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November 2009 Blog Archives

Monday, November 30

8:54 PM A student will be studying Latin with me next semester as an independent study. I’ve asked him to lay off classical Latin. Caesar is one big bore (my opinion only), though Cicero is interesting. But Nunn’s ecclesiastical Latin grammar will be a joy to work through and will enable one to read the Vulgate and especially the church fathers.

Augustine is always a challenge to work through. In Basel I studied Augustinian theology and the class was mostly in Latin. I have read maybe 60,000 words of Latin in my lifetime — not a lot, but enough to ruminate on. I believe and rather hope that the neglect of Latin as a research language will shortly be left behind us all, and that Western civilization will return to the warm and luminous places where it was born (along with Greek of course).

8:38 PM What? A proposition toban divorce? Why, good folks, serious social issues do NOT, repeat do NOT, include serial polygamy in these here United States! Repeat after me: Gay marriage and abortion, gay marriage and abortion!! Public protest is not allowed when it comes to the most egregious of all sins in evangelicalism. Divorce is AOK in many Bible/Religious Belt churches. It’s the Trojan Horse of evangelical ethics. A nation that is half stupefied by groupthink over “grave moral issues” will not even stop to consider how much more subtle the danger of divorce is to the fabric of our society than is gay marriage. Besides, if we go after divorce, who knows — Bible Belt obesity might be next on the list. A sad, sad, business, all this public moralizing is. It’s like a deaf man’s criticism of music.

6:30 PM FromTheological German comes the word of the day (from Barth the Elder):

Sofern er in ihm auch der Wahrheitsfrage gegenüber verantwortlich ist, ist jeder Christ als solcher auch zum Theologen berufen.

I am suffering agonies at the moment over the appalling truthfulness of this statement. All I can do is hope to go on finding this unreasonable assertion (aspiration?) sufficiently true despite all evidence to the contrary.

6:10 PM I have just surfaced from a deep sleep and am now packing my things for two days on campus. I am feeling too tired and stupid to write anything intelligent at the moment or indeed to write anything at all, but I do want to congratulate (again) thegreatest biblioblogger of all time. His blog is always a good read, and indeed it is a mere indulgence, a vice if you will, quite as deplorable as any other habit. But I never really feel I have my pulse on blogdom unless I am perusing his pontifications. A future of poverty, hunger, and utter deprivation looms menacingly to anyone who dares ignore the Prince of Pen Power. I think, if I were an immensely rich voluptuary, I would go about in terry cloth and ashes for a few days, but because of my recent meds all such expostulations on my part are worthless.

All this to say: Warmest congratulations, Dr. Jim (spoken with a seraphic smile.)

3:24 PM Going down to rest the old back. Let’s continue to pray for the Frank Page family.

2:55 PM The question is being asked as to whetherblogging is superficial. Of course it is, man. My superficial ramblings are, well, renowned for their superficiality. “Every gross brained idiot is suffered to come into print,” said Thomas Nash in 1592. Now, I’m not talking about being glib. Superficiality is one thing, glibness is quite another. Jim West is glib. But he is never superficial. Being superficial takes real talent. I know that sounds like a glib statement, but you are probably confusing it with flippancy. Glibness is positively inhuman, whereas superficiality is sappy opportunism. Tweeters, man, are like flippant because they manage to shill without any value added content. Twitter should really introduce a “flip” chart, know what I mean? The whole Twitter thing is, like, soooo flippant. Flippancy describes something so sickeningly lame to the point of being vomitous, right? Gag me with a spoon if you like, but get off your superficial hang-up, okay?

1:05 PM In the Great Escape tunnel one of the two “halfway houses” was called Piccadilly Circus, a term that reminds me of a very pleasant few days I spent in London shopping in the used bookstores in the famous Circus.

It has by far the finest collection of World War II books in the world — with a dash of really smart and affable folk whose only vice was their slight speech impediment (or was it my accent that made them sound so strange?). I also did a certain amount of sight seeing, museums and the like (the British Museum and, of course, Baker Street), but nothing could match the sheer joy of buying good books at very cheap prices. What a nest of warbling and aggressive salesmen, matched only by the villainous and insufferable weather of London. I very much regret that our flights to Ethiopia do not go through London because Piccadilly is one top dive I tell you.

11:38 AM As promised, I have read the book of 1 Thessalonians in Greek, in one sitting of course. The book throws such a vivid light on the spirit of real evangelism. Their happiness was intense and their misery equally piercing. It was a great life. It reminds me so much of the Ethiopian church. What a sinister character that Tempter is, falling on the necks of the believers with such joy and delight. But there they were: the Thessalonian Christians, about 40 strong, probably meeting in Jason’s home, working out their faith, expressing their love to the point of exhaustion, and never giving up even in the face of the fiercest enemy/Enemy. I love reading books in foreign languages, but no book is as dear to me as my little old Novum Testamentum. Should I ever lose my copy I would be completely deprived of my sanity.

10:56 AM Speaking of the Swiss, praise where praise is due. With the Iraqi people at the edge of survival after a decade of devastating sanctions, Switzerland hosted a meeting of 30 countries to prepare for what might lie ahead if Iraq were invaded. The U.S. alone refused to attend. American plans for humanitarian relief in a postwar Iraq were described as “short on detail, woefully lacking in money, and wrongly controlled by the military.” The Swiss correctly pointed to the savagery of the sanctions. The rest is now history. Thank you, my Swiss friends, for standing up for basic human rights. It is in your DNA.

10:32 AM That really was very nice of Jim West to mention my idea of aGospels conference. Thank you very much indeed. I have already hosted two such conferences, with much pleasure and profit, and now look forward to going on to another one, pending approval and funding by the administration of course. Several prominent names have already cropped up as major speakers, and except for one (who is always extremely dilatory and unreliable) I have every confidence that we can assemble an attractive panel. And what a topic! Nothing diminishes the plethora of rationalizations about Gospel origins quite like scholars getting together and discussing their differences. Agreements may exist, or they may not. I find the desire for lucidity grows in me. Not mere simplification, but clean dissection of the data and clear exposition of as much of the immeasurable complexity of the data as one can dig into. Wake Forest in the springtime is ideal, both climactically and socially. The campus is incredibly beautiful. And the country round about it is wonderful as well. I am delighted to think that I shall possibly have the opportunity of renewing acquaintances begun so long ago under the auspices of SBL and SNTS.

And my health? My recovery trickles along very quietly here, but I have Becky to look after me and my pains are beginning to evaporate. I will spend today’s tedious hours writing frantically about what I think Godworld looks like and how it contrasts with Christendom, which is the fruit of our political megalomania. What a weary imbecility Christianity has become! The whole of the twenty-first century is doomed to repeat the errors of the twentieth, as it it seems intent on extolling the imperial destinies of the past.

P.S. Becky will accompany me to campus tomorrow. She is planning on baking cakes for my Greek students who will be turning in and grading their exams tomorrow afternoon.

8:45 AM This story at the Washington Post made me smile:A muscular, die-hard spirituality. Self-sufficient Christians prepare for Second Coming or for life after global disaster. I suspect that many people think we moved to our farm because we are end-time survivalists. That is ridiculous. We simply enjoy farming and the great outdoors. As for having weapons, we are pacifists. Just well-armed ones.

8:35 AM This football analogy works:Fourth and Long. The essay appears over at Foreign Policy. There is something very delightful about low politico-intrigues by which the war appears to be run in the exalted upper regions of the inter-allied marketplace. Here’s the zinger quote:

The exaggerated fear of al Qaeda creates a sellers’ market for policies advertised as confronting terrorism, like surging troops in Afghanistan. Without threat inflation, the war flunks a simple cost-benefit analysis. Nearly 500 coalition troops have died fighting this year. By some estimates, sending another 40,000 troops to Afghanistan will bring the war’s cost to about $100 billion a year, and that’s not even counting long-term expenses like veteran’s care, and investments foregone at home. Given a realistic threat assessment, it is hard to see how a drawdown in Afghanistan would allow al Qaeda to do enough damage to justify these costs.That’s true even if you grant hawks their questionable assumptions that our troops don’t just inflame the Pashtun separatism that fuels the Taliban and that Afghan Taliban commanders would again harbor al Qaeda.

The only fault in this way of thinking is that all these people are so happy and have so much power that they will never allow the war to stop if they can possibly help it. I’m afraid that tomorrow night’s speech will simply be more of well clichéd pabulum on the lines of “We shall not sweathe the schword etc.”

8:24 AM Once again I must voice my agreement with Eric’s choices: Michael DeBusk was an excellent student of mine and is an excellent blogger.

8:14 AM People who memorize entire books of the New Testament are rare indeed. One such individual emailed me this morning to say that he will be “performing Luke as an eyewitness” at Wakefield Baptist Church on December 11 and 12. He is also holding a master story telling workshop on the 12th. For details, go towww.brucekuhn.com. Thanks, Bruce, for the information, and I certainly wish your performances well.

P.S. I know large portions of the New Testament by heart (in English and Greek) but have never sat down to intentionally memorize them. Odd, eh?

7:48 AM This isvery good news indeed.

7:43 AM Kevin Sam has posted areview of Christless Christianity by Michael Horton. I still don’t know what to think about the review. But there is a mass of useful material lying here. Check it out for yourself.

7:36 AM Great news! The Halcombs have arrived in Ethiopia to meet their newly adopted son for the first time. You can follow their adventure here. Expect oodles of pictures too. One word of caution, Michael: Don’t snap photos of any public buildings, military installations, and the like, or your camera is likely to be confiscated by the police. Becky and I send along our very warmest wishes for a fruitful and pleasant stay in Utopia. I hope all goes well with you and your (growing) family. It will if you remember one word: “Flow.” When things go wrong (as they will from time and time), just remind yourselves, “We’re flowing.”

7:30 AM Here’s more from theBasler Zeitung:

Den Initianten ist es gelungen, die Ängste, die man im Ausland gegenüber dem Islam hat, auf die Schweiz zu übertragen. Andere Länder in Europa wären froh, sie hätten eine solche islamische Gemeinschaft. Hierzulande sind die Muslime stark integriert, gerade im Vergleich zu Frankreich und Deutschland. Das Resultat liegt also nicht an den Muslimen, die in der Schweiz leben.

That first sentence says it all:Den Initianten ist es gelungen, die Ängste, die man im Ausland gegenüber dem Islam hat, auf die Schweiz zu übertragen.I have seldom met with a more profound or distasteful use of that catchall word: Angst. Somewhere, though, I believe the Bible says that perfect love casts out all fear.

7:24 AM This map tells a tragic story. Except it’s the green part that is fanning the flames of cultural conflagration.

The Swiss have caved into political correctness. The Swiss of all people! That little red dot at the top of the photo represents an island of sanity. Basel was one of only 4 of the 26 Swiss cantons that refused to support the anti-minaret referendum. (This is the same Basel which, by the way, was only too happy to open its gates in the sixteenth century to such politically incorrect thinkers as a young Frenchman named Jean Cauvin, who wrote his famous Institutes in that city on the Rhine. Had it not been for the tolerance and open-mindedness of the Baslers, John Calvin might well have ended up as a pile of Carbon-14.)

“Leaders of Switzerland’s Islamic community of about 350,000 people said they were baffled by the logic of the referendum’s proponents and rejected equating minarets with Sharia, or Islamic law,” wrote the Los Angeles Times in an article entitledSwiss voters pass ban on minarets. Baffled? Now that’s an understatement. I can only find it all rather comic — though also tragic.

To my Swiss friends I say: Cette voile presque imperceptible de la vulgaritè verbale et rhythmique les couvre et, pour des yeux anglais et americain, les défigurent. And to my many Christian friends and loved ones who live in Basel, who claim to follow Yeshua who died for Muslims (as well as for people of all religions), I plead with you: Now is the time for you to stand up with one voice and denounce this dastardly referendum.

What we see happening in Switzerland is depressing. But then what isn’t depressing in Europe these days? And one doesn’t really see any very obvious way out of the difficulty. It’s time for the church to be the church and to stand up for the outcasts and the riffraff and the lepers and the despised in society. If my former professor in Basel Markus Barth were alive today, I believe he’d be tearing his hair out. But the possibility of a reversal in thinking among the Swiss of today seems almost infinitely small.

7:15 AM The Christian Science Monitor is reporting that anew Agatha Christie story has been unearthed. Very good indeed. I always found her works very interesting to tinker away at. But to be perfectly honest with you, the only novelist who really takes the lid off and makes me think is the famous American story-teller Helen MacInnis.

In reading her books I always feel like I’ve been plunged into what seems to be a permanent cold foggy drizzle. The more I read, the more I hope (and pray!) that it will be sunny some time again — and when the sun does shine again it makes its appearance with positive ferocity. Have you ever had the joy of diving into her post-World War II novel calledThe Salzburg Connection?

What is buried in a lake high up in the Austrian mountains? Are Bill Mathison and Lynn Conway in way over their heads? Whose side is the mysterious Felix Zauner really on? This is an interesting and important book for all Cold War era buffs, which if you haven’t already read you should. Really, what a staggeringly great author!

7:03 AM I must be the Commissioner of Lunacy even to have suggested that we should hold a conference at SEBTS on the church fathers and the origins of the Gospels. I think the event merits further investigation, and here I would ask you to kindly do me a very great favor and let me know who you think would be appropriate speakers at such a conference. I do not mean people who spend their lifetime riding the most frivolous hobby horses but rather scholars in the Gospels who would genuinely be interested in reviewing the external evidence and then telling the rest of us why they (1) do not feel it necessary to take it into account or (2) do not feel that it is necessarily probative. I’m firmly settled here in my own ways on this matter as is obvious to all, but I am most interested and eager to hear from others who disagree with me. Mark Goodacre, I suppose, comes as near an anyone to fulfilling the conditions. However, the highway is still unbuilt, and now that Bernhard Orchard and William Farmer are no longer with us it has expanded even more. Perhaps someone from the Two Gospels School would honor us with their presence? It would be most kind of you to send me your thoughts and suggestions, for I am desperately interested in seeing if anything can (or should) come of this suggestion.

Sunday, November 29

7:44 PM I am not a specialist in the Synoptic Problem. My own view is that both Mark and Q are dispensable. If you are one who advocates the latter but not the former, I am toying with the idea of re-opening a can of worms on campus (yes, again — I did it twice already in 2000 and 2007). To wit: I would like to see how Markan priorists evaluate the external evidence in favor of Matthean priority. Synoptic criticism for the moment is all for being nice and gentlemanly and public-schooly, with a touch of whimsical Dickensism, or rather (not to insult Dickens) a blend of good-old Obamaism (“can’t we all just get together and discuss the matter over a beer in the Rose Garden?”). In a word, to quote the fashion experts, new theories are being worn rather short these years, so, with my usual audacity, I hereby issue an open invitation to self-professed experts in the field to indicate their willingness to risk their digestions on North Carolina fare (sans the wine, I’m afraid) and slip down (in disguise if neccesary) to Wake Forest and let our dear students know why they should prefer the Markan priority hypothesis (with or without Q) over one that takes into account the church fathers. There will, if I am successful, be a follow-up publication of the papers presented, which can do nothing but further the discussion among our eager student bodies, whether at Duke, SEBTS, or elsewhere. I anticipate an all-day Saturday conference with three keynoters, a response given by a neutralist, and a lengthy hard-hitting discussion time.

What say ye? Don’t disappoint trash cat.

7:05 PM Tonight my goal is to read 1 Thessalonians through in one sitting. Taken in alternative sips with the second epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul’s eschatology gains in intensity of flavor. What a poet, by the way, the man is. Every budding versifier should take note of his love for triads. And then what extraordinary things he’s says. Paul will always remain my favorite New Testament letter writer (which is one reason why I love Hebrews so much). I could go on and on…. Je m’excuse d’un bavardage si long.

6:59 PM Nathan called earlier to say that he and Jessie and Nolan were getting on the road to return from Maryland. I hope they’ll be able to use the Red Robin gift card Becky and I gave them for Thanksgiving. From Google I see there’s a restaurant just north of Richmond on I-95. We expect them home by 9:00 pm. It all depends on how many seconds (thirds, fourths, fifths?) they have on those delectable French fries.

6:45 PM So the Democrats say they arein revolt against the president’s new troop surge. It will be all bark and no bite of course — because they will never pull the funding plug. The concentrated venom of naysay-but-spend is quite obnoxious to observe– a strange mixture of high-horse-ness and irony, of the kind found only in the American system of so-called “checks-and-balances.” I find it very difficult to understand the mentality of a man like Obama who can sit down and spin out an immensely realistic speech about the dangers of overreaching militarism and then have the audacity to use the nation’s military academy as a backdrop for caving into his army advisors. After all, he’s the Commander-in-Chief. Meanwhile Afghanistan is like a billiard board for literally hundreds of miles at a stretch, and all of it incredibly cultivated to protect the Taliban to the highest degree. (Just ask the Russians or the British before them.) To go on fighting until the Taliban hordes are overthrown and their armies are annihilated will lead, in all probability, to results hardly if at all less catastrophic than a sensible withdrawal today. The sad reality, as Eric Carpenter noted today (Where Are All the War Protesters?), is that the contribution of personal pacifism to politics is for all practical purposes impossible. There can only be the pacifism of individuals. Of course this is all a matter for speculation. What is actually to happen will depend not merely upon the governing class in America but also upon the circumstances affecting or determining that will. My gut response is to say that the president has had his chance (given to him on a royal platter at that) and has blown it. It all sounds pretty gloomy I know, but I remain an ardent advocate of divine sovereignty and interpret the impending backlash as a good thing provided that we have a new discussion of Jeffersonian democracy and the limits of “benevolent interventionism.” But, then again, I’m not holding my breath…

Still, I offer Mr. Obama my best wishes and certainly my prayers. But it will take a lot more than 30,000 troops to get the job done. God help us! — I’m afraid the surge will produce a horror quite unmitigated in recent history.

4:17 PM Becky brought me some homemade pie to enjoy on the front porch as I basked in the glory of the beauty of the hour (pix). How can one’s convalescence not progress when one is treated so royally?

I read the entire book of Colossians in one sitting while nursing my back in an old rocker. I have begun sketching out an article dealing with the impossibility of loving the Gospel without loving the church which the Gospel creates. For it seems that Paul was quite intentional when in one place in Colossians he says he is a servant (diakonos) of the Gospel and then two verses later says he is a servant (diakonos) of the church. What an interesting world we live in! — when men and women can claim to be preachers of the truth and pass out tracks and out-bumper-sticker their neighbor’s cars but then have nothing whatsoever to do with fellowshipping with other believers. I see this mentality in Raleigh all the time. We get by with this because we have become very good at justifying ourselves by calling our whims and passions holy names. But Paul was equally devoted to the word of the cross and to the people of the cross — even half-baked, jejune, and immature Christians. What I have tried to do with my evangelistic friends is to remind them that they mustn’t forget that Christ died for the church and that, like Noah’s ark, the stench may be intolerable on the inside but the horrors on the outside are far, far worse.

One more thought from Colossians. Did you know that Paul goes out of his way to mention a group of people called the Scythians? Bet you don’t know who they were. In the last 3 years I have actually been to the borders of Scythia twice, though the place is now known by another name. Check out Paul in Col. 3:11 and see for yourself. My question: Is the word a term of opprobrium in Paul? And why is it paired with barbarian? And do the two terms overlap? See how my devious mind works (or doesn’t work)!

2:59 PM The sun blazes away in unbroken splendor here and there is no wind. Time to spend a few minutes outdoors with the puppies, who must miss their old man terribly. 

2:45 PM So Dr. Jim is accusing people of usingtoo many abstractions. May I say that he falls into the very same trap? And this is not a criticism. The weapons at a good writer’s disposal often include ambiguity and hyperbole. Vague abstractions are often utterly deceptive. Politicians are experts at employing them, as when they make the collective-security-military-defense-of-democracy argument. Frankly, Jim, I enjoy the intellectual chaos that often ensues!

2:30 PM I am right now engrossed in a great book about the Great Escape. In fact, the title is just that.

It was published was back in 1950 — just 6 years after the event it describes took place — by Paul Brickhill, who was kicked off the escape roster because he was honest enough to admit that he suffered from claustrophobia. I love that. To represent a completely adult, healthy good man, one must be adultly good oneself. I have always known I would be too frightened to be able to travel down a 2 feet by 2 feet collapsible tunnel, all 336 feet of it. 

Incidentally, tunnel construction involved the use of:

4,000 bed boards; 1,370 beading battens; 1,699 blankets; 161 pillow cases; 635 palliasses; 34 chairs; 52 20-man tables; 90 double tier bunks; 1,219 knives; 478 spoons; 30 shovels; 1,000 feet of electric wire; 600 feet of rope; 192 bed covers; 3,424 towels; 1,212 bed bolsters; 10 single tables; 76 benches; 246 water cans; 582 forks; 69 lamps.

And no one was conscripted into slavery to accomplish the feat either. I am a profound admirer of these men, in case you couldn’t tell.

2:27 PM The more I read about the Manhattan Declaration, the more I want to shout: Do the work of an evangelist!

1:18 PM Just prayed for theFrank Page family. Don’t know the details. Don’t need to. 

12:44 PM Don’t miss Allan Bevere’s weekly roundup ofMethodist blogs. How in the world does a man find the time to provide such a service?

Speaking of roundups, I offer a challenge: Will someone please take the time and make the effort to assemble in one place a list of all the New Testament professors in our American and Canadian schools, colleges, and seminaries — along with their websites? If you need a model, gohere. What a help that would be to aspiring North American Neutestamentler! If you do this, I promise you a free copy of one of my books.

12:31 PM A hearty “Amen” to brother Eric’s praise for the blogBetween the Times. Yes, self-effacing, self-critical Southern Baptists actually do exist. It is a good thing, I think, for denominations from time to time to be knocked off balance by circumstances and then, of all things, to redress the issues through a careful reexamination of the biblical evidence. The Great Commission Resurgence has some giant aspirations, but none so dear as to humbly follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in carrying out Mark 16:15. After all, if a seminary or a denomination can’t be all about worldwide church planting, why in the world should it exist?

By the way, just for fun I’ll guess that the final 7 blogs to be named by Eric are: Desiring God, The Assembling of the Church, Between Two Worlds, Truth in Love, Reformed Voices, Albert Mohler, and Founders Ministries.

12:02 PM Here’s another good letter from The Washington Post:Keeping Ethiopians down. Yes, it’s partly about land ownership and private property laws. Meanwhile,Bob Geldof is back in Ethiopia seeking to pump more aid into the nation’s disastrous economy. Good for him.

And here’s a picture of my dear brother Lloyd, a simple farmer from Virginia, holding an agriculture workshop among the Muslims of Alaba focusing on crop and soil management.

Governments and NGOs aren’t the only ones who can do something for the family farmers of Ethiopia! I thank God every day for missionaries like Lloyd who sacrifice their vacation time to distribute seed among the poor and lend a helping hand and some expertise.

11:26 AM Good Sunday morning to you, bloggers and bloggerettes! If you are well, I am well. And indeed I have some very good news for you today: I have not had to use my chariot once so far today. My back seems to be getting stronger by the hour — which is a good thing too, as my vacation comes to a crashing halt on Tuesday. So, then, what to do? Well, for starters I am reviewing some Latin/English verse a student sent me. He got it from the internet somewhere. The English, I must say, is terrible. Translation it most certainly is not. The Latin and the English are like two ships passing in the night. A real tragedy, I think. The translator was undoubtedly a bespectacled figure carrying books under his arms entitled “Latin and English Verse” and dragging various abbreviations after his (or her) name — A.B., B.D., B.S., D.D., D.L. — but the magic alchemy of translation somehow escaped his or her talents. How, may I ask, does one get from “Sit, Christie, rex piissima, tibit Patrique gloria” to “Almighty Father, this accord through Jesus Christ, the Son our Lord”? (The hymn, by the way, is Bede’s marvelous Christie, qui, splendor et dies.) Certainly accuracy in translation is a difficult course to pursue successfully, for nothing is harder than to make really good, crystallizing prose interesting. But we can’t forget about accuracy!

Today things are very quiet around here. I will alternate between the sweet sleep of the recovering invalid and the protracted struggle with pen and note pad. It will seem odd not going to The Hill tomorrow night for Greek class, but all good things do indeed come to an end. Don’t worry about me loafing too much in the meantime, however. I’ve given a lot of prayerful consideration to what I should teach next time at Bethel Hill, and the need for a basic course in New Testament survey keeps popping up in my mind. We’ll see if anyone’s interested….

In the meantime I see that Jim West has whipped his stallion into a froth as he gets into high gear again in the monthly Derby of all derbies, and he indeed deserves a lot of credit for maintaining his lead for so many months. DBO is happy to remain the darkest of all dark horses. Still, it is a delight to know that one is surrounded by the greatest collection of internet Thoroughbreds in the world.

This week my existence will be somewhat restless and uncertain. If I can somehow manage to keep my back from going out again there is a slim chance that we might attend the annual Christmas concert at SEBTS this Friday evening featuring a performance by the Northeast Piedmont Chorale, to which Becky and I once belonged (in our pre-Ethiopia days).

Have you looked outdoors yet today? It is a fall day in the Piedmont of Virginia, but summer lingers and lingers deliciously. The beauty of this day is really fabulous, and I have threatened the dogs that I might take them for a short walk just so that I can get outdoors again.

Well, the Lord bless you real good wherever you find yourself this Sunday, and may your week be one that benefits the kingdom of King Jesus!  

Saturday, November 28

3:04 PM Only dumpster-divers like Nate and me would enjoythis post. I think Frayda said it best:

If something is in the trash on the curb, in most people’s opinion, it is up for grabs.

2:54 PM Pat McCullough notes an opportunity to writedictionary articles for a new publication called Dictionary of the Bible and Western Culture. Several entries fairly beg to be written by the Big Bamboola of Biblioblogging, Jim West himself, including (but not necessarily limited to):

• Evil (Jim’s Leitmotiv)

• Judgement (But please correct the British spelling, will you?)

• Let the Dead Bury Their Dead (Love that “in your face” language)

• Mess of pottage (which Jim would never trade for anything)

• Old men shall dream dreams (I assume that Jim qualifies as an old man)

• Sin will find you out (and Jim will tell the world about it)

• Stoning (of the non-hashish sort, I reckon)

• Thou art the man (That’s you, Jaime!)

• Troubling the waters (That’s why you’re #1)

• Turn the Other Cheek (Jim is a master at doing this — ha!)

• Voice of the turtle (Say what?)

• Weeping and gnashing of teeth (the fate of every criminal ever exposed by Jim)

• Worm that does not die (in multos annos, Jimbo!)

Please, Jim, if you will, save “Bodysurfing the Sea of Galilee” (which I’ve actually done) for me. I could desperately use the income.

Oh wait! That entry isn’t even listed. What kind of a lousy dictionary is this anyway?

2:28 PM The German news magazine Stern is running aseries of photos on climate change and especially the problem of water shortages worldwide. Acquiring potable drinking water is a  perpetual problem in the Horn of Africa, where Becky and I work. Perhaps this is why I was struck most deeply by this picture:

The problem in Ethiopia is not so much a shortage of water resources (there is plenty of rain water, as well as 14 major river systems). The problem is one of intelligently harvesting the water sources that already exist. Becky and I can’t do everything, but we can see to it that our clinic in Galana has a year-round source of healthy drinking water drawing on the rain harvesting system that is being installed even as I type these words. Praise God for all of you who helped to make this project a reality. The enormity of the suffering is really unfathomable, but God is at work in ever so small ways to bring some relief to the suffering thousands of Burjis and Gujis.

1:10 PM I love Jeff Huber. He has developed to a supreme degree that greatest quality of all writing — simplicity. It’s been fun and disturbing — all at once — to read his latest essay (Let Them Eat Patty Cake), which is a reminder that stony and obedient loyalty to militarism and vested interests seems to be the necessary adjunct of a life time of perfunctory hard work and imaginative-less work. So you see that I’m still a revolutionary but practical enough to admit that the use of the word “victory” is little more than intellectual and moral subservience to propaganda. Well done, Jeff, well done.

12:42 PM Speaking of Hebrew, beware of thosebad Semitic tattoos. Moreover, guys and gals, do try and remember that Hebrew words are gender specific.

P.S. Aren’t you glad you visit DBO? My advice is worth about a million. I can already sense the calming effect this post has had on you.

12:05 PM In calm, collected, and dispassionate retrospect, I feel quite sure that the study of rhetoric should have been included in my New Testament courses long before it was. I think Old Testament scholars were more emotionally disposed to treat these topics as a matter of course, so I am not at all surprised to see that awonderful website exists that is devoted to the study of the Old Testament from a very scientific point of view. Why, it even takes the rhetorical level of language as a significant level of language for receptors — a point I have been trying to make with my own students for at least 10 years now. There is even a splendid section devoted to stylistics, and if you are at all interested in such matters I do hope you will look at it. To whet your appetite:

La stylistique des textesvétérotestamentaires est une étude souvent négligée./30 Cependant elle est le fondement de plusieurs approchesexégétiques. Comme nous le verrons, elle est nécessaire àl’analyse de genre, et à “la critique littéraire” dans le sens del’analyse des sources, comme étude préalable. Elle partage certains de ses intérêts avecla critique rhétorique, et aurait pu être considérée en même temps qu’elle, mais la stylistique s’intéresse plus que la critique rhétorique aux questions esthétiques. Toutefois, la stylistique est une approche de la Bible plus sujette à des erreurs de compréhension dues à la différence culturelle et linguistique qui sépare l’exégète du texte; nos conclusions doivent donc être circonspectes.

The author is really very pleasant and also very determined. Thinks our exegesis should be text-based, and all that. To this notion I acquiesce eagerly. In fact, if my own students do not include a section in their term papers on the rhetoric of their passage, their contributions are relegated immediately to File 13.

12:05 PM If this blog post isn’t very coherent you can attribute it to my state of mental vacuity — the result of too much writing this morning, plus a dose of valium to relieve my back spasms. Still, I can’t help myself and simply must post a few thoughts here. My devotions/Bible study today brought me to this wonderful statement of how the household of Onesiphorus often “refreshed” Paul (2 Tim. 1:16). The idea is that “he took care of all my needs and wasn’t ashamed that I was a prisoner.” Today I’m reminded of the many in Ethiopia who have extended to Becky and me their hearts and their homes. I offer a prayer of praise on your behalf this very minute. Thank you for loving Becky and me. Thank you for accepting us with all of our faults and foibles. Thank you for sacrificing to make us feel so welcome and comfortable. Thank you!

I offer no captions to these pictures for even a thousand words would be too few even to begin to describe who these saints are and what they mean to us. They are our family, and as soon as Becky is feeling splendidly again (Lord willing, next spring) we will take two weeks to visit them, just Becky and me, to enjoy their lavish fellowship once again, leaving behind the mountains of work that need to be scaled. As you ponder these pictures, think of the Body of Christ worldwide, the haunting feeling that these are the people with whom we will be spending an eternity without the slightest touch of separation of any kind. What bravado for me to post these photos, thinking that you might actually enjoy them. Well, I actually hope you do enjoy them! Speaking completely unbiasedly, there are no more beautiful people on the face of this earth than the Ethiopians. If only you could know them as we do.

Oh, one more thing. Don’t let anyone tell you that missions is about strategy and planning and missions courses and conferences. Missions is about one thing and one thing only: People. Love people, and God will open a mission field so broad for you that it will boggle your mind.

On to the photos….

10:30 AM A salient reminder to all of my doctoral students:

I’ve said it time and again. Your doctoral studies can and should be the best, not the worst, years of your life. And remember: I pray for you constantly.

10:18 AM Here’s an example of what I mean by “radical” (i.e., returning to the radix, the root of the matter):In Afghanistan and at home, we’re being driven off a cliff. An awesome post. I do have to stipulate, however, that I don’t care too much personally whether the Democrats are mostly to blame for the fiasco. I’m also not convinced it’s too late to stop the madness. The Taliban, of course, are promising a “bed of thorns,” but that won’t stop our congressional war lovers from widening the conflict. And I thought the president was serious about health care reform.

9:44 AM I woke up this morning with a severe attack of felicity from being able to shuffle about without my wheelchair for the first time in several days. The prednisone seems to be working as effectively as the physicians predicted. The whole unpleasant episode began with a cough from a chest cold that I picked up who knows where. My susceptibility to chest problems is probably due in part to a tendency toward bronchitis as a child and may well have been exacerbated by sitting in countless seminars filled with strong pipe smoke in Basel (from which, alas, there was no possibility of escape; even opening a window was streng verboten). Somehow I managed to return home from my sojourn in the city along the Rhine with both my lungs and my orthodoxy still intact.

Right now Becky is planning on meeting up with Liz and the boys. They’re going “mall-ing” up in Lynchburg today, and it is a pleasant day indeed for such an avocation. Later today I will return to work on my Ungeheuer (no word better describes my latest book project, Godworld) but in the meantime I’ve been diving into the deep waters of the book of Proverbs, prying open its oysters and extracting pearls of wisdom that so richly mature there. I’ve jotted these down so far:

• Even while laughing a heart can ache.

• Better to have a dish of vegetables where there is love than juicy steaks where there is hate.

• Grandchildren are the crown of grandparents.

• A person’s anxiety will weigh him down, but an encouraging word makes him joyful.

• Delayed hope makes one sick at heart, but a fulfilled longing is a tree of life.

• Silver hair is a beautiful crown found in a righteous life.

Thinking about wisdom this morning, my thoughts and prayers turn also to my students who are laboring diligently this week to finish their term papers for my classes. The whole purpose of public education is to stimulate intellectual curiosity and to equip students with the power of independent judgement. The clear and single purpose of teaching the biblical languages is to get students into the text itself. Will an irresistible tide of exultation now sweep through the halls of the campus with loud hosannas from those who faithfully recite their paradigms and principal parts? Of course not. Language study is both rigorous and humiliating. So to all of my students who are writhing over their papers this Thanksgiving break I say: Do the very best you can, for by making the effort to excel you have already scored a great intangible victory for your cause. I venture to say that the ultimate result of your much laborious periphrasis is an unconscious intellectual satisfaction. And that’s nothing to sneeze (or cough) at.

Cheers,

Dave

Friday, November 27

7:32 PM Jim West’sstimulating and provocative remarks compel me to reflect a little more deeply on the current state of the academy and on the condition of my own faith and belief. Jim argues cogently for a distinction between religion (which is a reflection of one’s own consciousness and circumstances) and Christian faith (which is concerned primarily with the promulgation of truth). One either sees life predicated primarily in terms of reason or revelation; hence we have university departments of religion on the one hand, and confessional institutions (such as seminaries) on the other. The two trends have had a long career, but their vogue is, I hope, coming to an end, and one day they will be tucked harmlessly away in the museum of post-Christian fantasies. The opposition between reason and revelation can be reduced to a simple axiom: reason always works from the bottom up, while revelation always works from the top down. If I could scarcely find employment in a “secular” institution’s department of New Testament, it may be owing to the simple fact that I begin with revelation as my starting point. Otherwise I think I could manage to teach Greek or exegesis or hermeneutics with the best of them. Likewise, when we invite non-conservative speakers to lecture at SEBTS (Stanley Hauerwas for one), nobody questions his zeal for religious knowledge. You see, it is all a matter of one’s religious presuppositions. And it is an indisputable fact today that presuppositional-less exegesis is an utter impossibility. I have my presuppositions, Stanley has his, and never the twain shall meet. What can happen, however, and sometimes does happen at SBL or IBR or even ETS, is that biblical scholars from different backgrounds and convictions learn to speak to rather than past each other. And why should this not happen? To the degree that faith is an obvious part of the religious arsenal and to the degree that reason is bound up with the revelation of God through Jesus Christ, the conflict between faith and reason need not end up as a total breach. As Mark Noll used to say, today it is no longer a question of reason versus faith but of a reasonable faith versus a faithless reason. That is to say, I for one have never rejected higher critical methodologies per se simply because many of them originated from a bottom-up rational. I have even co-edited two books (New Testament Criticism and Interpretation and Interpreting the New Testament) that try to tackle head on this ascent motif and its expression, and perhaps even its origin. Let there be no confusion here: I am not the least interested in engaging in polemics or apologetics against my scholarly peers. I do not wish to argue that because I begin with with a top-down approach my conclusions are necessarily correct. Take the case of the Synoptic Problem: If we look at myproposed solution and compare it to that, say, of the Oxford Hypothesis, we will find that the differences have nothing to do with my views about inspiration but are rather bound up with my willingness to take into serious account the religious authorities of the first four centuries (the so-called external evidence). Quite obviously we are all trying to solve the same problem — to get hold of the facts and, in the face of the data, construct a plausible hypothesis. Here is where the split occurs: I take into account the writings of the church fathers, while others do not. Or take another example —  my published defense of the Paulinity of the admirable confession of faith in the second chapter of Philippians. Since I have often elaborated on the theme of powerlessness in Pauline thinking (see my Basel dissertation,Paul, Apostle of Weakness), I won’t go into this any further.

To put it bluntly,group think of any kind is anathema to the scholarly world. Sadly, as Jim points out, it is as endemic in both the academy and the seminary as is malaria in Alaba, Ethiopia (where I managed to acquire the disease). This leaves us totally uncertain as to how to discover and build faith. But if a cow can chew her cud, certainly biblical scholars of every stripe can learn to meditate on and deliberately think through the consensus opinio on every subject and, courage well in hand, use various means of demonstration to show that a rapprochement between faith and reason is possible.

12:39 PM Good for Basel, my erstwhile home away from home, forbanning an idiotic Muslim-bashing poster. The Swiss have always been xenophobic, but this steps way over line of basic human decency and the Gemuetlichkeit for which the Swiss have always been famous.

12:16 PM One of my favorite bloggers has begun a new series called “My Ten Favorite Blogs.” Here’s hisopening salvo.

11:55 AM The SBL conference is now over. From what I have read there were no startling conclusions, of any kind, but a lot of interesting things were said, and there were occasions for people to interact. In point of fact I doubt whether the results will be very earth-shattering in the context of modern biblical scholarship. Q will keep on Q-ing, verbal aspect will continue to be debated — with no end in sight — younger scholars will continue, undoubtedly, to supply fruitful suggestions (while adding a line or two to their CVs). From a business point of view I’m sure the conference helped the struggling NOLA economy, and the publishers are no doubt glad that their books were snatched away with rapturesque celerity. From my experience at these conferences, occasionally one finds a unique thinker whose knowledge in many fields permits them to strike at the joints between the various academic disciplines — exegesis, biblical theology, philosophy, linguistics — and so to penetrate to the core of the living reality in ways in which the specialist can never do. This is, in fact, what I should like to be able to do someday — become a welder of the joints between the separate armor-plates of organized knowledge. In this regard, one scholar who interests me very much is Udo Schnelle, though I have read only a few of his writings. Il est un travail préoccupant qui m’a render très paresseux envers mes autres devoirs!

P.S. For a slightly different perspective, read April DeConick’sOpen Letter about SBL.

Thursday, November 26

5:11 PM Oh my, but this is good:Unforced Error. Perhaps the quote of quotes is this one:

The war in Afghanistan is as necessary as removing the prostate gland of a healthy 12-year old boy. 

At one point I demur, however. The author’s tennis analogy breaks down, as do most analogies about the Afghan War, on the fact that the U.S. and the Taliban are playing two different games on very different playing fields. The definition of “victory,” consequently, will also differ dramatically.

4:58 PM News flash! Here are theworld’s fattest countries. I bet Korea is the world’s leanest nation. It took me several trips there before I noticed one single overweight person. It’s the food, I tell you. If Americans ate nothing but Korean cuisine we’d be the thinnest nation on earth. Kimchi? Delicious. Bulgogi? The best? Kaejigogi? Scrumptious (even though it’s dog meat). Yes, I know the smells are pungent, but if we all ate kimchi, nobody would notice the halitosis.

Speaking of obesity, people are getting fatter in Ethiopia of all places. Especially in the capital. The difference there is that fat is a sign of success and well-being.

4:10 PM The last few days have been kind of a fantasy for me, at once comical and farcical, mind-numbing and reflective. The days have made me feel almost posthumous and, at the same time, more determined than ever to come to grips with my current physical limitations. The doctors have told me that I should be back to normal in a couple of weeks, and I have good hopes that if I persist in following their orders I may get the full use of my back again. Something very similar to this happened to me once in southern Ethiopia. Several years ago we were in Burji when, as a result of breathing dust for days on end, I developed a hacking cough which in turn threw my back out completely. I was confined to my pallet for days on end. When the cough abated, so did the muscle spasms in my lower back. I assume that the same thing will happen this time around. The deplorable thing is that farm work goes on even when one is indisposed, and my current contribution to everyday operations is, sadly, nil.

News this Thanksgiving Day is otherwise unexciting. Nate and Jess are celebrating the occasion with her family, Becky is sewing another dress, and I’m getting a good deal of recreational reading done. I have also taken some definitive steps in mapping out my fourth semester Greek course, which I will teach next semester. The class will focus on Greek linguistics, a subject about which I still don’t know enough. There is no hope of interpreting the text logically and rationally without linguistics. One would think that biblical language teachers would be the first to extol the wonders of the field of linguistics, but it is obvious that there remains a real taboo about it. Only a few specialists seem to be willing to teach it. The rest of us remain perfectly ignorant of it contributions. Most of us don’t want to think this way about language because it would spoil our sermonizing (“You mean that dynamis has nothing to do with dynamite after all?”). Alas, the short-term fun all this etymologizing provides outweighs the long-term miseries that inevitable follow.

I do hope that you and your family are enjoying this national holiday. I think it is good to honor our nation’s forebears, though I am becoming more and convinced that it is completely useless to work in the field of politics to accomplish any kind of permanent social change — first, because political power can achieve very little, and second, the little that is achieved is merely a diversion of evil into slightly different channels. The archist attitude of the sixteenth century Anabaptists (or of the early church, for that matter) is becoming less and less acceptable in a day of heady optimism about the human race. My sense is that religious people who think they can go into politics to change the world are almost always transformed by the world. I’d much rather stay with the cross and the life-changing power of scandalous love. Living out the kingdom ethics of Eph. 5:1-2 might well accomplish more than all of our declarations (pontifications?) put together.

Well, it’s back to reading the mother of all World World II escape stories — the escape of 3 British officers from a German POW camp through a wooden horse of all things. Concurrently I’m conniving and scheming of ways to achieve freedom from my wheelchair captivity.

Per ardua ad aspera

(The motto of the Royal Air Force — “Through adversity to the stars.”)

8:22 AM Thought you might enjoy this excerpt from an email Becky sent out this morning:

Thanks for your prayers & advice.  We’re already doing all the nursing things….hot packs, rubs, resting, positioning, muscle relaxants, etc….this is such a severe case, nothing’s touching it.  But I think today he will turn around.  He’s on 40 mg Prednisone…that’s a good strong dose of anti-inflammatory.  So we expect his bronchitis/cough to leave today, and the back will recover after that.   It’s quite an experience to see such a strong man become crippled overnight.   We’ve had some laughing spells, thinking of what we must look like from Heaven, taking care of each other with both our backs out 🙂   God knows, and we love Him!  I’m sure glad we can trust His character!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dave

Wednesday, November 25

8:14 AM We’re off to UNC Hospital again. No, Becky’s fine. It’s my turn. When I looked in the mirror this morning I saw an 80 year old, stooped over in pain. B thinks it’s possibly pneumonia, my back situation being a side effect. Guess we’ll find out today. You should see the two of us trying to care for each other!

Tuesday, November 24

8:29 PM Thanksgiving dinner. Venison, salmon, turkey. Sang a hymn Becky wrote for the occasion. Thankful for a goofy, Christ-centered family.

10:26 AM The “sainting” ofFather Damien, “hero” of Molokai’s leper colony, continues to interest me. Participants in Western culture need heroes no less than the ancient Greeks needed demi-gods. You would think that we might find Jesus sufficient, but no — we are caught up in the same giddy trend. We rush forward to applaud the rich and famous who happen to “receive Christ” or, conversely, to condemn those who have turned their backs on their evangelical upbringing (Frankie Schaeffer comes to mind). The whole business of propping up our ephemeral heroes is hopelessly confused. When I was Jesus-freaking in Hawaii our demi-god was “The Chaplain of Waikiki Beach” — tall, dark, handsome, even garnered a brief appearance in the movie Tora, Tora, Tora. Who could blame us? If the secular media could have its heroes (karate-chopping David Carradine, for example), why couldn’t we have ours?

What really surprises me about this aspect of our hero-worship is that it is all so unconscious. How amazing that in an era of stiff-necked biblicism (“There is absolutely no biblical justification for declaring anyone a ‘Saint!'”) evangelicals should abandon themselves to the same excesses. Look at us — raving over our evangelical superstars the way the world raves about its Oscar awardees. Jim West isabsolutely correct when he says that biblical scholars are not, by and large, standoffish prima donnas — quite the contrary! Contrast that with our pulpit pedestals and sermonic stars, our adulation of TV preachers, our need for excitement and applause in church. I dare say Father Damien would have yawned at all the media attention, might even have thought the hooplala exploitative. Maybe his real legacy is to remember this:

Stardom is vapid — even in an era of the spectacle.

8:17 AM Nice serendipity: Driving to Greek class last night I listened to Chuck Swindoll on BBN. He was preaching from 1 John 2:1-6. This text is no less than a fiery challenge to all who have ears to hear, to all who are willing to rethink their lifestyles. The study of love and its ethics of obedience remains very much on my personal agenda, and I have not yet slaked my thirst for the brilliant analysis offered by John. Love, for John, is the transference of one’s loyalties from the present kingdom of man to the coming kingdom of God. Love binds us to Jesus Christ and then thrusts out into the world for whom Christ died, back into the darkness, back into real relationships with real pain. Love is not fully Christian unless it is love for the world. It was this notion that compelled me to writeThe Jesus Paradigm, for it is this paradigm of self-abnegation that stands over against the church’s misplaced love for itself. We have in the New Testament an ethics of worldly involvement as opposed to our “we’re better than you” mentality. Love God. Love one another. Love the world. The three loves. And it is the last one that I failed to practice for so many years.

8:12 AM Kudos to Jim West for adding captions to his excellent photos of SBL.

8:10 AM Seumas Milne has penned a piece that you might want to look at, because chances are you won’t be seeing the topic discussed elsewhere: We can’t buy peace in Afghanistan. The rubber meets the road here:

Trying the same trick in Afghanistan will certainly escalate conflict between Afghans, fund new warlords and boost corruption still further. At best, it will buy a breathing space to create the political cover for a negotiated US and Nato withdrawal. But any idea that renting tribal leaders will buy peace in Afghanistan is a pipedream.

8:02 AM You should see Becky and me. Too old geezers who can hardly move. Bradford Hall has become a nursing home. As we thought about this yesterday we laughed so hard I thought my sides were going to burst.

Monday, November 23

1:38 PM Today I’m re-reading, with much pleasure and profit,At Dawn We Slept. These comments on history are often as interesting as the history itself, because they permit one to look at an event from another angle. I always enjoy World War II books, but there are very few of them that are particularly good.Sink the Bismarck is a gigantic success, as isThe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I used to enjoy Churchill’s series on the Second World War but now find him too much of a controversial apologist for war. In case you should have nothing better to do, I might suggest that you read At Dawn We Slept — a well-written book and a reminder that even the most vigilant government offices are populated by frail and fallible human beings.

12:55 PM Bethel Hill Greek students! If your notions of Greek are still simmering, be prepared to bring them to a full boil tonight at 7:00 sharp. That’s when your final exam begins. You’ll translate 2 verses from 1 John 1:5 – 2:14, parse the verbs, and then do as much of the extra credit English-Greek sentence as you can. If all goes well, I expect everyone to get over 100 on this test. And yes, I’m bringing lots of my books to pass out during the 110 Award Extravaganza afterwards. I do hope you will be able to nail down your passages in 1 John before class begins. Like a mother hen brooding over her chicks, I am anxious to see you get out on your own.

12:45 PM A tip of my Cajun kepi to Jim West, who is doing a great job of posting photos of the SBL meeting. But a question bedevils me: Exactly who are all these people? Captions, Jim, captions!

Sunday, November 22

5:14 PM I see that yet another declaration has been issued (semi-officially) by church leaders of all stripes. This one deals with the grave social ills that plague our nation (abortion particularly). As a rule of thumb, I don’t see that very much good is done by writing all these words. Abortion will continue as it has for decades. Now, abortion is horrible in the extreme. But it is not by proclaiming this fact in a loud voice that this particular perversion of God’s order will be stopped or that sinful human beings will stop acting like sinful human beings. Our behavior as humans is immensely old and tied up with habits of thought and action that no manifesto or declaration can ever hope to reverse. It is not very helpful to treat smallpox simply by cutting out the individual pustules and suturing up the wounds. The Christian is not only called to speak truth but to do good, and to fail in the latter is to automatically fail in the former.

5:10 PM This morning Becky and I had the joy and honor of representing the Ethiopian church to the saints at Spring Lake Baptist Church. The church is having its annual “Missions Month.” Neither Becky nor I were feeling 100 percent, far from it in fact, but it would been a monster to have cancelled our speaking engagement. We were glad to have had this opportunity of sharing the Lord’s glory in that part of the world while challenging the American church to move beyond easy Christianity. If fact, I’d say if it’s easy, it’s not Christianity. And if it’s Christianity, then it’s not easy. My text for the morning, Matt. 9:35-38, is a coal of fire. It challenges our lack of involvement in the Lord’s work. It speaks to our laziness while the world all around us is in such terrible condition. The lost sheep are crying out for help, but will go to them? The Christian who opts out of all service to the world and all responsibility in the church is being nothing less than blasphemous. It’s like playing Bach’s concertos for violin on a fiddle made out of packing crates and string. Lots of things in today’s text make me shudder, and I must say it’s quite preposterous of me to teach the passage without myself begging the Lord of the harvest to send forth more workers. Once again I am driven to my knees. What a wonderful God we serve! What a precious Gospel He has entrusted to us! We are members of God’s family, and we have no right to claim exclusive membership!

These, then, were the twin objectives of our talks today: Jesus’ own example of being the Master Missionary, and our responsibility to follow in His footsteps. I hope our messages were completely grounded in the Word of God, and therefore healthy, stimulating, and beneficial. My thanks to Keith and Lisa Jones for being such great hosts.

Nice serendipity: We passed Nate and Jess going the other way in Person County. They were delivering a big load of hay to someone. Oh to be young again! To be able to pick up bales without hurting. Why, I was doing this just last week! Poor, pitiful me — any diminution of that treasure we call health seems an appalling hardship.

About our plans for the week (it’s my vacation): Tuesday night we are having a Thanksgiving dinner with the Blacks and Rondeaus here at The Hall. I am hoping to to get some progress made on my latest erg. I seem at last to have something significant crystallizing in my mind — something that allows itself to be written. As for my silly back — quien sabe? It is fatally hard for me to consider going to a chiropractor (I know people who swear by their chiropractor and others who swear at them). I am venturing to hope that the Lord will see it healed “all by itself.” Oddly enough, as we were driving home this afternoon Becky told me that her back was hurting her too (sympathy pains, I think the psychologist calls this). So we shall both suffer together this week.

Pix:

Saturday, November 21

5:08 PM Thanking God for a great orientation today. A few pix:

Please offer up a prayer for me if you will. My coughing has thrown my back completely out. Can’t stand up straight, can’t hardly walk. And the cough is persistent. I’m on antibiotics and taking pain meds. Sure be glad when this is over. If I can just make it through tomorrow….

Becky is doing GREAT!

7:50 AM Yippie! We now know what Jesus looked like. How, you ask?The shroud is real, the shroud is real!

7:33 AM Let’s not forget IBR. Karyn Traphagen reports on Tremper Longman’s talk “Of the Making of Commentaries There Is No End: The Past, Present, and Future of a Genre”here. 

Friday, November 20

9:56 PM We had a very special treat tonight. Our good friend Rachael from the seminary dropped by and brought us a delicious supper of homemade chili and cornbread. Then she proceeded to spoil Becky with a manicure.

What a great way to top off the day. Tomorrow is orientation #1 at Bethel Hill. Becky will cover spiritual preparation, logistics, and personal ministries, then I’ll give a general introduction to the nation of Ethiopia — history, geography, economics, demographics, religion, health, and social issues.  Lots of prayer time too. Right now Becky Lynn still feels great. I’m asking the Lord to give her a great day tomorrow.

By the way, here’s a little quiz I’ll be starting off with. Want to try your hand at it?

What Do You Know About Ethiopia?

1. Ancient Ethiopia was known as:

a) Edom

b) Arabia

c) Abyssinia

2. The word “Ethiopia” comes from which language?

a) Syriac

b) Greek

c) Arabic

3. What object is said to rest in Axum, Ethiopia?

a) The ark of the covenant

b) Noah’s ark

c) The arch of Titus

4. Ethiopia was colonized by which European power?

a) England

b) France

c) Italy

d) None of the above

5. The Battle of Adwa in 1896 was

a) an Ethiopian victory

b) an Italian victory

c) a draw

6. Emperor Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia from 1930 to

a) 1945

b) 1950

c) 1974

7. The Marxists ruled Ethiopia from 1976 to

a) 1980

b) 1985

c) 1991

8. Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is

a) about 1,000 years old

b) about 500 years old

c) about 100 years old

9. The current Prime Minister of Ethiopia is

a) Sinteyu

b) Hossein

c) Meles

10. Ethiopia has the ____________ largest population in Africa.

a) first

b) second

c) third

11. Ethiopia is twice the size of which U.S. state?

a) Vermont

b) California

c) Texas

12. Ethiopia has how many different ethnic groups?

a) 15

b) 83

c) 154

13. Ethiopia is the birthplace of

a) sugar

b) coffee

c) tea

14. Ethiopia is primarily

a) mountainous

b) lowlands

c) rain forest

15. In Ethiopia, Protestants comprise about what percentage of the population?

a) 5

b) 18

c) 35

16. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is strongest in ____________ Ethiopia.

a) northern

b) central

c) southern

17. How many months does Ethiopia have?

a) 11

b) 12

c) 13

18. In Ethiopia, the ninth hour is

a) 9 o’clock

b) 3 o’clock

c) 12 o’clock

19. The currency in Ethiopia is called the

a) lira

b) drachma

c) birr

20. Which nation does not border Ethiopia?

a) Sudan

b) Djibouti

c) Egypt

5:33 PM Random thoughtsat SBL.

4:55 PM Let the games begin!

All the theory unveiling and document hypothecating at SBL, that is.

Of course, most SBL presentations are beds of Procrustes, to which the people must be stretched or surgically abbreviated. Problems of biblical interpretation are, alas, too complex to be solved in one weekend, but that doesn’t stop scholars from having a jolly good time, nor should it.

As long as no large-scale lunacies are forthcoming from this year’s party, I suppose we need not worry too much about all the goings-on in New Orleans.

Besides, the food must be terrific.

I shall be keeping up with the festivities at Dr. Jim’s site.  

11:42 AM May I share with you just one of the dozens of beautiful emails Becky has received?

I was thinking today that we are all one cell division away from cancer, one breath away from eternity, and one glimpse away from glory.  He knows our pain and sees our tears.  I have been forever grateful for the simplicity of His love.  And if nothing can separate us from His love, then our perception of distance from Him is merely that, our perception.  The Holy Spirit within us, our Comforter, will speak when we cannot and see what we cannot see.  Never fear, my friend, for He knows.  God bless and keep you. 

Isn’t that something? Again, Becky is still almost pain free. I consider this a direct miracle from the hand of God. But I haven’t stopped praisin’ or prayin’!

11:34 AM Quote of the day:

I still remember his standing in his NT Greek classes and holding up the Greek NT and saying: “Gentlemen, this is the New Testament. If you don’t read this, you don’t read the New Testament!” Though he was a patient and caring teacher, he was demanding as well. He told us that he had reduced the Greek grammar that must be memorized to an irreducible minimum but that the verb and noun endings simply must be mastered. And he said: “Now Gentlemen, if you don’t learn your Greek endings, not even the grace of God will save you on test day!” Under his influence, I threw away my English translations and read only the Greek New Testament.

ReadHaunted by Hesed.

11:20 AM Spiros Zodhiates:RIP.

As a teenager in Hawaii I used to listen to brother Zodhiates on the radio, and it was he who first piqued my interest in studying New Testament Greek. I thank God for his ministry to the church and especially in the world of missions. He was indeed a Great Commission Christian.

Thursday, November 19

10:17 PM Becky’s sound asleep. When I prayed with her tonight she was mercifully still pain-free. My cough is keeping me awake. What to do? Rummage through the halls of my memory. Here’s our Nathan as a newborn.

Looks a lot like Nolie, eh? What a blessing to have Nolan and his parents living on the farm with us. I’m miserable because I’m not in any condition to help Nate with the farm chores. Hopefully after another day of rest I’m be back to my old self. Nathan needs the help and I need the exercise!

Signing off….

10:06 PM Breaking news! Just received a photo from Ray and Lauralee Lindholm of their new guest house in Addis. 2010 team members, this will be our home base while we are in the capital. It’s located only a few doors down the street from the old facility. I’m praising God for providing this home for us to stay in during our visits to Utopia.

P.S. For you returning team members, we will be asking you to read Lauralee’s recently published bookOut of Darkness, Into Light. We’ll provide copies for you at our orientation. It is a wonderful book that tells the story of the Lindholms’ work among the Orthodox of Ethiopia. This is Lauralee’s first book but I certainly hope not her last. 

9:31 PM What’s up with yellow book covers anyway?

9:16 PM If you live in the Big D you might want to check out this Saturday night’s lecture by Peter Kreeft on “Lewis, Tolkien, and the Culture War.” Venue: Highland Park Presbyterian Church. Detailshere. 

9:02 PM Over at The Christian Century, Adam McHugh asksCan introverts lead? Of course they can. Leadership is a matter of character, not personality type.

Here’s one takeaway from this fine essay:

Those of us who are introverts should not try to be extroverts or contort ourselves in ways our personalities are not able to go. While we seek to grow as leaders and as people, we need to be committed to remaining true, because one of the greatest gifts we can offer others is leading as ourselves. People desperately want to know that it’s possible to live, act and work as they are, and introverted leaders who model authenticity will give others freedom to be themselves.

8:32 PM Guess what I’m working on? A new course proposal for a team-taught class on the Septuagint. It’ll be taught by the ultimate odd couple: Abbott (me) and Costello (Bob Cole).

It’s got to pass through several committees, but who knows — maybe as early as fall 2010 we can offer it. Wouldn’t that be fun? If you are a SEBTS student, let me know if you might be interested in such a course offering; it might help us make our case.

8:25 PM “Deplorable” and “shameful.” You’re absolutely right,Mr. Huckabee. Thank you, sir, for acting like a true Christian.

6:29 PM For your viewing pleasure, a Thursday evening trifecta:

1) Nolan just paid us a visit. He’s getting huskier by the day. I have never seen a happier baby. Take that back: his daddy was like that too. Thanks, Nate and Jess, for the visit!

2) Got this in the mail today. Even signed by the author. Thanks, Nick!

3) The best news of all? Becky is painless! She is doing absolutely fantastic. Thank you God, and thank all of you for your fervent prayers of intercession. This is one grateful husband, let me tell you.

5:30 PM Yesterday Frank Stasio of WUNC interviewed Omid Safi, professor of Islamic Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. His new book is calledMemories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet Matters. I listened to the interview and I plan on buying the book, as should everyone who is interested in sharing their faith with Muslims. The interview contained a few surprises. Did you know that only 20 percent of Muslims are Arabs? Did you know that the majority of Muslims live east of India? Did you know that belief in the ascension of Mohammed is a main doctrine in Islam?

To listen to the interview with Professor Safi, go here. Then remember these words:

This is how God loved the world. He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have life everlasting. For God didn’t send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

God loves this world. Do you? Do I? Are we willing to give up everything to take the Good News to it?

5:13 PM Just received this money-grubbing email:

Dear Dave,

The battle for our freedoms is raging. Indeed, our very right to speak our minds and practice our beliefs hangs in the balance. And it will take the dedication of each and every one of us to pull through these trying times with our freedoms intact.

Won’t you help us tip the scales for justice and freedom?

Click here to give an online donation today.

Ronald Reagan was right when he said that “If we lose freedom here, there’s no place to escape to.” If we lose freedom here in America, there really will be no place to escape to.

No place to escape to? Ridiculous. Folks, I don’t need this kind of “freedom.” The kingdom doesn’t need “freedom” either. Since when has freedom become the sine qua non of living? Has Lady Liberty become the latest goddess in the pantheon of nations? Luther was correct when he wrote:

Ein Christenmensch ist ein freier Herr über alle Dinge und niemand untertan. Ein Christenmensch ist ein dienstbarer Knecht aller Dinge und jedermann untertan.

2:32 PM Peter Carey thanksThe Atlantic for taking on the pro$perity preacher$. I can’t help but think of the Ethiopian church. They wear scars, we wear medals. Of course, we have our reasons. “The lack of money is the root of all evil” is just one of them. “If you just have faith, God will heal you” is another.

Paul teaches that suffering is the rule, not the exception, of Christian living. Just read 1 Thess. 3:1-5. Or Phil. 1:29.

I’ll go with Paul on this one.

2:23 PM Tweet? Tweckle? Twompliment? Whateveryou call it, I say “Yes, Yes, Yes!” Oh, and don’t forget the Twitpix at SBL either. I’m counting on you Dr. Jim!

1:50 PM I applaud any student who is willing to translate the Old Testament from the Hebrew and then offer his/her renderings on the chopping block for the input of others. Adam Darnell hasdone just that, and I urge you to take a look at his translation and offer your own suggestions/questions. I know he’d be delighted and encouraged to hear from you.

12:40 PM Becky just had her shot and has taken her pain meds. She will rest/nap for the rest of the afternoon. This is perhaps a good time to say thank you for taking all the time to write to Becky. It is really very kind of you.

May I tell you a brief story?

There is a well-known tale of a church in London that was badly damaged during an air raid in World War II. In restoring it somebody found a statue of Christ that had been shattered to pieces. When it had been put back together again, it was discovered that both hands were missing. There the statue stood — incomplete and pitiful — until someone put a sign underneath it with these words:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today.

Those 12 words are, I suppose, a good summary of Bec and me. As long as we feel we can “do good to all people, and especially to those of the household of God” (Gal. 6:10), we are willing to postpone our heavenly home-going for as long as the hands-less Jesus ordains.

Paul tells the Thessalonians to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thee. 5:18). This is not always easy. Spurgeon once wrote:

I am trying, if I can, to find a joy in rheumatism, but I cannot get it yet. I have found a joy when it is over — I can reach that length — and I can and do bless God for any good result that may come of it; but when the pain is on me, it is difficult to be joyous about it, and so I conclude that my sanctification is very incomplete, and my conformity to the divine will is sadly inmperfect.

In a nutshell, cancer is not the issue we are facing. No matter what happens to us, we are asking God to give us a thankful, joyful, and trusting heart. He can be counted on. May we therefore “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips that acknowledge His Name” (Heb. 13:15).

Love and warmest wishes,

Dave

12:23 PM Once again, Dr. West’snose for the scabrous is unerring. The tragedy, Jim, is that “Christians” will read posts like yours and then go back to fiddling while Rome burns — shouting their offensive slogans and offering their imprecations, all in the name of their god of course (Thor). All one can say is that “those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.”

One day I will write an essay about the immemorial problems of the political being. The subject of what one might call the flora and fauna of the schizophrenic subconsciousness is one that fascinates me. There are many items in Dante that are very close to what the Obama-haters experience and illustrate. In the meantime, all respectable persons and institutions should take an interest in this matter and offer the strongest possible condemnation of all such evil and un-Christlike imprecation.

10:55 AM It’s arrived! Got our copy yesterday. I’m talking about the world-famous Amelia Baptist Church cookbook.

It’s called Recipes and Remembrances and is available for $10, plus $4 for shipping and handling. The proceeds go for the work in Ethiopia. Contact ameliabaptistchurch@tds.com for further information, or call the church at (804) 561-4512. Our heartfelt thanks to the ladies of the Love in Action Circle at Amelia Baptist Church for their incredible labor of love.

10:38 AM In my morning devotions/Bible study I was struck by Jesus’ statement that He did not come to bring peace but a sword (Matt. 10:34). Jesus is the Great Divider. He divides the world into saved and lost. He divides homes based on loyalty to Him. His Word is sharper than a two-edged sword.

My takeaways?

1) Traditions (church or family) must never be more important to me than the Gospel.

2) Unity among believers brings people to Christ.

3) Out of our commitment to Him must flow our commitment to the world.

4) We must not divide when Christ unites.

5) We must divide when Christ divides.

6) The lost are just that — lost. Apart from a new birth, our non-Christian friends are doomed to everlasting darkness.

7) The lost are vulnerable to love.

8) Pray,pray, PRAY! Evangelism is the work of God. It’s successful only when He is involved.

Jesus divides the lost from the saved, but that does not mean He is not interested in saving them. I want to be as intentional as Jesus was in “seeking and saving that which is lost.”

10:24 AM This issick.

10:20 AM A must-read essay from Arthur Sido:Another denomination splits. 

10:18 AM This post falls into the category of “Obvious-but-still-interesting”:What Do the Bible and the Constitution Have in Common? Ignorance is most certainly not bliss.

10:05 AM I was delighted to read that Tennessee Republican John Duncan says thatwar is not conservative. I wish I could feel more optimistic about the Obama administration’s plans for the Afghan conflict. It’s the same old story: nobody wants war, but everyone wants all the things that make for war. The great question now is: will the politicians go on with their lunatic game of power politics, ignoring the fact that within the current nationalistic frames of reference, to achieve real peace will require fundamental changes in our collective thinking and acting. Obama seems a sadder, if not wiser, man since he entered office, living as he does in a state of hardly imaginable pressure. Meanwhile one can only wait and see — and pray that a satisfactory decision is made. If we go on as we are going now, it is absolutely certain that we will have a long-drawn catastrophe. What a world! We take on all sorts of false risks — mountain climbing, extreme surfing, NASCAR racing — provided they have nothing to do with the harsh realities of our own survival.

9:52 AM I am sorry not to have reported to you yesterday anything definitive about Becky’s condition. Today she must self-administer an injection that is intended to increase her white count. We are told, and readily believe, that it will produce considerable bone pain. Her shot is scheduled for noon today. I have no idea what will actually happen, but you know how I am praying. It’s the normal travail of curative treatments. We are doing as well as can be expected — “I can cope with everything in union with the One who empowers me.” Our hope is in the Lord; everything depends on Him.

Et moi? I’m recovering from what appears to be a chest cold. Thankfully the Lord has not allowed me to get “sick sick” and I am determined to spend today and tomorrow doing nothing but resting and assisting Becky until the maelstrom of activity begins on Saturday. You might say I’m in the Acts 1 mode — a time of waiting upon the Lord, sitting quietly, seeking His direction. Without that important time of inactivity in Acts 1 — not one sermon was preached, not one person healed, not one lesson taught — there would have been no Pentecost and no early church.

Wednesday, November 18

8:47 PM What are the implications of a Great Commission Resurgence for local churches, seminaries, and mission boards? The answers arehere. Some excellent suggestions.

8:33 PM Once again I find myself seeing eye to eye with David Croteau of Liberty University on the matter of tithing. For his 4-part series on the subject go here. Matthew Narramore takes asimilar view. It’s all part of New Covenant living folks.

7:40 PM At the moment we are plunged in what seems a permanent cold drizzle. I piously hope it will be sunny for this weekend’s exploits, for B. and I have a very busy schedule for Saturday (Ethiopia orientation, all day) and Sunday (speaking in Greensboro, NC). At the moment I’m trying to get a bit of writing done, while catching up on the blogs, but a cough impedes. I see, by the way, that Alan Knox liked mydefinition of the church in Christian Archy, though there’s an even more beastly one in The Jesus Paradigm. No amount of eloquence about the church can, however, make the smallest difference; the Scriptures alone must decide what happens.

7:12 PM Done. Talk about hyperbaton!

6:42 PM Bec made Romanian stuffed peppers for dinner tonight. Used my mother’s old recipe. Good stuff. I’m preparing to sit down and read through 1 Peter in the Greek in one sitting.

6:20 PM Oh my, yetanother reminder that the Republican Party is fast becoming the Republican Theocracy.

6:15 PM Jim West’s quota of imaginative extravaganzas grows exponentially. Needproof? As for suggestions from me, I regret that at present I have little time to ponder the matter.

5:46 PM I find incisive this piece by Allan Bevere:On the Moral Obligation to Tell a Truthful Narrative. A sample:

While I do believe it is possible for Christians to serve Christ in political office, I wonder how long they would be in office if they insisted on telling the political narrative truthfully because of their commitment to the Lordship of Christ in all areas of life, including politics. The fact that there are Christians who have made a career out of politics makes me wonder what kind of narrative they have decided to embrace.

I tend to agree. I have shown in Christian Archy that it is quite impossible for the state or an institution to be Christian. We see the perversity of political power from the fact that lying becomes an acceptable way of doing business. Kingdom living ought to be truthful.

4:58 PM “Gamsahamnida” to my personal assistant Enoch Kwon and his wife for bringing me a real treat yesterday: sushi and kimchi. Life doesn’t get any better than this.

4:52 PM Frederick Buechner once defined a saint with these words: “In God’s holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints.” Bad theology, but a nice sentiment. How grateful I am that God blows special handkerchiefs our way. Thanks to all of you saints who have written to us with words of encouragement. Time rushes past as though it was trying to win the Breeders Cup, but we are indeed discovering, day by day, that “grace is enough.”

4:47 PM Lionel Woods asks a question and then answers it:Is The Local Church Functioning Like The Berlin Wall? According to Lionel:

Christ will build His church, but that doesn’t mean He will use us to do it and that would be the greatest failure of all. The privilege of being a Christian is partaking in what Jesus is doing in the world we find ourselves. Partaking of Him and then sharing that nourishment with others. Nothing is greater than that. Listen being right about doctrine, the smell of a new building, bumper stickers, winning a legal case about allowing the Ten Commandments in court, letting our kids wear t-shirts or anything like that, fails in comparison to seeing Christ come to be known by the world. We are satisfied in winning arguments and growing our denominations and so is Satan because he knows that it does nothing to his kingdom.

I encourage everyone to read this essay and heed its warning about misplaced priorities. 

4:42 PM When I die I want my Greek New Testament to be falling apart from use.

4:39 PM Geoffrey Lentz reviewsMega Belt, a fictitious look at Southern churchianity. As one who was raised in the “deep South” (the southernmost state in the union – Hawaii) I can attest that the plague of churchianity is not limited to the contiguous 48 states. I hope the book flourishes.

4:30 PM I really appreciate this feature over at the Truett Seminary site:Faculty Publications. I tell budding New Testament scholars: if you’re thinking about a Ph.D. program, be sure to get to know the books your potential major advisor has written. If he or she hasn’t written anything, look elsewhere.

4:26 PM I see I’m not the only man who has a child namedNate. Thanks, Greg, for the introduction to your son. A remarkable story.

4:23 PM Congratulations to Lionel, Arthur, and Lew, winners in the prestigiousJesus Paradigm contest. The spectacle of these men jumping through the hoops, alas, is really astounding. A most stupendous performance, if I say so me-self.

4:16 PM If your jaw dropped when you read aboutmilitarist Christendom, you’ll go into cardiac arrest when you read this piece over at AlterNet: Christian Bootcamp Seeks to Arm Home-Schooled Youths for “Spiritual Warfare.” We read:

For Thomas, the call is not only to criminalize abortion and homosexuality, return prayer to the schools, get women out of the workplace, and declare the U.S. a Christian nation, but also to impose Biblical rule on all who reside within our national borders. Furthermore, he’s going for blood — and I mean that literally.

Ah yes, we just need to “go for blood,” and all will be well in the nation. Folks, we’re aiming at the wrong bull’s-eye.

4:12 PM I don’t know whether to advise students to become pedagogues: there are so many stereotypes about seminary professors, not least that we are not very pastoral in our outlook. I myself have sought to challenge this accusation both in my writing and my living: orthopraxy must always accompany orthodoxy. Indeed, I can think of no one at SEBTS who would merit the description painted with a rather broad brush in this provocatively titled essay:Beware Your Seminary Professors. It seems to me that we are presented with an illogical either/or:

Numerous matters like these, all heaped together, reminded me what a different thing the academic enterprise is from the eldering enterprise. One is about intellectual stimulation between supposedly good, rational people; the other is about spiritual warfare between desperate, clinging-to-grace people.It’s as if you enter the Christian academic realm and all the rules for pastoral care and wisdom suddenly change—in fact, it’s as if all the rules suddenly go out the window. “We’re all equals here. We’re all discerning and wise and godly. Take no heed!”

Are there seminary professors like this? Sure. But a bit of judicious skepticism about such claims seems on the whole an excellent thing.

4:07 PM I have just been readingMore Money, More Ministry, which I borrowed from the seminary library. It strikes me as one of the finest books on the role of money in religion I have ever read. We evangelicals can become quite intoxicated with our “ministries,” at times with the most desultory outcomes. I want to thank editors Larry Eskridge and Mark Noll for a very self-conscious analysis of a perpetually disturbing question. Affluence is a dangerous thing. It leads almost inevitably to a deliquescence of character. Of course, we all know that the way to avoid pangs of conscience is to claim that our own particular brand of avarice is directly inspired by the Holy Ghost – which, I’m afraid, is done more often than we think.

4:00 PM Regent University announces an opening inChurch History.

3:45 PM I have been reading a book I think you would enjoy – if you could read it in the original: Origines del Cristianismo.

It was edited by my friendAntonio Piñero,who blogshere. I’ve been perusing the book to my great enjoyment. It has a rather toreador attitude towards the “solid conclusions” of New Testament scholarship. I even contributed an essay myself, which is wholly undramatic: “Helenismo y Gnosis.” If you’re really interested in reading it, I can send you a copy.

3:32 PM Turning to missions, I highly recommend this article by James Denison calledThe Fifth Great Awakening and the Future of America (.pdf). In the comments section, by the way, there’s this perceptive note:

Once again, claiming all Muslims who follow the Quran should be violent. And yet, as you point out, the vast majority of Muslims are not violent extremists. So, what options do we have to explain this phenomena:

Option A) KT2005’s argument. Muslims who are not violent don’t follow the Quran since the Quran teaches violence. Quran also teaches toleration of religious minorites, but you did not mention those texts.

Option B) Sort of a variation on Option A. Muslims have not been properly taught. Their religion is violent, but due to improper teaching, they don’t know they are supposed to be violent, and at least 90- of them are not subscribing to an extremists ideology.

Option C) Muslims have learned, as have followers of other religions whose texts contain violent admonitions, that these texts have a context. Many texts call for violence in response to violence in specific circumstances and are not general call for violence against non-Muslims.

I think Option C is the most accurate in describing this phenomena. Am I saying there are no extremists? I am not, of course there are Muslims who are violent. But please stop arguing that Muslims who follow the Quran must be violent, because that is what the Quran teaches. As was pointed out above, there are many violent texts in the Hebrew Bible; are modern Jews not good Jews if they fail to follow these texts? No, they realize that texts have a context.

Texts have a context? My word, you mean to tell me that we have to exegete our sources?

3:25 PM Winfield Bevin’s offersSeven Essentials of the Lord’s Prayer. (I counted only 6, but no biggie.) The final one reads:

The prayer closes in a similar way that it started, by acknowledging God’s greatness. He is sovereign and in control. The kingdom, power, and glory belong to God! When we worship and praise God, it gets his attention. He loves it when his children worship him and acknowledge his greatness.

Amen!

Monday, November 16

10:48 PM It’s getting late and I’m momentarily anticipating a bout of gibbering idiocy. But I feel I have to report to you about B’s visit to UNC Hospital today.

In addition to anticipating the normal pain from the chemo hitting her about the third day, Becky will be giving herself a shot that is intended to spur her bone marrow. This medicine, we are told, causes … bone pain. In an email to a friend tonight, Becky wrote:

I’m armed with steroids, with strong pain medicine, with antihistamines…as well as nutritional aids, hot water bottle, etc. The pain will start on Wed afternoon, and likely be very bad Thurs & Fri, and I hope beginning to taper on Saturday, and be gone by Tuesday. 

Personally, I am asking the Lord to protect Becky from ALL pain this time around. I know that is asking for the moon, but it’s my humble request nonetheless. I do not intend to presume on the Lord in any way, shape, or form. This is simply the petition of a man who deeply loves his own body, which is exactly what Becky is.

On another note, here’s a shout out to my Greek students at Bethel Hill. Tonight was our penultimate class. Next week is the final exam from 1 John, and I intend to pass out plenty of 110 Awards to everyone who gets a perfect score.

By the way, did you know that Greek is a sport? It’s a sport where the mind is the muscle at work. My students at The Hill are good at it too. In fact, if there was a National Greek Bowl, I’d put them up against the best. Students, what can I say? I’m delighted with you. I thank God for you. I love you. Now make the old curmudgeon proud and use what you’ve worked so hard to acquire. Don’t be like the great majority of Greek students who fail in this regard. As I suggested tonight, read at least two verses a day from your Greek New Testament. No, I don’t care if you have to use an interlinear. No, I don’t mind if you use a parsing guide. Yes, it’s fine with me if you use a reader’s edition of the GNT. Please remember that “all Scripture is inspired by God and is USEFUL!” Scripture that is imbued with this kind of power cannot be passively received. So read it.

In a sense, I’ve handed the ball off to you. I expect you to either score a touchdown or else get mightily pummeled in the attempt. So…

Go, team, go!

For God’s glory and the upbuilding of the Body.

Go, team, go!

Sunday, November 15

9:24 PM Before praying with Becky Lynn and heading off to bed, I thought I might offer one additional thought on blogging, and that is this: Pray before posting. Pray every time you write a post. Pray while uploading your post. Pray before you’ve blogged and after you’ve blogged. Pray that God would be pleased with your post and that He would bless it for His purposes. Thank Him ahead of time for how He will use it. If you have a conscience on a certain matter, by all means follow it. People with petty legalisms may take offense. This is unavoidable. Sometimes offense is inevitable. We must not allow others to paralyze our blogging efforts. Wisdom, however, teaches us that while everything is permissible, not everything is constructive. At times we may have to limit our liberty to say what we want to say despite our freedom to say it. And, I think, at all times it is necessary to avoidunnecessary offence. (Please note the italicized word.) The bottom line? Not sure. But it might just be this:

Do not seek your own good, but the good of others (1 Cor. 10:24).

I’d offer more thoughts but it’s been a long day and I’ve got brain burn out. I do appreciate very much Dr. Jim’sresponse to my earlier post on blogging. I have a great deal of respect and even affection for Jim West, even though we’ve never met.

Tomorrow B and I leave early for the hospital. I’ll try to give you an update on her condition tomorrow evening. Greek students at the Hill, unless you hear otherwise, our Monday night class is still on. See you at 7:00 pm Deo volente.

Now it’s time to pray!

7:52 PM I thought of Becky when I read these words in John Pollock’s biography,Hudson Taylor and Maria (p. 172):

She gave … their work all she had, every ounce of strength, every thought that crossed her intelligent mind, all the force of her love.

Wow! What a woman that Maria must have been. And what a helper to her husband. Paul called his helper in Philippi “Yokefellow.” He knew the work of the Gospel would not get done without partners. Think of his partnership with Silas or Timothy. Or even with Euodia and Syntyche. I’ve been blessed, guys and gals, with a great and, I believe, perhaps even somewhat unique marital partnership. I often wonder how many husbands and wives there are whom God could probably have used more effectively had they considered themselves co-workers in the kingdom.

Do you consider your spouse a “partner in the Gospel”?

7:08 PM I do indeed feel a bit guilty for posting so many pictures in one day, but I can’t seem to get tired or bored even for a few moments on the farm. After Nate and I fed the cows and I enjoyed supper with Becky, I wandered outdoors again to watch the sun go down. As I said earlier, it was a gorgeous day and everything was glorious (except for my sore feet). The sunset was on a par with anything I ever saw while growing up in Hawaii. As I sat on my front lawn, dogs bedside me, I spent time praying for the lost and for other burdens on my heart. I think I know why Jesus loved to pray outdoors. In the tidal wave of the day’s events and tomorrow’s cares it’s a safe place where I feel the grip of a powerful hand offering me transferred strength and direction.

But enough philosophizing for one day. Here are some pix for your enjoyment.

 

3:41 PM Here’s Brian Fulthorp with yet another must-read book review:The Community of the King. Through the years I’ve often thanked God for the contribution Howard Synder has made to my understanding of the church. Read the review, then go and buy the book.

3:35 PM Just back from walking the property line with Nathan. In case you didn’t know, deer season just came in. I tell you, this has been one of most knock-dead gorgeous days I’ve ever seen. I still can’t believe Nate and I fenced in all 123 acres. I know I’ve said that before, but it’s true. Where did we ever get the time or energy?

Pix (of course):

12:15 PM Turning the pooter over to Becky. Back to writing for me. Godworld. What a huge subject!

12:10 PM Tim Archer thinks our pre-meal prayers ought to be, well, focused:

A few years ago, I made a decision about praying before eating. I decided that there was a reason why a prayer was said before a meal. It was to pray about the meal. Not about the weather. Not about Aunt Petunia’s gall bladder. It was to pray about the meal.

Now I guess there’s nothing wrong with praying about just about anything at just about any time. Still, it seems like asking a blessing for food should be about asking a blessing for food. Giving thanks for food should be about giving thanks for food.

I love how our grandkids Caleb, Isaac, and Micah pray at mealtimes: “Thank you God for the meat and the potatoes and the green beans and the salad and the salad dressing…” —  all the while their eyes are half open so as not to miss anything Becky has prepared. Precious!

11:52 AM So Springsteenforgot what state he was in. Big deal. I work in three states: Virginia, North Carolina, and the State of Confusion.

11:42 AM Andy Bowden reviewsBiblical Authority by Jimmy Draper and Ken Keathley. Read the review. You won’t regret it.

11:26 AM In case you hadn’t noticed, we decided to stay home from church today. Can’t risk it, what with all the flu going around these days. If I got sick Becky could catch what I have, and who would take care of her? So all’s quiet on the farm front this morning. Right now Becky is picking veggies in the garden, and I’m trying to get some writing done. We also had a visit from Nate and Jess before they went off to their church. Of course, the official farm photographers were present to do their duty for posterity. Enjoy!

11:14 AM I’m not quite sure what to do with the termChristian Hedonism. The expression is a little too narcissistic for my liking. I don’t see how one can be a pleasure to God without being a light to the world. At the same time, it’s all too easy for me to stand off in my little corner being critical of others who differ from my own perceptions. It’s clear that we are to enjoy God and bring Him pleasure. It is just as clear that those in the New Testament who actually did that took risks, overcame obstacles, and set standards that leave us breathless today. That’s what I call a sense of earthly insecurity! Paul even went so far as to say that his greatest concern was that “Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20). Please notice that last phrase. Paul was expendable. He was willing to die. He did not have to live.

The lesson is obvious: If we are going to call ourselves Christian hedonists, we had better be sure that the secular meaning of the term doesn’t creep into the definition. Otherwise, all we’re left with is:

9:18 AM There are 3 questions I ask myself about my blogging — 3 hurdles, if you will, I must jump. These are not original with me; I gleaned them 1 Cor. 6:12 and 10:23.

1) Is it expedient? Are my posts helping others in their walk with Jesus or hindering them?

2) Is it enslaving? One’s hobby can become a snare. Am I in bondage to my blogging?

3) Is it edifying? Some things do not build others up. I must not build with wood, hay, and stubble but with gold, silver, and precious stones.

If my blogging can clear these 3 hurdles then I feel like I may proceed. Have I always lived up to these goals? I wish I could say yes. I’m in constant need of grace. But these are my ideals.

What are yours?

8:24 AM An Italian monk says the devil made him a celebrity so he’sgiving up performing. For those of you who cry “ad fontes”:

“Frate Metallo”, il cappuccino 63enne diventato famoso come cantante di una band heavymetal, afferra il microfono e dice che il diavolo lo ha fatto diventare troppo celebre per i suoi gusti.

He has a point. Just because we enjoy worldly success doesn’t mean our success comes from the Lord.

8:13 AM Preachers wearingwhat?

8:08 AM Now here’s a jolly good story:

Ahigh school librarian in Phoenix says a former student at the school returned two overdue books checked out 51 years ago along with a $1,000money order to cover the fines.

Camelback High School librarian Georgette Bordine says the twoAudubon Society books checked out in 1959 and the money order were sent by someone who wanted to remain anonymous.

Bordine says the letter explained that the borrower’s family moved to another state and the books were mistakenly packed.

The letter said the money order was to cover fines of 2 cents per day for each book. That would total about $745. The letter says the extra money was added in case the rates had changed.

Bordine says the money will buy more books, and the overdue books will be returned to the shelves.

I read ithere. My, what a contrast with today’sprosperity preachers.

7:56 AM Walking back from N and J’s yesterday I noticed this pot hole. Who knows how many times we’ve filled it in with gravel, but it keeps on collecting water. Must be a weak spot in our pond dam.

If this isn’t a vivid picture of the Christian life! Jesus brings us victory in one area of our lives, and we are lifted up in our spirits. A moment later we fall flat on our faces again, paralyzed morally and spiritually. Heb. 12:1 refers to our “easily besetting sin.” Failure is always costly. It’s costly to keep falling into the same pot hole all the time. I wish I had a “3-step” solution to this problem, but I don’t, and neither does anyone else. I know only too well what it means to get into a religious rut and fall into a mere form of religion without power. Someone once called a rut a grave with both ends knocked out. To get out from our ruts the Scriptures must be turned from words on a page to inward nourishment and power. Our Savior said we must eat His flesh and drink His blood if we are to have life in us. How ridiculous to act as though the Gospel had never proven its case. There is no doubt about the Gospel and Christ. The simplest faith in the Christ of the Gospel will save us — and the simpler the faith the better!  

7:37 AM “Before there was an Abraham, I AM,” said Jesus. Before there was Twitter, I was tweeting. And before there were organic churches, Archie’s dadpastored one.

Remember:

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:10).

Saturday, November 14

7:04 PM Quote of the day #2 (Alan Knox):

We can be highly educated and just as highly disobedient.

O.K., I know this looks like the worst sort of tit-for-tat-ism, but who cares. The quote is a classic.

6:58 PM For sure, this is one memoir I will be reading as soon as I can order it:My Prison, My Home. I tell you, Esfandiari is one courageous woman.

6:32 PM This classic WW II story came in yesterday’s mail:

In the introduction, George Harsh, himself a former POW, writes:

[This book] proves something that I believed then and know now — there is nothing that can stop a group of men, regardless of race, creed, color or nationality, from achieving a goal once they agree as to what that goal is.

The Great Escape took place because a bunch of ragged, verminous men of all nationalities worked together to achieve one common goal, that of thumbing their collective nose at the Third Reich.

Today we who claim to be Christians can succeed in reaching our goal only when we unite around a Galilean troublemaker who was executed by Pontius Pilate with the overwhelming consent of the man on the street. To get tied up with this rabblerouser is to risk all kinds of trouble. But the goal — the evangelization of the nations — is worth it. Are you motivated by church loyalty or by an overwhelming sense of the love of Christ in dying for you and for  others on the cross of Calvary?

4:58 PM Chris, in the comments tothis post, makes one of the most astute observations about biblical scholarship I have ever read:

After all, simple knowledge of data does not make someone a scholar. What do they do with that data? That is the mark of a real scholar.

I couldn’t agree more!

4:50 PM Got a minute for some exciting news from Burji? Here it is, in Becky’s own words:

I just got off the phone with Oshe in Burji, Ethiopia! What a wonderful blessing to hear his voice and be able to do the work so efficiently through phone communication! I well remember the days of no phone, no email, and no reliable postal service!

Oshe is the General Secretary of the 33 churches in Burji. Here is a summary of his report.

• At the clinic, the refurbishing of the staff houses and the building of the guard house is almost completed.

• The water harvesting system is almost completed…only the hand pump and the solar-powered water heater remain to be placed. The rains are currently being collected into the reservoir tanks. The staff is “Oh, so much excited!” about having water on the campus.

• The vehicle has already been used as an ambulance. Two people were shot in their legs in a nearby village. They were brought to the clinic for emergency aid, and then transported to Arba Minch hospital (about 6-8 hours away). They laid one patient on each side of the back of the vehicle, and family members squatted in the center. Everyone was rejoicing at this provision!

• Chaplain Solomon reports that 56 people came to Christ through the work of the clinic in this past year. These have come almost exclusively from Muslim backgrounds. All of these people are now attending local churches in 4 villages surrounding the clinic, and the church leaders are aggressively discipling them.

• Last week the government officials visited the clinic. They have issued a license for “Ground Level Health Center.” They are very pleased with the improvements that have been made, but we need to upgrade the personnel to a better educational standard. This is particularly applicable to our laboratory tech Aklelu. (Please pray for God to bring us His choice for this position.)

• Praise God, our new Clinic Supervisor/Senior Nurse Tessera is very happy working at the clinic. He is highly educated (“almost a doctor”). He is a strong Christian. Many, many years ago he worked at the clinic, but recently was working at the government Health Center in Soyama. The people are happy that he has returned. After the staff housing is completed he will stay on the campus M-F and return to his family in Soyama Town for the weekends. Dawit continues at the clinic, now as the Junior Nurse.

• The Burji churches are so happy about our large team coming in July 2010. The distant Konso churches (which are recent church plants by the Burji churches) are especially rejoicing. (We have our first orientation this week; about 23 are on the Burji Team, coming from 5 different churches.)

• Please pray for wisdom as we finish out the financial reports and move forward with the erection of a new 3-room building. This building will provide a Storage Room (the current one is in danger of falling down any minute), a Diagnostics Room (for EKG and ultrasound), and a Labor-and-Delivery Room.  We will make the old Labor and Delivery Room into the Overnight Observation Room.

Words cannot express my appreciation to all of you who have joined this work through your prayers, your love, and your financial gifts. Without us, these people are truly abandoned. It would be absolutely impossible for them to do this ministry apart from our active assistance. May our Lord bless you for helping, according to His plan for you!

Rejoicing in His work and your partnership,

BeckyLynn

I told you this was exciting news, didn’t I? Just think — our ambulance has already been used to save lives. And souls are being saved from a Christless eternity. All because of the generosity of God’s people. I join Becky in saying thank you for your partnership in the Gospel. May the Lord Jesus richly bless you for it.

2:20 PM When I said I was out cutting fire wood today, you didn’t think I was using an axe did you? I may be dumb but I’m not stupid. This here wood-splitter was worth every penny we spent on it.

 And here’s the farm foreman. Da Supa-visa, to be exact. Ain’t he sweet?

 

2:10 PM Shortly the B-bloggers will begin their southward migration, destination New Orleans. Since I have attended as many of these conferences as Jim West has attended covered-dish suppers, I might as well offer my puny little two cents. Though I don’t for a minute want to disparage the scholarship of the SBL or ETS, I’m convinced that the annual meetings are good for one thing and for one thing only — developing relationships. And in three arenas at that: with one’s peers, with the publishers, and with the prima donnas. (Can you tell I’m a Baptist?)

Peers: Spend as much time as you can with them over meals, in the lobby, passing in the hallways. You can even travel to the site together and share the same hotel room. If you don’t, you’re missing out on some great fellowship. Oddly enough, sometimes I have more one-on-one conversations with my SEBTS colleagues at an annual meeting than I do on campus, where we’re often too busy to gather around the water cooler.

Publishers: They’re all there, so take advantage of it — and not only to purchase discounted books. Get to know the editors, especially the acquisitions staff. If you have a book proposal, they’ll be glad to arrange a (very brief) meeting with you. Come well-prepared with an attractive proposal and you might just end up striking a deal somewhere down the road.

Prima donnas: I’m joking of course. You’ll find the senior scholars in your field to be (for the most part) witty, approachable, and — I must add — extremely busy. The best time to corner one is just after they’ve read their paper. Tell them how much you enjoyed their presentation and how you share their interests. Don’t be afraid to invite one out for dinner — they just might take you up on it!

As for the papers themselves, my only advice is this: Younger scholars, you should probably attend the sessions where the senior scholars in your field are speaking. Senior scholars, go and listen to some of your younger colleagues. You’ll never know what an encouragement you could be to them. You can even ask a (polite) question during the Q & A session. Shake their hands. Pat them on the back. Invite them out to dinner. (Now wouldn’t that be something.)

P.S. Spend lots of money in NO, guys. The city needs it.

10:15 AM Been a cheery morning so far. Out mucking, paused for some hotcakes, then back to splitting firewood. I just saw the sun peeping through the clouds. Glory be!

10:02 AM Hey, check out the book signing going on today at the UMC in Pine Forest, FL (I assume that’s a ‘burb of Pensacola). Lots of good books and happy authors. Why, if you ask Henry for a copy ofChristian Archy he might even oblige you if you’re willing to review it on your blog.

8:58 AM While washing dishes this morning I listened to a wonderful message on BBN by Warren Wiersbe on 1 Pet. 3:1-8. Sound teaching here! He spoke about a husband honoring his wife. Convicting teaching here! Do you ever listen to good old-fashioned BBN? I guarantee it will not interfere with your sanctification.

8:06 AM Some clear-headed thinking here by Conn Hallinan:Why the Afghan Surge Will Fail. Of course, his essay appears on the same page as this ad: “Why Wal-Mart is Doomed.” The sensational title aside, Conn notes that the war is essentially a stalemate, even if we send in an additional 150,000 troops. Be sure to read his peroratio for his recommendation to the president.

7:51 AM Quote of the day:

Some African governments prefer dealing with China, which does not pay as much attention to human rights as some western ones.

Source.

6:57 AM Gohere to find out who the three finalists are in “America’s Top College Professor” competition. I’m rooting for Elliott West of the University of Arkansas. Why? Don’t he just look like a teacher? (All great teachers have thinning hairlines.)

6:47 AM Nearly 100 years after the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary will host the 2009 Shoemaker Conference. The conference is being called “Proclamation & Presence: Learning from the Global Church 1910-10” and will be held Dec. 10-12, 2009. For details gohere.

6:40 AM Sincerest felicitations to my good friend and colleagueMike Holmes on being named University Professor of Biblical Studies and Early Christianity at Bethel University.

Mike was kind enough to accept my invitation to speak at our colloquium on textual criticism at SEBTS back in 2000. His paper, along with those of Eldon Epp, Maurice Robinson, Moises Silva, and Keith Elliott, were published in a book I had the honor of editing calledRethinking New Testament Textual Criticism. Mike holds to reasoned eclecticism, but I like him anyway.

Friday, November 13

8:59 PM Mr. Photogenic showed up tonight for supper and an old black-and-white Ingrid Bergman movie. His mom and dad stayed too. I cooked muffins for dessert. Thankful for a great family.

4:51 PM On pp. 49-50 of Sydney Smith’sMission Escape we read:

On Sunday afternoon, with about seventy prisoners milling around the sports field, Bushell scrabbled a shallow depression in the floor of the goat-shed and stowed himself away. Nick Tindall led the “burial” part for him and reported brightly back to Wings: “He’s tucked away all right….I put a wad of goat dung over his face.”

Accuracy, my friends, accuracy! Goats don’t produce wads but droppings. Take it from a skubala expert.

Not bad, eh, for an old corn-fed provincialist like me?

4:10 PM Let me give you a quick update on Becky. Her blood counts are now within acceptable ranges, so we are “go” for Monday’s chemo treatment #3. We will also meet with her radiologist on Monday to begin preparing her for her treatments (6 weeks of daily radiation). Thank you bunches for your prayers for Becky. God is answering each and every one. Her illness has forced us to recalibrate our minds on the true and living God in new ways. He drenches us with blessings even when they come disguised as troubles.

4:02 PM Just arrived. Sweet-tastik. Kudos toEnergion Publications for a handsome product. Alas, one can’t judge a book by its cover!

2:53 PM I see that Johann Kim’s SBL paper is nowonline. It’s calledTowards a Communal Reading of Paul: Galatians as a Test Case (.pdf). I wish Johann well in his presentation. I do hope, however, that someone asks him about the statement he makes on p. 42 of his paper:

Yet Asian Americans have been excluded from the so-called “mainstream” American society and have been forced to remain strangers in America.

If that is true, I agree with Johann that the church must do more to rectify that situation. Man, I hope and pray that the Asian students at my school do not feel excluded. If you do, please let me know!

2:30 PM Just took the dogs for a slush-walk. Should start drying out by Sunday. Central Virginia’s been sitting on a 6 inch rain deficit this year. I imagine it will be wiped out by tomorrow. Thankful for that, but it will be nice to see the sun again.

2:12 PM Good to see yet another article calling out the new breed of political demagogues who frighten Americans with epithets against our “enemies.” I’m referring, of course, to this essay by Charles PeñaNot Every Tragedy Is Terrorism. It is wicked and subversive for Christians to try deliberately to replace reason with passion and to substitute Christian love with hatred. The only thing more tragic is the credulity of the people who believe such nonsense. Christ made a strong distinction between the kingdom and political concerns. Since I, like Eller and Ellul, make the same distinction, it is assumed that I must be arguing for social disengagement. Quite the opposite. Activism– yes! Let’s engage the culture by Christ’s power, and that power is the power of the cross.

11:59 AM Update: Henry Neufeld joins the conversation aboutBible translation. Hmmm. Requiring our students to translate Karl Barth into understandable English? Not a bad idea!

11:32 AM In the most recent essay to be published on our home page, Becky describes the current projects that need financial assistance in Ethiopia. It’s calledAssisting the Work in Ethiopia. Praise the Lord for His provision!

10:32 AM I am not a grouser, but I had hoped for far more thanthis from the pen of the monogenic Jim West. To wit:

Some presenters will be so dull that you’ll look around and see people actually sleeping! 

Come on Jim, this is the prestigious

SBL Meeting!

Scholars never come unprepared,never hand out typo-ridden manuscripts, never bore you to death! Niemals!!

10:25 AM It’s always gratifying to witness good blogging, and no one seems to be doing it better these days than Adam Darnell. I greatly appreciate his essay calledDangers to Christian Living in James. I don’t mean to imply for a moment that I approve of everything he has written, but his remarks deserve careful consideration.

P.S. Adam is a relative newcomer to blogging but is doing what every blogger ought to do: post regularly.

10:19 AM I was delighted to see thefirst review of my latest book, Christian Archy. A thousand thanks to Geoff Smith for squandering some of his precious time in writing it. It’s a splendid review and I’m utterly persuaded! 

8:25 AM Recently Becky and I received a copy of this typewritten log book of the pioneer missionaries in Burji, Ethiopia.

It’s an amazing account. It’s given me a new appreciation of those who sacrificed everything to help establish the church of Jesus Christ in a place where Becky and I now have the privilege of working. Even more importantly, it is a great reminder to me that missions is The Cause of causes.

Here are just a few entries from this fascinating log:

Feb. 25, 1947:”No trucks have been to Burji since Italian days and none would go. Now what? How were we to get in with our supplies? Two Arab traders very kindly helped locate and hire camel trains for us.”

July 3, 1947:”Demon possessed man came. Next day ran off with a clinic key. Two days later he came back again and paced around our home for 4 hours. He had broken chains and escaped. After several more visits from him we saw him no more. Next thing, several months later, they went by here taking him to the cemetery to bury him. Another lost soul! Were we too late?”

Aug. 12, 1951:”Guyo and Wacho were saved.”

(Guyo was murdered in 1994 while taking the Gospel to the Gujis.)

I could go on and on.

Twenty centuries ago Jesus trained 70 ordinary people to evangelize the towns and villages of Galilee. Spiritual training wheels in place, they went out 2 by 2 to extend the kingdom of God over the kingdoms of man. Now that very same kingdom is being expanded in southern Ethiopia. Quite honestly, Becky and I would probably not be working in Burji had it not been for her parents’ generation of evangelists who overcame cultural barriers to take the Gospel to people like Guyo and Wacho.

Today, the teams that Becky and I take with us to Ethiopia are comprised of people who are no different from the 70 or those who came to Burji 60 years ago. They don’t get appointed to Mission Ethiopia because of their academic or social credentials. It’s their relationship with Christ that matters. They are willing and eager to testify to how Jesus brought them forgiveness and joy, how the Gospel changed their marriage, how Christianity gave them a new sense of meaning in life. That’s how Jesus worked with His Task Force of 70, and that’s how He still works today.

The bottom line is this: All of us are commissioned to make the invisible God visible in the same way Jesus did when He was on earth.We are to live as He lived, love as He loved, speak as He spoke, and do as He did. There are billions of lost sheep out there, about half of them Muslims. We’re sent to find them. I’m asking God to raise up a generation of Jesus-focused, Gospel-minded, cross-carrying Jesus-followers who, like those who first went to Burji in the 1940s, are willing to be used as redemptive tools in the hands of the Master.

Below: Becky is always with the people while we are in Ethiopia. She really is “one of them.” They know it, and so do we.

One of our greatest joys is to hear young people reciting Scripture passages to get their own Amharic Bible. Thousands of Bibles have been distributed in Burji alone.

This has got to be one of my all-time favorite pix of Bec. The Burjis love her. What do they see in her if not the Savior?

8:02 AM In the course of teaching Greek (both classical and Koine) the past 34 years I’ve found that translating Greek into English is a very different enterprise from understanding what the text means. A translation may at times sound very erudite, but to be relevant and beneficial the text must be understood — and then applied. One of my greatest challenges as a teacher has been to get my students to see the need to give up theological jargon when translating from Greek into English. If we can use simpler and clearer words to express the truths of Scripture, then by all means let’s do so. Why, for example, should we render Rom. 12:11 “distribute to the needs of the saints” when “share what you have with God’s people who are in need” will do the job and is much clearer? Or why should we insist that the purpose of pastor-teachers is “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry” when we can say “to prepare God’s people for works of service”? If all we do is parrot the standard English versions while translating from English to Greek, I’m afraid we’ll end up with nothing but another secret religious society. If insisting on the use of theological jargon actually helped people to become more obedient to the Word of God, I’d say do it at all costs. But is there any evidence that it does?

To admit this inadequacy honestly can be very intimidating to the teacher. It means, in fact, that we can no longer be content to offer courses in Greek exegesis that fail to include serious self-examination. Somehow we need to move our students from a mere grammatical approach to the text to one that involves them deeply in the Christian pilgrimage. What is the purpose of exegeting Paul’s Christ-hymn in Phil. 2:5-11 if we, the translators, are not willing to model the upside-down kingdom of God in our own lives? Strangely, I am discovering that more and more of my students are asking the “so what” question of everything they are learning. And I am more and more convinced that the joy of living the Gospel in our lives is what should drive the exegetical process in the first place. I may be wrong, but when we talk about “seminary education,” I think we are talking about training students for the adventure of living the Christian life in the real world by doing what is important in God’s eyes. I have found, to my horror, that it is far easier to simply talk about the text than to seek to live it out. Look at the New Testament writers like Paul or John who wrote and taught in the crucible of actual missionary experience. They were willing to follow the Lord Jesus even at the risk of death. They didn’t just talk about the truth, they lived it.

If Paul says I am to share what I have with God’s people who are in need, I’d better be doing just that. This pedagogical insight may belong in a fortune cookie, but it’s the best I can do.

Thursday, November 12

9:20 PM Henry Neufeld notes that the New Living Translation’s Greek interlinear is now available in Beta form. Why not sign in and check it out? I did. Aids like these have their proper place in Bible study despite what the purists might say.

9:12 PM Celucien Joseph posts a “provocative letter.”

6:40 PM The Islam-bashing that has come to define one wing of evangelicalism stems from an overlapping set of problems: American exceptionalism, militant religion, a crusader mentality, and biblical ignorance. Eager to follow in the footsteps of the Crusaders, these sectarian defenders of “the American way of life” feed on militarism to advance their own religious ambitions. What else can Armageddon and crusadership produce than the victory of Christendom over the pagan world? Onward Christian soldiers!

In World War II we had the “Hun” and the “Jap.” Now we have the Ay-rab. The bishop of London during the First World War called the conflict “a great crusade — we cannot deny it —  to kill Germans.” He urged all Brits to “mobilize for a holy war.” I did not hear the A-word inthis video clip posted by Jim West, but end-times Armageddonism lurks just below the surface. Once again, it’s liberty-versus-tyranny, good-versus-evil, us-versus-them. To say that this is a dangerous and false view of reality is a gross understatement.

Jim is absolutely right in calling for an end to such absurd and embarrassing warmongering, but his call will go unheeded as long as Americans continue to drape our crosses with flags. The tragedy at Fort Hood has turned out to be but another barometer of the religious right’s thinking. It proves that the romance of the Great Crusade is still alive and well.

The war whoops of militant Protestantism are a tragic cacophony. Folks, its time we leftLeft Behind behind — along with our crusader inebriation. It’s just possible that we’ll come to see that God doesn’t really hate Arabs after all and certainly no more than He hated a certain terrorist in the New Testament named Saul who later became Paul. If I were the devil I would do everything I could to distract every Christian I could from the things that matter the most. I would take something tragic like the senseless murders in Texas and use it as an excuse to start another crusade against Islam. I suspect, however, that God would like to use the tragedy for a different purpose. As soon as we use our faith in God to set ourselves up as mini-redeemers who will “ensure Christianity’s survival,” then it becomes just one more illusion, and the God it purports to believe in is no longer there.

1:17 PM Anticipation continues to build for the invasion of SBL in Nawlins by the B-bloggers. With mocking irony, über-blogger Jim West savages the naysayers who lift a purist eyebrow with the worst sort of bourgeois morality. True, it’s a weird alchemy that combines the banal power of blogging with the sublime function of biblical scholarship. Putting that aside, however, I suspect that the B-bloggers are capable of becoming the life of the party this year. Will the end product be a state of frenzy or infantilism? Stay tuned….

1:12 PM Just back from getting B’s blood work done in Clarksville. We’ll get the results tomorrow. Her next chemo is scheduled for Monday, if her blood counts are within acceptable ranges.

11:26 AM Hmmmm. When I visited old Tut’s tomb in Luxor, I don’t recall seeing thosebrown spots on the wall.

Two other inconsequential thoughts:

1) If you can believe it, Becky and I traveled from Jerusalem to Egypt via public transportation — a bus, to be exact. Down through the desert, across the Suez. Hot, dirty, dusty, smelly, crowded.

2) In Cairo we not only saw the Giza pyramids but spent a long day on camel-back visiting the pyramids of Sakkara. Even climbed to the top of one of them. Oh, and the camel seat I have in my Wake Forest office? It came from that trip.

My word, have Becky and I always been so adventurous?

10:57 AM I love observing our cattle. And there’s nothing more interesting than watching a calf being weaned from its mama. “Time for you to be eatin’ grass, sonny boy, jess like us big-uns,” I can hear mama cow say in Cow-speak. Try as it may, the calf isn’t allowed to suckle anymore. If necessary, mama has to use a swift (yet gentle) cow-kick to make her point. But one thing’s for sure: That weanling’s gonna have to get its own food if it wants to survive.

I can’t help but think of the “weaners” I’ve had in my life. You know, the men and women who pushed me to think on my own and to stop depending so much on the conclusions of others. My professor in Basel was a good example. What was so awesome about Bo Reicke was that he pushed me off the sidelines and on to the playing field. He dared me to stand up, stand out, and think hard. Professor Reicke was never “pushy,” but he pushed me nonetheless. He prodded me to master (not just learn) the languages (German, French, Spanish, Latin, etc.), to practice the basics of good research and writing, and to engage modern scholarship with a healthy dose of skepticism. He pushed me not only in the classroom but in his home, where I had a chance to see a humble scholar up close and personal (the first month I lived in Basel I stayed in the Reickes’ home).

Think about it. Who are the people in your life who have gotten you into the game? They’re not busy selling their own brand of knowledge as much as seeking to equip you with the tools for you to be your own person. Instead of wanting their students to rely on them, they’re pushing and prodding them away, just like that mother cow does to her weanling.

When you think about it, Jesus was a weaner too. He trained His followers to stand apart from the crowd. He knew He would have to leave them one day. He raised up a generation of Spirit-dependent, counter-culture radicals who were willing to cut against the grain and the accepted thinking of their time. I mean, what could be more radical than preaching the kingdom of God!

We need more weaners in our halls of learning who are going to push their students to go deeper and wider than they themselves have ever gone. May God raise up leaders who dare to demand that their followers stand on their own two feet!

10:34 AM Here I am back on the farm after two great days of teaching the most wonderful group of students on planet earth. I’m tired, groggy, and blown away at how Jesus blessed my days on campus. I’m delighted at the progress of my first year Greek students. They seem happy, motivated, and are having a good time — unthinkable in a beginning Greek class! I’ve had the slightest touch of grippe but expect to be back in the saddle soon. The weather here is awful — nothing but constant rain showers since yesterday morning — and it will probably not improve for a couple more days. The Fort Hood tragedy continues to play out in the media, with many questionable revelations. I managed to watch the president’s speech at the army base and was reminded again of the absolute futility of trying to find “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in anything other than my heavenly citizenship. Even as our nation is elevated to almost mythic proportions — the “city on the hill” that one president once talked about — I’m feeling more and more like a pilgrim journeying into the unknown as far as this world is concerned. Like Abraham, I’m looking for a city whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:10). I look forward to applying myself in the coming days and weeks to trying to flesh this concept out in my book Godworld. Meanwhile, time to grab a cup of coffee and try to get the cobwebs out of my system.

Wednesday, November 11

9:31 PM Fees at the University of Basel are going up, so what do the students do? Occupy the university’s assembly hall in protest, of course. So reports today’sBasler Zeitung. Nothing new here. They did the same thing when I was a student there in 1981. At that time they wanted a “free” or at least “cheap” education. Students protested. Storefront windows were smashed. Just how do they think the university is operated — from freewill offerings?

Newsflash — nothing is free, least of all a good education.

8:28 PM Look at what I was in the mood for tonight. Baked ’em me-self too. Raisin muffins. Won’t be around long though. Specially if Nate pays us a visit.

7:25 PM I have stopped reading the libertarian blogs. I am feeling exceedingly virtuous.

6:55 PM Kudos toKevin Vanhoozer, who just delivered two days of lectures at the seminary. Here he is fielding questions during our faculty luncheon today.

… and to my Ph.D. student Mel Winstead, who gave a guest lecture in our New Testament Theology class today on the participles in Hebrews. And no, “Mel” is not short for Melchizedek. Thanks, brother, for a job well done.

6:43 PM Over at AlterNet there’s a good piece about the killings at Fort Hood:Focusing on Fort Hood Killer’s Beliefs Is an Easy Out to Avoid the Deeper Reasons for the Massacre.

6:40 PM Jason calls our attention to a recently published Greek textbook called New Testament Greek Intermediate: From Morphology to Translation. It retails for $62.50 – a bit pricey for my students. Then again, it’s 620 pages. I’m looking forward to reading it –  despite its awkward-sounding title.

6:32 PM We talked about the message of James in theology class today. James had plenty to say about greed. In this respect I think you would do well to read this essay by Greg Boyd (yes, that Greg Boyd; you may not agree with his open theology but here he is spot on) about thesin of Sodom. Greg writes:

The irony is that we often hear conservative Christian leaders publicly crusading against the sin of Sodom. And we have to grant that, if ever a nation was guilty of the sin of Sodom, it is indeed America. Yet the sin of Sodom for which we are most guilty is not homosexuality; it is greed, gluttony and apathy toward the poor! And if there’s one ungodly aspect of American culture that the Church has succumbed to, it is this sin.

Yet, instead of confessing that we Christians tend to be guilty of the sin of Sodom, many leaders rather pin the label on homosexuals. They’re trying to take the “speck” of homosexuality out their neighbor’s eye and don’t notice the “plank” of greed, gluttony and apathy in their own (Mt 7:1-3).

He concludes:

While our culture along with the prince of lies who rules it conditions us into thinking and feeling that possessing things gives us life, the truth is that whatever we think we possessactually possesses us. Owning things doesn’t give life: it sucks life out of us. The perpetually hungry life of pursuing wealth and possessions is a form of diabolic slavery.

In contrast to this, Jesus’ call to manifest the beauty of God’s self-sacrificial Kingdom is a call to experience abundant life (Jn 10:10). Yes, we must die to the self-centered part of us that is in bondage to the hoarding-god. But if we will crucify that old enslaved self, Jesus promises we will find true life.

Yes, Greg comes off a little soft on the sin of homosexuality. Still, he makes his point. Our Lord offers us an Emancipation Proclamation from our deadly slavery to greed. “Outrageous generosity” should characterize every one of us who claims to be a follower of Jesus. The believer is both a pauper and a plutocrat (see 2 Cor. 6:10). Because we have nothing, and because all we have belongs to God and we are only stewards of it, we can escape the miser’s worries about hanging on to everything in our lives. And, because we belong to God and are joint-heirs with the Son and have everything, we never need fret about our resources. We have all the advantages and none of the disadvantages of being both poor and rich.

As everyone knows, I insist upon a complete dichotomy between the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God, and that the kingdom of God is advanced only through powerless, self-sacrificing love. This is not a kingdom that fits anywhere in Constantinian Christianity since it is transnational. So if my poor brothers and sisters in Africa need help, it is my obligation to do whatever I can to help them. Why should we abdicate this responsibility to governments and NGOs?

I think it’s high time we let the Spirit of God start to do His work of generosity in our hearts!

6:24 PM Good news! One of my doctoral students, Alex Stewart, has just received word that his paper titled “Cosmology, Eschatology, andSoteriology in Hebrews: A Synthetic Analysis” will be published in the Bulletin for Biblical Research. Congratulations Alex.

6:20 PM N. T. Wright lectured at Baylor University on the subject of “Paul and Caesar.” Gohere to listen to his Parchman lectures (scroll down to the bottom). The Christian’s attitude toward “the powers that be” is always a crucial question. The Caesar cult and the imperial ideology that went along with it was the fastest growing religion in the ancient world. It’s just possible that we are facing a similar phenomenon today.

6:15 PM Seven reasons why I love the book of Hebrews:

• It exalts Jesus as our great leader. I therefore dare not exalt any human leader above Him.

• It reminds us that Jesus is the final revelation of God. I therefore dare not exalt any human writing above the Scriptures.

• It shows us that Jesus is the greatest catholic priest the world has ever known. I therefore dare not look to any human to mediate my relationship with God.

• It depicts Christianity as a pilgrimage. I therefore dare not live as if this world were my home.

• It emphasizes the “obedience of faith” (a leading Pauline subject). I dare not think that orthodoxy is sufficient without orthopraxy.

• It reveals that suffering is a necessary part of the Christian experience. I therefore dare not seek to avoid costly sacrifice while serving Jesus.

• It shows me that there is no place in the will of God for slavish obeisance to religion. I therefore dare not place human traditions above fidelity to Jesus and His ways.

Is this not the heart of Christianity?

6:07 PM Finally! I’ve found another human being who holds to the Pauline authorship of Hebrews. Take a look atthis essay by Gary Crampton. I love this quote about the much-disputed verse in chapter 2 (2:3):

Second, there is the alleged problem of Hebrews 2:3, which reads “how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him.” According to William Hendriksen, “about the last thing Paul would ever say is found in Hebrews 2:3. He emphasized the fact that he had received his gospel directly from Christ.”[1][39] But the author of this verse does not say that he received his gospel from the other apostles. What he says is that it “was confirmed [ebebaiothe] to us by those who heard  Him.” And as Reymond explains, this implies “that he was already in possession of the message at the time of its confirmation to him.” And this “confirmation” could have taken place in Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem when he met with Peter and James (Galatians 1:18-19); or it could have occurred on the visit he describes in Galatians 2:1-10.

Yet we are told that Heb. 2:3 is one of the strongest indications that Paul could not have written Hebrews! Go figure.

Below: The only other two people in the universe who believe that the apostle Paul authored Hebrews.

Tuesday, November 10

6:58 AM Have you noticed how John Bunyan called his book Pilgrim’s Progress despite all the difficulties and dangers he faced? I love that. My Bethel Hill Greek students have faced plenty of difficulties yet they endured to the end. Not the “bitter” end I hope! The payoff was sight-reading two chapters from 1 John last night. Amen! You guys have done a splendid job. All I did was stand on the sidelines and shout, “Hang in there! You can do it!”

I have to admit that I admire such stick-to-it-ness. So many of us fail to finish what we begin. I should know. I’m a much-decorated veteran of the war of sloth before I resigned my commission a few years ago. What’s more, my students are, for the most part, “laypeople” who flexed their muscles and accomplished a task of heroic dimensions. Just think — they could have stayed at home on Monday nights and sat in front of the one-eyed idol or else taken a course in “How the Willow Creek Model Compares with the Saddleback Model.” Make no mistake — we reap what we sow. When it comes right down to it, that’s a pretty basic principle of life.

I pray that my students will now flesh out their learning in the crucible of daily living — not just reading about “eternal life” and “brotherly love” but putting their faith into practice. To each one of you I say: If this course in Greek helps you become a wiser and more obedient follower of Jesus, your efforts and mine will have been more than amply rewarded.  

6:52 AM Surprise! Surprise! Last night we had company for the first time in a good while. My, how Micah has grown. (He’s wearing the head covering.) Thanks, Rondeaus, for the visit. You brought a jumble of joy to our humble household last night.

 

Monday, November 9

10:55 AM Nijay Gupta is seekingcommentary recommendations on Philippians in German. I’ve given him my suggestions. Why not add yours to the list?

10:40 AM The Wall remembered:

Die erdrückenden Massen stürmten nicht nur die Mauer in Berlin, nein sie drangen viel weiter vor. Sie drangen in mein Wohnzimmer ein, in meine heile Welt und zerschlugen alles, was ich mir bis dato erkämpft hatte. Mein Wohnzimmer war angefüllt mir euphorischen Menschen und es gab kein Platz mehr für mich. Ich fühlte mich erdrückt und an die Wand gepresst. Auch die Freude meines Freundes konnte ich nicht teilen. “Ist das nicht toll?” wollte er mich mit seiner Begeisterung mitreißen, doch ich war noch nicht so weit. Ich stand an der Wand und konnte nur noch einen Gedanken zulassen: “Wie komme ich hier raus?”

ReadHeute vor 20 Jahren. Touching story.

10:26 AM Eastern University announces an opening inPublic Policy and Christian Ethics at their Palmer Seminary.

10:18 AM Just came down with a bad sinus headache. Ugh.

Must be a storm brewing. Sure enough, the forecast is calling for rain tomorrow and Wednesday. Who needs a meteorologist when one has a built-in barometer? 

P.S. Thank you, Lord, for Maxalt tablets.

10:10 AM Speaking of German, this map shows the German-speaking population of the United States in 1872. And this is before the influx of Germans during the twentieth century. I wonder how many of their descendants can still speak the mother tongue.

9:57 AM If you haven’t yet read Barth’s Church Dogmatics (in German, naturally), here’s a site to help you get started. I found the linkhere. I performed this Herculean task back in the early 80s while a student in Basel. You can’t consider yourself edumacated till ya done it, folks.

8:36 AM Digital doctoral dissertations? Dastardly or delectable? You decide. ButStanford already says yes.

8:18 AM Another thing, Greek guys and gals. If you haven’t acquired a copy of A. T. Robertson’s “Big Grammar” yet you should. Asthis author astutely observes:

Though unaware of the papyri discoveries that have happened since 1919, Robertson’s work is important for his familiarity with classical Greek and Latin and his awareness of the work of 19th century Greek grammarians. He was also able to draw upon some of the early work of such noted grammarians like Blass, Deissmann, Moulton, and Burton.

I require Robertson’s gigantic tome whenever I teach Weightlifting 301 — er, Advanced Greek Grammar.

8:11 AM Greek students, we’re on for tonight at The Hill. Come prepared to sight read a couple chapters in 1 John. In the meantime, you might findthis ditty interesting.

7:32 AM Quote of the day #3:

When the church janitor doesn’t clean the church well enough, the congregation feels justified in criticizing him or her because they paid them to clean. When the landscaper doesn’t mow the grass just right, the congregation feels warranted in complaining because, after all, he was paid to do the job the way they instructed him. Likewise, when a pastor is paid, the congregation feels that they have control of him in a similar manner.Instead of being accountable to the Lord, he becomes for all practical purposes accountable to the congregation.

ReadPastors and Churches and Salaries (including the comments section, whence cometh the above quote).

By the way, churches seeking to make changes in this area are in for a rough ride. My advice? “Don’t be like a horse or mule, without understanding” (Psalm 32:9). A horse is an impetuous animal, always wanting to take off at top speed. A donkey is an obstinate animal, always wanting to dig in its heels. If we want to serve the Lord together we can’t dash ahead in impetuous enthusiasm or lag behind in obstinate unbelief. Congregations must be willing to seek the Lord, ask Him for understanding, and patiently wait on His leading — and then obey without hesitation.

7:28 AM T. C. Robinson joins theCEB discussion. I may have a crack at a sample passage or two myself.

7:26 AM Quote of the day #2:

When it comes to financial stewardship, we see the first-century Christians giving cheerfully according to their ability—not dutifully out of a command. Giving in the early church was voluntary. And those who benefited from it were the poor, orphans, widows, sick, prisoners, and strangers.

Readmore.

6:58 AM How’s Becky? Today she has her blood work done again. If all’s well, next  Monday she’ll have her third chemo treatment. In the midst of it all she carries on our Ethiopia work tirelessly. The other day someone asked me how my wife was doing. “Still serving the Lord,” I said. And what a joy to be able serve with her. After all, isn’t that what marriage is all about? Serving Jesus together. For better or for worse. In sickness and in health. Till death do us part. What a great life partner Becky is. I love serving Jesus with her. Now that she’s sick, I don’t have to care for her. I get to.

Have you, in your marriage, settled the issue of who will be Lord and Master of your married life? Have you surrendered all of your rights, your expectations, your dreams to Him?

6:45 AM William Bennett, who served in the Reagan and Bush I White Houses, once said, “Look, we ran out of steam in the second half of the second Reagan administration. We’d been in office for 12 years. We got tired. We forgot why we came.”

Well, what about Mr. Obama? He promised to end the war and win the peace. Yet he’s about to make a politically and militarily disastrous move in Afghanistan.Newsweek is asking, Is Obama Keeping His Promises? My own sense — and I hope I am dead wrong — is that the president has already become complacent about his promises.

He’s surrounded himself with tone-deaf foreign policy advisers who revile the liberals who helped elect him. Everything about Mr. Obama seems three steps behind, a strange phenomenon given the fact that he campaigned on the promise of “change.” I’m afraid if he waits much longer to pull out of Afghanistan he’ll go the way of LBJ. Remember? Johnson’s economic agenda was sidetracked by his aggressive foreign policy agenda in Vietnam.

Although Barack Obama is a man in constant motion — always traveling, and that includes (thank God) visiting the families of the fallen — his critics are accusing him of being detached from the electorate and doing the 2-step by caving to the militarists. He may not conduct the war with the same noir and bullying tone of his predecessor, but I wonder if he’s learned the lesson that America can’t champion freedom at the point of a gun barrel.

It’s astonishing to me how far we have come — or fallen — as a nation in only one year. Makes one think of a rudderless boat cut adrift and swept along with the current.

6:32 AM Quote of the day:

“I ministered to you” is condescending. I’m up here and you’re down here, lucky to receive whatever I am giving you. It creates an invisible social barrier that tells the person that they can not relate on the same level. It is also focused on what you are doing, and not on knowing the person. Many times this is just exactly what both parties really want. Both afraid of what kind of involvement really knowing the other person might require. It’s scary because the deeper you go, the dirtier you can get. But only in the fleshing out of a relationship, however awkward it may be, can real discipleship begin.

Read“We ministered to them.”

Sunday, November 8

5:53 PM I recall a message I gave in a church long ago. I had just finished and the congregation was filing out. A few people stopped to chat — some expressing appreciation and others their disagreement. It was obvious that some people were even disgusted with me. My talk was not especially provocative. I had tried to explain, as simply as I could, what the Bible teaches on a certain topic and how our ecclesiastical traditions in this area are unbiblical (though not necessarily sinful). Whenever one does this, the response is inevitable and predicable.

I suppose the greatest lesson I learned that day was a healthy cynicism. If what I am saying is simply my “cause,” a personal crusade, then I suppose people have every right to be dismissive. If the issue depends on my brilliance or my mode of argumentation, then God help us all. You can’t just presume that people will give you the benefit of the doubt when it comes to your motives. I suppose the greatest pain comes from critics who have no intention of getting involved or opening their Bibles. In this case, you can’t force things. You must fight your battle on your knees and watch God give the victory.

It would be pure sentimentality to think that our churches can be changed easily and without pain on the part of our congregations. It would be worse sentimentality to think that they can be changed without some personal pain on our parts as leaders. It is realism to think that pain is a reasonable price for both sides to pay.

1:12 PM Robert Frost:

I’m not a teacher, but an awakener.

Awesome! Teachers have to walk softly and not try to “control” everything. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to inspire godly creativity to bubble up. Students, are you just going through the motions, just “doing your assignments,” or are you allowing God to steer, arrange, and direct your every task? Scholarship can’t come first. Assignments can’t come first. You need to draw on the deep resources of the Spirit of God.

My advice? Pray about every exam, every quiz, every assignment, every term paper BEFORE you do them. Surrender your heart and not only your mind to the Lord. Dip into the artesian wells of His provision, security, and satisfaction.

Absolute, personal dependence upon God must take precedent over all else.

12:10 PM A huge “congratulations” to Michael and his wife who areadopting a son from “Utopia” (Ethiopia). What a blessing from the hand of God. Blessings on all of you.

8:59 AM Blogging is a delightfully paradoxical medium. But the best part to me is fellowshipping with the saints all over the world. Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. For a helpful resource, go here. Only as we are willing to share the burden will we share the blessing.

Oh, here’s a piece of good news from Ethiopia.

8:12 AM I’ve got a lot of sympathy for the translators of the Common English Bible, who areseeking reader input. Translating the Bible is like nailing Jell-O to the wall. In fact, it’s the spookiest business in the world. Translating the ISV New Testament was one unsettling piece of work, let me tell you. Thankfully I had lots of help. Anyhoo, why not give the CEB translators your feedback? The Bible is the most valuable asset we have as Christians. You may be thinking to yourself, “What have I got to offer? I’m no Bible scholar.” My answer is “Plenty.” Let’s push and prod and make sure their plea for help doesn’t go unheeded.

7:57 AM Did you know that today is Orphan Sunday? I didn’t either. Go here for the details. Here’s a pic of our daughter Emebet.

She lived on the streets of Addis for years after being thrown out of her home by her parents. She is a beautiful young woman — musically talented as all get out too. She is a committed Christian and growing daily in her faith.

Emebet, we love you!

7:45 AM In a delightful and instinctually introspective piece over at the Christian Century, Duke Divinity School professor Paul Griffiths bares his souls and tells us howhis mind has changed. If you care to immerse yourself in the solitary pleasure of reading this morning, take a look at it.

It got me to thinking: Who am I really, and how has my mind changed? So, with all due apologies, I’m gonna wax a bit introspective with you this morning.

To begin with, I’m not a prophet or the son of a prophet. I even work for a non-profit organization. (Dumb joke.) The risk in being a prophet is too great. In the Old Testament, if you slipped up, you were stoned.

What I am is a recovering drug addict. My drugs were wealth, status, and happiness. But a few years ago God began to do a work of grace in my life. He led me to get out of the ownership business and into the stewardship business. I discovered that one’s wants can be satisfied either by producing much or desiring little. I also discovered that the love of the Body of Christ is the most powerful weapon God has to change society.

I used to be involved in politics. I used to think we could win the culture war by our political movements. Then I began to read the Gospels. In them I encountered someone who took upon Himself the miserable condition of a lowly human being, not the life of a successful CEO but that of a pauper. He descended to the bottom of the abyss, and then called upon His followers to do the same. He showed us that the way of God is the way of suffering and sacrifice.

I have no problem with politics, but it’s not the kingdom. Scripture says that because God loves us we are now to go out and tell other men and women and love them in turn. It is this kingdom, and its King, that now give meaning to my life. Of course, I am also a husband, a father, a professor, an author, a farmer; like everyone else, I have certain ephemeral duties. I acknowledge my responsibility for failing to live up to the highest standards in each of these arenas of life. Entering the narrow gate, I find there is just enough room for my weak and naked soul. Thank God for His mercy!

I have found that many Christians know the Word of God but lack fidelity to it. Jesus is a subject to be discussed but not a person to be enjoyed — and obeyed. That was me for many years. In the future I would like people to be able to say that I am a man of the Word and a man of his word.

Recently I read of a female flight attendant who was being treated rudely by a male passenger. Every time he saw her he gave her a piece of his mind. Another passenger, a Christian, walked back to the galley and talked to the flight attendant. He said, “You know, I’ve been watching how you’ve handled that obnoxious fellow sitting across from me. I’m always looking for someone doing a good job. American Airlines should be proud of you. Can I have your name? I’d like to write the company and let them know how much I appreciate you.”

“Oh,” she said, “I don’t work for American Airlines.”

“Oh, really?”

“No, I represent the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Badda Bing!

Who am I?

A representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Saturday, November 7

5:18 PM Quote of the day #4:

Pastors are exalted in evangelicalism and are simultaneously asked to shoulder the burden of ministry for an entire congregation. They are expected to be there for every other member of the church while at the same time being a perfect father and husband.

It is little wonder that pastors are depressed, frustrated, quitting “the ministry” or even in some extreme cases committing suicide.We have created an impossible culture combining impossibly high expectations for pastors and simultaneously isolating them.

ReadCarrying the burden alone.

5:04 PM Just fed the cows. Grade AAA Nathan-grown orchard grass and fescue. The calves are almost weaned I see.

Right now B is making enchiladas for supper. She’s had another good day, though her white count is starting to bottom out again. Life has become so “daily” if you know what I mean 🙂

2:54 PM Islam, for obvious reasons, is in the news these days. Christians must understand the awesome ramifications of their claim to be followers of Jesus, who had a great deal to say about prejudice and bigotry. We cannot engage in scapegoating and at the same time claim to follow the one who not only taught against racism but who also entered the racial ghetto of Samaria and ministered to a Samaritan woman. The same Jesus totally disregarded class. He loved tax collectors and sinners, the rich and the poor. Christians are to be different from the rest of the world. Jesus set the example. He treated those of other religions and racial backgrounds with a sensitivity and balance that was truly amazing given the times in which He lived. I urge all of us to strive to imitate His example. 

2:33 PM There is a price to be paid for following Jesus. But it is nothing compared to the price He paid for us.

When I was hospitalized for malaria they provided a gown for me.

When Jesus was crucified they tore off His garments.

When I entered the ER they greeted me warmly.

When Jesus was tried they said, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!”

When I had a headache they gave me medicine.

When Jesus was crucified they gave Him a crown of thorns.

When I got thirsty they gave me fruit juice.

When Jesus got thirsty they gave Him vinegar and gall.

When I got tired they gave me a bed to sleep on.

When Jesus was crucified they gave Him a cross to die on.

When I needed fluids they put an IV in my arm.

When Jesus was crucified they drove nails through His hands.

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.” No words could possibly put our responsibility more strongly!

2:05 PM What hath the revolution in church music wrought?Worship wars. And it’s mostly unnecessary. Every major change in church music finds its critics and its supporters.

“Majesty” was once brand new to me. Now no one under 25 even knows it. It’s safe to say that praise choruses are here to stay. This has happened, as Charbonneau put it a century ago, “by the sheer force of circumstance.” As long as modern choruses are God-focused and theologically sound, I have no problem with them whatsoever.

However unconscious, involuntary, well-meaning, and with the best of wishes, the insistence that everyone in the church act the same way is doomed to failure. It can only produce diabolical discord. I tell you, I’ve just about had it with solemn, grandiloquent condemnations of modern praise music.  

(Sermon over.)

10:20 AM Give this a read:Are Long Term Missionaries Obsolete? Some stimulating brain-food here. Lots of good take-aways, including this:

Teaching the Bible is essential but living out and modeling the Gospel before those who you want to train and disciple is also essential. Teaching without modeling is incomplete.

9:43 AM Quote of the day #3:

But you don’t have to be a Christian to love “Messiah.” Tens of thousands of Americans from all different social and religious backgrounds will gather in churches, concert halls and living rooms beginning in mid-December to sing all or parts of the 2 1/2 hour oratorio.

Very true. In fact, the best rendition of Handel’s Messiah Becky and I ever heard was performed by a kibbutz choir in Jerusalem.

9:33 AM Huh? Amish farmers are takinggovernment money? I thought the Amish conducted their affairs apart from the State.

9:02 AM Quote of the day #2:

Anyways, suffering for the Lord Jesus is a basic part of discipleship and is to be expected and embraced.  It comes with the cost of following Jesus – and so Paul exhorts the Philippian believers to “live in manner worthy of the gospel,” “as citizens of heaven,” standing firm in the one Spirit, striving together in unity for the sake of the gospel so they won’t have to fear those who oppose them.

ReadPhilippians 1:29: a theology of suffering?

8:53 AM Eric Carpenter calls our attention to a nifty map of theworld’s affinity groups. I’m still looking for “surfers” on the map. Talk about a subculture. And we’re everywhere, even in the Virginia Piedmont. Hey, we even have our ownBible. Cowabunga, dude!

8:38 AM If at first you don’t succeed, try950 times.

8:25 AM Quote of the day: 

“(East German officials) said, ‘We were ready for anything, except for candles and prayer.'”

ReadThe church that helped bring down the Berlin Wall.

8:14 AM Allan Bevere talks about the myth of thegood old days and our selective amnesia as a culture.

Reminds me of the Israelites complaining about only having manna to eat (i.e., a miracle every day) and constantly craving the leeks, garlic, and honey they left behind in Egyptian captivity. The Scriptures portray the times in terms of emergency that calls for urgency, no matter the century we are living in. Frankly, I think American Christians are a lot flabbier than our spiritual ancestors. We seek to avoid persecution by taking the line of least resistance and living in a truce with this age. We make God a Santa Claus and use His Son for our own satisfactions. We crave earthly joy and security, but when will we seek Him alone?

7:54 AM Guttenberg is back in the news. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, that is, the German Defense Minister.

For the first time he “von kriegsähnlichen Zuständen in Afghanistan gesprochen hatte.” So writes today’sDie Zeit. In other words, folks, it’s a “war” over there in Afghanistan, or at least it’s a “warlike” situation, not merely a peacekeeping mission. This might come as shocking news to Germans, who abhor Krieg and whose insurance companies do not pay out benefits for men and women killed in “war.”

One thing’s for sure. The soldiers on the ground there know it’s a “war,” even if the politicians prefer cowardly circumlocutions.

7:12 AM We Americans may have our Prayer of Jabez, but theBrits can top that.

Now you can enlist God’s assistance in surviving rush hour stress even as He enlarges your borders. And if you do it for 40 days in a row….

7:08 AM I want to go on record to say that I pray for the troops. And when I say the troops, I mean our troops. Talk about profiles in courage. But to face death at the hands of one of your own has got to be the worst of the worst. We may never know what made Nidal Hasan turn violent. But there is a lot of wisdom inthis insightful report:

An estimated 30 percent of those returning from combat suffer mental health symptoms such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. Such problems grow worse with repeated deployments and the constant exposure to danger and the sights, smells and emotions of seeing others killed or wounded, according to Army mental health surveys.

Those who treat the mentally wounded, including doctors such as Hasan, are not immune from the symptoms.It is not uncommon for therapists who treat patients for post-traumatic stress disorder to experience some symptoms vicariously after hearing account after account of the horrors of the battlefield.

To the 53,000 service personnel stationed at Fort Hood I say: you are in my thoughts and prayers.

P.S. Please no Muslim-bashing. Hasan’s actions are beingcondemned by the American Muslim population.

6:55 AM A congregation in central Virginia sent Becky a card with these wonderfully encouraging words:

You are continually in our prayers. Our lives have been so enriched by getting to know you and Dave. Your unconditional love of Christ and your unwavering faith even during your battle with cancer is a towering testimony to all who know you. We also praise God for your ministry in Ethiopia. We love you and will continue to keep you lifted up in prayer to our Lord.

“Your ministry in Ethiopia.” What would this work look like without Becky Lynn? I hate to contemplate it. But all things are in God’s trustworthy hands. He can be counted on. After all, it’s really His ministry.

6:43 AM “Be content with what you have” (Heb. 13:5a). I thought of this verse while reading adiscussion about a megachurch’s latest building project.

What in the world did Paul mean by “Be content”? That’s one heavy command.

I don’t think he meant that we should never improve our physical circumstances. If that’s what he was saying, then I’m the biggest hypocrite of them all. I drive a comfortable car (rather than a jalopy), live in a comfortable home (certainly nicer than the apartment Becky and I lived in when we got married), and dress in comfortable clothing (I honestly would prefer swim trunks and t-shirts but my students might prefer otherwise).

However, there’s got to be reasonable limits to what we spend on ourselves. Paul, I think, was referring to an insatiable desire to have more and better things for their own sake. There is nothing wrong with a congregation wanting to construct a new church building if the desire is to use it for kingdom purposes. Even then, however, a problem can still exist when we pay disproportionate attention to our own physical needs and comforts, overlooking Paul’s injunction in another place (2 Cor. 8:13) that, when it comes to physical resources, there must be equality (isotetos) between the haves and the have-nots.

I think there’s room in Christianity for divergent views of church buildings, but not for the miserable itch of “bigger is better.” We now erect church buildings with grand pianos in the foyer (alongside the fountain) and glass windows overlooking lavish gardens and ponds. The non-believer on the outside might well be justified in thinking that our main investment is in this world rather than another one. Laying up treasures in two worlds at once can be a very precarious business. It’s easy to forget that we must migrate soon. Our real treasure is not here, and neither should our hearts be.

Once again, I’m with the sixteenth-century Anabaptists on this one (as I pointed out in chapter 3 ofThe Jesus Paradigm). With wistful sadness I look back on their simple, unadorned “meeting halls” without pulpits or pews, stages or steeples. In such a place one might well conclude that the Christian is truly a pilgrim and stranger on earth.

Build, then, what you will. But don’t let your building become an idol. Remember that the night is far spent, that the Day is at hand, and that judgment begins with the household of God.

Friday, November 6

8:36 PM Here’s a great quote from theBethel Hill blog:

Wearing a mask doesn’t help in church. You’ll still get rubbed the wrong way in some matter….it’s just a matter of time. Let the Spirit give you the courage to remove the mask and trust His love in the midst of His people. And then go the next step to trust His Hand in shaping you (& others) to fit perfectly together.

Becky’s talking about the fact that only God can fit such diverse “building blocks” together in His temple the church. In fact, that’s one of the things I love most about being a Christian — our diversity. That’s not something to be tolerated but celebrated!

1:06 PM Check out my colleague Alvin Reid’s latest book:Evangelism Handbook, published by B & H.

Sure, as a snake lover he takes Mark 16:18 a bit too literally, but I love Alvin’s passion for people and for the Gospel. I’m humbled to be on the SEBTS faculty with him.

Gohere to download a sample chapter.

12:48 PM It’s happening earlier and earlier. I’m seeing ads all over the web promoting Christma$. And it’s not even Thanksgiving. Whatever are we thinking? It’s Jesus‘ birthday, for crying out loud. A year ago one spender got wise. She emailed us to say she stopped buying gifts for her grandkids and was giving money instead to Ethiopia in their names. I’m seeing this happening more and more. It’s a classic story line in literature: self-indulgent spender confronts mistaken assumptions about wealth. Glad to see incurious shoppers finally waking up to the downside of seasonal capitalism. American children need more “things” like Liberace needed more rings.

I know this is but a skirmish in a much larger Kulturkampf, but have we never read Matt. 6:19-21?

9:17 AM I just received via email my copy of the Society for New Testament Studies latest newsletter, which contains this notice:

The Society received with regret news of the deaths of the following members: Profs.S. Agourides, J. L. Blevins, H. Chadwick, B. Corsani, D. Dungan, P.Grelot, M. Hengel (former President), J. Heriban, H. W. Hoehner, K. Kertelge, N. Q.King, E. Larsson, E. Lövestam, H. Nakagawa, W. Schmithals, D. Scholer, G.N. Stanton (former President), K. Sullivan, J. Sweet, J. L. de Villiers, and E. S.Wehrli. Members observed a minute’s silence in memory of these scholars.

Of the deceased I knew three well: David Dungan, Harold Hoehner, and David Scholer. It is perhaps impossible for younger scholars to grasp the brevity of life, but notices such as this one are a stark reminder of our mortality. Surely this makes living for Christ our constant priority!

P.S. Regretfully I will have to miss next year’s meeting in Berlin after all. I will be in Ethiopia for 6 weeks at that time.

8:54 AM The latest addition to our home page is calledMaking a Mockery of the Great Commission.

7:40 AM Jim West puts the “grave” in gravitas, calling the use of federal bailout money by corporations to lobby Congress “profound absurdity.” The root problem, of course, is our complete ignorance of that little scrap of paper we barely discussed in eight grade history classes, the well-nigh forgotten United States Constitution and its limitations on the federal use of power.

7:34 AM The Associated Baptist Press has run a story calledMerritt, Gushee: On creation care, evangelicals must move toward “we.” This quote struck me:

The way Christians started to talk about God began to change. Instead of God being a loving being who wrapped himself in flesh in order to bring peace to the entire cosmos … many spoke of God as an American patriot who has a disproportionate stake in our federal government’s success. This God was not building a global kingdom on Earth, or an other-worldy kingdom beyond Earth. This God was building and blessing an American kingdom.

For what it’s worth, I’ve commentedhere, with (unhappy) implications for the Easter Bunny.

7:27 AM Matt Evans interviewsJames Crossley of Sheffield University. My favorite quote:

I think a lot of NT scholarship is sectarian. I don’t necessarily mean this in religious terms but rather there are too many distinctive groups which tend to listen to themselves alone.

Crossley is right. New Testament scholarship has been fragmented and atomized for far too long. And a huge part of the problem is over-specialization in one’s doctoral program. Just because you may have written your dissertation in John does not make you a “Johannine scholar.” I’m all for our students becoming generalists every bit as much as specialists in their studies.

7:19 AM The great C. S. Lewis once dismissed the ability of faith to overcome bereavement. “Don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion,” he wrote inA Grief Observed, “or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.” His wife Joy, of course, had just died from cancer.

With all due respect to the great author, I have found the opposite to be true. Jesus Christ has been, in fact, my only source of consolation in these difficult days.

In the introduction Madeleine L’engle writes, “I am grateful to Lewis for having the courage to yell, to doubt, to kick at God….” Kick at God? I hope I wouldn’t kick a dog let alone my Creator and Redeemer. The devil would have us doubt the Word of God, and how subtle are the devises by which he raises questions as to what God has said. Like John the Baptist, Lewis fell to the record low of wondering if his hopes in Christ had been misplaced. Thankfully we serve a God who is patient with troubled Johns in prison. I pray that I will never come to the point of wondering if my confidence in His triumph over sin and death has been vain. If I do, may God help me still. 

Thursday, November 5

5:51 PM Why we have a bird bath:

5:40 PM Update on Becky: She looks and sounds real good. We just finished having the most delicious supper — curry/chicken/broccoli over rice. Becky cooked it. She had her blood work done today; we’ll get the results tomorrow. She seems to be recovering well from the flu, and thus far the Lord has preserved me from getting it, so there is much to be grateful for.

4:15 PM Viterbo University (yeah, the name was new to me too) announces an opening in Servant Leadership/Religious Studies. However, isn’t a “Master’s in Servant Leadership” an oxymoron?

3:55 PM Just in from the Galana clinic: The reservoir tanks; preparation for installation; our new ambulance.

    

Lord willing, the water harvesting system will be fully installed and functional when our teams arrive next July.

By the way, we are still collecting items for the clinic. If you’re interested, please take a look at Becky’s essay calledShopping List for the Galana Clinic in Burji, Ethiopia.

3:43 PM This book arrived yesterday:

Its author was pinned down with Reno’s men during the battle. Taylor became an avid student of the debacle and completed his manuscript in 1917. Greg Martin acquired it in 1995. Eyewitness accounts are more than just interesting; they put you “there” in a way other histories cannot. Will begin reading it tonight.

3:10 PM Martin Niemöller declared several years ago that when the Heidelberg Confession was being formulated the burning question was “Who can find a merciful God?” Today, he said, the question is “Who can find a merciful neighbor?”

How thankful I am for the mercy that God has shown me. I am a very great sinner. But I am also a great recipient of mercy. If we Christians are truly receivers of God’s mercy, then we are under an obligation to become dispensers of mercy. That’s why my heart is broken for the millions in Ethiopia who have never heard about Jesus. It is an endless task — this cataloging of missional reality.

Have you reached the point in your own Christian life where you can say, definitively and without hesitation, “Take the World But Give Me Jesus”? Quoting Scripture or debating the end times will do little to sooth a broken spirit caused when one sees one’s father dying from tribal warfare. That was, I suppose, the nub of my chapel message today.

Please forgive me, students, if I was too harsh on the academy today. But I really do believe that people can be educated beyond their intelligence. The guild of New Testament scholarship is bankrupt today because we have become ingrown and have forgotten the goal of all New Testament instruction —love from a pure heart. Believe me, I don’t enjoy having to point this out. Someday, as a result, I will probably be disowned by the academy. “The nail that sticks out is hammered down” (Japanese proverb).

I care not, frankly. Christ demands that we put people over prestige or pulpits or publications. Do others really know that we love them? By our deeds and not just by our words? I suppose this is why Jesus never walked up to anyone and said, “I love you.” You see, if you have to tell people that you love them, they tend to suspect your genuineness. Evangelicals, let’s stop just saying that we love the nations. They can judge whether we love them or not.

My lecture today was both a personal confession and an accusation. Others have done both far better. Right now, though, this is where I am. I hurt inside. I hurt for the Muslims of Alaba, the Orthodox of Gondar, the warring Gujis of southern Ethiopia. This does not mean that I care to be relieved of the pain. Far from it. I am impressed that there is so much more I could do for them — and others — if I were not so self-centered and un-Christ-like. God have mercy on me.

It would be far easier to write or speak about such matters from a comfortable distance. I know how to do that. I did it for years — and despised myself afterwards. I anticipate the charge that much of what I write and say is overstated. That’s quite possible, of course. I will leave that for others to decide. Ultimately it is for each one of us to decide if we will accept the Savior’s words: Go everywhere and tell everyone. But at least let’s not pretend He never said that.

P.S. Because of the sensitive nature of my lecture (focusing on the persecution of the church in Ethiopia), I requested that the audio not be published on the seminary website. Hence if you look for it there you will not find it.

Tuesday, November 3

8:48 PM “By this is My Father glorified,” said Jesus, “if you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples” (John 8:31). Living as obedient disciples of Jesus — that’s the theme of my latest book, which has just arrived atAmazon.

As James puts it, “Be doers of the Word and not hearers only, so deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). Knowing the truth is not enough; there must be doing as well.

Someone once admitted to me, “My German is good, except for the verbs.” Can you imagine trying to speak a language without its verbs? It is idle for us to claim to be Christians without showing it in our lives.

That is my goal. Is it yours?

8:30 PM She’s home! YEAH! Her white count was a whopping 4.7, so they loosed her and let her go. And her fever is gone as well. I consider this is a DIRECT answer to your prayers. Nothing could be clearer! I can’t tell you what your emails have meant to us. Satan twists, warps, bends, and distorts the truth, but oh so many of you have reminded us that our “thorn in the flesh” is really the realm in which God has scope and power to operate. Christ has indeed been our Good Shepherd. Without Him, I can assure you, these two little sheep of His would be nothing but mutton!

I must add a rider to that statement. I am totally exhausted. It will take another miracle for me to teach my classes and give my chapel lecture on Thursday. That too is in God’s hands. But right now I’m so happy for Becky. She enjoys her home, and nobody deserves its blessings more than she does. I am speechless, struck dumb by a sense of the awesome mysterious power of God.

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me/Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.

Our love and thanks to all,

Dave and Becky Lynn

7:24 AM Clifford Kvidahl offers an excellent piece on theexordium to Hebrews. In my opinion, no other New Testament writing is so immaculately crafted to deliver a one-two punch to religion.

My two centshere.

7:16 AM Dabbled last night in my WW II escape stories. They are tales of great human resilience and community in times of crisis. Escaping involves instinctive altruism and resourcefulness — two admirable traits that, in my book, are in short supply today. The big question is: Will I live up to that standard in my own conduct?

Stay tuned….

7:12 AM Will teach my classes today, then go to be with Becky in Chapel Hill. They’ve begun giving her meds to up her white count. Praying it works. Until her white cells go up and her fever goes down she’ll be an absentee farmer. 

Monday, November 2

4:15 PM Look whose essay (.pdf) made thefront page of the latest issue of SIM Roots.

3:56 PM Congratulations — again — toDr. Jim, a blogging friend whom I’ve never met in person. Loud and blunt, he stomps through the world wide web, offering his readers a steady potpourri of wordsmithian talent. I think I understand the passion that others understand as froideur. Jim enjoys a good challenge. For him the blogosphere is — gasp! — a provocative medium and not a sedative. True, something about the slapping around can get a bit tiresome, and I say this as a huge fan of the Sainted One. It would be a serious mistake, however, to read into his childish misdemeanors a lack of genuine Menschlichkeit. Jim has a precise eye — hence the precision of the shocks he delivers to our nervous systems.

If anyone’s gonna catch Jim, they’s a gonna have to blog often — and well.

3:12 PM Just back from UNC Women’s Hospital. Becky was readmitted on Saturday with a fever. Today she was diagnosed with Influenza Type A. The results from her tests for Type B and H1N1 have not yet come back. She’s on Tamiflu and tons of antibiotics. The greatest danger is of course pneumonia. I’ve been staying in her room but came home to clean up, check on the animals, and get Becky some needed items.

How am I doing? So far no flu symptoms, praise God. Otherwise I’m a bit tired. Sunday morning was cold and rainy. I awoke with a grave drowsiness. I prayed to the Lord, then prayed with Becky. As I walked to the hospital parking lot to get into Becky’s car and drive to my speaking engagement, I felt myself flicker. Then I saw the personalized license plate Becky had chosen for herself:

ITIZWEL

…and thought, “Yes, it is.” God is sustaining us every step of the adventure. Your prayers and love have been a HUGE part of that.

I’ll be at the farm until Greek class tonight at The Hill. Students, see you at 7:00 sharp.

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Saturday, November 22

8:04 AM Greetings blogging friends! This will be my last entry of 2008. Becky and I are scheduled to return from Ethiopia on Dec. 31, just in time to usher in the New Year. Will I miss the blogging community? Are there cows in Texas? But for everything there is a time: a time to blog, and a time to refrain from blogging — which is a very good thing, too, else we would become too fond of the art. I leave you with my love, my prayers, and an ode from my favorite Scottish poet, George MacDonald (1824-1905):

Make me a fellow worker with thee, Christ;

Nought else befits a God-born energy;

Of all that’s lovely, only lives the highest,

Lifting the rest that shall never die.

Up I would be to help thee — for thou liest

Not, linen-swathed in Joseph’s garden-tomb,

But walkest crowned, creation’s heart and bloom.

Friday, November 21

1:40 PM Becky is now packing us. We’re missing one of our large suitcases so it’s off to South Boston. Meantime, here’s three from Bonhoeffer. I found them on p. 209 of Donald Durbaugh’s The Believers’ Church, which I am taking with me to read on the plane.

1) Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.”

2) “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

3) “Faith is only real when there is obedience, never without it, and faith only becomes faith in the act of obedience.”

7:31 AM Over at LRC is a post I just have to link to:The Libertarian Statesman. It’s about Ron Paul’s ideologically coherent views on government — and it’s very readable too (the interview style is quite engaging). Check it out if you have the time. It’s worth reading just for his judicious comments about our president elect.

6:49 AM Greek Geeks take note:

1) Rod Decker talks about thecomplex semotaxis of Mark’s Gospel.

2) The debate oververbal aspect continues.

3) It’s all Greek to — YOU!

6:41 AM Notes in the margin. It’s the morning before, and I woke up feeling lousy. Nothing serious, just tiredness and the makings (I hope not) of a head cold. My key word this morning is “enough”: I know that the Lord will give me “enough” rest, “enough” health, enough” strength, “enough” sleep at night to do what I have to do these next few weeks. Instead of “enough” Paul used the word “sufficient” in 2 Cor., which is close “enough.”

Right now I’m reviewing my lessons on Philippians for our Gondar evangelists. Talk about practical applications.

1) For starters: The church at Philippi began in the place of prayer. That was due to Lydia, you will recall. Our team dares to do nothing without intensive prayer. We will pray, as a team, twice daily (as often as we eat). And, as you know, we have printed aprayer itinerary for you all to use. Why? “We have this treasure in earthen jars of clay so that the surpassing greatness of the power might be of God and not of us.”

2) Then, too, have you noticed that women played a very prominent role in Philippi? This included Lydia as well as Euodia and Syntyche. Half our team are females, including an 81-year old saint. Truth is: we could not do this work without the ladies, and this includes one special lady who is phenomenally gifted in organization.

3) The ladies in Philippi, unfortunately, began quarreling. It was such a grave danger to the Gospel that Paul had to confront them — by name! — in 4:2. We leave for Ethiopia aware of the dangers that face us externally but the even graver danger of internal strife. Disunity is a sin that threatens the heart of the church. It destroys the church’s witness and effectiveness. It was abhorrent to Jesus, who prayed that we “may be one.” I think it helps to recognize that this is a constant danger and to pray accordingly.

4) Paul addresses both the saints and those who oversee and serve (these are not titles) in 1:1. These latter folk are not “over” the others but “along side” them. Every member of our team is a priest, a minister, a servant. Yet there are leaders. In fact, three pastors are going with us. Bottom line: on our team we have some excellent leaders and some excellent followers but we are all slaves of Jesus.

5) O, and how about the theme of “joy”? Paul is joyful! The Philippians are joyful! I’d say our team is very joyful! You know why so many Christians are unhappy? Because they fail to acquire what they think is essential to their happiness. (I know this from many years of experience.) The key to joyful Christian living is acquiring what will bring true, lasting joy. For Paul, that was partnering in the Gospel (1:5) — becoming a Great Commission Christian. So, Paul can be in prison and still rejoice because the Gospel is being proclaimed. Now, I admit I haven’t always had that kind of joy but I do now, and I want to taste more!

6) See also 1:6. This is the work of God! Yes, we will preach “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” But the work of the Gospel is the work of God from beginning to end. To return to Lydia for a moment, here’s a wonderful verse that says it all: “The Lord opened her heart to listen to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14). I am praying for the Lord to open many hearts on this trip. That’s His job, not mine.

7) Finally, Paul prays that the Philippians might “choose what is best” (1:9-10). Christianity gives us a new priority system. A new value system. What’s best? Not my health. Not my comfort. But the Gospel! As Paul says in 3:4-11, everything the world values turns out to be unspeakable filth in comparison to Jesus.

Well, you didn’t need this little sermon, but I did. I leave for Utopia (my father-in-law’s term for Ethiopia) a bit bedraggled in body but convinced that God’s grace is sufficient (“enough”) and that my calling in life is not to be just a Greek teacher (or even a just Greek teacher) but to be a Christian.

“Join me in suffering for the sake of the Good News, with God’s power,” wrote Paul in 2 Tim. 1:8. Okay Paul, I’ll give it another whack.

Thursday, November 20

1:29 PM Here’s a plug for William Mounce’sGreek for the Rest of Us. I quite agree that it is an excellent resource. Caleb is learning the Greek alphabet with the help of a grammar written just for children. And even if you’ve had a year or two of Greek, you could probably use a refresher. So whether it’s Mounce or some other tool, use it or lose it — and don’t worry about using “cheats” like an analytical lexicon or an interlinear either, no matter what the purists tell you. As one preacher put it, “Halitosis is better than no breath at all.”

1:24 PM From the BBC comes this report about Luther’slavatory habits. Whenever a news story begins with hyperbole such as “Archaeologists in Germany say they may have found a lavatory where Martin Luther launched the Reformation of the Christian church in the 16th Century” you know you’re in trouble. 

1:18 PM This is speculation, but William Pfaff says we ought to bebracing for a major disappointment in the Obama era. With all this talk of Clintonian retreads, I am reminded of the old adage: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

12:44 PM It’s a gorgeous day for visitors, and no visitors are more welcome at Rosewood Farm than Liz and her boys.

12:38 PM Thanks for the “Amen” brother Rick!

9:36 AM In exactly 48 hours our Burji team will be heading to RDU to kick off the trip of a lifetime. If you’d like to follow our daily schedule, Becky has just published a guide:Ethiopia Prayer Itinerary, Nov-Dec, 2008. Please feel free to copy and distribute it, link to it, or even publish it on your own website as the Lord leads. Although we have the assurance that we are engaged in His work and not our own, we still depend upon the prayers of His people!

8:27 AM The latest addition to our home page is calledAre You Going to Ethiopia Again?

6:55 AM At the Better Bibles Blog, David Frank chimes in on the translation debate with his essayWhat is a translation, and how might it be bad? I have no comment to make, except to suggest that this picture I took in a high school in Burji last summer might provide a good case study.

5:42 AM I woke up at 5:30 this morning with this thought. What does the kingdom look like? It looks just like Jesus. It doesn’t look like you, or me, or anyone else. But the more you and I begin to look like Jesus, the more we begin to look like the kingdom. Our priorities become kingdom priorities. Secondary matters don’t matter so much to us any more. O, we still have our convictions about home schooling and elder-led congregationalism, etc. But we don’t fuss and fight over them. We take Paul literally: “Let each man be convinced in his own mind.” These have become matters of personal conviction to us. Now, this is no excuse for sloppy thinking. Paul’s word means “be fully convinced.” But we can give grace to those with whom we disagree. Grey matters are now grace matters to us. What matters is the kingdom, the scandalous way of Jesus, the Savior who loves losers like us. We pledge allegiance to the cross. We fly the banner of love. And we are — if you can believe this! — even willing to make genuine sacrifices for the sake of this kingdom, a kingdom that transcends culture, tribe, and even nationality (this means no more bumper stickers that say “jesUSAves”). Can I get an Amen?

Wednesday, November 19

8:59 PM It’s almost bedtime here on the farm. Becky has been working tirelessly on travel logistics in-country for our Burji team and I believe it is all worked out (on paper, that is). I also see that Lionel has posted about the trip on hiswebsite (thank you, bro!), and I will have the itinerary up and running tomorrow Lord willing. Things are getting “excitinger and excitinger” as each day goes by.

10:05 AM Here’s a nice serendipity. One of our favorite organists will be giving a concert on December 7 atFirst Baptist Church Creedmoor, NC. Organ performance doesn’t get any better than this. We first heard Carlo Curley in Roxboro a few years ago. As splendid as the music is, the musician is even more delightful. His arrangement of Londonderry Air is spine-tingling. Becky and I won’t be able to attend, but if you can you won’t regret it.

9:39 AM I just took the dogs for a long walk down to Nate and Jessie’s farm. The morning air is crisp and cold, and the puppies are acting accordingly: frisky and excitable. I remember my horses being the same way. I suppose that is why I always loved riding in the fall and early winter. I could canter Traveler for an hour on farm paths and through fields and over creeks, and at the end I would be exhausted but he’d still be raring to go. Now, let’s see if I can apply that personally. I have a tendency to be like Peter. My progress in the Christian life is often disappointingly irregular. “Peter” of course is not only a noun meaning “Rock.” It is also a verb. Peter disappointed His Lord so often that we say he “petered” out. Failure was only half his problem. The other half was groveling in self-pity. I can identify. Especially when I realize that even my best service for Christ is often stained and faulty. My only hope is in Jesus. Like Peter with the lame beggar in Acts 3, I “give what I have.” I don’t think it’s very much. And often I think I give it with base motives. But the desire is there. I long to go all out, like my faithful horses did on those cold and crisp fall mornings.

7:21 AM I have two brief comments to make about my latest book,Perspectives on the Ending of Mark, copies of which arrived at Bradford Hall this week.

1) The lineup of contributors is truly outstanding, present company excluded. This is not false modesty. I did not intend to write an essay for this volume because I do not consider myself a text-critic. My contribution reflects two facts: my president requested that I write it, and I do have an opinion on the subject and am happy to express it in writing (for what it’s worth). That said, I do hope you will read the book: it is worth it if only to get the fresh perspectives of men who are in fact acknowledged experts in the field: Dan Wallace, Keith Elliott, and my colleague Maurice Robinson. The response by Darrell Bock is also very ably presented.

2) I was taken aback a bit when I saw the list price of 20 USD. I’ve published books of comparable length and quality that sold for (and still sell for)10 dollars. The silver lining is that the book is probably discounted at this week’s ETS/SBL meetings. You can check at the B & H booth.

 

6:53 AM Yesterday I was invited to speak in January at a Baptist Men’s Conference being hosted by the Crewe Baptist Church here in southern Virginia. This is very exciting to me because CBC is the final resting place of 4-feet 3-inch Lottie Moon, former missionary to China. Why should I feel so honored? Read these two excerpts from herbio and you’ll understand:

Raised in a family “of culture and means,” Lottie at first thought of the Chinese as an inferior people, and insisted on wearing American clothes to maintain a degree of distance from these “heathen” people. But gradually she came to realize that the more she shed her westernized trappings and identified with the Chinese people, the more their simple curiosity about foreigners (and sometimes rejection) turned into genuine interest in the Gospel. She began wearing Chinese clothes, adopted Chinese customs, learned to be sensitive to Chinese culture, and came to respect and admire Chinese culture and learning. In turn she was deeply loved and revered by the Chinese people.

Lottie Moon—the Southern belle who was once described as “overindulged and under-disciplined”—shared her own meager money and food with any and everyone around her, severely affecting both her physical and mental health.

I praise God for Lottie’s life and testimony. It sure is convicting. “Over-indulged and under-disciplined” describes me to a tee. At any rate, my topic at the conference will be “Doing Missions Jesus’ Way.” The date is January 26.

6:34 AM Isn’t this a greatdefinition of church?

Church is where Christ lives, not the place where we meet. It is Christ-empowered people, a kingdom of priests for the purpose of winning against the works of the devil and establishing God’s Kingdom (1 Cor. 3:17; Matt. 18:19; Ex. 19:6)… Christianity is not about doing church, but being the church.  Church is not some place to go to participate in, but it is about being who you are in Christ and thus experiencing His real life in you. Your Christianity was never defined by attending a particular church. It is defined by Christ in you. In other words, you are a Christian 24/7, not because you participate in a two-hour worship service, but because Christ lives in you every minute of every day.

So “church” is essentially a community of people who share life with each other. But what does that do for churches that call themselves “Such-and-Such Community Church.” Isn’t that a bit redundant? What, then, should we call the place where believers meet? Assembly? Chapel? Gathering Place? The Carpenter’s Shop? (This writer suggests “Versammlung“ instead of “Gemeinde”). I wish I knew the answer.

6:29 AM Sadly, the Muslim-bashingcontinues. This is truly a counterproductive approach to the problem.

6:18 AM Hello bloggers. Yesterday I was on campus tying up loose ends before we board the plane on Saturday. I’m trying to recall when I had a busier day. No time to blog. One of my delightful tasks was to write references for one of my former students who is applying to Ph.D. programs in different institutions. As with many of my students, I had encouraged him to pursue post-graduate studies. I knew he was applying to more than one school but I didn’t expect to write 13 references. In any case, that’s done. I also managed to send along the last corrections to my grammar and its accompanying workbook. My efficient secretary also helped me set up web pages for each of my upcoming courses, which means that syllabi are now posted at the seminary website. The most enjoyable part of my day? Collecting books I’ve written to present as gifts to Prime Minister Meles when we meet him next Monday in Addis.

Look for the trip itinerary to be posted tomorrow. Meanwhile thanks for your prayers for our trip.

Monday, November 17

7:21 PM We’re done! 400 pounds of lean, farm-fresh, hormone-free beef are now packed away snugly in our freezers. We’ve been working for 12 hours straight. Now it’s off to Nate and Jessie’s for a celebration feast.

P.S. The puppies are very happy with their new bones.

1:52 PM Break time here at the farm. We’re actually a bit ahead of schedule. Becky and Jessie have a few more roasts and steaks to cut up, and then there’s the hamburger to grind (my job). Right now Nate and I have to run down to Oxford to swap out manure trailers, then it’s back to the beef. Tonight Jessie is cooking up some fresh venison and we’ll be eating at her house (FYI: we don’t eat beef on days like these:).

6:58 AM This is the sight that greeted me this morning at 6:30. It is a beautiful day, clear and cold. Perfect for today’s project. May God bless you wherever you go and whatever you do this day.

Sunday, November 16

7:05 PM When we got home this evening I noticed that Nathan had moved the herd into the horse pasture next to Bradford Hall. Tomorrow night one of these fine fellows will be in our freezer. Yes, it’s “processing” time at the farm again.

6:45 PM Jon Glass of Cavel Baptist Church sent out this email alert to the Beulah Baptist Association. It’s a real classic. Jon, you’re hired! 

There will be an exciting opportunity to learn to read your New Testament in Greek! Dr. David Black, Professor of New Testament and Greek at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, will be offering a course at Bethel Hill Baptist Church. It is entitled “Greek For Dummies”. This is open to anyone over the age of 10. The class will begin in mid-January at Bethel Hill and meet weekly on either Monday or Thursday night from 7-9PM (no later than 9). You don’t need any foreign language experience, or even a high school diploma!  There is no fee for this course!…The course will last 8-9 months (taking some weeks off). By the completion of the course you will be able to read and translate your Greek New Testament! This is open to anyone who is interested. Homeschoolers are welcome. Pastors are welcome. Church members are welcome. Unbelievers are welcome too!

Isn’t that a great invitation? This is my small effort to return biblical education to the local church. I’m looking forward to a great class.

6:22 PM How does one tell the story of Burji? Where does one begin? For me the story begins in 2004, when Becky and I visited the land of her youth, I for the first time. I was on sabbatical and had time for a lengthy stay in Ethiopia, which included stopovers in the capital Addis Ababa, Hosanna (Becky’s first mission station), Dilla (where I taught at the small Bible school there), Langano (where Becky did clinic work), Burji/Gambo (Becky’s second mission station), and finally Gondar in the far north of the country. This is what Burji looked like when I first saw it. The old mission station in the mountains had long since been closed, and here stood a new town called Soyama, the county seat of the Burji district.

I noticed that there was an immediate bonding that took place between my wife and the people of Burji, including these precious children. Becky would have been about this girl’s age when she lived in these very same mountains.

Of course we just had to see the old mission station, so off we went on our borrowed donkeys for the half-day trek to Gambo. I remember the day being sunny and hot and that I got royally sunburned on my face. Afterwards I would joke, “Now I’m really an Ethiopian.” (“Ethiopia” comes from a Greek word meaning “burnt-faced one.”)

All along the way people asked, “Where are the faranjis (foreigners) going?” When they were told, “Gambo,” they were incredulous. “Why would anybody want to visit a ghost town?” The elders with us would reply, “This faranji grew up there. She is Mr. Lapsley’s daughter.” And then everything began coming back to these people. The woman pictured here actually remembered playing with Becky when she was a girl.

I could only imagine the memories that must have flooded Becky’s heart when we arrived in Gambo and she stood in front of the house her father had built with his own hands. Now abandoned, it will stand forever in my memory as a symbol of selfless service in the name of Christ.

Fast forward to 2008. We are returning to Ethiopia for the 8th time in 4 years. Today I asked Becky, “When was your first inkling that we might go back to Burji?” She replied, “On our second night when you plopped your head on the pillow and said to me, ‘Honey, I love these people so much it hurts.'” I clearly recall our second visit to Soyama. We had promised to return, but frankly nobody believed us. They live so far away from Addis that few make any effort to visit them. Many others had promised to return, but did they? So when we actually did show up the believers were filled with unspeakable joy. “You did not forget us, you did not forget us,” they kept repeating.

And we haven’t forgotten them. This year’s team of 12 includes Lynette, a nurse who can’t wait to teach hygiene and health courses in the rural villages of Burji. She gave her testimony in church this morning. It was simply beautiful to hear how God has led her to take this huge step of faith and to be away from her family for the first time in her life.

Then the puppet team performed the salvation time line that the Burji children will be learning. It tells of the grace of God from the days of Adam and Eve when He promised He would send a Deliverer who would die and rise again for Abraham’s children and for all mankind.

A lighter moment in the service occurred when Jason presented last year’s team member Danny with this tee-shirt. Danny was our sports expert who taught, among other things, the children how to throw a frisbee. Unfortunately, he forget to tell them how to catch it, and I can still see that first toss and the poor “receiver” getting knocked on the forehead by this strange flying disk. We will miss Danny and the other former team members who will not be with us on this trip.

Jason brought a wonderful message from Acts 13 and then had the congregation commission their missionaries to Ethiopia. It was a sober moment, one which I shall not soon forget. Ethiopia, these people truly love you!

Then it was off to North Roxboro for our prayer meeting. And pray we did. For the team members and for the families we leave behind. For the work of Oshe and the others in Burji who have worked so hard to make this trip possible. For each team member and their personalized ministry. But especially for the wonderful people of Burji.

So, where does one begin to tell the story of Burji? In eternity past with the amazing love of God? In 1954 when Becky’s parents left all the comforts of Dallas to get on a boat and sail to Africa?

In 2004 when Becky and I returned to her beloved Gambo? In 2008 when East will meet West again and the Bride will be seen in all her beauty? I do not know the answer to that question. But I do know this: there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one church, one Shepherd, one sheepfold, one authority, one table, one loaf of bread, one cup, one King, and one kingdom. Today we celebrated that kingdom and its King, for He is worthy of our ceaseless praise.

9:05 AM Today is going to be very full. It’s our last Sunday to meet with our church family at Bethel Hill Baptist, then afterwards we are holding our final community-wide prayer meeting for Ethiopia, this time at North Roxboro Baptist Church. All are welcome. Lunch starts at 1:00 pm, prayer time at 1:30.

8:55 AM Becky just gave me my final haircut before we leave for Africa. (That is, she cut what little is left of my hair.) Should hold me over until I visit my favorite barber in the whole world. Haile has a small shop in Alaba but a huge clientele. Haile, see you soon!

7:46 AM Now here’s some good news for a change: Kenya says kidnapped nuns safe in Somalia.

7:43 AM As a follow-up to my earlier post this morning I offer this essay by LA Times writer Jeffrey Fleishman:Obama could change dynamics in the Arab world. Those who believe that America’s multiculturalism is a bad thing should take note. This is pure speculation, but it seems that Obama comes on the scene at a very opportune moment. As Fleishman observes:

Obama’s presidency also comes when the Middle East is engaged in intense debate between Muslim moderates and conservatives over the role of Islam. Moderates seek more openness to democracy and rapprochement with the West. Obama offers a tantalizing message that may inspire them while disarming fundamentalists who gained followers and benefited from what many here regard as Bush’s war against Muslims.

7:25 AM You’ll find this quote in chapter two of my forthcoming book. The citation is from Jim Elliott’s journals. My point, and his, is that doctrine should always lead to discipleship. I hope you’ll enjoy the quote as much as I did. 

Systematic theology, be careful how you tie down the Word of God to fit your set and final creeds, systems, dogmas, and organized theistic philosophies. The Word of God is not bound! It’s free to say what it will to the individual, and no one can outline it into dispensations which cannot be broken. Don’t get it down “cold” but let it live, fresh, warm, and vibrant, so that the world is not binding ponderous books about it, but rather it is shackling you for having allowed it to have full course in your life.

7:05 AM Good Sunday morning, one and all. As I prepare to travel again to an unstable part of the world, I am in prayer for our nation. With Iraq, a new norm has been established. The U.S. now has a foreign policy that virtually grants Washington the right of arbitrary aggression. Politely, we call it “anticipatory self-defense,” but in reality it is no different from the policy of imperial Japan when it attacked Pearl Harbor on a date “which will live in infamy” (Franklin D. Roosevelt).

Whatever sympathy Japan might had for its cause disappeared on that terrible December morning in 1941. Well do I recall the global wave of support for the U.S. after 9/11. I marveled at the candlelight vigils, even in the streets of Tehran. Today Mr. Obama is receiving a similar outpouring of goodwill from the nations of the world — or at least he is enjoying the absence of antipathy.

My prayer — and yes, it is something I pray for — is that the president-elect will do what George W. Bush should have done and could have done in the first place: implement a response to the attacks directed at the terrorists themselves and at the reservoir of potential support. I have traveled the world enough to know that not all of the grievances coming from the Middle East are legitimate. But many are, and they are the root cause of Islamic militancy. The pathology of hatred must be reduced before it creates even more chaos. In the meantime I sincerely hope that all Americans will realize that there is little moral difference between the U.S.’s jihad against those it deems its enemies and the Islamists’ jihad against those they believe to be their enemies. The disastrous consequences of our current foreign policy can be objectively indicated. There is no need to be a born-again Christian to see this. Yet that is precisely why I pray. It is only the activity of God that can bring us out of the dilemma we face.

This is the hour neither for Realpolitik not for political activism. It is the hour for all Christians to rediscover who their neighbor is. It is not really a matter of politics at all. It is simply a matter of being who we are as Christians — the Body of Christ, His hands, His feet, His heart — a living expression of His love for all mankind.

This is the heart cry of my forthcoming book. This is why I am going back to Ethiopia. The amazing thing is that it took so long for me to realize that this is what Jesus meant when He said “follow Me.” I’ve had a lot of repenting to do and still do.

Saturday, November 15

5:36 PM The sun set 25 minutes ago. When it did I was covered with horse manure from head to toe. Nate and Jess just got back from a trip out of town and, wind or no wind, the trailer’s contents needed spreading. The van got stuck so we hitched up our trusty old Massie-Ferguson. No matter which way you tossed the dung it ended up getting all over you. And know what? I loved every minute of it. That’s the hardest part of leaving the States. I really, really miss the farm. Even the manure. Now you KNOW I’m crazy!

By the way, the threesome down the farm path are joining us for some of B’s great Ethiopian cuisine in a few minutes. I can smell it even as I type. I’d rather have Becky’s home-cooked injera b’ wat than eat in a fancy restaurant.

10:45 AM Right now I’m off to deliver Ethiopian prayer guides to the Roxboro area churches. The sun is finally awakening from its slumber!

10:37 AM At Truth Dig, Scott Ritter offers Mr. Obama some advice about hisIranian stance. Ritter seems optimistic:

A clean break with the neoconservative policies of the Bush administration is a prerequisite for success, and achieving this requires great imagination and courage. President-elect Barack Obama has demonstrated the potential for both of those qualities. I hope that promise is realized.

10:30 AM Clifford Kvidahl reviewsBasics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek.

Friday, November 14

6:10 PM Our email had a major hiccup today. If you’ve sent us an email in the past few days and have not received a reply yet, please consider resending. Thank you. Dave

6:06 PM STOP THE PRESSES! Oshe and the clinic shipment have arrived safely in Burji! From his email:

Thank you! I cannot thank you enough for your daily encouragement word and pray. Please Pass Big thanks to those folks who prayed for me and send the encouragement word when I was on this process. God bless you, Oshe Burje 

It doesn’t get any better than this. People of Galana and environs, improved health care is on its way, thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we praise with our whole heart! 

11:18 AM Restoration, not condemnation — that’s the responsibility of the church when a brother or sister falls. This point is nicely made inbrother Woods’ latest post.

When we first moved from southern California to the tobacco fields of North Carolina 10 years ago I learned that the Special Olympics are held in Raleigh. I recall watching one of the races on TV — Down’s Syndrome children running around a track full out. As they neared the finish line all of a sudden one of them fell down. Know what happened next? All of the other children stopped and picked up the fallen runner so that they could finish the race together.

When I saw that I said, “That’s the church!” Restoration or condemnation? The answer is clear: Just read Gal. 6:1. Better still, let’s memorize it and then practice it. (Three fingers are pointing at me!)

10:22 AM I’ve often emphasized on this blog the unity of the Body of Christ and the reality of being one with the church in Burji. But God does not look upon us simply as congregations but as individuals. To each one of us He says, “I love you. You are important to me.” That includes Sarai our cook.

And elder Joseph, who loaned us his donkey so that Becky could get to Gambo where she grew up.

And our adopted son Worku, who is a servant in the Soyama town church.

And blind Shoko, who can recite from memory entire New Testament books.

This, my friends, is the beautiful Bride of Christ. We are so eager to see them again. Miss Mary said to me last night, “I am so excited about going back to Ethiopia I can’t sleep at night.”

You say you can’t go to Africa. I have a suggestion for you. Practice the love you have with the people you know. However great our gifts, if we fail to love weare failures.

9:53 AM An FYI. Beginning in January I will be offering a course called “Greek for Dummies” at Bethel Hill Baptist Church near Roxboro, NC. Everyone, age 10 and above, whether genius or moron, is welcome to attend. Home scholars and entire families are especially welcome. There is no fee, but you will have to get a copy of ourbeginning grammar, which you can buy used at Amazon. I’ll provide a pronunciation CD gratis. Enrollment will be limited to 30. And no, you do not have to be a Baptist to attend.

9:42 AM I was back in Rom. 1:14 for my devotions this rainy morning. Paul says, “I am debtor.” Note that he did not say, “I owe a debt.” One can always pay off a debt. But being a debtor goes much deeper than that. It is part of our very nature. It’s something we are, not just something we do. Paul is saying that we are never without obligation to serve every man or woman whom we have an opportunity to serve. If anyone could have claimed to be a creditor instead of a debtor, it was the apostle Paul. BUT HE NEVER TRIED TO IMPRESS OTHER PEOPLE WITH HIS SUPERIORITY. Like his Savior, he served with all humility. That’s because pride always closes the door to effective service.

Aesop once told a story about a frog who desired to spend the winter in warmer climes. It was too far away for him to hop so he decided to catch a ride with a couple of geese. He found a string and asked each goose to grip one end while he with his powerful jaws held onto the middle. And away they went. While they were heading south a farmer looked up with admiration and shouted, “Who invented that?” “I did,” answered the frog. But that was his last invention.

7:49 AM Some pix from last night’s orientation. The food Becky prepared:

First-timers Lynette and Molly get an explanation of Ethiopian etiquette.  

Details, details, details.  

The team itinerary, day by day.  

Each member has a “ministry” suitcase, including seeds for the AG workshop.  

Jason showing off his contribution to the effort: Ethiopian napkins.  

Matt, Ed, Jamie, Lynette, Jon, Jason, Molly, Leigh, Cindy, Dave, Becky, and Mary.  

Please keep your Burji team in your prayers. Only 8 days to go.

Thursday, November 13

12:44 PM Becky has just gone off to the grocery store to get the ingredients for her Ethiopian dishes. I can already taste the beriberi and smell the aroma of the doro wat and the tsige wat. Even Wikipedia has an entry on the cuisine of Abyssinia, though Becky hardly needs to cook with recipes.

12:04 PM I had to chuckle, albeit it uneasily, when I read Lionel Woods latest post calledBattle Ram Christianity, simply because I have been guilty of it so often. I really believe that God opposes the proud because pride is an enemy of our highest usefulness in His service. How often are my “gifts” poisoned by the pride of the giver. You may remember that I have a lot to say about this in my forthcoming book on discipleship, which is really an autobiography of sorts. In any case, you’ll enjoy — uneasily perhaps — what Lionel has to say.

11:52 AM We serve a serendipitous God, don’t we? While driving to the post office to pick up our passports with our new Ethiopian visas, the BBC was reporting about the newBabylon exhibit at the British Museum. I had to chuckle because years ago I would not have had the faintest interest in the display. My interest in the Middle East is now fast-blooming.

9:02 AM Today, with the kind permission of the authors, I’ve been pouring over the second pages ofLearn to Read New Testament Greek Workbook. I tell you, they have done a splendid job. It’s entirely different from other workbooks I’ve seen and I can’t wait to use it in my own classes. B & H Academic has granted my request that pages be available at ETS/SBL, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you stop by their booth and take a peek. Of course, I realize that I am totally unbiased.

7:35 AM Now thatPerspectives on the Ending of Mark has been released (Amazon should have copies shortly), you might be interested in reading the posts that Alan Knox wrote when he live-blogged the original conference back in 2007.

• Maurice Robinson

• Dan Wallace

• Keith Elliott

• Dave Black

• Darrell Bock

• Panel Discussion

Others who commented areJosh McManaway andTheron Stancil. Again, my thanks to each one of you.

7:10 AM Good morning, blogging buddies. I’ve reflected a good deal lately on the anti-Muslim sentiment of a large segment of “Christian” America and have concluded that the problem is essentially theological. Too many modern evangelicals believe that the kingdom of Jesus is of this world. For them the cross is a sign of military victory as it was for Constantine. This political kingdom has to be installed by military power. To support the military crusade one needs a propaganda campaign.

This view, it seems to me, is held by a goodly number of conservative, Bible-believing Christians who undoubtedly think they are doing the right thing. An alliance between church and empire seems as natural to them as going out for supper after Sunday church. But I am frightened to see how readily the church has accepted this attitude. In my devotions this morning I was led to Rom. 1:14-15, in which I am instructed not to make any distinctions between people based on their ethnicity or level of education. How can the church, then, participate in the mistake of Constantinianism or advance the propagandistic line that “we must fight them” — the “them” currently being all Islamic states? In reality the church ought to renounce all this. It should refuse to serve as an instrument of political force or propaganda. Yet how is this possible when the American flag flies proudly in our sanctuaries? The church of the martyrs wanted to obey God and not men. We have traded all that for padded pews, titles, honors, money, and “patriotism.” The church is now politicized to the hilt. And therein, I believe, lies our problem.

There are many excellent churches in which the announcement that the U.S. flag is being removed from the place of worship would be about as winsome as the announcement that certain forms of contagious disease were to be put on display the following Sunday. But God is able to run His church without the pledge of allegiance. When Paul wrote to the Philippians he addressed them as “saints” (1:1). He could have addressed them as “Philippians,” as he did in 4:15. But he was not concerned about their political status or nationality. Politically they were Philippians — and to be such was a great honor in that day — but God’s amazing grace had made them saints. They now lived in a completely different sphere of existence. They belonged to a different order of things. They had been separated unto God. They existed for His glory, not Rome’s.

Paul was very clear in this regard. “Our citizenship is in heaven,” he wrote in Phil. 3:20. “Live as good citizens of heaven in a manner worthy of the Gospel,” is the letter’s first and most comprehensive command. The Book of Acts and Paul’s letters show that political liberalism (or conservatism) is but an illusion. It is not against flesh and blood that we have to fight but against thrones and powers and authorities and against the princes of the world of darkness. The scandal is that the church continues to be used as an instrument of state propaganda, expecting many advantages from the state in return (tax exemption being one). Funny, I have never seen a national flag in the sanctuary of churches in other nations I have visited or preached in — India, South Korea, Britain, China, France, Switzerland, Armenia, Germany, Holland, Romania, Israel, Ethiopia, etc. Jesus’ attitude is not just apolitical but antistatist. I just don’t know why it is so hard for American evangelicals to see this. We are to be citizens of heaven. All else is a perversion.

Wednesday, November 12

7:35 AM I’ve got a long list of things to do today at my office in Wake Forest. Afterwards I’ll need to pick up some injera at the Abyssinian Restaurant in Raleigh for tomorrow night’s Ethiopian feast. Only ten more days before we leave. Becky has already typed our prayer itinerary for those of you who would like to follow our day-in, day-out schedule. I’ll post it next week. In the meantime I know I can count on your prayers for the clinic shipment. You guys are the greatest!

7:26 AM A wonderful ode was written by Mrs. Gussy Knott, poet-in-residence at North Roxboro Baptist Church. It’s called “Full Time Missionary.” It’s based on a message I recently gave on Matthew 9:35-38 at the Beulah Baptist Association’s annual meeting. Thank you so very much, Miss Gussy, for this labor of love.

Jesus gave us a one word command “Go!”

On a filthy, dirty cross He died, because He loved us so.

We must leave our comfort zone, go seek and save

Peoples everywhere, in the cities, the towns, even the caves.

We must teach, preach, and help heal,

This is our mission for God and our “Big Deal”!

We need compassion, motivation, sharing with all we meet,

From the highest to the lowest, to “washing of the feet”!

Find peace and contentment with God and yourself,

Be a missionary, get off your comfortable shelf!

I want to be a missionary for my Lord,

Speaking His message of faith at home and abroad.

I want to labor with love for lost souls each day,

Take my vacations witnessing for God, without any pay!

7:12 AM Last Sunday I heard two of our Burji team members — a husband and wife —  give testimony to the level of commitment it takes to leave father, mother, sister, brother, children, etc. for Christ’s sake. They mentioned how they had written their will and had seen to it that their young children would be cared for should mom and dad somehow not return from Ethiopia. It was a very moving testimony. The husband, by the way, is a “shepherd” (or “pastor,” but the word is simply ametaphor). We in the West hardly understand the devotion of an Eastern shepherd to his flock. He loved his sheep. He was ready and willing to give his life for them. This fact came home to me a few years ago when I saw a picture on the BBC website of a young Ethiopian shepherd boy. The countryside had been flooded, and the government was evacuating stranded people by helicopter. In the picture stood this boy and his flock on a small hill, surrounded by miles of floodwaters. Above him stood the rescue helicopter, ready to lower its cage. But the boy refused to be rescued. He insisted on staying with his sheep, whatever the cost to him personally.

Jesus said that a good shepherd is like that. He gives his life for the sheep. This does not mean that we are never afraid. It does mean that more and more we learn to defy our fears. Like youthful David when confronted with lion and bear, we have the courage to put our lives at risk for the sake of the sheep. Only God knows what will befall our team in Ethiopia. But this I know: the shepherd’s path does not always lead through green pastures and beside still waters. Still, a good shepherd is courageous. What is courage? Courage is doing what we ought to do, even when our knees are buckling with fear.

Tuesday, November 11

12:11 PM Quick heads-up, students! Tomorrow I’ll be on campus working on my syllabi for this coming J-Term and Spring Semester. If all goes as planned, these syllabi should be accessible on the seminary’s website Thursday morning. If you have any questions feel free to email me. Once again, here are the courses I’ll be teaching: J-Term:Greek I; Spring Semester:Greek II, Greek Syntax and Exegesis, and Intermediate Greek Grammar.

12:08 PM Yesterday was a veritable riot of joy, and today the silence seems deafening by comparison. I took Caleb and Isaac down to the road gate to get the mail and showed them our now-completed fence.

It gave me great satisfaction to know that every inch of fencing on our farm was put there by Nathan and me. We cut down every cedar, dug every hole, set every post, unrolled every foot of woven wire, pounded every staple, ran every centimeter of barbed wire, etc. All 123 acres were fenced in, plus a good deal of interior cross-fencing. Cuts, tick bites, mashed thumbs are now all but forgotten. Any way, every time I see the fence I am provided with a splendid excuse to say “thank you” to the God who gave Nate and me such a wonderful time of bonding.

Meanwhile, today Becky is working tirelessly on our trip preparations, including Thursday night’s final orientation for the Burji team, at which she will serve authentic Ethiopian food that she herself will prepare. I always enjoy watching the looks on people’s faces when they taste doro wat for the first time.

The BIG NEWS otherwise is that the clinic shipment will, Lord willing, be released from customs tomorrow — pending our payment of a sizable tax. But at least it will be on its way southward. Praise the Lord for answered prayer! Hasn’t He been good to us? Please pray for a safe journey for the truck as well as Oshe and the driver. It is a 17-hour drive from Addis to Soyama, if all goes well. Keep in mind that in Ethiopia, people think roads are meant for animals and pedestrians, not vehicles. 

More happy pix from yesterday’s “Day on the Farm”:

Monday, November 10

2:35 PM We’re having a great time with “our” boys. Right now they’re down for their nap. Our projects today included cleaning out the last of our raised garden beds.

… helping Mama B nail up her rose bushes.  

… pulling weeds.

… planting the new berry bushes.  

… getting rid of the old shower curtains.  

… and deep-cleaning the bath tub.  

Here Micah serenades Papa B on the eclectic piano. He sang, “Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World.”  

And here Isaac shows me the lady bug he just found.

What great kids. After naptime we’re going on an adventure walk into the woods. Who knows what we might find!

2:05 PM Any piece entitledU.S. Foreign Policy, Not Islamic Teachings Account for al-Qaeda’s Draw is going to grab my attention. Beyond the effects of spiritual and moral degradation, the anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. does nothing but fuel the fire of radicalism on both sides of the equation. Ask any farmer: If you sow weeds, they will surely grow.

12:50 PM Farm Update:

1) We’re seeing some bona fide (pardon the Latin) progress on Nate and Jessie’s back porch. Got most of the wiring completed this weekend. Nathan also had me dig a big ditch and then fill it back in again. Then there’s this pic: I was feeding Nathan some wire when I felt something crawl up my leg. Nathan insisted on capturing His Klutziness on film. Just before taking the picture he quipped,  “Good thing I didn’t pull any harder, dad.”

2) Dadya is now official. At least her name is. She is now a Registered AKA Shetland Sheepdog. What’s more, she is settling down nicely in her new home sweet home. Yours truly has gone from being a handy object to playfully bark at to a trusted friend and tummy rubber. She is a delight to watch growing up. Sure glad we kept her.

3) Nate and Jessie walked the property line to check on any broken fences. This Saturday WW III begins, aka hunting season, when otherwise fairly sane and normal adults lose all common sense and any respect they have for private property. Maybe it’s just me, but I have never considered it “hunting” when grown men sit in their trucks by the side of the road and blast to pulp anything that moves.

4) Matt and Liz’s kids are visiting Mama B and Papa B today. Got lots of farm work to do. They are always a big help. Pix to come.

10:12 AM I have to agree to a point with thisban on Latinisms. I myself am prone toward obfuscation in writing (for example, using words like “obfuscation”). Better to stick with short Anglo-Saxon expressions. In Latin I especially detest, inter alia, quid pro quo.

9:38 AM The latest addition to our home page is calledWhat Government Cannot Do. 

9:35 AM Yesterday I received a preposterous forward of a forward. You may have received something similar. I opened it because it was from a trusted sender. Or so I thought. It reads as follows:

CHRISTMAS STAMPS

How ironic is this?? They don’t even believe in Christ and they’re getting their own Christmas stamp, but don’t dream of posting the ten commandments on federal property?

USPS New Stamp
 

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of Pan Am Flight 103!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the military Barracks in Saudi Arabia!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American Embassies in Africa!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on 9/11/2001!

REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!

Now the United States Postal Service REMEMBERS and HONORS the EID MUSLIM holiday season with a commemorative first class Holiday postage stamp.

REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp when purchasing your stamps at the post office. To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.

REMEMBER to pass this along to every Christian and/or Patriotic AMERICAN that you know!!! 

I suspect this is yet another email hoax in that the Muslim feast ofEid has nothing to do Christmas as we know it. Still, to make a point, I decided to respond. Here was my reply:

What an interesting email. That’s a lot to remember! While you’re at it, may I make a few suggestions?

REMEMBER that Jesus said, “Love your enemies.”

REMEMBER that Jesus said, “Pray for those who persecute you.”

REMEMBER that Paul said, “Do not repay evil for evil.”

REMEMBER that Paul said, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink.”

REMEMBER that Paul said, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Did you know that Jesus loves Muslims? He really does! Radically and scandalously! And so do I!

I reach out to Muslims in several different countries. I reach out to Muslims even in Ethiopia. Did you know that one of our adopted Ethiopian sons is named Mohammed? He was imprisoned in Ethiopia for murdering a Christian. I shared Jesus with him in prison and now he is your brother in Christ! We have just opened a health clinic in Ethiopia as an outreach to mostly Muslim peasants. I could go on and on about what the Lord Jesus is doing among Muslims. Yes, I grieve over the innocent lives lost on 9/11. But I ALSO grieve over the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi lives that have been lost.

If I thought Jesus was getting upset about this postage stamp, I would too. Right now I’m a bit too busy about the kingdom to boycott it.

Bottom line: If God brings Muslims to live in the United States by the hundreds of thousands (and He has), I will love on them, develop relationships with them, and do everything I can to lead them to Jesus.

Joyfully in the Lamb,

Dave Black

Saturday, November 8

7:17 AM Over at the National Interest Ted Galen Carpenter asks perhaps the question of the hour: Will Mr. Obama’s “change” in foreign policy befor the better or for the worse?

If President Obama adopts a security strategy confined to defending vital American interests, he will win—and deserve—the gratitude of the American people. If, on the other hand, he embraces a nebulous crusade to secure “human dignity” all over the world through the instruments of U.S. foreign aid and military power, he will undermine his own administration and ignite yet another round of public frustration about the unwillingness of political leaders to focus on America’s best interests and well-being. That is the fundamental choice facing President Obama as he enters the Oval Office.

Really, it is a hugely important issue. I do not doubt Mr. Obama’s Americanism, his obvious good will, his intelligence, and his fundamental optimism. Speaking personally, I am ready for a change from the McCarthyism and political demagoguery that frightens people with color-coded warnings at airports and impugns the patriotism of those questioning such inanity. Mr. Obama certainly has my prayers.

6:58 AM Mike Knox is excited about hisFriday night sermon.

Friday, November 7

7:08 PM I’ve given up on proof reading tonight. I can no longer even see straight. Here’s what I feel like right now.

On the other hand, Nate and Jess have just arrived — with popcorn — so I have nothing to complain about. Hasta la vista! 

11:32 AM I see there’s an entire post dedicated tounderstanding web jargon, which is, I think, a very good thing.

Now we really need someone to give us a discussion of the theological jargon and clichés we throw around even though we know we are speaking over people’s heads. Here’s a classic example: “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.” Wow. Sounds pretty astute. Of course, all Paul is saying is that pastor-teachers should be about one paramount thing: “to prepare God’s people for works of service.” Now that’s more like it. Even I can understand what Paul is saying. Creeds yes, but deeds, yes, yes, yes! And deeds performed by ALL God’s people, not just super-saints!

Maybe more of our translations should use the KISS method: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

11:14 AM Over at the Boston Globe, Andrew Bacevich has written a fine essay with perhaps an overly-optimistic title:Evangelical Foreign Policy Is Over. A snippet to whet your appetite:

We’ve tried having a born-again president intent on eliminating evil. It didn’t work. May our next president acknowledge the possibility that, as Niebuhr put it, “the evils against which we contend are frequently the fruits of illusions which are similar to our own.” Facing our present predicament requires that we shed illusions about America that would have offended Jesus himself.

Is our crusading really over? That will be determined by a number of critical factors, not least is the makeup of the president-elect’s new cabinet, which so far does not look too promising (see Raimondo’s latest:Forget the Honeymoon). What interesting days we live in.

10:13 AM Chuck Baldwin writes about the GOP implosion in his latest essay titledConservatives Lost More Than An Election. Be sure not to miss his peroration.

By the way, my hat’s off to my friend Chuck. He job was teeth-grindingly difficult. A spoiler he was, as Yoda might have put it. There were, blessedly, a few late endorsements (Ron Paul for one, though that didn’t seem to matter much to the Paulinistas). I’m probably not the only one who appreciated Chuck’s modesty and self-effacement, sans the swagger and gun slinging pose of 43. What a glorious respite it was to extol a constitutionalist who believes in limited government! Chuck struck a chord because his passionate efforts reflected those great American ideals of liberty and self-responsibility. No, I am not saying that politics is the solution to what ails us as a society. But if we claim to be a nation that follows the rule of law, why shouldn’t we follow the “law”?

A tip of the old kepi, then, to two great American patriots. In multos annos!

9:46 AM The latest addition to our home page is called Be a Peter! 

9:14 AM How are we getting along here at Rosewood? Much better now that the queen bee is back in the hive. Frankly, things were awfully boring around here without her. She gave me a complete (and exciting!) update last night over a wonderful Chinese buffet. Afterwards both my heart and stomach were filled to capacity. I don’t understand why people aren’t interested in their family’s past, their heritage, their successes and failures, their struggles. I myself have only recently begun to explore my family tree (saps and all) and, interestingly enough, it seems that a major branch is to be found along an unknown creek in western Maryland — unknown at least until 1862 — the Antietam. If you’ve ever read about the Millers, them’s my great and great-great grandfathers. German pacifists to boot. (Doesn’t God have a sense of humor?) One day me and Nate is gonna take us a drive up to them parts and do some ‘splorin’, and that’s fur sure.

Our Ethiopia trip kicks off in just two weeks. Are you still praying for the clinic shipment, which remains glued to the airport tarmac in Addis? We’re making “progress” — three steps forward, three steps back. But in spite of it all we remain undaunted in the Lord. We are being forced to rely totally and completely upon Him, which is always a good lesson to learn. Oshe very much needs our prayers, however.

Today my plans are to help Nathan finish the fencing and install some new indoor-outdoor carpet on our back porch. The day is beautiful. Enjoy it.

Thursday, November 6

12:57 PM A Former Leader’s Journey has just posted a lengthy but well-worth-your-time piece aptly titledHusband Replacement. No silly photos on my end to accompany this essay. It’s too serious, folks. By the way, anyone who unreflectively sneers at the author for questioning our unhealthy co-dependency needs some serious refocusing.

Pastors, PLEASE read it.

12:38 PM Lionel Woods has penned another winner with a remix onMatthew 23:8-12. As everybody knows, this is one of my favorite passages, which I suppose means that I better start practicing what it preaches. (Are you listening, “Brother” Jason? He-he!).

By the way, Big L, guess what I’m doing right now. Mopping the floor. LOL!

12:16 PM At Anti-War Jim Lobe continues his examination of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy leanings in an essay calledObama to Seek Global Reengagement, But How Much? It’s an interesting peek behind the curtain and will be of interest to anyone who travels abroad on a regular basis or is simply interested in U.S. foreign relations (that should be all of us, I suppose). I wonder if this quote doesn’t make a good summary of his argument:

Where Obama himself stands within that spectrum remains unclear to most observers, in part because foreign policy virtually disappeared from the presidential campaign after the financial crisis broke in mid-September.

The biggest global challenges for the U.S. are still ahead, that’s for sure.

10:04 AM I don’t know how I missed this one, but you must read it:Last Thoughts On The Election.

8:55 AM Blogging, as everyone knows, bridges multiple social networks. That’s what makes it one of the most powerful publishing options today. Blogging has, in fact, developed into a literary form of its own. It’s instant self-publishing at its best (or, as the case may be, at its worst). Naturally I encourage my students to publish (that is, to publish journal articles, book reviews, etc. in print venues). Many have already done so. (Kudos to you!) But I am also encouraged to see so many of them publishing their ideas on the Internet. To me, this is as legitimate as writing for Filologia Neotestamentaria, despite the objections of the blog-wary purists. Along the way, we can actually see their ideas develop, their writing improve, their convictions emerge side-by-side with their blog posts. We have yet to see what the long-term impact of student blogging will be. But I for one believe that things are working out quite nicely.

So to all student bloggers I say: your truth-telling is making a difference. Don’t give up the ship!

7:28 AM This has got to be one of the best posts I’ve read onchurch leadership, other than the ones I’ve written. Seriously, it is good to have this kind of discussion on the record. I can testify from personal experience that these words are true (NB: lower case is in the original):

i think that’s why it’s so easy to buy into the worldly/corporate model. it truly is easier, safer, more predictable.  and for all intents and purposes, it probably does “work.”  it is definitely what will get you elected. or a good paying church job! i do have so much of the old dna embedded inside me and i am sure that is why a lot of the time i feel like such a leadership loser.  and yep, by a typical christian leadership book, i am. i am pretty sure we’re not strategic enough, focused enough, certain enough, objective enough, faithful enough, tough enough, you-name-it enough. but i think what i am learning is that most all the measures i used to value are probably the last thing i should be measuring myself against.

The whole piece is well worth reading.

7:25 AM I just received my invitation to the2009 meeting of the SNTS in Vienna next summer. Here are theseminars one can choose from. I predict a very good turn out. Austria is lovely, and Vienna even boasts an Ethiopian church I would like to visit. Might make a nice 33rd wedding anniversary trip for Becky and me.

7:23 AM Here’s an interesting list ofworld headlines after the Obama victory. For your interest and (perhaps even) your edification, I’ve added a couple more here:

• Die Zeit (Germany): Mister President, wir haben Angst!

• Das Stern (Germany): Obama macht Tempo beim Personal

• Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland):Präsident Obama: Klarer Wahlsieg über McCain – Erstmals ein Schwarzer im Weissen Haus

• China Daily: Hu congratulates Obama on election

• El Pais (Spain): Obama perfila ya su Gobierno

• Expresso (Portugal): Sim, ele conseguiu!

• La Prensa (Nicaragua): Obama, activo antes de asumir la Casa Blanca

• The Standard (Hong Kong): History as Obama elected America’s first black president

• Star Bulletin (Hawaii): Win resonates across ocean

• Honolulu Advertiser (Hawaii): Obama: Hawaii’s own makes history

• Express (Greece): Ο Ομπάμα αντιμέτωπος με τις οικονομικές προκλήσεις

• L’Osservatore Romano (Vatican):Il senatore Barack Obama vince la corsa alla Casa Bianca

• Wiener Zeitung (Austria): Jubel über Triumph Obamas

• Iran Daily: Time for US Policy Change

• Jornal de Brasilia (Brasil): Democratas também vencem nas eleições para governadores

• Liechtensteiner Volksblatt (Liechtenstein): Liechtenstein freut sich über Obama-Sieg

By far the most interesting of these headlines, at least to me, are those of Die Zeit (“Mister President: We are Worried!”) and the Iran Daily (for obvious reasons). 

My thanks to this wonderful website:onlinenewspapers.com.

7:00 AM Every time someone discovers the writings of Karl Barth I give a cheer, not least when they happen to be aRoman Catholic. Kudos, then, to Mark the Aristotelian, with the hope that many others will join him. Agree or disagree with Barth, you can’t very well ignore him, as the writer correctly notes. NB: For a really good Barth quote (I promise), gohere.

6:56 AM I’m not surprised to hear it, but it’s nice to see itin print:

Christian dogma has been kidnapped by Western thought, and largely designed and conditioned to advance Western culture and values, with little regard to non-western societies. We might also state, by context, it is also presupposed that Christianity is Western.

A classic case in point: People often say that I work in “Africa.” That’s true, but it’s easy to overlook the fact that Africa is comprised of some 54 independent nations, none of which is like any of the others. I predict a lot of people also don’t realize just how America-centric the church in many African nations is, including the church in Ethiopia. This came home to me recently when I picked up a copy of the so-called “Africa Study Bible” and saw that it was (again) lumping all of Africa into one indistinguishable lump. I found indeed very little that had to do with Africa except for the occasional comment “in Africa, people….” We Westerners may be excused for making such misjudgments, but Africans themselves should know better (the authors were mostly trained in the West). In Ethiopia the language of instruction in the theological colleges is still English, and there is very little literature produced in Amharic. This will all change, I hope, with the next generation of Bible scholars. As Mr. Joseph notes, this is not an unimportant matter.

6:45 AM I won’t belabor the point, but I sure do enjoy not raking leaves any more. It’s a total waste of time and energy (we don’t use leaf mulch). Plus, don’t you think the Lord put those leaves there for a reason (my wife says it’s God putting the earth to sleep for the winter and covering it up with a blanket)? But I think this essay says it much better than I ever could:Why Raking Leaves is Wrong!  

No, you are not permitted to disagree.

6:33 AM This is one of the most beautiful fall days I’ve witnessed. I wish you could see the foliage bursting forth in color and the bluebirds chirping. Today is also THE BIG DAY — Becky gets back home. They made it as far as Black Mountain, NC, last night. Should be home around mid-afternoon. They are having a perfectly delightful time, thank the Lord.

Wednesday, November 5

4:04 PM Over at Biblical Evangelism, I find anexcellent essay distinguishing mere believism from obedient discipleship. My eyebrows rose a bit when I read this:

A lot of people may say they are a believer for the following reasons; they go to church, they were baptized as infants in the church, they were told they are saved because they said a prayer, or they were born in the United States.

Perhaps it’s not always best to ask a person if they are a believer in God when you first meet. Maybe we should say, are you a follower of Jesus. Or maybe we should add, have you been following Him since you believed.

Simply priceless. Oddly enough, when I introduce myself to someone I have never met before (say, on an airplane) I tell them I’m a follower of Jesus. Simple and to the point. I don’t use the term “Christian” anymore.

1:59 PM By the way, Obama-mania has hit, of all places,Ethiopia. T-shirt sales prove it. Maybe I can get one in November. I have a very good friend stateside who would love it, size extra-large.

1:04 PM And now a brief departure from our normal fare here at DBO. Let’s play a little game of “Who said it?”

Unless, however, I am misled by affection for my undertaking, there has never existed any commonwealth greater in power, with a purer morality, or more fertile in good examples; or any state in which avarice and luxury have been so late in making their inroads, or poverty and frugality so highly and continuously honoured, showing so clearly that the less wealth men possessed the less they coveted. In these latter years wealth has brought avarice in its train, and the unlimited command of pleasure has created in men a passion for ruining themselves and everything else through self-indulgence and licentiousness.

For you purists:

Ceterum aut me amor negotii suscepti fallit, aut nulla unquam res publica nec maior nec sanctior nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit, nec in quam [civitatem] tam serae avaritia luxuriaque immigraverint, nec ubi tantus ac tam diu paupertati ac parsimoniae honos fuerit. Adeo quanto rerum minus, tanto minus cupiditatis erat: nuper diuitiae auaritiam et abundantes voluptates desiderium per luxum atque libidinem pereundi perdendique omnia invexere.

Here’s theanswer. He could have been writing today.

10:56 AM Is library-gazing a new trend in publishing? Not only do we getthis interesting overview from when-I’m-not-studying-Greek-Mike, but there’s a new book out on Hitler’s reading habits called Hitler’s Private Library, which is discussedhere.

We read:

“Books, always more books! I can never remember Adolf without books,” Kubiczek recalled. “Books were his world.”

You would be truly embarrassed at my library holdings — or lack thereof. I love tomes so much I’ve had to squelch the urge to buy books and instead visit libraries. I will add one more thing: If you really want to know what a man thinks, I think his marginalia will tell you more than his book shelves.

10:25 AM God bless our new president, and our out-going one. 

9:54 AM Alan Knox does it again, this time writing about who thetrue charismatics are. I remember being appalled at the way certain evangelicals had pirated the term and narrowed its meaning back in the 60s and 70s. In any event, I hope you find Alan’s post as compelling as I did.   

9:43 AM Over at A Beautiful Collision, Drew Pearce offers up somepost-11/4 advice. Warning: It contains jarring common sense throughout.

8:52 AM I’ve already written briefly about Peter’s teaching on church leadership in an essay calledThere’s Only One Senior Pastor and It’s Not Us! But a new thought has occurred to me. The name Peter, of course, means “Rock.” (I believe that in the Cotton Patch Version, Peter, son of John, is called “Rock Johnson.” LOL!) Jesus once paid Peter a great compliment: “You are Rock, and on this rock I will build My church.”

Many, of course, think that Jesus is inaugurating apostolic succession here. But note that Peter himself says: “Come to Him [not, come to me!], to that living stone … and, like living stones, be built into a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:4-5). Wow! Peter, the Rock, regards himself as simply one of those stones. I see this humility in Peter everywhere I look in his epistles, not least when he calls himself a “fellow elder” in 1 Pet. 5:1.

I don’t know about you, but God’s got a lot more hewing to do on this prideful stone.

7:58 AM The latest addition to our home page is calledAre You a Teacher? 

7:45 AM I’m not well suited to political commentary, but I do have a few post-election reflections to leave with you this fine morning.

1) Let’s take Paul’s call in Phil. 1:27-2:4 to non-partisan unity and unselfish humility to heart. We should be supremely concerned that we order our lives as citizens of heaven in a manner worthy of the Gospel. Let us stand side by side, struggling with one soul for the faith of the Gospel. Let there be no factional or party strife whatsoever, no selfish egotism, no empty vainglory. Let us, like Euodia and Syntyche (4:2), lay aside our differences of feeling and work together for the sake of the kingdom. Amen?

2) Let us also focus on mutual burden-bearing as brothers and sisters in Christ (Gal. 6:1-5). The Holy Spirit always produces a spirit of gentleness rather than a “holier-than-thou” attitude. When the load is about to weigh your brother or sister down, step forward and pick it up with self-sacrificing love. As Christians let us put unity above our personal opinions about secondary matters. The kingdom of God is not a matter of food or drink or political affiliation. It is a matter of righteousness (dealing justly with others), peace (living in harmony with all, especially the brethren), and joy (that results from living under the daily influence of the Holy Spirit).

3) Let us never forget that Christ is far above all human authorities and powers. May He have the first place (Col. 1:18) in all that we do!

Tuesday, November 4

12:50 PM I love good Bible teaching. I got my fill of it last Sunday, that’s for sure. Both by my Sunday School teacher (a “layman”) and my pastor (a “professional”) — not that the distinction means anything to me, or to them. One simply recognizes good teaching intuitively. There’s a combination of truth and driving passion. I do not despise a man because he does not possess an earned degree in theology, and I do not automatically listen to a man because he does. If your church has good teachers, turn them loose to teach. Pay no attention whatsoever to a man’s head knowledge. Learn a lesson from the early church (Roland Allen, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, p. 49):

The Church then maintained her doctrine by thinking it so clear that anyone could understand it: we maintain our doctrine by treating it so complicated that only theologians can understand it. Consequently, the Church then was quite prepared that any man who believed in Christ should teach others what it knew of Him: we are only prepared to allow men whom we have specially trained to teach it. When others, whom we have not specially trained, of their own spontaneous motion do teach others, we hasten to send a trained teacher to take their place. That is, of course, exactly what the early Church did not do, yet it maintained its standard of doctrine.

I can already hear the vexed outcries of the magisterials among us. I won’t belabor the point that, whatever benefits a formal education might offer (and there are, indeed, many), the degrees we tout do not define what makes a good teacher.

Why, my “lay” Sunday School teacher even had the audacity tochuck the quarterly and replace it with the Bible. Next thing you know he’ll be asking us to bring ours. 

11:44 AM Just voted at the local convenience store. There were two of us there voting. I saw one other car while driving 6 miles to the polling place. Man do I love country living.

Of course I voted for all the right people.

9:51 AM Once again, God is proving His willingness to help and deliver at the perfect time. I just spoke with brother Oshe in Addis. Because of certain demands by the customs officials at Bole Airport, our shipment has been, well, stuck. The chief obstacles we now believe to have been taken care of, so Oshe will again meet with the officials tomorrow morning at 8:00 to request that the shipment be released to the tax department for an assessment. This is progress, and it comes in answer to your petitions. At least I no longer feel like we’re planting cut flowers.

Rest assured that you’ll hear from us as soon as we get a report from Oshe. And thank you for your love for Ethiopia.

8:22 AM It is bedlam in the world of finance. Not here, but in France, where MacDonald’s has taken over the culinary world by storm. Over at Times Online Hugo Rifkind notes how the “macdoh” makes more money in France than in Great Britain: Supersize … moi? How the French learnt to love McDonald’s. I’m told a Big Mac costs $11.00. It is entertaining to imagine the French president munching on a cheeseburger. Instead of cannoli, there’s an order of French fries. Instead of red wine, there’s a Coke. When we lived in Basel, we visited the local MacDonald’s religiously every Friday night to get a Big Mac (hers) and Filet O’ Fish (him). Today the city boasts four franchises. Call it cultural imperialism, but it’s spreading everywhere. Except in Yerevan.

7:43 AM On the Greek front, Mike over at En Ephesoconfirms the murmurings that a grammar of New Testament Greek discourse analysis is being produced. Be sure to read comment #4 by the grammar’s author. Many of you will want to consider taking him up on his offer.

7:38 AM Not that it matters (except perhaps to me), but Red Phillips is irrepressible in this essay over at Ether Zone about Chuck Baldwin:Conservative Endorsements Rolling In: For Chuck Baldwin. The fact is that Chuck is too conservative for most conservatives.

7:26 AM I heard from Becky, who reports that things are going splendidly well in Kentucky. Yesterday they were able to locate the family cemetery. Today they are in the hunt for her great-grandfather’s home site. They have no recollection where it is, though both Becky and her father have been there before. They will be flying by the seat of their pants. It’s going to be an interesting day, Toto.

Monday, November 3

7:10 PM Election eve, and a good time to reflect on the presidency. The past 8 years have been a slap that reset the clock for me. In truth, I spent much of my adult life thinking that America was God’s special gift to the world. I’ve traveled too much now to think that way anymore. Just as most Americans don’t really understand English until they’ve learned a foreign language, so I think it is very difficult to understand America unless you’ve lived abroad. The more I travel, the harder it is to overlook or excuse America’s self-made cul-de-sacs. By all estimation, Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations in the world, if not the poorest, yet I think people are happier there than in the U.S. Ethiopia has its own rules, its own codes, its own problems, but at least it doesn’t have a president who is both messianic and radical, a man who lives inside an information bubble, a man who admits that “the most objective sources I have are people on my staff, who tell me what’s happening in the world” — aka faithful aides who tell him what he wants to hear. When I helped put him into office in 2000 I was hopeful. Once he was in office, I witnessed a bait-and-switch that even the brightest pundits had “misunderestimated.” The GOP, now driven by the religious right and the neoconservative worldview, lost whatever support I once gave it. How did he get away with it? The empty phrases, the non sequiturs, the unprovable assertions, the aw-shucks indifference, the ideologically-driven policies — who could have foreseen this? Is it unfair that he has been called the “Bungling Bully”? There are so many unanswered questions. A war on terror that doesn’t focus on terrorists? Simplistic nostrums about us against them? Eschatology in place of intelligence? America an empire? Some of the most important questions will probably never be answered. There’s one more question that begs to be asked, however. Was empire worth it? Perhaps the conservative Economist magazine answers it best (Aug. 14, 2003):

Imperialism and democracy are at odds with each other…. People nowadays are not willing to bow down before an emperor, even a benevolent one, in order to be democratized. They will protest, and the ensuing pain will be felt by the imperial power as well as by its subjects.

For Americans, the pain will not be just a matter of budget deficits and body bags; it will also be a blow to the very heart of what makes them American — their constitutional belief in freedom. Freedom is in their blood; it is integral to their sense of themselves. It binds them together as nothing else does, neither ethnicity, nor religion, nor language. And it is rooted in hostility to imperialism — the imperial rule of George III. Americans know that empires lack democratic legitimacy. Indeed, they once had a tea party to prove it.

The sad truth is that, even as we close the books on W’s term of office, imperialism is bigger than one political party or one presidential administration. It is a state of mind whose gravitational pull has proven irresistible throughout the ages. Just call it politics I guess.

Good evening, and happy election day.

5:26 PM “Without the comma, everything changes.” ReadLeaders As Equippers.

3:50 PM Here’s another mandatory linker:Letter to Pro-Life Friends. Ominously, I don’t think pro-lifers get it, though.

I’ll have some final thoughts on the election tonight.

11:59 AM Matthew McDill has a way of cutting through the underbrush when it comes to church leadership, and I recommend this post of his:Church Leaders Serve, Not Rule. And yes, you guessed it: I don’t hesitate to link to my doctoral students when I think it’s appropriate.

11:45 AM Fellow Virginians, a heads-up. If you are voting for Chuck Baldwin tomorrow, remember that he appears on the ballot as an Independent Green Party (rather than a Constitution Party) candidate.

10:56 AM Lionel Woods is one of my favorite writers, and I think you should not miss this piece of his:A Note from My Muslim Neighbor to Americans. We talk so blithely in this country about “them Ay-rabs” because we are good at forgetting that God loves all people. And believe me, the hatred will only escalate after Obama is elected. As you’ll probably be able to guess, I do not share the opinion of many of my fellow Americans about Muslims. I’ll tell you one thing: they don’t know what to do with scandalous love, the love Jesus showed to lepers and outcasts.

Day before yesterday I got gas from a station in Oxford owned by an immigrant from Yemen. (I had guessed wrong. I had asked him if he was from Lebanon.) I engaged him in casual conversation. I think we both enjoyed it. I plan to stop there for gas from now on.

By the way, for what it’s worth you can read more about my thinking on this topic here:Redestined to Be a 4-Point Missionist. Better yet, read Acts 1:8.

9:54 AM My list of things to do today (to keep busy):

• cull Favorites of sites that are a waste of time

• sight-in the rifles

• edit five chapters of my grammar

• check the herds

• take dogs for long walk

• catch up on emails

• make Chinese for supper

• spiffy house

• pray, pray, pray!

9:43 AM Over at the Better Bibles Blog, Peter Kirk assesses “Google Translate.” He writes:

The best that computers can do in Bible translation is the easy part, producing a just about comprehensible first draft. The hard work in translation is turning that draft into a text which is not just accurate but also clear and natural in the target language, and acceptable to its audience.

I think my favorite line in his Psalm 23 attempt at computer translation is:

He erquicket my soul.

The comments are also well worth your time.

9:12 AM Everyone interested in U.S. foreign policy always read what anti-war pundit Justin Raimondo has to say. Inhis latest commentary he refers (again) to Orwellian language:

Obama and McCain both hew to the War Party’s Orwellian view, which grotesquely inverts the truth, decrying “Russian aggression” when it was the Georgians who started that war.

Oddly enough, George Orwell just happens also to be the theme of a current Newsweek essay:We Need to Call a Pig a Pig. Provocative words here, which do indeed make me think that politicians have a special gift in intentional obfuscation.

8:48 AM Dan Edelen offers somepre-election advice. It may make you grit your teeth, but it’s worth reading, and even heeding.

7:31 AM I was reading lately that the Shetland Sheepdog was originally called a “Toonie,” from a Norwegian word for the front yard of a farmhouse. Gracious, I do believe there’s some truth in that. I know of no place Sheba would rather be than sitting on the front porch of Bradford Hall gazing at her sizable land holdings. The breed also has a finely tuned sense of boundaries, which perhaps is one reason our puppy Dayda seems a bit uncomfortable going over to Nathan and Jessie’s — make that — Sheppie and Sadie’s farm. What I love most about Shelties is their absolute loyalty to their masters. They are intensely affectionate to boot. They make wonderful friends when all the bipeds in your family have gone off gallivanting.

7:27 AM Five years ago this month I began blogging. Through these pages you have traveled with me, seen me grow, sensed perhaps my own darker side at times, and (I hope) found encouragement from my own experiences. I want to express my sincere thanks and love to the many warmhearted readers who have supported me through their prayers and emails. How can a man describe his amazement at knowing that thousands of men and women whom he will never meet this side of heaven have been praying on his behalf? In addition, a kind Father has helped me every step of the way. My prayer is that He would continue to give me grace to glorify Him through a submissive and yielded spirit in the years to come. I will say this too: If my maunderings aren’t always up to the highest standards, I’ll try my best to do better. But, knowing some of you, it will be a brobdingnagian task.

7:21 AM Yes, Greek is a language.

7:16 AM I see that a newBasel German dictionary is in the works. Glory be! Especially for anyone wanting to enroll in the university there, as I did way back in 1980. Standard German may have been “officially” spoken at the Uni-Basel, but once you got out into the hallway all you heard was dialect. My last Sunday in Switzerland I actually tried to preach in the local language. Can you believe I was that naive?

7:10 AM Is your church a “Philippian” church?

Paul spoke very highly of that congregation. Their zeal and devotion were exemplary. They sent to supply his needs twice when he was in Thessalonica and they supplemented what he could make by working at his trade during his stay in Corinth. Their generosity was contagious, for Paul speaks of the liberality of the “Macedonian churches” (1 Thess. 1:7-8), probably referring not only to Philippi but also to the churches in Thessalonica and Berea. In Phil. 1:3-8 Paul thanks God for the church’s “fellowship” or participation with him in the Gospel and its furtherance from the day he set foot in Philippi. They had become “co-partners” (the Greek term is delightful) with Paul in the grace of giving. In Phil. 4:10- he describes how they were always thinking of him and how they had willingly shared with him in the matter of “giving and receiving.” But nothing the Philippians had given could match God’s own glorious wealth. So Paul adds, “My God shall supply every need of yours!”

Becky and I are privileged to know and work with many “Philippian” churches. Like the primitive church in Acts 1, they are intentional in making plans to take care of the unusual economic conditions of those who are less well-off materially than they are. The outpouring of the Spirit brings a spiritual unity and a fraternal fellowship that cannot permit a brother to suffer want. Here I want to say how much I appreciate all of the congregations whose liberal financial help (every penny of which goes to Ethiopia and not to our own expenses) is an example to Becky and me of the exceedingly great graciousness of our God and the unfeigned love of His people.

So…

Sunday, November 2

2:35 PM Well, the Intrepid Five (including the baby!) have just driven out of the driveway laden with cemetery files, maps, and coffee, to start the long hop over to the great state of Kentucky. For two days they will skirt the mountains of western North Carolina and Tennessee in an attempt to penetrate the picturesque hills of the Blue Grass State. Last night they Googled and Yahood but finally gave up trying to locate the old family cemetery, which is one of their main destinations, so I’m in much prayer that they’ll find it somehow. They’ll spend a couple of days in state and then begin the trek back home, where Granddaddy will meet up with his son Ben’s family in Cary before catching his flight back to Dallas on Saturday. Things are already very quiet around here, and I plan to get some writing and editing done while the family is gone. I’m specially asking the Lord to help Becky, who had a challenging (but victorious!) week last week, to just “unlax” and enjoy herself. I cannot begin to tell you what a blessing the Lapsleys have been to our family and what their example has meant to us as we water where they planted 50 years ago in Ethiopia. I hope the five of them have many pleasant discussions on this trip and build many happy memories for future generations.

Meanwhile Becky and I are ecstatic in the Lord having received the most wonderful news from Gondar concerning one of our Ethiopian sons. God knows that we cannot provide spiritual guidance to these children in our strength. But He is the living God and is eager to answer our prayers. Again and again the Lord graciously attends to our needs. We are filled with inexpressible delight at His love. Praise the Lord. He has truly answered our prayers.

Right now it’s time to walk the farm and check up on all the herds. Otherwise, that’s all the dope for now.

Saturday, November 1

10:12 PM Just back from the airport. Granddaddy is in fine fettle. Couldn’t wait to meet the new puppy. He’s got four.

Have a great evening, and don’t forget to set your clocks back tonight.

6:13 PM No news here. Nate and I used up much of our newly acquired tin as barn siding today. My job was ditch digging and installing “anti-ground hog wire” at the base of the barn.

I also served as gofer for Nathan, who installed most of the siding.

Here’s a before shot.

And after.

Right now I’m off to RDU to pick up Becky’s dad. He’ll be showing Becky, Nate, and Jess the home site where his father grew up in Kentucky. They leave after church tomorrow. I’ll watch the farm.

9:46 AM If you’ll scroll down a bit you’ll see some pix I just posted. As I reflected on two of them this morning I just had to jot down these thoughts:

1) When Nathan sowed the grass seed in that enormous field he did not assume the task of making the seed germinate. That’s not a farmer’s business; that’s God business. And we are to keep our hands off of God’s business. We are to do what God tells us to do and leave the results to Him. That is the way of victory in everything in life, including clinic shipments.

2) When I arrived in a small village in Ethiopia last year I was met by a withered and wrinkled piece of womanhood who came forward and greeted me. She became my adopted “mother” during my entire stay there. Helen of Troy was not as beautiful as this woman. Beauty is not obtained at the beauty parlor or at the cosmetic counter. The inward beauty of which Peter speaks (1 Pet. 3:3-4) is not the beauty of nature but rather supernatural. I will never forget my saintly adoptive “mother,” for her beauty was astonishing.

9:40 AM One of our Ethiopian sons is currently in South Africa representing the church in Alaba. David, we love you and are praying for you!

9:32 AM Brother Lionel is sounding more and moreAnabaptistic all the time. Which, to me, is a very good thing. To quotePilgram Marpeck (cited in my new book):

The Old Covenant was a time of seeking and thirsting and the New Covenant a time of finding and stillness. The promise to the ancients finds its fulfillment in the New Covenant. Darkness turns to light and death to life. It is like the difference between yesterday and today; the old has gone away, and the new has arrived.

9:28 AM Need some help with your Greek? You might findthis useful. 

9:24 AM At the ETS/SBL conferences this year, Logos Bible Software is having asuper sale on numerous textbooks, includingone of my own.

9:20 AM If you’ve ever tried to teach yourself theological German, you’ll appreciatethis Ph.D. student’s story.

9:14 AM Thanks to David Ford, I now know offour free books in Spanish, including McGrath’s The Anabaptists: Neither Catholics Nor Protestants.

9:12 AM Congratulations to the Better Bibles Blog on theirnew site. It looks fantastic! 

9:08 AM Ends and odds:

1) Nathan sowed this huge field with grass seed. By hand.

2) Our scavenger par excellence found a couple of old barns in Granville County. We spent yesterday getting the tin off their roofs.

3) Et voila! We’ll put this tin to good use today on a job at a farm near us.

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November 2007 Blog Archives

Friday, November 30

6:27 PM The discussion continues here about the future revision of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament. Perhaps the committee will also review the paragraph titles that are found in the current edition. These leave a great deal to be desired in my view. For example, Phil. 1:3-11 consists of two paragraphs (thanksgiving [1:3-8] and prayer [1:9-11]), but the UBSGNT gives a paragraph title only for the entire section (“Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians”). Likewise, 1:12-30 is titled “To Me to Live is Christ” when there are at least two major breaks in this section that go unnoticed, the most important being 1:27-30, which introduces the letter’s first verb in the imperative mood. And surely we can do better than “Timothy and Epaphroditus” for 2:19-25, which actually is comprised of two paragraphs, each emphasizing a man who lived totally for the sake of the Gospel (one of the great themes of the epistle). In other words, isn’t it time the editors took the discourse structure of the writings into account when assigning paragraph or section titles? I myself would be happy make suggestions based on my Novum Testamentum essay. Does anyone know if the committee will be open to such input?

6:02 PM We’re getting ready to sit down and enjoy one of my all-time favorite meals of Becky’s: Mexican. We’re all pretty tired but we’re glad we put up about 200 pounds of fresh, grass-fed, hormone-free beef in our freezers today. The weather could not have more perfect for processing a cow. I am especially tickled that we got oodles of lean beef for Chinese food.

Tomorrow it’s gutter time, a day to visit our neighbors (especially the elderly) and clean the leaves out of their rain gutters. It’s become a fall tradition of ours. Meanwhile I’ve been grading New Testament papers like crazy but I must say that the ones I’ve seen so far have been very good, some excellent even. I do have two graders, but one thing they never do for me is grade. It’s all a matter of stewardship. By the way, already two papers have received the following grade:

7:49 AM Congratulations to Marc N. for winning the 110 Award in Greek class for the second time in a row. He chose as his award It’s Still Greek to Me. He got all 100 points on the exam and also got all 10 extra credit points by correctly translating the following sentence into Greek: “You (s.) have sinned against God because you are an evil tax collector.” Want to try your hand at it? Answer tomorrow.

Thursday, November 29

7:46 PM From the “never a dull moment” file: tomorrow we are butchering a cow, tomorrow evening a retreatant arrives for the weekend, on Sunday night we have yet another overnight guest coming, on Monday we butcher a second cow, on Tuesday and Wednesday I’m teaching, then on Friday we welcome a family of 5 to the farm for a weekend retreat. You got it right: Thursday is my day of rest.

7:42 PM And the winner is…Ron Paul.  

7:38 PM Tonight’s dinner menu: Chinese stir fry made with fresh venison, and jasmine rice. Nice way to end a busy day.

2:27 PM So, what projects will we be working on in 2008? More than can be completed, that’s for sure. The axiom we’ve discovered at Rosewood Farm is this: the amount of projects to be completed increases in proportion to the number of projects already done. Can I get a witness? It seems we always have a backlog of jobs. Our UQ (Uncompletion Quotient) grows and grows. Not that we’ve been static around here. Far from it. Here’s a montage of the major projects we’ve completed since we bought the farm several years ago.

1) The building of Bradford Hall. This project took us almost 3 years. Much of it we hired out. In hindsight, we wish we had done more of it ourselves.

2) The horse barn. Make that “wood storage barn,” now that we are horseless. Here Nate keeps the flooring he’s salvaged from old houses.

3) We salvaged our “garden house” from a neighbor’s farm. We broke it down, moved it, then put it back together again.

4) Our reenacting shed. Here we keep our tentage, etc. Again, a salvaged project. At least we were able to keep the walls intact when we moved it.

5) Our “carriage shed” (i.e., carport). We built this from scratch, using all of our own materials (cedar posts, pine rafters, salvaged tin, etc.).

6) Our wood shed. This is actually the first construction project we started after completing Bradford Hall. Can you tell?

7) Our goat barn, with milking stall. I call it the Pizza Hut. Again, we used salvaged materials (except we did buy new tin for the roof). The upstairs is used for storing old lumber.

8) Equipment shed. We added it to an existing building on the farm. It currently houses one of our two balers plus more of our lumber.

9) This shed was built to hold Nathan’s salvaged mantles and doors, many of them ante-bellum gems. He’s got quite a variety and has advertised them on Craig’s List.

10) All across the farm we put up home-made bird houses.

11) We moved this well-preserved corn crib from a neighboring farm. It came in one piece. You should have seen the heads turn when people saw Nathan pulling it down the road behind his tractor.

12) Our calf shed. We built this to give our young cattle shelter during the winter.

13) And here’s our world-famous chicken mansion. It currently houses about 100 layers and fryers. Once again, everything you see was salvaged (tin roof, doors, windows, siding, etc.).

14) The crème de la crème: our new hay barn. We still have to install the upstairs doors. Nathan will keep his haybine here along with our main crop: horse quality square bales.

15) Nathan’s farmhouse needed new chimneys. Here’s the first one we built. It’s two stories high. Nathan just finished painting his new mantle. Ain’t she a beaut?

16) And here’s what he did in the upstairs bedroom. Barely any of the original brickwork can be seen.

17) This is the oldest building on the farm, dating back to 1790 or so. We added the shed on the right as overflow chicken housing.

18) My favorite addition to the farm. Nathan picked it up who knows where. I have no idea what its purpose is.

We’ve also fenced in all 123 acres of the farm. Now that was a job.

One cannot help but look back at these projects with a sense of satisfaction. It took Nathan and me many man hours to complete these jobs, but every minute was well spent. Still, there are jobs to be done. I’ve drawn on my work in academia to help us out. One lesson I’ve learned is this: when I really want to do research or write a book, I somehow find the time and the means to do it. It is clear, by inference, that work projects on the farm get done only when they are prioritized. And therein lies the challenge of farm life. This means that I cannot complain when projects are not accomplished, because the real reason for my UQ is that I lack commitment, or resourcefulness, or both. For example, if Nathan and I want to build another chimney in his old farmhouse (which we do), unity of action and purpose is essential. The trick to accomplishing a project like that is making a multilateral decision to just do it. My guess is that our next project will be building Nathan’s chimney, followed by the remodeling of his house. Either way, life on the old farm sure is fun and exciting.

10:13 AM Ethiopia update:

1) A four-year old girl who died in the northern village of Besheno (in the district of Alaba, Ethiopia) was refused burial by the villagers because her family is Christian. The town church in Alaba arranged for a car to pick up the body and the girl has just been buried in town. The church elders in Alaba are requesting prayer for the child’s family in the midst of increasing persecution in Besheno. (If you recall, on my first visit to Alaba several years ago I met with the father of an 8-year old girl who was beheaded because her family was Christian. This family was also from Besheno.)

2) A few days ago we made reservations for Becky to return to Ethiopia. She will leave here on January 7 and be gone for 9 weeks. Her primary goal is to assist Aberesh with the birth of her child. Aberesh is the wife of an evangelist in Alaba. She has been pregnant 4 or 5 times; all her babies (except one) were lost at the end of her pregnancy. The one that survived died in infancy from malaria. From her history, Becky’s certain that at least her last 2 babies were lost because of pre-eclampsia (pregnancy-induced high blood pressure). There are only a few hospitals in Ethiopia that can perform C-Sections; none of them is near Alaba. So Becky plans to go well in advance of her due date so that she can care for her and monitor her pregnancy. As Aberesh nears her due date, Becky will take her in a rented car to the capital city of Addis Ababa and continue to watch her. If Aberesh develops trouble, then Becky will be her medical advocate to see that she is aggressively treated. Perhaps the Lord will give us grace and allow Aberesh to have a healthy baby. Please pray for wisdom for Becky and for God to bless her efforts.

3) While in Ethiopia, Becky is hoping to learn Amharic by immersion. She is already studying the 267-character syllabary. I can only admire Becky’s commitment, as I feel I am way too old to add yet another language to my coffer (although Benjamin Franklin learned French at the age of 70 when he became America’s ambassador to France). Language, to a missionary, is at first a barrier, but after study and much work it can become a wonderful bridge to understanding. Becky’s linguistic talents (she learned to speak German in only 3 months when we moved to Basel in 1980) gives promise of quick mastery of at least the basics of Amharic.

4) Many have asked how they can support the work of the Lord in Ethiopia. Becky has just written up our goals for 2008 and I will post them shortly to our website.

9:22 AM The latest addition to our home page is called Blessed Is the Internet (Sort Of).

9:20 AM Congratulations to Mel Winstead, a Ph.D. student of mine and a humble shepherd-teacher, for publishing two book reviews in the latest issue of our journal Faith and Mission. He reviewed The Second Epistle to the Corinthians by Murray Harris and Second Corinthians: Power in Weakness by Kent Hughes.

9:16 AM I’ve just written a reference for a former student of mine who is applying to study in the UK. (Kudos, by the way!) If you too are interested in studying abroad, here’s a very useful list of New Testament lecturers in the UK. Do I have a volunteer who will write up a similar list for continental New Testament scholars?

9:12 AM Why Ron Paul will not be the candidate of the Christian right. (I keep hoping he will, though.)

9:10 AM Here’s another reason to question the Federal Reserve’s status as the fourth branch of government:

All in all, financial instability has been far greater since the creation of the Federal Reserve. What did the Great Depression teach us? Essentially that even with the best of intentions, it is impossible for the authorities to manage the supply of money in accordance with the exact needs of the economy.

Read Fed Up. 

9:03 AM North Park University announces an opening in Biblical and Theological Studies.

8:56 AM Tithing is being discussed over at the Wall Street Journal. NB: Near the end of the article a professor at Southeastern Seminary is quoted.

8:52 AM I tend to be very eclectic when it comes to commentary series. What think ye?

8:46 AM The Moltmann interviews continue. (During my orals in Basel many years ago, I was examined on the theology of Jürgen Moltmann.)

8:41 AM Steve Sensenig says you might be misrepresenting God if…. Well done indeed, Steve. (And don’t miss the comments section.)

Wednesday, November 28

5:39 PM Here’s a big shout out to my students who presented their papers today in New Testament class: Dave, Tyrone, Rachael, and Bryan. Their topics were Matthew 5, the miracles of Christ, the supreme commandment, and Augustine’s Harmony of the Gospels. Excellent job all. Next week we’ll hear from Blake (the text of John 7:53-8:11), Wes (the deity of Christ), Bob (judgment in the Gospels), and Paul (the transfiguration in Matthew). Meanwhile, this reminder: the study questions for our final exam in two weeks have been posted to Campus Net.

Tuesday, November 27

4:56 AM The latest addition to our home page is called Ron Paul: Rekindling Liberty.

4:50 AM Lately I’ve seen a superabundance of students requesting yours truly as their major advisor in our Ph.D. program. I have no idea why. I do know that I’ve built a reputation, of sorts, for being fairly selective when it comes to choosing doctoral candidates. I follow a simple law: if you want your track team to win the high jump you find one person who can jump seven feet, not seven people who can each jump one foot. I therefore have my own detailed application form for prospective doctoral students, in addition to the one required by the seminary. Every serious student of mine needs to have a solid knowledge of Greek, a good knowledge of Hebrew, a commitment to academic excellence, a willingness to master (and not just master but use!) German, French, and any other modern language deemed necessary, and evidence of ability to research, reason, and write. If you’re interested in preserving the status quo, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere (e.g., if you are looking into researching the appropriate salary package for a senior pastor). I do enjoy my current doctoral students very much indeed. Each in my view is a champion high jumper already. And I look forward to adding to their number, Lord willing, in the very near future. 

Monday, November 26

7:50 PM Being hopelessly scripturient, it’s been hard to be away from writing for a whole week. Here’s a few pix to bring you up-to-date on our doings in Dallas.

Below: Brad and Betty Lapsley with their eldest daughter (and my beautiful wife) Becky. Becky’s parents are in excellent health and spirits. Mrs. Lapsley hosted 35 people at her home for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Becky joined her mom in the choir on Sunday morning at Grace Bible Church. The church moved into its new sanctuary 5 months ago.

Harold Hoehner pleaded with me to teach his Sunday School class. Being the kind-hearted soul I am, I consented. I like Sunday School classes where you can talk for a whole hour.

The Lapsleys have four puppies. Here’s my favorite: Miss Bridgette.

We had a great trip. We got reconnected with many of Becky’s cousins and their children. And it was a real treat to share about the Lord’s work in Ethiopia during the Sunday evening service at Grace.

There’s no place like the farm, though.

Monday, November 19

9:31 PM We’ve just returned from Florida and unpacked our bags, just in time to repack for our flight to Dallas tomorrow. On our drive to the Sunshine State on Thursday we stopped to visit our good friends at Bladen Union Baptist Church near Fayetteville.

Heath and Leann Faircloth introduced us to their new baby Joshua. Here Heath sports an Alaba hat.

Then Becky Lynn brought the church up-to-date on the work of the Lord in Burji, Alaba, and Gondar.  

The next morning we drove 12 straight hours to speak at the SIM Retirement Complex in Sebring, FL. Here is the small duplex where we stayed. As soon as my toes touched the soft white sand, my beach bum persona kicked in. I felt just like I was back in balmy Hawaii.

That evening we met with missionaries who had worked in Ethiopia and the Sudan many years ago. One of them had actually been on the same boat when Becky and her family left for Ethiopia in 1954.

On Saturday morning it was time to drive up to Orlando to meet up with the saints of Covenant Community Church, who had given graciously to help support the evangelists in Alaba. Our hosts were Chris Brenyo and his wife Dana Sue, along with their seven precious children.  

On Saturday evening Becky shared about Ethiopia, and on Sunday morning I had the privilege of speaking about Jesus’ age 12 and 30 transitions and to hear the men of the church expound on Dagg’s systematic theology, all followed by a huge Thanksgiving dinner.

Undoubtedly the high point of our trip was meeting Mrs. Cain. The Cains were the first missionaries to work among the Muslims of Alaba, Ethiopia. Their work in Alaba concluded without a single convert from that tribe. Today, nothing is left of their mission compound. Becky and I had no earthly idea that a former missionary to Alaba was alive. When we heard that Mrs. Cain was living in a nursing home near Sebring we made a beeline to see her. When we brought greetings to her from the believers in Alaba, she got a huge smile on her face and said, softly, “Praise the Lord.” We had the joy of telling her that today hundreds of former Muslims now worship the true and living God in Alaba. Again and again she whispered, “Praise the Lord.” When we asked her if she had a message for the Christians in Alaba, she said, “Keep on.” She also had a Bible verse for them: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

When Becky and I had prayed with Mrs. Cain and left her room, we stopped at the front door of the nursing home and spontaneously embraced each other. We began to weep and to weep and to weep. We both felt that we had been standing on holy ground. Here was a 95-year-old saint who had given her entire adult life to praying for the people of Alaba, and in a meeting completely unplanned beforehand we had had the privilege of telling her that her prayers had been answered. If nothing else, that providential encounter would have made the entire 1,693 mile round trip worthwhile.

In Dallas, Becky and I will be visiting with her parents and speaking on Ethiopia at Grace Bible Church, where we were married 31 years ago. I’ll also be talking about missions in Harold Hoehner’s Sunday School class. Harold is a professor of New Testament at Dallas Seminary. I always look forward to talking to Harold, as he is a Swiss citizen and can actually understand my Swiss German.

Thursday, November 15

11:45 AM You’ll never believe this, but I have a cameo appearance in a forthcoming major film production of “The Hound of the Baskervilles” by Nobletin Productions (go here to see a trailer). I play the part of Sir Charles Baskerville, who is struck down with fright at the beginning of the story when he encounters a giant hound. The film’s director just sent me a production photo of the movie’s biggest ham just after he sees the dastardly doggie. If you have taken your heart medication and are sitting down, you may click here to view it.

I told you you wouldn’t believe it.  

11:41 AM Ethiopia update (by Becky Lynn):

1) In the past 8 weeks six evangelists have been sent into areas of the far northwest region in Ethiopia. The Lord Jesus, in response to our prayers, has given these men acceptance in the communities. Already, they are holding Bible studies, sharing the Gospel in their friendships, and some have already come to Christ! As we speak of this work in churches here, the Lord Jesus is putting a love for these people in the hearts of many. And these people are stepping up to the plate, following the leading of the Spirit, being faithful in prayer and financial offerings. May our Lord bless these faithful ones!  And may He continue to guide, sustain, empower these six evangelists!

2) Several things are happening in Alaba.  The leaders are focusing on spiritual growth in the new converts and are helping the rural church leaders to develop strong spiritual leadership of their little flocks. We have helped this effort by funding an on-site rural leadership training, and by providing a mobile cassette tape teaching ministry for the leadership. The spiritual response to both of these has been excellent. Currently the rural leaders are in a distant town for a 6-month Bible Training course; members of the Alaba church are standing guard over the families of these leaders as they are away from home.

3) The government of the Alaba Town is still figuring out the zoning for the property of the Zobechame church. Shortly after we purchased this property, the Town halted all construction and changed the zoning. Please pray for the church leaders as they try to work this out with the Town; pray that God will fill them with wisdom & grace.

4) The town of Besheno is still highly opposed to the Christians in their midst. They will not allow them to meet for worship or build a church building. Currently they are meeting in scattered homes. But God has given them very committed evangelists, and He is blessing them in spite of the difficulties from the people around them. When we asked Tesfaye, one of the church leaders, “What is your strategy for winning others to Christ?”, he responded, “We live pure lives, we love others, and we stand ready to answer their questions about the difference they see in our lives.” This sounds a lot like the early Christians in the book of Acts! Please continue to pray for them. In the Lord’s time, a meeting hall will be built, but until then He continues to build His Church!

5) Those of you on the email prayer chain received an urgent request for David.  Formerly “Ahmed,” David is the lead evangelist in the Alaba church. Under the Holy Spirit, the church has appointed him to be responsible for organizing and overseeing the spiritual work in the District. On Thursday last week, he became very sick with malaria, typhoid, typhus, and a bacterial infection all at once. I have seen this before; it is not uncommon among the evangelists in Alaba. Their living conditions as they work for the Lord are less than perfect; they are nutritionally challenged; they are overworked, etc. Read the life of Paul in 2 Cor. 6:4-5 and 11:23-29 and you will have a picture of the evangelists in Alaba. In David’s situation, not only does he have life’s issues, but also the daily pressure of the churches upon him. Prayer for him is urgently needed at this time. The next 2 months will be crucial to his recovery.

6) The Bibles have finally arrived in Ethiopia! So we are sending 823 to the believers in Burji who have completed the memorization of the 9 passages we selected (like 1 Corinthians 13, John 3:1-21, and John 14:1-21). These dear people have been waiting for over a year for their personal Bible! A wonderful surprise is that the price for these Bibles didn’t go up very much. Inflation has been rampant in Ethiopia the past year; food has doubled in price. Transportation, home supplies, everything has skyrocketed in price.  But our Lord has kept the Bibles at a low $4.50/Bible! The seniors at a church in North Carolina did a fund-raiser and contributed $500 toward this cost. Isn’t our Lord Jesus good to us? So we have ordered 823 Bibles for the Burji believers, and 350 Bible for the Alaba believers. Pray that as they receive their Bibles the Spirit will speak to them, that they will see the Living Word in clearer focus and follow Him with their whole hearts.

7) The Bethel Hill Baptist church and the Roxboro, NC, area churches are considering the establishment of a rural medical clinic in Burji.  This is a serious need, but it is also a HUGE undertaking. We need to know the mind of the Lord Jesus. Please pray for us and them as we ask the Lord for direction. As this develops, we’ll keep you posted on the details.

8) Dave and I continue to speak on Ethiopia and the Lord’s harvest there. We speak in churches, schools, events. And as the Lord appoints people, we support them in His call to prayer or financial support. As the year ends, I will put together a financial summary of His work; if you have contributed and would like a copy, please let us know by email.  Also, if you want to be added to our email prayer/update list, please contact us at dblack@sebts.edu. Over the next 10 days we will be traveling to Florida and Texas, speaking 6 times. Please pray for traveling mercy and a spiritual harvest.

9) On Ethiopian family news, we now have two Ethiopian sons who are engaged. Fasil is recently engaged to Rahel; they will marry in June 08 when we are there. David is betrothed to Fasika; their marriage is likely 2-3 years away, but in Ethiopian custom David has assumed full financial and guidance responsibility for his bride (very much like Joseph’s care for Mary). Bereket’s vision remains quite poor, although his cornea transplant and cataract surgeries were successful. Please pray for him in school and in his spiritual development; it is very difficult for him to read his school books and Bible. We are rejoicing that our daughter Emebet (see photo below) has moved from the Girls Home in the capital to a foster home in Alaba; her foster parents are a wonderful Christian couple; we cannot thank them enough for their ministry to our Emebet. She is adapting well to life in Alaba, although a person in their home died of malaria shortly after she arrived.

10) I have retired from nursing, so I have more time for home and Ethiopia things. We are tentatively looking at returning to Ethiopia (me only) in early 08, then in early summer 08 (both of us), and again in late Fall 08 (both of us). Each trip will have its own purpose and character. As these become more defined, we’ll keep you posted. As always, our trips and the care of our Ethiopian children is a financial obligation that we absorb ourselves; 100 percent of all gifts received by others is forwarded to the Ethiopian church.

May our Lord bless you above all measure for your participation with us in the Gospel. My prayer is that at the end of the day, He will find me faithful. Let us keep to the work!

 

6:54 AM The latest addition to our home page is called Dedicated Servants of Yesteryear.

6:52 AM When I get up from the computer, here’s what usually greets me. Ain’t Shelties the most wonderfulist animals in the world?

6:45 AM As I type, the wind is howling, the rain is beating against the windows of Bradford Hall, and darkness has descended upon the farm. Makes me want to get out The Hound of the Baskervilles.

6:41 AM Today was the deadline for the publisher to receive my latest book, Perspectives on the Ending of Mark. By God’s grace I met it. My next deadline is March 1 for What I Have Learned from the Anabaptists. Deadlines are very important to me. How can I expect my students to meet theirs if I don’t meet mine?

Wednesday, November 14

7:28 PM Coming up this week….

1) Tomorrow night Becky and I will be speaking on Ethiopia at Bladen Union Baptist Church near Fayetteville, NC. The service begins at 6:00 pm.

2) On Friday night at 7:00 pm we’ll be at the SIM Retirement home in Sebring, FL, sharing with a group of retired missionaries, many of whom served in Ethiopia.

3) On Saturday evening and Sunday morning we’ll be speaking at Covenant Community Church in Orlando, FL.

If you live nearby, we’d love to meet you in person at any of these events.

7:22 PM Beware of etymologizing!

7:18 PM Could our expectations about marriage be wrong?

7:15 PM So you think Ron Paul is too soft on crime and drugs, too libertarian, too pro-Palestine? Think again.

7:12 PM Gabor Steingart tells us why the falling dollar is a Pearl Harbor-like disaster just waiting to happen.

7:06 PM Happy Birthday, Aaron Copland. His Fanfare for the Common Man (mp3) is one of my all-time favorites. As a musician myself, I agree with this quote of his:

Inspiration may be a form of super-consciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness—I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.

6:56 PM Regent University announces openings in New Testament and Old Testament.

6:51 PM Logos Bible Software personnel are reading some dandy papers at this year’s ETS meeting in San Diego. Check them out here.

6:47 PM Glad to see Izzy Lyman’s intrepid pen at work again. Here’s her latest on Ron Paul.

6:44 PM If you struggle with your French pronunciation as much as I do, you’ll enjoy these audio files from the University of Texas. Warning: “Tex” is a real crack up.

6:37 PM Why torture is wrong.

6:35 PM Here’s an excellent bibliography on the pistis Christou debate (pdf.), a subject that came up in a paper in our Ph.D. seminar yesterday. Thanks to Michael Bird and Preston Sprinkle for laboring to provide it.

6:30 PM Technorati tipped me off about this essay by Rod Decker on the value of small churches. One comment put a big smile on my face:

I’d share a picture of the church if I had one, but the best I can do is show you the building where we meet (and no, that’s not the church! the church is the people who meet here).

6:26 PM In Greek this week we’ve been talking about words that differ in accent and breathing marks only. It made me want to resurrect something I’d posted on my blog a while back.

The bandage was wound around the wound.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
We must polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present .
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row .
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

6:29 PM A huge “thank you” to Jim Baird of B & H Academic for sending me a gratis copy of the Apologetics Study Bible.

Tuesday, November 13

4:29 AM The latest addition to our home page is called What Christianity Offers Us. 

Monday, November 12

8:26 PM Take a look at this turn-of-the-century beauty in Clarksville. It is mind-boggling to me, but someone has bought this property and is tearing down the house to put up a modular in its place. Their loss is our gain, as we got to salvage anything we wanted from this lovely lady.

The second story was in pristine condition, but the ground floor had been left to the termites. A few hours of labor with hammer and crowbar and it was time to divvy up the loot.

To Nathan went the claw-footed bathtub (porcelain, over cast iron).

He also got this gorgeous mantle and mirror set.

Of course, he got all the doors (about 12 in all).

Et moi? I am pleased as a pickle to show you my new oversized mailbox. (I also needed a whisk broom for my car.) Not bad for 5 hours of work, eh?

Then it was back to the farm for some venison soup (compliments of Becky Lynn), after which we ran up to South Boston, where Nathan has been working on the porches of the most ornate Victorian home in town, all 7,000 square feet of it.

He had already completed his work on the front porch (the owner wanted it done before Halloween), rebuilding the entire foundation, brick work, porch framing, and flooring.

His able assistant (a card-carrying member of the UWA, Unskilled Workers of America, mind you) helped him with jacking up the side porch so that he could set the posts in their proper places.

Then it was home again, home again, where you know who made — what else? — for supper. Right now it’s time for some Bunny Tracks, so it’s sayonara until tomorrow.

7:18 AM Recently I spoke with a young married couple that was struggling whether they should attend a church in the rural community where they live or drive a considerable distance to another church that better suits their needs and desires. (A similar question is being asked by Alan Knox over at The Assembling of the Church.) They asked me for my opinion since they knew that I attend church in the rural farming community in which I live, even though the church is not elder-led, age-integrated, etc. The churches in rural Virginia have been built up largely in terms of horse and buggy communities. Today we have the automobile and hard-surfaced roads that make it easy to drive great distances to assemble with other Christians. Personally, I think the advantages of assembling where you live far outweigh the disadvantages. Now, I hold no brief for some types of rural churches. I do know one thing, however. The churches of rural America must be built, if they are to survive, by members of the rural communities themselves, be they life-long residents or (like us) more recent transplants from the outside. As poet Edward Robinson has said in his Toussaint l’Ouverture: “The few that have the word/Are mostly the wrong few in the wrong place,/On thrones or chairs of state too high for them/Where they sit swollen or scared, or both, as may be.” Rural churches will be strengthened to the degree that we who live in the heartland love our “neighbor” not for the sake of any gain, whether here or hereafter, not because loving him provides satisfaction to some desire or need of ours, but simply because he is our neighbor. In the language of 1 Corinthians, we will offer him agape, or caritas, disinterested, “not-seeking-its-own” love. It is not by chance that I live where I do, though my presence in the community is not necessarily a salutary thing in itself. One must work to make friends and to achieve the respect of others. And that is very hard work indeed –going from being an “outsider” to an “insider.” It would be much easier to drive a good distance to fellowship with other believers.

7:10 AM Looks like the temps will be in the 70s today, so we’ve cancelled our plans to process one of our steers today. Instead Nathan will be cutting one last field that we’ll bale sometime later this week. I still can’t believe we’re getting up hay in November. He and I will also be salvaging some wood from an old house. I tell you, it’s great to be back on my feet again. I missed working for “Massa” Nate.

Sunday, November 11

6:17 AM We had a wonderful evening last night celebrating the work of the Lord Jesus around the world. Our guests were living examples of Christians committed to praying for the lost. It is absolutely necessary that we pray for people to come to Christ and to grow and develop in the Lord, and these friends are doing just that. I cannot even begin to express my appreciation to them for their love, friendship, and intercession. I realize that not everyone I witness to will respond. I realize that only the Father can draw men to Himself. And He is! People everywhere are surrendering to the radical demands of Jesus. They are learning that a person lives only through dying. That the way up is down. That weakness equals strength. That love is not sex, wealth is not money, faithfulness is not success, relationship is not religion. If our local churches are weak and ineffective, it is because we ourselves have never learned these truths.

So to those who blessed us with their presence last night: Thank you for translating the Word of God into your daily lives. You are great examples to Becky and me. We love you!

Saturday, November 10

3:55 PM Just finished writing the preface to Perspectives on the Ending of Mark. Our guests will begin arriving momentarily for tonight’s dinner. I’m looking forward to an enjoyable evening discussing missions.

10:38 AM Saturday shout out and thank you to a very special friend for the gift of Belgian, White Chocolate, Macadamia Nut coffee creamer. I’m sure we’ll enjoy it in heaven. 

10:32 AM Just back from making a trash run. As you can see, it was long overdue.

6:53 AM I think it was in the course of studying at Jerusalem University College in the Holy Land that I received the first intimation of the importance of Hebrew, as much for the study of the New Testament as of the Old. There must, I knew, be something important about reading the sayings of Jesus in a language very much like His own (if indeed He did not teach in Greek, which I think is unlikely). When I was on the point of leaving Israel for Los Angeles I managed to find a copy of the Hebrew New Testament for sale. It seems almost inconceivable now, but I had for years read my New Testament in every language (it seemed) except Hebrew. Oddly enough, I knew of very few Hebrew professors who would agree that the Hebrew New Testament could shed light on the words of Jesus. Their point is well taken if they mean that we must always give primacy of place to the inspired Greek text. But personally I know of no more satisfying experience than that of reading the Scriptures not only in the languages in which they were written but in translations as well. I say all this to emphasize that the New Testament in Hebrew is available here should you like to try it out for yourself.

בְּרֵאשִׁית הָיָה הַדָּבָר וְהַדָּבָר הָיָה אֶת־הָאֱהִים וְהוּא הַדָּבָר הָיָה אֱהִים׃

6:45 AM 100 percent better. That’s how my left heel is feeling now that I’ve seen the doctor and am punctiliously obeying his orders: always wear shoes (no bare feet), add ice and stretching exercises, take your meds (anti-inflammatory and steroids), and wear orthopedics (to be ordered). The improvement was literally overnight and just in time to help Nathan unload a trailer and make a trash run.

6:28 AM The latest addition to our home page is called Ron Paul and Republican Politics.

6:25 AM “Entrust the past to God’s mercy, the present to His love, and the future to His providence.”  – Augustine.

6:20 AM This evening Becky and I are hosting about 25 guests for a small dinner party here at the Hall. I’ll be sharing stories and slides about one of my recent trips abroad to share the Good News. Becky’s cooking two different soups, and I’m told that one of our guests is bringing homemade bread. Meanwhile, I’m gearing up to speak at the missions conference that begins tomorrow morning at Richland Creek Baptist Church in Raleigh. The services are at 8:45, 9:30, and 11:00. The conference continues with a banquet Wednesday night and another message on missions next Sunday morning. I’ve been allotted 30 minutes for each message, and I’m anxious that I’ll go over that limit. My greatest faults are talking too much and talking too fast.

Friday, November 9

6:17 PM I’ve excerpted the following from an email Becky just sent to a church leader in Gondar, Ethiopia:

We have just completed a special 3-hour program for about 50 children & adults at Mt. Tirzah Baptist Church. This group is a home-schooling group; the parents teach their children at home instead of sending their children to government schools. Shall I tell you about the program that Dave & I arranged?

First we all met together for an introduction to Ethiopia. We had a map to show where Ethiopia is located, we discussed the mountains, Rift Valley, etc., as an introduction to Ethiopia.  Then we divided the people into two groups. One group went with me into another room, which I pretended that we were in an Ethiopian home in the country; I discussed a typical family, the children, the food, the home routine, etc.  Then we ate a little fir fir, which I had made at home.  The other group stayed in the main room with Dave, where he taught them about the Amharic language, they practiced writing, they heard Burji children recite their memory passages, they sang an Ethiopian song, etc….so he taught them about the language & music of Ethiopia.  Then the two groups switched rooms; Dave & I repeated our teaching. In this way everyone got to attend both Dave & me as their teachers.

Then everyone came back into the main room. I showed a video that lasted about 8 minutes of us traveling to a church in Alaba. Then we showed pictures & discussed in detail about the town of Gondar. I showed the mountains, the palaces, the Orthodox churches, and discussed the teaching of the Orthodox. Then 5 adults read the summaries about the towns of ____, _____, and _______, and other adults read little summaries about the 6 evangelists. Again, I asked for 2 people for each evangelist to commit to pray for that evangelist for one year.  So now each evangelist has 4 people or families praying for him….two from the mountains of Virginia, and two from this homeschool group.

At the end we answered questions, took an offering to help with the salaries of the evangelists, and also had a time of prayer for the work in Gondar. As they were praying I wish you could have been with us!!!! 

I think God is planting His love in many people about Gondar, and we will see what He will do!!!

An offering was taken this morning. Every penny of the $216.42 collected will go to assist the evangelists in Gondar. Praise the Lord for what He is doing in the hearts of His people. Let the kingdom expand!

6:33 AM This morning your Ethiopia missionaries are off to speak at a homeschooling group in Charlotte Court House, VA. Modules include Ethiopian food, culture, language, music, evangelism, and the church in Gondar. We’re meeting at Mount Tirzah Baptist Church.

6:30 AM I have never considered myself an homme-de-lettres in the sense of a “New Testament scholar,” for all such notions, in my view, are inordinately superficial. I do not believe that a distinction is to be made between the academic study of Scripture and the devotional reading of same. That is, quite simply, a false disjunction. For me, study and devotion are two sides of the same coin: I study the Bible devotionally, and I perform my daily devotions scientifically. The academic and the affective go hand in glove. Some, I think, are vaguely shocked whenever I say this, but I am quite sure it is not necessary to sacrifice Athens for Jerusalem.

This is one reason why in my books and essays I have never (to my knowledge) made the statement, “As a New Testament scholar I….” The truth is that I do not see myself as a New Testament scholar but as a simple student of the Scriptures, a child, if you will, wading on the shore of an unlimited (and still vastly unexplored) ocean. At least I can say that my academic work in the text has been as much a personal and private matter of the heart as it has been a scholarly pursuit. I have never struggled with a lack of devotional attitude in the midst of a rigorous writing schedule. In fact, I must say that the more I write, the less I’m impressed with my past writing. The scriptural injunction, “Let the dead bury their dead,” seems to apply with some force to an author’s past literary accomplishments, for I see no reason to focus on the past when a vast new world of discovery awaits me in the future.

When I think back to my own days in the doctoral program at the University of Basel, for example, I hardly ever think about the hours spent in research and writing, lecture halls and libraries. Instead, I tend to recall with great fondness the free hospitality of the Schaub and Jost families, the fellowship we enjoyed in the Baptistengemeinde there, the panegyric of free organ music in the local Reformed church on Friday nights, the odd smiles Becky and I would get whenever we greeted complete strangers with a “Gruezi miteinand,” the debates over politics with the ideological waifs and strays in the practical theology department, and so forth — all experiences having to do with everyday life. I was delighted to discovery that my doctoral program, even in the austere environment of a major European university, could be intensely enjoyable and satisfying, as long as I maintained my spiritual equilibrium.

That might be the key, if there is one, to truly enjoying one’s doctoral studies: rejecting both a purely academic approach and a purely devotional one. At least that’s what I have experienced.

6:12 AM There will be a very interesting seminar at this year’s SBL meeting in San Diego (which I will have to miss). The big question: How many of the textual choices in the UBS will be reversed or changed in the new edition? Or will textual optimism simply be notched up a rank? At the very least, I think Matt. 5:22 and John 3:13 need rethinking.

Thursday, November 8

5:15 PM This has been a busy day for Becky and me. It began with a trip to Durham to see the podiatrist at the Duke Foot Clinic to see if he could do anything about my flat tire. Then we ran several errands, including a stop for a great lunch at the 96 Buffet in Oxford. Right now B is sewing up a storm: all new dresses for the winter. What I’ve seen so far looks great. It took us quite a while before we could find a place selling old-fashioned zippers. (Sewing seems to be a dying art.) Anyway, I look at how hard she works on everything from sewing her own clothing to growing her own vegetables to processing her own beef (we’ve got another cow scheduled to do this Monday) and I am simply blown away. I wish I had half her stamina and self-discipline.

By the way, here’s the scene from our front porch when we left the house morning, a reminder of the ever-new faithfulness of God:

6:03 AM The latest addition to our home page is called You Can’t Lock Up Lady Liberty.

5:56 AM Chuck Baldwin is at his very best in this essay on the Ron Paul Revolution. Don’t be surprised that a pastor is appealing to his fellow pastors to take limited, constitutional government seriously. Yes, the task of the church is to seek God’s kingdom first. Yes, politics can easily become a substitute for God. Yes, the way of politics is in direct contrast to the way of the cross. Yes, the church must reject any kind of alignment with the state. But to think that the separation of church and state means that the Christian perspective is irrelevant in political affairs is pure balderdash. Pastor friend, read Chuck’s essay, then decide for yourself whether you can in good conscience support a presidential candidate other than Dr. No.

5:45 AM Yesterday in our New Testament class I gave a talk on the subject of marriage, singleness, divorce, and remarriage. I’m afraid it was a little complicated. I would mention here that I belong to a minority who think that both Jesus and Paul prohibited remarriage after divorce, even divorce for porneia. I entirely agree with those who say that death alone can break the yoke of marriage. Even in the case of porneia, I would advise divorce only in the last resort. What it all boils down to is this: I think we should always be going about trying to heal broken relationships. If we truly set aside our vanity and egotism, I believe very few marriages need to end in divorce. I would only add that Becky and I are available to help any seminary couple who needs a word of encouragement along these lines. Meantime, I want to be working for the kingdom, knowing that the time has been shortened and opportunities for service are limited. What Jesus said to the rich young ruler I imagine He could say to many a married couple today: “Sell all that you have and follow Me.” The demand is total. I believe that nothing less than our complete obedience is acceptable to Him. This is what I tried, so inadequately, to say yesterday.

Wednesday, November 7

7:31 PM Here’s an excellent interview with Izzy Lyman of the Homeschooling Revolution. Izzy has just said goodbye to the blogosphere. She’ll be greatly missed. I’m reminded of the Greek commentator Theophylact’s interpretation of the Christian life as a journey involving a band of travelers. Every now and again they have to check up and ask, “Has anyone fallen out? Has anyone been left behind while the others have pressed on? Is there anything we can do help to one another?” Izzy was relentless in her pursuit of encouraging parents not to straggle away, to linger behind, or to so drift as to miss the grace of the homeschooling experience. Hers was a website I checked every single day, and that says a lot. Izzy writes, “The revolution was blogged.” I respectfully disagree. I would change the tense: “The revolution has been blogged,” as the results will be around for a very long time to come. Happy trails, Miss Izzy, wherever God should lead you.

UPDATE: American kids, dumber than dirt. Warning: The next generation might just be the biggest pile of idiots in U.S. history.

Tuesday, November 6

4:59 AM The latest addition to our home page is called Admitting Our Mistakes.

4:54 AM Students, here are a couple of Greek language tools you might be interested in. They’re at the Textkit site. 

• First Greek Book by John Williams White

• Greek Grammar by William W. Goodwin

4:50 AM Meet Sheppie, Nathan’s new Shetland Sheep Dog. He joins Shiloh and Sheba as our resident guard dogs here at the farm. He’s a younger version of Shiloh: sweet, petite, and a spittin’ image to boot.

4:42 AM Recently Matthew McDill reminded us that elders in the church wear humble mantles of authority, an authority they exercise not through overbearing attitudes or unilateral actions but through genuine, loving relationships. Have you ever noticed how the important people in our lives exercise vast relational authority over us? If we understood relationships better, we’d have a better understanding of the power of love. Of all the people we should love purely, it is the people we lead. Is it any wonder, then, that elders in the New Testament were chosen from within the congregations they served? Outsiders could hardly be expected to earn the level of acceptance within the group so desperately needed for leadership. An elder’s relationships with his own family and his own neighbors and friends had to be deep and real if others were to accept his leadership. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m certainly not saying that a man can’t be an effective leader unless he has grown up in the community in which he serves. But in focusing on “leadership from within” the Scriptures are holding up a red flag of warning that “pastoral authority” is another name for relational authority (Heb. 13:7). You may call it pastoring, mentoring, facilitating, nurturing, training, directing, or discipling. Whatever we call it, its root is the same.

Back to Matthew’s essay, then. How does the risen Lord Jesus lead His church, of which He is the only Head? By the relational essence of Pentecost, by the long, slow process of helping us to trade in our vacillating instability for rocklike, Spirit-filled maturity, by enabling us to “love like God.” In the face of this basic biblical principle, why do we cling so obstinately and irrationally to our “theology of status”?

4:35 AM Not again.

4:31 AM Jimmy James, one of the 76 “Great Escapers,” tells his incredible story here. Several years ago I bought his biography while on a visit to London. I only wish I had gotten his autograph while I was there.

4:23 AM While southern Virginia has been in a severe drought, my home town in Hawaii has been experiencing severe flooding. I still think Kailua Beach is the most beautiful spot on earth. After all, Becky and I spent our honeymoon there 31 years ago. And it’s no surprise that so many tourists vacation there.

Monday, November 5

11:24 AM In 1983 I graduated from the University of Basel in Switzerland with my doctorate in theology. During my graduation ceremony I was asked to place my hand on a 13th century sword and swear (in Latin) that I would always defend the democratic ideals of that nation. I see the Swiss are now returning the favor. Good for them. Vielen Dank. 

9:23 AM Right now I’m editing the papers from our Markan conference. They’re due on Nov. 15. The challenge will be writing the preface. How do you describe papers that are so remarkably varied in their approach to the problem? I only hope I can do justice to the superb meeting the Lord gave us. By the way, the publisher is calling the book Perspectives on the Ending of Mark, and its release date has been set for Sep. 1, 2008. In case you’ve forgotten, here’s a pic of the jolly old contributors:

 

7:45 AM While the leading candidates for president continue to display their animus for the Constitution, I think we ought to remember that the election of a true Republican to the White House will not change the Neronian self-indulgence that characterizes the politics of Washington, and has for decades. The FDR-ing of America has been going on for so long that it will take more than a single principled conservative to turn the ship around. However, even if Ron Paul should fail to win the Republican nomination, it’s my opinion that our nation has been given a golden opportunity to rethink our priorities begun by the Ron Paul Revolution. Does constitutional government really matter to us anymore? Is it right or moral to wage unilateral preemptive war? Why do so many nations of the world consider the U.S. at least as dangerous as its adversaries? These and other questions are legitimate issues for a Republic like ours and should be discussed openly and freely. Meantime, I see no no one refuting Ron Paul on the facts, and there’s no longer any tidy way of shutting him up. And have you noticed? The Internet is perhaps the greatest impediment to tyranny today. As Jefferson wrote to Lafayette in 1823, “The only security of all is a free press.” So these are good days for our nation, a crossroads even. Will we take advantage of the opportunity?

Sunday, November 4

6:20 PM I had a blast at Fuquay today. As usual, I could merely sketch a faint outline of what I wanted to say. Where does the time go? I have a hundred different ideas based on the Bible for church restoration/revival, but all of them are simply suggestive. The most important thing is that we wean ourselves from the namby-pamby canned man-made “solutions” to our problems and return to the pure milk of the Word of God. I pray that the Holy Spirit will move over the great, selfish, sin-stained land, and claim a host of creatures who have lost their faith in God, free-thinkers and no-thinkers, hopeless and hapless. I believe He has never been more ready to revolutionize this world than now. So my thanks to pastor Chris and pastor Ben and pastor Jim and all the brethren for allowing me to spend time with some really great people. I felt the sincerity and humility of a church that has gone deep into the heart of God.

5:10 AM The latest addition to our home page is called 15 Stupid Things Ron Paul Would Never Do.

5:07 AM Right now I’m getting ready to drive 3 hours to the town of Fuquay-Varina south of Raleigh to speak at Fuquay Baptist Church’s 3 morning services. The church is in the middle of a series on brokenness, and I’ve been asked to be one of their series speakers. My message is entitled, “The Power of Negative Thinking.”

Saturday, November 3

4:12 PM We’re done. 112 bales.

Go JR!!

11:45 AM Just checked up on the day laborers. They’ve been felling and cutting trees. JR tells me he’s never chopped fire wood before but I don’t believe him for one moment. Just look at what he’s done so far.

Meantime, the grass is in rows waiting to be baled. Being the grand blessé I’ll likely drive the trailer while others do the pick up. After, that is, we enjoy some of Becky Lynn’s hearty home-made soup.

11:19 AM Seems that now, egads, Ron Paul’s voice is too high pitched for him to win the election. Actually, I like his soft-spoken, light-hearted demeanor, and I’m totally unbiased.

10:46 AM Alpha Mom, Omega Mom, Kappa Mom, or Iota Mom. Which one are you?

10:08 AM Over at In Hoc Signo you’ll find an interesting entry on the editor of the famous Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. O, the dangers of statism.

9:54 AM QOTD:

Je mehr Liebe man gibt, desto mehr besitzt man davon.

For more ways to keep up with your theological German, go to this great site.

9:26 AM FYI….

9:17 AM “Waterboarding” is revealed as a classic case of euphemism here. Not being an ethicist, I’ll have to leave the condemnation to others. Meantime, the best blurb I’ve heard on the subject was posted by James Ostrowski yesterday on the LRC blog:

“Can those who deny that waterboarding is torture agree to try it out on live TV?”

7:58 AM Life in the country has many benefits, not least the potential for developing deep and lasting relationships with one’s neighbors. Where I live, many of our neighboring farmers are also members of our small church. Averett Baptist Church is your typical steepled brick edifice with its sanctuary, Sunday School classrooms, and baptistry. But church for me is far more than these things. The external facilitates the more ultimate relationships of life — “church decentralized” if you will. Yesterday I sat for long hours in the home of one of our elderly church members, a mainstay in our community. We talked and prayed and read Scripture. I used to think that the old hymn was just for the future:

When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus, we’ll sing and shout the victory.

Now I know better. It’s a hymn for every day. We need not wait for heaven to sing and shout the victory. Here I was — a relative newcomer to the community — in the presence of a giant whose family has farmed here for generations. One in Christ. Mutually burden bearing. Love transcending the old, worldly chasms. Being the church to each other in the secular world of every-day life. Unconsciously. Involuntarily. Supernaturally. Blessed hours of common courtesy, old-fashioned country good manners, and genuine agape.

Spiritual awakening awaits an awakening in our homes and communities.

Friday, November 2

7:43 PM Farm update: We just finished off a big pot of rice and a huge bowl of Chinese food, made of course with my secret ingredient. I cheated tonight, however, adding some packaged “beef and broccoli” gravy to my concoction. Don’t say I ever get stuck in a rut! But back to the farm. If you can believe it, we cut hay this week and are scheduled to bale it tomorrow. This is only our second cutting of the entire growing season. The demand for good horse-quality hay is enormous in this area, and Nathan delivered another 50 bales to Oxford today, and we just got another order today, and we’re wondering if we’ll have enough for our own animals this winter. This will help: we’ll be “doing” 3 or 4 of our bigger cows in the next few weeks. Good thing, too, as I believe we used up the last of our yummy sirloin this evening for supper. With my gimpy left foot I’ll do my best to help the farm manager tomorrow getting up the hay. The good news is that a student of mine from the seminary volunteered out of the clear blue to come up and help us tomorrow. Bribes from students are always accepted (just kidding, JR!). Tomorrow is the inauguration of an annual tradition around here: cutting firewood for winter. Nate’s wood shed is full, but ours is practically empty, and we go through a ton of logs every year now that we’ve installed a wood stove in our library fireplace. The weather promises to be knock-dead gorgeous tomorrow, with highs in the low 80s. I’m looking forward to it, after I eat some popcorn tonight and get a good night’s rest.

8:48 AM A couple of weeks ago I did some some international traveling. An American seems to stick out like a sore thumb these days wherever he goes. As usual, I kept a diary of my trip. As I reviewed it this morning one thing struck me. No matter where I traveled I felt no animosity toward America per se, despite our reputation as being a warmongering, unfree-trading, terrorist-obsessing bully. The people I met are simply tired of our foreign policy — tired of the “evil of lesser evilism” mantra, the moral myopia, the relativism, the brashness and arrogance. As I watched Putin on TV in the room of a Soviet-era hotel I noticed how effectively the clever, cold-eyed Russian leader orated. From what I could gather, I guessed that the U.S. was again trying to put the world in a black-and-white bubble, with Russia on the outside looking in. Oh-oh, the Bush doctrine, I thought: “You’re either with us, or agin’ us.” It was enough to send me burrowing back under my cheap hotel feather blanket.

Sometimes I wish our politicians would get out and mix with the normal, everyday people of the world. In cheap hotels preferably.

7:56 AM The latest addition to our home page is called Ron Paul’s Slam Dunk Foreign Policy.

7:50 AM “I fought on the wrong side of our ideological and cultural war that divided our country and poisoned our politics.”  — David Brock, Blinded by the Right. 

7:43 AM PowerPoint bores me. At least, most PowerPoint presentations bore me. In my opinion, they actually inhibit clarity in thinking, expression, and interaction. That said, my book The Myth of Adolescence comes with a CD and on it is a PowerPoint presentation of the book’s contents. Just thought I’d tell you why the book is shrink-wrapped. As for the effectiveness of the presentation, you’ll need to judge for yourself.

Thursday, November 1

1:36 PM New Testament students, I’ve decided to postpone the due date for your term papers until after Thanksgiving Break. The new due date is Wednesday, Nov. 28, which gives you two additional weeks to work on them. Hope this helps. Thanks for all your hard work.

9:57 AM The latest addition to our home page is called Ron Paul: Our Next President?

9:51 AM Yesterday I sent to my publisher the revision of my beginning grammar, Learn to Read New Testament Greek. He should receive it today (its due date) via FedEx. My next manuscript is due on the 15th of this month, and the next one after that on March 1, 2008. My thanks to the Lord Jesus for enabling me to meet publishing deadlines — thus far at least.

9:46 AM R. G. Hutchison reviews Rethinking the Synoptic Problem.

9:42 AM Here’s a good essay on the dialect spoken in the part of Virginia where I live. Nathan has already picked up many of the local expressions. Before long he’ll even be saying “a boot” for “about.”

9:38 AM SEBTS has just published the audio files from last week’s C. S. Lewis conference. Quintilian, the Roman master of oratory, once said, “It is a good thing to know, and always to keep turning over in the mind, the things which were illustriously done of old.” Lewis left his readers two things – an example and an inspiration. 

9:32 AM This essay is worth reading for many reasons, not least because of its comment on the authorship of Hebrews (!). Well done, Lew. It is easier to produce Pharisees than Christians.

9:29 AM Some good thoughts from one of our Ph.D. students, Keith Campbell, who is also an avid outdoorsman:

We are all on the river of life. Some of us have invited Christ into our boats as our guide. If you’ve made this decision, then by all means heed the Guide’s command. If he says “hard forward!” go without hesitation. If he says “take a break,” then relax and take a breather. If he says “left”… well, you get the point. So, jump into life’s boat, invite the Guide along, listen attentively to his command (even if the reason is unclear), and enjoy the ride. Enjoy the slow rapids. Be brave through the raging white waters. And trust that the Guide will faithfully lead you to your appointed destination.

Clicking here will take you to his website.

9:22 AM What makes a good book?

The best books have zeal and knowledge, power and discipline. The best books carry the passion of their author without carrying the author’s baggage. The best books provide the reader with content and perspectives that they wouldn’t find elsewhere and didn’t know they needed. The best books empower their readers without overpowering them. The best books are written by authors who are leaders and servants and friends to their readers. The best books are hard to write and sometimes hard to read, but they need to be written, and they need to be read.

Read Writing, Talking and Best Practices: An Editor’s Diatribe.

9:16 AM QOTD: “I and the father are not one.” — Markus Barth, son of Karl Barth.

9:10 AM The escape tunnels at Stalag Luft III (the site of the so-called “Great Escape” of March, 1944) could number about 100, according to this fascinating essay. My dream is one day to visit Zagan and see the site in person, as did this couple.

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November 2004 Blog Archives

Tuesday, November 30

5:12 PM From the blah-gosphere:

Religion poll guru John Green and Steve Waldman of Beliefnet do the math on the exit polls and agree: “In the pivotal states, he [Bush] benefited from the strong support of evangelical Christians and, just as important, an impressive showing among regular churchgoing Catholics and mainline Protestants.”

The Christian Coalition says “Christian evangelicals” are the group that put Bush over the top. The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and former Bush opponent Gary Bauer prefer to focus on “values voters.”

Concerned Women for America does a bit of dancing.

“Evangelicals voted in force in this year’s election, securing the presidency for George W. Bush, granting parents in Florida the right to be notified before their minor daughter’s abortion, and passing marriage protections laws in every state they were offered — even liberal Oregon,” writes senior policy director Wendy Wright. “President Bush knows his strongest base, who they are and what drives them. Perhaps this is because, as many evangelicals and conservative Catholics can relate, he is one of us.”

So there you have it: Christians put Bush over the top. And why shouldn’t evangelicals support Bush, who (alluding to Jesus’ words “He who is not with Me is against Me”) once said, “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”

Read more. 

4:23 PM This is an important development within the Evangelical Theological Society. Inerrancy must not be left to be (re)defined by those who support open theism. 

3:56 PM Hope is rare among Iraq’s Christian minority.

2:43 PM There’s been a great response to our recent essays on our national sin of statism. Here’s a sampling:

I’ve been looking through the mini-essays on your website. They are a
breath of fresh air. I’m a Reformed Baptist tutor & preacher in Britain,
currently numb with horror at what my government (along with yours) is
doing in Iraq. Although most of my Reformed friends are at one with me
in being appalled at this mass shedding of innocent blood, & the lies
that justify it, it has been impossible to hear a conservative Reformed
voice from America articulating the same moral viewpoint. I am very
glad, even relieved, to have discovered your website. Thank you!

Another reader adds:

Right on brother. We are in this world not of it. Bible believing Christians cannot fall into the trap of seeking their security and prosperity in the governments of the world. Our only security….our only prosperity comes from Jesus Christ, ” if He be for us who can be against us?” We both know who was given the governments of the world.

And Doug Phillips liked what we had to say about Christmas:

Thanks for you blog entry exposing the paganism of believers introducing theologically unsound, historically inaccurate Roman Catholic/Pagan festival days into their worship. When I left Rome I also left the superstitions of Rome, but have found over the years more persecution and ridicule from other believers on this issue than any other. Men crave their idolatries.

When I hear people say “Let’s put Jesus back into Christmas, my response is this: “Let’s put the Mass back in Christmas, for Christ was never there to begin with.”

Thanks to all for taking the time to write and share your thoughts.

7:10 AM David Corn asks, Are We Winning, Yet?

7:05 AM Yesterday Eerdmans graciously sent me a complimentary copy of Howard Marshall’s latest book, New Testament Theology: Many Witnesses, One Gospel, which promises to be a very good (and long) read. I am disappointed (but not surprised) that he discusses the theology of Mark before Matthew, but otherwise his canonical arrangement seems satisfying. I am determined to read the book – all 732 pages – in one sitting later this week.

7:00 AM For the first time in several weeks I spent the day on campus visiting with students and colleagues and posting my syllabus for the J-Term. It was wonderful! I was thrilled to get a phone call from my good friend Trent Butler, who recently assumed the senior editorship of Chalice Press in Saint Louis. He asked me to write several books for him, and I also notified my colleagues of his eagerness to work with our faculty on their book projects. As soon as I finish my sabbatical writing project I may take Trent up on his offer. I know the message God has put in my own heart, and which I must speak regardless of the cost. I believe most strongly that we need a different genre of textbook writing today, and to me there is no alternative but to ask for God’s grace in keeping my writing simple without being simplistic. Perhaps the title of my next book will be Unleashing the Church, which I think would be a good general tag for the many thoughts I would like to hang on it. I have stayed on the writing train a long time, until its speed has become quite high, but this sabbatical has been good and has helped me regain perspective on my literary priorities. Speaking of books, last night I finally got around to reading Pat Buchanan’s Where the Right Where Wrong, and my favorite quotes are the following:

We are not hated for who we are. We are hated for what we do. It is not our principles that have spawned pandemic hatred of America in the Islamic world. It is our policies.

To millions of Muslims, we are the “evil empire.”

Kudos to Pat for exposing the folly of the neoconservatives. But are conservatives listening?

Sunday, November 28

7:25 PM Farm Update: My new Dell desktop should be here on Thursday (160 Hard drive), 3.0 Processor, 512 Memory). Should increase my productivity (and decrease my frustration level – my 10 year-old pooter has been freezing up on me at least five times a day). Way out here in the sticks there’s no DSL, but, hey, we’ve got “high speed” internet access, and that will have to suffice. This week’s big project is to finish moving the smoke house (and rebuild it on our farm). Should be fun….

Been enjoying a daily ride on my wonderful horses, getting acquainted with our farm and the neighboring farms as well. High-spirited, but under control. They’re already used to the cows, goats, and hunting dogs, but still get a bit freaked by the deer. The latter are plentiful this year and just can’t wait to be bagged.

7:23 PM Another reason why a pure democracy is a bad idea. (Let’s not forget that the U.S. is a Republic, not a democracy.)

Saturday, November 27

3:14 PM Shades of Goethe’s Faust?

2:59 PM Jonathan Grubbs has started quite an interesting thread on tithing here. For more, please see our webpage, Unleashing the Church.

2:45 PM What, no category for 52-year olds?

[T]he demographics of blog authorship are somewhat disputed, but the bulk of bloggers clearly are within the under-30 demographic. According to a Perseus study, over 90 percent of blogs are authored by people between the ages of 13 and 29, with 51.5 percent between the ages of 13 and 19.

Read The “Blogosphere” is Growing Exponentially.

2:40 PM Hearty congratulations to my esteemed colleague on the New Testament faculty, Dr. Andreas Köstenberger, on the release of his latest book.

2:16 PM Farm Update: Ain’t it good to be back home again…. Just finished moving two-thirds of an old smoke house from a neighboring farm. We’ll rebuild it beside our garden house and use it to store our reenactment accouterments. We were able to take the roof off almost intact (minus the gable ends); the sides we will move completely intact (thankfully). We’re still collecting old lumber for our new “old” horse barn, construction of which has been postponed pending completion of several more pressing farm projects. Ah, the joys of being a country boy!

Well, life on the farm is kinda laid back
Ain’t much an old country boy like me can’t hack
It’s early to rise, early in the sack
Thank God, I’m A Country Boy

Well a simple kinda life never did me no harm
A raisin’ me a family and workin’ on a farm
My days are all filled with an easy country charm
Thank God I’m a country boy

When the work’s all done and the sun’s settin’ low
I pull out my fiddle and I rosin’ up the bow
The kids are asleep so I keep it kinda low
Thank God I’m a country boy

I’d play “Sally Goodin'” all day if I could
But the Lord and my wife wouldn’t take it very good
So I fiddle when I can, work when I should
Thank God, I’m a country boy

7:53 AM Nairobi continues to be a very dangerous place.

7:45 AM In case you’ve never seen one: a bread wagon. (Mr. Gravlin had a route in Detroit prior to World War I.)

7:45 AM Homeschooling families that are considering college options might want to take a look at this essay by Mary Pride.

7:34 AM When the information highway becomes the education highway.

Internet classes are valuable tools for the homeschooling family. They provide the personal instructional opportunities that enhances the homeschool. As good as that is, we can enjoy the benefit of classroom interaction in the safety and supervision of the home. I encourage you to spend some time exploring the possibility of integrating Internet classes into your home school.

7:30 AM Here’s welcoming the Thorpe Report to the blogosphere.

Friday, November 26

5:45 PM It was only a year ago that my wife and I had the privilege of singing John Rutter’s “Gloria” with the Northeast Piedmont Chorale. We listened to the CD last night in the library of Bradford Hall and were reminded again of the piece’s greatness. It is possibly the best modern compilation of Latin texts with its Gregorian chants and dissonant harmonies. I can almost weep whenever I hear the magnificent second movement. Unforgettable!

4:20 PM Just over a week ago I was in Gonder – just about as close to the nation of Eritrea as I am ever likely to get. Today comes word of increasing persecution in that country, and I hope you will join me in praying for those arrested last Thursday.

4:18 PM Took advantage of the absolutely gorgeous weather today to introduce my Arabian gelding to the farm – not quite all 123 acres of it, but a good chunk nonetheless. Tomorrow it’s Traveler’s turn. Felt a bit like George Washington, who mounted one of his steeds every morning and surveyed his farms – some 10,000 acres at one point. Felt good to be on horseback again after five weeks in Ethiopia (where I did, however, ride mules!). (Below: Bradford Hall and, below it, Maple Ridge.)

1:06 PM To use the serial comma or not – I do – and various and sundry other questions about comma usage.

12:58 PM A new reader sent me this kind email:

Wow! I’ve only read a couple of your essays and articles, but this is some of the most thoughtful, exhaustive, engaging, biblically based commentary I’ve ever read…. I strongly agree in your stand on “limited government and constitutionally guaranteed liberty.”

12:40 PM Theo Sommer thinks George W. Bush is a “sobered man.” He also thinks the Europeans can work with this embattled president. Read Never Waste a Crisis from Die Zeit.

11:50 AM Tom DiLorenzo on THE problem with the federal government.

11:30 AM In his latest blog entry, Darrell Dow exposes the weaknesses of the so-called Just War Theory as applied to the Iraq War. Certainly it is more important to lead a soul to Christ than to debate the virtues of war, but the sound evaluation of a faulty theory can be as holy an act as the winning of a soul. Kudos to Darrell for his bold and insightful treatment.

9:23 AM The evangelical church in America is now in a free fall and continues to be deceived by so-called openness theology and its proponents. Please read this essay by David Wells, who rightly notes:

The truth of the matter is that the fraying at the edges of the evangelical world has now turned into an unraveling at its center. First came the new definitions about who evangelicals were. Then the boundaries were shifted. Then they were crossed. And now the reality of God is redefined and made altogether more accommodating to our postmodern culture. It is for these reasons that I believe Evangelicalism is now in a free fall. I therefore hope that my writing will play an important role in bringing the Church back to more cogent, biblical understanding, a more serious mind, a greater love of truth and righteousness, and a closer walk with God.

9:20 AM We are fast approaching December’s orgy of materialism, a celebration dating not from an unbroken tradition about Jesus’ birth—which would make it reliable—but from a festival of sun worship that a seeker-sensitive church took over in order to “win pagans” in a compromised form of evangelism. Jesus constantly spoke out against the Pharisees for adding their own traditions to God’s Law, and ecclesiastical traditions are no less susceptible to curb Christian freedom in the same way. Perhaps that’s why Paul referred to “special days and months and seasons and years” without specifically calling them Jewish observances as a general warning, in which case we have largely ignored it today. So before falling for the commercialization of Christmas, which (if we’re honest) can only be described as a crassly selfish holiday, please consider the wisdom of Charles Haddon Spurgeon on this subject:

We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas. First because we do not believe in any mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be sung in Latin or in English: Secondly, because we find no scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Savior’s birth, although there in no possibility of discovering when it occurred. It was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the Church celebrated the birth of our Lord; and it was not till long after the western Church had set the example, that the eastern adopted it. Because the day in not known. Probably the fact is that the “holy” days were arranged to fit in with the heathen festivals. We venture to assert that if there be any day in the year of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which our Savior was born it is the 25th of December. Regarding not the day, let us give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son. 

How absurd to think we could do it in the spirit of the world, with a Jack Frost clown, a deceptive worldly Santa Claus, and a mixed program of sacred truth with fun, deception and fiction. If it be possible to honor Christ in the giving of gifts, I cannot see how while the gift, giver, and recipient are all in the spirit of the world. The Catholics and high Church Episcopalians may have their Christmas one day in 365 but we have a Christ gift the entire year.

Upright men strove to stem the tide, but in spite of all their efforts, the apostasy went on, till the Church, with the exception of a small remnant was submerged under pagan superstition. That Christmas is a pagan festival is beyond all doubt. The time of the year, and the ceremonies with which it in celebrated, prove its origin.

Those who follow the custom of observing Christmas, follow not the Bible, but pagan ceremonies. 

9:00 AM I hope you had a great day yesterday. The highlight of our Thanksgiving as a family was singing for the shut-ins at the local nursing home, going from room to room, taking requests, and even having the patients sing along on occasion. In the world of men we find nothing as blessed as serving others in the name of Christ. We are a rich people indeed.

Thanksgiving Day, November 25

2:04 PM The latest from the able pen of Paul Proctor:

I find the similarities between our country’s currency and “Christianity” curious. Both are widely accepted parodies of the past that now drift on a sea of relativism with values that have depreciated dramatically over the years along with the culture and its cravings. But because the deterioration has spanned several decades, few can really appreciate what has been lost.

2:00 PM This just in from a good friend and long time DBO reader. It is the nicest Thanksgiving present I could receive.

Just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.  We didn’t get the election results we wanted but it was not from lacking of trying.  At the end of the day I can honestly say that [we] did our best to get Michael Peroutka elected president.  His message marches on, because his message is the message of righteousness and truthfulness.  We will continue to pray for this nation.  Like Lee said so many years ago, “everything is in God’s hands”.  Thanks for the wonderful work you are doing spreading His word all over the globe.  You are one of a kind and always in our thoughts and prayers. 

7:33 AM It’s pretty obvious that ours is not a website for the idealistic, Utopian liberal humanist, but neither it is intended to make pom-pom waving New Righters feel very comfortable. Does anyone listen? Very few, likely. When was the last time you saw a quote from DBO in the Washington Post or even World Magazine for that matter? How pleasant to know that most American evangelicals will be eating their turkey suppers today without the slightest pang of conscience about all the contempt for human life, the avarice, the theological compromise. Yet the issue of our biblical and constitutional foundations is not some abstract national debate to be dabbled in, but a life and death struggle with the forces of evil. Anyone who chooses to see through the benign appearances to the cancerous reality would, I think, be EXTREMELY grateful to the Almighty for His mercy upon our undeserving nation this Thanksgiving. I wanted you to know that the editor of DBO does not take your readership lightly, nor is he ungrateful to God or to you for your encouragement these past two years. The fact that we mortals are inclined to treat our pets with more concern than aborted innocents is no excuse to revert to the crudest and most archaic of all solutions to solve our problems: hubris. Thus it is with deepest gratitude that I tender to all of you my sincerest thanks for your support and my very best wishes for a happy and healthy – and Christ-centered – Thanksgiving Day, 2004.

Wednesday, November 24

5:45 PM This just in:

Dave,

I wanted to pass along two links for another great family-integrated
ministry and church that I have found.

http://www.fofc.org/

http://www.homediscipleship.org/

God Bless,
Jonathan Grubbs
Sanford, Fla.

Excellent! Thank you, brother. 

5:30 PM The Swiss are now seeking nominations for the “word of the year.” Last year’s winner? Konkordanz.

4:35 PM Seeking a degree over an education? Beware the Degree Disease!

4:23 PM Kim considers herself uniquely blessed this Thanksgiving – she’s finally learned to accept her husband’s personality:

I am so, so blessed!

I can be bossy. I can be domineering. It’s in my genes. The women in my family are generally of the take-charge nature. By today’s standards that is considered an asset. But by God’s eternal standard it is a liability, especially in marriage.

My husband, like my father, is an easy-going man. Stable, steady, loyal. He can be counted on. And I, too often, take him for granted.

I realized … that I have been resentful of my husband’s nature. Instead of accepting his God-given personality, which is quite commendable, by the way, I’ve been looking down at him. He’s not the take-charge type. He’s the steady, loyal, faithful type. Instead of seeing the positive things about him, I usually only see the negative. I should’ve been thankful for who God made him to be. And I am now.

Is your husband Mr. Command Man, Mr. Visionary, or Mr. Steady? Find out here. 

10:55 AM No need to reinvent the wheel, friends, when it comes to establishing family-integrated churches. Here’s another great success story.

10:45 AM The Episcopal Church continues to self-destruct:

“We serve the Episcopal Church, but welcome Christians of every label. We are a Christian community, welcoming people of any faith, or none. Our community is diverse in terms of age, race, gender and orientation. Jesus is our Way, but not to the exclusion of all other paths to God.”

10:33 AM October’s Jeb Stuart reenactment in beautiful Laurel Hill, Virginia, was a real blast. Here’s a pic of some of the men from our unit (30th North Carolina Troops) during weapons inspection, including my son Nathan (far left), our brigade bugler:

10:15 AM Students of Koine Greek often think they can use what they learn in class to get around in Athens. Modern Greek is, of course, very much different from what they are learning in school. Here’s an exercise for those who desire a familiarity with Modern Greek. While there are significant differences, there are also many similarities!

Χαίρετε!

9:40 AM For you wordsmiths: Thanksgiving Day word origins, such as:

Cornucopia is a Latin form evolved from two words cornu copiae, “horn of plenty.” The horn of plenty was fabled to be the horn of the goat nymph Amalthaea, whose milk was fed to the baby Zeus in Greek mythology. The cornucopia is a goat’s horn filled with corn and other grains, flowers, and fruit. It has long been a symbol of fruitfulness and abundance and at Thanksgiving, baskets shaped like cornucopia are filled and put on display.

9:14 AM Blogs for Peroutka has a new name and face (faces, that is – I love the portrait, Pieter!). Check it out.

Tuesday, November 23

4:22 PM I won’t be missing these two, as I get all my news from the www.

8:45 AM This just in:

2nd annual DIXIE DAYS  hosted by the Cold Harbor Guards SCV Camp #1764 will be held May 6-8 2005 at Pole Green Park, Mechanicsville, Virginia. Living history, infantry and artillery demonstrations, and featuring” The Battle of Bethesda Church” reenactment. Info and registration forms on www.coldharborguards.com  ph.804-512-7210 or 804-901-4970 for more info.

8:14 AM The diversity of the Ethiopian landscape is amazing. One writer has called the country a land “in which the past lies heavy, very remote, actual and indecipherable.” I used to tell my students to go to the Holy Land if they wanted to see what it was like to live in the First Century. Now I will tell them to go to Ethiopia. The capital, Addis Ababa, is modern (at least parts of it), but outside of Addis life goes on much as it has for centuries – slowly, ponderously, gracefully even – with the mass of the people hardly even aware of their own existence as part of a larger and more unified whole. Even the poorest peasant has a dignity and self-sufficiency that is impressive. I have truly grown to love these people. (Pics soon!)

8:12 AM The truth about the blue and the red.

7:59 AM Jim Rudd’s Covenant News is one the finest sites on the web for up-to-date posts on politics, culture, and commentary. Here’s a sampling:

Politics
How many injured and ill soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are left off the Pentagon’s casualty count? Would you believe 15,000? “More than 15,000 troops with so-called ‘non-battle’ injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq.”

• Hiding the Casualty Count
• Battlegroups First Step Towards Euro Army
• U.S. Tanks from North Korea sent to Iraq
• Republicans Derail 9/11 Reform
• Bush Vows to Fight For Intelligence Bill
• Generals Want More Troops in Iraq
• McCain: Up to 50,000 more US troops needed
• Fallujah Assault Set to Music

7:57 AM Ivan Eland’s latest essay exposes weaknesses in U.S. foreign policy toward Israel:

U.S. Policy Harms Prospects for Middle East Peace.

Monday, November 22

3:20 PM Who’s got the post-election blues? Not Mark Dankof!

(Mark: I too am inclined to adopt the “church-world” polarization found in Gaudium et Spes. I am also sometimes inclined to think that our movement has produced no devotional literature or serious study toward a devotional frame of mind. Then I read your works and am rebuked. Gratia et pax, my friend.)

3:14 PM Here’s a problem they don’t have in Ethiopia.

12:59 PM Temptation – the key to George Bush’s thinking and actions?

12:45 PM History of U.S. complicity with Saddam: “Now we condemn civilian casualties, now we don’t.”

12:12 PM Dr. Lyman asks:

(Professor, did you catch this pronouncement made by the Reverend Falwell? Está loco, verdad?)

Did you have to remind me, Izzy? 

11:17 AM Why the nine healed lepers never returned to thank Jesus:

One waited to see if the cure was real.
One waited to see if it would last.
One said he would see Jesus later.
One decided that he had never had leprosy.
One said he would have gotten well anyway.
One gave the glory to the priests.
One said, “O, well, Jesus didn’t really do anything.”
One said, “Any rabbi could have done it.”
One said, “I was already much improved.”

11:15 AM Heard about the lady who was asking God to help her find a parking place in a crowded shopping mall? Just then a car pulled out, leaving her a place to park.  “You can forget it, God,” she said. “I just found one.”

11:12 AM John MacArthur with five reasons to give thanks this Thanksgiving. I especially like the fifth one.

11:10 AM William Einwechter on the rule of  law. In examining the whole of Scripture, I believe that the answer Bill gives is the correct one, and the only possible biblical one – that is, that all law derives from the ultimate Lawgiver, Jesus Christ. Hence civil magistrates are never autonomous – though they often act that way.

As men cast off the rule of God, they tend to substitute the rule of the state in its place. The vacuum in regard to law and order that is left in society when God’s rule and law are set aside is inevitably filled by the state. The state assumes the role of supreme lawgiver over all men and institutions. Legislators become known as “lawmakers” who create law on the basis of human reason and political expediency. Judges become known as “activist judges” who decree what the law shall mean and how it shall be applied according to their own notions of “social justice” and of right and wrong. Divine law does not bind magistrates like these; they deny and despise the concept of a divine higher law that they must take into account and submit to in their legislation. The theory of legal positivism–that law finds its existence and sanction in the pronouncement of the state; that justice is upholding whatever the state says is law–is the explicit repudiation of the scriptural principle that “there is one lawgiver.”

But civil magistrates are not autonomous; they are servants of God who are required to govern according to His law (Rom. 13:1-6). Their role is illuminated for us in Deuteronomy 17:11. They are not the creators of law or justice. True law and true justice are determined by the Creator. The civil magistrate’s duty is to interpret and apply the law of God to his jurisdiction. All human legislation is to flow from the principles of law and justice revealed in Scripture by the foremost lawgiver.

11:07 AM Urban jungle.

11:05 AM If you live near Mecklenburg County Virginia you are cordially invited to hear my wife and me as we report on our Abyssinian Adventure at our home congregation, Averett Baptist Church, Sunday, December 5, at 7:00 pm. I praise the Lord for the phenomenal time we had in Ethiopia teaching, preaching, and doing medical work (during my wife’s first night at the clinic in Langano she delivered a baby!). I’ve seen the Holy Spirit work in ways like I’ve never seen before. The infinite, finished work of Christ on the cross not only opens the gates of heaven but also provides, in the present life, many wonderful opportunities for service. Come and share these blessings with us!

(Below: Wall paintings in an Orthodox monastery on an island we visited in Lake Tana. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is strongest in the north, but even here the Gospel is being proclaimed – and believed.)

10:59 AM From the “Farewell Sermon” of Jonathan Edwards, leader of the Great Awakening in New England, comes this wise counsel on the family (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. I, p. ccvi.):

We have had great disputes [about] how the church ought to be regulated; and indeed the subject of these disputes was of great importance: but the due regulation of your families is of no less, and, in some respects, of much greater importance. Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove in effectual. If these are duly maintained, all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be successful.

Let me now therefore, once more, before I finally cease to speak to this congregation, repeat, and earnestly press the counsel which I have often urged on the heads of families, while I was their pastor, to great painfulness in teaching, warning, and directing their children; bringing them up in the training and admonition of the Lord; beginning early, where there is yet opportunity, and maintaining constant diligence in labors of this kind.

Remember that, as you would not have all your instructions and counsels ineffectual, there must be government as well as instructions, which must be maintained with an even hand, and steady resolution, as a guard to the religion and morals of your family, and the support of its good order. Take heed that it not be with any of you as it was with Eli of old, who reproved his children, but restrained them not; and that, by this means, you do not bring the like curse on your families as he did on his.

10:46 AM Draft Update:

When Christians send their women to work and put their children in daycare, they have announced to the world that mamma is replaceable. If just anyone can train up a child, why bother having mamma at home? Indeed, if daycare centers can feed and clothe our children and teach them what they need to know, who needs families at all? We may as well all go off in our own separate directions and make money so we can buy all the stuff that the “American dream” is made of. And if mothers do not have a special, God-given role in the lives of their children, then why should it matter if mamma wears combat boots or takes a bullet?

Read When Mamma Wears Combat Boots. 

Saturday, November 20

8:46 PM We saw “Lucy” in an Addis Ababa museum. Give me a break, folks.

6:37 PM The prayer meeting.

5:59 PM Bill and Hillary Update:

Here’s the new Clinton Library.

And here’s the Counter Clinton Library.

5:45 PM Covenant News introduces a new columnist. 

5:30 PM Quote of the day:

Politics as usual. But if people didn’t vote for Bush, a pro-abortion candidate might have won.

Oh wait… one did.

1:10 PM You CNN fans will enjoy (?) this exchange between Bruce Morton and John Lofton of the Peroutka Campaign. While you’re laughing you’ll need to excuse me: I need to go out and feed the horses.

As Michael’s director of communications, I got a call from CNN saying they wanted to do a report about our campaign on their program “Inside Politics.” The reporter would be former CBS News correspondent Bruce Morton.

When Morton and I talk to set something up, he says he’s been looking at our Web page. He wants to know if Michael is elected, “will he repeal the First Amendment which separates church and state?” I tell him that there is nothing in this Amendment calling for such a separation.

Morton: “Well, it says you can’t have an established religion and your guy sounds as if he wants one….He wants a Christian country and that sounds like establishment to me. But, I am no Constitutional scholar.”

Indeed he is not. I patiently explain to Morton that what our Founders did not want was a national religion established by the Federal Government. I say Michael doesn’t want this either but he does not believe — like our Founders — that you should separate God and government. Referring to our campaign themes — God, family, republic — I note that the Declaration Of Independence speaks of unalienable rights, from God, that it is the purpose of government to protect.

Morton: “Yes, I’ve read it, thank you.”

But, Morton persists: “So, you would leave the First Amendment alone?”

I tell him I’m trying to take his question seriously but I can’t. I ask him what have we said that indicates we would not leave the First Amendment alone?

Morton: “Well, you appear to want a specifically Christian country.”

I reply: “Well, no, we actually want a Christian world. But, again, we do not want a Federally-established national religion. And, again, we believe what our Founders believed, that our unalienable rights come from God and it is the role of the civil government to protect these God-given rights.”

Morton: “Good enough.”

I reply: “God bless you.” He hangs up.

12:54 PM My friend (and Southeastern grad) Voddie Baucham has published a tome exposing the need for modern evangelicalism to penetrate and transform culture:

Here’s an excerpt from chapter 1:

There was a time when American culture looked favorably upon Christianity. In fact, Chief Justice John Jay once referred to America as a Christian nation. There is no doubt that the founders of this great nation built it upon biblical principles. But things have changed.

We now live in what has commonly been referred to as “post-Christian” America. In fact, there are many who wish to purge America of any Christian influence. It sometimes seems as though someone in power woke up one day and said, “Christianity was useful once, even important and comfortable for a while, but it doesn’t fit our needs anymore. It’s fine to practice your faith at church, but keep it out of the marketplace of ideas.” Some go further than wanting Christianity to be less visible; they are openly antagonistic. Christians in America are finding themselves in an increasingly hostile environment.

This state of affairs is nothing new for the church. Throughout history Christians have been the targets of ridicule and persecution. While there are lessons to be learned from the suffering and endurance of our contemporaries, it is always best to begin with believers who have gone before us—those who are a part of the historical record and whose stories have been provided, protected, and preserved in the Bible.

Voddie is also working on two other books that I can’t wait to read: Family-Driven Faith and The Family-Friendly Church. Here’s his website.

12:13 PM Speaking of the Islands, here’s a sampling of my first language:

‘Ol King Kam
He one funny ‘ol man
One funny ‘ol man he waz
He like fo kau kau
At his bruddah’s luau
An kanikapila awl night
Wit his kuz

If you can understand this jibberish, you one akamai kanaka, bro!

12:10 PM Izzy Lyman linked to this story on Hawaii’s abysmal government schools (of which I am, unfortunately, a product). Note the misspelling in the first sentence.

Hawaii was ranked 44th in the nation in academic achievment, 43rd in average SAT scores, and came in dead last in “educational freedom,” according to a nationwide analysis by the American Legislative Exchange Council. This despite the fact that Hawaii was cited as one of the ten states with the greatest improvement in student-to-teacher ratios.

11:59 AM You should care about this.

11:50 AM OK, youse MPs have done gone too far!

11:30 AM Harry Seabrook hits the nail on the head:

The Queen of England feels no need to apologize for Dresden. “Dresden was a legitimate strategic target in a total war that had to be brought to an end as quickly as possible.” W.T. Sherman couldn’t have said it better himself. Likewise, the men who flew the Enola Gay were convinced that by incinerating civilians (along with the 200-year-old Christian community in Nagasaki) they were saving lives by shortening the war with Japan. Churchill understood the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive war. The British declared war on Germany at a time when Germany had not threatened England at all (just like the US and Iraq). Two days after declaring war, the Royal Air Force began attacking civilian targets, beginning with Cuxhaven and Wilhelmshaven. The first German attacks against England were 15 days later, and only against military targets. The death toll in Hamburg in three nights of bombing in 1943 was 46,000. In Dresden, in one week, it was 250-300,000. The British and US fighters then strafed the streets with their machine guns to kill the dangerous women, children, and pensioners. More bombs were dropped on Berlin in one day than were dropped by the German Air Force on Great Britain during the whole war. But no! Why should the Queen apologize for spreading freedom? As a more sensible Thomas Fleming once said, “when a government targets the civilians of Dresden, Hiroshima, Novi Sad, or Baghdad, it is criminal in the eyes of all believing Christians. To believe otherwise is to ignore 2,000 years of Christian teaching and to reject Christ himself. Killing the innocent – whether it is done by Herod, an abortion doctor, or a government authorizing the terror-bombing of cities – is a grave moral evil.”

Alas, the “Just War Doctrine” goes awry – again.  (Below: Civilian casualties in Dresden.)

10:58 AM From the mailbag:

I’m a 17 year old home-schooled student ….  I have recently found myself appalled at the so-called conservatives and their blindness to the lies and half-truths from the republican party.  How can they miss this!  I have been very frustrated.  I was raised in a die-hard conservative family and was taught to believe that Bush was the best thing since sliced bread.  Well, I recently found this not to be true when I visited your site.  It all came together.  Now, when I register to vote, it sure will not be as a republican.  Now I am trying to convince my father and others to look into the Constitution Party.  They simply say, “Why waste a vote?  Why take votes from Bush?” I say why vote for the lesser of two evils?  I could not simply vote for either Bush or Kerry with a clear conscience. 

10:45 AM Students: My spring 2005 schedule is now in place:

• T-W 11:30-12:50 Advanced Greek

• T-W 1:00-2:20 Intermediate Greek

• R-F 11:30-12:50 Beginning Greek

• R 1:00-3:30 Seminar in Greek Linguistics (Ph.D. level)

I will also be teaching the J-term Beginning Greek class that meets January 10-28 daily from 9:00-12:00 noon. Looking forward to seeing you in the classroom!!

10:40 AM The first student I met on campus yesterday said I looked like I lost weight on my trip. Actually, I never ate so good – or so much. Injera/wat – the traditional Ethiopian cuisine – is both healthy and filling. And at SIM headquarters in Addis we were treated to huge amounts of “ferengy” (foreigner) food. Apparently all this eating isn’t showing in my waistline (thankfully). Health-wise we did great except for a sunburn I got while on a 7 hour outing by mule to visit my wife’s former mission station (now deserted). I used it as an excuse to tell people I was now a real Ethiopian (the word “Ethiopians” means, of course, “people with burnt faces”). At any rate, many thanks for your prayers for health and strength during out travels. The Lord certainly heard them.

10:33 AM I just knowed it! Six Southern states rank among the top ten in the Generosity Index. No surprises here, yall.

10:29 AM The tension between church-in-Christ and church-in-society is inevitable. The important thing is to acknowledge the tension and to use it as fruitfully as we can. The tension between the church-in-Christ and the church-of-the-nation is another matter altogether, as pointed out in an excellent essay by William Shearer titled Election 2004. An insightful read!

Friday, November 19

10:32 AM From the monasteries of Lake Tana to the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela to the Castles of Gonder to the tropical forests of Dilla to the mission stations of Hadiya and Burji to the cacophonous streets of Addis Ababa to the front porch of Bradford Hall, Virginia, a hearty GOOD MORNING. My first priority since completing our Abyssinian Adventure is to respond to your emails, then update the website. To tell the story of the church in Ethiopia demands more time and skill than I possess, but I shall try, in the coming days, to give you a glimpse of the Christian valor and devotion of our brothers and sisters in the Horn of Africa. Meanwhile, welcome back to DBO, and sincerest thanks for your prayers during our sojourn. I really missed you. Dave

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