Lord, remember me when you get your kingdom...

How different are we than the thief on the cross? The only reason I pose this question is because I am about to attend the best seminary in the world. Today I received very wise counsel from some dear friends of ours, and what they said really meant a lot to Marie and I for a couple of reasons. The first one being both have been walking with the Lord longer than I have been alive. It's good to get counsel from people who have known the Lord longer than you. Their desire to seek after and follow the Savior is evidenced in their joy, and how they live their lives. The second would be their motivation was purely out of love for us, and nothing else. It's easy to give advice, and everyone has an opinion, but rarely are the motivations the same as theirs.

Another reason I loved their counsel was because although they never brought up specific verses, their advice was straight from the Bible. in I Corinthians 8:1, Paul made this simple statement: "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." There are many other verses that talk about this concept, and even Randy Alcorn wrote a book called "The Grace and Truth Paradox" I would recommend, but the idea is simple. All the knowledge I gain from the Master's Seminary may equip me to preach, and give me the tools I need to be an effective church leader, but none of it will make my walk closer with God, or make me anymore holier than I was before I started. That is a work that is left primarily to the Holy Spirit.

The Master's Seminary, or Grace Community Church in particular, is wonderful place for individuals to grow spiritually. Their concern was that I remember to fall in love with God, not just the beauty of His Truth, or to put it another way, That I allow the Truth of God and His Word to saturate my soul, not just give me ammunition I can sling at others some would consider "less enlightened."

It's true, there is a high concentration of Biblical Truth at the Master's Seminary. There is no denying that. (well, I suppose some would) And it's also true, while I love the Lord sincerely, and I want to know Him, there are so many different things I don't know, and so many things I still need to learn. I'm also very inexperienced. I'm a relatively new Christian. I was saved about seven or eight years ago, but it really wasn't until the last 4 or so years I started to see significant growth. I have a natural bent towards pride, self-reliance, arrogance, and can at times be condescending. I fear what my sinful flesh would do with a little truth.

Thankfully, I have the Spirit of God working in me, and by His Grace he will deliver me from that. I have reason to suspect that he already has, and one big reason for that is because He has so very graciously blessed Marie and I with people like Mike and Rebecca Watters who we know will not be shy to tell us if our attitudes are not in line with Scripture. I have such a deep respect for the people God has put in my life, like the Watter's and so many others, and can't tell you how thankful I am to be launched from such a wonderful church as Beacon of Hope in Saint Paul.

This is the passage that comes to mind, and it's something I will carry with me through seminary as a reminder that whatever pinhole of knowledge the Lord allows us to have about Him and His redemptive plan, (it's available to everyone, by the way) I will look at the example of the epitome of Truth Itself, and be diligent to mimic His humility.

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, and Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, did not flaunt His deity around, or demand from anyone the glory He deserved, but He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave. I pray any knowledge and experience I acquire at Masters will drive me to the same place. I want strong convictions, I want to stand for Truth, but only in a way that pleases God and brings Him honor.

Yes!!!

An answered prayer. Today my parents came over with a 20 foot enclosed trailer, and worked all day hauling out trash and helping clean our garage. I didn't get Greek exam #4 done, but boy was a lot done today. I really love my parents. You have no idea how wonderful they are. They have no idea how wonderful they are. The only sad part is even after all the cleaning, there still isn't any room in our garage. But, as my wife puts it, it's an "organized mess." I always found the concept of those two words being used together humorous, but that's for another blog.

I am exhausted, and hopefully by God's grace I can knock out Greek exam #4 tomorrow morning before church.

In other news, the knock-down paint job on our ceiling was done, so they should be coming in tomorrow to finish sanding, and then we can paint the basement, and work on the trim. It will be nice when that gets cleaned up and finished. My brother in law, Scott, who has also been a tremendous blessing and answer to prayer, has been tirelessly working on finishing a lot of the detail work down there, and so far hasn't asked for any money that we don't have. God has just been delivering things to us on a silver platter (it seems) sometimes. I am so very thankful for how he seems to be making this transition so smooth for us, but at the same time teaching us to trust Him.

Why I Love Perfect Participles...

ok, ok... I hope you get as excited about this as I am... but the Greek language is a wonderful thing. Now I'm not saying everyone needs to know Greek to understand the Bible, but I sure hope whatever preacher you are listening to is diligent in his study of it, or he may miss things like the perfect participle.

I discussed this at length in my other blog to keep this one more for updates and such, and keep the Bible exposition here to a minimum, but I would encourage you to read that post. God has been good, and I am so thankful for Him. I am finishing up Chapter 30 in Greek, and getting ready to take quiz 7. If things go well, I'll have my 4th Greek exam completed before dinner.

It's all Greek to me...

So I plan on finishing 4 Greek quizzes and 2 online exams in the next 48 hours to hopefully be caught up in Greek and focus on other important things before the move. Today I have been hunkered down at my kitchen table memorizing vocab and going over paradigms. Thankfully, Bill Mounce does an excellent job explaining things. The good news about cramming for Greek is a lot of the lessons build off of each other like building blocks. The bad news is, well, a lot of the lessons build off of each other. I have been able to cram all the pieces together in my mind, and thankfully I have a method for memorizing vocab words that works very well for me. The only scary thing is at some point, all of this information I've stored in my brain without proper time to saturate will fizzle away, unless the Lord Himself helps me, and He has... in miraculous ways (it's a good story, ask me some time)

So that's where I'm at so far, bulldozing through a few chapters of Greek as quickly as possible to get things wrapped up. As one person put it, it's time to eat this elephant one bite at a time.

packy packy

I have 22 days before I drive across the country to begin a journey I've only dreamed about for the past several years, and even as I write this my wife asks me, "is this really the best thing you could be doing with your time?"

As much as she is no stranger to seeing me waste time in the midst of a seemingly insurmountable amount of tasks, I am no stranger to being overwhelmed with various duties that seem impossible to achieve in the time allotted. I can only say this: God is good. He is faithful. Sometimes I have to chuckle when I see the looks on the faces of the people who critique my time/projects ratio. Yes, I need to still work, finish up distance ed courses, pack my entire house, finish my basement, find a suitable renter, rent a place in CA, process out of the Active Duty, get finances in order, complete yard work, fix my house up for renters, and other odds and ends that seem to add up so much... (I spent the entire day yesterday installing a new toilet in my upstairs bathroom... long story)

I can say this with full assurance. I'm not worried. I'm not overwhelmed. A lot needs to be done, but God has done much more with much less (like create a universe from nothing.) As soon as I saw that the Master's Seminary Orientation began August 17th, I turned and said to my wife, "It's going to take a miracle to make that happen." Believe me when I tell you that miracle is taking place before our eyes, and it's nothing short of what God did with Gideon. I am enjoying being a part of it, and am anxiously looking forward to the coming weeks, months, and years.