines (thus developing, for example, a missiological Christology, a missiological ecclesiology, etc.). I don’t want to give the impression that I am against sub-disciplines such as New Testament, Evangelism, or Church History. The problem, as I see it, is that our colleges and seminaries have lost sight of where they ought to be heading. (This is also true of many of our churches.) There has been no setting of priorities along missiological lines. Our sub-disciplines have therefore taken on a life of their own. It ought to be apparent that missions is central to the biblical revelation. Then why should it be marginalized?

The devil cannot stand it when we get rid of our hidden academic pride and prejudice and make a real commitment to doing what God wants us to do with our lives. 

Saturday, April 9

7:24 PM Allan Bevere’s recent postThe Totalizing Agenda of Empire has really got me thinking. One thing that was emphasized at the Wheaton Theology Conference was that no one can ever completely transcend his or her culture. It is who we are. Yet by living abroad, or at least distancing ourselves from our culture, we can gain an objectivity that is otherwise impossible. If we are to be missionaries to our own culture as well as to the world, perhaps we need to subdue our nationalistic pride, superiority, and paternalism and receive the mind of Christ. This is a life-long process, but a good place to start might be to try and understand our own political system — its distinctives, its strengths, and its weaknesses — and to try and understand that there are any number of basic differences between the West and most Third World cultures. For example, certainly American missionaries should bend over backwards to be fair in our criticism of our own government (as Allan notes). Republican Christians tend to minimize the evils of capitalism and militarism, while Democratic Christians may turn a blind eye to the evils of socialism and the welfare state. Political loyalties affect our basic assumptions and values. They color the way we think and react. It is therefore important to distinguish between the idealized image of the U.S. as a “city on a hill” and the power ball political activities practiced by both major political parities. Nor should we idealize any one political figure, whether of the Right or the Left, whether he be Lech Walesa or Mahatma Gandhi. In our day I still see young people over-idealizing someone like Gandhi who (as Jacque Ellul has pointed out) promoted non-violence only to establish the oppressive power of the Indian state. As I see it, here we have an incredible betrayal of the Christian ideal as espoused by Jesus, and the source of this betrayal is undoubtedly the tendency to falsely interpret Romans 13 as teaching blind obedience to authority. Leaders in the church bear great responsibility for communicating with their flocks about this danger and inviting them to think critically about all aspects of culture. How easy it is to retreat into our cultural milieu when we really need to be probing ways to reach the people of the world we’re here to serve. Even at the theology conference I detected a “we versus they” attitude, the “we” of course being those of us who are committed to thinking biblically about Christ and culture, and the “they” being the masses of common everyday believers who fail to theologize about such important matters! It takes an active effort of the will to overcome such egocentrism.

Do read Allan’s essay if you can. Let us remember that all of us Christians, whether Republicans or Democrats or Independents, will one day stand before the same God. If we learn to focus on our similarities, perhaps the differences will begin to fade into the background.

7:14 PM Becky brought some injera back from Chicago so I was treated, for a second night in a row, to some wonderful Ethiopian fare. Never has food tasted better.

 

4:16 PM Odds and ends …

1) Henry Neufeld offers his perspective onburning Muslim books.

2) Fellow surfers of the world, check outthis essay about “soul surfer” Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm to a shark.

3) Most evangelicals saytithing is not required.

4) Should the Greek word apostolos be rendered as “missionary”? Join the discussionhere.

5) Restored Saint Francis of Assisi tombreopens.

6) Here’svideo of the incredible 48-foot wave that crippled Japan’s Daiichi power plant.

3:38 PM We just got back to the farm after traveling to Wheaton/Chicago. It was a great trip. Here are but a few of many lasting impressions:

1) All of the conference speakers were interesting and some were quite witty. My favorite was the keynote speaker Andrew Walls. I even bought several of his books.

2) I greatly enjoyed the ethnic diversity of west Chicago. Becky and I had Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Ethiopian food, not to mention traditional American cuisine. Oh, and that Mongolian Barbeque was out of this world.

3) Everywhere we went the service was outstanding — from the hotel desk clerks to the restaurant servers to the car rental people. Chicago is very service-oriented and people-friendly.

4) I met Karen Jobes (Professor of Greek at Wheaton) for the first time. Karen and I go way back. She was kind enough to say some very kind words about my doctoral dissertation when it was published in 1984. I have watched her develop into a first class LXX scholar and we used her textbook in our Septuagint class last semester. Nice to meet you, Karen!

5) A special treat was visiting the grounds of the famous College Church in Wheaton, adjacent to the campus, where Becky’s uncle Dexter McClenny served as pastor for many years in the 1970s.

6) Do not drive in greater Chicago if you don’t like potholes and decrepit roads.

7) We had dinner not once but twice with two brothers that hail from — of all places! — Burji in Southern Ethiopia. Both of them were very outspoken about the debt they feel they owe to Becky’s parents for bringing their people the Gospel back in the 1950s-1960s. Over dinner last night (in a wonderful Ethiopian restaurant in downtown Chicago) we had them speak with Becky’s dad in Dallas via cell phone. What a blessing!

8) I know of no more beautiful sight than Shoreline Drive along Lake Michigan and the lights of the city at 9:00 pm. Chicago’s skyline is both unique and beautiful.

9) Not once was I asked, by any of the conference speakers, to open my Bible.

10) Finally, in Wheaton’s Blanchard Hall we noticed a marvelous plaque honoring those Wheaton graduates who went on to serve on the foreign mission field. Bradford Lapsley, Becky’s father, was on the list (class of 1948), as well as Becky’s cousin by marriage, Claire Grieve (McClenny). Claire and her husband were killed by the Italians at the beginning of World War II.

Here are a few pix in case you’re interested. Below is Andrew Walls, Professor Emeritus of the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World at the University of Edinburgh. He was kind enough to inscribe two of his books for me. His tomeThe Missionary Movement in Christian History is a missions classic.

Here’s Becky standing in front of the historic College Church in Wheaton. Inexplicably the church’s website says nothing about several of its former pastors, including Becky’s uncle Dexter.

Abraham (right) and Yohannes from Burji. They “just happened” to stumble across our website last week, and we “just happened” to be staying in a hotel within 2 miles of their home in Carol Stream. Amazingly, Yohannes studied in the same school house that Becky’s father taught in back in the 1960s.

Enjoying injera b’wat in old Chicago.

Here is the “Alumni in Missions” plaque I mentioned above. It clearly states that the names are those of “graduates,” but Becky’s dad only spent two years at Wheaton before finishing his bachelor’s degree at SMU in Dallas. We, of course, felt it our duty to report the mistake to the alumni office.

Below you will see the name of James (Jim) Elliott marked with a cross. The cross indicates those who died in missionary service.

We thus had to point out another mistake to the alumni office, as Claire Grieve was martyred for Christ in the Sudan, and her memory should have been honored with a cross.

Here are two contrasting (and a bit disturbing) pictures. Below you see the names of the class of 1948. There are 100 names in all, 40 of them the names of women. Brad Lapsley’s name can be seen about halfway down the right-hand column.

In stark contrast, note the greatly diminished number of missionary names in the year 1998.

In just 50 years, the number of Wheaton graduates going to the mission field was reduced to a mere 19, 14 of whom are women.

I’ll have more to say about the conference later. But I’m glad I went. Becky and I had a wonderful time renewing old friendships and making many new ones. To be quite frank with you, I chose to attend this year’s conference over last year’s, despite the fact that the one-and-only N. T. Wright was last year’s keynote speaker. I personally see no conflict whatsoever between forensic, juridical justification (a doctrine I believe the Bible teaches and one I wholeheartedly affirm) on the one hand, and the corporate and even communal nature of justification (a doctrine the Bible also teaches but one we conservative evangelicals often overlook or underplay) on the other. A conference that brought together lecturers from the world over, including renowned historians of Christian missions, and that shows how the central question of Christianity has always assumed various identities in different cultures, was of much greater interest to me. I suppose the conference papers are now online (either as audio or video files), and I cannot help but ask you to carefully consider watching at least a few of them. Your faith will be strengthened and, hopefully, your commitment to the challenging task of world evangelization will be deepened.

Before I forget: My heartfelt thanks to the administration of SEBTS and their generous faculty development fund for making this trip possible.

Wednesday, April 6

6:40 AM Becky and I are excited to be attending the Wheaton Theology Conference on global theology and missions. Missions is a huge subject. Almost every nation on earth has become a sending nation. The balance of world missions has shifted to the Majority World. Missions today is truly international. Wherever missionaries go — and we are all missionaries — they are finding the work of missions to be one of the most rewarding and joyous aspects of Christian living. And that really is the heart of the matter. Our God is a sending God, and I suppose very little brings Him more joy than to see His children obeying His Son’s commission. Every one of us is sent, just as Jesus was sent. The only qualification is that we have Jesus’ love, His heart of compassion for the multitudes. This love is absolutely necessary if our service is to be acceptable and useful to God. If we love the world, our love will be embodied in loving and sacrificial service. God is opening doors worldwide. Even the most “restricted” countries can be entered by teachers, tourists, and tentmakers. Even the U.S. is a mission field. There is no biblical basis for elevating the “foreign missionary” to a superior status over the “home missionary.” “Life is a mission trip,” says my friend Alvin Reid. All we need to do it take it. We are called — all of us — to be Christ’s witnesses by word and deed.

I make no pretensions of having learned everything I want to know about missions. This week Becky and I will be meeting with people who are preeminently engaged in the work of global evangelization. They are not “super” Christians. They have the same spiritual equipment as any other follower of Jesus. All of us are mere earthen vessels. But all of our money, all of our time, our entire being belongs to God. The work of missions is His, but — miracle of miracles — He has chosen us to accomplish it through us.

Please pray for and with us that we may all walk away from this conference with a renewed conviction that there is no higher of more glorious calling than that of being a missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Tuesday, April 5

8:04 PM Odds and ends …

1) Andy Bowden is really enjoying his stay in Munich. Check out his fabulous photoshere.

2) If your church is moving toward an elder-led model of leadership, do check out this post by Arthur Sido:What is the right number of elders? You say, What? Another essay on elders? It would not be needed if we got back to the simple pattern of the New Testament. Read Arthur’s essay and then jump into the discussion.

3) Clickhere for another published defense of the Pauline authorship of Hebrews. Of course, the book was published in 1836. Does that make me an obscurantist or what?

4) Hope to meet up with some Ethiopians in Chicago tomorrow for dinner. Hope we can find a good Ethiopian restaurant near Carol Stream.

5) Conference announcement: Discipleship and Freedom: Bonhoeffer Then and Now.

6) Paul Himes discussespatriotism and the church. Dispensationalists, take note!

Monday, April 4

9:08 PM Well now, looks who’s calling my blog theun-pseudo-blog-type-thing. The nerve! Let’s set the record straight. My site is the ultimate Unter-Blog (opposite of Über-Blog)!

8:56 PM The hallmark of Jesus’ upside-down kingdom is the willingness to sacrifice for the Gospel. First Baptist Church Murphy (TX) is a congregation that grasps that concept. Becky and I are one of two couples the church supports (they contribute, not to our needs, but to the needs in Ethiopia). The other couple are the Grays. So there you have it — the Blacks and the Grays! A week ago Sunday we joined together in a fellowship of praise and support and reporting of what God is doing in the faraway Horn of Africa. I even had the audacity to try and teach the congregation a praise song in Amharic. That’s one reason I love the church so much — we can laugh at ourselves and our feeble efforts. The Good News of Jesus Christ welcomes all into the crazy, zany kingdom!

Below: Don and Sharon Cole, former missionaries to Brazil, now shepherding the flock in Murphy, Texas.

Becky giving an update on the persecution and the opportunities in Ethiopia.

5:32 PM This week we are in Mark chapter 10, where Jesus’ pronouncement against divorce and remarriage figures prominently. We live in a world where divorce and remarriage are AOK whereas marriage was intended by God to be permanent. Remarriage while the partner is still alive is adultery, and Jesus would be appalled at the ease and frequency with which it takes place. To one and all (myself included) Jesus’ words present a firm rebuttal to our cultural addiction to serial polygamy.

5:23 PM For the early church, prayer was a way to discover God’s will, not to change it (Acts 4:25-26).

5:17 PM Arthur Sido attempts to define a very difficult term:institutional church. I think we have a good deal to learn from him in this regard. The immensity of the subject strikes me more and more the older I get. What a privilege it is to belong to a Body that supersedes and transcends all visible forms of expression.

4:06 PM Last week I had another request for .pdfs of my essays on the Pauline authorship of Hebrews. Happy to send them out. Let me know if you’re interested.

3:57 PM My favorite sight of the day: Papa Duck swimming in the pond, faithfully guarding Mama Duck while she sits on her eggs.

12:52 PM Have you ever visited THE Seminary? I’m referring to Dallas Theological Seminary of course. I know of no alumni who are more devoted to their alma mater than DTS grads, my father-in-law included. And they have every right to feel this way. I’m especially impressed by the DTS library. Last week I spent several hours in the stacks perusing the myriads of Th.M. and Ph.D. theses that our library at SEBTS lacks. One of the dissertations I stumbled upon was written by James Slaughter, who eventually went on to publish a synopsis of his findings in a wonderful essay entitled “Peter’s Instructions to Husbands in 1 Peter 3:7.” This short essay, which could easily be read in a mere 30 minutes, is outstanding. Men, get your hands on it if you can. It appeared in the bookIntegrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands: Biblical and Leadership Studies in Honor of Donald K. Campbell, edited by Charles Dyer and Roy Zuck. The bibliographical introduction was written by none other than the man himself, Howard Hendricks, who is still going strong despite losing an eye to cancer. (I “just happened” to bump into him in the seminary library.)

But back to the essay. My main takeaway from Slaughter’s chapter was a renewed realization that the entire book of 1 Peter is all about what to do when treated unfairly. What are believers to do when they face unfair circumstances? The answer, according to Peter, is to display a spirit of deference. Peter expects Christians to behave with deference when facing unjust persecution (2:11-12), unjust legal affairs (2:13-17), unjust domestic affairs (including marriage; 2:18-3:7), unjust civil affairs (3:8-4:19), and unjust church affairs (5:1-9). When believers encounter harsh, unfair circumstances, they are to “seek peace and pursue it” (3:11) and follow the example of Christ and not commit the sin of unrighteous anger and unforgiveness. In unfair circumstances, when we are tempted to become defensive, self-justifying, and retributional toward others, Peter urges us to behave with respect, kindness, and understanding, that is, to reflect a spirit of deference. We are never to accuse, castigate, or intimidate others or threaten them in a rude, patronizing, or contemptuous way. Though we might confront them in a loving way, we are to be accepting, forgiving, and unwilling to hold a grudge.

Wow. Talk about raising the bar! As you can see, Slaughter makes the word “deference” a key to his understanding of the book of 1 Peter. What does the word mean? According to Slaughter, it conveys the idea of thoughtful consideration of another person’s wishes or desires, a courteous and respectful regard for another’s wishes, and a spirit of humility. It does NOT necessarily connote agreement, passivity, or acquiescence, though it does rule out any thought of retaliation or vindictiveness.

Do Christians ever face unjust circumstances? I imagine only about 99 percent of us! When we are treated unfairly, we should follow Christ’s example. That is a hard truth. And believe me, I’m not writing these words for anyone other than myself. Opportunities to show Christ-like deference abound, if only we will take them. This love for one another is crucial. Without it there can be no church. Until the world sees in Christian circles a warmer and more accepting fellowship than anything it can find anywhere else it is not going to be impressed in the least with all our talk about Jesus and forgiveness.

It’s a point worth pondering.

11:54 AM Odds and ends …

1) Clickhere to read the schedule of the 2011 Wheaten Theology Conference that begins this Thursday. The theme is “Global Theology in International Perspective.” Becky and I leave for the conference this Wednesday and hope to meet up with many missionary-minded friends there.

2) Eric Carpenter calls on Christians to take a stand. ReadToo Much For Any One Man. The New Testament gives no suggestion that there is any distinction between clergy and laypeople. All Christians are called upon (and expected) to minister. In the New Testament, moreover, leaders came from within the Body and their leadership was always corporate and shared. There are few aspects of Christianity that demand a more radical reappraisal than its ecclesiology, if we are to be obedient to the call of Christ. If we are prepared to take the Scriptures seriously as the foundational documents of our faith, this will mean a complete rethinking of the wineskins and a return to the guidelines for Christian ministry as set down in the New Testament.

3) Nice little serendipity: The weather, through windy, if perfect for working on the pasture fencing and horse (soon to be donkey) barn. Makes me want to go outdoors and get filthy dirty.

4) Signs of the time … several mid-Michigan Muslims and Arab-Americansspeak out against the Qu’ran burning in Florida, thus joining their voice to that of theevangelical community. Our forefathers in the faith were accused of “turning the world upside down” (Acts 17:6), but it was not by shallow and offensive acts.

5) Check outJesus.com.

Sunday, April 3

6:44 PM Lloyd Ogilvie, one-time chaplain to the U.S. Senate, once had a serious accident while on study leave in Scotland. One afternoon he was walking on the beach when he fell between some rocks and broke one of his leg bones. Almost fainting with pain, he managed to crawl for several miles until he found help. The break required many months of recuperation in a hospital in Scotland.

During that time Ogilvie confronted what he called the “seduction of the secondary.” Alone with his pain, and away from the strain of his work, he was reminded of the preeminent need to have a close walk with God, to live for the Gospel, and to find his identity solely in Christ and not in any other human being.

What is life all about when God removes all the scaffolding? In Phil. 1:10, Paul puts it this way: “You must discern what is of utmost importance in life.” For years I believed that scholarship was primary. It was all too easy to succumb to the pressure to be relevant, spectacular, and powerful. Jesus faced these same three temptations (Matt. 4:1-11). Twenty-one centuries later, they still confront every Christian. Satan may show us the poverty of the world and tempt us to become humanitarians. Or he might suggest that if we did something spectacular we could win the world. Of he might allure us with the sweet promise of power. Jesus felt the pull of the devil’s suggestions, and so will we. There is perhaps nothing inherently sinful about being relevant, spectacular, or powerful. But what is good can often become the enemy of what is best. If we are to put the kingdom of God first, we must turn a deaf ear to other calls.

Tragically, it often takes a “severe mercy” in our lives before God gets a hold of us and we begin to affirm God (rather than success or relevance) as the only source of our identify as Christians. A few years ago I stood at the place in Bucharest where the brutal dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were executed because of their abuse of power. Contrast that with a scene in Alaba, Ethiopia, where in 2005 I had gone to meet the parents of a 19-year old who had been murdered for his faith. There I met a man named Tesfai whose 8-year old daughter had just been beheaded by the enemies of the cross. I asked him what I could pray for. Instead of asking for money or safety he responded, “Pray that I might be loving and forgiving like Jesus.” There was nothing “relevant,” “spectacular,” or “powerful” about Tesfai. But here was a man who had his priorities right. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it. And His mission is to be carried on through His disciples. Like Jesus, we are to do the Father’s work and announce the Father’s kingdom, and we are to do this by loving all people, even those who hate us.

As I write these words my life expectancy is about 20 years. I want to commit myself for these 20 years to doing all I can to reconcile lost sinners to God, to themselves, and to one another. If my scholarship can contribute to this end, then I am content to continue teaching and writing books. But never again can my focus be on academics. The human problem is essentially a problem of the heart. Forgiveness of sin is at the root of Jesus’ radical message. And with the forgiveness of sin the Gospel also brings an empowering liberation from the seduction of those secondary things in our lives that pull us away from reality.

Friends, a time comes when each of us must reevaluate our priority system. Life is too short to live it for temporal dreams.

6:23 PM Our Student Day was fabulous, despite the fact that we lost power to the farm at around 11:00. Electricity was eventually restored at 11:30 pm. Lights were no problem, but without the water pump working, toilets were sorely missed. As Becky said, “It was a memory building experience.” So grateful for our students. They are eager to follow Jesus in obedience even if it means inconvenience and loss of the “good life.”  Here’s Becky making some pre-lunch announcements. Yes, she got lots of well-deserved complements about her hair. God is good!

Saturday, April 2

8:14 AM Odds and ends …

1) Is it wrong to have dialog during the gathering of the church? Eric Carpenter has been studying this issue for some time and offers his viewpointhere.

2) Clickhere to read why the Qu’ran burning in the U.S. was such big news in Afghanistan.

3) Writing from Singapore, Tony Siew reflects on the disaster in Japanfrom a biblical perspective.

4) Brian Fulthorp wants tolive the Lord’s Prayer, not just recite it.

5) Today’s weather for our Student Day? Bright sunshine and a temp of 70 degrees. Come one, come all!

Friday, April 1

1:56 PM News and notes from Ethiopia:

1) Ethiopia to get itsfirst seaport in 20 years. But at what price?

2) The lack of a midwife cost Liknesh her baby. ReadOne million lives lost to midwife shortage.

3) Interracial marriage ison the rise in Ethiopia.

4) India and China team to up to build anew railway system in Ethiopia.

5) The Majang tribe now has its own Bible.

1:43 PM This morning I did some chain sawing and fence repairing. Yes, you may call me Alpha Mensch.

8:12 AM Here’s a question for all of you under-30 New Testament students/scholars. Have you read the Reicke Festschrift yet? You simply must. It represents the very best in New Testament scholarship of a previous generation. In 2 volumes you’ll find essays by Barrett, Black (as in Matthew Black), Bruce, Caird, Davies, Gerhardson, Klijn, Marshall, Michel, Morris, Robinson, Torrance, van Unnik, and many others. I see you scratching your head and asking, “Who in the world arethey?” All the more reason for you to read this book. In the preface Oscar Cullmann notes that we usually read the writings of other scholars in order to criticize or evaluate their arguments (and then write our book reviews). Instead, writes Cullmann, our first question should be “What do I have to learn from him, what do I have to thank him for?” (“Was habe ich von ihm gelernt, was habe ich ihm zu verdanken?”).

You’ll find the book at Amazon under the titleThe New Testament Age.

8:06 AM Listen to the Bible in your language (including Amharic).

7:56 AM The following tale is for all of you teachers who give your students take-home exams (as I do) and don’t worry about anyone cheating. Edward Coray, in his delightful memoirThe Wheaton I Remember, tells the story about then-president Charles Blanchard.

President Blanchard had a strict policy that students were to keep off the grass and stay on the campus sidewalks. One day Edward Coray had overslept and found himself cutting across campus — on the grass no less — to make his 8:00 o’clock class. To his horror he saw President Blanchard on his way out of his office to meet him. (From his office window the president had seen Coray running on the grass.) With a big smile the president approached Coray, shook his hand warmly, and said, “You’re my friend from the coal regions of Pennsylvania, aren’t you?” Coray nodded his head sheepishly. President Blanchard continued: “I came here to ask you something. If you should encourage all of your friends to keep off the campus grass and I should do the same, do you think it would help?” Coray replied, “Yes, Mr. President, I think it would.” “Will you do this?” asked the president. “Yes, I’ll be glad to,” said Coray. With another big smile President Blanchard said, “Thank you so much. Now hurry along to class. The Lord bless you and give you a good day.”

Coray never walked on the campus grass again.

Below: Blanchard Hall on the campus of Wheaton College.

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